July 16

Well this week was good even though we were melting to death.  We did manage to start to teach a lot of the people we had found from the last two weeks.  Also the elevators are always a fun adventure as you will learn as you read.

Monday:
Manly just walked around and did a little shopping until family home evening in the evening.  The activity was to play basketball which was a lot of fun.

Tuesday:
We had a good day but long.  We mainly contacted all day in the heat and met with Georgi.  Georgi is doing good and is improving with little by little.  Sadly I will not be able to see him be baptized before I leave but he is determined to be baptized and the only thing holding him back is smoking.  It will happen it just needs more time which I am happy with.  We also tried to find some less-active members with little succes.

Wednesday:
District meeting went really well and then it was contacting and a meeting with Babcheto who is doing really well and it is always a pleasure to meet with her.

Thursday:
We got to meet with two of our reciveds which was good.  The first was is named Petur.  Oh also I was on splits with Elder Stults from my district.  We get along the least but after splits everything is good and we are good friends now so it was good having splits.  Anyways back to Petur.  The lesson went well but it seemed a little off.  We think we need to teach him more simply because he looked confused.  We also met with a guy named Predrak.  He brought his children with him and eventhough we only had 15 mins we had a really good first quick lesson.  Then it was just english.

Friday:
Mainly contaced and went less-active hunting all day.  Did have one meeting with another of our reciveds.  His name is Dobri and he is really cool and is outstanded about what we teach.  Needless to say we had a great first lesson.  The only problem is that he doesn't live in burgas and commuting here in bulgaria isn't cheap enough to do all the time.

Saturday:
Saturday went really well.  We first had English which went well and then a meeting with a lady we met on friday.  Her name is Tomislava and she is really cool and likes to read about religion.  We only got to talk for 5 minutes and give her a book of mormon but she does want to meet again and talk more.  After that meeting two Austrian walked into the church who are biking across Europe.  They are members and brother and sister.  The brother just got back from his mission and this was a trip he was taking with his sister before they both went off to college.  I then practiced the piano since I am the only one that knows I thing about it here and so I am told I need to play on sunday.  Lets just say I am struggling since I don't have much time to practice but I am coping with hopefully 40% correctness while I am playing.  We then had a fireside which went well and then played basketball again with our only youth and the austrians.  It was a ton of fun.

Sunday:
Church went well and the piano player was nervous and messed up a lot but it was better than having to sing accapella.  A lot of guests were at church which ment translating which was maybe more nerve racking than playing the piano.  Despite all of this I really loved church this week.  After church we had meetings and met with a member.  Then it was time to weekly plan and bed.

Well that was the week and see you all next week.

Love,
Elder Ewell

I'm melting!

Well as you can tell by the subject heading it has been incredibly hot here and humid.  You just step out of the door and you are already wet.  Luckly our main contacting spot is in a nice windy area so it keeps us a little cool.

Monday:

Had a good P-day and we played catch for a while with a baseball.  I actually managed to make some pretty impressive catches on luck so it was fun.  We then for the evening had family home evening which was fun and a good way to end P-day.

Tuesday:

Basicly we contacted all day but for two meetings.  We met with a new guy named Plamen that is quiet but listens intently and understood everything that we taught him.  Also we met with Petia.  She is still struggling but we met with her later on this week too and she is doing better now.

Wednesday:

Had District Meeting which went all right and then we had a meeting with Georgi.  Even though his apartment got burned up because of smoking he still isn't quiting.  He wants too but then out comes excuse after excuse and it is thoroughly frustrating because we have done everything that we can.  We are still going to support him but we are starting with the bare basics again to bear up his faith. We then met another potential in a cafe but even though he lived with a family from our church for two years he has no interest in joining the church or learning more.  He does really respect us though and knows all about our beliefs.  He is really well off though and he fed us calamary and lamb.  We were in heaven and despite it not turning out how we wanted it was a good way to end the Fourth of July.

Thursday:

Had a meeting in the morning that fell through and contacted all day until a meeting we had that went really well.  We met with a guy I had met on Tuesday.  He is way cool and his name is Kamen.  He has been searching for a long time for god and he is super smart with gospel doctrine.  He even whipped out the word ordained when we talked about the priesthood being restored (in english as well which is even more impressive since we were teaching him in english.)  I really look forward to teaching him some more.  We then had english even though he still wanted to continue but we commited him to come to church and once he found out that we basicly just discuss doctrine in church using the scriptures he agreed wholeheartedly.  Also he has read the Book of mormon twice before the last time 5 years ago so he is familiar with the story.  English went well but the best parts of the day was Kamen and contacting which for some reason I was on fire and it went amazing.

Friday:

In the morning we had our interviews with the new mission President, President Wilstead.  He is alright and I know he will be good for the mission it will just take a while to get used to him.  His wife is really cool though and an Aggie so we got along great.  We then went contacting and then had a meeting with a young kid and we had another great first lesson with him.  It seems that this week we just happened to start teaching three golden people at once which is really nice.  We then had a meeting with Petia again and as I said earlier she is doing better.  We contacted most of the rest of the day.

Saturday:

English first and it went alright.  Then we had a reschedualed meeting that fell through, contacted, and cleaned the building.

Sunday:
Church went well and there was a family from Ukraine there.  They live in Kiev but are still two hours away from the temple.  There was the mom a daughter and son.  The daughter is named I think Ivana and the son Ilia.  Ilia is actually in a mormon message about the ukraine temple.  They are really cool and it was fun to see some new faces.  Other than that the day wasn't much we just gave the sacrament to Baba Raina and visited her and then it was time to weekly plan.

I am worn out from this last week but I am happy and content.

Love,

Elder Austin Jame Ewell