A Busy Weekend

April 24, 2010; Heather

We have had a very busy week end. Our Friday night activity in Pécs was a game night and we had 8 YSA attend. Maja, Mimi, and Zita provided delicious sütti -- cookies, and cake. Norm and I played Chicken Foot dominoes, while everyone else played a new Hungarian game that was way to complicated for us.

Saturday we prepared for our Mexican Fiesta in Kaposvár. Mimi came with us and was a great help. We hauled food, dishes utensils, the big electric fry pan, and our microwave. The Skoda was loaded to the hilt. When we arrived the Elders were waiting and helped us haul everything up the flight of stairs to the Branch House. We were a little nervous because President and Sister Baughman were going to join us for the evening. The Elders indicated that not many YSA were going to be there. But we had 9 attend plus Pres. and Sister Baughman and the Kellems who are teaching at the university in Kaposvár. We had a delightful evening and I had great help fron the Sisters. Vida and Kaare Gronnestad Skyped from Mexico and took their camera down to the beach. The day was perfect in Mazatlan. They even had a native Mexican tell us all about it in Spanish. It was a great addition to the festivities.

It was the Pécs Branch Conference today and Norm was called and sustained as the only counselor in the new Pécs Branch Presidency. Balázs Makkai is the new Branch President. He has been a member just over a year. He is a fine young man and I am sure he will rise to his responsibilities. Hay Elder is the new branch clerk which will help Norm with the language barrier. The Branch conference went well President and Sister Baughman both gave excellent talks. The presidents was a very direct and powerful talk on the important message the the Gospel has to offer to the world.

This evening we had our first Family home Evening with single parents. Again we depended on Hay Elder to translate for us. We had 2 delightful children and their mothers here. I think it went well. The kids had a good time any way and the treats were good, which according to Elder Bouck is the most important part of FHE. Our children always thought that was what FHE was about.

The only disappointment of the day was that we did not get to Skype our daughter, Sheryl, on her birthday. I am sure she had a great day. We thought of her often as there were 2 sisters in the Branch who had birthdays today as well. Norm is exhausted for the activities and the stress of the week end. He was up until one this morning printing out the program for the meetings today and is already feeling the effects of his new responsibilities..

Transfer Day in Hungary

April 15, 2010; Heather

Yesterday was transfer day again, time is flying by here in Hungary. We lost Elder Németh who went to join Elder Cheney up in the north east part of the country. We will miss his cheerful smile. Elder Recksiek traded places with Elder Golze, who had helped us get our visas while in the office. Elder Recksiek is the new secratary in the office. We will miss him and his multiple talents. Elder Hay's new companion is a Greeny, Elder Bouck from Texas.

Norm and I spent a few anxious minutes just before English class as all the students arrived and there were no Elders yet. We had visions of having to teach 3 English classes, which would have been a disaster. But just before class time the Elders came huffing and puffing , bag and baggage having run from the train station a few blocks away. We were so glad to see them we let them have 5 minutes to catch their breath before they did their teaching duties.

After teaching English to 30 or so students, the Elders had a Branch Mission meeting with the Elder's Quorum Pres. the Mission leader and Branch missionaries. I think they might have been able to go home and unpack by eight o'clock that night. They had a very long and exhausting day but they handled it with enthusiasm as always. They are awesome Elders. We are looking forward to getting to know Elders Golze and Bouck better and best of all -- we are not the Greenies any more.

Driving in Hungary

Norm Apr 12,2010. I read a U.S. news item a while back that indicated State , County and local governments in America were considering the increase in traffic fines to help compensate for budget shortfalls. I can tell you Hungary has had this figured out well in advance. This is a cash society and taxation doesn't work well. Not everyone can afford to buy a car and not everyone can afford to drive it if they had one. I have been asked on facebook what my attraction was to the Post Office? It is a beautiful building but that is not the attraction. It is where traffic fines are collected. I am proud to say, I am major contributor to the nation economy in this regard, Throughout the country a plethera of hidden cameras seem to lurk in the ditches, slither from behind road signs, hide in potholes or are comouflaged in cabbage rolls at the roadside stand. All taking pictures of my popular license plate. Soon I get a dear Norm letter sending me to the Post Office to pay my 30,000 forint donation. So if I don't drive and get speeding tickets (by the way, I'm the slowest guy on the highway) I'll save a bucket full of money....right? Wrong, for parking in a no parking zone in front of the branch house for 5 minutes......another 30,000 forint. 30,000 forint equals about $160.00 US. Our girls and boys in blue prowl the streets of Pecs in search of parking victims. They are armed with digital cameras and portable computers, earning their keep and fattening the town coffers.

