News From Hungary vol. 8

This last week was pretty good. I got several potiential investigators, and we will be following up with them to see if they will actually be interested in investigating. Also, Niki, one of my investigators went on a trip, kind of like a youth conference. And I hear that she loved it. Also, one of the youth who was there with her was telling me that she is thinking about being baptised in April! We will see, but I am super hopefull for her.

Sunday
Wow, um, So I went to church, that was good. For some reason we have all of these potiential investigators who come to church but not very many actual investigators who come to church. I am not really sure why some of these potiential investigators are still only potiential investigators, although I do understand that at least two of the four who were there are just really busy all of the time. But these two do come to English Class. Which can some times just be a really simple Gospel Principles class that we hold in English. I don't know why but often in English Class all people want to hear about is the Church and how and why we do things the way we do. After Church we went and tracted, and while we were tracting we found three people who were willing to meet with us, and we also go one referral. So that was cool. After this we were given dinner by a member family, and we talked about families for a quick spiritual lesson. It really was a spiritual lesson, and everyone had really good insights about families.

Saturday
It rained all day, and I was tracting in it, it was pretty miserable, but the most miserable part was really that my water proof shoes have a hole somewhere in the bottom, so both of my feet got soaking wet. Other than that it was a great day, we met with Ica, and taught a pretty good lesson, and while tracting we got yelled at by a couple of people. The people here say some of the funniest things when they want you to leave them alone. Like "Sietek." This means "I am hurrying.", the person who said this was wearing a bath robe and slippers. He litterally wasn't going anywhere.

Friday
We did weekly planning, and more tracting, yeah, not much happened there. But it was a good day.

Thursday
District Meeting, MCM, and Angol Óra. Interestingly no one showed up for angol óra (angol óra means English class) But while we were waiting for people to come to Angol óra we were invited to participate in Institute. It was really good. This is really all that happened Thurday.

Wednesday
We had an Area Seventy Visit in Budapest so, we had a Zone Conference in Budapest where we learned from him. I even go a private interview with him, it wasn't anything big or crazy. He asked about you all and how you are doing. And then he asked me about the work that I have been doing here, and about how the mission has been going. I would tell you what I said but it was more or less what I tell you all each week. Perhaps less detail oriented though.

Tuesday
Játék Est! (Game Night!) This is a program we started a couple of weeks ago to see if it would attract more people to investigate. And we have been having people show up! So now we just need them to investigate. This is also the last day that I met with Niki. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning being the days of the youth conference or whatever that was. We had a good lesson with her. It was primarily about keeping the sabbath day holy, but we also talked about obeying and honoring the law of the land.

Monday
This as also a pretty good day. There wasn't really a whole lot that happended Last Monday, but a member Invited us over for lunch and fed us hamburgers.

I think that this is all...Yep, it is!

Love you!
Brandon.


Mom Notes:

I love that he's throwing in more Hungarian words, and find it cute that his English spelling is deteriorating. Which might make me not a very nice mom...

A New Look?

When I was little I wore a lot of clothes that were either: 1. sewn by my mom or 2. hand-me-downs (which might have been sewn by my mom).

I think I'm in kindergarten here—maybe first grade.
Gotta love that double-knit, and the stripes,
and I still have a bunch of that lace in my fabric stash
(I have no idea what to do with it!).

I am on the left and my cousin, Wendy, is on the right.
My double-knit, gingham bell-bottoms are home made;
Wendy's flared-leg pands are probably store-bought.
(To further your education of 70's style: notice the oil lamp
(which did work) hanging on the very patterned, wall-papered wall,
and the large console stereo on the left.)

These clothes, by the way, were also perfectly cute and acceptable by 70's standards, and I liked them, and I was proud of my mom's sewing ability.

But when I was going to go to junior high I underwent an image change. My mom, on a school-shopping trip with me and my sister Melanie, and with lots of persuasion from both of us, bought me my first pairs of jeans. And I've been wearing some form of T-shirts and jeans ever since then.

The dates change, the hairstyles change (drastically),
but with leotards, sweatshirts, or T-shirts, the jeans remain.

And here's the thing: Over the last few (ten?) years I have learned to hate wearing jeans. Well, it's kind of a love/hate relationship. I mean, I've grown up in jeans—been wearing them for decades—so they are comfortable...the "I am used to this" kind of comfortable. Also I don't mind digging in and doing dirty work in them; they wear and wash easily.

