Thoroughly Engaged

Look at this!

Yesterday this cute couple...

Adreanna Judd and Jason North

...officially got engaged!

Yaaaayy!

Jason and Adreanna met this past year at Snow College. They had a ballet class together, and were on the Ballroom Dance Team together all year. They started dating in February, and now they are planning to be married in August. :-)

This was not unexpected. Jason and Adreanna, and her parents, and Bruce and I have all known this was in the works for a little while now. In fact, Jason and Adreanna just spent the weekend with us so I could measure her for her wedding dress! (And, I'm happy to report, we had a successful first fitting.)

(Isn't she cute?)

But yesterday Jason made it official, with a proposal and a ring. And we will be getting a new daughter in August!!

Yaaaayy!

News From Hungary! vol. 18

Well, I still haven't posted anything about my Mother's Day call, and I'm thinking that, at this point, it's too bad for all of you.

But here is today's news:

I wonder what this is...*1

Well wouldn't you know...

It is dang hot right now, hang on. Well the internet says that it is only like 29 degrees out here, but I swear that it is hotter. I am dying of heat and drowning in my own sweat. And as long as I am talking about my problems I will include that my right leg hurts for some reason. It is pretty obnoxious.

Well. I have some interesting things to say, I think.

Today!
This morning I went to help a member with their garden. It was actually pretty fun. I really like getting to do garden work, or really any kind of physical labor out here. I almost never get to do it and it is wonderfull to get the chance to do something that isn't knocking on doors. *2

Sunday
Well, I was about to say that I don't remember what I did on Sunday, but I do remember. I visited two of my investigators unexpectedly, three of them actually, come to think of it. But anyway, we had a great lesson (with the first two investitagors) where we taught about the word of wisdom. It was a little bit of a surprise to them but they said that it made sense and that they would do their best to keep the Word of Wisdom. We of course will be doing all that we can to help them. Mostly that means calling them every day and asking them about how they are doing with it. Interestingly they both asked for blessings. And I believe that they had the faith, and have the faith to succesfully quit smoking. We didn't really have another lesson that day, but we bumped into one of our investigators on the street and he invited us over. We kind of chatted and ended up planning a lesson for today at six because they had guests coming over.

Saturday
Umm... We found this old lady who said that she is super interested to hear about the Church. She has studied different religions for a very long time (she is like 70 years old) and so she was happy to talk to us at her gate. We were able to teach the Restoration to her, and so now we will be going back to talk to her about the Plan of Salvation. Also, I would not have thought that she is 70, I would have guessed late fifties to mid sixties. That was the most interesting part of last Saturday.

Friday
We did weekly planning. It takes Elder Fisher and I a while to get through weekly planning. But we are getting faster without losing efficiency. So we are hoping for three hours maximum this coming week. Keep your fingers crossed. (I may not report on whether or not we actually were faster) I can't think of anything else that we did last Friday so moving on.

Thursday
I finished a split (companion exchange) with Elder Beeton. I had a blast serving with him and it makes me sad to think that I might not ever serve with him, but there is still time on my mission so we will see. Maybe next transfer, or maybe not. Hard to say.

Wednesday
I started a split with Elder Beeton. While we served together nothing super special happend but I think it was good for him. His companion doesn't talk a whole lot and it was nice for him to be able to talk and have a conversation while we were together. Oooh yeah! There was also this giant ominous thundersrtorm that was coming at us while we were tracting. I say it was ominous because Elder Beeton had nothing to protect himself from the rain, and if he got drenched then he would not have clean dry clothes to wear the next day, I of course would have given him my umbrella, but that would mean that I would be the one recieving the soaking. And as much as I like being out in the rain, being out in the rain in a shirt and tie is actually pretty miserable. Well sometimes it is miserable.

Could this be the ominous storm rolling in?

