This week just flew by.... Just like all the other ones. 

As of lately, my companion has been teasing me about how when the next transfer starts, which is 2 weeks from today which is crazy, I'll be able to count the amount of transfers I have left in country on 1 hand. Ugh... I still have plenty of time, it just feels like it's already over. 

Anyway, this week we had Gospel Discussions in English with a man that usually comes and a less active member. It was the first time I taught English here in .... We watched "Only a Stone cutter," with Bulgarian subtitles. It's so good, and the people that came to the discussions can pick out some of the English, so it was good. We also talked about Christ and what he did here on Earth using the Restoration brochure. Those brochures are so amazing. 

One of the members also went to the Hospital due to heart problems I believed. We visited him there with President .... We gave him some juice and canned peaches which he likes. He was there only for a couple days and came to church. He's doing a lot better than previously so that's great. It's hard for some people here, and it's a blessing to see how some of these people rely on the Gospel for strength. 

We also ran into a less active on the street that he actually came to us. I've never seen him before and my companion has only seen him once and really never talked to him. We ended up having a lesson with him and wow. It didn't go as I expected. We talked about faith, and that led to action and eventually commandments. At first our lesson planned I didn't really like, but as we taught, it went perfect. I wouldn't have changed everything. That member, currently goes to ... every now and then for work and he is here for only another week then he'll be gone. He received an address on where to find the church in ..., but apparently he couldn't find it when he was there. I'm guessing there's church there but I'm not completely sure. 

I big change that is happening is they're changing the areas for the mission. Turkey is part of our mission but they are putting Turkey into a different mission which the area presidency just formed. The Bulgaria Sofia Mission is only Bulgaria now. Well... actually that will occur in July. I believe when the mission president, President ... changes and President ... comes.

We also got to help President ... do mutual this week. We have a few youth here. We played "Game of Words," or scrabble in Bulgarian. It's interesting because I can actually play it, not very well, but still can participate. President ... has a dictionary which we used and actually discovered some new words. Scrabble is interesting with conjugations, and the other team won and I think it was due to them adding "eTe" at the end of big words (which is the you all form). I'm not sure if any of that made sense but it's really easy getting some big points if you do it right. 

Elder ... and I made Tikvanik. It's the first time that I attempted making it, using a recipe I got from a former investigator in .... It turned out really good. It's basically a dessert version of a classic meal they make here which is Banitsa. Tikvanik uses pumpkin (shredded) with sugar and oil.Banitsa is yogurt, cheese, eggs, oil, and pastry stuff. 

This week will pass by really fast and then we'll be able to skype so I'm excited for that. I love all of you. 

With love,

Elder Green

We just got a email from the mission talking about the mother days skype. This month is going by too fast. It still feels like the beginning of April. It's crazy. 

It was pretty fun for last week being my birthday. I had people (investigator and a member) from different. previous cities that I served call me. It just makes me miss the other cities that I served in. I wish I could be in each city at the same time. 

We ended up doing bowling last week. That's the first time I've done that in Bulgaria. Thanks to the ... University there's fun things like that here. 

This morning for exercise we did a hike with the Branch President. President ... (He's American going to the university here. I believe that I have mentioned him before). We hiked up a mountain or hill that's in the city that has a huge cross. That was a lot of fun also. 

We have been recently doing a lot of finding on the street/homes. We have some great potential investigators that I believe are going to have a high chance to meet next week. 

One of these potentials is with a man named Ivan. We actually sat down with him for a little bit and he's young and a student here. We talk to a lot of students here due to the universities here. It feels like ... (my 1st city). He was really interested in talking about languages and liked how we knew Bulgarian. He actually gave me his Skye on the street which I've never received on the street. We just need to make sure we set good expectations with him and he has great potential. 

Another tender mercy that I saw was while we were on the street it looked a little stormy. It rained a little bit but not to much. We decided to go tractingbecause we want to go where the people are and people hate being in bad weather. While he hiked up the vhold (I think building is the closest word but ugh... I forgot the word in English.) Basically a 7 story building. The rain started pouring a ton while in it and when we got out the rain stopped. The "buildings" which we tracted are more newer and actually isn't really filled with people. We think people can't afford to live in them but I don't know why. 

