Guess who came for dinner?

Now that mom is all excited about Hungarian cowboys (csikós--or "cheekoash"), here are some tricks she wants to teach our horses when we get home. I don't think we can do the first one until we have 5 horses the same size.

This is a handy way to have a seat when out in the middle of nowhere.

Here's a good trick when you need to be a little bit taller to reach something.

Ready for an afternoon nap when you don't want to sleep on the ground? It might be warmer if it is cold.

Standing on the horse's back makes you a little bit higher.

Of course, getting the horse in the sitting position makes it so...

you have something to lead against when you are tired and want to sit down and relax.

Of course, once you become pals with your horse and teach him all these tricks, who knows who might sit down and join you at the dinner table!

Watch the young csikós below put this into action so you can see how they crack the whip the whole time. They used the whip not just to keep control over the animals they were herding but as a signaling device over long distances, much like Morse code in telegraph days. Different numbers of cracks in sequence meant different things. Of course the horses had to be trained to ignore the sounds.

Hungarians and Turks at Sümeg

As you know, the Turks invaded Hungary in the 1500s and ruled two thirds of the country for about 150 years. This is the castle at Sümeg, about an hour south of Sopron. Because of its location on a solid rock hill, it was never captured by the Turks and today is the best preserved of Hungarian castles. Our ancestor King Bela IV lived here for a short time in the 1200s, so you can see that the castle has been here for a long time.

The castle has a display showing how the Turks tried to invade the castle in 1664. If you look closely, you can see the ladders they are carrying.

The castle also has a display of the types of torture and punishment that were common in those days. Burning at the stake, beheading, hanging, beating with clubs full of nails, and suspending people from the ceiling are illustrated here.

When the castle is lit up at night, you have no reminders of its battle worn past.

Mom's Green Thumb

We told you how mom has encouraged everyone to have a garden. Our balcony garden is producing lots of tomatoes. Here mom his showing off her topsy turvy tomato that has been loaded with yellow tomatoes.

Esterhazy update

Is this the missionaries tracting in a richer part of town? No, we just took them to see the progress being made on restoring the famous Esterhazy Palace in Fertöd.

The roof and the front and back have been repainted and repaired, though some of the windows and ironwork on the railings still need some work.


The fountains in the courtyard are now repaired and spurting water.



There is still a lot of work being done on the inside. Every time we go, the tour route is different as different sections are closed off for repair. The Esterhazys loved to collect clocks. In the latest tour we didn't see many of them but this clock is one of my favorites. Can you figure out how it tells you what time it is?

The biggest change so far is that half of the grand ballroom has been restored. Here is part of the ceiling with the horses that are supposed to look like they are heading towards you no matter where you are standing.

How do you like the detail in the corner of the ceiling? Be sure to click on it to see the detail. Can you see why it is taking so long to restore the room?

Even the doorways are filled with details.

It looks like the elders enjoyed the tour.

Need to boost your faith?

You all know that Christ said that if you just have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can accomplish anything. Well, we figure that mustard seeds are a bit hard to handle in todays world. So how about some "faith cream" made of mustard. If you look closely, you can see a couple of mustard seeds to give extra power. There are even a couple of scriptures endorsing the product (Matthew 17:20 and Hebrews 11:6).

Caroly and I give these with a song and a hug to members and investigators who need a faith boost to pay their tithing, obey the word of wisdom, attend church, or otherwise keep the commandments.

Amber Road

The amber road was an important trading route in Roman times connecting Rome with the Baltic Sea in Poland. The Romans traded their wines, pottery,and iron works for amber, furs, and other products from the "barbarians" outside their realm. Sopron was one of the last stops before the route crossed the Danube, the outer boundary of Rome.

This summer in the main square they have a replica of a trading wagon that Rome would use to transport goods on the amber road. It looks much like a stage coach from the wild west. The sides are made of leather. The replica was created in Germany based on historical descriptions and archeological finds from Poland.

Hungarian or German?

Sopron is surrounded by Austria. We live three miles from the border. A third of the cars on the streets and in the parking lots are from Austria and you hear about as much German on the streets as Hungarian. The shopkeepers think I look like an Austrian and talk to me first in German. I even teach a beginning German conversation class at church. So as you can see below, we are prepared to teach in Hungarian or German.

Where are they going?

On this beautiful sunny day why are all these enthusiastic missionaries on castle hill in Budapest?

Are they here to look at all the beautiful flowers,

to get a better view of the Danube and the Hungarian parliament,

or to play with the children in the fountains?

Maybe they are bird watching,


or are looking for interesting door handles.


Maybe they want to catch and ride horses...


so they can join some Hungarian friends to gather food for a wild beast feast like we do in Florida.

Maybe they are out to clothe the naked...

and save souls cemented in sin.

Actually, they are on their way to the Hungarian National Gallery to see a special exhibit on the life of Christ by the famous Hungarian artist Munkácsy--the mission cultural activity for the August zone conference.

Pionírnap

The branch hadn't heard of pioneer day so we thought that for the Elder's Quorum activity this month we'd do some pioneer day activities since both Caroly's and my ancestors pulled handcarts across the plains. Of course, we couldn't find handcarts for a nice pull.

However, we made some nice bonnets and cowboy scarfs. Don't our Hungarian pioneers look great?

We pretended we had taken a lunch break from pulling our carts to first have a stick pull...

and then play pick up sticks.

How's this for an action shot of a wheelbarrow race?

It stopped raining long enough for a tug of war...

a three legged race (on closer inspection I think the winners cheated!)...

a watermelon seed spitting contest (the women said "I don't spit.")...

and an egg on a spoon race.

The cook said the pioneer food was ready so we went back to the chapel and chowed down on white bean soup and bread and milk with blueberries and currents--all pioneer favorites according to our consultant Aunt Gwen.

New Missionary

There's our new missionary Elder Beaumont from Canada on the right being treated to McDonald's hamburgers with his companion Elder Wright from Utah. We got a special coupon the last time we got gas and knew the missionaries would enjoy all this food more than we would.