Some investigators, holiday bracelets/dolls, mall, grocery store.

Hey everyone, another week down. It's interesting because I've noticed with the members here in ..., they have started getting more comfortable with me and try to talk to them. When that happens it just makes me think when will I ever learn this language. I've noticed it's easier to pick out words from missionaries speaking Bulgarian than the members because just the way they speak it. We end up just laughing because I can't really say anything.

There is a guy that we met named ... (... - English pronounce). It was really cool. One of our lessons fell through, yea you have to get used to that, and the person that we were going to meet came to us in person instead of calling us saying that he wasn't going to meet with us. That never happens so it felt nice. Anyway, ... was waiting at the church because he was our member that was going to help us with the lesson. We met him at the church and he brought his friend .... We talked and ended up teaching him the first lesson. It was really cool because the way he spoke he was sincere and was really interested. We ended up have 2 lessons in one day unplanned with him. He was having a hard time finding work. My companion promised him that he'll find a job based off keeping some commitments. A week later he left, he was originally from a different city so he returned. He found a job here in .... It's not the highest paying but it's better than nothing. He returned to his hometown to look again one last time, but is going to return in 2 weeks if he doesn't find anything because that is when his other job starts. It was cool how unplanned, and how prepared he was to receive the lesson. He progressed faster than any of our other investigators in the shortest amount of time. I can't wait until he returns. ... is 19ish and ... is 20ish I think. Not to sure, just a note.

Another investigator that we are meeting with is a guy named .... He is from Turkey and is Muslim. When he got older, he's 25ish, he thought that every religion has there own believes and he wants to explore a lot of them. He actually went around asking people about being Christian but to his surprise he got the respond of their Christians but don't really do any Christian beliefs. We found him on the street and he said he didn't speak Bulgarian at all. He's going to college here learning to be a Primary Teacher. He relies on English for school. We gave him a English Book of Mormon and are waiting to get a Turkish Book of Mormon for him but the only to get that Turkish book is by going to Sofia or have someone coming from Sofia to .... That doesn't happen to often so it might be a while. When we have lessons with him, we spend time just reading the Book of Mormon and we explain it simpler because he doesn't know all the English bigger words. It's kind of fun just talking to him. I've had 3 different lessons in English. It's weird because I actually understand unlike normal, and still have a hard time talking because I don't know what to say and also have to think about using big words because the English speakers part of the reason they want to meet is to practice English in a discussion with us.

Every Tuesday we have a English class that we teach for a finding tool. It's weird because the Bulgarians that we are teaching the language is flipped. I know what's going on and they don't. It's just a funny thought.

... is our other investigator. She is originally from Russia, and I'm not sure if she speaks Russian or Bulgarian or kind of both. Either way I can't understand here ha ha. She gets sick often because her health isn't the best. My companion and I only met with her twice because she has been sick. She has a friend that is a member invite her to meet us. It's hard to meet with her but most of the time she comes to scripture reading night and we have a lesson with her after words if she is well enough to come to the scripture reading.

Apparently in March, I don't know if it's technically a holiday, but people give bracelets that are red throughout all of march. If people offer the missionaries or Elders (Sisters can wear a few but not a ton) these bracelets we wear them and then take them off after we're done talking to the person or with the person. It's kind of cool the tradition. Everyone in the street is selling those bracelets and red dolls to. I'll be interesting to see how it works with the March around the corner.

My companion and I went to the mall before emailing. The mall is just like the one in America. My companion said it makes him miss home because he always hung out at the malls. I've never done that but the similarity between America and here is just funny. We got pizza (the slices are huge but thin) and did our grocery shopping there. Yea... I guess the grocery store is a little different being in the mall. It's not the one we usually go to but the only grocery store that we go to is called CBA. I don't know if that is the only chain or if there are other ones. I haven't seen any other grocery stores. The carts (just the CBA in the mall) there made you pay 1 lev coin to get unlocked from the other carts. When your done with it you lock it up and it gives you the 1 lev coin back. It's not electric mechanics for the coin just there has to be a coin or the lock in the spot of a lock the whole time. Love you all, thanks for all of the updates at what is happening at home.

