The only time we can rent the spa pool for baptisms is 9 at night so only about a third the branch made it on this cold night when public transportation is shutting down.
When we got to Gizi néni's apartment complex at 10:30, she invited everyone in the car to come up for a quick visit. Since we are trying to get the members to visit each other and form lasting friendshops by interacting more outside of church, we accepted. I figure that if they look at each other as friends, they will look at home teaching and visiting teaching as fun visits with friends rather than a "duty" that you hate to do.
Gizi néni brought out the "kiddie champaigne" (bubbly pear juice). When I couldn't get the cork off, the comment was "I can tell you don't drink!"
Then she brought out the traditional Hungarian kolbasz (sausage) and a huge machete-like knife. The Hungarian way is for the guest (I was the first) to hold on to the end of the kolbasz, while the host whacks off a huge piece in mid air with one quick blow, much like a pirate whacking off someone's arm--or like Ammon whacking off arms in the Book of Mormon. If you click on the picture for a close up, you can see Gizi néni holding the kolbasz and machete girl Caroly holding the knife. Believe me, it was a scary experience!
Here I'm demonstrating how to eat your chunk of kolbasz, alternating with a bit of bread.
My excuse for cutting the fun time short at about midnight was "Gizi néni, I'm the branch president. I HAVE to be at church early tomorrow morning and I expect all of you to be there too."
They were all there, still giggling about the fun time we had together, the first time they had ever visited each other at home.
That is a great event! Most Branches would greatly improve with more inter member communication! Way to go!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun, and delicious too. (:
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to checking it all out on a few weeks!