Increased Excitement in the Mission

After a long dearth in baptisms and a special fast a couple of months ago, we are beginning to see some exciting trends in the mission. The month of January we have had more baptisms than we had for the whole year of 2008. We have felt the excitement in the missionaries as we have travelled visiting classes, attending fun nights, and speaking in Sacrament meetings. The Lord is pouring out his spirit upon the Bulgarian people and they are beginning to open their hearts and minds to the missionaries. Plovdiv had 2 baptisms. One was an 11 year old girl who lives in a selo (village) outside of Plovdiv. The other is an 8 year old son of a counselor in the Plovdiv District Presidency. How exciting to see young people join the church. In a few years these will be leaders.

Elder Kasabov with Christina Vacileva.

Старейшина Касабов, Христина Василева

Dimitar (Mitko) Marious Tcherpokov and his Dad, Marious Tcherpokov

Mитко Черпоков

In Pleven, we joined the branch in their Saturday night fun night after we observed the S/I class taught by Elder Taylor. Here we are making a pinata and getting really messy with paste. Elder Hawkes is on the right.

A Service Project To An Orphanage

Yesterday, 14 Jan 09, we had the pleasure of delivering a car load of clothes to an orphanage some ninety kilometers south of Plovdiv. The ride took us over the mountains, past a ski resort, and into a picturesque village which has been there some five or six hundred years. We experienced along the way rain, sleet, snow, more rain and lots of melting, making the narrow, winding road a kinky ribbon of mud. Going with us to the orphanage was Nikolai Gavazov, the Bulgarian Field Director for 'One Heart Bulgaria', the non profit group that looks after these poorly managed and funded state orphanages. We drove to the run down building when we arrived in the village, but learned the children were attending school about a block away. So off we skidded to the school. Conditions in the school were not much better than at the orphanage, the rooms were quite cold, children wore coats to keep warm. However bleak the place looked and felt, the headmaster was proud to show us some new desks and chalk boards they had received from a group in Holland. School finished for the day at 1:00pm, and soon the building was empty. When we arrived back at the orphanage, the children were already there and anxiously waiting to help unload the car. The look on the children's faces when they saw all the bags of clothing was priceless. We have included a few pictures to help you understand what we felt and saw.

We have included the website for the One Heart Bulgaria program if you are interested in making a donation. Its link is on the top right of our blog. The cause is more than worthy; the children are not members of the church, but they are children of God. The One Heart Bulgaria foundation was started and is run by former LDS missionaries to Bulgaria. Nikolai is in our branch and is responsible for the use of the donations the organization receives. He is the only paid personnel in the organization.
We hope you enjoy your week, and find peace in your hearts.

Love, Elder/Sister Andersen, John and Peggy

May This be a Happy New Year

Anticipating a wonderful display of fireworks from the local government set off from on top of the hill in front of our house we stayed up past midnight to watch what people said would be a wonderful display. (Yes, we know it is past missionary bedtime but then we knew the noise would not allow sleep.) So, we wandered from window to window to watch. As midnight grew closer we heard and saw an increase in activity ALL around the city. Our house is on a hill and the views from our house allow almost a 360 degree panorama of the city.

Soon, it got so we were practically running from room to room. To solve that, at midnight we stepped out onto our deck which is HUGE to watch and hear. From balconies all around us people were shooting firecrackers, rockets, and YES, even guns into the night sky, one of our neighbors did this as I watched the fire exit his barrel. In the dark we felt perfectly safe as we had a cover we could cower under if necessary. The display, though not organized was the most spectacular we have ever seen. The noise was as though we were in a war zone. We stayed out in the below freezing weather 15 minutes and then retired to bed but not to sleep. Miraculously it all stopped at 1:00 except for the drunken screems of revelry and the occasional shooting of fireworks through the night. Why, at 6:50 a.m. the neighbor decided to blast off 2 more rockets we can't figure out, except maybe drunkeness. One of his blasts landed on our deck waking us up from a restless night's sleep.

HAPPY NEW YEAR. We hope all will be well with you and that your fortunes will be better, your family life happier, your service to our Lord and Savior more dedicated, and your mingling with friends more frequent. May the Lord bless us all is our prayer for all we love and hold dear.

