Ladies and Gentlemen.......

I do not have much time but I will tell you the important parts of my life 

1. we had a hip hop party with all of the Budapest zone and my 63 year old investigator did a handstand in the middle of the circle. these things are important.

2. One of our investigators named Zoltán wants to be baptized!!!!!! Miracles happen ladies and gentlemen. 

3. Sister Mason and I took a swing break while tracting and I had way too good of a time, and in that moment I realized that if a swing could give me that much of a thrill, then I have definitely become a missionary.

For my spiritual thought I thought that I would quote my amazing friend Kenadee.   In one of her letters she wrote

“You’re life begins at the end of your comfort zone."

So why is it that life begins at times of discomfort? I've come to this conclusion. We thrive and grow the most in times of discomfort because it is in those very times that we find ourselves on our knees more than we were before. Even if you are doing everything you should, and praying 20 times a day, if you let the Lord take you out of your comfort zone, you will find yourself praying 21 times a day. You will further your conversion to the Him and you will be a better disciple because of it. And guess what else? You will come to know Him, and your relationship with Him will grow. Whether on a mission or not, there are things we have to do for this gospel and for our testimony that makes us a little uncomfortable. I am so grateful for the Atonement that's able to carry us up out of those times and bring us out even better than we were before. It's like that quote at conference, "You can have what you want, or you can have something better." Let Him give you what is better. Not what is easier, but what is BETTER!”  

I have such a big testimony about this. if a mission has done anything to me, it has not just taken me out of my comfort zone, it has literally picked me up and drop kicked me out of there. I have spent MUCH time pondering why. why change is so hard, why we need these experiences in our lives, and one of the conclusions that I have come to is just what Kenadee said, It is so that we can, through the atonement, come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. It is so we can rely on him, so that we can turn to prayer, so we anticipate the sacrament each week, because we know it is a chance to become better. I am grateful for the times that I have been so uncomfortable, and so stretched to my very limit, because that is when I have learned, thats when my Savior has corrected me, and helped me to become better. 

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK. everyone get exicted. 

love you all, miss you all. 

sok szeretettel,

Swenson nővér

1.  What are your Pday plans today?

parliment tour!!!! so exciting

2.  Does Mason like to cook?

yes! we definitely cook sometimes 

3.  Do you walk more or less in Pest than you did in your "country" areas.

uhm, it depends, probably less because now we travel a lot by metro and bus, but we still walk a lot to get to our destinations? kinda hard to explain haha 

4.  How much more is involved in being a STL other than going on splits with the Sisters?

uhm, we go to MLC trainings every two weeks, and we give trainings in the zone trainings, talk with the mission presidents wife a couple of times a week,  but thats about it!!

5.  Do you have any funny stories about street contacting this week?
hahah some man asked us why our god wants to kill babies. thats always fun to talk about with people 

6.  What do people generally think of Americans in Pest?

everyone thinks that america is like "the promised land" that life is so amazing, nothing is ever wrong, its kinda funny haha 

7.  Have you seen any Marriotts?  Have to keep our options open!!!

actually YES. i saw one in kispest and i literally was like "this is where we are going to stay when we come" its in the cooolest location ever too. 

8.  Are there any cool Hungarian holidays coming up?  Do Hungarians celebrate Easter generally?

haha yes they celebrate easter but they do it hilariously. guys usually go around and dump water on girls heads, or perfume, and then they ask for a kiss or candy

9.  Does your mission president have kids at home still?  Do you know what he did for a living before he became a mission president?
yes he has a daughter who is 14 or 15, she is a perfect human haha so adorable. but i think he was like something to do with border control? i know he studied mathematics! 

10. Did you know that your eyes look more beautiful every day???

haha i love you so much!

I am just so happy and i feel like i am just walking around Budapest with my best friend every single day!

I am just so happy and I feel like I am just walking around Budapest with my best friend every single day. Sister Mason and I have been recently really trying to be brave, and talk to people. I don't know about you guys, but sometimes it's a little intimidating to walk up to a 23 year old man with his girlfriend and start preaching the gospel.

  Haha, I have a personal goal that I am going to do one thing that scares me every day. Whenever I do it I just get this giant adrenaline rush and I just go for it. It is kinda cool though because I have seen myself becoming braver in the work, and being more willing to follow my 'scary' promptings from the Holy Ghost. We are starting to see success from it, and it is such a great thing. I  think every single day we should all do something that takes us out of our comfort zone a little. It makes me feel so alive!

Our mission president's wife came to a lesson with us this week with our investigator Krisztián. The lesson was amazing. We have realized that Krisztián has no problem with understanding our message, and looking at it logically, but, he has a problem with believing our message, feeling our message, and having the faith to act. We discussed how the word 'hit' and the word 'faith' are different. and how the word faith means more than just to believe in something.

