DISCOVERING EGER

We were asked by the branch president of Eger to come give talks in their sacrament meeting this past Sunday.  We went there on Saturday morning to see some sites in Eger.  What a wonderful place to visit.  It is about a two hour drive east of Budapest.  Eger has a small branch but the members are strong in the gospel.  We were welcomed and felt right at home.  We hope we will be able to come back and visit them again in the near future.

Members and missionaries in front of the Eger Branch house.

Eger is a famous town in Hungary because of the great battle the Hungarians had over the Turks.  It is famously known as the "Siege of 1552". The old fortress still stands where this battle took place.  The Hungarian Army of about 2000,  including women, withstood an army of 60,000 Turks for 39 days.  The Turks had lost so many men that they gave up and went back to their country, not to return again for another 50 years.

Eger, with Cannon Hill and the famous castle in the background.

View from the castle overlooking the town square.

Another view atop the castle

A statue depicting the battle between the Hungarians and the Turks during the famous"siege of 1552"

Where every we go we get referrals of where to eat.  This Palacsinta place was highly recommended and it did not disappoint. Not only was it delicious but the presentation was amazing.

Curry cream Palacsinta

Coconut cream Palacsinta

Beautiful tree, in the Eger park, not quite big enough for us to wrap around.

Elder and Sister Bailey, our wonderful friends and hosts this past weekend. They serve as the Area Auditors and Elder Bailey is the Branch President in Eger.  They complete their mission in December.  This is their second mission to Hungary. This shows you how much the senior missionaries love this country.

There is so much to love about this country of Hungary.  The more we see and the more we meet with the people the more we appreciate their culture and traditions.

We are so grateful for our many blessings.  This gospel, if lived, brings the richest blessings into our lives. Life is difficult but we are assured that blessings do await to those who are faithful.

The scriptures testify of these things.  

"And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.  The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours." (D&C 78:18)

HUNGARIAN CULTURE CONTINUES

Another busy and amazing week in the mission. This week the students Are back in school and Fall Institute started. We had a few more YSA attend that hadn't attended in the past and we were excited  for that. Also this week Paul Cardell came to our Stake center and presented a Fireside/ Concert, it was great. There were many investigators there and they were not disappointed.
We had an opportunity to attend a concert in the famous Matthias Church this past week.  This historic church is over 700 years old.  The church was the scene of several coronations, including that of Charles IV in 1916, the last Habsburg king.  It was also the venue for the great Hungarian King Matthias' two weddings, in the 15th century.
Today the church is one of the most visited sites in Budapest, sitting atop Castle Hill

The beautiful Matthias Church on a clear night. 

Inside of Matthias church

The Burial chamber of Franz Joseph and his wife Elizabeth. The King and Queen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Enjoying the concert with an orchestra and choir seated in the organ loft above our heads. Klara and Elder and Sister Simkins attended as well.

This has been our ongoing construction since we have arrived in January.  We walk past this daily doing errands.

A higher and more panoramic view of the construction site.  The former Moscow square is being renamed and rebuilt to add beauty to this area.  Completion is expected in Spring of 2016

This monument is a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Revolution of 1956.  We are reading the book, "The Bridge at Andau"  right now so we can better understand the things they went through and had to overcome.

We leave you with a quote from the book," The Bridge at Andau" by James A. Michener
"But by an accident of history it became, for a few flaming weeks, one of the most important bridges in the world, for across its unsteady planks fled the soul of a nation.  Across the bridge at Andau fled more than 20,000 people who had known communism and who had rejected it.  They had seen this new way of life at close hand, and they had learned in sorrow that it was merely ancient terrorism in horrible new dress, for it not only robbed and cheated a man of the material things to which he was entitled; it deprived his mind of every challenge, every breathe of new life and all hope.  It was at Andau that the refugees from Russian terror finally told their story.  It was here that the world learned, in unmistakeable accents and dreadful clarity, how bankrupt communism had become as a system of government."

SUMMER YSA ACTIVITY

This past week we enjoyed a 3 day "End of Summer " event with our YSA.  This was a country wide activity that included YSA from our stake and the two districts in our mission.  The YSA planned and conducted all the activities. Our responsibility was to provide the meals for those days.  It was a marathon week as we shopped for and prepared 7 meals for 35 YSA. By Sunday evening we were pretty exhausted having endured many late nights.
We had a variety of activities including firesides, dances, karaoke, outdoor activities, games, and plenty of just hanging out and enjoying each others company. On Sunday we attended church together in the Pest Ward.  It was a wonderful experience sharing this time with our YSA.  We love hearing their conversion experiences and how they deal with life's challenges.  We are so proud of them and all the good things they are doing in their lives to stay close to and follow our Savior Jesus Christ.

Sunday meetings with some of our YSA

Elder and Sister Oldham arrived on Saturday morning to help us.  They are serving the YSA in  the Szombathely District.  They live in Sopron (Western Hungary).

Food is always an important part  of every gathering!

Enjoying each others company

YSA from all around Hungary attended.

Celebrating one of the YSA's birthday with a yummy cake

Our YSA were able to be their own DJs for the 2 dances.

Everyone had a great time.

Karaoke singing was hilarious.

We held our own YSA Sunday School class at the Pest stake center.

Zita was our translator for Sunday School.

