Saturday, May 31, 2008
More pictures of Esztergom
Sorry these pictures are not matching the wording. I will keep working on it and maybe I will get it right.
Our visit to Esztergom
One Saturday afternoon the office Elders and the Assistants went with us to the town of Estergom to see the big cathedral. It was very impressive. Here are some pictures we took that day. We saw several weddings, a decorated wedding car, a beautiful horse and carriage, a little red "train" that would take people around the town, a man playing flutes and he even had bells on his shoes to add to the music. We didn't climb the stairs to the top to look over the town but the Elders did and said it was a magnificent view. As you look across the river you can look into Slovakia. As we drove back we could see the big fortress of Visegrad. It was a nice outing.
more and more photos.
It is about 230 kilometers between the two cities so there is lots to see. This time we took the southern route.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Mission Report May 23, 2008
We have had a lot of sandwiches lately as we have been doing a lot of traveling on the weekends. Also we eat yummy cowboy cookies, carrot and sometime celery sticks, sometimes chips and almost always a snicker bar (we share one). If we are really lucky we get sliced apples too. Thanks to the Ballentines who left us their small cooler we can take enough for Sat and Sun so we don’t have to buy food on Sunday. We do like to go to dinner on Sat night. Until last night, we had not been out to eat since the 11th of April when we went with the departing senior couples (Lows, Giauques and Ballentines).
We were at Elder Dukelow’s favorite restaurant in Szombathely, Vadaz (the hunter). Sister Dukelow had breaded salmon with parmesan cheese on a bed of penne. Elder Dukelow had marinated venison cutlets smothered with at least a half pound of black berries in a thick sauce topped with orange and apple slices. A dozen little potatoes croquets were arranged around the perimeter of the plate. Ummm good!
Our good friend Kati Gyore made a visit to the USA and went to the Library of Congress. She brought back a slide show of the wise thoughts that are found in many places on the walls inside this building which she refers to only by its formal name, “The Jefferson Building.” We spent several hours discussing her visit and the remarkable thoughts she found. Kati has passed her English proficiency test and hopes to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Columbia. It would be an understatement to say she is smart.
Elder Dukelow was called to be the first counselor in the mission presidency on April 9. True, it is only until Aug 1 but he can do a lot in those few months to help President Gasser and President Borsos. We had a conference in the West for the Sopron, Szombathely and Papa branches. It was a lovely day and each of the members of the Mission Presidency spoke. Elder Dukelow gave his talk about the Mormon concept of happiness in Hungarian and the people still marvel that he can do so well. We will have a conference in Miskolc on June 21 for the branches in the east: Nyiregyhaza, Debrecen, Eger and Miskolc. Another conference will be held July 27 probably in Dunaujvaros for Pecs, Szeged, Szolnok, Kaposvar, and Békéscsaba.
Sight seeing
We have decided that since time is slipping by extremely fast and we have not seen very much that every time we go to speak in a city, check apartments or any other kind of meeting we would allow ourselves an hour or two more so we can see something of the places we have been visiting for various assignments. Also we have our Saturdays scheduled so that if it is free we will go see something on our list. Usually that is only the first Sat of June and July. We are also going to try to do the bi-annual audits in July so the new office couple, COULD IT BE YOU, will not have to worry about it the first month they are in the office. That means we will be traveling to almost every city in the mission and we just might get to see something we have not seen before. We will be posting pictures so you can see what we are seeing.
Many missionaries buy whips in Hungary to take home as souvenirs. Some missionaries become very proficient in cracking their whips (they call it whipping) and can produce very loud noises that sound like gunfire. It is great exercise and much safer than playing soccer. Some whips are fairly simple affairs and others are very elaborate with many fancy decorations and carved handles. Elder Dukelow now owns five of the latter which he plans to take home for his sons-in-law and grandson. The longest of these fancy new whips is 6 meters (26.5 feet).
