Email: April 25th

Hey everyone,

Hows it going? This week was emotionally hard for me and very stressful. Lots of emotions playing in my head these days. The mission is a rollercoaster...and right now Im at the point where Im going up for the loop and I just want to throw up..I just want a break from it all hehe.

Easter was nothing special. I totally forgot that it WAS easter until we went to church hehe...Its better not to remember holidays because then you dont get trunky. Ya? Good idea, I think. After church we (the whole branch and the missionaries) ate some hard-boiled-colored easter eggs and had some special bread. Bulgarians play this game where you have to smash your egg with someone elses. Whose ever egg cracks first loses. Its a pretty entertaining game, I must say hehe. The rest of the day was...blah.

Rogers and I went to Veliko Turnovo again this week. We went to the new Mcdonalds that opened there. Oh my gosh. Talk about a once in a life time experience. There was a line all the way out to the road and there were security guards watching the door, only letting a few people in at a time. I thought it was hilarious and got a picture of all the madness. I asked the cops if I could get a picture with them but they said no. They just didnt want to be humilitated hahaha. Bulgarians and Mcdonalds...they love it..hates Americans but love Mcdonalds hahahaha.

Afterwards, We met with this 18 yr old boy who is a recent convert. He can speak english so it gave me a chance to really show my true self to a bulgarian. I just want to say that hes an awesome kid. We went to his house to teach him and as Sister Rogers says, "He lives in a very humble home". They are very poor and I made the mistake of asking to use the bathroom. Efgeni, thats the boys name, ushered me to an outhouse and I was a bit shocked but I played it cool hehe. We had a wonderful lesson with him and his dad and both are very strong members. I could feel the love Heavenly Father had for them and I testified of it. Efgeni's dad looks at me and says, "You came 2000 miles just to come to my home and teach me?" I shook my head and sure, "I sure did!!!" Oh man. I love them both so much. Good people...even if they have nothing. Efgeni also reminds me of Cyrus. Efgeni is 18 and loves to play soccer. Ohhh man. I miss my siblings!

Rogers and I had the opportunity to go to Losenets this past week. Its the gypsy community thats far out of town. Bulgarians dont like gypsies..very racist towards them so the gypsies live in their own little community..which can be a little dangerous. We went in to contact a woman who wanted a book of Mormon. Alllllll these kids were following us and some of them couldnt even speak ENGLISH. Im pretty sure some of them were speaking spanish hahaha. We dropped the Book of Mormon off and as we were walking out of Losenets these guys make noises at Sister Rogers and try to brush her cheek with their hands. Ugh. Crazy place...needless to say, we had the Elders with us the whole entire time..we did not go alone.

We went back again later in the week to contact the woman to see what she thought of the book of mormon...she didnt say much and told us she couldnt meet with us.. :/ We tried though, ya? All the little kids came running up to me, hugging me and holding my hand. Awwwww. I love it. Today were getting together with all of the kids to play a game of american football. Elder Morgan played for the BYU football team 3 years in a row and has asked these gypsy kids to take him on. You better believe Im gonna get pictures of this hahaha.

Anyways..thats all for now. Lek Den.

