A Pretty Wonderful Week

Today has been a pretty wonderful week. Nearly perfect weather, fantastic people, and then I got this news today:

"Dear Natasha:
Congratulations! You have been admitted to Brigham Young University..."

AHHHHHHHHHHHH! I had to put my head between my knees because I thought I was going to pass out, I'm so happy. I have been trying to focus 100% on my mission, and leave everything else behind, but it was difficult when I was so worried about where I was going to attend school/live when I returned. But, Heavenly Father has done it again. And I am so amazingly blessed. So the plan is to attend BYU Provo when I return from Georgia. However, that is a long ways away, and now I can go back to focusing all of my mental/emotional power on serving the people of Georgia!

But back to the important stuff!!

Church sign for the week:
"We may not be Dairy Queen, but we do have the best Sundays"

A few stories from a week in the life of Sister Szilagyi, Missionary for The Church if Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Ms. L: This week, we were sitting in Ward Coordination and our phone started ringing repeatedly. By the third time, we knew something was up and excused ourselves. The Nashville elders were calling us to ask if we could go visit Ms. L (one of their recent converts) who had been rushed to the ER. All was okay, but Sister Waddoups and I ended up staying with her and talking to her about her faith for quite a few hours, until we had to go home. I was so glad that we were able to go so she didn't have to spend that time alone in the hospital. She is just the sweetest lady ever.

Service Saturday: So for those of you that are unaware, I LOVE service. LOVE it. There are few things that make me happier than carrying boxes or raking leaves for someone else. For some reason, the activity becomes so much more enjoyable when they are someone else's boxes or someone else's leaves. Anyway, this Saturday, the Young Women held a "yard sale" in the church parking lot to raise money for their Girl's Camp. I thought I knew what a yard sale looked like. I was so very wrong. Let me tell you, you have never experienced true yard-sale-ing until you have been in South Georgia, on the first Saturday of the month. It was nuts! I have never seen anything like it in my life! The line of cars that was streaming into the church parking lot never ceased. It was wonderful. So we helped with that, and talked to tons of people. And then it was off to help a lady and her family move. She's friends with the bishop, and not a member, and had quite a few belongings. We ended up loading/unloading to huge U-Haul trucks, as well as taking apart/reassembling a trampoline. I had a great time! We had three sets of missionaries there and a many kids from the nearby Baptist church. Nothing like the community coming together!

Heart-break: Probably the hardest thing that I've experienced on my mission thus-far is not being able to save every child I meet. I've told you all about the kids at that one apartment complex we always go to, and every time we go and have to leave, it doesn't get any easier. One little boy in particular, T, has captured our hearts. Every time we visit, no matter the time of day, he will drop everything he's doing and run to us. And he wants us to go and teach his family soooo badly, but his mom won't let us in. Last night, he sped over on his bike and jumped off and hugged us with all his might as usual. And just to give you an idea of the environment he's in, this is the projects, and we've seen the cops visit his house, etc. But he was hugging us and just standing there beaming. And I looked down into the eyes of this perfect, kind, sweet, loving little boy and I said, "T, you know we love you right?" And he nodded. "How much do you think we love you?" He looked up and said,"A lot?" And I said, "That's right, but how much?" He shrugged, "I don't know... probably more than the whole world!" I told him, "That's right! We love you sooooo much!" And then I asked him, "How much do you love us?" And he said, "Probably more than the whole city!" Hahaha. Man, heart-break.

For one final thought: "There are no extra points at the end of life for doing it all by yourself."

This is one that I have been putting my heart and soul into trying to internalize. I am very much a do-it-yourself-er. Folks, life is infinitely better, infinitely happier, and infinitely easier if I rely on Him and go to Him first. Try it out. I promise that if I can do it, you can.

I love you all so much.
Sister Szilagyi