Elephants in Hungary?

Helloooooo!
      Everything is going pretty smoothly, I guess. This week was actually kind of terrible. It just sucked, because a bunch of our appointments dogged us, so we had to just tract and street, which is just not the funnest. My new companion is from Logan UT. We also have a set of Sister missionaries and another set of Elders. One of the elders is a Zoldi :) So he is just brand spanking new.
     Our investigators are doing good. They are progressing, so that is cool. I am really glad to get to stay here in Kecskemet and continue working with them.
     Spring has sprung, that is for sure!! So yea, so have my allergies. It hasn't been too bad yet, but it is coming.
     So I got to meet the Steels! (They are a senior couple from St. George)  They are so cool, I hope I get to serve with them sometime!
     It is so cool to hear about your guys' adventures and what you have planned. Guess what? Another Skyping session is coming up soon!! YEAH!! Wow that went fast, didn't it?
     Speaking of fast: My year mark is coming up super soon. That is ridiculous. So crazy.
     Yeah so for this week, things that happened: Transfer day was super weird. It was the first time when  1. None of my previous companions were there :(  2. Most of the missionaries that were there were younger and I didn't know them. Crazy. It was so weird. Then I picked up Elder W. and we got on a train with the Szeged Missionaries. Well, the train got stuck in the station for FOUR HOURS. We got on the train at 2:53 and we left the station at  6:45. It was the worst. We had to have the Sisters take over all of the English classes that night. Shout out to the Sisters: You done good!
     This week the Circus also came to town, so what did we get to see? Elephants. Weird. Elephants in Hungary. Who would have guessed?
     Church was just funny in general. In the middle of Priesthood meeting, a member's little boy came in and yelled the Hungarian equivalent of, "DADDY DADDY!! I NEED TO PEEEEEE!" It was super funny. I was dying.
     Then all of a sudden in came a missionary that previously served in Hungary. I had heard a lot about her from Elder B. They served together in Debrecen. She was super cool. It was so nice to just talk to an American! :)
     Sunday was also Elder P. birthday! So we had the other Elders and the Sisters over and had dinner together! I made Paprikas Csirke (my specialty) and it was SO DANG GOOD. I am super proud of myself ;)
     So, yeah, that was our week :) It was pretty lame, but also good. So, have a good week and we will too! I love you all so much and I hope you have the best of weeks!
          Sok szeretettel,
              Neely Elder.

Shot of Sister Kennedy coming to church.

The elephant's!

This awesome picture was sent to Mom by
Sister Kennedy, she made my day!!

Giacalone and I got stuck in the Bike Car of the train LOL it
is a prison!

Sunday a day of miracles!

Oh boy,
     Well. We got our transfer calls! I am staying in Kecskemet and I will be receiving Elder Weaver. He was my Kicsi in the MTC. THIS IS CRAZY! It actually isn't that crazy, but definitely is nothing like what we were thinking. Like, I never guessed it. Weird. I am so excited!
     So that is that. Tomorrow, we will be going up to the Buda lands and picking up our new companions and going to our areas. Crazy town USA.
     This week was so good. It has been so dang good. I need to be fast though, because I don't have a ton of time this week. So list time!

•  This week we taught our investigator at Bishop's house. It went so well. The cool thing was that he got to see a cute little family living by the Gospel standards and how well that blesses their lives. It was super cool. 
• This week in Angol Ora we kind of had a civil war. LOLOLOL it was awkward. There is a really good English speaker in my Halado class and the others kind of got mad at him for taking up all of the time. So awkward. Now everything is better though.
• We had Zone Conference. So cool. We heard from President and Sister Dyches of the Seventy. It was super cool and they gave us a lot of great advice and help.
• At Zone Conference, I was able to reunite with all of my previous companions (besides Mullen) and see all sorts of friends from my mission. It was soooooo awesome. I love those people so much. It felt so awesome to be a part of the missionary force and to just be with all of these people that I love so much. It was super awesome to sit by Barna and de Vries and see almost everyone from my MTC group and just. It was a beautiful moment. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to get to know so many great people here.
• This week we taught our investigator. We had planned to teach her the Plan of Salvation, but all of a sudden the Spirit totally took over and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The amazing thing was that the whole time, both Giacalone Elder and I would speak and then when we didn't know what to say, the other would begin talking. The Spirit guided us and we knew what to say and how to say it and when to say it and it was amazing. It was such a cool program.
• While we were at the bus station we saw a kid standing alone. Both Giacalone Elder and I felt prompted to talk to him. Then we did. Nothing happened, we haven't seen him since, but we followed the Spirit and we believe something good will come of it.
• On Sunday, we looked at our goals and were a bit disappointed that we would not be able to accomplish them. Some of our programs just fell through and we weren't going to be able to get it. Then all of a sudden Sunday became the day of miracles. Four of our investigators came to church, a family called us and asked us if they could meet with us, a lady randomly showed up to church and asked to meet with us. It was a Sunday of miracles.  

