Bathroom Talk

This week I have been a seamstress, a decorator, an electrician, almost  a plumber, a cleaner, painter, and a stripper. Of wallpaper.

It all started because I washed our bath mats.

Now, I have washed them before—many times, in fact, in the four or five years we've had them. But this washing was the last straw for them; they completely fell apart. So I had to get new bath mats.

Off to Wal-Mart I went, and bought a lovely bath-mat and shower curtain set. Not that I needed a new shower curtain—I like my white curtain that lets a little light in—but it came with the mats I liked. On the way home I thought I can use the shower curtain to make curtains for the window. Happy thought! I got home and put the mats on the floor and they looked awful! Well, the mats looked really good (the cat thinks they are comfy, too), but they clashed with the rest of the bathroom—which was kind of an abomination anyway.

This is the 80's decor we found when we moved in: Iridescent mauve-ish, vinyl wallpaper (you can see
where a bit peeled off), brass light fixtures... And it only got worse, because I occasionally, over the year we've lived here,
would grab a corner of the wallpaper and peel it off as far
as it would go...and then leave the rest for another day.
Not too clever, I guess.

a scrap of wallpaper that I scanned—
the color isn't completely accurate, but it's close

Well, we needed the bath mats, and I liked them. There was only one thing I could do: paint the bathroom to match the bath set. So I removed the towel bars, the outlet plates, the light fixture, and the shower curtain rod, and started peeling up the rest of the paper.

Let me just say a word about wallpaper: If you are not willing to make a life-time commitment, Don't Do It!!!

Monday:
First of all, I could peel the vinyl off with no trouble, but the paper—which looked like water-stained manila construction paper—stayed behind.

Jessica, peeling off the vinyl

So I doused the wall with water and then used anything I could find—pot-scrapers, spatulas, and even a carpenter's square—to scrape the paper off the wall. This took two days. Two. Whole. Days. And then the floor was covered with scraps of gluey paper (it kind of looked like all the trees in my yard dropped their leaves on the bathroom floor), and there were still little bits of paper stuck here and there on the walls, and the walls were covered with glue.

Lindsey, scraping off paper

I spent another entire day scrubbing glue off the walls. Like I said, just don't do wallpaper.

And here was a problem: How do you remove wallpaper, that requires peeling, scraping, and scrubbing, from behind the toilet?  I have removed and replaced toilets three times in my life; I'm not afraid to do it. But I really didn't want to do it. UGH.

Well, this is where the carpenter's square came in. I sprayed a ton of water behind the tank, and then started scraping with the square. It worked! If I could paint back there in a similar way, we'd be in business.

I made another decision as I was pouring water down my walls:  I had the power turned off, and I looked at our outlets. Neither of them was a GFCI (safety) outlet and, besides that, anything we plugged into them would fall halfway out. This was the time for me to replace them. Playing with the electricity makes me a little nervous, even though I  was the one to turn off the breaker and I  tested it with a nightlight several times. But it was all safe. It was a little difficult (because that is thick, stiff wire!), but I did it. I changed the outlets myself! I also took down the brass light thing and spray-painted it white. Much better!

holding the old outlet (which is also filthy!)
and a sneak preview of the walls—
with the new safety outlet installed

Tuesday:
More stripping and scrubbing.

At last the walls were ready to paint. I decided "Parchment White" and "Rich Navy" would be perfect. I was wrong. But I'll get into that later.

Oh! And on the mirrored wall, under the wallpaper, I found this bit of excitement:

Michael and I were trying to decide how this pattern was done. Stencils?  A stamp? We finally decided it was done with a roller-stamp, in kind of a dark, olive-green.

Wednesday:
So the first thing today was to put primer on the walls—KILZ primer, the fumes of which probably did some permanent brain damage. (The window was open, but still...)

