The last Blog from Hungary...Can you believe it?

The City of Pecs from the mountain close by. The first city we travelled alone to visit. Almost the last one.

We went to Waffle Night one last time.

Adriane left for Nevada to work and go to school. Her last night too.

What a Cook!! At least he has a sense of style????

Elder Gudgell enjoys visiting with Elder Huggard from West Bountiful at Waffle Night.

Then we were off to do audits and inspect apartments for the weekend. Did a little speaking. It was wonderful to be able to say good-bye to people in Pecs and Kaposvar, but a little hard. We gave the plaque that Denese and Dan gave us for Christmas to a wonderful family in Pecs. I hope they enjoy it. They are the Szabakai Family; most incredible wonderful members of the Church.

A couple of apartment inspections.

Everytime someone comes into the office we pull out the camera and take pictures and say good bye. That is a tough one every day.

We found time to go to dinner with some of the missionaries in Pecs. That was a great adventure. After we went for ice cream. I think Ihave eaten more ice cream in the last few weeks than I have ever eaten in the whole time we have been here.

This is the theater in Pecs and that is me standing in front of it.

This is a new missionary who arrived from Hungary on Sunday. We have known him almost since we arrived here. It is difficult to have to call him Elder, instead of Richie. He is one of a lot of missionaries who have been called to serve; some in Hungary and some in England and Romnia and other places aroung the globe. It is wonderful to see second generation young men and women begin this great service.

We have loved this opportuntiy to be able to serve. We understand that our service is different than the young missionaries, but we do serve. We are so happy to see the growth of the Church that has occurred in the last few years. We pray it will continue. Thanks for taking the time to follow the fun things we have done while having this wonderful opportunity. We are excited to be able to be with our family and friends at home again, but will truly miss those we have left behind here. Thanks to those who have made this possible for us to do this.

Running fast, faster, fastest!!!

If you can read this, you can see that we are coming home pretty soon. The preparations have started, however, they are not completed by any means. Time is flying by and we only have our suitcases partly packed. It is lucky that we have two, we saturdays and a holiday so we can get something done.

We have been running so fast this last while it is unbelievable. I am going to try to catch you up a little with pictures and short messages. We have been receiving some wonderful messages from some of the great church members here in Hungary. They are so touching.

We attended a double baptism for two members in Tatabanya. I can't remember if we told you that or not. Sorry. It was a wonderful experience for us, as we have known the older lady for a year now, just waiting for her to be baptized. She is terriffic!

We have been able to spend some wonderful moments with the Baughmans. They are great friends, as well as great leaders. This mission will prosper under their guidance and leadership and every missionary who comes in contact with them will learn much from them.

We celebrated the President's birthday with, what....office ties. Anyone heard of that before?

We welcomed new missionaries in and took a picture of Elder Hecht and his twin brother. We had been waiting a long time to see if they looked alike, like their pictures did.

We bid farewell to some of our favorite groups of missionaries and got to participate with them in a dinner and testimony meeting the night before they left.

We spent a day with the Area Controller Brad Barlow. Just in case anyone wondered, he is doing a hard job in a very terrific manner. It was so good to see him in action. Along with Brad was Johannes Gutther (sp), who just happens to be the man who drove through snow at Christmas time to bring the very first copies of theBook of Mormon to Hungary. I was so excited to meet him.

We went with Brad to the castle. We love going there.

This is Brad Barlow and the Gudgells together in Hungary.

We went back to Debrecen last weekend and visited with some of our favorite people. This is Roberta and her mother.

We also went to Nyireghaza and had a wonderful dinner with some of our missionaries. Then Sunday we went back to Debrecen and spoke in church and had a real Hungarian dinner with Misi and his family.

Then on Tuesday this week we greeted the new senior missionaries and went with them to dinner, even though they were really tired. We have spent the rest of this week working to get the Garners trained and trying to get a number of things accomplished in giving them a few experiences of Hungary. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time. They will have to do a few things on their own. They are all great and very willing workers; ready to go at it.

After having a very wonderful Hungarian meal and a lovely sidewalk cafe in Pest on Tuesday evening, on Wednesday we took them to the Mexican restaurant, to get a little more of a cultrual experience.





It is beginning to feel very surreal. We are happy to be coming home, but part of us wishes we could stay a while longer and get to know the Garners and the Haslems just a little better. We are sure they will have a great experience here. We will be missing our association with so many people across the country.

Today is August of 2009....

This week has gone by very fast. We have had so much to do. I can also tell you that this weekend isn't nearly as exciting as last week end. Not nearly as great company. However, this is the first weekend that we have been home for so long, that we decided it was time to do a little cleaning and packing and tossing....big time.







Brent says that the week has been a boring week. Not that we haven't worked hard, because we have. Brent was able to finally make some headway with LURBS. I have been trying to keep up and write a detailed job description for Sister Garner. I am hoping that it will make some things a little easier as she has to do things for the first few times without anyone there to show her how, or to ask questions. The President wanted to borrow my book of instructions, and still has it. I am going to have to ask him for it so I can keep working on it.



Just a few missionaries hanging around the office.




We realize that we really don't have much time to train the Garners , as the first week they are here they will arrive on Tuesday in the evening....very tired. Then we will have an orientation day with Garners and Haslems on Wednesday. Thursday will be our zone conference. Friday and then it is P day. The following week we have a National Holiday the airplane one at the Duna. So there goes another day. We are going to have to talk fast to them. I hope they are quick studies. Luckily they are learning the new and the old program for the operating program for missionaries. That is really good. I hope that will help us when telling them all we need to tell them.






This week I did get to run away with Sister Baughman to go to Metro to shop. Metro is like Costco. I found V8 and bought some. We loved it.






Saturday was washing day. Fortunately it is hot and we had a couple of fans going and the windows open and so I was able to do five loads of wash and will be able to put everything away tonight.



I really think the biggest excitment was that we had a conference call with Germany and England on Thursday. It was with the Stake President and one of his counselors. Unfortunately, they didn't get on (the Stake) until there was 15 minutes left to talk. This was at 9:45 at night. We were able to talk about things with the folks in Germany and England. We were so tired on Friday neither of us could keep our eyes open.

We went to Tatabanya for a baptism. It was wonderful and we are so glad to get to say good bye to our good friends there. Rose cried when she learned we were going home. I promised to send her a picture of all my grandchildren. Get ready kids. We met at a swimming pool and was it ever hot!!! I ended up paying for the rental. I guess if I don't get it back, it won't be the end of the world.

Well it is Tuesday night and I am just getting this finished. I am rather tired so It will just have to be. This is Transfer Week and it is crazy from here on out. We will catch you all up soon.

The temperature has finally been pretty steadily hot, but not as hot as last year. I keep wondering what happened to global warming? Guess we should call Al Gore. Didn't he invent it.