Christmas Zone Conference

As most of you already know, last week was our Christmas Zone Conference Tour. We had a wonderful conference with everyone giving three-minute talks; the topic was "Fear Not" taken from Luke 2:10. We also had a power-point presentation by the assistants on the life of Christ. We were all uplifted by their testimonies. The senior couples came prepared to share a Christmas story and President Bennett enlightened us with information on the gifts from the three wisemen. Lunch consisted of roasted chicken, corn, potatoes, salad, and rolls. An assortment of sweets were provided by the missionaries. The day came to a close with the missionaries receiving their packages from home. It was a delightful day for all.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Also, enjoy the attached group picture!!

Sister Jewell,
Secretary
Bulgaria Sofia Mission

Our Branch in Rousse

Dear FAmily and Friends,

ok so i realize my last letter was pretty lame. I dont think you're paying your precious time and money to hear about the weather in a foreign country... But really I dont think there was a whole lot that happened that week except zone conference anyways. we did get a chewing out by the zone leaders. they think they are some kindof unstinky substance.

ok so this week has been the push and drag of a gypsie horse trollie race. We've been anciously awaiting the transfer calls... my comp is getting kicked out in Stara Zagora..lucky..I love that place. special hello: Hey sister dunn, you're gettin elder robins. Hell make laughter a different level of excitement...As for myself, im still in these sofia outskirts out in Lyulin. I gotta say i love this branch. Although we have absolutely No active youth except occansionally...we still have our rockin babas. Baba Viki is the Sofia District Cook-ichka. She can woop up some amazing manja that can throw smiles on faces that can make the joker jealous. Then Baba Gergina...a tiny little lady maybe four feet...shes got a pair of crutches as well. But shes never missed a day that i know of and she lives pretty far away. Ive said this before, or i got DE-JA-VU.The new comp will be Elder Bolton. a young chap about four months out...hes famous for being the spitting image by face and action as Superman. I talked to him a little on the phone and Even as his senior i feel im gonna get worked... which only makes me happy, I need it...Ok so the bonny young lad whose had the baptismal date still has it for the end of december i believe.. i havent seen her in a while. so lets only hope for good.What else really to say for today. Again.. as my exorting you all. Personal study is important. Ive had too many lessons with the inactives here and have only come to one conclusion on there inactivity. Obviously there are lots of reasons. but something that helps us stay Self-supported is that small amount of time we take anytime during the day just to read any amount of spiritual something. I promise you that if you can at least in your busy days get maybe one or two pondered verses in a day.. things will go much much more smoothly... I feel strongly for this because its a conscience effort of seeking. Yes its small but its more than nothing...and this effort shows our desire and because of that desire we will recieve some "fire".ok much love and the christmas countdown starts today! I got new pictures up finally... so i will have my mom tell me when shes ready with them on her site and ill put the link on here and you can all take them as you please. maybe if she can make a internet christmas card that i can send.. that would be cool... to mother: Use pictures with my last comp.. the blond haired beauty as george calls him.

MY ADDRESS HERE:
Elder Robert Briggs
ul. Marin Drinov no. 21
1504 Sofia
Bulgaria

November 3, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,Excuse me for the not writing last week. I've never had such a busy week... I did actually write something but the computer messed up and I just gave up on the matter.

Anyways, This week has made me a happy boy. We kept busy and we saw some good things happen. Starting with the extra things, Last monday as you may have known was me b-day. I spent the entire day with my bulgarian friends, I feel somewhat bad because I didn't really invite any other missionaries. The people there were Martin, George, Georgia, Valia(our investigator), My comp, the stray dog Elder Brooks, and myself. After watching a couple of movies we ended the night at the church in Lyulin where we played BS and Ate cake. Martin even made the cake, I never knew pinapple could work in a chocolate cake... We finished it with the Rootbeer I made. So now on for Halloween... That was a cool day here. My companion made me a costume, and it was awesome. After cruisin the gypsie market for hubcaps, strobelights, a wig and insulation we had what we needed... Then with a cardboard box, Ipod and speakers thrown in the mix of collected garbage, we turned one mans treasure into another mans masterpiece... I became brittney spears of the future with "techno house beat" coming out of my chest! The make-up was done by a good friend who happened to be in sofia at the time... a girl from Rousse, Ceci(non-member whose in love with my trainer Avrill-btw hes coming to visit dec. 26)... She was in the hospital and she was our tag along for the week.My companion, after putting all his creative energy into my costume sortof fell into disarray and put on all the left overs... a sparkly tu tu, full body red tights, and a fanny pack... We decided he was a gender confused demon. The halloween party at the church in center was way cool and we had a good show of the lyulin people we invited. Some other missionaries put a little heart into their constumes and still couldn't hold a candle to my gypsie-rigged metalic booty.

