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).

The Wheat is Being Harvested

The country between the villages as we drive from Pécs to Kaposvár is beautiful, particularly during the summer. The wheat is now being harvested.

This is a picturesque view of the many wheat fields that come very close to the villages. Each village is characterized by a beautiful Hungarian (usually Catholic) church.

Because the wheat is being harvested, we saw many rolls of straw waiting to be picked up. As soon as the straw is taken from the field, they immediately plow and prepare the field for the next crop.

We keep a close watch on the two stork nests that we see on the drive from Pécs to Kaposvár. Most of the new chicks now have been pushed from the nests, although the ones in the following picture are still living at home (it must be getting a little crowded). Because most of the stork nests are over a road, it must be a scary experience for the chicks to take that first flight …

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.

Elder and Sister Bailey Speak in Nagykanizsa

Last Sunday, we were assigned to speak in a totally new unit in Hungary — Nagykanizsa.  The Elders have been working hard in this town for 4-5 months, and have not yet had a baptism. It took us a little over two hours to drive to Nagykanizsa through villages and the country-side.

As we found earlier in our mission, when we were helping to open Zalaegerszeg, opening a new area is very, very difficult in Hungary. In our Sacrament meeting, we only had two investigators, plus the four Elders. This is probably the smallest Sacrament meeting in which we have spoken. Even so, we were well prepared, the Elders did an excellent job of conducting and translating, and the attendees seemed to enjoy the experience. Someday this may be a stake …

Final Performance of the Summer Play

On June 29, at 7 pm, the Pécs Young Adults presented the final performance of their summer play, The Mystery of the Missing Jewelry. The play was presented in the Pécs meeting house. The cast included Betti, Geza (last-minute substitute), Zita, Marci, Csila, Maja, Mimi and Lazslo.

About 55 people attended, and over 20 of the attendees were non-members.

All members of the cast performed perfectly, and played their roles well. In the picture, left to right: Marci, Zita, Mimi, Lazslo, Geza, Betti, Csila, and Maja.

Cromars in Pécs

Elder and Sister Cromar are from California, and joined the Senior Missionaries in Hungary and few months ago. They have assignments in Székesfehérvár, Veszprém and Nagykanizsa that are similar to our assignments in Pécs and Kaposvár.

They drove down to Pécs to pickup some items we had in our apartment that they can use in their apartment.  Senior couples must purchase everything they need for furnishing (e.g., fans, small tables, matresses, etc.) and cooking (e.g., crockpots, large pans, a mixer, etc.) in their apartments. So all that we have gets passed from couple to couple (we leave Hungary in another month). While they were here, we toured much of Pécs on a nice cool day.