I think my brain just gets tired!

So I've been in Bulgaria for over a month now!

The language is coming along pretty well I can understand most of what people say but speaking is still a bit tough. I am pretty used to the schedule 6:30 comes way to early every morning but once I'm up its not too bad. The food is really good, we don't eat at members really ever.  I have once and that was with the elders from the other district when my comp was on splits or something.  It was good but they don't have a ton here and people just don't really invite people to their homes. The bread isn't really that special it's okay if you get it fresh from a bakers or something but otherwise its just bread. Doners are really good though, I haven't got time to describe them today but remind me next week!

I'm not positive, but I think this is a Doner.  It is a fast food in Bulgaria and it looks like something he would love.

This week was good Gardner was off to Blagovgrad for splits on Wednesday but otherwise it was pretty normal. We only street contact now, door knocking isn't super successful so we only do it when it's too cold for people to be out on the streets.  I found a few cool people this week and we got to meet with one and give him a Book of Mormon already so that was cool.  We should get to meet with some others and probably him again this week. We have a lot of investigators right now so we've got a lot of people to meet with which is nice.  It is nice not having to spend super long periods of time contacting because after a couple hours my Bulgarian seems to get worse I think my brain just gets tired!

But yeah that's about all for this week, Have an awesome week!

Love you all,
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That will come, I am sure of it!

This week nothing too exciting went on.  My companion, being a zone leader had to go to Pleven for splits, so I was with a different Elder here and that went well. This week he will probably be going to Blagovgrad too so I will probably get to serve with lots of different Elders while I am here but that is okay it is cool seeing how different people work and learn different things from different Elders!

I had a lot of time contacting this week although not a ton of success in finding new people, that is always tough but it is always the best finding someone who is interested and then being able to talk and discuss with them.  I have yet to have a second meeting show up but that will come, I am sure of it!

It has really started to cool off here, which is nice, and the last couple of days we have gotten a lot of rain! But yeah nothing too new or super special this week, the work is going well!

Lets see... for a little spiritual thought from my readings in Alma this week, especially the war chapters, I really liked how Moroni first prepared the people spiritually then he had them build the fortifications and I think that is especially relevant in our lives as we spiritually prepare ourselves we will be able to withstand and make it through spiritual trials but we will also be able to make it through physical trials because as we have faith in the Lord and are fixed in our minds to do what is right we will receive strength from the Lord to help us though the hard times. I have seen the Lords help in my life as I have had challenges - with no one listening or other people who just want to argue or mock us and I know that that help is there for everyone!

So yeah, have a super awesome week and remember to read the scriptures every day!!

Love you all,
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That's basically this week.

Ian (age 6)  gave wise advice to his missionary brothers this week, "I want to say one thing: Both of you - I hope you are having a good time and doing the things you are supposed to do. Austin - I hope you have a good time coming back and Christian - I hope you have a good time in Bulgaria and send us lots of good messages about what you are doing there."

Christian's response:

Okay Ian, here is a message about what I did this week in Bulgaria!

So it was a good week, we had a lot of contacting but it was a hard week in getting people's numbers and finding those who are interested. But I had a lot of really good conversations and it was good in helping my Bulgarian improve as well as helping me be better at answering hard questions I had a lot of those this week for some reason. But cool experience with that though, so one day after a long day of tons of contacting with no success and feeling like maybe I could have had a bit more success if I was better at answering questions, I was going to read some in the BoM and so I said a quick prayer to be able to find better answers to questions and just be a better missionary.  As I just started reading, I was able to find all the answers that I needed and that were giving me the hardest time! The scriptures are amazing and they can answer our questions and bring us comfort, whether we are missionaries or not. So yeah, that was cool.

We were going to go to the game on Friday with Sophi but the friend with the tickets ended up going to Greece because they had a long weekend for some holiday so we didn't get to go.  That was a bummer, especially since that night during language study I could hear the cheering from the stadium across the street. Oh well, maybe some other time.

So yeah, that's basically this week.  We had some good lessons although there was one afternoon my companion was sick so I just cleaned the apartment for a bit. It's strange how I feel like sometimes I just want to take a break or something but then when I can't do any work - all I want to do is work!  Two years is not that long, I plan on getting as much work done as I can!

