December 24th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Sounds like you are having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa! Glad to hear you are playing a lot of card games.

So, my new companion is Sister Frame. She is from Ephraim, UT (where Snow College is). She has been in Bulgaria for 4 months. She is a lot of fun and we are getting along just great! She is tall and blonde, so we stick out a lot!

There are 14 Sisters in Bulgaria. However, there are only 4 sisters in my zone. So the picture you get is only of my zone. There is a total of 3 zones in the mission.

So this week we met with Vili again. It was amazing. During the lesson she told us three times that she knows that her decision to be baptized is right. She has so much faith! She does not have any family around, so tonight we are having a lesson with her and baking goodies. On Christmas we will go caroling and deliver goodies to people. Then she will have Christmas dinner with us and the Elders and one of their investigators.

We had a lesson with Kiril again this week. He is doing well. Sometimes I just don't know what is holding him back. We are working on getting a lesson with a member present. We talked to him about the word of wisdom. It went well. However, he didn't come to church. Hopefully he will next week!

We had a lesson with Martin and Evgeni. They are really great. They have a break from school until February so we won't see them until then. Martin's home city has missionaries serving there. So I asked Martin if we could give the Elders there his number and he said Yes! Hopefully everything will go well with that. They said they would continue to keep praying and reading the scriptures.

A funny experience that happened this week... We were at the church and all of a sudden two men came in trying to sell us calendars. We explained that as missionaries we can't purchase things. Then they started asking us about the Book of Mormon. I told them that if they had time we could sit and discuss it. They agreed and we sat down. Then, a member named Yuli walked in and we asked him if he wanted to join. It was great, out of nowhere we had a member present lesson!

Everything is going well right now. I miss my old companion Sister Meyers a lot! It seems weird that she was just here, but now she is gone. I have been so blessed with so many great companions! (shout out to Caralee Child) With each one I have learned new things. I also have been blessed with great friends who have great standards. Last but not least, I have been blessed with an incredible family. I know that I am the person I am today because of all the amazing people in my life. It will be weird being on the other side of the world for Christmas, but I am glad I get to be serving others and being with those in need.

I love you all very much. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!! I can't wait to skype home!! So I need to skype at 5:30 pm my time.... which I believe will be 7:30 am your time! Sorry if that's early...but it's when I need to do it. PLEASE be ready and have everything good to go! Well, See you Christmas morning!!!!

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

December 17th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear you are doing well! I am glad that you enjoy teaching your primary class! I am sure you are a great teacher for them! I would really like to see the new design you came up with for your new zoology shirt! I would love to get one.

As for me, things are going well. I am in Sofia right now with Sister Meyers for her last day/night in Bulgaria. It does not seem real that she will be leaving tomorrow. She has been such a great example for me. It is crazy how fast time goes by...these past few months have gone by too fast.I found out that I will be staying in Blagoevgrad and I will be getting a new companion! her name is Sister Frame. I will tell you more about her next week because I haven't met her yet.

This week was great. Really busy, but great. We had a great lesson with Vili and she has been coming to church and this Sunday she told us she wanted to be baptized!! It was incredible. The night before we had a Christmas party for the branch. It went very well. We acted out the nativity. We had lots of food and played games afterwards. Vili was there and she has become a big part of the branch. All the members love her! She is amazing.

I am really happy. It is hard to describe this kind of happiness... but I am so happy to be a missionary right now. There are so many people who need to know about the gospel!

As far as skyping goes... I will probably try and do it around 830-9 am for you guys. So just be ready! I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week! I will talk and see you soon!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

p.s. sorry the letter is a bit shorter... I don't have much time to write today. We have lots of things to do before Sister Meyers leaves.

Love you.

December 11th 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

I am so happy to hear that you had a great birthday!! I thought about you extra on that day! Sounds as though you have been having lots of fun lately with all your friends. That's exciting that it is almost time for Christmas break! Soon Grandma and Grandpa will be there!

I don't know where to start... this week was good. We weren't able to meet with Vili this week because she has been doing finals at school and has no time. However, Sunday morning we got a call from her saying she would see us at church! We got to church and guess who was already there 20 mins early?? Yup, Vili. The elders let her in the church and she was greeting all the members as they came in! This has never happened before. Ever. We've only met with her once, but she has come to church 3 times! Also, the university she attends has a break until February! We found out that she will be here for the whole break! We are so excited because we can meet with her a lot soon!

Later on Sunday night it started snowing! We had to travel to Sofia and barely caught a bus in time, but we made it. Sofia is so much colder than where I am (Blagoevgrad). We got there and there was tons of snow on the ground!

Zone conference was great! Every time I leave I realize how much I want to be a better person. We talked a lot about "real growth" in the church. We talked about how vital it is that we have as many lessons with our investigators with members. We have new goals that we are going to work towards and I am excited about that. It is great seeing improvement in the mission.
We took pictures after the conference and did a fun "white elephant" gift exchange. It was pretty fun.

This morning we woke up and it started snowing so much! It just barely stopped. I am trying my best to stay warm!

Next week I will be in Sofia again because I will be dropping off my companion, Sister Meyers. I cannot believe she will be gone in a week. I have loved serving with her.

Also, when would be a good time to skype for you on Christmas?? We get to choose when to skype. Is there any way we could skype at the same time as Tim? Let me know when you think would be best!

I hope you have a great week! I love all of you so much!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

December 3rd 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear things are going well. I think that is great that you both try to go to the temple as much as you can! You are both great examples!

To answer a few questions... The girl we are teaching is named Vili. She is 20 years old and attends Southwest University. We teach her in Bulgarian. However, this week she was not able to meet at all. We were getting a bit worried and then she called us on Saturday apologizing for not being able to meet and wanted to know if we still had church on Sunday. We told her that we did and she promised she would come for the whole time!

We also met with our other investigator Kiril who is a 40 year old man. We taught him about the plan of salvation. When we started talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ we read the scriptures Alma 7: 11-13 (which describes all that Jesus suffered for us). After we read those scriptures it was silent. The spirit was strong and no one said anything for about 30 seconds. He finally said that in all the churches he has ever gone to, they never talk about Jesus Christ so much. He went on to say how amazing the knowledge we have of our savior. We committed him to come to church and he said he would try.

Sunday morning rolls around and both Vili and Kiril come to church! We were so happy and all the members started to get to know them. We started the fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was so strong. A few members bore their testimonies and you could feel how sincere everything was. I looked to my side (I was sitting next to Vili) and I saw her fidgeting with her Book of Mormon as if she was nervous about something. Then before I knew it she stood up and bore her testimony. She went on to say how it was only her second time at church but she felt a change in her life. She testified about the Book of Mormon and how she knew it could not be a lie. She talked about her mother's death and how she knew she would see her again.

I don't know how quite to describe the feeling in the room. I was so happy I about cried. After she sat down a few more members went and testified about their baptism in the church and how they knew everything was true. It was so powerful. I think that it was the best testimony meeting I have ever attended.

Also, this week we were able to do service!! We were contacting down a street and saw this woman racking leaves all by herself. She was surrounded with ton of leaves everywhere. Sister Meyers and I looked at each other and we both knew we wanted to help. We asked her if we could and she said no at first but then we just told her that we would love to do it and started helping. We racked all the leaves into piles and then put them in bags to throw away. The woman kept looking at us as though she was confused that we would want to help. After about an hour and a half we finished and she insisted on giving us some juice(She was the owner of a small cafe in the park where we racked leaves). We told her thank you for letting us help. Then she kept saying, "No, thank you!! I am so thankful for what you did for me."

It felt so amazing to be able to serve someone! The next day we went out contacting and we asked a woman if we could share something with her. She told us that she was in a hurry and didn't have time. Then she looked at us again and said, "wait! you are the two girls who helped the woman rack leaves yesterday! I saw you." So, she gave us her number and told us to call her later so we could talk more. We couldn't believe it.

