Last of 2011

Happy Day!  We DID get an email from Melissa today - a little later in the day than usual, but we'll take it — whenever it comes!

Hey Family!

I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed seeing your faces on Sunday. It was so nice to get to talk to you! I feel so blessed to have M*, who was willing to let me use her computer to Skype, and to have what's known as the Internet, so that we COULD Skype! Thanks so much for giving me a little tour of the house, and my old baby computer. Also the cats! I liked when you held up Zorro and made him look at me and love me. Also I liked when you squeezed Cleo and made her whine - I've missed that lovely sound. Also I liked when Presto just walked across the puzzles you were working on and then laid down on them. That really showcased her personality. 

But really, my Christmas was amazing. I had a very relaxing day. I had a nice time but felt very selfish. I had a pajama party with M* and my comp/roommates, and had a nice dinner with a couple members and our Elders, and that was amazingly fun. But I just wanted to serve. You know how people always talk about how they forget themselves and serve? I wanted that. But I didn't know how. Our food pantry was closed, I didn't want to just go to the nursing home and carol with just my companion, and it would probably be unsafe to go up to random homeless people and ask "How can I serve you today?". But it was a still a great day. I enjoyed myself, but wish I had enjoyed myself a little less, and helped others a little more.

I told you a bit about this during our Skype call, but we have a new investigator! Her name is P*, and she is amazingly sweet. We have met with her a couple times now, and she came to Sacrament Meeting with us on Christmas! It was her first ever Christian service, and she did a great job and even tried to sing along with the hymns! So far we think she might be interested in the church only on a social/educational level, but hope to make it clear to her that this can change her life in more ways than just increasing her knowledge.
In other investigator news, L* is still doing well and is on track to be baptized on Saturday! If anyone who reads this is going to be in or near Provo on Saturday the 31st and wants something to do.... comment on this post and my mom can get you the details so you can go. It's going to be a really cool baptism. The elders that are baptizing her both are physically handicapped. They aren't strong enough to baptize her on their own so they're BOTH going to baptize her. Should be interesting and really tender. (<--- I know that's a cheesy word but it somehow actually DOES fit this situation.)

I love this work. I love my companion. I love serving the Lord at all times. I'm working on improving myself. I want to be more disciplined and use better language and become selfless. Basically I just want to be the kind of disciple of Christ who is truly converted and actively strives with every decision to become more like Him.

I love you and thank you for your continued support. I want to thank my wonderful extended family and ward members who are contributing financially and otherwise to my being able to serve a mission. It is a blessing to me, and I hope it can be a blessing for others as well. Let's all pray that I can find and help people.

Love you,
Sister Broekhuijsen

P.S. Boston Fun Fact of the Day: The world's first Staples (Office supply) Store opened in BRIGHTON MASSACHUSETTS! That's right. I'm basically a celebrity because I live in the same neighborhood in Boston as the first Staples store. The 64 bus takes me right past it! Crazy.

Christmas Joy

I don't know why we haven't received an email from Melissa yet today, but I'm going to guess that it has something to do with one or more of the following:

• We talked to her via Skype for an hour yesterday and she couldn't think of anything to write…

• She mentioned when we spoke to her that tomorrow (meaning today, Monday) on Pday they were going shopping with the Elders from their district who had specifically requested her presence because they need her input to make sure they are dressed fashionably!

• The library where they usually email from is probably closed for a Christmas holiday.

• She didn't like her Christmas presents and is protesting by not emailing us!   :-)  (I know that one's not right, because she thanked us profusely for everything.)

Anyway, we did have a lovely visit with her on Christmas Day.  We carried the laptop all around the house and showed her the Christmas tree, the cats, the new computer, her old computer, etc.  :-)  It was wonderful to hear her voice, to see her smiling face and to experience her fun personality!  It felt like she was home for a visit!

She told us how happy she is, how much she loves her companion and the people she is serving.  It is wonderful to know that she is doing so well.  I hope to have email tomorrow that I can post here.

Training = Joy!

I happened to be on the computer this morning when Melissa sent her email, so we got to have a little "email chat!"  That was fun!  It makes me all the more excited to talk to her on Christmas!  Anyway, here are some excerpts from our various communications today.

Hey there, family!

I sure love you, but guess what? I've been blessed with the gift of not being homesick! We've just been so busy with the craziness of transfers last week and now I'm TRAINING that my mind has been off of it! I call that a blessing.

So this week has been crazy busy, like I said. But the best news of all is that my greenie, Sister Edwards, is ENORMOUSLY an answer to prayers. She is nice. She is gracious. She is clean. She is hard working. She has a great desire to be obedient. She is excited and grateful for the opportunity to serve. She is everything I could have hoped for in a greenie. I say a trillion "thank you" prayers a day because it's almost like my life is too good to be true. I'm thrilled about Sister Edwards and I'm still so grateful that I get to stay here in Brighton and my lovely LP wards for the holidays. 

I've been LOVING opening my 12 days of Christmas presents! The Tums one cracked me up. Also the Christmas CD is still a hit. I listen to it at least once a day. It is the only Christmas CD we have in our apartment so we always have it playing in the getting ready room. 

