MISSION LIFE IN EGER

Time is passing far too quickly here in Eger.  We have loved everything about this city and the people. We just had transfers and sad our goodbyes to Elder Lawrence who transferred to Kispest.  And we have a new set of elders as well instead of the sisters we thought were coming.  And now we are our own district so we will no longer be traveling to Miskolc each week for district meetings.

Our Miskolc district,  Elder Veres, Elder Howard, Elder Lawrence, Elder Evans, Elder Mortensen, and Elder Larson.

Rainy days in Eger at our favorite Pékság.

Sister Peterson and Kriszti.  We are excited for her baptism on March 12th!

Elder Peterson and Agi!  One of our YSA who also serves as the Primary President in our Eger Branch

Elder and Sister Peterson with Henni!  She is one of our YSA and she is working towards serving a mission next summer!

Branch members that dressed up for Farsong.

The Vas family at the Farsong party. Their family makes up all of the Primary in the branch.

SISTERS CONNECTION IN BUDAPEST

A couple of weeks ago we had an opportunity to visit Éva again in Budapest.  This time Sister Szabadkai (mission president's wife) offered to be our translator.  Last spring we meet Éva after much searching and walking the streets of Budapest with our sister missionaries. Éva's only sister and sibling, Anna,  lives in Washington and is very good friends with my sister Jan. Éva had asked that we come visit her again.  She speaks no english and we speak "kicsi" hungarian.  So when Sister Szabadkai offered to go with us and to translate, we were thrilled.  We had a wonderful visit with her as she once again shared many experiences in her life.  The challenges she as had and the sorrow she has felt not being able to live all these years close to her sister. (Anna and her husband immigrated to the United States in 1956 when there was so much turmoil in Hungarian). Éva and her sister Anna were orphaned at a young age when their parents were killed because of their Jewish faith.  The children were then raised by the Catholic nuns.
 Sister Peterson shared her testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed her life and gave Éva a copy of her own.  She accepted the book gladly.  We hope she will read it and know for herself that it is true and that it can bless her life as well. We ended our visit with a promise that we would return for future visits.  Éva's health is not so good.  She spends many lonely days sitting by herself in her overstuffed chair.  Marta met her sister Anna while she was living in the US.  She now lives here in Hungary and does much service for Éva.

Marta and Éva, 

 We enjoyed a surprise this week!  A couple of our special YSA's from Budapest came to visit us here in Eger.  We had such a fun time showing them around, neither one of them had been to this city.  We spent a half a day walking the streets, exploring the castle, eating pizza and trying  new sutti. We are grateful for the time we have to spend with our YSA.  We love them and are so impressed with all the wonderful things they are doing in their lives to serve others and improve themselves.

laci Tem and Énikö at the Pizza Club in Eger

Elder and Sister Peterson, Laci and Énico, from castle hill.

This is how they make "Eclairs" in Hungary, Maple frosting and filled with chocolate mousse.

Beautiful spring like day from castle hill.

A great view of the "Minaret".  The only one left in Hungary after the Turkish occupation.  It was saved because the  priest at the nearby church put a cross on top of it.  Now it has both the crescent moon cymbal and the cross.

The small stream that winds through the city.

We are so grateful to be here in Eger.  We love serving the people of this beautiful city. We love the quieter and slower pace of this city.  The people are friendly and curious about what we do.  We have many opportunities to share our testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our blessings are great and we recognize our Heavenly Fathers's hand daily in our lives.

THE MISKOLC CONNECTION

Eger is part of the East Zone here in the Hungary Budapest Mission  Other cities that belong to this zone are Miskolc, Nyiregyháza, and Debrecen. Eger typically is its own district as well but since we have only one companionship of elders we combine to attend the Miskolc district meetings each week.  It takes us a little more than an hour to drive there.  We enjoy meeting with the two companionships of Elder Howard and Elder Veres, Elder Mortensen and Elder Evans. This past week we held our Zone Training as well in Miskolc.  The elders and sisters from those other cities attended.  It was a wonderful training by our zone leaders.  We were asked to do some training on companionship studies.  After all we have been companions the longest of anyone in the mission.  (Tuesday was the one year mark that we started our 'special' companionship of being missionaries together).  We were blessed to have President and Sister Szabadkai attend the training. Afterwards Sister Peterson fed them a nice lunch of cheesy potato soup/rolls and mint brownies.  What a wonderful opportunity to gather as missionaries and enjoy one another as when learn to be better missionaries.

