FAT THURSDAY

Fat Thursday (Torkos Csutortok) is the first Thursday after Ash Wednesday here in Hungary. It is the final day to indulge your taste buds before fasting begins.  The event brings alive an old folk tradition of feasting to be rid of the leftovers from carnival season ( Farsang).  On this day you dine for 1/2 price at participating restaurants in Budapest and around the Country.  We were invited to go with President and Sister Smith, also Elder and Sister Bagozzi to one of the nice restaurants  of the Buda Castle district.  This restaurant, Halaszbastya Etterem, is on top of the castle wall and overlooks the Danube river.  At night we had a beautiful view of the river, bridges and the famous Parliament building.  Everything was lit up and magnificent.  We has a wonderful string quartet that played at our table upon our request.  It was wonderful.

                       

This week we got word from the Area Presidency that we will be attending the multi-Country YSA Conference held in July.  It will be held in Poiana, Brasov, Romania, in the heart of Transylvania at the top of the mountain's ski resort.  It is a beautiful area and our goal is to spiritually and emotionally feed and enrich our young adults in an atmosphere where they can connect with other like-minded young adults. We are looking to get about 40 YSAs from Hungary to attend.  It will be about an 8 hour bus ride from Budapest. Other countries invited to the conference are Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Moldova, Slovenia and Croatia.  We are really forward to this experience.

Friday we had our YSA activity.  The young missionaries came and gave a great spiritual thought and then we watched the movie "Flipped".  It was in Hungarian so Sister Peterson and I tried to get the story by their actions and body language.  We did pretty good and by the end of the movie I think we knew what the plot was.  We had a very good turnout for the activity. Later when we got home we watched the English version of the movie and really enjoyed it. 

Saturday  is our P-day so we went with the Bagozzi's out to Hero Square in Pest.  This is a famous area with monuments and statues dedicated to the founders of Hungary who came to this area about 896 AD.  There are also monuments to many of the leaders of Hungary down through the ages.  It was pretty cold and windy so we did not stay long but it was fun to see.  We also attended the Fish Festival down by Hero Square.  Lots of fun sights and foods to try.  The festival was held in an area with lots of unique buildings that looked like churches, castles, and fancy government buildings.

                                                     Elder and Sister Peterson at Hero's Square

We miss all of  our dear family and friends and wish each of you a great week.

Sok Szeretettel
Elder and Nover Peterson