News From Hungary! vol 13

a Hungarian sunset

I thought I'd have to wait until tomorrow for Brandon's letter this week, but I guess I got my dates mixed up. So here's what he has to say today:

Hey, I don't know what it is like out there, but this morning it was 33 degrees C and it is going to be getting hotter. *1 We are dying of heat out here and it isn't even July. It is April. (Time works the same way on this side of the world as it does on that side of the world.)

Sunday

We went to look up a bunch of people, one of them was this old lady who told us that she wasn't interested like three times, but we still weren't able to get away for like two hours. And the other was this Bácsi (old man) who is kind of interested but mostly just lonely. His family doesn't really visit him anymore, not since his wife died five years ago. So we will be going back Wednesday, at least once, heck I would consider visiting him as a service project each week. But then again I am not so sure that I can do that. After these two people we went and Visited the Belovics Family. They are super nice and love having us over. I love going over because they always give us food. (and they are just super nice people anyway) Surprise to us when we went over because almost all of the youth whom are baptised, investigating, or pretending that they are too cool for religion (Ricsi), all happen to be there doing Math Homework together. That was short lived though because as soon as the missionaries (us) showed up they just wanted to talk and hang out. We had a wonderfull Dinner of fruit soup, perhaps one of my favorite Hungarian dishes, and Rice with Paprikás Csirke. (Pepper Chicken.) I don't really know the translation for what that is, but it is finom (delicious/tasty) although not all that spicy. In fact peppers out here in Hungary are usually sweet.  *2 
The spiritual thought that we shared was from Ether 12: 4, 6-10, 12. All about faith and what we should hope for in life. I also bore my testimony that if we can only so much as to desire to see god in our lives then he will be there, and then I challeged everyone to try and see where God helped them each day during the following week. This was also kind of funny because the investigator there was one of the sister's investigators. It is interesting to see how we missionaries have travel restricted by mission boundaries but investigators can go where they want. 

I'm not sure if this picture is from this particular event––
he didn't say. He did  say this: "I don't know why, but I feel like
I look like a giant in almost every picture that I am in." :-)

Saturday

We didn't do a whole lot Saturday, But we made dinner for one of our investigators whom at the time we thought was busy with a new born baby. Sajnos, not yet. But the due date is this Wednesday, so we will see. These investigators were blown away that we would make dinner for them and a dessert that we made a week before. I was just like (to myself) "Well of course, this is what people do isn't it?" I can remember several times when members or our ward brought us dinner during and after the births of some of my younger siblings. It seems to me like any good neighboor would do the same.

Friday

We did our weekly planning. Umm, and we went tracting. That is all.

Thursday

We had District meeting, I took a picure of us eating Pizza, there was English Class that evening. Hmm, and there was an investigator who said that he would come to English class and that we could meet after, but he never did. We still have to look him up and set up a meeting.

Wednesday

Nothing too special. Oh wait, no. We met with Ica, she has finally said that she needs more time to make a decision about baptism. I am so glad that she has made this decision because it shows that she is making some amount of progress. Before she just wouldn't say anything about it at all. We also had an MCM meeting later that day because our MCM leader had a soccer match on Thursday when we usually meet.

Tuesday

Umm. I don't think that anything interesting happend. I don't think there was. hmm. Ah well. Probably preached the Gospel or something like that.

Monday

Nope, nothing super special there. Just visited Ica. I love Ica, and I hope that we are able to help her along to being Baptized.

That is all folks. I love you all and I will include pictures in a separate email. *3

Sincerely,

Brandon.

Mom's Notes:

1.  That's about 91 degrees F. I don't envy their weather this summer!

2. We will have to try the Fruit Soup here, at home. Also the Pepper Chicken––I wonder, is that the same as Chicken Paprika (Paprikash), or is it something else? I will have to ask him.

3. Brandon looks and sounds happy. Yay!

News From Hungary! vol. 12

Let's just jump right in, shall we?

Szervusztok! *1

Well, this has been a wonderfull week. What happened? Well it all began long ago, it is a tale of a man, and a monster. (his companion) {Just joking, Elder Seeley is not a monster.}

What makes a monster, and what makes a man?
Seeley Elder and North Elder at a really nice-looking restaurant—at least the food looks awesome. The missionaries look even better!

