Three days at the mission home!

We arrived at the airport in Budapest at 6:15, we couldn't believe that we finally made it. It is a small airport in comparison with others. We managed to get most of our luggage on a cart, yes where there is a will there is a way!

The very best part was to see Elder and Sister Bagozzi and Sister Smith. They brought two cars to get all of our stuff to the mission home. We rode with Elder Bagozzi for the 45 minute ride. When we arrived at the mission home we hauled our luggage to the third floor. Thank goodness for an elevator. There we met President Baughman and his wife. Their apartment was very nice and so were they. They took us up to the fourth floor where there were four beds in one room, a double bed in the other bedroom, When I say double bed it is two singles pushed together. She told us that the young elders think the single beds are better so we took that option. It wasn't until the third night that I discovered how uncomfortable the bed was. We freshened up and the Pres. and his wife took us to a cute little restaurant not far away from the mission home and close to some cool statues. I was too tired to take pictures so I will post more when we go back to get our visas. The good news bad news is that Hungarian food is very good. We had a good visit with them during the meal I think, we just hope we didn't say anything that should not have been said. We were so tired that anything could have been possible. We vaguely remember going to bed that night but  the shower the next morning was heavenly!

   The next morning Sister Baughman fixed us eggs and toast, the bread here is really really good. We met with the Bagozzi's and they told us how to be missionaries and then we met with Pres. Baughman and he gave us a letter and went over it telling us what he expected to happen in Sopron. We then walked three or four blocks to the mall where we learned how to use our debit card and we got our 1st Hugarian foriths. They told us that if we put our thumb over the last two zeros and divide by 2 then that is the dollar value.

We purchased a hair straightener, a blow dryer and a GPS, then we had lunch in a fun sandwich shop in the mall. Here is a picture of the ceiling of the mall with the animals hanging upside down. After a short nap we met Elder and Sister Gudgell, (she was a neighbor to my roommate Lana Baegger Barlow and emailed me a lot about stuff to bring), the senior single sister missionaries Sister Smith and Sister Hansen and the Bagozzi's and we all walked four blocks to the subway where we boarded two trains to go to a very yummy pizza, pasta, salad place called Vapiano's. They made our dish before our very eyes. I had sour cream chicken pasta, Steve went for the spice, very tasty.

Thursday the Pres. wanted us to stay and see a zone conference but it wasn't our zone. We fought hard to stay awake during these meetings but were able to enjoy a Subway sandwich for lunch(not quite the same as an American sub but close.) The pres. and wife and the Bagozzi's went to an embassy meeting and left us on our own. We thought about walking to another restaurant but I had a blister on my heal the size of a quarter (so much for Danko shoes and comfort) so we opted to stay in our apartment and eat the left over sandwich from the flight. With nothing to do we both got a little homesick so Steve put on a movie. He picked The Christmas Story. Ralphie in that movie looks a lot like our oldest grandson so that did not help my feelings about home. Sleep was hard to come by that night. The next day we packed the blue Opel and plugged in the GPS and headed for Sopron. It took us about 2 1/2 hours. The  GPS wasn't all that great but did tell us when we were over the speed limit and he/she spoke quite a bit. It was better than hearing recalculating! We haven't name the devise yet, we plan on giving it another chance since it took us to the wrong place when we were trying to find the branch house where the missionaries live. They walked to where we described and found us. They are three very nice guys. Elder Wright from Virginia, Elder Olsen from Twin Falls, Idaho and Elder Szabo from Hungary who is waiting for a visa to go to the Washington DC mission. They directed us to our apartment and we met our landlady, Erika, who a member of the branch. She served us a very delicious lunch of fruit soup, stuffed cabbabe and a tart dessert. Steve was telling her how to say his name in Hungarian and he said it was Isten which means God instead of Istven which is Stephen. The missionairies bowed down to him. We all had a great laugh. We are unpacked and still have some organization to do and next time we will post pictures of our humble abode. Life in Hungary is great!

