Christmas Market in Budapest

15th Mission report 25 Nov to 23 Dec

Mission Report 15 from November 25 to December 23

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our faithful readers. We hope you enjoy reading our blog with its added photos. If you would prefer to receive your copy of our report by e-mail, you need to tell us and we will send it to you directly. Some people had difficulty in reaching our blog.

This reporting period was filled with interesting events. One of the highlights was the baptism of Andrea, a sister who had been investigating the gospel for a year. She had many questions and several times the young elders gave up on her. One evening we were going over to her home to drop off the conference edition of the Liahona (the International Church magazine) and we met Andrea in the post office on the way. She told Sister Dukelow she had decided to be baptized. So Elder Dukelow worked out the arrangements for interviews and she was baptized on 15 December. He also spoke at her request at the baptism and used an analogy of transplanting trees, taking special care when there were deep roots on mature trees. Converting from Catholicism to LDS requires maintaining the critical supporting family networks and yet cutting thick roots that have been intertwined with many others over the years.

Sister Andrea had been working in a Catholic Church office and felt she could not join our church while working for the Catholic Church even though she knew our Church was true. She prayed and asked for God’s help in finding a new job. Then she bought a newspaper and searched through the job announcements. The first one she called offered her a job. She believes it was Devine intervention. Sister Andrea is reading the Book of Mormon line by line asking “how does this verse apply to me?” For instance, what does Nephi building a boat have to do with her life she asked? The Spirit told her she needed to have the faith of Nephi to cross a large unknown sea between her old church and her new church. She is still not in a safe harbor but we hope and pray daily that she will arrive safely.

Sister Dukelow was able to get her visa extended without difficulty on Dec 17 so now she is legal until Sept 26, 2008. If one pays the fee, which was 6000 FT or $34, anyone can get an extension. What do they do with the stack of paper work that is turned in every time a person gets registered or reregistered? They must have at least an inch of paperwork for Sister Dukelow alone. Of course that involved another passport type photo and it cannot be one that was previously used so another 700 forints for “ugly photos”. Oh well, that is how it is. It is probably the same when one goes to the American Embassy trying to get a visa or some sort of paperwork to go to American. We needed something notarized so we made a trip to the American Embassy and there is a bit of “red tape” there too.

On Sat, December 14 we went to one of the local Christmas markets. It was very cold and it even snowed while we were there. There are many booths with all sorts of things that can be bought for Christmas presents. Elder Dukelow bought a kaleidoscope and Sister Dukelow bought two potholders to match the aprons bought last year. These items are both Hungarian made. We bought Kürtőskalács (spiral pastry cylinders). They are hot off the round iron and ours were cinnamon flavored. They tasted good in the cold weather. It was a beautiful time with the snow falling; the decorated Christmas tree and a large advent wreathe plus the Christmas booths. For those who have been in Germany at Christmas time, think of the Christmas Markets there and it will give you a good idea of what we experience here.

We had two family home evening during December. One new sister gave a lesson for the first time and she did quite well and there was a lot of participation. The other sister had had experience in teaching lessons and she did a good job. They enjoyed the microwave popcorn one time and banana cake the second time. One time we had celery with soft cheese in it and that was also enjoyed—something a bit new and quite different for them.

We traveled to Szeged on the 8^th and 9^th of Dec and did missionary apartment inspections along the way as well as delivered mail and packages. Sister Dukelow gave training regarding the Young Women Program (12-18 year old girls) of the church. Only the YW President was able to come Saturday night so she did the same training with one of the counselors and the president of Young Women after the 3 hour block of meetings on Sunday. The leaders were happy to get the information and it gave them ideas in how to improve their program in the Branch (congregation).

Elder Dukelow trained the male leaders of the congregation on carrying for the families from the Feb 2006, World Wide Leadership Training on Supporting the Families. We reviewed the key points from each of the four talks given at that training and discussed how we as Priesthood leaders needed to be very sensitive to family needs, including our own.