Phone exchange
After a two year contract with Vodafone it was time to get a new contract and new phones for all the missionaries. We tried without success to get a better deal with a different vendor. Speed is not a virtue with the Vodafone people here. Patience is the name of the game. Finally, 60 new phones were delivered and then the real fun began. Rule was if you didn’t turn in your box, your charger and the old phone itself---no new phone. Some didn’t think we were serious about the rule and we still have their new phones in the office but maybe they are really smarter than we think. One problem with the new phones is that they come with built in games and the BIG BIG rule is that you cannot play the games as a missionary as it is a time waster. We tried to remove the games from the phone but Vodafone said it is NOT POSSIBLE. Elder Dukelow threatened to check the phones when we inspect apartments and if there are any scores on the phone he will take the new phone and give them back one of the old phones.
Our emerging branches continue to make good progress. Békéscsaba is leading the pack and had 49 people at one meeting. Their average attendance is above 30. Kaposvár is close behind and averaging mid-20s every Sunday. Szolnok, which opened in January 2008, has been having over 20 people in their meetings but they had two member families already inside their area. The missionaries in these tiny branches wholeheartedly follow the counsel of President Hinckley to give everyone a responsibility. When we visited Kaposvár a couple of weeks ago we found that the investigator who normally leads the singing was not there. She had gone on a trip with a chorus but she had asked a friend to lead the singing for her. That young woman who was attending for the second time did a very professional job in leading our singing. Every time we visit one of these emerging branches we come away buoyed up by the amazing spirit we find there.
The BYU folk dancers came to Budapest and danced along with the Hungarian dancers. Surely was noisy with all their stomping, tapping, slapping legs and the Hungarians singing that sounds more like yelling. Actually that may have been the Serbian dancers doing at least one dance. Many church members came and enjoyed the event. The BYU dancers are always so happy and so friendly. They really know how to mix with the crowd. The BYU musicians are a remarkably gifted group who could probably go on the Grand Ole Opry without changing much that they do on stage.
Last year the mission bought three new Opel Corsas. We basically had two choices, Skoda Fabias (a VW made in the Czech Republic that looks suspiciously like a little Suzuki) or Opel Corsas made by General Motors in Germany. We had to special order our cars because of our fleet manager’s requirements to try to make the cars as safe as possible for our missionaries with automatic transmissions and electronic stability controls. Now we have car problems with these Opels because the device that prevents one from shifting into reverse while driving has failed twice in one car and once in another. It prevents the driver from shifting at all. Irritating!
We had an interesting incident of Police harassment in Oroshaza near Békéscsaba. Here is the slightly modified e-mail report Elder Dukelow filed with our legal assistance office (names have been changed to protect the innocent):
Dear Br. N- (this is Elder Dukelow writing)
The problem of police harassment of missionaries has surfaced again in Hungary. This time it appears an individual police officer in the city of Orosháza is trying to expel our missionaries from his city.
On 14 March 2008, Police Officer Gabor , stopped Elders Moore and Carlos as they were walking down the street in Orosháza. Officer Gabor asked what they were doing in Orosháza and the missionaries explained they were looking for people interested in hearing their message about the Gospel. Officer Gabor took their personal information. He asked where they lived and the missionaries gave their current address which at that time was in Békéscsaba. Officer Gabor told the missionaries to return to Békéscsaba and not to come back to Orosháza because they were not wanted in Orosháza.
On 9 May 2008, Officer Gabor and his partner Officer Norbert stopped Elder Moore and his new companion, Elder Irish, as they were walking on the street in Orosháza. Officer Gabor reminded Elder Moore he had been ordered not to return to Orosháza. Officer Gabor said he would now arrest the missionaries for harrassment of the people. Elder Moore explained they were not harrassing anyone and were not bothering anyone as they were just walking on the street. Elder Irish is a fairly new missionary with very limited Hungarian language skills.
