Week of November 26, 2012: Day of Gratefulness!

Happy day of gratefulness! That is how you say it in Buglarian. It was QUITE an INteresting WEEK. I made 3 (three) pies. Two pumpkin, in which I bought an entire orange pumpkin (pretty hard to do around here - there are almost no orange pumpkins, only like butternut squash dealies they call "tikvi") and slaughtered it and roasted it and for three days prepared it. I also destroyed a T-shirt soaking it and squeezing out all the juice. But I made pies!!!! Of the pumpkin varieties. Would you like to "pump" me for details? Okay.

 

I also made an apple one, which was very big, and made my own caramel sauce ( that sounds like an expression for getting in big trouble or something - "well I've really made my own caramel sauce today, man") and put it in there. So it was an APPLE CARAMEL pie. Then we gathered 'round the glass table at the senior couple, Eames', apartment, and ate a Turkey (capitalized? it was very thin and fatless, in a hilarious contrast to the American butter-fed juiceballs we have everywhere) and some bread substances and potato substances, and I was cranky and refused to care to play Phase 10 or Uno, because, as anyone who knows me knows, I hate games of all sorts, particularly ones that involve "thinking" or "reason." But it was still fun. Also we were taking pictures of the foodstuffs, and Sister Walch was tipping the caramel pie at an angle such that all the apple.caramel juices started running out a little, and I guess everybody thought it was funny when I shouted nervously, "The juices! THE JUICES!" It was a Bam moment, probably.

 

What else. OH Seifitin got baptized. I guess that's pretty cool. It was one of those things where you're sitting in the church all day building the portable pool out of sticks of steel and plastic, and rigging up those familiar old heating tongs, and flipping the breakers every time they flip off because too much electricity is being used, and sitting on the floor in the breath-visible-cold church and wondering if it will all work OUT if he will even SHOW UP but then it all goes perfectly. We even sang "Tursya Nebesni Dugi" (I Like To Look For Rainbows) in Bulgarian!! With my gui-tar!

 

So that's that. It was an exciting week, and I'm getting worse and worse and worse and writing in my journal. Any advice for that? Anyone? Help????

 

I love you guys. I am grateful 4U.

 

Love,

Sister Candle

Week of November 19, 2012: See the world!

On Friday, I was in Varna and saw a giant plastic zippered suitcase/bag made out of tarp material (a unique product here that is mainly used to transport giant amounts of plums or onions) (plumnions) that had on the two big sides, big pictures of Spiderman, and on the tiny sides, "See the world see the world see the world" in a pattern. This was probably the most moving or significant part of the week, or at least, the one I wrote down in my planner to tell about.

 

So on MONDAY we had dinner and watched the full-length Joseph Smith movie ( the one Thomas is probably seeing every Sundee in the GremTC) with a new member named Stefi (have a told about her? probably) who is fifteen and goes to singing school and is giggly and very fifteen-y, which is cool in a branch that is dominated by the elderly. And on Tuesdee we taught the Law of Chastity to Seifitin, who it turns out is Turkish!

 

Also our senior couple, who is currently acting as branch president (jointly) was present, and we had a good little time trying to explain THAT particular commandment, in Bulgarian, to a poor bewildered but awesome shy man.

 

OH! Here's a thing that happened. Last week Sister Walch and I were walking away from the internet zala toward the church, when I saw a woman in front of us clearly do that thing where people notice a different language being spoken and start turning around and staring. She was smoking and wearing a giant fluffy white hat and fuzzy white coat and looked like a very original character. As we passed her and continued walking along, I waited for the inevitable: "Do you speak ______ language?" called from behind us. She asked it in Italian, I think, probably ABOUT Italian. We told her that no, no Italian. Smiley smiley. And then she asked German. Nope, no German. Slovenian? Nope, even less. And finally we told her we spoke English and she said, like many people, "I speak! A little," which was actually the extent of her English. And then, finally, in Bulgarian, asked the most important and best question I have ever been asked on my mission (or in life?): "Do you want me to sing you something in Slovenian?" We said, obviously, Now? Here? On this sidewalk with people walking past? And she nodded vigorously and then started singing a slow, operatic type song with her eyes open SUPER WIDE and smoke issuing from her mouth, pausing for one moment to ask, "Do you smoke?" and then continuing on with her song. Probably for about 5 minutes or so. And then we told her, we work at that church over there! Come by and sing with us sometime! Address, here is a pamphlet! And ran away, trying not to laugh.