Elder Dukelow told of an incident when he was serving as Stake Clerk in Germany and working a very busy schedule. He would leave home early in the morning and return very late at night. One evening he came home early at approximately 6PM and told Sister Dukelow he was just stopping home to pick up his Church bag because he had an important meeting with the Stake Presidency. Sister Dukelow then asked in a quiet voice, "Why did you even bother to come home?" Elder Dukelow immediately went to the phone, called the Stake President and explained he could not attend the meeting that night because he needed to stay home to take care of his family. The Stake President was not happy with this situation but understood. The Szeged brethren also understood and commented on this story several times later during the weekend.

Sunday we both spoke about the great plan of happiness that has been given to us. We talked mostly about the pre-earth life and what we needed to do while on this earth so we can receive the rewards of our efforts after we have been judged and assigned to our “mansion above”.

On 16 December we visited Békéscsaba which should become an official branch of the church soon. The last time we visited Békéscsaba was in July. The drive down in July took less than three hours from Budapest. This time we planned for three hours but got a late start. Then we ran into snow about twenty kilometers south of Budapest on the M5 freeway but it was too late to turn around and take a train so we continued on. The drive from Kecskemét to Békéscsaba on the narrow two lane Highway 44 was mostly on one or two inches of fresh snow and slush. Each big truck passing in the opposite direction gave us a thorough drenching as in a carwash. It was very hard to stay in our predecessors tracks. Needless to say we did not make our schedule. We arrived 40 minutes late.

We called the elders in Békéscsaba when we knew we would be late and they rearranged the schedule of meetings so Primary and Sunday School were first and Sacrament meeting was last. Primary was attended by four children (one being a 12 year old girl) and taught by a new member. She had the children’s attention and seemed to be doing a good job.

Sunday School was being taught by Elders Sardoni and Morgan from the Spencer W. Kimball manual. The topic was keeping the Sabbath Day holy. The Elders sitting at the front of the class would have people read a section and then ask are there any questions or comments. No one would respond most of the time. The only question of any substance came from an investigator, a middle aged woman name Judith, possibly attending for the first time because the elders did not seem to know who she was. Judith asked about how we observed the commandment to fast and explained how she understood this commandment from the Catholic point of view. Elder Sardoni explained how we fast and how there are some exceptions to fasting due to health reasons.

Sacrament meeting was conducted by Elder Stromberg. Sister Dukelow talked about a bridge of faith needed to get from this life to the next if we want to follow Heavenly Father’s plan. Elder Sears translated and did a good job.

Elder Dukelow talked without a translator about work as a key part of Heavenly Father’s plan. He pointed out that even Heavenly Father Himself works according to what we have learned from the scriptures. He also talked about the need to make good choices in life. The people understood him and helped him along when he forgot a word that he needed.

Elder Stromberg bore his strong testimony for the last time to his branch as he was scheduled to fly home on 20 December. We closed by singing God be with you ‘til we meet again. There was a great spirit in this small branch.

Following Sacrament meeting Sister Dukelow conducted a short training on the Primary program using the pamphlets Faith in God for Boys and Girls, and Young Women Personal Progress. She also talked about For the Strength of Youth and passed out the little books to the mothers of each family and the sister who teaches Primary.

After the training the kids (including some missionaries) played in the fresh snow. Every adult took home a copy of the highly treasured conference Liahona and a new Joseph Smith manual for the 2008 Priesthood and Relief Society classes. We visited with some of the members and investigators. One single adult investigator named Zsuzsi wants to join the Church but is reluctant to do so because she is afraid she may break the Law of Chastity after she joins. The elders have taught her how important this law is and the serious consequences of breaking it. We invited her to come to Budapest to meet the other young single adult members at the young single adults’ New Years Party. She said she may be able to come.

Memorable meals during this reporting period include a very nice dinner at the Szeged Roosevelt Fish Restaurant. Elder Dukelow had a bowl of the traditional spicy carp soup followed by a plate of extremely tender tenderloin medallions smeared with goose liver in a light sauce. Mmmm good! Even the Gypsy musicians were good. More recently Sister Dukelow had a nice plate of penne in leek sauce with ham. Elder Dukelow had cream of leek soup followed by an item that was described as a pork steak with a salad in a loaf. It turned out exactly as described. The pork stake and accompanying salad were stacked inside a pita bread. He won’t order that again. Our friend ordered gnocchi with mushrooms and that was good. Those last three meals cost approximately $8.50 each.