The more we can keep the car hidden in the basement of our apartment the better. With the numerous little narrow one way streets, it is about a 3 km. drive to church with no place to park when we get there. To walk to church with our shortcuts, it is less than 1 km. and with gas at just under $7.00 a gallon that's a plus.

Otherwise driving in Hungary is pleasant. We have a new freeway that just opened up from Pecs to Budapest with rest stops and service plazas that would rival anything in North America, and I love the round-a-bouts. I also have to compliment the Hungarian drivers as very courteous. They are good on the yield to pedestrians and excellent on merging. I do however withhold any compliments to those driving taxi cabs, BMW's or Audi's. And Hungarian drivers are very friendly....always beeping their horns, flashing their lights and waving...well sort of waving.

You see on the roads just about any model of car you would see in North America plus a few others such as Renault and Citreon. I did see a vintage three wheeled Messersmitt one day as well as a Farrari and a Maserati. Suberbans, Explorers and pick up trucks that we are used to in Wyoming are almost non-existant. The mission car that we drive ( the one that loves to get tickets) is a Scoda Fabia. Quite an adequate little car actually as long as you remember to keep the hills behind you and not let one get in front of you.

A Tragic Piece of History in Budapest

April 6, 2010; Heather

Just 58 days before the Liberation of Budapest by the Russian Army, Nazi extremists took over the control of the city. The Jewish population in the city had been herded into a ghetto earlier while those in the countryside had been rounded up and sent to the death camps. The people in the ghetto had suffered a horrible winter with many dying of starvation and exposure.

The Nazis knew the war was lost but in their unrelenting hatred for the Jewish people, they spent their last 58 days in Budapest in a unmitigated reign of terror. Over 100,00 Jews who had survived the deprivations of winter were systematically slaughtered their bodies left piled all through the ghetto. One of the first tasks of those who liberated the city was to bury those victims. Many were buried in mass graves in the courtyard garden of the Great Synagogue in Budapest.

The Synagogue had been the symbol of the acceptance that the Jewish people had felt in Hungary. It was built in the mid 1800's with the help of non Jewish people in recognition of their support and patriotism for Hungary. In Hungary the Jews were free from many of the depredations they suffered in other near by countries. The building is magnificent and unique. But now it bears it's own part of the history of Holocaust tragedy.

In the courtyard there is a beautiful and symbolic monument to the victims of the Holocaust. It is a Menorah that is upside down and in the shape of a weeping willow tree with the name or number of a victim on each leaf. The hollow black stone tablets represent the Ten Commandments with the moral meaning of the commandments cut out by the actions of those responsible for the Holocaust. This memorial was sponsored by Tony Curtis who was Jewish and whose parents came from Hungary. In front of the tree there is a stone marker with the Hungarian word for "we remember" chiseled on it. It is important to remember these people and their history.

Senior Missionary "Sleepover" in Budapest

Apr 03 2010 Norm. Our Group. The Senior Missionaries of the Hungary Budapest Mission. Gary and Marilyn Baughman of Texas, Mission President. Kaye and Lynn Garner of Orem Utah serving in the office. Bruce and Karen Haslem of Cache Valley serving in Sopron. Larry and Barbara Williams of California serving in Debrecen. Faye Wade and Ruth Harris of Bountiful Utah serving in Budapest and ourselves serving in Pecs.

The Parliament in matchsticks no less. "Believe it...................!"

A morning tour of the Hungarian Parliament Building. A more magnificent buiding I cant imagine. Gold painted accent, gold leafing and gold plating everywhere..... and the building is huge. Picturesqe setting on the bank of the Danube River.

A great weekend with the senior missionaries of the Hungary Budapest Mission. Saturday afternoon was a culturally and religiously diverse experience. A visit to a Jewish Synagogue and Hungarian Jewish Memorial and Museum. After talking with some Harri Krishnas we toured a magnificent Roman Catholiic Cathedral. Spent the evening visiting and stayed up much beyond our normal bedtime playing Mexican Train dominoes.