-Sister Kinkead

Email: April 18th

Hiiii! So I only have a few things to write about because they were the only epic things that happened this week. 1 - I went to Booclooja this last p-day. Booclooja is the communist capitol building here. Its hid up in the mountains and has been abandoned for 21 years. Its CREEEEEEP. Its where all the commy leaders would gather to rally around and...Im pretty sure, do evil things. I felt evil. Rogers and I went up there and we had to walk up the long commy driveway to get up there. I was freaking out! The front doors are locked up but you can sneak in through a broken window. I had Rogers talk me through it because seriously...we are up in the mountains alone..at BOOCLOOJA! *Wiki or google it!* She kept telling me that I could do this, and honestly, I had too! Its a once in a life time thing to go and see this place. So we climb through a window into the main floor in darkness. *Shudders* But it was WAY COOL. We went upstairs and saw the main part of it..the room where all the leaders would sit around and discuss communism and how great it was. They had the faces of Stalin, Lenin and Marx and then the 3 faces of the bulgarian communist leaders. I got a ton of pics and I got a part of Stalins face :O hahahaha. I loved it. It was CREEP though. Oh man. Rogers wanted to go in the basement but Ive heard stories and I said I couldnt do it lol. Oooh man. Its the most epic place. It has SUCH a great view and the building is in a form of a spaceship so I felt like I was in Star Trek or Star Wars lol. 2 - Someone called the police on Sister Rogers and I. We were out at the center trying to streetboard. Some people from the city hall came and flashed their badges at us, yelling at us. Sister Rogers just TOTALLY tells them off. They are getting up in my face saying, "Do you understand me?!" I look at them and say in ENGLISH, "NO. I dont. I speak English." Hehehehe. They backed off. Of course they called the police on us and the police came and made us take our stuff down. Sister Rogers is ticked. She looks at the city hall people and the police and says, "I thought communism was over?!" HAHAHA. Oh man. Oh Rogers....gotta love her boldness. 3 - We went to Veliko Turnovo! I LOVE that place. We went by train again...so great. We have a girl investigator there who is russian. Very much so by her appearance. Before we could even teach her she told us that she wanted to be BAPTIZED!!! Were going back this week to teach her the first lesson! I might have a baptism this transfer! w00t w00t! The Elders are still meeting with Stoyane back in Plovdiv. Bless his heart...he emails me and writes me letters. I love him :) Elder Bryce Blackman sent me a package!! All the elders in Sofia were texting me. "Kinkead! You got a fatty package from your man!" Hahahaha! Heck ya!! :D Life is good here in Bulgaria! I love you. Seriously. Have a good week! -Sister Kinkead

Email: April 11th

Hiii!! DUDE - This transfer has been AMAZING so far. I cannot believe it. I am now in Ctara Zagora serving with a lovely girl named Brittany Rogers. She is 22 and is from St. George, Utah. She is the eldest and her parents are divorced. She comes from a rough background but she is an awesome girl with a firm testimony. You all remember my last email..I was afraid of having troubles with her because of things I had heard in the mission but oh my goodness. I have learned my lesson. Never judge people you dont know. Sister Rogers is nothing like what Ive heard. We laugh CONSTANTLY. I feel like Sister Rogers and I are are more like best friends than missionaries...sometimes Im not sure if thats a good or bad thing lol. We dance around in our living room, we dance while walking, we giggle about silly things, we work together in language study by making up silly meanings to remember certain words and we are constantly happy. Seriously. I have never laughed so much in such a short amount of time. I love Rogers. It hasnt even been a week yet and I love her to death and I dont want to get transferred from her. Its a true story. She is a good missionary and next transfer she will be dying. I am sad but I am going to live this transfer up! We already have, like, 12 inside jokes hahaha. One of them being.. "Was that a fat joke?" Hahahaha. Everytime were around the elders or something...the elders will be saying something and Rogers will cock her head and say, "Was that a fat joke?" It totally throws them off and we just laaaaaugh. Its good to have fun, ya? Hahaha. Unfortunately due to the laws here in Ctara Zagora, we are not allowed to streetboard anywhere EXCEPT for 2 parks. One park is always empty and the other park is, literally, a prostitute park. Since the prostitute park actually has people we go there and streetboard. Sometimes when people arent around to talk to we watch whats going on in the park. Its sad really. We stand and watch the pimp walk around the park monitoring all of his girls. The girls just rotate benches every so often and are not allowed out of the pimps sight. The pimp wont get near us or talk to us and hes not big at all so I never feel like Im in danger. But..its pretty crazy. I love Bulgaria..lol.. I am in charge of teaching 3rd level english here all by myself! I LOVE IT! Its so much better than teaching level 1. Why? Because all my students in 3rd level can speak english hahaha. I make them read, ask questions and have conversations with each other. They just love it. I have them read stories out of the book, "Our Heritage" which talks about the early LDS pioneers and the things they went through. I love iiittt. Hahaha. Its so awesome. Preaching the gospel through english! President and Sister Roth took us out to dinner the other night with the Elders. IT WAS NICE. I just want to tell you something. President is LOADED. He owns a castle back in Austria. Uh ya. Anyways, I asked him if I was allowed to get a salad and a main dish. He looked at me and told me to get ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I desired. He was encouraging the elders to get the most expensive stuff on the menu hahaha. It was nice to be fed! I love the Roths. Yesterday Rogers and I went up to a city called Veliko Turnafo. If anyone has seen the movie New Moon, remember when Bella is running to save Edward from killing himself up at the Vatican at the end of the movie? Its a beautiful city, right? Well thats exactly what Veliko looks like and I have completely fallen in love with the city. We had church with 3 people and went and visited a girl who isnt a member but wants to be. Rogers and I then went over to the Bullmans and had lunch. The Bullmans are this irish couple who live here in Bulgaria...Im not sure why you would pick Bulgaria but..ya lol. Afterwards we caught a communist train back to Ctara Zagora and I loved EVERY MINUTE OF IT. TRAINS ARE SO MUCH FUN! It was a nice commy train too! We got to sit in a little cabin and my face was lit up like a child at christmas the entire time, Im sure. Rogers was just laughing at me. But seriously, it was awesome. I highly recommend riding a communist train if you ever come to Bulgaria anyone! Well thats all for now from crazy Bulgaria. Everyday is an adventure. I love you all! -Sister Kinkead