Love стареишина гиин



Long shot of the Castle/Fort. I really like this photo, especially just zooming into it to look at more detail.

Surviving Bulgaria

First off, Happy Birthday Mom. I can't believe that time is already here. After looking at the date realizing I wouldn't be able to email you until today. 

Anyway missionary work is a lot different than what I have thought. Before, the thought of keeping members strong didn't mean much. That is completely different than what I have thought. There are 2 members that are the same age as me that I love. There name are ... and .... It's really to have lessons with member present with the numbers because they practically come to all of the lessons.

... is spiritually just awesome. He has a little tablet that he actually uses as a phone. He always play church music. "If you could high to Kolab" hymn is a favorite here. It's funny because out of all the hymns that is actually my favorite one. He has some versions of it that sounds really cool because instead of a piano is has a lot of instruments in it.

This last Sunday we had the branch president from a different area come in to do business with us (update on investigators, collect tithing slips, other things but I couldn't understand him :) ) and it's just weird because we don't have a branch president, just a group leader.

Right now I have 3 investigators. One of them actually left town for 2 weeks for work. One of the investigators are actually speaks Russian. I don't know why but I tried to talk to her and yea I basically told her I spoke a tiny Bulgarian and didn't understand the rest. The group got silent and was watching me so it was just funny and emphasizing.

Contacting or Street Teaching, that we like to call it, is interesting. I'm still freaked out to talk to random people, let alone them speaking a different language, because It's just something I've never done. It's getting easier to stop people but I still have a hard time doing it.

The language is coming better. It's definitely testing my patience. There are times were I'll be down but just keeping going. Instead of the first couple days where everything said was just mush, I can recognize a few words when spoken by people. It's frustrating because I can pick a few words but can't put the words together to make sentences. But, I know with time it will come. This last week went by really really fast surprising. Before I know it, hopefully time will pass and I'll know the language :).

One of the things that I liked here is called дюнерл. It's like shredded beef I think and fries with sauce on it. It's really good. My companion is actually a really good cook. He's made banana bread, homemade pizza and a lot more yummy things. I'm trying to learn all I can from him. He is like the dream missionary for me and I hope I can become as good as him.

For the beds in my apartment, it's actually 3 beds. 1 big one and 2 small ones. Only my companion and I live in that apartment. There are 2 other Elders in .... They have a different apartment in a different part of the city. My companion and I cover the northern part of the city and they take the bottom half. The reason why we are in different apartments is because the rules for missionaries in this country is to not really be in groups because we don't want to leave the impression that we are meeting like mafia. Yea, rules are there for a reason. The only time we can technically be with the other companionship is when we meet at the church for meetings/church.

I also wanted to mention how there is a lot of graphety. Sorry I don't know how to spell that word. It's kind of cool to see all of the artwork and some buildings have amazing artwork that is just part of the building. 

   

It's cool to see all of the photos of Grandma and Grandpa 50th anniversary. It's such a special time. Here in Bulgaria, the majority of people just "live together." There's no point in being married here. It's sad to learn that the culture is like that. Also, there are a lot of lessons that fall through. It's kind of annoying but we always have backup plans. There isn't that much time to waste with the missionary schedule.

So after emailing last week we went to .... Wow it was amazing. I guess you can google it and look up the history. It's pretty interesting. I'm sending some photos. I still don't know why the computer won't show the pictures that I'm sending so hopefully my guesses are right. It's basically a fortress and has a monastery. There are a lot of ruins but there are restoring parts at a time. During the night time they have huge lights lighting it up. It's cool because everything there was made out of stone. The walls, buildings, the roads. It was a really neat thing to experience.

 Also the money is really colorful. The size of the bill is increased when the amount is also increased. The 1 Lev is actually a coin instead of a bill. It feels like monopoly money because it's so colorful and the value of each bill doesn't feel like its worth that much just because it's not American bills and I'm not used to it.

There's also some buildings that are just abandoned. There's a huge building close to where I live and it's under construction. Well.. it was abandoned. It's just a building with walls and nothing in it. It's weird. Another thing that is interesting about here is peoples deaths. They post pictures of them and say when they passed away on doors and garages. Bulgarians also after 5, 10, 20 (for an example of how many years)years after the death of the person they post a picture saying how long ago they died from the present date and do it just for the memory of the person. It's kind of cool how that's the way to keep memory of them.