We decided to make it like a nice heart wrenching lesson, so we brought our family pictures, and pointed out every single person, and told him "hey, listen, do you think that we would be here in this weird country, getting shut down every day, not being with our AMAZING families, if we did not FEEL this message was true? If we did not only know, but FEEL that this is where the Lord wants us? " It went really well. hopefully we can someday show this human how to feel haha.

We went on splits with the Kispesti nővérek. It was a such a great split. I was with Sister Prasansaph who is in her first transfer right now. I really just love and admire her so much. She is the happiest person ever. We had the most hilarious thing happen to us. Some person let us into a building when we were tracting, and we tracted the whole building and only talked to three people. Then:

1.
There was A terrible person who just told me how bad of hungarian we speak, and how my accent is just absolutely terrible, and how no one in this building would be able to understand me (what a confidence boost, AM I RIIIIIGHT?)

2.  There wasthe most jolly old man, who was not interested in our message, but so kind, who lived on the 6th floor and..

3. There was a youth who had just arisen from a nap, to tell us that he was tired.

After that adventure, we went to open the door, and to our dismay, discovered that you have to have a key to get OUT of the building. We were locked in hahahah. our only options was to decide which person to go ask to let us out of the building. How fun is that decision? I need you all to know that we did, indeed, get out of the building. what a life I live.

In other news, we do a weekly service at a homeless shelter. We usually just talk to them, entertain them, tell them about America, or talk to them about the gospel if they are interested. This week, this guy came who could beat box better than any human i have ever met. he asked us if any of us could rap, so i told him i could (i know what you are all thinking 'oh my gosh lindsi is the best rapper i know, she is amazing, what a talented kid') so in my missionary angst, i found a song buried deep in my head, and you know what guys? i rapped. i rapped the beautiful sonet "love the way you lie" by Eminem. it was a beautiful moment. tears were shed, high fives were given.

HAVE THE BEST WEEK EVERYONE. i miss you all daily.

sok szeretettel,

§wEn§ mOnAy

First of all, shout out to my sister who got all up and MARRIED this week!! whaddup Erin Minhondo?!

First of all, shout out to my sister who got all up and MARRIED this week!! whaddup Erin Minhondo?! 

For this side of the world, this week was pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. I need to explain you guys my investigator named Dezső. hahahah every single time i meet with this man I fall in love with him. not in a creepy "I'm in love with a 63 year old man" kinda of way, more like a "Everything this 63 year old man does is adorable, and endearing" kind of way. Anyway, this weekend we went to meet with him, with one of our member present., And... The whole thing just went haywire. haha (also i dont think I have used the word haywire since 1904 and I feel like an old british néni sipping tea because I used that word) anyway,

we went to meet with him, and first of all, Sister Mason decided to open up her drink mid lesson while our member present was talking, But, the drink just exploded and she ended up with a giant puddle on her black pencil skirt, Meanwhile, I could not stop laughing, while she tried to express that it was in fact SODA that was accumulated in a pile on her skirt. Then our member present starting telling our investigator that she has seen ghosts. So... if you ask me THAT LESSON WAS A SUCCESS. But nobody worry because Dezső then came to church with us, and during testimony meeting a loud, jazzy phone started going off, which did indeed belong to Dezső. but he didn't know how to make the sound stop.  He just began frantically hitting his phone, searching for a way to answer it. Then when he did he proceeded to put the phone on speaker, and tell the person that he had to call him back. I love this man. 

This week I got to go on splits with Sister Schrad who is serving in Budapest, She was in the same group as Sister Jensen, the sister i trained, so I had heard SO much about her. She is the coolest person, and we met with this man named Páli, who has been meeting with the missionaries for more than a year.

  On our way over there, we felt like we should just have a DTR with this homie. we went in there, and talked about baptism, and how if the desires of his heart are to help others, to bear one anothers burdens, to wear the name of Christ for the rest of our lives, to tie covenants with God, what does he have against being baptized? (moziás 18) He told us that he will be praying about baptism, which is a huge step for him. I believe in splits miracles ladies and gentleman. 

Fun facts of the week:

1. An american family in the ward brought us a GIANT tub of peanut butter, and american cheddar cheese. 

2. we were walking on the street and these people came up and gave us delicous chocolate bar because we are women #nőnap 

3. I brought my guitar to angol óra (the english class we teach as missionaries) and we composed a beautiful song about sports with 16 hungarians

4. I love my companion kate mason.

SPIRITUALSÁG:

I have been thinking a lot about faith this week, what it is, how to find it, how to build on it, and how to keep it. In Hungarian, the word for faith is "hit" which is really frustrating, because it is derived from the word "hinni" which means "to believe" so when we teach hungarians about faith, all they hear is that it is to believe in something, but faith is SO much more than that. faith is an action word. "faith without works is dead" and i have found that to be nothing but true. Faith is something that is a decision. You have to decide to have a believing heart, and then you have to let the faith that you have, the little belief that you might feel, change you. You have to let it push you to become better.

szeretlek titeket. legyetek önmagatok 

with lots of love, 

Swenson nővér 

1.  What are your plans for Pday today?

we are going to this amazing place for lunch that me and sister mason discovered in downtown budapest, and then going to explore margít sziget

2.  Does this apartment have a washer and dryer?

a washer yes, dryers dont exist in hungary so no haha

3.  Do they have Stake Conferences there?
yes they do! my ward is the stake center

4.  What is your companions best quality?

we are NEVER not laughing. she is so organized, she has all of these really happy things that make us happy all of the time, she is such a real human being, but still such a good missionary, she is so fun to talk to, honestly she is just my best friend haha i am too lucky.

