Three little pigs?

Does it look like I'm helping the three little pigs build their house of straw?


Actually, that's the thatching for a traditional Hungarian roof. I don't think the big bad wolf will blow this house down!


How do you like the cute little topping? That's what we like about the Hungarians--always a special touch to their houses.


How do you like this special topping?

Car wash at 33º

I like a clean car. Where we live, the traffic splashes mud and dirty water on the car as it passes by. I've been waiting for a warm day so I could wash the car.

Today it got up to 33. That's above freezing, isn't it? Well, I took out my bucket of water and some rags and got busy. However, the rinse water turned to ice almost as soon as it hit the car. Here I am trying to get the ice off the window so I can drive. No luck. The car does look great though. We were in a hurry, so rather than wait for the car to thaw out, we used our passes and took the bus.

LDS Charities

You might wonder what fast offerings and donations to the LDS Humanitarian Fund go for. A member of our branch, Andi, one of our original members and the original relief society president, whose son is on a mission, has an advancing case of muscular dystrophy and needed a new wheelchair. The one provided by the Hungarian government was too small.

Here her husband Istvan, just released as our elder's quorum president, is showing her off in her new larger wheel chair provided by LDS charities. The church just sent to Hungary several hundred wheelchairs to distribute to needy people. Sister Baughman, the mission president's wife, saved out five for members and we were lucky to get this one.

When sister Bordas heard she was getting a new chair, she was so excited that she came to church for the first time in over a year last Sunday--a major effort since we don't have an elevator and a team of four men had to carry her up two flights of stairs to the third floor where our chapel is (about 50 steps).

Friendly feeds

You know that Thompsons believe in Southern Hospitality, and that means having fun feeding people. Here we are hosting the new mission office couple, the Bagozzis. They spoke in our branch on Sunday. Since this is supposed to be an action shot, Elder Bagozzi is showing how to eat cream of garlic soup out of a bread bowl.

The Révész family (he's my counselor and she's the relief society president) were over for family home evening. We started out with our Cuban favorites, black beans and rice, fried bananas, picadillo and Cuban sandwiches. Of course, to get them in the right mood, they had to show that they could shake their hips just right to Cuban salsa music and show some body action. We told them that sets the stage so Heavenly Father will know that the blessing on the food will be in Spanish rather than Hungarian. Mom and Dad aren't doing too bad with the body action here. Eleven year old son Kiki was so embarrassed that he hid behind his sister for the picture. Big sister and little sister at least tried. You say I have my work cut out for me to liven up the teenagers a bit this coming year?

Learning English through action songs.

One of our branch members is training to be a kindergarten English teacher. She invited us to come teach English action songs in two of the classes she observes.

Here are the kids all arriving at the school at 7:45 not far from where we live.

We taught this cute bunch of kindergartners "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes." The next class was two years older. They already knew most of the songs we planned to teach but they didn't know yet "Are you sleeping?" We showed them how to do it as a round, though a couple of the kids looked like they might fall asleep doing the "sleeping" action.

The school was so fun. It reminded us of when our kids were in school in Pécs Hungary in 1990. The kindergarten room had cute little sinks with their tooth brushes. The second graders had a snack of milk and bread when we got there. And Chrissy, this will bring back memories, when we finished, it was time for recess to they all stripped down to their underwear in class to put on their "get dirty" clothes to play outside.

We had so much fun--the teachers are just as kind and wonderful as they were 20 years ago. Sorry we didn't get a picture of the second class, but we were having so much fun we didn't get around to it.

Spelling problems?

Shouldn't that be spelled M O R O N I ?

FHE fun!

Isn't mom getting good at making fancy table settings? This is for one of our weekly family nights with members of the branch where we remind them how much fun you can have on Monday night with your family. It's also a good time for us to practice our Hungarian. This week we had the Joó family over. He's my clerk and she's my primary president.


Sister Joó is a fantastic cook who likes to learn fun foreign recipes. This week we had a family favorite that we learned in Mexico--Volcanoes--the build it yourself meal that is so fun for kids. This mountain of refried beans for dirt, hamburger for rocks, lettuce for grass, shredded cheese for sticks and salsa for fire, didn't get very tall on the homemade tortilla world and Julia did forget to put the sour cream for snow on top but the egg is ready to run down the mountainside like hot lava.


Here we are playing a fun word game where each team has to spell Hungarian words laid out like a crossword puzzle before the sand runs out on the egg timer. It's kind of like Scrabble except each team has to spell out as many words as it can when it gets a turn. Sister Joó and her daughter won by one point.