When president gave out the costume awards my companion had tears of gratitude and accomplishment as I raised the first place prize in the air and gave him that look that BFCFs(best freakin comps forever) give eachother...

Alright on the work end... Me and my comp have focused a great deal of our attention in the direction of the inactives. We have 10 babas(old ladies) coming to church and 108 people on the inactive list.. a great deal of youth too, thats where we really want to get to. They are hard people to get a hold of because we don't have the right numbers, but slowly we're finding them. We had alot of meetings that fell through but if we gave up there then whats the point right? We did meet with a man yesterday and I have no idea why he's not coming. He's a very good guy and has a testimony.. I believe he just feels inadequet and was previously offended, or at least thats what I think he was saying.. he was very honest about how its a rough subject for him, but we'll keep meetin with him and see if we can get someone musical back in our branch...(oh its bad..no one can sing, and now im stuck playing the piano)...But I love this branch. These ladies are some of the sweetest little Ol' ladies I've met, and holy cow can they teach! Its like a branch of super missionarski babis.Things are coming good with Valia, shes been a little busy lately.. but at least she was at the halloween party. I just wanna get a good lesson with her! Ok so I wanna share some love... I love this mission. I complain to my parents alot about the dullness of the food or the cobble stone streets that have destroyed my knees... But there are people here that I get to directly be apart of their lives.

I am learning the most bazaar concepts of life... There are simple things that we already know as members of the church, things I never realized I knew. I find myself having the hardest time teaching some things only just because I figure these are normal things that everyone knows... Hope is a big one, just saying hi to somebody because they are another human being, or smiling because you're happy. Just remember. We're children of our heavenly father, and as children "men are that they might have joy", the easy stuff is the most important stuff.anyways, I love you all and take it smoothly. Last item of business... I have alot of emails right now, so It might take a week or two to get caught up. just forgive me for not getting to you right away and just continue to email me normally and ill respond to the old stuff as I have time.

October 20, 2008

Dear family and friends,
It's been three weeks in the big city and i've finally met my branch. Yesterday was a miracle of sundays. Just like any good story, we can include the weather, the traffic lights, and the blaring of alarm-clock morning symphony.

It was a beautiful atumn day. The sun shining, but the wind still reminding us that the cold is coming. Bulgarian fall is quite the sight... blankets of multi colored leaves blanketing the broken up streets, and crowds of gypsies raking it all up for possible winter insulation. Of course they still haven't given up the usual park-the-horse-and-dogs-by-the-dumpster-and-take-off-with-that-nights-dinner. Traffic lights were in our favor, and we actually made it to church on time. The sweet unimaginable smell of musaka filled the chapel as Baba Vikki was preparing an after worship tummy-fill. Martin, one of my good bulgar buddies brought with his person our new investigator! She's a nice young lady whose suprisingly impressed to come. It is amazing how ready she already is. I don't think this sunday could have been more perfect for her. The Bennetts (Mission President) were down for talks, which were spectacular. The President can sure just talk, its amazing the things he can say...His talk was about a two verse scripture. "Jesus wept" ...anyone can find it? Our investigator(whose name i wont dare to try and spell until i got martin with me), she too gave a good cry during sacrament meeting. The sunday school lesson led by Baba Gergina was pretty much the reading commitment from 3rd nephi 11 we give to all investigators, which also rocked!!Then after church, we took part in one of the coolest branch traditions i've ever seen... LUNCH!!! oh and it was soo good.This week has been the week of being fed. Everynight, Martin has made me bulgarski dinner here at our place... and on wednesday was our canadian thanksgiving by the president. Anyways I love you all, i gotta head...Elder Briggs

