Sing All of My Words

What an amazing week!
This week was one absolutely FILLED with miracles. The Spirit of Christ really brought the Christmas miracles. However, because someone forgot to bring her camera cord to the library again, y'all are going to have to wait till next week to see pictures of the fun. Sorry about that....

I'll do my best to describe some of the wonderful times. The following are snapshots from the scattered brain of Sister Szilagyi:

-We were driving to a lesson with rain pouring down around us. We were worried because we weren't going to be able to go inside this man's house to teach a lesson, because we weren't able to get a member to go with us, and no one wants to discuss the Book of Mormon while being soaked. We are about 10 minutes from his place, when we get a text message from him, asking if we can meet him at Starbucks. Thank you Heavenly Father! Crisis averted! And we were able to teach a wonderful lesson.

-We had gone to see a particular women, who wasn't there, and as we were walking back to the car, I felt impressed that we should knock on just two doors, the ones to the left of her house. We did so, and both doors were opened to us. We were able to sing to both of them, and share a Christmas message with them. One of the families even invited us in, told us that they were looking for a church, and gave us pieces of fruit :) It was such a beautiful example to me of following even the smallest promptings.

-We had been struggling with the decision of whether we should go to Book of Mormon class on Tuesday night, or to a member's house for a nativity (she had invited friends from her neighborhood). We ended up going to the class and one of the ladies we have been visiting brought her husband who is not a member, and we ended up being able to have a great discussion and much laughter.

-I was able to Skype with my family! HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

-We had made some Christmas bags to deliver to people, and we were able to give a small rubber band gun and Christmas treats to a little boy who wasn't getting any presents this year. His face. Pure joy. Before we left his house, he asked us if we could say a prayer with him and if we could read out of "the book" (our scriptures). *melting inside*

-On Christmas day we ate so much food that we thought we were going to explode. By the time we had gotten to our last meal of the day, I was feeling remarkably ill, but Sister Owusu was a total champ and cleaned her plate. She just has so many skills, she's a nice one to have around.

-On Christmas Eve, we went caroling with the other missionaries and were able to bring the Spirit to the hearts of others through song. I desperately wish that it was socially acceptable to sing all of my words...

And a few random side notes:

-All of us missionaries received nerf guns from one family in the ward. The elders received single-shot wimpy guns. We received... well let's just say ours are bigger and badder.

-Evidently I look like Elder Carter's grandma. But as he lovingly put it: "But like, a younger version..."

I hope that your Christmas was fantastic. Mine certainly was. In my personal opinion, nothing beats being a missionary during Christmas time. I love you all so much.

BIG HUG
Sister Szilagyi

Birthday Cakes and Blessings

"At the ward Christmas party!"

"Sis Roden (yes, this is best pic of her, she's hilarious), Sis Anderson, 

and the crazy elders, got me a cake for my birthday!​"

"Little did you know that opening packages could be this much fun :)"

"We are mighty blessed!"

"No caption necessary"

Without Toys or Trees or Tinsel

MERRRRRRYYYYY CHRISTMAS!

Let's start with a.... church signnnnn! *whoo hoo*:

"Mary wrapped the first Christmas present"

Loved that one. Also I wanted to give y'all a special Christmas treat and include one of my favorite, most recent, Sister Owusu quotes:
-"Oh! Santa! Oh no... not Santa. That was a lady dressed in red..."

I am currently typing away while the rain is rain rain raining outside, and the smell of jollof rice permeates the air all around me. Sister Owusu has been cooking all this morning and I'm pretty sure that the smell of African food has permanently entered my skin cells. And I'm totally okay with that. Have I mentioned how much I love that girl lately?

Where to begin? Another rollercoaster of a week. When do I NOT write that...? I haven't been feeling too well, but I'm okay now and no matter what, the show must go on! We had some pretty amazing miracles this week:

Such as C and M deciding that they wanted to be baptized on January 10th!
And B (who is A's stepdad) also wanting to be baptized on January 17th and we are so excited for him! He is so prepared. And Bro H coming to church for the second week in a row! And finally being able to meet with T after a super long time of not hearing back from her. And of course tons of super fun Christmas caroling! Also, my ward is the best and one of the women in the Relief Society presidency posted that it was my birthday on the ward Facebook page, so I was receiving texts and gifts and treats all day. They are too sweet to us! Which doesn't even begin to cover the Christmas goodies and packages that we've gotten. Thank you so much to everyone that sent something, you guys are the best!