Around dinner time I was able to put on the first coat of "Rich Navy." (By the way, I found a paint roller that is only 1-inch thick, which fit behind the toilet tank nicely. I was not required to be a plumber this week after all.)

first coat—I was horrified

But, the Rich Navy...Oh, man! It looked black. My bathroom was going to look like a cave. As I cleaned up the evening's paint mess I stewed over that navy wall. Finally I decided to cut the remaining paint with some of the Parchment White (which, in the store looked a nice, creamy, off-white. At home it just looked white.). Well, I added about half a cup of Parchment to the remaining Navy, and did the second coat at 10:30 p.m.(when I really should have been in bed) just so I could see how it was going to look. My new color, "Bathroom Blue," was perfect. Whew! So instead of going to bed fretting about the blue wall, I went to bed fretting about the Parchment White.

Thursday:
I had the solution in the morning: If I could cut the blue and make a perfect color, I could tint the white, too. So I went to Lowe's and bought a sample-size of "Tawny Owl" (or something like that). I mixed 24 oz. Parchment with 3/8 cup of Tawny Owl, held my breath, and started painting. It was perfect! After dinner I started removing the painter's tape. (By the way, taping and un-taping the walls might be the worst part of painting. Just so you know.) About halfway around the room I started seeing places that really needed a second coat of "Tawny Parchment," but I told myself that I didn't care; I just wanted to be finished.

With the tape down, it was now time to wash the mirror (which had wallpaper glue streaks dried on it. I'm telling you, just don't do it.), and scrub the bathtub walls which had been exposed in all their old-soapy glory all week. As I was scrubbing the bath I leaned my hand on the Tawny wall, and a spot of paint came off with my wet fingers. >sigh< I decided I'd really better do a second coat. >SIGH<   So at 11:00 p.m. I did another coat of Tawny (I had just enough Tawny Owl to finish the job) and left it to dry while I slept.

Friday:
The paint is perfect! (And, surprisingly, the exact same color as the bathtub tile. Go figure.) So now I had to scrub the sinks, counter, toilet, and floor. And then make the shower curtain into window curtains. Just as I got to the last hem on the curtains my sewing machine decided to take a sabbatical; I can't get it to do anything. Dumb machine! But I did not let that stop me; I finished the hem by hand (because I am clever like that).

before and after  

Here is the finished bathroom:

I'm quite pleased with it!
And I will never put wallpaper on my walls.

News From Hungary! vol. 39

No new pics today.  :-(
This was very nearly two years ago, when Brandon was set apart for his mission. We'll have a repeat soon, when Brandon goes with us to have Ryan set apart.

Pretending

This last little bit of my mission is strange, I often find myself wondering how long until the end of the transfer, and realizing that the end of this transfer is the end of my mission. Usually I pretend that I still have my whole mission ahead of me, but there are times when I am looking forward to all the great things that come with the end of my mission. I don't know, I honestly wish that the end of my mission was something that I was unaware of, and that I wouldn't have to think about it at all until it was actually here. *1 But until the end I guess that I will just go ahead and keep pretending. 


Sunday
Well, I really enjoyed church, it was really good, I am finally at the point where I can really understand what is going on for the duration of the whole three hours. This last Sunday was excellent. Afterwards we went and did a ton of tracting and a little bit of streeting (stopping people and speaking to them in the streets *2). 

Storytime:
We were riding home at night, I and we were going down a gentle but long hill. I had just crossed the street at an intersection and made it safely to the sidewalk and so I began to pick up my speed a little bit. As I did so something caught my attention and I glanced back over my shoulder. Right as I looked over my shoulder the left handlebar of my bike hit a pole and twisted out of my grip. I went flying off of the bike and as I did so my leg hit something. I don't know exactly what happened next but I remember my hands hitting the ground first, then my left shoulder, and finally my head. Lucky for me my head was safe inside my helmet and actually I have come out without a scratch. Almost, I hit my leg pretty hard and it is sore now. I have a slight limp but nothing too serious.
Thank you all for your prayers on my behalf, If it weren't for those prayers and the hand of God, then I could be dead right now. I honestly for a second thought that my helmet and head broke, but the fact that all I have is a nasty bruise on my leg is to me enough proof that God saved my life last night, and not only saved my life, but preserved my body enough to continue working hard for the rest of my mission. *3

Saturday
After such an interesting Sunday it is sad, but probably good, that all I can say for Saturday is that we did a lot of tracting, and looked up a couple of people.

