Diverse, but busy week....

Ok, so I am tired and I am not being able to move these pictures where I want them to go, so if you just want to look at them and see what they are, you can just do that and miss the rest of the fascinating dialogue at the end.


This is the real drawbridge beside what appears to be an old turret of the castle in Pecs. I hope it doesn't go up before I move.

Brent went up to the top of the turret. Those who know me well, understand why I did not go up.

Top of the turret looking out to the hill behind.

Here I am again, trying to get out of camera range.

Looking out over the city of Pecs.

This is Pecs on our way in to the city.

Brent had lots of office stuff to do this week and was pretty busy, however, I was not so......

I had washing and ironing to do and cleaning. So I inlisted some help from him to move carpets, and furniture and I got busy with cleaning and trying to shine the wood floors. They look much better, but still need to be sanded and re-varnished. I washed the curtains and they look better. We hung the carpets over the balcolny and tried to beat them; we certainly couldn't shake them. He did get his work done.

Another big deal is that we found some mattresses on sale and bought some for our bed. I am not sure that we sleep better, but it sure looks better and is much easier to make.

Thursday I cooked cookies and banana bread. We took some into the mission office when we went to pick up mail. Brent likes lots of bananas, but they spoil so fast that I make lots of bread and use it for various occasions. It is good that it freezes.

Friday we put things together for a trip to Pecs and Kaposvar.

Saturday we drove to Pecs and in the evening we decided to walk around the town centrum. They have just completed a multi year re-do and it is great. Cars are no longer allowed to drive around it; just walking. We enjoyed seeing the changes.

On the way was the wall around a church, which looked to me like a castle wall. We explored just a little. It was interesting. There seemed to be a carnival atomosphere on the church grounds so we walked over to see what was going on. There were lots of small booths stretching out for quite a way, as we walked through we discovered that it was wine tasting. We didn't stop.

We went to meet with the Branch Presidents and their clerks about how the financiall things were going and see if we could be of help to them in being prepared for the upcoming audits. It was good to meet with them and good for them to know us. Actually, we already knew them.

We were also invited to speak in both Pecs and Kaposvar. It was so good to meet old friends again. There is a man in the Pecs Branch who was in the branch presidency when we were here before, but was released. He was put back in today. That was nice. You know that I have a special affinity for him being there, as he is a quad in a wheelchair. they have built a special ramp for him to be able to sit in front. The missionaries are very helpful to him. He is a delightful gentleman.

I met again the little Meagan double. She doesn't look so much like Meg, but does act like her. I especially noticed when she was pouting with arms folded and face scrunched up. She told me after the meeting that if I needed a hug from Meagan, that she would give me for Meagan.

We then drove the beautiful route through the "mountains" to Kaposvar. There we met some people who we also know. The girl who translated for us had done so before. The clerk is a young married man who was baptized the first week we were in Budapest three years ago. I recall his baptism and recall his wife's, though we did not go to her baptism, but remember the confirmation. They now live in a little falu (village) just outside of Kaposvar.

There is another family who lives outside of Kaposvar who were coming into activity when we were here, and seem to be very active now. The two boys who were with them were so well behaved it was not real. After the meeting he came over to visit with us and wanted me to know that he has done family history on one of his lines back six generations. That is because I did a sunday school presentation on that when we were here before and he got so excited. I could tell as I was teaching (really a dog and pony show) that he would be into family history. One of the members is helping him with understanding the new program. It is good to see some progress being made in that branch.

We had one other piece of excitement. on Saturday. Dave had written about his experience with helping with the indoor football game between Kansas City and the Salt Lake Blaze. He had posted some pictures. We turned on the TV and Brent was tired of the news (the only thing in English) and he started turning stations and he said doesn't this look like Salt Lake...Zion's Bank. I looked at the pictures Dave sent and realized that it was the same two teams. We kept watching, and listening to the commentary all done in Hungarian, and finally we were able to identify Dave a number of times. We were so excited! Just little things make a difference. I also think that everyone should have orange pants. Right Dave? Nan actually watched three quarters of football so she could see Dave.