p.s. events: 23rd, 9 month mark
27th, B-day

October 13, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,Whao... its already the next week. Its rough here really in the big old city. The butchings have increased, mostly due to the percentage of people compared to the good ol' towns. But a "keep on keepin' on" attitude keeps us... well ultimately, keepin' on.I still have not directly met my branch, we've had general conference the past two sundays. It might already be transfers before i ever do. I have met the BP, he seems kind of crazy... he talks a million miles an hour and just looks like one of those guys in those mob movies who, the only necessary thing needed to fit the part is a phatty cigar or a glass of tonic water. "Lazeroff they call me, by blabberoff they know me!" he literally said that, no lie! :pNot a whole lot with the investigators. we thought we had one when we were stopped by a macedonian who had talked to missionaries the previous week...he said he'd never heard of the book of mormon and woduld really like us to answer his questions. We agreed and he took our number. We asked for his and he made it way obvious he gave us a fake one.. trying it only proved it bummer contact.Lyulin isnt so exciting.. its not even really sofia, its the total ghetto... and english is even more a downer. But they call it tracting heaven. and It is. We've got bloks galore, great stories high full of people just ready to be explored.Everyone keep it together while im still gone. I haven't started counting down with D&C or a bag of skittles yet... so just miss me lots and reminess all the memories you've shared with me as if im dead. "Hey remember that one time when Robby was here? He always smelled kinda funny, but i miss his goofy-lookin trash"With lots of lyubov and love,yours mostly true,Elder Robert David Briggs

Varna Zone Conference

Monday, 22 September, 2008, we had zone conference in Varna. It was a very informative conference with presentations from the zone leaders, assistants to the president, and President Bennett; Sister Bennett also demonstrated, "How to iron a shirt." It was fun for all of us to get to be together and partake of the spirit.

September 15, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,So its been raining all day... We wanted to go to Tsarovets (its a big cool castle) and it didnt happen... instead we just sat around wasting our P-day watching movies waiting with hope..but yeah... The week has been a little more than a drag really, but still better than some missionaries from what ive heard. (elder jacobsen in pernik got beat up).

My week went as such. Tuesday we had our pleven elder friends stay to interview Nedelcho for his baptism. I went on splits with the greenie of the district while the others waited for the Del-cho to show up for his meeting. Elder Beer(our german of the mission) interviewed him. He didnt make it sadly. apparently he didnt know who our prophet was and that we had a living one at all... Beer said hes ready, he has a testimony and hes keeping his commitments. he just doesnt really know alot of stuff. So we moved his Baptism to the 27th.. now we have a couple weeks to work with. He might have that old man forgeting disease... he showed up saturday during english... and we had the awkward oppurtunity to remind him that we canceled it and moved the date...poor old man was already to get baptized...English was once again humbling...i dont know if i mentioned but i feel all the pain i caused my teachers haunting me. It sucks when people are late, it throws the entire class off cause they ask dumb questions and our timing gets off. After the class we invited everyone to our mexican party the following friday.

Friday: I grueled over perfection of the meat. And then a beautiful bulgar style mexican fried rice. (lyutenitsa, corn, rice and other things). and a few hours making the refried beans. the piniatas were made the week before(that day was a flop if anyone read it... nikolai responded to the activity.."im not five").so to just get to the point... i put my heart and soul into this... ill go as far to say that my companion just helped warm it up when we got to the church.. oh yeah and he put the candies in the piniata... just kidding he did alot.. but it makes the next part more expressive if you feel that i did it all.

we had four people show up... krassy and nikolai of course.. and two old ladies from english. I was torn, you should of seen me. big mess of tears and snot... nasty nasty...It was still fun nontheless. but i met my opponent just outside. They call it a houseparty. Center was filled with every bulgar across the city.. loud techno crap music and drunks.... everyone from the cops playing russian roulette to the six old gypsie boy playing in the fountain....drunk...anyways i should get going.

to end with something nice so my mom doesnt think her son is at hell's gate. "Wierd creepy guy" as hes become to be known as..showed up at church. we can consider him a new investigator, but its becoming clear he just either wants a place to stay our a ticket to the states.

just kidding...my special thought can be that our branch president is really just kicking trash right now.. hes been meeting with us and planning what we can do to start activating the 40 out of the 50 on our list. yes its sad we have an activity rating of 10/59 ..9 is the ones who most likely will kill us if we try to contact them.much love too all,

elder briggs

September 8, 2008

Dear Family Friends,.