Tuesday
That was my p-day last week, I don't really remember what we did, I just remember that I really just wanted to do nothing. Oh, I remember now. There is this funny old man named Dunai János who loves to hang out with the Missionaries. He is not a member, or an investigator. But he really likes Elder Fisher and so we hung out with him last Tuesday. He bought us lunch, and showed us around a Gyámi. (say Jammie, like p-j's) A Gyámi is a Mosque. Long ago the Turks killed a lot of people and occupied a lot of territory, and Pécs was one of those unlucky groups of people, while in Pécs the Turks built a lot of things, some of which are still standing today.

And perhaps these are from the mosque they visited?

That is all that happened really.
I hear that Ryan has turned in his mission papers. *3 That is so Great! I think that it would be cool if he came out here to Hungary. Or Romania. (It is going to be the same mission) But really any place will be good and I expect that you (I'm talking to you Ryan) will love your mission. Be sure that it is going to be hard. Harder than anything that you have done. But as you work hard and come to the Lord, it will be the best, sweetest, and one of the happiest parts of your life. I love you and I know that God does too, I know that as you Come to God, he will guide you, he will support you, and he will not let you fail, because He has important things for you to do in this life. And as you come to him in humble prayer He will tell you what you need to do. I love you, and I am proud of you.

And I love the rest of you too!
Sincerely,
Brandon.

I like this pic, but I suspect his companion was actually taking a picture of the young ladies (sister missionaries?) behind them...

Mom's Notes:

1. Brandon didn't tell us what any of these pictures are. Here's what he said about them:
"OK, So I will say that I am sorry about not managing to get more pictures with myself in them. but the other Missionaries should have them, So I will pester them untill they fork those over. Until then I hope you can feel satisfied with the pictures of things here in Pécs."
And I do like the pictures, but I hope he will remember what they are.

2. Too bad we can't have him here right now, when he appreciates working in the garden! ;-)

3. I think he may have heard from me that Ryan turned in his mission papers. It is just possible that I let that slip...

Fly Away!

Yesterday was the last day of school. Yay! So I very kindly went to Bruce's classroom and helped him to finish emptying it out (an almost mindless chore that took three to four hours—thank goodness for good company!). When, at last, the final box was packed up, Bruce went outside and pulled the rust-mobile up close to the door so we could easily haul his personal belongings to our beautiful van; I waited inside, at the door because he had already turned in his key card.

As he came back into the school, Bruce pointed out something I hadn't noticed: a little hummingbird was just sitting on the pavement about a foot away from where the door opened. It didn't move more than to turn its head a couple of times, even though Bruce walked right past it, the door swung by it, and Bruce made two more trips past it to the van and back. It just lay there on the concrete the whole time.

Our little bird was colored much like this one.

We thought it must be very sick, and I wanted to take it home to show my girls, and see if maybe there was something we could do for it. So we got a big, clear plastic cup that Bruce had in his classroom, a paper towel, and a piece of cardboard, and made our last trip out of the school. I walked right up to the little, two-inch long bird, squatted down and looked at it; it didn't move. I was afraid that I'd hurt it if I just picked it up, so we were going to try trapping it under the cup. I put the cup over it; it didn't move. I put the cardboard under the edge of the cup and gently slid it toward the hummingbird; it didn't try to step up onto it, still not moving at all. I didn't want to push it because I was afraid I might break its tiny feet, so I pulled the cardboard away.

I lifted up the cup; the bird didn't try to fly away. I draped the paper towel over the tiny bird; it didn't move. I gently picked it up and set it in the cup, got it unwrapped from the paper towel and draped the towel over the top of the cup. The hummingbird didn't even change positions—in fact, it ended up lying on its side on the bottom of the cup; I carefully tilted it so the bird could be upright, and it didn't even flutter a wing. We walked to the van, got in, and drove away, and through all of that the bird was perfectly still. It must be very sick.

About halfway home (an eight-ish minute drive) our hummingbird perked up and got worried. It tried to fly, buzzing its wings, but the cup was slippery and it couldn't hold on with its feet or fly higher than halfway up the cup (which was about eight inches deep). It wanted out, and I started worrying that the poor little thing might have a heart attack. Happily for us, its "rescuers," it did not.

