More Summer Fun in Pécs

July 27, 2010; Heather: It is the last week in July and we have had a busy month. Great things are happening here in the Branch. We celebrated with Beatrix the night before she left to go to the Temple for the first time. She felt like a queen because she is one and is so thrilled to be able to go to the Temple.

Our youth Zita, Marci, and Veronika left for EFY in Germany Sunday night. The bus was 4 hours late picking them up from the Stake Center in Pest. That was a test of their patience and commitment to attend EFY. I am sure they slept all night on that bus.

July 23 we celebrated Pioneer Day with biscuits and baked beans. Elder Bouck was a great help in the tiny over-heated kitchen. I don't recommend baking biscuits at 450 degrees when it it almost 100 outside. We watched the movie Legacy, which many in the group had not seen before. pioneer stories are not as familiar here as at home. The Elders dutifully hid their eyes during the kissing scenes.

We started our YSA activities for July with a water balloon fight like we did in Kaposvár. We had a smaller group and only 2 Elders so things did not get as wild and wet here. The YSA had fun playing an impromptu volley ball game with a piece of tape for a net and a almost deflated pool balloon. We are so grateful that these kids are so easy to please and entertain. We consumed 4 water melons between the 2 groups and Hungarian water melons are home grown and delicious. This morning Elder Rollingson was up at 3:30 to pick up 4 of our dedicated YSA group to drive them to Budapest so they could catch a bus to Poland for a YSA conference. I hope the bus was not 4 hours late. So this last week in July will be very quiet here as most active members are either at the Temple in Frieburg, in Poland, Germany, or on vacation.

Summer Fun in Hungary

Kaposvár YSA very wet and much cooler pose for the group shot. The Zone leaders then drove home to Szeged in their sopping clothes and shoes grateful that it was a very hot night. Elder Rollingson and I drove home to our very hot apartment in Pécs and decided that spraying the sheets with a super soaker was the next best thing to AC. It worked until the sheets dried out!

There is only one way to deal with 100 degree temperatures when you are a missionary and that is to have a water balloon fight.

So on a hot July evening in the city park of Kaposvár, Elder Rollingson filled up 50 balloons and 2 super soakers and we turned the YSA and 6 Elders loose. The visiting Zone leaders in their white shirts and ties made perfect targets and they were bombed relentlessly. I have to say that they gave as good as they got and by the end of the evening there was not a dry YSA or Elder to be found.

Sign Trivia

Pass this restaurant every day on the walking mall. Have never eaten there for some reason. Food is probably very good. I wonder if he wonders why his International trade is just not what he hoped it to be.

This high budget sign tells us where to find the local tire shop. Yes Gumis means tires. A hardware store is called a "Csavars Bolt"
Csavar meaning screw and Bolt meaning shop. I have no idea what a Bolt shop is called.

On the Lighter Side

Hungarians will be the first to claim Albert Einstien as a Hungarian and I'm sure that many, many great minds came out of this country.

From there it was all down hill. It all started during a Family Home Evening, when Elder Bouck went flat on his butt.....when one of our recently purchase locally made plastic lawn chairs let him down so to speak. Now I thought this was great. I had something on Elder Bouck in which I could give him a bad time. However......chapter two came yesterday as I sat in the mate to Boucks chair waiting to give a Family Home Evening lesson on "Effective use of Humor" I could not have planned it better. It was a 95 degree day when the chair decided to do a giraffe drinking water imitation with legs spreading in different directions. Now I was on the floor.(Sorry no picture) Oh...... and W.C. users beware.....toilet seats are made from a very similar material.

Whats a guy to do.......... Got a free set of plans for a 30 foot building, but nobody told him he only had a 29 foot lot!

Kids got it figured out. Who needs Disneyland!

Family Home Evening Fun

It is funny, but the favorite game for FHE is the game we used to play with our children when they were young. It is blow the feather and everyone gets a kick out of seeing who can be the last person to blow the feather across the sheet. And one game is never enough. Sometimes we play Mexican Train or Uno. Norm gave a great lesson on friendship and we think the night was a great success with 2 non members present.

July 7, 2010; Heather

Monday night is our Family Home Evening night. We never know for sure how many we will have for dinner, the lesson and some fun. This past Monday we had 17 people altogether. It was Elder Gardenhire's last FHE as he has been transferred to Tatabanya where he will be the branch leader. He is a great Elder and we will miss him.

Largest contigient of graduates next to Hungary were the Americans

Rare Treat

July 6 , 2010 , Heather

Pécs is a noted university town with over 30,000 students attending various universities here. On Saturday the July 3rd, we had the rare treat of attending the Graduation Ceremonies of the Medical School of Pécs University. Our lovely friend , Karishma received her Doctorate of Medical Science, Cum Laud. The event was very dignified and traditional. There were over 125 students that received their certificates after more than 6 years of schooling. The students were from countries all over the world and their representative flags were carried in while everyone stood. The sight was very impressive. Another impressive thing was the number of young women that graduated. It seemed that about three fourths of the graduates were young women. We were pleased that Karishma invited us to see her receive such a well deserved diploma. Her parents could not be there but they are justifiably proud of their eldest daughter's achievements. She is a wonderful credit to them and their unfailing support of her desire to be a physician. We wish her the best of everything as she ventures out in the next phase of her career.

