Cookies and Book of Mormon's

 

Christmas Giving

 

We had a very fun activity on Sunday.  Saturday, I had made Christmas cutout cookies and Chocolate Crinkles to take to all 11 of our neighbors in our apartment building.  My idea was to deliver them with a special gift of the Book of Mormon as well.  So, after church on Sunday, Sister Weberg and I decorated the cookies, and got 11 Book of Mormon's ready to deliver.  

 

 

Busy decorating our cookies!

 

 

 

Some of the finished plates ready to go.  The big one is for our Landlord's family.

A gift of Christmas Cookies and the gift that keeps on giving - A Mormon Könyve!

 

The Sisters came to help us with the Hungarian language that we are not so great at! 

We are ready to go! 

 

We had such a good time!  We began at 6:00 p.m. and started at the top of the stairs, working our way down.  At each door, we rang the doorbell and when they answered, we said, "Boldog Karácsonyt! (Happy Christmas)  Then, the Sisters explained that Sister Weberg and I were their neighbors and that we had a special gift for them.  All of the ones who were home, accepted both the cookies and the Book of Mormon.  On the top floor, lived a young family with two darling children who smiled the whole time at the Christmas cookies.  :)  They were very appreciative, and when we went down to the next level, the wife came running down the stairs to give us a plate of poppy seed pastries she had made.  She told us we could just bring the plate back later (in English - turns out she's an English teacher).  :)  So, the Sisters and us will do just that! 

 

All of the neighbors we talked to were very nice, appreciative, and accepting of the Book of Mormon!  At this one door a couple of levels up, an elderly couple answered the door and invited us in.  The lady busied herself arranging suti on a plate for us to try.  Her husband asked us questions.  They attend the Reformed church and wanted to know what the difference was between our church and theirs.  Sister Roney did a very good job explaining a little about the restoration of the Savior's Church to the earth.  They exchanged phone numbers and will be calling them back.  They would like to attend one of our meetings to see what it is like.  :) 

 

At another door, an elderly man opened and was pleasantly surprised to recieve our cookies.  It was my turn at the door, and I handed him the cookies on top of the Book of Mormon, but he took only the cookies.  :)  So, I said, "És, a Mormon Könyvet!"  (And, a Book of Mormon)  He then took the book in his hands and looked at it with wonder and said, "A Mormon Könyve!"  I could tell by the bookcase in view from the door, that he was an avid reader and he seemed very interested in our gift that keeps on giving.  So, maybe he will read it!  He actually spoke a little English too.  As we got further down the stairs, the remainder of our neighbors weren't home, so we will have to try again.  But, it was the most fun activity!

Christmas Zone Conference

Christmas shops!

 

Our turn for our Christmas Zone Conference finally arrived,

so we traveled to Budapest a day early so we could take a much needed PDay. 

The first evening, we had fun checking out the Christmas Shops in Budapest.   

 

 

Sister Weberg, Sister Hanson and Sister Cummings love to shop!
Sister Hanson found the three Hungarian Christmas ornaments she was looking for!
Sister Cummings found a cute hat.  And, Sister Weberg decided she was just looking this year. 

Elder and Sister Cummings enjoyed all of the different things displayed in the booths.  

Lots of amazing suti displayed here!


Buda Castle

On Thursday, we took our PDay at Buda Castle. 

 

We knocked on a castle door and tried to leave a pass along card, but no one was home!  ;)

 

 

 

The Prime Ministers home was beautifully decorated.

 

I loved the regal looking lion guarding the outside of the entrance to another portion of the castle . . . 

 

 

and the roaring one defending the inside. 

 

After walking around a bit, we went into one of the museums. 

I paid 500 forints extra to wear a sticker saying it was okay for me to take pictures.  :)  

 

 This is a picture of one of the artifacts from a dig going on inside the castle walls where the ruined Buda castle lies. I didn’t realize that was what they were doing in that area. I thought it was just ruins that were there to look at. But, they are actually digging in it.  How fun! It was really cool to see.   This one is a fragment of a fountain from the ruined Royal Castle from the 1400's. 

 

Sister Hanson is sitting on a royal window seal resting her feet.

 

 

Leaving the 1400's behind, we worked our way around the corridors to see art work from the1300’s.

I liked this one of the Virgin and Child because she looked so happy! 