At home I showed the little bird to my kids, and Jessica instantly searched on her chromebook to find out what to do: Put it in a dark place (a covered box) for 15 to 20 minutes so it will calm down, then give it some sugar-water (one part sugar to four parts water). So we instructed the kids to do that—but to be sure to open the box outside, in case the bird decided to fly—while Bruce and I went to the store to get dinner.

When we got home Ryan said the bird had calmed down after a little while, just as we'd learned it should. They prepared the sugar-water, and opened the box. (I didn't ask them where the cat was. I guess she was asleep or the kids had locked her away.) Ryan said the hummingbird flew right for his red shirt—they are attracted to the color red. So he held it and they used an eyedropper to put a little sugar water on its beak (as instructed). Then they put it back into the box with a quarter teaspoon of the sugar-water and watched it drink (they could see its tongue "licking up the water.") Then they closed the box back up and put it in the safety of my closed (and catless) bedroom.

We wanted to release our little friend after dinner, but weren't sure where to take it. We considered the Vernal Temple grounds because there are lots of flowers there, but finally decided to take it to Naples Park (right across the street from Bruce's school) because that would probably be closer to its home.
We could hear the poor little thing buzzing in the box the whole way there. The sugar-water must have revived it, because it was not the least bit passive, and it was finished being in a trap!

We stopped by some flowering bushes, and let Rachel do the honors of opening the box. The hummingbird must have been right up against the lid as it opened. Look at the pictures:

The pink arrow points to the hummingbird.
You can see the measuring spoon which held the sugar-water is still in the box.

Kaylie was our photographer—and had the presence of mind to set the camera on high-speed. She was standing three to four feet away from Rachel, and the bird made a straight line toward her; we thought it might fly right into the camera, but it didn't—quite.

And here you can probably see my little pink arrow better than the little speck it's pointing to. That little bird flew far and fast.

Did we save the hummingbird from a sad fate, or just stress it out a lot? I don't know. But I'm hoping that at least our little bit of sugar-water helped it to get to a happy hummingbird place!

News From Hungary! vol. 17

I'm guessing that he took this picture while he was on the hike
with the "creepy statue" (which he mentions later, and
did not take a picture of).  *1

How do you turn this on?

There is no reason for that particular header for this email. I just like having some kind of header.

Yesterday, Monday 
I had a zone day. It was pretty fun, we all went to Budapest for interviews with President Szabadkai and while each of us was waiting for our turn, we got to play games, watch a Movie called "One Good Man", and just kind of hang out with other missionaries. It was really fun and I am glad that I got to do that. Unfortunately I had to get up at 3:30 AM to travel all the way to Budapest. It was a really long train ride. I didn't go to bed until after 11:00 last night.

Sunday
I liked Sunday, nothing too special happened. There was an investigator in Church. Her name is Teri Néni. I think that she liked it. I know that she likes the Book of Mormon, so I hope that she will accept a baptismal date and finish learning about the comandments.

Saturday
It was a good day, there was a lot of tracting that happened because many of our investigators had to cancel appointments. But it was still pretty good. It Rained super hard, I think last Saturday. It was super fun to be out in the rain. Luckily before it started raining we had thought to bring umbrellas, so we didnt get drenched, although I honestly dont think that I would have minded getting drenched. I dont know.... what I was about to say so I am moving on to Friday. 

Friday
Friday we...Umm. Huh. Did something, Oh yeah, weekly planning. We also had MCM that day. I really like our MCM leader out here in Pécs. Also we have ward missionaries who are there in MCM as well. Bea, and her son Patrik. I really like them both and it is great to have two people who are really good in lessons and whom we can fairly consistently ask to come with us.

Thursday
There was District Meeting. I always like district meetings. They are usually pretty fun, and also very spiritual. We also have a large district out here with some very cool missionaries.

Wednesday
We once again did a ton of tracting. We had three lessons that fell through that day and so it was all time spent finding more people to meet with. {Think you are too good to meet with me? Well Im just gonna cry for a bit then find someone better than you.}  For some reason this keyboard seems to be slowly dying. It doesn't handle punctuation all that well. But at least I can still type periods and commas.

