Yup, that's all I've got for today

So our training meeting went really well and the week was a pretty average week for us, lesson and finding wise.  It wasn't a bad/difficult week, but it wasn't an incredibly amazing week either. We did have a lot of help from the branch president this week, he helped us out in a couple lessons and with some less actives.  He is a really good branch president and since he didn't have work this week he helped the missionaries a lot!

We tried doing more member work and re-activation work this week and it has been going pretty well.  We found a couple less active families that would like to meet and we have members that we are helping to work with their friends so hopefully we will get some new investigators soon out of that.

Church was really good for us yesterday, we had a good number of investigators come and one investigator stayed for all three hours and it was his first time! So that was good, it is usually pretty difficult to get them to stay for all of church I think it helped that we had our member fellowshiper, who helps us in lessons, with him the whole time. It is going well with him, he has a great desire to know the truth.  But, he sure does love his beer so we are making sure that he has a good solid testimony and understanding of Joseph smith and the restoration. We are trying to meet with his whole family but for now he keeps saying no, ( his wife is a little skeptical), but we will keep trying because I Love teaching families, plus that is how the church will really grow.

It wasn't just good that he came to church, it was like every single lesson and talk were meant for him and the questions he has.  I kept thinking, "Man, I sure hope he is paying good attention because this is perfect for him!!" So, we were blessed to have inspired talks and lessons for our investigator!

A couple of our investigators are out of town which is difficult.  Not being able to meet with them, we try to keep in contact with the phone but personal visits and lessons are just so much better!
Yup, that's all I've got for today I love you have a great week!

Elder Maxwell

I am very happy here in Sofia

 This week was pretty good.  We had a big leadership training meeting and that went really well, although it was pretty long and took up quite a bit of time but I think it was well worth it and I learned a lot! I love how dedicated our missionaries are, even though we had a great year last year and had to re-set our baptismal goal for the year, we are always striving to be even better to better apply Preach My Gospel and to be better missionaries! I have seen how it has changed my mission and I love it!!

We had some really good lessons this week, mostly because the members that we had coming were perfect for our investigators! We have one investigator who knew the missionaries 15-20 years ago and we had a member come and it turns out that his wife was taught by the same missionaries that our investigator knew!! So they got along really well and after the lesson the member asked us to call him the next time we had a lesson so he could come again! That was awesome for me and it made me feel like I was doing something right, it was just a great night. Especially because we had another lesson with an American family we had found a while back and we had a Bulgarian come who had served his mission in California and he was so excited to help, he was showing us his English scriptures from his mission and everything on the way there.  It was so fun to see how happy he was to help us out! I love working with the members and the branch president here has been super helpful and we have an incredible branch mission leader!

So, I am very happy here in Sofia and we are seeing lots of little miracles everyday as we are teaching and meeting with people and even as we are out on the streets!  Before my mission, I wish I had watched more of the district movies and watched how they taught and gone out with the missionaries to teach more and studied more from preach my gospel. I wasn't a very well prepared missionary but I am glad I have had wonderful companions and an incredible mission president who have helped me learn everything that I need to learn!
This week we have our training meeting that Elder Parkinson and I get to run so hopefully that will go well and other than that it will be a pretty normal week. Hopefully, we will be able to get some more investigators with dates for baptism this week!

I love you!! Have a great week!

Elder Maxwell

The Lord has already blessed us ...

This week was pretty good, we had to put some of our investigators into the "formers" as they haven't been keeping their commitments and are not meeting with us. But the Lord has already blessed us with some great new investigators this week who have been incredibly prepared. We found one lady who lives with her brother, when we were tracting after looking for some less actives, and she (in the last 2 months) has tried finding out for herself whether God exists and has done so through prayer.  She has noticed how that has changed her life and her attitude.  She also has a 11 year old son who stayed and listened and participated the whole lesson, sadly her brother is not interested but she wants to learn more and we have a meeting with her on Wed.! We also have a great new investigator who commited to get baptized, when he knows the message is true, he hasn't accepted a date yet but is loving the Book of Mormon and even came to church and really enjoyed it! Our other investigators are doing well and are progressing so that has been good!

Other than that things are going well, the weather is getting really nice.  We played a little basketball today and it was wonderful weather, me and my companion are doing well and always working to be better so that is good!

OH! I almost forgot, I went to Blagoevgrad on exchanges this last week I got to see the one family that we found and taught but that didn't get baptized till later it was so good to see them and to spend a little time talking with them! The grandmother especially looked great she was still smoking when I left but of course has stoped now and is the primary teacher.  She is sncredible and just looks so much happier and healthier!! And the son is going to be a priest soon he is doing really well!!

Love you!! Have a great week!!

Elder Maxwell

The mission is just full of ups and downs

This week was good.  We had a bunch of lessons fall through, kind of frustrating, but I figure that the mission is just full of ups and downs so this next week is going to be great and we will have tons of lessons!

We have some investigators that are progressing well and a few others that were just out of town this week. We are still working with the members a lot this week and we are trying really hard to get them to invite their friends to meet with us. It is so much more effective than contacting on the street. We have a lot of success talking to people on the street but it is even better when the investigators come from the members because then they have a friend in the church and there are so many more blessings that come from it too. We have the one African member who introduced us to his friend and we are teaching him and it is so good because he always makes sure that his friend comes to church and is reading and praying and he is always there for our lessons!

There is a recent convert family here that we meet with every now and then, they have a ten year old son and he is literally an exact copy of Jonathan just Bulgarian. He is a big goofball but also very solid and he understands well.  He loves flipping his eye lids upside down and making faces till his parents get upset.

Ian, yes the watermelon here is very tasty. In Bulgarian it is called Диня (dee-nya)  They also love eating watermelon with sirene (their white Cheese) it is pretty good, kind of a salty sweet snack.

We had transfer calls and I am staying here with Elder Parkinson!

So that's basically the week. Have a great week!!Love you!
Elder Maxwell