Officer Gabor told Elder Moore and Elder Irish he was giving them each a 10,000 forint fine (approximately $60) for littering. If they refused to accept this fine they would be place in jail, fined 300,000 forints ($1,800) each and probably deported from Hungary. Elder Moore showed Officer Gabor the document prepared by our legal advisor that explained their legal status in Hungary. Officer Gabor without reading the document said this paper was meaningless because it had no official Hungarian stamp. Officer Gabor ordered the missionaries to produce their passports which they did. Officer Gabor took down their personal information. He then issued them both the littering citations and told them to sign the form which they could not read. They protested they were not littering but just walking down the street. He warned them if they refused to sign the forms they would have to go to jail to await deportation. Both missionaries signed the forms.
Officer Gabor then asked where the missionaries lived and they gave their current Orosháza address. Officer Gabor asked how long they intended to stay in Orosháza and Elder Moore explained he would be there until he returned to the United States on 11 June. Officer Gabor said this was the wrong answer. They had until 6PM on 9 June to pack their bags and leave Orosháza, otherwise he would arrest them, put them in jail with a 300,000 forint fine and see that they were both deported. Officer Gabor said he would come by the missionaries' address on the morning of 12 May to make sure they were gone. They did not see Officer Gabor on the morning of 12 May.
Following this encounter with Officer Gabor, the missionaries called their landlord, Szakó József, a retired Orosháza police officer and explained what had happened to them. Mr. Szakó József said they should not have signed the form prepared by Officer Gabor because they thereby acknowledged they were guilty of littering. Mr. Szakó József said he would call the Orosháza police captain and see whether he could straighten this matter out. Mr. Szakó József called the missionaries back and told them to go to the police station on the morning of 13 May (12 May being a holiday) to speak to the police captain in person.
As senior office missionary, Elder Dukelow also advised Elder Moore to to to the police captain on Tuesday morning and explain what had happened. I further told Elder Moore not to sign any document he could not read or understand. It would be better to go to the police station to sort the matter out. Elder Moore acknowledged he had made a mistake in signing the form. Elder Dukelow told Elder Moore there is probably a provision in Hungarian law for dismissal of a fine imposed after a coerced admission of guilt.
Any help, suggestions, or guidance you can give in this matter would be appreciated. While we acknowledge that many of the best missionaries throughout history have spent time in jail, we would prefer it not happen to our missionaries if we can prevent it. On the otherhand, we have no intention of abandoning our efforts in Orosháza due to the actions of one police officer who appears to be upset that we are working there.
Sincerely,
Elder Dukelow
On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 10:20 AM, Hungary Budapest Mission > wrote to our legal assistance advisor:
Dear Brother N-,
Elder Moore and Irish went in and talked with the chief of police, Cz- Péter, this morning in Orosháza. Mr. Cz- apologized to the missionaries for the conduct of the officers who had harrassed them, and told them that these officers had been talked to after Mr. Cz- had been notified of the problem by the missionaries' landlord. He then told the missionaries that they did not have to pay the fines, and the fines were invalidated.
So, it looks as if the problem has been completely taken care of, and action is not required.
Thank you for all your help in these matters,
Elder S- (Mission Office Secretary)
Elder Robert C. Oaks of the Seventy came for a visit and training in April. He is a retired four star US Air Force general and told some remarkable stories as the helped the missionaries gain a better understanding of their responsibilities. We greatly enjoyed his visit and anyone who wants copious notes of the training can write back and get them from Elder Dukelow.
Just before we left on our mission we sold our residence in Alexandria. We purchased a condominium at River Place in Arlington as a rental property with some of the proceeds from the sale. A few weeks ago we had a mortgage scare. Our daughter, Gwyndolynn, who looks after our real estate interests reported she had received a letter from the bank holding our mortgage saying we were in arrears and in default on our mortgage. This was pretty upsetting because our property managers had been paying the mortgage payments regularly from the rent they receive. We called Carol Martin, the loan officer at Acacia Federal Savings Bank, who had worked with us to buy this property. She remembered us and helped us get everything sorted out. We hope our excellent credit rating survived. The bank assures us it was their fault and everything was fixed but we will not know for sure until we apply for our next loan.
We have been having nice weather for the past few weeks. We get some rain but mostly at night. Our days have been mild and sometimes warm. Of course the warm weather means short sleeve for our elders and short skirts for the non-missionary young ladies. We will skip the specific details because we know children may read this report.
