Monday, April 23, 2012
Week of April 23--Bedbugs!
Sdrasti priyatelite mi!
Another week in Starz (...zagora). This time, I'm in a threesome companionship with Sister Meyers and Sister Child, since Meyers is waiting for her new missionary to come from the States, where she's waiting now in Virginia for her visa. So we hang out together! It is fun! Makes me feel like we are Charlie's Angels or something and nobody will escape! (e.g., not hear the Gospel). But anyway. THAT means: the missionary who I will train, in June, has entered the MTC by now! OMG. Guys. I really don't feel capable in any way or form to be a missionary on my own (meaning, work with a companion who is more clueless than me). But I guess it will just happen? Okay? Oh well? :)
This was kind of a weird week for rabota (work). (Are you annoyed of the condescending translating-in-parentheses yet?) Firstly, because we have decided it is time to get a new apartment. The one we're in now is right on the glav (main street), but in a really, really old building, so with super old pipes and mold EVERYWHERE and the implied fumes from those things. And . . . this week we got bedbugs. So. Good. We're just wandering around on the street going "Join our chuuurch!" while we're all gross and diseased and bug-marked. The church of bugs of latter-day bugs. So a lot of this week was taken up with the slightly surreal task of apartment shopping in Bulgaria. We went to this one broker? dealer? guy who helped the elders find their apartment, and thought it would be normal, but it WASN'T. They were CRAZY. Like this mother-father-son business and the dad was all "charming" and "wearing white shoes" and "singing Tom Jones" and drove us in their car to this 20 story commie block on the edge of town (everything we told them we didn't want) and showed us this terrible, terrible apartment with a TV from the '60s in there (and everything else from the '60s too, it seemed), but kept going "It's so beautiful! We'll get you new furniture! So that was kind of funny. But the search goes on!
Also, we went to a Chinese restaurant this week with the following dishes printed in their menu, clearly mistranslated (Chinese/Bulgarian?):
"Fryed rice with hiney"
"Simmer sea delicacy, under metal tile"
"Srewed vegetables"
"Simmer duck on a metal tile"
"Sea gifts, with duck tile"
ALL REAL. ALL TOO REAL. EXACT TRANSCRIPTIONS.
Also this week, we found out that our mission prez, President Roth is going to pay for our investigators' weddings! So OMG! We get to be witnesses to Tanya and Peter's wedding, and then drive Mitko and his family out to their celo to get hitched! Also, in Bulgarian, when you're married, you say you're "womaned" if you're a man or "manned" if you're a woman. Interesting! Grammar!
Finally, I gave a talk in church yesterday. Man it was weird and hard and scary. I got the call to do it on Wednesday, and almost refused, but in the end did it. And since our branch president is actually an elder (the Starz branch is kind of struggling), and the elders weren't there on Sunday, it was all Brother Major, the American guy living here, conducting, while being interpreted by Sister Child, and he demonstrated the idea of wrestling on the stand in sacrament, since nobody knew how to say it in Bulgarian. (He was talking about Enos wrestling with his guilt) But I gave a talk! Scary! 15 minutes of Bulgarian! But I did it?
Something I've learned from my companions who have been here a long time is this: the Lord doesn't want shiny fast racing ponies who are geniuses and can braid their own tails. He needs steady, sturdy, plodding workers who will endure to the end and get it all done in their own time. So that's what I'm trying to work on, and you all should too.
I love you. Sorry my emails are of low quality. Bsichko hubavo!
Monday, April 16, 2012
Week of April 16, 2012
Hello everybody!
Easter is over. Does everybody know that Bulgarian Easter is a week later than non-Bulgarian Easter? I think it might be that way for all the Orthodox bros, actually. Also, does everybody know that Easter is a BIG HUGE DEAL here? Like every holiday? I think it's the ole communist work ethic here or something, but every single holiday is a huge deal here, and there are holidays, like, every other day. All full of various blandy baked goods with cute names, people telling you to have good health, and giant beer bottles everywhere. And things being CLOSED. Remember when I was supposed to go to Carandila last week? Yeah, the little lift thingy was CLOSED because "of the holidays." (Praznitzi). That was a week ago. People take, like, two weeks for Easter, and that affects the Work (missionary Work) too.
Also, quickly, there's a fair/carnival thing set up on the glav here where I am right now (near our apartment) with a ferris wheel and a little roller coaster thing and bumper carts. And it's hilarious because everybody who gets on there looks so bored and Bulgarian. Even the kids. Everybody just sits on the ferris wheel or bumper carts looking bored and angry and smoking cigarettes. Hahaha.
On Friday, we went out to the house of a couple in our ward who are from Scotland (the husband is from Utah, the wife is Scottish, they met on their mission in England and lived in Scotland for 30 years and decided, like many English couples struggling to make ends meet, to retire in a dirt-cheap village in Bulgaria for some reason). They're great/crazy people, kind of like the Canadjun side of me. They live in a celo (village) about an hour from Starz, and have a farm with chickens and goats and rabbits and dogs and a horse and a frisbee and piles of garbage/food everywhere. So we did service (planted corn and dug the earth and blah blah blah) and ate hot dogs over a fire we built and went to teach an investigator who lives out here. And fed a HORSE! I had a flashback to when I was young and ambitious and loved horses. Then I found out that the world is a cruel, car-filled place and quickly started reading Baby-Sitter's Club books instead of horse books and forgot about everything. But oh the horses!
