A Short ‘Mission Report’ Video

To view a quick 4-minute review of our mission, which is also our Christmas card and ‘Happy New Year’ card for this year, please click on the ‘Play’ button (white triangle) in the next picture below.

To view full screen, click on the ‘Full screen’ icon in the lower right corner of the picture below.  Once the video begins, the ad can be shut off by clicking on the ‘X’ in the top-right of the ad.  The sound can be adjusted by clicking on the speaker icon below the following picture.

If you are interested in more details about the mission, you are welcome to scan through the rest of the website.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sister Bailey’s Mission Report

[A report on her Hungarian mission delivered at the Dimple Dell Park Ward in Sandy, Utah on October 14, 2012]

I am happy to be able to report on our experiences in the Hungarian Budapest Mission.  It was one of the greatest opportunities of my life.  I absolutely loved our mission.  I have gained many insights into how one can have happiness, strong testimonies, charity, sacrifice and church service, with so little in the way of material things.  Some of the Hungarian members sacrifice so much just to get to Church; many times some of them cannot even afford the bus fare to go. They also have to travel 13 hours to Freiberg, Germany to attend the temple.

We had a Young Adult who actually did his own genealogy, coming up with 120 family names to take to the temple.  There were few cars owned by members of each of the Branches we served in, and our car was very well used for many situations.

As you know, the Hungarians have a sad history of often being occupied by invading countries.  They are still trying to overcome the damage of the Nazi German occupation and then the Russian’s control of their country for over 50 years, which just ended in 1990.

We were recently asked if we felt safe in Hungary.

Elder Bailey’s Mission Report

[A report on his Hungarian mission delivered at the Dimple Dell Park Ward in Sandy, Utah on October 14, 2012]

Introduction

When we arrived in Budapest, we were met at the airport by the Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Baughman.  We spent the first night sleeping at the mission home.  The next day, we met with the mission president who gave us our assignments; and we rented a car from the mission.  We then packed the car with our luggage, and using a map and our GPS headed for our new home in Szombathely, Hungary.  This was a city of about 200,000 people that was located three hours away from Budapest, and just fifteen minutes from the Austrian border.

Our mission was truly a life enriching experience, at least partially because we were able to live in Hungary for 18 months.  Sister Bailey and I learned enough Hungarian to say prayers in meetings, greet people, hold simple conversations, and to shop for groceries, gas and other items.

All of our church meetings were in Hungarian.  The first Sacrament Meeting we attended, we were expected to share our testimonies in Hungarian – which we were able to do.  However, when we gave talks in Sacrament Meetings, which was about once a month in a branch somewhere in Hungary, we would use a translator.

The Church in Hungary

The Hungary Budapest Mission was created only 22 years ago.  The mission now has about 100 missionaries, and around 150 baptisms per year.  While on our mission, we were closely involved with 14 convert baptisms.  Each one was unique, and each one was a special experience.

The Church in Hungary continues to grow, and now has about 5,000 members.  Although Hungary has one Stake and six wards, most of the LDS congregations in Hungary are smaller branches, usually ranging from 20 to 60 people.  But they could be much smaller.  Our last Sacrament Meeting speaking assignment was in a new unit that had only two investigators, and four missionaries present on the day we spoke.

We spent much time working with many of the Young Single Adults in Hungary.

Our Last Few Days in Hungary

Our last Sunday in Hungary was a fast Sunday, and we were able to share our last testimonies first in the Pécs Branch. President Makkai was an excellent Branch President for that branch.

We then drove up to Kaposvár for our last meeting in that small branch — actually, our last meeting in Hungary.  We were able to take a picture of all that were there on that Sunday.

Their new Relief Society president, Sister Manduk, prepared a ‘going away’ message, and had it on the white board when we arrived.

Early the next morning, we drove to Budapest, and stayed in the mission home. On our last evening in Hungary, we went up to Castle Hill and had dinner at Fisherman’s Bastion while overlooking the Danube River, the Parliament Building, and the beautiful city of Budapest. It was a perfect, warm summer evening.

Our Mission Car

Our car still looks new, even though we drive from Pécs to Kaposvár twice each week, and to Budapest a couple of times each month.  We do not use it much while we are in Pécs because we can walk, and like to walk, to most everyplace we need to go.  We do drive to Tesco for groceries once a week. The Opel costs us $150 a month, that we pay to the mission.

New Mission President in Hungary

On July 1, a new mission president arrived in Budapest. President and Sister Smith are from Sandy, Utah, but we did not know them when we were Sanday. A couple of weeks after they arrived in the mission, they were assigned to speak in Pécs and Kaposvár. They drove down to Pécs on Saturday afternoon, and we went to dinner with them. These are the missionaries serving in Pécs, along with President and Sister Smith (Elders Christensen, Andersen, Lindelof, Braman).

The next morning, they spoke in the Pécs Sacrament Meeting (9:30 am). Sister Bailey and I sang in the Branch Choir during the meeting. After the meeting, the Smiths then followed us as we drove up to Kaposvár to speak in their Sacrament Meeting (1:15 pm). These are the missionaries now serving in Kaposvár (Elders Masters, Turley [Branch President], Judd and Beaucannon).

Our ’24th of July’ Party

At our final Young Adult activity, we planned a ’24th of July’ party. Many of our members were either on vacation, at the Temple, or working, but we still had a great time. We began with a PowerPoint presentation on the pioneers, where we focused on those that crossed the plains with handcarts.

We then had many competitions with the stick pull. Here are Mimi and Bence.

Here are Maja and Matthew, who will be married in November.

Here is Elder Braman and Elder Lindelof.

Here is Elder Anderson and Elder Christensen.

We then danced the Virginia Reel.

And danced some more.

Then ended up the evening with Sister Bailey’s ‘pigs in a blanket’ and corn bread and honey. The Hungarians had never had corn bread like she made. They loved it with the honey …

Elders ‘Tabling’ in Pécs

On a nice sunny, summer day, Elder Andersen and Elder Christiansen set up their table right outside of the Branch building. They had many people stop and ask about their free English classes, which led into many conversations about the Church.

Zsuzsanna was Baptized in Kaposvár

Zsuzsanna was baptized in a lake in Kaposvár. She contacted the Church after her son, Buci, began attending sportsnap a couple of years ago.  Buci (standing second from left) was baptized two weeks ago.

Zsuzsanna was being taught by Elder Masters and Elder Beaucannon. The baptismal program was conducted in the shade of a large tree, with a slight breeze off the lake to keep us all cool.

The witnesses were able to stand out close to the baptism so they could see and hear better. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful baptism. We celebrated by taking the four Elders to lunch at McDonalds.

Celebrating the 4th of July in Hungary

This year all of the missionaries in our area were from the United States. So Sister Bailey decided to organize a 4th of July party for them, and she got permission from President Baughman. We included the missionaries from Pécs, Kaposvár, and Dunaújváros. These are the ones that are the closest to us in Pécs.

We began by playing ’round the world’ ping pong. This includes ALL players — each person hits the ball, and then quickly moves to the other side. After you have three misses you are out. The two best players end up having a quick ‘playoff’.

Sister Bailey had invited each of the companionships to bring certain American foods, such as wieners, buns, barbecued onions, sour kraut, potato chips, etc.  Then we had watermelon, cake, and other deserts.

Sister Bailey made root beer floats. After singing the Stars Spangled Banner (all three versus), with Elder Braman at the piano, we ate (and ate and ate). Later in the day, we played cards, Chinese Checkers and more ping pong.