Tuesday
We went to the Hivatal , yayy. *2  Something like an hour to an hour and a half experience this time. That is longer than last time and still just as boring. After that we went ahead and did some service for one of our investigators, we sprayed his orchard with a pestacide. Or at least part of his orchard anyway. Afterwards we shared a scripture with him and then ran for our bus so that we wouldn't be there until 9:00.

Monday
We hiked up to this place with a really creepy statue of Christ on the cross. {A really popular sculpture out here and one that I dont really care for.} We took pictures up there and that is about all.

I unfortunately did not take pictures of the more interesting parts of the week, or even take very many pictures of the people that I am serving with. But I did take some and I will send those to you.

Love you all
Brandon.

Mom Notes:

1. I think he's finally getting the hang of the selfies, and the name tag pictures. Now I need to get him to take pictures of the people he works with; I bet he will want to see them later! (I wonder if even the creepy Christ statues might be interesting to him later on... ;-)  )

2. The translation for "Hivatal" is "office." I wonder what office they went to?

I forgot to post last week's email and pics—I had a really busy week! But I will get them posted some time before the next email comes. :-)

The Mighty Bushwhacker

It is no secret that I do not like yardwork. Nope. Working in the sun, in a place where all kinds of creepy-crawlies can actually touch me is not my idea of a fun time. But I do like to have a nice garden, and fresh veggies in the summer, and tomatoes to can, so I must make concessions...

Bruce and I have been trying to make a yard that has been neglected for two years look decent; and we are also trying to make a vegetable garden. It's a lot of work! I am not usually clever enough to take before and after pictures, so you'll just have to take my word that between the two of us we have probably dug out about a million or two BIG dandelions all over the yard (there's at least half a million left, and more coming up from seed...).

That is just a tiny fraction of all our dandelions!
(These ones are gone now, by the way.)

And we are taking out a brick patio—well, we took out a brick patio in the back yard because 1. We don't need another patio, and 2. It is in the only place in the yard that will get sun for most of the day; this is the place for the veggie garden.

There's Jessica, on the brick patio, cutting the limbs off of unsuspecting bushes.

And there's my manly husband, hauling bricks.
(This would have been so much easier—or at least faster—with a wheelbarrow!)

And here's our stack of bricks (in the number of 600 or so).
We will use some for paths between our garden beds. What to do with the rest of them? An outdoor pizza oven? ;-) 

So, over the last couple of weeks we have removed all the bricks, pulled up the garden fabric (which is in astonishingly good condition) and started the bush removal. Out of about ten bushes, we only have two left to go.

Here's the foliage we've removed so far.
I think the brick wall behind it is six feet high.

We also found buried treasure!

Buried treasure: a Star Wars lunch tray, a watering can, a green cup (which is holding the grubs that I find in the dirt), two spoons and a very bent fork, and two matchbox cars.

Something we did not anticipate, although we should have, is that the ground under the bricks, after years and years of being covered, has almost turned into a brick itself. It's going to take some work to get it soft enough for garden plants.

Anyway, this morning I finished taking out a big bush all by myself! (No, really. You should be impressed by this.) I started digging at the roots last night, for about an hour or so, and this morning I decided that I was going to finish the job and get rid of it. And I did! Yaaaayyy!

Almost there...

And behold!
The Mighty Bushwhacker, with her Kill.
This is a much better name than Bruce gave me when I was
mercilessly hacking the limbs off of helpless shrubberies:
The Destroyer.

I'd really like to get the last bush out of there... But today is a busy day, and tomorrow is busier—unless I work in the afternoon today. It was hot enough out there at 8:30 a.m.; a two-hour digging, chopping, pushing, and pulling session is not going to happen at 2:00 p.m.! But it will happen sometime soon. It will. And maybe I'll even remember to take some pics as the garden goes in.

For now, it is time to hit the shower.