When we went Tracking, the elevators that we go in don't have a door that closes so you can see the wall moving while going up or down. There are a lot of buildings that are like that. Also the elevators are really small, they can only fit 4 people and that is pushing it.

Life is different. Most of the time I just stand there and I guess look pretty :) ha ha because I have no idea what is being said. Sometimes random people will talk to me and I just give them a blank stare. I actually had one of the members (a grandma) grabbing my face during scripture reading with the members on Tuesday I believe. Yea that was weird.

Another thing is it's really hard to type in Cerillics (don't know how to spell it). The MTC keyboard has every sound in similar spots and here it's completely mixed up. Also if I could get the knowledge of where ancestors came from also that would be good. I feel bad for not knowing but some people asked and I just guessed because I have no idea. Like I said before I should know and feel bad not knowing. I love all of you.

Love Elder Green

        
 

Goodbye America, Hello Bulgaria

Wow.... and to think that it was late July that I got my mission call here, and now I'm really here. My world just changed. Life in Bulgaria is completely different than that of home. It was true when I said that I'm going to be in a society where everything is not understood. Actually it's more like the people and partly the signs. In Sofia (I was there for a day and night) there was a lot of English mixed into the stores and signs. I little bit here in ..., but not nearly as much.

 The members here are so awesome, I love each one of them but still have yet to understand any of them except for one. His name is ... (... how to pronounce it). He's ... years old. There are actually just 10 members here, so it's not a branch or a ward but just called a group. It's humbling to see that here. I respect the fact that they are part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It would be hard to have no one in the ward or group.

Bulgaria sure isn't the same as America. The roads are super skinny so half the time we walk in the middle of the street (or that is what if feels like) until a car comes. The roads weren't designed for the traffic of today. Veliko Turnovo is built on a hill also. The mission in this city is known for the many stairs that we go up and down throughout the day. The buildings are built up because there is no space to expand. Some buildings look the same as back home but others looked completely trashed on the outside. It's weird to see. It's also warmer here to, I just remember it was freezing at the MTC in the morning but it's been really warm here, so it's nice as long as I don't have my coat on or have to carry it.

The food here has also been really good. I had a thing called денер (diner how it is pronounce). It's like a soft shell taco. It's hard to explain. Maybe you can look it up on Google. I should have took a picture of it. It was weird shopping for food earlier, I felt like a lost kid and my companion was leading me everywhere. Turns out, when you use plastic bags you have to pay .33 Lev for each bag used. The money here is really colorful here to. The coins are called стотинки (stotEnkE) and are in .01, .02, .05, .10, .20, and 1.00. Lev is 2.00, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100. I'll have to take a picture to show everyone.

The apartment is huge. I thought it was going to be a lot smaller. My companion Elder ... said it's one of the nicest ones in Bulgaria. There's 2 bathrooms (it's just Elder ... and I in the apartment too) a room we don't use, bedroom with 4 beds in it, a kitchen and living room. We have a deck that can see the whole city it feels like. It's amazing.

Elder ... is the best missionary I've ever met. He doesn't hesitate when we're supposed to be doing something. He knows the gospel so well and knows how to say it in a way that is simple. I feel bad because during lessons he goes solo pretty much but I can tell that he doesn't struggle at all. I try to help but now knowing the language really doesn't help. He has lived in South Korea and Germany I think. He recently lived in Arizona too. His family travels a lot based off his dads work. He has also been in Bulgaria for only 5 months. Him and 1 other are training 5 months here. I could never imagine that I could train a missionary here in the country in that amount of time being here. I have to keep telling myself that I'll learn the language because sometimes it feels like I'm never going to learn the language.

Being here as a Bulgarian, it's hard to make a living. The majority of people live day by day. In Sofia there was a man digging through a trash bin. It's sad to see but at the same time there's nothing you can really do. A member yesterday I learned is an orphan. He works at a restaurant that is under construction or something on that line. He's been working but hasn't been paid and can't work at the present moment. We had a lesson with a member and he was there also but was really down. I wish I could have understood him because all I know is based off my companion telling me. We have a lot of lessons with members to help keep them strong in the gospel. They need all the support they can get because it's not easy.