Laura Chilkott, an American English teacher from Balatonfuered who joined the church here recently, previously reported, visited us this weekend. This was the first time she attended an English speaking congregation here in Hungary. We had a very nice Christmas program and she was very happy to meet so many English speaking members. She plans to come back to Budapest once a month to attend church with us.

Last Thursday we attended the Christmas Concert at the Saint Imre high school where Andrea’s daughter, Laura was performing. Even though we knew these were the Buda gifted and talented students, we expected this would be something like an American high school performance. It was more like a college level performance even though it started with a first grade class singing Christmas songs. Almost all the choirs sang a cappella with the conductor using only a tuning fork to give them a note to start. They sang without microphones and filled the packed hall with beautiful music.

Highlights of this Christmas Concert included but were not limited to:

Csányi Márton, the winner of Hungary’s piano competition, playing a beautiful rendition of Chopin’s C minor Fantasy Impromptu (made even more remarkable as this pianist is blind).

Later in the program, Szokolay Adam, a ten year old boy who won the basic talent scholarship, played another Chopin piece, C minor waltz.

The chouses sang several songs in English, some well known and others such as “Jesus Christ the apple tree” unfamiliar. Interestingly the school director joined in the chorus and sang along with his classes while another man who was the master of ceremonies directed.

At the end of the evening of music, the master of ceremonies gave a short talk on the true meaning of Christmas that could have been used by Richard L. Evans. We then all sang two rounds that everyone seemed to know and it sounded remarkably good. All that was missing was the final, “Once more we leave you within the shadow of the everlasting hills…”

Last year we basically had no winter to speak of. This year, we can report it is bitterly cold, and even the most hat resisting missionaries are wearing head gear. Elder Dukelow has been wearing a stocking cap to work for a week. We see no more tanned tummies on the streets but many bundled up people.

Our neighbors down stairs apparently lost their heat in their apartment and have been banging on their pipes at random times during the day for the past few days. We hope we do not lose heat in our apartment. We have discovered how to regulate the heat without opening the windows. We also learned we have a heating element inside our hall closet so we can put on toasty warm coats when we leave the house.

The Hungarian Railroad workers do not want to be seen as non-European so they have gone on strike a couple of times in the past weeks. They were supposed to be joined one day by the city public transportation workers but the city came to an agreement with the union before everything shut down. So far we have been able to rearrange our missionaries’ travel to avoid strike delays.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We wanted to make sure no one was left without a place to go for this holiday. We asked the single adults in our family home evening group if they knew of anyone who had no family to go to on Christmas Eve. They told us of one brother, Uncle Laci, who has no family. He is probably 70 and has had some ups and downs in his life. We invited him to join us tomorrow and he was very thankful for the invitation because he told Elder Dukelow, the Church is now his only family.

We thank you all for your prayers in our behalf. We know we are in a great work and cannot succeed without your help. We wish you all the best and hope you will find great joy and happiness in your service to others in the coming year.

Dino eats building

One day we were walking through Pest and saw a big dinosaur looking machine that was eating a building.

Hungarian plumbing and heating

In our apartment some of the pipes are not concealed within the walls.

Fall colors in Hungary

Some people claim the Hungarian trees don't change colors in the Fall. That is probably because these people stay inside the city and never see the countryside which we think is beautiful.

On 1 November the Hungarians celebrate All Saints Day. They go to the cemeteries and put flowers and candles on the graves. It is a big holiday. We walked through the main Buda cemetery at night and went back two days later to see it in the daylight.

Pictures

14th Mission Report

Dukelows’ 14^th Mission Report 10 Oct to 24 Nov 2007

From 10 to 12 October, Elder Richard G. Hinckley, son of our 97 year old prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, visited our mission and provided training to our missionaries. He and his wife, Jane, a former tennis champion, are very approachable people and full of life. Elder Hinckley told several personal stories about his father that made the prophet even more remarkable. The Hinckley children take turns eating dinner with the Prophet to ensure he eats correctly. One night Jane had prepared spinach casserole for dinner. The Prophet said, “I don’t like spinach.” Jane replied, “You need to eat it because it is full of iron.” The Prophet said, “I’d rather eat a horseshoe.” Jane responded, “We’re fresh out of horseshoes so eat your spinach.” And he did.

