April Newsletter

Easter Traditions in Hungary

On April 2nd, Easter Monday, in Hungary, we went with the Jenkins and met 3 other senior missionary couples (the Bagozzis, the Bradshaws, and the Russells) in the small village of Hollókő.  We found out that this is a very popular event.  We spent over an hour in a line of cars on a narrow road leading to the village waiting for a parking place.  We ended up parking a long ways from the bus that transported people up to the village. 

The people of the village wear traditional Hungarian costumes and demonstrate traditional Hungarian Easter customs which include young men dumping buckets of cold water onto the women.  Now they just sprinkle or spray cheap perfume on them.  You can read more about it here:  Easter Traditions in Hungary

Sister Bagozzi getting "sprinkled" with water

          

Man powered merry go round swing

Weekly Letter - Easter

Saturday March 31 and Easter Morning April 1

About 12 weeks ago, we got a new district leader.  He is a West Point Cadet (go Navy beat Army!).  In our first district meeting he asked a question that no other missionary had asked in our 14 months in Miskolc.  “What does the branch need?”  Your mom answered back very quickly, “We need a new branch president!  You understand that our branch president has only been in this position for about six months.  But it takes two, three or four years to train new members to be able to become a branch president.  So we need male baptisms now.  The more the better.  More priesthood holders to choose from when it is time for a replacement.”

            Today at 4:00 pm we held a baptism at the church.  Five people were baptized. 

 
One family, a father, a mother and a 10-year-old boy.  We also baptized a 13-year-old foster son of a member and a middle-aged man.  So today we had 4 males and one female baptized!  We love all members and all baptisms.  The problem in many areas of the world is that men are harder to convert than women.  However, one cannot build a solid church without both males and females.

Today I was very thankful that my grandchildren were able to be part of the Solemn Assembly that occurred at General Conference.  Some of the young grandchildren will not remember this day, but the older ones can now think back and remember when they raised their hands in approval of President Russell M Nelson as the prophet of the church.

            God’s way of leadership transition compared to how the world does it is stark.  At no time, from the moment of Thomas S Monson’s illness and death to President Nelson’s setting apart, was there any political movements, statements urging President Monson to retirement, alliances made, favors called, or pressure used to forming an opinion as to the new head of the Church.  God’s way is one of order.  God’s way is not one of confusion. 

            One of the topics of thought these past 15 months for me in the early mornings of prayer and meditation is how Satan uses “small” things to distract and then eventually destroy one’s testimony and activity in the Church.  When the “topic of the day” becomes so over powering in our lives, that we no longer have the time to pray, to read the scriptures, to go to church, to do home teaching, to do visiting teaching, to prepare for the lesson you are to teach on Sunday, to have time to visit the sick, the needy and the lonely, then Satan has achieved his goal.  To distract us from doing the Lord’s will. 

            Whether it is global warming, environment causes, women holding the priesthood, being a vegetarian, being a vegan, not eating pork, using plastic straws, using paper straws, whether solar panels on church houses causes aliens from outer space to interfere with priesthood and relief society meetings, are all forms used to distract us from why we are here on earth.  It distracts us from what we are supposed to be doing in obtaining eternal life and an eternal family.  When that happens, Satan wins.

            C.S. Lewis wrote about this in the Screwtape Letters.  I have mentioned this before.  Screwtape response back to his nephew Wormwood’s, the appendices devil, complaint that the “Patient” has started to blame the devil for influencing him in making bad decisions.  Wormwood complains that he has not done so.  That the “Patient” has made these decisions on his own.  Screwtape writes back and says, “That is where we want him!”  Let him blame us, when that happens our job is a success. 

            The scriptures give us comfort that God is in control.  All good things come from God.  Along with that we are told, there must be moderation in all things. We must be good stewards as to the things of God, including the planet.  But doing so as a manner of lifestyle, not a crusade to change the world.

            The crusade we must never lose focus on is the first and second greatest commandments:

1) Love the Lord thy God with all you heart.  2) Love you neighbor as yourself.  Too many people in the world have “I” problems.  We are dealing with the blind and the visually impaired in Hungary on a couple of projects.  We have found in today’s world, there are many ways, many electronic devices that help the blind and visually impaired to “see”.  We have bought a piece of equipment that will screen up to 10,000 people a year in Hungary for vision problems and diseases which will stop blindness.  But we have yet to find any medical device, any electronic device that can cure the “I” disease, other than service to others.

             Please stop and examine your life.  Does it have “a plastic straw problem”?  Have you allowed the personal passion of the topic of the day to overshadow your daily praying to God, your daily scripture reading, your care for others, most importantly your family?  If so use a sharp environmentally approved cutting device and remove the plastic straw from most of your life (keep a little - the moderation thing!).  Make sure that your life is full of causes, concerns, habits, acts of kindness, cell phone usage, Facebooking that are controlled by the simple word “moderation.”  That is the best defense against the “I” disease. 