I know that serving others is one of the most important things we can do. Also that our actions are very important. You never know who is watching. I know that if we serve others and strive to be true representatives of Christ, we can never go wrong. Someone will see our example and know that we truly love our Heavenly Father.

I had a great week. I am so happy that it is December and the day when we celebrate our Savior's birth is near. I am so grateful for so many things. I love my Heavenly Father. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love my family. I love that I have time right now in my life to bring hope to others.

I hope you all have a great week. I love all of you so much. I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

p.s. Next Monday I will be in Sofia for Zone Conference. So I will write on Tuesday!

November 26th 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear things are going well back home. Sounds as though you had a very relaxing Thanksgiving. That's good that Tim was able to play football (I haven't heard from him for a long time!) To answer a few questions... yeah it will be different teaching discussions for English class, but it will be really good! Yeah, we will still probably be explaining some things in Bulgarian, but mostly English.

Thanksgiving here was great. We had an extra hour for dinner and made a big dinner with the Elders. We tried to make it as traditional as possible. Sister Meyers and I made homemade pumpkin and apple pie. They tasted very delicious!

Our investigators are doing well. We actually met a girl last week who is a student at a University here studying law. She is great. We tried calling her a week ago but she didn't answer. We were getting a little nervous... and then on Thanksgiving day we got a call from her and she wanted to meet in 45 mins! We were so excited and met with her. We found out that recently her mother passed away a few days before we met her on the street. She kept saying that it was no coincidence that we met eachother. We taught her about the plan of salvation. She loved every bit of it and the spirit was very strong. Before we could even ask her to come to church, she asked us what time we had church. She promised us she would come, and she did! Before church started I had a good conversation with her about how she has been feeling and what she thinks about The Book of Mormon. She explained how she has felt more at peace since we met and started reading The Book of Mormon. She thinks the story about Joseph Smith is incredible and can't wait to learn more.

The rest of Sunday went well. We taught relief society about the plan of salvation. The lesson went really well.

We did not have Young Women's this week because we went to Sofia on Saturday! A woman that Sister Meyers taught was getting baptized and we were able to attend. It was a great experience.

The knowledge that we have is amazing and true! I feel so blessed to be a missionary right now to teach people about Christ's restored church on the earth today. We have a knowledge that is priceless!

I hope you have a great week! I love hearing about everything going on in your lives! Keep up the good work with bowling! I am glad Dad got the letter I sent! I love you so much!

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

November 19th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

I am glad all is well back home. That's cool that you got that video from Sister Larson. When she took it, I didn't know she was going to send it to you or I would have said some more things.

This week has been good for us. We were able to go to Sofia for a zone leader training conference. It was fun seeing everyone in the zone and discussing new changes with our English program. Instead of teaching English we will be having English discussions. It is going to be a big change. We used to have 3 levels, but now we will only have 2 levels. I am excited because all of our lesson plans are already planned out for each week. It will be the same for all the English discussion groups around Bulgaria. This way we can find more people who can practice their English and learn more about our church. Which is better than having eternal English students. Anyway, I am pretty happy about the change. We will be starting the program in January.

We had some lessons this week with the man from the Evangelist church. Things are going well with him. We hope to keep meeting with him. Also we had a meeting with the Russian girl. She is so sweet and knows that what we are saying is true. However, she is getting a hard time from her relatives who are Muslim. We hope to keep meeting with her.

We had Young Women's this week! I love young women's! The young girls her are so sweet. They taught us how to make bonitsa! So now I know how to make one of Bulgaria's traditional dishes! The young people here are so strong. I just wish they could see and be with more youth who have their same standards. I was so blessed growing up with so many youth in the church where we live. I remember thinking when I was younger that there weren't very many members/youth. However, compared to Bulgaria... there are so many!

Things are going well. I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week. It doesn't really feel like it. I think we will just be having a normal work day, but that's ok! I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and eat lots and lots of pumpkin pie!! MMMmmmm.... pumpkin pie sounds so yummy. Well have a great week! I love you all so much!!!

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

November 12th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear you had fun at your ward talent show! I am happy that things are going well back home. That is really cool that Keith will be going to Indiana this week! I remember when I went to visit and it was fun. Thanks for sending packages! That's really nice.

I don't really know where to start today. This week has been fantastic! We had the opportunity of meeting with some great people who are truly looking for the gospel in their lives.

We met with a man this week and to be honest I wasn't all that excited to meet with him. I thought that our whole meeting would be a challenge/argument between beliefs. He is a member of the evangelist church. He brought up the fact that in the book of Revelation in the Bible, John writes that no one should add to his words (we get this a lot). However we discussed it with him and showed him that Moses said the same thing in Deuteronomy. He agreed and stated that in his church they focus on the John scripture too much. He confessed that he knew that John was only stating that for his scripture. We went on and had a lesson with him and it went very well. The spirit was very strong and everything went smoothly.

Also, about two months or so ago I was talking to people on the street (which we do a lot) and I met a lady from Russia. She said she was here to visit her daughter who was attending the American University here. A few weeks ago I ran into the same lady on the street and we had another good chat. Unfortunately she was not interested in The Book of Mormon, but she told us she has great respect for us.

Well... yesterday we ran into her daughter. When I first started talking to her I thought she looked familiar. Then she said she was from Russia. (I wanted to tell her that I thought I had met her mother, but I didn't want to be weird.) Shortly after finding a little bit more she said that we had talked to her mother. It was great. She wanted to meet with us and so we got her number. About an hour later she asked if we could meet with her that night. We agreed and had a meeting. During the meeting she expressed her feeling about God. She knows that there is someone out there, but doesn't know much else. We were able to bear testimony that there is a God and He is our Heavenly Father and He loves us. She started to cry and told us that she is very grateful that we met each other. We taught her about prayer and gave her The Book of Mormon. We will be meeting with her more and I am very excited. Oh and did I mention... she speaks perfect English.

I have such a strong testimony that if we are prepared and doing things we are supposed to be doing, the Lord will lead us to people. We need to make sure that we are always qualified for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. It is getting closer to Thanksgiving and I can't stop thinking of all the things I am grateful for. We shouldn't wait to be thankful on Thanksgiving, but live in thanksgiving daily. Thank you for being such great parents and raising me with love and the gospel. I am also grateful for all the wonderful friends I've had who have been great examples to me. I am so happy to be able to share the joy I have had all my life with those "who are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." Thank you for all of your support. I love you.

I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

November 5th 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear things are going well back home. I'm sorry to hear about your arm though. That's too bad. I hope that your arm heals fast! Oh yeah I got a letter from the YSA there and Keith wrote me a letter. In the letter he said he would try and write me an email before I got it... well, still waiting for that email. Pretty funny, but nice that I got a letter from all of them.

This week has been crazy! Sister Meyers have been working so hard. We are working really well together as a team. We hope that we can find someone soon who will be interested in the gospel. We had some good lessons this week with some people and they have a lot of potential, so that's exciting.
Also, we met with this lady thinking she had a lot of potential... later we found out what she really wanted. She only wanted to meet with us because we are Americans. She went off on how she wanted us to be a part of this special "project". She is a member of this crazy group "mystique" and she wants to join nations. Then she said how she is not allowed in the US and the FBI has movies of her... then she said how last time she met with missionaries they threw her out of the church. So at this point of time we decided we needed her to leave and she did not want to learn about the gospel. We eventually got her out of the church... it was interesting.
Other than that one we had some good lessons and helped others gain a greater understanding of Jesus Christ.

Things are going well and we will be working hard this week. It's so good to hear how everyone is doing. I hope you all have a great week! I love you.

