Developing A Young Adult Center

3/30/12
Friday night we got invited to a Young Single Adult activity in Veszprem. We got to meet with the YA president, Flora, who doesn't speak english. She is such a nice girl and we appreciate Elder Masters, who interpreted for us. We have really got it easy with this assignment. The other Young Adult centers that we know about, are run by the missionary couple assigned to them. They do the cooking, lessons and come up with the ideas for activities. This branch is already having activities twice a month, and now it will be weekly. The Center will also have Family Night, which they haven't had. But Flora was clear that the young adults will do the lesson and activities. This is great news! She gave the spiritual thought and did a wonderful job of it. She used the George Albert Smith manuel and had parts that she'd selected read by the group members. (We've noticed that these manuals are used right along with the scriptures here, and the members use them as their reference books.)

Afterwards, they had a surprise birthday party for one of the group. We had the first cake here that we really enjoyed. It was made of a biscuit-type of cookie that is layered with yogurt and sour cream in a spring form pan. Then on the top is a clear gelatin with peaches on it. Flora had put a smiley face on it, because Bolazs is always smiling. The game we played was, "Coming From America" and had nothing to do with visiting or immigrating from America. It starts by a person announcing that they are an American Cowboy and this is my job. (This is the category that was chosen.) Then they tell the first and last letter of the name of an occupation and mime the occupation. One of the branch members told me that they played this game in school and that he thought it funny, in that the Russians were the occupiers, but they still said they were "Americans".
We're going to do the first family night next week and have soup after the short lesson, and then a game. Some centers have a dinner after FHE and after the activity night. We're just going to start with the one dinner and a treat at the activity. The reason I picked soup is because they only have a hot plate. With a 40 minute commute thrown into the mix, we are a little limited. The first soup I am going to do is Hungarian Goulash so that hopefully it will taste familiar.