I did get my camera! And I will be trying to send some pictures that I took. I am also making a goal to try and take at least one good picture per day. So we will see how that goes. *2

More restaurant pics.
I don't know the names of these two cute sisters, but Leighann and Stacy, if you know them, tag their moms!

So, Sunday we did a bunch of look ups, trying to find the people who said that we could come back later to talk to them. Most of them...All of them said to come back next week, so we will be doing that. Next week Sunday, count on it. And then we did a lot of tracting. Um, yeah, that was Sunday. I haven't been asked to play the piano since the last time that I told you all about playing the piano, but I wanted to let you know that I am getting pretty good at it. Maybe I will try sending you a video or something. *3

Saturday
We had to do our Weekly Planning, But we made an all time record of only needing 1 hour and 30 minutes for the whole planning session, It was super wierd. But we did talk about everything that we needed to, so I guess we are doing well. Later that day we went streeting with the youth in the branch out here. It was pretty good, I talked to one of Olivér's-one of the youth out here- friends about eternal families and how through the gospel we can have happy healthy family relationships, it was really cool to see just how important this was to these young people. (young people, I'm a young person, these people are like the same age as me, ah well) After streeting, we went and had a lesson with Ica, she is really doing super well, this week is the week that will decide whether or not I will be present for the baptism of someone I taught. I honestly really hope that I get to see Ica's baptism, but if not I will still be glad. I don't want Ica to get baptised for the wrong reasons, so if she isn't ready, then I will live with it. *4

Friday
Umm, oh yeah, I had an interview with President Szabadkai. It was pretty good, and it was made better by the fact that I got a camera! The worst part of that day was the traveling. I had to take a bus to a city called Dunaújváros. It is a two hour bus ride, and the bus was super hot and uncomfortable. So I spent four hours traveling. But because the Bus doesn't come super often I had to wait around in Dunaújváros until the bus did come. Luckily I wasn't late or anything, otherwise I would have had to wait like 2-4 hours for the next bus.

Thursday
There was District Meeting, MCM, and Angol Óra. *5  Umm, I can't really think of anything else that happened on Thursday. But it was a good day.

Wednesday
We got an opportunity to do service for someone! We went to the Fehérék to help them in their garden (The White Family). It was great, we don't often get the chance to serve people and do physical labor, I really miss it actually. I have never loved doing yard work, but I really wish that I could do it more often, just to have a break from the normal every day sort of things that we do as missionaries. After the service project the Fehérék also gave us dinner, which was a pleasant surprise that lined up with what we had planned anyway. *6

Tuesday
Well, unfortunately nothing really happened on Tuesday, just more tracting. But it was a good day.

Monday
This was our last day to go to the Balaton, for the rest of the Summer it will be full of inapropriately dressed people, so we took advantage of our opportunity and went for the last time. It was super cool, and I wish that I had had my camera then, ah well. I will just have to come back some time after my mission.

And that is all. Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's notes:

1. Szervusztok! Brandon doesn't send us many Hungarian words. This one, according to Google translate, is pronounced "Ser voos tok" and it means "Cheerio!" (Kind of like "ciao," or "aloha," I would guess.)

2. Hooraaaaayy! He got his camera! Even better if he really does take "at least one good picture per day." Yay!

3. Even though I am a good pianist, I never really taught my kids to play more than the basics. There's a weird dynamic when you're the mom, and there's eight kids, and they never practice: When it gets to piano lesson time you think, "We can do it later..."  And then later never comes. At least that is how flaky I  was. I'm glad a lot of my kids are learning it on their own now that they're older. (And I can come in and say, "Try this," or, "do that," and they do.)

4. Ica is really holding out—I wonder why? Maybe we could all pray for her. :-)

5. Angol Óra = English Class, if you don't remember.

Youth Conference 2014

6. Brandon really isn't too big on yardwork, but if he starts, he works hard. At a Youth Conference they went to help remove a tree stump from someone's yard. The leaders gave each kid a whack at the stump, but they told me that once Brandon started he wasn't going to stop. Brandon told me later that he just wanted to get that stump out! Anyway, I'm glad he got a chance to do this service for the Fehérék.