In the 1950’s the Readers’ Digest published a joke about a woman who had visited Kansas. Upon returning home to the East Coast the lady remarked how interesting it was to see the many “concubines” working in the fields. As we travel the secondary roads of Hungary we often see well dressed young women standing at intersections in the middle of no where. Elder Dukelow’s first impression when he saw the first one almost two years ago was to stop to see if this person’s car had broken down but then he realized she was just pursuing her profession. Since these ladies take their positions in such remote locations one has to wonder: Who drops them off? What security measure do they employ? Where do they keep their water or lunch box? Are they forced to do this?
We were at Elder Dukelow’s favorite restaurant in Szombathely, Vadaz (the hunter). Sister Dukelow had breaded salmon with parmesan cheese on a bed of penne. Elder Dukelow had marinated venison cutlets smothered with at least a half pound of black berries in a thick sauce topped with orange and apple slices. A dozen little potatoes croquets were arranged around the perimeter of the plate. Ummm good!
Our good friend Kati Gyore made a visit to the USA and went to the Library of Congress. She brought back a slide show of the wise thoughts that are found in many places on the walls inside this building which she refers to only by its formal name, “The Jefferson Building.” We spent several hours discussing her visit and the remarkable thoughts she found. Kati has passed her English proficiency test and hopes to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Columbia. It would be an understatement to say she is smart.
Elder Dukelow was called to be the first counselor in the mission presidency on April 9. True, it is only until Aug 1 but he can do a lot in those few months to help President Gasser and President Borsos. We had a conference in the West for the Sopron, Szombathely and Papa branches. It was a lovely day and each of the members of the Mission Presidency spoke. Elder Dukelow gave his talk about the Mormon concept of happiness in Hungarian and the people still marvel that he can do so well. We will have a conference in Miskolc on June 21 for the branches in the east: Nyiregyhaza, Debrecen, Eger and Miskolc. Another conference will be held July 27 probably in Dunaujvaros for Pecs, Szeged, Szolnok, Kaposvar, and Békéscsaba.
Sight seeing
We have decided that since time is slipping by extremely fast and we have not seen very much that every time we go to speak in a city, check apartments or any other kind of meeting we would allow ourselves an hour or two more so we can see something of the places we have been visiting for various assignments. Also we have our Saturdays scheduled so that if it is free we will go see something on our list. Usually that is only the first Sat of June and July. We are also going to try to do the bi-annual audits in July so the new office couple, COULD IT BE YOU, will not have to worry about it the first month they are in the office. That means we will be traveling to almost every city in the mission and we just might get to see something we have not seen before. We will be posting pictures so you can see what we are seeing.
Many missionaries buy whips in Hungary to take home as souvenirs. Some missionaries become very proficient in cracking their whips (they call it whipping) and can produce very loud noises that sound like gunfire. It is great exercise and much safer than playing soccer. Some whips are fairly simple affairs and others are very elaborate with many fancy decorations and carved handles. Elder Dukelow now owns five of the latter which he plans to take home for his sons-in-law and grandson. The longest of these fancy new whips is 6 meters (26.5 feet).
Phone exchange
After a two year contract with Vodafone it was time to get a new contract and new phones for all the missionaries. We tried without success to get a better deal with a different vendor. Speed is not a virtue with the Vodafone people here. Patience is the name of the game. Finally, 60 new phones were delivered and then the real fun began. Rule was if you didn’t turn in your box, your charger and the old phone itself---no new phone. Some didn’t think we were serious about the rule and we still have their new phones in the office but maybe they are really smarter than we think. One problem with the new phones is that they come with built in games and the BIG BIG rule is that you cannot play the games as a missionary as it is a time waster. We tried to remove the games from the phone but Vodafone said it is NOT POSSIBLE. Elder Dukelow threatened to check the phones when we inspect apartments and if there are any scores on the phone he will take the new phone and give them back one of the old phones.
