Family Letter

April 29, 2018 and May 6, 2018,

Sorry for the long letter, it is two weeks’ worth of events in our life.

Tomorrow is Steven’s birthday.  Today, the four of us ate BYU brownies as his birthday cake with two candles, “3" and “8"!  It is very good to have Becca and Steven here with us. Mom made Csirke Papikas, Chicken Paprika for Steven’s birthday dinner, no it wasn’t his favorite, mash potatoes and gravy, this is Hungary!

            Friday, Steven, Becca and their friends, the Millers, arrived in Budapest from their week long travel through this part of Europe.  That night we went to Buda Castle and saw the lights of Pest from Buda hill and enjoyed a Hungarian dinner near the Saint Matthias Church on Buda Castle hill. 

Saturday morning, Steven and I drove out to the airport to see if I could get added on the car rental then extend it until after Anne and Dee leave.  The extra room for the baby car seat is well worth the money.  After that, your Mom and I went to the Guide Dogs for the Blind open house where the new dog clinic was showcased. 

The equipment and the cabinets that LDS Charities paid for were on display.  Some of the highlights was a group picture in the form of a heart taken by a drone, sitting in the hot sun with nobody to talk to, eating the equivalent to a Costco hotdog with four gallons of mustard on it, then 15 minutes later being given two more hot dogs to eat by the director’s wife who spoke English, but didn’t understand that one Hungarian hot dog was about ½ of a hot dog too much, so we ate the second hot dog that this time only had 2 gallons of mustard and a pint of catsup on it.(Catsup in Hungary is not scarce, but to get Catsup on hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs, you get charged about $0.35 to $0.50 for the catsup, so we didn’t complain about the excess on the hot dogs!

We drove from the open house to the mission home.  We parked the car in the mission home and took the subway back to St. Stephen’s Basilica to meet  Steven, Becca and the Millers.  They had just finished climbing up to the top of the cathedral when we arrived.  We ate an early dinner then took the subway back to the hotel to get the rental car and off to Miskolc.  The drive up was pretty much in the dark.

Sunday morning was off to church.  Steven and Becca allowed us to stay because neither of the other members of the primary presidency was at church. 

After church we took them sightseeing to Lillafured, a hotel up in the mountains next to a small lake, very beautiful.  Then we drove up to Edeleny to the garden site.  We were planning on driving by just to show them, but there were about 10 people there from the gardening group.  We stopped and talked via Google Translate, took pictures and introduced them to our family.  It was a very good politically correct trip for LDS Charities.  The Roma group now more than ever, know that they are special to us and that we took a 30 minutes drive up to Edeleny to show our children their garden.  We really appreciated Steven and Becca going with us to the garden.

The next day was an opportunity to see more of Miskolc, then back to Budapest.  We were able to walk to the Jewish synagogue, which is one of, if not the largest synagogue in Europe. 

The next morning, Jane and I got up and drove to the Keleti Train Station to pick up Anne, Dee and Max.  The good news, by the time I was able to find a parking spot, Mom had  found the traveling trio and was walking to the parking lot. 

Max has grown and his smiley disposition is something that this grandfather will miss for four months!  Max either thinks that I am very funny looking, or he and I hit it off very well.  I already miss his smile.  However, I will have a very long talk with his older sister Hannah about teaching him how to squeal!  That sound will not be missed.  Hannah is in big trouble with Hepa!

Tuesday was May 1 or May Day.  Being in a former communist country, May Day is a big thing.  The whole family Steven, Becca, Anne, Dee, Max, Mom and me, went on a walking tour of the Jewish Quarters.  The tour was good, but on the streets of Budapest was a formula 1 race going on.  Talk about noise!  The guide had to change where she stopped and talked due to the noise level and all the heads turning to see the cars speeding by.  After the car race, there was an airplane show that also got our attention.  At the end of the tour, our resident certified dietician - Becca, demanded that we eat lunch at a hole in the wall place whose claim to fame was the langos hamburger.  Langos is nothing more than Indian fry bread, or what I grew up calling scones.  The hamburgers were very good.  However, our dietician’s hamburger was very raw in about a quarter of the meat, so she was forced to pay penitence to the dietician gods for eating deep fried dough hamburger buns!