 

We also had continuing awesome lessons with Seifitin (who told me that it is a tradition in Turkey, as in Japan to sit on the floor around a low table to eat). He gets baptized this Saturday, so we'll have lots of that stuff to prepare this week (setting up the pool, which we dragged from Varna in seven giant orange fabric bags, filling the font from the toilet, heating it up with those crazy heating tongs). It's just funny. When you know someone who's getting baptized and teach them (I REFUSE to use the phrase "when you have a baptism" or "when you baptize somebody". So selfish!!! THEY are getting baptized, not us!!), it is all kind of not like you expect it to be. I've noticed this every time. It's not like, constant joy and accomplishment and ANGELS and wooo! It's more just like, Wow. The Lord is so merciful, even though I'm stupid and prideful. I just realize how grateful I am to have what I have and know what I know, and realize how little I had to do with this person changing their life.

 

Anyway. I love you guys. This Thursday we're having dinner with our district for Thanksgiving and I'm making 3 pies, so wish me luck! I love you all.

 

P.S. We have been asked not to email anyone outside of family. So sorry. I will love and receive all emails and letters, but can't write back unless you have Camblasplund blood. :( Write me a letter!

 

Sister Scrundle

Week of November 12, 2012: I laughed out loud at ths one.

It's me again! Ha ha ha. I hope you enjoyed the sloppy jumble of crazed pictures last week, because now I'm going to write a sloppy jumble of a crazed memail!

 

First of all, set the scene. A kid to the left of me in this internet zala is playing some sort of Afghanistan war video game with headphones on and keeps yelling out, very loudly, to maybe other players through his speaker: "Go ahead! Kill the guy! No, I'm going to kill this other guy," and so forth. KIDS. Also, right before coming here, we took a little trip to a Bulgarian thrift store because the zala was too filled up with school-skipping video gamers when we got here. KIDS. And I bought several crazed things at the Bulgarian thrifty, which is like a weird combination of a gymnasium from 1952, a refrigerator, and an old-lady club, all the while with very loud, dirty technopop playing.  Also, mom, yes, I received the PACKAGE. Wink. The secrets are safe on the intercat.

 

So what did I do this week? What DIDN'T I do. Well, I didn't . . . eat very many vegetables. For one thing. Dangit. But on Mondee, we had a nice little visiting teaching/young women's time with a young convert here named Stefi, who is fifteen and got baptized in March or so, and is a ridiculously mature and cool young grill, but obviously has some problems staying attached to/living in the Church, because, obviously, she's fifteen and fifteen-year-olds in Europe are too busy . . . smoking? To believe in God. So we did that. Also I gave her my old "let's not be anorexic, because it is stupid" lecture, because it is stupid.

 

Um, what else. There's an awesome member here named Sevda, who all missionaries peeping in on this will know (p.s. isn't it weird that in English we use the same word to "know" a fact and to "know" a person? other languages make more sense in that regard), who is about 27 and very loud and excitable and was an orphan from Turkey until she was 18 (and I guess, still was from Turkey after she turned 18...) and is probably one of the strongest/most active members in the branch. Turkish people are awesome. And Bulgarian people! But in very different ways. Anyway, she is very excited about missionary work and will call us at all hours of the night asking questions about what a dispensation is so she can explain it to her roommates, or how our investigators are and if she can come to their lessons. And we've been teaching one of her roommates, Svetlin, who pretty much knows nothing about God or churches and seems very into it. It's cool. I think I had sort of gotten used to the idea that only old ladies would ever be interested in the Gospel here (or anywhere?) so it's really cool/weird to adjust to when young people want to talk about religion. Oh darn it, I realized I said all of that stuff about Sevda already last week.

