Week 73

Monday, August 11, 2014

We were led by the spirit to a super cute family this week. so that was awesome. 2 week old baby and they want us to come back again in 2 weeks. everyone is traveling to the balaton right now. nbd. 

ok well sorry for the short email! 

Have a great week everybodayyy!!!

Sister Grigg

what? like how cool is this picture? fine, I am so artsy.

Week 70

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Dear Family,

We had a good week! Sister Fowers is leaving me for America. I can't believe she is going home. These past 9 weeks have been some of the best 9 weeks of my mission!! I love her so much, but in 6 weeks we will be reunited at BYU so it is fine. 

I staying Sister Training Leader here in Buda, but it is going to be soo different. I don't have a companionship who is also a sister training leader. Instead I am getting a new missionary. So I will be training again. And then I am getting another companion. so back to the tricompanionship days. President doesn't know how it is going to work yet with splits and things like that. 

We had an investigator come to church right for the first time, and she was our most progressing investigator right now.. Accepted a bap date this week, but she absolutely hated church so we will see what happens. So interesting that some people feel the spirit so strongly in church and yet someone else who listens to the same talks absolutely hated it. 

My favorite investigator ever dropped us this week. It was soo sad. Through a text message too. We were tracting and no having much luck. Then we got the text and then 2 doors later we got let in by the cutest mom ever with her 9 month old son. So that was really perfect. Such a good program and we are going back in a week. We gave out a few more book of mormons than usually and all the people we so happy and surprised to ge them. They were so grateful so it was such a great feeling to give them out! We focused a lot on the spirit this week in finding and we had a lot less success, but the quality was a lot better. So that was cool.

An area seventy came and did a fireside here and since we serve in the city we got to be invited. It was so cool. Very spiritual uplifting meeting. 

Love you all and have a great week!
Sister Grigg

Week 69

Monday, July 14, 2014

Dear Family,

It was a great week! We went to Győr and gave a training. It was the nuttiest day ever. We went to one train station and missed  train so then went all the way across Budapest to a different station and magically caught a train their that was faster so we only made is 5 minutes late to the Zone Training!! Heavenly Father really is watching over us. 

The Spirit was a big help this week too. One of our investigators we hadn't had contact with in a week and so we decided to go see her. We set aside time but then felt like we should go early but we already had another program scheduled. We cancelled it and went and saw and put her on bap date! It was a good thing that we went when the spirit told us to because she wouldn't have been home at the earlier time. 

We went tracting and it was super rough that day. We kept getting yelled us and so we were trying to find a good building and finally got let in to a building. And we had a short program with an older woman who totally was just being nice and let us in. We were putting english fliers in the mailboxes on the first floor and were going to walk out but then we felt like there was somewhere else in the building. So we went to the elevator (which was suuuuuper sketchy) and went to the top floor, but it wouldn't let us get off so we went the the next one and the first door we knocked on the woman said no, but we kept talking and then she let us in. Turns out her sister is a church member in Romania. And she promised she would come to church in 2 weeks while we were there. It was cool because we really felt like we were an answer to this woman's sister's prayers.

Some other cool things with the spirit happened this week too. but no time!

Love you all and have a great week :)

Sister grigg

Here are 1 pictures from Barnabás's baptism 1 week ago. He was so funny and kept joking around that he was going to jump over the railing into the font and get baptised that way.

Week 63

Monday, June 2, 2014

Helloo!

Sister Fowers really likes to email so I hope you are ready for a long email this week :) 

It was a great week. Z had her bap interview on Tuesday and so we got the whole thing together in 2 days and the Baptism was friday and she was confirmed on Sunday. It was super great! I'll send a picture later. Nutty thing. Someone had a violin so I played a musical number and it was the first time I have played in like 16 months' talk abouty nutty. The baptism was lovely. I love baptisms, they are so simple that is the perfect environment to feel the spirit. 

We met with the coolest, most prepared guy ever this week. we streeted him our first week together and then we meet with him for the first time this week. He speaks like a billion langauges, is from blangladesh but was born in England and raised in Libia. nutty. So he doesn't have a christian background so teaching him is interesting. it is really good. though. We had our first program and had a rockin restoration. we read moronis promise with him and he goes why did you chose these verses I already believe it is true. so cool. we were coming down the stair in the branch house and he was looking at all the pictures and everything on the walls and there was a picture of the first vision and we were like this is what we just talked about. He goes I have goosebumps I feel something. and then he came to the baptism the next day looked it. after the service we were talking about it and how she was getting the the gift of the holy ghost on sunday. He goes what is that. and we explained what it was and told him that he felt it when he was looking at the picture. He is sooo cool. We are meeting with him tonight. I have been thinking for a few days of how to teach a plan of salvation to someone without a christain background it should be good. Plus we are going on our first set of exchanges starting tonight. The Szombathely sisters will be here with us. I am going on splits with the new misisonary so it should be fun. 

