Second Report from Debrecen

Ok, so I can't remember how to do this. We will just be creative with the pictures. As you can see Grandma and Grandpa were escorted to the MTC by Ashley and Meagan. Liz was the photographer for this picture. Just in case you thought Ashley might have been the driver.


Now to Debrecen. The view out our window was as below. It was a warm spring day and there are three ladies sitting on the bench. It has not been that warm since.




This is us and two other sets of Sr. Missionaries at the Debrecen Chapel the first Sunday we were in Hungary.

We really didn't love that apartment at all. 81 stairs up for the legs was difficult. I was never sure I was going to make it alive. Toward the end of our stay in that apartment, we started limiting our number of trips, until the last day. The last day we were there Brent made about 8 trips up and down the stairs with all our things. I stayed down stairs to protect our possessions. I had my umbrella, just in case I had to hit someone. There are lots of gypsies in Hungary and they go through garbage cans, and sleep on the tables in the park, you know the scene. They would have taken everything they could, if someone hadn't been there. Several walked by and looked it over but they didi't come near.

The decor in the apartment was lovely. Please note Brent's bed. And the lovely curtains and drapes. The picture doesn't do them justice. The sheers are truly a lovely shade of laverdar and the drapes, which pull flat over the curtains at night for privacy, are ugly brown.

It certainly was an experience that will always make anywhere else we live seem wonderful. I guess that the good thing is that we survived and have stronger legs for it.

This last week we moved into a new apartment. It is very nice and has lots of windows.

Now to backtrack just a bit. We have been attending the Debrecen branch, except in March for two weeks when we travelled. On Easter Sunday we were given the keys to the new apartment and we invited the sisters and elders in our district over for dinner. It was very nice to have them and get to know them. The pictures here will let you know little about this apartment.

This last Sunday was our day to speak in church here in Debrecen and also to train. We were happy do to stay here and Elder Gudgell reported to the mission that we didn't get lost this time.

A good deal of our Sundays will be spent going to branches in the eastern part of Hungary to speak and train. It is sort of like High Council Sunday, only we don't have a high council as we are part of the Mission and the only stake is in Budapest and we are not a part of that.

We have learned to take trains, vilamos (like trax). We can find our way around the town. The elders and sisters like to invite us to go on programs with them when they are a ways away. they are asked to take members with them to teach all they can, however, we count as members. We do encourage them to take the local people when they can.

This month our training is on Family History (Elder Gudgell) and Primary (Sister Gudgell) I have two angels at home who sent me good stuff for primary on the internet \\. I hope there are some more who will send me suggestions. The sister training rotates each month between Primary, R.S., and YW. I am open for suggestions of ideas to share with them. Some of the branches are pretty small and don't have full programs. We pretty much are on our own to decide what to train on. My e-mail is nang973@hotmail.com.

We get invited out occasionally, mostly Nan and the Sisters. We have eaten stuffed cabbage. The last time the relief society presidency sent the leftovers home with Brent. He was in hog heaven. They do love to cook.

On Friday nights we have Institute and that is followed by an Outreach activity. Outreach is for those 18 to 30. Sound familiar? It is for members and investigators. We have found that the program here in Eastern Europe is for a lot of concentration on younger members. On Thursdays we teach Anglora (English). Saturday is Branch night. That was started because the members don't think they can have family home evening on Monday. Mostly the young people come and have a lesson and sometimes play games.

Several days a week I teach piano lessons. It has not been too hard. I do know how to count and think of Mrs. Sardoni every time I have them count. It is interesting to note that we have an Elder Sardoni in our mission. I knew he had to be a relative of hers, so when I found some papers of Mother's on Sister Sardoni, I brought them to him. I hope he appreciates it. He said he didn't know very much about her.

We are enjoying being here and have learned to love the members. We are trying to learn a little Hungarian, but not as speedily as the elders and sisters do.

Our intent is to update this about every two weeks or so, so please feel free to check occasionally if you want to know what we are up to. You also have the e-mail address, so if you have something you would like to write to us we will love to hear from you. You can also make comments at the end of the blog, if you are so inclined. It will ask for your e-mail address.

