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.