 

We're also teaching a long-time "friend of the church" (someone who shows up to everything the church for years and gets taught by endless sets of missionaries, or ignored) named Svetlo who has a cleft palette, so teaching him is like teaching in a whole different language: Bulgarian spoken by someone with a speech disability. Like two layers of other language. It's interesting. It makes me realize who much of our job as missionaries really is about making people feel accepted/loved/the Spirit and less about what we tell them or understand from what they say.  He likes really old cowboy movies like Gene Autry and stuff.  And he knows a lot about American Indian history, like how he was struggling to tell us that there was an incident one time in which "names" were "taken away" at a place called "ynded ee," which took years to figure out until he wrote down in transliterated Bulgarian characters: Wounded Knee. It was cool. Okay, I am banned from saying "it was cool" after this.

 

On Wednesday I got packageszzzz!!!!! Man. I am a little kid, it turns out. Thank you everybody for everything. Mom and Mimi and Dad for the fun stuff, and Annie for the Italy stuff! I gotta write that girl a letter. I'm just so scared of Bulgarian mails, for reasons that one could probably guess.

 

We've also been continuing to teach Seifitin, the guy with a baptismal date for November 24th. He's pretty awesome. He invited us to his house on Sunday which was an adventure, trying to find that, because I know nothing about Ruse and like a poor little country bumpkin, am so confused about non-grid systems (since Stara Zagora has STRAIGHT STREETS. BTW, that was what the little "introduction" to Stara Zagora said on the map I purchased for it: "In conclusion, Stara Zagora is a non-consequential town of poets, old ampitheaters, and straight streets."). So we made our way to a bus stop that appeared to have no buses coming to it, and Seifitin said his house doesn't even HAVE A NUMBER, so we couldn't really take a taxi and direct it there, but eventually I pulled one over and said the name of the street and said, "Uh, just . . . take us to the beginning." And then we ended up in a crazy freezing suburb somewhere in the middle of nowhere underneath a tower that looked like it was from STAR WARS and a stranger walking toward us in the dark turned out to be our old buddy Seifi, and then he took us into a completely dark, cement house (they don't have electricity for some reason) that for some reason had a modern LG flatscreen TV working perfectly with music videos and soccer, but no light bulbs or heat?? And then he "treated" us to all this food and fruit and juice, as people are wont to do, but it was so cute because he clearly just wanted to TREAT US. BECAUSE WE'RE HIS BUDDIES. AND THEN WANTED US TO WATCH TV WITH HIM. But we politely excited, but not without him shoving all the rest of the uneaten food into a bag and sending it with us. People! So cute/terrible.

 

We also met a cat with NO EYES. BOTH DUG OUT. Oftentimes one sees a cute little kitten, perfectly adorable but for one eye dug out into a fiery bloodhole, but this time it was BOTH. Man.

 

Anyway. Gospel's true. I miss you guys. It's almost December? Cain't believe it. I love you all. Be nice to your everybody!

 

Love,

Sister Scramble

Sunday, November 4, 2012: PIX!!

Week of October 22, 2012: No e-mail, but big news!

Hello team Sister Campbell!

Eliza was only able to send a short, personal e-mail this week as she is in the midst of a big transfer!  She is now serving in Ruse, Bulgaria.  Ruse is on the Northern border of Bulgaria, on the banks of the Danube, across the river from Romania.  Doesn't that sound so authentically European? 

Here's a map!  Thank you for your prayers, love, and support.  Love you all!

Marni 

Week of October 15, 2012: These Are The Dees O'The Week

Dear Everybody,

I'm not sure if you all grasped the full implications of this, but I've more or less been in the same city in Bulgaria for the past seven months or so.  He is called Stara Zagora. Look him up on wikipedia. There will be little, but interesting, things to say. He is home to the Zagorka beer factory, arguably the best beer in all of Bugland (although some people are more partial to Kamenitza). It is very irregular for missionaries in this mission to be in a city for more than four months at the most, maybe six months if you're in a bigger city with more ground to cover, etc. Starz is a pretty small city, though, with a pretty small, struggling branch (missionary serving as a branch president, etc.). So it's been strange to be here for so long, and to train two times in a row in this same little crazy city. I've loved it. I don't know. I realize the voice I'm using makes it sound like I'm on my way out, which is possibly true and possibly not true. But either way, transfer calls are this Friday, and more likely than not, since I've been here seven months, I'm probably actually headed somewhere else. Somewhere else? Weird. 