Friday
We had an excellent District meeting. I don't remember what it was that I had originally planned, but we ended up talking about planning, faith, and carrying out those plans. I know that we had the spirit there to inspire us, and that I at least know better how to do missionary work. If only I knew two years ago. (That long?!)  Then we went out tracting.

Thursday
We did a ton of Look Ups. And we found one person who was really interested in meeting with us again. I am not really sure how interested, she is in the gospel, but it is something that we can work with and I intend to try and meet at least once more before deciding whether we ought to meet frequently with this person. The teaching record suggests that I shouldn't, but hey what do I know but that this woman now is ready to accept the gospel.

Wednesday
It was a Zone Conference day! And it was pretty exhausting. I spent pretty much the entire day in Budapest. And then came home in time for pretty much nothing. I had to walk from the train station to my apartment, and by the time we made it back and dropped off our stuff it was too late to really do any kind of finding activity. So we sent a text to our investigators.

Tuesday
I actually really don't remember what it was exactly that we did. So probably streeting, tracting, and anticipating Zone Conference.

I do know who Sister Hopwood is. I also know who Elder Castellano is. I have actually been in the same district as Elder Castellano, he is quiet, but pretty funny if you are listening for the things that he has to say. *4
I don't really know what else to say.

Love you all!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. I once wrote a paper about this in high school: If kids didn't know when the last day of school was, they would work harder the whole time instead of slacking off at the end. It's funny that Brandon should express the same idea.

2. That's what I thought streeting was, but I never remembered to ask him until this past week.

3. Michael saw Brandon's email before I did. He said it was really interesting this time and I said, "What? Was he in a car accident or something?" Close—and not particularly the kind of news I want to hear. I'm glad he's OK!

4. Bruce went to church in Greeley, CO and saw the stake map of missionaries who are out. Sister Hopwood and Elder Castellano (who, obviously, are serving in the same mission as Brandon) caught his attention. Not only that, but Greeley, CO also has a missionary serving in Gilbert, AZ, which is where Ryan will be headed. :-)  Small world!

News From Hungary! vol. 38

It was good to hear from Brandon this morning—better than usual, and it's usually pretty good. But his email was a good pick-me-up today.

Sitting at our best table in the apartment, just for this picture.

Well!

There was a baptism! And it was awesome! I actually didn't get to be there because it was super far away. I would have had to travel for eight hours. Four hours there, and then four hours back, and then in addition it there would have been all of the time that I actually spent doing things. But in spite of the not getting to go to the baptism, I got to talk to my friend. (Andrea who I taught last transfer) and she was so happy, I am so glad to know that my efforts helped her to come to the decision to be baptized.  

I did a ton of tracting and streeting. I have four people whom I teach, and I have actually only met one of them once in a total of three weeks. But in spite of that I am happy, I have a great companion, we are working hard, and I have felt the spirit as we have worked together. I know that God has seen and accepted our efforts thus far, and I intend to continue to give my best efforts through the end.  *1

That's right, I am a rebel.

Sunday
We did a ton of streeting and tracting. Both of which were seemingly unfruitful, but then we found one person who said that we could come back on Tuesday this week to teach them. So I am excited for that. 

Posing for the camera.

Saturday
Andrea got baptized, and I had the opportunity to help a member move the furniture in her mother's apartment so that it could be painted. In doing so I got to meet with the member's non member husband Zsolt. He is such a good guy, really nice and respectful. But he isn't too interested in learning about the gospel right now.

Friday
Once again lots of streeting and tracting. We had our district meeting which was good, and that is really all.

Posing again for the camera.

Thursday
We did our weekly planning, and then streeted for the larger portion of the day, once the streets began to be more empty we went to do some tracting instead.

Wednesday
We did a lot of tracting, that is really all.

Tuesday
We just did a ton of streeting. That is all.

A map that I have been drawing my whole mission basically. You can see my companion's feet there at the top.

Rusz Elder  *2

Wow, what a boring week. But don't worry, I am doing great. Even with a less eventful week. And all of that work is going to pay off I'm sure. We already have some people who we are going to go back to to teach. And in the middle of this week we have a Zone conference. So I believe that this week will be one of the better ones in the transfer. 

