Naegle Nover: Off to Buda! January 27th

I am really, really excited. I feel like I am coming full circle and going to the graveyard of the whales to die. It's totally what I would have chosen for my final place. It's the transfer call that I wanted. I actually have a bunch of friends serving there which is good and bad. I am a little nervous because some of them are a bit judgy and I don't want them to look down on my Hungarian but whatever. I will be serving with Sister Dinehart who I served with in the MTC and Elder Anderson from the MTC will be there too. Elder Gaytán who I served with in Érd will be there and maybe other people I know too. I will be close to Kispest so I hope I get to see some people from my first area.

So here's the story of my transfer call:

I have always wanted to serve in Buda from the very earliest days of being in the country. Every time I am there I am so happy and I have always had a feeling that I would serve there. Right now the only sisters that serve there are Sister Training Leaders and that actually upped my chances of serving there because there are only four sisters in my group. When Sister Kovács leaves tomorrow we will be the oldest sisters in the mission. Sooo I kind of thought that I might go there during this transfer. Then my comp started saying she felt like she was getting transferred and since there are some men here that really like her I thought maybe she would and I would have to stay here until I died and I was really sad. But I am friends with one of the AP's and so I asked the elders to ask him what was going on and since elders are lame they pretty much tell them everything that will happen and the AP told the elders that I was probably on my way out but that I would like my call. Last transfer he actually called me to basically tell me what was going to happen and when I talked to him then I mentioned Buda so this time when he told the elders I would like my area I thought for sure I was going to Buda. So for the past two days I was pretty sure I was going there but obviously I couldn't know for sure and I was a little stressed because I really wanted to go there. And then I kept finding myself praying to go to Buda (if it was the Lord's will). So sure enough this morning President told me I was going to Buda and I was all happy. Then I found out that up until last night or this morning they had been planning to send me to Tatabánya which is a not-the-best-place-to-serve city to be a sister training leader there. [Normally the two STL companionships are in Buda and Pest but a few weeks ago the Pest sisters got emergency-transferred to Tatabánya because they got attacked by one of their investigators.] But apparently the AP was reading through an old roster for some random reason and saw that the other sister who is going to be a new STL already served with Sis. Dinehart so they switched us and I am now going to serve in Buda. It was so last minute that when I talked to Elder Gonzales this morning he congratulated me and started talking to me about Tatabánya and since I thought he was messing around I was a little short with him and he called the AP and found out what happened.

Hermana Naegle: Miguel Ángel se bautizó!!! January 26th

Miguel Angel got baptised on saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was pretty awesome. We woke up on saturday and rushed to the tianguis (the Street market that only shows up once a week on saturdays) to look for white pants. we searched high and low but we couldn't find anything. then as we were returning a bit defeated and rather worried about what we were going to do we decided to look in another stand. The lady asked us ''you're hermanas verdad?'' we told her that we were indeed sisters. She told us that her daughter is also a missionary and that her other daughter is a return missionary. Turns out that she's a member but lives in Tepic (a little bit far). W told her that we were looking for white pants for a baptism and she jumped right to it. She went off looking and in in like two minutes returned with white pants and she gave them to us for free! She actually paid the other lady for them. SO we returned home joyful for the miracle. Then we went to fill up the baptismal font (at like 3 o'clock the baptism was at 6) Then we went in search of the one to be baptised because unfortunately we still had rather a lot to teach him (due to the fact that he wasn't around the whole week before his baptism to teach him). But we couldn't find him!  turns out he had gone with his grandma to find a white shirt for his baptism. So his mom said that he would call him and send him over to the church.Well he didn't show up for like 2 hours and when he finally showed up we taught him everything that he needed in like 40 minutes. Luckily it wasn't anything big like the word of wisdom or law of chastity just little things like obedience and obey and honor the law f the land. The good thing is that he's extremely intelligent. Then we realized that we had forgotten the video we were going to play so we rushed to the house. Grabbed the video and then rushed back. Then we started everything and it all went very smoothly until after the ordinance when we tried to put the video on. At first we only had one extension cord so we couldn't plug in the dvd player. Then we had everyone move their seats so we could plug them both in. But then the remote control player didn't work so we couldn't change the language. So then we tried another disc but it wasn't compatible with the dvd player. So then we put the first disc in and played it in english and Elder Russel translated the whole thing. it was kind of funny. But by that time Miguel Angel had returned so there wasn't really any point to playing the video but we did it anyways. Then the branch president disappeared who was supposed to give the ward welcome speech and so the ward mission leader improvised and hwil he was improvising the branch president appeared again and then gave his speech. So the whole thing was twice as long as it should have been but it was good!