BUT, they have a lot of strikes against them. For one thing, that especially stylish, metal button (the one that pokes out about a mile) catches on my shirts and puts holes in them. Strike one.

Then, the fly—which is not really a necessity for girls—adds bulk to my already bulky tummy. If you want me to hate you, make me look and feel fatter than I already feel. I think that counts as two strikes.

And then no matter what brand or style I get, if they fit my hips they don't fit my waist. My waist is bigger than I'd like, but it's still not as big as my hips. So after the first wearing my jeans have stretched enough that they just don't stay up, and I'm always tugging them back into place. Very obnoxious.

But I guess the biggest thing is that I feel sloppy in my usual uniform of T-shirts and jeans. So I want a new look. I started researching and looking for inspiration; I started looking at fabrics; after years of thinking about changing my look I was finally going to do it! And I was feeling pretty excited about it.

Last week I went to hit the fashion design drawing board—with myself as the client. Now, when I say I was going to hit the drawing board, I literally meant that I was going to draw some new designs on a figure, trying to hit on just the right thing for my newest client: me.

A croquis (say: "crow-key") is the figure designers use...
because everything will look good on this totally unrealistic body shape.

So, on the left I have stretched and squashed myself
into a croquis (thanks to Photoshop).
On the right you see what I really look like.

Since I am not a croquis, I thought I'd better try to draw my designs on more realistic-looking models. But I didn't want to re-learn how to draw a person to real—not fashion—scale; that would take a couple of months practice drawing naked ladies and then adding the clothes to them. Nope. I want to start designing for myself now, so re-learning how to draw is out of the question.

Then I had a brilliant idea! I would find a recent, full-body photo of myself, trace the outlines, and so create a body to design on.

Big, big, GIGANTIC mistake!

For most of my life I have been pretty...neurotic? ...about my weight and body size—probably starting when I was about ten or eleven. (If you scroll back up to the picture of Wendy and me, that's probably about the right age. And I wished, even then, that I was built like Wendy, and not like I was.) So here I am now, overweight by any scale you choose: medical, BMI, life-insurance, you name it, and I've done this brilliant thing of taking a recent picture of myself, tracing the outline of my body shape, and then shading in some detail so it wasn't just a police outline. And then I covered it up and tried not to think about it for a couple of days. 

Still I knew I'd have to tough it out: the whole idea was to draw clothes that would look good on this, my figure. So I tried. But I just couldn't be reconciled to what I was drawing and seeing, and what my mind saw—or wanted to see. Excitement gone. Completely, utterly, decidedly all gone. I spent about a week feeling depressed and doing anything that kept me out of the design/sewing room.

Finally, yesterday morning, I said something like this to Bruce: "I don't know if those designs will look good on me, or if they'll just look like I'm making tents to hide my fat." This made Bruce very sad because, for reasons I could never fathom, he thinks I look fabulous. So he set about cheering me up. He took me shopping for fabrics for my new clothes, and shoes and make-up to wear with them. I even got a hat (because even I have to admit that hats look really good on me; I just don't know what to wear them with, or where.). Now, if you don't believe in shopping therapy, it is a real thing.
No. Actually, I think it's spending-the-entire-day-with-my-husband-who-thinks-I-am-amazing-therapy that's the real pick-me-up).

So, I have determined that I will draw the designs on croquis' so that I won't feel too terribly discouraged by staring at myself for hours on end, and then I will be brave and I will make them. For myself. And when they're done I might even take pictures and post them. So keep an eye open for my new look. Coming Spring 2018.

The Hunchback of Uintah High School

I have to say that when I heard Uintah High was going to do The Hunchback of Notre Dame for their big, grand-scale musical this year, I was less than impressed. But after seeing the show I am soooo impressed that my head might explode!  

The set, from the cathedral to the home-made proscenium to the painted floor, was gorgeous. The lighting and effects were amazing. The music was fantastic.

the amazing set, in the works
You can see the beginnings of the
checkerboard floor in the center of the stage.

