Some forgotten Christmas photos

 The Christmas villamos.  One tram is all lighted up, just at Christmastime.

 The mission home.  The president lives here, there are offices, and a branch meets here.

 Zone conference/Christmas party.  This was a really fun day. We first had training, then a scrumptous Christmas, games, gift exchange and Miklos came and passed out gifts.

 The seniors from our zone.

 We are the East Zone

 Doing the gift exchange

 Miklos--sorry, I didn't get him turned.

 The Steels--Seniors from Debrecen

The Budapest McDonalds by the train station.  It is supposed to be the most beautiful McDonalds in the world.

Sunday dinner and transfer day

 Michael is an investigator from Taiwan who is going to medical school here in Debrecen.  He comes to Sunday dinner almost every Sunday.   He is so funny and makes us all laugh--we all love him.  He attends church and all the other activities in the branch; unfortunately his parents won't let him be baptized--yet.  He just turned 26 years old.

 The Broadheads are a missionary couple from Yuma, AZ.  They are the Family History Specialists and travel all over, talking in church and giving workshops on family history.  They came to Debrecen last weekend and we were able to spend some time with them and get acquainted.  They are really a sweet couple.

 

We all got together for a Steel Breakfast on transfer day to wait for their transfer calls.  It's a pretty exciting morning.  We were afraid Sister Oberhansley and Elder Nyman would be transferred and sure enough they were--darn it. We were privileged to be with them for 4 1/2 months in Debrecen.  They are both wonderful, wonderful missionaries and have made being in Debrecen so much fun.

Elder Nyman is receiving his good news.  He was so excited about his new companion, Elder Haws.

 The Debrecen team. Front- Sister Steel an Elder Nyman. Back row--Sister Woofinden, Sister Weberg, Sister Oberhansley, Elder Steel, Elder Nabrotsky.

 Our wonderful Sister Oberhansley is being sent to Szeged to train a new little greenie for the last two months of her mission.

 Our greenie, Elder Nyman, is no longer a greenie but a great missionay. He is being transferred toTatabanya.

 Our sweet Sister Woofinden is staying in Debrecen with a new companion, Sister Westover.  They are sister trainers--kind of like zone leaders.

Elder Nabrotsky will stay in Debrecen for the last five weeks of his mission (but we can't talk about that.)  He will have a new greenie to train.  He will be the District Leader and we will have great meetings.  When he was our zone leader in Miskolc I loved his training meetings

Working with these young missionaries is the highlight of our mission.  They are absolutely amazing!

New Years Eve

This is how I spent New Years Eve.  The YSA were watching a Disney movie and I was watching my dreams.  I had to pay a bribe of 10 Milka bars for this not to be shown to the world.

A Little More Christmas

 Sister Magyar sent me a few more photos of our Christmas dinner.  Here wer are opening the little gift bags she gave to each one.

 On the floor, Sister Weberg and Sister Szabo, L-R in back.  Elder Nabrotsky, Sister Hegedus, Elder Nyman, Sister Magyar, Sisters Steel, Woofinden and Oberhansley.

 The Monday before Christmas we went caroling.  I didn't take my camera so we went back a few days later to get pictures of the town square.  They set up an iceskating rink in front of the Nagy Templon.

 This is what the members call the "Lehi Tree" after Lehi's vision of the tree of life.  It is a fake tree totally covered with lights and is gorgeous.  When we went caroling we stood in front of it and sang.  People actually stopped and listened.  Then we went to 3 homes of branch members.

Downtown Debrecen is really pretty all lit up for Christmas.

It seems most of my photos are of us seated around the table for Sunday Dinner, so I haven't taken as many of those.  Our main activity nowadays is going out in search of the inactives which I really like doing.  It's pretty exciting when we find someone home and they invite us in.  We usually schedule another visit.  Of course, we are with our Hungarian-speaking young  missionaries because we no speaka the language.

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.