The Gift of Tongues at a Sofia Fireside — “Another Voice” Speaks Through a New Bulgarian Member

“In April 1991, I traveled to Bulgaria with Elder Hans B. Ringger of the Seventy, then President of the Europe Area, and Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander, President of the Austria Vienna Mission, which then included Bulgaria. We were in Sofia to hold a fireside for members and investigators. The Church was very new in Bulgaria. Missionaries had entered the country only in November 1990. By April 1991, there were about 45 members. The fireside was held in an attractive civic building. There were about 150 people in attendance, including members, investigators, professional people, and government officials. I was the speaker. My interpreter was Mirella Lazarov, a newly baptized member in her twenties. She had been a member for only five months and had almost no background in the gospel. I had prayed fervently for guidance, but I had had little time for preparation. In speaking on the Apostasy and the Restoration, I completely forgot my interpreter’s limitations. I used extensive, unfamiliar English terms with no attempt to simplify. Afterward, Sister Lazarov came to me, tearful and shaken. She told me that despite her fluency in English, she sometimes heard me speak words or express thoughts she did not understand in English. And whenever that happened, she said, 'another voice' spoke through her, so that she found herself using words and explaining concepts in Bulgarian that she did not understand in English. I told her to cherish the experience and to testify of it. She had experienced the gift of tongues in a classic circumstance in which the Lord gives a spiritual gift to one person so that others of His children can be edified and His work forwarded.”

— Dallin H. Oaks, "Miracles"