A Hungarian Christmas

 We had a wonderful Christmas Season in Hungary. These little girls are our neighbors and came bearing gifts of cookies--delicious gingerbread cookies.
 Some things we did that I didn't take pictures of was the YSA did a service project and went to a family shelter.  It was quite a nice place, the children were friendly and clean and well-cared for.  They preformed some songs for us then we brought in Miklos (Nicholas) and he passed out gifts, we played games and ate. 

 We had a branch Christmas party that Roberta (Our very capable and talented RS president) was in charge of.  We didn't do a thing except help set up and bring a pot luck dish.  They met in the chapel and had a program--stories, poems, songs, instruments.  The branch members signed up if they wanted to perform.  Then Miklos came and passed out presents to everyone.  Roberta and the RS had made Christmas pillows for the children and a Christmas table runner for the parents.

 Virgil wanted to sit on Santa's lap.  No one else sat on his lap (I guess they don't do that here) so Virgil did.

 After the program, we went upstairs to the YSA room and  there was a beautiful array of all kinds of Hungarian foods.  I love trying all of these new foods.  The food here is great!  I brought funeral potatoes (Minus the cream of chicken soup) and they seemed to like them.  This is what they do every year and it was very nice.

 For Christmas Eve we had dinner at our house.  Everyone helped and brought something.  Afterwards we acted out the nativity and sang songs that go along with it. (L-R) Seated Shepherds--Michael's roommate Michael,  Elder Nabrotsky and Michael.  Back row: Me-Wiseman, Tamas-wiseman, Elder Nyman--Joseph, Sister Woofendin--Mary, Sister Oberhansley--Wiseman, Sister Weberg--Angel.

 Oops--forgot to turn it.  After the nativity, we played games.  Elder Nyman is measuring Michael for a coffin.

 This is our Christmas tree and presents Christmas morning.  We had the missionaries over also for Christmas breakfast.

 The highllight of the day was being invited to Christmas Dinner at the home of two of the loveliest little sisters in our branch.  They went to so much work for us.  They had little bags with gifts for each one there, we sang Hungarian Christmas songs, watched a short video from an old movie, and had a wonderful Hungarian meal.  It was delicious and presented beautifully. 

Here is the line-up

After dinner, the Elders Skyped at our house and the sisters went to Sister Weberg's.

Then we were able to call each of our kids.  It was a wonderful Christmas--very simple and wonderful.

A couple of Random pictures

 Virgil is looking "elegant" (the words of our favorite guy at the outdoor Piacs.)

This is a sight we see every now and again when we are in villages outside of Debrecen.

Playing catch up

 At Christmastime, every city in Hungary (and possibly most of Europe) set up Christmas Markets in the town square.  There are booths that sell all sorts of food, hats, crafty items, etc etc.  This above photo is of "chestnuts roasting on an open fire"( except the fire isn't open.)  We bought a few to try--kind of soft inside. 

 Roberta, our RS president, sings in a little community choir.  We went to the square to watch them perform.  This is 4 o'clock and it is dark!  Sunset is at 3:45 so we have long nights.

 This is at the town square--all bundled up.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

 Hungarians in the kitchen.  Janos wanted to cook for us again for Sunday dinner.  Helping him are Dorie and Villie.  He made a Hungarian dish that the Hortobagy cowboys make--an inexpensive dish and I can't remember the name.  It was really good.

 Making paper chains

 Sister Kennedy and Elder Bebel's last Sunday dinner with us.  Elder Bebel got transferred after only about 5 weeks.  He is going to Szeged to be a zone leader--he is an excellent missionary.  Really smart. And he plays the piano well.

 Transfer morning we got together for a Steel Breakfast to await transfer calls.  We were afraid we might lose Elder Bebel and we did.  He is such a good missionary. He was enthusiastic about helping us track down inactives.

 Saying goodbye to Sister Kennedy and Elder Bebel.

 Our crazies!  Such a fun group and super duper missionaries!  