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

Fwd: Hi Jodi

-------


Hey Mom and Dad,

I will try and answer some questions first...

As missionaries we are not allowed to travel out of our mission to go to temple trips. That would be pretty nice if we could.

My new companion Sister Meyers is amazing! She is from Provo, UT and goes home one week before Christmas. She will be going back to school at BYU in the winter. I love being her companion. I learn so much from her and it is really nice because we both know exactly what to do out here on the mission and we both understand and speak so it is really nice. We are a great team and I know we will be great together.

We had our branch Halloween party on Saturday and it was a success! Everyone who came absolutely loved it. We had games such as "fishing in the dangerous sea", pin the nose on the pumpkin, halloween bingo, and of course musical chairs. We also had pumpkin carving that they could do if they wanted. We also made lots of chili (that is a favorite dish that the members always request) and had dessert. It took a lot of work but was a lot of fun.

It's good to hear you had a great conference. This Sunday President and Sister Wilstead came to visit Blagoevgrad. They gave talks and taught third hour. It was so nice. Everyone was on their best behavior and everything ran smoothly.

This week we were able to have some good lessons with some new people. We taught a woman named Katiya and her boyfriend Giorgi. They are so nice. They are just the people who are kind to everyone and respect us a lot. I really hope everything goes well with them. They have Fall break right now so we won't meet with them until next week. I am sure this city will be pretty vacant this week but I'm sure we will find some great people!

I hope all is well back home! I love all of you so much. THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT. I hope you have a great week.

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 10:54 PM, <dmamaquail@aol.com> wrote:

Hi Jodi,

Are you allowed to go to the temple trip in Germany? That would be so cool. How do you like your new companion Sister Meyers? Where is she from and when does she leave for home? I am sure you will be an excellent final companion!

Did the Hindu missionaries speak English or Bulgarian? Did you already have your Halloween party with the branch? How was it?

We just got back from Stake conference and we had a General Authority there. His name was Eduardo Gavarret. He is from Uruguay. He talked about how important it was for us to strengthen our families. Last night at the adult session Brother and Sister Greer from the Kennewick mission spoke. Sister Greer related an awesome story about a new convert. She said how she and president Greer got a phone call from a couple of their missionaries and they wanted them to come out and interview a man to be baptized. So they drove to the chapel and only saw a man who looked homeless and then the missionaries arrived. They introduced this man as Van Keys. They said that Van was full of the spirit and was a pleasure to speak with. The interview was completed and Van was baptized. Van said how he had gone through terrible things in his life including addictions and now because of the missionaries he had found the true church and would have loved to have found it 10 years earlier when he remembered that the missionaries came to his home but he would not answer the door. Sister Greer went on to tell more about Van and it was an amazing story.

Finally she related that a brother in his ward was going to give a talk in church and asked Van if he would be a part of his talk by bearing his testimony. Van was delighted and agreed to help. However, on his way to church that morning Van had a heart attack and died.

We never know how much time we have left on this Earth, so we should never procrastinate the day of our repentance. 

It was a great conference. I hope that you are having a wonderful time on your mission.

We love you and think of you often.

Mom and Dad

-

october 15th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

I am glad that you were sent pictures from our zone conference! Could you send me a copy of that? I think they forgot to forward it to us because I have not seen it yet.

I just began to watch conference! We watched the Saturday morning session in church yesterday. So far it is amazing! It's crazy seeing how I understand so much more now compared to the last time I watched conference in Bulgarian. I am so excited for all the young men who can serve at 18 and all the young women at 19! I think that is amazing and I'm sure we will have many more missionaries out in the field. Be sure to keep me updated with all those preparing to serve a mission. If any of them need some encouragement, tell them to DO IT and they won't regret it.

I also enjoyed the talk from President Uchtdorf when he talked about spending time with the ones you love. Taking in everything that comes and be happy and thankful. It is such a good message to keep in mind as we go throughout our normal routine. Everyday we can find something new to be grateful for.

That is so exciting that Grandma and Grandpa Brown are coming to visit for Christmas this year! Oh I miss them so much. I miss everyone so much. I am happy that you will be spending quality time together.

It is definitely fall here now. The leaves are changing colors and falling all over the place. I can only imagine what it looks like back home especially on the street next to the schools with three different names (hathaway... i can't remember the other ones).

I am so happy that things are going well with your classes at school this year! Sounds like just the students that you need. I hope they keep up their hard work.

This week went by really fast for me. We had a lot of lessons with Radostina. She is still doing well and I feel the spirit each time we teach her. We also had a "fun night" with the branch on Friday. It was pretty fun. It's so funny how much they love "American" games. Things are going well here. I can't believe that transfer calls are this Friday. I think I will stay here in Blagoevgrad since I just got here. I am happy to stay because I love the people and life is great! So next week I will tell you who my new companion will be.

Thank you for all that you do and all of your prayers. I love you so much. I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

p.s. I love you.

october 9th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear that you have been having a good time back home. It's neat to hear all the new updates on everyone. I loved the pictures that you sent!
Did you enjoy conference? We still haven't been able to watch it. We watch it this Sunday in Bulgarian. However, President Wilstead (Our mission president) told those of us who haven't seen it yet about the new change with when missionaries can serve. I think that is amazing and so many more people will be going on missions!

Yesterday I got back from Zone Conference in Sofia. It was quite the experience. The spirit was so strong and it just boosted my testimony that our leaders are called of God. There are some changes going on in our mission right now that will make us so much stronger. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve right now and get to see this great improvement in this mission. There was a quote that was shared in Zone Conference that I really enjoyed, "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph, what we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly."-Thomas Paine. I feel like this hits a mission on the dot. I also feel that we can take this quote and use it in our everyday lives. We need to work hard always.

I feel so pumped up from Zone Conference and it's hard to explain. I just know that whatever I am doing that is good can always get better. I especially have an increased love and gratitude for this amazing opportunity to be a missionary for the Lord. I have the name of Jesus Christ on myself everyday and I want to make sure I am being the best representative of him "at all times and in all things and in all places". I love knowing that I can be clean through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and live with you all again after this life. The best thing about being a missionary is that I get to teach that to people all day. Even though it shouldn't just be when I am a missionary. We have a knowledge which is priceless that we need to share with everyone. I am so grateful that I have you both as parents and examples. I am grateful for my siblings and their example to me. I am thankful for my good friends and their great standards. I am so happy.

To say the least, Zone Conference was amazing. This week I just had was pretty amazing as well. Things are just going well. Our investigator, Radostina is doing great. I love her and her desire to change and become a member of this church. We also have been meeting with her daughter, Iva who is 13. Lessons are going well and the spirit is always there to testify.

I can't wait to watch conference and hear the words of our latter-day prophet. I hope this week will be great for all of you! I love you so much.

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

October 1st 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

So to answer a few questions... Yes, luckily the bowling alleys over here add up the scores on a screen. Yeah they look like our bowling alleys... just the small old ones. Yeah there are two American Universities here but they are both called pretty much the same thing.

That's cool you are taking a train to Seattle! Take pictures and send them to me! I still want to see pictures from the cruise!

Wow, I don't even know where to start this week. I feel like I have so many things to say that I won't have time to write everything. For starters while contacting I was able to meet some really cool people and already have some really good lessons with them. Then, we had a lesson with one of our investigators and he brought his old neighbor to the lesson. It was quite the surprise! I was not expecting that at all.. but more the merrier! We talked a little bit about baptism that lesson. Two days later we had a meeting with just the woman and she told us that she had been thinking a lot about what we said concerning baptism. Then she told us that she wants to be baptized and wants to continue meeting with us and learn more about the church!! It was incredible to say the least.

