In Spite of the Heat.......

We have had a very busy and interesting week. We returned home to terrible heat on Tuesday and so Wednesday was catchup day. Brent took the car in for a check up. I did the wash at home. (I didn't want anyone to think that I would take it to the car place to do it.)

Thursday we were invited to go to Egar for lunch. We have a new couple who just arrived last week, Elder and Sister Scott, and they are assigned to Egar. They were there along with the couple they are replacing in Eger, Elder and Sister Folster. The Bagozzi's had to take some things to the Scotts , so we were invited along for the ride. We went to a Palacsinta (polly chinta) place for lunch. Palacsintas are crepes.

Couldn't resist the pics this time. Brent and I shared...

This is the Sombrero. Way good. You can see why we shared it.
This was our dessert....more reason to share one. Banana with vanilla pudding. Does it sound almost like Banana Cream Pie? Brent chose that one.

The next saga is the "clean up" for the week.

Beginning this week everyone was allowed to put stuff they didn't want out on the street. In front of our house...not too much stuff. Up the street from our house (from our balcolny) you can see a big pile. Ducking back into the trees is a girl hiding from the camera. She was the "guard" for that pile. There teams of people who guard the stuff. Some people are allowed to come and take the good stuff, but you better be part of their gang, or you get trouble.
These guys are taking the "good stuff" from in front of our house.
Next the city sends the trucks to pick up what is left.

Then the final clean up crew comes and finishes the job.

This is all done in just about four days in our neighborhood.

Friday was a wonderful day...really evening! The above are Sisters Baughman and Bagozzi in the kitchen getting the suti ready. I thought it was funny because they kept their purses on their shoulder.
This is just before Molnar Zsoltan was baptized. Brent and me, Zsolt, and his mother.

It was a wonderful baptism. There were two couples who have rented from him, the Gudgells, and the Bagozzi's who were there. I am sure in spirit the Dukelows and Garners were also there. He has rented the apartment to the church probably for nearly 10 years. The time was now right. We were so happy to be able to attend.

For the closing hymn, we sang "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning". Zolt sang the first verse in his beautiful bass voice and the rest of us helped with the other verses. It was dynamic!

Following the baptism the sisters who are serving/have served in that area and helped to teach Zsolt presented a beautiful concert. Zsolt also participated. It was a concert of Christ.

We cannot tell you how much it meant to us to be able to be there to participate in this great event. Zsolt is such a good person.

After we had suti (goodies). That is traditionally what we do. I made another pan of the delicious apple pie bars. I could eat those every day. It is lucky it takes a while to make them, or I might do it every day. Anne, the pastry blender make it so much easier.

Saturday morning we left early to be in Szombathely by 10:00.

Joe and Sylvia, these next few pictures are for you!!
For those of you who don't have a clue about this...Joe and Sylvia live in our ward at home and are from Szombathely and still have family there. The District President gave me permission to take the pictures of their family members who are still there.

Well, some of them. I think there should have been two more.
This is the District Clerk, the District President and the Assistant Area Auditor, after the work was done.

Then on to Slovenia. Slovenia is a beautiful country. Some of it makes you think you should be seeing princes riding on their white stallions to save the princesses.

We went to a town called Lesko. Our hotel is the dark roofed one in the front. Can you believe the backyard?

It appeared that one of the big employers in this town was Lesko Beer. There was a big factory just south of where we were staying and lots of signs advertising the beer.

After a night's rest, we drove about 10 minutes to a town called Celje to do the audit. Met with the two clerks and later with the branch president. They all spoke English, so it made it very easy for Brent.
The Branch President joined us at the end. Then he asked us if we knew any conversion stories
that involved members. They are working on that in their branch. Would we mind speaking about them in sacrament meeting. He then wondered out loud if our coming was not the reason he had such trouble this week getting anyone to speak.
We spoke.

Then we moved on to another town not far away from the Hungarian border called Maribor for another audit. As we drove out, we kept enjoying the beautiful scenery.
We wonder who would like to cut that lawn in front of the house on the hill?
Brent and the Branch president talking after the audit. This is a very small branch and the missionaries are a great help in running the branch. They brought in another man for us to meet. He introduced himself and told us that he is going to be baptized next Saturday. He was so excited!The Church is growing in this area of Eastern Europe. We are happy to be part of this.

Croatia

After arriving back from Arad, Romania, we set to work to get ready for the next trip, which was to Croatia.

During that process we discovered a former missionary and his wife and went to lunch with them at the Castle. We then left them to continue with our preparations. The view wasn't too bad. The food and company was good too.