And some sad moments: such as K (C's husband) deciding that he doesn't feel comfortable with them getting baptized right now. But, I know that the Lord has a plan and that the strength and good example from C will be an incredible influence to their family and that they WILL get baptized, it's just a matter of time. Extra prayers for their family would be appreciated.

"Tis the season" to all of you beautiful souls out there. Thank you again for your cards and packages and prayers. Thank you for being such strong examples of goodness.

I would like to close with the words of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, from an address given at BYU in December 1977, entitled "Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come from a Store" (which I HIGHLY recommend reading):

"At this focal point of all human history, a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose, probably no other mortal watched—none but a poor young carpenter, a beautiful virgin mother,and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter the sacredness they had seen.

Shepherds would soon arrive and later, wise men from the East. Later yet the memory of that night would bring Santa Claus and Frosty and Rudolph—and all would be welcome. But first and forever there was just a little family, without toys or trees or tinsel. With a baby—that’s how Christmas began.

Perhaps recalling the circumstances of that gift, of his birth, of his own childhood, perhaps remembering that purity and faith and genuine humility will be required of every celestial soul, Jesus must have said many times as he looked into the little eyes that loved him (eyes that always best saw what and who he really was), “Except ye be converted,and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3.)

Christmas, then, is for children—of all ages."

You all know that children are my soft spot; I got that from my dear mother. So this Christmas, I ask that you look to those children around you. Look to them to remember the reason why we celebrate this time of year. I ask you to look at their stress-free, worry-free, excited little faces and try to be a little more like them. Let's all be excited for Christ. I love you all. Merry Christmas.

Love,
Sister Szilagyi

Karate and the Coolest Kids

"This week, I held up a board which was promptly karate-chopped. Never a dull moment in missionary life."

"Caroling everywhere we go! :)"

"People that I love!"

"​Favorite part of the ward Christmas party? That kid in the star costume."

"One day, I'm going to grow up to be as cool as these kids."

Bittersweet Goodbyes and MTC Reunions

"The wonderful M family"

"​Sad so many friends are leaving, but happy for the chance to see them one last time!"

"Sister Parke. This girl changed my life. Love her SO MUCH"

"And the fun begins!!! Sister Owusu, me, and Sister Tevi"

"Our crazy zone #sharethegift (p.s. Elder Yeager who is lying on the floor goes home in 2 weeks...)"

"MTC reunion at the Christmas Conference!"

Christmas Lights and Caroling

"Bishop's wife and kids :)"

"Christmas lights!"

"SO happy"

"Gifts that we are going to give Jesus this year!"

"Let the caroling fun begin!"

"Most of the group that went to the parade. Don't we look festive?"

Silly Faces and Tractor Tours

"Miss this girl!"

"The E kids :)"

"No fun allowed."

"Touring the John Deere factory!"

Leave It Up to Pictures

Hello beautiful world!

Wonders of wonders, miracles of miracles... where to begin? So many tender mercies have happened to me this past week. And speaking of mercies... remember when I said that I had a good feeling about my new companion? Well, I have been praying and hoping and talking about and dreaming about being companions with one particular individual from Day 1 of the MTC. And it finally happened. The Lord smiled down upon me and gave me the best birthday/Christmas present EVER:

Sister Mercy Obenewaa Owusu is my companion!!!!!!!!!!!

The joy is overwhelming. We are both so happy, and sort of still in a state of shock. For those of you who don't know. Sister Owusu and I met in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on my very first day as a missionary. We roomed together, and basically became best friends. She is from Ghana (West Africa), is the most amazing cook, has a beautiful alto voice (which I appreciate more than words can express at this time of Christmas caroling), and is a total rock star.

SO many miracles happened this week, but I'll leave it up to pictures to try to relate some of my most recent experiences.

Love,
Sister Szilagyi

He is the Gift

Hey y'all!