One of the members were sick, so we visited him. When I first got here in ..., we scrubbed his concrete walls for mold. He was planning on going to the hospital today, so hopefully things are ok with him. We gave him a blessing. He loves the missionaries and always said that God has blessed him with the missionaries here. The members here are really cool I love all of them. 

For Sunday, it was really busy but more of the line of branch work here. There were 2 students that came from the university (this is the 2nd time it has happened and Elder ... said that it really never happened the 1 transfer that he has been here) to see what we do for BogosloosheneA (Church service). The talks fell through and President ... was in ... for school, so one of the sister missionaries bore testimony along with myself since we're both relatively new. There is a family named The .... They are a family that is the core of the branch here. Brother ... conducted and talked and his 16 year old daughter ..., testified also. ...'s testimony is so strong, you can for sure feel the spirit when she speaks. It's a lot stronger than when I was 16 years old. I think she was baptized around 5 years ago, with her family. This city is so blessed to have these wonderful people as part of the church.

We do homebound (I don't know if that's the word, delivering the sacrament to a member's home), and it's the first city that I have done that. It's an older women that can't walk. We deliver it every sunday with President ... (He got home from ... come later in the day, so that was how we were able to deliver it. We need to have another man with us when visiting the opposite sex). It was really funny because they were offering all these Bulgarian meals (Just to try) and President ... didn't want to try some things due to the nature of the food. It was a lot of fun for all of us, including the member ha ha. 

We spent a lot of time doing finances for the church due to my companion being the clerk so that's fun as always. It's up and down (The Bulgarian way of saying so so, or ok)

Thanks for everything that you all do for me. I really want to send photos but I forgot my camera. 

Love, 

Elder Green 

Life in general is just fast. It's weird that today, I'm no longer a teenage ha ha. I guess I can't be to dumb anymore. This whole week has been crazy....

This past week I think I figured that I've done a travel of 8 hours on the bus. I went to ... twice due to zone conference and going back because of passport work (It was my last time, I just had to pick up my lichna carta or personal card for my 2nd year here) and pick up my companion due to exchanges. He stayed in ... for a day with the zone leaders and I traveled back with Elder ... which happens to be my trainer. It was so great serving with him. 

It's interesting serving with your trainer again after being in the mission for what 13 or 14 months is it now in country. It was really different due to to me being able to understand everything that he was saying and understanding conversations. 3ish months in country with your trainer, honestly I didn't understand missionary work at all. Honestly, that was the hardest time as a missionary because of still having to adapt as a missionary. I also talked to him a lot about how the mission as a whole is going. It's really interesting, hearing the challenges and the good that's going on. 

When I first got here, Elder ... and I found a young adult named ... from tracting. When I was with Elder ..., we had a lesson with him and another friend that happened to be there and now they both have baptismal dates. It's really exciting. It was a pretty powerful lesson, and we simply taught about the Authority of God with them. There was a lot more said along the lines of the theme of the lesson. There are always times where my companion and I never have investigators but God always bless my companionship with at least 1 investigator group which is always progressing. All glory goes to God for that one because each person we found has been miraclesly found. 

The city of ... is so beutiful. On exchanges, Elder ... said that I have been really lucky to serve in the cities I have because their some of the most beutiful cities in Bulgaria. I agreed with my trainer ha ha. It's a small city so I'm pretty familiar where things are now. Going on exchanges with Elder ... really boosted my knowing the city skills since he has only served in the city on exchanges for 1 day before our exchange. 

This weekend we watched all of conference. I'll be watching the Priesthood Session next Sunday. We talked with President ..., the branch president, and he said more people would likely come next week if we showed it then. Basically , how conference works here is everyone in the branch just goes to church and we show it then. We had an Easter activity after the 1st session with lunch then watched the other half 2 hours later. Saturday we did basically the same thing. 

It's really interesting to see the themes of conference. There was a lot of stress on 1. The Family and 2. Eternal marriage. As I was going over my notes this morning from the past conferences, it made me realize how much the impact of the temple has. I already knew how important but just having the spirit testifying of it to me through my notes just makes it so much more different. I took in account other events that I've seen before conference. 

I guess for my I've never really knew how to really prepare for conference. It's interesting because while listening, I've noticed more of how the General Authorities talk. How they talk is just how the scriptures speak. When their quoting scriptures, without saying their quoting it, it's really easy to point out. I've actually realized that for part of one of the talks, they talked about scriptures that I in the past week have read due to studies. Honestly, I take that as God helping prepare for conference. Getting more familiar with the doctorine before they speak about it. It's a great experience. 