We had an interesting case this week. We have a bap date that we planned some rockin member presents with because that is what she has been missing a little in her progress. she cancelled them all and I asked why and she was like I don't care about meeting other people. It was so weird. She had meet them at church last week. So when we met the next time we talked about baptismal covenents and part of that is having friends and the spirit totally softened her heart and she agreed to have a member at her next program. And the next day at church she did a good job and going to met new people and talk to them instead of us dragging her around to meet people. 

We have this other super cool guy that unfortunatey doesn't like on our side of the river so we have to switch him over. It is a bummer because he is progressing really well. We did a church tour and we started it off and the time before we had bap challenged him and when we followed up on it he told us that he tried asking God about the Bom and baptism and he didn't know what his "sign" would be but he shared an experience he had and asked if that could be his "sign" it was cool. He had a rockin time at church. I asked him if he got his answer and he said yes! so cool, and we will put him on bap datetomorrow. The switch over has to be done classy because he is progressing so well. we don't want it to hinder his progression. Sister Fowers like to comes up with intense "game plans" for church. and they have been known to switch mid-church.i was on "Barnabas duty" during sunday school. being a missionary you like have licsense to do some awkward things.so I did some forced friendsshiping between him and a recent convert who had yet to be in the fellowshipper role. so good. 

I love Buda. I love serving with Sister Fowers. We are so different and have done misisonary work differently, but it is really cool seeing how we can bring our strengths together and how well we are doing together! And how great we get along.

Oh remember that cool couple that Sister Rupard and I found on splits in Debrecen. They are getting baptized in July and have come to church every week since then and the woman bore her testimony in church there and thanked God for answering her prayer by having Sister Madline and Sister Robin for knocking on her door. so cool right? 

Have a great week! 

Sister Grigg

Week 62

Monday, May 26, 2014

So life in Buda is great! I love love love my new companion. Her name is Adley Fowers. She is from Missouri and has 10 siblings!! real life. 4 of them are adopted so don't like faint or anything. She also went to BYU. We are working so well together so we had a rockin week last week, found a tons of new investigators, and this week is looking pretty good so far too. 

My biggest fear about coming to Buda was that it isn't a little branch but a ward so how would I get to know the members. But Sister Fowers and hi made goals and plans and we rocked church yesterday! it was the coolest ever. There is a family that always invites the assisstants over for dinner on mondays, but they uninvited them to invited us! (ok so maybe the dad would not be home so the assisstants couldn't go anyway...but that is just a small detail) It was great to see the members we asked to befriend people do so. It was cool. 

President suggested we start doing these things called "pop-ins" where were from 8-9 we stop by members homes (but don't go in) tell them about an investigator that lives close by and ask them to pray for them and befriend them if they come to church. so we tried 2 last week and asked them both to pray for the same investigator and in our next program with her she goes "can I be baptized next Friday?" Sister Fowers looks at me and goes I've never baptized someone on my mission. is it possible. I've never had someone get baptized without it before being announced in church (that is just the way they do it in Hungary) but we talked to the ward mission leader and said if she passes the interview (which is tuesday) sure. So here we go. We are hoping to have a baptism this week, which would be a great way to start the transfer. This is the first time I have gone into a new area and there has been work so it is super cool!

ok well love you all!
Sister Grigg

Sister Fowers decided I would look good with bangs. I decided why not? I need some change. So she cut my hair last night. I kinda like it. What do you think? We look good together.

the senior couple (the Jensens) from Nyíregyháza

two of the girls from the branch came to the train station wednesday morning to say bye. they were in skirts because they were going to go do visiting teaching later. how tender right? I love them both so much! 

Week 61

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Dear Family,

So it is back to the big city for me, but this times I will be on the Buda side of the river! I will be serving with Sister Fowers, who is 1 transfer ahead of me (this is her last transfer) and so we were in the MTC together for like 3 weeks. I have always wanted to serve with her so I am super excited! Oh and I will be a Sister Training leader.

This week was good.