Church here is only 2 hours long, 1 hour for sacrament and another for class. All of the members have class together. I just tried to figure out what the book said that we were reading. It was Principals of the Gospel. It was about Adam and Eve. I didn't get far but class went by really fast because I was focusing on it so much. I also led the music and introduced myself in the little Bulgarian I know. The church is basically the size of kitchen and living room (In American Fork home to get you the idea of the church building size.) It's weird to have home in America compared to my home in the apartments that I live in at the MTC and here in Bulgaria. It sounded weird to me. I guess my definition of home is changing.

The time change is also weird to think about. I haven't really thought of it. Jet lag was really messed up for the first day or 2 here but adjusted because I stood up for a long time on the plane to try to leave according to the schedule here in Bulgaria. I pretty much stood up all night to adjust to sleeping for the night time here. It feels like the MTC with time. It feels like I just got here but the last 6 days makes me feel like I've been here for a month already. Being a missionary, it's the best way to have the definition of time changing just like home to I guess. When it's said that God time is different than ours maybe it's similar feeling. Just a weird thought I guess.

Time here is also in military time, or the majority of digital timers. It's also a difference here in Bulgaria. Also the showers is the whole bathroom. One bathroom has a tub but it's my companions bathroom (which I don't know how that worked out.) My bathroom has a shower head that just showers onto the floor with a drain in the middle of the room.

Oh and I found a picture advertising gravity which I think is funny. I don't know how to look at the photos on the computers here so I send random ones. The gravity one I actually didn't mean to send ha ha

Day before leaving

Here some photos, today is like a half P-day so I can email a tiny pit. I'm so excited to talk on the phone with the family tomorrow!! By the way, this picture of everyone tags in the zone, was my Idea. Also the temple reflection in the tags is pretty cool


   

    

Us and the teachers. 





     

Zone and Companions

Week before leaving!!!

I have to admit, I'm glad that I'm here for only 9 weeks instead of 12 weeks. I'm so ready to get out of here. My whole district is trying to learn the best way to contact, because in a email it said the first thing we do once we get to Bulgaria is "Preaching the gospel in the street." Just that saying alone makes my heart skip a beat. Talking to actual people in a different language scares me. On average they say it takes a missionary about 6 months to get the language down for everything to feel comfortable. I'm looking forward to going to Bulgaria, but I'm not looking forward for the next 6 months until I get the language down, but I'll probably start learning Bulgarian even faster having to depend on it a lot more than the MTC.

Yesterday, for some reason our teacher gave us another "investigator." I think he just wanted us to teach him because he was the investigator. We have 5 investigators that we are teaching in Bulgarian now. We teach a lesson everyday and to be honest, it's hard to manage it because we are trying to learn the language at the same time so we try to talk about things we know how to explain and learn more things about the things we want to say. 

A thing I thought that was funny was in class. Sometimes we ask questions about certain things in the language and usually it's on things that are exceptions to rules that we have learned. They say после which is later. We joked around saying that we don't have that much more после left. The day of после is almost here because the MTC is ending and we'll really have to know it. It was a class joke so it was fun. The group that I'm with likes to joke around a lot and it helps with keeping a positive attitude here at the MTC. 

The group that was learning Bulgarian before us were 2 people. I guess Elder ... (Don't know how to spell his name) is really smart so he had the Bulgarian language well. I don't think anyone in our class has it down like he did when he left several weeks ago. Sister M... I think was average and my class is average so probably the same level. Well.. I would like to think our class is average, we all feel like we stink at the language ha ha. 

I can't believe that Lexie got another stress fracture on a bone that doesn't really heal itself. It seems like everyone at home is breaking their feet. Hopefully Kaylie's foot has healed and that she can start running soon. Lexie, I don't know about you because it sounds like either surgery or sticky pad. I don't know what your planning but I hope it turns out well. I guess it's a good thing to be able to take that speed reading class. Your a lot smarter than me and that will help you become even better. 

