Happy New Year!

Hallosztok!
      IT WAS SO GOOD TO TALK TO YOU GUYS! Seriously, it was like the best thing in the world. It was so good that the high lasted for like days. It was just so good! Okay. Now as for my week, it has been absolutely stellar. I will try to get out most of it :)
      So on Christmas Eve, Elder Brown and I went on a bike ride. Super random, but it was so dang fun :) We rode bikes all over the place. We went out to a lake and that was fun. Elder Brown wrecked and it was just a fun time.
      Then I made Paprikas Csirke for all the Elders in our district for our Christmas Eve dinner. Super good if I do say so myself.
      Before I went to bed, my "father" Elder Mullen, called me up and read two Christmas stories before I went to bed :) It was super nice. He is a stellar dad :)
      On Christmas, we kind of just chilled. I opened my presents (thank you everyone who sent me a package! You all deserve awards!!) and we chilled at the Senior Couple's (the Colledge's) house. We ate lunch and then  WE GOT TO TALK AND IT WAS SO GOOD! Then I made hot chocolate (holler at Meredith, thanks for the recipe).
      Then the next couple of days were pretty normal. We got to visit some really cool and great people. One family we met with was really quite poor. However, it was very inspiring to be able to see how: 1. They were happy. Even though they had basically nothing. 2. They were so grateful for what they had. 3. They just loved their little family. It was super cool.
      Also, funny language mishap this week: So I was calling this lady and I said, "Jo estet! Kati-t kivanok!" which translates to, "Good evening! I wish Kati to you!" It was super funny.
      So this Sunday is the super fun day. So we get to Church with one of our investigators (who has a baby) and we arrive to find 41 people there. There are two families there who have between them about 13 kids. CRAAAAZY. SO MANY KIDS IT WAS SO AWESOME :) Then a German guy (he and his wife speak absolutely like no Hungarian, but they come faithfully every week) blessed the Sacrament in Hungarian. Super cool....but also a little comical :) Then afterwards there was a member that totally dissed on the others food that she had made(LOLOLOL). Then there were babies being passed around everywhere. One lady said, "Talaltam egy babat!" LOL that means "Look, I found a baby!" LOL Yeah, so Sunday was just crazy fun.
     Yeah, this week was just super fun and I hope everything was just fantastic with all of you this week! I love you all so much and I hope you all have a wonderful day!
     Sok szeretettel,
         Neely Elder

Bike ride time! Brown Elder

My new necklace from Giacalone's Grandma

CRASH! lol  He was okay.

     

I don't know what this is...but we thought it was funny.

 
     

Yeah, a pigeon pooped on me! CURSE YOU BLASTED
PIGEONS!

Brown Elder

Boldog Karacsonyt mindenkinek!

Hallosztok!
      Merry Christmas to everybody! This week has been so stellar! So many adventures this week.

• This week we attended an investigator's birthday party. Little did we know that she was expecting us to be the entertainment! We kind of looked around and were like...well...what do we do? LOL it was funny. 
• We have this investigator and the last time she met with us her "Crazy Sister" (her words, not mine) was over. During that time, said sister invited us over to her house to meet with her as well. We said okay and noted where it was. Then next time we met with our investigator, she asked us like fifteen times, "Please, please don't go over there! You are good people and those people will not do good things to you!" It was rather terrifying, but at the same time, kind of reassuring, because it was nice to know that our investigator really cared about us.
• On the way to a program, we went into the building we were supposed to be going into and hit the elevator button. It came down and some people were in it so we stepped aside to let them out. The man and woman that came out said, "Bocs, pakoltunk a liftet." Which means "Sorry, we packed the elevator." I thought like, there were a lot of people in there or something, but instead the man proceeded to take out the complete furnishings for a bathroom and kitchen from the elevator. SO MUCH STUFF. It  took them like ten minutes. Super funny. They were doing some remodeling or something. Also, just to put this into perspective, the elevator here are tiny. Like four or five feet (is that small? Because now that I type that, it seems big. Ugh! Curse my lack of spacial reasoning!).
• So we have these investigators that were taught eons ago (well...mission eons ago, so like four years) and they were super stellar and the day before her baptism, they found out that she has a life partner and is not married. So they dropped her in the dust (bad move) and then we found her. Well, she is super awkward and she has a daughter that just hates us. So we had set up with her and we were at the building just kink of waiting because we were early and who comes around the corner? Her daughter that does not like us. So the lady (our investigator) just turns around and legit books it to a car and hides behind it (seriously?) and her daughter just kind of stands there. These two guys were with them (well...near them) and the guy was like, "Hey, do you know these guys in suits?" and the daughter was like, "Who are they? I have no idea who they are." And we were like "Where is P (our investigator)?" and the daughter was like "Who the heck is P?" and we were just kind of like, "We are done with this. Super awkward and just no. Awk. Rude." So then we just decided to stand there and the two guys are going in and he was like, "Who are you guys?" and we told him we were missionaries, and we thought he was making fun of us and he asked us, "What, did Jesus send you?" and we were like, "Actually, yes." Then they went inside. We just kind of chilled there for a few minutes just to see if P. would come back. The two guys came out again, and he asks us if we want some coffee. We say no, but we would love some water. He let us in and listened to our message and was totally open to everything. He is just a stellar guy :)