Finally we can update April 2008

After two weeks in Hungary we still don’t know much Hungarian, but we have seen a lot of Hungary. We have traveled a great deal…in fact from one side to the other. It has proved to be very exciting and interesting. We have learned to plan a trip ahead of time so that the chances of our getting lost might be reduced. The drivers here are very aggressive and especially in the big city. If you try to get in a lane to turn off, we found that they may or may not let you in. If you miss a turn, you cannot just go around the block. These are the times you get lost. In the smaller cities they are all situated around the center of town and the streets go out from there, sometimes like a winding spoke of tires. This has caused us much grief and long detours.The church members are so nice to us even though they really can’t communicate with us, at least some of them can’t communicate. Others have a very good command of English.We spent the first three days in the mission home trying to learn about how to run an outreach program in Debrecen, just as they are doing it in Budapest. We have a big job there, but will be jumping into it rather soon. Fortunately, the outreach program includes seminary and institute and that is already in place. We will just need to put some other things into place. Our missionaries have been asked to start to work with the young people at the several colleges here in the area. They will be streeting in those areas soon. We have one sister who has had outreach experience here. They have just disbanded the Outreach District in Budapest and all the missionaries in both Buda and Pest will be contributing to finding young people for the Outreach program and using the Outreach Center. Before I guess they did not use the Center unless they were in that district.On the first Saturday we drove the mission van out to Debrecen to do training and then to speak in church on Sunday. We did this with the Woods who are the couple doing the Outreach in Budapest. They drove a car out to Debrecen to leave with the elders, so that they could open a new area. It is their apartment that we are now living in and they are gone. More about that later.As we arrived in the city, we were following the Woods, and they make a left turn while we were waiting at a light that was very long. We followed them through the light and down to the end of the street and they were not there. We came back out and still did not find them. About an hour later we drove down what we thought was the street for the hotel we were to stay at and there they were.Interesting enough was the fact that the street we had turned down was the one to the apartment we are now living in. We have learned a great deal in a short time about the city of Debrecen.When we drove back to Budapest on Sunday, we had moved out of the mission home and then stayed until Thursday night with the Duklow’s, who are the office couple for the mission. They have two bedrooms in their apt. That was very kind of them to allow us to stay there. We continued to train with Woods on outreach and with Duklow’s just in case they need us to be the office couple come August, as the Duklow’s go home at that time.Early Wednesday afternoon we picked up Sister Tanner (one of the sister missionaries doing an early transfer) and brought both her and her luggage out to Debrecen. When we arrived we had to go to the Giauque’s (pronounced Jukes) apartment to get our key. Sis. Giauque said that the sisters and the RS Presidency were on their way to their house to practice making the menu that they would be serving on Sunday after church for the Relief Society Birthday dinner. The Menu was to be Apple Soup (was that good or what? It was like hot apple pie with melted ice cream.) Open face sandwiches of either chicken salad, or egg salad, accompanied by sliced carrots and sliced cucumbers. The meal was completed with really good ice cream. That was a good start. While we were practicing the dinner, Elder’s Gudgell and Giauque brought our luggage up the 81 stairs to our apartment. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it up when I got there. Wow that is a lot of stairs up for someone with not so great climbing skills.The stairs are a challenge for us. I can make them, but rather slowly and carefully and I stop occasionally to shake out my legs and go on. The President told me that he didn’t know there were so many stairs and apologized, but didn’t change the apartment. Dang.We spent the rest of the week going to activities at the church, doing programs with the sister missionaries; that is what we used to call a cottage meeting. Except that we also do them for members, especially new ones and inactive ones.Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. we were found getting into the van, along with Sister Call’s luggage (she was taking the train back on Sunday and left the mission Monday). We arrived in Budapest on the Pest side just in time to be turned back at the bridge, because it was a national holiday and there were protests at the bridge. That was a challenge and slowed us down, as we had to figure out where we were and how to get across on another bridge. We made it and unloaded the Van, then got into a little VW Polo and drove further south west to Pecs (pronounced paich) to do training at a branch there. I trained with the YW President, who is wonderful and speaks English. She had all her girls except one there, so the training was discussing getting the girls to work to get their awards and some other stuff. We had a great time.We found a too expensive hotel right off the town square and were able to walk to the branch, however, even walking we got lost. That does seem to be our lot in Hungary.We spoke in church on Sunday and then left to drive to Kaposvar a little north of Pecs. It is a very small, dependent branch, but it was great. Just as it was time to begin the meeting we received a call from the missionaries that the Branch President from Pecs was arriving by train and could we hold the meeting for a few more minutes. He came to present a certificate to a 13 year old young man. We then spoke and then left to get back to Budapest so that we could take the train home.Everyone else in the world was also coming home from their holiday weekend and the motorway got very crowded in Budapest and we had a hard time arriving at the mission home at the appointed time. We decided to stay over with the Woods who live right across the street from the mission home/office. We got the 8:20 train to Debrecen early Monday morning.The scenery is beautiful. I can’t wait until we have the opportunity to get off the main road and drive through some of the picturesque townsWe are doing well and so far staying healthy. We wish we could say we are loosing weight, but when you go to a program at someone’s home. they want to feed you and are insulted if you don’t eat it all. The Sisters seem to have perfected a method to look like they have done so. I guess that I will have to have them teach me how to do it. They do have good bakery products here. That is not good for us.Transfers are today, so last night the branch had a party for the missionaries leaving. It consisted of sitting around the big table and writing notes to the missionaries leaving, and then we sang a song, said a prayer, and then began to say things to the missionaries. It was all in Hungarian so we have no idea what they said. It was followed by another song and prayer, and then we had suti (sweets) only we found some tortilla chips and salsa and cheese and took that instead.It is all so interesting to see how things are done here.We have been kept pretty busy this last month and do expect to get busier as the time goes by.You have seen the pictures from our snowy day in Hokolo, a small town in the mountains(?) they are rolling hills here. I will post this section and then update on what else has happened here. Not much to see on this one, just prose. Sorry that it is not so fun to see.