Fantastic People and Gandalf

"This is part of the R clan and part of the A clan. Fantastic people all around. I will miss these crazy people. P.S. The grey dog in the front? Yeah, his name is Gandalf."

"E and L. Going to miss these guys so much. Can't wait to get pictures of the W/J family baptism :)"

Two Grains of Sand Left

I know it's been a while but.... Church sign of the week!
"Be ye fishers of men. You catch them. He will clean them."

In other news, I have other news. #1: The time is far spent. There is little remaining. And I am leaving Valdosta. Saturday night, we got the call that Sister Tevi and I were to pack our bags and are off to new adventures! We'll find out where we're going tomorrow, as well as who our new companions are. Exciting stuff! Who knew how much stuff a missionary could accumulate in 7 months in one area? Yikes. #2: I also found out today that in my new area, wherever it is, I will be a Sister Training Leader. Crazy sauce. But I can't wait for what the future brings!

This has been the shortest week of my mission. You know when you're playing a board game that has one of those little hourglass timers, and when it starts off, you're thinking, awesome, I've got all of the time in the world! And then, all of a sudden you look over and there are like two grains of sand left? Yeah, that's how I've been feeling all week. I hope that sheds some light on the inner workings of my brain.

Mentally, I had been preparing myself to leave, and I knew that my the end of my time in Valdosta was quickly approaching, but I put that aside and focused on making this last week a memorable one. And we were able to see miracles, specifically working with the members. It has been one of our goals as a companionship to go out with a member of either the branch or ward every day and to teach at least 12 member present lessons each week. And this week, we were able to achieve that goal and even go beyond it! I am so grateful for the renewed efforts of the branch and ward, and how excited members in Valdosta have become about missionary work. A family that recently moved into the ward commented that this ward was the most active in missionary work that they had ever seen. And that made my heart feel warm and fuzzy inside :)

It has been an absolute pleasure to have spent the first leg of my mission here in Valdosta, and I will be forever grateful to these people, and to this place. I have experienced more, and witnessed more, and grown more than I thought it was possible. I have been very blessed. I can testify, without a shadow of a doubt, that I was sent to this area for many specific reasons. And many of those reasons, are people who I will be able to call friends throughout the eternities. That is what it's all about.

I feel confident that Sister de St. Jeor will take wonderful care of our current investigators, and will continue the pattern of diligence, hard-work, and obedience that we've tried to have as missionaries here in Valdosta. I feel incredibly blessed to have had her as my companion. If I was told at the beginning of our companionship about the trials and hardships that we would have to go through and overcome, I would do it again in a heart beat. She is what I always hoped to have in a companion. I love her more than I can say. And I will miss her terribly. I will miss all those that I have worked with (members, investigators, random people on the street) in this area. And at this time in my life, I feel immensely blessed. I know that Heavenly Father both hears AND answers our prayers. And when I recognize those answers, the feelings of peace and love that I feel are impossible to describe. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary.

Love y'all!
Sister Szilagyi

Being a Missionary and Pass-Along Cards

"I love being a missionary." 

"I mean, come on. Does it get any better than this?"

Like a Celebrity

Hello world!

So first of all, I felt much better this week than I've felt in a long time. So I just wanted to thank everyone who has been so kind and wonderful. And thanks to those who have been praying for me and my companion, and have sent packages or letters, or a note. Y'all are so wonderful. I am so blessed.

Well folks, I will have officially been in Valdosta for 7 months this week. How crazy is that?? Some days, it feels like I am a brand new missionary, and other days, it feels as if this is all I have ever known. And it has been absolutely wonderful. We have one more week of the transfer left, so on Saturday I will get the news if I'm being transferred or not. As of now, there is only one other sister I know of that has been in an area as long as I have, so if I were to stay another one, that would be pretty unheard of. But who knows?! The Lord is in control!

We've experienced some wonderful things this week:

-E has a baptismal date! WHOOO HOOO! Man, I love that family so much. When the kids get back from their Dad's in August, she wants them all to to have an overview of the lessons, and then they're all going to be baptized together on September 6th! SO MUCH JOY. She is just so wonderful.

