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