Week 13 Update
Boy oh Boy, what week! To start off - this Wednesday I will have been on my mission for 3 whole months! And one month here in this amazing country. Things are picking up and I am starting to feel extremely confident that this all going to be great!
Pozitiv vagyok! (I’m positive!)
Pozitiv vagyok! (I’m positive!)
My Mom challenged me a little while back to try to realize the TENDER MERCIES from the Lord each week, and now that I have started, the list just keeps getting longer & longer! I wake up so excited to see the little happy moments He’ll give to me that day. I highly recommend doing it if you don’t already, because it strengthens your appreciation for Christ and also strengthens your confidence that He knows you, personally.
The little things add up! Here’s a couple:
- Another little friend came and followed us while tracking and no matter how many people refused to listen to us, I could turn around and our little puppy friend would be sitting there! I miss my Shasta baby (God definitely knows that animals make me happy!)
- Last P-day, a member asked us to come to her line-dancing class that she teaches, and it was so much fun! Country music reminded me of home! Never thought I would say that I line-danced in Hungary! HaHa! Oh, and they played Gallaway Girl, the song we learned for Ireland in Morningstar and I most definitely was looking around for Ali and Mason and Noah! Who knows why they chose that song to dance to, but i like to imagine someone knew it would make me super happy!
- So, I basically found my Hungarian Ali. Nobody will ever replace you Al, but we both were taking about how much we love to sing, and then decided to try singing a song and it was so cool how well our voices bled together! We are basically going to just hang out lots and sing and I have learned that music can really bring people closer together. I think we are going to sing in church in the next week or two! Whoop Whoop! But yeah. I’m really thankful for my new friend Vikki and music!
GREENIE TRAINING
Wednesday was the best day!!! It was the day when all the new missionaries returned to Budapest for training. And we had the BEST reunion as an MTC family! It was so cool to see that nothing has really changed except experience. We are all serving all over Hungary, so we have so many different stories, but a lot, if not most, of the same emotions. I had missed my best friends so much! I am so proud of them & looking forward to when I can see them again!
After the training, we went of splits with the Sister Training Leaders. That day, I know for a FACT, that I have never eaten so much food before in my life! We went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant around 2pm. Then the Sister Training Leader, Sister Hafen, took me to a program (discussion/lesson) at someone’s home. There, I had a four-course meal (keep in mind it is only 4pm… 2 hours after our Mexican lunch!) and afterwards, I was in a food coma. We tracted and then we went to ANOTHER program and I couldn’t even finish the fruit soup I was so full. I made it through the second course, but then she brought out these yummy cinnamon rolls filled with jelly - on a normal day I would have had 3 - but the thought of eating anything made me feel so sick! My stomach almost exploded, I kid you not!!! The day after I took a break from food and stuck with water and I have lived to tell the tale! Now I can say I’ve (attempted) to eat 3 dinners in one day! Only in Hungary! :)
**cool sidenote** - In the MTC, my teacher Robinson Testver told us about this woman that read the Book of Mormon in like a week and he baptized her and showed us a picture of her. And who was the woman the Sister Training Leaders took us to have dinner with? The same one Robinson Testver had baptized! So cool and amazing to be living in the stories they told us in the MTC!
I experienced my first baptism here in the field this week! That was such a special day and really reminded me why I am here. I had met Kitti my first week and she is really the sweetest and kindest soul. I am so happy for her and have been able to experience the joy this gospel brings to people just by her smile & the twinkle in her eye!
I am starting to feel the Spirit of this work. On Sunday I had fasted & prayed hard to be able to help people, to help someone, or even just feel like I am impacting someone’s life. I was hoping to receive an answer or confirmation within the next week, but I had no idea it would be in that same morning! For the past month, we had been meeting with this woman, Tunde, who had become less-active and was going through some hard times. I LOVED meeting with her, and every week she would patiently listen as I should try to share spiritual thoughts. She hadn’t been to church in over 6 months, so we would meet with her in the hopes that she would feel the Spirit and be reminded of how great it feels. Then today, as we began to sing the opening song in Sacrament meeting, I looked up and Tunde was sitting up a the front surrounded by other women in the branch! In that moment, I just wanted to jump up out of my seat and give her the biggest squeeze! We hadn’t asked her to come or anything. She came on her own and I am so proud and happy and thankful and just love this work! Helping others find and strengthen their faith is helping me to find and strengthen mine.
So that was pretty much my week! Fun adventures mixed with spiritual moments and opportunities to grow! I am so thankful to be a missionary. Lately, Ive been having a lot of moments where I sit back and think - “WOW - I’m in Hungary!!!” #blessedbeyondbelief! I feel the real Brooke coming out of hiding and I’m really happy about that because now I can start moving forward... Bein’ happy!!!
Read Alma Chapter 5! I love you more than you can comprehend! You are all in my thoughts & prayers!
Sok Szeretettel,
Gertsch Nover - “B"
The Parliament in Budapest
This was not apart of Brooke’s main email home but I decided to add this to the email for anyone who would be interested in reading them. Each week I send her a list of questions and hope for answers! I feel like they really help get insight to what her life is like while on her mission in Hungary. I won’t add all the questions and answers but I will add the few that I think people would be interested in! - Chris (Brooke's Mom)
Q - What is your favorite thing about your mission so far?
A - The favorite thing about my mission so far….
That would have to be the change i have already began to feel inside! I am not saying my prayers or reading my scriptures because I know its what you and Dad want me to do or because Ali does it or anything like that. Something switched inside and I have not gone a day without reading and praying and have never felt so close to Heavenly Father and the Spirit and I know that that is the reason why I am able to get through the pain of homesickness and disconnect from home! I was so lazy before and did not have the desire to stay awake for more than 3 minutes once I got in bed to pray. and now I am taking around like 10-15 minutes just pouring my heart out to Him and it is probably the best part of the day.
Oh and being in Europe is super cool too;)
Q - What has been the hardest thing about your mission so far?
A - Hardest thing about my mission so far, is that with all of this change I am experiencing, having the strongest testimony ever, Most days, I feel like no one will even give us the time of day. I can see it in their eyes, and when they don’t smile back, that they hurt inside and that life is not treating them nice at all, and I just want to give them a huge hug, tell them that there is someone that loves them SO much and to help them get on the happy path, but the hardest thing for me, is that I cant control them! This is their life and they have to be willing to let two young women into their homes and i can see how that can be awkward and stuff! Not knowing the language is hard too. but I don’t ever let that get me too down. Because I look back at when I was in the MTC and have seen such growth! I know it just takes time.
Q - How many branches are there? Pres. Szabakai put a picture of the branch house in Sveged on Facebook but it looks different from the picture you sent home. It must have been the building that he did the interviews in last weekend. I am guessing there is more than one branch house in the city?
A - No that is the same branch house! there is only one branch house in each city. kind of crazy to think about Utah and even California! The Szeged branch i think has around 30-40 people? Its nice, like a little family:) this week, my trainer is helping me with learning how to small talk because i cannot do that for the life of me and I want to be nice and talk to people at church more haha!!!
Q- What is the thing that is the most different about a mission than you thought it would be before getting there?
A - The most different thing about the mission, was definitely the rejection. It was super hard to go from the MTC to real life too. Having so many friends, so many close close friends, to one companion every minute of every day was way weird. It’s actually really hard for me. Missing Ali like CRAZY. i just miss being crazy and joking around and having fun.
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