Well I know you were all on pins and needles this week, wondering if Sister Szilagyi was being transferred. Oh you weren't? Well, this week we got pretty much zero sleep, because the possibility of being white-washed is extremely stressful. (Being white-washed is when both companions leave an area, and two new missionaries come in.) No need to fret, however, because I, Sister Szilagyi, am staying in Grovetown another transfer. Remember that time that one sister only had two areas in 10 transfers? Oh you don't? That's because it doesn't happen. Like, ever. But I've always been a little different (weird...), so I thought that staying for 5 transfers in another area would be a good idea. It's kind of become my thing now haha.

And I have the wonderful opportunity to be sister training leader again, which I'm extremely excited about. I can't wait to see who my new companion is, but I have a good feeling inside my heart :)
Yesterday, I had to say goodbye to my wonderful, beautiful songbird, Sister McElroy; I miss her already. Pretty much all of my best friends/mentors in the mission are flying home on an airplane today, so that's unfortunate. But that just means that I need to make more friends, right?? I can't wait to see what this transfer brings. Heavenly Father clearly wants me here, so I better work my darndest!

Anywho, this last week was another awesome one. We had such a cool experience happen to us. As you know, Sister McElroy and I really wanted to finish off her mission with a bang, and wanted to contact as many people as we possibly could. During weekly planning the week before, we had planned to go contacting on Saturday, starting at 12:00, and talk to as many people as we could. We prayed that Heavenly Father would give us an opportunity to do so. Well fast-forward a few days and we were out with a member, and what do you know? We find out that on Saturday, Grovetown is having a Christmas parade! And what time do you think it began? Yupp, 12:00. We ended up getting most of the missionaries in our zone together, and began caroling on the side of the street where the parade was happening. Directly after the parade ended, we quickly dispersed throughout the crowd. Sister McElroy and I were able to contact 55 people in about a half an hour. It was such an awesome experience. And it was a great feeling watching most of Grovetown walking around with "He is the Gift" cards in their hands. Heavenly Father is so wonderful to us.

Side note about the parade: There was a float whereupon sat men dressed up in old-timey confederate soldier uniforms. And as they passed us, I watched one of the men look at our group of singing missionaries, and I heard him turn to his friend and say, "Shoot 'em." So that was awkward. Couldn't tell if it was because we were clearly Yankees or because we were Mormon. It was a toss-up. Also, Santa passing out candy to the kids from his float? Yeah, Santa chucked candy at our heads as hard as he could. Which was a bummer. Tootsie-pops hurt. But better candy than eggs!

Back to happiness and joy: one of my very favorite things about December is that we get to go Christmas caroling! Oh the miracles that happen when you sing to people. And to add to the excitement, this year, we are able to tell people about "He is the Gift"! If you have no idea what I am talking about, please click on this link, and watch this wonderful movie, all about how Christ is the real gift of Christmas. I promise you'll love it. I've watched about 30 times now, and I love it every time: http://www.mormon.org/christmas

I love you all so very much. BIG HUG!
Sister Szilagyi

P.S. I forgot to bring my camera cord to the library today, so unfortunately y'all are just going to have to wait till next week for the festive holiday pictures. Try to contain your excitement.

Rolls and Thanksgiving Bliss

"Yes, that is a roll in his mouth. This is the face of pure Thanksgiving bliss."

"Good food and good friends! Elder Carter clearly liked the rolls..."

My Little Heart Grew Three Sizes That Day

Happy December everyone!

The Christmas season is here again and my heart is filled with joy! Don't you just love this time of year? Christmas lights going up, people waving at strangers, it just seems like the whole world is happier at this time of year!

This week was a simply wonderful one, full of humbling moments, and exciting ones, spiritual ones, and ones where your sides hurt from laughing to much. Here are a few of my memories:

-This week we ate spicy homemade crock-pot chili with S, and his adorable son L, and S's mother-in-law while we taught about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel.

-This week we felt prompted to stop by a women's house and we turned out to be an answer to her prayers. She was baptized about a year ago and hasn't come to our ward since she moved here about 6 months ago. She had been feeling completely alone and abandoned by her husband and was trying to come to grips with the possibility of having to be a single mom. We sat on her couch and cried with her, and read in the Book of Mormon about the power of righteous mothers. And we talked about how OUR righteous mothers made the biggest difference in our lives. And then she came to church yesterday :)

-This week a young 15-year-old boy and his twin brother asked us to pray with them that they would finish high school. And we did. And we told them that they could accomplish anything they put their minds to and that God loved them.