We spent a lot of time Wednesday last week and Saturday cleaning. Deep cleaning. It was AWESOME. There are a lot of gross things that happen when you have 4 girls with long hair living in the same apartment, and spending 90% of their time in the apartment in the same room. All of those gross things revolve around hair. Let's just say we could only have the vacuum on for like 30 seconds at a time before we had to empty the chamber and clean out the brush. But it feels so good to have it all clean. We did some rearranging for our CHRISTMAS TREE! That's right, we have a Christmas tree. In our APARTMENT. L* gave it to us (we fit it in her MINI COOPER - miraculous) before she went home for Christmas break. It is a REAL tree! It also smells like a real tree. The lights are strung crappily and the ornaments are few and struggly, but it's adorable. We have a tree skirt and all our presents nestling under there. It is a sight to behold. I just love it. 

I just e-mailed you last Wednesday so I don't have a ton of stories..................... hmmm. I'm drawing a bit of a blank here. This is a lame e-mail. Andrew's e-mail this week was lame too, so I guess you all just have to deal with lameness. Sorry about that. But in less than a week we will get to talk and possibly even see each others' faces. So that's fun! I don't know what the timing will be like exactly, but I'll plan on between 1:00 and 5:00 my time. Huge window, I know, but you can just be home the whole afternoon, so stop complaining.

Well, I love you! If you have the time/desire, you should come up with a list of questions or something for our chat on Christmas. I don't want it to just be me staring at the screen crying ;)

Have a delightful week leading into Christmas and know that I am a happy, happy girl. I am so grateful for this time to serve my Heavenly Father, and (especially at this time of the year) invite people to come closer to Christ. 

Love you,

Sister Broekhuijsen

Transfers!

It was SO hard to wait clear until today to get our email from Melissa!  But, it was worth it!  Keep reading to see what's happening with Sister Broekhuijsen…

I have had a wonderful time since I last wrote! I have some pretty big news too....

The good news is, I'm staying in my LP wards!!  I am SO happy! I was worried I'd have to leave these wards that I love so much. I prayed a LOT - not praying for my will to be done, but praying to be able to accept it if I had to move. But I was blessed to be able to stay. I feel like the work we are doing with the members is really important and I just love them so much - it would be SO hard to have to be transferred right before the holidays and spend Christmas in a new apartment with nobody that I knew. So I am definitely feeling lucky to be here. I already have wonderfully fun plans for Christmas Day! 

The other good news is that I'm TRAINING. What? I still feel like I'm new out here, but I am SO excited to train. I think it will really help my homesickness to be able to focus on helping someone ELSE! So this is an answer to prayers all over the place. I am not letting it get to my head, but when President Evans called and asked me to accept the calling of trainer, he gave me some advice, and then said that he hopes I take this responsibility as a compliment, because that's how he means it. That he thinks I came out "wonderfully mature and ready to lead" and that he has full confidence in my abilities. So that was really nice to hear! I love that he appreciates my efforts to be obedient and that he trusts me. 

So I don't know anything about her - just that she will be arriving tonight! Sister Meier and the other Sister who is going home this transfer, along with this new baby girl will all be at our apartment until Friday morning so that will be a bit hectic, I'm sure, but I'm really excited to meet her. I've been praying and fasting like crazy for her, and would ask that all you out there will pray for me to be able to be a good trainer. I want to be fun and funny and nice and considerate, but also teach her important things, and be obedient. That will be a tough balance, but I have faith that it CAN be done. 

This past Sunday was the Christmas program in both my wards since so many people will be home for the holidays the next three weeks. Both programs were great! I had some problems with singing Christmas carols a couple weeks ago, because they made me think of home too much and get weepy homesickness. But this week, while I was still thinking of home, I was able to just rejoice. I sang SO loudly during the congregational hymns because really, how many chances do I have to sing at full voice nowadays? Not many. But when you've got a packed chapel and an organ playin' its heart out, I can get away with singing soprano at the top of my lungs and I don't even seem weird!! It was such a fun time to be able to worship that way. I was asked to sing in a small group number - we did Joy to the World in 3 different languages: Spanish, Romanian, and Russian. I got to sing in the Spanish verse, so that was fun. It made me feel a connection to Mom, because of your mission in Chile, and a connection to baby brother in Russia! So that was a good one.

On Monday we had L*'s baptismal interview. Of course she passed with flying colors. We had a couple good lessons yesterday, and then pday today will be mostly cleaning the apartment to get it ready for the new Sister coming in! 

I got to start your 12 days of Christmas yesterday and that was SO much fun. I have already listened to that Christmas CD like 6 times, and currently have the di di di song stuck in my head. It is SO awesome. Perhaps that song makes me dance around the whole apartment. Shhhh.... don't tell. I have also still been enjoying the Christmas quotes from the advent calendar. I'm saving both the 12 days of Christmas and the quotes in my journal. It's so cute I'm basically Martha Stewart. 

Well, that's about it. All day tomorrow will be training meetings and transfer meetings. I'm so excited to introduce my new companion to all the ward members that I love so much! Let's keep the prayers coming for my ability to not ruin a new missionary. Thanks.

Love you all!

Sister Melissa Broekhuijsen

This next part came in a separate email that came later.  I was told to put it on the blog, "because it's hilarious."  So, I am nothing if not obedient…

Last night J* took us all out for a big fancy LOBSTER dinner. That's right. I'm so New England. They had a real live tank there and everything. It was so fun/traumatizing to order our food, then see the waitress take the order back to the kitchen, then see the chef walk up and grab some lobsters out of the tank and walk them back. There was just no denying that it was because of us that they were about to meet certain death. Also, when they bring them out to you.... it's the WHOLE thing. You know? Face and all. It was awesome. They also give you a little bowl with a shell cracker, a bib, and some moist towelettes. It was the REAL DEAL! I totally DID it. I ripped arms off and claws (um... those are actually probably the same thing) and legs and the tail. And it was freaky, but it was so fun and delicious. Such a treat! She had gotten a really good deal for the place from Groupon and thought, "Who am I going to take out for LOBSTER?" and decided on: the Sisters. That is the best kind of decision I've ever heard of.

