Old mission reports number 5

Dear Family and Friends, this is our 5^th mission report. Just delete if you are not interested.

Balint, the 11 year old boy who reads with Sister Dukelow, was baptized on 25 Nov. His mother has only been a member about 5 months. They really enjoy reading the church magazines in English. We had them over for Family Home Evening and they had a good time.

Friday evening, 8 Dec, we came home and found that the extra single bed which was taking up space in our guest room was gone. We had asked our landlord to remove it when we first moved in late Sep. On the floor we found a coin from the communist era. It was 1 forint about the size of a quarter and made from aluminum with the date of 1989 on it. Interesting!

Several times as we have been walking to the Mission office or returning home we have seen a boy riding a unicycle on the sidewalk. What balance he has! Also we have seen a BMW scooter that has a roof over it. In fact, we see interesting cars—some very old, in good condition and some in not so good condition and some very beautiful, modern and large cars. It is just amazing to walk down the street and see the wide variety of cars that are parked next to each other. Some are brand new and some are 40 years old.

We always wear our badges on our coats and we always try to smile and say Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening depending on the time of day. The other evening we were going to visit a less active member with a couple and we were greeting people and the Hungarian sister said, “You are so brave to say Hello.” Our reply was, “Why not say it. We want to be friendly.” I guess it is a cultural thing. We have a lot of people stare at our badge trying to read what it says. Sometimes we offer them a pass along card.

One evening when we were on the metro and it was very crowded, a lady made a man scoot over so Sister Dukelow could sit down beside her and then she started speaking in English as she wanted to practice. We gave her a pass along card and an invitation to the Christmas Concert and she seemed very happy to get them but she didn’t come to the concert. Elder Dukelow was waiting in the VW dealership and an older woman struck up a conversation with him in German, thinking he was German. He was able to give her a pass along card.

The reason Elder Dukelow was at the VW dealer was to get a new key made for one of the mission cars. This was another strange encounter with Hungarian bureaucracy. Elder Dukelow asked politely to have another key made for the car and the service person asked for justification. Elder Dukelow replied because he needed a third key. This was not nearly good enough; the man demanded a good reason for having a third key. Finally a woman who spoke English advised Elder Dukelow that new keys need to be justified so Elder Dukelow explained that sometimes the person who uses this car carries away the key and the reserve key is always locked up so we need a third key. That did the trick and the third key was ordered but then he had to take in both keys to get them reprogrammed with the new key. That reprogramming did not go as planned but this is Hungary and we just enjoy the unique adventures we have every day.

Elder Dukelow bought Sister Dukelow a very fancy carved wooden red Christmas Tree. It is about 24 inches tall. We took it to the office so we could enjoy it each day. He also bought a 36 inch artificial tree for about $2.50 and we added some straw stars to it so it makes our living room look Christmasy. We have also added some pictures to our living room so it looks a lot more like home.

Two weeks ago two missionaries traveling early in the morning passed a big slow moving 18 wheeler truck. They could see the lights of oncoming traffic far in the distance. What they did not see was a huge tractor that was driving in the light fog without lights and they ran head-on into this vehicle. Both elders walked away from this collision without injuries (see the attached picture). We consider this a true miracle because if one looks at the car these elder probably should be dead or seriously injured. The paperwork involved in selling what is left of the car has taken considerable time.

On Thanksgiving day we went shopping and found four varieties of peanut butter in the large covered market on the Pest side of the Danube. This huge market is also a big tourist attraction. We also found maple syrup in a Chinese grocery store in the basement of the market but we are not yet willing to pay eight dollars for a pint of syrup. Thanks to our daughter, Gwyndolynn, we have maple flavoring and can make our own syrup.

On our Thanksgiving shopping trip Elder Dukelow bought a large print Hungarian Bible at a used book store for $8. The Bible had not been used and was probably from some other book store’s old stock. We also bought several other items we had been looking for on the Buda side of the river without success.

As you all know Christmas is coming and so are the many packages for the full time missionaries. Some days the office hallway and sitting room are very full of large and small packages. We let the missionaries know they have a package and then we try to send it with anyone who is going that way. During the week before Christmas we will be having zone conferences so all the missionaries will be coming in. Hopefully all the boxes will be here before that time and everyone can have theirs to open on Christmas Day. A sister in Utah wanted to do something for missionaries that might not get a package from home so it has been nice to see that they are being looked after.

Another group of Saints in Utah wanted to do something for the Hungarians and it has been decided to make dental hygiene kits. There are a lot of people who have dental problems here and so it is hopeful that these kits can be given to those who can benefit from this project. Maybe we can find an orphanage that can use them or send them to Romania where the orphans have a very difficult life.