Our emerging branches continue to make good progress. Békéscsaba is leading the pack and had 49 people at one meeting. Their average attendance is above 30. Kaposvár is close behind and averaging mid-20s every Sunday. Szolnok, which opened in January 2008, has been having over 20 people in their meetings but they had two member families already inside their area. The missionaries in these tiny branches wholeheartedly follow the counsel of President Hinckley to give everyone a responsibility. When we visited Kaposvár a couple of weeks ago we found that the investigator who normally leads the singing was not there. She had gone on a trip with a chorus but she had asked a friend to lead the singing for her. That young woman who was attending for the second time did a very professional job in leading our singing. Every time we visit one of these emerging branches we come away buoyed up by the amazing spirit we find there.
The BYU folk dancers came to Budapest and danced along with the Hungarian dancers. Surely was noisy with all their stomping, tapping, slapping legs and the Hungarians singing that sounds more like yelling. Actually that may have been the Serbian dancers doing at least one dance. Many church members came and enjoyed the event. The BYU dancers are always so happy and so friendly. They really know how to mix with the crowd. The BYU musicians are a remarkably gifted group who could probably go on the Grand Ole Opry without changing much that they do on stage.
Last year the mission bought three new Opel Corsas. We basically had two choices, Skoda Fabias (a VW made in the Czech Republic that looks suspiciously like a little Suzuki) or Opel Corsas made by General Motors in Germany. We had to special order our cars because of our fleet manager’s requirements to try to make the cars as safe as possible for our missionaries with automatic transmissions and electronic stability controls. Now we have car problems with these Opels because the device that prevents one from shifting into reverse while driving has failed twice in one car and once in another. It prevents the driver from shifting at all. Irritating!
We had an interesting incident of Police harassment in Oroshaza near Békéscsaba. Here is the slightly modified e-mail report Elder Dukelow filed with our legal assistance office (names have been changed to protect the innocent):
Dear Br. N- (this is Elder Dukelow writing)
The problem of police harassment of missionaries has surfaced again in Hungary. This time it appears an individual police officer in the city of Orosháza is trying to expel our missionaries from his city.
On 14 March 2008, Police Officer Gabor , stopped Elders Moore and Carlos as they were walking down the street in Orosháza. Officer Gabor asked what they were doing in Orosháza and the missionaries explained they were looking for people interested in hearing their message about the Gospel. Officer Gabor took their personal information. He asked where they lived and the missionaries gave their current address which at that time was in Békéscsaba. Officer Gabor told the missionaries to return to Békéscsaba and not to come back to Orosháza because they were not wanted in Orosháza.
On 9 May 2008, Officer Gabor and his partner Officer Norbert stopped Elder Moore and his new companion, Elder Irish, as they were walking on the street in Orosháza. Officer Gabor reminded Elder Moore he had been ordered not to return to Orosháza. Officer Gabor said he would now arrest the missionaries for harrassment of the people. Elder Moore explained they were not harrassing anyone and were not bothering anyone as they were just walking on the street. Elder Irish is a fairly new missionary with very limited Hungarian language skills.
Officer Gabor told Elder Moore and Elder Irish he was giving them each a 10,000 forint fine (approximately $60) for littering. If they refused to accept this fine they would be place in jail, fined 300,000 forints ($1,800) each and probably deported from Hungary. Elder Moore showed Officer Gabor the document prepared by our legal advisor that explained their legal status in Hungary. Officer Gabor without reading the document said this paper was meaningless because it had no official Hungarian stamp. Officer Gabor ordered the missionaries to produce their passports which they did. Officer Gabor took down their personal information. He then issued them both the littering citations and told them to sign the form which they could not read. They protested they were not littering but just walking down the street. He warned them if they refused to sign the forms they would have to go to jail to await deportation. Both missionaries signed the forms.
