HUNGARY WELCOMES SISTER JOHNSON

Sister Johnson has arrived in Hungary!! 

The following are the welcome letter from the Budapest, Hungary Mission

and Tiffany's first letter home. 

Please write to Sister Johnson using the Hungary address

located on the right hand side of this blog. 

Please note, it takes about three weeks

for her to receive your letters.

Leaving the MTC bound for Hungary

Now THIS is a LONG flight...I'm going to sleep. Peace...Out!

 *** 

The following is the Letter and picture received from The Budapest, Hungary Mission upon Tiffany's arrival. 



Dear Parents of Sister Johnson,

It was our great pleasure to welcome your missionary, Sister Johnson, to the Hungary Budapest Mission this morning.  The spirit and bearing of an excellent missionary are evident in herdemeanor, and she is full of energy and enthusiasm for the Lord's work here.  We are very happy she is joining us in the mission field at this exciting time in the history of the Church in Hungary.

Attached are photos of Sister Johnson with her new trainer, as well as a photo of her with President and Sister Baughman.  We are taking good care of your missionary, and would like you to know that you can contact us at any time if questions or concerns arise.  May God's helping hand be with your family as Sister Johnson faithfully serves in this great work.

With love,
Elder Conklin
Office Secretary

President and Sister Baughman with Sister Johnson

October 17, 2011 

HELLLLLLLLLOOOOOOoOO!! Szervusztok!!!

Holy Guacamole! I'm in Hungary finally! This is crazy! I love it here! Our flight was really long. but it was good! I met some really nice people in the airports and our district drew lots of pictures and kept ourselves occupied on the long ride. I talked to quite a few people about the gospel, but i was too chicken to hand out any pass-along cards. I'll get'em on the way back in a year and a half though! haha

We made it to Budapest around 530 pm. or 1730 in military time. the president and his wife were there waiting for us after we picked up our luggage. The first Hungarian i spoke to was an older lady. I said hello when we were waiting for our luggage. She asked where i was from, so i said i was from america, and that i didn't speak the language very well yet. She was so nice to me, and made sure to speak slowly and help me with words i didn't understand. It instantly helped me feel more comfortable with speaking to people here, and helped me have a greater love for everyone i'm going to meet. 

Well anyways, we went with pres. and sister baughman and the assistants to the mission home where we ate dinner and got acquainted with everyone. Sister Baughman made us a lovely dinner and it was great after all the airplane food and MTC meals we had been eating. After dinner the Assistants (Elder Lundeen and Elder Davis) took us all around to see the city! We went first to heroes square. it was amazing because the weather was perfect and it was night time so everything was lit up so nice. i am amazed at some of the architecture and monuments they have here! it is such a beautiful country. I walked around saying hello to all the Hungarians. I was too nervous to handout books of mormon... but i did ask lots of people how they were doing so i could practice some Hungarian. Most everyone was really nice to me. Many people here normally keep to themselves though so i think lots of them were caught off guard. We also went up to Gellért Hegy and saw the statue of the lady holding the fig leaf.. at least i think its a fig leaf.. i'm not totally sure. But the view was amazing! 

We spent the night in the mission home and ate breakfast with everyone again in the morning. After breakfast we went out for our first streeting practice! it was a little intimidating. but went well. We handed out a few pass-along cards and got one person's number. 

AND THEN... we had the meeting were we received our assignments. I was so excited to meet my companion and find out where i would be serving. We knew 2 of the sisters would be staying in Budapest and 2 would be going to other places on the eastern and southern parts of the country. Everyone went around and introduced themselves. There are actually 2 other sister Johnsons here! i thought that was kind of funny. But finally it was my turn and i was called to serve with Sister Heather Johnson in Békéscsaba!!! its a really tiny city in the  south eastern part of the country. After we recieved our assignments i grabbed my bags and we took a LONG train ride to Békéscsaba. it took us about 2 and a half hours to get here. and my companion surprised me with an appointment already set up for the night! we were running late and my bags were super heavy when we finally got off the train, so we skipped taking my bags to our apartment and went strait to the branch house to meet with Marianna. Marianna is a member and she is so sweet! i've gotten to know her really well in just my first week here. I would say she is the glue that holds this branch together. We see her almost everyday here at the branch house and she comes with us to a lot of our appointments with investigators. i was nervous at first to meet a lot of the people here, but i have already come to love them so quickly. 

Right now we have quite a few investigators we are meeting with. The first investigator i taught was named Katalin. She invited us in and gave us both cookies and juice. This was her second lesson so she asked us a lot about what she had read in the book of mormon. She seems to be really accepting of everything and she has a lot of great questions. We wanted her to come with us to church this week but she normally works on sundays, so its going to be tough but we are going to try and find a way to commit her to keep the sabbath day holy. i wish i could write about everyone because they are all seriously amazing people! i am so touched by how genuine and real the people are here. They are so humble and so giving. They are sometimes closed off at first, but once you can break through their shell they are just the most loving, fun people you'll ever meet. Although, i have also met a lot that just instantly are so accepting and kind- i'm really grateful for that because its made me feel so much more instantly welcomed into the country. 

A few other investigators we have are Zsuzsa and Julcsi a mother and daughter. The mother comes to our english classes on thursdays. She asked for a book of mormon and came to conference last week. She recommended her daughter to meet with us for english lessons. So last thursday we met with her and helped her with her english. she actually speaks really well! she's 19 years old and is in school right now, she swims and actually is hoping to be in the Olympics next year! After our english lesson we always do a short gospel message- so we actually taught her the first. It was the first time i had taught the restoration and Joseph Smith to a real investigator, but it was so amazing. My companion explained about how we believe god is our heavenly father and then i talked about eternal families. She explained the apostacy and a little about Joseph Smith and then i recited to her the first vision. After the spirit was so strong- you could just feel it! she said she had never heard any of that before and she was interested in learning more. Her and her mother actually showed up at church yesterday! and we have another appointment to meet with them on wednesday! We're also teaching a lady named Klára, a mother and little girl named Fani and Gabi, a woman named Letti, a mother and daughter both named Marika and one Brother named Lászlo. László has been taking the lessons on and off since feb 2008! he believes the church is true and reads from the book of mormon everyday but is afraid to be baptized for some reason. We are working on it though. I hope he is baptised soon, our branch desperately needs priesthood holders!

Well, i am loving it here. We did get bikes. Everyone in the city here rides bikes. Except, i'm pretty sure we are the only ones who actually wear helmets! haha i haven't seen anyone else with one yet. Our apartment is great! and my companion sister Johnson is awesome! everyone here thinks its pretty funny that we have the same name. Békéscsaba is great! i was really excited when i was called to serve here because it is the first area one of our teachers Erickson Testvér served in. He told us all about the first day of his mission, so as i was going through my first day it almost felt like deja vu because i was reliving so much of what he told us. 

Well, i've got to get going we have lots to do today! love you all talk to you soon!

If you send me any letters i probably won't get them for about 3 weeks because they send them to the mission home which is pretty far away. So if there is anything i need to know faster than that you might want to email me. Well i love you all TONS''' i hope all is well   

i almost forgot. i despratly need pictures of our family to show the members here!! they can be from anytime. when i was young or old it doesn't really matter- maybe both. i don't have to be in all of them but i just need a couple or lots. :) maybe some of my baptism if you can find any. and it would be great if they were printed! thanks so much love you!

- Sister johnson 

Köszönöm!!! Szeretlek! 

Sok Szerettel,

Johnson Nővér

Sisters Johnson and Johnson