"ridiculous graffiti of the Grinch"
(Brandon's words; not mine.)

And that's it! Until next week...

News From Hungary! vol. 11

The camera still is not in Brandon's hands...Hopefully this weekend!

We took this picture on the way to have Brandon set apart.
That's Ryan, on the left, then Kaylie, Jessica, and Rachel
behind the boys.

But here's Brandon's news anyway:

So I am running out of time therefore this might once again be a short email.

Sunday
We had fast and testimony meeting. It was pretty good. Ica came to church as usual. She is so close to being baptised, the only thing we are waiting for is for her to say that she will be. There wasn't really a whole lot that happened yesterday come to think of it. But we were able to text someone whom we have met with and I think that they will be some new investigators. I have high hopes for them.

Saturday
This day was crazy. We went to do a "sport nap"  *1  which was good, but the whole day we needed to meet with Ica, and everything kept pushing everything off. The meeting with Ica pushed around our other meetings, and we had to change the time that we were going to meet with her like three times, which was pretty stressfull for her. But that is really about it.

Friday
My appartment smelled like a potatoe. (I am saying this specifically for you Ryan *2) although it is true. I walked into my appartment and the first thing I thought, and said, was that it smelled like a potatoe. We met with one of the members, it was pretty good. None of the members let you meet with them and not eat tons of food.
Us: Can we meet for like 15 minutes on "X" day?
Member: Of course I would be delighted!
Us: Sweet
The Day of the meeting.
Us:Hello, how are you doing:
Member: I am doing great! Now you two sit down and I will be right back.
Us: We sit down
Member: Comes back in the room with a pan full of some kind of beef cassarole. "Now you two have to eat all of it." They say with a smile.
Us: Uh-oh. *3

Thursday
District Meeting, MCM, and Angol Óra. In between all of this we had a meeting with a past investigator who is like 70. She told us right away that she will never be a mormon. But it was a pleasant enough meeting other than that. I wonder what ... People out here don't make any sense. They are basically all Christian. But no one wants to talk about Christ.
Oh yeah, but Thursday morining we met with Zoltán and his family, they were super cool. We weren't able to set up a return appointment. But we texted them later on Sunday, and they said that they have read the couple of chapters from the Book of Mormon that we showed them, as well as the Restoration pamphlet and The Family: A Proclomation to the World. They really liked it and we are going to plan a time to meet with them again sometime. But it probably won't be this week because we are super busy.

Wednesday
Tons of Tracting. That is all that we did.

Tuesday
Tuesday was actually p-day last week. We visited another member in Berhida, a small village outside of Veszprém. It was super fun. And it really is like a service for this member since she lives all alone and about 20 minutes by car away from everyone in the Branch. *4

Monday
There was a ton more tracting on Monday but it was a good day. I liked it.

Love you all!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. I wonder what a "sport nap" is? It kind of sounds like me, when I'm watching a sporting event...

2. You really have to live with us to understand why Brandon is making the "potatoe" (spelling!) comment directly to Ryan, but I will try to explain:  Ryan often fills in the blanks of a sentence with some kind of food; or you might say that you did something and Ryan will add "like a ..."    (potato, for example). His silly food-word of choice used to be "banana pie." It's a little more random now.  (Love my kids! :D)

3. Jessica, replying to Brandon's email, says, "Was that their exact wording? ('Now you have to eat all of it.')"
Yep. I love my kids!

4. I can't wait for Brandon to get his camera and send me pictures of this kind of thing!

Until next week...

2018 Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest!

It's here! It's here!
Your chance to show off your talents and win Fabulous Prizes!
Because it is time for the...

2018 Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest!

(wild applause here)

In the past we have written Haikus, made the Old Woman in the Shoe a kinder parent, and made Wednesday's child a happier creature—to name a few.

This year's contest is to write a limerick...

"Hey!" you say, "You've already done that one!"
It's true. I have. Because I love limericks. But this year there's a twist: The limerick must be about you or about someone you know. Ahhh! Time to start thinking...

