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
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