Also, on Monday I had ANOTHER awesome experience. I call it: I Was Looking Out My Back Door Onto the Forest Behind My Apartment and Witnessed a Red-tailed Hawk Swoop Down Out of a Tree and Snatch a Squirrel Off A Stump and Fly Back Up to Another Tree and EAT IT.  <---- the title is pretty self explanatory. Needless to say, the Elders were very jealous. Also needless to say, I have about 8 minutes of video of the hawk eating the squirrel. Also needless to say, I am apparently a 13 year old boy. 

Better Late Than Never!

So, Tuesday and Wednesday came and went without email from Melissa.  I had resigned myself to the "fact" that we wouldn't get an email this week, when (as Melissa would say) "a cute little miracle" happened, and we got an email from her!  Yay!  So, here's some of it to share with you all…

This has been a crazy week. I think Sister Meier explained that I wasn't able to make it to the library on Monday because I went to the Museum of Science with M* in the morning, and then stayed home the rest of the evening to be with Sister Barben who's been sick. She had the flu and was OUT all day Friday through Tuesday, then yesterday morning woke up with shortness of breath and a cough so we called the mission doctor and he advised us to take her to a clinic or instacare or something. Luckily there is a walk-in clinic at St. Elizabeth's hospital which is a straight shot up Washington and the bus stops RIGHT there. So that's where I spent a good portion of my day yesterday - at the hospital! It was kinda fun. We were very well taken care of. After a chest xray it was determined that she has pneumonia. Poor girl! So they gave her some abx [antibiotics - sometimes she can't resist using her pharmacy shorthand!] and sent us on our way. 

Well, this is the first day she's felt well enough to walk down to the library so here I am!

Thank you so, so much for the Christmas package! We got to go to the temple last Thursday with our Zone. It was a wonderful time at the temple, and then after lunch at the cafeteria, we went down to the Belmont chapel (just a short walk from the temple) and had a testimony meeting. After the meeting they handed out Christmas packages! It was so fun to see people getting all excited. 

Well. Let's see. I have so much to report on! I'm going back through my journals to see what things I've missed...

On the 29th we had a really amazing lesson with L*. She had been taught about the pre-earth life by her Elders, so we finished the Plan of Salvation. She LOVED learning about it, and especially loved the idea of people getting another change to learn the gospel in the spirit world. Here are some (albeit non verbatim) quotes from her to show you how she took it (the lesson in general, that is):

"Even though it's going to be really hard to get baptized without the support of my parents, I realized that I DO have the support of my HeavenlyFather, at least. I know this is what He wants me to do."

After teaching her about the veil of forgetfulness, "So this lesson isn't me learning this stuff for the first time... this is just a review session!"

It was just the greatest lesson with the greatest Spirit. It was seriously thick like molasses in the air. We were all 3 crying, a lot. After the closing prayer as Sister Meier and I walked back to the bus station we rejoiced about how great L* is, and I said a thousand thankful prayers in my heart.

Let's talk about things I've learned this week. It has been SUCH a great time for personal revelation. At the temple, I was reading from the Book of Mormon. It opened up and literally fell right to 3 Nephi 22 - the chapter that I read on April 28th that made me think that I was supposed to go on a mission. It was exciting to read about the gathering of Israel, and comforting to read that I have the power of the Lord behind me. But this time I noticed something new in verse 2. It says we need to do two things in these last days (among others, for sure). 1) "enlarge the place of thy tent" and "lengthen thy cords" and also to 2) "Strengthen thy stakes". It was so cool to read because I've often felt a bit disappointed to be here in Boston, among the proud, in a place known for very unreceptive people. When I look at missionaries in South America or at Andrew in Russia, I think that they're bringing whole cultures into the fold -- humble people who want to change. They are definitely "enlarging" the tent of Israel. But I realized that my mission here in Boston is no less significant because I get to work a lot with members and "strengthen stakes"! Without strong, rooted stakes, the metaphorical cords would be useless, and the tent would be susceptible to being blown away by the winds of adversity.

I also had a very distinct, clear, and direct revelation about mySELF. Sister Meier and Sister Barben were reading from the Doctrine and Covenants and found a verse that stuck out to me. Section 31:3 says, "lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come". I felt very powerfully that that advice given to Thomas B. Marsh was just as applicable to my situation. The thought/impression came to me all at once and almost in full sentence form that this -- this mission of service that I am currently experiencing -- is something I (the eternal being that I am) have ALWAYS wanted. That I am thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to share this good news. That in the pre-earth life I CHOSE this for myself out a profound sense of gratitude. I could picture myself, my REAL self, my Spirit self as I rejoiced when I found out that I would be raised in such a remarkable family who would teach me the gospel. I know that as soon as I found that out, I asked Heavenly Father -- maybe even begging -- if I could at least take some time to share the good news of the gospel with everyone else. So I learned that any fear, trepidation, or anxiety about going on a mission that I felt as a mortal was only Satan trying to stop me. That was just so powerful for me to learn. I am SO thankful for that little pearl of knowledge Heavenly Father blessed me with in the temple.

