Food Glorious Food

Probably the biggest adjustment, next to trying to understand what people are saying, is the food. We haven't tasted anything that we didn't like except for the chicken hearts and that is a memory that we will remember. Steve will be forever grateful that I had him taste them too. In this blog I will show you some of the things that we have at home.

It impossible to buy a dozen eggs here as they only come in cartons of six or ten. They are brown and some even have some feathers on them. We hope that means that they are fresh!

They are also stamped with red letters which we don't know what they say. You are probably all pretty surprised at that!

We have a lot of juice, it ranges from kool aid type to some pretty good fruit juices. One brand makes us really happy. As you can see from the carton above, drink the cherry juice and it makes you smile.

These are three of the flavors we like, peach, the mixture and cherry. Don't you just want to smile?

We have been told by several elders that Master Crumble is the best and I would have to agree. Steve likes to make "the stick to you ribs oatmeal." We haven't found rolled so we eat the hard stuff.

We did find some honey puffs that are just like sugar crisps and Spar carries the Nestle brand of several American cereals. My old favorite used to be the chocolate granola. I always felt a little guilty eating something chocolate so early in the morning.

It wouldn't be breakfast for Steve without toast and butter. As you probably guessed vaj is butter. We found a really good and cheaper butter at Lidel, the German grocery store. We have tried several bakeries to get the very best bread. Sometimes really good and sometimes not so good

.

One thing that Steve can't get use to is the sticker they stick right on the bread, no matter how many times he eats it it still tastes like a sticker.

There are lots of choices for milk but most are not in the refrigerated section of the store. Tej is milk and we have always got the milk that is cold but last week we found a really good kind that taste like the milk I grew up with.

We think this is a product of Germany because it has milch on it. Why couldn't Hungarian be so simple. The carton is really amazing. It is plastic and sits by itself no matter how empty it gets. It has a edge you just tear off and pour the milk. The Spar brand is like Western Family.

Yogurt  is our treat after lunch and the mixed berry is my favorite while Steve goes for peach. The other container is sour cream. They don't have lids that snap back on even though the yogurt one looks like it does but it is just a mean joke!

We eat lots of fresh fruit that we buy from a little fruit stand right across from the branch house. They are a little more money there but there product is always good.

Spar had a deal last week that you could buy a bucket with all the oranges you could get in it for 695 forinths which would be about  $3.50 plus we got a Spar bucket.

This is how we buy our sugar and flour. Two kgs. is the big bag! you can buy it in one kilogram too.

These are the way we get other baking things. This is a picture of bay leaves, paprika paste, baking soda, baking powder and yeast.

This is the deal of the month, sixteen kiwi's for $1.50. Too bad we don't like kiwi much. This is the vanilla extract. That is about two tablespoons and it is just like the imitation vanilla at home.

We can buys these buns for four cents at Lidels. Wow!

And we do love to  eat!

Amazing Experience

We had an experience that moved me deeply today.  I have, over the years, read a lot about the "iron curtain" and the effects it had on people on both sides.  Today Shauna, Elder Olsen, Elder Bullock and I drove ten minutes from our apartment to the Austrian Border, where the first breach took place in allowing people to move from Hungary to Austria.  We took so pictures we will share with you.

This is just on the Austrian side of the boarder and recounts day, the 19th of August, 1989 when the first people moved over the boarder, right by where we stood.

This is the border, looking back into Hungary.  There is a park created here, but apparently when this the gate opened, thousands flocked across the boarder, tasting freedom for the first time in many years.

This statue sits in the middle of the park.  It graphically illustrates the "coming down of the wall", and the power that created it.

Notice the dividing of the building and in the middle you see a rock.  They said that rock came from the Berlin Wall, that went down shortly later.  I guess it was a symbol of the complete removal of that barrier that stood for so many years.  

There sits a former guard tower, where soldiers watched to prevent people from crossing into freedom.  

 This what the part looked like after everyone had left.  People left the cars and everything else just to get to freedom.  Notice all the abandened cars there.  I will attach a few other random photos from the park there.

Perhaps it was just me, but I felt a strong sense of appreciation for what we have always enjoyed.  What we saw here is the place where so many people got to taste freedom.  What went through my mind was all those people who so desperately wanted freedom that attempted to cross the boarder that stretched from Northern Germany to Southern Europe, and lost their lives in the process.  Freedom is fragile and so easily lost, and too often we treat it too lightly.  Anyway, it was an amazing experience for us.  I love the USA.  But I love being here so much also.

The car

We love having a car and it was very dependable through the first three weeks of our mission but then it decided it had been good enough through the cold spell and started to not want to move. I can relate to that. It acted like the emergency brake was on all the time. After it was warmed up then it would be ok. Steve took it to the dealership a couple of times but they didn't know what the problem was. They did change the oil but strangely that wasn't the problem.