Love you all, have an awesome week!
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This week has been good!

This week has been good, it's crazy though, it feels like I have been here forever but also like it was only yesterday that I wrote last.

The language is definitely improving I can understand more and speak a little bit better but like I seem to say a lot - there is still much more for me to learn.

This week I got to meet the rest of our investigators and they all are super awesome, we have some really solid investigators.  We had a good number of lessons this week, my first lesson that I set up with someone I contacted, didn't show but that's not too unusual.

We took some food to a баба (grandma or older lady)  this week and she was super nice.  She lives alone with her four cats.  She has a couple kids and grand kids but I could tell she was a bit lonely. We had asked about her family and she went into the other room and brought out these two, way thick, books of pictures of her her kids and other missionaries and such.  She has been a member for quite a bit, so we were there for a couple hours while she showed us the pictures and told us about them. She also read us a story from a book that her grand kids like and got some pictures with us.  ( I didn't have my camera but I will get a picture with her later)   That was way fun!

So my companion is way cool, he is super good at teaching and all and he is a good help for me in learning the language and keeping me involved in the lessons. He really, really loves vinegar though as well as spices.  Everything he cooks is just loaded with both of them, it doesn't taste bad but it's kind of like being punched in the mouth a lot when you are eating it. Our apartment is nice and good sized there is plenty of room for us.  The kitchen is pretty small, I wish the stove was a bit bigger but it is good enough. The bathroom is pretty sweet, it's like everything is tile and there is the shower attached to the sink and you basically shower around the sink and the toilet, so that is pretty neat.

I was kind of disappointed I didn't see the roaches last week but I've seen some around now, they aren't too impressive they are quite small, we luckily don't have any in our apartment though so it's all good.

The branch is really cool, we have some pretty cool members.  We are working with a recent convert , he is an engineer and he is so solid and awesome it is so much fun to teach him and work with him. Church was a lot better this week I wasn't nearly as tired and I could understand a bit more so that was good. Oh, one lady, I forget her name, she is super energetic though and way fun but while we were waiting at the church for one of our lessons (the no show) she was there cleaning and my companion, all the sudden, was like, "Hey, will you practice with him?"  So she pretended to be a stranger and I would have to stop her and all that jazz and she made me do it like a whole ton but she gave some really good advice too between each one, that was cool and pretty helpful but I definitely wasn't expecting that.

Oh and this week we were going to go to a soccer game, Levski vs Cherno moray, with one of our investigators Sophi (super solid investigator probably not baptized because mom is not super into her getting baptized), because her friend had some free tickets but then they didn't allow any fans at the game because at the last game the fans were so bad with fighting and other stuff that they had to be "punished" or something like that. So we didn't get to go but this week, at least I think it is this week, she also has tickets to Bulgaria vs. Italy so we should be going to that one!!

So yeah, that is whats up in Bulgaria right now, the work is going great and it is awesome to see how the Lord blesses us as we strive to be better, whether we are trying to be better missionaries or just better people. I know that He loves us all so much!!

Love to everyone!
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I've got a lot to tell.

   Okay so I'm just going to go right into my week I've got a lot to tell.

 

   First of all Bulgaria is awesome and super fun but it is a lot of work especially the first couple days getting used to the time change. The language is way crazy I have a hard time understanding anything but the simplest sentences which makes contacting kind of hard but it's still fun.

 

    My companion, Elder Gardner, is way cool.  He is from Texas and is a great missionary.  He has been out for 22 months so I will be his last companion but he is very nice and patient with me as I try to learn the language. We are serving in Sofia the First Branch and me and my companion are the first and second counselors in the branch presidency.  I don't really do anything but sit up on the stand and try not to fall asleep and then after the meetings I help the clerk with tithing but that's about all.  So, church was cool it is mostly old people we probably had around twenty or so people there and it was alright but I literally had no idea what was going on the whole time.   They did have me introduce myself and bear my testimony, it wasn't very good - it's like as soon as I got up there I forgot all the Bulgarian that I had learned!  That was pretty sweet but I'm sure they don't mind too much. So that was church. 

