Week 36 – Happy Bulgarian Easter!

Okay, I can finally tell you all the HUGE news!!

Here it is: Благодарим ви за твоето време фор тхис. Тхис ис ацтуаллу енглисх тъпед ин булгариан леттерс. Алсо, тхис ис йуст а април фоолс йоке лол

Just kidding. Here is the real news:

I got transferred to a new mission!! Don’t worry, I’m still Bulgarian speaking living in Bulgaria, however, the mission is changing from the Bulgaria/Central Eurasian mission into the Bulgaria/Greece mission! At the end of July President Koivisto will go home (and become a seventy, like some of you guessed!) And we will receive President Nelson! Not that President Nelson, but a different one. He’s pretty young and we are excited to have him. The Turkish speaking missionaries will now be a part of one of the Germany missions, there are a lot of Turkish speaking people in Germany, and they will continue to work on online teaching people in Turkey. Pretty exciting changes! I really hope I get to go to Greece at some point for a visit, but we’ll see. It’s going to be crazy here in a little bit!

We had a pretty normal week, save it be General Conference! We had a really awesome lesson at a beach cafe early in the morning, it was pretty cool!

We had a pretty cool conference set up going at the church, a lot of members were able to watch at home thanks to a live translation broadcast, but it was still pretty fun to watch on the “Big Screen”

I have to say I really loved the conference, it is one of my favorite times of the year! I encourage everyone to listen to President Nelson’s masterful talk on avoiding contention. How true his words are. That is going to be a huge focus here for our missionaries, and we will be sharing the talk and some insights into it all throughout the coming weeks. If you missed the conference or want to learn more about it, invite the missionaries to come give a special conference message! They’d be thrilled to share their thoughts and this prophetic message with you and your family.

I also thought I’d share some cool Bulgarian Easter things as well. Bulgarians call Easter “Великден” (vel-eek-den) Which translates to (Велик – Great and Ден – Day) ‘The’ Great Day. How true that is! The greatest day possibly ever. There is a also a phrase in old Bulgarian that is said on Easter day, which is “Христос воскресе” (pronounced: Hristos voskrese), meaning “Christ is risen”. The proper response is: Воистина воскресе, (Voistina voskrese) “Truly, He is risen” Or, you’ll also hear: Найистина, Бог воскресе meaning “Truly, God is risen.” First off, this is ancient Bulgarian. This is what they used to say WAYYYYY back in the day, it’s pretty incredible to see the old grammar and stuff, and even cooler to see really how deep their belief in Christ goes. This exchange between two people is beautiful, with both people acknowledging their Savior, his eternal sacrifice, but also that He lives! What an amazing tradition, I am inspired by this simple, powerful expression. Please enjoy this Easter season, and take some time to remember Jesus Christ, that He lives! Easter, after all, is the greatest day ever!

All in all a wonderful week! Have a wonderful Easter! Till next Monday! 

Христос воскресе,

Elder Thornton