     So this week has been super cool. I as so grateful to be a missionary! I am excited for this next transfer and to see what blessing it will hold! I love you all so much and I hope you have the best week ever! 

        Sok szeretettel,

             Neely Elder.

Giacalone Elder and I ate away our transfer anxiety
with McDonald's #FAT.

There was a holiday celebrating a revolution that
happened a long time ago. So the statue was decorated.

Fun times at the Zone Conference.

After meal chilling at the Gringos.

Little kids slide down this thing, so I tried it out.
It was super fun!

Selfie in the Gringos bathroom. 

Last weeks news.

Dear Family,
     I am doing pretty well. This week was kind of crappy. Meh. What do you do? A lot of our programs dogged us. So we got stuck doing a lot of finding, which is never too terribly fun. But it is okay, because this week looks a lot better :)
     Our investigators are doing really good. We love them so much and we are really grateful the Lord has trusted us with them. They are awesome.
     We do not have a senior couple here in Kecskemet, but there are Sisters here, which is weird, because I have never served around Sisters. It is interesting. The Giacalone Neely Combo is doing super good :) We are having such a good time and we are also working our butts off. It is super fun. I love it. It kind of sucks though, because transfers are in eight days. CRAZY. This has flown by. I still feel like I am just at a sleep over or something LOLOLOLOL. We'll see what transfers bring. Yeah, btw I won't be emailing next week until Tuesday because of transfers.
      As far as this week and what has happened. This week I learned that I love naps! That totally sounds like I am lazy, but I have the crappiest bed in the world right now. It is a brick. So sometimes we take breaks between our finding and programs (they are so necessary. Otherwise we would explode, because too much stuff at once) and I take a little five minute power nap and I feel soooooo much better.
     This week we also got into a bus accident! No one was hurt, but all of the passengers were on the ground and we had to help a bunch of Bacsis and Nenis get themselves up again. It was pretty scary. We still don't know what the cause was. Weird.
     This week we also had a Palacsinta night with the other Elders. We were making Palacsintas and we started talking about scary movies and sharing the plots of the ones we have seen. So, when we left, we were obviously terrified, because it was dark and scary. Then half-way home, I realized our keys were still at the other Elders' house. JAJGATAS. It was terrifying. We ran home so fast hahahaha.
     This week a bunch of festivals and stuff came to Kecskemet. We are not quite sure why, but I bought a bunch of souvenirs. So that was cool. There was also a little circus type of thing that came and Giacalone and I went on this weird ride simulator thing. It was pretty funny and it kind of made us sick hahahaha.
     This Saturday was also No Napja. Women's Day! So on Sunday, after everything the Bishop stands up, says a beautiful little thing about how important all the women in his life have been and then he turns to the pianist and says, "Hit it." Then the pianist starts rocking out a super cool song and the young men come in with roses. It was the most magical thing. Hahahaha. It was so cool.
     The last thing that was awesome this week was at Correlation this week. Our Ward Mission Leader is the old bishop and the Father of the missionary in Hungary right now. After talking about all of our investigators with him and just having a good chat about how we can help them, we asked, "What can we do to help you out?" They answered by saying, "Tell us how we can help!" Then I told them that I have never seen members like the ones here. I really haven't. These people are amazing missionaries and help us so much. After I said this they started telling us how grateful they were that we had made the decision to come out here. We all just ended up crying, talking about how awesome missions are and how grateful we are for the blessings that come from missions. It was really great. LOL we are all crybabies.
     So my challenge to you is to try to be a better missionary! It is much more simple than you might think. Call the missionaries. Maybe go to help them in their programs. Or just be a good member missionary and be friends with everyone and talk to them about what makes them happy! Those small simple steps make such a big difference.
     I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all of your love and support. Missionaries are like cars, we run off of your prayers. I am always on full, thanks to you all :) I love you so much and I am so glad I am out here. Missions are the greatest thing in the world! Have a wonderful week and do amazing things!
      Sok szeretettel,
          Neely Elder.