Our Bulgarian Branch Christmas Party

Our Christmas program was not unlike those of wards we have attended in the past. Talent presentations and stories of the birth of Christ. We even had Santa Claus come visit the children. The costume was not as elaborate, but the children were just as excited. Who can help but love these activities. Our celebrations included dinner at the District Presidents home for all the missionaries. the President and his wife are very musical and they entertained us with accordian music and song. And then the President did a comedy routine beating an egg while singing. If anyone can help me load this onto the blog, I have it as a video.

PS: Yes we did eat roasted Bulgarian chicken for our Zone Conference, see story below.

Why Did the Bulgarian Chicken Cross the Road

Christmas Eve at the AndersensElders Kasabov, Andersens, Jacobson, Hammond, Kingsley, Jones, Wahlquist, Sisters Shuvalava, Wakefield, Dahle, and Peterson.

Elders Jorgensen, Mace and Andersen at Christmas Zone Conference.

Zone Conference Talk - Fear Not (All missionaries were required to prepare a 3 minute talk)

For centuries, the question has been asked, “Why did the Bulgarian Chicken cross the road?” I have searched for many months for an answer to this perplexing question. I have suffered fatigue, insomnia, self doubt and criticisms from every side in my search. I stand before you today to report my findings. The chicken, filled with fear and trepidation, crossed the road to meet with the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I must tell you of the events leading up to this historic rendezvous. From the chicken’s own journal I learned that he was attracted to the missionaries because of their clean cut appearance and smiles. Other chickens in the yard had also noticed the missionaries, but they had heard from the head rooster that the missionaries were BIG TROUBLE and to avoid contact.

As I mentioned before, it was with great fear that the chicken crossed the road. On the morning of this historic crossing, just as the sun began winking, the chicken flew to his roost and with a loud ‘cock-a-doo’ announced, “Today I will cross the road and find for myself what these missionaries are all about.” His announcement caused no small stir among the chickens. All egg production seized. Clucking turned to ‘klackel’. His friends warned, “Don’t do it little brother, if you do, you’re sure to die.” Others just pointed their wing tips at him and threatened, “If you talk to those missionaries we’ll never speak to you again.” Many of the older hens pleaded, “You know how the Bulgarians drive; you’ll never make it across the road.” Then the head rooster cocked his head, twice, and the brood became deathly quiet. He crowed, “If you talk to those missionaries, you will go straight to that lake of burning fire where the sly fox waits with smacking lips.” The gasps of the hens caused several to faint.

The little chicken began to doubt his own abilities; even the hackles on his neck began to tremble. Then, he remembered the words of his dying mother, “Fear not little flock”, she had clucked, “I taught you not the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” With his heart pounding, and the words of his mother echoing in his ears, he hopped from the safety of his perch, and with one giant leap for all chickens, dashed across the road, and lived fear free for ever after; and happily, too, he testified.

Elder Andersen

From giving Thanks to celebrating the Birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ

Thanksgiving in Bulgaria is only celebrated by Americans, but the Bulgarians all wished us a good Thanksgiving, being concerned that we had the oportunity to celebrate. This we did by having our district of 8 Elders over for a dinner. We provided the meat, gravy, rolls and pies; they brought the rest. Not all of it was typical trimmings, but they were so full with the rolls, and turkey and ham that the pie was practically untouched.

Elder Kasabov and Elder New

Shortly after we had our last Super Saturday of the year in Sofia. Same as before, the parables of the "Lost" and the 10 Virgins. Afterwards we all made our own oil lamps.

Gena and Analie with their lamps

Once a month the Sr. Couples get together and have a conference with Pres. Bennett. This is always a time to coordinate the activities of the Sr.s and relax with a wonderful meal. The Bennett home (Mission Home) is exceptionally nice and inviting.