The streets out here in the midst of the houses is quite different. Especially in the evening hours. The air is thick with smoke from peoples fires, and the air is chilly. The lamps out here are all a yellow orange, and the light shining through the smoke gives everything a surreal medieval feeling. There are a lot of black or other dark colored cats out here and they are always prowling around at this time of night. The only things that really ruin the effect are the cars parked everywhere, the electric lamps, and the sound of the nearby highways which are just audible in the dead silent that takes place on those streets after sundown. *3

Well that is all. I will send pictures in a separate email.
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. I really think that Brandon has grown a lot. This makes me happy.

2. Brandon did not take this picture; I swiped it from the facebook mission page. I'm also happy to hear about his "awesome companion." Brandon has liked all of his companions, I think. That makes me happy too.

3. You could almost paint a picture from this description. :-)

News From Hungary! vol. 37

A good, good email today! :-)

The moon rising over one of the Churches out here.
It looked even better in real life.

Flying High

And as long as I don't get too close to the Sun then I think that I should be fine. *1

This last week was really awesome. I went on splits in Győr, that alone was super cool. I have only ever been to Győr on splits, but that was almost two years ago now. I honestly never thought that I would ever see that city again on my mission. And then the split itself was really good, it gave me a really good boost and extra motivation to really make this transfer be the best one of my mission. That energy has only gone up due to the awesome work that we have been doing, and also because of General Conference. Actually, after General Conference, I found myself wishing that I could have another year or two for my mission, just to see how these revelations in the church will change things. But I guess that I will just have to be happy with the amount of time that I have been given. Also, there is a lot that I will have to do when I go home. I guess that being a full time missionary just isn't meant for my whole life. *2

Now, Here is my week.

Sunday
I watched conference almost all day, we went streeting between some of the sessions, but mostly we just watched conference. We had one investigator who was able to watch one of the sessions, and we were able to meet with and teach one other investigator. Other than that it was just really good to be able to watch and listen to the prophet. I must say that the things that President Nelson has said and taught have had a greater effect on me than anything said or taught by any of the other apostles in the past year. I know that he is The Prophet of God. And I fully support and sustain him in that calling. My favorite talk was the one about the name of the Church. I still haven't seen, heard, or read the Sunday Afternoon, and I have no clear idea about the Saturday morning session (it was in Hungarian and they talk too darn fast for me).

I Just really love the way these lamps look, they are only in a couple of places, but they are super cool
and I love them.

Saturday
We did a lot of tracting and streeting before Conference. I have to watch the morning session in the afternoon so those were the activities we did to prepare to listen to the prophet. I generally understood what was spoken about, but I couldn't take notes because the effort of writing something down was enough to distract me from what was being said, and then I was completely lost for the next couple of seconds. So I don't really know too much about it all. But I did catch onto the shorter Church on Sunday.

Friday
I don't think that you all know about this, but a while back President Hettinger made some standards of  Excellence for the mission. Those are

• Speak the mission Language at all times outside of your apartment.
• Have at least one meaningful member contact daily.
• Contact all of your Friends/people you teach daily.
• Find two new friends/people to teach daily.
• Have 10 meaningful conversations daily.

And Elder Rusz and I did it, not only did we do it, but we exceeded it. This was largely due to the great effort and care of my amazing companion, but I did my best to help us achieve this goal, and you know what? I think that I am going to Keep on Striving to Be Excellent.
Oh, and we had a District meeting that day. *3

Thursday
We did our weekly planning, then we met with and taught a recent convert, and then had another meeting with a potential friend (is that right?). And afterwards we taught an English Class, and it was all awesome. Between each of our activities we did some streeting.

I don't know if I ever told you all, but Elder Hess really loves cars, and even built a really nice car of his own. But anyway, I saw this chained and locked to this fence, and I just had to take a picture.  *4

Wednesday
The whole day was spent in Győr. Well almost, I went with one of my Zone Leaders to teach a lesson to someone in a Falu (small town (like really small, we're talking like 20-30 houses)) It was a great lesson and the Zone leaders will be going back to that person to teach them more about the gospel. Otherwise we streeted the whole time.