India Night at the Center for Young Adults, Pecs

Norm, June 26,2010

Before we can tell you about India Night,we have to introduce you to our new friend Karishma. Karishma is Hindu from South Africa. Her ancestry is from India. She has been a Medical Student here in Hungary for the last six years. This week she graduates with her Medical Degree. Her long term passion is in the field of pediatric heart surgery.

Without Karishma there would not have been a India Night. She was India Night.

Karishma heard about our Mexican Night through our dear friend and recent convert Gabriela.

She so wanted her homeland of India to have representation. So in excitement she volunteered to take take the project on.

After spending an entire day on meal preparation we were treated to a full course meal of Indian cuisine.....and yes including a little curry, topped off with a rice pudding desert.

Then the action started. Indian dancing instruction, complete with projected India production music video

We were pleasantly surprised. most of the young women donned their sarape's and eagerly joined the festivities.

And yes, the guys joined in as well.

Kashmira brought a fellow student friend Hanna as well. She is from Norway. Sister Rollingson

gives a brief first missionary discussion.

Including the Branch President and the Missionaries, 29 people attended. The Young adult members do such a great job of getting their non member friends involved. 16 were non members. Many of those are taking the missionary lessons or soon will be. We consider this

activity to be our most successful to date. Karishma....we could not have done it without you.

Pécs 2010- The Borderless City

Zone Conference with an Area Seventy

June 17, 2010; Heather
Yesterday day we drove to Budapest for our Zone conference. Zone conferences are always wonderful, motivating experiences. We gain so much from the enthusiasm of the young missionaries, just being with them is like a shot of adrenaline. We always have great training from President and Sister Baughman and the Assistants and we leave with renewed desire to serve better.

This Zone conference was particularly inspiring because Elder Caussé, First Councilor in the Europe Area Presidency, was there to give us additional training. He is originally from the south of France and has been a Seventy for 2 years. He is about the same age as our son in law, Steve Deyholos, who served in France. He taught us for nearly 4 hours with great power and wisdom. He used the Scriptures to help us find answers to the questions we had about missionary work. He also shared some personal stories that were very inspiring. One of the first questions he asked us was to think about the reasons we are serving as missionaries and what our service means to us. It was a very thought provoking question and the young missionaries gave many good answers. One of the points he made was for us to forget about ourselves and learn to focus on those we serve and serve them with unconditional and universal love. If we have confidence in the Savior miracles will happen. Elder Caussé was so kind as to let us take his picture with us.

We had a spiritual feast provided by the Baughman's and Elder Caussé. We also had a feast of great lasagna provided by Sisters Baughman, Garner, Wade and Harris! Norm was excited to have real lasagna! There is a great deal of work that goes into putting on a Zone conference!

Changing Faces

June 17, 2010; Heather. Changing Faces

We said good by to Elder Golze and welcomed Elders Gardenhire and Diamond. We miss Elder Golze's smile and piano talent!

Elder Gardenhire and Elder Diamond are from Utah. They are great Elders and we enjoy working with them.

We have a new Senior couple that just arrived from Meridian, Idaho, the Folsters. We were able to meet them briefly at Zone Conference yesterday. They are going to serve in Eger. We are looking forward to getting to know them soon and wish them well in their service.

It is always great to see the Garners and Sisters Wade and Harris and Elder Recksiek when we go to Budapest.

On Speaking Hungarian

June 7,2010 Norm.
Every morning at the crack of dawn, we have this pigeon (actually a dove) that somehow thinks it is related to a roaster and has the mandate to let us know that morning has come....NAGYON SZÉP!!....NAGYON SZÉP.....Now I have no objection to being told that its a beautiful day (thats the NAGYON SZÉP translation,) but what really gets my shorts in a knot is how this *@%#* pigeon creature with a brain no bigger than my ginko-biloba pill, speaks such good Hungarian. Mind you its speach is limited, but so is mine and I'm supposed to be of the supperior species.
We have been told that the Hungarian language has tribal origins and competes with Manderine as the toughest language to learn, but the pigeons can do it and you should hear the little children. Yet I am convinced that even the older adults are still learning as not two people can agree on what is really correct. They say 3-5% of Hungarians speak English. I would down grade that by saying that only 3-5% speak a little English. Fluent English speakers probably number less than 1%. Hungarian is spoken only in Hungary. My own experience in learning the language I refer to as "The Parable of the Sive"......learn two words and next day forget two words. Sorry Tim!
This last Sunday was my first opportunity to conduct the Sacrament Meeting. With the help of a cheat sheet, I was able to do so and bear testimony in Magyarul. I felt blessed when no one got up and left yet some snickered and rolled their eyes. Thats the beauty of them all being such good friends, and they all said such kind things . ........at least I think they said kind things!!
And as the pigeon says.............Have a NAGYON SZÉP day!!