Email: April 23rd

Dear Family and friends, Things are soooo stressful for me right now. I dont think you all understand how many stomach aches Ive had in the past few days due to anxiety. I picked up my greenie last week in Sofia. Her name is Sister Bingham, 21 and she is from a small town near Vernal, Utah. She doesnt know any bulgarian except for little words like, yes, no, and Taka (meaning, ya, thats how it is in english). We are working with 11, ELEVEN, people here in Ruse. Thats a lot! We also have a list of 20 people who we just need to follow up that past missionaries have talked to. Am I freaking out? Just a tad lol. It took me 2 1/2 hrs to sort through all the people, their needs and to set up appts with them. Im nervous to meet with these people. I know it will be good but Sister Bingham cant even testify... so Ill do the whole entire lessons myself. I need to work with her and her testifying and then working on a principal a day with her in bulgarian but theres no TIME. We already have to do her training notebook and we have a set Language study about what were supposed to study. AND WE HAVE THE LESSONS TO ATTEND TO. Lol. Talk about NO TIME for even sitting and thinking for 2 minutes. It'll be ok... we'll trudge through it somehow but... its scary when you realize youre the one doing all the work. Literally. Shes just enjoyin the ride. Im patient though, No worries. When we got into Ruse and into our apt.. I got really homesick. I wasnt homesick for america but homesick for Blagoevgrad. I sat on the couch thinking about how much I missed my home and normalcy in Blagoevgrad and that this new apt wasnt my HOME. My HOME was in Blago. Ya... Ive gotten over that but its so funny how I get homesick for past areas and not even my actual home which is actually in America. The members here, however, are really cool. I can tell church will be good,.. even if Im teaching gospel principles and relief society on my own :) High maintenance branches, gotta love em! We will be working with a new member here named Stephi. Shes 15 and a ball of energy. Theres a man who comes to church even though hes not a member. Hes mentally handicapped. The story about him is that his mother didnt want him and tried every drug in the book to kill him when she was pregnant with him. Apparently her drugs werent strong enough because he survived. Hes in his late 30s and the sweetest spirit. He came up and hugged me with a huge smile on his face. I looooove him. Hes my favorite. He is sooooo sweet. I make sure to always give him extra attention and make sure I always smile when Im looking his way. So here it is people! I will be giving my HOMECOMING TALK on June 10th at the Zanesville ward building. So call off and come! I will be giving 2 talks that morning and I will have some kind of reception afterwards around 2, 2:30. More details to come later. I will be SKYPING on May 12th. Details of the time will come later. Im not sure yet. So ya... set aside to skype on MAY 12TH. Hmm anyway, thats about it. Theres a ton more but thats all that really matters right now. Have a good week! -Sister Kinkead P.S. - I can walk across a bridge here and be in ROMANIA. I can see it across the river. ITS SO NUTS