Photos from the MTC Part Deux

Photos from MTC

Email: April 4th

Hey hey hey.

Transfers came. I will be going to Ctar Zagora with Sister Rogers. Im not sure how I feel about it. Im not excited the least bit to tell you the truth. Why? Because Sister Rogers has a really bad name in the mission. Everyone I have met have only talked bad about her. She seems very trunky and bunk *Bunk - Doesnt work* I felt sick to my stomach when President Roth called me and told me that. Sister Killian had her as a companion right before me and told me all kinds of stuff...... Pray for me. I know its the Lords will but.....yaaa. I'll just go in with a positive mind and try to ignore everything Ive heard. Sister Pantigoso called me and coached me. She told me that I was a strong person and that I could do it. I think its cute that she was worried about me so she called to lift me up. I love that girl. I'll be fine...I just dont know how much we'll work....

In other news, Ive made so many memories in the past week. Killian and I continue to work with Stoyane. We took him out for lunch the other day and went up to Olde Town with him. He is such a cool guy, I definitely have a connection with him. Come to find out, he has killed 3 people. Lol. Or at least thats what the Elders said he said in one of our lessons. Hes definitely changed though. I saw pictures of him when he was my age. He was one of those hippy woodstock kids. Crazy Stoyane lol. He came to General conference yesterday, which by the way, I could not understand. I am so jealous of all of you who got to sit there for 4 hours and actually understand. I sat for 4 hours and read last years conference lol. It kind of made me miss home but not too much. I just miss being in my pajamas watching conference on the computer with my family. I miss sunday dinners, I miss sunday naps, I miss sunday cookies and games. *Sigh* lol.

Stoyane gave me a plastic toy soldier on a horse. Its small like those plastic army guys but he told me his was from a "collection" hehe. He gave it to me and told me that its to remember him. It touched my heart. We met him later that day to read the BOM and we gave him a picture of Killian and I so he can remember us. We read out of the BOM and talked about how we can apply it to our life. He still has his guard up, he said that hes still athiest but I know he felt the spirit in our lesson but hes fighting it. We sang, "How Great Thou Art" for him and the spirit was soooooo strong. Stoyane seemed a little frazzled afterwards. I asked him what he was feeling and he couldnt really give me an answer. I know it was the spirit. Hes fighting it. I think what Stoyane has done is bury his emotions so he doesnt "Feel" so whenever emotions come up to the surface, he starts to freak out.

It was really hard to say goodbye to Stoyane. I cried and hugged him. We swapped emails and what not so we can stay in touch with him. Pray for him. Hes AWESOME.

Last saturday Killian and I went out to Yvonnes village to teach his relatives. We had a great lesson with 2 of his aunt and uncles and then we went and played soccer with his cousins. It was SOOOO fun. All these gypsy kids started to show up to watch. I got pictures of our little audience hahaha. Some of them came to play, it was sooo fun! I DID play in a skirt but I rocked it out. Clavee, one of Yvonnes cousins, kept calling me "Beckham" Hahaha. I have played soccer with europeans! Soo cool hehehe.

Funny story of the week - Killian and I had a "Boza challenge" Boza is this NASTY THICK drink here that Bulgarians seem to love. It smells like bitter baked beans with taco seasoning and its really seedy. Elder Myrick, Bennett and Jones recorded us seeing who could drink the boza the fastest. Killian was killing me! I started to chug it and my throat kept gagging it up. It was NASTYYYYYY. I kept going though because I wanted to beat Killian...however, I kept chugging and then threw it alllll up. HAHA. Its ALL on my camera. I'll have to show you it when I get home hahaha. Good times.

Theres more that happened this week but I cant get to everything so Ill just cut the email here. Next time I email..I will be in Ctarz. PRAY FOR ME hahaha. I love you all!

-Sister Kinkead