Promoting the concert on the main square. Elder Galland (poster boy), Elder Bennion (on the euc), Elder Clark (on the Guitar)

Whould you believe....Frank Lloyd Weber.....sung by Sister Roderick in Magyarol

BOLDOGSÁGRA LELNI (Finding Happiness Concert)

What are the chances of having 2 beautiful talented young ladies such as this serving at the same time, in the same Mission. Jackie Bodily is an award winning concert pianist and Kimberly Roderick an accomplished singer. The are touring Hungary as part of their mission spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music.

This week we arranged for them to come for two performances, one in Kaposvar and the other in Pecs.
This photo was taken after the Pecs performance which was conducted in a very famous old building in Pecs called the Dominikánus Haz. Note the wall behind the stage. It is part of an old Roman Ruins. Elder Clark missed being in this photo, as you quessed it...he was busy in the back of the room doing missionary work.

After the performance we catch a quick snack at a very classy American Resturant.

Kyiv Ukraine Temple - Youth Cultural Celebration

Busójárás....Farewell to Winter

Norm: Mohács, about 36 km east of Pecs and next to the Croation border, boasts an annual spring festival of mythical origin of the Southern Slavs. The tradition features a folk custom celebrating the arrival of spring.

The Busójárás "Busó'-s" invade the town by crossing the Danube by boat from Mohács Island, then march through the town clanging their noisy rattles and bells.

Pages of the Busós dangle sacks filled with feathers, socks filled with sawdust and pouches of ashes. The throwing of ash on the unsuspected is a fertility magic right.

At the end of the festival, the bonfire (of old Christmas trees) on the main square is lit, and by dancing around it, the Busós bid farewell to winter.

The Battle of Mohács

Norm: The bones of Eighteen Thousand Soldiers and the Soul of the Hungarian Nation lie buried beneath this sod near Mohács. The battle is called the Battle of Mohács but it was fought several kilometers away at Sátorhely, where this Memorial Site is located.

 

Heather: On August 29th 1529 the Hungarian army of 18,000 led by King Louis II waited for the Turkish forces of Suleiman the Magnificent. Suleiman had arrived the day before after a long grueling march through swampy terrain with his army of 80 to 90,000. In a little over 2 hours the battle was over with 20 year old Louis II and his army dead on these fields. The dead were buried here by Dorottya Kanizsai the mistress of the castle of Siklós and her serfs in a common grave. The artistic wooden figures are tradtional Hungarian wooden crosses and Transylvanian headboards. There is a magnificent bronze gate at the entrance of the Site made with 28,000 rivits to represent the approximate number of soldiers killed that dreadful day. Unfortunately, the area around the gate was under construction and we could not get a good picture.

This fountain represents the nation of Hungary after that battle. The country was broken into three sections and lost its national independence from then until really just the late twentieth century. To the Hungarian soul "Mohács is the burial ground of our national greatness."
May better and greater things come to this wounded land and its heroic people.

Our Grandson in Peru

Elder Trevor Ricks is serving a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Peru Lima North Mission. He is currently assigned to the Zone Moyobamba in the Amazon Jungle and serves in a small 
                                      
village called Nueva Cajamarca. He is experiencing an adventure of a lifetime. It's kinda cool that our mission work parallels his at the same time but on opposite sides of the world.

Elder Ricks loves the work and shares with us some amazing experiences. The Amazon is his favorite area of his mission . 

Heather: The Elder have done an excellent job of job of giving spiritual messages at the beginning of our YSA activities Friday night. This one by Elders Bennion and Nielson involved Elders Clark and Galland and one of the YSA guys. Of course it was all in Hungarian so we don't really know what it was  about -- something like not worring about what other people say or think about you, just what Heavenly Father knows about you. They had fun doing it and we had fun watching.

These 3 cuties are Virág, Hanna, and Dalma and they were the cutest girls at the Farsang party. Norm had fun practicing his face painting skills. Farsang is the Hungarian winter carnival that is somewhat like our Halloween.

Here we are playing the wheels on the bus go round and round -- well not really -- it was a new game  called electricity! Domi and Niki came to the party and Domi was disappointed to tears that Kira and Hunor were not there! He  really liked playing Do You Love Your Neighbor though. 

Just to prove....We really are CANADIANS

Norm: Well...here we are....skating in Hungary. Got the pictures to prove it. We didn't break any records...but thank goodness we didn't break any bones either.

I can tell you one thing...These new fandangled skates they have these days don't know sweet fannie nothin about skating..... now why do you suppose that is?....I want my old ones back.......and I think their Zamboni must have been on the fritz as well.

Another thing we noticed. Got some strange looks. We were the oldest ones on the rink.........by about half a century. 

A Bennion Birthday

Managed to keep the smoke detectors from activating as Elder Bennion turns 21. He has just 3 weeks left to complete his mission in Hungary

Amazing day in Primary

She blew us all away. This little 4 yr. old was asked to give the opening prayer in primary and the Primary President was going to help her. They started out together, then with arms folded this little brown eyed princess took over, leaving the President speechless. It was a textbook prayer and you would not believe the magyarul. This was her second time in primary and the daughter of an investigator.

This little girl in the red dress loves to come to primary too. Her dad brings her and he too is an investigator.

Sister Szabadkai does marvelous participation activities with the children and they get right into it. The children are so quick to pick up the words and actions of any new song. We love the Primary. It is the high lite of our Sunday.

Primary President Benko Zsuzsanna looks on, as do the proud investigator parents from the lobby. Oh how the children steal our hearts and how the parents love to see their kids enjoying the spirit of Primary. What better testimony??