We made it to Budapest!

I wanted to blog a little about our nine hour stay in Amsterdam, who would have thought we could entertain ourselves in such a place. It was a cute airport and we definitely knew we were in Holland without leaving the airport.

One of the tender mercies of the trip was that we needed to know if the mission office knew that we were coming eight hours later than the original flight plan so we needed to get on email to get their #. Since we were unable to bring any of children with us we were a little (ok a lot) concerned of how to do this. We found a place in the airport where there were some people using airport computers and their own. I must have had my normal "what do I do now" look when a guy looked up and said " Elder, where are you going"? It was Brother Nebeker, we forgot his 1st name but if he reads this he can post a comment. He was from American Fork and helped us get free internet for an 1/2 hour. Here is a picture of this very nice church member.

A little while later we were sprawled out on some reclining chairs when another guy came over and asked where we were going. It seems as if a missionary badge is a beacon and we will take that. His name was Brother Young and he is a brother to Dr. Young the dermatologist in Logan. He had lived with his brother while attending USU and had gone home to Portland for his dad's funeral. He was headed back to some country in the middle east to join his wife and two children and teach school.

We wandered around the airport and found a very European sandwich shop and had a sandwich and Fanta pop. I can't believe how bad I look in this picture but this was now 24 hours without sleep. It gets worse!

We fought over the camera to see who was going to sit in the teapot, just so you know I lost!

Hum, what else to do only two hours until boarding, how about some shopping?

yes, some wooden shoes will do, wait they are ceramic, oh well, who wants to wear them anyway?

slippers anyone?

Is there life after Amsterdam Airport? Yes, but not very much. Tune in for the next few days of journey to the mission.

we are almost there

We made it to Amsterdam an hour early only to find out that our wait will be eight hours instead of three. If it were summer we would go see some tulips. I fell asleep while they were telling us the airplane rules. We barely made our connection at JFK. Some people are really nice and some not so much. Dinner over the ocean was interesting with pureed squash over chicken. What we wouldn't give for a shower and a bed. It is 7:00 on Tuesday here and Monday 11:00 at home.

Five Days at the MTC

Wow!

What a great week at the MTC. We arrived on Monday morning after driving on snowy roads most of the way down to Provo. We wandered from station to station with 37 other couples learning the ins and outs of the place. We were alright with all we learned until we found out that we each needed two more shots. They were almost as painful as paying for them ($308) One of the best experience was when we attended the devotional where Elder Kevin Duncan of the Seventy's spoke. Before his talk the audience of 2000 sang "Called to Serve". It was an amazing sight to see so many young missionaries sing so loud and with such conviction.

We spent a lot of hours with four other couples in our district. Elders and Sisters Jenkins, Murray, Hamblin and Pugley are amazing missionaries and we had a lot of fun with them along with our great instructors Brother Chinn and Hawkes. We may have been more than they bargained for some days!

At night we would travel to Highland and stay with our good friends Rick and Denise Nydeggar. We had fun visiting with them and had the best meal at Thanksgiving Point. Starving to Full to one short hour and bed time treats every night! Better than the Hilton!

Friday we said goodbye to our new good friends who are going all over the world. Good luck to us all,.

Onward ever onward!

Time for packing

One week and we enter the MTC. Our goal this week is to get our suitcases packed and closets and cupboards cleaned out. A lofty goal I might add. We can each take two pieces of luggage not to exceed 62 total inches and not weighing more than 50 pounds. It should make for an interesting week.

Farewell

On Sunday January 1st we had our "non' farewell talks in church. It was great to visit with family and friends at a dinner after.We had all of our family here the week between Christmas and New Years. It is hard to believe that our posterity now numbers 30. It was a week of food, fun and activities. We enjoyed everything so much more this year knowing that it will be our last time for awhile to be together. Family is the best!

Sophia and Emily, our two 10 month olds, helping get grandma's talk ready! Actually they are the reason I had a hard time getting it ready since they are so fun to hold.