Space Needles and Surprising Prices

"Our whole mission with Elder Anderson, Elder Soares, and Elder Giddens!​"

"Little did you know, the Space Needle is actually in Macon. Tender mercies."

"If you don't have a Jesus license plate, you don't love Jesus"

"Look at those gas prices. I think this is what 1830 felt like..."

A Hymn About Chili

Hello hello from Macon, GA!

So I thought I'd start off with some fun facts about Macon so that everyone has a good idea of my current life:
-Honey Boo Boo lives one town over
-Evidently a few years ago, Macon won the best tasting tap water in the nation
-I overheard that Macon has the most churches per capita in the US
-Macon ranks pretty high as one of the most dangerous cities in the US. No one can tell me how high, people just keep telling me to "be careful"...

So things here are pretty fabulous. Still in that adjustment period, but it's starting to feel more and more like home.

Some exciting events from the week:
-Sister Bell and I almost got hit by a train. A slightly sad/funny note: Sister Bell is deathly afraid of trains. That event did not help.
-This ward is super awesome and very excited about missionary work, I can't wait to see the miracles that will come!
-We had a chili cook-off at the church. I was informed that the missionaries were performing a musical number at the cook-off when we got to Macon. No matter how hard we searched, we just couldn't find a hymn about chili, or so we thought......

(sung to the tune of "Called to Serve")
"Called to serve the chili at the cook-off
Missionaries traveling by two's
Mild or hot we'll gladly fill our bellies
We'll still like ya if you lose....

CHILI, TASTY CHILI as we glory in the cheese
CHILI, TASTY CHILI as we pile on the cream
Ladles, grab your ladles, as we scoop our bowls of beans!
Give us strength to keep on eating as we have to buy new jeans!"
-lyrics brought to you by Sister Szilagyi & Sister Bell

Have a wonderful week. Love you all so very much!
Sister Szilagyi

Flash Mobs and Frying Chicken

"Can there be a happier place on earth??? I don't think so!"

"Flash mob at the mall?"

"​Frying chicken at T's"

"Two of my favorite people. These two have the voices of angels."

Goodbyes and Wonderful People

"Goodbyes at the M's"

"The wonderful Sister J"

"Goodbyes at the E"

Sergeant Majors and Baptisms

"B is a sergeant major. No big deal."

"The whole fam. Now officially 100% baptized :)"

"M and B. Happy day!"

Hair Adventures and Wigs

"​From two weeks ago: we'll call this the 'hoochie mama hair adventure'"

"Yes? No? #nojudgementzone"

"President Cottle is so fascinated by Sister Owusu's hair. It's the best."

Macon, GA!

Now before y'all freak out, just wanted to inform you that I am alive and well. The libraries were closed on Monday for MLK Day, and transfers were on Tuesday, which brings us to today!

Speaking of transfers, yes, I was finally transferred. Having to say goodbye to my beloved Grovetown and beautiful companion was ridiculously difficult, but I shall survive. My new area is...... Macon, GA! That's right, I'm going to church with my mission president and his wife now haha! And I am SO excited to be here! It is such a huge city, compared to what I have experienced on the rest of my mission! And I cannot wait to get started! My new companion is the awesome Sister Bell, who is still fairly new in the mission. Her other two companions were Sister Parke and Sister Tevi (two of my best friends on the mission), so I have GIANT shoes to fill, but it's going to be awesome!

Last week, W was baptized and it was super duper wonderful. M ended up not getting baptized because she was too afraid of the water, but it will happen when she is ready! I have never experienced something like that on my mission, and it was a bit traumatic, trying to help her overcome her fear, but we talked to her about it and assured her that this was a time that Heavenly Father wanted her to remember as a time of joy, not terror. She is the sweetest thing ever. She wanted to get baptized so badly but was so afraid of putting her head under the water. The sisters are going to keep working with her, and maybe they'll even do a little bit of practice in the kiddie pool haha. When she gets the courage to do it, it will be a happy happy day!

Sorry that this email is so short, I love you all and hope that you all have an AMAZING week!

Love, Sister Szilagyi

P.S. GO HAWKS

My new current address is: 1695 Briarcliff Rd. Macon, GA 31210

Sense of Familiarity

Hello wonderful people!
It was such an AMAZING week! Crazy busy, and crazy fun! Let's take it day by day....

