Happy Halloween

This was a busy week.  But first I need to answer some questions.  First there are three zones in the mission.  We have the Sofia Zone (Zone 1), the Plovdiv Zone (Zone 2, I am here),  and the Varna Zone (Zone three.)  They are basically the west side of the country the center and then the east.  I think there are 14 missionaries in my zone and there are 44 in the entire mission.   Now what do I want for Christmas give me a week to think about it and I will get back to you.  Now onto my investigators.

This week went by incredibly fast.  First of all none of our appointments came through even though we had a ton planned.  Even Marko couldn't meet because his daughter got sick and he had to help a friend move.  Well I exaggerated a bit we did have 4 meetings so it was okay.  The first one was with Gosh and Haydiyalka (I have no Idea how to spell that in english here it is in bulgarian ????????.)  We showed up on Tuesday not really expecting them to be there but to our surprise they were.  So we sat down and gave them the first three principles to the first lesson but we didn't get farther than that because Gosh kept on trying to show off his religion and how much he knew.  It was hard not to shot him down in the water because everything he was saying could be easily disproved through the bible.  We didn't do this though because that is bad, but instead we listened to him and then shared our belief and scriptures with it and that helped control the situation a little better.  It is frustrating though, we have only met with him twice in three weeks and we are still on the first lesson.  Oh well its now that frustrating and I am just happy he is so interested.  Our second meeting was on Thursday with a guy that came up to us and just asked about the Book of Mormon.  He gave us his address which is in the middle of a completely messed up area of streets.  Me and my companion got lost for a half hour trying to find his house.  We finally found it and lets just say I can't call it a house.  When we walked in the "house" was basically four walls of concrete and a roof.  He has a kid and a puppy for the kid.  With all this he only makes 35 Lev a month and he only makes that because he has a child.  He says he is looking for a job but he hasn't found one.  Well we gave him a quick Book of Mormon Lesson and then offered a prayer where we prayed that he would find a job.  The experience was very humbling and it makes me solom just thinking about it.  One problem though is that he likes to share how poor he is which makes me and my companion cautions because we don't want to get a money convert (only gets baptized for welfare.)   So we are going to structer our lessons accordingly to avoid that so that he can become a strong faithful member and be blessed by having the Gospel in his life.  The third meeting we had was with Marko (Finally) on Saturday.  When we had meet him he had gotten a hair cut, shaved, was wearing a button up shirt, nice pants, and sports Jacket (I don't know what else to call it but it was nice.)  He looked really good and dare I say a stud.  For the first five minutes of the lesson he begged us for forgiveness because his daughter was sick and he had to help his friend move.  We said it was alright, that things like that happen.  We went on with the lesson after that which was fun.  We taught him about prayer because he tends to do the lords prayer at first and then goes into a real prayer.  We are 99% certain he got it because at the end he said that even though we pray morning and night it seems like we should always have a prayer in our hearts.  He is really amazing and it still gets better but later on not during this lesson.  Our fourth meeting was a meeting with a member that we had to go see to take of some branch stuff.  It was fun and nice to meet with a member.

Okay on to our Halloween party.  The Halloween party was a blast.  Most of our english class came and even Marko did but he had to leave because his work called our something (I was doing the interpreting.) Any ways it was a lot of fun and our branch president is so funny it and a great party planner.  Well the next day was a lot of fun as well because Marko came to church (It feels like my week revolves around my investigators doesn't it.)  It was really cool because during priesthood/Relief society we had a little testimony meeting about how the church has helped you and Marko actually got up and participated.  His testimony was how he feels that he is part of a big family when he is at church and his life is better because of it.  I was so happy.  Another cool thing about church is that one of our members was a Army Buddie of Marko (Am I the only one that hears "It's a small world after all.")  After church we meet again with ????? ???? (Grandpa John) He is always fun to meet with and he is very creative.  He showed us a drawing he made of the plan of salvation and it was like a big circle and really intricate but simple.  He did give me homework this week though and that was to talk about the prophesies of Daniel (Vague isn't it) so wish me luck.

Well sorry that this isn't as long as last week but I hope it is enough.  So tell me what is going on, how is life, and how dare you go to Oregon with out me.  Just kidding have fun while you are up there.  Sorry that you don't have my help with the walnuts and garage (but I am not (just kidding, maybe.))

Love,
Austin James Ewell