Cool thing of the week. We went on splits. I was in Debrecen with Sister Rupard. We had lots of finding time, and we really wanted to make it effective finding. So we tried to follow the spirit. She lead us to a part of the city and we were walking and I was like the way the building right infront of us feels. We get in and it is like massive 10 story. It was one of the most sketchiest buildings I have been in. We started tracted and she is like we are going to get let in on the 9th floor on the right side. We finish the top floor and at the end there were 2 women knocking on the door right next to us and we were like oh hey to start talking to them and they go we are cops. they were pounding on that door. so we just went down to the 9th floor. and no luck on that floor but there was a really nice guy that let me use his bathroom. we got to the 8th floor and on the side that sister Rupard said we would get a let in we did! we chatted with this cute couple for a while and they were like where is your church and I was like can we come in. so they let us in. We had a rockin program. sister Rupard and her companion went back 2 days later and then they came to church last week too! 3 days after we met them! which is like unheard of for Hungary! It was so neat. So there is a very specific story. Sister Rupard said the program was so good when she went back and that they are so prepared. It was neat to be a part of this couples start in the gospel.

We went to the Zoo this morning. You all know how much I love zoos! like so much. so I am sooo happy right now. haha. love zoos. 

ok well have a great week!

sister Grigg

This is one of my favorite néni's in hungary. everyweek she would walk up the stairs and I would greet her for church and ask her how she was. She would always say. "so good now that I saw you and am here". She helped us out in a few programs too. She left church early so I didn't get time to tell her that I would probably be leaving so we stopped by her apartment yesterday. And she goes this is perfect I never started cooking this earlier but something told me.. Klari get cooking already. And now it makes sense because your her. So she end up feeding us lunch. She is just such an amazing example to me of living the gospel. Her live is hard, but it is no questions asked she lives the gospel, comes to church everyweek alone, pays her tithing. She has been saving up money for 14 years out of her retirement every month to make it to the temple in Germany and finally at the end of the summer she will be able to go. She started crying when we talked about me leaving so then I cried too. She has no idea how much she helped my testimony!

we went to the zoo with sister Jensen this morning!

Happy Easter!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Happy Easter everybody!!!

So in Hungary they celebrate Easter on Sunday and Monday so everything was closed yesterday so we couldn't email or grocery shop so here we are today emailing. So here are some funny Easter Hungarian things. They don't do the Easter bunny. But Monday morning the men spray the girls. In the smaller villages and towns they pour water onto the women. And in the cities most of the time they just spray women with perfume. haha. The pouring and the spraying is supposed to help the women "blossom" and grow. If you are a woman you are supposed to give the guy that sprayed you or poured water on you an Easter egg. A chocolate one. So lame right? women do not get chocolate for easter in Hungary. like how does that make sense? So yesterday the elders sprayed us with perfume and we gave them chocolate eggs. 

It was a really good week. We tracted into a mom and her daughter a few days before Easter and they let us in so we were planning on sharing the BoM with them and the read out of 3Nephi 11 when Chirst appears in America after he has been resurrected. So we start talking about the BoM and she goes oh I have one. I saw it in the trash and took it out because I felt like it was a Holy Book but I didn't know what religion it belonged to. Nutty right? She took it out of the trash and cleaned it up like a week or 2 before we knocked on her door. Wild right? talk about the Lord preparing people. so we walked with them to church on Sunday, and they stayed for all three hours. It was great! We met with them yesterday and the little girl is 13 but so smart! I really feel like we are there for her to help her grow up in the gospel and to then break her bad family cycle and have a wonderful family of her own some day. 

Church was a super spiritual experience for me this week because the day before I had kinda of been complaining to the senior sister her about how we keep finding people who are depressed, super poor, jobless and just have all kinds of problems (abortions, prostitution, drugs, suicide attempts, being abused, doing the abusing you name it and I feel like I have run into it here with our investigators) with that make it so hard for them to accept the gospel and especially when they are so stubborn and won't do the things that will help them like reading the BoM, praying and coming to church. I was just like why can't we find some super put together family and baptized them. It would be so much easier. And I obviously knew that Christ suffered,died, and was resurrected for all of us and for everyone, but then it just hit me so much harder during church. That Christ died for everyone, especially those that struggle and let us be honest we all are struggling with something. So it was a great church week, which sometimes are hard to come by listening to church in another language. I am so thankful for the Savior and what he did for us. I am so grateful that he Lives! that he loves us and knows us. I am grateful for the Easter season and that I get to be a missionary and share this wonderful message with the people of Hungary. 

I love you all and hope that everyone had a great Easter! 

Sister Grigg

Remember how my boots broke my first week in Nyiregyháza, while the Elder that teased me the most shoelaces broke on the way back from Easter dinner.