Today is a beautiful pre-fall day. probably the only "autumn" ill get. Seasons here are Really Hot Summer, and Freakin Cold Winter.

One of the most important hours of a missionarie's day is his excersise time. Its the energy boost for the day, capatilized upon by a delicious breakfast this missionary becomes unstoppable even against the unbearable stench of an angry gypsy shaman.

All is still in order for our baptism this weekend. Well have his interview tommorrow to know whether or not we move his date later. On a continuing bright note we've picked up two more investigators. Konstantine technically already was one, but I finally met him! Nice guy too. Our other, Elo, is very knowledgable in the scriptures. His life is pretty much the joseph smith story. Going from one church to another knowing that he hasn't found the truth yet. We showed him the Restoration Film and he loved it.The only problem is that he wants to borrow it and do some preaching himself(hes a preacher), so now we have to cool his jets and let him know theres some things he doesnt know yet, I can assume he'll eventually struggle with the one true church concept, but we'll see. My comp doesn't really like him, which doesn't help. I can understand though, the guy can be creepy sometimes.Other than those messes, not a whole lot else I can say. if you want to see my pictures my mom might have that deal all set up now. Shes such a nice lady, everyone should give her love when they see her. I got a little hand out here and took the awesome Mom and may have made up stories. I dont call it an exageration becuase augmenting her coolness only is truth. A mommy with growing awesomeness. Anyways just email me if you want the link, i seem to have lost it and have no willpower to look.(No pushups or eggs in a basket this morning).

With all my love,Elder Briggs

August 25, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

This week can be said as fantastic. Where to start! Alot of it was spent in Veliko Turnovo, i think you all got that part. We went to a members house down there for home teaching.. only the mother is member. She showed us pictures and all sorts of things. She used to be an olympic athlete way back in the day. it was so cool. then the son cam in and we talk to him a while. really nice guy, he works with compouters and things... and then this skinny hairy half naked stinky man came in... Way nice, way cool. he picked up his guitar and played probably the most amazing guitar playing ive ever seen. his fingers just shoot across the strings like a dolphin in water. so im not good with the visuals.

later on in the week. my saturday id say. i had english. we can count it as our first lesson because it was a crash course getting started and i started with the first lesson. my comp taught level one and i level two. It was so fun, ive never had that much fun teaching english before. i taught them about the days of the week, months, etc. then after a quick break.. gabriel was having a hard time, he probably belongs in the first, but his wifes in second so i think ill give him some private lessons... anyways after the break i did some games to see how they all learn. we played simon says and head shoulders kneees and toes..it was a hit so im going to do a game every class now.

saturday night just before contacting i was feeling roughed because we hadnt had a referral ever... our investigators are progressing..its just rough, so i said a little pray inside and we went right outside and the first person we saw we talked to for about an hour and a half. He said everything right.. i cant call him Golden, cause no one in bulgaria is golden, but at least hes silver. He said that he wants to read the book of mormon because he believes in the scripture in the bible saying we should search for the truth. and he understood the scriptures very well. he was a little intense about the sabbath though. saying it should be on saturday.. (in bulgarian, Subota, or saturday means sabbath...its always a toughy)sunday was nice two.. i got my cut. i only had to be deacon and give a talk. im glad to have kraci back.

ok so my dad wants to learn about my comp a little. Hes a way nice guy, not a mean bone in his body. Kindof a video game nerd, and comics andall that jazz...but a good guy nonetheless. Im sort of just sick of all the random invisible gernades being thrown about. but i definitly get along with him and we work good together. he language is struggling on the accent and grammer, but at least i can increase vocab with him. He definintly lets me have my piano time too, and we lift eachother there too.

