First week in Bulgaria

Dear Family and Friends,

We have been here for 9 days and are making our way around the place. Our home is on a hill in the center of the city (600,000+ pop.) and the road to get there is very winding and narrow. We thought the driving in Riga was crazy but here it is much worse. And parking is strickly by luck. This is the narrow road to our place. It is worse than it looks, it is a joke when another car is coming our way. One of us has to pull over onto the curb/walkway/parking area. Pedestrians beware.

We spent the first week going through the masive amount of files that the previous couple had left for us. We feel that we know what is going on and are ready to start our work. We plan on starting visiting the branch seminary and institute classes this week and will be on the road for 5 days visiting 4 of the classes in one of the districts. This is the fun part of the work; getting to know the youth and ysa and their teachers. We visited the Plovdiv branch Wednesday and had a wonderful visit. The teacher, Ivan Baev, is an excellent teacher and has a wonderful relationship with his class. The only problem: there are no seminary students, only YSA. This is Ivan below in front of the only chapel built by the church in Bulgaria.

We work with a wonderful group of missionaries. Our first district meeting was just 3 days after arriving in Plovdiv. To our surprise, Elder Orton was aware of our coming as his aunt is the R.S. Pres. in our St. George ward. He is a great missionary as are they all. The sisters took us shopping on Tuesday, so we fed them lunch. Shopping in Bulgaria will not be as intimidating as it was in Latvia, our first mission. Many of the products are the same or similar. We just have to figure out a few items such as sour cream. Thankfully our apartment has all the spices we need. Peanut butter may be a problem here where it wasn't so much in Latvia. I kind of wish we had taken up Elder Gregory's suggestion in Latvia and learned a bit of Russian, then we would not have had any problems with pronouncing the Bulgarian words. I think the best way for us to learn any of the language here is to concentrate on the Hymns. This way we will learn the pronounciation and a few of the words.

Our computer is a good one, but the internet would not come up. We tried all we knew how to do so we called on the real experts, the Elders. Elders Ingebretson and New came over to get our internet working on Wednesday, so we fed them dinner. We know how to win their hearts. The other missionaries in Plovdiv are Elder Griffith and Orton. We had 2 others at our district meeting, but they live in a town 20 km away. So I guess we will only see Elders Marianno and Wooley on Mondays and when we visit the sem/inst. class.

Sister Larkin and Sister Thompson with Sister Andersen in our apartment

Elders Orton, Andersen, New, Ingebretsen, Griffith, Woolley, and Marianno; Sisters Larkin and Thompson

LILLY ANDERSEN BLOWING OUT HER CANDLES

For those who have experienced the MTC, you know that there are not many words that can describe it. Wonderful, inspiring, are just a couple of words to start the long list. We would like to add a new term: 'Spirit Prison'. The spirit is so strong at the MTC, but we can't really escape to share the feelings we have with the people in Bulgaria until we're released on the 7th of this month. We certainly had a full week of work, study, and gorging ourselves spiritually and physically on the food of the happiest place on earth. As seniors we have our evenings free so
when John's mom turned 98 on February 1, we went to Salt Lake to wish her well and sing happy birthday along with the rest of the family. We feel strongly that she will still be here and doing well when we return. She has a large family that loves her and tries to follow her good example.

When we went to the Baltic mission, we failed to get our picture taken in front of the large world map. So, we corrected that mistake and also had our picture taken there again for our current mission to Bulgaria.
First mission was to the Baltic States mission office in Riga, Lativa


Second mission is to Bulgaria, Sofia mission. We will live in Plovdiv


To you, our dear and favorite Baltic missionaries, we want to assure that none of the Elders and Sisters will be able to replace you in our hearts and minds. We love you and honor you for all you stood for in the Baltics and your friendships there and afterwards. We hope you don't forget about us and keep us in your mind and prayers. However, I am sure that there will be lots of love for the Bulgarian missionaries as well; I am sure we have love enough to go around. If you do not want these frequent updates, we will not be hurt, but sad; so just let us know, and we will take care of that.

May we also add that you need to set a goal to serve another mission with your eternal companions when the time is right. It will be a cementing bond to your marriage that cannot be attained anywhere else. Our love for each other just seems to grow stronger as time passes. We would not be able to replace these experiences in any other way.