We played frisbee with the elders yesterday and here is keeping in align with hungarian Easter Tradition. If it is too little to see Elder Richards is spraying Sister Feil.

transfers again...but this one is a little more exciting!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Dear Family, 

First off, we got transfer calls again. This transfer is a little more exciting because I am staying in Nyíregyháza, but I am TRAINING. Like say what? real life. They trust me enough to put me with a little new missionary. tender right. It is super humbling and I am nervous, but I know it will be great. It is humbling because there is only 1 new sister coming into the mission right now, but the Lord trusts me enough to be her trainer when there are lots of other sisters in the mission who could train too. I am excited but also nervous. Like I will have a companion who has no idea what is going on. shoot, good thing I kinda speak Hungarian. 

We had Zone Conference this week. It was amazing! Elder Dyches of the quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us. He spoke in the last conference. It was great! The first and only stake president Hungary has had was there and he also spoke to us. It was really neat to here him talking about how we should work with branch missionary leaders. Elder Dyches spoke a lot about the spirit, which was wonderful. Conference was really inspiring, and it is always great to hear from our leaders. We have been so forunate to have 2 members of the seventy come and speak to us. Before, we started he had us all come and shake his hand. And he goes oh Sister Grigg, I've heard a lot about you from president. My heart like stopped. I was thinking Shoot, I hope president didn't tell him about the stalker. Zone conference was also wonderful because 3 of the zones were there so I got to see tons of mission buddies. Like Sister O. I am so obsessed with my training. I hope my new missionary loves me just half as much as I love Sister O. She is going home tomorrow. Obviously we sat next to each other, and it was so inspiring to hear her departing testimony. I am so grateful for her wonderful example to me of loving the people and loving the Lord and wanted to do whatever he wanted her to do. 

We had a pretty good week. Lots of dogs and cancelations unfortunately, which is always hard. But the little family we found is progressing well. The dad feels the spirit when he reads out of the BoM. I have never been so greatful for night shifts because he reads the BoM when he works nights as a security guard so he has time. We are hoping to get them to church soon. This week might prove to be hard because it is district conference in Miskolc and most of the branch members aren't going because they can't pay for the train tickets so it would be a miracle if we could get an investigator there. We are finding a lot of new people to teach, which is always a blessing and are working on getting them to be progressing investigators. 

Something funny that I have noticed about the spirit on my mission is that he helps you out a lot in the work, but he also makes you work a lot. For example yesterday we felt like we should walk out of our apartment and turn right because we don't normally go that way. And then we say lots of builds we could tract and we prayed about which one because we only had time for one. and we were lead to one and we had to tract the whole thing and then the bottom floor we talked to a women who we were able to have a little program with and set up to go back later this week. We are guided to a general direction and then we had to work and listen even more closly to the spirit. Which is good. 

Two young single adult girls who want to go on missions in the branch wanted to go on splits this week so we did that on Saturday, which was a holiday in Hungary, which probably explains the dogs and cancelations. rough life. but it went really well. 

shoot out to Holly! Congratulations on making the cheerleading squad! woot woot!

Ok well have a wonderful week!
Love Sister Grigg

At Zone Conference our little Szolnok crew was back together! It is so weird to thing of where the time has gone. Elder Giacoloni and I were both new missionaries. He is a district leader now, I am training. My trainer is now going home, and his trainer is one of the assistants. Summer was such a long time ago!

Dora and I doing splits. Taking a hungarian tracting rocks! We got let in a bunch!

This is the 4 of us in Nyíregyháza. Sister Moffatt is leaving and Elder Beauchanan is going home home.

so this couple makes custom made suits and they are relatively cheap in price and on the inside they sew a hungarian flag. I picked mine up today! That is sister Magda and I with the suit making couple

Week 49

Monday, February 24, 2014

The first week in a new area is always interesting. Nyíregyháza is good. I miss Szombathely so much. I am learning that I have a hard time saying goodbye. I also am learning that I really like routines. I like how comfortable I was with the area, all the investigators, and all of the members. It was nice. I know that I will love Nyíregyháza. 

But I have to tell you this about Szombathely. So Tuesday night one of our investigators that lives close to us, told us to just stop by real quick so we could say bye. He is the Britney Spears one and I have talked about him tons. So we stopped by and stay bye. He gave me chocolate and a not and told me to read it later. I read it on the walk home and was bawling because at the end he wrote down his testimony. I know he had one because he has told me, but it was just differnet. I know that he will get baptized once he can figure out how to overcome the obstacle that is keeping him from that. I just love him so much. And then later while I was packing B called and was like come out I am here. She got her patriarchal blessing that day and so was traveling back and forth to Budapest so we couldn't say bye during the day. She gest out of her car and goes I had to say goodbye to my soul sister. She brought a cake. How tender is that? Since she isn't allowed in our apartment we talked in the hallway for like 50 mintues. Sister Hinckley was such a champ. I am so lucky to have been blessed with great companions. I just love B so much. She is the one I am naming my daughter after. We were both crying. It ended up being such a teary day.