Monday:
-Sister Owusu wanted to look super fly for our mission conference on Saturday, so we went to get her hair done by a lady in our ward. When we got there, the lady didn't quite like the hair that Sister Owusu brought, and wanted to use the kind that she had. Unfortunately, the kind that she had was... well... gold. And I really thought it was going to be fine, but it turned out to be just too far along the hootchie-mama spectrum. We ended up taking it out a few days later after Sis Owusu could handle it no longer. However, halfway through the 4 hour long process, the lady ran out of hair and we had to go buy more from the super sketchy hair store down the road. Oh man, that place was the best. Hair EVERYWHERE. Wigs EVERYWHERE. (Pictures will come next week). We walked in there, and I stood out like the whitest white thumb you ever did see. I mean, the girl working there turned to look at me when we walked in, did a double take, and then turned and stared as I walked by. Yepppp.... Hey, what if I wanted some hair too, hmmmm??

Tuesday:
-We taught President and Sister Cottle, which was a little nerve-racking, but it went well.
-We had a cool moment when we stopped by an investigators house and found out that she is going to finally go to an addiction-recovery program to help her with her drinking.
-We had the most wonderful lesson with M (who is getting baptized this Saturday). Oh man, this girl. She just turned 9, and has slight Autism, and is the cutest thing on planet earth. So we get there for the lesson, and she answers the door with the pamphlet we asked her to read in her hand. We walk in and she asks her auntie to leave the room because "This is private." hahah. Everything we cover in the lesson and ask her about, she understands perfectly. And at the end of the lesson, we ask her if that night, she would pray and ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith was really a prophet of God, and we tell her that she should sit and listen for a response. She looks at us and says that she can ask right now. So she bows her head: "Jesus? Was Joseph Smith a prophet?" *long pause and a few giggles* She then opened her eyes, looks at us and says, "He says yes." The cuteness. Oh man. We decided that teaching her that she is actually praying to God and not Jesus could wait.
-One of the sisters in the relief society presidency was having a really rough time after hearing something someone had said to her, and she was questioning whether or not she should continue serving in that capacity. We were able to help her see the eternal perspective and how amazing she is. We love her SO MUCH.
-We had a rather dramatic lesson with K, where he tried to drop us, but he ended up really feeling the spirit and agreeing to keep praying and reading and studying with us. I love that man.

Wednesday:
-We went on exchanges in Swainsboro, and that was the first big long drive of the week. It was very fun, and Sister Woodard and I experienced TONS of miracles. Back in Grovetown, Sis Owusu and Sis Price found an awesome new investigator, and had a great time. While on exchanges, one of the Swainsboro sisters' investigators, D, made us dinner. It was such a beautiful expression to me of how much she loves these sisters. We sat in her trailer, on a couch, her children sitting at the "dinner table", which was a folding card table in the corner with lawn chairs, and listened to D share stories of her family. This woman, who has very little, shared what she had with us. Perfect example of being Christ-like.

Thursday:
-We had Zone Training Meeting in Augusta the following morning where Sister Owusu and I both trained. It was an... interesting meeting. Sometimes you have to restrain yourself from hitting elders. Sorry, but it's the truth.
-We received multiple text messages about Sis H, who we love so much, and who has been bringing her family back to church. She was going through a rough patch, wondering why God was punishing her when she was following his commandments more closely than ever. We rushed over there, and tried to help her see that God wasn't punishing her, he was allowing her to grow. Nothing we said helped until Brother S and Brother J from the ward came by to give her a blessing. Brother J had tried to call Brother S earlier in the day, and his phone wasn't working. Well he was on his way over when he saw Brother S driving home from work and waved him down. Heavenly Father provides many ways for his work to get done. It was a beautiful blessing and afterwards, H's countenance had completely changed. She felt immediately better, and the miracles that are happening in that family are out of this world!
-The cherry on top of the day was learning how to make fried chicken and field peas with T, while she made fun of me.

Friday:
-We had a sisters' sleepover Friday night in Swainsboro so that we wouldn't have to leave so early in the morning to make it on time to the mission conference Saturday morning, which brings us to.....