Saturday we had Young Womens with two young girls in the branch and we were making cards for everyone in the branch to focus on the value "good works". Later that day the Elders, Sister Bingham and I were going to visit an inactive woman who has not been to church in a long time. So we made sure to all write something special on the card for her. We delivered the card to her and shared a message and told her how much everyone misses her at church and that she should come. She promised that she would come. Yesterday she came to church and she bore her testimony! The spirit was so strong.

Yeah, these are the main highlights of the week! I had a great week! All week I kept turning to Sister Bingham and saying, "We are so blessed sister!"--I like how I sound like a missionary when I say that ha ha.

Today we are going to Rila Monastery. It is a very big tourist spot and should be very interesting! Oh yeah.. next week we have Zone Conference in Sofia and are spending the night from Sunday to Monday. My preparation day will not be until Tuesday. Just so you know.

Well I want you all to know that I love you so so much!! Thank you for all the prayers. I am really excited for conference coming up! It should be another great experience(I just hope I can understand more this time ha ha) Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Jodi Farnsworth

september 17th 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

So to start off, bowling last Monday was so much fun! The bowling alley was not as bad as I expected. Probably because it is right by the American University here. Did I ever tell you that in this little city where I am serving there are 2 American Universities?! It is pretty cool, it reminds me of Rexburg. Just because there are quite a bit of college students everywhere. Oh and they have to speak really good English to go there. Anyway, so I have spoken with people all over the world in English. It is pretty funny when I go up to someone asking them a question in Bulgarian and they say "sorry, I don't speak Bulgarian" I get a big smile on my face and just think to myself.."perfect, because I speak English!"

Wow, that's great to hear that Dad did so well in bowling! Great way to start off the season.

It's also neat to hear that you participated in a service project! It sounds like you had a lot of fun participating in that. I wish I participated in more service opportunities back home. Oh well, I will have the opportunity when I am back!

So I went to Sofia last Tuesday for a little training thing. It was pretty fun seeing everyone and being enlightened on how to be even better. I checked the mail and I got a letter from Bishop Ricks! I was so surprised! It was so nice of him to write me a letter. I am going to attempt to write him back and send some hand letters. Hopefully they get there!

Lets see on Friday we had a "fun night" with the branch. It was pretty fun getting togather with some of the branch members. I love how much they love our American games. For example, they love the game "musical chairs" even they old people... ha ha it is pretty funny.

We taught some pretty good lessons this week about the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching others about this because it answers so many questions people have about their life. For the most part things went well and you could see the hope in their faces when I told them we will be able to live with our families forever with Heavenly father and Jesus Christ. There was one man we taught who kept saying how he wants to show us pics of what happens after death.... Anyway... ha ha. Things are good here and we are finding new people to teach all the time because sometimes people just start ignoring us and what not. But everything is good! Thanks for all your prayers.

OK so there was this one time this week when I was contacting on the street and this guy started talking to us and told me in my face that I don't know anything about Jesus. Oh man... let me tell you... I was pretty upset. Don't worry though, I kept myself calm. He kept going off saying other things that weren't the most nice... and I tried to explain some things that he was confused about, but he wouldn't listen. So I just bore my testimony with everything thing that I had and wish him a good evening. It felt so good to just testify with everything that I had. I knew that sharing my testimony was the only thing that I could say that he could not argue with. Anyway, it was a great moment.

Also, it started pouring down rain the other day when we weren't expecting it and we got soaked! It was pretty funny actually except it was freezing cold water! The past few days have been super wet. Normally it wouldn't be so bad but everything floods here so fast because they don't have a very good draining system. oh well, we just laugh about how soaked we get while contacting and when we get home we try to get warm!

Well I think that's about it for this week. I hope you have a great week!!! I love you so so much!

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

September 10th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

I will try and answer some of the questions you asked me. I am really close to Greece and Macedonia right now...maybe an hour away..? Not too sure. Pretty much all the food is the same all around the country; traditional Bulgarian food. No, Mary isn't the only young women in the branch, but the other one isn't as active. Mary is so strong! The branch here has maybe 30 people in it. It is really small and not too many people come. Hopefully that will change soon!

Glad to hear that you have some great classes and students to work with this year! I bet you are very busy all the time, but hopefully it will be less stressful with these classes! That's exciting that bowling starts! I'm sure it will be fun having Sister Ricks on the team again.

I am actually going bowling today! I found out that there is an old ghetto bowling place here, so we are going to try it out!

This week was really good and busy. We had quite a few lessons with some great people. We are hoping that they stay interested so we can keep meeting with them! Also this week, I was out contacting and met this guy from Portland, OR!! He is originally from Bulgaria and was a gymnast. He moved to Portland 20 years ago and works in Vancouver at Naedenov... you know that gymnastics place?! It was so crazy! What a small world that I happened to meet someone who is living there! It was fun having a conversation with him.

Also, this past Thursday was Bulgaria's Independence Day. So when we were out contacting there were quite a few news cameras out. We aren't really supposed to go around news cameras and stuff because of things that could somehow give us a bad image... so we avoided the scene. However, somehow a news reporter came up from behind me and started asking me questions! I didn't answer because I had to keep working... so who knows... I could have been on Bulgarian T.V. for a few seconds.

Other than that, this week we've been working a lot with members. trying to get them really strong and what not. I am starting to get to know these people well in this city, and want to help.

Oh yeah, yesterday at church the Relief Society President asked if I would give the lesson for Relief Society for that day because no one else had it. Oh man, I agreed and read the lesson and taught as I went. It's a little more difficult trying to translate as I go... but it is good for me haha. So yeah things are always fun, always gotta be ready for anything.

I hope you have a great week! I love you all so so much! Thanks for everything!

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

September 3rd 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow, sounds like you had a great vacation/cruise trip! I am so happy for you guys! You deserve a great time!

So, not too much happened with me this week. Just the same old stuff. Last pday we went to the "zoo"... oh man I think you would be appauled if you went to this Zoo. There was only around 15 animals total and they were all in these little cages! It was so sad. They looked so miserable. Then afterwards we played tennis on clay courts! I love playing on clay courts! It was so much fun! The Elders in my district are really good so it's fun to play against them! Today we are also going to play tennis with a girl from the ward. Her name is Mary and she is the cutest girl ever. She is 14 and has the strongest testimony in the whole Branch here. We are her Young Womens teachers. Everytime she says something you feel the spirit.

Yesterday we had testimony meeting. It was nice. After the President bore his testimony no one was going up. PLus we as missionaries try and have the members go up before we do so we usually wait to go if there is any time left. So we are sitting there and all of a sudden President of the branch say "Sister...Far...far...farnz..." They cannot say my name at all... ha ha I pointed to myself and he shook his head yes. They lady sitting next to me started laughing... I couldn't believe I was being called out... I just wasn't expecting it at all. Anyway, I bore my testimony and it was good. It was just kinda funny how it happened!

Another funny thing... Yesterday we went contacting with the Elders at this park with a trail(it's actually really pretty) we were asking anyone we saw. All of a sudden this guy probably in his 20's was riding on a bike coming towrds us (usually we don't stop people on bike because they are going so fast and they say no) I decided to try just because. So I say "Excuse me" really loud. Then the guy on his bike slammed on his brakes and stopped. I was so shocked! I told him who we were and what we wanted to teach him. He was interested and gave me his information! I couldn't believe it at all! Anyway... that was a pretty cool experience. Hopefully things go well with him.

Everything is going well here. I hope you all have a great week! Love you so much!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

August 27th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

It was weird not getting an email from you this week...but at least you had Kelly write. It sounds like you had a good time in California before you headed off on your cruise. You will have to feel me in on everything when you get home.

