Week of April 29 2013: Stories for everyone!

Stories for everyone! I really wanted to send some pictures this week, but whatever. We are having a weird morning and emailing earlier than normal, so that shan't happen.

One week ago on Mondee, we had several weird miracles occur exactly at a time when such things were very heartening to me (not because miracles build faith, but because THEY WERE TENDER MERCIES SO THERE). While we decided to stay in for a few hours and take a nap, our investigator Lyobomir called us to set up a lesson (something that happens very, very rarely, at least for me, and is quite nice). He also called Sister Bingham "Kimche," her first name being Kim and "che" being a diminuative/affectionate suffix one can attach to pretty much any word in Bulgarian that makes it mean "little" or "cute" or "something I'm fond of." I haven't really talked about him, have I? He's pretty great, and I feel that only a picture can really illustrate this in its fullest sense. He's probably about 65, pretty wealthy, a restauranteur (sp?), and lives in a tourist/vacation area called Golden Sands, and has a golden Mercedes, by the way. He also really likes our church and says that we are his angels who saved him, and is probably one of the slowest (not stupid slow, just attitude slow) people I know. Also chillest. He truly chills to the next episode. And after 2 months of teaching and breathing slowly and him bringing us candy and reading scriptures together, he finally agreed to be baptized! I'm really not into pushing people into baptism unless I feel they themselves are wanting it, so I feel satisfied with his level of commitment and desire. He has a dog named "Susi." He told me a story about a Bulgarian folk hero named Bai Ganyo (look it up if you want, kind of like a recurring character with hilarious repeating instances of simplicity) who is being given watermelon by a friend, and every time he cuts him a new slice Bai Ganyo says "Tank yo," 'thank you' in kind of broken English, and the guy actually thinks he's saying "Tunko," which means slim or narrow, so he keeps slicing thinner and thinner slices until Bai Ganyo gets mad because he was saying thank you the whole time! Ha ha ha ha. Anyway, Lyobomir is awesome. 

Another tender mercy: an investigator named Svilan, who is a construction worker and kind of quiet and not very expressive and reminds me of Seifitin from Ruse, has been in a smaller city called Razgrad for a few weeks, visiting his older parents, and he CALLED US with a READING QUESTION. From a book that Mormon edited. He asked me what it meant when it writes that they had to take the daughters of Ishmael and his family into the wilderness. Ha ha. So that was cool. He'll be back soon and hopefully also continue to progress toward water-dunking.

And finally: an investigator named Shefket (Turkish name) showed up kind of unexpectedly to Family Home Evening and then we had a lesson unexpectedly after, with an awesome member who really helped him understand some stuff. So that was cool. It all kind of came together. 

Also two new converts here, Hristo and Dima, one of whom I mentioned before, had their baby this week! So that all worked out. 

I'm heading into my last transfer now with my old pal Sister Walch, and staying here to finish up where I started in Varna. So I'm looking forward to it. I recommend the following chapter to everyone: 2 Nephi 25. 

I love you guys. Keep on keeping on?

Sister Frundball

Week of April 21, 2013: Led by the Spirit

Well, we only have a week left of this transfer. Thanks a lot,mission time-bend-squeeze phenomenon. To answer the question, the generally accepted idea is that I'll probably stay here in Varna and Sister Bingham will go on to new-city adventures, but it is not yet fully known. Anything could happen I suppose. I could be transferred to IRAQ! Just kidding. We'll see. I'm excited about being here and some of the new people we've been teaching, so either way it will be good.

Easter is NOT HERE YET. But we have all the old German and Swiss Easter candy lying around in stores for medium cheaps on account of Catholic Easter has already passed there, and people are just gearing up for the Easter season, which, to missionaries, means two things: 1) everyone will be busy, because Easter is kind of bigger than Christmas here in a lot of ways, and buying giant loafs of puffy sweetbread, and 2) people will be more sensitive to strangers coming up to them and asking about a random new Christian church. So we'll see how things go. But things are warming up here weather wise also. Here's how I measure the change: recently the giant block-side billboard advertisement for a Hooters-esque restaurant here called "Happy" (not Happy's, but just Happy, pronounced "Hkeppy" by most) recently replaced their previous advertisement of a guy in a Happy delivery outfit with very short shorts scaling his way up a glass building with a pizza delivery box, to  a stock photo of some beach-goers leaning against each other on the sand (a stock photo that I've ironically seen in like 10 other advertisement settings, due to lax copyright laws?). So to me, this means warmer weather is potentially coming. 

