Week of August 26, 2012: Reframe!

The subject line is because, as I mentioned last week, I am training again! A young, sprightly whippersnapper (is that how you spell that?) named Sister Frame! And we're still in Stara Zagora. We got here on Thursday, had just enough time to go to a produce stand (Stara Zagora is still the undisputed capital of tomatoes) and fall asleep.

On Friday we had some really good meetings with new members Mitko and Maria, who both got baptized while I was here, and basically re-taught some basic doctrine that they both had gotten dusty in since it was taught to them seven months and eleven months ago, respectively.  It made me really appreciate first of all, having such awesome new converts to work with, who are so awesome and non-crazy and non-mean. Thanks, Lord! And second of all, it made me really appreciate the need of missionaries to constantly review basic doctrines with people, even long-time members. Stuff like God being there for us. Or God being our Heavenly Father, and having a body like ours.  So remember: everything that's most important in the Gospel we either learn in Primary, kindergarten, or in the first missionary lesson taught by someone who doesn't really speak our language. Oh and Maria fed us the most delightful hot summer evening meal: sliced fresh pupish (basically cantelope with a weird outside shell), chunks of sirene (editor: feta!), and bread. She explained to us that this is a classic Buglarian meal (purposeful typo) that works for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! And I said, okay! Cheese and melon! Okay! Anyway. She also found out that I knew some old Bulgarian folk songs (YOU know why) and ended up bringing out her favorite little knishka of old songs and we sang "Sto Mi E Milo" together. So. Blah blah blah, corny.

And OH MAN. Sister Frame's first Sunday was probably the most interesting first mission Sunday I could think of. I had about fifty things to do in the branch (helped teach relief society, control/teach the one and only primary kid, teach Gospel Doctrine until the teacher showed up halfway between the hour, and somehow greet and organize the struggles of each of the twenty-ish people who ended up coming, get water for people with heatstroke because it was like 110 degrees with 100 percent humidity on Sundee) so I just kind of had to leave her and say, "Wait here! I love you, I'll be back!" And rush around like a crazy person. And then we tried to find people. I've really been struggling with finding lately. I've never considered myself good at it, and have never really been forced to do it a lot or "branch out." So any mission or non-mission people: how did you find people to teach?

Shout-outz to Mom and Mimi and Bam and GG and Dana for letterz.

I'm just a very, very lucky kid who gets to hang out here for a year and a half and talk to people about very important things that not everyone knows about. And I'm very, very lucky to have all of you. Don't forget that politics are stupid at the end of the day, everybody gets along when we're eating food, and the Simpsons are funny.

Love you all.

Week of August 20, 2012: Five Thousand Words

Important details:

1) Maria was baptized! It all went perfectly.

2) I'm staying in Stara Zagora for another two months!

3) I'm training one of the two new sisters coming in on Wednesday. What??

I love you guys. Thank you for everything you do and help me with. More next week.

Week of August 13, 2012: Probably

First of all, a quick party salute to my good comrade Thomas, who has continued the family tradition of serving missions to formerly communist countries. And also I am so excited and proud for him (wherever he may be?). Sorry for this weird third-person address. Anyway, it's just cool to me that missions continue happening and people continue getting ready for them and coming home from them and continuing to get up at 6:30 on them. Hooray for Zion!

Welcome to another week in Stara Zagora, the home of the best beer in Bulgaria! (According to many. The Zagorka beer factory is very near by, and looks like a scary orphanage or sword factory.) Ooh, also, notice the slogan of said Zagorka beer company: "Probably the best beer in the world." Probably. Oh, and also an interesting language note for all of you language nerds (nobody cares, I know, sorry): Bulgarian contains a tense used to express doubt or sarcasm in something having happened. So where in English we could say, "Supposedly she ate 5 watermelons in a row," or "Oh, so you 'Didn't have time to make me a sandwich,' huh??" in Bulgarian, you can just get rid of those air quotes and supposedlies and use a tense to express it all! Interesting. I am excited to embark on a sarcastic Bulgarian journey when I am capable of doing so.