Nyíregyháza is good. There are some great members here. We also have a senior couple here too, which is fun. We put someone on bap date last night and we are going to start the stop smoking program with him tomorrow. His bap date is for July because he needs to get married and quit smoking first. Him and his fiance were like you are strict but that is really good. (story of my mission with investigators saying that, not all of them. I am only strict with the onest that need it). They both were like this is just what he/I need. haha. oh goodness. I totally was not even that strict with him last night. really I wasn't! 

They had me introduce myself in sacrament meeting and later that day one of the member of the bishopric who asked me to bare my testimony called and thanked me for being so willing and said that I speak the best Hungarian of any sister that has ever served here. and then I said thanks and tried to say something funny back and I said it wrong and he correct my Hungarian. It is fine. life is funny. But everyone says I speak really well so that is nice. I don't think I speak well but whateves.

Ok I love you all tons!

Sister Grigg 

sister daniels and I met up at zone training 2 weeks ago. best day ever. i love seeing my past compnaions. 

When Bogi came and said goodbye with the cake. 

Sorry there is no picture of Sister Moffat and I! We haven't taken one yet. I know so lame. But she is so excited because I am the first of her companions to be shorter than her. She is 5 feet so we are definitely the shortest companionship in the mission, which is funny. We are both super sassy, which has been really funny. She is from Washington and went to BYU before her mission too. 

Ok so my boots broke on Saturday. We went with the elders to an eatting appointment and it was raining and they made fun of me for the 30 minute walk back... so sad. 

Bowling

In szombathely we did a lot of tracting because streeting wasn't very good. never a lot of people on the streets. the numbers we did get never panned, were fake, or if we set up they dogged. 

This was the one success that I say from streeting in 4 months! she is so cute. Sister Hinckley and I found her and I got to meet with there 4 or 5 before I left and she came to church! So prepared for the gospel!

Transfer week

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

So I am staying in Szombathely, which was a shock. Everyone thought I would be the one to leave. But I am staying and Sister Hinckley is coming. We were in the MTC together for like 3 weeks she is just 1 transfer below me. I am really excited she is super cute. We were also in the same district towards the beginning of my time in Hungary when I was in Szolnok and she was in Kecskemét. Sister Daniels and I are sad to be departing we had such a good time together here in Szombathely. We saw some really neat miracles happen while we were together and found some very prepared people that we are still working with. She is going to Sopron and opening sisters there for the first time. It is closest city to Szombathely. So we will still be in the same zone, which is exciting.

We had a wild week this week. We found this guy tracting 2 weeks ago and met with him for the first time and we taught an awesome restoration. Probably one of the best ones on my mission. Sister Daniels and I were really rockin it the spirit was there super strong and he was really understanding and asking great questions. Then when we bap challenged him he didn't quite get it because he thought we were asking him to be a prophet. haha. riot. and he didn't want us to come back. I was just like no way. we are not loosing you. So we chatted and he said ok you can come back so we went back with a branch missionary and had a great lesson and he already feels like the Book of Mormon is true and he only read the introduction. I love how fast Heavenly Father answers prayers sometimes.

So our recent convert has been doing missionary work like no bodies business. The elders are meeting with her mom's boyfriend's family. And we have meet some of her friends. She brings new people to church everyweek. This week she went back to the homeless place and brought 5 men from there in addition to the 6 children (they aren't really kids though). so sister Daniels and I sat next to her and rigth infront of the homeless men. And they were trying to sing the hymns (a few of them were not completely sober) and for some reason I just felt the spirit so strongly. I have no diea why but it was a touching moment. Sister Daniels and i looked at each other trying not to laugh. We had the funniest experience this week. We got out of program and we had missed a call from her and so we called her back and she was like do you have time and we had dinner left that night so I was like yeah she was like where all you I have a friends who wants to meet you. so she came and picked us up and we went to the branch house. I was asking how they meet and they had met 30 minutes before on facebook. she was like on date and asked us to come crash it. haha. but we had a neat program with him and set up again for next week. She just wants to share the gosepl with everyone. It is great.

We helped a woman quite coffee this week. she is on bap date for march and her husband got baptised a few months ago. It was a great program. we had just figured she was living the wow because her husband was. She was super nervous becausein the past when she tried she would get really bad headaches. but we told her we would pray and fast for her. Her faith was strengthened immensly by this. It could seem like such a small thing to the Lord someone trying to quite coffee but since it was important to her it was important to the Lord and he helped her.

