Hello!!

Sziasztok!
     This week demands list form.
   
     1. So at the beginning of this week we had probably the best week of all time planned out. We were super excited. Then we got a tad bit sick and then all of our investigators cancelled. It was not very fun.  I was not too excited. However, this week has been really fun.

     2. Transfers! holy cow! I am finished with my first transfer! Jaj! It is crazy. Mullen Elder and I are going to be with each other for this next transfer. It is shorter than usual, just five weeks.  Mullen Elder has been here for about a year and a half. We get along really well. Especially after these last few weeks. We have grown really close. I am glad I am staying with him.  We also have a lot of plans for our investigators this week. I am super excited!

    3. Speaking of transfers, we are getting two new Elders here in Sopron! We are stoked to meet them and start working with them. It should be really fun.

    4. I am tripping out about how fast this is going. This first transfer has been an absolute blur. It is whipping by so fast.  Ridiculously fast. However, we are doing so much! I love it here and I am really glad I am staying in Sopron.

     5. My talk this past Sunday went pretty good. I think everyone understood what I was saying...so that was nice.  When I was getting up, both the other speaker and the Branch President whispered to me to take as much time as I could. That was terrifying. But it went really well. I am proud of it.

     6. I use my music a lot here in Sopron. I am one of the few people that can play the piano, so I play for all of the meetings. They love having someone that plays. We sing for EVERYTHING which is great. I love it.

     7. I am glad the letters arrived okay! I was a little worried. I hope you will be able to deliver all the other ones.

     8. Our branch is pretty small, but oh man we have the greatest members. They are all so nice and loving and they treat us really well. They are super patient with me and help me out a lot.

     9. We son't have our new senior couple yet, but we might get them sometime in August. We are pretty excited for them to come. It will be fun to help them out with figuring out how to live in Hungary :)

I love you all so much! I am so grateful to you and all of the family and friends for everything you have all taught me and for all of the prayers and support you all give to me. Thank you all so much!!
     Sok szeretettel,
          Neely Elder

THE BIRDS: every night at 8:30 sharp, the church bells ring and all the birds in Sopron fly to these trees. It is slightly terrifying. I hope you can see it okay, because it is crazy how many there are.

We made Rakott Krumpli it is really good!

I ripped my pocket :,(

Awesome old bench

The exact building in the painting!

A member gave us this card painting.

This seriously is like the oldest church in Sopron. It is one of my favorites. It is in the middle of nowhere and it is Beautiful!!

Beautiful!

Sziasztok!

     This week has been absolutely amazing. Like...I don't even know. Okay. Also, can we take a second and realize that my first transfer is almost over? Holy Crap! Also, so this transfer is six weeks long (that is the usual transfer length), but since the announcement and the changing of the length of time in the MTC, the next transfer will be five weeks, then ten weeks, then nine weeks for the rest of the time! It will be super fun. I am stoked for it. I also figured it all out and by the time I finish the first nine week transfer, I will have been on my mission for almost 10 months! weird right? I am tripping out.
     Okay, so to mix things up a bit, I will not write in list form! Hahaha! Diversity!
     So, this last P-day I got my first Hungarian Haircut. I was actually super nervous because-as I was walking into the Fodrasz (salon)-I realized I have no idea how to talk about hair cuts in Hungarian! It was pretty terrifying, but it worked out okay and it looks pretty nice I think. There was this terrifying part where she pulled out a legit razor (like...1800s razor), but all was well. I did not die :)
     This week, I used my last tide pod :( It was a sad day...BUT I found some other detergent in our apartment that works fine so all is well :)
     Last P-Day I went to a music store that is just in the middle of town. It turned out to be just a lone older man and he ran this little violin making/restoration shop. It was BEAUTIFUL. He acted just like I thought a violin maker would and he was just super nice and the place smelled glorious and it was just really cool to see. However, I did not get to play a violin. Yeah, I have been craving playing on a violin hard core for the last three weeks.
     One day, Mullen Elder and I were walking down the street and this man rode by on a bike and yelled at us, "FBI! CIA!" It was super funny. We laughed for a really long time.
     So on Friday I went on splits with another Elder in Sopron named Corbishley Elder. He is super awesome. He is from England and we had a really good split. During said split, we went practicing some finding skills. So we went to this house and rang the doorbell. While waiting we could see inside these people's yard and there was a kid riding one of those little motorcycle things in a super tight circle. And he was just staring right at us going around and around on that motorcycle for like five minutes. Then he straightened out and came toward us. Then he stopped. And then he came forward again. Then his dad came out and told us he wasn't interested. It was super funny. We laughed quite a bit.
     On Saturday we went Falu Blasting! A falu is a village and falu blasting is where we just go to a village and tract it all in a day. This time we went to a little place called Harka. The people were ridiculously nice. They all smiled and were nice to us even if they were not interested. One lady answered the question, "What is most important in your life?" with the answer , "Love." It definitely made my day :)
     Our investigators are doing good. We are working a lot with them and they are really progressing. They are such amazing people. I care about them so much and I feel so blessed to be a part of their journey in drawing closer to the Savior.
     It is humid here, but now I am kind of used to it, so it just feels normal, however, I have legit lost twenty pounds so far.  IT IS HOT. And we walk a lot, hahahaha I totes thought I would be gaining weight. I guess that will come during the winter :)
     We haven't gotten a new senior couple yet, but some have come and been assigned to other areas though. One couple (now in Debrecen) is from the StG!! Hopefully, I will get a chance to talk with them :)
    Also, I am going to be talking this week in church O.O  This will be FUN! I am slightly terrified, but our Branch is ridiculously nice, so all will go well, even if I butcher the Hungarian :)
    Well, that is about it. I have a lot of pictures to send, so I will get working on that. I love you all so much and I sent everyone letters on Wednesday, so we will see how fast the post is here! I love you! I hope all is well!
     Sok szerererrel,

