Weird, I didn't even think about that!

My companion, he actually doesn't even know how to play the accordion. (see picture from last week)  He found it in an antique shop last transfer.  He figured out how to play a song from star wars on it but that's about it.

I don't think we have time change here because I don't remember setting any clocks, weird I didn't even think about that.

So this week, we had the Zone Leaders come down and go on exchanges with us and that was really good and the tracting has been going very well still.  We have a good base of people we can go and visit almost every night now and we are staying really busy!

I've been trying all the different kinds of bread they have at the bakeries and they have a lot of really good stuff and some of the things that I didn't really like at the beginning are way good now although I very much am looking forward to eating a real burger with real meat and bacon and barbecue sauce when I get back.  Hopefully my taste buds aren't permanently altered to where I cant enjoy a real burger. But that would be basically impossible, burgers are just way too good.

We had some really good lessons this week, we had one with a girl from Albania that attends the American University and she brought a friend that is here from Blagoevgrad and they both were very interested.  We are meeting with them again tomorrow and they might even bring more friends! And one of our former investigators that we still see on the street and talk to said that she saw that on Facebook the girl had been posting about the Book Of Mormon!

It got a bit colder this week and we even had some snow falling one night as we finished tracting but it didn't stick or anything.

One guy that we had met with and were going to meet with again called us and canceled because he was leaving to Greece for work but then later in the week we thought we saw him on the other side of the street and so I quick called him and it totally was him and he straight up lied about where he was. I wish that people would just be honest and open and if they don't want to learn more or meet to just say it not lie to us. But everyone has their agency and I can't control what they do.

But on the up side, there was one lady we gave a book of Mormon to last Sat. as we were tracting and she was really skeptical and all that it was free and all we really want is people to read it.  This week we stoped by to see if she had been reading and she said that she had and was in the middle and that she really liked it and also her daughter, she would read it with her and she really liked it and was always asking to read it!! So this week we will meet with them, because she didn't have time then, and she also said she would have some friends that were interested in the book there too! So this week has been really good and we have a lot of really good potential investigators!

So your average Bulgarian is usually white with black hair (Viktor Krum, from the Harry Potter movies is a pretty good general example of a Bulgarian, but of course there are skinnier and taller or something like that people too). There aren't really blond people, except for a few, but they are usually not from Bulgaria (at least ancestor wise). And yeah, I am taller than most people but there are a few people that are tall like me too and I've seen some really tall people but they are pretty rare. So over 90% of the country is Bulgarian orthodox and the large percentage of them, maybe, will go to the church to light a candle every now and then but that's about it. At the American university there are very few Americans, I have met one at least, aside from professors the majority are from countries like Kazakhstan and Macedonia and other kinds of Asian European countries and then a few Bulgarians mostly they attend because it is cheaper and they can transfer to other schools afterward.

I love you all!

Elder Maxwell

I am glad for all I learn every single day!!

My companion, Elder Breeze, with his accordian.

This week was really good.  We had a lot of success tracting this week, more than I've had in basically my whole mission (for tracting of course). But the American university had a winter break this week and most of our investigators were pretty busy, but we still had a few pretty good lessons!

We found one new guy that also is looking very promising and has a real sincere desire to learn.  It was a little confusing in our first lesson with him though because for some reason or other whenever he means yes, he says "ne".  For example, I would teach about prophets and say that they receive revelation from God and he would say "ne" but after a little I was able to work it out to where I could understand what he really meant!

The district here is really good we are a small district and we all work hard so it's really good! So yeah it's all going really well I love the people here and I am glad for all I learn every single day!!

I Love you all!!

Старейшина Максуел

 

 

Christian's advice to Nate:  "It has been really good in Bulgaria!  Missions are so good!  I hope you are getting ready right now to serve a mission by reading your scriptures every day at least for 10 min before you read your other books!"

I really love it here so far!

Time on the mission goes by incredibly fast, at least when you look back at it, a day can seem to take forever though but it is still good!