Warm weather is always welcome and we surely have enjoyed lovely weather since we have been here. True, there were a few cold days, but then the warm weather returned. We have had very little rain. We really like our nice matching LL Bean rain coats that are light weight and keep us dry when it does rain. They are about knee length and come with a hood. We do have to be careful to line up the zipper just right. So far we haven’t needed a warmer coat. These gray rain coats look like the cheap old nylon rain coats that were quite popular during the Communist era but ours are rip-stop nylon and Gore-tex.

Finally we have our official pink driver’s licenses! We did have to turn in our VA license but if we ask nicely and in time and return the PINK license, they will give our VA license back to us when we leave. What would take maybe an hour at a state side Department of Motor Vehicles took us three different days, three different places, and a total of about 12 hours and then we had to wait for them to mail us the licenses. But that was not the worst: one day Elder Dukelow and a group of eight missionaries had to wait 8 hours at the foreigners’ registration office to get the missionaries residency permits renewed. It should have taken about an hour if the people working in the office had processed the permits quickly as they had in times past. It was a major bad day.

Last Saturday we went to the BIG stores to do our monthly grocery shopping where we buy meat, canned goods and juice. We also went to a McDonalds for lunch—our first time—and were pleasantly surprised at how good they tasted and how American it was.

Our professional musician missionaries are about to wrap up their Christmas concert series. These Elders have made a huge impact where ever they have performed and usually to packed audiences. The Christmas concerts have added bell ringers to the program as Sister Gasser, the mission president’s wife, and Sister Low, one of the senior missionaries were bell ringing buddies in Bountiful, Utah. It will be nice to have our weekends back again without concerts.

This past weekend (9-10 Dec) we traveled to Szombathely, the oldest city in Hungary, near the Austrian border. This time the train ride was uneventful. They have a very nice congregation there and a beautiful chapel. We stayed at the Vadasz (Hunter) hotel and restaurant. Elder Dukelow picked it because it was only a five minute walk from the chapel, not because it has the best restaurant in town. The hotel only has eight rooms but they are very nice.

The food was delicious and beautifully presented. Elder Dukelow had cream tomato soup (mostly cream) followed by half of a roast duck that came with a 12 inch tall aluminum foil fancy decoration wrapped around the duck’s leg. This duck had been a very tall animal, not at all like the short fat Long Island style ducks we get in East Coast grocery stores. The femur was at least six inches long as were the individual segments of the wing. Sister Dukelow had pasta with forest mushrooms. She asked for the salad buffet but was very surprised to find all sorts of pickled cucumbers, cabbage (red and green), peppers, and yellow tomatoes, also corn in a cream sauce, beets, and sliced boiled potatoes. Two types of creamy salad dressing were available. Where was the lettuce? (Remember, Sister Dukelow, you are in Hungary—salads are very different here.)

Our goal is to have family home evening with different families or people every week so we can get to know many people. Last week we were invited to the family of a counselor in the Stake Presidency but because of work he is out of town Monday through Thursday. His wife is Hungarian but he is German and they have lived many years in Germany but about 4 years ago they were called to serve a mission in Hungary as the CES-Outreach couple. They have two girls. One is finishing up her schooling and plans to go on a mission in about a year. The other girl served a mission on Temple Square and is now working. Both live at home. (It is very common for older children to live at home until they get married—maybe in their 30s or even older). It was an interesting evening with German, English and Hungarian being spoken as we had a lesson, sang songs and played a game. We even had a pumpkin cake--that was made from scratch—starting with the pumpkin!

Tomorrow night we have an invitation to go to an American family for Family Home Evening. The husband runs the International Law Enforcement Academy here in Budapest.

Many, many people smoke here in Hungary. It is wonderful to find that many hotels do have no smoking rooms and we have even noticed some restaurants have no smoking areas. Yea!!!

Hungarian women love fancy boots—high pencil sized heels and sharply pointed toes! In all fairness, there are many practical comfortable looking boots too. We have seen women roll up their jeans or buy pants that come just below their knees. We think that is for several reasons: show off their boots, it is in fashion and it is easier to take off and put on their boots.

In the last week of November we finally received back a car that had been in the shop for three months with a defective motor. Someone (no one takes the blame) decided rather than having the VW dealer work on the motor, it would be much cheaper for the friend of the fellow who does our car body repair to rebuild the motor. What a big mistake that was. The car seems to run fine but it still has a nasty tick in the motor. Amazing to Elder Dukelow was that the car was able to drive approximately 1,000 miles while the motor was being rebuilt.

When Elder Dukelow was trying to settle the disposal of the wrecked car, he was asked to produce an official invoice. He went to the local Office Depot and asked to purchase some of the blank invoice forms that are kept at the customer service desk. He was told that in order to purchase these forms, he would need to return with proper identity documents, an official document describing the legal status of the church in Hungary, a tax exempt authorization, and a stamped document authorizing him to purchase these forms. He has not been back.

