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.

May 14th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad, Thanks for the great email this week! I LOVED it :) It was so good seeing all of you guys on Saturday! The rest of the night my companion and I couldn't stop talking about different things that we talked to our families about. Just to update you on what we did after we had dinner and then we studied some more language. Sunday was pretty busy. We went to church in Sliven and then went to Yambol for another sacrament service. We go to Yambol every week and it is only about 30 mins away. then we had to hurry back because we had an appointment to teach someone. We got back with time to spare...but he didn't show. Sadly, this happens a lot but it's ok. After, we had a newly baptized family coming to meet us at the church and the Sisters who are currently serving in Starz Zagora came and had a lesson with us. Later, we took some pictures with the family because this would be the last time they could see Sister Child since she is leaving in 2 weeks. Finally around 8 :30 pm we headed back to our apartment for some dinner. It is so much fun having the other Sisters here for P-day today. We woke up this morning and we all went running in the park next to our apartment. Then we made some delicious french toast for breakfast. After we email we will go up Carindilla mountian and have a birthday bash. There is 9 of us this p-day because the Starz Zagora Elders came as well. We are celebrating Sister Campbell's birthday (May 11th), Elder Hubert's Birthday (May 13th), and Elder Rowdan's birthday which is today! We are gonna go up the ski lift and have a picnic up there and play some games. Everything here is getting so pretty. Everything is so green and there are rose bushes all over the place. It is so beautiful. Now I know why Bulgaria is famous for rose oil. Plus the gypsys get paid to pick up trash in the spring and summer so everything is getting much cleaner. Everything is good here! I don't have much to say since we just skyped but... I Love You. Thank you for being amazing parents.I hope you have a great week! Love, Jodi

May 6th 2012

Hey mom and dad, The rest of Sister's conference was pretty good. After our hike we had dinner and FHE with President Roth and Sister Roth. It was so nice to have all of us there and learning more about the Roth's. They shared many stories with us and it was very interesting hearing about their childhood in Austria and their conversion stories. The next day we had small workshops and then went on splits and contacted in Sofia. It was crazy being in a big city. I feel like such a small town girl...I am not used to tons of people everywhere and traffic. But being in Sofia was great it makes me really want to serve there because there are so many people there and you can find new places to go everyday! One thing that happened very fast here is summer! Just 2 weeks ago it was still chilly sometimes but now it is all heat. It is so Mediterranean here, very warm and humid with lots of trees and plants everywhere. They are different trees than in WA. They are really good climbing trees and the flowers are beautiful. The only downside is I am dying of heat. I only have a few summer outfits...so I need to try and find some other things to wear. Also my allergies are really bad here. I am in need of some benedryl very badly.Other than that I love it now. It's nice not feeling cold all the time...now I just feel hot all the time haha. Something cool that happened this week is how Sister Tate and I made this really big goal going on in our mission right now. We are supposed to talk and get numbers from a certain amount of people for three weeks in a row and this past week was our second week. We were really nervous because we are in a small city and we were not gonna get back until late Wed night. So, we prayed really hard and the next day went out and contacted and within two days we got the goal plus some! We were so happy. Anyway, if we get the goal for all 3 weeks we get to have a mission wide conference and a full day p-day! We will all stay in a Hotel in Plovdiv. We are all excited and this will be one of the last big things we get to do before President Roth leaves. So in a couple weeks I get to pick up my Bulgarian card. It's almost like a citizenship card that lasts for 1 year. I took my picture for it last Wed and I look pretty intense because they don't let you smile or anything. Oh yeah! We had a Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday! It was sooo GOOD! They loved it. We had tacos and a taco soup and guacamole and salsa (even though none of it was hot because Bulgarians hate hot/spicy food) it was so yummy! All of us missionaries planned the whole thing and got decorations and food and Latin music. Oh Sister Tate and I made a pinata!! We didn't think it was gonna work out...but it did. The only sad part was when we got out the pinata all of the kids were scared of it and didn't want to hit it. Fortunately after some of us missionaries showed them what to do, they went all at it! It was a big hit and so many people came. Oh also I taught some of them how to "latin" dance....really I was just making things up as I went and they loved it! They thought I actually knew what I was doing. Now everyone thinks I am a great dancer..haha :) Well, you asked me a lot of questions So I will just have to answer them when we skype!! I am so excited...I will probably cry...that's how excited I am. I will probably skype here around 5 pm which I believe is 7am there. I hope that's not a problem since you like being up early anyway. Just turn your skype on when you get up and leave it on loud so you will hear it when I call. Make sure you test it to make sure you remember how to do it before Saturday. That would be sad if you couldn't get it to work! Well until Saturday!!!!!!!!! So excited :) I love you a big Fat Giant Panda! Love, Jodi

April 30th 2012

Hey mom and dad! So this week was pretty crazy. We got our new apartment! So, no more cockroaches... yeah! I am just happy that all of that apartment stuff is over with. Also, this week we did a full day of service out in the middle of no where. So long story short--There is this couple that live about 45 minutes out of town. They only speak english. The husband is originally from Utah and his wife is from Scotland. Although now they both live a bulgarian(gypsy) life style. They live as though they are camping no showers, brushing teeth, cleaning...etc. Anyway they are really nice and needed our help. So we drive all the way out to one of their houses and we see this big dirt field(about the size of half a football field) then Brother Major hands all four of us (my comp and the Elders) a hoe. He then informs us that he would like us to break up all the dirt clumps in the whole field. We started working and it lasted for about 6 hours and we didnt finish... Then on our way home Brother major told us "Nice job today out in the field, it looks good...but I think I am going to ask my friend in a couple weeks to use his tractor..." Oh man!!! It was probably one of the hardest services I've ever done for someone. But now I am really good at wacking dirt...:) Let's see I am currently at Sister's Conference in Sofia. We just got back from a nice long hike to the top of a mountain. It's pretty cool having all of us Sisters together. Tonight and tomorrow they have things planned as well so it should be very fun! Oh by the way mom..I got my package you sent! Thank you :) That's cool that keith is out in Provo right now livin' the college life! Tell him to email me!!! I feel like the forgotton child way out in Bulgaria surrounded by gypsys! It's fun though! Sometimes it is hard talking to people here because so many of them are just so scared of us. I didn't think I looked that scary... Although I think a lot of people think that they send the nice and kind ones to lure people in and then we do something bad to them...or something. It's weird. Anyway, Bulgaria is great. It has been very hot here lately and I have pretty much no summerish clothes so...I sweat a lot (embarrasssing but true). I am just happy knowing that no matter how bad I smell, a bulgarian/gypsy will always smell worse haha. I am so excited that dad has that day ff! I was hoping he would! I think I am going to skype around 7 pm here so i think it will be around 9 am there...but maybe you should double check. I will tell ou more next week. Well I hope you all have a great week!!! Love you. Jodi