We made fruit soup talk abuot Heavenly!

          Neely Elder

English class-game night.

Beautiful!

Sopron

Hair cut--Good!

Beautiful Churches in Sopron

Inside church

Sopron

Levi falu blasting.

Harka

Falu Blasting

This weeks Hungarian Happenings!

1. We will hopefully start teaching one of our recent convert's Mom. She is super nice. They had us over for dinner the other day. She is super peppy. The first time I met her she had this shirt on that said, "WOW! WOW! WOW!" And that is exactly how she is. She is just so happy and perky. We are really excited about her.

2. I miss the Temple SO BAD. I mean, it has only been like....four weeks, but man I miss it. I can't imagine how amazing that first trip back when I get home will be. GO TO THE TEMPLE! I think we take it for granted, especially having one so close! Try to find family names and take them to the Temple. It will bring blessings without end.

3. I had my first food adventures! We have this less active member (she can't walk a lot, so she doesn't come as much) that we always visit and she likes to feed us.  So this last time we walk into this absolutely beautiful meal. It was super classy and it looked amazing...except this weird little pile of mush. It looked kind of pinkish so I thought it might be a weird type of dessert or something. Turns out, it was pickled cabbage with Tefo (kind of like sour cream...sort of...). Yeah. I struggled. BUT. I did it! I ate it all. Then later in the week, we went to another dinner appointment. It was very nice of them to cook for us. I ate a lot of the soup they made for us because I didn't want them to think I didn't like it. However, after this they had dessert. She gave me a big helping. It was really good and I finished it. But man I was SO FULL. Then, of course, she asked if I wanted more. I obviously couldn't defend myself in Hungarian so the other Elders just responded and said, "Persze." Which means of course. Then the dad told her to give me a lot. SHE GAVE ME AN ABSOLUTE MOUNT EVEREST OF CAKE! I was going to die. I tried my best, but I didn't finish it :( but she was okay with it, so that was nice.

4. So in Hungary, holding hands is a big deal. Like everyone holds hands. Especially like parents and children, no matter what age they are. So the other day these two women walk by and they looked about the same age. I am still wondering if they were mother and daughter...or a little more than that. It was a bit awkward.

5. I tracted my first ten story on Saturday! I will send a picture that shows how big they are. It was super fun. People are really a lot nicer than I was expecting. Or they just weren't home. That happened a lot too hahaha.

6. This week the Flammers left :( We had all sorts of different farewell parties (one for the branch, one for English class, etc.). They are seriously some of the greatest people I know and they have really helped me learn and grow and have provided a lot of comfort when things were rough.  I will miss them a lot.

The Flammers and Neely Elder

I think that Heavenly Father wants me to go into this mission with the end in mind. When I left the MTC two of our teachers didn't talk about going into the mission field, but rather their feelings when leaving the field. I have seen the Flammers leave and I have observed many different Elders and Sisters who are about to leave. I think Heavenly Father wants me to realize that this time is short and that I can accomplish a lot if I use my time wisely. I think He also wants me to see that when I leave, I want to leave feeling like I have worked my hardest and done my best. And I do :)  and I will :)
  I love you all so much and pray for you all always!
 Sok szeretettel,

English class party for the Flammers

 

Branch party for the Flammers

McKissick Elder

Tibor cooking  good food!

These things are GOOD!

     

First Ten Story

English Class

           

Sziasztok!

My district 

Sopron

Sziasztok!
     Holy cow. This week has been absolutely great. Nothing too crazy interesting, sadly.
     Okay...sigh....I guess I should go in list form again ;)
     
        1. First off, we had another lesson with our investigator. It went really well. We brought a member along with us.  She actually served a mini-mission with Moody Nover-and we planned on teaching the third lesson about the Gospel o Jesus Christ. So the girls just start chatting it up hard core and our investigator starts crying. I was freaking out because I didn't understand hardly any of what they were saying. Then Mullen Elder filled me in and said that the member, had just bore testimony of how much God loves and cares about her. Our investigator was super touched by the message. We talked about faith and committed her to pray. Sadly, she can not meet for another two weeks, so we will see how it goes. I have a lot of faith in her though. She is a fantastic person and she really wants to change and learn.