For those who don't know (or don't remember from the last time), a limerick goes like this:

Line one has to rhyme with line two.

The rhythm is kind of neat too.

Line three and line four

Make one rhyme more,

And line five rhymes with one and with two.

(Wasn't it clever of me to explain that in a limerick? And with such good meter, too!)

To explain it once more:
Lines one, two, and five rhyme with each other.
Lines three and four rhyme with each other,
but not with lines one, two and five.
Got it?

The meter (rhythm) is generally something like this:

Ta-tum-, dee-da-tum, dee-da-tum,

Ta-tum-, dee-da-tum, dee-da-tum.

Ta-dum-tum, ta-dee,

Ta-dum-tum,ta-dee,

Ta-tum-, dee-da-tum, dee-da-tum.

Just for good measure (and another example), here is an old limerick that I've known since I was about ten years old:

There was an old stupid who wrote

The verses above that we quote.

His lack of all sense

Was something immense,

Which made him a person of note.

(This one may actually be an autobiographical limerick. Or a slur against someone else...)

So now that you thoroughly understand limericks (and have put up with my how to write a limerick-limericks), here are the Contest Rules:

• Your challenge this year is to write a limerick about yourself or someone you know—preferably yourself. (Think: childhood memories, something you did, something your kids did to you, even something you imagine about yourself... )
• It can be either in first or third person; that doesn't matter.
• It should be funny—or witty—but not unkind.
• You may submit as many poems as you like—be sure your name is attached to them.
• Poems must be submitted as comments on my blog. Poems submitted on facebook won't be counted. (Really, I can barely keep track of my blog.)
• All entries must be in by April 30, 2018 (the last day of National Poetry Month).
• I will post only two reminders (on facebook): one on April 16, and one on April 23.
• The winners will be posted no later than May 4, 2018. 

The winner of the Children's Division (younger than twelve years) will receive a large (theater size) candy as well as a lovely certificate.

The winner of the Everyone Else Division (twelve years and older) will receive a certificate and a dozen home-made eclairs, prepared by Loralee's own lily hands.

So put your poetry caps on!

Tell your friends!

Submit to your creativity!

Enter, and enter again!

Win Fabulous Prizes!

And send in your limericks to

Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest!

A Heads Up...

April is my birthday month! AND April is also National Poetry Month. Know what that means?

That means it's time for the (almost) Annual Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest! (Cheers and wild applause here.)

My Poetry Contest started ten—yes, TEN—years ago, right here on my blog. My birthday was coming up, and I was wondering which day of the week I was born (Monday, it turns out), and I was thinking of that sappy poem, "Monday's child is fair of face...," and I decided that Wednesday's child had a bummer life (Wednesday's child is full of woe). So I had a little contest for my friends and family to give Wednesday's child a happier thought. (You can see the results of that very first contest here.) 

After the contest was over, I heard on the radio that April was National Poetry Month. The planets had aligned; the light-bulb went off in my head: This should be an annual contest! It should!

And so it is time again! (Past time, actually. I usually start the contest in the last week of March and end it on my birthday.)

I will post the contest and rules tomorrow, so now is the time for you to begin waxing poetic: check out a book of poetry; recite a sonnet to your sweetheart; spend the rest of this day speaking in rhyme; think poetic thoughts...Sharpen your mind and your pencil—you could win a fabulous prize! 

Because Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest, 2018 is coming!

Yaaayyyy!!

News From Hungary! vol 10

Because of the Easter holiday, Brandon didn't write until today (Tuesday, instead of Monday). In Hungary they celebrate Easter Monday, as well as Sunday, so Brandon didn't have any access to a computer yesterday.

Here's what North Elder has to say today:  

I did not get my camera yet, but it is likely in the mission office, I probably won't get it until the 13 of April, but I am glad that I will have a camera finally. *1
The "Slav Squat" *2 is something started by Elder Wrathal, who was in the same MTC Group as Elder Gilson. Everyone loves him ...he is really funny, and quite happy. He is great to be around.
Elder Wrathal would do the "Slav Squat" all of the time in the MTC apparently, and so many of the Elders in his group have mentioned it. Elder Gilson's mom is just silly, same with the rest of the missionary parents in that group. But they are wonderfull people and we love them out here.  *3

Some of us Moms and Dads doing the "Slav Squat"—which I'd never heard of before last Thursday. (Apparently they take a picture like this every time they get together.) Sister Gilson is the third squatting mom from the left. 