News From Hungary! vol. 15

 That's him!*1

The Outcome *2

So I will be going to Pécs. (Pronounced PAY-CH, not PECKS) My companion will be Elder Fisher. I don't know if you all remember him. But I wrote about him once. He and I were in Paradigm High together. 

North Elder and Fisher Elder   *3

Also, I was asked if I know a Lala Vanko, the answer is yes. I do know him. He lives in Tatabánya and he is a goofball. His name really is Lala, but it is a nick name for Lajos. Or Louie. *4

I do get to call for Mothers day, but because I am in the middle of Changing Cities I will have to email you later when I actually know what time I will get to be skyping. *5

Well, Not alot happened last week but I will follow the same form as my previous emails because it helps me remember.

Yesterday Monday
We met with Ica and got her to seriously reconsider a baptismal interview. I think that she was perhaps waiting for specific things to happen all leading up to her baptism (although i have no idea what) and when those things didn't all happen she was unsure. She has frequently said that she just needs time to think about it and I am sure that she does, but now she seems to be more open to actually going through with the interview and perhaps even getting baptised.

Sunday
We traveled all the way out to Budapest for Stake Conference. It was like a 2 1/2 hour travel time, and then all of the members wanted to talk to us for a very long time afterwards, so we didn't get back to Veszprém until about 4:00. There really wasn't a whole lot else that happened.

Vészprem? He didn't say.

Saturday
We met with Ica on Saturday as well, it was a very similar thing to the meeting on Monday. Aside from that nothing really interesting happened

Friday
We tracted a lot, umm. Oh, you know, actually we met with Ica on this day, not Last Saturday. But now I remember that on Saturday we did a Sport day. I am not really sure how to call it in English but we played basketball and soccer and invited lost of people to join us. We unfortunately didn't get lots of people, but there have been other days when we did.

Thursday
There was our last, My Last, District meeting in Veszprém. I will miss this place. Then we Had our Missionary Coordination Meeting, and English class. I spent a ton of time in the Branch house that day and you know what. I got this feeling that the Chapel really is the most special room in any meeting house. We really are super priveledged to be able to go to a house dedicated to the Lord and partake of the Sacrament each week. (Bet you didn't expect that on a Thursday) *5

Wednesday
Nothing really special happened on Wendesday. We tracted a whole lot. JK I just remembered that it was p-day last week Wednesday due to some wierd Hungarian Holliday. I think it actually might have been Labor day. Dunno.

Tuesday
Well, I actually talked about this last week so I won't try to bother you all with it again.

Well. I Believe that this is all, I still have some time so if I Think of anything else I will be sure to send it to you. I do have pictures and those will be enclosed in a separate email.
I love you all!
Brandon.

Mom's Notes:

1. I told Brandon that he needed to take a picture of his name tag in front of some Hungarian scenery. Apparently this is a thing; I keep seeing photos (on facebook) of a missionary-selfie, holding up his tag so you can see it, and him, and the beach (for example). Sometimes it's just the mission name tag on the beach (or some other fabulous scenery). Brandon held his up to the computer screen—in front of the email I'd just sent him—and snapped a photo. I think maybe he's missing the point.

2.  "The Outcome" of transfers this week.

3. Brandon did not send us a new picture of him and his new companion. That photo (above) is from when Elders North and
Fisher were on a companion exchange (or whatever they call it) in September last year. In fact, Brandon didn't send me any pictures with people in them this time. Except for this meme:




He did send us a picture of this "weird onion," which (I assume) he is holding. It is funny the things that impress him, and he wants a picture of, as opposed to the kinds of pictures Mom wants.

4. Lala is going to be visiting in Salt Lake and would like to visit as many of the families of the missionaries he's met as he can. We will have to see if we can make it. :-)

5. I was really hoping to find out today what time he could Skype on Mother's Day—this weekend is pretty packed, and Jason is wanting to face-time with us, too. We will have to figure out how to juggle those two boys of ours, but since Jason's time is more his own than Brandon's is, I can't give Jason a time until Brandon lets me know what time he's going to call.

