Two Peas in a Pod

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm sweating here in Georgia and it's FEBRUARY. I may perish this summer. Please pray for me.

And now it's time for...... Fabulous church signs from southern Georgia!
This week:

"Seven days without prayer makes one weak"
and
"CH   CH
What's missing?
UR"

Fantastic stuff. The little old church man who is putting these up is definitely not getting paid enough for these. I assure you.

Anyway, this week has been another great one. The start of a new transfer, a few new faces, and a new resolution to be an even better missionary than I was these last six weeks. But all in all, it was a R kind-of-week. Let me explain:

Let's talk about C. C is Sister E.R.'s husband who's not a member of the church. Sister E.R. is the most fantastic hilarious 60-something year old woman from Rhode Island and has the best New-England accent ever. And C is just the epitome of the stereotypical New Englander. Loud, bold, hilarious, and loves a good meal. And we get along just swimmingly. C had been studying/working with previous missionaries for a long time and was about to be baptized when he changed his mind. And that was pretty much the end of that. However, Sister R invited us over for dinner one night because she thought that C and I would get along, and boy did we ever. Two peas in a pod, C and I. I know that I am currently in Valdosta, GA because I was supposed to meet C. And talk about doubt and psychology and doctrine and everything that I hold most dear. This last time we went over for dinner, we were a bit nervous. We had given him the talk, "What Is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?" by Tad R. Callister (which Sister Wong from my home ward had sent me in the mail, SUCH an answer to prayer!) to read and we told him that we would discuss it the next time we came over. Well, I was a bit apprehensive, hoping that we had made the right decision in giving him this talk to read. We sat down and I was sitting right across from him and he was just staring at me right in the eyes. And then he said, "You girls know how much I loved the other sisters that taught me the first missionary lessons. And I didn't think I was going to find anyone like that ever again. I never wanted to open that door again. I just wanted to tell you sisters that you just went above and beyond anything they ever did." And Sister Waddoups and I are just sitting there stunned, because #1: He LOVES those first sister missionaries he met with, and #2: We didn't even really do anything except give him a talk to read! So we're sitting there, and he continues: "That article was one of the clearest, most concise, articles about Christianity and the church that I have ever read. And I loved it. You all have rekindled the fire of my faith." I mean wow. This man, who loves football, and loves food even more, and loves arguing, and who has so many doubts and questions and concerns and didn't even want to talk about religion, was GUSHING about this article. And he was excited and so happy. And I was SO HAPPY. Through the roof happy. So basically, C is the best and I can't wait to see how this journey is going to unfold.

Next, let's talk about Sister L.R.. Sister L.R. is the Relief Society President here in Valdosta 2nd Ward and pretty much the greatest thing since sliced bread. I mean, I've met quite a few passionate, loving, wonderful women in my day, but this woman? She's a keeper. And I love her to death. Let me try to explain Sister R. She is loud, loving, has about 7 or 8 giant wooden llamas decorating her front lawn (in trees, on the grass, on the fence), and takes full advantage of Facebook and it's many features. Her family is so great. And she has been so wonderful and supportive in doing missionary work. With our new ward mission plan, the Relief Society sisters are trying to go out with Sister Waddoups and I at least twice a week, and Sister R has taken it upon herself to organize various women to go out with us to as many scheduled appointments as possible. It just makes our job so much easier and more effective with the support we are receiving from the ward. And she has been there every step of the way. We are so lucky to have her. She's a gem.

