Farewell Firesides for the Bennetts

President and Sister Bennett will be leaving the mission the first of July. Saying goodbye is an ongoing effort on their part as they travel the mission branches one last time. They will put on over 4000 kilometers going to all of the branches. They have invited the Senior Couples to go with them to the major branches. Along with the Bennett's, the Jewell's, who are the office couple, and the Andersen's (CES) are also leaving within a few days of their departure. So, in effect it has been a goodbye tour for the Andersen's and Jewell's as well. We have been to Varna, Burgas, and Plovdiv so far, and have yet to attend the farewell for Sofia. In the picture below, President Gancho Pasev of the Plovdiv branch is presenting the Bennett's a farewell gift of flowers and a picture of the city of Plovdiv's most famous spot in Old Town. In Varna, the branch presented all of the couples with flowers. It is an Eastern Europe tradition to present flowers at all special occasions. Below pictured from the left, E/S Andersen, E/S Jewell, E/S Mace, E/S Jorgensen, Pres and Sister Bennett.

The Burgas branch is extraordinary by Bulgaria standards. It is the only branch with more than one or two youth. Here we have four, and they are very involved in Branch activities. From left Elder Andersen, Andrei (non member), Acen, Borislava (non member), Sister Andersen, Gergana. Andrei and Borislava don't yet have permission from their fathers to be baptized, but it is a definite they will be baptized when they turn 18 in about a year.

This is Rose country. World famous for their rose oil and rose perfume. We stopped at a field just before the harvest, which takes place in about a week. The roses have to be harvested in the morning and must be completed within a week or 10 days.

Unique to Bulgaria is the way they take care of illegal parking. Here a "spider" truck lifts a car that has been parked in a bus zone. We were in our hotel in Varna looking out at the sea and their olympic size swimming pool when we saw this happening. The owner will have to pay about 35 lev to get the car back. That is about $28. We had to retrieve our car once and learned the hard way to be careful where you park the car. The sidewalk is usually a safe place to park.

Unfortunately, the sidewalk is not a safe place to walk, and crossing the street for a pedestrian is a life threatening experience. We won't go into detail as to the safety of cars on the roads. As our time in Bulgaria quickens to its end, we can honestly say it has been a great experience.