The Debrecen bunch--Steels, Sister Kennedy (about to depart to America--well done), Elder Bebel,

Sister Oberhansley, Elder Nyman

 Our sweet new sister, Sister Woofinden from Washington state. The youngest of 9 children.

Our Canadian, Elder Nabrosky, Elder Nyman's new companion.   Elder Nabrosky has two months left of his mission and we were so fortunate to have him sent to us.  He was our zone leader a transfer ago in Miskolcs and I was so impressed with him them.  He has lots of great experience, is a great leader, and has a really upbeat personality, and he speaks the language like a champ.  (He also speaks German and French)  I think they only send the best and brightest to Hungary.

We recently decided to just start going down the inactive list and trying to find them.  We don't make an appointment because we have to have someone call for us and they are usually hard to reach.  So we are just heading out to see who we can find.  We have found several at home and they have all been very nice.  We set up an appointment to go back.  If they are not at home, we leave a Liahona with telephone numbers attached.  Of course, we need a Hungarian speaker with us--Sister Weberg speaks a little and the missionaries go with us once a week  Hopefully we can get some to go back to church and "build the branch."

Viszlat!

FUN FACT:  Hungarians say "Hello" for goodbye.

Hooray for Thanksgiving Day

 This isn't Thanksgiving dinner.  The church was off limits this week because they were painting it.  So we had FHE at our apartment.  The elders and sisters also held programs at our house.  We quite liked it.

 We celebrated this wonderful American holiday even though Hungarians don't.  Our district decided that we would have district meeting on Thursday morning at our apartment.  Then we would eat Thanksgiving dinner/lunch afterwards.  Everyone was given a food assignment and it was so delicious and fun.  I love Thanksgiving and we had such great company.

 This is the spread.  We were able to find about everything except yams and cranberries. (also no Stove top Dressing so we did homemade and liked it better) Turkey isn't sold as a whole turkey but just turkey pieces. 

 We even had our traditional Dixie salad!

 Hooray for Thanksgiving day!  We had to sing "Over the River and Through the Woods."

 And now the desserts

 Friday night Pancake night at our house.  It was a little tight but it worked.

Villie playing a game with a straw and M&M's.

Transfers

 We always think we have transfers figured out but we are quite often surprised.  Sister Kennedy thought she was going for sure, but she didn't (which we are awfully happy about.)  We will send her home to Brigham City in December.  Then we thought Elder Cutler would stay, but he didn't. (which we were sad about.)  He was sent to Szeged.  We will miss him a lot.
But one nice thing about transfers is we get to meet new elders and they come with different experiences and ideas.
We were really fortunate to get Elder Bebel (rhymes with pebble).  He is an outstanding missionary and he and Elder Nyman are working hard.  They keep really busy,  And, of course, we have the most wonderful set of sisters in the mission--Kennedy and Oberhansley.

 These were taken at pancake night.  Laszlo and his father, Laszlo.  They come to English class and join us in some of our other activities during the week.

 Janos and Virgil.  They have fun kidding each other.  Janos told Virgil he wasn't going to eat because he didn't want to get a big belly like Virgil.  So Virgil just kept feeding him pancake after pancake all night. 

 Dorie--our awesome YSA

 Sunday dinner again with our favorite people.  Our Special guests today were Sister Madgar and her roommate Zsoka, branch members.

 This is where you'll find Virgil after every Sunday dinner.  He is such a good sport to do the dishes all the time.

 We were in the MTC with Ruth and Marvin Smith.  They are "stationed" in Szolnok.  We took the train one morning and went to spent a few hours with them.  They showed us around their city and we ate lunch with them.

 The river that runs through Szolnok

 We are ready to get on the train, heading back to Debrecen.

 There are a couple of souvenirs from Hungary that most of the elders like to get. And they can get them both while serving in Debrecen or Nyridghaza.  One is a whip from Hortobag and the other is a custum-tailored suit from a lady near Nyridghaza.  We go to district meeting at Nyridghaza every other week.  The first week we took the elders to be measured.  The lady's shop is in her basement and is quite interesting.  Then we took the elders again before the next district meeting to get their final fitting and they were able to pick up their suits after district meeting. They were both really happy with their suits.  They are custom made for only $100.  The coolest thing about them is the lining is like the Hungarian flag.  This is Elder Nyman getting fitted.