So that was awesome! Also last week, at a dinner appointment, someone made the comment that he thought it would be really cool to serve in Cambridge Mass because it's the "Modern-day Athens" - the place where the minds of the world come, seeking for truth. It was a cool comparison. These things together made me more excited and grateful for my mission. Not just that I'm ON a mission, but that I'm here in Massachusetts (even if I do have to speak English ;) )

Last Saturday we had another really great lesson with L*. We had a member from the University Ward come with us and it was great because her situation is very similar to L*'s. We went to the temple grounds and walked around and chatted, and then sat down on the cement and huddled up in blankets and clung to handwarmers and had a lesson with her. It was just PERFECT. L* loves the temple and we could feel the Spirit of the lesson being magnified by the holy location. As we knelt there and I said the closing prayer, I was overcome with an amazing sense of gratitude. It was because of the gospel and missionary work that the 4 of us got to be there together at that time, looking up at the temple and feeling the Spirit. We were a very diverse group, coming from Maine, Qatar, and Utah. Without the restored gospel, we would likely never have met, and undoubtedly would NOT have been all together at the top of a hill in Belmont, Massachusetts.

So. I don't know what else to tell you, really. But I feel very blessed to be here and to be LEARNING so much about myself, about the gospel, and about the eternal, loving, perfect nature of God. I feel so happy to have Christmassy things all around me, and to be able to feel my family's support from across the country.

Love you,

Sister Broekhuijsen

Also FYI, Melissa mentioned in a separate email that she may not get to email us next Monday - transfers are coming up next week, so it may be later in the week (again) before we hear from her.  

No email Monday = :-(

We received an email from Melissa's companion today explaining that Melissa would not be able to send email today because she was spending the morning at the Science Museum.  She is hoping to email us on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Happily, though, we DID receive an email from a member of the ward that Melissa serves in.  She sent us a photo!  I'll use her words to caption the photo below.

"[Sister Broekhuijsen] has been so excited with all the dinosaurs here!  Here is a picture for you showing her excitement.  It's been like watching a little kid at a toy store."

Day of Thanks

Hallelujah!  Melissa sounds so happy.  She no doubt appreciates this great week even more after having endured some "less-than-great" weeks.  Thanks to everyone for your letters, prayers and support.

This was such a wonderful, wonderful week. I feel so blessed and I really am HAPPY! 

First of all, let's talk about M*. She is amazing. I don't know if I've told you about her yet, but she's a member and she is the little sister of my friend, G*, from BYU. She is just the coolest girl ever -- served her mission in the Philippines and is someone we've been teaching the member missionary lessons to. She set a date for herself (because that's just the amazing kind of person she is) to give out a Book of Mormon to someone by Thanksgiving. We met with her Wednesday afternoon and she still hadn't, and she was headed to work until late. So we didn't think it would really happen and started talking about how we can reset the date, blah blah blah. 

SO. Wednesday night, we got a call from her and told us a miraculous story about how she had gotten off work early, then took a different route home than she usually does, then a guy asked her for a couple bucks so she started talking to him. His name is A* and they talked for like 45 minutes and he kept asking her, "Why are you so happy? You just look so HAPPY" and she realized she needed to give him a BoM and bear her testimony of it! So it totally was a gift from Heavenly Father. She invited him to come with her to Thanksgiving Dinner the next day, and guess what? He CAME!!

Fast forward to Thanksgiving. It was a FANTASTIC day. We got all our studies in the morning which is always a treat, then we went up to M*'s house so we could use her computer to type up a little handout. The bus we take to get to M*'s is the 64, which is sometimes driven by our favorite: L*. Well we were blessed AGAIN because it WAS L*! We set up an appointment with her for next week. That was a cute little thing to have happen to us! Then we headed over to the dinner which started at 2:00. Luckily, M* and her roommates were going to the same dinner we were, so that was fun. There were SO many people there - probably around 40. Janna always makes a Thanksgiving dinner for the people who don't get to go home, and this year it just exploded. The food was delicious and the company was fantastic. About an hour into it all, A* ("T") showed up! He is a big black guy and told us a few times that he felt really uncomfortable being surrounded by a bunch of "really nice white people." haha. Too bad we weren't more diverse! Ha ha. He is just a really sweet guy, and even though he was really weirded out that we were all "so nice," and he couldn't believe that the three of us (M*, Sis. Meier, and I) were SINGLE, I think he had a fun time.  We got some good pictures with him - I'm hoping to send off another SD card soon.

So that was really cool to have that experience with T.

Later that night, we were at the chapel hanging out with our Zone. (We had permission, don't you worry). Most people were playing basketball but I was with a smaller group watching "On the Lord's Errand" (The Pres. Monson biography). This guy wandered in who looked relatively homeless. He made his way down the hall, looking at all of the pictures and bulletin boards, then came and watched the movie with us for about 5 minutes. Nobody knew who this guy was but I felt really prompted to talk with him. So we went into the kitchen and I offered him some food. He started talking and we heard his story. His name is G* and he's from Ireland (double squeal!). He's here in the U.S. only for like 3 weeks to try to stop his alcoholic friend from hurting himself. He said that he got really really angry with someone, and then took his anger out on some girl on the street by yelling at her and saying some sarcastic remark. He felt really bad about losing his temper, and just started walking. Then he walked by our church and came in! "I feel different now, though." He told me, "I'm really glad I came inside because there's a different feeling here than on the street." I explained that it was a church house for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said he's never heard of that church before, but when I mentioned "Mormon" he said, "I ran into two Mormon MISSIONARIES yesterday! They gave me a card with a picture of a beautiful building and the address to one of their churches - they told me I should check it out sometime." Sure enough he pulled out a passalong card with the address to the church in Roslindale. I explained that we were the same church and he said, "Now I want to keep my promise to them - now that I know THIS is the church - I WILL go on Sunday." He asked why I was so happy (I see a theme here) and I gave him a Book of Mormon and bore my testimony to him. He said that even though he doesn't read very well, he will read it - for ME. 