Goings-on of the second week of August. First of all, hung out with awesome member Zladka, who needed help with her technologies (camera/skype/email/finding LDS.org/learning how to use Liahona talks for lessons). She is adorable and also made little lists of commands written for all of the above things to help her remember, e.g. "Press the red button, then click the round button, etc." She is also the current Relief Society president, and we got to have another lesson with her on Wednesday about how everybody (her, me, etc.) feels inadequate for their callings and as if there perhaps is no hope. But there is! Even though our Relief Society consists of about 4 active women and 2 or 3 investigators/non-active women, we are still sisters in Zion, darn it all! And we will MAKE pies for each other! And TEACH each other the Gospel! So there.

And then, guess what. Congratulations to me, I managed to lose ANOTHER wallet on my mission, all within the same six months. Bra-VO. So we spent like four hours one day chasing it around, asking the store where I probably lost/had it stolen if they had it, turning off my cards, etc. Sigh. I will never grow up.

Also, mostly, helped the long-time investigator Maria prepare for her baptism this week! And all that that implies! She is a professional cook, and very insistent upon having an excellent spread of not just a pie at her baptism, and therefore the following traditional meal will be present: kebapcheta (ever-present spicy sausage thingies), bannitsa (you know about it), mlechen salad (cucumber and dill and yogurt), watermelon, pitki (bread balls) and bread. Bread must ALWAYS be present. I am delighted by Maria and her sweetness and her insistence upon only eating things that are appropriate for the given month. For instance, even though her shopska salad is amazing, I would never dare to ask for it anytime except in between May and August. Before or after that, it is inappropriate, and according to her, might make one sick, because of the temperatures of the ingredients (?). Also, the peaches are getting bigger, just so you all know. Bigger and better. It's out of control.

We also got to have a great lesson with this new lady Bogdana, who is very Pravoslav and very sweet, and insisted upon buying us drinks at an outdoor cafe (one of the youthful ones where people sit all day long in purple leather booths and listen to rap from 2008 and techno from Croatia from 2006 or so) which was a funny place to give a lesson on the Restoration to a 65-year-old lady, but awesome. 

Mostly I've just been realizing this week that I am not perfect, but that the main thing is to not focus on that but to do my best every day and try to show love to people around me. And that's it. That's all you can do.

I love you guys. I might leave Starz next week. Who knows??? Stay tuned!

PS: Bulgaria's volleyball team is doing well, I heard? In that 'supposedly' case?

Week of August 6, 2012: Read Alma 34!

What are you doing?

I'll tell you what I'M doing. Sweating, that's what. But it's a refined, controlled sweat these days, since I think my body is finally adjusting to extreme temperatures and is getting too lazy to sweat as much as it used to. It's just like, "Meh, whatever, here's a few drops, I'm going to sleep." And also, the leaves here in Stara Zagora are already kind of turning. Summer is . . . ending. 

Some interesting things in my planner from this week (worst sentence ever, you probably all stopped reading right here):

1) Go and find some less-active members from our branch spisek, knock on the random block apartment door and have a lady open it and tells us she now attends the Evangelical Church, they speak in tongues there and she likes it better, goodbye. About 3/4 of the registered members on our klon spisek (branch directory! oooh words!) are inactive/disappeared/sometimes dead. So it's sometimes interesting/amusing to go find them.

2) Deliver vegetables from a member's celo to another member's house, who is currently having really bad back/money problems, and give her a massage for an hour while her children play on the floor! I never thought massage skills would be so useful here on "the mish." But they are. Almost . . . every day. And I've gone back to do similar massages a few times since then.

3) Go to a lesson with recent convert Tanya (remember her???) and accidentally ask her if her husband, Peter, was alive. I phrased it this way: "And Peter, alive is?" But I meant to say healthy!! I really did!! Because he used to be sick!! It's just that there's this expression here that everyone says as they leave or say goodbye: "Da budesh zhiv y zdrav," or like, May you be alive and well, basically. So the words "healthy" and "alive" just got a little too mixed up in my mind, I suppose? Oh well. Tanya laughed and laughed for like 30 years, so it was worth it. 