We walked down to the Danube to where the memorial of the shoes on the Danube was.  This is where the Germans would line up the Jews, have them take off all their clothes, then shoot them and have their bodies fall into the river.  Please watch the movie, “Walking with the Enemy”, to see the full impact of the memorial.

 

Then off to walk across the “Chain Bridge and up to the funicular train to get up to Buda Castle hill.  Steven and Dee walked up the hill while we waited in line to buy tickets.  Up on the hill, we took a tour of the “Labyrinth”, caves inside of the Buda hill.  This is where Dracula was held prisoner for many years.  We can’t wait to have Riley, Garrett, Parker, Ryan and Kate to go down inside the caves.  We had to use lanterns due to the darkness!  We ate dinner at the Fishermen’s Bastion on Buda Hill, then the walk back to the subway and to the hotel.

Mom and I drove Steven and Becca up to a hotel next to the airport where they stayed.  Their flight left at 6:30 am.  We didn’t read their text that they made it on to the airplane until about 9:00 am, we were fast asleep, very tired.  Anne, Dee, Max, Mom and I went down to the “Great Market” to meet the chef for our Hungarian cooking class. 

The market was full of fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken, pork, fish, dogs, cats, some type of pig that looked very closely to a javelina and the other things that come out of animals when they are butchered that we normally only eat when we eat non-koshered hot dogs!  The thrill of the tour was a cow’s esophagus!  About a yard in length and three inches in diameter.  We asked how that was cooked?  With much comfort, “It is only for dog food!”  So we went into the class with small comfort that we were not eating cow esophagus. 

The cooking class was a good break from the long walks all over Budapest.  Did I ever tell you that cobble stone walks are very very bad to walk on, even in tennis shoes!  If not, now you are so informed.  We spent the rest of the day seeing other sights of Budapest and keeping Max happy.

            The next morning, Anne and Dee went to see the House of Terror, a house where both the Germans and the Russians/Hungarian police and military took the political prisoners and tortured them and many never came out alive.  Nema and Hepa stayed behind and “worked” on LDS Charity projects to submit, but also ended up playing with Max.  After about 3 hours, Max let everyone know that it was time for mom to come back to the hotel and feed him, which she did arrive about 10 minutes later!  Then off to Miskolc. 

Since it was daytime, they got to see the landscape of Hungary.  The yellow fields of rape (canola oil) were faintly visible.  The flowers were mostly fallen off.  We had Mom’s now famous Chicken Papikas for dinner.  The same meal that we served Steven and Becca when they were here in Miskolc.  Then drove around Miskolc and stopped off at the church and introduced them to the branch president, Heinrich Jozsef and our interpreter Spisik Edina. 

The next morning we went to Lillafured and walked around, we passed the brand new large soccer stadium, whose first game was on Saturday, then headed off to Budapest.  Almost into Budapest the traffic leaving the city toward Miskolc, Debrecen and Niregyhaza was backed up about 5 miles long.  The drive down, I was really hurting with sleepy eyes, but the other three adults in the car were fast asleep!  We toyed with the idea to staying in Budapest and not coming home, but decided to be cheap!

We drove to the mission home to pick up the mission car and then drive to the “People’s Park” , which as a block away from the bus station that Anne and Dee were going on later that night.  Then back to Saint Stephen’s basilica to visit, stopped off at a souvenir shop for Anne and Dee.  Hepa and Max waited outside on a bench next to the cathedral.  We got a lot of attention.  Max was in his smiley and laughing mood and many people would point at us or come over and say what a beautiful baby!  I wish I had the language to reply, he looks just like me, but I don’t so I took the compliment and said “Közönöm” - thank you.