Friday evening we went to the Mission Home for a fireside. The Bagozzi's spoke and did a great job. After we all went upstairs for Birthday Cake, which the YSA does once a month. Matt Pickerd was there too and we got to tell him goodbye.

The following day we packed the car and away we went to to Croatia. We thought we had planned well for the drive, giving us plenty of time to get there by 11:00 a.m. in Varazdin. We knew there would be traffic past the Balaton (the largest inland lake in Europe), however, we didn't plan on three accidents (not us) along the way. Brent said it took us 2 + hours to go 70 km.

We did get to Varazdin and, as you can see, they got the audit done. Nice young missionaries, learning about all the things that have to do with church leadership.

When we finished there, we headed out to Zagreb, one of the bigger cities in this area. Here we met up with our friend from Frankfurt, Sergio. We stayed in the same hotel and went to dinner together that night. Sergio made reservations for us to go to a nice restaurant not too far away. We all had good food.
This is chicken with ham and cheese in the center cooked Croation style, along with potatoes and peppers and a lemon.

This is pork with vegies, including egg plant. Brent found it very tasty.

We enjoyed the company of the Robinsons, who are the office couple in the Slovikia/Croation Mission. It was nice to get to know them. He is a retired social worker from Heber City.

Brent and Sergio. Sergio is from Portugal, but living in Frankfurt; married to an East German girl, with roots that go back to Russia. I think her family have been members for at least three and maybe four generations.

On Sunday morning we got up early. This is the Sun coming into our window at the hotel.

We went to the church to do an audit before church started. While the men were auditing, I explored the church. It is a nice, two story building with the chapel on the second floor. They have an elevator installed, for those who can't climb the stairs. The picture below is the chapel.

The chapel was almost all the way full for Sacrament Meeting.

Many of the people had gone to the Temple the week before and that was the theme of the meeting. I noticed a woman in front of us crying. I could tell she wanted something that she couldn't have. I didn't talk to her, but did talk to the missionaries. She desprately wants to be baptized and go to the Temple. Unfortunately her circumstances won't allow either at this time. Kind of heart breaking, but fixable.

After the meeting was over and we had a chance to meet some of the members. Nice people.

One of the ladies wants to email me a book she has written about one of her ancestors or relatives.

We then packed up Sergio and all went to Kaplovac to do another audit. We thought we were in the wrong place, but we were not. We ended up in an industrial area with offices. Part of the second floor was the church. Actually, when we got in, we discovered that they have really made it look nice.

Again, the men did the audit and I sat outside. For a while I visited with some of the ladies. I noticed that one of them had a very interesting silver ring. I asked her about it and this is the story she told.

There was a couple from California who came to that mission. He was a patiarch in California and would be able to give blessings to those who desired to have a patriarchial blessing. She despirately wanted to have one. she and her daughter and sister are the only members. Her husband is not a member. They didn't have the money for her to travel the distance to where the patriarch was living. She sold her wedding and engagement rings for the money for transportation and got her blessing. She was so pleased to have it. She then sent away for the ring I admired, and it cost her about $2.00. I think that some of us shouldn't complain.

We then headed toward the coast to spend the night. Not far away from where we were. We were right on the coast of the Adriatic Sea...actually one of its inlets. Our view from our most very tiny apartment was barely there between two buildings. Oh well.

We drove through beautiful countrysides toward Plitvicka National Park. Oh my, how beautiful.

The drive through forrests was wonderful, except that after we commented how nice the road was, we came to a dirt road and it had a tape across it. The kind gentlemen who were guarding it kindly let us in and we drove past many workers clearing the road and we most grateful when we got back to good roads.

We got to the park and had to walk some distance on trails with outlooks, where we saw these beautiful green lakes below.

After a while, we took the bus over to the ferry and took it across the lake.

As we walked down the trails in this lower part we could closely see the waterfalls everywhere.

See how turquois the water looks here.

This is to prove that I was here in the lower level.

These are the big falls.

Now the hike back up was another story. Lots of switch backs and VERY hot! We made it.

We were a little sad to say good bye to the beautiful, lush countryside of Croatia.

It was a very nice trip, and the people we met were wonderful. Could life be better? We are so fortunate to see so many beautiful spots in Eastern Europe. On our first mission we saw many beautiful spots in Hungary but we could not leave the country. We feel blessed to see surrounding countries.

They Let Us Out of Romania...again!

Our week has been nice. We had one of our former office missionaries, Matt Pickerd, with us for two nights. He is wonderful company and we enjoyed having him. He is right now trying to catch up on old friends around the country, in places he served.

