A trip back to Budapest

Before we start to blog about our return to Budapest I would like to share our experience at church today. Steve leads the singing and I play the piano. The branches in Hungary just got the green song in December. Before that they had a small spiral bound song book. The problem we have is that we have no idea what songs are on what page. I usually can pick out what song we are singing after I play a couple of measures. Today Elder Olsen was picking out the hymns and he suggested "Outside the City's Big Walls" for the sacrament song. I told him I have never heard of that song and he said everybody knows that song and he handed me the book. It was "There Is a Green Hill Far Away". He did admit that was it did not translate well. The next funny thing was when Rebecca, a new member of the branch, was giving her talk on songs, she asked if I would come up and play the song on page 78. It is always such a big surprise to see what song it is. She said that her roommate had taught it to her this week. It was "If You Could Hie to Kolob" the first couple of lines went ok but she learned a whole different tune for the third line. After the first time through I just played a couple of notes through that part. Oh well!

Friday was Elder Olsen's birthday and it was also the day that Pres. and Sister Baughman came to Sopron for a meeting with all five of the missionaries here. They are so great and brought such a great spirit with them. After the elders talked about each of their investigators we headed to the all you can eat chinese restaurant. It was great to have another female to visit with during dinner. After, we all came back to our home and had cake and ice cream.

President Baughman gave permission for the elders to go to Budapest to a baptism of Peter who Elder Olsen had helped give discussions. They asked if we would take them and they would show us some of the sights. We had just filled up our little Opel on Thursday for a mere $78, it only holds 10 gallons. We figure we should be able to make it until next Thursday. We left Sopron at 8:30 and got in Budapest at 11:00. We first went to a big indoor market. It had three floors and everything from meat, spices, fruits, and vegetables to beautiful hand embroidered tablecloths. We are definitely going to have to come back to this place before we leave. The only bad part was that it was colder than it was outside.

We crossed the Danube several times and the bridges are amazing. It was a bit foggy on Saturday but we can get better pictures in the summer.

We then went to the mission home where we could park the car for free and walked three or four blocks to a Mexican Restaurant and had a big burrito. The best part about this place was that I didn't have to figure out which restroom was for the girls.

We then took the Metro to the Parliament Building. The front faces the Danube River but we didn't get a good shot of that. It has 691 rooms and 242 sculptures inside and out. It has identical sides and one hall is used for tours and the other for political meetings.

Yes, I did stay warm, and thanks for asking!

This is just to the right of the Parliament Building, its is a guy on a horse, I know it is profound but it was too far away to go read the stuff and it was probably in Hungarian anyway. Another warmer day and you may get more information. 

This is the Hungarian flag, Steve was trying to get a picture of it blowing in the wind but it was one of those brief moments when the wind had died down. When the Soviets took over they put their star and sickle in the center of the flag. When Hungary was liberated they cut the center out of their flag.

This is a seven foot statue of Ronald Reagan, it was unveiled in June of 1911. The Hungarian people were very grateful for his stand on bringing the cold war to a conclusion. Pretty cool! This statue is on Freedom Square and faces the Soviet Monument below.

This monument was erected when the communists freed Hungary in 1944-45. Most of the Hungarian people feel like it should be moved to Statue Park with the rest of the Soviet Statues.

Here is a closer view.

This picture is of one of the buildings that surrounds Freedom Square.

and another

and two more!

This is a picture of the center of the parliament building from Freedom Square.

We have no idea who this is a statue of but we now have a picture!

A man and his dog, we haven't quite figured out the significance of the arm straight out but we will let you know if we find out! This was in the metro center and we know that it is the stop we are suppose to get out at because of the dog.

This is the escalator when we are about half way going up. It is the longest one in Europe.

The baptism was great, they have three strong wards in Budapest with great leadership. We are having Elder Christofferson come on March 8th to talk to the missionaries and in June Hungary is hosting a nine country YSA conference for five days. The church is amazing. Sorry this is a long blog but it is my scrapbook when we get home.