September 2012

Here are a few highlights from the month of September.

On our way to participate in a Branch social in Békéschaba we took some time to check out a palace.  It's used for a school and a small museum now.

 We took a little walk around the grounds.

 Yes.  I think this is a better picture too.

 I took this because I have never seen a Smart convertible.  I bet you never have either.

 So, the activity was a Mexican night.  We ate tortillas and beans made by the young missionaries.  We played 'Pin the Mustache on the Mexican'.  Not a game that is likely to catch on in California any time soon.

 We had a hot pepper eating contest.  This picture is to document that I am breaking out into a Habanero sweat. 

 Of course, there was a pinata for the kids.

 For my pepper prowess, one sister gave me a little hot pepper plant the next week.  The week following that, this sister gave Andrea a string of hot peppers from her garden.  The word for 'pepper' is 'paprika'.  In case you don't know it, Hungary is the home of paprika and so the Hungarians take their peppers very seriously.

This is our district.

 A pose with our sister missionaries in Szeged just before Sister Kramer, on the right, got transferred.

 This is a shot of our outdoor market place in Szeged.

 There was a baptism in the Szeged branch this month.  Three from the same family.  We rented the Seventh-Day Adventist church again.

 After thirteen months in Szeged, we found out that the best picture of this church can be taken from this corner.

 Have they released the Pepperoni Whopper in the States yet?

 Not wanting to waste a good idea, we began plans for a Mexican night for our young adults in Szeged.  Here they are making pinatas.

 We took a preparation day this month to visit the zoo in Szeged.  We'd meant to do it for many months.  The penguin exhibit is new!

We took pictures but I expect you won't be too interested in any that we're not in. 

 Who's watching whom?

 Ditto.

Andrea organized this project for a primary activity day.

 So, we had our YA Mexican night.

This is our good friend and Zone Leader, Elder Velasquez.  No, he is not Mexican.  He is actually Canadian. (His parents are from Guatemala.)

We hope you all enjoy these few pictures and that you are all having a great October.

So, what about the rest of August?

I'm finally getting down to giving you some pictures of the rest of August.  A posting for September will follow soon.  I almost did the two together but it is just too much.  We know you like us but we also know you can only handle a blog post that is of a reasonable length.

I had to take a picture of this Nevada Eszpresszo bar we happened to see in our travels.  I haven't lived there for a long time but "Home means Nevada to me."

 This is a Hungarian wedding procession that we happened upon in a small town on one of our frequent trips to our little branch in Békéscsaba.

Here's a  beautiful little buck with its antlers still in velvet.  Deer are a usual sight in the fields and forests of Hungary.  They're not usually spotted like this one.  They are always much smaller than the deer at home; about half the size!

 We went with our young missionaries on a P-day to check out some ruins near Békéscsaba.

 Andrea was fearless.  Although I crossed this beam too, I was much more nervous than she was.

 Missionaries shouldn't be doing dangerous things like this.

Once it was a beautiful palace, now trees grow inside it.

This palace was built early in the 1900s but it got bombed in World War II.  After that, it was left to the elements and to local scavengers.

 Compare this side of the ruins to the picture below.

This is what the palace looked like in its heyday.

Hungarian used to be written with these rune-like letters.

 This is the same town name in modern letters.  It took us awhile to say it right, but it just rolls off our tongues now.

 On another free day, we took a trip to visit a senior couple in Sopron which is near the Austrian border.  On the way, we stopped at Lake Balaton,  the only truly large lake in Hungary.  It is a major vacation destination.

 The red siding on this store is actually strings and strings of paprika peppers.

Paprika anyone?

 Do you know the way to Sopron?  Hmm, she doesn't speak much Hungarian either.  I guess we're not the only dummies.

Andrea like this pottery house.

 I love this picture.

 Back on the road to Sopron we saw this castle which looks a lot like we've always expected a castle to look.  No time to get a closer look though.

 The Austrian/Hungarian border near Sopron, is actually a rather historical place.  This doorway represents the passage from the Soviet controlled block of countries into freedom in the West.

 This is where, in 1989, the first big rupture in the iron curtain happened.  It was the first step in the Berlin Wall coming down.  For details about this Historical event, look up the Pan-European Picnic.

 It's really a pretty interesting story.  Here is some of the fencing that maintained the border here.  Before 1989 people were shot dead trying to escape across this border.

 This is the couple that serves in Sopron, the Flammers, who showed us around.

 Back to Szeged.  One more outside BBQ for the single young adults before colder weather comes.

 One more trip to the ropes course with the missionaries in our Zone.  August has the Hungarian's biggest political holiday, commemorating when St. Steven (Istvan) was crowned king by the Pope around 1200 A.D.  The missionaries got the day off.

We said goodbye to Sister Smith who finished her mission in August after finishing all of her hard work on the Young Adult conference.

 We also said goodbye to one of our wonderful young adults who left to take an au pair job in France. 

 Andrea still has people in the branch making stocking caps.  I'm looking forward to the day when we run out of yarn.  She taught two midweek Relief Society classes to make caps.

 We had another Senior Missionary Training day in August.  This is the pretty half of our group.

 This is the half I belong to.

 I made Andrea do this Marylin Monroe pose.  What a good sport.  That's it for August.  We love you all.