love you all and may the ghost be with you

August 20, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry for another inconvinient lateness on my part. but heres the weekly news.Dobur Den! Not a whole lot happening up here in Rousse.. actually at this point im in Veliko Turnovo on splits. We were here for P-day and I came back again today for what we call extended splits. ill be here till friday. Its me and my Groupie, Rice. We;re tearin it up in V town. we're on our lunch hour so im not going to take more than five mintues here..just writin this. Workin with a Groupie is fun because we push eachother more than our other comps do. we did a pre lunch tracting hour and a another hour and spent a little time in the park. I wish i can update you on investigators..not a whole lot of info there. we did have lessons with the old guys finally..the three that came to church, two of them anyways. Yanko is a good guy, really loud, we might even already challenge him to be baptized...seeing is that hes more active than everyone else. He even came to the firside in Varna(last week after we had zone conference) at the zone conference and the fireside we had Elder Wolfgang Paul of the seventy talk to us. Funny german guy. ooo ok... butch boy story...we call them butch boys, cause they butch us... So last week me and my comp were contacting in the park. two drunk kids on a bench... cigarette in one hand and beer in the other..shirtless and stinky... they started to give us a raze as we passed by. Secta! they said and we just slow down and turn around..it was wierd, usually we keep walking... one of them is yellin at us and tellin us not to come closer, but the other kid says for us to come over... and he was sincere too.. he wanted to know why people know us as sect or other bad names... the yelling one continued to call us terrorists and al-quiada... but we started to talk to the one asking qwuestions... the yeller stopped and listened.. and then kept saying sorry "I always say stupid things, sorry" so i said everyone says stupid thjings and then he said"but i say the most". their butching just turned into an hour long conversation about who we are why were there.They were excited about the free english lessons and we just became simply friends.

anyways, heres my love...everyone stay happy..

August 11, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm exhausted... It took one Russe sacrament meeting to kill me. Last week I just had to bless the sacrament because no one had ties.This sunday... It started as I prepared a talk to give, and Kraci is out of town so I got some songs ready that I could play on the piano. There were three ties in the office, so we got an old guy to play priest...then i learned that the other three guys arent even members, but they come every week... so now I have to be deacon. part way through the start(sacrament hymn) an american elderly couple walks in... my companion wispers to me while im playing..."you need to translate for them" (my companion is acting branch president because the one that should be there isnt...or hasnt since ive been in Russe.)so i was all over the place, botching everything! I played horribly and had to simplify it... then I had to jump onto the passing the sacrament...and forgot someone, the lady caught me right before we finish so that was ok... then right when i was going to sit down next to the americans to translate my comp calls me up for the first talk...I FORGOT I HAD A TALK! I opened up my notebook and stare at what i wrote, translated: "Good morning brothers and sister, if you dont know me cauce im new, im elder briggs from st. george and im glad to be here ive gotten used to "so now i didnt have a talk. so i thought really hard for a few seconds and remebered a talk that my boss sent me and a story about a french village that got bombed and the people rebuilt it. during the rebuilding they restored a statue of jesus without hands that read.. I have no hands but yours. then I applied it somehow to everyone being a representative of christ.. it rocked!! a freestyle talk in bulgarian! It was hard because i didnt know the word for build and some others i wanted so i had to work around it...but it worked!! then i was down to translating. Holy cow i never want to translate again... i had to stop myself because sometimes i wouldnt translate...just repeat the same thing the speaker said. its wierd runnin two languages in your head its just mixing.. and then i translate it literally without thinking and this guys looking at me..."what?"...."I dont know, hes speaking turkish now i think." I find that to be a good excuse.I would also tell you about investigators if we had any.... so until then i love you all.. i hope you enjoyed this

August 4, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,I'd like to begin by first expressing such: ITS FLIPPIN HOT IN RUSSE!! I WANNA DIE!!
So ive had my crash course of Russe... we've been ropped on with a few minal tasks becuase the city went from four elder to two elder... but it did give us dibs on which apartment we're going to be using. I had my first sunday yesterday. Just when i thought i got out of a calling (i looked out and saw five men)...one problem... no white shirts and ties. I was priest and my companion who was already filling in for the absent branch president was deacon. next week ill be pianist and the week after that... Kraci is gone for a couple of weeks after saturday. which is going to hit us hard to.. she another one of those few members who do everything because no one will do anything...We have one investigator who i have yet to meet. and a few potentials which is nice, we actually have something to do here. So youll here more soon... new district, new zone... new things to see. and at the rate im going, next transfer ill be in sofia or some random place across the country.love, elder briggs