-This week a young mother went another week without a job, but felt as though we had been sent to explain the gospel to her. And she felt peace.

-This week I texted Sister Cottle and asked if her and President would like to join us for a lesson at the E's house. They ended up taking us to dinner and to the lesson. President and Sister Cottle cozied up with the E's kids, helping us teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ is a happy memory in my head.

-This week we told a man, who suffered from a stroke and subsequent coma about two years ago, that Heavenly Father wanted him to take care of his body and that he needed to stop smoking. And that we were going to help him.

-This week we had Thanksgiving dinner at the M's house and we burned 3 dozen cookies that morning using a bad pan. But we ended up with enough good ones to deliver them to the people that we love.

-This week we stopped by a girl's house and the man who answered the door told us that she didn't live there. And then we ran into the girl outside just as she was getting home and we realized that her step-dad probably doesn't like us very much.

-This week we attempted to teach lessons with too many kids and not enough discipline, watched other children show off their dancing and rapping and karate skills, and scooted other children off our laps. Repeatedly.

-This week we watched R (who just got baptized) as he helped us teach about the Book of Mormon and listened to him share his testimony of its truthfulness and how much it has helped his life. And my little heart grew three sizes that day.

It was an awesome week. And this coming week is Sister McElroy's final week of her mission. We are going to rock it. Go big or go home. Literally.

I love all y'all!
Sister Szilagyi

Ball Pythons and Overwhelming Cuteness

"Ball python, anyone?"

"The Harlem sisters had a baptism on Saturday and K & H came!"

"The cuteness is overwhelming. The little one on the right? At the baptism, she told her mom that she wanted to be baptized too, and her mother responded that she had to wait till she was 8 years old. She paused with a little frown on her face and then said: 'I AM 8!' To which her mom said, 'No, you're 3.' She paused again and then exclaimed with a big grin on her face and her hands in the air: 'I made myself 8!'"

Puddles and Pouring Rain

"Sorry folks, this is only in Augusta, GA. I'm not sure what this means, but we're going."

"Right before this picture was taken, Sis McElroy stepped in a puddle that went past her ankles... nothing gets this girl down."

"When it rains, it pours!"

Live in Thanksgiving Daily

Happy Thanksgiving to all you turkeys out there! Pie and stuffing is just around the corner, and I can't believe it! Hope y'all aren't freezing wherever you are. We had some pretty cold days this week, and then today it's 70 degrees... so that's confusing.

A few comments about the south:

-There are beautiful Christmas lights adorning every street light in "downtown" Grovetown and it's adorable. Also, no one has to worry about anyone calling the city and complaining about being offended. Which is refreshing.

-The ice cream trucks are playing Christmas music. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

More comments will surely come as the holiday season progresses...

Most of my email this week is pictures, I apologize. Please know that I love y'all so much and I am so thankful to be a missionary. I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for all that He has done for me. I am thankful for this gospel, which is no longer part of my life, but which is my life.

I'd like to share a few words from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

"Everyone’s situation is different, and the details of each life are unique. Nevertheless, I have learned that there is something that would take away the bitterness that may come into our lives. There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious.

We can be grateful!
It might sound contrary to the wisdom of the world to suggest that one who is burdened with sorrow should give thanks to God. But those who set aside the bottle of bitterness and lift instead the goblet of gratitude can find a purifying drink of healing, peace, and understanding.

Brothers and sisters, have we not reason to be filled with gratitude, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves?

Do we need any greater reason to let our hearts “be full of thanks unto God”?

“Have we not great reason to rejoice?”

How blessed we are if we recognize God’s handiwork in the marvelous tapestry of life. Gratitude to our Father in Heaven broadens our perception and clears our vision. It inspires humility and fosters empathy toward our fellowmen and all of God’s creation. Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes! A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues.

The Lord has given us His promise that those “who [receive] all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto [them], even an hundred fold, yea, more.”