4) Pluck eyebrows. This is crucial, since it is altogether too hot to wear my bangs, and the ol' forehead is what makes an impression on people.

5) Go to the copier place and make a million copies of our English class flyer, since this is the week we advertise for such classes. Hand them out for hours on the glav, saying, "Zapovyadaite," which is like this word that means, "Here you go," or "Come in," or "Eat this tiny cookie, please," depending on context.

6) Two dinner appointments! What? That has never happened. People don't really "feed" us here, unless it's like soda and weird biscuits. The first was with Raiko, the old guy who is an artist and probably an agnostic and also, this week, kept complimenting me on my new dress (thrift store!!) and gave me and Sister Turnbow these awesome old pictures of him as a young communist man. The second was with Nikolai, a youngish investigator of the Elders', and his parents, with whom he lives, in their awesome courtyard patio outdoory house. Shopska. Make it, everybody. 

We are continuing to find investigators and it's pretty slow, especially since people keep going in and out of town for summer and moving away and whatnot. But we're excited about a few people and especially excited about being able to hopefully build up the branch here. But anyway.

I love you guys. Read Alma 34 if you get a chance. Okay?

Week of August 30, 2012: We Should All Live On Farms

Hey everyone, what are you doing????

I say that because that is a pretty standard Bulgarian form of greeting. "What are you doing?" People say that instead of "Hello" or "What's up," as far as I can tell. And I like it. Especially when old ladies yell it to you in an amiable neighbor-like way as you walk along the street. "Um, walking and sweating. . ." But of course it is not literal. Unless. . .

Anyway. We received transfer calls this past Friday, while our district was travelling by muddy Jeep/sweaty mini-bus back to Stara Zagora from Elenavo, the celo outside of Nova Zagora where the British/Scottish members in our ward live and keep a farm upon which we do service. Convoluted sentence! And the call extended to Sister Turnbow and me was: stay in Stara Zagora together for three more weeks! I think pretty much all the sisters (there's 14 of us now!!) are staying put for the next three weeks, until new greenguys arrive. And you know what? I'm really, really happy to be staying here. I love Starz. Some missionaries get down on smaller cities because of their difficulties associated therein (convoluted!) But I am charmed by all of it. By the way EVERYBODY has a celo they go to on the weekend to take care of tomatoes. By the old ladies. By the, dare I say, hillbilly-like feel of it all. It's just very chill and cute and silly, like the time the Rotary Club dedicated a fountain statue of a phoenix in front of the Obshtina on Thursday and a bunch of sketchy suit-clad guys (not missionaries) stood around menacingly giving a speech about how this statue will help Stara Zagora become an "eternal city" while a bunch of naked kids ran up from behind and jumped in the fountain and started splashing around and had to be chased off by the laughing police. Anyway. I like Stara Zagora. I like the branch here, too. The members are AWESOME. There's like, 25 of them, 7 of which come to church these days, but they're AWESOME. But let's have a week review for a moment.

Monday: Discovered the weirdest, most obviously awesome pee day activity in all of Eastern Europe: thrift store shopping. Oh man. So weird. So many barrels of bizarre baba dresses and shirts that say things like, "This tiger is my best friend" or "Don't stop going arround!!" with two r's and so forth. And all of it is one kilogram of clothes for ten leva! Pretttty good. Sister Turnbow and I have plans to do some more traditional western shopping later today.

Tuesday: Had an awesome (sorry to overuse that word) lesson with Mitko, the investigator who got baptized when I was here last time. Mitko is pretty much the coolest person I know. He has a mullet, used to have a horse and cart (got stolen), can walk on coals (for real), and speaks celski Bulgarski, which is a weird celo dialect full of Turkish words. (Instead of 'domati,' tomatoes is 'frank.' ???) And he has given up so much, family and friends and work, to join the Church. But he gets everything and loves the Gospel and lifts up the missionaries more than we lift him, I think. Also I taught him how to say, "Hi, honey," in English, and he says it to all the missionaries now to freak them out. Hee hee!

