Saturday, May 6, 2017

This weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek was just the craziest thing i have ever been apart of,

This weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek was just the craziest thing i have ever been apart of, life is busy, but its better that way you know?
So this week we had the opportunity to give a training for two of the zones. We talked so much about the spirit, and a lot Elder Rasbands talk  about following those "first promptings". The reason I bring this up is that we had basically the same training planned for both conferences, and it was the cooolest thing to me to see how different the two trainings were. The spirit really will lead, and guide us, We just HAVE to listen, and we HAVE to respond. 

So you know our miracle from last week Hadija? Ah I am just in love with this woman. we met with her 5 out of the 7 days this week, and it is really inspiring to see her faith, and see her desire to just honestly know more about this gospel. One of the days we went to her,  she started out by saying, "I was reading the Book of Mormon this morning out loud with my daughter, And I was praying that i could feel specifically the feeling that I felt when I was with you guys last time. and I did. I know that this is true, I know that this book is true, and I want to be baptized! Tell me everything i have to do!!!" hahahahahahahhaha we were SHOCKED. I felt like I was being pranked literally, Like that kid of thing does not happen in real life. 

I also had another way cool experience, Probably one of the biggest miracles of my mission. We were teaching Hadija about the plan of salvation, and all the little parts. We were talking about Jesus Christ, and the atonement, and why it is absolutely the center of the plan of salvation, and the importance of the atonement. We were discussing that, and we kind of had a little disconnect. Hadija just did not understand why Christ HAD to suffer, and why he had to go through all of that. I was just praying so hard to be able to answer this VERY important question, and to be able to help her concern. I opened my mouth to try to give her an answer, and all of the sudden, this fluent hungarian was just flowing out of my mouth, and this PERFECT answer, that honestly not even I knew, came out of my mouth. After I finished speaking she just said "I get it now, that makes perfect sense." I mean, you hear these stories all the time, but until it actually happens you don't really believe them. I know that the gift of tongues is real. i know that God cares so much about all of his children, and that he knew how important Hadijas question was, and he wanted her to have the answer. It was such a cool, faith building experience. 

In other news, yesterday we got to go sing finding with the elders in the park, it was fire. we saved several souls in the process.
A bearded man kissed my hand for a total of 30 seconds and i felt uncomfortable and endangered.
A memeber showed us how to make paprikás csirke, and nöl kedli this week and it I will be making that for you all the moment I arrive in the Americas (land of the free home of the brave)
Hungarians think that you will get a cold any time you walk outside without a jacket, so my investigator gave me a jacket with more faux fur than should exist on any jacket. I felt like a pimp.
Sister jensen is TRAINING. so this week i got to meet my granddaughter. the joys of family.
I am so happy to be here, life is so good, and have the best week okay every single one of youuuuuuu!


szívvel,
Swenson nővér


1.  Pday activity today?
I get to show all the new people in our district the parliament and the bazilika and i cannot wait cause they are going to love ittttt 

2.  What was the holiday on MOnday?  How do they celebrate?  What do they celebrate? haha it was just hungarian labor day. literally they celebrated by having everything in the world closed haha

3.  Is your companion good at door approaches?
no she sucks. haha yes she is good!

4.  Do they believe in Bigfoot in Hungary?
i have yet to ask haha

5.  How far do you have to go for your district meetings?
so we live an hour away from our branch house cause budapest is gigantic, so we travel a ton!

6.  Is it warming up there in Pest?
yes jött a tavasz :')

7.  Do they have "Mexican food" restaurants in Hungary?
haha uhm honestly know, the closest thing is this place called "gringos" and its kinda like a cafe rio idea? but dont think for four seconds that it is cafe rio, cause that would be blasphemous 

8.  Do people make eye contact in Pest?  Would it be a normal thing to pass by a hungarian and they say Hi and smile? actually thats a huge thing i love about hungary! when you walk by people on the streets, or like going up stairs and stuff, you always say hello! i love it

9.  Where is your favorite place to run there?
we have this little park by our house that i do some laps on! its great, through the city buidlings, its pretty nice

10.  Did you know that your hair is STUNNING?  It is so long and so pretty!!!
hahaha FINALLY. thank you! its trying its hardest to get long haha


Monday, April 24, 2017

Two of my companions Died this week......

2 of my companions died this week, and my only advice to the world is don't love anyone, because when you love people then they leave you and it rips out your heart and you are left sad and alone. Okay i am kidding.. but really. just don't do it.

Can you guys say pest ROUND 2? My new companion is Sister Morris, and she is the best thing to happen to me. She is from Washington DC, loves to bake, play sports, and she is the best little missionary.  She is in her fourth transfer, and we have already had way too much fun. We have another 10 week transfer coming our way and 10 weeks doesn't even feel like the longest thing I could ever imagine. It doesnt even feel that way no. We got another set of elders in our district. He is training and he is a greenie is as green as a beautiful american football field. 

