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!

YSA CONFERENCE IN ROMANIA

Every year the young single adults here in eastern Europe have the opportunity to attend a country YSA conference.  This year the conference was hosted by Romania with young adults from seventeen different countries.  Romania is a beautiful place covered with rolling fields and tree covered mountains.  Our destination was Brasov, in the heart of the area known as Transylvania.  Here is the home of Bran Castle, best known as Dracula's Castle.  We traveled 12 hours by bus to get to our destination.  As a missionary couple serving with the young adults we had the opportunity to attend this conference with 34  of our YSA's from Hungary.  We were able to get to know many of the YSA from other countries as well, during the week, as we shared experiences together.  It was held at a beautiful resort hotel at the foot of one of the ski mountains.  There were many well organized institute classes, service projects, firesides, dances, sport events, hikes, and even a trip to Dracula's Castle.

On the road with the YSA

Brasov Romania with its Hollywood style sign on the mountain.

Just chill in in Brasov with Tamas Furko, Laszlo and Tamas Szabo

Winding our way through the city down narrow alleys.

Elder Peterson with brother and sister duel, Klaudia and Benji Wunderli

Beautiful city of Brasov, Romania

Sister Peterson hanging out with the YSA

Our entire group of approx. 180 of us from 17 different countries.

The view from atop Bran Castle.

The hike to Bran Castle

Senior  Missionaries helping with the conference, Elder and Sister Flanders, Bair, Keppner, Stratton, Pres and Sister Ivory, Elder and Sister Anderson, Peterson, Dalton, Johnson and Brother and Sister Euvrard 

Pioneer games, three legged and sack races.

Lobby of the Alpin Hotel

Many opportunities to get to know the YSA

Our dining hall with Sister Cintia Geröly, Zsófia Mátyás, and Eszter Kovács

Waiting at the bus station in Budapest for our ride back to the mission home after an awesome YSA country conference.  We are loaded up with flags and supplies we will need for next years YSA conference in Hungary.  We will have the opportunity to host the conference next year.  We will be working to get our committee together very soon.  We are looking forward  to hosting  the YSA country conference next July.

P-DAY ADVENTURE

A few of weeks ago a couple from Utah came by the mission home.  They had been on a 600 mile bike ride down the Danube.  They begin their trip in Germany where the Danube begins and ended here in Budapest.  They were flying home the next day and wondered if the mission could use two nice new bikes. We looked at each other and thought, "could this be for real". Since we arrived here six months ago we have dreamed of biking through the city and along the Danube.  We often looked at those rental bikes that they keep around the city and considered trying them out on a P-day, but we had no helmets.  Mission rule, you have to wear a helmet. We gladly accepted their gift and thanked them for their generousity. Now the mission home has two bikes available for missionaries in this area.

Today we took the bikes out for a ride around Margit Island and over the Lion Bridge. These are a few sights we enjoyed along the way.

We would like to share a thought from Joseph B Wirthlin,  "We don't have to be perfect today.  We don't have to be better than someone else.  All we have to do is to be the very best we can."