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| This trip when we saw the stork's nest, we also saw the storks! |
The weeks seem to fly right by. This week we left first thing Monday morning
in a very heavy rainstorm to head north a couple of hours to Pápa and then to Győr for
several appointments. Thank goodness for
our GPS; even though GyPSy can’t pronounce the Hungarian words, she gets us
right where we need to go. We were
driving right along the edge of Lake Balaton for a ways commenting how
beautiful it is and that it reminded us of driving along the ocean in Hawaii,
and GyPSy said, “In 200 meters, drive onto the ferry.” That was a surprise and there it was! We drove onto the ferry, in about 1 minute it
left and took maybe 10 minutes to cross the lake and GyPSy told us, “Drive off
the ferry.” She knew of what she spoke.
It’s always amazing.
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| This is actually on the trip home at dusk. Earlier it was all so fast and it was raining hard. |
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| This ferry is going the opposite of us. It has 1 car on it; ours had 22. They must keep to a schedule, not a full load. |
In Pápa the elders translated for us, the senior sisters and
a member of the branch presidency accompanied us to visit two homes for the disabled and two pre-schools where Church members are employed. In
Hungary, at age 3 children are required to attend pre-school at least for the normal
school year. And then if both parents
are working, in school, low-income or have other issues, they must also attend
in the summer. This is mostly so that
parents can work, because one income is simply not enough. One disabled home didn't need anything; they are just happy to have the missionaries who do service there each week.
The pre-schools are all government sponsored, but they reminded us of our daughter Kelli’s new day care , ABC Great Beginnings, in Riverton. The kids look, laugh and play together just like any children. It was fun to see them in action.
That evening we attended the family home evening that the
senior sisters host weekly at their branch house. It gave us some ideas for ours.
Pápa is known as the most beautiful baroque small town. It is a town of churches – and has 13. That's not so many for a large city, but Pápa is only 35,000. We didn’t have time do any sightseeing, but on an early morning walk the next morning, we came across the Great Church, for which the town is famous. It was built between 1774-1786.
The inside is beautiful.
Another church, but don’t know anything about it.
A street in the early morning.
This lady was already up and sweeping her eating area at
6:30 a.m.
Thought this was appropriately named. . .
We went on to Győr where we had an appointment at a
school. The member who contacted us is
in the U.S. until school starts. The
address was a bit nebulous (because this to be a new school breaking off from
another one). Long story short, we were
a bit late, our interpreter (a returned missionary) took us to the current
address of the school. By the time we
contacted the lady, she was upset because we went to the wrong address (she
thinks they don’t know about the break-off, but the principal gave us her name and new
address), so she then didn’t want to meet with us.
Instead we took advantage of the bigger town to do some pricing and
shopping for other projects.
The countryside on the drive home was lovely. So many fields of corn and because of the
recent rains, they were “as high as an
elephant’s eye, and they looked like they’re climbin’ clear up to the sky.” It was a beautiful morning.
The sunflowers are just starting to bloom. Can't wait to see an entire field of sunflowers.
We drove through what seemed like a small forest.
On the way home we drove through a very small village, but people were out and about on the street enjoying the summer evening. This Paprikaház (pepper house) was right on the road and quite fascinating covered with peppers.
The next day we went with the missionaries to visit a
member. It is always so nice to visit in
their humble homes, but so frustrating to not be able to carry on a
conversation. She actually fed us some fish
soup, bread and cherry dessert (that was like cinnamon rolls with cherries in
them.)
Speaking of cherries, I picked and pitted some, and
surprisingly my fingers and nails were not black. Could it be because I rinsed the cherries in vinegar
water?
We submitted five projects this week and all five were
approved. So we now have further research
and much shopping to do. (If anyone
likes shopping, this is the type of mission for you.)
Friday evening we had an American family over for dinner to
celebrate July 4th. They come
to English class; except the missionaries teach them Hungarian so we are
attending also. They are from the Fresno,
CA area and are living here because the father is a fire fighter working in
Iraq, and if they are closer in Europe, he can come and be with them on his
times off. Why Hungary? Apparently 14 years ago they were also here
in this town on assignment at a nearby U.S. military base.
We found one sparkler of sorts – the kind
that goes on a birthday cake, but it was our token celebratory moment – besides
a red, white and blue table setting,and a patriotic quiz.
This flag was on our apartment building this week. We are told that someone from this building died. We haven’t seen any changes or evidence yet.
Saturday a girl (young adult age), Kinga, was baptized. We met in the branch building for the service, and then walked to a nearby school for the baptism, and back to the branch for the end.
That ends our week. It has been a good and busy one. We send our love and best wishes to all. We love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are grateful to be representatives in the country of Hungary.