So for Easter, we had an activity at the church (which is located on the fifth floor of an apartment building - the church is, I mean) in which we did a traditional Bulgarian thingy: dye Easter eggs (the dyeing isn't the fun part), and then have little wars where you try to crack someone else's egg with your egg. And I think it symbolizes health/strength/communism something something? I don't know. It's all a rich shmorgasbord of health and traditions and beer around here. Then on Sunday, we had the mission president here with his wife, which was fun, and then got to watch conference AGAIN (it takes four weeks to finish around here). On Easter Sunday, everybody goes up to everybody and says, "Isus vuzkrusen!" and then the second person says, "Boistina vuzkrusen!" Which is literally like: Jesus was resurrected! And then, Truly resurrected! Kind of like, "He sure was!!" It's cute.
Then, last night, we went to an eternal investigator's house for dinner. Her name is Maria, and she's delightful little lady who used to be a professional Bulgarian chef (I know right???) and loves to feed missionaries, but just won't get baptized quite yet for some reason, even though she wants to. So me and Sister Child and the three elders went to her house, already full from being fed by other investigators/Easter cookies of the day, and had the following:
1) Lettuce yogurt salad (actually really good, I'll show you how to make it) with boiled eggs
2) A plate of lamb liver, stomach, and lung
3) A bigger plate of meat casserole (don't even know what was in there), lamb liver, lamb kidneys, lamb stomach, and probably lamb brain
4) Bread
5) Kozunac (special sweet easter bread you eat with kisalo mlyako, which is yogurt)
6) Korabi (little special Easter cookies, korabi meaning "boats")
7) I forget what else because I was dead with meat coma
Oh man. That was one of those ones you get to write home about! As I am doing right now. But ohhh man. That LAMB. I am a vegetarian for the rest of my mission, man. I just will never forget the texture of that lamb liver. I knew, with every fiber of my own liver, that I was eating the vital organ of a baby lamb. I also sneaked some chunks of the meats into my purse, so as to not offend/eat them all, but it was pretty intense. Wacky adventures!
We're really happy to have some families to work with here, like Mitko and his son and girlfriend, and Peter and Tanya, but both sets of them need to get married before they can get baptized, which is a common problem with Bulgarian investigators. People just shack up and have kids for years and years and years and own block apartments together and share slippers, and then they're 56 and never got married. Different around here. So hopefully that will happen soon. Both of the families want to be baptized really badly, but are struggling to make the marriage possible. But I believe in them!! And we also have an investigator from Congo, who escaped during the 1990s and came here? Good choice. He speaks Bulgarian and French and a dialect from Congo, which makes speaking to him kind of interesting but fun. He's great. I also found out this week, that since the new missionaries coming in are having some visa delays, we'll have to have one of the trainers come and be companions with me and Sister Child for a few weeks until her greenie can come. So I'll be in a threesome? It will be cool.
Write to me, all of you! Also, email shout-out of the week to BAM (Patricia Asplund) for her sudden slew of emails she had been sending to a wrong address (my fault) but which were all so delightful! I love accounts of family get-togethers like that, and I appreciate you telling me about all the meals. I miss those meals. I love you, Bam. Also email shout-out to Rachel Wise!! For sending recipes. Rachel, can we go on a road trip to a museum when I get back?
Okay. I love you all. Send me packages! I'm excited to get my first packages one a these days. The Atonement is real! You read it here.
Love,
Sectra Campbell
Easter is over. Does everybody know that Bulgarian Easter is a week later than non-Bulgarian Easter? I think it might be that way for all the Orthodox bros, actually. Also, does everybody know that Easter is a BIG HUGE DEAL here? Like every holiday? I think it's the ole communist work ethic here or something, but every single holiday is a huge deal here, and there are holidays, like, every other day. All full of various blandy baked goods with cute names, people telling you to have good health, and giant beer bottles everywhere. And things being CLOSED. Remember when I was supposed to go to Carandila last week? Yeah, the little lift thingy was CLOSED because "of the holidays." (Praznitzi). That was a week ago. People take, like, two weeks for Easter, and that affects the Work (missionary Work) too.
Also, quickly, there's a fair/carnival thing set up on the glav here where I am right now (near our apartment) with a ferris wheel and a little roller coaster thing and bumper carts. And it's hilarious because everybody who gets on there looks so bored and Bulgarian. Even the kids. Everybody just sits on the ferris wheel or bumper carts looking bored and angry and smoking cigarettes. Hahaha.
On Friday, we went out to the house of a couple in our ward who are from Scotland (the husband is from Utah, the wife is Scottish, they met on their mission in England and lived in Scotland for 30 years and decided, like many English couples struggling to make ends meet, to retire in a dirt-cheap village in Bulgaria for some reason). They're great/crazy people, kind of like the Canadjun side of me. They live in a celo (village) about an hour from Starz, and have a farm with chickens and goats and rabbits and dogs and a horse and a frisbee and piles of garbage/food everywhere. So we did service (planted corn and dug the earth and blah blah blah) and ate hot dogs over a fire we built and went to teach an investigator who lives out here. And fed a HORSE! I had a flashback to when I was young and ambitious and loved horses. Then I found out that the world is a cruel, car-filled place and quickly started reading Baby-Sitter's Club books instead of horse books and forgot about everything. But oh the horses!
