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!

 



Winter Comes to Debrecen

Snowy Day!

 

One morning in early December, we woke up to snow!  So, Sister Weberg and I took walks to our favorite places.  She went to the Great Forest and I went to my favorite park.  I wanted to find my favorite spots and take their winter picture!  :) I now have Summer, Fall and Winter.  Someone else will have to take the Spring pictures for me.  I will be going home soon!  Because I'm going home soon, I thought that this might be my only chance to get those pictures.  Snow doesn’t always stick around forever, and it didn’t this time either.  By the time it was afternoon, the snow had melted everywhere except for on the trees and roofs. 

 

 

 

The winter view from our apartment!

Frog Lake with it's wintery attire.  The ducks loved the snow!  They were flying all around and making lots of noise! 

View from the bridge.

One of my favorite spots!

I saw the cutest little squirrel. It ran right in front of me and up a tree; then sat on a branch and munched on a nut. It had big fluffy ears. I’ve not seen a squirrel with ears like that before, but it was awfully cute

My cute little squirrel friend.

I loved the wintery view of Debrecen University.

It was so much fun taking pictures, that I totally lost track of time.  My morning walk took 2 hours instead of the usual one! 

Christmas Decorations!

 

Later that evening, Sister Weberg and I took the Villamos to Kossuth Ter to see the

beautiful Christmas lights.  This one was taken right after we got off of the Villamos.

 

All of the Christmas Shops were open and busy!

The decorations were beautiful facing the fountain and the

Great Reformed Church in Kossuth Square.

 

This is a fake tree, but it was very beautiful!

We took pictures of each other from the other end of the square!

Then we got back on the Villamos and went home.  



Tibor's Baptism

On December 1st, we had the opportunity to attend another wonderful baptism in Hungary!  Tibi has been attending the YSA program for quite awhile now.  He was here when Sister Weberg and I came.  He would always pitch in to help whereever help was needed.  He spent alot of time just reading the Book of Mormon and even helped with our Blanket Service project.  His big day finally arrived and he entered the waters of baptism.  There is always a very special spirit present at all baptisms, but when Tibi went down into the water, I felt that spirit very strong.  Tibi is a very nice young man who loves to serve and he will be a very big support to President Szilagi and the Branch. 

President Szilagyi was the one to baptize Tibi.

 

 

 

The rest of us were very happy to be able to be there.:)

 

 

  I think that Elder D. was especially happy. He is thinking that he will be transferred this coming Monday, so it was nice that the baptism took place while he was still here. He and Elder G. taught him as well as Elder B. before he went home from his mission. 

 

 

 

I am grateful to be able to know Tibi and to be at his baptism!  He is a fine young man.

Debrecen Branch American Thanksgiving Party

 

On Thursday, November 22, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Hungary with an American Thanksgiving feast.  The first time to cook turkey in our crazy oven was a scary experience; especially since I was cooking 6 huge turkey breasts.  I put them in a Hungarian turkey baking bag and stuffed them into a pan that fit in the oven (the first one we tried didn't fit).  I wasn't sure how long to cook the turkey breasts, so left it in 2 1/2 hours and then took it out to check it.  I figured that if it wasn’t done, we could put it back in another bag and cook it longer, but it was done.  With the turkey cooked and Sister Weberg slicing it, I made a big pot of gravy.  Then I began throwing all the ingredients for stuffing into a bowl that I had measured the previous day, and baked one pan while getting the next pan ready for baking.  While the second pan was baking, I threw all my premeasured ingredients for Frog Eye Salad together.  Unlike last year, the whip cream even whipped up like it should.  :)   Then, we called Elder Cummings to come pick up all of our food and take it to the church.  It was way too much to walk over with!  We walked and our food got to ride in the car.  :)

Our lovely turkey breasts and Sister Cummings' turkey thighs.
We had mashed potatoes and gravy also.

 

The stuffing and veggies.

One of the Frog Eye salads.
We assured our Hungarian friends that it wasn't really frog eyes.  :)
 

The Hungarian members brought the desserts

One group of our Hungarian friends with
YSA Counsel member & Relief Society President at the head of the table!

Another group with President & Sister Szilagyi at the head of the table
and Elder D. and Elder and Sister Cummings on the right.

A table with some of our YSA's and Sister Missionaries.

Table with missionaries, branch members and our soon to be baptized YSA.

One more table of friends.  :)

Our table with Vili and Agi Sister Hanson and Sister Weberg.

Everyone had a good time tonight!  And they certainly got enough to eat!!

Happy Thanksgiving from Hungary!

Service Project for Christmas!

We have the opportunity to participate in a blanket making service project to donate to the Children's Cancer clinic and Premie Baby clinic here in Debrecen.  We will be making a total of 75 blankets and need to have them done by December. 

 

 

 

Roberta and Dori cut strips to be tied.

Tamas and Tibi helped with the cutting as well. 

The Sisters and Dori are tying the strips.

Michael and Tibi are tying another blanket.

Elder and Sister Cummings are helping too!

And Sister Weberg and Sister Hanson are adding there blanket to the done list. 
We now have 24 completed.  51 more to go!

All Saints Day in Hungary

November 1st was a National Holiday - All Saints Day - a celebration of all Saints, especially those who don’t have a special day of their own.  It’s a time when everyone puts flowers on and lights candles on their loved ones graves.  Flowers are so much cheaper here, that most people can afford them, so the grave yards are beautiful day and night.  Sister Weberg and I walked to the cemetery one morning to see the decorated graves in daylight. 

 

 

Fall Colors and Flowers!

Beautiful Statues

Works of Art

All were beautiful!

A soldiers' grave.

 On the actual holiday, we got together with our Debrecen group of missionaries for a potluck dinner and then walked to the cemetery to see the graves all lit up. It was a really nice night to walk around the peaceful cemetery. Although it rained for awhile, most of the time, it was just comfortably cool and misty. After walking around for a bit, and taking a few pictures, 

we headed back to the front gate to return home. However, unknown to us, they had closed the cemetery! We arrived at the front gate at 8:00 p.m. and found it locked!  The sisters said, “Guess we’ll just have to climb the fence”, to which I replied, “I’m not going to be able to do that.”:)  So, we walked to another gate and found that it too was locked.   We weren’t the only ones who were locked in - there were Hungarians locked in as well. The young ones just climbed the fence, like it happened every day. But there were older ones who couldn’t climb the fence any better than me.   However, after being unsuccessful in finding an open gate, we finally decided we’d have to give climbing the fence a try afterall. From the ground, the fence didn't look too big, so I gave it a try as well.  I was able to get up on the first slanted step of the fence and even swing my leg over so I was straddling the top bar.  Trying to balance up on top, that fence seemed so much higher, and I began to wonder if I'd make it down the other side.  Because the top bar was not a comfortable seat, it prodded me on to keep trying to go the rest of the way over.  Elder D’Angina and Elder Greaves helped me make it the rest of the way.  When I reached the ground, I was shaking so bad, I could hardly stand up. I said, “Well . . . . . that was awful!”   There was just no other way to describe it! But, I was very grateful to not be locked inside the graveyard anymore.  So, if you ever visit a graveyard in Hungary, check to see when they close! 

 

Flowers and Lights!

All beautifully decorated!

I loved this one!  It had so many flowers!



So grateful to be on this side of the fence!