December 1, 2014

Hello from Győr!

Oh family, I love it here! It’s stunning! I was talking to Sis. Whittaker and it really feels like were in Paris... ok, well, we both have no idea, we haven’t really been to Paris, BUT this is what we imagine it to be like! haha You can’t even drive up within a block to our house, because they are all just little winding cobblestones roads! It is adorable, you would love it so much here!

I am in LOVE with Sister Whittaker! I can’t even explain it, she is the sweetest person that I have ever met, so adorable too! You would looove her! I feel so so so sooo lucky to be serving with her and she just has the biggest heart! I have had people tell me that I remind them of her and I didn’t realize what a great compliment I was getting! We’re just being completely obedient and we're seeing miracles!!

So we are opening the city, so that means zero.. again! So we just start streeting, stopping everyone we can on the street and talking to them. We hit the area book like crazy too and called every number in there! We now have several new investigators! :) Heavenly Father is blessing us so much already! I can’t wait to meet with these people this week!

The ward here is so amazing too! It’s actually a WARD! One of the only ones in Hungary. Every Sunday when you’re in a new place, the new missionaries bear their testimonies... well that would all be fine and dandy, but of course it’s in Hungarian and it is a ton of pressure! We practiced the night before and it all worked out fine! I’ve never been welcomed into a ward like I have been here! I just feel too darn lucky right now and that I get to be here for both my birthday and Christmas! The Elders are super great too and they look out for us sisters :)

So the first full day here, I had my very first American Thanksgiving! We went to the big Hajo! It’s a boat that is a restaurant on the Danube. They have a famous Mississippi platter there. The Elders talked us into splitting TWO. It was sooo much food! Really good, but just so much deep fried everything! We didn’t even finish off the first platter and there was still a full one waiting for us! We packed it all into boxes and took home more than we ate there!

The weather is getting freezing! The weather here keeps “misting” at least that’s what we call it! There is just sooo much water in the air, it looks like we went swimming when we get in, sticks to my eyelashes like crazy and makes it sooo much more cold!! I for sure am going to buy some warm gloves, scarf, and toque this week! They have the cutest little Christmas booths everywhere here! They are adorable!! We got some hot chocolate and it was more like pudding! Sooo thick! I seriously could have eaten it with a fork, it was sooo good! They also sell hot wine everywhere! It smells so nasty to me! We were offered hot wine a few times in the last few days, thanks, but no thank you!

We were streeting, when we heard some singing in a church, Sis. Whittaker peeped through the key hole and there were so many people inside one of the beautiful cathedrals listening to the music. We went inside and met so many cool people! There was this one girl with bright red hair that we both felt so strongly that we needed to talk to. We asked her all about the church and the choir, she was so so nice and soon we were talking about Jesus Christ and Christmas. There was a mass about to start, so she asked for our card and we had to split up, but I know that it’s going to go somewhere. I know it sounds crazy, cuz we have no way of contacting her, but we’re praying that we will cross paths with her again. I love finding people in ways like that! Missionary work is sooo much more than just tracting, it is so amazing to just have a feeling to go down a street, or talk to a certain person and see the results from it!

Just feeling so incredibly blessed right now and am so lucky to be a missionary!

Love you so so much!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Sister Schnoor

November 25th, 2014

Heyyy!!

Well, we got transfer calls this morning.....and I’m going to Győr! Everyone has amazing things to say about the new city and I’m stoked!

It’s in Northwest Hungary and halfway between Budapest and Vienna!

The Gy in Győr is the hardest sound for me to say lol, so it will be good practice living there! This will be my fourth city in four transfers! I’m going senior and opening up the city for sisters, so I’m a little nervous, but really excited! I’m going with ANOTHER sister named Whittaker! haha This time spelled with two t’s! She is an absolute sweetheart and I’m super excited to be serving with her!