Friday a week ago, the heavy Budapest traffic came to a complete stop in all directions with total gridlock. Apparently a prisoner had escaped and the police believed the man to be dangerous. To prevent him from leaving Budapest, the police stopped all traffic. The man was not found. He probably took the subway and left the area. Sirens were going all day and all cars on the major streets were stopped and searched.

Elder Dukelow is in charge of the cell phones used by the missionaries. The land lines phones in Hungary are expensive to install, operate, and are not transferable when we change apartments. Elder Dukelow has the ability to go on line and look at the individual cell phone bills that list each call, the number called, the start time, the duration, and the cost. He can also rearrange this data to rank all the calls by cost. This has resulted in several admonishments to missionaries who abuse their phones. The missionaries are very surprised when Elder Dukelow asks them about specific long phone conversations and gives them the particulars of those calls. Those missionaries with exceptionally high bills will be asked to pay for those charges.

The mission gets all the publications delivered from the Area Distribution Center in Germany. The Budapest Stake is now starting to receive some of their own material but all the church magazines still come to the mission for the Saints in Hungary. Elder Dukelow has the fun job of boxing up the magazines and trying to find a way to get them to the individual congregations. Not an easy task. We are still waiting for the big 2007 curriculum order to arrive (we hope soon). The order form was filled out on 28 July but Elder Dukelow cannot find a trace of this order being sent to the distribution center. Each month we also get a big shipment of 700 or so Books of Mormon. About 90 per cent of these Books of Mormon are in Hungarian but we also need to order in the languages of our neighboring countries as well as some unusual languages for people our missionaries are teaching such as Arabic, Persian, and Chinese.

President Gasser has assigned missionaries to areas that have previously not been worked. Most of the elders opening the new cities are very excited and honored to be selected for these assignments. There are still many cities in Hungary that have never had missionaries living and working in them even after 17 years of church presence. The missionaries that opened new cities on 1 November have been having great success.

Hugs and kisses are common every where among friends, both men and women, and even among people on first meetings. Men kiss their teen aged sons in public, women “air kiss” each other on both cheeks, but men don’t kiss women they don’t know. The common Hungarian greeting for a man to a woman is, “I kiss your hand. (Keszet csokolom)” But we have not seen any hand kissing like they do in Germany.

This will probably be our last report for 2006. We wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Old mission reports number 4

4^th report from the mission field Oct 30 through November 18, 2006

During the past three weeks we have been very busy. We had our mission transfer day on 1 November. Transfers are every six weeks and we usually send some of our missionaries home on the transfer day and get new missionaries in. We had six missionaries leave and seven come in which left us with an uneven number of sisters. Normally we should have 86 elders, 14 sisters, and 8 couples in our mission. Right now we have 86 elders but only 13 sisters and 6 couples. The 13 December transfer will even out our sisters. If no one drops out of the MTC we will have 106 younger missionaries at the end of January and drop down again at the end of April to only 93 younger missionaries and then probably build back up again to our authorized complement of 100. This fluctuation in the numbers of missionaries creates some challenges in the housing department. We will need three extra apartments for three months and then have a surplus of six apartments for who knows how long unless we close them.

The housing situation is never calm with some missionaries not understanding how to care for an apartment and some landlords not willing to abide by their contracts. We had to pay to repaint a new apartment because the sisters living there did not know they had to open the windows to ventilate their rooms to prevent mould from growing. This morning at 0730 Elder Dukelow had a call from a missionary who is leaving an apartment saying the landlord was there with a bucket of paint demanding the elders paint the apartment before they move. Elder Dukelow told the elders to tell the landlord to read his contract. We are obligated to pay for damages but not to paint when we leave. We had another apartment where the toilet seal failed and the landlord refused to fix it. That landlord’s mother needed a vacuum so she took the one from the missionaries’ apartment without their permission and never returned it. We moved the missionaries out of that apartment. We also moved the missionaries out of an apartment where a prostitute was working in the apartment below them. The owners had a hard time understanding why we wanted to move our people.

While Elder Dukelow is trying to make sure the missionaries have adequate housing, Sister Dukelow is paying the bills. Things got pretty exciting two weeks ago when she was paying rent for November with bank transfers and put an extra 0 on the rent for three apartments. That depleted our housing budget very quickly but the people who received ten times what they should have all agreed to return the extra money. They did not do that last week so we hope it will all show up this week.