So for Easter, we had an activity at the church (which is located on the fifth floor of an apartment building - the church is, I mean) in which we did a traditional Bulgarian thingy: dye Easter eggs (the dyeing isn't the fun part), and then have little wars where you try to crack someone else's egg with your egg. And I think it symbolizes health/strength/communism something something? I don't know. It's all a rich shmorgasbord of health and traditions and beer around here. Then on Sunday, we had the mission president here with his wife, which was fun, and then got to watch conference AGAIN (it takes four weeks to finish around here). On Easter Sunday, everybody goes up to everybody and says, "Isus vuzkrusen!" and then the second person says, "Boistina vuzkrusen!" Which is literally like: Jesus was resurrected! And then, Truly resurrected! Kind of like, "He sure was!!" It's cute.
Then, last night, we went to an eternal investigator's house for dinner. Her name is Maria, and she's delightful little lady who used to be a professional Bulgarian chef (I know right???) and loves to feed missionaries, but just won't get baptized quite yet for some reason, even though she wants to. So me and Sister Child and the three elders went to her house, already full from being fed by other investigators/Easter cookies of the day, and had the following:
1) Lettuce yogurt salad (actually really good, I'll show you how to make it) with boiled eggs
2) A plate of lamb liver, stomach, and lung
3) A bigger plate of meat casserole (don't even know what was in there), lamb liver, lamb kidneys, lamb stomach, and probably lamb brain
4) Bread
5) Kozunac (special sweet easter bread you eat with kisalo mlyako, which is yogurt)
6) Korabi (little special Easter cookies, korabi meaning "boats")
7) I forget what else because I was dead with meat coma
Oh man. That was one of those ones you get to write home about! As I am doing right now. But ohhh man. That LAMB. I am a vegetarian for the rest of my mission, man. I just will never forget the texture of that lamb liver. I knew, with every fiber of my own liver, that I was eating the vital organ of a baby lamb. I also sneaked some chunks of the meats into my purse, so as to not offend/eat them all, but it was pretty intense. Wacky adventures!
We're really happy to have some families to work with here, like Mitko and his son and girlfriend, and Peter and Tanya, but both sets of them need to get married before they can get baptized, which is a common problem with Bulgarian investigators. People just shack up and have kids for years and years and years and own block apartments together and share slippers, and then they're 56 and never got married. Different around here. So hopefully that will happen soon. Both of the families want to be baptized really badly, but are struggling to make the marriage possible. But I believe in them!! And we also have an investigator from Congo, who escaped during the 1990s and came here? Good choice. He speaks Bulgarian and French and a dialect from Congo, which makes speaking to him kind of interesting but fun. He's great. I also found out this week, that since the new missionaries coming in are having some visa delays, we'll have to have one of the trainers come and be companions with me and Sister Child for a few weeks until her greenie can come. So I'll be in a threesome? It will be cool.
Write to me, all of you! Also, email shout-out of the week to BAM (Patricia Asplund) for her sudden slew of emails she had been sending to a wrong address (my fault) but which were all so delightful! I love accounts of family get-togethers like that, and I appreciate you telling me about all the meals. I miss those meals. I love you, Bam. Also email shout-out to Rachel Wise!! For sending recipes. Rachel, can we go on a road trip to a museum when I get back?
Okay. I love you all. Send me packages! I'm excited to get my first packages one a these days. The Atonement is real! You read it here.
Love,
Sectra Campbell
Monday, April 9, 2012
Week of April 10, 2012--Stara Zagora!
Here is a weekly emailllllll!
I am currently in Sliven, Bulgaria, Eastern Europe, Earth. Sliven is a
tiny-ish gypsy town a while north of Stara Zagora, where I am
currently serving. We (Sister Child and I) came down today for pee day
to see the sisters who are here (Sister Farnsworth, my old bud! and
Sister Tate, my new bud!) and to, you know, chill. I am in the
country, man. Varna seems very far away and strange and long ago. This
is officially a New Transfer, and in a week, we'll have four new
sisters in country (along with some elders). And then,
after this short transfer, which will end on May 29th with my trainer
going home (what?), I will be training. A new. Missionary. What??? But
let's not think about that for now.
To get more specific: I'm currently in an internet zala in a
downstairs area that smells like a combination of a zoo, a petting
zoo, a crapping zoo, and a smoking zoo. I'm drinking a Coke Light.
(Wayyyy different from Diet Coke.) It's pretty cold here, actually.
Later today, we're planning to go up Carandilla (SPPP!!!) which is a
little hike/lift thing that takes you high into those Bulgarian
mountains everyone's always talking/singing about.