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has established a logistics and accounting center in Budapest. The Human Resources officer responsible for setting up this 110 person organization is Bill Tarpai, a member of the Church. Bill and his wife, Helen, have spent most of the past twenty years in some fairly inhospitable locations managing the refugee centers in Pakistan and Bosnia. They were delighted to be able to come to Budapest where they could actually participate in Church activities and enjoy civilized society.

Elder Dukelow tried to help Bill from his first week in the country, the first of August, to find a nice apartment so Helen could join him. Bill finally found what he was looking for, a dwelling of at least 3,000 square feet of the finest Budapest could offer in the 1930’s. It is close to Parliament on a street filled with antique dealers. The Tarpai’s house hold goods if all spread out might fill approximately one fourth of this monster apartment but they are very happy there. Fortunately it is also a somewhat furnished apartment so it does not look so cavernous.

One of the things Bill Tarpai wanted to do was to give the members of the Church a fair chance to compete for the jobs the UNHCR would be offering. Most of the positions required expert language skills. Elder Dukelow made sure the appropriate local Church leaders knew the jobs were being offered. Some Church members thought they could just call up and get a position but everyone had to go through a rigorous screening process. The competition was stiff but a few Church members did get jobs and will probably have a career working with the UNHCR if they want it.

We ate dinner with the Tarpai’s on Thanksgiving at the Ezuestponty (silver carp) restaurant, which is Arthur Frommer’s favorite restaurant in Budapest. We learned that Bill will be transferred away from Budapest in February because the director of the new center here is a man from Ghana and he has hired a woman from Ghana to be the center’s operations officer, the position Bill was hoping to fill. Bill may go to Chad or the Sudan on his next assignment. It is sad in a way but the Tarpai’s know it is part of their job.

On Thanksgiving we also visited a new mall that opened on 15 Nov, shopped at the Budapest Market Hall to buy peanut butter and fresh walnuts, visited the castle district, heroes square and the Vajdahunyadvar (fantasy castle) where we saw the ice skaters. There was a long line of skaters waiting for the evening skating period to open. We were tired at the end of the day.

The missionary restoration concerts have been going full speed ahead. This year they have three sister missionaries singing as well as several elders. Sister Low, one of the senior missionaries has been directing this effort. She is very talented, organized and motivated. She plays the piano for some of the songs and also is part of the bell group. There are two other senior sisters helping on that, the mission president’s wife and Sister Giauque plus some of the sisters who sing. One elder plays the cello as part of the introduction and another elder also plays the piano for some of the songs. The Hungarian sister who is the narrator married on November 17 so they had to have a substitute that day. They have been around the country of Hungary performing where we have organized congregations and have been warmly welcomed. Tomorrow and Sunday will be the last restoration concerts. Then the Christmas concerts begin with the same people only Christmas songs but they are only going to perform on one weekend for the congregations in the Budapest area—no more long trips.

For the October branch leadership training Sister Dukelow invited every sister in the congregations in Szeged and in Debrecen to a meeting. The purpose was to learn about each other and build unity. It was successful and fun! The sisters loved hearing about each other and they loved sharing about themselves. The meeting started with the song, I am a Child of God, and closed with the song, Sisters in Zion. There was a lot of love in the room. Elder Ruggles enjoyed being the translator for the meeting in Szeged as he was the only male in the room. Sister Dukelow provided zucchini cake for refreshments. It was so good they asked for the recipe.

While in Debrecen we went to see an outstanding exhibit called the Real da Vinci. Outside the museum they had set up a replica of his monumental 27 foot tall bronze horse that was planned but never cast because his sponsor turned the bronze into cannons. If this exhibit comes anywhere near you, do yourself a favor and go see the incredible things da Vinci was conceiving while the rest of the world was groping in darkness.

The weekend we went to Szeged we forgot about daylight savings time changing and we were there an hour early. But we were not the only ones an hour early!

