Old mission reports number 2

All foreigners living in Hungary need to be registered. The mission has made arrangements to handle this requirement with a residents’ registration office in a poor neighborhood in Pest that is about a half hour drive from the mission office. The officials who work in the local registration office were so unfriendly to the missionaries in former times that the missionaries don’t even try to go there any more. The first time we went to the office, our mission secretary had forgotten to get the Mission President’s signature on our forms so we had to make a second trip. The actual registration only took a few minutes when the paperwork is fill out correctly.

On Wednesday, 4 Oct, we drove to Györ to inspect two apartments. One is in a new building and still being finished. We were promised that the apartment will be ready for our sister missionaries to move in the last week of October. The apartment we are giving up is occupied by elders who will move into the sisters’ old apartment. The bathroom ceiling in the elders’ apartment is covered with mold because there is no ventilation. The landlord of the new apartment is a young man who already rents one apartment to missionaries. He invested in a second rental apartment because our predecessors told him that if he would buy the second apartment, we would put missionaries in it. It will be a very nice apartment for our sisters. The landlord speaks very good English and German so we have no difficulty communicating with him. He invited us to lunch at his favorite restaurant which is next to our church. He wanted to pay for us but we insisted on paying for ourselves to avoid any conflict of interest. We had delicious goulash soup to start. Sister Dukelow had a stuffed kohlrabi on rice with cream sauce and Elder Dukelow had a breaded chicken breast on rice with French fries. Everything was very tasty and cheap.

We also had drivers license training on Wednesday evening. The trainer is a Nigerian with a PhD who has a business of getting foreigners through the Hungarian licensing process. The road signs and rules are similar to German so we had no problem in understanding the instruction. Sister Dukelow had a little difficulty with the right before left concepts in who has the right-of-way – the main thing is to be cautious where there are no signs giving you the right of way. Also a key to success in getting the license is to follow the prompts given by the trainer who also acts as interpreter during the oral license examination. His advice to us is not to try to think about the question as written on the paper, just answer his interpreted question and we will be sure to pass. We later learned that we need to get a doctor’s certificate for our eyesight and blood pressure. So the test was put off for a week.

On Saturday, 7 Oct, after we did our house cleaning and laundry, we walked from our apartment to the Margit Island, one of Budapest’s best loved recreational areas. We enjoyed watching a big fountain that was connected to a music system while we ate our picnic lunch. As the classical music played, the water danced. We then walked through the beautiful gardens and forests of the island. This island is named after a Hungarian queen who went here to live in a convent about a thousand years ago. The ruins of the convent are still there for children to climb on. Many people rent two-abreast bicycles or small electric cars to tour the island. One can also rent a horse drawn carriage to see the gardens.

We needed to get our shoes re-heeled so we went to Mistermint in the big shopping center near here. We also bought a pre-paid phone card chip for our phone. We thought this would allow us to call home economically but calculating the cost per minute for the cell phone plus the ATT charge it comes to about 50 cents per minute. We are going to explore using the phone over Internet possibilities as soon as we get our Internet connection at our apartment.

Last Sunday we were walking in the park between meetings and we passed a young couple sitting on a bench. It looked like they had a scripture bag so we went back to talk to them and found they were members of the church who were visiting Budapest. The young man was from Vienna and the young woman was from Chemnitz, Germany. We had a nice visit with them and then went to church together.

Our mission is blessed at the moment to have a group of incredibly talented missionaries who are professional singers and pianists. These elders have been performing concerts based on the music of the restoration that bring tears to the eyes of the local Saints and guests as the spirit is so strong. On 14 Oct they performed in Szeged on the Romanian border and our chapel was packed, mostly by friends of the church and investigators.

We are trying to get acquainted with our neighborhood by walking around. There are all sorts of houses, gardens, and public buildings. We also have a big park nearby. When we went to the park we saw there was a cog-rail train that goes up the mountain behind Buda. Yesterday we rode the cog-rail train to the top. Then we walked a short way and caught the nostalgic, steam engine train on the children’s railway for a 50 minute ride on the tops of the mountains through the forests. The children’s railway is so named because the children wearing railroad uniforms sell the tickets in the station, check the tickets on the train, and operate the track switches. Adults operate the engines. It was a relaxing ride through beautiful forests with views to the city from time to time. It is interesting to see the children who are the station masters salute the train as it pulls out of their station. They hold their hand almost as in a US military salute but their hands are in front of their noses instead of touching their eyebrows.

We made a long one day trip to Pécs and then to Szeged last Wednesday to check on apartments. Even though Hungary is small, traveling long distances is very time consuming where there are no freeways because of the construction, trucks, horse (or donkey) drawn wagons and tractors on the highways. We needed to find two new apartments in Szeged but only found one for sure. We saw the beautiful countryside but had no time to do touristy things in the cities. Eventually we will get to see all the cities in Hungary as we take care of the mission’s housing needs. Sister Dukelow is now in training to become the mission’s financial secretary. The mission president also wants us to visit the nine mission branches to provide training and encouragement. We will be speaking in church in Hungarian at least once a month. We will also get a chance to visit some of the 11 congregations that now make up the Budapest Stake. There is only one English speaking congregation in Hungary.

Next Sunday we will attend the first Budapest Stake Conference, presided over by Elder Bednar, the newest of the 12 Apostles from Salt Lake City. This is an exciting time for the members in Budapest. All of Hungary has been invited to the general meeting that will be held in the Budapest Congress Center because there is no church facility large enough to hold all the Hungarian Saints.