Bulgaria

It was time! We have been eagerly awaiting our interview with our Mission Leaders, David and Emily Nelson, not because we wanted them to finish their mission, but because we’d get to go to Bulgaria and see them!

And while in Bulgaria, we would get to search out and interview Bulgarian pioneer members, newly baptized members, and newly endowed members. To facilitate our interviews, our Mission Leaders created a Facebook chat and connected us to Senior missionaries and key members. After extended enquiries and a bit of study our proposed trip began to take shape.

Bulgaria is bordered by Greece to the south, North Macedonia to the west, Romania to the north and the Black Sea to the east. We would fly into Sofia, Bulgaria on Saturday night, June 6. On Sunday, we would drive to church in Blagoevgrad. That same Sunday we’d journey back to Sofia, then on to Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Burgas, Varna and Ruse, which is on the border of Romania, before heading back to Sofia. We would make one big circle, connecting with missionaries in every town and interviewing as many people as possible.

With growing confidence, we booked our hotels, our flights, and our car. It was getting exciting!

And then… we heard about the district-wide temple trip to Rome, Italy on June 6. Immediately, five of our solid interviews fell through, and many of our Senior Missionary liaisons canceled! This was a catastrophe!

AND yet, we determined to go forward with our plans because our Mission Leaders, who are very busy people, promised to keep their appointment.

I felt that if we could just get 10 interviews, including our Mission Leaders, the trip would be a success. Feeling very uncertain, and maybe a bit like Nephi –

6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.

We persevered.

Church in Blagoevgrad was very small but we got two interviews. In Sofia, we got our Mission Leaders and one other. (4) In Plovdiv we toured the old city, the hometown of Alexander the Great where we managed to get one amazing interview with a pioneering sister there.(5)

In Stara Zagora we met with Elder and Sister Watkins who took us to Sliven where we met with three member families and received 3 interviews. (8) How providential! Now, we only needed two more to call our trip a success!

We drove to Burgas and met with the Sister missionaries. They were wonderful and had three people for us to interview!(11!) WE did it! With a huge sigh of relief we relaxed a bit and walked with the sisters in a park bordering the Black Sea. Then we all went to a local restaurant, 8 Mamas!, for some good Bulgarian food!

Varna was next. Even though the Elders in Varna had never responded to our texts, we already had 11 interviews so we weren’t worried. However, the Lord wasn’t done yet! He over-delivered and so did those Elders! They met us at church and had six people lined up to interview with us!(17) It was amazing! And even a bit exhausting! But, how wonderful!

That Sunday morning we headed to Ruse. The members were back from their temple trip but they were very exhausted. We did only one interview (18), but we made plans to do at least 3 more on-line. There was no doubt about it. The Lord answered our prayers and blessed our missionary purpose.

Missions are so great! You can truly see His Hand in His Work!

For more information about the Church History library go to Youtube and look for this “Hello Saints” podcast. It was a very engaging!