The check engine light came on and Elder Bagozzi told us to take it back to the mission home so he could get it checked out.

So a trip to the car wash was in order.

Lucky for us they spoke German and could say roll up your windows!

Ah, there is a world out there, this car was really dirty!

Steve finished by using the vacuum to get the rocks out of the car. I would say sand but these are really big pebbles they scatter on the road.

We headed straight east to Budapest.

We got into some haze that is hard to see on the picture and then heavy fog before we got to the mission home. The check engine light went off on our way there so Elder Bagozzi said to keep the car because it was better than the one he was going to trade us for.

The one good thing that came out of our trip is that we got to meet the Cromar's who just got in from California. We are no longer the new kids on the block. The office elders took us to a government office to apply for our visas. The stack of papers they got ready for each of us was twenty pages. Hopefully there won't be any problems in getting our visa. We realized today that we came through Amsterdam without going through customs, I sure hope they let us go home  when the time comes.

The First Sewing Class

The branch has a new sewing machine. It is a Singer Machine. We decided to make rice bags for the cold nights. We probably should have each made several to last through the season.

Our first victim was Csilla. She was a great sport and it is basically impossible to ruin a rice bag.

Anna was our second RS sister to take a crack out sewing and she was excited with the finished product and made two more. One for the RS president, who helped fill the rice bags, and one for the branch president. We made ten bags in all.

Elder Bullock decided that he would like one for his aching back. I hesitated to tell him that is going to take more than a rice bag to help backs that sleep on a board and four inch foam pad. Trust me Steve and I know this.

Elder Olsen also needed one and he knew his way around the sewing machine.

It was also the primary activity a dress up party kind of like Halloween. They had two leaders in there and two primary age children and Bianka, the one young woman in the branch.

These are Csilla's sons, Fetzo and Laszlo. They came because it was also cleaning the branch house day. That is why the missionaries are in casual clothes. It is the first time I have worn my jeans outside the apartment.

This picture includes Peter and his wife Timea behind him. He is the only counselor in the branch presidency and keeps busy keeping us doing what we are suppose to be doing. He teaches English and interprets for us when we speak.

And last but not least Sandor with Elder Olsen. He came to help with the cleaning. Between the cleaning, sewing and party a good time was had by all.

Something to make us smile

Our apartment came supplied with everything including dishes. These are our favorite glasses to use every morning for our cherry juice. Sometimes Steve has orange or apricot or peach or multivitamin or apple or the blend. It is the glasses that make us smile with the saying across the top and up the side "I love dog". We can't decide if he loves his dog or if he is thinking I would love to eat this dog. There are more than a few that we would like to have eaten in our neighborhood. It would sure be a lot more quiet if these dogs would learn sign language. I am pretty sure that I don't

 love dog!

FYI: dog in Hungarian is kutya

1st Speaking Assignment in Papa

We left for Papa (not your Mama) at 7:00 this morning. Lucky for us we only had to stop for one train on our way to the main drag of Sopron. We will blog about that another day. This is the outside of the church which we never would have found without Bess. Bess is the name of our GPS and her favorite phrase so far is "you are going over the speed limit". I think Steve has tuned her out.

We have speaking assignments every other month and have three places we need to speak at, Sopron,

Papa and Szombathely. The translator today was a counselor in the branch who had served his mission in Boise, Idaho. He spoke very good English. Steve bore his testimony at the end in Hungarian and I just stuck with English. We both tried to use a little humor but that did not go well at all. Steve told them that it would be easier for him if they all learned English. 

They have a two hour block and most of the time it is Sacrament Meeting and RS/Priesthood but sometimes they have Sunday School. I played the piano for RS. Elder Johnson from San Antonio played the piano for Sacrament Meeting and no one led the music. The people really sing out in our meetings.

This is the road that the church was on, like I said we never would have found it by ourselves.

On the way out of Papa we stopped at an old church and took a few pictures.

We love the statues on everything'

All the cemeteries (2) are by a church. They are really crowded. We hear people of dying to get in!

Sorry, I just had to throw that in.

This well was just inside the gate of cemetery. We weren't thirsty so we didn't try it.

There is a church in every town but not many of them look like they are being used.

We saw this one which actually had cars in front of it. Not very many people have cars but the ones that do seem to have newer ones.

Don't they look like merry fellows?

We saw lots of farmland today and even saw a rabbit hopping through a plowed field.

It was 90 kilometers from Sopron to Papa and took an hour and a half to get there. We sure enjoyed the ride. The weather is warmer now.I don't even zip my coat up most days.

We wanted to share with you how we know what town we are in. This is Csorna pronounced Chorna. Do you wonder how we know what town we are leaving?

We love it!

 Every single town has these signs so now not only do we  know where we are going but where we have been.