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! 

Janos' garden and Night of the dead

 Night of the dead or All-Saints Day is a big day in Hungary.  It's like our Memorial Day.  Everyone is off work, shops close, streets are bare--all except by the cemetery.  Flower shops are set up year-round at the cemetery but extra booths are added during this week.  These are the extra flower shops/booths.

 We walked to the cemetery for our morning walk.  It was super crowded.  We also walked there at night after Pancake Night with everyone that came.  I didn't take pictures at night but it was really pretty with lots of candles.

 Janos, our newest member, invited us to his garden.  It is a big plot and he spends lots of time there. He cooked us lunch in this Hungarian pot--Hungarian food is sooo good!  There is nothing I like better than experiencing real Hungarian life.  His friend Arpad was there also.  They are both good guys--really sweet and soft-spoken. We knew Arpad already from English class.

 

 The garden is behind us.

 This is the house that  Janos built.  It is two-story, no bathroom.  A kitchen on the main floor and bedroom above--a nice little home. It's not finished yet--  I don't think he plans on living there--he has a flat and also his mother's house to stay in.

This is his beautiful garden.  Don't ya love it!  He has two old sheds, a cellar, water barrels to wash our hands in with homemade soap.

Another highlight of  the week was traveling to Budapest for Zone conference.  We were taught by the area president, Elder Teixert (sp) and his wife.  It was about six hours with a break for lunch. It was really good--a wonderful spirit was there and he gave some great instruction.  His wife was a wonderful speaker also.

A couple more from the party

 In the cultural hall playing games

Sister Kennedy

Halloween Party

 Halloween isn't celebrated much in Hungary but is starting to catch on. We were very happy with the branch Halloween party.  There were lots of investigators there and a few from English class.  We had a full house.  This cute Toth family aren't members but they are so good to the missionaries.  They came from Miskolc to our party which is about an hour and a half away.  She brought a beautiful cake decorated  with fingers and eyeballs.

 Sister Kennedy bobbing for apples.

 We had carnival games set up in the foyer and people played those games as they came.  Then we moved into the chapel/cultural hall for the rest of the night.  In there we decorated sugar cookies, played more games, and ate chili.

 Lamanite Nyman and ???? Cutler.

 Sister O

 Jumping ahead to Sunday Dinner  We had leftover cookies from the Halloween party and decorated them for dessert.  Sister Kennedy decorated this cookie to look like Elder Brown.

 The sisters invited a really cute couple to dinner--Lilla and Gabor.  After dinner they decorated pumpkins.  I lit them and put them on our deck--the only jack-o-lanterns in town.

Debrecen has masses of trees and therefore masses of leaves  We've been impressed how the city keeps on top of it.  City workers are constantly cleaning up leaves.