Mission Highlights

There aren't many institute age young adults and even fewer seminary age youth in the mission. We have been seeing more people at church, and this last Sunday, we doubled our Primary attendance when a family who have been members for a long time came with their 5 children: 4 boys and a girl. The husband works in England, so the mother doesn't come often. Her twin babies keep her quite busy. The oldest boy looks like he should be Seminary age next year. That would make 2 of that age in our branch, maybe 3, and we are constantly encouraging a young man named Christian, who is a friend of a member, to come out to church. The youth are just so much fun to be around. There is a baptism scheduled for this Saturday and we are excited, as this will add to our YSA count in our branch. Our primary efforts are to increase the attendance in our seminary and institute programs. It is quite a challenge. We have asked the missionaries to concentrate on re-activating those in that age range. Most of our efforts this past week have been directed in the area of advertising our up coming YSA and Youth Conferences. We finally received the posters from our committees, and they have now been printed and are on their way to the various Branches throughout the mission. We need to have an accurate count of who is coming by the 10th of June, and so the push is on.

Curves and Potholes

CURVES AND POTHOLES

Several weeks ago as Sister Andersen and I traveled from Stara Zagora to Velico Turnovo, we couldn’t help but admire the beautiful scenery. The fruit trees were in bloom; the grape vines were shooting out green leaves, and the mountains were shrouded in living green toned colors. As our car sped along with a constant hum, I began meditating upon the blessings of the resurrection. “Spring, is to the earth, as Christ’s resurrection, is to man’s physical death, I mussed. As spring returns greenness and life to a sleeping plant world, so will the resurrection bring beauty and life to those who sleep in the grave.

The sound of the car’s engine brought me out of my trance and how beautiful the resurrection will be. The engine was beginning to labor; we had left the straight and level plain of roadway, and were ascending into the mountains. I quickly went from fifth gear to forth and as the car encountered a steeper slope and multiple curves, I was forced to gear down even more. Soon, all my attention was focused on just keeping the car on the road. As we converged upon the mountain with all its dangerous curves, we also faced numerous deep pot holes, and creeping semi trucks which, at times, brought our travel to a near stop. “How much more enjoyable our trip would be if the road was straight and without hazards”, I sighed. Without warning, the thought struck me, “It was you who chose to use this road, “my conscience was whispering. “You knew the mountains would be steep, full of obstacles, and slow traveling. You could have chosen a straighter road to get to Velico Turnovo, but you thought the shortcut over the mountains would get you there faster.”

Every elementary student knows that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The Savior taught that, “Straight is the gate and narrow the way that leads to eternal life.” Joseph Smith reminds us in D&C3:2, that, “God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round.”

It is my prayer that we be not fooled in taking shortcuts in our journey back to our heavenly Father. By keeping the commandments, we stay away from those dangerous curves and pot holes that Satan has strategically placed in our paths, in hopes we will lose control, even lose our very eternal lives.

Elder Andersen

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.

Weeks 6 and 7

Our assignment takes us to all the branches of the mission; therefore, we are crisscrossing the country what seems like every other week. During this past month we have driven more than 3,000 kilomoters, that's about 1,860 miles in a country that is only half the size of Utah; and this is not freeway driving. Bulgaria is surrounded by mountains, some as high as 10,000 feet. Most of the roadway is narrow, winding, up and down, two lane full, and checkered with deep chuck holes. Last week we hit one of these car eating pits and lost a hubcap along with puting a small dent in the rim. This past week we were in Sofia for two occasions: a Senior Couple's conference on Friday, put on by President and Sister Bennett, and Super Saturday, put on for the Seminary aged youth in the Sofia area by Peggy and me, the following day. Both of these events took place at the Mission Office/Chapel/Mission Home.

There are many conveniences that appear missing from Bulgaria when we compare the country to America, but there is one landmark that is common now throughout the world. As the picture shows, I met my old friend, Ron, at the world shrine.
There are some interesting cultural traditions that we thought you would be interested in. 1). The first one is impossible for us to get into the habit of; it is the shaking of the head to say no or yes. Their heads go side to side to say yes, to us that means no. Up and down is no to them, so we always have to think when we ask a yes or no question what it means when they shake or nod their heads. We do a lot of laughing because of our mistaken thinking. 2.) For those of you who don't like tomatoes, or possibly cucumbers you won't be ordering salads in Bulgaria. I asked for a cucumber salad once and got a huge plate of sliced cucumbers. Their famous salad is mainly tomatoes and cucumbers with some kind of red pepper. It is smothered in a cheese phonetically pronounced seirinaise. we hate seirinaise, but it tastes great on the salad. 3.) Everywhere we drive we see herds, big and small, of sheep, cows, and goats. Once in a while the sheep and goats are together. Every one of them has a shepherd or two and dogs that stay with the herd all day long. I've seen the herd being led, as in the picture below, and the sheep follow, just like in the Bible that Jesus teaches about. Even the cows have herders. We have seen herds as small as 4 and as large as 30 or 40. This one has goats with the sheep.