Our newest senior couple, Elder and Sister Low from Bountiful, came in on 7 November and are assigned to Debrecen. William Low was a Marriot senior executive for 20 years and served on the Washington DC Stake High Council from the mid 1960s to mid 1970s under Milan D. Smith, the man who rarely slept. Sister Low is a bell ringer and this hobby brought her into contact with Sister Gasser, the mission president’s wife. The Gassers recruited the Lows to come to Hungary on their mission. Brother Low told us the Church is buying back the 16^th and Columbia Chapel from the Unification Church to use as a Washington DC visitors center. Elder Dukelow said this was probably wishful thinking but Elder Low believes they have a firm deal. The Lows wanted to rent a nicely furnished larger size apartment for only six months. The only way they were able to do that was to pay the six months rent up front. Normally that would never happen but sometimes the housing market gets tight and we have to make unusual deals. The Lows also bought themselves a small used car so they are independent of the mission’s meager fleet which is good for them and good for Elder Dukelow who was trying to apportion two cars to three couples. He has one couple who was very unhappy about giving up their mission owned car even for a few months. One other couple does not really care about a car because they don’t like to drive and prefer to use public transportation.

Speaking of cars, we pay a little over $100 to change the oil on our mission vehicles. They use synthetic oil that cost about $16 a liter (quart+). The good thing is the cars can go about 10,000 miles between oil changes. When Elder Dukelow took a newer Skoda in for its first big inspection/service, the service manager wanted to see the inspection book. They looked in the glove box and could not find it. Elder Dukelow talked the man into servicing the car without the book by promising him he would find the book or obtain a new one and bring it in so it could be stamped to show the car had been officially serviced. We later learned that the newer Skoda cars (similar to a VW Polo) have a secret compartment in the glove box and this is where the service record book was found.

Winter tires were also mounted on most of our cars in the past two weeks. The tire service we use is operated by two men out of a small bay in the underground parking garage under the Mammoth, a big shopping center. It has no tire inventory and only one tire mounting machine, a work bench and an air compressor for their tools. They work by appointment only and are usually completely booked two weeks in advance. In the stall next to the tire service is an auto detailing service. The Buda Michelin tire service operates literally on the street nearby, competing with normal traffic and people who want to park as they change tires. Just up the street is a Shell gas station which pumps gas into cars in the left lane of a one way street. When cars are at the pumps, the traffic has to merge into the right lane to get past, almost like in Italy. Most service stations are similar to those in the USA but there is always a person standing at the pumps ready to put gas into your car and wash your windows. This person, man or woman, gets a small tip for the service.

All legal business in Hungary is accompanied by much paperwork, even a hair cut results in an official receipt. There is, however, a huge gray economy in Hungary which is conducted without paperwork or receipts and without paying the 20 per cent value added taxes for each transaction. Elder Dukelow estimates if everyone in Hungary was honest and paid their taxes the government would not have any budget problems.

The dishonesty in Hungary extends into some parts of the government as well. We might almost compare them with some people in the outgoing US Congress. The mission works reluctantly with a driving instructor from Nigeria who guarantees success on the written portion of the driving test. He does this by providing the correct answers while he is translating the text of the test in a city 40 km outside of Budapest where he has made “special arrangements”. Of course the officials know what is going on so the only conclusion is that they are being reimbursed for their cooperation. President and Sister Gasser had the opposite experience when they took their driving test in an office in the city of Budapest and almost failed. The translator was not allowed to assist them in any way. The Dukelows felt badly about taking the fraudulent test with this person because they believe they could have passed the test without his illegal help.

Last weekend the Dukelows traveled by train to Papa to conduct some training on Saturday evening and speak in church on Sunday. Elder Dukelow carefully planned the 2.5 hour trip to Papa from the Deli station next to where we live. We were to leave at 12:10 and transfer at Kelenfoeld and again a Gyor (with an umlaut on the o). When he looked at the board that showed the tracks for departing trains the 12:10 train had the word gyors next to the departure time. Elder Dukelow incorrectly assumed this meant the train was heading to Gyor so we stayed on the train at Kelenfoeld. The next thing we knew we were traveling along the Danube and knew we were headed South and not in the right direction - West. So we asked the conductor and she confirmed we were on the wrong train. This train did not stop again until it reached Szekesfehervar (White Throne Castle) an hour later. We later learned that gyors means fast train with limited stops. The conductor recommended we return to Budapest when we stopped and start over again because there were no good connections to Papa.

Elder Dukelow talked with the man in the information booth at the station and found a train going to Kisber with a connection to Papa. These were very small trains – like one car school busses on rails. The trip turned into a six hour adventure. The small trains stop at each station and between Kisber and Papa the train even stopped where there were no stations or buildings of any type. There were some trees and big bushes and maybe a patch of concrete beside the tracks and the train stopped and people got off or got on. In most places someone was waiting at the track to meet the person getting off the train. There were also no lights, no flash lights used by the travelers, or cars to take them from the stopping point to their houses. They simply got off the train and walked off into the darkness.

