The one thing that was lacking in our lives was a place to sit. Sometime before Christmas, our friends Richard and Etta took us shopping. We told them that we wanted "cheap" as we would be leaving it behind eventually. Etta took us to a used furniture store and we found these lovely couches. And the best part - the man said that if there were no cigarette holes in them he would buy them back when we left. And they fit the bill for amazingly cheap. So we arranged to have them delivered. I had to wash them a few times as they had this faint aura of cigarettes, but it wasn't bad for anything from Hungary, where people smoke a lot! They look like something from your first University apartment but we love them and the couch even has a bed in it! We are living the good life.
A Christmas in the missionfield. How much fun is this. It was a great season. Sopron is decked out with a lot of lights. It turned very cold! not as cold as Utah but then the moisture in the air is brutal! This is the Fire Tower in the Central Square. It is beautiful all the time but with lights it is really a great sight. this has been one of the first times I have wished for our good camera as night shots are not so good with my pocket point-and-shoot. The Chrsitmas tree went up on the main street and this is the advent calendar. Each night a group of children would come a perform and they would turn over a number to see the picture below.
They opened a lot of booths along the main street selling food and Christmas gifts. I especially like this vendor who was selling Christmas Tree Bulbs. You could find stalls like this all over the city. There was also vendors sending assortments of Christmas Wrap the same way, by the sheet. This fellow is making a traditional Christmas Bread. You can see it grilling on the coals in the front. It is very good and after it is cooked they dip it in honey or nuts or both. Bruce gave me a beautiful hand knitted sweater and he got a big picture book of Sopron. We had friends to dinner and enjoyed ourselves very much. Only thing that would have made it better is if I could have kissed my Grandkids!
Now of course, Thanksgiving is not a traditional holiday. There are not pilgrims and indians to dress up like and no stories of how the indians saved our necks. (We repaid them so well too) But for the missionaries, this is a super pday, a whole day with no missionary attire!
They always have a big Thanksgiving fete up in Budapest for the missionaries in that Zone, so I decided that our missionaries should have something as well. We did the whole thing, thanks to packages from home. But I am still a lousy pie maker. These two cute girls are our sisters in Szombathely. The elders were happy to eat anything I put in front of them but the mash potatoes with turkey gravy was the real essence of the meal for them.
The first part of December I decided that Hungary was not such a bad place in winter. It was cold but not as cold as Utah. We were going on our walks every morning except when it was raining too hard or blowing too hard. When the wind blows in sopron it really can push you over. And I am a fair weather walker so I wasn't much for that. But on the whole, the weather was okay and we only had 2 mornings we had to scrape car windows. And best of all, there are still flowers. These pictures were taken about Dec 7 or 8th. Not too bad. There are beautiful pots of pansys everywhere. It's not Hawaii but I decided that I could do it. None of this 3 feet of snow that I had been led to expect.
Here in Hungary, Halloween is not a traditional holiday. But as with all things American, the kids are really picking it up. And so we had a Halloween party at the branch and invited all of our English Class students and investigators and, of course, all of the members.
But getting ready for such an event is no small effort without a Pumpkin Walk committee to help. I made dozens of sugar cookies for people to decorate. They really liked this and everyone wanted to know how to make icing. I looked for cookie cutters but they don't use them here, so I settled for round cookies. We made chili for a small supper. Making chili for 50 in a kitchen too small for two is a neat trick. I would have given a lot for my big stew pot at home. Instead we used one small crock pot, two small pans and two large bowls. These pictures really don't do justice to the mess that reigned in my tiny kitchen. There is just a tiny space to work on and nowhere to set anything down. But the good thing about little - it cleans up quickly! Our church kitchen has only 2 cook units so warming up was a slow process!
We played Halloween bingo in one room. It took me two days to manufacture the bingo cards and they are now safely stored for next year. Sorry about the quality of the picture, but you get the idea. I was amazed how much they liked this game. Most had never played it before. We carved pumpkins. I hate carving pumpkins but they liked it a lot and all took home their pumpkin with a candle. This weekend is Day of the Dead, which amounts to Memorial Day and so the graveyards are full of candles. So they like the thought of a candle on their doorstep. And here I am. The Wicked Witch of the East. They all liked my necklace which had little ghosts that twinkled on and off. The four elders dressed as the Madagascan penguins. They were a big hit.
But the great thing was that we had almost 50 people there and more were nonmembers than members. . A little bit of gospel was shared and a lot of friendship and friends of the church are awfully important for us here. It seemed to be a big hit. We have never had that many people in our building I am sure. And while I was playing the "witch" in one room, Elder Hintze was in the hall preaching the first discussion with everything that was in him. Somebody had asked about all the pictures on the wall and that was all the lead in he needed.
General conference in the Mission Field can be a lot of fun. We got our translated disks of the Hungarian during the week and on the weekend, we had conference just like everyone else except we had a wonderful meal on Saturday and Sunday between sessions. On Sunday we had 24 watching conference, 4 of whom were investigators.
We finally found a clear day to get some pictures from the observation tower. If you are interested in seeing more you can see my web album where I am downloading them. http://picasaweb.google.com/karenchaslem
Bruce and Karen Haslem are serving a mission in the wheelchair initiative for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They will be serving as service missionaries in the Quezon City mission in the Philippines. This blog will help us keep in touch with all our friends and family and let you in on what we're doing with our time away.