 

My favorite part of the museum was the Hungarian exhibit.  It had gorgeous paintings depicting everyday life and their fight for freedom.  It was really cool, but I couldn't take pictures of those, not even with my special sticker. :)   I would love to find a book with those pictures in it! 

After finishing at the Museum, we walked down the back of the castle to the Duna to catch a Villamos across the river to the Nagy Piatts.  (We were very tired of walking!)  It was a really pretty section of the castle that at first I thought I hadn’t seen before.  Then, I saw a section that looked familiar and remembered that this was the way we came up to the castle on my first visit on the August 20th holiday in Budapest.  It was lined with shops and a bunch of people that day.  I was glad to be able to see it's beauty without the shops and crowds.     
 

Through this archway, you could see the coolest wall!

The very cool wall!

Another beautiful, old section of the Castle walls.

After finishing our tour of the castle, we went shopping again, only this time, at the Nagy Piatts.
Then we headed back to our Hotel to rest our aching feet.  It was well worth it!


Christmas Zone Conference

When we first arrived at the Mission Home, I found one of our YSA's working hard.  She is always helping!  She helped at our Zone Conference last year as well.  It was so much fun to see her again!

For Zone Conference, we had instruction from our District leaders, followed by the AP’s.  Then, President Smith had asked me to share a Christmas story and my departing testimony.  So, I shared a Christmas story that happened when my children were little while living in Utah. It was a time when life was very hard, but fun.  The kids and I had decided to be Santa’s Elves for another family who was having a hard time also.  They had fun crunching through the noisy snow to deliver our annonomous gifts.  The felt not only the excitement, but a special feeling that comes when you do something good for someone else. It made them want to do it again and again.  :)  We were also blessed that year with service rendered to us as well.  We had some special Santa’s visit us on Christmas Eve!  It was the biggest Christmas my children ever had!  It was made more special just knowing that the people who served us that year didn’t know us, but still loved enough to serve us, and make my children’s Christmas a special one.  I shared how it showed how much our Heavenly Father is aware of us and wants to bless us.  I have a strong testimony of that!  Then I shared my testimony of Heavenly Father and the Savior and of their great love for us.   Following my testimony, Sister Smith and then President Smith shared some wonderful thoughts with us.  At the conclusion of our Conference, we all went into the CES room for a wonderful Christmas dinner. 

Our dinner was Chicken Stroganoff, vegetables, rolls and Raspberry Pretzel Salad!  Yum!

Dessert was a variety of items brought by all of us Senior Sisters.

 

After dinner, we played games.  This one was Christmas Bingo.

This one was called 'Name That Christmas Carol'.  It was very hard!  You needed a huge vocabulary for big words!  Those big words sounded like nonsense to me.  :)  It gave a clue to a Christmas song and you had to try to figure out what song it was.  Two examples were:   Quadruped with Crimson Proboscis and Perambulating Through a December Solstice Fantasy.  And the answers were:  Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Walking In a Winter Wonderland.   Crazy hard!  :)  We also played a version of the game Mafia, sometimes called Vampire, that Sister Cummings and I came up with.  Instead of a Vampire we had Santa who was choosing who was naughty or nice.  :)  The naughty ones were the ones who had to leave the game, unless Frosty the Snowman convinced Santa they were really good. The elves (policemen) were Santa's helpers who could help him determine who the naughty ones were.  The remaining ones were the children (citizens).  Elder G. was a great narrator since he had played it a lot.  Sister B. was Santa and Sister M. caught on to her and convinced everyone else to vote for her to be one of the naughty ones.  They did, and so the game ended and we took our Zone group picture. 

 

Then we played our White Elephant Gift game.

 

 

 

 

Elder DV ended up with my gift of cute ear muffs, softy socks and Nesquick.  All the girls had already played, so he was going to be stuck with all that girly stuff.  So, feeling sorry for him, I stole my gift back, and he got to choose another one.  :)

 

We also had a visit from Santa - one of our AP's - who passed out our 2012 Mission video, EFY Music tape, Mission key chain and a toothbrush.  Elder C. made a funny Santa.  Following Santa's visit, we all sang Christmas carols together.  Very fun! 

 

 

At the conclusion of our evening, since I was stuck with some very cute ear muffs I would never wear, I decided to see if Sister M. wanted them.  She of course said "Yes!" and they looked much cuter on her than they ever would have looked on me.  :)  And that ended our very fun day.  It was time for everyone to catch their trains back to their areas.  As for us, we packed up our car again and headed back to Debrecen.

