What a long, strange road its been...
The past few weeks in Kispest have been insane!Last Sunday, there was a huge national holiday in Hungary. We had a difficult time getting to much accomplished in the way of missionary work because of it, but it still turned out to be a lovely day. It involved me making nearly a whole kilo's worth of french toast for my companions and I as we waited the night to roll around as our apartment is in perfect view of the sure-to-be awesome fireworks display.
The time of the fireworks rolled around and we went out to the balcolny to have a look. It was most impressive. We noticed the wind pick up ever to slightly and the rain started to sprinkle, but there was fireworks, there was music, there was a laser show reflecting off the clouds, it was awesome...
And then we heard the unmistakeable sound of shattering glass from within our apartment.
My companions and I glanced at eachother for only a moment and scrambled through the window we use to go onto the balcolny. We found the window in our bathroom, which was closed, mind you, was in shards on the bathroom floor. Our mouths stood in a hanging standstill for only a moment when we heard another shatter. We investigated the sound and found the window we had just crawled through also in peices on the floor in front of us.
Luckily all of the windows in our apartment are double windows, which means there is one on the outside and one on the inside so that we were able to close them all and begin cleaning. As we did so we saw the storm literally blow in from nowhere and what had been a peaceful Sabbath evening just moments ago turned into an apocolyptic nightmare. We couldn't see the building across from us, the rain was pouring so hard!
It was crazy! We later learned that a million people were stranded in that storm. Three people died and a boat on the Duna capsized. The worst part is that the weather services gave notice that a terrible storm was going to hit at exactly nine o'clock, when the display was to start and city officials didn't cancel it.
Last Monday was a good day not to be a politician in Budapest.
But it was a good day for sites...
Mária is a very recently baptized member of the church here in Kispest that I had the privlege of being able to be one of the missionaries who taught her. The whole district met up with her for lunch not far from our apartment. After a fabulous feast of delicious Indian food, Maca (a nickname for Mária) led us to something quite fantastic.
The highest point in Hungary.
The trip involved a ride on a mini bus, 10 minutes in a ski lift chair, and then a very steep hike to a charming little tower just for the purpose of enjoying the view.
It was amazing...the weather was goregous and the view was crystal clear. We could literally see for miles and miles around.
The feeling up there was just as special. My companions and I just that day had discussed how much we miss the Temple and not having the opportunity to partake of the almost tangible spiritual nourishment that comes with going into the House of the Lord. Outside of these temples, mountain tops are the most holy places on the earth, and standing on one gave us a taste of that spiritual refreshement we have only experienced in that place so very missed to us.
On with the show...
The Spiritual Refreshment didn't end there, though. Wednesday marked our favorite part of the transfer: Zone Conference. And construction finished on the Metro here which made the trip from our apartment to the mission home one of a few minutes rather than nearly an hour. As we waited to cross the street very close to the mission home we spotted a group of Elders walking toward us, heading into the Match (convience store) on the corner across from us. Waldie, Anderson and I upon closer inspection noticed that one of the Elders looked very familiar...only to realize it wasn't an Elder at all, but rather the infamous Andruska! One of the teachers at the MTC from whom all three of us had the privledge of being tutored.
He was in the country for the first time since returning home from his own mission a few years ago and he and the friends he came with all came to Zone Conference and gave a few sage words from the stand. Seeing him here was a visit to the Twilight Zone.
It was most certainly a shock and a weird trip down memory lane, but a good one. Andruska is one of my heros, and I absolutely adore him so it was quite wonderful not only to see him, but to spout of a word or two of Hungarian to him as well.
All things just keep gettin better...
So the last crazy spot of our week occurred Saturday night.
It started when the lights flickered out and we were a little taken aback, as it was night and we quickly discovered power was out in the whole building. We don't have candles or flashlights, any of us, so we were trying to figure out how to get some light to finish our planning meeting when the commotion really began.
An ear-splitting alarm sounded in the hallway outside of our apartment. Our door was closed and it was so loud we had to yell at eachother to be heard. Confusion began and thinking that the noise was a fire alarm the Senior companion yelled at us to get our shoes on and grab the phone, we were leaving now.
We live on the top floor and we passed a neighboor on the one under us wearing nothing but pajama pants and a very confused look on his face holding a flashlight and trying to ask us what was going on. We told him we didn't know and frantically continued down the stairs.
A few floors later, we realized we were the only people in the building evacuating it and decided to make our way back up. We ran into the neighboor bácsi searching for the source of the alarm as all we said was "up" in our distress. We led him up to our floor, where the sound was so loud it literally hurt our hears to be exposed to it. There was a box at the end of the hallway with a flashing light on it. He pointed his flashlight at it and pushed the rather large button the middle of it. Immediately, our ears relieved of the peircing shrill and silence filled the air.
The neighboor bácsi pointed to the box with his flashlight and read from it, "Sirien ki."
"Nem tudjuk amit jelent," we explained we didn't know what that means.
"Sirien ki!" he repeated.
Then it clicked.
"Siren off."
We felt like complete idiots and spent the rest of the time until lights out laughing like lunactics at the antics that had just transpired.
Stories like this can only happen on a mission.
All in all...
I am safe.
I am well.
I know what to do the next time the power goes out in our building.
Life is pretty darn fabulous.
I am loving you all, Dear Ones.
posted by Ashley @ 2:34 AM