Officer Gabor then asked where the missionaries lived and they gave their current Orosháza address. Officer Gabor asked how long they intended to stay in Orosháza and Elder Moore explained he would be there until he returned to the United States on 11 June. Officer Gabor said this was the wrong answer. They had until 6PM on 9 June to pack their bags and leave Orosháza, otherwise he would arrest them, put them in jail with a 300,000 forint fine and see that they were both deported. Officer Gabor said he would come by the missionaries' address on the morning of 12 May to make sure they were gone. They did not see Officer Gabor on the morning of 12 May.
Following this encounter with Officer Gabor, the missionaries called their landlord, Szakó József, a retired Orosháza police officer and explained what had happened to them. Mr. Szakó József said they should not have signed the form prepared by Officer Gabor because they thereby acknowledged they were guilty of littering. Mr. Szakó József said he would call the Orosháza police captain and see whether he could straighten this matter out. Mr. Szakó József called the missionaries back and told them to go to the police station on the morning of 13 May (12 May being a holiday) to speak to the police captain in person.
As senior office missionary, Elder Dukelow also advised Elder Moore to to to the police captain on Tuesday morning and explain what had happened. I further told Elder Moore not to sign any document he could not read or understand. It would be better to go to the police station to sort the matter out. Elder Moore acknowledged he had made a mistake in signing the form. Elder Dukelow told Elder Moore there is probably a provision in Hungarian law for dismissal of a fine imposed after a coerced admission of guilt.
Any help, suggestions, or guidance you can give in this matter would be appreciated. While we acknowledge that many of the best missionaries throughout history have spent time in jail, we would prefer it not happen to our missionaries if we can prevent it. On the otherhand, we have no intention of abandoning our efforts in Orosháza due to the actions of one police officer who appears to be upset that we are working there.
Sincerely,
Elder Dukelow
On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 10:20 AM, Hungary Budapest Mission > wrote to our legal assistance advisor:
Dear Brother N-,
Elder Moore and Irish went in and talked with the chief of police, Cz- Péter, this morning in Orosháza. Mr. Cz- apologized to the missionaries for the conduct of the officers who had harrassed them, and told them that these officers had been talked to after Mr. Cz- had been notified of the problem by the missionaries' landlord. He then told the missionaries that they did not have to pay the fines, and the fines were invalidated.
So, it looks as if the problem has been completely taken care of, and action is not required.
Thank you for all your help in these matters,
Elder S- (Mission Office Secretary)
Elder Robert C. Oaks of the Seventy came for a visit and training in April. He is a retired four star US Air Force general and told some remarkable stories as the helped the missionaries gain a better understanding of their responsibilities. We greatly enjoyed his visit and anyone who wants copious notes of the training can write back and get them from Elder Dukelow.
Just before we left on our mission we sold our residence in Alexandria. We purchased a condominium at River Place in Arlington as a rental property with some of the proceeds from the sale. A few weeks ago we had a mortgage scare. Our daughter, Gwyndolynn, who looks after our real estate interests reported she had received a letter from the bank holding our mortgage saying we were in arrears and in default on our mortgage. This was pretty upsetting because our property managers had been paying the mortgage payments regularly from the rent they receive. We called Carol Martin, the loan officer at Acacia Federal Savings Bank, who had worked with us to buy this property. She remembered us and helped us get everything sorted out. We hope our excellent credit rating survived. The bank assures us it was their fault and everything was fixed but we will not know for sure until we apply for our next loan.
We have been having nice weather for the past few weeks. We get some rain but mostly at night. Our days have been mild and sometimes warm. Of course the warm weather means short sleeve for our elders and short skirts for the non-missionary young ladies. We will skip the specific details because we know children may read this report.
In the 1950’s the Readers’ Digest published a joke about a woman who had visited Kansas. Upon returning home to the East Coast the lady remarked how interesting it was to see the many “concubines” working in the fields. As we travel the secondary roads of Hungary we often see well dressed young women standing at intersections in the middle of no where. Elder Dukelow’s first impression when he saw the first one almost two years ago was to stop to see if this person’s car had broken down but then he realized she was just pursuing her profession. Since these ladies take their positions in such remote locations one has to wonder: Who drops them off? What security measure do they employ? Where do they keep their water or lunch box? Are they forced to do this?
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