Sophia, Bulgaria

On Feb. 14th, Valentines Day, we had a party with both branches and the next morning when we came to go to church, a couple of our members had built this, I don't know how they did it. We loved it.
The next Tue., Feb. the 17th, we left this snow to go to Sophia, Bulgaria to renew our visa's. We only have to go once a year unlike Russia where the Elders and Sisters have to go every three months. We landed in Sophia at the Musseldorf airport (doesn't that sound like a Harry Potter place?) It was pretty nice in Sophia when we got there and everyone took very good care of all of us. There were 6 of us.
After getting settled in our apartments and after having dinner we went to the Jorgensons apartment and had ice cream and the Elders played games and we visited.
The next day the Jorgensons took us on a tour of the city. This is Alexander Nevski Cathedral, named after St. Alexander Nevski, a Russian tsar who saved Russia from invading Swedish troops in 1240, and is without a doubt the most spectacular building in Sofia.
The Presidential building in Sofia which is the administrative quarters of Bulgaria's president. There are always two guards as you can see at the doors behind us. I'm not sure how often they have a changing of the guards but they are well worth a snapshot.
Here is the St. George Rotunda. Set among the excavations of ancient roman ruins, this charming round red brick church dates back to the 4th century and is Sofia's oldest preserved building, it didn't become a church until the 6th century. They did some major restoration work and it was reopened to the public in 1998 for the first time in 70 years.
This is a sculpture of Sofia and overlooks the main intersection there in Sofia.
This is the former Communist Party Headquarter (until August 1990). The red star which I didn't get in the picture is not there. It was removed after the collapse of the communist era.
We all went in to see the Banya Bashi mosque built in 1576. It is the only mosque in Sophia and is quite small but they want all women to wear a head scarf, so luckily they let me in, we also took off our shoes to show respect, it was also carpeted. It was a very interesting day but when we woke up the next morning there was a lot of snow and it snowed all day. Then on Fri. the day we left, the plane was 1/2 hour late departing because of the blowing and drifting snow. It was an enjoyable trip.
Now the video below is what we did after we got home. Elder Williams is always making home made chicken noodle soup and he's really getting good at it.