I am always very ready for bed each night.

So this week was good, we were very busy and had a pretty successful week!! We were in Shumen for a little bit and it's a nice little city but it is pretty cold there, it is a bit warmer here in Varna but we get pretty strong cold winds.

 

So like Ben we have our transfer calls this week and I hope I get to stay, although, it is likely that I will be moved, I've been with Elder Measom three transfers and I've been here longer than him so it is more likely that I will end up going somewhere but fingers crossed that I will be able to stay!! We have a lot of really cool investigators and a couple baptisms this month and if I transfer I would miss them! Plus the branch here is awesome and I could serve here with them till the end of my mission!! But we will see!

It is pretty easy to live within the budget, I usually have a little left at the end of the month which is good because it is like a buffer for the next month if we end up buying more food.  We eat cheap and well so it is good! Recently we've had a lot more meals from investigators and members which has been helpful although we still cook most of our meals.  Elder Measom and I are both healthy and well which is good, a lot of elders have been getting a little sick recently but we have been blessed to be able to be healthy and work all the time! I am doing well, very busy and I am always very ready for bed each night. 

 

Cool teaching experience from this week, we were teaching one of our investigators about the word of wisdom and she doesn't smoke or drink but she has drunk coffee for 40 years but she has a very strong desire to follow Christ and is doing all she can to prepare for baptism! She was a little worried about it, but decided to give it a try.  The first couple days, she said she had a bit of a headache but with prayer and a little Advil she made it through the day.  After that, she says she didn't even have the desire to drink it anymore and it's been about a week now! It is amazing to see people change their lives to live according to the commandments and how happy it makes them!! We also have another investigator preparing for baptism this month and he is doing well and the sisters here have a baptism this week so this will be a good month for Varna!! 

 

The holidays haven't really changed much, there are still people out and about and our investigators are all still in town and willing to meet so it is good.  It's just a little harder when it is colder because there aren't as many people out. In the city, they've put up a bunch of Christmas lights and some other stuff in center so it is all very pretty when it gets dark!! Other than that, I can't think of much but you all have a great week!!!

Love you!! 

Elder Maxwell

Things are going really well.

Things are going really well for us, we missed basically the first half of the week for our meeting and for exchanges but we've got some good investigators and there should be at least a few baptisms here in Varna this month!

 

We are still working with the grandmother and her son and wife.  The grandmother is doing really well and loves coming to church and meeting with us and she always feeds us when we go over for lessons usually it's just fruit or something small but she's done a couple bigger meals for us.  Once we had this one thing I forget the name it's rice wrapped in cooked grape leaves but she did it with pickled cabbage. Not my favorite but I'm getting used to it they eat it quite a bit here especially in the winter. She is super dedicated and once she gets over her morning coffee she will be ready for baptism! 

 

The teaching is going well, we had a few good lessons and the members have been helping us out a lot the last couple weeks so that has been good! We found this one really cool guy while we were tracting a couple nights ago, he had a couple kids and he studied the bible and all for this one evangelist or something church but doesn't go there because here doesn't agree with some of their teachings. He is super nice we only had a few minutes with him because it was pretty late at night and we were in a further out part of our area but he has even been to the English courses before and we have another lesson with him tomorrow! It is pretty incredible how prepared people can be and we hope that things will go well with him!

 

This week got pretty cold and when we were in Sofia it was snowing and we hadn't brought our winter stuff because it was warmer and all in Varna and then we went to Veliko for exchanges and it had dumped snow there and so we had a good colder day working with them and then on the bus back, the bus had to stop and we had to wait a hour or so for them to plow the road so we could get back to Varna! We got in a little bit late but we got in so that's what is important! We still don't have snow here in Varna just cold, windy weather but with a coat and scarf its not bad.

Other than that, things are going well and I love you all! 

 

Have a great week!

Elder Maxwell 

A very blessed missionary!

So just to let you know, your son is a very blessed missionary, we have our council meeting this week so we were going to have to come in today to Sofia on the bus but yesterday the Wilsteads were in Varna and they gave us a ride in to Sofia so that was good because the buses are not the most comfortable.  Then we find out that the American family is having the Thanksgiving dinner on pday this week so it just so happens that we are here for that so 2 years in a row I get an incredible Thanksgiving dinner! Other than that Thanksgiving will just be a normal day for us but it's all good because our normal days are pretty good!

 

This last week was good for us, we had the training meeting that Elder Measom and I were responsible for, and that went well so that was good. We still are working with the one family and the Grandmother came to church again and was participating in the lessons and one of the members that lives close to her wants to come to the lessons with us. So it is good that the members here are helping us out in our lessons! We found a few cool people and another family who are interested to learn more. We found a mother with two daughters and the mother want's her daughters to learn more about faith and God and so we will go visit them with a member this week.

 

We had a blessing too where we had a member call one of our investigators who hasn't been to church in a while and invite him and he came and had a really good time and it was a perfect week for him to come to church the lessons were all for him and I am sure he felt the spirit! It wasn't a big thing for the member to do but it meant a lot for the investigator and it got him to church!