Back to the bus station for the 9:30 pm bus trip to Croatia.  We left and Mom got to drive the church car to the airport.  Almost to the car, we got a text that the food stand at the bus station did not take credit cards!  So Anne and Dee went hungry in Hungary.  On our way to the airport, we kept our phones on so that I could tell Mom when I was changing lanes and which lane to be in when the roads split.  She did a very good job of driving in Budapest at night.  I think she now realizes why I come home so tired after a trip to Budapest. 

We made it to the gas station next to McDonalds.  Filled up the rental car with fuel and got food to eat on our way back to Miskolc.  (By the time we got back on the road after dropping off the rental car, the food was cold!)  We arrived home just after midnight!

Much to our dismay, we got up at 7:00.  We needed to be in Debrecen for apartment inspections by 9:00 am.  We didn’t make it!  Forgot to turn on the voice directions of the GPS and missed the Debrecen turn off, which meant an extra 30 minutes of drive time!  I think a clear mind was also missing on the drive to that city.  We arrived at 10:00 am and after two very quick inspections, left Debrecen at around 11:30.  Back in Miskolc, we stopped off at Auchan, the big grocery store to buy food.  We had invited a member of the church and her non-member husband to dinner on Saturday night.  Then rushed home to start the house cleaning and food preparation. At 2:45 pm off to the church for a baptism of a lady that we have helped teach, then back home to finish cleaning and cooking.  After all had left around 10:00 pm (a set of missionaries where there to translate for us), we barely had energy to put the food in the refrigerator, forget the dirty dishes and off to bed.

 Somehow, we made it to church on time.  We both taught our lessons and did not fall to sleep once!  After church we were asked to go with the Elders to teach a lesson.  So we went home and started to clean the kitchen before we picked up the Elders for the lesson.  The appointment was “dogged” meaning he was not home.  In church, the 1^st counselor in the District Presidency asked me if we had talked to a Sister Hajdu.  I had never heard of her before, but a strong impression about driving out to the falu (village) and seeing her.  She and her parents were once very active.  So with being “dogged”, I suggested going out and visiting the family.  The short version, we will be going back next Sunday to start teaching them the gospel again. 

Finally home, we had left overs from last night for our break the fast dinner and then went to bed to take a 30 minute nap that extended into 1 ½ hours!  The kitchen is now finally clean, we have read the scriptures in Hungarian and I have finished this letter and it is only 12:00 am Monday morning!

Tomorrow - Monday, we are off to Eger, about 1 ½ hours south of here to meet up with two other senior missionaries to sight see the wine country of Eger and then go visit the baths of Egar.  Our sore legs and knees will welcome the warm water of the baths!  After that, we will go home to do apartment inspections for the two set of missionaries here in Miskolc.  The next day is transfer day and we expect to see at least 2 if not 3 missionaries to be gone. 

No rest for the wicked and the righteous does not need rest!  Regardless of what we are, we are busy.  Our only regret, time is going too fast.  Tonight, we submitted our Rotary project where we are helping fund rape examination equipment designed for children to two centers, one in Budapest and one here in Miskolc.  We wish we didn’t even have to discuss this topic, but the world is not a pleasant place and we are attempting to relieve the injured child from additional painful intrusion during the medical examinations after being raped and abused.  A new meaning to Christ’s words, “Suffer the little children unto me.”  This is a very emotional project for us.

Then this next week we have two more projects that need submitting and we should be close to using up our budget for the year.  We will now spend time in getting the equipment and projects up and running withing the next 2 ½ months.

Sorry for the long letter, but it is two weeks worth of our lives here in Hungary.  As I said in my testimony today in Church, “I know that Jesus is the Christ.  I know that he is our redeemer.  I know that we are doing His work here in Hungary and that we are affecting the lives of many people.”  We thank Heavenly Father for the opportunity He afforded us to come to Hungary and to have the success that we have had.  Our lives have been nothing but full of blessings while here doing His work.  For that I leave my testimony for you.

Dad