Saturday:
-Eight very sleepy, but very excited, sisters arrived at 8:00 am at the Macon church building to prepare to meet Elder Neil L. Anderson, Elder Giddens, and Elder Soares. It was SUCH an amazing experience. I'm not sure why, but I was expecting something very different from what I experienced on Saturday. When Elder Anderson came into that gym, and as I watched him sit on the stand and speak, I was struck with the most interesting sense of familiarity. You know the feeling where you see someone, and you just can't remember how you know them? Sort of like that. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe lightning bolts and overwhelming emotions from an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but that just wasn't coming. I was sitting there, trying to understand my emotions. And as I was sitting, I realized that I was watching a perfectly humble, pure vessel. A disciple of Christ in every sense. And it was a beautiful thing. I loved it. I had the realization that when we see Christ again, it will be like that. If we have lived righteously, and if we have done all that we can, when we see Him, He will be familiar to us, an old friend that we have not seen in a while. A perfect mixture of strength and humility. It was an eye-opening experience. I loved it.
-After the conference, most of the mission went to the Macon Mall food court, where we made those restaurant workers' day. It looked like the army of Helaman up in there. We even decided to sing a few songs. iPhones captured our hymns. No fear of public humiliation? Yes, I'm a missionary.
-Ate some boiled peanuts from "Mikey's Boiled Peanuts" stand. Mikey gave us a missionary discount. By the way, it's pronounced "bowled" here in the south. Enough said.

Sunday:
-We had seven investigators come to church. It was a happy happy day.

So this week was wonderful. And I feel so blessed. Folks, this is week #6 of transfer #5 in Grovetown, GA, which means that come next Tuesday, the 20th, this sister missionary will probably be calling a new city home. Love you all so much!

Sister Szilagyi

P.S. I just sneezed in the library and about 5 people said "bless you" in unison. The south is so polite.

New Years and Holiday Lights

"We don't have any fun together...."

"Holiday lights in Grovetown!"

Little Santas and Leftovers

"H and the adorable G. 'Santa Baby'... get it...?"

"Just some of the leftovers that we were sent home with after our Christmas dinners"

"This is how we felt after those Christmas dinners (plural)"

Gizzard and Tripe

Happy New Year!

What a week, what a week, what a week!

Seriously, things are pretty crazy over here! Crazy busy, but in the best way possible!

Exciting news:

-The whole J family was able to come to church this week, and B is getting ready and is so excited for his baptism on January 17th!

-Many many less active families that we've been working with came to church this week! It's always a good week when they have to open up BOTH of the overflow areas and the boys passing the sacrament have to come get more water cups :)

-So we've have been working with a less-active family on and off for a while... Well, one night this week, our bishop texts us and told us that he has been talking with the family, and the youngest girl wants to be baptized. He recommended that we be the missionaries that teach her and that we should meet with her as soon as possible. We met with her and her family, set up a baptismal calendar and she is very excited for her baptism on Jan 17th! That makes two baptisms to look forward to on that day, whoo hoo!

-Neil Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles and Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy are coming to speak to our mission next Saturday! Can't wait!

-I ate gizzard and tripe this week. The elders made me do it... Well, they didn't make me, but I may have this pride issue that I'm working on...

-I had moments of just pure happiness this week. That's all I'm going to say about that.

I would like to leave you with a moment from Saturday:

So Sister Owusu is black. Not sure if you could tell from the pictures.... Anywho, we have this old couple that we are teaching and they grew up in Southern GA in the midst of racial prejudice. And because dear old F is such a sweetie, she feels as though it is her job to personally uplift and encourage Sister Owusu to not get down about her skin-color. This week, I had to look down at the table and avoid eye contact with my lovely companion, or else we both would have died laughing. I mean, things such as: "You are so special. Probably even more special than her" (gesturing at me) Cool F. Cool. Or "One day, us white people are going to have to pay for what we did..." (Sis Owusu is just sitting there like, umm... I'm from Africa, sooo...)

Oh the joys of missionary life.

And from Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

"Isn’t it true that we often get so busy? And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was an accomplishment or sign of a superior life.
Is it?
I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished.
I can’t see it.
Instead I see the compassionate and caring Son of God purposefully living each day. When He interacted with those around Him, they felt important and loved. He knew the infinite value of the people He met. He blessed them, ministered to them. He lifted them up, healed them. He gave them the precious gift of His time."

This year, let's give those around us more of our time. I love you all. And y'all are beautiful.

Sister Szilagyi