February Newsletter

Weekly Letter

Dear Family,             
First of all, on February 9^th, we celebrated the 43^rd anniversary of Jane calling me from Provo to Moscow, Idaho and asking me to marry her!  It was on a Sunday and I must have been day dreaming, but the good news, I said, “Yes!”  Second of all, happy 7^th wedding anniversary today to Anne and Dee.  We loved the fact that Dee was on his knees again today, this time, helping Hannah give her first talk in Primary, and what about?  Choices. The very same topic that her Grandmother (Nema) taught the children here in Miskolc today! Both Anne and Dee made the premium ultimate choice of being married in the temple seven years ago.  Congrats.

For those who saw the pictures on Facebook of the snow that fell last Sunday night while we were asleep, today we have no evidence of snow!  The past two nights we actually were thumbing our noses at Murphy’s law and did not put on our windshield cover, hoping that leaving it off would result in snow and ice on the windshield that needed to be cleaned before going to church this morning.  That logic didn’t work!  No snow.  They keep telling us that if January and February are mild, March will be nasty.  That is why we are hoping for snow in February!

2017

One year ago, yesterday, I spent the morning chipping the final remnants of ice from off of the driveway at the old house.  Memory of bad experiences are funny.  To us, the memory of the 24 inches of snow over night, the block roads due to the snow, the fog and the very nasty pollution smell that came with the fog, the piercing bitter cold, pouring hot water on to the gate lock (before Scott introduced us to WD-40, which solved the problem of frozen locks), the frozen water pipes, the broken water heater and looking for a new apartment/house to live in, to us, those experiences lasted at least 40 years!

            Before starting to write this letter, I looked back at the calendar.  We arrived in Miskolc on Monday afternoon, January 9^th and on February 18^th we moved into the “apple” house.  Six weeks!  I had to go back and look at the calendar twice to make sure that I was not missing something.  How could six weeks turn into 40 years of unlivable torment!  Memory.  I guess with the black mold in the kitchen, the ever dripping water under the counter in the kitchen, the extreme hot or very cold shower water, the drain pipe that needed to be place from the washing machine into the toilet when clothes were washed, the extension cords all of the bathroom floor, the brilliant red paint on the walls and couches and the totally family friendly neighborhoods that all other neighborhoods seemed to have other than our two block neighborhood next to the scrap metal yard, makes six weeks seem a lot longer a year later!  

Our first home in Hungary

Notice the sign on the washing
machine as a reminder to put
drain hose in the toilet

 

But they will always be nice reminders of how something that started out so discouraging soon changed to where the joys and happy memories that we will have the rest of our lives proves the adage, “One must experience the bad to enjoy the good.”.  There is a long Sacrament Meeting talk in that, but not for this letter. 

            Now the problem is the time is moving too fast.  Only six more months and we will be in tears leaving a country and the people that will always have a piece of our hearts.  We need time and the calendar to slow down so that we can get all our work done.

            This week after waiting for about two months, both our Lions Club project (a machine that will test eye disease for anyone over two months old) is finally getting to the point that we can order it.  The interactive board (a very large touch computer screen) for a Roma community center so that the children can have access to the digital age of education is also getting ready to order.  With those two projects, the only two projects we have left that is not completed is buying beds for a home for mentally disable adults.  This home is on the Hungarian/Austrian border, which means about 3.5 hours of drive time one way.  The project has been slowed due to the travel limitations.  We hope that we that we can order the beds in about a week.

            The other project, will take the full year to be completed.  This project is a “micro-grant” project.  The organization we are dealing with had 9 Roma villages that are to get EU money and corporate money to train the Roma how to come together and select a project in their village that will improve the living conditions for the village.  LDS Charities will fund the micro-grant to get the project started.  (not too large of an amount for each of the nine villages, but substantial in total funding) Then it is the hope that the community will start to do internal fund raising and expand their project.  A year ago, a village decided to raise money to replace 30 outdoor toilets for the very very poor (Most Roma are poor.)  Once the project ended, over 130 outdoor toilets had been replaced with the majority of the funding being raised by the village themselves. 

