Yes! The title of last month's blog came from the lyrics of "June Is Bustin' Out All Over!" from the musical "Carousel". Kudos to my Sister Charlene who was the only one to respond to that question. I was counting on her. She and I listened to LP's of musicals over and over when we were kids.
For those of you who have noticed my seasonal picture out our apartment window, here is the final one for summer. Yes we have now been here for all four seasons.
And the shots below are of how Hungarians like to have a summer outdoor activity. It's not a BBQ, it's a bogrács.
That's the name of the huge pot that you'll see hanging over the open fire.
While a huge pot of Hungarian Gulyas (goulash) cooks in the bogrács, which takes about four hours to do right, everybody can play games.
Somebody has to stir the gulyas.
Evelin, an investigator, had the young adults decorate these boxes as an activity.
Zoli displays some of his handiwork.
This is the Szeged primary in its full strength. Unfortunately, it's a good-bye party for two of the boys who are moving. They are two of our most regular primary attendees. So the primary just got chopped in half.
Here are the primary children and their primary staff.
Andrea and I, and the real flat Jackie (in Andrea's right hand) took a trip to a real castle in Gyula. It is the only standing castle remaining in our area of South-East Hungary. Looks cool, huh?
A group of school kids were having a tour of the castle where they got to go around dressed up like they were in the 14th century.
Here's an interior shot with me,
and an interior shot with Andrea. After that, our camera battery went dead.
We're always taking pictures of missionaries when we're at the end of a transfer period and know we will be loosing some people we've made good friends with.
Sister Papritz, next to Andrea, completed her mission and we were sending her home.
Also Sister Barnhart went home at the end of this transfer. In mission lingo, "She died".
Try to count how many birthday cakes Andrea made this month. Well, actually in one day. There's Ágota.
There's Viki.
There's Elder Moffet.
The answer is four. Oh, that wasn't fair. We didn't get a picture of the one for Zoli.
Here we are having a 'welcome to Szeged' lunch for our new missionaries, Elder Velasquez and Sister Hardy. Sister Hardy is a Greenie (brand new to Hungary). Elder Velasquez was born in Canada, but most recently has lived in Cuba and he is a Boxer with Olympic aspirations. I feel very safe with him.
A high note this month was the baptism of one of our young adult investigators.
Nik (Nikoletta) was baptized after about two years of investigating. That is why there are so many missionaries who came to her baptism.
After the baptism we had a gift giving moment for her at the start of our Young Adult activity.
I think she is glowing.
Remember those boys who were moving? It's because their divorced mother, one of the sweetest people we've ever met, was getting married to the branch president of another city.
What a wonderful couple they make.
In Hungary, all marriages must be done civilly. If you're not married by the government, you're not married. After that, you can do a church wedding if you want. This couple plans on being married in the Freiberg temple soon.
Elder Snyder serves in Székesfehérvar where the wedding took place. He is one of Andrea's adopted missionary sons. She adopted him because he is one of Nathan's friends from his BYU marching band days.
Speaking of Nathan, here's an update photo of him. He and his companion are flying high this week because they just had a family get baptized!
Here is a photo that we have waited ten months to take. When we arrived in Hungary the fields of sunflowers were all dead and waiting for harvest. We knew how pretty they would be when the next summer arrived. Which flower do you think is prettiest? That's right, the one right in the middle.
See you next month!