         Yeah, so this week has been good :) I am so excited for Christmas! I got all of the packages and everything! Thank you all so much! I haven't opened them yet because I want to open them on Christmas, but I am super excited for them.
          I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas time! Read Alma 7:11-13 and the words of the Hymn Jesus Once of Humble Birth! Those are really good for Christmas time, I think.
          I love you so MUCH!
          Boldog Karacsonyt mindenkinek, es mindenkinek jo ejszakat!
          Neely Elder

This is the Christmas tree I made!

This is a super creepy hospital. We went there to visit a
sick member that is in there. Super sketchy!

Our sink had some drain issues, so I did the dishes in the
bath tub. LOL #missionaryprobs #bachelorlife!

This says, "In this box, there are penguins" LOLOLOLOL

This guys name translates to "Thick Csaba" It sounds
super funny to me.LOL.

God does not send out Robots!

Hi there everyone!
      Okay, so sadly I have no really cool stories to tell you. Nothing crazy. Nothing kulonleges as we say here in Hungary. However, I do want to talk a little bit about something today.
      I would like to talk about missions. What they are. What they do. How they are. Etc.
      When I came on a mission, I did not know what to expect. Absolutely nothing. I think that is because for everyone a mission is very personal. It is different for everyone and it is special. However, there are some things that are the same for every mission everywhere.
      1. Missions are hard. I think that this is the fact that people speak the least about. Missions are not joy rides. They are not just a walk in the park. They are hard! Whether it be that all of your investigators all of a sudden fell off the face of the earth or that you only have four hours of cold contacting in a row planned or the fact that no one can understand you because weird languages or whatever it is. Missions are hard. This is a fact that needs to be embraced. It is not necessarily a bad thing either. If missions were not hard, they would not be as good. They would be lame, but because they are hard, they are the greatest thing ever. Also, in the difficulties, we come closer to God than in the easiness. Just ask the Nephites. Or the tribes of Israel. When things are easy, people forget about God.
      2. Missions are fun. I think this fact is also talked about very little. When you are on a mission, you have fun! Something that every missionary has to realize for him or herself is that God does not send out robots. He did not decide to just send out a bunch of pamphlets (though that would be more cost effective and sensible). He decided to send out you. Me. People. Humans. Because we live and make mistakes and laugh and have fun and live the Gospel. We are sent out as examples and if people don't see that we have fun...well who wants to be a part of a Gospel where we don't have fun? So smiling and laughing and making jokes and having a good time are part of a missionary too.
      3. Missions are a time for growth. In the above I made mention that missionaries make mistakes. Guess what. That is a real thing. I came on my mission with a bad misconception that I would be perfect. That I would go through the mission thing and then everything would be good. However, that is not true. This time is a pitri-dish. A time to get better. To make mistakes and correct them. To always get better.
      4. Missions are the greatest thing in the world :) I am so grateful to be on a mission. The experiences that happen here are worth more than anything in this world :) I love these people. That is the greatest blessing from a mission I think. It is the people. The companions, the investigators, the friends, the random people on the street and behind the doors. This is what makes a mission beautiful. This week I was talking with a woman who is not in a very happy situation in life. Everything is working against her. When she asked us why in the world we would want to be here I responded with, "We get to help people be happier. What is better than that?" In that moment, I realized the truth of what I was saying as I was saying it (yeah, that is a real thing). The Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us happy and I get to share that with others. What a great opportunity!
     So to all you people who are wondering whether or not to serve a mission. I give you my suggestion: DO IT. Even on the worst of days, I am still doing good. Even on the worst of days on a mission, it is still so good and the joy is still so sweet. So as we say here in Hungary: GYERTEK! SOK SZERETETTEL VARUK TITEKET! Join us! Join the fight for what is right! Join the cause of love! The cause in which you only gain, because Heavenly Father really loves to give :)
      I hope you all have a magnificent week and that everything goes well for you! I love you!
         Sok szeretettel,
            Neely Elder

