I honestly love these people so much!

It is funny that our family is getting so small at home but really is still quite large, I saw in Ammon's letter a similar comment about how they don't have many people at home either! It is strange that everyone grows up.

 

We actually had the time change yesterday so it looks like I'm an hour closer to being in the same time as all of you!

 

So for me, this last week was pretty good, we were up in Ruse on exchanges and it was good. I really like Ruse and I'm good friends with the missionaries there so that is always a bonus!

 

Our investigators are doing good and we should have a baptism soon! We had zone conference this week and that was awesome to have some training and to learn and grow as a zone! It is incredible how we are being blessed in this mission and I have high expectations for Bulgaria as the church continues to grow and bless the lives or more and more families and people!  Even though it can be (and is) hard and discouraging at times, I am always excited for the potential and possibilities that there are here in Bulgaria! I honestly love these people so much and am incredibly grateful for the time I have to work with and among them!

 

Other than that, it's starting to get a little bit colder but it's still not too bad I've been lucky to be along the sea for the winters, so far, where it is a bit warmer (but also a bit windier)! 

 

I love you all have a super week! 

Elder Maxwell

He gave us some bananas!

It sounds like it was a pretty good week and Ben is off on his mission!! I am very excited to hear how it is going for him! I liked the MTC but after a few weeks I was ready to head out so he is lucky to have some good time there and to get out into the field quick!

So for me, this week was pretty good.  We are doing well and have some cool investigators. We have a new investigator from Nigeria who is a student here.  He is super cool and has incredible faith and accepted a baptismal date for the end of November! Also this week, we started our English courses and they are going really well.  We have a lot of cool people that are coming.  It was pretty funny too, after our first lesson one lady came up and was talking with us about how she is a believer and all but also how the whole time she was looking at our haircuts, she is a hairstylist.  I had just gotten a haircut the day before but the haircut wasn't the best I had ever gotten, but I thought it was pretty funny how she kept mentioning my haircut in our conversation.  Maybe I will have to go to her next time I need a hair cut so she can't say anything anymore!

Also, you should all take a look at the October New Era, on the cover are a couple missionaries from my mission!  And also inside are a few, I'm not in there but one of them that is on the cover, Elder Killpack, I actually worked with him in Shumen this week on exchanges and he is from my MTC group.  So I know someone that thousands of church members have looked at!! 

Other than that things are going well, we have a couple investigators with dates and they are progressing well! We also have this one priest that we met with, he is super nice and loves our church so it is pretty funny talking with him.  He was super excited that there were so many missionaries in Bulgaria and he gave us some bananas when we left!

I love you all and have a super week! 

Elder Maxwell

I am still learning and getting better!

This week was really good, we had a lot of traveling but we were able to get a lot of lessons in with our investigators which was good.

 

We finished conference yesterday and we had a lot of investigators come to that again. And a few of our investigators are just so close.  They have been taught just about everything but are still just there waiting for that answer or something so they will get baptized. But we had a lot of really good lessons were the spirit was very strong and they went really well.

 

When I was on exchanges in Veliko Tarnovo, we had a lesson with a new guy they had found and we had a recent convert helping out in the lesson.  It was amazing because the recent convert, when we asked him to testify about how the gospel has blessed his life, he testified all about how baptism was the turning point in his life and so on and so forth and the investigator after that asks us if he could get baptized, we didn't even have to ask him! So that was pretty cool and a great testimony to me of using members!

 

My companion is doing well, we work well together and he is a great companion so it is all good ( even though he doesn't put potatoes in his homemade chicken noodle soup, weird!). Our apartment here is nice, it is probably one of my favorite apartments. It is a bit colder now, sweater weather, which is okay I like sweaters! The language is coming along fine I don't speak perfectly and I've got an American accent but I do fine and I am still learning and getting better. 

I can't think of anything too funny from last week I will have to try harder this week so I can have a story for you all! 

Love you! Have a great week! 

Elder Maxwell 

Spinach Banitsa, What?

Conference was way good! At least the Saturday sessions, because that's all I've seen so far! It is nice having it at home but in the church isn't bad either and we had a few investigators come and stay for the first couple hours so that was good! Oh and this week me and Elder Measom cooked some breakfast casserole for dinner one night, it wasn't as good as yours mom, but it was still good and you've got to have breakfast casserole conference week! And I probably would have done nachos but they don't really exist here so sadly we went without. And next week we will finish up the Sunday sessions so that will be good! Although the last couple years I've really missed having conference at home with the family!

Everything is going well and I would love to serve with Ammon but I don't think it will ever happen but I would love to pick up some more Turkish and go talk with the tailor! It would probably take me a while to learn Turkish but maybe I could sort of understand stuff after a couple months if I had someone teaching me. We had a pretty good week and had a good amount of lessons.  We are trying to get some lessons in the home of the members.  Our mission president told us it is good to have lessons in the church with member "friends", it is better to have them in the homes of the investigators with a member friend and it is best to have the lessons in the home of the member friend. So you should introduce yourself to the missionaries investigators and invite them and the missionaries over for a lesson (FHE, Dinner,.. ) they would probably like that. You have already had lessons at home right?

Sadly, and also not, we do have a lot of traveling this week, we have a meeting / visa work in Sofia this week and maybe an interview/ exchange in Ruse so we will be out and about a bit. But I do love exchanges, especially in Ruse, its a very nice city and the missionaries there are super! It's gotten a bit cooler this week were down around 5 degrees in the mornings and there is a pretty cold wind that comes off the sea but no snow and the last couple days have been a bit warmer and sunnier. 

 

One story from this week, we were helping this one couple move a wood burning stove up into their apartment and the wife is pregnant and the doctors had told her to eat lots of spinach so after we helped them they fed us some lunch and it was everything spinach. Spinach soup, spinach banitsa so we ate a lot of spinach, it wasn't my favorite meal but it wasn't bad. I probably ate more spinach than I have from the rest of my life combined!

Have a great week you all are amazing!

 

Love 

Elder Maxwell