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Interesting reports out of Bulgaria re: missionaries
Here's the latest:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3477748 Here is the original report: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93843 There is a young man from our ward serving in Bulgaria. I've written to ask him if he knows what happened. |
This reminds me of a funny story. There was an island in my mission that was opened, and all the residents sans 1 person were extremely hostile to the missionaries. As in the silent treatment and kids throwing rocks at them. So one day the 1st counselor in the mission presidency goes walking around with the missionaries, and for some reason they decide to enter the church during services or some meeting. Well, the people in the church reacted, I don't remember how, but the 2nd counselor somehow took their reaction as an invitation to sing. Now this man's name was Lyle Bowen, and he really prided himself on his singing. He was in the Tabernacle Choir and even put out his own CD. He had a tremendous tremolo on that bass voice of his, that warbled from one octave down to one octave up. So Br. Bowen belts out some church song right there in the middle of their meeting. The missionaries were petrified and melting in place. I think they managed to shut down the impromptu song and get out of there.
Us misisonaries on other islands that heard this story got a good laugh out of it. And no, the singing did not break down barriers. The missionaries didn't get killed either, so I guess it was all good. |
Here is an alleged statement from the church that the Bugarian Priest did not give an accurate account of the incident:
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/the...29821/catid_66 |
I had a friend who served in Bulgaria in the early 90's. He said the churches and the general populace there were very hostile toward missionaries and that he frequently was harassed. He said he and his comps were beaten several times while he served there. He's got some great stories, but it sounds like one of the tougher missions out there.
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I hope the Elder's acted appropriately and imagined they did. Going to another denominations' service is a tricky act. I was invited quite a few times on my mission and usually declined because I didn't want to cause a scene. One time we went to a Jehovah Witness revival-type meeting and it went really well. Everybody was friendly to us and we backed off proselyting for ecumenical reasons. I had another experience that wasn't so pleasant. We ran into a group of American students from Missouri doing a two-week Evangelical mission tour. They were friendly and pretty naive as to their churchs' view towards Mormons. They invited us to a meeting that night and against my better judgment, we accepted. We got there and I immediately noticed something was different. It may have been the kids taking turns hanging on the makeshift cross out front, but I can't remember for certain. We tried to fit in and stand in the back, but the second we walked in there was a murmer amongst the adult super-cool youth pastors. In the middle of a song about God being a totally awesome God, an American guy in a "No Fear! Hell" t-shirt came and told us to split. We obliged and were harangued by this prick for the next half-hour. I shouldn't have suffered him for so long, but we didn't have anything better to do and I liked speaking English. Despite my reassurances that I was saved, this jerk insisted on condeming me to hell. |
We have a family friend who went on a mission to Bulgaria. He said that it is a tough mission and it is almost a rite of passage for missionaries there to be thrown in jail. He also said that the newspaper routinely print outrageous lies about the church, sometimes on the front page. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the elders simply showed up and were asked to leave.
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Just heard from the kid in my ward who is serving in Bulgaria. He said that this story is total BS and is fairly tame compared to the stories that are printed in Bulgaria regularly. He said accusations as ridiculous as virgin sacrifice and eating babies actually make the print media in Bulgaria.
His version is the same as the LDS church's statement linked in this thread. That they were invited to attend services at another church, were asked to leave and did so immediately. |
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Imagine if they vandalized a shrine. They would probably be lynched.
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