Fiesta Labamba

Mar. 27,2010 Norm: They just kept on comin! We had anticipated and prepared for 10 or 12, but they just kept on coming. It was a great night, we loved it, the kids loved it and it will be a tough night to match. We ended up with 20 young adults. Twelve of which were potential investigators. It was a Mexican Fiesta night which started with a quiz game on Mexico followed by musical chairs to Mexican Hat Dance Mariachi Music. A big highlight of the evening was the Macarena. We took our laptop and played the music from a Youtube production and tapped it in to the Chapel sound system.....It was "muy grande". Heathers Tacos did a quick disappearing act and were very popular. Another highlight of the evening was receiving a Skype call from where else but Mexico. Thanks to our dear friends the Gronnestads who are awaiting visas for their call to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission. Kids were able to chat and see the country side of Mazatlan from their condo deck. This went over cool big time with the kids. The evening ended with the chaotic demise of our homemade pinata. We will do this activity in Kaposvár April 17th --hope it will be as successful there. Next week we have no activity because of Easter, but instead, we Senior Missionaries are getting together for our own get-together weekend in Budapest.

A Solemn Experience

March 23, 2010; Heather
Today we attended a funeral for the mother of one of the members of our Branch. It was a very somber occasion and very different from our funerals at home. We found our way to the very large cemetery in Pécs. It has a high wall all around it and inside the wall are several buildings used for services including a Catholic church. These buildings can be rented for the service but many families do not use them because of the expense. We found the Elders and the Church members waiting in the square in side the gate. As we waited the family arrived and a group of about 200 friends gathered. We are very fond of the young man, and we were glad to see that he had so much support from friends and members of the church.

He has been a member of the Church for about a year and is very devoted to the Gospel. He is a single Dad with 2 very sweet children and he obviously loves them very much. He was very devoted to his Mother as well and took very good care of her while she was ill. She died of lung cancer at 57.

After we had all gathered, the hearse arrived and we all slowly walked behind it to the grave site. Cremation is very common here partly because there is so little space in the old cemeteries. I think this was a family plot. It had a large stone slab the the funeral people lifted just enough to place the urn inside the grave. The slab was replaced and covered with lovely flower arrangements. Then we had a short service conducted by the Branch President. I am almost certain he read from Mosiah 11. I had used that scripture in my talk and I recognized some of the words about the Savior coming to earth and suffering pain and afflictions so that he could succor all of us who suffer here in this life. Then Elders Hay, Recksiek, Mason , and Németh along with Maja and Beatrix sang Nearer My God to Thee in Hungarian. Their song was lovely, so haunting in those surroundings. They sang acapella but there were some birds that could not resist joining in.

After the service, we all filed by to give our condolences to the family and place our flowers on the grave. The members of the church stayed after most people had gone and President Sabadkai dedicated the grave just as we do at home.

We had our cameras with us but we did not take any pictures even though we we told it was alright to do so. The occasion was too solemn and no one else was taking pictures, unlike our funerals where family members stay around and visit and take pictures of each other, the flowers etc. I am glad the day was pleasant for the service and that everything went well as our friend deserved.

Shopping at the Piac

Just a short 1km walk from our apartment is the local market. Good prices....Fun people.

Hair.....Maroon hair.....Purple hair.....Magenta hair. Then we come along...Silver hair and no hair.

Pigs feet...Pigs heads.....Turkey necks....Turkey feet. Yesterday there was a bin of Pigs tails.....Not today, the Elders must have beat us to it.

Pushing Norm's comfort zone

March 15 2010 Norm: Today is a national holiday. 1848 Revolution Day to remember the uprising against Austrian rule. Stores are closed. The Elders have put together a little celebration at the branch house at noon. Yesterday we spoke in Szolnok, a church unit 200km to the northeast. It is of interest to note the growth of this unit. Elder Hay, now serving with us here in Pécs, tells us that Szolnok was his first area some 20 months ago. At that time there was but a handful of members. At yesterdays meeting there were about 40. Next Sunday it will be officially made a branch. In fact Szolnok even have a missionary serving in the field. He is Elder Hays companion Elder Német, a great young man making a difference with his fellow countrymen. Still on the topic of growth we also learned that our neighboring Kaposvár Branch who have outgrown their little rented facility will soon be moving into a larger space formerly occupied by Citibank on a very pretty walking mall. We speak again next week in Kapasvár and again the week after in Szeged and Békéscsaba.