4.) We have seen 6 storks, heralding the coming of spring. This means that we can take our martinitzas off and hang them on a budding tree. A rite of spring, a symbol or omen of good luck, whatever. The storks are beautiful and big. White with black wing tips the size of a swan, but the neck is not so long, the beaks are longer and more pointed. They build their nests on man made objects often provided by the farmer such as a tall pole. Often they are built on chimneys, light posts, or other sort of support for their huge nests. Our favorite is in the picture below where it is hanging onto the cross of an orthodox church. When the cross bends far enough it will definitely slid to the ground.

We have yet to get a picture of 5.) the horse drawn cart with the horse wearing a red tassel hanging in front of his eyes. Usually it is the gypsies who have these carts. Those without the tassels are probably farmers or other workers. Gypsies, we have been told do not like to have their picture taken. Too bad, you will see one some day. and 6.) Easter hasn't happened here yet. So we did not miss it like we thought. Easter weekend is April 26th-27th.

Bulgaria is an ancient country. They have historical sights as old as 700 b.c. In the heart of Plovdiv is a Roman Amphitheatre. They are in the process of excavating it or they are uncovering enough to make it an attraction in the heart of the city. There is a bigger one not far from here they did not discover until they dug a tunnel through a hill in the center of town. That one is used today for operas and plays in the summer.

If any of you retired couples reading this informer would like a similar terrific experience as what we are having, let us know, and we'll tell our Mission President who seems to know some people in SL who have a magic wand in getting couples called to serve here. We have six couples serving here now, and he has indicated to us he is needing several more.

Weeks 4 & 5

Traveling is as exciting as it is tiring. The past two weeks found us visiting the seminary and institute classes in the cities of Stara Zagora and Sliven. These cities are NE of where we live some two/three hours drive away. It was a real treat to meet these young people and see how hard they try to live up to the standards of the church. The teacher in Stara Zagora is a young 20 year old single sister. (The one in white in the middle.) They don't have a lot of experience being members of the church, let alone being the teachers, but they try so hard. Our job really is a challenge to strengthen the teaching skills of the people in this beautiful country. Because the branches are so spread out, we will be lucky to see each class once every six weeks; if they met on all days of the week, it would be easier, but we have to visit when they teach class. The best hope we have of training the teachers is if they all show up to the Super Saturday activity. These activities are held quarterly; our first SS will be held this weekend in Plovdiv. Because the mission is split up into three districts, we hold a SS in each district four times per year. So the next three weekends will be very busy for us. In addition to the next three weekends being SS, we get to pick up the E. European director of CES services, Henry Kosak, who resides in Moscow, this coming week. We worked under Henry when we served in the Baltics and love the man.

















Our supervisor for Bulgaria and Ukraine came to visit us for a couple of days and visit classes with us. His name is Igor Poddodny and the man on the left is Ivan our teacher in Plovdiv.



















Between our visits to Stara Zagora and Sliven, we traveled to Velico Turnovo. In this lovely city we are scheduled to have our summer Youth and YSA Conferences; two separate weekends. We met the missionaries in Velico Turnovo, and drove to the mountain resort where the Conferences are to be held. The hotel where we are to stay is under renovation, but is to be finished by first of June. (We hope they work faster here than they do in the states) Upon talking to the manager, we learned that the dates for the YSA conference could not be guaranteed as a wedding was also scheduled for that weekend even though we had tentatively reserved the place six months ago. The Bulgarians have a way of doing this stressful type of scheduling--if something comes along that pays them more, they just bump the lower paying party. We hope we have things nailed down now for two different weekends.

On Thursday, we traveled to Sofia for a duel purpose. We scheduled visits to three branches to observe the seminary and institute classes, and for Peggy to attend the Sisters' Gathering under the invitation of the Mission President's wife. I'll let Peggy tell you of the events of the "Gathering".

The Sisters Gathering was nothing more than an opportunity for Sister missionaries and Sr. sisters a chance to mingle and feel of the spirits of each of us. We attending a play on Thursday night, ate at a Italian restaurant for lunch on Friday, and then shared spiritual experiences in the afternoon.

Sadly, we will be losing one of our Sr. Couples in 3 weeks. They will be leaving several months early due to health problems of the Sister's parents. We have really learned to love our fellow senior couples. They do add much to the success of our mission.


Bulgaria has some different, maybe even strange traditions. The current one is called Baba Martinitza. On the first day of March, and until the storks arrive, people give out and wear red and white yarn made into dolls or just as yarn with a bead on it that is tied on the wrist. Storks are supposed to bring prosperity to the land ownders where the storks nest. We see these huge nests in all of the villages we pass through.














We have had the privilege of hosting for dinner a remarkable young woman who was recently baptized. Her name is Radis, and I am sure I spelled it wrong. But it means Joy and so we often call her that. When we first met her she really looked angry. As she was being taught she mentioned that the sisters glowed and she wanted to glow like that. As she came out of the water she asked if she was glowing like the sisters, and said that she felt so light on the inside. We were not able to attend the baptism because we were travelling, but we could see and did tell her that she had a very happy countenance that was remarkable. She has been such a joy to be around we hope that she can keep this same countenance and introduce her friends to the church as well. She is full of hugs and love talented and smart. She wants to go with us to some of the plays that are held in the summer at the ancient Roman ampitheatre here in Plovdiv.

We cross our fingers hoping to hear from all of you who read this blog.
Love, Elder and Sister Andersen, mom and dad.

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.