Let's see... this week we had transfers. So since we have to make sure no one travels alone I got some awesome travel plans haha. I left my apartment in Ruse around 5:30 am and headed off to Varna, then went from Varna to Burgas, then from Burgas to Sofia. By the time I got in to Sofia it was 10pm. I stayed the night there and then the next morning took a bus and went to Blagoevgrad. Blagoevgrad is a pretty small city, surrounded in mountains. It is pretty. I am now serving with Sister Bingham. She is from Leola, Utah which is apparently a very small town. Things are going well here, just trying to get adjusted to everything.

On Thursday I found out that I needed to give a talk in sacrament meeting. Apparently the Branch President here always uses the missionaries to speak...especially the "older" missionaries. So I will probably be speaking a lot here in this branch. My talk went well I didn't feel very nervous at all. I based my talk off of one of the General conference talks. The title of the talk is "Sacrifice" by Dallin H. Oaks. I talked about how we need to be making little sacrifices everyday; that is part of being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I used examples from the Bible, The Book of Mormon and my own life. Too say the least I think it went well. Maybe by the end of this transfer I will be a better public speaker...in Bulgarian.

We have a lot of work to do in this Branch because it is at the point where traditions have started to influence things and people say, "well we do things differently in Blagoevgrad.." So us as missionaries need to try and change things up a bit. The people here are pretty nice and friendly. Blagoevgrad is known as the "University town" there are two American University's here. You have to pretty much speak really good English to be able to go there. So we end up meeting many people who speak English.

The Elders are really nice. Elder Garrett has been her for a little over a year and he is from Highland, Utah. Elder Killpack has been in Bulgaria for almost a week and he is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. They are both great and we all want to work as hard as we can. Later today we are going to the "zoo" and to go play tennis! I am really excited. However, the zoo here is free and from what I've heard it's nothing like a normal zoo... I will take pictures.

Well that's about all I can think of. I really miss the people in Ruse. It's so hard to leave cities. I know that things will be great here as well. I hope you all have a great week! I love you.

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

August 20th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow, thanks for all the updates! That's crazy hearing about everyone who is married or getting married! Congrats to all of them!

Oh my goodness! I cannot believe you are going on a cruise this week!!! Wow, that's so exciting. Maybe we can try a cruise when I get back?? haha. Tell Grandma and Grandpa hi!! I am not sure if they got my email or not... But I love them and they are amazing!

I really like the bobble you sent. Very useful to have here since the water isn't the best...

Let's see...we got transfer calls on Friday... I will be leaving Ruse and heading to Blagovgrad. Blagovgrad is in the south west part of Bulgaria very close to Greece and Macedonia. I here it is very beautiful there and surrounded with mountains. I will be companions with Sister Bingham. I am excited but very sad at the same time. I feel as though I just got to Ruse and just started to become really close to everyone. It has been really hard to say goodbyes to everyone. The people here are so sweet. The branch members keep giving me thing to remember them by. Its hard saying goodbyes here beause you never know if you will ever see them again.

However, this week was really nice. We went into Sofia for a bit because Sister Walch had passport work. On our way back we got picked up at th bus station by Elder and Sister Lovebridge who are a senior couple who are currently serving in ...hmm..I can't remember which country.. but they are in charge of branch funds in this eastern europe area. They picked us up and then took us out to dinner! We were all so surprised! We had a fun time getting to know them.

We were able to have a good week teaching some lessons and contacting people this week. We talked a lot about Joseph Smith this week. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and everything he went through to restore The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday-Saints on the earth again. The early pioneers sacrificed so much and I am eternally grateful. I feel as though these people here in Bulgaria are the early saints here in the church. They are amazing. I am so thankful to be here right now. It is amazing to be able to share my testimony multiple times eachday. Thank you for your example to me growing up. In relief society this week the lesson was on honoring your parents and how parents can lead by example. I though of both of you the whole time. You fit the whole criteria. You both have been the greatest and best examples for my life. I can never say thank you enough. Thank you.

I love all of you so much. Thank you for everything. Have a great time on vacation! take lots of pictures and email them to me!! Love you.

Love,

Sister Jodi Farnsworth or...сестра джоди фарнзуърт

August 13th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

To answer a few of your questions... I successful gave a talk in sacrament! That was my first talk since I have been in country that I have had to give. I was pretty nervous but I guess no one could tell because I would just smile whenever I would get nervous. Plus, there are only 20-25 people who come to sacrament meeting each week. It is hard to imagine the big huge wards in America.

Audi and Martin are amazing and they are going to be in Bulgaria for another 7 months. They are so nice! They took Sister Walch and I out to dinner this week! That was my first time I have been taken out for food by a member here in Bulgaria! It sure was a nice treat. They took us to this really nice chinese restraunt that we didn't know about and the man who owns it is actually from China. So it is "Real" chinese food! It was so tasty!

Also on Tuesday I got a call from Anna and she said she wanted to meet up real quick to give us something... So right before our lunch break we met up with her and she made us a dessert! She is so nice. We didn't even expect it at all. Later on in the week we had a really nice lesson with her. I love her so much.

Then on Saturday a senior couple came to visit to have a fireside and they decided to take us all out to lunch! It was so nice. They are a cute couple.

We had a really good week. It was very busy. We felt very "pampered" with everything that was given to us. We were able to have some really nice lessons this week. Last night, we had a meeting with a woman named Rumi (pronounced roomie) she is a little older and is the aunt of a member in the branch named Sevda. This is our second time visiting with her and she has a lot of questions. She doesn't understand why young people like us would leave our families and our education for 18 months to come to Bulgaria and talk about what we believe. It was a great opportunity for me to bear my testimony. The spirit and the feeling in the room was very strong and we continued to discuss more about what we believe and know is true. We have become good friends with her and this Wednesday we will be going over there to help her dust her house. She is happy that I want to help because to them I am really tall and would be the perfect height to do that ha ha. She is still blown away that we are happy and excited to do service for her...she told us that she will make us some homemade bonitsa for helping her. She is so sweet.

Let's see what else....oh yeah!!!! I Got My Package You Sent!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank You So Much!!!!!!!! I LOVED IT!!!!!!!! The senior couple brought it to me when they came to visit.

Well that's all I think for now... I hope you have a great week!! I love and pray for you, all day, everyday! I love you So Much!

Love,

Sister Jodi Farnsworth

p.s. thanks for all the updates!!

August 6th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Thanks for researching that question for me! Oh and Thank Grandma Farnsworth too!

Yeah that would be cool if I could lay carpet in my bedroom when I get back.... but I think I would rather have someone who is more skilled! We still haven't finished it at Plemina's so we have to wait until she gets back from Italy. I am not sure if the packages have arrived in Sofia yet or not. I am sure they are just waiting in the mission home until I go into Sofia. I will let you know when I get them.

I m glad to hear that things are going well for you! It sounds like you are having a great time riding your bike around everywhere! Riding a bike sounds so nice right now. That's good to hear that Keith is doing well! He should write me!! Oh and tell everyone hi for me back home!

This week went by fast and slow at the same time. We taught a lesson with our investigator Anna and she kept saying throughout the whole lesson that what we were talking about was exactly what she needed to hear at that time. We asked her again if she really still wanted to be baptized and she said Yes. We asked if there was anything we could do to help, but it is pretty much just between her and her husband. I love meeting these amazing people like Anna out here in Bulgaria. They are so amazing and have such great faith even when so many things around them are telling them not to.

We did a lot of contacting this week. It was pretty fun. We see all the people who we know and have talked to and we always say hi to them. When we go out into the streets I feel like the people know us so well now. Everynow and then I will see someone that I have met before and across the street they are yelling my name just to say hi. It is pretty funny.

Last p-day we played a little bit of soccer with a couple in our ward. The woman is named Audi and she is from Fiji and speaks perfect english. Her husband, Martin, is from Bulgaria originally, but studied in Austrailia and Canada so he speaks perfect English. He told us that now he thinks in English. Martin is not a member but has plans to be right when they get back to Austraila. Anyway, they are awesome.

