February 16, 2014

Our welcoming and outgoing dinner. (l to r) Elder and Sister Wiggins (outgoing Humanitarian missionary couple), Elder and Sister Bagozzi (office couple), Sister Weberg (outgoing missionary), us, President Lowell and Sister Lynne Smith, our mission president.

 Jo’ napot to all,

We have now almost completed our first week in Budapest.  We are settled in our nice, cozy, very European apartment – which is just fine.   We have included some photos.  The day after settling in our apartment we decided to go exploring and took public transportation to the Pest side of the Danube River to find a Tesco (Walmart).  We made it to the address, but it is now an Aldi.  No matter.  We bought some groceries and returned home.  We were only lost a couple of times, but thanks to Stan’s good sense of direction, we made it home safely. 

Produce markets are plentiful and colorful and finom (delicious)

  

The next day we went with our interpreter, Timi, to IKEA to price mattresses for a humanitarian project left for us to finish.  We found a Tesco on the way back.   Yesterday, we struck out on our own again – to KIKA (like IKEA) to compare mattress prices and stoppped at the West End mall (going and coming).  We came home after dark so we saw the lights of the city – Parliament, a castle, and a palace – impressively lit up. See the photo at the top of our blog for an example of night lighting.

Friday morning we attended a zone training meeting – totally conducted and taught by missionaries.  They did an excellent job.  Friday night we were invited to a Valentine party at President and Sister Smith’s (Lowell Smith is our mission president) home with three other senior couples to play games.  So we had a fun time there and learned a new card game, which they call Hungarian Goulash.  

Each time we go out we have walked between 2 – 6 miles, so we have gotten some exercise.  We walk about a mile down the hill from our home to catch the first tram to anywhere else we go.  We have a goal this week to learn the way to walk clear to the mission home, about two miles.  We had a couple of rainy days this week, but yesterday and today were beautiful, sunshiney, no coat days.   Rain is coming again, however.   

Buda and Pest are old European cities, old architecture and still some small, quaint shops.  However, there are many new, modern large stores.  Of course McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC are everywhere (we even saw two McDonalds across the street from each other).  The two malls we have seen look just like any American mall with brand name stores.  Some streets are quite narrow, many sidewalks are also narrow, and are made with cement, bricks, cobblestone or asphalt – all in many cases – but have been  but quite patched and added to.  People park their cars on the sidewalk.  Some sidewalks are divided in half – walkers and bicyclists.  

Our assignment to a ward is pending, so we thought we would visit different ones each week.  Today we attended the Pest Ward, which has some English translation.  It was a good-sized ward, thanks to many ex-pats living and working in Budapest.  We first met Creed Miller, serving in the bishopric, who knows Scott and Jennie Miller.  Then we met Elder and Sister Broadhead, a family history missionary couple.  They are Nate and Sandra (Stolworthy) Broadhead.  She was raised in Farmington, NM and knows our family and they went to school with Art and JoAnn in Las Cruces.  They asked about Art and said hello.  They are from Yuma, AZ and know Linda (Farnsworth) Turner very well.  Small world!

We are doing great.  We look forward to this adventure.  In our excursions Stan is very good at striking up conversations with strangers which includes introducing the Church – and we/he has given out 4 pass-along cards.  The missionary work is going well here; the missionaries are enthusiastic and are teaching many investigators.  At the zone training meeting on Friday, they upped their goals.  We hope we can help them.  This is the Lord’s church and hope we can share its eternal message with someone we meet.

Entry hall (kitchen & bedroom on right, bath on left)

Very comfortable bed

Our closet (cabinet)

Cozy European kitchen

Notice the size of the fridge

Dining room/office

Sitting room

Laundry day

Separate water closet.
Notice the small European washer--two-hour cold wash.