Well that's all I have time for!

Love you all!

Hermana Naegle

ps I would send pictures but I can't upload them for some reason here in san blas so you'll all have to wait to see them.

Hermana Naegle: San Blas 2!!! January 19th

Alright so I have now spent a week in my new area after president surprised us with special transfers (cambios especiales) and I LOVE it even thought its super hot! So Grandma Gleason this is for you: I'm not in the state of Jalisco. I'm now in the state of Narayit, it's more south. I'm in a tiny tiny tiny tiny town called San Blas its a little bit of a tourist attraction because we're pretty close to the beach. We're in a tiny little branch in a tiny little town where everyone knows everyone.

Everyone here its seafood. The other day a sister gave us some uncooked slimy clamish creatures to eat.... they weren't that bad if you didn't chew them but they looked like eyeballs. We've eaten a lot of ceviche de pescado.... ceviche is a type of salad that you eat with tostadas there are many different types what they give us here is made of fish. I really like ceviche in all its forms.

We have quite a few investigators here.  yesterday we had 10 in investigators come to church and 14 less active members. My companion says thats normal here. In total about 90 people showed up. We're set up to have baptisms next week and the week that follows. I'll send you pictures :)

We have a new investigator named Irma. She's amazing! She owns a little store on our street and the missionaries have talked to her before but she hasn't wanted to listen, but we decided to teach her and she's just gobbled it up. She's reading the book of mormon right now, she's in 1 Nephi 3 She said that she reread it all twice because she wants to make sure she understands it well. she's so cute because she wraps it up in a little bag so that it doesn't get dirty. She also loved the pamphlet about the restoration. We're working on getting her to come to church. she says that she wants a little more time before she comes. But I'm hoping that we can teach her in the chapel this week instead of in her store because we always get interrupted by customers. Keep her in your prayers.

The only bad thing about San Blas is that there are a lot of wild men and i've never gotten cat called at so much in my whole mission as I have here. But as long as they keep their distance then there's not really a problem.

My companion is Sister Bazan. She's really cool. She's from mexico but her mom is from Spain. She's really pretty.

Well I need to buy my last pair of shoes for the mission. The only ones I have are falling apart and there are holes in the bottom. I'm thinking about getting some cute little sturdy boots I saw the other day since there is so much dust.

Also if they don't send me somewhere else in these next transfers I'm pretty sure I'll end my mission here in tiny little San blas :) how weird. Maybe I just won't come home and stay here and become a fisherman and make ceviche de pescado todos los días. The sure thing is that I can't stay with sister Bazan because we only have 2 transfers left after this one because we go home the same day. So either they would leave us here together for 2 transfers and send one of us to spend only 6 weeks somewhere else which would be pointless. Or send one of us to another area this next transfer which would make a lot more sense. So we'll see what happens it'll be interesting.   Because we both can't leave the same day because the new missionaries wouldn't know anything about the area.

Well I love you all!

Sister Negli. (this is how I tell people to say my name spelling it like this).

Naegle Nover: quick update January 19th

Gabi is back and her baptismal date is moved to later in February. Our other investigators are doing well but no dramatic changes. Laci from Kispest is baptized!!! I couldn't go but President let him send me a letter and I was able to write him one as well. I heard it went really well and he is doing so great! Excited for his new life.