May we “live in thanksgiving daily”—especially during the seemingly unexplainable endings that are part of mortality. May we allow our souls to expand in thankfulness toward our merciful Heavenly Father. May we ever and constantly raise our voices and show by word and deed our gratitude to our Father in Heaven and to His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ."

I am grateful for you!
Much love,
Sister Szilagyi

Shower Curtains and Helping Hands

"We bought this shower curtain. No regrets. At all."

"Mormon helping hands activity last Saturday!"

"Sometimes we try to help people with their cars. Sometimes the cops show up."

Being Part of the Crew and Special Appearances

"R got baptized!!!!"

"Part of the crew"

"Sister Arrieta was able to make a special appearance! Skype is the best."

Raining Cats and Dogs

Hello beautiful souls!

Another lovely day in Grovetown, GA! Well actually, it's raining cats and dogs, and pretty grey. But you know what? Nothing can get this girl down! Would you like to know why? Because R was baptized! Whoo hooooo! And I love my companion! Yeahh! And the ward is awesome! Yayy! And the people we're teaching are feeling the Spirit and changing! *cheers erupt from the back*

Safe to say, things are pretty grand over here, and I'm loving every second of it. Heavenly Father has been so wonderful to us, and nothing feels better than being spiritually fed and uplifted and edified 24/7. I highly recommend it.

Highlights from the week:

-R's baptism and confirmation. Of course. He was so happy. And I will never forget the moment that I peeked open my eyes during his confirmation to watch him, and I saw his lips curve up into a smile as he received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a beautiful and tender moment.

-Saturday for sisters! Saturday we had an activity at the church for all of the women, and there was a nutrition class, and an apple pie making class (yes, I thought that was funny too...) and we made these cute little chalkboard signs, and ate delicious soup and pie. It was splendid.

-We had an awesome lesson/discussion with Mr. Fix It. "Mr. Fix It" is the man who fixes all of the things in our apartment complex and is a bit of a jokester and always asks us for food and is super nice. Well this week, he came to change the air filter in our apartment and I offered him some banana bread. This led to him asking us a few questions and one thing led to another and.... we had a 45 minute uplifting discussion about our different beliefs. And that is the story of how a Jehovah's Witness knocked on our door and we ended up teaching him a lesson. The end. P.S. He says that people always ask him where his bike is. I laughed. It's nice to know that it goes both ways.

-I turned one year old. I don't want to talk about it.

I love you all very very much! Thank you for the prayers and the packages. The letters and the love. Thank you for impacting me in more ways than you know.

Sister Szilagyi

It Only Needed to Be One

Hello wonderful and beautiful children of God!

So... I've been doing a lot of thinking this week. I usually do quite a bit of thinking, I think, but this week I wanted to share a few of my thoughts.

First of all, some of you may be familiar with the phrase, "The Best Two Years". Now for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, missionaries serve for a period of a year and a half to two years, and there was a movie produced a few years back with that title all about Mormon missionaries. It followed their ups and downs and experiences as a missionary. And it is a pretty accurate movie. Although, I haven't seen it a very long while, so I can't be terribly sure. Anywho, I have heard this phrase repeated again and again on my mission, by missionaries. That this is the best two years, that here on a mission, is where you will have the most spiritual experiences in your life. That it ends after those two years. That you go home, and you've "done your time". I would like to take a moment and express my feelings on the subject. Quickly, and briefly:

This is NOT the best two years (or year and a half) of your life. If it is, you did it WRONG. Absolutely wrong.
Tell me it doesn't get better AFTER your mission. Tell me you don't have deeper and more powerful spiritual experiences when you get home. Tell that to... oh I don't know.... tell that to ELDER HOLLAND. (For reference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is a member of our church who served a mission that he absolutely loved and is now one of the 12 apostles.) For Pete's sake people, use your heads.
Sorry. Can you tell that this is something that I feel passionate about? A mission should prepare, instruct, enlighten, assist. It should be a springboard to your spirituality and to everything else. That is why it is so wonderful. But it is not, and should not be, the BEST. Yepp.

