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.