We are now back home and ready for the new week to come, with all the things that we need to accomplish.

And the Dancing Went On and On....

This week started off with a bang!! Whit Monday and everything was closed up tight, except for the tourist areas. They were booming!
We started the day off by taking the bus over to Pest and walking to St. Istvan Church to meet the Bagozzi's and Baughmans who walked over. Of course I wouldn't have walked it, and with Brent's toe he didn't want to walk it. We still walked a lot. On arriving we sat at an outdoor cafe and rested.

We left there and went over to Hero Square and to a big building (s) behind it by the zoo. There were all sorts of things to see.

We went into the farming museum and looked at the displays. When I saw this machine, my mind began to work overtime. Grandpa Clayson???? Realizing that a 10 year old boy could be the one on top pushing the hay/straw into the thresher. This was about the same. time period. I just wonder if they had these same things in England in the 1800's. Probably. Hmmm? Just a new thought on how it could have happened.

In the same building there was some kind of toy show going on. Of couse, the President couldn't pass that one up. It was ok but nothing special. There were tons of costumed people wandering all around, and wouldn't you know, Sister Bagozzi ran into one of her old boyfriends, so of course we had to take a picture.
By the time we finished there, we walked across a bridge over a man made lake so that we could sit down and have a cool lemonade.
Brent Gudgell and Wendy Bagozzi looking at the menu. See the lake in the background..
Below is one of the art forms in the water.
The view from our table.
Cute little flower along the way....
Or have I turned into an icecream cone....Note Mildred's purse. Wednesday and Thursday Brent did the office stuff he needed to do.

I baked apple pie bars.

Sometime on Thursday we discovered that our Office outlook didn't work. That is our connection to the Church and we were stymied. We thought we had done something wrong. Turns there was an upgrade and someone must have hurried too fast because we were down without the upgrade, or knowledge of it, as well as many others both in the mission here and in Frankfurt at the office.

After trying very hard to figure it out and talking to Elder McBride in Germany and not being able to get ahold of anyone who could really help us, we resolved to wait until Monday.

Wouldn't you know, we got on line on Saturday and the upgrade was on and we were working just fine.
On Wednesday we went over to Pest again, to a performance of the BYU group and some Hungarian dancers. I guess we just can't get enough of them.

Friday morning I used my time wisely and made more apple pie bars. Yummy!

They were for a purpose. Friday evening the BYU Folk Dancers gave a fireside in the Pest Chapel and we (Senior Sisters of Budapest) made the refreshments. There went the apple pie bars. Good thing.

I think they enjoyed the fireside and the refreshments.

This is one of the dancers. He is from Moldova and attending the business school at BYU. We really like him. His name is Ion. He is going to see his family when this trip is over and he is very excited about that. His sponsors at BYU are good friends with the Baughmans. Small world once again.

So what did we do on Saturday??? In reverse order of the day, we attended yet another dance festival with the following groups: BYU Folk Dancers (see the band in the background)

A group of chinese dancers. the red is the back of their costumes, the white the front. They were so beautiful and graceful. There was also a men's troup and they were a little more athletic, but sill graceful.

And the Hungarian dancers. In this picture the BYU dancers joined them at the end of their dance.

When we first arrived on Margit Island for the concert we met a missionary and her parents. The mother and daughter are face painters from Sandy Utah. The missionary used that as a contacting tool and would set up and paint faces, all the time talking about the church. I have some of their cards if anyone needs something like that for a girl or boy birthday party. Just a thought.
She painted her own face. Sorry it is a bit blurry. Cute girl, good missionary!

Saturday morning, we went with the Bagozzi's to Gellert Hill. This is the statue on the top of the hill. They call it "The Statue of Liberty" on one of the postcards we got. It is liberation, first from Germany, then from Communism.
The view from up here is magnificant. On one side of the hill there are lots of grassy areas. Somewhere along that area is where the country of Hungary was dedicated to the preaching of the Gospel.

This is a view blocked by a couple of tourists.