We met with some really cool people this week. One of the members, Margit, is the best member missionary in the world. So the situation is that a member of our ward passed away this past week, and at the funeral, her niece came up to Margit and wanted to know what we believe in. Margit set up a lesson for us, and we went over this week and taught her all about the Plan of Salvation, and we are going to meet with her 3 times a week because she said if she believes this all and she wants to be.. wait for it... KERESZTELKEDNI'D. bapbapbaptized people. I just thought that this was the coolest example of how we never know how much people are watching us, how curious they are about us, and how much comfort this Gospel can give in hard times. It was really cool to tell these people that they can see their aunt again. I love this gospel so much, and the joy the knowledge of it brings. 

It was earth day so we took a picture with a tree

It was 420 so we took a picture with some weeds. 

have the best weeeeeeeeeeeek and i will talk to you all in precisely 7 day. 


isten áldjon
Swenson nővér 






These are missionaries from Lindsi's MTC group!!!


1.  So, what are your Pday plans today? 
we are hanging out with the elders and playing tons of games and wea re really excited!

2.  Tell me about your companion...where is she from?  What does she like to do? 
 morris is so cute. she is from washington DC, she loves to bake, she likes sports, she went to byu for a year and shes going to be a buisness woman haha she is the perfect little human and we are having so much fun!

3.  How often do you go on splits?
 once a week! and now we get to go to the beautiful city of PÉCS and i cannot even wait

4.  Any funny Neni stories this week? haha honestly not really, but just watching your casual néni travel down the street is a funny néni story enough haha 

5.  How often do members get to go to the temple?
 honestly like once every couple of years, its like al ot of money to travel over there, and they dont get to go a ton!  Do they have routine temple trips?
 yes the branches try to go once every year for everyone who can go! it has honestly made me SO grateful for temples, and for where i live. 

6.  So, I watched this little video about learning Hungarian, and how it is the absolute toughest language to learn how they add letters to the front and back of words to make it mean something crazy different.....I have mad respect for you!!! 
hahaha yes yes hungarian is a fun little adventure. 

7.  What are you doing for exercise?
 MORRIS LETS ME RUN 

8.  IF you had to rate your cooking skills from 1-10....how would you rate yourself?  (Like versus other 20 year old women...not against like professional cooks) 
i am a freaking chef. where does that fall on the scale?

9.  How often do you have to wash your hair? i would rather not disclose this information to the general public

10.  Did you know that your smile LIGHTS UP MY LIFE??????  Ah, Love you lindsi!!! 
i love you so much more! 

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Kellemes húsvétet!!!

First of all, I know it's a little late, and after Easter, but everyone should go and watch this video about #theprinceofpeace. I have shown it to literally every person I talk to (that will let me into their house, and that have internet, and that will let me use their computer.... details) but it is amazing. I have the biggest testimony that Christ lives. He died for us so that we could live again. He is the source of peace in this stormy world. He is the source of answers. and He is the source of happiness in this life, or in this life to come.

Wow wow this week has been one of miracles. We were able to do so much amazing finding, Separate from drunk bácsis petting my head, we were able to find 3 new investigators, and each and every single one was such a miracle find. I do not believe in coincidences ladies and gentlemen. It amazes me everytime how when someone lets us into their house, and when we start to talk to them, that we are so easily able to answer all of their HUGE live questions. This gospel is so simple. I know that the spirit is always leading us, whispering in our ears exactly what to say to these people. Every time after someone lets us in, I just feel like it was not my words that were said to those people. DO YOU KNOW HOW COOL OF A FEELING THAT IS?

Easter in Hungary is hilarious. So,  they have this little tradition called "locsolni" and the Hungarian men go up to the girls and spray them with perfume, and then the girls give them chocolate eggs in return hahah its hilarious. Yes me Mason and I did get sprayed....yes it was by my favorite investigator Desző, and yes i will remember it for the rest of my life.

We went to dinner this week at a members house, she is the stake relief society president  and she lives in our ward..., and she is AMAZING. Her husband made us kiwi jam, and this bean soup, and these fantastic austrian pancake things that made tears come to my eyes they were so good. 

We got talking with her, and she really just inspired me. We were talking about how much our looks and appearances, just do not matter. like literally. We were watching these videos of people who have absolutely nothing, and are so happy, and sometimes I am mad because my clothes aren't cute enough? haha like what? It was just such a huge perspective change for me. Do you think it is going to matter for one second in Heaven what we look like? Do you think its going to matter for one second how cool we were here on earth? haha i will answer these for you guys, no. no it wont. One of the coolest thing here on a mission that I have experienced is trying to look at people through Christ's eyes. Every single door we knock on I sit on the outside and i just try to love whoever is going to come through that door, because guess what? Our Heavenly Father loves them. and our Savior, and older brother Jesus Christ died for them. 

This is kind of all over the place, but basically I just had this huge perspective change, and it has made me SO much happier. I think that is one of Satan's biggest tools. he EATS at us, and our personal self confidence so much. God would never send us those types of feelings. Our Heavenly Father loves every single one of us. Even the cranky nénis, even the people who laugh at us on the bus, yes those ones too. He love us. And, that is the best part about this gospel. ENDLESS LOVE PEOPLE.

i love you all. have the best week please! 

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just sit there and think about it, and you think 'well gosh dangit i am just way too blessed' cause same here

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just sit there and think about it, and you think 'well gosh dangit i am just way too blessed' cause same here 

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

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!

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

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

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

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!