Happy 2012 everyone!! This posting will start with 8 pictures to finish-off 2011.
There was a transfer right before the end of the year in which two missionaries serving in Szeged finished their missions, Elder Rummler and Elder Allen. This pose with them reflects their personalities. Elder Rummler was here when we arrived and was a big help to us!
And here is a pose with two of our Young Adults, Timi and Viki. If it seems like every name in Hungary ends in an 'i', that's just about right. Viki is actually Viktoria, Laci is actually Lászlo, Zoli is actually Zoltan. Etc., Etc. It's just like Tommy is actually Thomas. Most Hungarians like to use a shortened, 'familiar' form of their names.
We couldn't leave out the other two missionaries who were serving in Szeged at the time.
And so, the New Year came. We went to Budapest and participated in a Young Adult New Year's party. It was actually held on the 30th (a Friday night) to avoid running into the Sabbath. At 12:00 they had an interesting observance where they sang their national anthem and then observed about two minutes of contemplative silence.
This is the whole group of Young Adults from all over Hungary that was there.
The next day, the 31st, Andrea and I hung around Budapest since we would be flying out on the 1st for our trip to the US of A for Matthew and Torri's wedding. Here is an interesting piece of artwork representing the 'iron curtain'.
Here is Andrea in front of the National Opera House.
We found an out of the way restaurant and had ourselves a very traditional Hungarian New Year's Eve dinner.About our Flight the next day:
A two hour delay in London caused us to be unable to connect with the planned flight out of Los Angeles. So we had to wait in LAX for 5 hours for a later flight on another airline. We didn't get to Provo until 3:00 am. Talk about the super jet-lag!
So, here are some pictures from the wedding event!! Most of our Grandkids are in this shot as we all wait around for the Bride and Groom to appear after the sealing. Don't miss Jackie way in the back. Espy was elsewhere keeping her father busy.
And here they are, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Adams. The little girls all thought that Torri was a real princess.
Here is a pose of our immediate family which we are presently using for our computer wallpaper. We love it but we miss Nathan when we look at it.
And they're off!!
We hosted a luncheon in the afternoon. Here's the happy couple opening some presents that we brought them from Hungary.
A wonderful reception was held that evening.
This is a group of old Diamond Bar acquaintances that were there; Wares, Johanssons, and Bringhursts. The Biehls were also there, but missed being in the picture.
So, here are some pictures from the wedding event!! Most of our Grandkids are in this shot as we all wait around for the Bride and Groom to appear after the sealing. Don't miss Jackie way in the back. Espy was elsewhere keeping her father busy.
And here they are, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Adams. The little girls all thought that Torri was a real princess.
Here is a pose of our immediate family which we are presently using for our computer wallpaper. We love it but we miss Nathan when we look at it.
And they're off!!
We hosted a luncheon in the afternoon. Here's the happy couple opening some presents that we brought them from Hungary.
A wonderful reception was held that evening.
This is a group of old Diamond Bar acquaintances that were there; Wares, Johanssons, and Bringhursts. The Biehls were also there, but missed being in the picture.Since this is a Blog about our mission, I (Tom) am not putting in the other gazillion photos of the wedding, luncheon, and reception. Sorry.
We held a family belated Christmas event while we were there. My wonderful cousin Ruth arranged for us to meet in her Church building. This is the before picture.
This is the after picture.
Amelia loves her little doll from Hungary.
The boys play with marionettes that we brought them.
Afterwards, we all went to see dinosaurs on the BYU campus.
And here are our little animals posing with others of their kind in the Bean Museum.
We held a family belated Christmas event while we were there. My wonderful cousin Ruth arranged for us to meet in her Church building. This is the before picture.
This is the after picture.
Amelia loves her little doll from Hungary.
The boys play with marionettes that we brought them.
Afterwards, we all went to see dinosaurs on the BYU campus.
And here are our little animals posing with others of their kind in the Bean Museum.We were sad to part with everyone but we had no trouble making the separation. I (Andrea) had a little more trouble than Tom, but we knew we belonged back in Hungary.
About our flight back:
Everything went right until we found that our luggage did not make it to Hungary at the same time we did. So we had one interesting night at the mission home in Budapest without much more than the clothes on our backs. Our bags caught up with us in Szeged the next day.
Back to making stocking caps for our service project. We'll give a report on its successful completion in next month's posting.
A little bit of snow. We'll give you pictures and a report of the real snow that we are in the middle of right now in next month's blog. (most snow in 25 years)
In January we enjoyed a visit from our mission president and his wife, the Baughmans. They graciously took our Szeged and Bekescsaba districts out to dinner.
Here is a sample of the artistic open faced sandwiches that the Hungarians like to prepare. These were prepared for a funeral luncheon, after the funeral mass of the mother of one of our branch members, Toth Zoli. She was Catholic and it was an interesting experience to be a part of both the funeral mass done under the big cathedral in town and the luncheon given in our branch house afterwards.
These are a lot of the finished hats that our Young Adults are modeling. We'll try to get the February blog post done in a more timely fashion. The truth is, we're kind of busy, and that's good!!!
It looks like we have finally succeeded in putting a couple of short video clip on the blog!
'Puppets' and 'Thriller (in a bridal gown)'.