But! Stara Zagora! My new hometown! I actually love it. It's a pretty
small little city, the fifth largest in Bulgy, and we live right on
the glavnata ulitza. Each city has a main street called a "glav,"
usually, with no cars, which is all pedestrian traffic and
stores/cafes people wandering around/missionaries walking up
and down or streetboarding. We can't streetboard in Stara Zagora,
because the obshtina (municipality? I guess) hates the Church and
comes out with all kind of weird laws and restrictions. So we have to
either survey or superman contact, the first being where you ask
people to take a short "survey" about God (as a way to get them to
talk to you) or where you just go up to someone and ask them if they
believe in God and get right to it. So we've been doing a lot of that
- like 6 hours a day sometimes. WAY more than in Varna. Generally, the
smaller cities have a lot slower work, fewer investigators, and more
contacting. So it's been a big adjustment.
BUT. I love the vibes, man. So chill and small. It's really warm
there, too, now, like 70 or 75 degrees (F...I still can't think in C)
and really summery-feeling. The other day we were walking around
neighborhood contacting and two babas with headscarves and little
knitted booties for shoes stopped us basically by saying, "Momicheta,
kakvo pravite?" Which is SO CUTE. It's like, "Hey, girls, what are you
doin'?" But a little cuter. So we said what we did and she thought it
was SO CUTE and invited us to hang out/eat gross food with her. It was
a nice little Stara Zagora ("Stars") experience.
Let's see. We're teaching a few families in Stars who are currently
about to get married so they can get baptized, so that's cool. People
here just, don't get married pretty much. They'll live together for 40
years and have kids and share a block and slippers but just never get
married. Oh, Europe.
Easter is also a very big Deal here. Nobody will meet with us these
days, because they're all "getting ready for Easter" (baking kuzanac, Easter bread, and sitting around worrying about if
their grandkids will come or not). It's a little annoying, but I guess
Easter is worth it.
Also, I FINALLY got to watch some English conference! So good. I
understood most of the Bulgarian one, but in English it was just a
little . . . more clear, I guess. I don't know. The whole time I kept
going, "Ohhh, that's what he was trying to say!" And the stories all
made sense.
Anyway. My birthday is soon, in mail-years (mail here takes like,
three times the amount of time, and sometimes gets stolen), so if
anyone wants to send me a BIRTHDAY THING they should probably do it
soon. And I'll send you my heart. In a cooler.
Okay. I love you guys. I miss you. Send me pictures! Vsichko hubavo!
I am currently in Sliven, Bulgaria, Eastern Europe, Earth. Sliven is a
tiny-ish gypsy town a while north of Stara Zagora, where I am
currently serving. We (Sister Child and I) came down today for pee day
to see the sisters who are here (Sister Farnsworth, my old bud! and
Sister Tate, my new bud!) and to, you know, chill. I am in the
country, man. Varna seems very far away and strange and long ago. This
is officially a New Transfer, and in a week, we'll have four new
sisters in country (along with some elders). And then,
after this short transfer, which will end on May 29th with my trainer
going home (what?), I will be training. A new. Missionary. What??? But
let's not think about that for now.
To get more specific: I'm currently in an internet zala in a
downstairs area that smells like a combination of a zoo, a petting
zoo, a crapping zoo, and a smoking zoo. I'm drinking a Coke Light.
(Wayyyy different from Diet Coke.) It's pretty cold here, actually.
Later today, we're planning to go up Carandilla (SPPP!!!) which is a
little hike/lift thing that takes you high into those Bulgarian
mountains everyone's always talking/singing about.
But! Stara Zagora! My new hometown! I actually love it. It's a pretty
small little city, the fifth largest in Bulgy, and we live right on
the glavnata ulitza. Each city has a main street called a "glav,"
usually, with no cars, which is all pedestrian traffic and
stores/cafes people wandering around/missionaries walking up
and down or streetboarding. We can't streetboard in Stara Zagora,
because the obshtina (municipality? I guess) hates the Church and
comes out with all kind of weird laws and restrictions. So we have to
either survey or superman contact, the first being where you ask
people to take a short "survey" about God (as a way to get them to
talk to you) or where you just go up to someone and ask them if they
believe in God and get right to it. So we've been doing a lot of that
- like 6 hours a day sometimes. WAY more than in Varna. Generally, the
smaller cities have a lot slower work, fewer investigators, and more
contacting. So it's been a big adjustment.
BUT. I love the vibes, man. So chill and small. It's really warm
there, too, now, like 70 or 75 degrees (F...I still can't think in C)
and really summery-feeling. The other day we were walking around
neighborhood contacting and two babas with headscarves and little
knitted booties for shoes stopped us basically by saying, "Momicheta,
kakvo pravite?" Which is SO CUTE. It's like, "Hey, girls, what are you
doin'?" But a little cuter. So we said what we did and she thought it
was SO CUTE and invited us to hang out/eat gross food with her. It was
a nice little Stara Zagora ("Stars") experience.
Let's see. We're teaching a few families in Stars who are currently
about to get married so they can get baptized, so that's cool. People
here just, don't get married pretty much. They'll live together for 40
years and have kids and share a block and slippers but just never get
married. Oh, Europe.
Easter is also a very big Deal here. Nobody will meet with us these
days, because they're all "getting ready for Easter" (baking kuzanac, Easter bread, and sitting around worrying about if
their grandkids will come or not). It's a little annoying, but I guess
Easter is worth it.
Also, I FINALLY got to watch some English conference! So good. I
understood most of the Bulgarian one, but in English it was just a
little . . . more clear, I guess. I don't know. The whole time I kept
going, "Ohhh, that's what he was trying to say!" And the stories all
made sense.