Well, the work really is speeding along and the Church is going to grow larger and larger.

There is not a whole lot off of the top of my head so without further adue.

Sunday
Conference all Day! Ica came and she loved it, but she told us that she was disapointed that we didn't have the sacrament. I can kind of understand that, but being able to sustain the prophet and listen to the word of god was just as good to me. I hope that some day Ica will understand what we all understand, but as she is now she is doing fine, and will continue to grow in knowledge. Wow, the solemn (is that how you spell it? *4) assembly was really increadible. And then the changes announced in Preisthood session were even cooler. Outside of that one of the talks that stuck out the most to me would be the one given by Elder Brian Taylor. It was about how we are the children of God for those of you who don't remember. Now unfortunately I am not able to see the Sunday afternoon session until Thursday when I have a district meeting, but I have heard about other changes. Everyone, please make sure that you take an active role in ministering to others in the Church, it is what we, and you need.

Saturday
We watched the Saturday morning session at 18:00, it was wonderfull. I gues that was really when the Solemn Assembly happend. umm. I can't think of anything else that happened on Saturday sorry. We went tracting. But that was about it. I think that it rained all day. It pretty much rained all of last week. This last Sunday is when it finally stopped.

Friday
We met with Ica really quicky and taught her about member missionary work, ward service, priesthood and auxileries, and teaching & learning in the church. It went really well. After that we went to a surprise party for one of the widows in the church who lives all by herself. it was super good. I sang a song for her and one of the sister missionaries sang as well.

Thursday
We had District Meeting, MCM, and English Class. It was pretty good, but that is about all that we were able to do since all of those things is at the Branch house and it takes about 30 minutes for us to travel to the branch house.

Wednesday
We had a split that we started on Tuesday so for half of the day we weren't even in Veszprém but rather in Dunaújváros. It was pretty good, but we had to run to catch our bus home and I haven't ever been a runner, and I haven't gone running for about a month now because of bad weather and not enough time, because I am a missionary. But I did make it in time for my bus so that is good.

Tuesday
I started a Split, or Companion exchange. I served 24 hours with Elder Lister. I love the man, he is Hilarious and he also has a strong testimony. I was glad for the opportunity to serve with him, and I am sad that I won't get the opportunity to serve with him again.

Monday
Nothing really happened last p-day, we played basketball with one of the members. That was pretty fun. But otherwise it was a pretty tame day.

Well, sorry that I can't think of anything super cool to tell about, maybe I should try and do something extra interesting each day so that I can write about it.

More next time!
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. I will be glad when he has his camera too!

2. I asked Brandon about the "Slav Squat" when I wrote him last weekend. This is something I was not privy to before last Thursday, and I wasn't sure how it came to be a thing.

3. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of those parents from Elder Gilson's group last Thursday evening, when Bruce and I joined them for a potluck dinner at Sister Gilson's house. We got to try some Hungarian dishes, and we even has some ice-cream-cone flowers (made by one of the dads). I guess some of the other missionaries have sent lots of pictures of this fancy ice cream home to their parents. As for the parents in this group, I wouldn't describe them as "silly," but, rather, as "fun!"

Sister Gilson and me. A selfie to send to our boys.

4. It's just cute that Brandon asks about his spelling of "solemn" (which was correct, by the way) when so much of his spelling is...pretty bad. Some of it is just typos, I'm sure, but I attribute the rest to his constant use of Hungarian rather than English. Brandon has never been a bad speller.

And that's it for this week.

I'm sure Brandon would love to hear from you! You can email him at brandon.north@myldsmail.net

Or, even better, you can mail him a letter (or pictures, or treats...):
Elder Brandon North
Hajnoczy Jozef utca 14
1122 Budapest
Hungary