In Papa we had a good training session Saturday evening with the church leadership. Elder Dukelow asked them to name the most important commandment. They correctly responded to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. We then reviewed the basic Bible scriptures dealing with God’s love and loving your neighbor. They made notes and marked their Bibles as we went along. None of these people have been church members for very long and none had any religious training during the Communist era so it was good to show them some scriptures outside those used in the standard missionary lessons. On Sunday we spoke on tithing in Sacrament meeting. Sister Dukelow used an interpreter but Elder Dukelow spoke without an interpreter and the people understood his faith promoting stories on tithing. President Gasser wants to strengthen the mission branches outside the Budapest Stake by having a senior couple visit each branch once each month to give some training and speak in Sacrament meeting. Next month we go to Szombathely near Austria.

In Papa we stayed at what one might call a small bed and breakfast but there was no breakfast unless you provided it yourself. The price was right, $25 for a small double room with a bath. In our apartment in Budapest we drink the tap water. In Papa we brushed our teeth with the tap water and then wished we had not because the water tasted very nasty. But we did not get sick.

We have had some good meals in restaurants recently. At one supper Sister Dukelow had a breaded pork chop and Elder Dukelow had a venison pot pie that was very good. In Papa we hunted a long time on a cold rainy walk for the Stork restaurant and we were about to turn back when we eventually found it. Sister Dukelow had chicken drumsticks and noodles in a cream sauce. Elder Dukelow had a most delicious marinated venison roast under a heavy cream sauce with bread dumplings made with bits of bacon. That venison (sauerbraten for you German speakers) takes his prize of the best meal so far in Hungary this time.

We ate twice this past week at restaurants with the Gentry’s who were visiting us. Elder Dukelow ordered an expensive ($18) Budapest style stake one night with duck livers and salsa style sauce. The stake was nothing special but the livers, salsa and veggies were great. At a later meal in an Italian-Hungarian restaurant, Sister Dukelow had pasta with garlic cream sauce with bits of ham and Elder Dukelow had gnocchi with bits of chicken in a heavy cream sauce. When the Hungarians make a heavy sauce you can almost stand your fork in it. It is a good thing we usually eat at home or we would be outgrowing our clothes rapidly with the great restaurant meals.

The Gentry’s, our daughter Gwyndolynn and Eric our son-in-law, came for a quick two-night visit as Eric was on a business trip to Europe. They were our first overnight visitors and our modest guest room met their needs. We were having Zone Conferences so we could not spend the day with them. They bought a one-day tourist pass and saw many of the main sights of Budapest. We live next to the famous Castle Hill and we told them to take the bus to the castle. They chose to hike up the stairs instead and got a good workout on those steps. The Gentry’s met while studying Turkish at the University of Utah and remarked on the Turkish words they noted in the Hungarian language. Turkey occupied Hungary for over 150 years during the Ottoman Empire. Gwyndolynn brought us some much needed cookie sheets, and much wanted maple flavoring and natural peanut butter. People keep telling us we can buy peanut butter here but we have yet to find it. We struggle-by using Nutella chocolate spread on almost a daily basis.

We had Elder Willi Kopischke and his wife, Christiane, of the Central European Area presidency as our Zone Conference guest. He recently returned from being President of the Berlin Mission where he enjoyed great success. After hearing him talk and his ideas about generating interest in the Church it is easy to understand why he was so successful. His basic idea is you must first find a common interest with a person before you can approach him with Gospel topics. He calls it detour missionary work. The danger is some missionaries stay on the detour and don’t get back to what they are supposed to be teaching. Sister Kopischke is the mother of two girls and five boys and a very dynamic person herself. During the Zone Conference we all received our painless flu shots from Elder Jenkins who is an emergency medical technician. Some elders were making a big fuss about getting a shot but they took the shots to get the treats that were provided after the shots. The shots were not mandatory but strongly encouraged by the mission.

Last Friday night we went to the Budapest Opera to see the Marriage of Figaro. Our landlord, Zsolt (sounds like Jolt) Molnar, sang the leading role of Figaro and did a very good job. He also gave us the tickets which were quite good, near the front in the middle of the ground level stalls. The Gentry’s had visited the opera on their tour of the city and were greatly impressed. It is a beautifully ornate building inside and the acoustics are wonderful.

The Emperor Franz Joseph I, who was not an opera fan, had provided the money for the opera house in Budapest with the condition that it could not be bigger than his opera house in Vienna. When he attended the opening of the opera 24 September 1884, Emperor Franz Joseph remarked he should have been more restrictive in his conditions because the Budapest Opera is much more beautiful inside and has better acoustics than his opera house in Vienna.