Let's see I was able to teach gospel principles and relief society this week, that was fun. Oh and next week I am giving a talk in sacrament meeting! Wish me luck! Many people here don't know how to give talks so... they asked me to be an example of "how to give a talk" no pressure...ha ha. I am going to prepare a talk and have Martin go over to make sure it is good.

Not much else... Know that I love all of you so much and that Heavenly Father loves you even more. I am so honored to have parents like you. Thank you for being you and raising me in this church.

Have a great week!!

Love you,

Jodi...Sister Farnsworth

July 30th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

I'm glad to hear that you had a great week in Utah and Idaho! I bet education week would be an amazing experience. Isn't the BYUI campus beautiful?! Oh and yes I did live at Legacy Ridge (the one right across the street from the temple) I had a great view! Too bad I don't know any of the speakers you told me about. I am happy you were able to have the Rexburg experience!

Yeah it is pretty crazy that we travel so far all the time and then have to travel back in the same day. I have gotten used to it now, roadtrips are nothing! Yeah, Varna is a big resort/tourist city. If you were to ever come to Bulgaria, I think you would like Varna. Oh yes and it is very tempting to go to Romania for P-day...but yeah we don't.

The fruit stand lady is still awesome. We are friends with her and her husband. Everyday we walk by them and say hello, and sometimes have a chat.

This week we had two people who we visit that had Birthdays. So we decided to get them flowers and make a card and print off a picture of us to give to them. Oh man they loved it so much!! It is funny here because they are so open with everything. You give them a personalized card and they share it with everyone. They also love it when you print off pictures for them. The both put them in frames...so now we our frames hung up in these ladies homes haha.

Also this week one of our investigators, Plemina needed us to do some service for her. Wwe were really excited because we hardly ever get to do service here. She mentioned something about assembling new furniture. I asked the Elders to come help as well. We got to her house and she told us that she wanted to lay carpet in her bedroom. We all looked at eachother and realized none of us new how to properly lay down carpet. Plus, we don't want to mess up and have her be upset with us! We told her we didn't know and she said it was ok and trusted us with whatever we did! Oh man, some people have this image of us that we can do no wrong. Well, we started measuring the carpet and cutting it to size and then we started glueing it with this glue she told us to use. We ran out of glue so we have to go back this week to finish what we started. I hope that we didn't ruin what she wanted. Other than that Plemina is a very nice woman who is 30. She is interested in what we have to say and has strated reading The Book of Mormon. The only problem is that she is moving to Italy at the end of this week for 6 weeks. She says she will continue reading while she is there and will be ready to discuss more when she gets back, it's sad to see her leave though.

Another thing that happened... Last week we ran into this lady named Ivanka on the street and talked to her about The Book of Mormon and she was so interested. She gave us her address and her home telephone. So a few days later we called her, but the number didn't work. So then we decided to go look for her. We got there but no answer. We we a bit dissapointed because she really did seem interested. Well yesterday, guess who showed up to church?? Yes, Ivanka! We were so happy. She said she wants to continue to keep coming.

Everything else is going well. Thanks for the updates! It's great to hear everything! I love all of you. Have a great week!

Love you,

Jodi...Sister Farnsworth

July 23rd 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow, sounds like you had an amazing week! Thanks for the updates! I didn't know you were going to Utah? Or education week? I feel so out of the loop...I guess I kinda am...oh well. I am excited for you! Oh and you finally will go up to Rexburg...with out me haha. I know you guys will have a great time! Take lots of pictures and send them to me!!

As for me... where to start? Well last Monday we went to the Bulgarian/Romanian Bridge. So tempting to just go to the other side to say I have been to Romania...no worries, I didn't. The rest of the week was filled with very good lessons with people in the branch and our investigators. They all went so well and the spirit was very strong. Sometimes I think about how weird it is that I am here right now in Bulgaria teaching lessons to people in Bulgarian and gaining friendships here....weird but it feels so amazing. I am so happy that I am here right now teaching these people and hearing what the have to say. The people here are so incredible and the members have such strong testimonies.

On a side note...when I first got into Ruse we went contacting and I met a guy named Chris who knew pretty good english. He told us he had met with the Sisters around a month before but didn't anymore. He gave us his number and wanted us to call him. When we went back home we looked at the area book to see what happened with this guy. Apparently he is one of the leaders for his 7th day Adventist church and everytime he met with the other Sisters he tried to convert them so they stopped meeting with them. So we decided not to call him. Well just yesterday (after not seeing him for almost a month) he shows up to church. The whole time he was trying to hand out all of his books and pamphlets to us and members. Anyway, it was a crazy mess... but all is well.

This past Friday we went to Varna for a zone conference!! Yeah my first time in Varna! I saw the black sea! But only for like 10 seconds when we were driving to the church building. We left our apartment in Ruse at 5:30 in the morning and the got on a train. The train was fun but long, it was around 4 1/2 hours. Then we had zone conference and it was really nice seeing all the missionaries there. Hopefully I will get the photo they took so I can send it to you. Then right when it was over we got on a bus back to Ruse and that was around 3 hours. It was fun, amazing, spiritual and tiring.

Well that's all I can really thingk of that happened this week! I hope you have a great week! I love you so much! Thanks you for all your support and prayers!

Love,

Jodi...Sister Farnsworth

More Pictures

view from our apt in Ruse

                                                        us in park where we contact a lot

My comp making pinata

July16th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

So to try and answer some questions.. the food in Ruse isn't neccesarily better, it's just summer and there are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere! So that is really nice. Also, they don't use olive oil here, it is too expensive for most of them. However, my cooking time with our investigator Anna was amazing. She taught us how to make a really good dish "polneny chooshky" not quite sure how to spell it latin letters... but basically it is stuffed peppers. They are stuffed with rice and meat and other veggies. I really like them.

This week I was able to meet the new President and his wife. Each of us got to have 30 mins with him to get to know him. They are very nice. They are currently from St. George, UT. It was very nice having time to talk and get to know him and his wife. I am excited to have them here and I know they were called here to be our President for a reason.

We had a very busy week. I don't even know where all the time went! This past Saturday night we had a "MIA" Missionary Investigator Activity. The them was "Mexican Fiesta" it was such a hit! We had so many people there! We made a taco soup and taco items made so they could make tacos. It was very fun but pretty stressful because the missionaries do everything. We made all the food, decorated everything and kept them entertained with games. We also made a donkey pinata! That was a big attraction. Everyone loved it. We wanted it to be a big event so we invited everyone we talked to (as long as they weren't crazy..) and we ended up with over 50 people in our small building. However, after it was finished it was a race to clean everything up in time before we had to get back home. It was a lot of fun overall and brought a lot of people from the community together.

We did a lot of contacting this week. The only downfall was that it was around 43-45 degrees celcius pretty much all week. Which is around 110-113 degrees F. So it was a bit hard sometimes but we got to laugh about it. Oh and I don't know if I told you this yet, but we finally got the conference addition Liahona around a week ago and I was finally able to read it! Wow, I loved all the talks. I especially enjoyed "The Merciful will obtain mercy" by Pres. Uchtdorf. I taught a lesson this week with Stefi about that talk. She really liked it and we had a great discussion about it.

This morning I went on a nice run along the river that divides Bulgaria from Romania. It was very pretty and it felt really nice. Later today we plan on going to the bridge to take pictures!

I am glad to hear you had a great week! Thanks for all the updates and congratulate Mallory and Lexi!

I love you all so much! Thanks for sending a package! I am excited! I will let you know when I get it. Have a great week!!!