Work was like normal...at least more how normal should be. We are a bit busier, which is good. Saturday we went South and met with the Mission Clerk to go over some items. He is good, faithful member, Zolton Toth, in Szeged. We enjoy him very much. It was so good to see him again and spend the time with him. He will be heading for a vacation in Utah around Conference time.

While in Szeged we wandered over by the park and found a lot of old cars. The one below it says is a Nash. Only old people will remember the Nash cars. Sort of like Studebaker...they got left behind.
At the top of the radiator the sign says NASH.


Brent is observing down by the University of Szeged, which is part of the "walking district" in Szeged.

This one reminds me of WWII side car motorcycles. Maybe it is one. The helmets inside are metal. On the street were all these cars and motorcycles and then there were wedding parties every half hour coming out of the Mayor's office building. In Hungary you have to be married civilly before you can have your marriage valid. So couples go to the civil building and get married and then if they are having a church wedding they then go to the church and exchange vows. For those getting married in the temple, they will have a civil wedding, then some kind of reception or party. They then depart for the temple, usually Freiberg.

This morning we got up early to head to Arad Romania. First we had trouble getting on the right road to get there. The GPS sent us to a little road that went to a ferry for us to cross the Tiza River. We knew that was not right, and turned abound and retraced steps until we found the right place. When we got to the border we knew we were in trouble because once again they kept us cooling our heels waiting for them to do whatever they do with our passports. You would think by now they would know us and just wave us through. A half hour later we were able to leave, passports in hand. However, that meant we were very late for church. That is embarrasing.

The members in Arad were all so nice. The District Pres came out to meet us at the door, saying that he was worried about us at the border. The brother of our friend, Ioana Clayton in the 26th ward was also there. He is a counselor in the District. It is getting to be really nice to see him. He gave a great talk in church today on the importance of always living worthy of a Temple Recommend, even if you can't go to the temple right now. Here they have to save quite a bit of money to go because they have to travel to Kiev, or Freiberg to attend. It is a bit more of a sacrifice than for those of us who have a temple 10 minutes away from home.

There was a cute lady who was leading the singing and as we sat down and they were ready to sing another song she brought us a book that was open to the page. One more language to to learn to sing in. After the meeting she said that she needed and wanted to talk to me. It didn't happen until after Relief Society. She came over and told me that she felt a connection to me. I told her that was interesting because as she was making a comment in RS, I had thought that she thinks like I do and was using words that I use in explaning how we learn in the church. One of those moments. After, several of the ladies came and gave me hugs and cheek kisses. I thought this was one of the big payoffs for what we do. It is amazing that we can feel so close to people who we don't know, and can't speak their language.

Brent, after the block meetings, met with the District Presidency regarding audits and reports. He also did their District audit while he was there. He felt like it went well. They had lots of questions.

While I was waiting Sister Howells who is the wife of the District Executive Secretary, and I had a good visit. They are Sr. Missionaries from England who are serving in that branch. Ok, we found someone in common...Pamela Wigglesworth. You will remember that she is the lady from England who spent 3 weeks with us last mission, while she was getting her teeth done in Hungary.

When we travel we eat a lot of McDonalds for several reasons: 1. It is fast, 2. They have clean restrooms and 3 they have free wi-fi. We do okay with the food. It is good that they have things other than hamburgers.

This has been a good week, and the next one will be exciting too. Yes, we are glad to be here!

Zone Conference

Golgotha

Christ Before Pilot


Ecce Homo

This week we were kindly invited to attend a Zone Conference. We enjoyed the training that we attended and then a delicious lunch of stuffed Paprikas and fruit and chocolate dessert.

Now, if that weren't enough, we then all went to the Castle and met outside the back of the museum to attend the Munkacsy exhibit, "The Christ Trilogy". Not at all what I expected; so much more!
Munkacsy (Moon-catch-y) is a Hungarian painter, who like many of the artists didn't feel like he was successful.

The pictures were larger than you can imagine. The names of the paintings were:
"Christ Before Pilate" 1881
"Golgotha" 1884
"Ecce Homo" 1895-96

The exhibit consisted of the three originals, and many studies for that painting. The emotion he put in the paintings was unreal. Just to look into the faces he painted you can read how each person he painted fel tabout what was going on. Lots of emotion.

In "Golgotha: he paints the three Marys along with John The Beloved, watching over the Mother of Christ.

In "Ecce Homo" he shows John again with his arms around Mary the Mother of Christ.

