Rock Painting in Edelény

On Wednesday, the 28th of June we visited our friends in Edelény.  We continue to be very impressed with their garden.  We always feel so welcomed and their amazing lunch was very much enjoyed and appreciated.  We are always so grateful for their generosity in sharing items from the garden.  This time we especially enjoyed the zucchini which we made into Chocolate Zucchini Bread from Grandma Moser's recipe.  We haven't had that for a long time and had forgotten how good it is.  We made several loaves and took it to the cooking competition in Hejökeresztúr.  More about this in a later post.

    

 Highlights of the day included:

·       A yummy lunch

·       Rock painting with about 20 children

·       "Ring Around the Rosie", and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"

·       Relay races and Ring Toss

·       A visit to a kindergarten in Edelény to deliver produce from the garden.

      

 For more pictures and info visit:  Facebook post about rock painting in Edelény

Come to the Edge

We attended a Zone Training a few weeks ago where Elder Patrick Kearon spoke and challenged the missionaries to do 3 things:

1. Attack the Day
2. Be the Message
3. Come to the Edge

Zone conferences are directed to the young missionaries and helping them learn to be more effective in sharing the gospel.  Each time we go, we try to think of ways to apply the messages taught to our specific type of missionary work.  Sometimes it is a little challenging.  But this time, we were inspired to "come to the edge."  

This past week has been one of seeking and finding -- coming to the edge.  We have tried emailing several potential partners with no luck so we have been praying for help in finding new NGOs to partner with. This quote inspired us to jump off the edge and visit NGOs in person.  You have to understand that since we don't speak or understand Hungarian, this was not an easy decision to make.  It is very intimidating to walk into a building just hoping and praying that there will be someone that speaks English.  Yes, we could have taken a translator with us, but we decided to be brave and try it alone.

It takes this young man 2 days to make

one of these rugs because his arms and

legs do not cooperate for him like

ours do.  It is humbling to watch their

dedication and how hard it is for them

to function.  

Our first visit was to a home for Autistic young adults.  Much to our dismay, no one spoke English.  But through google translate and hand signals, I think we got our message across.  The good news though, our friend and translator, Edina, had a meeting with them a few days later and was able to secure an appointment for us and then attend the meeting with us to translate.

The students attend classroom learning sessions.  There were five boys in this classroom.  One was asleep in the back and two walked back and forth in the room.  It takes a very special teacher to work with these students.  

Proudly showing off his finished basket.

After a few more prayers, we ventured on to our next stop.  We were searching for a homeless shelter sponsored by the Order of Malta, a Catholic Service Organization.  Instead, we happened upon the headquarters of the Order of Malta right next door to the shelter.  We asked if anyone spoke English there and much to our delight, the man who is in charge of fund raising was summoned.  He took us into his office and spent 45 minutes talking to us about their various programs. We set up an appointment to return a few days later.  Coincidence -- no! -- an answer to our prayers!

On our return appointment, we were taken to 3 project sites.

• A playground for low income families.  

• An apartment building in the Avas (a community of 10 story apartment complexes built during communist rule - literal translation means rancid) where low income families live and receive counseling.

 

• A former vacation area that has been taken over by the Roma people where many live without water or electricity.  

Play area in the community center

If you look closely, you will see a boy standing in the doorway.

Laundry Day

Dogs like this are a very common site in Hungary.

Families come here to get water.  We saw a little boy getting a bath from one of these pumps.

Notice the nice door.  Probably taken from a nearby vacation house that had been abandoned by
the owners when the Roma people took over this hillside village

During our tour, we learned that Karoly Toth-Simon, the man taking us on this tour, speaks to the Elders every Sunday morning as they ride the bus to their respective churches.  Small world!

We spent the next couple days researching NGOs headquartered in Budapest.  Our search led us to appointments with the following organizations.

• National Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted
• The Tom Lantos Institute
• The Red Cross
• Hungarian Interchurch Aid

There were two others that we contacted, but have not heard back from them yet. We were thrilled to have a 4 out of 6 success rate.  We visited the first 3 on the list last Thursday/Friday and are waiting to hear back from them about how we can help.  We have an appointment with the fourth next week.

We were particularly interested in the Blind Federation and will most likely help with a project that teaches the visually impaired to use technology (ipads and tablets) to make their lives easier and to help them read.  (Sound familiar - I think we might name this project The Maurine Moser Project)

Last week was one of much success in finding new projects.  Trials and prayers produce humility, faith and results.  We have gone to the edge; we pushed each other and we flew.  It's a good feeling.  

Our New Friends in Finke

Having a few laughs with our new friends in Finke, a village about 30 minutes away from Miskolc.

On June 2, 2017 we, along with Edina Spisak

Edina, our friend from
the branch and our translator

as translator, visited the participants in the Finke project.  Atilla, the project trainer, greeted us and proceeded to show us around the garden plot.  The garden looks beautiful!  

Atilla Toth

They have already harvested several of the vegetables and have replanted.  Atilla was quick to let us know that the excess vegetables were donated to the local school and the government.  

Planting corn and string beans to support each other

A few minutes later the rest of the family members joined us.  We sat around the table next to the garden and played a getting to know you game.  We had prepared questions in both English and Hungarian.  We had a good time as they read the questions in both English and Hungarian and we did the same. Many laughs were shared because of the unique pronunciations on both parts.  We are looking forward to returning often to teach some English to them -- and they will teach Hungarian to us!  We also plan to do some crafts and they want us to also teach them cooking and canning.  Humm - that might be a hard one.  I told them, they need to teach us the cooking.  They won the cooking contest last year at a Northern Hungary festival - their first year to enter.  

On our first visit, they asked several questions about the church. They were familiar with the young men in Miskolc who wore white shirts and black and white name tags and knew that we were from the same church. After we left last time, Melinda, the sponsor of the project, asked us to tell them about the church and invite them to attend church ("if that is okay") Because of their interest in the church and Melinda's asking us to share our church with them, Elder Moser felt prompted to give them Books of Mormon just as we were leaving. They received them with gratitude and they seemed eager to read them. They even asked if we could read them together on our next visit. This is one big family (about 40 members) who are very supportive of each other. What a blessing the church would be to them. We excited to be able to share the message of the gospel with them.

Of course, they would not let us leave without gifts from their garden.  

I think we might be spoiled this summer.  Yummy!