Old mission reports number 1

Dear All,

We want to share with you our impressions of the missionary experience. We hope this information will encourage other couples to go on a full time mission.

We have been hearing about PREACH MY GOSPEL, the current missionary manual, for several years and have been encouraged to get a copy and read it but we didn't do it. This book is more of a Christian lifestyle guide than a package of missionary lessons. If each of us could learn to live all the scriptures that go with these basic Christian principles we would feel more confident as we share the gospel with others and maybe more inclined to invite others into our homes and have the missionaries teach them.

Being with so many young women and young men who want to serve and share is inspiring. The Missionary Training Center (MTC) is very well organized. They treat Senior Couples with great respect. They open doors for us, let us go to the front of the food line, take our empty trays to the tray area after we have eaten and smile and say hello. It is humbling to hear so many different languages and to see different colors of skin. There is a lot of excitement and energy everywhere you go in the MTC.

We were impressed that the young missionaries perform service while at the MTC. They are the ones who clean the common areas around the MTC campus. They also help prepare the food by staking cookies or whatever on the trays. They are divided into districts with district leaders. Meal times are assigned according to districts. There are many branches (congregations) and the districts are assigned to a branch when they come into the MTC. What great organization in this constant changing campus of approximately 2,500 aspiring missionaries. Three hundred to four hundred arrive and leave each week. Some stay for only three weeks but those who learn difficult languages may stay for three or four months. People are cheerful and helpful and talented. Great musical numbers are provided at each devotional meeting, sometimes as many as three special numbers.

Another area of great service is from the senior members from the surrounding communities. The first week we had to prepare three lessons to teach to investigators or inactive or new members. Volunteers come to our “residence” where we present a discussion. That was very helpful to actually have to plan and present a discussion even if we knew that this volunteer probably knew more about the gospel than we did. Both weeks we were at the MTC we volunteered to be the “investigators” for the language training Hungarian Missionaries. It was amazing how many, mostly BYU student and returned missionaries, were there for the new elders and sisters to practice on.

Another area of great service is the temple. We saw many giving of their time there.

As we met with the other senior couples during that first week we heard many talk about their feelings of excitement, total reliance on the Lord for those learning languages, wondering whether they had they purchased the right clothing for missionaries, would they be able to do the job they were being asked to do, could they pack everything in their luggage and still stay under the airline imposed weight allowance. We met people going all over the world, including Syria, Mongolia, Cyprus, the Cook Islands, Ghana, and the Ukraine. Many were going to visitor centers in the United States. Close friendships were made in just several weeks. Everyone was trying to do their best at the task at hand. These senior couples were ever bit as excited as the young folks going out. Some couples were on their second or third mission. One had been the mission president in Mongolia and now they were going out as a regular missionary couple to a church historical visitor center.

We had a lot of young recently returned missionaries who were teaching us how to teach from Preach My Gospel, languages and office procedures. For the most part they did really well. All of them praised the senior couples for the great work we would be able to do in our mission fields and encouraged us to encourage other senior couples to go on missions.

The MTC’s senior accommodations are much like hotel rooms. We found the food to be very good, especially because Sister Dukelow didn’t have to plan it, buy it, prepare it and clean up after the meals were over. The MTC staff was able to help us with several requests such as making copies and having a notary available. We were able to check our e-mails and make calls using our own AT&T cards. They were able to accommodate our early arrival and worked with us so we could stop in Phoenix for the wedding of Rebecca Dukelow and Sergio Beltran en route to the MTC.

Upon arriving in the mission field, the Mission President Gasser and Sister Gasser met us at the Budapest airport, took us to the office to look around and introduce the office elders and the assistance to the President then on to our apartment. Sister Gasser provided us with a basket of food items that provided a light lunch and enough food for the next morning and lunch. That evening they took us to dinner and we had a great meal and good conversation. Everyone we have met so far is happy to see us and has welcomed us with open arms.