Allie, dissecting a frog sounds fun and gross. I remember doing that in science or at least for other animals. Yea, it still grosses me out thinking of it, but it's fun to be able to  do that.

The airport I'm going to have to pay $75 for baggage fees if everything goes well and the church well reimburse me. I plan on just using my debit card to pay it. They said cash is the best I think but I think it works the same so hopefully that turns out good. I'm not sure if I could use that card I got from grandpa to help pay for it so I'll ask around. If I can I might as well use it on that before leaving country, but if not I'll just send it home like I planned to originally. I really hope that nothing goes wrong at the airport, I just don't like the process of having baggage and having to worry about it. I've never really flown with luggage before so it'll be different.

 This is my last email before leaving the country. It's weird weird to think of it like that. Well I'll try to send another email before the end of today with some pictures. I'm excited to do that phone call. I'll be a long time after that that I'll be able to hear your voices again. 7 more days including this day. Love you all. 

обечам стареишина грийн (Love Elder Green)

     



Here are some photos of my Travel Plan. Chicago, England, Bulgaria. With the time change it's going to be over hours of travel which is weird and without the time change it's close to 24 hours. 18 hours on plan and about 3-4 hours in airports. I calculated all of the time on the photo, I can zoom in with my camera and read it all so I hope you can do the same. I'll be calling around 9:00-10:30 this Tuesday. Excited to call the family and to leave the MTC :)

Time is getting Closer...

Here at the MTC, is getting really old. I'm so ready to be out, but when I think of that I think about how much I know the language, then think, I need to be here longer to learn the language. I've gotten to the point that I tell myself as long as I'm making process, it'll be fine and I won't have to talk to Bulgarian people. It helps me keep relaxed because thinking the opposite of having to have real conversations in another language just freaks me out. I'm so excited to go and can't wait until a few months pass and I'll actually be for the most part fluent in it. 

With every week, we teach our "investigators" or teachers/each other. The lessons are getting more comfortable but even if I was speaking English I feel like I would still have a hard time trying to find the needs of an investigator and how to meet them in those needs. I just know that as long as I'm doing my best, the spirit of the lord will take me the rest of the way.

So, funny story. Elder ... (from Finland) doesn't mind spending a lot of US money here because he doesn't want to pay the fee for converting it back into Euros which I think Finland has. Anyway, he has been telling people if you do this crazy thing I'll pay you this much. The funniest thing that has happened was trying to eat a banana with the peel on it. Elder ... and ... failed. In class it was brought up and then we asked the teacher to do it. 3 Elders pitched in $20 dollars each so $60 dollars were on the line. Well.... he ate the whole thing. It was so funny. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. I love my district and sometimes I think we are in the most unusual situations or different than most groups. 

I've been running everyday or mostly everyday and I can right now run a 5:20 mile in a inside 1/10 of a mile track. They have records and the record it at 6:00 but I feel like my time is to slow personally to actually have someone time me to get on. I'll probably break it officially before leaving, but it's hard when you have dinner right before gym time. 

I love seeing all of the photos. Last night I had a dream that instead of calling home at the airport I got 1 day to visit home. For some reason we all watched Star Trek, and I did have the thought that yes I shouldn't be watching movies as a missionary, but I didn't care. It was a really weird dream but the benefit of it was I got to see the family again in the closest way I can I guess. 

I miss seeing everyone doing there thing. It sounds like Allie is going to start track soon. That'll be exciting to see what happens there. Hopefully there are a lot of friends that you can make in Track. I remember having a lot of friends in running. Lexie - It looks fun to be able to be at races, they are the best part of running in my opinion and how is the varsity team. Hopefully it's a good team and I don't know if it's that different from when I left. Whats the qualifying time for girls again?  Kaylie - It looks like your being a social butterfly ha ha and your toe is looking a lot better. It sounds hard not able to run with everyone and just biking for a long period of time. Do you bike just at the gym at the high school or do you bike everywhere? I think it's awesome that your counting down the days until we get to talk on the phone.