I was doing quite a bit of thinking this week. I was fairly certain that I was going to leave Valdosta this last transfer, and then when I found out that I wasn't, and nothing was changing, I felt a bit thrown for a loop. I was just so sure. And it caused me to contemplate why Heavenly Father wants me in Valdosta, serving with Sister Waddoups. It caused me to contemplate how I could improve. And what I needed to change. This all came to a head one night as I sat at my desk. I had my study journal in front of me, and quite suddenly, a thought came into my mind. And I wrote it down: "Would I be a different missionary if Christ was my companion? If so, CHANGE." I thought about every time I have felt nervous, or uncertain, or unprepared. Or every time I have not approached someone that I later wished I had. Or every time I felt that all-too-familiar doubt creep in. Or when I just wanted to sit in the car for a couple more minutes because I was so tired. I thought about how I would act differently if every single one of those situations if my missionary companion was Jesus Christ. And so this transfer, Sister Waddoups and I have decided to focus on "Being Christ's Companion". Each week, we will focus on a Christ-like attribute (such as Charity and Love, or Patience), and create measurable goals for each day to help us work on developing/strengthening those attributes. I hope that these goals will help me be a better missionary. And a better person. I'd like to challenge y'all to something similar. Choose a Christ-like attribute that you'd like to improve upon and study it. And then create goals for yourself. I promise that as you do, Heavenly Father will provide you with opportunities to do so. (For example, this morning, Sis. Waddoups and I made the goal of asking 5 people if we could help them. What happened this morning as we were outside cleaning our car? One of our neighbors locked herself out of her house. And I was able to use my ninja skills to break into her apartment with a credit card. Thank you Elder Christian.)

I love y'all so much. Thank you for being constant examples to me. And for providing me with such love and support. As my sister, Isabel reminded me this week: "Szilagyi girls are strong." You can be strong too :)

Alma 26:12 "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things..."

-Sister Szilagyi

Baptisms and Pageants

"Talk about one happy day. I love E SO MUCH."

"Most of the C family. So much love for these wonderful people. It's been my privilege getting to know them. And do you see what I mean when I say D is the cutest baby ever?? I mean, come on."

"This is L. She is a little spitfire and is the youngest child of one of the families we're teaching. She likes to put on pageants for us. Yes, that's my coat."

"Best district on planet earth. It's a fact."

Perfect Love

What. A. Week.
Man alive, I can't even begin to describe my life right now. IT'S THAT GREAT.

#1: E was baptized on Saturday!! Yayyyyy!!! So happy! She is just the best, and I'm so happy for her! Everything went perfectly, and her testimony that she gave after her baptism was just the sweetest thing ya ever did hear. She spoke in Spanish and her uncle translated for her. She talked about how thankful she was that "the sisters could come and teach her about the truth." Have I mentioned how much I loved being a missionary lately?

#2: Elder Christian went home... sadness. He was a fantastic district leader and we'll all miss his guts, but I think his mom has been missing him a bit more after 2 years without him.

#3: We had transfers and no one in our little apartment of sisters got transferred! Which means that it's going to be another 6 weeks (at the least) with these 3 fantastic missionaries, living in the wonderful Valdosta, and teaching the amazing people that have become such great friends!

#4: Sister Waddoups got strep throat and then recovered extremely quickly after a blessing from the elders. We were all so thankful because E was going to be baptized at the end of the week and as Sister Waddoups said, "I wouldn't miss that for the world! I would have dragged myself there if I had to!"

#5: We're without a vehicle at the moment because Sister Waddoups may or may not have bottomed out in a sketchy parking lot in Morven. We're talking human-sized pot holes people!

#6: During the aforementioned sickness, Sister Jeppson and I took the other sister's car and painted the town red! Just kidding, we took the car, and because Sister Tevi was unable to walk because of a hurt knee, Sister Jeppson and I left our poor invalid senior companions at home, and visited appointments that we had scheduled. The work must go on!

#7: As many of you may have realized, Sister Waddoups (the senior companion) drives the car whenever we use it and because of this, I hadn't driven a car in over 3 months. Well.... I managed to make the car alarm go off several times, as well as kill the car battery. In my defense, our battery needs to be replaced, but it was never the less, rather embarrassing. Especially in pouring rain.

So much wonderfulness here people. I love it. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much. I feel as though every day I have the chance to become a better person than I was the day before. And I get to help people come closer to Christ, which provides them with true happiness, hope, and love. Not the Valentine's Day candy aisle in Walmart love either, the real kind. The perfect kind. Perfect love. That's the kind that you can only find in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father has that kind of love for each of us. No conditions, no exceptions. He has perfect love for each of His children. And I think that's something that everyone should know about.

I love you all so very much.
Thank you for being part of my adventure.

