Summer Camp

Do these look like desperate hands reaching out for help? Actually, it is a monument to the 1956 Hungarian revolution against the Russian occupation. However, I thought it was an appropriate symbol for the phone call we got on Thursday from the organizers for the all Hungary LDS Youth Camp. One of their presenters had to drop out for a funeral and they asked us to substitute. Since two of our youth in Sopron would be there, they said we could bring them up Tuesday, spend the night, and then have fun giving a presentation to four groups on Wednesday.

Saturday night we got our theme: the first part of the 13th Article of Faith: "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous."

On Tuesday at 8 we picked up Kiki and Bianka, set our GPS for Kóspallag in the woods north of Budapest on the other side of the Danube and started out. The GPS decided to take us on a scenic shortcut along the border with Slovakia. As we were driving along the Danube, the GPS said, "turn left," and about 1 kilometer later "board ferry."

Can you see a ferry anywhere? Kiki thought he might swim across and find one for us.

Half an hour later the ferry arrived and we crossed over.


Finally we arrived at the camp after a four hour trip.

We were greeted by the camp counselors doing a dance. Sorry that the music isn't louder.

This was the largest camp they have ever had. Counting the counselors, there were over 120 there.


Here Kiki is showing off his new shirt and meal pass.

His sister Bianka looks like she is having a good time too.

How about Öcsi, our counselor from Sopron?

Here are the four presenters for the sessions on the 13th Article of Faith. Sisters Tedd and Farkas, President Takacs of the Szombathely district and me. Caroly and I were the only missionaries there. This "all Hungarian" means what it says.

Since most of the kids are the only members in their school, or maybe the only youth their age in their branch or ward, Caroly and I decided to focus on the power of ONE. They first took turns pulling objects out of a bag and as a group brainstormed how they could use the object to change the world, or at least make the world and people around them more pleasant. The objects were a frisbee, a match, a Book of Mormon, a food storage container that they use here to deliver meals, a hammer, a bar of soap, a toothbrush, a pen and a measuring tape. We then talked about how not only can one object make the world a better place, but one person can do the same thing by following the words of the first part of the article of faith. We showed pictures of some of our children and grandchildren and told how their good examples to their peers of this first part of the 13th Article of Faith have changed the lives of others. At the end we showed a picture of the Savior and reminded everyone that he was just one person too. Everyone got a badge with the powerful ONE that I am holding.

Standing next to me is Oliver, the director of the camp, who was our emergency live dictionary for when my Hungarian failed since I hadn't had time to think out everything in Hungarian. I did make it through about three fourths of the presentation.

As a reward for good effort, they invited us to join them for lunch. This should remind our kids of the school lunches they had in Pecs when we lived there in 1990--noodles covered with sugar with a choice of ground chocolate, nuts, or poppy seed. Mom chose the nuts, I the poppy seed.


On our way home, the GPS took us on another creative route, down a muddy road past this horse stable. Of course, mom didn't complain a bit. She said the horse looks like our Monty.