By this point all four of us Sisters, M*, and a couple of Elders were all in the foyer talking to him. He was so, so funny and teasy (<--- not a word). Eventually he had to go. He pulled out a piece of paper with directions to his homeless shelter and just asked us to point him toward the river. He kept saying, "I just have to cross the bridge and then I'm at the shelter. I know where to go." Maren looked up the address on her phone and it was definitely NOT within walking distance - it was a 20 minute train ride away! He kept saying that he just had to cross the river, but no. We told him that he was in CAMBRIDGE, not South Boston, and that he had gotten off at the Harvard T stop, not the Broadway stop. He couldn't believe it. Once he finally accepted that we were right he said, "I must've been led here. I know I was led here by God. I was SURE I got off at the right stop. Then I got in that argument and just walked right in here. I've been LED here."  

OH MAN it was just so cool. He's so sweet. We took him down to Broadway and walked him to his hotel / homeless shelter / trailer park. He called us all his "angels" and thanked us multiple times. When we were walking across the bridge I was hit SO strongly with the realization that there are people in this world, in this state, in this CITY of Boston who don't know that God loves them. That is something that is so easy for me to believe, and it is my responsibility to teach them of His love for them. (I'm getting a bit teary here, "bear with me" haha). It was SUCH a cool moment. 

So that was an amazing thing to have happen. What a lovely Thanksgiving Day! 

Let me give you a little update on L*. She went home to Maine for Thanksgiving with her family and had a really hard time. Her mom told her that she is brainwashed, etc. Obviously she knows that not true, but it's so hard for her to not have her parents' support in this. After a couple really hard days, she sent another text to us saying, "I still want to get baptized. I hope you know that." So that's good. She's so strong, really a good inspiration for me! And, on a less spiritual note, she bought a miniature turtle and named him Moroni. HA!

The weather here has been AMAZING! On Saturday we didn't even need jackets. Short sleeves, people. That's what I'm wearing. This is definitely a blessing.

Looking forward to going to the temple on Thursday as a zone! That will be amazing.

I love you all - hope you like my stories this week! Know that I feel so loved and blessed and taken care of.

-Sister Broekhuijsen

P.S.  I found this video on lds.org of MY CHAPEL! This is MY CHAPEL that I meet in!!! The video is in the chapel where I have Sacrament Meeting every week! I feel so very famous. Thought you'd be interested in seeing the building and the inside. I know a lot of the people in these pictures/videos. 

http://lds.org/church/news/president-eyring-dedicates-cambridge-chapel-rebuilt-after-fire?lang=eng&query=longfellow+park 

Boston Photos

On Monday afternoon we received a little package in the mail from Melissa.  Included was an SD card from her camera with some fun photos.  Here are some of our favorites!

As Melissa said in her audio annotation to this photo - "Who ever heard of a speed limit of 14?!?"

This was taken from a member's apartment in Boston.  What a view!

This is taken from Melissa's apartment.  So pretty!

What an amazing sunset.  Yes, our daughter is a gifted photographer 

as well as an awesome missionary!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks to all who have sent cards, letters and packages to Melissa - she really thrives on them!  If you're wondering how you can send her stuff, check out the "Write to Melissa" tab at the top of this page.  And now, for your reading pleasure…

Well hello!

My emotions are like a rollercoaster. Right this second I am doing very well, but I have several tissues here with me just in case, because I'm very volatile :)

This week went by really quickly. There is a phrase here in the mission that "the days are like weeks, but the weeks are like days". This week that's been the case for sure. A lot of really long, draining days, but it's been good.

The weather has been miraculously nice. We've still only had one snow storm since I've been here! Can you believe it? Blessings. It's been dry and relatively warm - so cool to be this late into November and not be walking through gross snow all day long. 

I have good news in the L* department! We got to meet with her (I went with Sis. Barben so that she could have one missionary from the ward she went to, and one from University). It was a great lesson - she is so sweet and has been talking a lot to her Elders and has a baptismal date for December 31st! She will be IN UTAH then, because her family is goes to Utah every Christmas break to go skiing. So Sister Meier will be home by then, and can orchestrate all the driving. It's going to be awesome. We still get to teach her because she's choosing to come to LP2 instead of University Ward because she can't make it to the UW's block (2:30-5:30) and prefers LP2's 9:00 time anyway. So that is a huge blessing for me to get to associate with her. She is going up to Maine for Thanksgiving with her family, and is bringing up the fact that she wants to be baptized. She is really nervous because her dad and brother are both atheists, but her Elders fasted for her, she fasted, and WE fasted for her this week - that her family's hearts would be softened. We are very optimistic. She is such an amazing girl and we love to teach her. She's so prepared for this! Yesterday the gospel principles lesson was on the Law of Chastity and she LOVED it - she was making all kinds of comments, AND she said the closing prayer - it was so sincere, a really cool experience.

I've heard from a lot of people this week - so that was fun! I had a bit of a mail drought the week before so it was a nice change. Thanks to all my friends and family who wrote! It means a lot to me.