Conference has tooken up the majority of saturday and sunday. On Sunday we had to do a lot of finance stuff for the branch here since my companion is the clerk. It's a lot of work and time consuming. Some records have been a little messed up from the past, so my companion and president olmstead did a lot of organizing and getting things the way their supposed to be. It's cool to see the "behind the scenes" in more detail. I would just prefer to talk to more people.

This week should be normal. We're planning on meeting with ... tomorrow so I'm excited for that. ... and his family in ... is doing well (an investigator that's being taught while I was there), he went to conference and is progressing really well liking everything. I'm so excited for him still. I still wish I could be part of teaching his family. There so elect. 

Thanks everyone for all of the birthday wishes. Life is so fast, especially the mission. I wouldn't have it any other way. I hope being a year older will bring me more wisdom on how to help the people here in Bulgaria. Love you all. 

Love 

Elder Green

Well... 1st week in the new city of .... It's not a very big city but it feels big to me since I still don't know where everything is. Some weeks will pass by, then hopefully I'll know the city inside and out. 

The biggest thing in ... is the ... University that they have here. The branch President, President ... is actually an American, past missionary that is going to school here. His wife and baby kid are here also. He'll be going to school here for 3 years and after that I don't know what he'll do. He's really cool and pretty young to. Originally, Elder ... (My companion) was going to be the branch president but he came instead. My companion is the clerk so we have to do additional church things.

The 2nd day I was here we had an activity that President ... organized. Missionaries didn't plan it, which is a first for me. It was really nice. We played European football or soccer and basically a picnic thing on the side. I got to see the majority of the members there. The park that we played at is so beatiful. They have a rope park that include people having harnesses (this is in the air with ropes) for safty. It looks like a ton of fun but I doubt we would be able to particapate in that. I'm guessing theirs a fee for it also. Our group for the activity just walked through it to get the park we wanted to get to. 

Also in that day, Elder ... and I ran in the morning. We ran to the church (which is about a 30 minute walk from our apartment) to drop off cloths for the activity then ran back. The interview was the same time as the activity, so we did that at the church, then after changed and then ran to the park place to catch up with everyone. After playing football, which is way fun, we ran back to the church grabbed a palachinki (it's kind of like a crepe) and we didn't have any more time for the diner hour. We were rushing throughout this whole thing. 

The next day we both woke up being really sore. Luckily, I've ran in the past so I wasn't still sore but still sore, while Elder ... was really feeling the pain of being sore. We're still recovering but we're guessing we've ran for probably a total of 1 hour throughout the whole day and probably guessing around 7ish miles.

Elder ... and I also got basically an interview from students from the university here. Since it's an ... University, everything taught there is in English. They recorded our discussions and basically asked questions about being a missionary, and also about what we believe in. It was the first time my companion had that so it probably won't happen to often. Who knows. They were doing it for a school project and they want to attend church to see which "rituals" (using the students words) we do or the sacrament. 

There is a man here that has been to church several times but isn't a member. The reason he stoped coming is due to the church location being moved. I think the church moved within the past year. He fed us and had a great conversation with him. Basically he boiled milk and that was the beverage (it was really good) and basically small potatoes from the oven. My companion and I looked at each other when he put it on one plate in the middle of the table and asked each other "How are we supposed to eat this?" The man then picked one up and peeled the skin off, pinched some salt from a napkin on the table, poured it on and ate it. So everyone in the room ate 3-4 small potatoes doing that. It's just funny thinking it happened that way.

We recently found 2 new investigators, some students which seem pretty cool. I remember ... (my first city) and it has a lot of universities there and we found a lot of people but once school got out a lot of investigators kind of "disapeared." I hope it's not the same here. 

There are a couple of families that make up the branch here. There was 20 people last sunday for church and I think it's probably around that weekly. We talked a lot about conference this next week (Since we're waiting for the translations) and also doing another activity with painting eggs inbetween sessions. I don't know if I mentioned last year for Easter, but here after all the eggs are dyed and dried, you try to use your egg and crack the other persons egg and if yours is the last one not cracked then your the winner. It's fun. I wish we did that part in America. 