Anyway. My birthday is soon, in mail-years (mail here takes like,
three times the amount of time, and sometimes gets stolen), so if
anyone wants to send me a BIRTHDAY THING they should probably do it
soon. And I'll send you my heart. In a cooler.
Okay. I love you guys. I miss you. Send me pictures! Vsichko hubavo!
Monday, April 2, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Week of April 26, 2012--Sorry for the late posting!
Editor's note:
I have modified this letter somewhat for blogging presentation. Sister Campbell is definitely feeling the passion and pain of missionary service. Send her your good thoughts and prayers!
From Sister Campbell: Next week, on April 2nd, 2012, I pledge to send pictures. I will collect more actual "good" pictures this week. For instance, when we go on our outing to Shumen as we are planning to just now! So wait.
This was actually a surprisingly difficult week/few days. I keep forgetting it's only been since Thursday. Time is kind of compressed and yet expanded here, like cookie dough inside of a tube that is condensed and yet . . . expanded. You know what I mean. After Zone Conference, at which I stood up in front of everyone and announced that I had not memorized the thing we were assigned to memorize because I am like that, we streetboarded for a while (I call it 'streetbirding' in memory of Taylor) and then were called by Elise, who has been panicking because her son, Giorgi, is really sick with a high temperature (when people say celcius temperature measurements my instinct is to still make fun of them for being wrong/very low), and she didn't know what to do/didn't have money/the father kept spending medicine money on alcohol, etc. So we went with our awesome senior couple, the Eames', and one of the strongest members, Radka, to her house, and gave Giorgi a blessing.
It was kind of cute because he wouldn't hold still and Elder Eames lit'rally had to chase him around the room with his hands outstretched toward the general vicinity of his head while giving the blessing.
Saturday: Three lessons canceled on us (worse than being stood up for a date, somehow) and we sort of had a meltdown. It's funny how I keep talking in the plural as if I am a plural, but it just feels like I am sometimes these days. Then we managed to get it together to teach a family (who spent half an hour showing us their HUGE RIDICULOUS SHINY PINK wedding videos of their son that summer, which even involved the women's henna party/eating bread and salt I've always heard about!). And they're awesome.
Church was fast . . . and testimony meeting! Hahaha. Not actually "fast." But all was well. But THEN. I forgot to mention that on Saturday, Elise called us in a complete panic, like hyperventilating and screaming "My son! My son!" and hanging up and then we'd call her up and it would be the same thing, but with Giorgi screaming in the background. It turns out, we ascertained over a long stretch of time, that Giorgi had put his hands in a pan of hot frying oil and pretty much burned them off, or at least really badly. So we rushed, on Saturday night, all the way out to Galata again (the dog/urine place) but she was already at the hospital. So on SUNDAY we went to her hospital to see her. It was literally the worst place I've ever been to, including Chuck E. Cheese.
Anyway, back to the hospital. It used to be a military hospital,but was really run-down and from the outside, looked to be non-functioning, given the holes in the walls/areas with no roof/etc., except for the rows of babas sitting on the benches in the front. That sight made my heart sink, because I knew that yes, this pile of bricks and asbestos was actually a place to take care of sick people. The first three entrances we went to were broken, so we had to go all the way around to the back, to the Emergency Room, which was more of a kind of pool hall-looking place, complete with nurses smoking cigarettes, for Elise to come down from her ward to talk to us. She was all red-eyed and panicky and jumpy, and explained to us that she hadn't slept in three days, especially since the doctors working on Giorgi were frequently negligent/did dangerous things/make fun of her for crying while they peeled the burned skin off of her son's hands, and the nurses would threaten her physically if she complained about it. I could go on, but basically there was no food/sleep for her to be had, Giorgi's father refused to help her, and we are little innocent privileged missionaries trying to help her get baptized. It was one of the most helpless/overwhelming feelings I've ever had.
So I don't know. There that is, if you want to hear about how I'm such a Cool White Person learning sad things about Cool Poor People and how Real and Eye-Opening it is. I won't say anything political, since I'm sure that's the most painful topic in the states/world right now, but I'll just say this: wouldn't it be nice if single mothers never had to worry about their kids being hurt by doctors/not being able to pay for keeping their kids alive? I think that would be nice.
It's a helpless feeling, but all I can say is I really do believe that there's a way, somehow, for the suffering in the world to be overcome. All of it. And I know that it will be, if we let it happen.
Anyway. We are probably getting transfer calls (!!) this Friday, so we'll see if I stay here for two/nine weeks. This was a mini-transfer of six weeks, so the next one will be longer. Believe Christ, everyone. It's fun, I promise.
I have modified this letter somewhat for blogging presentation. Sister Campbell is definitely feeling the passion and pain of missionary service. Send her your good thoughts and prayers!
From Sister Campbell: Next week, on April 2nd, 2012, I pledge to send pictures. I will collect more actual "good" pictures this week. For instance, when we go on our outing to Shumen as we are planning to just now! So wait.
