Another Good Week....

A beautiful sky in Sopron.

Elder Bagozzi had a significant birthday.    We celebrated, and celebrated and celebrated with them.   This was the cake and icecream event in the afternoon, with the local missionaries.   We attended the last one a year ago.   This time he is really old.  We will not tell you how old but it is somewhere between 64 and 66.   So sad.



For the weekend we were able to go to Sopron. Saturday afternoon we attended "English Club".   There were four people in attendance plus Elder and Sister Flammer and Elder and Sister Gudgell.   The guests are local people who want to learn to speak English better, so they meet once a week to discuss whatever  they choose to talk about.   It was really fun to be part of this conversation time.  The gentleman on the right was one of the participants.  Elder and Sister Flammer (Lana and Steve Barlows friends) are the other couple.  



  

Saturday evening we went with the Flammers to the White Rose Restaurant.  We were excited to go there, as three years ago we tried to go and they said they had no tables available.   It was a good Hungarian meal.



We stayed upstairs in the place that the Flammers live.   This was the neighbors yard outside our window.  They have a smalll yard that is filled with these wind mills.  This apartment is only about 2 kilometers from the Austrian Border. 



This is in front of the Mission Home.   It is transfer day here today.   About half of the missionaries go out of Deli Station (Train) and so they come to the mission office to exchange companions.  This is the busy place today!

  

 

As we walked in this morning, this is what the lobby looked like.   Lots and lots of suitcases waiting for their new companion to come.   We got three new Elders today.   We should get two more missionaries in a week or two.    I think that five are leaving in the morning for home.   It is a constant turnover.

Tomorrow we have a former missionary coming with her husband, to stay with us for a few days. 

This week we got all the district and branch audits in except the Budapest Stake. 

We have live flowers from the yard in our house and are loving having Spring.   We can't wait for Conference this weekend!



On the Road Again...

We were off  for a new adventure once again. This time to Germany for an Assistant Area Auditor training. We started off heading for the half way place, which this time was Landshut, Germany, where we spent the night.  




Fortunately and by design, we stayed at a hotel just down the street from our friends, the Woods. It was so good to see them again. They will be going home about two months before we do. They are doing a great job in Landshut helping to strengthen the branch there. They were with us in Hungary on our first mission to Hungary.  We had a wonderful German dinner with them and some of their family who was visiting with them from Mesa.

 

Friday we headed for Frankfurt, where we attended our training. On Friday night we had a group dinner where we met all the other auditors attending. For some of you, you may recognize some of our friends who were there. For those who don't recognize, there is Elder Gudgell, Sister Gudgell, Sister DeMolder, Kathy Barlow, and Eric DeMolder. Sister DeMolder is a very good friend of Lynn Bennett. Kathy is the wife of the area controller, Brad Barlow,  who grew up on Spring Creek Drive with our kids.

We had a meeting all day Saturday. Then Saturday evening we went for pizza with Kathy and her cute kids. Brad was in England by then.

On Sunday we went with the Barlows to church and on Sunday Evening we attended a Sr. Missionary fireside in Frankfurt. It was most interesting. One of the Sr. Sister missionaries is a historian, and the expert of women of the church. We loved her presentation on Eliza R. Snow.

This is the view from our hotel in Poland. Oh, my goodness, now we are in Poland.

Next morning we were up and going early, with a long drive to Poland, with one stop on the way. We found that we had to drive right through a city in Poland known for its pottery. More on that later.


When we arrived in the city where we were to train the new District Clerk, we headed right to his home. What a cute little family he has. His wife is a returned missionary who served in Germany. They have three busy little boys. He was just made the District Clerk, so we got to talk with him about his duties. His wife is a translator for the Church, as is he, part time. Then he also is in charge of the Family History for the church. There is lots going on in their family. They were extremely gracious and wanted to feed us. She made some very nice muffins for us. That was very kind.

The next morning we were on the road.   As we drove through Poland and into Slovakia, we passed through mountains.   It was a beautiful, warm day and everyone was airing the bedding outside.  You can see it draped over the railings on the upper floor.



The mountains were snow covered and in some places there were beautiful hotels  built up by the ski resort.  This one is in Slovakia.

 This is the more later part.


When we got home we unwrapped all the things that we bought at the Pottery place.  Not all of it is mine.   Good thing. But I wanted you all to see what Polish pottery is like.
We went into a building that was not too exciting from the outside.   When we got in we could take a basket a fill it if we wanted to.   The two pottery rooms were filled with lots of pottery on shelves all around each room, shelves in the middle of the rooms and then some of it spread out on the floor.  It was  full of interesting pottery.   The most unusual creation was a doggie dish.   I am not sure that any dog would be worth the price of the pottery... and if it got broken, I hate to think what might happen to the dog.
The top picture is of lasagna dishes.



These are colorful spoon rests.




These are cereal bowls.

They are not all mine.   I bought things that others had asked us to bring to them.   It is very colorful and most of them are one of a kind and often the "artist" has signed them.   They also put a sticker on them if they are able to be used for cooking in an oven.  It was a fun place to see, even if we were is somewhat of a hurry.

We are now back at "home" working on audits, laundry, and talks  Spring is sprung here; we have some daffodils in the yard and I got to hang laundry outside. 

Now on to the next adventure.   It is Elder Bagozzi's birthday and we will celebrate a little more with them tonight.



Last Week...

THE HUNGARY BUDAPEST MISSION  - MARCH 2012

This last week was pretty busy, but the highlight of the week was Elder Christofferson coming to visit.  He took the time to shake every missionary's hand before the meeting for missionaires.   That was  a thrill for everyone.  It was wonderful to have an apostle come to "visit".   When he spoke, during the meeting, he took questions from the audience.   There were some remarkable questions that were answered and sometimes went on to other things.   Great meeting.  