The people of Budapest overwhelmed the security at the opening in 1884 and stormed inside to see the inside of the building and have been filling it regularly ever since. Many come in their work clothes as the opera starts at 6 PM. Others were wearing evening clothes and also jeans. The tickets are cheap by US standards; ours would have cost $16. The stage is almost as big as the auditorium and provides wonderful depth for the scenery and movement of the performers. There are also ramps over each side of the orchestra pit that allows the performers to come out into the audience. They do multiple curtain calls after each act which we found unusual.

Our landlord, Zsolt Molnar, became quite upset when we had our gas water heater repaired and called him to say it would cost us approximately $95. Apparently he repairs water heaters as a hobby and claims he could have repaired it himself for no cost to us. So we paid that bill and think we are probably better off because we look around our apartment and see many things Zsolt has made or repaired that are of “Hungarian quality workmanship” which is the polar opposite of German quality workmanship. Forty years of Communism almost destroyed the pride of quality workmanship in this people. Elder Dukelow took the storage cabinet lock apart to fix it after the key broke in the lock. Inside the lock he found the remains of three other broken keys. In a different non-functioning cabinet lock he found two more broken keys. If the key breaks buy a new one, don’t fix the lock, seems to be the standard practice.

Mission office work is never routine but we hope some day it will become more routine than continual crisis management. Irritated landlords, frustrated utility companies, and missionaries who lose their mission provided cell phones are normal events. The missionaries who lose their phones must buy new ones. We use cell phones on a network because that allows us to better control the phone costs. The Mission Office Software program developed and provided by the Church as a mission management tool does not like Elder Dukelow. When he tries to use the mail merge function it will regularly freeze up or worse it tells him there are no missionaries in his data base. He has no option but to shut it down and work on something else until the little electrons get tired of playing this game and line up correctly for another attempt. Some software applications are developed by people who know what they are doing. Most of us need to use commercial off the shelf programs that have been tried and proven rather than developing our own.

We are still constantly working on our language skills. Elder Dukelow can do alright in a face-to-face situation but still chokes on the phone when a person calls and thinks he is a native speaker. Sister Dukelow is working with an 11 year old boy and his mother who read with her in Hungarian and the boy then corrects her pronunciation. We pray for the gift of tongues and hope you are praying for us also.

Our other senior couples are getting by without speaking Hungarian and having a great time and many spirit filled teaching experiences. We meet occasionally for training and then have dinner together. They are really a great bunch of people with a vast amount of church service and leadership behind them. After being here for two weeks, Sister Low says, “Where’s the hardships? I thought we were supposed to be facing trials and difficulties on our mission.” Of course she does not work in the mission office where our perspective is a bit different. As one of the couples we met at the MTC writes, we must remember we are dealing with 19 year olds who need a bit more guidance and direction than one would expect from more mature people.

We have had Hungarian people over for Family Home Evening and plan to make it a regular habit. We will have Thanksgiving off because President Gasser says we should celebrate Thanksgiving. We plan to have someone over to our home that evening also. Sister Dukelow has almost mastered her kitchen and turns out magnificent meals on a regular basis. We buy our food mostly at the small corner markets, the size of a 7 to 11 store, and the green grocer who operates on the sidewalk and a small cellar on the next street. The locally grown fruits and vegetables are not as pretty as in a US supermarket but they are cheap and very tasty. Of course we scrub everything before we eat it. We pay about a dollar a pound for bananas but only 25 cents a pound for good apples.

The box of language training books that we mailed to ourselves on 5 Sept finally arrived. We had sent them the cheapest way possible. It cost a dollar a pound and it only took 10 weeks to get here. We have seen many international priority mail envelopes that cost $9.50 to mail and can hold up to 4 pounds—some of them are really taped together because they apparently pop open in transit. Those arrive in less than a week.

We are thankful to be missionaries and have this opportunity to be in Hungary at this time. We wish you all a nice thanksgiving day and hopefully with your loved ones.

With love, Elder and Sister Dukelow

Old mission reports number 3

Dear Friends and Family,

Here is our third mission report from Budapest for the period 16 to 29 Oct 06:

In order to get our drivers license we needed to get an eye exam and blood pressure test from a physician. There is a health clinic across the street from us where other missionaries got their test so we decided to go there to get ours. We had one of our office Elders call to make an appointment and were told just go in at 8AM and wait in line. We went at 8AM and there were already many people in the waiting room, most just to have prescription refills validated. We spoke with an old lady in German who knew we did not know the procedures and gave her a mini-restoration lesson. Finally, after about an hour we got in to see the doctor. Speaking only Hungarian, Elder Dukelow explained we needed eye exams and blood pressure tests for our drivers’ license. The doctor, a woman in her late 50’s or maybe older, said she understood and asked to see our drivers’ licenses. Elder Dukelow explained that we did not have our drivers’ licenses yet and we needed these tests so we could obtain the licenses. After several iterations of this discussion, Elder Dukelow called an Elder on his cell phone to get translation help. The Elder explained the doctor needed to see our US drivers’ licenses to fill out her forms.