        2. Okay so we have three language things to help us find investigators and to help people become more  familiar with our religion. We have Angol Ora(English Class. It also has three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced), Nemet Ora(German Class. Because Austria is right next to Sopron, there are a lot of people who speak German and a lot of people who want to learn. Since Flammer Elder went to Germany on his mission, he teaches people. It is great), and Angol Klub. So for Angol Klub this last week, we had a pizza party. At first I was a little skeptical about how this would help, but when everyone came and saw the friendship and the fun that we were having, it really helped them see that members of the church are normal, happy people. It was a really good experience. Ane Tibor's wife's pizza was great :)

        3. This past Sunday I went to Budapest for Zoldi Training (Greenie Training). Let me tell you, I missed my MTC family. It was so great to see them all again. (well at least the Elders). I got to talk to all of them and hang out with them until the next day. I also got to see Giacalone Elder! I love that man. I had missed him so much. Don't get me wrong, I love Mullen Elder, but it was really nice to see Giacalone Elder again and to talk with everyone and share our experiences so far. Also, Zoldi Training was super great and we got to eat at Burger King!

Sadly, that is about it as far as this week goes. There are two sets of Elders in our area. Mullen Elder and I and McKissick Elder and Corbishley Elder. They are great. I thank you so much for your prayers and for your support. I can definitely feel them. It means a lot.
      I love you all so much!
          Sok szeretettel
                  Neely Elder

We celebrated the 4th with Sloppy joes!

           

Reunited!!  Neely Elder and Giacalone Elder

One foot in Austria the other in Hungary

Mullen Elder

Part of the Iron Curtain surrounding  Hungary

My first 60 cm pizza

Austria...Yup we are very close!

Austria..Yup we are that close

Sziasztok!
    Holy. Crap. This week has been crazy. I will try to explain it all. List Time!! It really is the best way to explain things:
          1. I need my driving record.
          2. I do not know my exact address yet, so for now you can just send it to the mission home:
                          Hungary Budapest Mission
                          Budapest
                          Hajnoczy Jozsef Utca 14
                          1122
                          HUNGARY
          3.I had my first lesson with an investigator this week! She is a super rendes (classy) lady, but it was rather frustrating. She says that she believes in the Book of Mormon and that she believes that  Joseph Smith was a prophet...but she hasn't prayed about either and she doesn't think she needs to be baptized. It is a strange situation.
          4. I said my first offensive thing on accident! It was to a boy that comes to Angol Ora(English class). He understood that I didn't mean it, so he just corrected me. It wasn't until after the one of the Elders came and told me what I had said. It was embarrassing, but I will not make that mistake again!!
          5. The Flammers are seriously the best! They are so nice and just wonderful people. They leave in just a few weeks though:( However, they know the Hulmes! She says to tell Bro. Hulme hello. They used to live in Bloomington!  Also, Sister Flammer's cooking is absolutely divine. Praise the heavens for her food.
          6. This week we went without hot water for three days. HOLY COLD. It was freezing! But we lived and now it is back again :)
          7. Yesterday we went on a hike. We also went on a hike on Saturday. Both times were to these lookout tower things. They were two separate ones, but each time it was so cool to be so high above the world and see from up high.
          8. We talked to this man on the street the other day. He was really confused as to why we came on missions. After trying to explain it and him not understanding, he invited us to get a drink with him. While we had to decline (because we had to go somewhere...and because we don't drink alcohol haha) it was seriously one of the nicest things someone has said to me in Hungary. I don't really know why, he was just so sincere about it. It is super important to remember that we are always examples. People are always watching us. Not just missionaries, but all members. We need to be good examples and always act as the Lord would.
          9. Awesome story: So we are tracting down this road. We get to this house and a lady answers that is probably thirtyish. She invites us in right off the bat (which is unusual). We proceed to talk to her about her family and what not. Then we ask her if she would like to hear a message. We shared the first lesson with her and she was super receptive. A couple of times she stated crying and talking to us. Obviously I didn't understand hardly any of it, but when we got out, Mullen Elder told me that she said she had had a stroke and that her life had been hard. She can't read well now. I am so excited to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her.
     Life here is crazy. In a beautiful way. The missionary world is strange and different. It is weird...I am in a different culture...and then within that culture is another culture. It is very interesting. It is wonderful to see the Lord working in people's lives. It is magnificent to see His hand in everything.
     I love watching these people. They are so interesting, so full of light. I love that everyone here moves at different speeds. Some go blazing by, some go so slow that it takes them a few minutes to cross the street. It is amazing that everyone here is different and wonderful.
    I love you so much. I love the Gospel. I love that I have the opportunity and privilege to work here in the beautiful country of Hungary. I am so grateful to the Lord for all He has blessed me with and for all He does for me. I will never be able to repay Him, but I will sure try :)
    Sok szeretettel,
        Neely Elder

The second tower

Mullen Elder

Mullen Elder

     

It says welcome to Austria, we crossed the border for like 5 min.

First tower

Hiking

Sopron from up high

Sopron...from a distance

It was quite the hike!