This was actually a surprisingly difficult week/few days. I keep forgetting it's only been since Thursday. Time is kind of compressed and yet expanded here, like cookie dough inside of a tube that is condensed and yet . . . expanded. You know what I mean. After Zone Conference, at which I stood up in front of everyone and announced that I had not memorized the thing we were assigned to memorize because I am like that, we streetboarded for a while (I call it 'streetbirding' in memory of Taylor) and then were called by Elise, who has been panicking because her son, Giorgi, is really sick with a high temperature (when people say celcius temperature measurements my instinct is to still make fun of them for being wrong/very low), and she didn't know what to do/didn't have money/the father kept spending medicine money on alcohol, etc. So we went with our awesome senior couple, the Eames', and one of the strongest members, Radka, to her house, and gave Giorgi a blessing.
It was kind of cute because he wouldn't hold still and Elder Eames lit'rally had to chase him around the room with his hands outstretched toward the general vicinity of his head while giving the blessing.
Saturday: Three lessons canceled on us (worse than being stood up for a date, somehow) and we sort of had a meltdown. It's funny how I keep talking in the plural as if I am a plural, but it just feels like I am sometimes these days. Then we managed to get it together to teach a family (who spent half an hour showing us their HUGE RIDICULOUS SHINY PINK wedding videos of their son that summer, which even involved the women's henna party/eating bread and salt I've always heard about!). And they're awesome.
Church was fast . . . and testimony meeting! Hahaha. Not actually "fast." But all was well. But THEN. I forgot to mention that on Saturday, Elise called us in a complete panic, like hyperventilating and screaming "My son! My son!" and hanging up and then we'd call her up and it would be the same thing, but with Giorgi screaming in the background. It turns out, we ascertained over a long stretch of time, that Giorgi had put his hands in a pan of hot frying oil and pretty much burned them off, or at least really badly. So we rushed, on Saturday night, all the way out to Galata again (the dog/urine place) but she was already at the hospital. So on SUNDAY we went to her hospital to see her. It was literally the worst place I've ever been to, including Chuck E. Cheese.
Anyway, back to the hospital. It used to be a military hospital,but was really run-down and from the outside, looked to be non-functioning, given the holes in the walls/areas with no roof/etc., except for the rows of babas sitting on the benches in the front. That sight made my heart sink, because I knew that yes, this pile of bricks and asbestos was actually a place to take care of sick people. The first three entrances we went to were broken, so we had to go all the way around to the back, to the Emergency Room, which was more of a kind of pool hall-looking place, complete with nurses smoking cigarettes, for Elise to come down from her ward to talk to us. She was all red-eyed and panicky and jumpy, and explained to us that she hadn't slept in three days, especially since the doctors working on Giorgi were frequently negligent/did dangerous things/make fun of her for crying while they peeled the burned skin off of her son's hands, and the nurses would threaten her physically if she complained about it. I could go on, but basically there was no food/sleep for her to be had, Giorgi's father refused to help her, and we are little innocent privileged missionaries trying to help her get baptized. It was one of the most helpless/overwhelming feelings I've ever had.
So I don't know. There that is, if you want to hear about how I'm such a Cool White Person learning sad things about Cool Poor People and how Real and Eye-Opening it is. I won't say anything political, since I'm sure that's the most painful topic in the states/world right now, but I'll just say this: wouldn't it be nice if single mothers never had to worry about their kids being hurt by doctors/not being able to pay for keeping their kids alive? I think that would be nice.
It's a helpless feeling, but all I can say is I really do believe that there's a way, somehow, for the suffering in the world to be overcome. All of it. And I know that it will be, if we let it happen.
Anyway. We are probably getting transfer calls (!!) this Friday, so we'll see if I stay here for two/nine weeks. This was a mini-transfer of six weeks, so the next one will be longer. Believe Christ, everyone. It's fun, I promise.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Week of March 19, 2012: Plastic Bags
A real email!
Some interesting happenings of the past week. Remember the priest with the ringtone? Well. He called us and wanted to meet. "Okay!" we said hesitantly, "come to the church!" He made us meet him out on the glav (the main road where people walk instead of car-ing, where we go to contact/get free perfume samples), and then sat us down in the church with his three plastic bags (everybody here carries around at least one plastic bag. It is a must). Then, essentially, calmly, he told us that if we somehow obtained a scholarship for his son to study in the states, he would make sure that son got baptized in our church, married to someone like us, and devoted his life to "our society." Sister Pantigoso, after explaining some of that to me, told him, basically, the deal. He didn't accept that, and kept insisting that it would be easy for us to get a "vujmojnost" (opportunity) for his son in the states. We said no, we do spiritual thangs, not money thangs, we're not an American church, etc. Then he got yelly and started quoting Jesus and saying that we didn't have charity. I didn't really say anything, since I didn't understand all of what he was saying and couldn't respond really, but Pantigoso got really upset (it's sort of a sore subject for her, poverty is - isn't it for everyone? not really) and said, basically, "Gospijin [sir], if I could, I would give you my own money and my own schooling, but I can't. Do you want to see my wallet?" He backed down a little, and said, can you at least give me one of your Bibles? We explained we don't give away Bibles because they belong to the branch. Then he got yelly again, so Pantigoso gave up and said, "Fine, gospojin, do you want my own personal Bible?" holding up the tiny one she's marked up with tabs and whatnot, expecting him to back down. But he. Took it. So that happened. Then, after she left the room, he grabbed my hand, raised it up, and kissed it, and did a sort of blessing motion over my head, and said, "You are very beautiful. Do you have a GSM number separate from your companion?" And I said, "Um, no, we have same. You ready leave?" And now he sometimes calls us, as if we are friends, just to chat. So. That happened.