I'd like to say a few words about jealousy. Have you ever met someone who is 30 or 40 or even 50 years old, with a good job, maybe some kids, a good strong member of the Church (or not) but has never outgrown self-comparison or competition? Or rather, you can just sense from them that they are not satisfied with the worldly results of their activities in life and are scheming to better them? I hope you understand what I'm saying. And then you meet someone who is the same age or older or younger, but clearly has never maybe cared about such things, continues to happily plug along, maybe post things on Facebook, do and be what they love, and just admires the accomplishments and talents of people around them, rather than seeing them as something not theirs, and therefore, a detriment to themselves. I guess I'm saying that for all potential missionaries, you may realize a very, very hard lesson on your mission, which is: even in the ultimate phase of Christ-like aspiration, or perhaps especially, we are prone to comparison with others, jealousy, and coveting. And for me personally, this has been one of the biggest trials of my mission. Mom and Dad, your emails have probably helped more than anything on this front, as well as the awesome people I've known here who clearly are far away from such weaknesses. And for this reason, I love King Benjamin's Address (3511 Alma Street, Land of Bountiful 98441) where he talks about how indebted we are to God and how we should just chill out and focus on the blessings we have already. So in this last month of my mission, I'm committing myself (yes, I extend commitments even to myself!) to rid myself of the desire to desire. And instead just work, and not expect any kind of reward (even though some people would say this is an unproductive or failing mindset). And more than that, I'm committing myself to give up this way of thinking before I get older and more engrained in my ways, so I can teach people around me who aren't as experienced how to have perspective.

And a few more words about "being led by the Spirit," that thing that missionaries hear about all their lives, read about in miracle stories in Ensigns, and then get to their field of work and feel like is a giant prank played on them that doesn't exist, because they don't have shiny multicolored leaves on the wind like from Pocahantus (how I honestly used to picture the Holy Ghost) blowing them in a certain direction or to certain people. Again I cite some excellent emails from Mom and Dad, and my good friend Dana Fleming. And the general law, that I had to learn again this week is this: you are being led by the Spirit if you are trying to be, honestly and earnestly striving to be. So stop grasping for some feeling that you picture as the exact right thing in the exact right moment, because it will never be what you picture, EVER. I've given a few talks at baptisms here on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and something I realized was that the call to learn Bulgarian has, more than anything, been a blessing in what it's taught me about the Holy Ghost. And that is this:  my first few months here, I struggled a LOT with understanding. Talking was easier, but I would listen to people and get nervous and tangled up in my head and nothing would make sense or go in the right order in my head to make sense. And it was a very very subtle, almost unnoticable shift to the day when I would say I knew what people were saying. I realized it vividly one day at the house of a new convert named Tanya, who was talking (very loud and fast and furious, as she does) and I was absorbing about 60% and making sense of about 55% of what was being said, but then one moment it clicked and I realized I could actually get the gist of what she was saying, and it wasn't a direct word-to-word English translating in my head, but I knew the general feeling of it and I could respond in the right way, and more importantly, I FELT what she was saying and felt like I was her friend as I listened. And that, to me, is how the Holy Ghost is. It takes a LONG time to learn how to use it, and most people just forget after they receive it to start that learning and start late (I did). But the shift to understanding is very, very slow and even a little discouraging, and requires a lot of work and mistakes. But it will come, and it will be more like a general feeling than a particular set of instructions.

Anyway. I'm not going to say too much about what happened this week because I'm out of time now, but hopefully what I said will help someone who reads this email. Suffice it to say I love what I'm doing here, it's still the hardest thing I've ever done, I still make mistakes and feel like an idiot and like I'll never be a "good missionary," but I think I'm doing fine, overall.

Be good to your mothers and fathers, and make banana bread regularly.

Love, Sister Crundhall

Week of April 8 2013: Rare Happiness

Zdrasti, y'all. Bulgarian sounds hilarious with a cowboy accent.

Well, first in news is that I got rill sick this week. I don't know why that's first in news because it's boring and gross. . . but whatever! It seems that the whole city had the flu this week, according to the changes in the seasons, apparently. Also a quick language and culture joke, and may the returned BSM missionaries perhaps reading please forgive this: diarrhea in Bulgarian is called "ryado shtastie," which literally means "rare happiness." Which is funny on several levels. But mostly it was funny because as our entire district slowly bowed to its crushing influence, we could indicate our level of health by referring to the amount of happiness we were feeling. E.g. "I'm feeling a little happy," as we head to the bathroom. Anyway, JOKES.