Our week was really good, we had a lot of really neat experiences! I had a guy call me last time I was emailing and asked if we could meet to share the Finding Happiness DVD. We met with him, taught him the entire restoration, explained the Book of Mormon, shared Moroni’s promised and taught him all about prophets. He was pretty quiet, but he said it all makes sense and it “feels right.” I was a little worried after, as that was a TON of information to take in and I didn’t want it to be too much, but he thanked us, and he came to church that week!! I was so happy to see him there! It was such a great church meeting too! Talked about love, faith, repentance and forgiveness, it was so great! He had great questions at the end and we met with him again yesterday! We taught him about the plan of salvation and at the end he agreed to pray to receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. I am so excited for him and know he will get his answer, if he prays in faith.

It’s for sure one of the hardest parts of my mission is leaving all of the people that I love so much here! It’s just so hard leaving all of our investigators that I’ve gotten so close with.

Missionary work is hard, but I can do it and I love it, but saying goodbye to all of these people that I’ve come to love so much and honestly not knowing if I will ever see them again, is breaking my heart!

I love Székesfehérvár so much! I know that Heavenly Father needs me in the next area, and that there are other people waiting for me, but it’s still so hard to say goodbye! I know that it’s according to God's plan and that I’m going to have an amazing experience in the next city!

I didn’t want to leave Debrecen, but I didn’t know what was waiting for me here, and now I don’t want to leave here!!

I honestly love these people with all of my heart. I don’t remember what it’s like to not have this huge place in my heart for these Hungarians. I was missing out on so much before my mission! Thank you for always supporting me and thank you for helping me come on my mission! It’s so much harder than I could have ever imagined, but it is also so much better than I could have ever imagined!!

I love you soooo much!! I have to go, but I’m going to be tough :) I’ll be fine and I am going to love the new place!

Have a great week!!

I love you so so soooo much!!

I’ll be writing you from Győr next week! J

xoxoxo

Sister Schnoor

November 17th, 2014

This week was so crazy and busy!!

On Tuesday, we went on splits! They came to our city and I got to be with Sister Jensen!! I miss that girl so much and it was so fun teaching with her again! I loved taking them to all of our lessons and having them meet all of the cool people that were meeting with! The next day, we went up with them on the train to Budapest for our interviews, then back to Székes for another couple of lessons! We didn’t want to end up in Veszprém again, so we asked a lot of people for help with the right trains! haha

We met a really cool guy named Marcell, who also was going to Székes. He jumped on right behind us and asked if he could sit with us in our car. He was sooo nice and speaks English, so that always makes it easier! He came to English class and we’re going to meet with him this week! So maybe last week we needed to get lost so this week we would ask directions from him! It’s amazing how the Lord puts people in our paths and how we meet them!

Our investigators are still doing great!! I wish I could tell you more about each of them. I can only write so much to be put online. We met with one of our progressing investigators, who sat us down and said that he has a big problem with the Book of Mormon. He turns to the last page and points to the barcode. He said that right there, that’s why I can’t ever believe this book! I thought he was joking at first, but he said that if it was from God, it would never have that on there and that they put barcodes on chocolate bars and pop, not on Bibles! Sooo that was a really interesting lesson! haha I’ve never had anyone mention that before! We had a really good talk explaining where the book came from and how what is taught and written in the Book of Mormon is from God, not the binding, cover and manufacturing, etc. He was still really firm by the end, but I hope our testimonies and explaining it more helped him understand!

Oh and that younger guy whose Dad is a preacher is doing so great too!! We taught the first part of the Restoration this week, and when we told him that God has given us prophets in the Bible times and he has also given us a living prophet today, he was so interested and told us that we don’t really need one today. He came up after English class and apologized about 6 different times, didn’t mean to be rude, hope we’re not upset with him etc. He is such a sweet heart! We weren’t upset in the slightest! We love hearing about what other people believe and sharing what we believe!

We had zone training in Dunaújváros this week too! It was so crazy going back to my greenie city! It brought back a ton of memories and it was so different how I felt at the beginning of my mission and how different I feel now. It sometimes doesn’t feel like you’re changing or progressing too much, but looking back to where I was then, I feel so different, but in a great way.

This week we had stake conference in Pest! It was so cool!!! There were over 600 people that came and they called a new Stake President. With the Elders, we had 5 investigators with us and 4 recent converts come on the train with us at 7 am. It felt like I was back in Canada when we all started singing together! They had amazing talks and I felt the spirit there so strong! I saw a few people from Dunaújváros and it was so fun talking with them! Most just said, “Oh! you speak Hungarian now?! haha Well I still don’t “speak”, but it’s so much better than when I was in Duna! I really couldn’t even communicate with them then, so it was so fun to really talk to them for the first time!