The Miskolc Zone, January 21, 2016

Our Arizona Elders!  Learning to make a snowman!

Just out side of Eger you will find "Wine Cellars"  built right into the hillside.

More wine cellars.

Our Hungarian friend, "Eugene" proud of his American flag that was given to him by a previous senior missionary couple.

Gathering to watch the YSA Worldwide Devotional in Hungarian.   President and sister Békés, Elder Lawrence, Elder Larson, our YSA, Heni, Kristi, and Agi with Elder and Sister Peterson.

Enjoying a game of "Dominoes",  for FHE, just the two of us!

We had an opportunity to listen to President Nelson several times in English and once in Hungarian as he spoke to the YSA in the Worldwide Devotional.  We heard some wonderful counsel for our YSA and for us as missionaries.  He said that we should "Expect and prepare to accomplish the impossible." President Nelson shared his experience when he was first called to the quorum of the twelve, when President Benson  asked him to open the countries of Eastern Europe for the gospel to be preached.  It had seemed like an impossible task to him because of the communist rule which existed in each of those countries at the time. He was obedient to the prophet and he was successful  President Nelson said, "The Lord is able to do his own work and I was privileged to watch the unfolding of one miracle after another, always and only after I had brought my best thinking, my most courageous efforts, and my most fervent prayers to the task. You will be asked to accept challenging assignments and become an instrument in the Lord's hand.  And he will enable you to accomplish the impossible."
We know that when we follow the prophet, keep our covenants, and defend God's kingdom we will be blessed to accomplish those things which might at first seem impossible to us.  We have seen miracles on our mission.  We know that this is His work.  We feel privileged to be a part of it in these last days.  We love our Savior and know that through Him all things are possible.

EXPERIENCING OUR FIRST SNOW IN HUNGARY

Since our arrival in January 2015 no snow has fallen where we have served.  We were excited to finally have a beautiful snow storm this past week.  Both of our young Elders are from Arizona where they don't experience the snow often.  This was a treat for them, at least at first.  As the week wore on we think they were ready for a warm up.  Something about fresh snow that makes everything look magical.  We did a lot of walking this week with the Elders to visit some of their referrals and new friends.  One of the ladies we visited had a beautiful home up in the avenues of Eger.  Because of the cost of heating she kept the heat off in most of the house. We enjoyed our visit with our coats and gloves on.  The spirit warmed our hearts, however.  At another house we had an interesting visit with Eugene who owns a small business working on DC motors and other small electronics.  His hobby is repairing and collecting old time radios and parts.  Along with his antique radios, he showed us his vacuum tube collection.  This may not be interesting to most but Elder Peterson was amazed.  Eugene's prize "pet", as he called it, was a WW11 German radio amplifier tube.  He said this tube would cost about as much as a car.

Everything looks so magical, we can hardly believe we are  here in this beautiful place.

Elder Lawence and Elder Larson getting dusted by the first snow, standing by the castle gate.

View of Eger over the wall of the castle.

The snow illuminated by the street lantern.

Eugene proud to show us his" Wehrmacht Telefunken" WW11 radio vacuum tube.

Elder Larson and Elder Lawrence enjoying Eugene's antique radio collection.

 In the park at the center of Eger you will find a well kept ice skating rink for the enjoyment of all.  Some of our YSA wanted us come join them for fun on the ice.  It has been a while so we were a little reluctant, but up for the challenge.  We had a great time and got to know them better.  What is best news of all, we didn't break anything.  We were surprised at the reasonable cost. The equivalent of $2.85 for skate rental and all evening skating.

David, Gabbi, Sister Peterson, Elder Peterson and János enjoying an evening on the ice.

A little tipsy on the ice but no broken bones. 