5.  Do mores hungarians speak English in Pest?

YES.

6.  What American food restaurants are there in Pest?

TGIF, pizza hut, subway, haha just weird things like that!

7.  Are all of your splits in Budapest, or do you go out to the country?
our zone is the budapest zone so we just stay in budapest, and it is actually the nicest thing ever!

8.  Quick...funny "meeting a Hungarian story".

uhmmm yesterday one in broken english told me and my companion that blonde is his favorite color ahhh

9.  What is one Hungarian tradition you want to keep?

I will always celebrate st. mikulás napja its where the kids on the 6th of christmas put their shoes in their window and if they were good then he will bring them candy!

10.  You just have to know how Loved you are...You do, right?

haha i think sooo!

TIP: If you live in Budapest, make sure you have a companion named Mason nővér.

TIP: If you live in budapest, make sure you have a companion named Mason nővér. Otherwise you will not have any clue what you are doing, how to use a metro, which bus to get on, and you will walk around in awe everywhere you go.

So you all need to know that this transfer is a dream come true. Mason nővér is probably the funniest human being I have ever met and we are having so much fun, working so hard, and living the dream. Pest is just amazing. I had NO clue how different serving in the city would be. We literally always have something to do, all of our transportation is metros, or buses or tram, There are ALWAYS people outside, it's fantastic :') Also,  sad fact minute: Mason and I were both trained by Withers Nővér, and she went home last week, back to the telestial world. isten veled míg újra látlak.

This week just went by so quickly. Thursday we had the first district meeting with our new district. our district is made up of me, Sister Mason from Laguna Beach, California,  Elder Ure from Highland Utah, And Elder Veres from Frezno California. so as you can tell they are all much cooler than me. 

Pest is a part of the International ward (yes i do mean ward, not branch, this thing is GIANT), and church was probably the weirdest experience ever, but so cool at the same time. The whole sacrament meeting is translated, so if there is a speaker speaking Hungarian, it is translated to english, and visa versa. I heard the sacrament prayer in English for the first time in over a year! There are tons of American families and they are all just so nice, and it is going to be such a cool experience serving in this ward. I felt like i was in this weird pot of americanness and hungariannes and at first I  thought it was so weird, then I realized that I, myself, am a weird mixture of hungarianness and americanness now so i guess its the exact place I should be right?

 

My spritual thought today comes from J. Devon Cornish the man himself. This was my absolute favorite talk last conference.

"Please, my beloved brothers and sisters, we must stop comparing ourselves to others. We torture ourselves needlessly by competing and comparing. We falsely judge our selfworth by the things  we do or don’t have and by the opinions of others. If we must compare, let us compare how we weare in the past to how we are today even to how we want to be in the future. The only opinion of us that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of us. Please sincerely ask Him what He thinks of you. He will love and correct but never discourage us; that is Satan’s trick."

This is so true. this quote has honestly changed my mission, and my life. DON NOT  compare yourself to anyone, that is never going to do any good. Focus on yourself. focus on becoming a better person day by day. Really just like Elder Cornish said, all that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of you. 

I LOVE YOU ALL. just remember that always. 

mind ezt mondtam ezeket a dolgokat Jézus Krisztus szent nevében, amen. 

sok szeretettel, 

Swenson Nővér

1.  So, what does one do in Pest on a Pday?

we are going to go out to eat, and bowling with the elders, and just explore this crazy place 

2.  Tell me all about your new WARD!!

haha i talked all about it in my email! kinda crazy that it is a ward right?

3.  Do you have a bigger apartment?  Same size?
its around the same size, but SO much nicer haha like it is incredible. 

4.  Did all of your stuff fit in your suitcase?

hahah i tried just so hard! i aquired so much stuff in veszprém

5.  How big is your district?

us and two elders!

6.  Where is your companion from?

Laguna Beach, California

7.  Does the hungarian sound the same in the city as the country?

yes it does!
8.  Are you a professional at riding hungarian buses?

hahaha no i literally just follow mason around everywhere, when she leaves i am going to get lost every single day

9.  Any dinner with members this week?

yes a member took us to IKEA cause i live in the most rendes place in the whole world

10. Did you know I live and breathe for Mondays!!!!

STORY OF MY LIFE