Last December to Remember

Our last December.  Wonderful memories in a beautiful city. We began our month with our Mission Zone Conference. Spending time with the young missionaries is a highlight of every Senior missionary.  They are amazing.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is growing in Hungary.  People are searching for answers and truth.  We hear stories of miracles happening each week.  We had a gingerbread competition between zones.  It is always a spiritual feast to be taught by the missionaries and our Mission Leaders, Chet and Kristy Wall. I was finally able to figure out and find ingredients for my Christmas fudge. 

The city comes alive during the holidays.  We see more tourists in the city than we have seen our whole mission. Our apartment complex decorated the garden.  This is the lobby of the Parisian Hotel. When in the area, I always walk inside. Also, we were able to participate in our Owasso Stake Conference over zoom, to sustain our new Stake President, President Baird. Technology is awesome.

We finished up a project with BMSZKI Homeless shelters.  They operate 23 shelters in Budapest serving thousands of people suffering from housing insecurity.  We helped supply 250 packages for those men and women they find on the streets and convince to move into one of the shelters.  It contained slippers, robes, snacks, toothbrush, deodorant, toothpaste, bus passes, eating utensils, etc. We worked with the Budapest Hungary Stake and had over 30 members of the church arrived at the shelter to help assemble the packages.  A great day.

We have enjoyed a great relationship with Bethesda Children Hospital.  Our Humanitarian Aid funds helped the Hospital Pharmacy purchase a critically needed medicine mixing machine that precisely and automatically add the medicines to the infusion bags. They have been mixing the infusion bags by hand, making over 100 bags a day.  This new machine will automate the prescriptions and medicine mixing. They were thrilled to show us how it worked. We know this will be a great blessing to the patients and staff.

We have been working with the Sure Safe Children house in Edeleny for 12 months of 2023.  December was the last of monthly events to bless the young mothers and children.  The Church provided funding for weekly food classes and shelf improvement classes for the families in this area who live in extreme poverty conditions.  The community was strengthened. They had access to meals and the children improved in every development stage.  It has been a joy to work with the families, children, and directors.

A highlight of December was Sarah, our daughter, arriving in Europe for the three-week trip of a lifetime. She arrived in Germany then visited Christmas markets and cities by train.  She sampled hot chocolate, visited museums, castles and libraries in Munich, Germany, Salzburg and Vienna Austria, stayed with us in Budapest for Christmas week, then off to Linz Austria, to Munich and flying home.  She is a treasure.

A beautiful rainbow over Oklahoma State University. A beautiful Snow. Hot Chocolate in Austria.

Watching the Nutcracker at the Hungary State Opera House.

Christmas market food, the largest outdoor ice-skating ring in Europe, Street food smells so good!

The City has beautiful Nativity scenes all over. This one is life size. The Danube ready to flow over it's banks for a couple days.

January will be busy cleaning and packing our souvenirs and organizing our documents and office. We have five new projects in the works to begin the new year that our replacements, Steve, and Lu Duke from Utah will take over in February when they arrive. We still take our walks on the Danube, and work on the computer a lot. We are excited about returning to family and friends in Oklahoma and anxious to see what The Lord will have us do upon our return. We wish all of you a wonderful Happy New Year.