We produced our US drivers’ licenses and then had a long discussion, all in Hungarian, about how our licenses were still valid and we did not need to get a new license because we could drive with our current licenses for a year. We finally convinced the doctor we wanted to get Hungarian licenses now and she agreed to give us the tests. The eye test was a joke. We stood on one side of her office and read a huge chart on the other side with her help. Elder Dukelow did not even have to cover one eye. A person would need to be seriously vision impaired to fail that test. Elder Dukelow was afraid he would fail the blood pressure test because of the strenuous discussion preceding the exam but all went well. Now we still need to get the license exam which has been postponed twice. The exam is given in a small town outside Budapest where our driver trainer has made “special arrangements” which basically means no one fails.

While Sister Dukelow has been busy learning all the ins and outs of being Financial Secretary for the mission, Elder Dukelow has been busy finding apartments and negotiating contracts. Last week we had some success and some disappointments. The successes came with people who accepted our standard contracts and signed them without many questions. The disappointment came when we tried to rent a very nice, large apartment, close to the mission office for the Mission President’s assistants that was on the top floor of a building built in1914 without an elevator. This apartment would have been ideal for our missionaries but the owner wanted to be paid without him giving us receipts. He did not want to pay taxes on his rental income which is 25 per cent of the rent paid. I told him I was sorry but we could not do business without receipts. He said fine then add 25 per cent to the rent and we could have the apartment. I told him we could not afford the apartment if it cost 25 per cent more because we were already on the border of the mission guidelines for housing. The real estate agent who was helping us said that apartment rents posted on the internet were always listed without taxes. She continued that rentals were normally handled without taxes or receipts. I responded that the 50+ apartments the mission rents in Hungary are all done with receipts and using normal banking transfers to pay the rent. Everyone walked away from that meeting disappointed.

The next day we had another contract settlement scheduled for the Giauques, a wonderful new senior couple who had just arrived and were being assigned to Szeged on the Serbian/Romanian border. Although they will be paying for their own housing, we were using the mission’s standard rental contract because it permits a 30 day termination notice. The owner is a young man named David who inherited the apartment from his recently deceased father. David is probably in his mid-twenties, speaks perfect English, and is studying hotel management in Lucerne, Switzerland. Not that it makes any difference, but David is the most handsome young man I have ever met. He has beautiful blond hair, perfect teeth, and flawless skin. He is also very polite and intelligent. I asked when we first met in the mission office if he wanted to be paid in cash without receipts. He was baffled by my question until I explained what had happened the night before and then he understood. He has no problems paying taxes as it is the cost of living in a democracy.

Two days later President Gasser comes into our office and tells us we will need two apartments by 1 Nov in Hodmezovasarhely (beaver fields market place is the translation) near Szeged and another apartment in a city named Zalaegerszeg in western Hungary. I immediately went to work on the internet to see what I could find on my favorite real estate web sites. There were no apartments listed in either town. I looked at bulletin board type web sites where people can post their own ads and found some places which I then had the Elders call. I talked to some real estate offices in Zalaegerszeg and explained what I needed but got no encouragement because there were no available apartments meeting our needs to be found in that city. The President and Sister Gasser got in their car and drove 3 hours to Zalaegerszeg to see the town for themselves. Sunday morning, 29 Oct, the President tells me he will not send missionaries to Zalaegerszeg but instead he will open Kaposvar, the city where I lived when I was in Hungary with NATO.

The mission is just buzzing with excitement because of the opening of two new cities, the first in six years. The first stake conference was held last week and it was a great spiritual feast. Anyone who wants a copy the 10 pages of notes taken during the visit of Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve can write to us and we will send them the notes. Here is a small sample of what he said:

The Holy Ghost is the true teacher. We have a role and a responsibility to be reliable conduits of His word. We are as extension cords which connect the power of heaven to those who are seeking. The words we speak can help them make the connection. Then we need to get out of the way and allow the Holy Ghost to testify of the truth of what we are saying.

It is important for us to smile and be happy because we know what the plan of happiness is. He shared a story about one of the Twelve Apostles. A granddaughter was sitting on his lap and she asked if he was happy. He replied yes and then she said, “Tell your face you are happy.”

This is what Elder Bednar had learned about prayer since becoming an Apostle. He learned that prophets pray like little children. They exercise child-like faith in God. The brevity, simplicity, and sincerity of President Hinckley’s prayers would probably shake the testimony of some members of the Church who believe the longer the prayer the better.

