Wildlife in Hungary or is that Wild Life in Hungary?

When Steve came in from shoveling snow on Saturday he had some in the hood of his Aggie jacket and some on his Hungarian Hat which was dripping onto his glasses. Now this is a guy that gets into his work.

After he dried out we picked up the elders and visited some members in the branch. This is what their parking lot looked like. It was so bad that we thought we had found a parking spot but we had driven over the curb. Oops!

These are the good people that we visited. Grandmother, mother, daughter.

Elder Kreiberg has a cold and told us that it made his nose feel better if he put snow in his nostrils. It looks like I wasn't fast enough with the camera . The snow is falling and not on his lip.

Today we left early to go to Papa where we were assigned to speak in church. The roads were covered with snow in Sopron but as we traveled closer to Papa the roads cleared and we realized we were going to be really early so we took some pictures of some of the wildlife. We saw several rabbits. I wanted to tell this one that sitting in the middle of a wide open field was not a good idea when there is a hawk in the tree by it.

The deer are a little smaller here which means they don't make such a big dent in your car when you hit them. Don't ask us, ask the zone leaders.

Don't try to find any animals in this picture, it is just a picture of the mist rising off the snow. It is amazing what we see when we are not in a hurry. Hungary is beautiful whatever the season.

Snow is a good thing. Right?

We woke up too early this morning to a beautiful snow fall.

Our neighbors across the street had driven out early.

Three hours later it looked like this. Yes our car is in there somewhere!

Steve informed me the other day why he doesn't like snowstorms as much as me. He is getting really good with that shovel!

You can tell how cold it is outside by the number of scraves people are wearing. I think by looking at the lady with the hat that it is just below freezing with not much wind.

I am never a good one to look at to judge the weather, Notice the Herds with no hat or gloves unlike the wimp in the background.

The bus is still running so that is a good thing.  It is a beautiful day!

COUPLES CONFERENCE Feb. 13 & 14.

I think the best part of being here is to be able to associate with such great people.  And then to do it in such a great cause.  

This is Sister Carpenter, one of the secretaries in our mission.  She and her husband come from Brigham City, but she is originally from Australia.  I love to hear her talk.

This is her trusty sidekick, Elder Caprenter.  These two are really the backbone of our mission and they do so much.  They previously served a mission in Singapore doing the same thing they are doing here.  They are great people.

The reason I put this picture is because I wanted you to see the back of my head!!! No, actually the brother sitting across from me is Elder Scott.  He was a surgeon and inside a couple of weeks lost the eyesight in both eyes.  He currently serves as branch president in Eger.  The other elder is Elder Cromar.  He and his wife, who is behind him, got here just a month after we did.  

This is his wife, who has a marvelous voice and can play the piano.  I had to beg her to play that night.

This is a couple, the Hulberts, who just got here a week before the conference.  They come form McCall Idaho.  They are a real nice addition to our group. 

We left the mission home and went to go on a tour of the Buda Castle.  We have heard a lot about it, but I really know very little of the history.  There are a lot of remarkable buildings up there.   

Don't you just love the statues?  I am enthralled with each of them.

This was a lookout over the city of Buda.  I just love the architecture.

I took this so you can believe that we are really here.  Sometimes I have a hard time believing it myself.  

In the other pictures you can see that other people have umbrellas. We have two but we must like the wet straight hair look. You really can't see how straight Steve's hair is but it is, that is why he is smiling!

 Doesn't this look like a fairy tale castle?

This is taken from the castle.  You can see the Danube there and the Parliament Building across the river.  Buda is on this side of the river and Pest is on the other side.   (This also gives you an idea of  what the weather was like.)(I also want you to know I am proud of this picture.)  etc.etc.

Just a few more of the statues.  I never will get tired of them.  Notice the intricate rock work not only in the statue, but in the building behind it.  That is beautiful and amazing.

Just another beautiful example of what you see almost everywhere.  

 

When we came out of the museum this was the courtyard outside. 

After the tour we stopped for dinner at a restaurant.  It is just beyond belief to think I am so blessed to be a part of this group.  They are truly wonderful, WONDERFUL people.  It is so amazing to think we are privileged to be here. 

We certainly love you all!!!!

Where is a snowplow when you need one?

This may not win the best pictures posted on a blog contest but what does a person expect when we area driving on very bumpy roads.

We were heading home to Sopron after couples conference. What was rain in Budapest was snow on the west side of Hungary. After after we turned off the motorway this is what we found.

You can see by the snow on the side of the road that they plowed the road but when the wind keeps blowing the snow keeps moving.

Luckily I have a very experienced driver who is used to driving on snow packed, slick roads.

We hit bottom a few times but we made it back to Sopron in one piece.

Notice the size of the drifts in this picture. Home again, home again jiggity jog!

Where do we spend our loose change?

It has never been a problem here in Hungary to collect a lot of loose change because we need to feed this very hungry meter that is by the branch house.

It is very simple most of the time. We just put a lot of cons in the coin slot located on the upper right hand corner and press the green button and lift up the lid that is below Steve's hand and take out the ticket. Steve has his hand there to cover up some bad words that are in English. If they were in Hungarian we wouldn't have know they were bad because we are only learning good words.

This is what the ticket looks like and we just display it above the steering wheel on the dash. This is one that Steve purchased when he went to the dentist. He got it at 8:43 am and it was good until 9:59 and it cost 400 forint which was  $1.84 last Friday. The amount fluctuates each day as the exchange rate changes all the time. We have enough of these slips to cover the floor of our entire apartment.

Tibor, our English Club friend,  told us last fall that we could go to the Parking Office and get one of these cards that you just slip into the slot and enter the amount of time we need. We weren't exactly sure where it was but knew it was by the chocolate factory. We know where some places are by using our natural instinct. It so happened that finding the Parking Office became more important to us as we needed to go there to pay for a parking ticket. We found out the hard way that we need to pay for parking most anywhere we park in Sopron. While we were there we got this card. There is only one problem, we seem to use up all the money on the card rather quickly. Hum, maybe we will put in more money if we ever remember to go there again. Maybe it will be soon as we heard they give tours through the chocolate factory!

Jo Reggelt! or good morning as they say it in America.

We almost missed seeing this beautiful sunrise but Steve stepped out on the deck to clean his razor. It is too bad that the lights from Tesco took away some of the awesomeness but it is still beautiful.

Starting the day out with such beauty must mean that it is going to be a great day.

Food is just too good!

Peter and Timea invited us for dinner and Family Home Evening.

And sometimes we just have to keep eating because it tastes so good!

Unfortunately they didn't tell us that there was dessert. You should have seen us after eating this!

The food in Hungary IS really delicious!