6. Funny kid! Why would I not expect my missionary to have a spiritual thought on a Thursday?

News From Hungary! vol. 14

Veszprém

Emails were two days late this time, but they were waiting for me this morning—Yay!

Transfer!

So I haven't been transfered yet, but next week is when transfers will happen and everyone thinks that I will be leaving Veszprém. I also think that I will be leaving Veszprém, and I am excited for that, but I am also a little bit sad. I really love Veszprém, it is by far my favorite place that I have served in.

So,

Yesterday Tuesday
Not a lot happened, just did some tracting and that sort of thing. It was good, we got one potiential Investigator. But not much else happened. The end of a transfer is always hard, everyone feels like they need a refresher about this time. Just one more week though and we  will be there.

Monday
it was pretty good, we went on a hike with the branch had a Hungarian Barbecue, and taught Ica a little bit all in the same morning/afternoon. It was super good, and fun, Ica loved it and she says that she is still praying about getting baptised so maybe we will get to hear about whether or not that happens. I did get pictures of the hike kind of, but I forgot to get any pictures with me in them :-( 
Sorry.

Well, I would have liked a picture of Brandon, but these are beautiful.  (Actually, pics of the people he went hiking with might have been nice, too. ) But I'm glad he'll have these to look at when he's home again.

Sunday
Um, nothing too special happened, but we did help a homeless man get to the hospital. He wasn't badly injured and I am not sure why he needed to go to the hospital, but he is old enough that the government here just pays for his medical bills, so I guess that he is getting taken care of.

Saturday
I finished a companion exchange, or splits, or whatever you like to call it. But it was good, we were working with the Zone Leaders here in Veszprém and we found 13 potiential investigators. We are super excited to get into contact with them and see if they really will investigate and accept the gospel. I was serving with Elder Ballard, and I don't know if you all remember or not, but he was my second companion back in my first area Tatabánya.

Elder Ballard and Elder North
So serious!

Friday
We started our split, there wasn't a whole ton that happened. We did meet with Ica though, and we helped her understand a little bit more why she needs to get baptised. It seems that somehow we didn't explain clearly enough that... Well, hmm. We needed to better explain that she couldn't expect to go to the Celestial kingdom if she decided to remain with the Catholic Church, and also that she needed to be baptised with proper authority. It was kind of difficult, but she seems to have a better understanding now.

Thursday
We had District meeting, MCM, and English Class. One of our newer investigators came to Angol Óra and he loved it. We will be visiting him sometime soon. And hopefully we will be so busy with investigators that tracting will be a more rare occurance. Especially since we are running out of buildings that we haven't yet tracted.

Wednesday
A missionary who has already gone home, and who was once my Zone Leader, came by and visited. So Elder Seeley and I took the opportunity to ask him for a referral. We got one, we have been having trouble contacting them, but we will do it sometime.

This picture was sent to me via text message by the
(unnamed) missionary Brandon mentioned above.
Love the matchy-matchy ties!

Tuesday
We had a Zone Conference. Which means that every moment that was not taken by zone conference was spent traveling. I guess we did still have enough time to do a Game night with the youth and some investigators.

Monday
We visited this kind of crazy inactive member. He was smoking and relaxing out front of this antique bookshop that he runs, and when we asked if Sándor was there he said. 
"No, not yet, but he will be." So we were like. "Ok" and went inside to see what kind of books were in there. There was a ton of books. I almost bought Tom Sawyer in hungarian. But I decided not to. After a bit Sándor walks in and tells us that he is Sándor, (which I honestly kind of suspected) and then he challenged me to a game of chess. He beat me. I have never been good at chess, but I figured that if he wanted to play then I may as well play. That is really about all that happened. We invited him to church, I don't remember what he did say, but I do know that he didn't come to church. Ah well.
I will send pictures in a separate email.
love you!
Brandon.

taken from an apartment balcony in Veszprém

No Mom Notes today (beyond what I added to the photos). I'm glad he's doing well and is happy. And we'll see what next week brings when transfers happen.