Mahal Ko Kayo

Church sign of the week!!

"Forbidden fruit creates many jams"

I have to admit that is probably one of my all-time favorites so far. Things just keep getting better and better. Speaking of.....

I have an amazing new companion! Her name is Sister Arrieta and she is from the Philippines! And I love her guts. A few fun facts about Sister Arrieta:
-Tagalog is her first language but her English is impeccable.
-She thinks goats are afraid of rain and will get sick if they stand outside in it
-She calls refrigerators "refs"
-Every time she sees a squirrel, she squeals and says,"Oh! So cute! So skinny!"
-The first time she saw a frog, she screamed and ran and hid behind me
-She always says, "That is true." And I love it

She's pretty wonderful. Super hard working, always keeps me laughing, and I can't wait to work with her!

So this week was kind of a crazy one. Sister Walker said goodbye to people and packed on Monday and then Tuesday, we drove to Macon for transfers. During transfer meeting, everyone got a new companion except for me and two other sisters, Sister Baker and Sister Miller. So us three spent the evening as a trio, travelling around Macon, trying not to get lost and attempting to find new investigators for the Macon sisters. And although I did get a little lost a few times (I blame the GPS), we did experience lots of success in our little trio. That evening, we went back to the mission home to sleep, and had spent the time before bed talking with President and Sister Cottle. In the morning, we went on a lovely, surprisingly brisk, walk with Pres and Sis Cottle (nothing like morning exercises with your Pres and his wife!). Afterwards, we had breakfast. And I don't know if you have ever experienced eating warm waffles served with fresh Georgia peaches, while having Book of Mormon scripture study with your mission president, but I would HIGHLY recommend it. It was such a wonderful experience. We then had some time to study and I held some "singing lessons" in the living room. Then came the drive to the airport to pick up our sisters from Salt Lake. I ended up meeting some amazing people in the airport while we were waiting, and having your mission president back you up in a lesson is a mighty powerful feeling.

Eventually, there they came, and we spent the next while and drive back to the mission home learning all about the Temple Square Mission. Which is COMPLETELY different, by the way. And so cool to learn about. So all 220 of the missionaries on Temple Square are sisters and they have sister assistants to the President, sister zone leaders, and sister district leaders. They have 42 different languages spoken, and spend time leading tours of the square, in surrounding historical buildings, and talking online and via phone calls to investigators all over the world! Pretty amazing. These sisters travel from all over the world, to spend a year and a half, far away from family, friends, familiar culture, food, language, etc, to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. With no charge to anyone they're teaching. And actually paying themselves to do it. The stories Sister Arrieta have told me are amazing. Like the sister who did not have enough money to serve a mission, so she harvested coconuts and removed the flesh, dried it in the sun, and sold it in the nearest marketplace, finally saving enough to pay for her mission. It is remarkable. Why would these girls do these things and make these sacrifices? It doesn't make any sense. Unless it was true. Unless they knew with every fiber of their being that this gospel changes lives. That it is the only way to be truly happy. And they wanted to share that with everyone and anyone they could.

We finally arrived back in Grovetown on Thursday evening, after staying an additional night because we realized that we had a leadership meeting the following morning in the mission home, so it would make zero sense to drive 2 hours home and drive 2 hours back. A tiring week, but a wonderful one. The ward already loves Sister Arrieta because it seems like half of the men here served their missions in the Philippines, and we actually have some Filipino women in our ward! So there she stood yesterday, chatting in Tagalog in the middle of the church foyer, happy as a clam. I'm going to be fluent in Tagalog in 6 weeks... don't get too excited.

I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve. And I am so very blessed. As Sister Arrieta said the other day: "You have to work hard to pay Him back! You are in debt to Heavenly Father!" :)

Mahal ko kayo!
Sister Szilagyi