July 22, 2008

Dear Family and Friends

The lateness is due to yesterdays mini zone conference. We had the whole zone in our little city of Stara Zagora and hopped on buses for the two main surrounding monuments in the area. first it was Bu-Clu-ja...which used to be a communist gathering place, but after the fall of communism they people went in and just trash the place...breaking windows, stealing crap and everything that could happen.. they dont care about it still and its just left up there in ruins, but still pretty cool. it looks like a UFO and just built upon a high mountian..that sucks to climb. its got a radio tower attached to it... no one works there at all...its just this huge cement building. the tower is locked and there is an alarm to that door.some years ago four missionaries broke the door with a rock and set of the alarm. The mission president had to send them to serbia to avoid any problems.... sorry mother about the lack of pictures, i made a cd and will send you everything up until this point. so when that letter is sent ill include the online photo album link.

investigators are going slow still.. even worse now.. it looks like we have to dropped these two old guys because they are just not going anywhere and they dont keep there commiments. but joe and stanka are doing well, that keeps my head up... stanka was talking about where she was at in the book of mormon and elder baddley was just about to tell her something else...but she stopped him with flailing arms.."dont ruin it!! dont runi it!!" ....even though she enjoys the stories she at least understands it as the word of god and wants to take moroni's challange at the end when she gets there...its just makes sense to her for the challenge to be at the end.

love,elder robby briggs

July 14, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,so this last friday for fun night we spent our time making Piniatas for our mexican night this friday. We had a decent show of 4 members and 6 missionaries for the paper mache... but the rest of the branch hopefully will come and enjoy the mexican food this friday...parties:ok so now I get to ask for more help from people. The last friday of this transfer(two and a half weeks from now) we'll be doing a hawaiin party cause i got everyone excited about it, but i dont have recipes or any ideas except the internet and my imagination, so anyone whose got anything you are welcome to share...mom i know you got a alot. also any other ideas for activities, most bulgarians have not experienced so anything you like to do share!! games or activities for any event.

funnies:so one day out contacting I got a full understanding of the work Bulgarscka Rabota(bulgarian work) expressed like crap, darnit, bullcrap, and no wonder it says made in china....so in the middle of main walking street there was a like painter and a cone guy and they would drive down the street painting the yellow lines and placing the cones...me and my companion stopped and watched as 83% of all people passing by stepped in the yellow paint leaving tracts and staining their shoes. one girl was so frustrated after stepping on the line that she actually backed up and went for a re-try to step over...another guy saw the line and did this little early step long move to attempt at the avoid but failed and still stepped in the line...

Mini Transfer:Our dear elder wallgren was transfered and replaced by a bulgarian missionary elder george.

Investigators of stars:Joe is doing well, he loves to hang out with the missionaries all the time he gets and is honest about his questions and we expect to see him get baptized in the near future especially with george with us now.Stanka (also an english student) has been reading the book of mormon and has already excepted it as a true record... she has been searching for some time to understand religion...she now has that freedom away from supressed communistic ideals.

enough for today, i love you all and thank you

love,Elder Robby Briggs

June 10, 2008

Ok i guess i can start by trying to clarify concerns from what you've seen on the news apparently.ok so we're all in this wierd situation because the Pragoslav church hates us and wants us out of bulgaria. so what happened was that two elders in burgass had harmlessy entered a chruch building(meaning they made sure that they took of their name tags to show respect) and the priest recognized how obviously and american theywere and put two and two together and flipped out on them and kicked them out... not a big deal at that point. an investigator wanted to go with the elders and just make sure it was ok with the priest. so they went again and got kicked out again.. still really not a big deal... so later that evenig the elders were street boarding and during which they were appraoched by a lady who asked them a few harmless, but awkward questions, took a picture and walked away... only moments later in was on national tv "mormons attack the progoslav church" we've been spending alot of time trying to grab the umpting millions of newspapers to destroy. but it really doesnt matter because everyone has heard about it and now has either a good or bad opinion by now.

ut other than that im alive and breathing, and im smiling... so dont worry about me just pretend i dont exist and everything will work out alright...ok i dont know if ive said anything about my new calling here in stars.. nursery! only two boys... and its still not enough with two elders.. i think its pay back for the terrible child i was as a child.. i only thought it was a joke when sister dunn said in her british accent "We'll call it a miracle if you can keep them in their for ten minutes" we made it to 7 minutes and 23 seconds and they were out into priesthood into relief society, in the piano... who has any tips for me?so life is good here in stars as well in haskovo too... volitin is all set for baptism again but now we have his date set from a year from now... and thats good for you guys this week.

with love Elder Robert Briggs

April 21, 2008

due to the lack of time...yet again, im just doing a big email to everyone.

