Week 28: THREE ZONE CONFERENCES AND HELPING UKRAINIAN REFUGEES 🇺🇦

This week was go go go! We had 3 "in person" zone conferences. Our wonderful Mission President & his wife Sister Rucker wanted each zone conference to include a service project. There are about 25 missionaries in each zone. The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders had to plan each one, including all food, activities, and the service projects. These conferences have never been in person since my mission President and his wife started their mission during Covid. This was new for everyone.  Me, my companion and the zone leaders went to a giant store called METRO (like Costco) and we bought food to prepare for our zone. Usually the Senior couples would help, but they were on call to help refugees so they couldn't help make any of the food. 

You know how growing up you kind of just show up to youth activities and food is there? Tables are magically set up and the food appears before your eyes on lovely trays? I found out this week it does not work like that.

I stayed up until 12:00am cutting up raw pork shoulder and distributing it into crockpots. We woke up at 3:00am to check if they were cooking and make sure we weren't blowing fuses. We gave the other half of the meat to the elders and they carried it in a bag on the metro.. What a funny sight !😂 

 We also texted many many groups on Facebook to try to find an organized service opportunity for 25 adults. In the middle of all of this, we had to move apartments and plan 2 trainings for the conference. In the end, it was a HUGE success! 

Pulled pork sandwiches were magically coming out of the kitchen by the time missionaries arrived. The mission President and his wife were so impressed and asked us how we pulled it off so flawlessly.....not to mention that we also moved apartments at the same time 😁 My companion and I and the other Zone Leaders just smiled at each other.   When the other missionaries arrived, we got to play volleyball followed by a giant game of "Signs" and then had dinner. 

Following dinner we went to the service project. I am so so happy it worked out!  I found a group on Facebook called Migration Aid. It is a group that has a hostel that can house about 200 refugees, just women and children.

 We helped to unload a giant storage unit, organize donated items, build shelves, transport baby strollers and other cleaning tasks. We organized a little "store" type section of this building where refugees staying could come down and request items like flip-flops, floss, backpacks, sheets, deodorant or diapers.  Anything they needed, all had been donated. 

We just helped to organize it all. The other cool thing is that the missionaries who were serving in Ukraine (one speaks Ukrainian and the other speaks Russian) came to all zone conferences. They were both originally assigned to Ukraine, then to Adriatic south and started to learn Croatian, and now are permanently assigned to Hungary. They were able to speak to some of the refugees arriving. 

It was heartwarming to see the little kids excited to interact with people trying to speak their language. It was an amazing night and one of my favorite ways to do missionary work! My mission President even invited one of the coordinators to church...it was so cool to witness this, and so exciting if she comes. 

 The next day we had our spiritual portion of the conference and we gave a training about how no effort is wasted, as well as remembering temple and baptism covenants. The spirit was so strong and I felt so inspired! As soon as our zone conference ended, we drove off to the next one in a big bus with the APs and the other new missionaries from the Ukraine mission. We stared theirs with the spiritual section and had trainings about the beatitudes. It was lovely.

The next day on the metro on the way to their service project, I talked to a woman on the metro. I told her I liked her coat and we had a very natural conversation. I got her Facebook and guess what? She texted back and asked what makes us different from other Christians. She also asked if we had a different book! We have been communicating with her on facebook and we've had a wonderful conversation about God. I hope to meet up with her again in person this week. How many more people could we interact with and learn from if we just opened our mouths and said hello? That's what I learned from this interaction. We're all just living on the same planet, we all knew each other before this life, why do we all try to avoid each other? It's a funny thought. 

For the next zone's service project we helped with something similar, but at a restaurant. A man from England who lives in Budapest has a restaurant that he has turned into a rest spot for refugees. Here, they can find flights and figure out travel in a quiet room with donated computers. They can come and get free delicious hot soup from a man who owned a neighboring restaurant and decided to make and serve free soup. Another room is a room for kids where they can color and make crafts while their moms rest. 

People are so so kind and so giving! Everyone just coming together and sharing/combining their talents to help others. I wrote signs in Ukrainian (with help from the some of the Ukrainian girls of course.) At the end they all got soup from us and we sang "I am a child of God." One of the senior couples made a video of it. Here's the youtube link... 

The very last zone conference was in a city called Szeged. It was a 3 hour drive in the mini bus. Such a beautiful city. We actually didn't make it in time for their service project but they played board games with a group of lower functioning individuals. We heard it was an awesome experience. After their activity they came to the church and we did "speed dating" role plays. We were lined up in on two sides of a giant table and had to teach gospel topics ( switching each time) between Hungarian and English. It was awesome. The next day we had our spiritual section and also got to see a bit of the city as well as eat at an Indian restaurant with everyone. 

This week I was well filled PHYSICALLY, and even MORE filled SPIRITUALLY. On top of everything else that happened, we watched general conference! I know, (or am at least hoping) that you all already watched it so I will give you 3 of my favorite takeaways.

1. Forgiveness is one of the noblest gifts we can give one another. It has to begin in each of our personal lives before we can solve world wars or major crisis. 

2. Getting us to do nothing is one of satan's major tactics. Choose to do something. 

3. Music is such a powerful and important personal way for me to feel the spirit and share how I feel about this gospel.

If you read to this point, I'm very proud of you. Thank you for being interested in my life and the lessons I am learning in this small part of the world. I'm forever grateful to God for giving me experiences I never ever could have had without being a missionary. 

• also one last side note is that Z has a baptism date!!!!! She is from my last area Pápa and I am so so so stoked for her!! I think I will get to return to my city to attend her baptism!