I wouldn't mind getting Alex Hess email address if you ever see him you should tell him to email me or get the address for me :)

Hopefully everyone schedule for high school is good with the new term which was sometime (I forgot when you said it ended.) It sounded like there was a lot of schedule change and I did that to. It's hard to know what to do with each activity. 

обечам стареишина грийн (Love Elder Green)

P-day eve, district leader, choir

Hey Everyone!

It seems like so much has happened since I last wrote on P-day. One of my companion says that the day before P-day is P-day eve to get everyone excited. It's kind of funny. Last Sunday I was changed to district leader. I now have a lot of meetings to go to on Sundays and have to send a more detailed letter to the branch president, along with other responsibilities. I had to teach again to the Croatia/Bulgarian districts with my 2 companions.

The language is still coming a long. My class this last week finished learning all of the major grammer in Bulgarian. I feel like I know so much Bulgarian, but at other times I feel like I don't know anything. Attached to this letter is a picture of my flashcards, and yes I do have them memorized but sometimes I still can't remember any words I memorized in a lesson and I'm stumped. I can't wait until I can talk normally in the language. It's still going to be a while before that happens. On average I think they say it takes a few months in country to finally get the language down.

I love getting the photos of just everyone at home doing regular life. I know how it feels like doing homework all the time. Except, I don't really have homework but have the same class for 6-7 hours a day. It get exhausting especially since I don't sleep to well at night. Yea, the past week has been rough with sleeping, my mind is just thinking to much during night I guess.

Today we went to the temple and did an Endowment and Inititories. It's fun to do thinks that I usually don't do in the temple or haven't done for other people.

We have walks to the temple once a week and there was some protesters about being Mormon. It felt like going to general conference and seeing protesters there. It was really weird. What they were saying didn't even make sense. They got attention from some missionaries, but my group just ignored them. I could tell that some missionaries were really uncomfortable from that situation. It didn't bother me to well but for others it really startle them. I know that when I get to the field I'll be rejected a lot, but it's still doing the work so it doesn't bother me to much which I'm thankful for because If it did, it would make the mission more hard. I won't really know what it'll be like until I'm out in the field. Sometimes I don't feel like a missionary here at the MTC, but I know I have to make the most of it because it's preparing to do the real work in the field if that makes sense.

Yesterday we have Elder Bednar come talk to us again. It was so powerful. I actually joined the choir here and was singing the lowest part just to be with my companion so my throat wasn't feeling the best after practice and actually singing. The choir leader guy is hilarious, it makes it fun. Anything so I sang with a group for Elder Bednar :). I remember Christmas time, a lot of people got kicked out of choir because they wanted to sing for the apostle coming that day (Elder Bednar). He talked about some of the questions he received from Christmas time (with the phone texting process, if you remember me describing the Christmas time talk). It was better than Christmas time talk in my opinion because the questions that he answered were selected out of over 1000 questions asked that day.

He only had time to answer 15 questions so he joked about how he has another 985 questions to go after he was done talking. He is such a funny speaker. He testified of the Book of Mormon. I have to tell you that I've never ever in my life have felt the spirit testify to me that the Book of Mormon is true. I knew it was true before but that comfrimation about the Book of Mormon again with that strong of spirit makes me have no doubts. It's hard to explain but I truly do know that God did answer my prayer that day. He also talked about the original manuscript that was translated by Joseph Smith that he saw in the church archives. It's just amazing how strong the testimony he gave was.

He also answered a question that was asked by a sister. The sister asked in a question if she was going to be as an effective missionary as an Elder because she didn't have the priesthood. It just left me thinking that being a missionary doesn't exclude us from having any doubts about certain things about the gospel.  I've have had a few questions about things that honestly doesn't make sense about the church to me but I know that just having faith is part of it. Anyway the way he described the priesthood made perfect sense. He said priesthood isn't male, it is Gods authority. He did a analogy (if that is what it is called) of the priesthood being an umbrella. It covers anyone that is under it and protects them from the rain or other things. The men is the one that is holding the umbrella for everyone to be under. It's meant to benefit everyone, not just the one holding it.

There are a lot more things that he talked about but those where some of the biggest points I liked about it. It's really hard for me to keep up with my journal because of all of the great devotionals we have here.