One of our senior couples, the Stubbs, is leaving this coming Tuesday. All the senior couples came in for training a couple of weeks ago and we went out to dinner in honor of this couple leaving and President Gasser’s birthday. We were in charge of finding the restaurant. We wanted to find somewhere close to the mission office so we could all walk to it. We found this place that is really a beer hall but we thought the menu looked okay and the prices were okay. They had this little room where they could shut the door so we ask for that but the owner insisted it wasn’t big enough for all of us so we agreed to take some other tables but when we showed up for the dinner he put us in the little room which turned out to be a very good thing because the other customers were smoking. Interesting thing, he wanted us all to eat the same thing because he could serve us quickly. We had very good veal goulash with spaetzle. He asked what kind of a salad we would like, lettuce or cucumber so Sister Dukelow said cucumber and everyone agreed, thinking we would each get a bowl of thinly sliced cucumbers with some dressing. What a surprise when he brought out plates that had five four inch long pickles on each one! We have never seen that happen anywhere before. But the food was good. We even ordered cake which seems something between a cross of bread pudding and chocolate cake with a rum flavored sauce and whip cream on it.

Thanksgiving dinner at the Ezuestponty was also memorable. Sister Dukelow had a plate of roasted carp with shrimp covered with garlic sauce that was very good. Elder Dukelow, always the risk taker, ordered a plate of six wild duck legs that turned out excellent. Normally wild duck breast is a featured menu item in many Hungarian restaurants but never duck legs. These legs had been marinated and were soft and succulent. The legs were swimming in a dark wine sauce full of grapes and berries. A half-dozen deep fried mash potato croquettes and a plate of spicy cabbage salad on the side made this an unforgettable meal. Bill Tarpai and Elder Dukelow shared a pot of spicy carp soup with freshly made bread to start the meal.

Every other Monday evening we invite the over 30 singles to our home for Family Home Evening. We never know who is coming or how many will show up. We have very good discussions and the new members especially enjoy visiting with those they do not know. We have learned to our surprise that some Hungarian single sisters do not want to marry a man who is rich or handsome. Their argument is that a man who is rich is probably not honest and a man who is handsome probably does not have the spiritual qualities they are seeking. They are astonished when we tell them about our courtship and marriage. A blind date in the Washington DC Greyhound bus depot, getting engaged three weeks later, and then Elder Dukelow leaving for Germany two months ahead of his bride. Sister Dukelow tells these Hungarian sisters to have faith and not just reject a man because of his appearance, financial status or length of time being a member of the Church.

We received our latest shipment of new missionaries on 13 November. There were only 5 elders and one sister. These folks came off the plane speaking good Hungarian. This was very impressive but probably due to the small group size. Our next two groups will be big, 13 at the end of December and another 13 on 3 February. President Gasser is concerned about where he will find 26 trainers for these new folks.

We were in Pecs and Kaposvar last weekend for training and to speak in church. We had about four inches of snow on Sunday morning that turned the area into a winter wonderland. The roads were not too bad because the temperature stay above or very close to freezing. Elder Dukelow had all the mission vehicles equipped with snow tires before 1 November. He is a popular man at the tire service shop in the basement parking lot of the MOM Park shopping center.

In Kaposvar we had an unusual incident wherein a woman who is mentally ill came into the meeting with the intent of punishing the congregation. Elder Dukelow and a couple of missionaries restrained here and took her out after she started spitting on people. Elder Dukelow told one of the missionaries to call the police. The police responded in about five minutes but explained that since this woman had not actually hit anyone, no crime had been committed. She told the police she knew the rules and although they could lock her up for 24 hours she would have to be released because she is crazy. The police did convince her to leave with them. It is a sad situation because this woman joined the church in February and has been causing us huge problems ever since. We had eight investigators in the meeting when this incident took place. They were shocked but the missionary who was conducting the meeting told them simply we had tried to help the woman but were unable to do so. He then went on with the meeting. When Elder Dukelow gave his talk, everyone was helping him when he did not know a word in Hungarian and the incident was almost forgotten.

In 2003 when Elder Dukelow worked for seven weeks in Hungary, there was talk about setting up a NATO logistics base near Kaposvar. Last week the Hungarian Minister of Defense announced there would be a NATO logistics base set up at the Papa military airfield to support the C-17s that fly from Germany to Iraq and Afghanistan. It is estimated that this base will employ 350 to 400 people. This will be a tremendous boost for the region around Papa which is very poor. We hope that some of those people who will be assigned to the base will be Church members who can help the tiny branch at Papa. The people in Papa are very excited about this base but Hungary being Hungary, there is a good chance this plan will never become a reality.