Love,
Sister Szilagyi

Live Long and Baptize

To those I love: Once again, I apologize for my letter last week. And I will try to make up for my lack of words in this week's letter. I have so much to tell y'all! To start off, two great church signs:

"God answers knee-mail"

and
"A lot of kneeling keeps you in good standing"

Great stuff. Great stuff. Anyway, for those of you that have been keeping an eye on the weather here in Georgia and worried that I may have been buried in a snow drift, let me assure you, all is well. School was cancelled and Valdosta waited with baited breath for the "snow storm" that was coming. We woke up in the morning, looked out the windows and...... nothing. Nothing but wet roads, although it was mighty chilly. And then this week, I've been wearing short sleeves. 35 degrees one day, and then 80 the next. I really under-appreciated that weather app on my phone at home. Just another one of those things that I took for granted pre-mission. Along with being able to google anything, especially song lyrics haha. Speaking of music, all 8 of us missionaries (4 in each ward) actually sang in both sacrament meetings in church yesterday. It was a beautiful arrangement of "A Marvelous Work", with a violin accompaniment, and the congregation joins in at the end singing "The Spirit of God." It was so powerful. I am so very lucky to be able to sing and spend my time with such wonderful people. An amazing thing happened when we were performing. We had practiced this song in the chapel many times, and we all knew what we sounded like. At the very end of the song, the congregation stops singing, and it's just the 8 of us again. Well, when we sang it in church and it was just the 8 of us at the end, there were many more voices singing than just our 8. No one in the congregation was singing, but we were surrounded by more voices. It was beautiful.

In a change of pace, in case y'all don't know, there's a phrase in the Tifton Zone that we say to each other all the time. One day, as the other sisters were leaving the apartment, I raised my hand Spock-style and told them to "Live long and baptize." Since then, that's kind of been our motto around these parts and we even made district shirts with that written on them. The point of this all is that although E is not going to be baptized this week (it will happen!), we had a wonderful miracle occur. We have been working with V since we first moved to Valdosta. She's the C's niece who lives with them, and she had many questions about the church and doctrine. And things are made even more difficult because she speaks limited English and Bro. Calel has to translate for us. Well, last week we decided to watch the Restoration DVD with her in Spanish. And woweewowwow was that a spiritual experience. She had tears in her eyes the entire time. And at the end of the video, she turned to us and said, "That was my dream." SHE HAD A DREAM OF THE FIRST VISION PEOPLE! How amazing is that?? And she told us that she knew it was true, that nothing else had ever made her feel like that before. So, we told her to pray about baptism. When we arrived for her lesson this week, she told us that she had prayed and wanted to baptized on the 16th, her birthday. We were a bit taken aback, because that was in a week! But we were so excited. We suggested her baptism on the 15th, and then she could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost on her birthday? What better gift could you receive on your birthday than the greatest gift we can receive in this life?? So, V will be baptized this week, the very last week of the transfer. A true miracle. She is such an amazing and strong young woman. A single mom, 18 years old, in a new country, and ready to make this wonderful and important step in her life. We are so happy for her.

Heavenly Father placed so many people into our path this week. It felt like everywhere we walked, someone was there that introduced in talking with us. One experience that was especially awesome starred C and B. We had an appointment with a family, however they weren't home, so Sister Waddoups and I were standing in a nearby parking lot, trying to decide where we should walk next. As we were standing there, we heard a man hollering at us through a chain link fence. We looked over to see if he really was talking to us and he was indeed. As he didn't look particularly threatening or scary, we walked over. He then asked us if we had any pamphlets or anything that he could read with his wife. We answered absolutely, and walked around the fence. We then taught them a fantastic little lesson as they sat on their front stoop. They loved what we taught, and agreed to be baptized on March 8th! (My sister Sophie's birthday!) It was pretty wonderful.