Well, that’s about all of my week! Next week is transfers, so I’ll be emailing on Tuesday! I feel like I’m starting to love it here too much, so I think I’m going to move to the next city! That’s one of the hardest things about missions is leaving the city that you come to love so much!

Hope you have a great week!

xoxo Sister Schnoor

November 11, 2014

Hey hey hey!!

This week was so great!!! We were so busy this week and it flew by! Oh, and we only got lost 5 times... haha we’re getting better! We taught over 20 lessons this week and found 4 new investigators! They are all under 30 and are so cool! We met with most of them twice this week and they have such great potential!! One of them took us out for hot chocolate. (He is the one I met when writing Emily last week!) He literally knew everyone we passed on the street and gave us three referrals on the way for English lessons. That was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had! He said he had to run after, has to meet with the Mayor! haha He seriously has connections all over the place! One of the nicest people I’ve ever met too! When we meet with people, we teach them half English and the other we talk about the Gospel. He was pretty closed off when we switched, but opened right up when we explained how the Book of Mormon is about Jesus Christ and how the Book of Mormon brings us closer to him. He is sooo busy, but I can’t wait to meet with him again!!

Another one of our new investigators cut our English time short and asked if we could switch to religion... uh, ya! haha of course! His Dad is a preacher, he bore his testimony to us and has such an amazing testimony and relationship with Jesus Christ. Everything that he told us, we believe as well, we bore testimony to him and the spirit was there so strong! When I asked when we could meet again he asked if we could meet tomorrow? He is soo cool!! hahah The next lesson I died laughing, I can’t even explain it, but I was going over the verb Lenni, so I was saying leszek, I will be, leszel, you will be etc., but I was going pretty fast and I looked up and his eyes are huge and he is so flustered and he is shaking his pen when he just points at me all of a sudden and just blurts out “SPEAK!! YOU!” hahah what?!? I died laughing! I know that doesn’t  even sound funny at all, but he is the sweetest guy and it was just so unexpected! We laughed for so long after!

So we went on the bus to go to Andréa’s and got off on the wrong stop, haha no suprise! We made it though and had a great lesson with her! On the way home, we jumped on the bus and it took off in the opposite direction of what we needed! Oh boy! We found a huge Tesco, it was so crazy, it felt like I was back in Canada! It was HUGE and felt like I was in a Walmart.. until I saw the tiny little stoves and washing machines! haha Then another day, we hopped on the bus, and it was packed!! We were touching people on all sides and couldn’t move! The bus went into a huge factory parking lot and half the bus got off, then one more factory stop and every single person got off... we were stoked to be the only ones on the bus, when it pulls over on some random road and the bus driver says “This is the end kids!” in Hungarian. Haha ooooh gosh! So, we were surrounded by factories and had no clue where we were and no way to get back to where we needed to be! Whitaker laughs so hard when anything like that happens, haha I love that girl so much! We called a member who works at a factory and they helped us back into town!

We asked the Broadhead’s (senior couple from Buda), to come out this week and teach a family history lesson! I was worried we wouldn’t have a good turn out, but we had over 20 people there! It was so great! We planned it the same time as English class, so most of them were loving hearing English and then the Hungarian translation right after. They did such a great job! I felt the spirit there and they were so interested in it! It was great that most of our “regulars” who we don’t meet with personally in English class showed a lot of interest. I can’t wait to follow up with them later and see if they would be interested in learning more!

A group of members are going to the temple tomorrow in Germany. They have to take a week off of work to go and it’s so expensive for them. It’s a huge sacrifice and they are such a great example to me!

Welllll I think that pretty much sums up my week! I wish I could go into to each lesson and tell you more about them all, or you could meet all of the people that we are meeting with!

This week, we’re going on splits, up to Budapest for interviews with President and then back to Dunaújváros, my greenie city for zone training! It’s going to be another busy week! :)

Hope you have a great week!

Love you so much!

xoxox