We're doing great here in Nyíregyháza. Just lovin' the missionary life and Hungary. I really love this place and these people a lot. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week. God bless!

Naegle nővér

Hermana Naegle: Hello All! transfers! again......January 12th

So I spent a week in Moctezuma (grandma its like the equivalent to  South Jordan in the Salt Lake Valley.. Imagine that the whole valley is the city Guadalajara and that the tiny little city if south Jordan is Moctezuma)

And now they are sending me to San Blas in Santiago! Im going to die of heat.. its hotter there than in Vallarta. Hopeful because we are in January it won't be too hot but who knows I'll let you know next week when IU've spent some time there. Right now I'm waiting for my new companion to arrive hopefully she gets here soon because I'm really bored.

I gave my fist talk as a missionary on sunday. It was about how to find a testimony., It went really well. they asked me to speak for 15 minutes and I was afraid I only had like 8  minutes worth of material so I prayed really hard and I got up there and I kept talking and then all the sudden they told me my time was up and I had talked just a little bit too long hahahaha! so prayers are answered :) afterwards a lot of people told me that I have really good spanish so that made my day!

After church we went to visit a less active member and he was working! so I reprimanded him a little and very very very nicely. He said ''yeah...'' and looked sheepish then suddenly changed and went off the deep end and told me that I was a mormon fanatic and that we don't have to obey all the rules and that I shouldn't be so judgy and told me how so many bishops had given him permission and that they knew and other missionaries and a whole bunch of silly little ideas that he had. anyways I just gave him my really sad face and he stopped talking and later he felt bad and kept complimenting me on my talk (he did go to church that day so that was oo...) and then he asked me to make him a list of scriptures in the bible that talk about the book of mormon. I told him I would. But he won't get it for a while because I'll be very far away in San Blas . Literally I think President is sending me to the farthest area in the mission.

We also taught a gay deaf teenager...... That was probably one of the most interesting lessons of my life. It was cool. The good thing is that he's never had a boyfriend hopefully he sticks to that.

We also might have bible bashed just a little with a christian. But it was really cool and no one was offended so I don't feel too bad about it. But the kid just wouldn't understand like literally he was choosing not to understand and everything was so clear I don't I've ever explained anything so clear. Anyways we washed ourselves of his unbelief. It was about prophets he didn't believe that God would call prophets after Jesus Christ. So I showed him in Revelations the prophecy about the two prophets who will preach in Jerusalem then be killed and then rise the third day. And the We showed him Amos 3:7 and Ezekiel 37:15-17 and some others but he just would not let himself believe. A bit sad but he's really nice. He also believes that the Bible IS the gospel so we don't need another book I told him that the gospel is something that you live and that the Bible is just a guide to live it and the the book of mormon is yet another more complete guide but he still wouldn't and kept saying the same things over and over. So we left.

anyways I love you all! the gospel is true and I so happy that I know the importance of obedience I don't care if that makes me a mormon fanatic! I'm proud to be a mormon! whooo! blessings! yes!

Keep reading the scriptures and praying! the best way to get a testimony of the gospel is by LIVING the gospel and then EXPERIENCING the blessings!!!!!

Also read Alma 5 its really good.

Love you!

Hermana Naegle

Naegle Nover: weekly letter...January 12th

Well, nothing too exciting to share this week, except for that Laci from Kispest getting baptized this week! I am so happy for him. It's crazy that a year ago tomorrow I came to Hungary and then within a couple of weeks we found him. Gabi got sick so she couldn't come to church and now she is traveling to Debrecen for possibly up to a month so we are moving her baptismal date to a later time. Other than that nothing too exciting happened. We went to teach Erika, the super cool mom of 3 kids, but she had forgotten we were coming and spent most of the time running around dealing with kid things, which I totally understand, although I was kind of bummed that we didn't get to teach much. We taught a family whose mom is a member but the dad isn't really interested. The son has some special needs and is the most guileless, adorable person ever. His sister is really cool too and we had fun teaching them the Plan of Salvation. Last Sunday night Dóra (active), the cousin of Rita (inactive) told us that Rita wanted to meet. I was really happy, because we've been trying to meet with Rita since I got here. We met and talked about the Plan of Salvation and she had a lot of questions and we set up to meet again. Unfortunately she cancelled the next meeting but hopefully we can keep working with her.