We are so proud of our YSA group.  They are preparing to be the future leaders of this beautiful country.  We pray the Lord will help us as we serve these young men and woman.  We know that many wonderful blessings await them as they choose to follow their Savior Jesus Christ.

A BUSY MONTH IN THE MISSION

The summer months have flown by so quickly.  We can hardly believe it is almost September already.  We have seen many missionaries complete their faithful missions and have received many missionaries excited to begin their service. For all of the experiences we have enjoyed these past few months we are grateful.  We have learned a lot about what goes on in the mission office and have a greater appreciation for all those missionaries who serve in the office full-time.  Our office training is now complete and we are excited to devote our full-time service to our YSA.  We have enjoyed working with and training Elder and Sister Simkins.  They are wonderful, dedicated missionaries who will do a wonderful service in the office.

Love these tree trunks!

Helping our YSA, Timi, celebrate receiving her Masters degree in English.  We are so proud of her!

We love Sunday dinners with the missionaries and friends.  Serving 'fruit soup' for the first course.

Welcoming our new "Welfare" missionaries,  Elder and Sister Lund with Sister Szabadkai.

Saying good bye to our "Family History" missionaries, Elder and Sister Broadhead who served so faithfully for 2 years.

Our Buda district before transfers. Elder's Detrich, Heilein, Craig, Tuttle, Gongolas and Elder Beaumont. Sisters Simons, Van Denburgh and Sister Peterson.

One of our favorite places on Buda Hill to visit. Love the views!

Receiving seven new missionaries from the MTC  on August 4th, anxious to begin their service.

Showing our new office couple, Elder and Sister Simkin the beauties of Budapest

Elder and Sister Oldham arrived last week to serve with the YSA, We are excited to have them here!

At the top of Gellert Hill with Elder and Sister Bailey and President and Sister Szabadkai

A final farewell to two wonderful missionaries, Elder Nicolas and Elder Cathcart with Elder Simkin and Elder Peterson

DAY TRIP TO SOPRON

This week we traveled to Sopron, a small city nestled in the foothills of the Alps. It is just a stones throw from the Austrian border, a picture perfect baroque town jam -packed with historic buildings.  Our assignment was to secure a new elders apartment.  A two and half hour drive from Budapest made for a nice day trip.  We enjoyed the beautiful sights along the way.  We passed fields and fields of sunflowers, in full bloom.  They are used for producing sunflower oil. We also enjoyed the many  Stork nests on tops of light poles and even one on a chimney top.  We love all of these Hungarian cities, each of them with their own unique beauty.

Love the sunflowers!

We seen many nests on light poles but we don't see this often!

Main square in Sopron

Fire Tower (Tuztorony), the location of an ancient Roman watch tower.

A beautiful yellow church in every town.  This one is in Kapuvar

Another wonderful week in the mission has come and gone.  We can hardly believe that we have been here nearly seven months.  We love serving these wonderful people. We have learned so much about their history and culture and are saddened by all the suffering and hardships that they have had to endure. We see great things happening here and know that the Lord is mindful of them and great blessings await them as they accept the gospel and act on their faith.

"If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing."  Henry B. Eyring 

YSA AND THE "BILLION GRAVES" PROJECT

We have introduced our YSA to the "Billion Graves" project, so Friday night we headed to the "Kerepes Cemetery  on the Pest side of the river. We were all excited to try our new"App" that we downloaded so that we could do the project.
Through Billion Graves, thousands of volunteers photograph and upload headstones while others index the information on the headstones.  That information then becomes available to anyone around the world doing Family History Work with no charge.
Billion Graves allows everyone that can walk and carry a smart phone to be involved in Family History.  Europe is a Treasure Trove of Cemeteries and Grave Yards that contain the very Family History Records that will allow millions to receive their saving temple Ordinances.

D&C 3:19 "And for this very purpose are these plates, (records), preserved...that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled which He made to His people."

Sister Peterson, Panni and Adri working hard.

This headstone was one of the easier ones to photograph.  We still had to remove  a lot of the vines in order to see the names and dates. As you can see they bury generations of families in the same area.

Our YSA photographing us having fun with statues.

OUR TRIP TO GYÖR

Győr, this colorful mellow town is situated halfway between Budapest and Vienna and hosts a vast array of architectural, cultural and natural resources.
On Saturday August 1st we traveled with the AP missionaries to a baptism in Győr. Zsofia, one of our YSA was to be baptized by her older brother and she invited us to attend her baptism.  She attended our YSA conference in Romania and we had an opportunity to get to know her. We were excited to go and visit that part of Hungary.  Elder Tuttle and Elder Heilein made the road trip with us.  Elder Tuttle served in that area and taught Zsofia.
Afterwards the elders showed us around the city of Győr.  We were so impressed with how clean, quiet and beautiful the city was

Zsofia, and Elder and Sister Peterson at her baptism

The chapel in Győr

Elder Tuttle, Elder Peterson and Elder Heilein "looking good", on the streets of Győr.

Love the creativity on these beautiful buildings.

Beautiful, clean walking streets!  Love the feeling!

Unique store fronts!

Love the store decor, very inviting!

Elder Heilein and Elder Tuttle enjoying ice cream


We love the many opportunities we are given here on our mission to share our feelings about the
restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the "plan of happiness" for all of
God's children, no matter where the live in the world.

Nothing beats a good ice cream on a hot day!