We need to stay in the middle of the “straight and narrow way”. Many Latter-Day Saints tend to stray to the left and get sloppy in their observance of the commandments. Far worse are those who stray far to the right and become religious fanatics, especially those who pick some single aspect of the Gospel and pervert it using obscure scriptures to support their distorted ideas. The ones on the left can be reached and lovingly called to repentance and many respond to the invitation to return. Those fanatics on the right are so sure they are right; they do not respond to counsel and are usually lost.

We are now confident shoppers (most of the time) and go to big stores similar to a super Walmart and little stores such as the green grocer in the next block where we buy our fruits and vegetables. This little vegetable store is in a basement and during the day, much of the produce is on tables on the sidewalk. We carry our own shopping bags with us because you have to buy the bags from the store if you forget to bring yours. The big stores have huge varieties of goods and there are so many choices it makes comparison shopping a time consuming process. The big stores post signs on the shelves saying cheapest item but sometimes the quality of the cheapest item is not worth buying. There is a huge selection of fruit syrups that are used to mix fruit drinks, 1 part to 8 parts water.

Catch-all paragraph: We are on-line at home now which is a blessing. We have had some nice gentle rain after a month with no rain, another blessing. We get visitors at the mission office now and then, tourists and curious people. Last week we were visited by a LDS film team that is making a movie about a German boy who stood up to the NAZIs and was beheaded for his actions, the only LDS member to die for his resistance to Hitler. Many parts of Hungary look like pre-world war two Germany and that is why they will make the movie here.

The demonstrations in Pest had no impact on us on the Buda side of the Danube. On 2 Nov 1,000 farmers are bringing their tractors to the Parliament to protest low farm subsidies. That should tie up traffic for many hours. We hope they stay out of our neighborhood.

Last week we were accosted by a middle aged man in the train station who wanted us to give him money. He spoke good English, was clean shaven, well dressed, and appeared to be physically fit. His plea was he needed help because he had to live on the street since his parents were dead. Elder Dukelow assessed this person to be a con-man and not truly a needy person and told him if he lived on the street that was because it was his choice and not because there were no alternatives. He went back to his argument that because his parents were dead he had no home which might be true but there are plenty of possibilities for a person with his skills and abilities so we left him to try his luck on the next people who look like Americans. We went to bed that night with a clear conscience.

The heat in our building was turned on 15 Oct. Unfortunately for us, there are no thermostats in this building so we have to regulate the heat by opening the windows. Our neighbor below us leaves his front door in the stairwell open because he is on the street level and cannot leave his windows open. Sister Dukelow wants to turn off one or more of the radiators in our apartment. Elder Dukelow explained he had this same problem in the hotel in Kaposvar and it cannot be easily fixed because all the heating radiators in the building are on a single circulation system and to stop one would stop them all. Besides that, the radiators have no turn off valves. This is socialist plumbing at its best. Everyone gets the same heat or cold.

Today, Sunday 29 Oct, was a very busy day for us. We attended the Buda Ward (Hungarian) in the morning because a sister who was recently baptized was confirmed. She is from Germany and is very excited about joining the Church. We then attended the International Ward (English) and spoke in Sacrament meeting. After that we attended another baptism and to wrap up the day we attended a concert by our missionaries who sang about the restoration. We have been dropping invitations in various places in our neighborhood and many people showed up with these invitations. The concert was great and the chapel was completely filled with many non-members. Sister Dukelow got two names of non-members who are interested in attending the planned Christmas concert. We will try to give the people more than just good music.

We walk about five or six minutes from our apartment to the mission office and usually pass about 10 to 15 people on the way in each direction. Sister Dukelow is determined to smile and greet each of them. Most just ignore us but more and more are responding with a smile and return the greeting. Who knows how soon someone will actually want to talk with us but we are determined to keep smiling and saying hello.

We are getting another senior couple on 7 Nov. We need at least four more senior couples in our mission. If there are any of you reading this report who can serve, will you talk to your bishop and turn in your paperwork now? Some people think they may have no skills to offer as a missionary or they cannot learn a language. The only skill you need is the ability to love people and to live your religion. The language barrier is less than you might think because here most of the young people speak English. The mission costs in Hungary are fairly reasonable ($1800 per month is the average) and a couple can live very cheaply if they are assigned outside Budapest in one of the mission district branches where the rent is only about $350 per month for a nice apartment. This is a vibrant mission with an inspired mission president and truly hard working and dedicated missionaries who are stepping outside their comfort zones every day. Come and join us.

Best wishes to you all

Love

Elder and Sister Dukelow

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.

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

Christmas Market in Budapest