Today is Sunday and we went to church in Pest. Boy was the chapel full. The BYU dancers were all there as well as a group of the young people from Buda who have latched on to them

Our cute old landord and his mother were at church today and it was again so good to see them.

We have a couple of speaking assignments that have come our way, and we are excited to go to Pecs, Kaposvar and Debrecen to speak soon.

Love to you all.

A Stay At Home Week....

This has been a week to catch up on home stuff.
The most important thing to tell you is that finally the end has come to finishing up the sidewalk across the street. After the cement had dried for about a week, they came early one morning and tarred it. The tar contains lots of gravel. This has helped the traffic on our street. Early in the morning we have quite a bit of going to work traffic and busses coming about every five to ten minutes and with all the trucks and men working it was a mess.

At the bottom of the picture, which was taken from our balcony, is a yellow light that flashes when we open or closed our gate to the garage. It is automatic.
So most of the week was working in the office getting "our stuff" done. We did do a big grocery shopping because we didn't want to have too much fresh stuff in the fridge while we were gone.

We also needed to wash and clean house, etc. etc. etc. You all know how that goes. We bought a couple of new pillows to try out so we can get some more, in case of "company".

Wednesday was Sister Baughman's birthday, so several of us went to dinner on Friday evening. It was very pleasant. After we all played dominoes. It is great fun.

The highlight of the week was being asked to help feed the....are you all ready for this....the

Drum roll, please....

BYU Folk Dancers.

We actually went while the CES was having the graduation program from Institute/Seminary. That made it so we could see lots of old friends. It was nice.

I have to tell you a funny.....Following the graduation, they brought in Pizza for everyone. They had a blessing on the food. I was standing by two young men both dressed in white shirts. I thought they were both missionaries. In the middle of the prayer the one closest to me started to laugh. Now like a good senior missionary, I poked him. When it was over he turned to apologize to me. Now you must realize that I didn't understand much more than the opening and closing of the prayer. He was not a missionary. I am just a tad embarrassed. He went on to tell me that the person said in the prayer, "Please bless Brother ____ who always brings us pizza." It is true, he always does being pizza.
After doing what little we could do before, we were able to go into the program that the folk dancers put on. We were first entertained by a band. I tried to get a good shot of the Bass. For Drew, of course. The fiddlers were really good too.
There were lots of people there. This is the wife and father of the Budapest Stake Patriarch, Brother Houck. The father is 90, and was treated quite royally. He enjoy the whole show.

Cowboys and girls dancing. Love the patchwork designs on their skirts.

The guy with the TV camera is from one of the local TV stations doing a documentary on this event. He may be following them throughout the week that they are here.

Even the Stake President brought his whole family.

He has a 16 year old daughter. I promised her that we would see that Emily got to meet her so she would have a friend from the US. She reminds me a bit of Emily.

After the major program, the dancers took people out of the audience and taught them some dances. It was so fun to watch and it appeard that everyone had a great time.

This was learning to waltz. Some did better than others.

Just before this one the dance artistic director come over to us and said that we would be able to participate. I was so excited. Then they didn't pick me. Oh, woe is me.

This is a picture of the entire group. One of the boys is from Moldova and is not a member, but is a darling young man.

We fed them, cleaned up and went home.

Oh, I forgot about the other update. Brent's foot is still sore but doing well. He does keep it elevated and ices it. I think he will loose his nail, but otherwise looks good. The swelling is going down nicely.

All in all it was a pretty quiet week.

Love to you all.

Whoops

GRANDPA'S BIG RED TOE!! Ouch!

We attended a baptism last night. Following there was a nice dinner. When it was all over, Brent was helping to put tables away and lost control of the table and it went down on his toe.

Today it really hurts, so the prescription is keep it iced and up in the air.

It gave me time to fill the frame with a big picture of our whole family. So happy to have that up on the wall in the living room.

That is the big mid-week news.

The Hungary Gudgells were Roman-ing this week

No, we didn't go to Italy. We went to Romania, again.