-One of the days this week, we all fasted as a zone to have people put into our path that were searching for the gospel. And boy, did we experience some miracles that day. All of our appointments ended up no-showing us, so we were walking around, street contacting. And we saw a woman sitting on her porch, so we went over to talk to her. Turns out, she and her husband had studied with missionaries a few years ago and had loved it, but had to move and lost contact with them. She said that they even went back to their old house a few times to see if they could catch the missionaries and tell them they had moved. But we had a wonderful lesson with her on her porch. She's already read half of the Book of Mormon, absolutely loves it, her husband is totally on board as well, and she is really excited for us to come back and teach them.

-Okay, so a lot of the areas where we go to teach are in what may be lovingly referred to as "the ghetto". And I love these people more than anything. Give me a sketchy ghetto street over a super rich, nice neighborhood ANY day. The people are way nicer. Sorry, it's just the truth. Anyway, we were walking down a street this week, and came across a group of kids outside that LOVE us. They asked so many questions, wanted us to teach them everything we new, and were so excited when we gave them pass-along cards. They even asked us to sign them. I felt like a celebrity haha. They asked us to come back the next day, and we arrived, they all gathered around us on the ground for their "church lesson". Any time anyone would get noisy or talk out of turn, a few of them would turn to the disruptive child and say things like, "Shhhh! Y'all need to be quiet! We're in church!" and "No talking! I can't hear!" Super cute.

I love you all. Thanks for being wonderful. Give someone a hug today. You probably both need it. Everybody loves hugs.

Love,
Sister Szilagyi

Armadillos and the Stuff Nightmares are Made of

"​The Valdosta church sign. I feel right at home living in this very green world!"

"Some beautiful creatures for y'all:

First picture: the most terrifying/hideous cat that I have ever seen in my entire life. I looked over, and there it was, just STARING. I mean, look at its eyeballs. The stuff nightmares are made of."

"Sister de St. Jeor and I 'played' with a young armadillo (or as the Georgians say: armadilla) one morning. He wasn't scared of us one bit. And very friendly. We hope to meet him again one day."

Sprinkled Garlic Powder

Hello wonderful people!

A few short stories from this week:

-There was an adorable little girl (age 2) who was sitting in front of us at church on Sunday. She kept pointing and reaching for my name tag, so I gave it to her. She instantly put it up to her shirt, right where mine was. And gave me the biggest grin. It made my week. It's the little things.

- I went on exchanges with the fantastic Sister Parke this week and we experienced SO MANY MIRACLES. One of them: We walk out of the library after an awesome lesson with a recent convert, and we see a man and woman sitting on a bench. The woman looks pretty down, so Sister Parke walks over to them (with me following close behind) and says, "Hello! Can I give you a picture of Jesus to brighten your day??" To which the woman, says, "Yes, please." She then bursts into tears and we find out that she's been going through a really tough time and we were an answer to her prayers. She and her husband are getting baptized on July 5th!

-And then, there was this little moment with Sister Parke: I had a man tell me that I still had things I needed to work out with Jesus. He said he could see it in my eyes. And that was a bit disconcerting. I kinda wanted to cry, but I didn't. All aboard the struggle bus haha.

-We helped a member paint her house. Pretty normal right? Well, this house happens to be pretty old. Which is awesome. Not so awesome is that this woman has a few dogs, and a few cats. I'm sorry, did I say few? I meant over 10. And most of them are wild. So we go over there, and she has sprinkled garlic powder all over her house to get rid of the fleas. Yepp. Fleas. I don't know if you've ever painted a garlic-smelling house with no air conditioning in the Georgia heat and humidity, but I will never EVER be able to forget that smell. And then I discovered the fleas that were sucking my blood on my ankles. NO THANK YOU. But man, did that trim look excellent.

-A comment: It's just a tad bit hot here. Hot and HUMID. Holy cow. It's like swimming. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but we're not in Washington anymore folks.

-A quote: "Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more." -Elder Richard G. Scott
I share this with y'all because a kind friend shared it with me, and I hope that it can give you as much comfort as it gave me.

I love you all. Never give up.
-Sister Szilagyi

T-Shirts and Blue Eyes

"Part of our awesome zone! We drove up to Tifton to go bowling on P-Day. Please notice our awesome t-shirts that Elder Pittard designed. And please ignore that crazy blond in the middle. She's a nutter butter. A (the one with the braid in the front) and the nutter butter, are both members who drove us/came with us."

"Love these people so much."

"Me and my beautiful blue-eyed companion."