On Mondee we went to the house of one of my favorite members of all time and eternity. She has some kind of physical disability that restricts her to crutches and very slow walking, but she's the most regular/punctual member ever, and nicest, and happiest, and most helpful. So take THAT, people who complain about going to church on time. Also I've resolved (and this is embarrassing that I have to make this resolve) to never skip one of the second or third hours of church again, because I've seen how hard it is to hold church together when people just skip out whenever they feel like it and don't contribute something. 

On Tuesdee we had a quick lesson with a guy named Toshko and a recent convert named Petko, who is a little eccentric but awesome, and wears a giant leather newsboy hat. And as we were walking from the pre-appointed meeting place to the church to have our lesson, Petko essentially explained baptism, Joseph Smith, and eternal life to him in about 2 minutes, and then we all sat on some couches and gave him the Book of Mormon and that was it. It made me reflect on 1) how funny old guys are (who are inevitably 90% of who want to talk to us because they have this curious grandpa attitude) and 2) how casually/funnily we sometimes talk to people about the Gospel, and how you sometimes do things on your mission you don't quite understand why you're doing, but that probably (certainly) have eternal consequences. Strange but true. 

After that we had a lesson with this really cool lady, who's actually moving to Chicago in a few months to marry an American, but who has read the Bible her whole life (and said it was a human responsibility to do so, even if one isn't religious) but never had religion in her life or family, and accepts everything we say as very logical, beautiful and correct. We had a great member present with a young member who was the best choice for her (I love member presents! I totally want to like, be in them when I get home!) and it was nice. Good lessons are pretty awesome, and they happen pretty rarely, but that makes you appreciate them more.

On Saturdee we had our English sign-up night and recorded normal conference (I mean general) in Bulgarian, which means we sat around waiting for possibly interested students to come fill out forms and struggled with the broadcast to come in and to get it in the right language. Two points to note: there are SO MANY RUSSIANS in Varna and it really makes me want to learn Russian, because once in a while I'll be contacting and go up to someone and start talking to them, and then they talk back and I get confused about how I understand them but not quite, and then I realize they're speaking Russian. We had a cute Russian family come and try to sign up and the little daughter had to translate for her big, tough dad in to Bulgarian, and awww. Another point: it's kind of cool how conference works here. We have to wait until Saturday night to get the Saturday morning session, and then it gets broadcast through satellite on a bunch of different channels that are a million languages, and then we have to flip through them and listen to them all until we understand what they're saying. And we got to watch it on Sunday with our Ukranian friend in ENGLISH. It was so nice. I haven't seen English conference in . . . well, a long time. Appreciate it, friends.

I love you guys! Easter here isn't until May 5th, so send me all the old Easter candy that's on sale!

Sister Hundlebar

Week of April 1 2013: The Bruce Springsteen of Prophets

I have an interesting quote for you all from Brigham Young, the Bruce Springsteen of prophets. He said, of prayer, "..when the time for prayer comes, and you have not the spirit of prayer upon you, and your knees are unwilling to bow, say to them, 'knees, get down there,' make them bend, and remain there..."

What a weird/genius! I like that guy. And I think it also applies well to a lesson I've learned here: usually when you are most angry and most wound-up and think you're right and hate that stupid feeling to get over yourself and calm down and bring the Spirit back is the time when you MOST need to do that. Also, knees should be commanded.

We had a really cool lesson with someone on Sunday, who originally said he wouldn't be able to make it, but who randomly showed up at the church a few minutes before we were about to finish with our council meeting, at about the preappointed time, and we were able to grab a newly baptized 20-year-old member named Hristo (also newlywed to his 9-month pregnant wife) and have him in on the lesson. It was amazing at a testimony builder to me. Hristo was so excited to talk to this man about his testimony, and shared it so freely and so happily, explaining honestly about the change in his life and his desire to be a good person and follow Christ. Afterward he said, "Thank you so much for letting me help you - it makes me feel really good to help people like him. I feel really good right now." The Spirit was very strong, and I was so grateful, again, for member present lessons, and made a greater resolution to make them happen no matter what. 

It isn't Easter here yet! So I'll tell you about the eggs and sweet breads and priesty things in a few weeks. I love you all. Read Alma 32 one last time, and Alma 31 also gets overlooked. 

Sister Handbag