I only made two costumes this year—King Louis XI, and Quasimodo. They were as far opposite each other as you can imagine: King Louis gets about one minute of stage time; Quasimodo is the star. King Louis is...the king! And Quasimodo is the hidden-away, barely-cared-for hunchback in the bell tower. Neither costume was very difficult or time-consuming for me to do; the hardest part for me—a designer and maker of formal dresses and women's wear—was to figure out how to make Quasimodo's costume look dirty and worn. (Paint. And sandpaper.) Connor (Quasimodo) was so sweet and so grateful for the little bit of work I did for him that I almost feel guilty for not having done more. The rest of the costume designers—the good ones who didn't procrastinate—started working for this show before Christmas. The costumes, as always, were beautiful.

Clopin, Esmaralda's dancing dress, Phoebus

some of the gypsies/townspeople
There were probably about 40+ of just these dresses (skirts, bodices, corsets, and accessories) made—by volunteers—for this show.

There's my King Louis and Quasimodo.
I think the church vestments, robes, etc.,
were the only ones not made locally.

But, most of all, the kids were incredible!

rehearsals

These talented and dedicated students, under the direction of their fearless leaders , rehearsed five days a week, beginning in January. They went every evening, at first from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., and then put in even longer nights as they get closer to the show (which, at the time, didn't really make this mom very happy). They work like crazy on their show, and they remain excited and enthusiastic about it the entire time. On top of that, they keep up with their schoolwork, and each one of them sells $400 worth of tickets for the show. They are just amazing. And their hard work really paid off: The music was powerful, and the acting was great. Connor Talbot, as Quasimodo, had me in tears after his first number.

Also, they had the cutest gargoyle ever ;-)

Kaylie

THIS SHOW WAS AH-MAY-ZING!!! I can't say enough about it. So, instead, here are a couple of video clips (click on the words, not the pictures):

Heaven's Light and Hellfire

Closing Scene

These videos don't even come close to experiencing the show in the theater. I just wish more of our Salt Lake family and friends could have come to see it. It was truly great.

News From Hungary! vol. 7

I think I'm just going to start skipping the introductions (after today) and go straight to Brandon's letters. I add notes at the end anyway, and I don't know that I'm saying all that much here. ;-)

Subject line: A Scent Caught on the Wind *1

Spring has arrived overnight out here and the feeling of Summer is in the air. Along with all of that I have recieved this influx of memories and sensations that have only come from home. For the past six months, and perhaps longer, I haven't really missed home at all, but now I feel it calling me. *2  "If you find it's me your missing, and your hoping I'll return. To your thoughts I'll soon be listening, in the road I'll stop and turn. Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears its end; and the path I'll be retracing when I'm homeward bound again."
I still have the better part of a year left so don't miss me too much but "when the summer has ceased its gleaming, and the corn is past its prime...I'll be homeward bound in time."  *3

Too much has happened this last week. So, oh jaj, here we go...

Sunday
WOWEE does Elder Seeley know how to work, I am so glad and impressed. I have never thought that I don't work hard, but Elder Seeley really knows how to get things done and I hope to learn a thing or two from him. We went to church yesterday, and after we got back we went out tracting. It really wasn't anything too different or special than what I have usually done, but it was different enough and it was 100% better than what I have usually done. Other than that Sunday was pretty normal. We only had Ica in Church by way of investigators, but she was awesome as usual. *4

Saturday
Just more tracting and a couple of look ups, we are trying to really grow our investigator pool out here in Veszprém, there is only So much Veszprém, but there are something like 60,000 people out here. Speaking of which we gave a referral to the sisters, we were super excited to teach this person but discovered that they were in the Sisters area. Unfortunately they don't want to meet the sisters, so we will have to find some way to get them to do that. We were thinking about teaching a lesson, and haveing the sisters as some kind of "member presence" during which lesson we would have the sisters beging teaching and we elders would just leave it to the Sisters from then on, but we need President Szabadkai's permission to do that. Oh and we started a Sport day kind of thing. We will be trying to get people interested in meeting with the missionaries by first having them play Basketball, Soccer, or something else, and then hearing a spiritual message. Or something like that.

This must be transfer day, and good-bye to Elder Gilson. I will miss all the photos he sends, but hopefully Brandon's new camera will be on the way to Hungary soon. (And hopefully Brandon will have learned from Elder Gilson's example of picture-taking—they were pretty scarce before his camera was stolen.)

Friday
We set up a lesson with affore mentioned investigator, (potiential investigator) and then discovered that we needed to hand them over to the sisters to be taught. We also did weekly planning which was the best one I have had in a long while. This time it didn't go for six hours. I know, that is a lot of hours right, on that topic I talked a lot with mission leaders about what I should do to make it the prescribed 3 hours, and nothing that they said actually ended up shortening anything. But, for some reason doing it with Elder Seeley made it shorter.