Love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Sister Grigg

the woman who quicked drinking coffee this week an her husband.

Happy New Year

Monday, January 6, 2014

Dear Family!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Years. We had another extended Pday from 2pm on New Years Eve to the day after New Years. And it was great! There was a super fun branch party on New Years Eve and we had several investigators come (one came a little drunk so that was a little awkward and a different one in a mini skirt and everyone freaked out. it is fine.) we got permission to stay until 9:30pm and be home by 10 because we live a half an hour walk. And the walked home so was fun because there were fireworks going off the whole time. In Hungary the only time it is legal for people to do fireworks is from 6pm new years eve to 6 am new year's day. And let me tell you that they went off for the entire 12 hours straight.

We started off the first week of the new year well. B who got baptized a few weeks ago is doing super well, sharing the gospel with everyone like a champ. We had dinner last night with some of her friends. She told us to be chill and then one of the first things one of them asks me is are there rules about what you can't eat or drink. As he had just come back from being outside smoking and was holding gin in his hand. its fine. so I tried to not be all intense and just be like there are a few things that we believe that aren't healthy so we don't eat or drink them. and he asked for examples. and so I said alcohol and cigerattes, calling him to repentence in true missionary style. it's fine.

The church members were awesome this week with our investigators in church so that

was such a blessing.

We had some great experiences tracting this week. We tracted into 2 families. One was so funny. The kids were nuts. We ending up having to do I teach a little bit while sister Daniels plays with the children and then we would switch. They were quite for about 1 minute during the opening prayer. The little boy put on a puppet show for me featuring a doll with out a name and a turtle. he did magic for Sister Daniels. The little girl was dancing the entire time and the mom was holding a 3 week year old. It was nuts but so much fun. Hopefully things will be a little more calm when we go back this week.

Last week was good but not without its trails. Everyone says that the good outweighs the bad on a mission and the good moments are so wonderful you forget about the bad. And I completely agree with the first part. The good is very very good, but at least for right now I can still remember the bad and the sad and sometimes it is so hard to not blame yourself. Like this week we had to push back 2 bap date that should have been this Saturday. And one of them I can't help but think it might be my fault. If only I had been more bold, better at the language or more this or more that. And one of the Zone Leaders today called to ask why he was off bap date, and after talking to him I thought maybe I should've just scheduled the baptismal interview, he probably would have passed. Maybe I just got nervous because the new branch president was in the lesson with us. The list can go on. I the end I tried my best to followed the spirit and Sister Daniels did too. I just hate the feeling that I could be a hinderance to the work rather than a help. I hate the feeling that maybe I prevented someone from entering into the covent of baptism. Maybe I halted his salvation. And he will probably be fine and get baptized in a month or maybe less time. Sister Daniels and I just have to trust the spirital prompting that we both got in the lesson not to schedule the interview. And if we felt that way during then am sure it still applies now even if I am doubting that spiritual prompting we received. It is like what the Lord said to Oliver cowldry in the early chapters of D&C (I have recently started reading that because I just finished the BoM as part of a distric goal to read it before the end of the year). I spoke peace to your mind what greater witness is there than that. I am being Oliver coldwery and doubting that my previous spiritual promptings. Preach My Gospel says you are a successful missionary when you follow the promptings of the spirit and can feel the Lord working through you. Sister Daneils and I did that so we were successful missionaries despite the unfortunate situation of 2 bap dates being pushed back.

Oh well, I ended this email on a little more of an intense note.

Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Sister Grigg

christmas day monopoly

branch new year's party and our christmas tree

new years party

Christmas Eve dinner at the members than after I threw up. 

grateful

Monday, December 2, 2013

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of lots of food and family!!!

We have so much to be thankful for! I am so grateful for the restored gospel! I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for our living prophet. I am grateful for my wonderful family and friends!! I am grateful for our investigators. I am grateful for pray and our loving Heavenly Father. I am grateful for our savior and his atoneing sacrifice. So grateful for my new nephew Curtis! I grateful for that we can email pictures. haha. Ok I am grateful. Sister Daniels and I spent all day Thursday telling each other what we were grateful for as we were finding. Our Thanksgiving was just a normal day. We met with a few investigators, did some tracting, and it wouldn't be missionary work with someone didn't dog us. But that was ok. One family that we met with said they watched something on TV about a holiday in America on that day so they asked us about it. It was so hard to explain in Hungarian. Basically what I said was it is a day we spend with our families being grateful for our blessings and we eat lots of food. They asked how it started and I was like uhhhh so the we don't know if this is true, but tradition says that the first people who went to america ate a dinner with the Indians in peace so that is what we celebrate and are grateful for. hahah it was so funny.