 

We most likely will have a lot of traveling this week for our council meeting then we have exchanges in Veliko Turnovo and then an interview in Ruse, so we will have to get as many lessons as we can in the time that we get in our area. 

 

I love you all and have a great week!

Elder Maxwell 

Things are going good

I am glad that you got the pictures from zone conference I put a lot of effort into them to look good  and it would be a shame if they never got to you! Not really though it was pretty easy and I didn't do anything but thanks to Sis. Wilstead for sending those!

 

The mac and cheese was good but it wasn't really as awesome and delicious as I remember it being  but I am excited to have some home made mac and cheese with bacon when I get home!

 

We were able to meet with the families some more although one of them we are transferring over to the sister missionaries because they live in their area and they will be able to lessons with them at their home and with the members who are close.
 

The investigator that got the leg cramp, we've worked with him for a while and he is pretty goofy so he just laid there for a couple minutes and then we helped him get up. 

 

Funny story, this week was E. Measoms b-day and I did not know so one morning he wanted to run to the store for workout to get some Oreos for a Reese's pie and it was pretty cold but I went anyway and we made the pie for breakfast and then it took me half the day to figure out it was his birthday I finally got it when he said he wanted to go out for dinner and it was on his parents. So I was glad I went for the pie stuff !

Yesterday the English couple that is retired here in a village had us out for an English dinner and that was pretty good and we were grateful to have a Sunday roast with them!
 

Other than that things are going good.  We've got some good investigators and the weather is still pretty good, just a little bit cold. Today we went to ice skate at a sport complex and I've sort of got the hockey stop down now! Then we played some basketball and soccer so it was a really good p-day!

 

This week we probably will head down to Burgas again and we've also got a zone leader training meeting that we will get to lead so it'll be a very busy week getting all that in as well as meeting with all our investigators so that is good!

Have a great week! Love you!

Elder Maxwell 

Photo Update!

The District

Elder Measom and Elder Maxwell

The Zone

The best things that happened ...

This week one of the best things that happened was we started teaching a cool family who is interested in our message and who have very strong faith, and they read and pray and keep their commitments!

 

Since you asked, when we went shopping this week (last week we haven't gone yet today), we bought a ton of chicken and potatoes some cheese a lot of eggs and milk and bread some peppers and oranges and bananas and bread and cornflakes and kicelo mlyako and lyoutenitsa and shpek and some pasta. Probably some other stuff but that's all I can really think of.

 

 kicelo mlyako

lyoutenitsa

shpek

 

 

The thing that my companion does the most different from me is love football otherwise we are basically the same with small differences.

 

We had eleven lessons this week. In one of our lessons with an investigator the spirit was really strong, he had dropped off the map for a little but we were able to meet with him, and so talked about why it is important to live and learn about the gospel and the spirit was very strong and the lesson went really well then he got a really bad leg cramp and got up then fell over, so that was a bit weird.

 

Also in church we had a eastern Europe broadcast with Elder Nelson and some other church leaders and that was really good!

 

Other thing's from this week, we had a meeting in Sofia and I got to see and talk to Elder Bennion again (through Skype) so that was cool and I am excited to be at university with him again, we will have to be sure to room together again!

Have an awesome week I love you all!

Elder Maxwell

You never really know how much your little efforts can lead to!!

So this week was good.  We were here in Varna all week and had exchanges with the Elders here, that was pretty good.  We had a Halloween activity for our investigators and the members and that went well. They all had a good time and the members were able to get to know the investigators and vice versa so it was good. Although not too many people here know about Halloween, basically just the younger kids celebrate it, but everyone enjoyed the activity and we had some fun games for them, like donuts on a string and apple bobbing! 

 

We had a couple pretty successful nights of tracting this week and we found a couple families! With one family, they invited us in and they were sort of religious but had been pretty busy and hadn't gone to church in a long time. So we were sharing about the restoration with them and when we shared Joseph Smith's first vision the spirit was so strong and the mother right after asked how she could learn more so we set up a return appointment with them and hopefully we will be able to keep teaching them! The other family was similar, they used to meet with the Jehovah Witness missionaries but with their kids they got busy and lost contact but they have great faith and wanted to learn more about our message!

 

It is just like the family that Elder Taylor and I found in Blagoevgrad that used to meet with the JW and they got baptized! I called them up one evening after planning this week to see how they were doing and the 14 year old son passes the sacrament every week and is going to the weekly seminary course they have.  He told me he can't wait until he is old enough to be a missionary! So you never really know how much your little efforts can lead to!! I am very happy for them and hope to be able to continue to find families to teach and to help them receive of the blessing of the restored gospel!

 

This week we have transfer calls so we will see if I get to stay here in Varna for another transfer or head somewhere else! Today we travel into Sofia for a council meeting but luckily we don't have any exchanges this week so we will still have a good amount of time in our area! 

 

I love you all!

Have a great week!  

Старейшина Максуел