We also ran into R, who was playing with her kids outside of her house one sunny day as we were walking to an appointment. We stopped and talked to her for a while and she seemed to enjoy what we said, even though there was a slight language barrier (have I mentioned how upset I am that I can't speak Spanish lately??), and set up a time to come back and teach. When we handed her a card with our number and and the appointment time, she started laughing and pointed to mormon.org. She then said, "Oh, you are Mormons?" with a chuckle. We responded yes, and she laughed and shook her head like she should have known haha. She said that she actually had quite a few questions for us. When we came back later in the week, she let us right in and we had a very spiritual lesson. She told us that she NEVER lets people into her house, but she was very curious about what we had to say and she said that she could see the love we had for people in our eyes. She is such a sweetheart and I love her already.

One final story: So I told y'all about the amazing J, who is finishing up his studies at VSU, then heading to law school, and just recently got baptized. He is the one that got up in testimony meeting before he was even baptized and bore his testimony about how good he felt about the church. He's so awesome. Anyway, on Sunday we had an appointment scheduled with a young guy we've been teaching and asked if J would like to be there. He and the guy are close in age, and we thought they'd get along great. Well, we got to the church (where we were having our lesson) with the other sisters in tow (because we needed more girls present), and A never showed up. However, J had asked if he could bring his friend B along, and we ended up having a wonderful spiritual discussion in the chapel. B has been going through quite a rough patch and is looking for peace and direction. When we walked into the chapel, he looked around and said, "This is beautiful..." Now you have to understand, B is a pretty intimidating fellow, a former boxer, with tattoos over every inch of him. And when he walked into that chapel, his whole demeanor changed. His shoulders that had been so tense before, instantly relaxed and he just looked... peaceful. As we were talking, he told us that "There is something different about this place." We are teaching him again tonight, and we could not be more excited. He's a great guy.

I am so happy to be here in Valdosta, and have loved my experience here thus far. Transfers are next week, so I may or may not be staying in Valdosta/getting a new companion, but wherever I am or whoever I'm with, I know Heavenly Father has put me there for a reason. He always has a plan for us. I'll know my fate by next week, and will update y'all then.

One last thought from this week:
Would you change something in your life right now if you were promised a deeper and stronger sense of peace? Would you? Because I can promise that that change is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing else can bring you more peace. True, complete, all-encompassing peace.

I love you all, so much. Stay strong.
Sister Szilagyi

Dirt Roads and Outhouses

"One of the many dirt roads that we frequent. This one was particularly beautiful though, and I had to take a picture of it."

"Yepp. This is exactly what you think it is. A real, live outhouse people! It doesn't get much better than that."

"I don't want to say that Morven is the most lovely, adorable, quaint little town of the planet, but come on. It is. Right up there at the end of street? Yeah, that's main street."

Bowling Alleys and Tornado Warnings

"P-Day fun. Nerf Gun Battle-style."

"My wonderful District on another P-day at the bowling alley."

"This was the day of the tornado warning. I was outside the car for approximately 30 seconds."

Catching the Bug

Greetings from the South! The only place in the world where you can purchase lotto tickets, wine, beer, cigarettes, coca-cola, and 100% human hair, all at the same neighborhood corner store! Talk about convenience! The category of "things that are found on street corners in Georgia" also includes churches. In case y'all were wondering, there are quite a few churches down here. And by quite a few, I mean one on every street corner. And each one of these churches have church signs that display scriptures or phrases to help uplift people who pass by. So Sister Waddoups and I have made it a hobby to write down the ones that we find most excellent. From this week we have:

"New Year's Resolution: Stop twerkin, start churchin"

Need I say more? Seriously, these signs are money. Whoever comes up with them should be given a nice pat on the back. I'm not trying to bribe you into reading my blog, but next week I'll send y'all another one. So get excited!

Weekly snapshots from Southern Georgia:

- Sitting on J's front porch at 8 o'clock at night, porch light burnt out, reading from the Book of Mormon by the light of Christmas lights that blink on and off.

- Teaching Miss B and Mr A, who have been married for 40 plus years. Mr A is a minister in training and LOVES having us over. He has tons of questions and we have discussions over every point. Their two grandchildren, who they adopted, scurry around during lessons, coloring and finishing homework.