Anyway, hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Naegle nővér

Hermana Naegle: transfers....January 5th

So I got transferred to Moctezuma 1. its cool. i'm in the middle of the city still. I have now been in the three stakes of the city guadalajara that are in our mission. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen very often. I've spent more than 3/4 of my mission here in the city. That Ok with me I really like the city.

My new companion is cool. we're excited to work together. Although someone did rob 500 pesos from her that her parents deposited in her bank account. And it looks like it was the church that did it. because there is a transaction that says that the church of jesus christ of latter day saints made a transaction and pulled it out..... I'm not sure how... since we use different cards for the mission and a United States bank and she uses a Mexican bank. well I haven't met any of my investigators yet but next week I'll let you know whats going on. Weird. 

Anyways I Love You all sorry there isn't much more to tell. keep the Faith! The church is true! God loves us and wants the best for us! just keep obeying the commandments their there for our protection. 

Hermana Naegle

Naegle Nover: miracle, cont.......January 5th

So our Christmas miracle continues, with Gabi planning to be baptized on the 24th of January. We are so excited. We were worried because we know she drinks coffee but when we taught her the Word of Wisdom this morning she took it like a champ. There are some worries we have since she has no job and she told us at church that she has no money for food but then later that day she had found food so I don't know where she got it. The branch presidency said that we could provide some temporary assistance, but she declined for now. She has been without boots for a while, which is a very bad thing here and today she showed up to the lesson with boots. We were so excited because ever since we taught about prayer all three of us have been praying for her to get boots. We told her that if she had faith, prayed, and did what she could, the Lord would provide her with boots. And several days later, a friend gave her some hand-me-down boots, black with a low heel, just like she prayed for. It was really neat to see how God answered her prayer. I actually need to do the same thing, since my boots got leaky and yesterday I was trudging around in two squishy little puddles. :)

Anyway, gotta run but things are great. I love you all and hope you are having a wonderful start to your new year. God Bless!