This last week was really busy with everything. Tomorrow I'll be heading to ... for Zone Conference. Hopefully I can do the last part of my passport work while there. If not, I'll have to return a few days after. 

I'm really excited to be working in this town. We are currently doing a lot of finding right now, we have some investigators but it's hard to meet with them. 

Thanks for all the support from all of you. 

Love 

Elder Green 

The work, Religion, Preperation day things

Hey everyone, another week has passed by and of course its short, but in the moment is another story. 

This last Sunday we had 3 less active people come to church and it has been such a blessing. My companion and I have been really focusing on those members and trying to help them with their needs. We basically told ourselves that, yes we're trying to find people to teach, but also we have a lot of people already, they're just lost, needing to be found to see what happened. 

Since the area has doubled in size, so has the members in our area including ones that no one knows about but that they are on the directory. We also have been working with some investigators that are actually progressing and that is always exciting to. 

It's interesting to see how the major religion here, Provaslav, what people believe in God. For a lot of people here, they honestly don't know their own believe or the religion that they say they are a part of. I guess I have just realized what they really think recently. It's for sure a different idea about who God really and what he expects of us.

Today around 4:00, my time, everyone here in ...is traveling to ... for passport work. My companion and one of the sisters needs to do it. It's weird having only 4 missionaries in a city instead of 6. Personally, the more the better ha ha. Speaking of that, from this last transfer and the transfer before that it sounds like Visas to live here in Bulgaria have been getting "harder" to get. Elder ..., (him and Elder ... served here with the 4 current missionaries here) had a really weird transfer call because of expectations of missionaries not getting Visas. I'm just glad that no one in my group had a hard time with Visas. That's a blessing.

Another thing that we have been actually today is the process of closing down the "other Elders" apartment. The landlord is actually a member. Let's just say it took and will take a lot more time than what we expected. Yea.. I'll just leave it at that ha ha. When we met with him, earlier in the week, we looked at old family photos. He has photos of his parents being kids with his grandparents. The photos look so old and it's truly a treasure that he has. that's one of the things I want to do is learning about family history and looking for photos/information about them. It's interesting because my desire for the gospel, family work, and well... all of that good stuff has increased beyond what I even imagined. It's a blessing of just being a part of the missionary work with the missionary life here in Bulgaria. 

I'm wanting to print photos, or a lot of photos to be able to show people of family and other things. I know this email usually gets forwarded or posted to family all around, so If anyone has good pictures of family things I would love to print them off. Also any family history stories, I would love to hear more. I'll probably print photos next preparation day or whenever I have time on a Monday.   Usually, it's really busy on those days, just like every other day. I've been saying to myself I'll do that ever since I got here in ... ha ha. Life is just to busy, but the busier for missionary work, the better. 

My companion and I have 3 progressing investigators right now and also working with a lot of members / less actives. I think we taught up to 14 lessons this last week. It's been a lot compared to other weeks. I don't know the exact number due to me switching to a new planer today. It's been a blessing to work with so many people. 

I love you all, I can't wait until next week to hear more.

Love Elder Green

I forgot to tell everyone this with the desire of family history. My companion and I are trying to apply family history into missionary work more. I've translated info or the names and dates into Bulgarian. We're going to laminate the paper with all of the info and it's going to be really nice. I'll need to send a picture once it's completely done. I'm really excited for it. 

Guess what everyone! It looks like I'm staying in ... for another transfer which is for I think 7 weeks instead of 6 weeks this transfer. Basically, at least for the areas, we consumed the other areas, and the sisters took some of ours. Today we went into the other area and it already feels like a new city.

To be honest I was suprised since that I stayed because I expected at least 1 from each companionship would stay. I'm so happy to stay though. It's what I wanted ha ha.

Anyway this week has been a really busy/fun week.We have been using a new approach of just going up to people and asking them what they think about Questions of the Soul (on a peice of paper copied from Preach My Gospel). A lot of people read it and it's super easy to relate it to the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, since the Book of Mormon answers those questions.

We have also been given a letter (newsletter from President Wilstead) saying that President and Sister Callister and President and Sister Bennet on October 28th. It's a long time until them but I'm super excited for that. All of the missionaries will be going to ... for that. Big conferences like that only happen 1th a year if your lucky but this will be the 2nd. Yea, I'm super excited for that. Wow... that would be getting close to my year mark as a missionary. It kind of scares me how fast time is going. Honestly, the only transfer that has felt "long" was the 1st transfer here in country but I think that was because of trying to adapt. Transfers are so fast!

