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.