 

A Special Weekend

This weekend has been a very special one. On Friday, we had the opportunity to deliver the blankets to the Children's Hospital. Most of our YSA's had school and were unable to go on the day that the hospital arranged for us to come. But, R. and her R.S. counselor V. came and did the communicating for us with the Head nurse

for the Children's Cancer and Premie clinic.

 

 

Our 75 finished blankets are all ready for delivery!

One Relief Society sister and one YSA/R.S. President delivered the blankets to the head nurse of the Children's Hospital.  She was very nice and so appreciative of our blanket gifts. She took us on a tour of the hospital while she delivered a few of the blankets to some of the children.  We went to the baby section first. 



One sweet little baby all nice and cozy in a blanket made just for him.  :)

This baby really liked the blanket she was given and spent a lot of time studying the pictures on it. 

Delivering the blankets was a very nice experience and made me very grateful that we had the opportunity

to make them for the children.   That was our special Friday.

 

 

 

Saturday began with a baptism.  A mother and her two daughters came to Debrecen from Nyiregyhaza to be baptized in the Debrecen Branch baptismal font, because it was too cold to get baptized in the outside pool where they usually hold them in Nyiregyhaza.  Elder A. baptized both of the girls and their Mom.  All three of them beamed with happiness the rest of the night. 

 

 

After the baptism, everyone from Nyieregyhaza joined us for our Christmas party.

The program was very nice, with stories and poems (in Hungarian) mixed with music. 

Then we had our dinner of Taco Soup and bread, and Hungarian suti. 

Everyone had a great time visiting and eating!

 

 

 

 

 

Tibi sat at the helping table with Sister Weberg, myself and Elder and Sister Cummings.  :)  It was a very fun evening!

 

 

Sunday ended our special weekend with a wonderful Sacrament meeting.  What made it all the more special was Sister B and Sister K sang "Still a Holy Night".  They sounded just like angels!  It was so beautiful, it made me cry.  It made everyone cry!  Their beautiful song brought the spirit into the meeting, which testified to our souls of the love our Savior has for all of us.  His birth offered a new beginning for all!

 

 

After our meeting, we had Sister R., B. and K. over for dinner as well as three of our Branch members, Roberta and her mother, and Tibor.  Our before dinner treat was a nice spiritual thought by Sister K., Sister B. and Sister R..  Then Sister K. and Sister B. sang “Still the Holiest Night” so I could record it on my camera.  Such a pretty song sung by our two missionary angels.  :) 

Here it is for you to enjoy as well!  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowy Sunday!

Sunday, we woke up to snow again!  :)  It was just powder and blowing all over, but it was pretty.  However, while we were at church, it began snowing hard.  So the walk home was a winter wonderland.  This afternoon, we invited Elders G. and D.V.; our newest member T.; and two YSA's, V. and A.  After eating and visiting for a bit, we took pictures of all of us in the apartment with the snowy view from our window as the background.    

 

 

 

 

However, since you couldn't SEE the pretty snowy scene,

we decided to take another picture in the snow outside our apartment.

You can even see the snow flakes streaking across our faces. :)

I like that one much better!

 

 

Then, Sister Weberg and I put on our warm tights and boots and bundled up for a snowy walk. It was so pretty. We walked over to our favorite Park to see what it looked like with this new snow.   I couldn't believe that in just a few days, Frog Lake froze over!  There were a few places for the ducks to swim, but not many. It must have happened on Saturday when it was so cold.  Anyway, it was so very pretty there. 

 

The ducks kept looking for a bigger pond to swim in. 
They'd swim in one and then walk across the lake to another one. 

 

 

Then,we took pictures of each other with some very beautiful, nature made backdrops!:) 

This backdrop has the frozen lake behind it. 

 



My favorite backdrop!

Who goes walking in the snow in a skirt?  :)

 

 



Sister Missionaries do!



 

We had a lovely walk and on the way back stopped by

to take a picture of Debrecen University in the snow. 



 Then, we headed home and saw a bunch of crows landing in trees in the neighborhood. 

There were at least 12 big trees with huge crows in them!

It reminded us of the movie, “The Birds”  :) 

 

 

And that was our Snowy Sunday!