            The one thing that moderation is never applied to is the promises we make each week we take the sacrament: We promise that daily we will try do these three things:

1.         We will “take upon us” Christ’s name.  Read Alma 5 to know how to do this. One simple verse gives a glimpse: verse 14.  “And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?”  What would the world be like if only. . .?

2.         That we will always remember Him.  Do you pray morning, noon and night?  Do you treat even our enemies as He treated the Romans, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, those who “nailed” him to the cross.  Remember His words to His father, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Can we do that to those that have offended us?  Love thy enemy always takes on a new meaning every Easter.  Christ never lost his temper against those that wanted him dead.  Why?  Because He knew that he needed to go through these trials to “Bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”  Are we mature enough to understand that regardless of the act, we are here on earth to “become as the gods, knowing good and evil.”  So why harbor hate?  If we want forgiveness for our sins, then Christ said that we must forgive all others.

3.         Keep his commandment that we may have His spirit to be with us.  How can one act, think and behave in a manner like unto Christ, if one does not have Christ’s spirit with them?  We cannot have His spirit with us if we are consciously not living his commandments.  The Sacrament prayer specifically states, “that they may witness ... that they are willing to . . .”  Doesn’t say that we will be able to live all of his commandments, but it requires an active act to attempt to do live his commandments.

            So on this Easter Sunday, may we stop and reflect on how Christ’s atonement in the Garden has, is and will affect our life.  May we stop and consider that we chose to put our trust in Christ when he promised to come to earth and live a sinless life, which qualified him to perform the atonement.  It is impossible for mortal man to comprehend or fathom the magnitude of pain and suffering Christ had in the Garden, during the fake trial and then upon the cross.  May we understand that despite all of that, he begged His father to forgive those that had done this to him.  I am not talking only about the Roman soldiers, I am talking about all of us who have sinned and are using his atonement to obtain forgiveness.  He performed this act that no one else could perform simply out of love.  Love for His father and more importantly love for all of us.  For He knew and fully comprehended that He had made a sacred promise to all of us that He would succeed in the atonement and in the resurrection.  May we come to a clearer understanding as to why we are here on earth and so live our lives in a manner that pays respect to Jesus Christ and what he did us on the first Easter weekend is my prayer and Easter message.

Dad

Week in Review

Last week, March 26 - March 31 was a busy and rewarding week with many varied activities.  And I mistakenly thought a mission might be boring!  Was I ever wrong!

On Tuesday we started to do a personal finance class with our gardener friends in Edeleny. 
We will meet with them every two weeks

 
Wednesday, we had the opportunity to meet with Szent Marton Gyermekmento Szolgalat Kozhasznu Alapitvany.  This is an NGO that provides ambulance service in Budapest, Miskolc, and Debrecen.  They also do training for doctors and ambulance staff in providing lifesaving procedures on children.  We are hoping to be able to provide some needed equipment for their ambulance in the Miskolc area.  The ambulance serves the entire north-eastern area of Hungary and specializes in children only.

After the Ambulance meeting, we drove to Hungarian Federation of the Blind's Guide Dog Training Facility.  They are in the process of remodeling their facility to include rooms where the dogs can be medically cared for.  They need a place where they can neuter the dogs and let them recover in a controlled temperature room.  Previously, they were only able to perform this operation during the warmer months because they had no place for the dogs to recover.  LDS Charities has been asked to provide some furnishings and equipment to complete this addition.

From this meeting, we were off to the mission home for Senior Conference.  We have a meeting with all the senior missionaries about every three months.  It is a great time to renew friendships and have a good time.  We live at different parts of the country, so we don't very often have a chance to get together.  We all look forward to these conferences. We spend about 3 hours in a training session and then go out to dinner.  (see the previous blog post for pictures of dinner and the Invisible Exhibit).

After the Exhibit, we went to the Easter Market.  Budapest has big Christmas and Easter Markets where food and craft vendors set up booths to market their wares.

"Panini" - Hungarian Style

Big vats of oil are in great abundance - just about everything is fried.  Don't be surprized when we both come home with a few (well maybe - a lot) of extra pounds.  It's hard to resist tasting and enjoying the good food of our country.

 

  

We didn't plan very well and had only enough time to eat lunch and we were off to Inarcs to see another potential project.  This project is for a group of Roma who live in perhaps the most devastating conditions we have seen so far.  Their "homes" are basically shacks built from a few brick blocks, and sheets of black plastic for a roof.  The national government is funding part of the project, the inhabitants will fund a little as well as provide the labor, and LDS Charities is being asked to provide some of the materials. 

        

 

 

 

The crowning event of the week was the baptism of five new members.  These five will be a great asset to the branch.  We are thrilled to be able to witness their baptism.  After the baptism, we watch the Solemn Assembly and had the opportunity to sustain the new president/prophet of the church.  What a wonderful end to an already fantastic week.