President Bennett and Elder Jorgensen with Sister Andersen

The following week Sister Bennett invited all the sister missionaries over for a Sister's Gathering. We really felt the spirit of Christmas as we sat around and shared the Christmas traditions of our families. I felt so proud of these beautiful sisters who told of the selflessness of their family traditions where the spirit of Christ was the center of their celebrating, making sure others who were less fortunate did not go without, and the feeling of giving over the self-centeredness of receiving. The future of the Church is in good hands with the strenghth of the army of missionaries in the field. They will be a powerful force for good throughout their lives because of the teachings they have received in their homes, and as they exemplify those teachings wherever they are.

As we prepare for this Christmas, we want all to feel the true joy of the birth, life, and death of our Savior. We share our testimony with you that He came to this earth, as the Son of God, to show us the way back into the presence of our Father in Heaven. May we all put Christ at the center of our thoughts and gifts this season. Share your love and blessings with all around you and may these feelings last throughout the coming year. We love you all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Going the Rounds of Class visits

Since our temple trip, we have not sat around, unless you call the hours of driving between cities. The week following the trip to Germany we went to Hascovo, Ruse, Dobrich and Varna. By the time we returned home we did not want to sit for a very long time. However, the following week we ended up going to Burgas for 3 days. At least we were able to sleep in the same place for 2 nights. Our first trip was to observe classes. Hascovo has a great class and a dedicated teacher in Petar. Ruse has the best teacher, but no class, Dobrich and Varna are blessed with Missionary teachers, good teaching, not the ideal situation however.

In this picture we are with Elder Henninen from Finland, Ivan, our student, and Elder Salt, the teacher. Whenever we visit a city, we usually take the elders involved out to dinner. This time, because of Ivan's special circumstance, we invited him as well. He was on cloud nine thinking we would ask him to join us. He got to choose the place, a spaghetti and pizza place.

We neglected to get pictures of the Ruse teacher and the Varna class. Sorry that we did, but our memories are good. In Ruse, we took the teacher and missionaries out to dinner. Varna's class met on Sat. morning, so no dinner there.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Burgas. Friday night, the class was taught by Elder Werden, in the white shirt, and there were 2 students. Elder Warnick is in the sweater. Great job! Elders. We did take 4 elders out to dinner in Burgas before class. BELOW: Saturday night we attended the branch fun night and afterwards put on a fireside for the branch. We don't know all their names but there were 2 teen-age investigators there. We were so thrilled as they are probably the only young investigators in the whole mission. We don't have enough youth. Names: front row in red shirt is Andrei, to the right of him is Borislava, 16. We showed Elder Holland's Sept 7 CES fireside talk on Joseph Smith's Temple Prison. It was great.
During our free time Sat. afternoon, we drove down the Black Sea coast looking for a place to hold our Youth and YSA conference. We found a great place and we will see if this is the place we use. The weather was windy and cold, but we stopped at a beach to eat a snack and caught some wind surfers out in the water. Sunday, we spoke in the Burgas branch, and four hours later, we were back home in Plovdiv.

This past Saturday we were in Varna putting on our Super Saturday. We did this in conjunction with the Varna District Leadership training meeting. We included the whole district in our teacher training lesson as it is so needed. We then broke for lunch, which the district treated us too. After lunch, we took the seminary aged students and their teachers to the Relief Society room where we taught them a lesson and had an activity. The lesson was on parables and we assigned, beforehand, the different branches to role play selected parables. This picture is of the Varna branch getting ready to do the lost sheep. Rodi, 16, is in the hat as the shepherd; Didi, Iva, and Constantine are the lost sheep. Rodi was big enough to lift the lost sheep, Iva, and carry her back to the fold, but prudence spoke louder, so he didn't.The Burgas Branch was assigned the parable of the Prodical Son. Borislava, in the blue sweater, played the part of the prodical son. Andrei, our other investigator, in the blue shirt, is looking on as the prodical son is reunited with his family. Our two investigator youth joined right in and really did an outstanding job.

We next talked about the parable of the 10 Virgins. We had purchased a couple of oil lamps and then made enough to make 10. Drops of oil were added to the lamps for each testimony building act we do so our reserves will be full when the bridegroom comes. Oil lamps are common here as souvenirs. Afterwards they made their own oil lamps out of clay. They turned out pretty good.

This is Iva from Varna and Acen from Burgas working on their lamps. We have 2 more Super Saturdays coming up for the Plovdiv and Sofia districts.