Wednesday: Last district meeting, in which we ate banana cake (which I made, of course) with Funetti, which is like a cheap Nutella knock-off that is somehow better?? And visited Tanya, another new convert from my last transfer here, who predicted that I was going to live for a long time and have at least three children. Okay.

Thursday: Wacky English class! Oh man. Also met with Raiko, the guy we found accidentally while looking for a less-active member, who fed us an entire meal (kababcheta, shopska salad, lyotenitza, watermelon, Coke Lite, headless fish, and bread, which I mostly hid in my bag) and showed us all his paintings. And he came to church on Sunday! Also had a lesson with Maria, an investigator from over a year ago who is the best cook in Bulgaria (officially) and finally wants to get baptized!

Friday: Service day in the celo! And we picked plums, which are now in season (along with watermelon, peaches, tomatoes, OMG tomatoes, cucumbers, OMG I don't even want to talk about how good these things are) for FIVE HOURS. And I LOVED IT. I found out that fruit harvesting is probably my life calling or at least something I should do as a hobby. I love it. I love scrambling up in the trees and getting all the worms out and climbing on roofs and picking for hours and getting all sweaty. It is very soothing for some reason. MISSIONARY METAPHOR.

Saturday: Made more banana bread for another less-active member. I can't stop.

Sunday: Ridiculously hot church (it's like 40 degrees here with 90% humidity, or at least feels like it) was proceeding normally and crazily (we did a musical number as missionaries and as usual, everybody clapped ha ha ha) and then all of a sudden the Relief Society president passed out on the floor in front of me as I gave the third-hour lesson. So I called my first Bulgarian ambulance.

Anyway, that all reads very superficially, sorry. If there were two sincere take-aways I could impart, it would be: 1) We should all live on farms, and 2) The Atonement is real. Those are things that are hard to explain, and so I can only say that I know they are true and that we can know they are true for ourselves.
Anyway. I love you all. Send peanut butter if you get a chance. Everybody tell me your lives!

Love,

Sister Campbell

Week of July 16, 2012: It's HOT in Bulgaria!

Those of you from whom I haven't heard in a long while - you know who you are. Update me on the ways and whiles of your lives or you will suffer a persistent and boring guilt that you only remember when you log onto Facebook and see something related to feminism or find a peanut shell in one of your cars!! Repent! And email me!

Anyway. Hottest Summer 2012 continues. Old ladies throughout Stara Zagora continue to ramble to us about the Turkish rule and how it's 40 degrees (C! C I tell you!). There was a red alert heat warning on Sunday (it ended up being like 43 or something) and so Bulgarians, being very health-conscious and suspicious of hidden death everywhere (as I suppose we all are, especially with the option of Internet self-diagnosing) are not likely to leave home on such days. So we had a total of 5 members, 2 investigators and 6 missionaries at church on Sunday. It was an interesting day. But it was somehow the most spiritually uplifting sacrament meeting I had ever been to. Not to be trite or anything. But 'twas true. The more you talk and think about sacrament, the more you realize why we actually do it, and how it's not just a social club/strengthening other members/seeing babies club. It's a covenant we made, and a renewing of said covenant, and a chance to have a new beginning in Christ. I looked up during the sacrament hymn and saw our stalwart member Nikolai, the only non-missionary to bless the sacrament in at least a year, kneeling on the dirty-ish Starz floor tearing up the pieces of bread he had brought in tin foil, tenderly and intently, and the reality of the covenant became more present somehow. Abstraction. But true.

We found more people this week, as is our custom. We've been searching for a new convert-immediate inactive lady this week, and we went to the address on her baptismal form and found a sweet old guy named Raiko, a friend of hers, who didn't know where she was but invited us in for COKE LIGHT (big deal; most Bulgarians only drink cheapest of cheap colas, e.g. Derby Coffee Soda, etc.) and showed us his painting and wood-carving studio, invited us back to talk about the Book of Mormon he had from a few years ago, and gave us each a wooden cross he had carved when we left. So there you go. A good metaphor for the way things go here: tender mercies, unexpected pleasantness, some smelliness, and Coke Light, if you are lucky.