My pday last week was great! We went shopping, like we were planning, and it was hilarious to see those Elders so excited about their new suits. They all value my opinion very highly, for some reason, and even after we left they called and asked me for more suggestions -- a big confidence boost :) We also did get to go to Target and I got some BOOTS! yay! They were only $35 and I suspect they are cheap in more than one way, but they are comfortable and they are boots. So that is nice. I also got some gloves, long socks, and tights. It was good to get those.

On the bus ride home from the mall, we sat next to a lady who was wearing blue sunglasses. She told us that the reason she wears blue lenses is because, "You know how everyone is always high all of the time? Yeah." Which made very little sense to us. Then she said, "Wait, are you guys high right now?" We said, no. Then she goes, "Do you WANNA be?" The answer Sis. Meier gave was, "No - we're MORMONS!" haha. She was so out of it - kept drifting in and out of the conversation. It was quite entertaining, but sad of course, because she is messed up.

It's actually been a WEEK of crazies, now that I think about it. On Thursday we were at a bus stop and a guy was going around and very politely asking people for change. We knew he was headed for us so I braced for impact. He saw our name tag and said, "Wait, you're ELDERS!" We said, "Yeah, we're Sister missionaries!" He said, "Well, yeah, Sister Elders, but still Elders, right?" We just said yes because.... it was just easier. He then told us that he knows a lot of the Elders "over in Harvard" and then told us, "Yeah, I would LIKE to join your Church, but I'm the devil so I don't believe in faith" and then walked away very calmly. It was hilarious - I've heard so many stories like that, but that was the first time I actually got to experience it.  

One more funny story - we were on the subway Saturday night and a big group of probably 6 or 7 people got on and sat and stood all around us. It was only 6:45 at night but they were completely inebriated. One girl, in particular, could barely walk. They had her standing right in front of me, between two guys, and they were all holding on the the bar above, but she clearly NEEDED it. She was so floppy that they started playing "tetherball" with her - they just shoved her from one person to another while she held on the the handle bar above her. Then someone slurred at her, "Your WALLET is hanging out of your PURSE!" So then her boyfriend pointed at me and struggled, "She doesn't TRUST you! She thinks you're going to steal her WALLET! But I think you look like a very TRUSTABLE person." Then he saw my name tag and said, "You even have your NAME on your SHIRT!!!" Unfortunately/fortunately I had to leave at that point but it was a funny time.

I expect my Thanksgiving to be great. I'm a bit worried that I'll get weepy just because it's my first ever major holiday away from home. But we are having dinner with Janna (and G*, our favorite pizza guy, AND another friend of Janna's) so it should be lovely. I need to be less selfish - lots of people manage to be away from their families for Thanksgiving for less substantial reasons than mine! I should be and am grateful to be HERE. I just need to remind myself of that.

Well, that's about it for me! Again, thanks to everyone who wrote me. I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving!

-Sister Broekhuijsen

A Better Week

Thanks to all you blog readers for your prayers in Melissa's behalf.  It sounds like she's doing better.  Here's what she had to say today:

Hello all!

This week was pretty routine. We did give our training in Zone Conference and that went well. We spent all day Monday and Tuesday preparing for it, so it was nice to have it pay off. What we mostly wanted to talk about was the improvements we've made to the member missionary lessons we've been teaching people, and that's what we wanted to spend the most time on. Then about halfway through the presentation we found out that about 1/3 of the missionaries there had never even heard of these member lessons, so that kind of threw us off. haha. Even President Evans stood up and was surprised because teaching these member lessons was supposed to be a mission-wide practice! So we had to back it up and change the focus a bit, but I still feel good about how it went. We made little hand outs that said, on the front, "Don't just work hard, work SMART" and of course had a pack of smarties taped to them. Then the back said, "Members already know the "what" and the "why," teach them the "HOW"!" So that was obviously adorable and appreciated. :)

We tried to cram in a lot of lessons for the end of the week since the first three days were totally devoted to this training and then the conference itself. We had some good meetings with members, and even have two new ward missionaries who just got called so that's a blessing! I feel really close to these Relief Society sisters that I get to work with. So many of them are so nice and feel like real friends. I hope I get to stay in these LP wards for a long time. I love getting texts at the end of the night from members wanting to share with us how THEY spread the gospel that day - that is really rewarding. I also love talking to the RMs about how much they loved their missions. It's cool to be able to remind them of the joy that comes from missionary work, and making them feel more like doing more missionary work in their post mission lives. 

We had a miracle occur yesterday. Do you want to hear about it? Of course you do.

As we sat in the chapel right before LP1's Sacrament Meeting began, a member, Stephanie, turned around and introduced us to the woman sitting next to her (whom she had just met--although we didn't know that at the time). Her name is L* and we started talking to her and found out that this is her first time here at the Longfellow Park Chapel, and her second time at an LDS service at all. Want to know how she became interested in the church? She is a self-titled "theater nerd" and so after she saw the Book of Mormon Musical on Broadway, she thought, "Hmmm.. this isn't as weird of a religion as I thought it would be. In fact, this is actually something I want to learn more about!" So she got on mormon.org and started IMing with some digital missionaries, then became really good friends with them. They sent her a copy of the Book of Mormon with their testimonies written inside and she's been reading and loving it. I went with her to the next two meetings as well and she had a lot of questions but was super cool and open. Gospel Principles class went well and she took a lot of notes. She loved the idea of eternal marriage and wrote in her notebook, "When you get married in the temple, it's not just 'Til death do us part'!" 