  We would like to share a quote with you from our studies this week.
"The Lord knows the way because He is the way and is our only chance for successfully negotiating mortality,  His Atonement makes available all the power, peace, light and strength that we need to deal with life's challenges-those ranging from our own mistakes and sins to trials over which we have no control but we still feel pain."
"The Lord has promised to heal our broken hearts; to take upon Him our pains and sicknesses, to blot out our transgressions, if we repent, and loose the bands of death. He promised that if we will build our lives upon His rock, the devil will have no power over us.  And He has vowed that He will never leave us or forsake us.  There is simply no mortal equivalent.  Not in terms of commitment, power or love.  He is not our last chance He is our only chance." (Sherri Dew April 1999 GC, "Our Only Chance")

NEW YEARS CELEBRATION

We returned to Budapest for a few days to help the YSA with their New Years's Eve party. It felt good to be 'home' again. We missed our YSA, senior couples and the missionaries serving there. Our YSA leaders did most of the planning of the food, music and games.  We had a smaller turnout than previous years because of the many parties that were planned in the other areas of the country. However those that came to Budapest were not disappointed.  The evening was capped off by the hungarian tradition of serving lentil soup and hotdogs at midnight. It is thought that the lentil  soup will bring you wealth in the new year.

Budapest, a great place to ring in the New Year!

Yummy hungarian "Kuglóf" cake with Lavi, Zita, Panni, and Timi

Pizza always bring a smile!

They couldn't get enough of our "green slush".

Sister Simkins and the YSA

Barbi and Angela from Györ

The music man, Elder Simkins

TP fashion design competition!

Feed me carefully!

"Spot It" was addicting to many of us!

At the stroke of midnight the hungarians sing their anthem.

Here are those that made it to New Year!

We spent the night in our old apartment with the new occupants, Elder and Sister Simkins.  On New Years Day we enjoyed a fun afternoon with our friends.  We visited the Christmas Festival on the other side of the river.  We enjoyed a nice hungarian lunch inside a very unique restaurant. The sights were great but the weather was a little too cold for our liking. By evening we were back on the road to Eger.

St. Stephens Basilica, with the festival lights.

Christmas Festival with the Simkins.

It has been a great year. It is one packed with incrediable memories, of wonderful people and beautiful places.  We have absolutely loved the mission life.  We feel so incrediably blessed.  Is life perfect?  Absolutely not! But we know that because of our Savior Jesus Christ that all things will work out. Faith in our Savior gives strength to move forward and hope for a brighter future.

"And what is it that ye shall hope for?  Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.  Where fore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope."  Moroni 7: 41-42

CHRISTMAS IN EGER

Here we are in beautiful, foggy Eger for Christmas.  We moved here just ten days ago and it already feels like our home away from home.  Our apartment is very cozy and we live in the middle of all the cobblestone walking streets.  We don't have to venture out very far to get something to eat or just see the beautiful sights.  Another good thing is we are only about 50 steps from the Branch house.

Merry Christmas hung over the street by our house.

Church in the main square with a 30ft Christmas tree brought in from the mountains near by.

Selfie from our favorite pékség.  

Taking advantage of that mistletoe.  

View of the minaret from the Castle hill on a typical winter foggy day.

For those that brave the cold, lunch still served on the streets.

Beautiful, festive streets as people come to the main square for the festival.

Our advent countdown to Christmas.  Twenty-five gifts from our Heavenly Father that we find in the scriptures.

One of the greatest gifts to give!

Creative nativity on our street in Budapest.

Our Christmas tree and a special nativity from family.

Elder Peterson, Elder Larsen and Elder Lawrence showing off their Christmas 'socks'.

This Christmas was very memorable, one we will not soon forget.  It has been fun to experience the Christmas traditions they have here in Hungary.  There are some traditions that we would even like to adopt and use when we are home.

We enjoyed our Christmas breakfast and dinner with the Elders.  They were able to Skype with their families from our apartment. This brought back fond memories for the times we were able to talk to our missionaries at Christmas time.   Amazingly, we were able to FaceTime with each of our children and their families over these past few days.

There are many gifts we receive from our loving Heavenly Father. The Christmas season gives us an opportunity to reflect on them in a special way while we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  One of the greatest gifts we can receive in this turmoil filled world is the gift of 'PEACE'

  "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  (John 14:27)