And another thought:
I've been thinking about the power of a single individual. I have been contemplating what a single person can accomplish. How they can influence, inspire, and literally change their circumstances, their surroundings, and the lives of all those that they have met. Think, for a moment, about someone who has changed you for the better. It may be your mother or father, it may be your friends' older sister that you always admired and looked up to. It may be a favorite athlete who stood up for the right and held their ground. It may be that person that can change the feeling of any room they walk into. That person you use as a model. You know, that person that you think about when you're not sure how to act. "How would so-and-so act in this situation?" "What would they say or do?" Think about the impact one person can have on you and countless others.
Think about the power of one. And now think about Jesus Christ. It only needed to be one. It only needs to be one. One person to change everyone and everything.
As you think about this. Think about the impact that YOU can have as that one person in YOUR sphere of influence. YOU can be someone's mentor, the person they think about whenever times are rough. And YOU can be a more powerful version of you when you model YOUR actions after Him, after Jesus Christ.
Hopefully that made sense. It does in my head.

"19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."
-2 Nephi 31:19-20

I love you all. This week, be the best version of you.

Sister Szilagyi

Lives are Changing

Happy November my wonderful friends!

Are you filled with gratitude? Are you happy as a clam? Is your soul brimming with joy?
Well I hope so, because mine certainly is!!!

The first reason why I am so happy is that I have an AMAZING new companion. Her name is Sister McElroy and she is from Colorado. Her family currently lives in St. George, and she goes home in one transfer. So I have the privilege of "killing her off" as we say in missionary lingo. That just means that I will be her final companion. I cannot fully express how grateful I am to have her. She has been, and is, an answer to my every prayer. Everything that I have been struggling with or praying for? She has the abilities and the skills to help me. She pushes me to be better than I am. And I am so grateful for her.

The miracles that have occurred this week are out of this world! R is on date to be baptized on November 15th!!! Yayyy! K came to church with us this Sunday, even though he had his own church at the same time, and absolutely loved it. He is awesome. B (A's dad) told us that he wants to start having lessons with us! T wants to be baptized! Less active members we've been working with are receiving answers to prayers and progressing! People's lives are changing and I get to be part of it!

It is unbelievable to me sometimes how Heavenly Father has blessed me so richly. I get to talk about Jesus Christ, and study about Him and His gospel, and help people find joy, and serve, and smile, and cry, and laugh, every hour of every day. How very blessed I am. Nothing makes me happier than the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all so very much,

SMILE
Sister Szilagyi

Trunk or Treat

"Trunk or Treat!!!"

"Just some people that I love..."

"R :)"

Families and Fabulous Costumes

"The wonderful M family minus A!"

"I know, we're fabulous."

"I think the city knew we were going to walk by... P.S. "STL" = Sister Training Leader"

Something Inside of Me

Where to begin, where to begin..... Well, transfer call happened on Saturday, and the verdict is....... I'm staying in Grovetown! You're talking to the girl who has been out for quite a while now and has only been transferred once her entire mission. Yepp. Quite the feat. Anywho, I'm very glad I'm staying because there is so much to do here! My time is not yet up! However, the sad little grey cloud in this situation is that I am losing my wonderful companion. Wednesday, she gets on an airplane and flies back to Temple Square, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sadness. I cannot believe it, but it is true. I'll let y'all know who my new companion is next week!

SO many miracles happened this week, people. I mean, it's unreal. To quickly name a few:

-R has decided that he wants to be baptized!! Whoo Hoo!!! We are so happy for him! This week, we had an awesome lesson with him where we were talking and all of a sudden, he leaned forward and just started smiling. And then chuckled to himself. So we asked him what was going on and he told us that he would tell us in a second. While we waited, I watched him, and I could see his shoulders, his face, his whole body just relax. And then he told us that he wanted to be baptized. That the Spirit had just told him that this was right. He kept looking down at his arms and telling us that he felt so different. In his words: "I'm so happy. I feel warm and cold at the same time. It feels like something inside of me, right here (pointing to his chest), just burst." Every time we have seen him since, he has been glowing. We are so excited for him.

-7 of our investigators were able to make it to Trunk or Treat (the Halloween party that the church put on)! SEVEN! It was fantastic. They all had a wonderful time and were able to get to know the members better and enjoy delicious food.