The members clicked with her really well, and she made a lot of comments to us about how she feels really welcome here, and feels like this could really be the church for her. She already doesn't drink alcohol or coffee for personal reasons, and just wants to learn and come closer to God. Sister Meier and I were stunned - it's funny because we do so much work every day, trying to increase our teaching pool. Not ONE person whom I've contacted on the bus or the street has returned any of our calls or set up an appointment with us, but then things like THIS happen and we realize that we just do what we need to do and we'll be blessed. The only problem is that after all this excitement, we found out she is only 20 years old. BUMMER. We can only teach 25-30 single females. Bugger. We'll have to let the other sisters in University Ward teach her.  But it was a cool experience nonetheless.

Another cute little miracle that happened this week is that one morning we were running for the bus (it wasn't the actual bus we needed to take us into Harvard, just a bus that would take us up the long, dreary hill) and the driver saw us running, slowed down, honked at us, and told us to just hop on there! We didn't even have to run to the bus stop! That was a very charitable man, I tell you. It made my whole day! I felt a little guilty just getting off like two stops later (once we got to the top of the hill) but we made sure to thank him for his kindness.

We have some fun plans for this Pday afternoon - we're going shopping! The Elders really want us to come with them to buy suits - they want our input. Apparently some big suit store is going out of business and is on a closeout sale - $500 to $600 suits for less than $100. They are thrilled, and it's going to be a hilarious experience. We're also going to Target which will be good because I need to get some leggings. I have no nylons or leggings and as such my legs are usually freezing. haha. So it will be nice to get those and check out some long socks and just get geared up for winter. I dressed up in red and khaki today so I'm hoping to get some pictures in front of Target. Represent!

Well, I love you! I hope you're doing well. I would love to get some letters. That means you, friends!  [Emphasis added by the editor!]  :-)

 -Sister Broekhuijsen

P.S. I got a letter from Seth this week - apparently they got a new cat recently - he taped some of her hair to the letter for proof! Absolutely hilarious. :)

Remember, Remember the 7th of November

The post title this week is brought to you by: the subject line of Melissa's email - such a poetess!  <--- That's a word, right?  Anyway, this week's email is shorter than usual - or at least the parts I'm going to post.  I'm going to exercise my editor's license and ask that you wonderful blog readers please pray for Melissa this week.  She is having some  difficult challenges, and a few extra prayers would go a long way!  Thanks!

Saturday night we got a call from the APs that we are supposed to give an hour training at Zone Conference this week (Wednesday) on how to work with members. It's crazy because we've been working so much on revamping the member missionary lessons that we teach! We've been making a lot of changes and even joked about giving a training in ZC, but we didn't think it was realistic because sisters never give trainings! So... Pres. Evans obviously made the decision with the Spirit because we've been working on exactly that. Weird but cool. I knew that Sister Meier would jump on the opportunity, and that we'd be able to give a great training.

So this week I got a new bed! Yay! My old one was creaky and covered with plastic because it used to have bed bugs. Yeah, gross. So now I have a new bedframe, boxspring and mattress. It is such a blessing, I love it! 

Also this week we went on splits with some YW from a Stake in New Hampshire. It was fun but since we only had three hours with them, that's only enough time for one appointment at someone's house (because it takes an hour to get anywhere). So we had members meet us at the church. 

This week I got a package from the Primary! They have been using the theme "Now and Later" by focusing on what they can do "now" and what they can do "later" to spread the gospel. The smaller kids drew pictures and the older kids wrote lists and stuff. Seeing "Sister Broekhuijsen" spelled out in little kid writing was hilarious. Some gave up after B-R-O-E-K :) I liked that Caden Brinkman ( I THINK it was Caden) said that one way he can spread the gospel later is by "Being good at cursive" hahaha. That was a fun package.  

I love you. So much.  I love to think that you pray for me multiple times a day. Please keep it up because I really need it.  

Love, 

Sister Broekhuijsen

Happy Halloween!

If you know me at all, you know that Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday - but getting emails from our missionaries makes it a WAY better day!

Today is Halloween. I hate Halloween, but it is not too annoying this year. I'm hoping that I don't have any trick or treaters. It's likely that I won't because I live in an apartment complex where you have to buzz someone or have a key to get in (I feel like my life is a bit like Seinfeld in that way). Also, no children live in my entire complex of 24 apartments so... blessing! As far as what we will do as missionaries, there is a curfew for missionaries in the city - we are to be in our apartments by 6:00 at night. We'll just be working on our lesson planning and stuff, but we'll also make cookies and some fun stuff I'm sure. Apparently the Book of Mormon musical has made "mormon missionaries" one of the most popular costumes this year, so you're right, it's definitely going to be best for us to not be outside. There have already been SO many Halloween parties, and I've seen enough drunk people around that I'm not going to fight it at all.

Thank you for the package! It arrived on Wednesday. Doing dishes is a blast now with my awesome IKEA scrubber. The letter file thing is already being put to use (it's exactly what I was wanting, so thanks for that!). The Reese's pumpkins were ah hah hawesome. They are so delish - like the Easter eggs. They are so much better than just normal Reese's. Also the scarves came very much in handy because it DID snow. They were saying 7 to 8 inches in parts of Mass but we only got about 2 where I live, and it's already all melted off the sidewalks and roads so that's nice. I DID make a purchase. Since the heaviest jackets I had were those button-up sweatshirt things, it was necessary to get a coat. Sis. Meier and I went to the Goodwill and I got 3 coats for 20 bucks each! Can you believe that? I got a thigh length brown one, and an ankle length black one. Also a lighter weight khaki one. TWENTY DOLLARS EACH. The Goodwill is twenty thousand times better than DI when it comes to cute clothes. Probably because it's right by BU. So that was a blessing. I tried on maybe 12 or 13 coats and bought three of them. Definitely the fastest coat shopping of my life. They're not the cutest things known to mankind, and they smell like dead old people, but since they were so inexpensive I can afford to get them all professionally cleaned and they'll still be cheaper than just ONE back home from what's known as a real store. So I'm gray hay hateful. <-- I don't know why I keep doing that.  [Editor's note:  In case you didn't figure it out, I believe she's just trying to spell out "grateful" as if she were saying it really weird.  :-) ] 