           

SNOW!!

Hallostok!
     WOW. SNOW. SO MUCH SNOW AT HOME. That is so crazy. It sounds like you all had a fun time with the snow :) That is good, because it would have been stupid if you all didn't have fun :) It snowed so much that church was cancelled? That is just so crazy! The Colledges told me a little about it because they got an email from the lady taking care of their house. So that is cool. Oh and thank you for the pictures!! I love them.
      Okay. Now to answer some questions. I am doing so good today :) This has been a really good week. Though I have been having super weird dreams about coming home after my mission and forgetting everything that I did here. Weird, right?
      I did not get transferred! Elder Brown and I are staying together here in Kaposvar! We are super happy about it. The only change in our city is that Elder Quinton is now going Zone Leader in Kispest. Otherwise we are all the same :)
     Mikulas day was fun :) Nothing really crazy or different happened. The day before all the stores were super busy. LOL Hungary isn't much different than home :) Funny story. So Mikulas brings stuff and puts it into shoes. So I got Elder Brown his favorite candy bar and put it in his like house slipper things. Then in the middle of the night he gets up to go to the bathroom and tries to put his shoes on and totally can't because LOL U had sneakily put candy in it! HAHAHAHAHA.
     Okay, so like nothing really crazy happened this week, but we do have some really funny stories. So we will just go with those :)
      So we meet with this fifteen year old, and we were planning on meeting with him this week and then he just dogged us. Like super unexpectedly. So we call him and he is just like, "Yeah....I am busy." So later we are going back to the apartment and we almost RUN into him! We were walking behind him. Guess what he was doing? Walking and hanging out with some girls. *SIGH* typical teenager :) hahahahahaha it was super funny.
      Well actually, I was thinking about it and I have something that I want to tell you about. So a couple of weeks ago we met with a guy. He has met with the Jehovah's Witnesses before. He just kind of started railing on us and bashing our religion and it just kid of sucked, but then out of nowhere I just got this reassuring feeling and I just kind of sighed in relief, because I knew in that moment that I was doing the right thing. That I was supposed to be here and that I knew that what I was teaching was true, even if he didn't believe us and even if he thought we were wrong.
       Then, this week, we met with a different man. He had a stroke early in his life and decided to devote himself to the Teachings of Christ. Pretty cool, but sometimes he is just a little bit too intense. Hes is a nice guy though. Anyways, we decided to watch the Restoration Film with him. It is short. Only twenty minutes long. We are watching it and the part comes when Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to Joseph Smith. In that moment, I was thinking about a lot of things. What to say to this man, how to say it, what he needed to hear, what I was doing in Hungary, why I was here and then in the moment I had a similar experience. I knew in that moment, that if nothing else, if all else failed and everything turned out terrible and everything went to pot, I would still know that this is true. I would still have a testimony, that this really happened and that what I am teaching is true.
      The last part of this story happened on Saturday. We went tracting out in the middle of nowhere. It was practically in a forest. We went from house to house looking to see if anyone would answer us. No one did, until finally this man invited us up to his house. The house was one room, about the size of our kitchen at home. Maybe six feet by twelve. It was so tall. All he had was a bed, a heater, and a little drawer type thing. He has no family, because they all died. When asked what the purpose of life was, he answered, "To die." We asked what he thought was needed to be happy and he responded that happiness is found by drinking wine and working. I have never been more humbled then when I was sitting on a tiny bed and listening to this man describe his everyday life. As I listened, I could not get the words out of my head, "Because I have been given much, I too must give."
      I know that I am supposed to be here. I know that this message that I am here to share with the Magyarok is true. It is true. It has changed me and is who I am. I am so grateful that the Lord gave me this beautiful opportunity to do this. I could not do it without His support, nor without all of yours. I am so grateful for everything that He gives to me. Because I have been given much, I too must give. I love these people. I love these people. I love all those I have met. I love my friends in Sopron, I love the missionaries I get to serve with, I love all of our investigators. These people teach me so much. Things I could never learn without them.
      I encourage you to read the Book of Mormon. I encourage you to pray to God and ask Him if it is true. I know He will answer you. He answered me and that has changed my life into the most beautiful gift in the world. I am so thankful for that. I am so grateful for that. I know it can bless your life. Just try it.
      I hope you all have the best week in the world. I hope you find someone to love more. I hope you find opportunities to serve and help people. I promise it will make you happier than anything else possibly could :)
      I love you all so much!
           Sok szeretettel,
              Neely Elder.