A more interesting/less slimy happening! We had passport work this week (where we have to go to the capital to renew our lichna cartas/temporary living cards) so on Monday, we went to the obshtina (bus station place) and bought two tickets to Sofia! BTW, it is SOfia, not SofIA. Get it right. Don't be a clod. You will sound cool if you do the right accent. Anyway, so after 7 hours on a bus watching hideous b-movies with Bulgarian subtitles (I know many more swear words now), we got to Sofia! And it was like, 60 degrees, for the first time ever! And Sofia really is the coolest city. I'm excited to serve there someday. The next morning, we got palanchinkis at a fancy zakuski (breakfast) place, which are like fancy crepes with ice cream and et cetera. I have a picture of it! You shall see it soon! Then we went to an office and signed one paper, and then it was time to get back on the bus and drive seven more hours back to Varna! So quite a trip.
Some things that I've learned before, but somehow keep forgetting and having to re-learn here:
1) Humility is hard.
2) Faith is a real thing.
3) I have a small bladder.
4) Be really specific with people when you ask them to give you a haircut with sideswept bangs.
5) Good clothes make everything seem possible.
Here is a Bulgarian joke for the week. There is a word/expression? in Bulgarian called "nali?" You say it at the end of things to be like, "isn't that right/right?" So here is my joke. What if someone wanted to ask who was in the next room, and the person in the next room was named Nelli (as 2034802934093 people here are named). So you would say, "Ah, Neli, nali?" Hahahahahah!
Okay. Write to me! I have another pee day on this coming Monday, so all will be received. I love you all. Expect email in return.
Some interesting happenings of the past week. Remember the priest with the ringtone? Well. He called us and wanted to meet. "Okay!" we said hesitantly, "come to the church!" He made us meet him out on the glav (the main road where people walk instead of car-ing, where we go to contact/get free perfume samples), and then sat us down in the church with his three plastic bags (everybody here carries around at least one plastic bag. It is a must). Then, essentially, calmly, he told us that if we somehow obtained a scholarship for his son to study in the states, he would make sure that son got baptized in our church, married to someone like us, and devoted his life to "our society." Sister Pantigoso, after explaining some of that to me, told him, basically, the deal. He didn't accept that, and kept insisting that it would be easy for us to get a "vujmojnost" (opportunity) for his son in the states. We said no, we do spiritual thangs, not money thangs, we're not an American church, etc. Then he got yelly and started quoting Jesus and saying that we didn't have charity. I didn't really say anything, since I didn't understand all of what he was saying and couldn't respond really, but Pantigoso got really upset (it's sort of a sore subject for her, poverty is - isn't it for everyone? not really) and said, basically, "Gospijin [sir], if I could, I would give you my own money and my own schooling, but I can't. Do you want to see my wallet?" He backed down a little, and said, can you at least give me one of your Bibles? We explained we don't give away Bibles because they belong to the branch. Then he got yelly again, so Pantigoso gave up and said, "Fine, gospojin, do you want my own personal Bible?" holding up the tiny one she's marked up with tabs and whatnot, expecting him to back down. But he. Took it. So that happened. Then, after she left the room, he grabbed my hand, raised it up, and kissed it, and did a sort of blessing motion over my head, and said, "You are very beautiful. Do you have a GSM number separate from your companion?" And I said, "Um, no, we have same. You ready leave?" And now he sometimes calls us, as if we are friends, just to chat. So. That happened.
A more interesting/less slimy happening! We had passport work this week (where we have to go to the capital to renew our lichna cartas/temporary living cards) so on Monday, we went to the obshtina (bus station place) and bought two tickets to Sofia! BTW, it is SOfia, not SofIA. Get it right. Don't be a clod. You will sound cool if you do the right accent. Anyway, so after 7 hours on a bus watching hideous b-movies with Bulgarian subtitles (I know many more swear words now), we got to Sofia! And it was like, 60 degrees, for the first time ever! And Sofia really is the coolest city. I'm excited to serve there someday. The next morning, we got palanchinkis at a fancy zakuski (breakfast) place, which are like fancy crepes with ice cream and et cetera. I have a picture of it! You shall see it soon! Then we went to an office and signed one paper, and then it was time to get back on the bus and drive seven more hours back to Varna! So quite a trip.
Some things that I've learned before, but somehow keep forgetting and having to re-learn here:
1) Humility is hard.
2) Faith is a real thing.
3) I have a small bladder.
4) Be really specific with people when you ask them to give you a haircut with sideswept bangs.
5) Good clothes make everything seem possible.
Here is a Bulgarian joke for the week. There is a word/expression? in Bulgarian called "nali?" You say it at the end of things to be like, "isn't that right/right?" So here is my joke. What if someone wanted to ask who was in the next room, and the person in the next room was named Nelli (as 2034802934093 people here are named). So you would say, "Ah, Neli, nali?" Hahahahahah!
Okay. Write to me! I have another pee day on this coming Monday, so all will be received. I love you all. Expect email in return.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Week of March 11, 2012: Stray Dogs are More Common Than People
Dear Family and Extended Earthly Family,
Listicle, this week.