As we walk from our apartment to the Mission Home, maybe a 10-15 minute walk, depending on which direction we go. We look at the people but many of them will not make eye contact. Sadly there is graffiti on many of the buildings. Sidewalks are being redone so there is a lot of dust. There are many “tiny” stores on our street such as an art store, a jewelry store, an antique store, fresh fruits and vegetables stores, a tailor shop, several travel offices, many apartment buildings, a school with an inside swimming pool, several eating establishments—some tiny and some a bit larger. Most of the cars are very small and the streets are narrow. There are many interesting old buildings. In time we will take some pictures to share. The people we have seen on the way to the office, to the post office, the ATM machine and to our apartment look like they are tired. The buildings are tired and unkempt. Quite a few are empty. It is always a delight to see flowers in the window boxes or on their balconies.

In our apartment we have a clothes washer but not a dryer. There is a large drying rack that can be lowered and raised from the bathroom ceiling so we can dry clothes indoors. We also have a sauna in our large bathroom. Our ceilings are about 10 feet high. When we first came into our apartment it made us think of the movies of when people come to a house in the country. The furniture, the dishes and etc. are already there but you have to dust it off, mop it and clean it up. It wouldn’t have been our choice of furnishings but it will work fine. It is wonderful to have a lot of closet and storage space in the bedroom. The bed isn’t too bad either. The kitchen cabinets are rather high but we do have a step ladder so that will help. We have mirrors in the hallway and in the doors that divide two rooms. We are on the second floor of a building that is probably 60 years old. There is an elevator in the building but it is very small, very slow, and very noisy. We usually just walk up to our floor. Our apartment has a small balcony that looks out over a busy street.

We went shopping in a big department store called Auchan just outside of Budapest on Saturday. This store is about three times as large as a super-Walmart with almost anything you would want to buy. We spent about three hours just in the food department because there was such a variety and we wanted to compare products. Some items had labels with English but most did not so we struggled to understand what we were buying. Earlier in the week we had bought our groceries in one of the tiny local markets. What we thought was spaghetti sauce turned out to be hot Chinese tomato sauce and the spaghetti turned out to be flat pasta but who cares when one is hungry in Hungary. The meals we have had at home have been very tasty once we learned to either understand the labels or pick something else. The pictures on the products are not always a big help. We still have not found peanut butter but we have been told by another senior couple that it is available here. The best thing about the food here is the bread; delicious, fresh, and in all flavors, shapes and textures.

Our work day in the mission office starts at 0930 and ends around 5 PM or later. Our office elders are suppose to go on teaching appointments (they call them “programs” here) in the evenings so they don’t want to work too late. We are still learning the office procedures. The main missionary data base was giving Elder Dukelow fits because it would not perform as expected. He later learned that he was instructed by one of the missionaries to use an obsolete data base that for some reason cannot be deleted. He was shown, after six days, where the current correct data base is located and now he hopes his troubles in this particular area are over. Elder Dukelow was called as the Executive Secretary in the Mission Presidency (this is in addition to managing eight cars, 54 apartments, reports, supplies, finances, mailing, etc. etc.). Sister Dukelow does what she is told, filing, typing, and trying to bring a bit more organization into the office.

We watched General Conference from Salt Lake City by satellite broadcast this past weekend and it was great. We shared several meals with our Mission President and the three other senior couples. On Saturday evening, Sister Gasser, the Mission President’s wife led us to a highly recommended restaurant that turned out to be a Hungarian fast food place with all the ambience and service of a middle school cafeteria. Sister Gasser was very embarrassed but the food was cheap, plentiful, and was served quickly. The manager gave us a free sample of their unsweetened cream dessert that was not very tasty. Many of the senior people do not like to drink mineral water which reminded Sister Dukelow of her first weeks in Germany in 1966.

Today Sister Gasser read us a nice story about a woman who went to Brazil with her mission president husband and six children in the late 1950’s. Her husband and the kids loved everything about their colonial three story mansion and the jungle neighborhood. She had trouble accepting the fact that the washing machine did not work, there was no dryer, and there was a leak in the roof over the dining room, and so on. One day she broke down and just cried. Her husband could not understand what was wrong. He took her out on the balcony and made her look at the scenery, the jungle, the red earth, and said, “Look at this! Enjoy this moment because years from now this is what you will remember and the little irritations will just be parts of a great adventure story.” So the family adopted the philosophy of “enjoy the moment” and when something happened that could be discouraging they would say to one another, “enjoy the moment” and then they would laugh.

Love to all

Sister and Elder Dukelow

Hungary Budapest Mission

Hajnóczy József Utca 14.

H – 1122 Budapest

Hungary