-3 investigators came on Sunday! C and her kids (who all participated in the Primary Program) came! The Primary Program is where the children of the church ages 4-12 put on the service. They give their testimonies, read parts they memorized, sing songs... it's pretty much my favorite Sunday. And I was so happy to see her kids up there :) Also in attendance were two families that we've been working with. One whose children are not baptized and this was her first time coming to church with her kids in 5 years! And the other, a family that is super wonderful and the youngest girl is not yet baptized either. It was wonderful.

-An investigator who we had lost contact with called us out of the blue, and we are going to start teaching her and her daughter again!

The list just goes on and on. We have been so blessed. I am the happiest of campers.

I love y'all bunches. Like honey bunches of oats kind of bunches.

Until next week,
Sister Szilagyi

Dinner and Football Injuries

"Dinner at the N's house. Love their family. Poor Elder Nelson hurt his shoulder playing football... Also, Elder Burgess and Elder Porschatis are being transferred! :("

You Know You're in the South When...

Hello wonderful guys and gals!

I'd like to start with a scripture:

"For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles ; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith." -2 Nephi 27:23

So I am currently serving in the Georgia Macon Mission. And many of you may know that we are "Macon Miracles" down here in the south. Anywho, this week has been a week of miracles... with a few moments of uncontrollable laughter in between. And that is plum perfect to me.

To begin, have I mentioned that Sister Arrieta is terrified of... well pretty much everything, and her biggest fear is snakes? Well, most of the houses are decorated for Halloween of course, and we were approaching a door, when I saw that the family and strewn a rather large rubber snake across one of the bushes. Now before y'all think I'm the meanest companion on planet earth, I only saw this snake about .5 sec before she did, and therefore had no time to warn her. Anywho, she glanced over that snake and jumped & screamed and hid behind me, clutching my shirt in her hands. And I laughed my bloomin' head off. It was great. She was shaking for a while. She's fine now. I promise.

Okay, miracles!

-K: He is doing great! He is super awesome, has a ton of amazing questions, and we were able to have two lessons with him this week, both with members present. During the last lesson, he made a comment that everything that we told him so far was in line with everything that he already believed and thought, and that nothing had shocked him yet. I then made the comment: "K, can I tell you something? Everything that we are here to teach you and talk to you about? You already know. It's going to have a familiar ring to it because before you came to earth, you already knew about all of this."
And he just sat there and said very quietly, "That's scary.... I mean not really scary, but... you know what I mean..."
The gospel doesn't sound so good because it's too good to be true, it sounds so good, because it IS true! And I love truth :)

-R is doing really well and is praying about baptism! We're so excited for him!

-We had a wonderful lesson with P and he promised to be at church on Sunday, and he came! He is super cool, and full of Bible knowledge. Always has great comments!

-And the last miracle I wanted to mention was that 6 people promised to come to church on Sunday! SIX! We were pumped. Now, only 1 showed up, but we are still happy. Because that is 6 people that want to change and learn more about the gospel and come closer to Christ by following his commandments! Now Satan might have hit those other 5 hard this week, but I am still full of hope. Why? Because we are on the winning side! Onward and upward!

Also.... you know you're in the South when you knock on a door and a man answers the door, wearing a jersey, beer in hand, and before we say a word he takes one look at our nametags, looks at us with a disbelieving expression, and says, "Uhhh... we're watching football." *slam*
Jesus vs football. Sigh.

Lastly, if you remember nothing else from what you've just read, please remember this:
"If you desire to make a difference in the world, you must be different from the world."
-Elaine S. Dalton

I love you all.
Sister Szilagyi

Nephi's Challenge

And once again, Sister Szilagyi races against the clock of the library computer to try to jot down her week!

Here it goes:

1) I learned how to make lumpia! Sure did. If you are not familiar with this delicious Filipino food, Google it. Sister S taught us how to make it last P-Day and told us that she was teaching us so that we could get good husbands haha. In her words, "It worked for me!"

2) Miracles happened! R made it to church this week (he lives with the J/T girls), and so did C and the kids. I love those guys!

3) I went on an exchange with the adorable and wonderful Sister Winward and we were able to find 3 new investigators! (Including a guy who was out cleaning his car and that we attended up talking to for 45 min in his parking lot.)