We also had the chance to talk to the first person I've ever talked to in Bulgaria who wanted to talk about religion who had questions, had thought about existing doctrine, and wanted to challenge what we believe. It was actually really refreshing and cool, when most people are shocked by the idea that any kind of belief is good, to talk to someone who had a set of beliefs in mind and wanted to discuss them. And somehow I was able to communicate with her about said things. Next to an ice cream stand playing that stupid "Turn Me On" Nicki Minaj song? (Nicki, why? Can't we do better? Can I help you do better??)

It is hot. Peaches are really good. Watermelon also. They have this weird canteloupe type thing here called "pupish" that I like. This week I will be making at least 2 pies for our Pioneer Day party on Saturday (all of those words in that sentence should be in quotes, if you know what I mean). The members here are really like the pioneers: they suffer at work, at school, at home and with friends because of what they believe. They lose jobs and husbands and wives and respect. But they keep coming back to church, keep contributing to Relief Society, and keep walking (and walking and walking and walking, like in that song). I love them.

I love you guys. Wear a bonnet and churn some butter for me. And send me pioneer day food/activity ideas if you have them!

Love,

Sister Crantbul

Week of July 9, 2012: Watermelon!

Happy 4th of July! 


This week for that particular American Day, we were at the house of the English/Scottish couple in our branch, who came here to retire at three different farmhouses with seven hundred different kinds of animals. So we worked in a vineyard (metaphor for Gospel!) and played with baby bunnies and chased a goose around (had a "goose chase," you might say). And visit-taught the sister of the family. Then we ended up having to take a train back to Stara Zagora, which takes a long time (although I actually like trains a lot here, as long as it is not 100 degrees out, which it is these days) and sang the national anthem loudly and had Bulgarians clap for us in the next car, and then launched into the usual group sing-a-long songs: Bohemian Rhapsody, God Be With You Till We Meat Again (haha, vegetarians), etc. And ate a hot dog for dinner. So don't worry, I'm still celebrating America. (Although one of our elders is Canadian! But he plays along. He has no choice.)


This week I learned the true meaning of Christmas. Wait, no I didn't. Here are some highlights:


Monday: Family home evening with our one and only family in the branch, who have two kids, Vili and Petco (these are real names). They are possibly the cutest children I have ever known. I was playing with Vili and pretending to be scard of a toy Vili was holding out to me, and she very cutely and seriously insisted, "Toi HE hapi! HE hapi!" Which means, like, "He doesn't bite! He really doesn't bite!" :)


Tuesday: Two actual lessons! A miracle! 


Wednesday: Goats/train/goose, etc.


Thursday: Met the new mission president! He is unimaginably different from Pres. Roth, but also unimagineably cool and awesome. We love him and his co-president Sister Wilstead. We also had to give him a tour of the Starz church unexpectedly, and nervously kicked cockroaches under shelves, covered up dirty spots from people's celo dirt-covered shoes, ignored the bathroom, etc. Ha ha ha. :/


Friday:Two lessons canceled on us! Oh well. But had a watermelon. SO GOOD. All the fruits are so good here. But the watermelon is . . . I can't talk about it anymore. 


Saturday: Had an awesome visiting teaching lesson with Sister Ruseva (who might write you, Mom - she really wanted to write you because she says she likes to write the parents of sisters and tell them their daughters are doing okay or something), who is a less active member who is awesome and cute. What to say, really? Sorry to use the word "awesome" so much. Also 4 lessons cancelled on us . . . but oh well! Again, watermelon makes up for everything.


Sunday: CRAZY church in which I had to translate for sacrament meeting and relief society. I am kind of . . . bad at it? But I will get better, I guess. It was cool to do it. I also couldn't remember how to say "to steal," so I had to keep saying "take things from other people." Like, "The Lord has commanded us not to . . . take things from other people. Thou shalt not . . .take things from other people." Etc.


Incidentally:


1) It is so hot. SO HOT. 100 degrees and 90% humidity-ish almost every day.
2) I miss you guys.


Okay. I love you all. Keep it up, and don't forget Pie and Beer (Pioneer) Day!