            We are turning our attention to new projects for 2018.  We have contacted the Rotary Club in Hungary and they have a project that sounds very rewarding.  Even though child molestation is very low compared to the United States, it is on the rise.  A child protection agency has a desire to build a clinic in Budapest where the molested child would be taken by the police or emergency personnel to be examined.  In the EU, children are not forced to testify in court if they are examined under certain conditions.  This location would meet the EU’s legal requirements.

            The site needs an instrument that does non-invasive gynecological examinations.  This can be used for all females, regardless of age.  We are hoping to be able to fund this acquisition of this examining machine.  It reduces the feeling of being violated again by the examining doctor.  We are thankful for such a machine but would be even more thankful if the need of the machine was fully eliminated.  But we know that will not happen until the Savior comes.

            We love you all.  But the feeling of homesickness is not there.  We don’t long for anything.  Face time, Skype, Zoom, whatever app we use, gives us face time with the grandkids.  We don’t know how we would feel if that was not an option.  What we do know is that we as a family have been extremely blessed.  I, intellectually understand the scripture: “I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. Mosiah 2:21.

            What I didn’t fully understand, how this is exponentially increased when out here to service for others in an attempt to try to show the Lord our appreciation for all that he has given us.  Every day, prayers are answered almost before you can say, “Amen”, doors are opened, access to people made available, family back home are being taken care of, friends with health issues being blessed, friends with employment issues finding jobs, impressions to do things for others, lessons taught that visually reach teenagers, old curmudgeons hearts are softened and their appearance in primary and teenage Sunday School attest to their appreciation as to the work that your Mom and I are doing in the branch.  Blessings don’t stop to allow us to feel that, “Wow, we finally did something and we were not blessed for it!  We finally are paying Christ back!”  That will never happen.

            What have we accomplished on our mission?  We have come to a deeper understanding of the debt to our Savior Jesus Christ that we will always have.  The magnitude of His atonement I simply can’t comprehend.  The only thing that my mind can understand is that His atonement works.  It has, it is, and it always will work for me.  To this I bear testimony.

            And because of that we bear testimony that He lives, He knows you personally, He understands the heartaches, the disappointments, the pains, the sorrows that you have.  Why, because all the emotions, all the hurts and sorrows that you have in life, Christ paid the price for those, so that you will have unimaginable happiness, you will be able to forgive others and have others forgive you.  You will, because of His atonement, know that you have become as gods, “Knowing good from evil.”  You will feel of the unbound love that He has specifically for you and that He will be your advocate with His father, our Father in Heaven, specifically for you.  And that is what I have come to a fuller knowledge this last 13 months in Hungary.  And for this, I thank Him with all my heart.

Dad

Winter Wonderland

our backyard - with the snow cover
for our car windshield hanging
on the handrail.  Obviously, we never
expected it to snow overnight. 

This Arizona girl is like a kid in a candy store. I just can't get enough of the beautiful seasons here. You'd think after about freezing to death last winter, I would be thrilled that this winter has been so warm and so little snow, but I will admit, I was kind of missing the snow.

We had decided to go to the Farsang Festival in downtown Miskolc on Saturday, February 3.  (More about the festival in another post)  We awoke to a very slushy wet rainey/snowey day.  We decided to go anyway - after all how many opportunities do we have to attend Farsang Festival in Miskolc, Hungary?  Farsang is a celebration to "scare away" winter.  On Sunday, we were sure that the celebration had worked.  It was a beautiful day with blue skies and quite warm.  I was a little disappointed thinking that our chance for snow was over.  Then came Monday!  . . .

Our backyard orchard and grapevines

Maybe the birds need some food and a fireplace
to make their home more inviting?  :) 

This is in our backyard.  We're not sure what it is - a dog house?  a place to store firewood?  Currently it appears to be a place where random "junk" has been stored.

Even the power lines are blanketed in snow.  

Not so sure that Elder Moser is loving the snow quite as much as I am.  

Yea - snow.  I was so excited I went outside in my pajamas and took pictures of our yard.  It wasn't even cold, so I decided to get dressed and build a snowman.  This one is a little better than my first attempt at snowman engineering.  Until . . . we returned from our walk and noticed he had a big crack in his middle and was leaning back.