4) My mom sent me a link to the "Nephi's Challenge" that my home ward is doing in Kirkland... and I could not be more proud to be a member of K1! Holy cow, that is the coolest thing on planet earth and I am so proud of y'all! Keep being amazing and helping the work hasten along! Every missionary out there (all 88,000 of us) would do anything to be able to serve in a ward like K1. Hoo-rah!

I love you all. I'm sorry this email is so lame. I promise that more things happened. Smile! The world is a beautiful place!

Until next week,
Sister Szilagyi

Caught Living the Gospel

Hello wonderful and beautiful people!

The sun is shining, the tank (or library window) is clean, and I am going to attempt to write about all of the amazing things that happened this week!

Alrighty.... here it goes:

GENERAL CONFERENCE! So. Good. Oh wow, I love it so much. I am still trying to figure out how it felt like an eternity as a child and how it feels like about a half a second now. Attitude perhaps? So great.

We were able to experience many miracles this week leading up to and surrounding conference!

To give a few examples:

-We found manyyy more people that are searching for the gospel than we have found in recent weeks, which allowed us to spread the message that there is a prophet and are apostles on the earth today more than usual!

-We contacted a man outside a member's house and taught him a short lesson. He expressed some interest, and we texted him about conference to remind him of the times. We didn't receive a response, but decided to text him again Sunday evening to see if he was able to watch it. To our delight, and surprise, he responded and said: "Yes I was and found it to be very enlightening for trials that I am going through in my own life. Especially the Portuguese speaker. I do have questions though." What a miracle! We have an appointment set up with him to answer those questions. A funny side note? We originally contacted him by asking his young daughter if she wanted to smell the delicious-smelling flower we had picked. The Lord really does work miracles when we open our mouths!

-We had a wonderful lesson with a young couple who had been invited over to dinner with a family (the J family) in our ward. We were able to share parts of the restoration and missionary work, and the husband ended up attending the Priesthood session with Bro. J at the church building and loved it!

-A young mother who has been struggling with her testimony and her many doubts went visiting teaching with her new visiting teaching companion, and best of all, she now has a strong friend in the gospel!

-We had a lesson with the J/T sisters (the youngest being our recent convert), and it was beautiful. We decided to watch President Uchtdorf's talk from the Women's General Meeting with these four sisters. As we gathered around an iPad, we had each of them write down one or two questions that they had about anything onto a small note card. We promised them that their questions would be answered during the video, and pressed play. As the video went on, we saw little heads bowed over each note card, hurriedly scribbling answers onto those note cards. At the end of the video, each girl had received an answer. My favorite comment came from the oldest sister, L: "The question I wrote down wasn't really answered, but a question that I have been thinking about for a really long time was. And I realized that THAT question was so much more important than this one I wrote on my note card."

-Saturday night the H sisters broke their key in half in their door so they had to sleep over at our place. We went over to drop off some blankets and pillows that a less-active family had brought over for the H sisters and we caught them watching the last session of conference. It made my heart so happy. It reminded me of a talk by Elder Holland when he says, "When He comes, I SO want to be caught living the gospel."

As you can see, there have been many reasons to rejoice this week. I love this work. And I love this mission.

Some notes from General Conference that I can barely read because my handwriting has gotten progressively worse:

-"Someone must pay for this terrible wrong!"
"Someone already has paid..."
-Which way do you face? Do not fear man more than God
-"Courage is the form of all virtues at their testing point." -C.S. Lewis
-If we walk farther and farther from the light, things will always become dimmer and more difficult to see
-What are your thoughts if you knew you had a personal interview with Jesus Christ one minute from now?
-Decisions determine destiny
-Things not easily measured are usually of greatest importance
-Absolute truth exists, even in a world that disdains absolutes
-To obey is better than to sacrifice
-Spiritual questions require spiritual answers

There are so many more but I'm running out of time! I love you all!
Have a wonderful week!

Sister Szilagyi

Name Tags and Terrifying Sharks

"​Hey look guys! I'm from the Philippines! P.S. Please ignore the iron."

"This is K and the adorable/terrifying 'shark' she made in art class."