Our 3rd week in Bulgaria

Zone Conference for Plovdiv district was held on Monday and was a great treat for us as we got to meet all of the Elders and Sisters in our district. It was also our first zone conference in Bulgaria. The mission Pres. asks each of us to come to Z. Conf. with a 3 minute talk on an assigned topic. This month it was "Has Miracles ceased?" John was one of the missionaries asked to give his 3 minute talk. The Pres. was so impressed he wants to have it submitted to the Liahona. Who knows. We could have gone back to Varna for their Z. Conf. but we had a lot of catch-up work to do, so the middle of the week was spent taking care of some important CES work. But on Friday we went to Sofia to the Sofia Dist. Z. Conf. and Sr. Couple Conf. This was another spiritual feast, and Sr. Couple Conference turned out to be only a dinner,because the Pres. had other events taking place that took most of his time. We had hoped to visit 3 classes this week-end, but the two Sat. classes were cancelled, the one on Fri. night happened while we were in Sr. Couple Conf. However, we stepped in at the end of class and met quite a few of the students and the teacher. This was impressive as there were about 12 YSA there.

With Saturday free we went to the Bulgaria Museum of History to see the gold plates so many have emailed us a notice and picture about. Unfortunately it was on tour and we missed out seeing it.

Yesterday, Sunday, we were invited to the District President's home for dinner. Elders Ingebretsen and New came along to interpret. This was a very nice opportunity for us as the President is the one who is supposed to be in charge of Super Saturdays for the Plovdiv district and the Plovdiv district is in charge of organizing YSA conference. We really enjoyed getting to know this family. He is a very talented wood carver, and she is studying to get her Dr.'s degree in music.

President Georgiev and his wife. The young man on the left is one of the teachers of the class that got cancelled on Saturday, named Ivailo. We had a good chance to talk to him about his class. On the right is Elder New. Elder Ingebretsen, below is our district leader.

We have learned to put up with a lot of things different from what we are used to in the states. However, I doubt that I can deal successfully with the stove/oven that we have here. 2 out of 4 burners are electric. The other 2 are gas and don't work, or there is no gas. The oven dial has no temperature gage on it, so we assume that straight down is 350 degrees, but it is not certain, and we have to watch it carefully. On top of that there are no racks except a tray on the bottom that cannot be moved. So all the food in their pans are placed on a upsidedown bread tin I put in there to get the food a little bit off the bottom. Along with the not very fine sugar the brownies I baked today turned out alright, but not great. Plus, when the oven is on, the dials and the door are so hot I have to use a hotpad to open the door or turn the dials of the oven. Ouch.

During my 3 a.m. insomnia I usually get up and read the scriptures. Last night, as I lay awake worrying about the quanty of work we have to catch up on and complete during the next few weeks, I thought to myself that this is the time when I usually receive inspiration. So, I said, "What inspiration do you have for me tonight." and immediately the thought came to me to check the computer files and hard copies to see what needs to be done with the attendance and other areas. I got up, looked at the files and became concerned that we could not possibly do all of this, it is overwhelming. Then I received an answer to the problem as to how to do all of this, with the help of the Zone Leaders and other missionaries. It is amazing what happens when you ask for inspiration and you are in a position to pay attention to what is given. The promise is there, we just have to be willing to ask, and it will be given to us.

Car parking throughout Bulgaria is a premium. As we mentioned before, they park their cars on the sidewalks as well as on the sides of the streets. Several days ago we went to the postoffice to mail a letter and when we came back to the car, it was not to be seen. For what ever the reason, instead of giving us a ticket (they don't do that here) they just impound your car and tow it off to a large parking lot near the football stadium. It cost us about $25 to get it back, plus another $5 for the taxi. We still don't know why they chose our car as we were not in a 'no parking' zone to our knowledge. It was a real challenge communicating with a policeman standing on the sidewalk near where our car had been parked. We finally had to call the missionaries who talked to the police on our cell phone. He wrote on a piece of paper where we could get our car. We gave the paper to a taxi driver and presto, we were soon at the lot showing our passports to the impounding officer and after paying the fine, we were driving again.