The first of the week we were home, doing those things that one does at home; cook, clean, wash and iron, pack. Really uninteresting stuff, but very necessary. This gave us time to observe outside our street window. This project has been going on for several weeks. Yes, weeks. They dug trenches and we think they put pipes in. Then they filled the trench in. That all makes sense. Now it is time to get the sidewalk put back in shape for it to be walked, driven, and parked on.

Here they are pouring the cement. Don't want to get too much at a time, as only one person can smooth it out. I do think that Bubba should consider getting some overalls like these. We have seen them in many colors, including hot pink.
We headed out for Romania Thursday. We had the usual wait at the border to verify who and what we are. We are getting lots of stamps in our passports. Romania is very careful about checking people. Many other countries don't check. We have learned to have everything ready for them.

Much of Romania is so like Hungary, especially in the western part. However we saw some interesting housing being built in several places. They look like palaces. None were occupied, so we are not sure if they are apartments, offices, condos, or single family units. Those are red roofs, trimmed in silver metal.

As we moved along the roads, we discovered this truck and had to have a picture. He is carrying sheep hides. Last time we saw some very long-haired sheep. This could have been them.

Brian, I think he could learn some packing lessons from you.

Not long after the sheep truck, we could see that traffic was stopped. We were stopped about 45 minutes or more waiting. Lots of people turned around and went back, but since we would just have to retrace we stayed and waited. Apparently there were several accidents, but the big one was at the top of the hill. A police car was brought down on a trailer, and an ambulance came down. When we got to the top, they has doused the highway with something to lap up gasoline, we think. When we drove back over the road yesterday there was no sign of the little brown stuff they had put down.

Through the mountains it was very pretty, but we could see lots of clouds and knew that rain would be coming.

And here it is. Part of Romania used to be part of Hungary, including Transylvania. We had just seen a sign advertising Dracula's Castle and the storm hit. We didn't find the castle.

We stopped in Sibiu and spent the night and then traveled to Bucharest, which is farther east.

Bucharest is a big city with winding roads....not unlike Budapest. Driving is a bit of a challenge. They have some very agressive drivers. Most interesting. I won't tell you more, except to say Nan won't drive there.

The meeting went well. This was a district training meeting. The district president invited all of the members of the branch councils to attend. They had over 100 people there and considering they only have 7 branches in the district that is a very good turnout.

We sat through some of the other training. There was a general meeting for everyone. We can only guess what they said. They did a group roll play with one moderator and several people who would answer questions and make suggestions. It was interesting to try to tell what they were talking about. Then they broke out into smaller groups. Brent stayed with a Priesthood leaders group and I went to the Family History with Sister Patton, whose husband was teaching that section. They are the Office Couple in Bucharest and we met them the last trip when we were there. Brent and Nan did our training after lunch. It lasted about 1 1/2 hours and attended by about 40 people. It was supposed to be for Branch and District Presidency's, clerks, district Audit committee and auditors. I think more than that attended.

This was of interest to us. At first when we saw this on the hillside, we thought of the Hale Family and how they might think it interesting. Then as I was saying it out loud, I realized it was probably someone's version of the Hollywood sign. Most interesting.

I tried really hard to get pictures of these hay stacks and finally got one where you can see the stack. They are in many, many of the fields of the farmers and you will notice that they come to a point at the top. It is interesting to see them putting the hay on the stacks and building them just right. They put a pole in the top. I can only guess that is so they can find the stacks in the snow. Some of them would have plastic on the tops. You can guess that one. Some are lined up in a row and others are all over. Some in in the front yard right next to the house. Many people keep a cow or horse right in their yard. They will bring them out and tether them so they can eat the grass and won't run away.

When we came out of the first meeting in Bucharest, we saw a missionary just standing and looking at us. He said I know them, what are they doing here. It was Victor, the young man that came on the plane with us to Salt Lake City. He looks so good and the President says he is an outstanding missionary. He is a few months away from being released. We hope to be able to hear him speak. That was a highlight for us. We forgot to take a picture of Victor and he was not around at the end of our meeting.

This week will be just a little tamer for us. We are happy here and enjoying what we are doing.

We hope you, too, are happy in what you are doing.