This is a Crypt, I didn't know that I was standing over an ancient mass grave when I took this picture.

Tuesday
We basically just streeted for a long time before we needed to catch a bus for a 2 hour bus ride into Győr. 

And that was my week last week. Hmm, I feel like there was something else that I wanted to say. But I guess it will have to wait until next week. We'll see if I remember it.

Love you!

Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Icarus

2. This paragraph makes me happy because he sounds so happy. I'm glad he won't be on a mission in Hungary for his whole life.

3. Yep. Just makes me happy. Also, "we had a District meeting" is only an afterthought. Hehe.

4. What is this?

He will be home in five weeks, three days, and about six hours...not that I'm counting or anything. ;-)

News From Hungary! vol. 36

Well, sometimes Brandon forgets to tell me about the little things...

at an Italian restaurant

The Things I Forgot

The big thing I forgot was to tell you all that I left Debrecen. I am now in Székesfehérvár, I think that I forgot the other things that I forgot. *1

"Leaving behind my best friend in the mission, Elder Hess. (I only just now realized that I am not wearing my glasses in the picture.)"

I am now serving with Elder Rusz. He is actually Hungarian, which means that as far as doing things in this country goes, he actually knows what he is doing. I miss Elder Hess, I will admit that after spending so much time with him I was starting to think that maybe I was getting tired of him, but now that he is gone I kind of wish that I had him back.

So my investigator who was getting Baptized. There was a lot of discussion about that over all of last week, and after much consideration it was decided to move it to the 13th of October. But she is still getting baptized. I don't think that I will be able to be there because that would be something like 8 hours of travel for me to go to Debrecen and come back again, and there will also be a baptism here in Székesfehérvár on the 13th. Kind of a bittersweet thing there. *2


Here is my week,

Sunday
We had church, and then we went and did a ton of tracting, it was a sad tracting session, with many interruptions because I am a district leader again, and that means that half of Sunday is taken by phone calls with various people. Oh! In church we had Neli (Kornelia) who is the one that is getting baptized on October 13th! I am super excited for her, I have pretty much taught her nothing, but I will have taught more by that time. And then in the world of numbers I can say that I participated in the teaching of two souls who then got baptized. I have taught her one lesson, about missionary work and service, and that was Sunday evening. *3

Saturday
I did a lot of tracting, this was the day where I started to realize that with 10 different churches out here in a city of 100,000 people, it is pretty unappealing when someone comes to your door and says, "Hi, my friend and I brought a spiritual message-" that is about all that you can get out because as soon as they realize that you are a missionary of some kind, they immediately start closing the door. (We are going to figure something out though.)

"The Lasagna I ate at the Italian restaurant.
It was really good, but not as good as what you make at home mom." *4

Friday
Well, more of the same old Tracting and Streeting. Streeting is a little better than tracting, but I think that it is just because people don't feel like they can be as rude in public as they can be in private. But on a different note, we have bikes here in Fehérvár (the nickname of this city) which means that I regularly get to ride a bike. We also had a District meeting. My district consists of, Sisers Grames, Aros, Shepherd, and Reynolds. And my companion and I are the only Elders.

Thursday
Weekly planning! Tracting! Streeting! That is all.

Wednesday
Super long train rides, moving lots of heavy bags, getting moved into my apartment here in Fehérvár.

And that is really all.

Elder Rusz  *5

Elder Rusz is an amazing artist. I really don't know what more to say than that. Maybe I will take a picture of his work and send it to you. Speaking of pictures, I took some this week, I will send them in a separate email.

Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Little things, like he's not in the same city any more...

2. It's too bad he couldn't be there for Andrea's baptism...

3. but it's nice that he will get to be part of Neli's baptism.

4. :-) Well, that makes me happy!
Brandon hasn't sent me home very many food pictures, but when he has, none of it has been Hungarian food! A photo of him eating at an American restaurant, an onion, and now lasagna from an Italian restaurant... Funny kid!

5. If I understand the Hungarian language at all, then you pronounce his name "Roosh." Rusz Elder.

That's it for today!