In "Christ Before Pilate", it shows a woman looking at the whole scene unlike any of the others in the group. She is holding a child. it makes me wonder who she was. It also shows Pilate looking at his hand, almost like he is playing a game on his I pad; most uninterested in what is going on.

I think I am writing this so that I will not forget some of what I felt looking at those beautiful works of art and feeling the feelings that I did.

It was so nice to just take time and contemplate each painting.
I thought I would just share with you a highlight of our being here. Maybe you could call it a payday for us.

A Most Adventuresom Week....

After attending the meeting in Romania, we drove to Debrecen. We stayed at a lovely hotel, and of course, the King was there and requested a picture in his throne. I obliged, as I did not want him to say "Off with her head".
We were invited to speak at Church in the Debrecen Branch. It was so good to see so many of our old friends. Left to Right: Sister Hartwell (they arrived in Hungary 2 days after we did), One of the young sister missionaries, Oliver M, who is in the Mission Preisdency, Zita, one of our old friends, who was leaving to work in England the next day, a new convert whose name I cannot remember, and Roberta, who always translates for me. Oliver translated for Brent. He we took Oliver to his home in Kecskemket on our way home. It was a little out of our way but we enjoyed the time traveling with him and talking. Such a nice man.

Monday we worked in the office and got stuff started and caught up. We also did the regular, wash, cleaning, etc.

Tuesday much of the same, and with Becky's help found out some great information we needed about how we paid for Brent's meds. No more sleepless nights over that. Tuesday is also always our conference call, and some grocery shopping.

On Wednesday it was our turn to help with the Zone Conference for two zones from the West. We volunteered to be the "kitchen help". I was nice to see some of the missionaries. We don't have the opportunity to really get to know them as we did before, as we just don't see them often. They had a good meal and then went up to the Castle and were treated to an exhibit at the Hungarian National Museum. Then they all returned home.

These are all the birthday missionaries. Sister Baughman treats them all to a Milka!! Lucky them. Late Tuesday night our friends the Baxters arrived at our house to shower and sleep. Elder Baxter was one of the Assistants when we first arrived in Budapest to work in the office, last mission. He has returned with his wife and they spent several weeks in Hungary and other countries and spent a couple of nights with us. It was so good to be with them. Kindly they took the new baby blanket home and will get it to the D. Gudgells very soon.

The picture below is Katie Baxter. Unfortunately the boys that we met on Gellert Hill who were from England, did not get a picture of us all that turned out. So sad.

Katie is modeling a hat made from mushrooms. Yes, that is correct.
The views from Gellert Hill at night are really beautiful.

Unfortunately, my camera was just a tad blurry on all these shots. Maybe I will have to buy a better one... not!

So while we were in the kitchen, having fed the missionaries, Sister Brown came in. She and her friend were here traveling around. We saw her again at Gofri Est on Friday, so had to get a picture taken with her. She was at our ward the day we spoke, just in case any of you recognize her. She has been doing an internship in Romania all Summer at an orphanage.

On Saturday, we met up with Elder Lofgren; another of our missionaries from before. We went to Szentendra and had lunch and wandered around for a while. Some of my Sullenger girls will remember when we met him at the Gymnastics Meet at the U. His sister is on the team.
It was good to see him. He was only here for a day and then had to go back to Austria where he is doing a semester abroad through BYU, though he is a Red Blooded Ute student.

Brent wore this shirt on purpose.

After Church today, we decided to drive through a HUGE cemetery in Pest. We took lots of photos and I share just a few with you. This cemetery is full of important people out of Hungary's history.

Obviously this person was a violinist.

This most interesting....could be rather spooky at night. This one might keep the Trick or Treaters away from your doorstep.

I think that this will be my instruction to my children about my headstone, etc. Just something small and simple, like this one, with the bench I have always wanted. ( I just noticed that the back slat is not there...so not just like that one.)

Church was very interesting today. It was testimony meeting and one lady got up and said that she was very tired and didn't want to come to church today. However, she got herself up and to the train. As she got off the train, a young man asked her if she knew where the Tihany Ter church was. (that is the street name of where the Pest Ward is located). They walked over together. It seems that this young man was baptized when he was 10 and now at 21 wants to come back. The missionaries are already taking care of that.

What a neat thing to follow what the spirit tells you to do, even when you don't want to, and then find out that there was a purpose. I guess we all need to listen and then do.

This coming week, the Williams, who arrived just after we left two years ago, are going home. They served well for 23 months. Bon Voyage!

New week, new adventures.