Week 33

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

I realize that I might have sounded a tad bit dramatic in the last email. I apoligize. But we all know that I am a dramatic person so I don't think anyone was surprised :)

Ok so sorry about the whole Tuesday thing again. We ended up having to go up to Budapest to do the whole residency card thing again because mine got stolen when I my wallet got stolen a few weeks ago. So we switched our Pday and came up a day early for Zone Conference. The area President came in for Zone Conference tomorrow so that will be exciting! 

So today was Pday and after the whole hivatal thing we went to the Opera House and took the tour! It was amazing! I love that my companions wanted to go! It was sooooooo cool. Seriously so worth it. The inside is so beautiful. We got to take the tour in English which was awesome so we could understand it all. Seriously that place is beautiful. Unfortunately we didn't pay for the wrist band to be able to take pictures inside, but they did do a mini concert of sorts and a woman sang 2 opera songs. AMAZING. I love the culture and history behind the building. It was built when Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire so it had to be smaller than the opera house in Vienna. Wild. But apparently it is prettier. 

So we also did missionary work this week too. No worries there.

Szombathely. It is pretty great. We are like right on the border of Austria so actually several of the kids in the branch go to school in Austria. wild. And then a few of our investigators go to college in Austria while living in Szombathely. So most people speak German. It was like a 3 and a half hour train ride from Budapest so plenty of time to get to know the new companions on the train ride. I am with Sister Daniels who got to the country in September and with Sister Curtin who has been in Hungary since January. Both of them are the best and great missionaries. Sister Curtin is the oldest companion I have been with, and unfortunately we will probably only be together for like 2 more weeks because this past week was just a mini transfer and the real one is in 2 weeks. wild right? So I am trying to just soak up all her wisdom and knowledge while I can. She is a great missionary. They both have done lots of traveling so it has been fun to swap stories. They both went to BYU before their missions and actually Sister Daniels is in the nursing program like me! She got accepted then left on her mission so she hasn't actually started the program yet, but it is still something great we have in common. We already have found a pretty great rhythm teaching and finding and things so that is pretty great. So fun fact about were we live. There is currently a senior sister from the Szombathely branch serving a mission in the country so we are living in her apartment so it is pretty nice. We have a piani maker and a dishwasher. not real life!!! so much lunch quality has gone way up. 

We have some great investigators. There is an awesome man who just got baptized and so we are really trying to focus on his wife and help her gain a testimony so that she too can receive the same blessings as her husband and then one year from when she gets baptized they can go to the temple. Right now we are trying to get her to let us teach to her instead of her husband. she is literally just the most amazing wife. she supports him 100%. she comes to church with him everyweek and it was so tender in our lesson to see just how much they love each other. It was really cool to see the great marriage because it isn't the culture in Hungary to marry. 

The Szombathely branch is super solid. They are wonderful. Bigger than Szolnok and they are just 2 melchizidek priesthood holders away from becoming a ward. 1 of which with be the guy I was just talking about who got baptized. 

We teach a few other great people and have been doing some good finding together. I love being companions with them! It is great being with someone who speaks the language so well. We had a let in while tracting together and I was just amazed and listening to her and then I remembered that I should probably help her out and speak too. haha. 

We have this one investigator who unfortunately missionaries have never taken her seriously. But she is super cute and has great potential. We met with her and it went super well. I feel like we are soul sisters. And so I made a deal with God and my companions that if she gets baptized I will name my first born girl after her. I can't tell you what the name is because you might not approve. But I love it. It was cool we bap challenged her and she was like well I guess I should probably came to church and so she came and brought 7 people with her!!!!! wild. It was great. 

Love you all and have a wonderful week!

Sister Grigg 

me at the step on the opera house. i am a little obsessed with this place.

This was the investigator that brought 7 people to church. She isn't related to all the kids but the rest of the kids are all one family. The 15 year old boy loved church. A family in the branch likes to have the missionaries over for dinner and their investigators so the mom was the nicest woman in the world and invited them all over for dinner and so this was at their house. The food was great and the family was so kind! 

mini transfers

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Dear Family,

I am so sad right now because we have a little mini transfer tomorrow. Since we switched to the 9 week transfers, the going home dates are all messed up so there is a group going home tomorrow but there aren't any sisters going home so we thought that sisters wouldn't be effected by the mini transfer. Then we got a phone call this morning from the assisstants and they told me I am leaving Pest and going to Szombathely. Opposite side of the country out in the West near Austria. At first I wasn't the biggest fan of the city, but I love love it now. We have some really great investigators and 6 baptisms coming up next transfer all of which we put on bap date since I got here so it is sad that I won't be there for those. One and doneing is hard. I didn't get a chance to really say goodbye or anything because no one thought sisters were getting moved. I thought the whole going where you want me to go and stuff would be easy on a mission but right now it is going to be really hard. I am sure that tomorrow once I get to the train station and meet my new companions and get on the long train ride out to Szombathely I will be excited and have a great attitude about it. Fun fact thought. I scheduled programs for tomorrow because no one thought we were leaving and I don't want them to not get taught so I asked Sister Smith (the presidents wife) if she could be my companion for a little bit so that my companions can still teach the programs with the investigators. So she is going to come pick me up and take me to the train station to meet everyone for transfers! fun stuff going on splits with Sister President for a bit and don't have to take the trolley with my heavy suitcases. woot woot. 

It was a great week once again! Pest is doing so well. We taught tons of programs, put someone new on bap date, had lots of people at church. So many that I couldn't handle them all! A mom we teach showed up with her son, and I was sitting there and I am like oh my goodness I don't even know who the primary president is for the Hungarian primary! We the ward members were champs like always and helped us out. It was so great. Speaking of church the English Primary President asked us to do sharing time because it is all about missionaries so we did the sharing time and I forgot how wild kids are! We were having them introduce themselves and I didn't notice that 2 of the girls were fighting until one goes those 2 are fight and one of the girls fight goes, "My name is Grace, and I have a dead arm." so funny. hahahaha. One of the high council members spoke on Sunday and he is german and helps us out once a week with one of our bap dates. He is such a great member, and in his talk he talked about his experience helping with us and stuff and seeing how the gospel has been blessin the investigators life and said that he is getting baptized in the coming weeks and had him stand up and wave to everyone. sooo good!!! I just know that the gospel can bless everyone's lives. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and as one of our investigators says," it contains messages meant specifically for us." We can find amazing amounts of comfort, spiritual strength, and answers to our questions if we diligently study out of it.

All the investigators are doing well in Pest! I am sad to be leaving, especially because next Pday we had planned to go to the zoo. we all know how much I loves zoos and how upsetting that is. but it will being fun getting to know a new area, new companions (I am going into another threesome!) and new investigators! I have heard the city is super pretty and that they have a great strong, branch out there. So this will be an exciting new chapter of my mission. 

I love you all and hope that everything is great back home! 

Sister Grigg

We went to the house of terror today on pday. It was super cool and really enlightening. We always learn about lots of things during world war II with the halocaust and such, but it was really neat to learn about how Hungary was effected during communism and post world war II. 

Last Pday we did Sajt night with the elders. Which is cheese night. Which is really like just making homemade mozerella sticks. 

Then while we were tracting this week I got gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe. so lame.