The new area is very cool, it is a smaller city and it basically is made up of two universities ( one of them is american!) so there are lots of young people which is very cool! We're up in the mountains and it is very pretty and it is starting to warm up so the weather has been very nice, we're not up quite high enough in the mountains for there to be snow.

The branch is really cool from what I have seen so far, it's a pretty small branch but there are some great members! We have a few really cool, young investigators, one of them is a boxer and he lived in America for a bit.  We also are teaching his fiance and his friend! Our apartment is nice it's a lot better than my older one, so I'm pretty happy about that!

My new companion, Elder Breeze, is pretty cool.  He is a lot like my last companion: he is barely taller than me, again, he plays trombone and loves music especially jazz.  He is from Indianapolis, Indiana and he has been in country for two months so he still is pretty fresh, but he is a great elder and he is fun to work with! For my district there are four of us: me and my companion and then Sister Frame, from my MtC group, and Sister Christensen from California, it's pretty small and it's weird not having other elders besides my companion but it's pretty good.

The bulgarian bread is pretty good but you've got to get it from the bakery when it's still fresh, the gevrek is pretty good ( they are kind of like bagles) and kifla is always good especially with chocolate, of course there's the banitsa and kashkavalka with the cheese and they also have some pretty good roll things with sausage they have a lot of different names for those though!

Blagoevgrad is way awesome, the people here are a lot nicer than in Burgas, at least in general on the streets, so contacting goes pretty well! I was tracting this week and ran into this one crazy guy that our MTC teacher told us a story about when he was on his mission over 5 years ago!  We sat and talked with him for a bit and I got a picture with him! I also taught English class for the first time ( there wasn't enough in Burgas for me and my companion to teach) and it is pretty fun and new!

Oh and this week, they had a couple holidays: Baba Marta and yesterday was their kind of Fourth of July! Baba Marta or grandma march is on the first of March and it basically is to celebrate the coming of spring.   For weeks before, everyone is selling these martinitsi on the street which are braclets of red and white string then on the first of March they just give them to everyone they meet and wish them health and luck and such. Then you have to wear them until you see a stork or buds on a tree then you take them off and hang them up in the tree! It is pretty cool, everyone was way happy and I got a few martenitsi from some people we met! So next year you'll have to give it a try! Thats about it from this week, Blagoevgrad is pretty cool and I really love it here so far!

Have an Awesome week! Love to you all!
Elder Maxwell

I will go to Blagoevgrad

 

This week was pretty good.  We had a lot of lessons with members so that was really good, lessons are always better with a member, they are pretty helpful! We also had the zone leader training up in Varna and that was really good, there is so much I can still learn on how I can be a better missionary!

 

So from this week... our best appointment from this week is probably with an investigator, he is a newer guy we found.  He is from Ukraine and we taught him about the plan of salvation and it was pretty good.  He is kind of quiet but he asks really good questions and is a very nice guy! The best thing I ate, probably the biscuits and gravy that we had last night or I had this pretty good kind of cinnamon roll thing except it has nuts in it instead of cinnamon and it had strawberry jam on the top and they have it sitting in this syrup stuff so the roll is kind of syrupy and very sweet, I don't really know how else to describe it but it was really good! And it was from this one Turkish bakery that we go to because we are friends with the lady that owns it, she calls us her American boys and is super nice! I would say a moment I could really tell the Lord was leading me was in a lesson with one of our investigators and we were teaching him about the restoration.  He is already pretty religious and I felt like that lesson went really well and we were guided in teaching it to him specifically according to what he needed to hear.  The lesson before he wouldn't take a Book of Mormon and this time he took one and committed to start reading it!

 

Oh and we got our transfer calls and I am already leaving Burgas and I will go to Blagoevgrad and I will serve with Elder Breeze, he is two groups after me.  I will be the district leader for us and the sisters who are there. So that is going to be a big step and change but it will be good and I look forward to seeing what else I can learn! I am sad to be leaving Burgas, I got to know the members a lot better here than I did in Sofia and I hope that I will be able to come back sometime to see them! Burgas is a very special place and the members here are so awesome and close, they are like a family I had a very good time serving here with them! So tomorrow I will travel back over to Blagoevgrad, I love long bus rides! ( not really)

 

Oh and as far as I know I haven't lost any weight overall on my mission so you don't have to worry,  I get plenty to eat and we eat pretty healthy, I do try my best!