1) I can't write next week, on account of we don't have a pee day next week, on account of we have Zone Conference/Zone Pee Day that Thursday. So get ready for a week of SILENCE.
2) Sister Pantigoso got pretty sick on Thursday, but, the tough little guy she is, insisted that we go out and teach, until, after watching the Joseph Smith movie with little 15-year-old Eva, I escorted her, trembling with fever/fatigue, home.
3) Dooners (duners? how to spell that): a warm pita wrapped in a cone shape, filled with meat shaved from a giant meat roasting log (often displayed prominently near the window/airhole of dooner-locations), french fries, cucumbers, and various sauces, often creamy or spicy or pickled in nature. Eat those.
4) I actually stopped people this week! Like, on the street! And commanded them to listen to me! So that was cool.
5) Also, we met an orthodox priest, who walked menacingly toward our streetboard in his robe/hat and then asked us about the Book of Mormon/where we were from/if we could meet. Probably this is an April Fool's joke he likes to pull every year! But it was cool. Also, he insisted upon giving us his number and us trying it then and there, so that we could hear his ringtone (which was a choir singing some kind of orthodox dirge thingy, it was awesome and hilarious).
5) Everybody has the same six ringtones here! So you always think your phone is going off, when it's really 20 other peoples' on the same bus!
6) We spend about 3 hours a day (it feels like) on the bus. Going up to the suburb where many of our investigators live, called Vladi Slavovo. Going to the other suburb where Elise lives, whose name I forget, but where stray dogs are more common than people and most things that are wet are urine. She is doing so well though! She pretty much finished the Book of Mormon? What? And she can barely read? Every day I am more glad to know her.
7) Being in a ward is hard! Baptism is not the final step! The branch here is still full of drama and difficulties that come with trying to live the Gorspel (misspelling purposeful). So all of you trying to Be Mormons but feeling like it Is Really Hard - yeah, it is. But we can do it. With some coke and McDonald's breaks, and some laughing at broken podium microphones.
8) Pantigoso was so sick, in fact, that we spent all of Saturday and Sunday home. It was . . . weird. We watched movies (allowed in our mission), and basically . . . sat around. It was really weird. It made me realize how much we work, and also how little I have to preoccupy my brain besides what I'm doing here. And also how if there's any confusion about anything, I will bake. Doesn't matter what's happening. I will bake. Bake. BAKE.
Okay. Out of time, somehow, again. Up for today: the mall! Finally, I'm an Eastern European! What if it were "Eatern European"? Ha ha ha.
Okay. I love you all. Write to me and take care of yourselves and eat fries with everything.
Listicle, this week.
1) I can't write next week, on account of we don't have a pee day next week, on account of we have Zone Conference/Zone Pee Day that Thursday. So get ready for a week of SILENCE.
2) Sister Pantigoso got pretty sick on Thursday, but, the tough little guy she is, insisted that we go out and teach, until, after watching the Joseph Smith movie with little 15-year-old Eva, I escorted her, trembling with fever/fatigue, home.
3) Dooners (duners? how to spell that): a warm pita wrapped in a cone shape, filled with meat shaved from a giant meat roasting log (often displayed prominently near the window/airhole of dooner-locations), french fries, cucumbers, and various sauces, often creamy or spicy or pickled in nature. Eat those.
4) I actually stopped people this week! Like, on the street! And commanded them to listen to me! So that was cool.
5) Also, we met an orthodox priest, who walked menacingly toward our streetboard in his robe/hat and then asked us about the Book of Mormon/where we were from/if we could meet. Probably this is an April Fool's joke he likes to pull every year! But it was cool. Also, he insisted upon giving us his number and us trying it then and there, so that we could hear his ringtone (which was a choir singing some kind of orthodox dirge thingy, it was awesome and hilarious).
5) Everybody has the same six ringtones here! So you always think your phone is going off, when it's really 20 other peoples' on the same bus!
6) We spend about 3 hours a day (it feels like) on the bus. Going up to the suburb where many of our investigators live, called Vladi Slavovo. Going to the other suburb where Elise lives, whose name I forget, but where stray dogs are more common than people and most things that are wet are urine. She is doing so well though! She pretty much finished the Book of Mormon? What? And she can barely read? Every day I am more glad to know her.
7) Being in a ward is hard! Baptism is not the final step! The branch here is still full of drama and difficulties that come with trying to live the Gorspel (misspelling purposeful). So all of you trying to Be Mormons but feeling like it Is Really Hard - yeah, it is. But we can do it. With some coke and McDonald's breaks, and some laughing at broken podium microphones.
8) Pantigoso was so sick, in fact, that we spent all of Saturday and Sunday home. It was . . . weird. We watched movies (allowed in our mission), and basically . . . sat around. It was really weird. It made me realize how much we work, and also how little I have to preoccupy my brain besides what I'm doing here. And also how if there's any confusion about anything, I will bake. Doesn't matter what's happening. I will bake. Bake. BAKE.
Okay. Out of time, somehow, again. Up for today: the mall! Finally, I'm an Eastern European! What if it were "Eatern European"? Ha ha ha.
Okay. I love you all. Write to me and take care of yourselves and eat fries with everything.
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