Fun with the scarf.

Falu Blasting!

It's Christmas! *ding ding*

The extra blanket I got for my bed!

Giacalone Elder, got a haircut WITH a super
nice shampooing. Here he is. Caught in
the ecstasy of the moment! LOL

Christmas is Coming!!

Hellosztok!
(I asked Elder Neely 11 questions and I got answers to about half of them! Not too bad, still room for progress. Below are the answers.)
     I am doing so good! Finding and teaching is going really, really well. Finding here goes really well. People are really accepting here. Teaching is going well too. We have quite a few stellar investigators. I am really excited about them all.
     I got a package from Nanny and Aunt Jan. I opened the box and there are some Christmas presents in it, so I just left them to open on Christmas day :) BUT I did open the Chex Mix OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO GOOD! Still is. I am going to make that stuff last. It reminds me so much of home! Thank you!
     I have not listened to my Christmas CD yet, but I am so excited to! I just haven't had the chance yet. Oh yeah, BTW we are super busy all the time. I love that!
     I am doing pretty stellar. Thanksgiving was really good. I will talk about it later in my email.  It is not freezing yet. It snowed last Monday, but then it has been pretty nice for the last couple of days. So yay for that! Yay for warm clothing!
     So this week has been really good and fun :)  We met with this lady who lives with her mom and her daughter. So in the house there is a Neni, the lady who is like forty-ish and the daughter is like twenty-ish. The daughter was about to leave and she grabs this plastic dinosaur thing and puts it in the door way and starts laughing. She leaves and me and Elder Brown are super confused. So we continue talking to the lady and pretty soon the Neni comes out and in typical Neni fashion just starts yelling, "What are you doing? Who are you talking with?" So she comes in and sees us and just kind of says hi and chills out in the door way. Then she looks down and sees the plastic dinosaur. I didn't see her face, but according to Elder Brown, it was of sheer terror. She just starts swearing and freaking out (in a very quiet grandma voice) and leaves the room. The three of us just started laughing. I don't know if it even makes sense, but it was SO FUNNY.
      This week we also helped this boy that is Kyler's age (he reminds me SO MUCH of Kyler. He even looks like him a little bit). He meets with us and we do half English, half Gospel. However, this time, he was like, "hey I actually need help with math..." LOL. I will never escape helping people with math! After he asked if we could also help him learn a song for a school project later that week. We said sure and I helped him learn 21 Guns by Greenday. HAHAHAHAHA oh missionary adventures. We do so many strange things :)
     Thanksgiving was super good! We had such a good time. We went over to the Colleges and had dinner. We didn't have turkey, but we did have chicken and it was super, super good. I also made pie! I made a legitimate pie. It was like...bread pudding pie and it turned out actually super good. I was so proud of myself :) I even made the crust. We had a good diner and it was nice to have a little taste of home.
     This Saturday we also had a baptism! The other companionship taught her and she was baptized! She is super stellar and we are so proud of her. Seriously, it was so great to be a part of that :)
     So last night, we went and saw the lighting of the town Christmas tree! It was super cool! It also made me realize, CHRISTMAS IS COMING SOON. I am so excited!
     Well that is pretty much it for this week :) I hope that you all have the best of weeks and that everything goes so good for you! I love you all so much!
     Vigyazzatok a magatokra!
        Sok szeretettel,
            Neely Elder

Lighting the Christmas tree.

All of us missionaries with Kaposvar's newest member and
her friends.

Gould Elder :)

Newest member and all the Elders!

Quinton Elder :)