The Fairbourn Identity: June/July Patchwork

I don't have pictures until the end, but I hope that you'll read this post anyway. :)

In June I had a really cool opportunity that I think every returned missionary dreams of. (At least that was my thought.) Two of the people I taught from beginning to baptism in Hungary came to NY to visit and they came to Rochester to spend a few days with us. Now for those of you who may be thinking, "wait, but don't you live in Charlotte, NC for the summer Gentri?" you'd be correct. Why, yes friends we do. I didn't have the heart to tell Ildiko and Bence that we wouldn't be there for the summer so I did a little road trip with Kaden. Yup, just the two of us from Charlotte, NC to Rochester, NY. Now before you think I'm too crazy, just know that it wasn't terrible. I split the 13 hour drive up into two days so Kaden wouldn't go crazy on me. Kaden was actually really quite good in the car. He slept a majority of the time and when he wasn't sleeping I kept a basket of toys and snacks on the front seat and would toss him a toy or hand him a cracker if he got fussy.

I think the hardest part was when we stopped at a gas station to fill up and I needed to use the bathroom. Usually Curtis and I just take turns holding Kaden while the other one uses the bathroom. I didn't really even think about what to do with him until I got into the bathroom and realized, "Oh no. Now what?" I tried a variety of options: strapping him to the baby changing table that I could reach while I was on the toilet to hold him on (bad idea), putting his shoes on and propping him up in the corner to stand and scrubbing his hands with soap when we were done (okay idea), and about everything else in between. Let me just say I'm grateful for all those stores that have one of those little "child seats" in the big bathroom. It's like a chair on the stall wall with a seatbelt. Genius! If only, if only...

We made a fantastic halfway stop in DC to stay with Mindy (Chidester) White, one of my best friends since the ugly days (middle school, ha). We had a great time chatting and stayed up way, way too late! I always feel so grateful for friends like her that I can see only a handful of times in a year or every few years and yet there's never any awkward small talk or catch up chat. We can always just jump back into whatever we want to talk about. I think everyone needs at least one friend like that.

Now onto some highlights from Bence and Ildiko's visit. It seems that this was the weekend of things not going right. We went to the Palmyra temple. I called months in advance and had made arrangements for them to have a Hungarian baptismal card for Bence, Hungarian headset for the session for Ildiko. arranged for a friend to watch Kaden, etc... The only thing I forgot- to renew my recommend! Argh! I was soooo disappointed. I sat in the foyer and cried that I couldn't go in with them. After awhile a sweet temple worker came over and asked if I was okay. I said no and told her the history behind the people I'd come with and how Ildiko had always wanted to come to the temple in the US with me since her baptism. She listened and said, "Well isn't it wonderful that they're worthy to be here?" It got me thinking that as an RM isn't that what my greatest accomplishment could be would be to see two worthy people 6 years after their baptisms that are still active in the church and worthy to hold temple recommends? It was a bright spot in my day. (Bence and Ildiko in the Sacred Grove)

I dare say my Hungarian vocab is a bit rusty after being home for 5 years, but I can still speak pretty well. Taking them to the church sites was a super sweet spiritual experience for me. Though I may not have been able to remember all the chit-chat vocab I wanted to, I was able to translate simply and easily at all the church sites. It brought tears to my eyes to remember that the Lord called me to Hungary to share the gospel, not to chit-chat, and I was grateful that I was able to still use the most important vocab I'd learned for that purpose.

What's more American than a s'more? It was raining about 95% of their visit to Rochester so unfortunately we couldn't do them the real way around a campfire, but they got the idea. (I actually showed them pictures of how you're really supposed to eat these when you're camping.) I gave them the stuff to take with them back to Hungary to introduce s'mores to their friends and family back home. They loved them!

We went to Niagara Falls and I didn't realize that you needed a baby's birth certificate to go to the Canadian side. Argh. So Kaden and I hung out in NY while Bence and Ildiko went to the cool side. Oh well.

Cooking Hungarian food in my kitchen

Can we just all stop for a moment to appreciate shirts with English on them that aren't actually made by people who fluently speak English? Bence's pajama shirt says, "Sports Casual, bang bang, Pineapple Juice." Haha!! Missy and I loved it.

Side note: Curtis had a plane ticket to fly from Charlotte to Rochester since he had to work and couldn't take any days off and his flights kept getting delayed and pushed back so he ended up not being able to come. Missy wanted to come visit so she was nice enough to agree to road trip back to Charlotte with me so I didn't have to do it alone. We stopped in Lancaster County, PA to visit the Amish folk.

Kaden's shirt says, "My Mommy is taken but my aunt is single and hot!" Obviously a gift from Missy to Kaden :)

We were supposed to go to a Tongan 4th of July celebration with a roasted pig and all kinds of Tongan fun that some friends in our ward invited us to but it got cancelled because of the rain. Instead we went to Uptown Charlotte (downtown) to watch fireworks.