We quickly stood him up and supported his back side. Mission accomplished - or so we thought.

This is what he looks like this morning.  Perhaps I just need to stick to my Arizona sunshine activities.  Not sure I have a future in building snowmen!  Sure was fun to try though.  And I thought he was pretty cute.  "Once there was a snowman, small, small, boom!"

This is the street leading up to our house.  It is always beautiful - in the spring it is covered with pink blossoms, summer - green leaves, fall - beautiful autumn colors, and winter - a frozen wonderland. 

On the corner of the street to our house.  Diablo Etterem & Pizzeria is one of the first restaurants we ate at when we first arrived in Miskolc.  Coincidentally we ended up moving just up the street from  here.  

The following pictures were taken on our morning walk.

A house at the end of our street.
I love the red tile roof with the
contrast of the white snow.

Following in the footsteps of those
who have gone before - (there must be a church talk in this somewhere)   

Even the trash cans and bins look better with their snow fur trim.

Can't quite figure out how this happened?  You
would think it would have fallen off when the
bin was opened. 

No children here today, but it sure looks picturesque.

Powdered donuts anyone?

As we walk up the steps as we approach the Avas, there are several
manhole covers like this.  We hear the rushing water each time we
walk by.  Obviously it is not cold enough for it to freeze.

       
Snow in every nook and cranny.

On the right is a community garden, on the left is an arboretum.

This is one of our favorite sign dilemmas.  The sign on the right seems to say "no grandpas with grandchildren"  However - the sign on the left . . .

say "Grandpas and children are welcome"  So okay - they are allowed in this area, but how to do they enter or leave the area because they are banned from the exit/entrance area.  

The entrance to the arboretum

Even a fire hydrant looks cute with its little snow cap 

Farsang, Miskolc Carnival

What is Farsang?

Yes, it was as cold and wet as it looks.  And yes, we were
surprised there were so many people there.

Time to say Goodby to Old Man Winter and Welcome to the Goddess of Spring.  January 6, the last day of Christmas, is the beginning of Hungary's very own winter carnival, called Farsang.   

Not wanting to miss a cultural activity so close to home, we braved the cold slushy snow on Saturday, February 3rd to attend the Farsang carnival.  We were surprised to see many other brave wet souls. We felt sorry, however, for all the vendors since not many people were buying food and other goods.  Luckily, Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and people came out in crowds. (We didn't - we were at church, of course)  We bought our stew in a bread bowl as a "take away" and returned home to eat in the warmth of our home.  Last year's festival was much colder, but at least it was dry and we sat at a table to eat.  This year, the tables were all covered with an inch of slush.  I wish I had taken a picture of the tables and our yummy bread bowls.  😞☔ 

One of our favorite Hungarian treats are Kürtőskalács.  Kürtőskalács is made from sweet, yeast dough (raised dough), of which a strip is spun and then wrapped around a truncated cone–shaped baking spit, and rolled in granulated sugar. It is roasted over charcoal while basted with melted butter, until its surface cooks to a golden-brown color. During the baking process the sugar stuck on the kürtőskalács caramelises and forms a shiny, crispy crust. The surface of the cake can then be topped with additional ingredients such as ground walnut or powdered cinnamon.

 

Spiral cut potato chips.  Haven't tried yet, but this is on my bucket list.

        

Fudge, candy and lots of sweets.

Not to be outdone by the big city bridges, Miskolc has its own
bridge full of locks.  An ancient custom, where lovers lock a padlock on a chain or gate and then throw away the key, symbolically locking their love forever.  Notice the combination lock - for those who are a little unsure that their love will last forever. 

Carnival rides - not many taking advantage of them today.  Sunday was a different story - or so we saw from a distance. 

Chestnuts roasting on
an open fire

As we were leaving, we came across this booth.  We have learned that we might find opportunities of partnerships for projects in the strangest ways.  This is an organization that provides an ambulance specifically for children.  They have ambulances in Budapest that are fancy and new.  The outlying areas such as Miskolc and Debrecen (close to Miskolc) have the older outdated medical equipment.  We are hoping to talk to them soon to see if LDS Charities can assist them in any way.