Lots of love!

Elder Maxwell

I hope I get to stay here in Burgas a bit longer!

Winter break! I forgot that there is the second break they have in NY but that is pretty cool and factories are pretty neat places so I bet you'll have fun!! And the pools at the hotels are always fun too! (Note of explanation from mom: Between January and mid March, our mission will be getting 52 new missionaries and only 7 will be returning home!) That is a lot of missionaries! That's almost as many as our whole mission! It is exciting that Victor is getting their own though, I hope they are able to have some good success!

So for your question - I do "fold" my clothes and put them away mostly because there isn't enough room on the rack for both of our laundries so I've got to get them down before he needs to put his up. And yes I do have to iron my shirts every time, it's not too bad though. But I will be glad to have a dryer again when I get back!

 

My week was pretty good, Thursday we had the Valentine's branch activity and it was super fun.  We had a pretty good investigator turn out between all the missionaries!  I made some Mississippi mud cake and all the Bulgarians were loving it and basically everyone wants the recipe!  And I actually made another one today (for one of the members birthdays) for at FHE because they liked it so much! For the Valentine's activity, Elder Vonn wrote a skit for him, me and Elder Bryce (and we had a member help us too).  It was pretty funny and they really liked it too!
 

Other than that, the week was decent, most of our investigators were pretty busy so we didn't get to meet with them very much so we had a lot of contacting out on the streets and knocking doors but we found a couple pretty cool new people and next week we should have lots of lessons! Oh and this week the branch got some new furniture so now we have a new podium and a little stand thing for up front and we got some new chairs and shelves for the building!

 

This week we are going up to Varna, on Friday, for our zone leader training meeting and on Saturday we get our transfer calls! This transfer has gone by so fast, I hope I get to stay here in Burgas a bit longer, it is pretty awesome!

I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Старейшина Максуел

Nothing too special...

We haven't had snow or very cold weather here for a while, or at least since the beginning of a couple weeks ago. Being next to the sea definitely keeps us a lot warmer than the rest of Bulgaria. It isn't anywhere as cold as it is back home and I am grateful for that and I hope you all are able to stay warm!

Mom, I would for sure give myself a dryer hug but sadly there basically is no such thing as dryers in Bulgaria, at least not in any missionary apartments.  We just have drying racks that we dry everything on.

This week was good we found a lot of cool new people that we have started meeting with, which is good because a lot of our older investigators have stopped meeting with us for whatever reason.

 

We've only got a couple more weeks left in the transfer, it has gone by pretty fast. Nothing too special from this week mostly just the usual contacting and teaching. This week though for Valentine's the branch is having a talent show and the member in charge of it is making all the missionaries do something... so, I think me and a couple others might just do a skit or something we will see.

Have a great week and keep being great examples to everyone around you!!

Love

Старейшина Максуел

A bit of the stuffed up nose and never ending booger sickness!

I am doing well, I had a bit of the stuffed up nose and never ending booger sickness for a couple days.  I'm over it now and it wasn't anything too bad so I still was able to work!

 

We went to Sizopol last week for P-day so I've got some cool pictures from there I might send a couple!

 

 

 

Other than that, it was a pretty normal week.  We didn't find many new people this week but our investigators are doing well. One in particular, I think she would accept baptism, but she has some family problems that keep us from being able to commit her to that. She is a bit younger so for us to be able to meet with her she needs to have permission from her parents.  Her mom didn't want to give permission right away but she was way nice and reasonable, unlike a lot of parents here, and we were able to meet with her on Saturday and answer her questions.  She came to Sacrament meeting with her daughter and everything so that was pretty cool!

 

We are only 2 elders to an apartment but we usually do something as a district for P-day. My companion is cool he is fun to work with and he really likes Idaho.  He doesn't use his lips when he eats, ever, for anything so that is pretty unique!

Love you all! Have an awesome week!!

Старейшина Максуел