Love,

Jodi...Sister Farnsworth

Some pics from mission conference in Plovdiv

The ancient Plovdiv Roman Amphitheatre

July 9th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

I don't really know where to start. This week we had so much going on. We had quite a few lessons that kept us very busy. Ruse is getting much better. We are starting to get to know so many more people in the branch here and around the city.

We have this fruit stand that is close to our apartment and there is a lady who works there and we have become good friends with her. Whenever we walk by we stop and have a little chat with her. She is Muslim but is very supportive of what we do. We invited her to our English classes but she can't make it because she has to be at the fruit stand. So we decided to start writing some English words with the Bulgarian translation on pieces of paper to give to her as we pass by. So now when we give them to her she gets so happy and insists on giving us free fruit. Yum! her fruit is so good. She gives us free peaches, nectarines, and apricots. We buy all of our produce there.

There is this woman here that we teach named Anna. She is around 30 and is so nice. She really wants to be baptized but her husband will not let her. However, we keep teaching her and pray that her husband softens his heart. This upcoming week she wants to teach us how to make some Bulgarian dishes; I am very excited for that. We also had a good meeting with a recent convert in the branch. She is a 15 year old girl named Stefi. She is the only one her age in the branch and 1 of 5 young woman in all of Bulgaria. After she got baptized she lost all of her friends. She is such an example to me. I can't even imagine being 15 years old and having no friends to have fun with and no one around me believe what I believe. So, today for pday we are going to be hanging out with Stefi for a little bit and have fun.

Also, we got to have plenty of time to contact this week. It is very very hot here so we try and go either in the morning or later in the evening. Yesterday we were in the park that we do a lot of contacting in and we had so much luck. People were NICE to us. It was amazing. I talked to people who actually seemed interested. Also, people complemented me on my Bulgarian (even though they were probably just being nice). So to say the least it was a very nice contacting time.

Oh yeah and yesterday I had to teach the gospel principles lesson at church. I was way nervous but it ended up going well. I am so happy to be here right now. Everyday I can see little things that just reaffirm the love I know Heavenly Father has for everyone. Thank you for everything! I love you.

Oh yeah, the baptism got postponed... so hopefully I will be able to make it in the future. Also, we did missionary work on the 4th of July, but Sister Walch and I sang the Star-spangled banner in our apartment.

I hope you have a great week!! I love you so much!

Love, Jodi
Sister Farnsworth

July 2nd 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

OK just to let you know, I had a good birthday! My companion made me my funfetti cake! It was good. Everything you sent worked out perfectly!

I am glad that the youth had a great conference! That sounds like so much fun! Ok and as for your question, many investigators I have had ask about the commandment a lot. Mostly the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. Things like, "If I only have wine on Christmas and Easter why is that bad?, I am not getting drunk and it is healthy for the body." Or why do you have to wait until after marriage? If you are dating them and are in a relationship there is no problem." These commandments are so against their culture here they are doing these things since they have been 12 or 13. Well I hope that helps... Also they have a hard time not reading prayers. Here if they want to say a prayer the buy a prayer book and read from that.

Things here have been going well. We have been doing a lot of contacting everyday. we have some potentials that we are working with but they are in hard situations. we are teaching a woman named Ana. she really wants to be a member but her husband won't let her and you have to get permission from your spouse here to be able to get baptized.

My old investigator in Sliven is getting baptized on Saturday! I am so excited for him and I hope I will be able to make it to the baptism!

Thanks for everything and I would like to hear more about what you are doing now that summer is out!

Love you,

Jodi

June 25th 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hey thanks for the packages you sent! I got both of them and they were great! Thank you, thank you. Yay! School is out! I am happy for you! Thanks for all of the updates.

I am now in Ruse. It is very beautiful here and I can see Romania from my apartment! It is interesting being the senior companion and trainer now! My new companion is Sister Walch. She is from Santa Cruz, CA. She is really cool and loves soccer and movies so we get along just great! We have been doing a lot of contacting here since we got here just trying to get to know the city. There is this beautiful park by our apartment that is miles long that is alongside the Danuv river that separates Bulgaria from Romania. We have been going there to contact a lot. It is so beautiful, covered in flowers and roses of every color.

The people that we have met here so far have been really nice. The members are great but they are pretty dependent on the missionaries here so we are going to try and fix that so they can be more stable. As for my language skills...I feel as though I am going through the refiner's fire right now. It is hard right now but I can already tell that I am improving a lot faster than before. So after this transfer hopefully I will be very comfortable with everything.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support! I hope to get some more pictures to be able to send to you soon!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Jodi

June 18th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

First, Thank you so much for my birthday package!! I got it when we were at Mission conference on Thursday and Friday. Wow, I can't believe that today is my last day of being 21! I am getting so old!! Anyway, Mission Conference was great! We had an all day p-day on Thursday and I got to go through Old Povdiv. It is the oldest city in Bulgaria. I went through some museums and saw some old Roman ruins/theater. It was pretty fun! The next day we had a conference. The last one before President and Sister Roth leave on June 30th. Everything was amazing. I loved being able to see everyone! While at the conference I found out that I will be training in Ruse and I pick up my greenie this Wednesday in Sofia! I cannot believe the time has come already! I am nervous but excited. You should look up Ruse. It is the very north part of Bulgaria and apparently I can see Romania from my apartment. I heard it is one of the prettiest cities in Bulgaria. The thing seperating Bulgaria and Romania there is a river. Pretty cool huh?

Other than that, I had to say all of my goodbyes to the sweet members in Sliven. It was sad saying goodbye because you don't know if you will see them again or not. Also the cute family that we visit with often with the girl named Annie left this morning to Greece. Their husband/Dad works there for the summer. It was hard saying goodbye, but hopefully we will see eachother again!

We continue to teach the man named Boris. He is so ready for his baptism on July 7th! Even though I will be in Ruse, I am pretty sure I will be able to travel down to be there for his baptism. I am so excited for him! It is such a great excitment knowing that you hae helped someone change their life.

It's so good to hear from you and that everything is going well! Only 3 more days left of school, that's exciting!! Hang in there :) Good job to Keith for all of his hard work!

Have a great week!!

Love,
Jodi

June 11th 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thanks for all the updates! It is good to know what is going on back home.

As for me, I had a really good week! I don't know what happened this week, but so many people were nice to us! It was weird...but nice. We ended up getting so many lessons in this week! It felt so great.

We are still teaching our investigator named Boris. He is amazing we talked to him about baptism and he committed to be baptized on July 7th. He is very excited and has been coming to church and has started to become friends with some of the members. Every time we meet with him the spirit is so strong. These are the times when I realize how even though I talk to people everyday for months and nothing happens, finally I get one person like Boris to teach and it is all worth it.

We continued to have another Young Women's with Annie. We taught her about talents and decided to teach her how to make "no-bake" cookies. She loved it. We ate them after we finished the rest of our lesson and they were so good! She was so happy they turned out good since she made them by herself.

Also yesterday was the first Sunday in Bulgaria I didn't have to do anything. Normally we teach primary but President had us go to gospel principles and then I went to Relief Society for the first time in months. The Sister's here are few but they are so strong! We had a great lesson about he holy ghost. There was a part of it when they talked about the "gift of tongues" they looked at us and explained how we have the gift of tongues right now and it is amazing how we can understand everything they are saying and can respond. That lesson really helped me because I sometimes feel as though I am not doing well with the language or am not learning it as fast as I want to. However, I am doing well. I can understand and say things that I want to say so that people can understand. It may not be perfect, but I can do it.