One Hungarian tradition that I am so grateful for is the fact that everyone here drinkings fruit tea. Since we do a lot more teaching here in people's apartments than at the branch house like in my past areas, they all have hot tea waiting for us. It is the best in the freezing weather.

It was a pretty good week. We had some great success and then of course there were some dissappointments. We have been branching out and using random members in programs. Right now we are using a lot of the older women in the branch to help us, which is great. But also supper interesting. It is way hard to control the flow of the program and what gets said. Like for example. I told you about G last week who came to the conference. We put him on bap date this week. It was great. So then the next program with brought a néni with us (that is what older women are called in hungary), and I told here we were going to talk about prayer because G hadn't prayed in a program yet and before we said the open prayer she had already told him about the word of wisdom, law of chastity, and fasting. oh my goodness. hahaha. it was such a riot. I was struggling so much though to lead the program in the right direction. They got a long super well so that was good.

We used a member who got baptized like month ago (he blessed the sacrament for the first time this week it was so great, his wife was beeming!) in a program with B about the word of wisdom. What most people say is that the rest of there family won't understand why the aren't drinking black and green tea anymore because everyone drinks it here! So B brought her tiny dog like a real dog but the toy size to the branch house for the program. riot. haha. she was like he feels good here because at home is only follows me around and is afraid of everything and the member goes he feels the spirit too here. Sister Daniels and I were dying. So the dog sat on her lap the whole program. B still brings like 5 kids with here to church every week. We meet with one of them 2 weeks ago and promised him that if he read the Book of Mormon and prayed every night then he would do well in school. And then at church this 15 year old boy told me he got a 5 (which is like an A) on his test. He said he read out of the Book of Mormon every night and has been praying and prayed right before his test. How neat is that!?! The gospel is for everyone. I know that. I am so grateful to be witnessing this small miracles and blessings from the Lord.

In companionship study, Sister Daniels and I have been focussing more on teaching our investigators and addressing their needs and what are they struggling with as we help them progress towards baptism rather than just teaching lessings, and it has been going great! It is nerve racking with the language and stuff because it is so easy to just spit out our memorized sentences but the spirit is so much stronger in the programs. We also have been blessed to feel more charity and love for our investigators with is the best gift from God. I am so grateful for my companion, Sister Daniels!!

I love you all and have a great week!

Sister Grigg

We finally finished the 12 week program with Sister Daniels. She is officially trained!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Monday, November 25, 2013

Dear Family,

It was such a great week!!

I am just so relieved that it wa..... it is snowing. I am no longer relieved about anything.

Ok so in all seriousness I am just glad that Sunday is over! It was a great Sunday because Elder Walker of the seventy came to our branch. But it was being broadcasted to the whole country and I was playing the piano, and I have never been so nervous to play in my life!!! I kept wishing that I had practiced more as a kid and that I had taking lessons longer. Why did I not listen to Mom and Dad? ok but I am greatful that I could play and do that service for the branch because hymns are super important to a service and bring the spirit.

So everyone is doing superwell. Investigators wise. There are some great stories for this week! One of the best is with T. He is doing so well. He is always unsure if he will meet with us more than once in the week but then calls us and says ok. Way cool that he is 28 and willing to give up a little bit of his Saturday evenings to meet with us and learning more about the gospel. But we met with him and we were talking about how the Word of Wisdom went because he had gone to a concert and that is what he had just taught him and everything was great there and he told us about the concert and he told his Book of Mormon with him to the concert because he wanted some blessing getting to and back from Budapest in safety. Such a riot. He took is Book of Mormon and left it in the trunk of his car, instead of just like reading it before he left Szombathely. Sister Daniels and I were laughing so hard as he was describing it! so great.

We had some tender moments with B this week too. I love her so much. We had a great law of chastity lesson and here is the 24 year old and the thing she is the most worried about right now is finding a mormon boy to marry to raise a good solid family. It was a super awesome lesson because of the member that was there who has raised this huge family and a bunch of there kids who grew up not in the States have married in the temple and stuff and so it was great for B. Then the next lesson she asked about polygammy and the Word of Wisdom because she had been reading online. It was my birthday and pooring rain outside so she gave us a ride home because we were going to do weekly planning. and the car rides with her are the best. That is where she committed to baptism and she was telling us that she asked about the word of wisdom because she was going to a birthday party for a friend that night and wanted to know what she should say when people would ask why she wasn't drinking. It was so cool because Sister Daniels and I both didn't grow up in areas with lots of church members so we had a great conversation with her. Then she stopped at the grocery store near our apartment and she told us to wait while she ran in and we were like we can just walking from here it is super close and she goes no just wait one minute and then I figured out it was because she wanted to go run in and buy me a birthday present. so cute. We convinced her that it wasn't necessary. She is so nice.