Naegle nővér

Naegle Nover: Christmas Miracle Anyone??......January 2nd

Sooo we definitely had a Christmas miracle. The last couple of weeks our work just took an upturn and we've been really blessed. I haven't really had a chance to email much so I should probably catch you up. On the 17th we went to Budapest for the Christmas zone conference. We had the actual conference, during which I had to accompany for the hymns, and then afterwards a celebration. They put in a lot of effort to make it fun for us with games, a Christmas turkey dinner and they gave us all a nice little gift. We played white elephant. I brought a hot pink wig and Sister Steel (one of the senior sisters) got it. Haha! It was so fun. Later that week we went to a member named Judit's house and helped her a little and then shared a spiritual message with her. Heni was there and they gave us a referral from a Hungarian member who lives in Hawaii. (Later went to the address and the husband came out and was really grumpy with us at first but we held our ground a little bit and he said we could come back the next day. When we did, he was clearly surprised. Both times we tried to explain who we were and why we were there but he just didn't really understand. He talked to his wife and she said she didn't want to talk with us, but he tried to give us money, thinking we were going around collecting donations. We politely refused, and I think he felt the spirit because he got a lot nicer by the end and apologized for being kind of mean the day before.) It was really cool to get to know Judit. She joined the church and then served a mission. So cool. We also went to have dinner with the Elders at a less active's house. I am so excited to report that she is now active again. She's been coming to church and came to the Christmas party and read a poem and then gave a talk in church the next day. I am so happy because when I first came I thought she would never be active. The Christmas party was a success, and the next day at church was so great because a lot of people's inactive or non-member children showed up and a family that used to live here came to visit and everyone was just warm and happy. And Péter showed up (he's a recent convert that didn't come to church for a few weeks for some reason) so it was like everyone really let some hard feelings go to get to church for Christmas. That evening we looked up an old investigator and I had to sit and listen to her go off about how she was disappointed in the church members and she felt like they didn't want to be her friends, etc. etc. She admitted that she had never read the Book of Mormon really diligently, although she had investigated the church for several months. She wanted up back so we set up a time and when we went back so showed us the rest of her apartment and she is a big-time hoarder. It's pretty much ruining her life and the life of her only daughter that will keep in touch with her, since she's 14 and doesn't really have a choice. The mom herself admitted that her habit of buying things and never getting rid of them is a prison. Their apartment is chuck full. I feel so bad for them because she is just mentally ill. She has all these great ideas and so she keeps stuff to re-vamp it or re-use it. She is actually pretty talented but she is so overwhelmed by how much stuff there is that she can't bring herself to start. We told her we could help and she promptly sat down and got about 5 little projects (mending clothes) finished in fifteen minutes or so and she was really excited and asked if we could stop by for ten minutes every day to check up on her to see what she had accomplished. However, ever since then she hasn't really done anything. We give her little scriptures to read and she has a hard time doing that too. It's just a really sad situation. They are from Romania and they might lose their apartment. We just keep trying to work with them. The worst for me is seeing the daughter because she looks exactly like Mariah combined with Lizzy Elmer and I wish I could just take her away and give her a better life. Her mom loves her but she also says "we" a lot when she is talking about her own problems, and I have seen her wave her hand at the daughter as if she's not important at all. On a lighter note, we went a few days ago and the mom wasn't there so we figured we would take the opportunity to get to know the daughter (Johanna) and teach her. While we were talking, the mom came in with this guy who started speaking at us in really funny English saying "Where are you from? No, let me guess..New Jersey!" "No." "New York?!" "No." "New Orleans?!" "No." "Salt Lake City?!" "Yes!" His name is Steve (István) and I'm pretty sure he is crazy. He came in and started writing down all his contact information for us. He met with missionaries back in the day and Johanna and her mom had his old Book of Mormon because he is their landlord and he has a storage unit downstairs that they "organized" and they found his book and took it back up to the hoard. Then later when the missionaries came by they recognized it. So during all the mayhem of him showing up and us not really going on, his old book which they had been using was returned to him. We gave him a pass-along-card and he gave us his passport. So now I have Steve's passport in my possession. Don't worry, it's expired. But the next time someone checks my passport, I am going to be very tempted to give them Steves'. Unfortunately he has consistenly tried to contact us with interesting text messages (including this one: "Hey. Im sorry no text messages 3 hour. Oh please a momment.IM BELIEVE A JESUS.OKAYS IM A SAD MY DAD AND MY MAM DIED. MA HEART A BIG SAD. SORRY. HAPPY NEW YEAR SISTER <3 FROM STEVE") and phone calls so we will place him in the care of the elders.

Now I must tell the tale of three suicidal people. One texted us to cancel our program saying that his wife took their two daughters and left and he thought he was going to commit suicide. We didn't know where he lived so we did everything we could to find him but without success and he wouldn't answer his phone calls. It was kind of dramatic and really sad but long story short we just try to pray for him and gave his number to the elders on the chance that he would pick up a different number. Another guy we streeted and set up with for the next day, to which he showed up drunk but told us that he was going to commit suicide the night before if we hadn't stopped him and talked to him. Unfortunately he later dogged and wouldn't answer his phone. Another lady we streeted was drunk and the side of her head was bleeding because someone hit her. We talked with her and she asked us how we knew that she wanted to kill herself. She kept kneeling down and crossing herself and asking us to bless her. She talked about how the devils were coming and she pointed at some people working in their yard and was really angray at them for working while we were talking about God. She said she was living in sin and that the guy hit her and we asked if we should call the police and she said no and that she was going to her daughters. We gave her a Book of Mormon and talked with her but she was kind of far gone. Before we figured out what to do, her bus came and she ran over and told us to come with her but we declined and went on to our appointment in the area. 

