Early Thanksgiving in Hungary

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Pecs district on Monday. The event started early afternoon after normal Pday activities. We dropped the food off at the branch house and then took a bus partway up TV tower mountain. We then hiked for thirty minutes UP the mountain.

It was hazy but worth the adventure.

We are on the TV tower.  It's cold and windy up here, but it's a beautiful view of Pecs.

Elder Gentry and DL Olsen ready to feast!

Elder Sentender and me.  He is from Chile.

Happy Thanksgiving from Pecs!!!  Clockwise, Sister Day, Elders Harris, Lister, Knight, Sister Benson, Elder Gentry, and DL Olsen.  Missing, Elder Sentender and us.

Kaposvar/Pecs Pioneer Day Celebration

We went to Pecs with the Kaposvar branch to celebrate Pioneer Day with the branch there. Kaposvar used to be part of the Pecs branch, so they have friends there.  We walked thru the city and then hiked up a mountain and had potato soup and played games during the day.  Fun!

Ingrid and Brigi push Laurenc's stroller up the mountain



Emanuel, the high energy Babcsony.



Nimrod, Emanuel's copycat Babcsony.



Imola between her Mom, Margit, and her Dad, Peter Babcsony



Lizza



Elder Paul, pushing 7 year-old Imola up a mountain.  She got a little heavy after a while!
Luckily, she woke up and got out.



Elder Bunker and Elder Lister, our elders.



Elder Martineu and us.  He is a cowboy from St. George.  Great guy.



Slavo helped to cook the potato soup.  It was great! But the guy in the picture isn't Slavo!



President Balint led our branch in the Treasure Hunt activity.



Dora Balint, Emanuel, and Nyles standing on an ancient castle wall, enjoying the view!

P-Day in Budapest on St. Stephen's Day

St. Stephen's Day (Szent Isten Nap) is the greatest national holiday for Hungarians.  August 20th commemorates the foundation of the Hungarian state.  It is like Hungary's 4th of July.  We went with Elder and Sister Simkins.   It was huge, and the whole thing is on the ruins of an old castle.



Making traditional Hungarian Gulas over a fire.



This is a blacksmith hard at work on a hot day!



This is how you make lace by hand.



Spinning wool.



High pressure salesman.  He pressured Sister Simkins because she was good at the game.  I got no pressure at all because I am spatially challenged.



Elder Simkins doing a bench press on a Flintstone weight set.  Did you know that Fred is Hungarian?



If you guessed that these are catapult stones, you are right!



The food was wonderful!  Lots of meat, vegetables, and bread.



Sitting under an amazing statue of men and dogs!



We all loved this statue!



This booth is sponsored by people from Uzbekistan.  Their items looked Persian.  We forgot to take a picture of the booths from Siberia.  Their items reminded us of Eskimos.



This  is the Cathedral of Szent Istven (Saint Stephen).  It is really huge and beautiful.

Sunflowers in Hungary

Hungary is a beautiful place all year. In the summer the sunflowers show off.







The clouds are also wonderful

Tour of Szeged

Now Elder and Sister Howell will give us a quick tour of Szeged!



A picture of Elder and Sister Howell by their favorite statue in Szeged.



Our fountain pose!



Elder and Sister Howell at the Lion Fountain.



This is a huge and beautiful Votive cathedral.



This is the same building for another angle



This is the Szeged synagogue.



Here is a statue of the designer of the city, Georges-Eugene Haussmann. It is laid out like Paris. Note the two white rectangles on the left side. They show the height of the water during two floods.



We also got to the National Pantheon. Unbelievable.



Elder Howell the photo bomber



Second try without the bomber... We had a fun couple of hours together. Looking forward to our next visit.

Trip to Szeged

We took the sisters from Kaposvar to Szeged to exchange junior companions.



Sister Mason and Sister Vasica say goodbye!



All four sisters together.  Our new sister is Sister Kuska in the pink shirt.



Now we say goodbye to Sister Mason.  We love you!



And hello to Elder and Sister Howell who serve in Szeged!

Mike

There is actually a falu (village) named Mike!



Welcome to Mike, Hungary!



A field of grain in Mike.



A crop of trees just outside of Mike.