Another thing, I have been reading the book, "Standing for Something" by Gordon B. Hinckley. If you you haven't read it, you should! There is a chapter devoted to talking about gratitude. After reading that I just couldn't stop thinking about all of the things that I am grateful for, and the list is endless. Sometimes when I get caught up in my own troubles I don't really see all the amazing things that I have in my life. I have the best parents in the world, the best siblings in the world, such amazing friends, great missionaries to serve around, strong members here in Bulgaria to know and come to grow close to, and even the nice people I see everyday in their shops on my way to church and they always say hello to me. I know that I have been blessed with so many things in my life and I want to make sure I express how grateful I am.

I am still having a great time with Sister Tate is Sliven. We have become great friends and enjoy being companions.

I hope you have a great week! I love you.

Love, Jodi

June 4th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Can you believe it is June already?! Time is going by so fast! Wow, only 13 more days of school? That is really nice.
So I found out on Friday that I recieved the package that you sent me! My friend in the office, Elder Dropla said he would call and let me know if I got anything. By the way he wanted me to tell you "hi" from him.
Let's see, this week was really good. On June 1st we went out on the Glav to do our normal contacting in the morning, but something was different this time. It was covered with balloons, candy, and kids! It was swrming with children and their parents! My companion and I were so confused. I have never seen this many kids in Sliven before. Well we finally found out that it was "kids day." So, there was no school and parents got to spoil their kids all day.

It is really funny how many holidays Bulgaria has. Normally it is fun, but for some reason people are less receptive to us on holidays. The next day we were out contacting and pumped up to talk to people and then around 12 pm there was this loud siren noise and everyone froze. People who were walking just stopped were they were and didn't move. The people sitting at the outside cafes stood up and froze. No one was talking. This lasted for about 5 mins. It was weirdest thing to see. We had no idea what was going on. Later we found out that it was another holiday. It was their Memorial day. So whenever they hear the siren they are suppost to stand, stop and be silent to remember those who died for their country.

We have been teaching this man who is 32 and his name is Boris. He is really cool and he seems to be getting everything that we have been teaching him. He came to church for the first time and I thought it was neat that he could hear all of the members bear their testimonies about the church. We will keep teaching him and hope for the best!

We did another Young Women's with Annie. She is so cute. I really like helping wer with personal progress. I think it would be a lot of fun to be a Young Women's leader. we talked about the plan of salvation and drew pictures for all of it. Then on Sunday she taught primary about the plan of salvation and she did such a great job. We are the primary teachers in our branch and each week we try and learn a new primary song so that we can have a primary program during sacrament. This sunday our primary kids sang a song during sacrament meeting and I felt like that proud parent in the back smiling and mouthing the words with them, it was great.

Also, we have been meeting with this guy named Jiri (the j is pronounced like a Y). He is from the Czech Rep. He is 24 and is and electrician who is working here for the summer. He only know Czech and ok english. He met with missionaries when he was in czech. We hang out with him on p-days and during our dinner hour somethimes. He is really cool and so nice. Hopefully we are planting some good seeds so when he goes back to Czech he will be more interested in the church.

Well that's all I can think of for this week! Love you lots!

Love, Jodi

May 28th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

My trip to Sofia was nice! Short but nice. I was able to eat dinner with a family in Sofia that my companion knew. They are so nice. The father went on a mission to Sacramento, CA and knows English very well. Also his daughter speaks English very well and hopes to go to BYU someday. They are so nice and their testimonies are so strong. We stayed at an apartment next to the mission home that night. That night sure was crazy! We went to bed and then around 3 in the morning I heard this really loud rumbling and the next thing I knew the apartment was shaking! The bed I was on was moving back and forth a lot! My companion screamed, "Jodi!! What is going on?!?" I told her I thought it was an earthquake. She had never felt an earthquake before and this was the strongest one I have ever felt. We tried to go back asleep but we felt the after shocks and everyone's car alarms going off. later we found out that the epicenter was only 7 kilometers away from Sofia and it was a 5.6. I guess it made it on the news in America and Salt Lake City called President Roth to make sure everyone was alright! It was pretty intense. On our way to the Police station the next morning we saw buildings that had chunks fallen out of them and cars smashed in from the falling chunks. But everyone is fine :) I got my I.D card and I look very scary!

We made it back to Sliven and had a nice F.H.E with the branch here. I love them all so much. I am getting really close to all of them. I never thought you could get so close to people when you can't communicate to them perfectly...but you can. I admire the people so much here because they have had to leave so much for the gospel and there are very few members. Especially Annie, she is the only Young Women in the branch but we started having Young Women's with her for an hour on Saturday's. She is so cute and tells me all the time that she doesn't want me to leave...but I know that in a couple weeks there is a very high possibility that I will leave. ON saturday after Young Women's we had Annie come out contacting with us for an hour. She told me, "Don't worry, if anyone says anything mean to you I will tell them that I am Bulgarian and understand everything and I will tell them to listen to you." It was so nice having her with us and seeing her get up the courage to stop people on the streets. She is only 12 and yet came out with us to contact...I don't know if I would have done that when I was that age. I am blessed to be surrounded by these people and their great faith.

This week we had quite a few lessons but many of them I think will only be a one time thing. Many people only want the free Book of Mormon we give out. But we have been meeting with a couple people who actually seem interested in learning more. So we are just hoping and praying a lot everyday that they can feel and know that what we say is true and is a message from our Heavenly Father.

Other than that I can't really think of much else. Just doing missionary work everyday and talking to people on the streets. Everyday I just realize how blessed I am and how amazing it is that I can be here right now sharing the gospel to people in Bulgaria. Even though we don't have many members or baptisms all the time, I know we are making a difference here.

Thank you for everything you have taught me. It sure has made a difference in my life.

I hope you have a great week! I love you so much.

Love, Jodi

May 21st 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Thanks for your emails this week! I really enjoyed them! It's so good to hear that you are going to the temple often. That is one thing I will look forward to when I get back home. People here save up all year for there yearly Temple trip to the new Ukraine temple. Thank you for the package you sent! I will be sure to let you know when I get it!

So many things happened this week! Last Monday I had a great pday celebrating some missionary's birthdays! We went up the mountain and had a picnic!

Also, I was able to ride a train to the outskirts of the city I am in. However, there was some confusion and the train started going again when we were supposed to get off!! I tried to jump off...but they wouldn't let us. So 10 mins later we got off at the next stop in the middle of nowhere!! There was only train tracks...no road. We found out that another train wouldn't be coming for 3 hours. So we walked 6.5 miles on muddy dirt/train tracks for 2 hours...it was quite the adventure!

This week we have been having crazy weather. So many thunder/lightning storms! We will be out and talking to someone and then all of a sudden it down pours like crazy and we get soaked from head to toe! Yesterday we were on our way back from Yambol's sacrament meeting and whenwe are about 10 mins away from Sliven it starts pouring so much. Once we got into the city it was so bad that cars were stopped on the side of the road. The roads were flooded over. It looked like everyone was driving in a lake. Only the bigger/taller cars could get around. We made it home nice and soaked ha ha.

On Saturday there was a baptism. It was technically the Elder's but we both helped a bunch to get ready for it. We had to put together the portable font and fill it with water. The bad thing was we did not have any warm water at all. My companion and I felt bad for the man being baptized so we boiled lots and lots of water in pots and poured them in. Our efforts didn't do too much but the man being baptized saw our efforts and was grateful for what we were doing. The spirit was so strong there at the baptism. The next day a lady who was at the baptism came up to me after sacrament meeting and told me she wanted to be baptized and wanted to meet with my companion and I. Crazy huh?! We still have our other investigator Vesko. He has had a baptismal date but they keep having to be changed. He says he has the desire...but he is not changing. It is really hard because he knows so much and believes it all, he is just is having a hard time with the commandments.

Well I am off to Sofia today to go get my ID card. I hope you have a great week!!

Love you,
Jodi

Pictures!!

There are some pictures of the mountains, the country side, my comps and the pinata we made for cinco de mayo, and when we walked 6.5 miles from the train ride.