So im in haskovo, appearantly i forgot to inform my parents of that. its about south central of the country of Bulgaria, its a really nice city... sortof... its really trashy actually... there are homeless people everywhere, and the people are nuts... you probably cannot comprehend the craziness. its very normal to see people screaming and carrying around their booze. everyone smokes and everything smells... but its actually really really cool, i enjoy it here alot.

i feel right at home with the branch and the people here. The language is pretty hard but im pickin alot of it up... its sad when my base speech is slang... you cant not learn slang in a branch full of 12 year old girls over joyed to teach their zaiche( little rabbit, or greenie).

Most of their idioms are about rabbits. Ne sum opitno zaiche... i like to say that, i dont know how to translate it into english because it doesn;t mean anything... but maybe it can be sortof understood like, im not going to do everything you tell me... in a funny way though, they wouldnt use it if they were mad..

my companion's name is Elder Jospesh Henry Avrill... hes from some place in colorado, id ask him, but im not sure if id understand him. hes way quite and ever say much. its hard to learn bulgarian from him...because hes fluent, but quite... hes picked it up probably the best of the missionaries in field now... im not sure how, because he doesnt ever speak, but apparently bulgarians understand him perfectly. but every week gets better, hes slowly warming up to me.. its been really helpful to just be straight with him and tell him he needs to talk and not be scared of stuff. but i really like the kid, hes really nice, easy going, just needs to take charge...

we are very fortunate to have any investigators at all.. we have 4.. i think, it keeps changing... they aren't really progressing. but everyone has a pace i guess. some missionaries have gones months without out a single discussion, so ive been fortunate to have pulled off at least one a week since ive been here.

Our newest investigator is a cool story..volinteen. some sisters working in sofia called looking for someone and it was the wrong number and this guy said he wouldnt mind hearing about this and he lives here. so we met with him, he sad he didnt have time but hed meet with us the next day. we met him walked a really long way to the church i dontknow why we met so far away. and then we got there, my companion gave him the whole first lesson, then we watched the joeseph smith movie in bulgarian.. so imagine me there just listening not saying anything, because thats what i did... he took the joeseph smith movie with him ecause he wanted to share it with his family,he took a book of mormon... after he left my companion said that something has to go wrong because that was too easy... apparently he excepted everything my companion said. it was pretty cool.

sundays are always interesting here. the branch is full of horrible singers and its just a little office for a chapel. we get anwhere from 11-20 people coimng to church, and people are always coming and going... our branch is actually one of the most active branches in the country at 80% instead of the usuall 20%. I dont know if we can really count in our numbers investigators coming to church because then we'd be doing pretty good there, but at the same time... its just nuts, non-members recognize it as a church but they arent willing to accept it as different. so we get people all the time coming in with flowers and placing them on the podium and taking a sitting and crossing themselves over and over again during the whole ordeal...

we have this one lady who comes in all the time just because people dont smoke there... which is cool but she doesnt want to take discussions or at least i dont know...

what else have i missed.. im not sure. im still alive if you wanted to know, maybe not for long...

oh yeah! more about church. i was worried that we had a lack of priesthood(only the one old guy was our only man) but Didi's brother is out of the loodnitsa(lunybin, crazyhospital) for good behavior, so now we have a priest! which was nice cause the one old guy wasnt here sunday...i would've screwedup the sacrament prayer... im fine being a deacon.

ok so the branch importants, or the only ones i can talk too.. My bulgarian Mamo (Didi) shes a short lady that reminds me of a rabbit, funnier than all get out... she doesnt speak a word of english (except for shutup and other mean words) but i understand her bulgarian best out of anyone, cause shes the only that talks slow to me. shes always buying me candy bars, i think she works at a day care center, because she told me she was a sister baby...she rocks... then (Didah) shes the relief society president she works with her mom(ginka) in the plaza selling sunglasses with their display deal...

actually i ran out of time...i gotta go to stara zagora again for district meeting