Thursday
First District meeting of this new Transfer! It was super good and we made some fantastic District goals. Which are: 
2 baptisms per companionship this transfer, 
2 new progressing investigators,
2 new investigators each week, and 
2 potiential investigators each day.
I am going to try and keep you all updated and we will see how this goes.

Wednesday
Transfers happened, it took all day, but it was pretty good anyway. I enjoy getting to catch up on a lot of my old companions for the transfer.

Tuesday
A tearfull Goodbye for Elder Gilson, we met with a few of our investigators and Elder Gilson was able to say goodbye before the Transfer. *4

Sad Brandon! Farewell, Gilson Elder.

Monday
Going to the Zoo! It was pretty fun, it was super slippery because there was still snow everywhere and it was all packed down. But no one broke any elbows. *5  We got to see this massive Rhinoceros, and Giraffs, and elephants. It was super cool. The Elephants were fighting, and that was kind of scary but also cool to watch. Oh, there were also some seals there, they were so funny. I need to get people to send me pictures and we even got a video of the seals, so I will see about that.

At the zoo. Gilson Elder and the now non-fighting elephants
...and some other exotic animals. ;-)

All right I think that is all, just a sec... *waiting for his return to finish the email

Yep, that was all,
Love you guys!
Brandon.

Actually, I saw a clip of Hunchback of Notredam, It was sooo good. I am so jealous, and I wish I got to be in it. Or at least to see it live. I miss theatre. I miss a lot of things. But one thing that I miss a lot surprisingly, is labor for my own benefit. I love serving others don't get me wrong, but it has been forever since I have done anything for myself. *6
All right, I'm really leaving now.
Love you!


*Mom's notes:

1. Poetic, huh?

2.Uh-oh! Is Brandon already getting "trunky"? I hope not!

3. Homeward Bound is one of the songs that our family sings together around the piano; Brandon is the one who introduced it to us. (You can hear the song here. We sound nothing like the Tabernacle Choir, by the way. ;-) )

4. I am so glad that Brandon has liked all of his companions—he has only ever said good things about any of them.

5. Brandon refers to when I slipped on the ice last year and broke my elbow to bits. I can laugh now, because it's all better—or as good as it will get (which is pretty good!).

6.I sent him a video clip of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, performed by Uintah High School. It was a phenomenal show. If you want to, you can read about it on my next blog entry, here.

News From Hungary! vol. 6

Well, technically this should be Volume 7, because I skipped last week's letter. But I'm not backtracking this time, so I guess I'm not very apologetic. ;-)

This is where Elders North and Gilson have been lately.

Here is Brandon's news for the week:

This is my last week with Elder Gilson, but I will be staying in Veszprém, *1
I am glad about that because I don't really like changing cities, and I have a lot of cool investigators and some super good potential to get more investigators. It also looks like there could be 2 baptisms this transfer. Oh, that reminds me, I am now starting my 7th transfer! This means only five more left, boy does time fly. More and more I find myself just not having enough of it. I can't lie, I will be very happy when my time to go home comes, but I will also be very sad. I have made friends here in Hungary, and there are also some things here in Hungary that just won't be in America. *2
Well, I think it is time to be onto my week.

Yesterday (Monday)
I had a lesson with Ica, it was good, we are now teaching the commandments to her. She has heard of all of them so far and agrees with everything that we have taught. Honestly the most difficult part is making sure that she really does understand. But it seems like she really does. Ica is one of the investigators whom I believe will be baptised this transfer. Other than that we got a Referral, immediately we looked this person up. This is a really interesting situation so I will explain all that I know about it. We heard about this person before on Sunday, but we didn't have name or address. But Monday, we got the address, so we looked them up. Now, on Sunday when we heard about them we were told that these people have a Bible class and that they study out of the Bible with the intent of finding God's true church on the earth. So, when we looked them up we asked about this, they said yes. Well, almost, they didn't say that they are looking for God's true Church on the earth, but that is because we only asked about the Bible Class. So, this Thursday, when they hold this class in session, Elder Seely (my new companion) and I are going to go check it out. If all that I have heard is true, then from what I have heard there is probably going to be somthing like 10-15 new investigators. But we need to make sure that this is all exactly true.