I am running out of time because we have to run to an appointment with Gabriella, who is the Christmas miracle that I was talking about at the beginning. There are so many stories and people I want to write about but I will just quickly write about her before I go. One day we were on our way to an appointment with László the drunk suicidal guy. On the way we ran into Gabi, who is a woman that the sisters have run into a lot just on the street. We even set up with her one time but she didn't come. This time she walked with us all the way to the branch house and we asked her if she could come back in an hour to meet. She said she could. So then she left and even though László never showed up a girl named Julia that we love from English class showed up with her Book of Mormon, even though we cancelled English class. Péter was there to help us with our program and so he just stayed and we had a little angolóra/gospel discussion with her. They hit it off pretty well (I secretly hope she converts and they get married some day) and she opened up to us a lot. We have been trying to get her to meet with us for EVER and it was just a huge miracle. So then Gabi came and Péter stayed for that too and the lesson went really well. We invited her to church the next day and at first she said she probably wouldn't be able to and then Péter threw down and told her that if she wanted to come she could make it happen. Lo and behold after I came out of the bathroom the next morning at church (I had to run into the bathroom after this family from Debrecen showed up here to visit since they used to live here and I saw them and pretty much burst into tears) Péter came up all beaming to tell me that Gabi had come. So we've been meeting with her every day and she has prayed about the Book of Mormon and feels it is true. Now she is praying about a baptismal date. 

I have to run to go teach her now but I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and I will give you more updates next time. Love you all!

Naegle nővér

Naegle Nover: Christmas!.....December 26th

Hello everyone! I don!t have much time but I quickly wanted to email and wish you all a Merry Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve with the Vierneses, a senior couple who serves here. they were soon nice and made a beautiful turkey dinner and had home-made gingerbread houses for us to build and decorate. It was really fun. Then the next morning we got up really early and started Christmas. We opened presents and then did studies and went back to bed. I couldn`t sleep because I was so excited for skyping later so I got up and called my MTC companion Sister Erlandsson to wish her a Merry Christmas, and then I tried to sleep again. Then I cleaned out our bathtub since it had clogged up so we left draino in it overnight. Then we got ready and went over to the Vierneses` again and watched the Testaments in Hungarian and skyped.  After Skype we ate, studied Hungarian a little bit, and then played Uno. It was really fun. Anyway that was my Christmas and it was wonderful. I miss all of you but I am glad I am here. I have to run and go help Sister Viernes teach a piano lesson. I will write in more detail next week. Please pray for Erika, the mom of the family that we taught a few weeks ago. And for Eniko. We taught her today and she is adorable and ready to be baptized, just holding back.

Love,

Naegle nover

Hermana Naegle: Feliz navidad! prospero año y felicidad :).....December 22nd

Well I can't belive it but in four days I will be celebrating my second Christmas in mexico! whoo!

So real quick....we met a FAMILY and they are awesome! the dad is named Armando, he's a tattoo artist but he's alway felt like it was a bad thing and he doesn't want to do it. He's only kept it up because its how he pays the bills. He's scared to give it up but he feels like he's sinning and doesn't want to do it. So we are going to help him find a job through the Church's self sufficiency program. they have a lot of questions but they really want to listen and they are ready to ACT. so we haven't quite finished lesson one with them but we're planning to teach them in the church on tuesday where its a lot calmer. Anyways there's not much to report this week except that armando's wife Erica made us chile rellenos! they were delicious! and their pet parrot decided to perch on my back for about five minutes and he also bit my finger. it was cool. anyways keep them in your prayers! 

Oh we did have fun christmas party with our president and his wife. Siser Warburton and I were in the same group last year and they had us sing the same song. This year we did it a lot better but you'll have to wait and see it in four months when I'm home. thats too soon maybe I'll just stay here in mexico and never return....... 

Love you all and family mine make sure the computers is on at 5 pm christmas afternoon! so that we may speak face to computer to face. Love you all! have an excellent week and a very feliz Navidad :) 

Hermana Naegle