Week of September 17, 2012: The District

It's me again! Does this ever get boring? Probably! Exclamation point!

Yet another week has somehow gone by. Sorry, I'll stop saying things like that that make me sound like a middle-aged newspaper columnist trying to be cool. When we last left off, I was in Sliven about to go on Mount Carandila for some well-needed frolicking (it's my . . . third time? going on that mountain). You take a rickety, 50-year-old ski-like lift up the mountain (like unto Sundance, but in an Eastern European kind of way) and can hike up past all these old communist meeting houses that are now broken and empty and graffitied, and then into the wild frontier of nature! And look out over Yambol and Sliven and all of their little celos. I'll send pictures someday when I'm in a zala that has hook-ups for such things. But let me first just mention some amusing happenings from that outing:

1) We did our traditional yoga/om-ing on the summit (pictures shall come later) and a member from the Sliven branch, who happened to be with us, got uncomfortable and kept asking, "Is this religious? Does this mean something religious??"

 

2) I was sliding down a rock face, looking all cool, and there was one of those comically loud and juicy ripping sounds and I had torn my cotton Target brand exercise pants completely in half.

 

3) In front of everybody.

 

4) Luckily, I am a good sister missionary and enjoy laughing and myself/others, and had a skirt in my backpack.

This has mainly been a finding transfer. And by mainly I mean, all-ly. It's kind of funny because we use these DVD episodes called "The District" (some people will know what I'm talking about) to train/practice our missionary skills, and they're basically videos of missionaries' experiences in two missions in the States, and how those missionaries are perfect and everything goes perfectly and they have cars. So it's funny to watch those segments with Sister Frame, as I try to train her, and then to go to our reality of finding in Bulgaria, which consists of walking around the streets all day, trying to stop people and give them a survey/ask them about God. Sometimes getting yelled at, sometimes being kissed unexpectedly. I've never tracted yet - I imagine that will happen in the wintertyme. But anyway. Still finding. Still looking. Still don't really have anyone to teach, and we're giving Raiko a break until he wants to progress. BUT a really cool, yet frustrating, thing happened this week. 

 

On Wednesday I stopped a lady in the bazaar (a section of Stara Zagora all full of produce markets/open-air clothing stalls, etc.) and talked to her about the Book of Mormon. She seemed interested, and was extremely nice (which is always a good sign), but said that although she was born in Bulgaria, she usually lives in Germany, with a German husband, and was only there a few days like she does every summer, to visit family. Could we still meet with her? I said yes, of course, and we exchanged numbers. I didn't really think anything of it, of course, because I've reached a kind of point where you just don't expect anybody to want to meet with you, even those who give you their numbers, because it's less painful that way. BUT - and I say but because this is the first time this has happened to me - SHE actually called US that evening. Which is even weirder because people here often don't have enough money on their phones to make calls, only to receive them, such that my incoming call list on the cell phone we have consists only ever of other missionaries calling me. And she called. And asked if we could meet the next day, the day before we left for Germany. And I knew we were leaving for Plovdiv that morning for zone conference, and would have to be on a bus by ten. So we set it up for 9 that morning, and waited for her at the church. And she actually CAME. (People also tend to not show up to appointments.) It was kind of amazing. So I tried to explain to her about the Book of Mormon, Apostasy, We Don't Worship Mormon, etc., and she said she planned to read the Book when she got back to Germany, and wanted to meet the German missionaries. So we said goodbye, she wished us all the best, and I gave her my email address.

Anyway. I guess I will just say that being a missionary anywhere requires huge faith, I believe. Maybe that lady will never meet with missionaries/join the church/whatever. But I have the faith that I did what I had to do in that moment, and that it mattered. And even though I'm in Bulgaria, I know that my mission isn't necessarily "harder" or more requiring of faith than anyone else's, even those happy sisters in San Diego on The District. And it's been strange to get up every morning and realize I have no idea if I'll even find anyone interested to listen to me, but that I will be faithful and cheerful and do my best anyway. 

Lessons! Also, Sister Frame and I made Bulgarian-style BLTs: bacon, which we had to slice ourselves, lyutenitza, this spicy eggplant/pepper/tomato sauce I eat at least one pint of every day, tomatoes (they're officially going out of season, tears weep gnashing of teeth), cirene, and yogurt instead of mayonnaise. Um. I don't even want to talk about it. 

Everybody's life is going on! Today is the first day of school for Bulgarian children, and it reminds me of how you're all off going to school and starting things and having babies and going on missions and making new friends and getting new jobs. Aww. Cute. I miss you all so much. Keep the faith!

Love,

Sister Scramble