We tracted into an old man he is way cool. He treats us like his granddaughters and we met with him twice last week and then he came to the conference.

Ok so have a great week!

Sister Grigg

Eat lots of turkey for me!

Sister Daniels and I are getting ready for Christmast before thanksgiving. Since Hungarians don't do thanksgiving I figured it is appropriate. We love the advent calender thing that the young women and young men in the La Canada ward put together. They are the best. We put all the presents underneath the tree and unfortunately they can't be seen here.

here are some of my favorite ornaments. The one that says Dear Elder Grigg (I mean hey it can be confusing...Elder, Sister) ok no I am sure it was just ment for Jeff. I hope he got one that said Dear Sister Grigg.

The one that says I hope you are having good experience in Chile. Because hey Hungry and Chile. They are really similar. one is food, the other you wanted to eat food.

And of course the one from Holly :)

Here is me and Elder Walker and Sister Walker. The member of the seventy who came to Szombathely yesterday. His talk was so great!! Small world Sister Daniels family knows the Walkers pretty well.

Conference!!

Dear Family,

How amazing was conference?!?! It went by wayy to fast. Unfortunately we don't get to catch the Sunday afternoon session so I am excited to read it in the Liahona in a bit. We had a bunch of investigators come and a few of the less actives we meet with. One of which brought 2 friends! one of which we are meeting with this week. sweet. We were able to set up with a family that someone else brought to conference! It was just a weekend of wonderfulness!

It was fun watching the relief society broadcast knowing that Mom said she loved it and thought it was good. One of our investigators who came to that one said she wasn't impressed with any of the women, and I just had to laugh haha. I didn't really know what to say. But she loved the prophet so that was good. And she came to a different session as well said it was amazing and like it was meant just for her. Love how all of the church leaders were speaking to millions of people but how it feels like it can be just for us! A different investigator called conference exciting! I loved how he talked about the priesthood session. And was asking us all kinda of questions about home teaching because I guess they talked about it. So good!!

What were all you favorite conference talks?!

The one Elder Ballard gave about members and missionaries working together was so good! And it totally worked because right after that session one member who was watching it in English with us goes hey sister what are you doing Friday at 12:30, do you have a program scheduled. We responded no and he goes how would you like to come have lunch with me and my coworkers?! So great. So we are going to his work place to causually interact with his coworkers. Talk about a great leap of faith by this memeber. I am sure he is nervous and hopefully he doesn't know how nervous I am because the hardest part about Hungarian is the causual chit chat. I am so excited though! I know there is going to be someone in that room prepared to hear the gospel!

I loved the talk that Elder Uctdorf gave about how the gospel is for everyone. Elder Erying's was super good. I loved how he started off by saying what choices do we make that bring us unhappiness and then what choices bring us happiness. And when we know about the gospel and have experienced the blessings and happiness it can bring why do we ever make choices that would lead us to not experience those blessings and that happiness!?! But we are not perfect so we do. 

This week was good! We went on splits and now the sisters in my mission get to do real legit splits like elders do. So that was way fun! It is always neat to learn from an older sister missionary. 

A member that has helped us out in several programs brought us dinner after a program he helped us with. He takes the Elders out to dinner  and now he likes the sisters enough to bring us food! So good. He was so nice and so excited to tell us he brought us dinner. He said he was going to cook for us sometime. It is awesome to see how much the members support us and to help us in the work, but that trust had to be gained through a lot of prays and hard work. 

I love you all!

Have a fabulous week!!!
Sister Grigg

That same member we went to fed us Serbian food for lunch and Sister Messinger hit her head on the staircase and so the member gave her this huge ice pack and made her sit there with it on her head. So good!

we go tabling by a metro stop and so there are always tons of people and the drawing was perfect to narrow out the people who weren't in a huge hurry that we could stop and talk too. 

The ward here is working on get the ward missionaries to teach the new member lessons. So we took a ward missionary out to a lesson to a member who got baptized a month ago. She was great. Her name is Marta. This is her. We had to take 2 different buses to get out to the members house because its was way out in the 15th district. And sister Magda and I always take selfies so there is that one.

Splits with Sister Chamberlain. Sister Magda and I spent the day with her in Kispest. While our companions worked in our area. She is such a great sister missionary!

We went tabling today with the elders and drew out a great plan of salvation. It was so great! I talked with a bunch of cool people who stopped to look at it and was able to set up a few programs with them for later this week!