- Sitting at L's dinner table with her many children, who are all much too adorable for their own good. Last time we came over, one of her daughters (age 5), asked us both for our coats and hung them on the back of our chairs. And one of her sons asked us if he could come to our house and see snow. (We had told them that we are from Washington and Massachusetts). We told him that it take a long time to drive to either of our houses, but that I would bring the can of fake snow that Alexis gave me before I left next time we came over. I've been saving it for a special occasion, and I think this is it. He also asked if we could have a picnic. He's just plum adorable.

- Teaching N for the first time. Who is just the greatest person. She's recently separated and has four children, who help make up the gaggle of kids that greet us at our favorite apartments whenever we stop by. The youngest, T, is 2 or 3 with the chubbiest cheeks and a remarkable amount of patience for his age. When we were talking with his mom, he came and sat right between me and Sister Waddoups on the couch, softly humming and singing to himself and playing with the buttons of Sis Waddoups' coat & the polka dots on my skirt. I just want to squeeze his guts out, I love him so much. N had really wanted to meet with missionaries ever since she saw her friend meeting with them. She told us that her big motivation in life is finding joy and happiness and bringing that to others, and she was curious as to why we always looked so happy. She said that she wants what we have. She's the sweetest.

-On Thursday, we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders, which means that one of them came to Valdosta, and I went to Douglas. And I absolutely loved Douglas. It's pretty small, and everyone is related to everyone else, and it's wonderful. To give you a small taste of Douglas, at one point we had a meeting with the ward mission leader which took place at his office at work. This gets exciting when I describe the decor of said office. Mounted on the wall opposite of his desk was the most enormous elk head I have ever seen, staring at me right in the eyes. Above my head, was mounted a wild boar, straight across from me was a wild turkey feather display, and the desk was lit by a lamp which was held up by three deer feet (hooves and all). He was hilarious and a total smart-alack. We got along great. I met many wonderful people in Douglas, but my favorites were H and P. H is a little bundle of joy. 18 years old and just started her papers for her mission. She went out with us for a couple hours and man, she has just the best little southern accent you ever did hear. Loved her the moment I met her. And P is one of the women we were able to teach. She has such great faith in God and Christ and just needs a little push in the right direction. She's great.

-Saturday night and Sunday morning we had two wonderful days of stake conference. Saturday night was all about "Hastening the Work", and all of the missionaries were invited. The passion for sharing the gospel is contagious and people are catching the bug! On Sunday, the conference was broadcast from Orlando and the key speaker was Russell M. Nelson. He spoke about nine important facets of the "Doctrine Diamond", and how they are are all integral and essential to the the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Those nine sparkling facets were: 1) The Godhead 2) The Plan of Salvation 3) The Atonement 4) Dispensation, Apostasy, and Restoration 5) Prophets and Revelation 6) Priesthood and Priesthood keys 7) Ordinances and Covenants 8) Marriage and Family & 9) Commandments. It was a wonderful talk. And let me tell you, having an apostle of the Lord testify of the cleansing power of the Atonement is never as potent and perspective-changing as when you are sitting with your arm around a woman who has spent the last 30 years of her life as a drug addict, in and out of jail. How beautiful is the mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Beyond sparkling, I assure you.

-And finally E (A's little sister) is going to be baptized on Valentine's Day! We're so excited, we can't wait. She is so sweet and adorable. Yesterday, she asked us for two copies of the Book of Mormon and pass-along cards because her teacher and her friends wanted some. Awesome.

I love Valdosta, I love Georgia, I love my mission. Every day, I wake up and I can't believe that I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am so very lucky. I am the kind of person that lived my life always waiting to begin things, never wanting to start something new because I knew that I should have started that "something" a long time ago. Going on a mission is the best decision that I have ever made in my entire life. It has changed me already, to my very core. And although I wasn't so good at beginning things before, it is something that I am continuously working on. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf recently quoted an old proverb which states: "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now." May we all begin now and plant seeds that we can look at 20 years from now and think, I sure am glad I planted that one. I love you all so very much. Never give up.

Sister Szilagyi

Nerf Guns and Bikes

"I know. We're dashing. And yes, those are indeed Nerf Guns. And yes, mine has a clip."

"The Elders ran out of miles and have been biking the last few days. Look at those faces."

"Sister T is one of my favorite people on planet earth."