The mane (ha ha, lions) events of this week: (delivered in 12-apostle accent "dees" in honor of confrince)

Mondee: Actually a working day, since we had a zone conference on Wednesday and had our pee day on Tuesday. Saw Raiko, the coke lite artist guy, who wanted to give us back our pan from the birthday cake we made him. It was funny because he had become convinced that because we hadn't called in in so long, we were mad at him or something. So when I told him, no, we were just busy preaching the Gospel, a Gospel that he wasn't interested in hearing from us, it was just interesting/sad to see how his brain has become programmed to . . . I don't know. Seek for happiness? In the wrong places?

Tuesdee: Watched the sun rise at our fifth-floor block church for the last time? And then traveled into Plovdiv (one of the oldest cities in Europe?) and had interviews.

Wednesdee: Zone conference! Power! Missionaries competing for attention and approval!! Ultimately a good time, though.  Found out that caffeinated beverages are now not allowed for all missions in Eastern Europe. I don't want to talk about it. Also made dutch babies and ate them with Bulgarian yogurt. EVERYTHING is eaten with yogurt here. Even Dutch things.

Thursdee: Contacted for three hours. Taught English. One of the long-standing students, who I'll just call Arnold here for privacy purposes, gave me a list of homework sentences he had written that included the sentence, "When will the loves of all of the cats?" Who knew that we had a modernist poet waiting to get a big break in our first-level English class?

Fridee: Amazingly, had three lessons that 1) all showed up, b) all weren't crazy, and 3) all went pretty well! Two of them were even second lessons! That hasn't happened in a while. It was a really good day. 

Saturdee: Went to a less-active lady's house where she takes care of her grandmother, who was wearing the hugest old lady glasses ever. You know like ones that are basically just magnifying glasses held on one's face? And the old person in question's eyes are the size of yogurt containers? (I can't stop relating everything to yogurt! I guess I'm just lost in my mission ha ha ha)

Sundee: Woke up convinced I was dying of mono again (it's been creeping back the past few weeks.) Eventually managed to get up and go to the conference sacrament meeting/lunch, in which the three branch children who were there managed to break an entire bottle of lyutenitza we needed for the lunch, get soap and bubbles all over the upstairs, and release a 25-kilo bag of white fluff (stuffing? why was it at the church??) all over the floor, classroom, and branch president office. The explanation i was given: "koleda doide." (christmas came.) wacky times!

Anyway. I am getting emotional and weirded out the idea of not being in this city anymore. I know all of the members way too well. I love them all way too much. And I've really had to learn to trust the Lord when advising them on their ridiculously difficult problems, or hoping things will work out for them.

How was confrince for everyone? Any nineteen-year-old girls gonna come join me out here in Bugland?

I love you guys.

Week of October 1, 2012: Stara Zagora

What are you doing??!!!!

I'm at the church right now, in the branch president/clerk's office (or as we call him, the "clark") because we finally got a computer!!! We have had wireless internet in this building for like, ten years, but until now never had a computer! So we've all been in an overwhelmed overstimulated blur, trying to deal with a COMPUTER upon which we can actually do our SCHEDULED IN-FIELD TRAINING ACTIVITIES and maybe even watch a MORMON MASSAGE. That's right, massage.

Anyway. Sister Frame has her first passport work appointment at the registration office in Sofia (my little second daughter is growing up so fast!) so we're on our way to catch a bus in two hours or so. And I was able to watch the sunrise from our sixth-floor balcony where we are right now. Speaking of this church building, I can't even express how much it has come to feel like home/a place I will be for the rest of my life. I've been in Stara Zagora for about six months now. What? We've been hearing distant rumors for years now that we'd be switching to a new building (probably a good idea because this one literally gives people heatstroke and lets in snow). And I never really thought it would happen, but this week we received the news that it WILL. In two weeks. So a moving crew came and bustled around and got all busy and in the end, just took away our carpets. But I guess we're moving soon.

Okay. What happened this week, you ask? We had a lesson in which someone said a prayer in the name of His Holiness Ravi Shankar. We were given meditation DVDs by this same person. We met up with Mirena in the park on her way back from a job interview (pray she gets that one).  I need to explain more about Mirena one of these days. We contacted and contacted and contacted.

Also, September is over. How did that happen? How is everybody? Is baby happen yet? 

Never forget to read the New Testament. That guy is a winner.

I love you guys. Stay safe and happy.