Week 11: This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let it Shine!!!

Brooke’s contact info:

EMAIL: brooke.gertsch@myldsmail.net

Mailing address:  

Sister Brooke Gertsch

1122 Budapest

Hajnoczy Jozsef utca 14

Hungary 

AND I THOUGHT THE WHOLE TIME THING IN THE MTC WAS WEIRD! It felt like this week lasted a month. But some days felt like a blink. I am trying my best to stop looking at how long a year and a half is and to live in the now. Soooooo much easier said than done! But its always at the front of my mind when I start to freak out. 

This week I had a lot of internal contemplation. I let the homesickness and culture shock get the best of me and i will admit, I was miserable. And with nobody wanting to hear our message for a solid week, I was totally frustrated. And felt useless and super down and sad. Sometimes, for myself, but most of the time because it is obvious a lot of people do not seem happy and all we are trying to do is help them. I have never prayed so hard for people Ive never met before. Im hopeful though. Always hopeful. My motto for the week (and probably for my entire mission) is that attitude is everything. I could lay in bed all day crying because I miss everything and feel sorry for myself, or i can get some fresh air, admire this beautiful place, and just try my best. Two little experiences i had this week gave me the choice to choose positivity and I felt the Lords hand helping me out. One, was earlier in the week. We had a long day. But had to get our day in tracting so we were ringing doorbells and over the intercom, the man yelled, "GO TO FRANCE" and hung up. (I guess hungary and france dont get along, so instead of saying go to H-E-double hockeysticks, they say go to france haha) You see, the usual me would have lost it right then and there because I cant handle harsh confrontation in any sort of way. But for some reason, I was able to take it lightly and laugh super hard and joke about how I plan to go there some other time! I got such a kick out of it and i wish i could have said a witty comment back, but my comp advised me to be the bigger person, and I guess shes right!! But yeah. dont worry, those kind of people only come every so often! 

Second experience happened yesterday. After church we were tracting again. I had recently just had a pity party with my journal. The attitude thing is definitely a work in progess!!! So we started ringing at this 10 story. I straight up did not want to be there. Looking back, i do feel really bad for my negativity. But I swallowed my pride and took a turn ringing and saying the message when someone picked up. The lady let me finish my entire message ( first-off miracle) and then politely declined BUT let us in the building. which rarely happens haha. So we climbed up all the flights of stairs to the top floor and knocked on a few doors. The last one before we headed down was a man, and he was super friendly and nice and was polite as well as we talked about why we were here, and then before we knew it, 15 minutes had passed after a religious conversation my comp was having with him! I could not add really anything to the convo, but got that he was into levitating (ummm…weird!  haha) but I kept on smiling and picking out a few words every so often. We had to leave for a meeting, but he agreed to let us come back and talk some more with him!!! Not saying that he is going to become an investigator or anything, but this is an opportunity for us to share our testimonies and the gospel with someone and i am so freaking stoked! I have so much faith and hope that the people that are prepared to meet me are just around the corner. I love my Heavenly Father and am so thankful for his patience with me as I try to figure myself out and that he is always there for me with the ups and the downs. 

To keep my thoughts brief ( if thats even possible)

Angul Ora- English class! Its one of my favorites, because I can help out a lot and it is such a cool experience to see someone learn your native language! This week we taught them some grammar stuff and then some fun english sayings like "right off the bat" and "piece of cake" haha its so much fun.

CLEAN apartment! Mom and Dad, you would be so proud. I decided one day that our apartment needed some serious cleaning, and all of a sudden I became this OCD cleaner that was scrubbing gross growing things in corners and unclogging the drains! I hope this sticks with me and i can be like this at home!!! A clean house makes for a happy Brooke! I totally sound like Mom oh man. 

Zone Conference- Lucky me, Mason Nővér and I are in the same zone, and she came to Szeged for training and we had a little bff reunion! Love her so very much and it was so nice to exchange feelings and experiences and to be on the same page as someone! We went to lunch and a soda store that sells american sodas and i bought an Old Fashioned Mt. Dew and TOTALLY thought of Uncle Bear the whole time! I love those little moments that just make me smile. 

Mason Nover & Gertsch Nover 

Farsang Buli- This Saturday was the Hungarian holiday, where they try to "scare away the winter", so basically like Halloween. In february. haha I loved it though! I dressed up as Mickey Mouse and we ate a bunch of food and just partied. Hopefully the winter does get scared and go away so we can get some sunshine!

Church- Church is still very different for me. I do not understand like 90% of it, but always always always feeling the spirit. Its a way cool experience. And I loveeee singing the Hymns! I think I might be singing a song in sacrament meeting sometime soon? That would be a lot of fun. A little moment that touched my heart was in sacrament meeting, I was kinda stressing because I didnt know what was going on, and this little girl, Iszabella walks up to me and just crawls on my lap. She gave me a pen and started to tell me to draw a dog and a cat and a bus and a car. All of which are things I totally canNOT draw, but I attempted to anyways. She giggled as I totally failed to draw and I got such an overwhelming memory of having my little cousins always sitting on my lap! Im so thankful to have sweet little kids at church to fill the void while I am away from my favorite little kids!

The church members- The people here that are in the church are where my faith and hope is strengthened. I love to sit back and look at each individual. I have only heard of a few peoples stories, but each of them are involved with the church because they found the gospel and wanted it in their lives. They have to sacrifice so much and are on their own, standing strong in their callings and the church is their first priority. Their dedication and strength really strengthens me and I am constantly amazed by their examples.

And that is it for my week!!! Wish I could video and show you every second of every day, because I do not have the time to go into great detail! But I love you so much and will talk to you next week! Thanks for being you and all the love and support!

Sok szeretettel,

Brooke