You Never Know

The Riga Hotel in Ruse. " What lies behind the door?"  It is always a mystery what is behind the door  when you turn the key and open the door.

After we check in we went to the 9th floor, the elevator doors opened and we knew we were in trouble.  It wasn't so much the gold carpet. It was the gold chairs that had slits in them with the stuffing coming out.

Believe me the pictures make the room look nice.  As long as you kept your shoes on you were ok. Michael only had a couple of bug bits in the morning.

       

Anna's Hotel also in Ruse

For the same price we found a different hotel in Ruse. 

I think we'll be staying here from know on, not sure.

Changing of the Guards

Sofia's Presidential Palace, changing of the guards.

Winter dress for the guards.

Guards are dressed in 19th century uniforms

Changing of the guards takes place every hour.

Bulgaria

България, is located in Southeastern Europe.  It is bordered by Romania to the North, Sebia and Macedonia to the West, Greece and Turkey to the South and the Black Sea to the East.

I think Bulgaria must be the safest place in the World. Since I can't read the newspaper, or understand the news, it surely means there is no crime right?

We love Bulgaria, the Culture and History are fascinating. The people are friendly and helpful. The atmosphere is nice and peaceful.

I love the баба, with their goats, they often sell flowers and vegetables on the sidewalks. It is hard to pass them by without buying something from them. I stop, they say something, I smile, put out my hand with change in it and they take what they need and we smile at each other. It is

awesome!


My dad would have loved this store. It is our local bread store. Homemade fresh warm bread everyday.  A loaf of homemade bread is one leva, which is about .60 cents.  They also sell banitsa, which is a feta cheese pastry that is very filling for a leva. The missionaries love this store.

The Russian egg.   It is a magic egg and if you touch it, it will bring you luck.
We feel so lucky!!!

There are flower shops everywhere you look. They love flowers.  If you are invited to someone's home you should never go empty handed. If you take flowers they should be an odd number of stems (even numbers are only for funnerals).

Dragalevtzi Monastery

Bells tower behind the church

                                                        

The pictures in frames are newer. The older paintings were all done on the walls.  During the Ottoman rule most of the paintings from the 1300 were destroyed or badly damaged.

The Dragalevtsi monastery, named Virgin Mary of Vitosha, is nestled on the hillside close to the village of Dragalevtsi, up on the lower parts of the vitosha mountain. In contrast to most other Bulgarian monasteries, this monastery was saved from destruction by the Ottoman conquerors. It was abandoned by the monks soon after the Ottoman take over in 1393 . However, in 1476, it was renovated and brought back to life by a Sofia boyar, Radoslav Mavar. The church and monastery are functioning today

               
               
    Sofia Bulgaria 29, 2012


We left for Bulgaria on June 28th and arrived on June 29, 2012.  Pres. and Sister Roth picked us up from the airport. It was nice to see familiar faces in a unfamiliar country. We were blessed to spend a little time with them before they returned home.  We are grateful for their service and all that they did to make our transition as easy as possible. They were able to accomplish so much. We say "Thank you to them."






This is our home for the next three years!  It is home/church/mission office. The bottom two floors are the church, the middle floor is the mission office and the fourth floor, which you can't see is our apartment.   I haven't decide if it is incredibly conveninet or if it would be nice to have a little privacy. I'm kind of thinking convenient.
                                                                                                                                                                 

MTC Provo, Utah June 27, 2012

Prove Utah June 27th 2012

What are the chances that we would be in the MTC the same time Cole was and the same time his mission president and his wife were.
We met Cole's mission president the first day we were in the MTC.  President Lopez and his wife are from Hawaii and will serve in the Philippines. They are wonderful people.

Cole arrived at the MTC June 27, 2012 at 1:15 p.m. We were in meeting until 4:00 p.m.
 Before we left we were able to meet Cole and say good-bye and give him one last hug for the next three years.  It was so good to see him!!   

MTC

We entered the MTC in Provo, Utah on Saturday June 23, 2012.  We were called to the Bulgaria Sofia Mission in Eastern Europe.  There were four new Mission Presidents called to the Eastern Europe Mission this year, the Brinton's, the Van Bruggen's, the Prows's and us. What wonderful people, our lives have been enriched by each one of them.

We were privilege to have two of the members of the Eastern European Presidency with us at the MTC training, the Bennet's and the Malm's. They were and are a wonderful support to all of us.  The Lawrence's were in Eastern Europe during our training, we are fortunate to be under the leadership of all three couples.