   Going back, on the first day we got here, we did paper work and some contacting then we went to a park and talked about the history of the mission and stuff.  Then we had dinner and we had shopksa salad and moussika, the salad is cut up tomatoes and cucumbers with like a feta cheese and the moussika was a potato and meat casserole type dish they were both pretty good - although I like the moussika a bit more. Then the next day we had a mission orientation and got our companions and where we were going to serve and since we are just in Sofia we went out and did a bit of contacting and had a lesson with one of our investigators Hristo. 

   Friday was way cool we had a lesson with Sophi, she is way cool and speaks very good English so that was cool and we had a lesson with a recent convert Lyoudmil, he was super nice and a is a very good guy. Then we went and we got some groceries for one lady who can't afford on her own and took them to her. Her apartment was probably one of the sketchiest places I've ever been ( and Bulgaria isn't the cleanest place) there were flies all over and spiders and my companion says he saw some roaches behind me when we were sharing a message with her but she did have a cool cat that could open doors on it's own and she was very nice and patient with my Bulgarian so that was a pretty cool experience.

 

    So yeah, Saturday were were just contacting all day that is a lot of rejection but it is fun.  There are some kind of rude people though, one guy spit at my companions feet and one lady went kind of psycho on me although I had no idea what she was saying so I had to ask my companion and he says she was just all "you need to work and this isn't work" or something like that. 

   So yeah that's about all, Bulgaria is way sweet and I am having a good time! 

 Love you all, have a great week!
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I am super excited to go!

Hey!  Sorry this is kind of a later response, we were packing most of the morning! So, I am super excited to go but kind of bummed because Ammon will not be traveling with us the Turks have temporarily been re assigned to the New York, New York south mission (Turkish speaking) because the missionaries are having trouble with the visas in turkey, the missionaries that were there are back in Bulgaria for a bit now too.
Okay so this week went by crazy fast and it was really good, we got to see most of our teachers mission pictures and hear some stories and then they both guessed where we will first serve. For me they guessed Sofia and Ruse.  We will get to see our last teachers pictures and all tonight!

I am super excited to get out to Bulgaria but my luggage is very close to the weight limit but I should be fine, they give us way too many heavy books here at the MTC. I am also glad to get back to cooking and eating real food everything is the same here and they just repeat every few weeks.

I cannot wait until I get to invite the people of Bulgaria to come to Christ.  Hopefully, they will be able to understand me and I will be able to understand some of what they say. I love teaching here at the MTC especially in the TRC, when we get to teach other people than our teachers, and I can't wait to teach those in Bulgaria!

Real quick experience this week: so me and Elder Von, in the TRC, got to teach a RM who just got back like two weeks earlier and it was so much fun to teach him.  His Bulgarian was sweet to listen to and the Spirit was there so strong.  After the TRC we get feedback cards from the person and it is cool to see how the Spirit can guide a lesson to fit a certain individuals needs!

I am out of time but I love you all, have a good week and hopefully I have some good stories for next week!

 

Elder Maxwell

We got our travel plans!!

Okay so this week we got our travel plans!! We leave the 21st, our flight is about 9 so we have to be at the travel office by 6.   We fly from Salt Lake to DC then to Frankfurt and then to Sofia.   It'll take us about 24 hours of travel with a couple hour layovers. And the Turks are flying out to Sofia with us so I'll get to travel with Ammon! It is so close I am so excited!

Also this week, in the TRC, we had a native Bulgarian come in and my companion and I got to teach him!! He was way cool he has been in the US for about 5 years for school and he was converted here so he had never read the Bulgarian Book of Mormon or even prayed in Bulgarian.  We got to share some scriptures with him and teach him how to start his prayers in Bulgarian because he didn't know! That was way cool and he told us a lot about the country too.

We've finished learning all the grammar principles that they are teaching us here at the MTC so now we will just be reviewing and learning vocab and lots of practice! Other than that nothing really new just lots of studying and class, it's a lot of work but I know it is worth it to be able to share the gospel with others and to strengthen my own testimony, there is nothing else that I could be doing that would be better for me than this!

Love to you all,

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