And Elder Bebel.  Pretty nice!

A New Month

 Elder Nyman celebrated his 19th birthday this past week.  He is our fabulous greenie.  He is so good at the language and everything else;  he is amazing! His mother would be proud!  He and Elder Cutler are now companions and besides being great elders they are a lot of fun.

SOPRON

 As part of our Hungarian experience we got permission to travel to Sopron to see another part of Hungary.  This is a quaint little city, just like you would expect European cities to look, and it is right on the Austrian border.

 These are some Roman ruins that were uncovered.

 The old wall.

 Cobblestone streets

 This view is from the top of the fire tower.  This is the old part of town; the inner circle.  There is a church, and a statue is right in the middle. I love the tile roofs.  The statue (which you can't see) is giving thanks for surviving the plague back in the 1200's I think.

 Sister Weberg and I atop the fire tower

 The mountains in the distance are Austria

 We went to a park that commemorates the 1989 Pan-European picnic.  It was the first breach in the Iron Curtain.  It happened on the border of Austria and Hungary in August 1989.  The Berlin wall came down in November 1989.  This statue depicts the crumbling of socialism and people rising up out of it  to freedom.   It's a pretty amazing story.  We are so grateful for freedom.

 Virgil just had to walk over the border into Austria.

 This statue in the middle of Sopron depicts 3 important dates in Hungarian history  The one holding the barbed wire is the 1989 crossing the Iron curtain into Austria.  Everyone who crossed was given a piece of barbed wire.

 Sopron -- a pretty city

 The fire tower

 We also took a bus and visited this estate of Szechenyi Istvan, a very prominent Hungary about 150 years ago.  The whole trip was great! Sister Weberg is very good at navigating and getting us on and off the right trains.  We had nice weather; couldn't have been better.

DISTRICT MEETING

 We meet once a week with the four missionaries from Niregyhaza (sp? for district meeting).  They are part of our district so we get to know them pretty well also.  We think at next transfers we may lose Sister Ruperd.  It has been wonderful getting to know her.  She is really a great missionary--humble and hardworking.

 We think we may also lose Elder Guytan also (you never know for sure--they think when they've been in a place for 2-3 transfers chances are good they will get transferred.)  He is a fairly new elder.  Niredgyhaza was his first area.  He is great also.  I'm amazed at the wonderful missionaries we have.

 The District.  They always go for pizza afterwards.

SUNDAY DINNER

 Wonderful Agnes is a family history missionary is Debrecen.  She is a Hungarian so I asked her if she would help me make a Hungarian dinner for Sunday.  She is such a sweetheart.  It was just the two of us and we had fun trying to communicate but we did fairly well.  She came over Saturday afternoon and we spent 3 hours making paprika chicken, cucumber salad, and nukedli.  We just reheated it on Sunday.

 Chicken paprika bubbling in the pot

 Making nukedli was work!  The dough was really sticky (Agnes said it was bad flour), but with a lot of muscle, got it done.

This is my Hungarian family.  These are the people that I love.  Virgil, Sister Weberg, Elder Nyman, Sisters Kernnedy and Oberhansley, Elder Cutler, Michael, Dori, Agnes, Jonas.

This Sunday dinner was especially nice.  I asked the missionaries to sing a song in our primary program on December 8 so we practice every Sunday after dinner (A Child's Prayer--beautiful!)  After we practiced Elder Cutler wanted to play the piano so we sang some hymns.  Music  brings the spirit.  It was so beautiful and I felt so much love for these wonderful people.  It's such a blessing to work with them.  There will be changes, of course, and we will love the new ones also, but this group has really been special.

A special note:  I had record-breaking numbers in primary on Sunday!  Three children!  All three children were there!  Also the Primary President and Chorister.  It was great!