Weeks 10, 11

Though the pictures may not indicate that we do any work, we were instructed by President Bennett to take the time to visit some places of cultural interest so that we get to know the people and their history. So on our trip to visit our class in Shumen we went to the 3 places he told us to visit. No arm twisting needed. The first is of a fortress built on a mountain overlooking the city. It is 3000 years old, first occupied by the Thrashings, then probably conquered by Alexandre the Great, then the Romans built a new wall after breaking down the old. The Byzantines built a wall around the Romans', then the Crusaders broke up those 2 walls or at least damaged them and conquered the fortress. The Poles, Lithuanians and Ukraines next conquered and then the Turks. The picture shows the Roman outlines of the city.
The monument below was built 4 km away from the fortress on the same mountain. The drive to it was through a beautiful forest with spectacular flowers covering the forest floor.

We next went to the village of Madera where on the cliffs above the town was a carving of a man on a horse with a dog at its feet. They only discovered this art work 18 years ago. We had to climb 225 steps to get to the base of the cliff. It was less than spectacular to look at until you realize what it took to carve it so high up on the cliff face. It is several hundred years old. Last week the Eastern Europe Humanitarian missionaries came to Sofia for a 4 day conference. The Sr. Couples were invited to come along on their excursion to the Bulgarian History Museum. We went specifically to see the Gold Book. This is something many people had been emailing us about. It is also the only gold book or any metal book for that matter that has been found that is older than a few hundred years old. This book dates back to 4 to 600 B.C. It is bound by gold rings and has only 6 pages. The pages have only pictures on it, no writing and they have no idea of its function. It was discovered a few decades ago and was anonymously donated by a man now living in Macedonia. It was found in his field as he was plowing. It is only 2" by 3".

Our main activity has been pushing the Enrollment program for Seminary and Institute. This can be very frustrating as the missionaries have to be the middle man between us and the Branch Presidents, and sometimes they don't have the vision of what needs to be done. We went, this last week to two District Leadership training sessions to push the program with the Br. Presidents who have the main responsibility of getting their youth and YSA signed up to take Seminary. Both of us had to speak in Plovdiv District Conference (like a Stake Conference) yesterday. John was sick with the flu but he made it through the day, but just barely. We hope he is on the mend. Today is P-day but we will be staying in until he recuperates. At District Conference, John was sustained as Mission Clerk; we really don't know what this calling means, but it does give him authority to step into any branch and act for the Mission President should the need arise.

Another two weeks in Bulgaria

To the delight of millions, we too had the privilege of watching certain sessions of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What inspired talks we heard. You could just see on the face of President Monson that he now carries the mantel of the Prophet. Because of the time difference between Bulgaria and SLC, we tape the sessions, but were able to see two of them last Sunday, and the final two sessions today.

Missionary work is going great. Last evening Peggy and I were able to fellowship a couple who have lived in Utah. They both understand English, and the husband speaks it fluently. They are both members of the church, but the wife is having difficulties. We took them out to dinner, and had a great time. Today the family was at church, and the husband told me his wife was so excited with our taking them to dinner, and being a friend to them, that she said to him, "This is the first time in the past two years that I have felt like a human being". These are highly educated people; the husband received his MBA degree from BYU, and the wife has a degree in Chemical Engineering. It's not too often we get to work directly with the older members of the church due to the language difference.

We are excited with the changing weather; yes, it is spring, and the fruit trees have already shed their blossoms. The internet projects local temperatures in the high 70's low 80's for the next several days. Bring it on!!!!

We continue to see new and exciting places as we travel around the country. One thing we have noticed, is no matter the weather, we can always tell when people do their washing. The included picture tells you how we know.

Our big push now is Seminary and Institute registration for the coming school year. We need to have it completed by the end of May; we are asking the full time missionaries to assist us and the Branch Presidents; we couldn't do it by ourselves anyway, we don't know where all these potential students live. One of the problems is when the Communists left Bulgaria, the Bulgarians removed all the street signs that had Russian names on them. On many streets, no new names have replaced the old. The locals know where things are, but we sure can't find them. Within time, we're sure all the streets will have names, until then, it's just a guessing game for us.

A Sr couple had to return home for family reasons and before they left the Sr.s took a tour of an old village run solely on water power. It is now a tourist attraction and we enjoyed a couple of hours visiting the craft vendors and looking at the old houses and shops. Bulgarian history dates back to at least 700 b.c. The people who lived then were called Thracians. When people died, especially people of wealth and fame they were buried in tombs that were just mounds of earth some maybe 50 feet tall, but most were closer to 20 feet tall. These mounds can be seen all over the country side. Buried with the dead were their riches and through the ages the tombs had been dug into by grave robbers. Some of the tombs were found untouched and the precious items sent to museums. We went into one of the tombs that was open to the public. We also went to one of the Orthodox cathedrals. The picture shows how elaborate the cathedral is on the outside, the inside, though dark is also elaborate, but not our favorite tourist attraction.

Elder and Sister Westbroek at the water distribution center.

Looking down the main street of Etar where we bought souveniers and enjoyed a nice Bulgarian meal.

At the thracian tomb a bust of the ruler was found. Everything within the tomb had been taken out to a museum. It was small and consisted of only 2 small rooms and a hallway between.This cathedral sits high on a hill in the town of Shipka. It can be seen for miles around, not only because of its location, but because of the bright gold leafing and tall spire to its. left. It is truly beautiful outside. We also visited their freedom monument which is on the top of a mountain. Thankfully we were able to drive to the base of the monument and only had 200 + steps to get to it. No problem. But the weather was cold, which helped us make it to the top.