Sunday
Niki came to church! We were so surprised and delighted, and she seemed really happy too. Elder Gilson and I both bore our testimonies in sacrament meeting, and afterwards, though she didn't do it, Niki was telling us that she felt like she wanted to bear her testimony too. So that was all wonderful. The hardest part was that the members all take such good care of our investigators that I can't really interact with them during church. But that isn't so bad because I know that the members are being a huge help, also I won't always be there so it is good that someone else can show my investigators how things work. After church we had to do weekly planning because we weren't able to previously, and that filled the rest of the day.

Saturday
I was finishing with a companion exchange. Nothing really interesting happened in that exchange, but, afterwards was hectic. I was in another city, and the fastest way of travel back to Veszprém from Dunaújváros was by bus. But I was told the wrong time for when my bus would arrive and I missed it. So I had to wait outside in the cold for an hour and a half before the next bus would come. I finally did get on that one, but I accidentaly got off the bus one stop too early. So I had to call the Elders in the second City I was then in, (Székesfehérvár) so that they could help me get to the right bus stop. And by the way my first bus that was supposed to come was at 6:30, and so I got on a bus at 8:02, traveled for about an hour and 15 minutes, then I was lost for about thirty minutes; finally with the help of the other elders I got to my bus and boarded at about 10:05; all for another hour long bus ride. I didn't get home until about 11:30, an hour after I should have been in bed and going to sleep.

Friday
Interviews with President Szabadkai. *3
It went well, not much to say there, after interviews I had a long planner/area book check with the Assistants to the President. (AP's) That also went well, I then because of the second interview thing, missed two trains and didn't get to start my split with the zone leaders until about 6:00.

Thursday
District meeting, Angol Ora (English Class), and MCM in between. For District meeting we had a spiritual message where we thought and shared about what we have learned this last transfer, and afterwards we put on face masks (pictures have been requested) and ate pizza.

Wednesday
Not a whole lot happened, that isn't exactly true, but I can't remember. I think that we may have found a man named Zoltán, we got his phone number so some time we will be planning to meet with him and his family. He said that he is Catholic but he has a mormon friend, and he has spoken with one of the Stake High Counselors.

Tuesday
Met with Niki, oh and we have been doing a game night on Tuesday, it is great because the youth birng their friends and we are able to share spiritual messages with them, we already have one of their friends who wants to start investigating because of this. He will be the Sisters' investigator though.

Monday
We went and...Hung out with the members, I don't really know if anything else all that interesting happened last Monday.

"How does she know you love her? How does she know she's yours?" Well, in answer, it is by the little things that you do every day. And it is the same with investigators as it is with "girls". Not that I have a whole lot of experience showing girls that I love them. I guess that I could say that I am learning how to study the scriptures with real intent. Sometimes we just read the scriptures, but when we study with a purpose in mind, then we will start really learning about the mysteries of God, or in other words, we will find the relevant guidance in our lives that will answer our questions, and bring us closer to our Heavenly Father.
That is all for now.
Love you!
Brandon

*Mom's notes:

1. I am a little sad that Brandon won't be with Elder Gilson any more. I feel like—actually, I did get to know him better than any of Brandon's other companions. But this is because his mother sought me out and friended me on facebook (something I wasn't clever enough to think of myself), so we got to fill in each others' blanks on missionary news each week. But now I know what to do: I will search out Elder Seely's mom and friend her on facebook!

Elder North and Elder Gilson

2. When Brandon says he only has five more transfers, it sounds much shorter than the eight months he actually has left (and even that sounds quicker—although longer, too—than I imagined). I'm glad that he'll be sad to leave—so much better than if he was just biding his time, like counting off a prison sentence. It helps me feel that he is where he should be, doing what he should.

3. We recently got this news from President Szabadkai:

"...the countries of Hungary and Romania will consolidate into a single mission headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. President and Sister Hettinger, currently assigned to the Romania/Moldova mission, will move to Budapest where they will assume responsibilities for the newly consolidated mission upon the regularly scheduled release of President and Sister Szabadkai.

"President and Sister Hettinger are great people, the combined mission will be a powerful source of many blessings for our missionaries and for our peoples. :-)"

Bitter-sweet:  I am a little sad to lose the Szabadkai's—to me they are like Brandon's parents away (far away!) from home. But I'm sure the Hettinger's are wonderful people as well. Exciting things are in store!