On a clear day you can see ...?

Switzerland?

Elder Viborny, tell your Swiss companion Elder Müller it's a false alarm. Those are the Austrian Alps just outside of Sopron.


Good job at catching him as he steps across the border to Austria.

Visit to Tata

Today was apartment inspection day. The apartments furthest away from Sopron were in Tatabanya, on the outskirts of Budapest and about a three hour drive from our home. On the way back we stopped at the quaint tourist town Tata, built around a popular fishing lake. Here you can see the reflection of their famous castle. The original with four towers was built some 600 years ago but was destroyed when the Turks invaded the area. What you see here is the one tower and the knights hall that were rebuild a bit more than 200 years ago.

It now sits in a beautiful park with paths stretching around the lake that were filled with joggers, strollers, and bikers even on this cold January day that was threatening snow. There were statues everywhere for people to enjoy. Mom especially liked this one of a woman named Diana. It's the only statue we've found of a woman on a horse.

This bugler is mourning for the citizens of Tata who were killed in the First World War. As we mentioned in an earlier blog, the Hungarians feel that they were the unjustified victims in this war that reduced their country to a fraction of its size.

Here's an artistic shot of John the Baptist getting ready to climb into the lake. The water looks like it has a bit of ice on it, so he probably should put on a few more clothes.

Does it look like I'm getting good vibes from our walk-about or am I just playing a game of patty-cake?

Mom says I'm going to break a leg trying to get into the right position to take a photo.

But I thought this picture of a mill wheel was worth the risk.

Here are some more water wheels at an abandoned mill. The mill is for sale. It might make an interesting inn or restaurant for the tourists. There are quaint hotels and restaurants everywhere in this tourist district so business should be good in the summertime.

I'll just sit here for awhile in the park and think about the possibilities.

Feeding Rozsi neni and Gizi neni

We've showed you the "spiritual ping pong" approach to doing missionary work. How about "spiritual banana pudding"? For the first course Rozsi neni and Gizi neni are enjoying roasted potatoes, carrots, and roasted chicken with Caroly. Gizi neni is the member missionary helping us to fellowship Rozsi neni. She'll be baptized soon. Both are in their late 80's. You put "neni" (auntie) after the name of old women as a term of endearment--they insist on it.

Do we look spiritual with our delicious Florida "dinner on the grounds" style banana pudding? Even Bambi had to join us in the picture. Rozsi neni brings him to church since she doesn't want to leave him at home that long. Gizi neni didn't bring her Waldi. A neighbor took care of him.

Sárvár--Nádasdy Castle

For this cultural excursion we traveled about one hour towards Lake Balaton to Sárvár to see the castle. This is the bridge over what used to be the moat.

It was getting close to closing time, but I kept the gate open so we could get in.

This was the castle of a Protestant count. Here the Protestant presses produced the first books in Hungarian in the early 1600's.

The knight's hall has paintings on the ceilings depicting various battles with the Turks as they invaded and occupied Hungary in the 1500's and 1600's. Count Nádasdy, the owner of this castle was one of the heroes who slowed their advance.

On the walls are pictures of Old Testament stories. This one is of Abraham sacrificing his son.

The other rooms have paintings on the walls too. Even the picture frames are just part of the paintings.

The wall paneling under this painting is not wood at all. It's just part of the painting

The porcelain dishes were interesting too. Some of the plates told a story when you laid them out. Perhaps you can see how these tell of hunting a deer--from trapping it to killing it.

This silver cream pitcher reminds me of the horse and the alligator pitchers that Chrissy and Debbie made in their ceramics class.

Perhaps the most famous or infamous former inhabitant of this castle was the "Blood Countess" Erzsébet Báthory, sometimes known as Countess Dracula. When her husband was away fighting Turks, she thought she discovered that when she bathed herself with the blood of young maidens, it kept her skin young. After her husband died, she had a team of procurers keep her supplied with virgins so she could drain their blood and shower and bathe in it. After more than 650 maidens disappeared in the surrounding countryside over the next six years, people got suspicious. A relative investigated, and discovered what was happening. After her trial, her accomplices were executed, but to "protect the family name" she was cemented into a dungeon with just an opening to give her food until she died four years later. They hid the record of her trial (again to protect the family name) so the full story didn't come out until more than a hundred years later.

Another public library for Kim

We're always on the look out for public libraries to help Kim with her international library research. In a corner of the castle in Sárvár is this beautiful staircase that leads up to a public library for the city.

Upstairs looks like a library with adult, children and media sections. Mom liked this display of stick puppets in the hallway to the children's library.