Neely and Giacalone.

A card I made for the Sisters' for No Napja.

A guy play a weird instrument at the Festival.

Tracting ALL DAY. I also got a hair cut!

We went to Cukraszda. SO YUMMY!

A frog came out.

I bought all this McDonald's because FAT.
I ate it. Because FAT. Because ADDICTION.
Because AMERICAN.

   

Feeling at Home.

Hello!
     My week has been fantastic! We decided to just work our butts off and it paid off a lot. We had a super busy week and we are watching our work here in Kecskemet grow. Our investigators are doing good. One of our investigators just set up a date for baptism! We are very excited! We called President to tell him about the baptism date, and he said, "Wow that is great! What a great companionship you have! You know, when I was praying about where you two should go, I had to wonder if the Lord wanted this, or if I wanted you two to be together! LOLOLOL" Hahahahah I was dying. Looks like President likes the Giacalone and Neely combo :)
     This week we also met with a family wayyyyy out in the boondocks. They are pretty cool, but it was awesome, because we went with a member. He is actually a High Councilor. As we were driving on a dirt road in this man's car, I sat and made small talk with him. It was cool, because in the moment, I realized that Hungarians are human. That sounds super weird and rude, but before this, mostly due to the language, it always seemed like they were not real in some way. Like they were just kind of...idk how to explain it. But in that moment, I was just one human talking to another and it was beautiful.
     This week we also met with an investigator that has met with us a long time ago, but later just kind of got lost. We brought a member with us, and they just hit it off and became bffs super fast. They are so cute just chatting it up about everything. It was also cool, because we had a plan, but the Spirit took the lesson a completely different direction and you could tell that the investigator was touched. It was really cool. On a funny note, our member said the closing prayer and she said, "Dear Heavenly Mother...opps Father." LOLOLOL it was super funny.
      This week we also had a cool experience. We had a day where we were both feeling rather crappy and we decided that we were going to just push through it all and try to continue working, even if we didn't feel like it. Right after that, we went into a building and the last door was a 25ish year old man and he was super excited to meet us and he was a total hipster and he was just the coolest and he invited us back "anytime". It was so cool!
      The last thing that was cool this week was Sunday. Sunday was perfect. We went early for Ward Council Meeting and it was just the greatest thing in the world. The members here are so stellar. So stellar. I mean, they are just the coolest in the world. Then we had such great meetings, then we met with one of our investigators.
       Then we went to dinner at he Bishop's house. We ate amazing Rakott Krumpli and I ate a pepper that was SO HOT! Then we went into the other room and sang together as Bishop and Elder P. from our district, played guitar and then he gave us a referral and we sang a hymn, said a prayer, and left. The greatest thing about all of this, though, was that I felt at home. The kids were running around screaming and the mom was exhausted and it was loud and noisy. I felt so happy. It was one of the highlights of my mission, just because it was such a beautiful moment. I didn't feel homesick. I just felt at home.
      I love these people so much. I love the Hungarians. This week I was thinking a lot about why I miss Sopron and Kaposvar and why when I leave Kecskemet, I will miss it here. I realized, it is not because of the city. The cities are just a big symbol. What I really miss are the people. The people I have come to love. All of my friends that I have made. All of my companions. All of the people that I love with my whole heart and soul. My heart has grown. When I came here, I did not know that it could be so possible to love so many people. But it is possible. And it is the most beautiful thing in the world.
      I hope you all have the best of weeks. I hope you are all in good health. I hope you all can continue to see the Lord's hand in your life. I love you all so much!!
      Sok szeretettel,
            Neely Elder.

This cute little sign was on the bathrooms
 at Tesco(like Wal-Mart).

A horse drawn carriage was in the street.
#welcometoHungary.

I found a bunch of balloons in the Ward Building...??
It was so happy and colorful though!

This poster says "Time Machine".....hmmmm.....