On the bright side the tempeture has been getting a little bit cooler. It's still hot of course but the peak is over so I'm really thankful for that. Nothing is better than being in the heat dressed up right?

I do know Elder ..., he is such a great missionary and it's so weird that he's home back in .... He was the Assistant to the President so I got to get to know him but never got the chance to go on exchanges with him but he did go on exchanges in ... with the other Elders. Yea, I love him.

It's crazy to hear everyone leaving on missions again. It's also amazing that another missionary has been called to this wonder mission. I'm so blessed to be a part of this mission. When do they come in country and it's another person from ... I'm guessing.

Right now we have some investigators that we are working with. It's better than having none which has happened for a while until now. I also got to go on "splits" for 30 minutes with a man named .... He served a mini mission and it was fun working with him temporarly. A missionary who served here returned to visit and we went on splits because she had a brother that was a priest age and he served with my companion for a little bit. It was such a good oppurtunity to experience that missionary work for that short time. The family was really fun to talk to.

It's also going to be really interesting working with a lot more members or having them in our area. The missionary work is going to be different with that also. Yea... I'm super excited for this new transfer.

I love hearing from all of you and love having the oppurtunity to write to you all. It's amazing that we have this technology. 2 members here have phones that have the gospel library and honestly, it almost feels like living in an older time with studying everything with text books for language and of course the Gospel in the Scriptures and Preach My Gospel. We also are writing at a different place in our area on older computers so it just adds to those feelings with technology ha ha. Anyway Love you again.

Love Elder Green

This week has been a busy one. I got to travel to ... again for another Zone Training and those are always great. It was the first time my companion has got to go to ... and he was super excited to see the city because well.... a lot of missionaries like ... ha ha. There are 4 zones, 3 in Bulgaria and 1 in Turkey. I've always been in Zone 3 so every month I have traveled to ....

With the transfer, well.... actually last transfer, 2 people in my MTC group are serving in a place called ... (which means loud in Bulgarian) and is in zone 3 so I got the oppurtunity to see all of them in .... It's always great plus the things that we learn. We talked a lot about using the first vision and to be honest I never spent the time to memorize it in Bulgarian. I have been studying it for the past week now and almost have it down where I can mumble through it but will continue until I can pop it out. I have been changing the way I study for things that are more important or at least thats how I have felt so things are going good with studying.

My companion and I have been changing the way we do missionary work or trying new things. It's interesting to try different things with approaching people and other things. We currently don't have any progressing investigators but have been busy with meeting with a lot of random people and teaching lessons on the street.

It sounds like a ton has been happening back home. I can't believe school is starting back up. It still feels like summer, well at least for the heat here in .... Yesterday it actually rained a little and got really cold compared to what the temputure usually is. It felt so nice and I hope it continues to be that way but most likely not.

Instead of going out to find people on the street we had a lot of phone numbers from the past couple of days. We tried calling a lot of them the other day because we had a branch activity which was themed Fiesta. It was a ton of fun. Anyway, a lot of people that we invited didn't show up so it was a little sad, but we "cleaned" out the phone a lot because of those conversations. We called about 20 numbers and for some reason everyone was willing to meet. We set up times, dates, and places. It's a blessing that we were able to set all of those lessons up. I've never had that experience before here in the mission.

Thanks for the family history stories, I just want to get everything I can get my hands on. It's one of the new approaches we're taking in trying to help the branch becomeing more strong. We planned an activity, sort of, or mentioned in Church that we wanted to have an activity of just sharing stories to help everyone bond more together. The church here is so different because of the size. It's interesting to see challenges and how big the missionaries have an impact on the branch/groups here in Bulgaria. It's a blessing to be a part of it and especially to meet the members. I love the members so much.

This next Monday is transfer day or we'll know to prepare for things the following day. It's going to be very interesting what happens here for .... We're going to be meeting as missionaries to discuss boundaries of the new area of splitting the city in half. There is already a map for 2 areas but President ...recommended in making a new one make things more effective with members.

Anyway I got to run. I love all of you a ton. It seems like everyone is growing up with the new things with getting older and also big activities. Love you again!

Love Elder Green


   

Doonuv river (Romania behind the river) and a really cool building in "Center"