There was a priesthood leadership meeting and a Woman's meeting following that first meeting.   We were able to assist with the dinner for all the "dignitaries".   It was wonderful.  

Then there was a meeting in the evening for all members who wanted to attend.   There were a record number of people in attendance.   It was truly a great day.

Right after the first meeting our missionaires had their picture taken.   It is the first time that all the mission was in one place at the same time during the Baughman's mission. 

It is a wonder that no one fell in the Danube isn't it?

Most of the week has been working on audits.   It keeps Brent pretty busy for a good part of the day. 

Spring is showing it beauty and we are having pretty good weather, including a bit of rain occasionally. 

Saturday was Brent's Mother's birthday.   She turned 92.  She had a big party.   We are glad that all of our children and grandchildren could be there with her.   They got us on SKYPE and we were able to wish her happy birthday too!

I am still marveling at the view's from our windows.   It is so nice to be able to look out at Budapest.  We get to watch some of the "entertainment" out on the street, like people getting tickets, traffic jams, etc.

Life is Good!!  

Serbia...



The northern part of Serbia is very flat.   When you go south, it has mountains.   We are told they have two ski resorts in the country.  It costs to ski a whole week or more as much as one day in Utah costs.

After trying to get things settled in and mostly put away, we headed out for Serbia to do audits.   I don't know if you can read the sign.    We went through the border quite quickly.   We were grateful that we were not coming out, as the lines for entering Hungary were extremely long.





The two buildings above are in the center of the town.   They were army buildings that were bombed by NATO.   They leave them as they were and are and who knows what they might do with them.   They have been there for about 10 years.  At one time they were joined by a walkway. 







In Belgrade there are some beautiful old buildings and also some very modern buildings.  They have a huge mall, just like all the other big cities in Europe.   Many of the buildings are reminiscent of those we see in other countries.

We were able to do four audits while we were there.  We went to two cities to do them.  One branch president brought his in to Belgrade on Sunday evening for us to complete.  

We also were able to attend the Belgrade Branch sacrament meeting.   The people were wonderful.   The congregation was made up of many people from Belgrade, and a number of expatriates from the US  who are there for various work reasons.  We had head phones to understand what was said.   I was also able to attend Sunday School and Relief Society.  Such sweet people we were able to meet.   We were introduced to the first man to be baptized in Yugoslavia (that was a while ago).   He introduced us to his sister with whom he has recently been reunited.   He has introduced her to the Church.   She said that she had a dream that someone gave her a book and told her to read it.  She had no idea what the book was, but she had a good feeling from the dream.   Along comes her brother and gives her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she began to read it and had that same good feeling.   How happy both she and her brother are. 

A picture of the Danube that travels to Serbia and then turns to the East and joins with another river and goes to the Black Sea.

What a beautiful part of the world that we are in.



Is it really March? Next Chapter in our lives.

Good bye old house



We enjoyed living here and were sorry to have to leave.  We would have been happy to stay till the end of our mission, but it wasn't to be so....
The day we turned over the keys, as we were there at the old apt, in came some workmen with a big truck and hauled the old stuff away.   He will be remodeling the place.  I hope we get to see it.
We gave our landlord, Aron Laszlo (last name first)  a copy of the Book of Mormon.   Was he ever excited!   The next day when we saw him at the mission office, he asked to have it autographed, etc.

By the time we turned in our keys, we had moved almost everything from the house.   We forgot a few things and picked them up.   We are now in our house and have been for almost a week now.  This is the guided tour of the new digs. 



This is the view from our yard.  Some of you might recognize that we are looking right down on Mammut Mall, the old big building that has no one in it and the tower of the Catholic Church at the end of Hajnoczy.   We actually walked down to the mall the other evening.  It took about 15 minutes...that's cause I am a little careful going down stone stairs (over one hundred of them).




This is the patio just off the living room, also facing the fantastic view.




The couch and two of the dining table chairs.




Add captionLiving room still, with two huge buffets.   I guess that is what you call them.  They are very nice.  The TV isn't hooked up.

 

This is the dining part of the living room.   Apparently the table  will make out into one for serving 12 people.   I am not sure where....



Now onto the kitchen.  This is the new freezer and the kitchen table, with a view.  I love sitting there in the morning and the evening just watching life go up and down Bimbo.



This is the work part of the kitchen.   Small, but workable.   We do miss our dishwasher!



We have a small pantry.  We need it as there is not much space in the kitchen.



This is the WC right off the entrance hall.   Kinda white and non-descript, until you sit down then....




This is what you see on the door.   Don't even need to take your own reading material!



Brent in his office space in the second bedroom.   We opted to leave the bed in this one instead of making it all an office. 




This is my office space in the master bedroom.  In fact, I have not been able to set up the computers on my desk.   We didn't have internet for a week.  That was somewhat problematic!  A nice young man from T Mobil came this morning and fixed it all for us.  



The view of the other end of the room.   The bed is almost king sized.   The central part of the wall is Brent's closet.







This is the view from our bed.   As you can see we have decorations that don't belong to us, so we just put our stuff around it.  



In the hallway outside our bedrooms and bathroom is this beautiful china closet.  It is filled with things that we are allowed to use if we want.   Probably we don't want.  
This apartment was used as a bed and breakfast for a while.   It is a nice place and we are happy to be here.  I will even get to plant a couple of tomato plants outside, maybe a few more things.