Had some fun with our last YSA activity. It was movie night. We showed the movie that you North Americans would remember as "8 Below". That play on words doesn't translate well. In Hungary it is called "Kutyahideg" which means (Dogs Cold). We could not resist serving Hot Dogs with Cold Dogs. Had 8 young adults, 2 were new investigators.
We have been struggling with an approach in starting a Young Adult Family Home Evening program. Putting the emphesiz on Home we have created and outfitted a living room (that used to be our bedroom) in our little apartment. We have in our branch a rather large group of single parents with small children who we feel need our help with their families. Their needs are very different from the regular Young Adults, so our plan is to hold two FHE nights per week in our home. We want to recruit the Elders to help us as well so as to cordinate their reactivation program with ours. Besides we need their language skills for the lessons.

Kaposvár YSA Night

March 8, 2010, Heather

We had a great Mini Olympic night with the young adults in Kaposvár Saturday, March 6. The Branch house there is quite small so we had to be creative, but Norm figured out a complex course that kept everyone on their toes. He had to ski and found it was not as easy as it looks. He just about took the knees out of his new suit. We didn't have chairs with casters either so we had the bob sled run using cardboard and brute strength. The girls finally figured out that they could go faster with two pushing. That was not quite in the rules but, hey, they were creative. We just about killed Elder Morgan. He was not feeling to well having eaten too many Hungarian dumplings at a program just before the evening's activities. After we had the brownies, we played a game of LDS Mafia and another guessing game. We think the evening was a success.

We did not leave Kaposvár until after nine pm. When we got home we found the the neighbors upstairs were having a party. The walls here are not sound proof in the least and we felt like we were in the middle of a party that did not quit until 7 in the morning. I do not know what Hungarians can talk about non stop for 12 hours.

That morning we met at the bus terminal to ride to Dunaüjváros to the Multi Branch conference. So it was another 2 hours of non stop Hungarian. We have got to learn the language so we can understand what is going on all around us. The conference was great. The missionaries sang several hymns for the prelude music and that really helped bring the Spirit. Elder Hay was in charge of that and did a great job. Maja translated for us and the talks by the two Mission Counselors were great, as were the testimonies given by several members. We enjoyed hearing President and Sister Baughman's talks on missionary miracles and the Book of Mormon. It was exciting to be in a regular chapel filled with Saints. At the end of the meeting all the women were given flowers, which was very nice. Then it was the ride home. We were exhausted. So for our P-day today we have caught up on chores and rest. We made plans for activities for the rest of the month and worked on the talks we have to give in 4 different places this month. We are glad to be anxiously engaged in the Lord's work here in Hungary.

Transfer Day

March 4, 2010: Heather

Wednesday March 3 was our second transfer day. We were sad to see Elder Cheney leave. He is a great missionary and we enjoyed working with him. He and Elder Recksiek were a great team. Elder Mason from South Jordan has joined us here in Pécs. He has been in Pest. We went to check the Cheney/Recksiek apartment before Elder Cheney left. I documented the state of the kitchen, which was immaculate. Their mothers would be proud of them as they had to do their dishes in the bathtub. Their kitchen hot water heater was not working. Elder Recksiek in now Senior companion and District Leader.

Sunday was a pleasant day so we went for a walk after dinner. Norm was taking pictures of potential building sights for a church house here. We will out grow the rented building here in the next year or so we hope. It was the first time I had done any walking other than to the Branch House. I was glad to get out and see green grass. There are some wonderful old buildings here and I am looking forward to getting out and taking pictures on our P-days.

I spend 2 to 3 hours a day working on Hungarian grammar until it gives me a headache. Hungarian has to be the most complex language ever. There are so many ways to say and write each verb and noun that I will never get to know them. Last night for our Hungarian lesson with Maja we translated a Relief Society Meeting survey to help determine the needs of the sisters here. It was nine sentences long and it took more than an hour to translate them. Then I came home and wrote it out using the Hungarian keyboard Elder Recksiek installed for me. It must have taken me 4 hours altogether to produce a 9 sentence survey. I just hope some of what I learned in the process will stick in my brain. I am NOT giving up.

Today I am going Visiting Teaching with Maja and Gabi. This will be Gabi's first Visiting Teaching experience as a new member of the Church. Tomorrow Norm and I will visit with Diana again. We will teach a brief lesson on eternal families. Of courses Elder Recksiek and Elder Mason will have to go with us to translate for us. Saturday we are going to have our first YSA activity in Kaposvár. We hope it will be as successful as the one we had here last Friday. We hope we are doing some good here we do love the people and the city.