 Let's see.... this is the last week of my first transfer! That's pretty cool. We found out that no one in our whole zone is being transferred except for one guy who is going home. The rest is all the same, and I'll get to stay at the apartment in Brighton for at least another 6 weeks. Also we had Stake Conference this week! That was fun. We as Sisters were invited to go to the Priesthood session on Saturday afternoon because the topic was missionary work. That was a weird experience. But it was good. Then the adult session was Saturday night, and the Sunday one was 10 to 12 yesterday. My favorite was definitely the adult session. It was just SO good. There were three musical numbers and they were all superb, and the talks were all about missionary work too! The Stake Presidency out here is awesome, and Pres. and Sis. Evans spoke too. My favorite musical number was a barbershop quartet version of Lead Kindly Light. Did you hear me? I said BARBERSHOP QUARTET version of my favorite hymn in all the land! That was a cute little nice thing of God to do because barbershop always reminds me of being with my family at Disneyland (Big Thunder Mountain). So it was awesome and I was definitely displaying my most frequently used gift of the spirit (the ability to weep) :)

Quick, funny, unrelated story, but our ZLs are hilarious. We had a meeting that was supposed to be with the companionship of Elders that are over the LP wards with us, but they were on tours (that's what they call exchanges, isn't that weird?) with the ZLs so instead of having VanderHoek and Winegar, it was VanderHoek and Ellis. Elder Ellis is this big, hilarious black guy from Oregon and he just is one of those people that you want to copy. I'm totally using some of his phrasing already. One particularly hilarious moment  was when Elder VanderHoek said something but it came out wrong so we were all really confused at what he meant. Ellis just looked at him and said, "Son, that doesn't make a DARN piece of sense!" Oh mother. It was the greatest phrase I've ever heard. That will never not be funny. I just thought you'd appreciate that.

So, sickness. Yes I'm feeling almost 100% better. I just have a bit of a tickly throat but even that is almost unnoticeable. Blessing! Last Monday, right after we finished e-mailing, actually, we got a call from the mission doctor whom we had called the night before. When we called him, he said he lives in Natick which is not that far away in real LIFE, but is one of those places that we just couldn't get to on the T. It would be like an hour trainride down to the farthest south point, and then we'd still need a car to get there. So we were just going to tell him that we'd rather suffer for another week than walk a thousand miles to get to him. But when he called he said that he and his wife were just going to come up to Brighton, and that they wanted to take us out to lunch! So cute. They came to our apartment and checked us out. They thought it was viral and not yet bacterial so they just said to pay attention to how we feel, and if we weren't better by Friday to call them back and they'd give us ABX. Luckily we WERE better by then. But yeah, they took us out to lunch and were so sweet and wanting to take care of us. They lived in Highland for like 20 years, but then moved to AF (and then Massachusetts, obviously). Their last name is the Saunders, not sure if we know them or not, but they lived in the Alpine Country Club. One of their sons is the founder of Zupas! Fun stuff. So that was a giant miracle! Super nice of them, and way convenient for us. 

~Sister Broekhuijsen 

I realize this ends rather abruptly, but the rest of the email was kind of more addressed to immediate family - so if you're the highly curious type, you can give me a call and I'll let you know what shoes she needs to have sent to her, etc.  :-)

A "Unique Week"

It's nice to see that Melissa is able to see the good - even in "less than optimal" situations!  It was great to hear from her today.  So, without further ado…

So, last week was a very... unique week.  Today marks the 11th day of this mysterious sickness of mine. Last Monday, after running around like crazy working hard (because we didn't take a pday, remember? Because we wanted to teach 20 trillion lessons, remember?) Sis. Meier and I both crashed. Hard. As in... we could barely speak. I remember one time in high school I woke up with a really deep voice and went to the piano to test my range. I could hit two Gs below middle C. Disgusting. Well, I'm pretty sure I was at least that far down there Monday night. It was awful. But hilarious, so, haha! So Tuesday morning we cancelled our morning appointments and just slept. I love sleep. It heals my body wonderfully. Tuesday we just trekked out for a 7 o'clock dinner appointment and then one other appointment after that. That drained me. Wednesday we felt awful too, so we had to cancel everything in the morning (we had an AWESOME week set up on Sunday with 19 appointments scheduled throughout the week! In the city that is like, very impressive) and just headed out from about 2 o'clock on. Then Thursday we still weren't better and just made it out to a couple appointments. Friday was the same, and Saturday the same. It's very frustrating because we wanted to be so productive but knew that resting would be better for us! Also, I had flu like symptoms and didn't want to be going around spreading viruses like a........ pigeon. I don't know. What kind of thing spreads viruses?

Anyway it was a very frustrating week. We slept a LOT. Up until Saturday I was able to sleep every time I had time, AND through the night! So that was a huge blessing because usually if I take a lot of naps (I'm referring to pre-mission life, obviously) I have a hard time sleeping at night. So I know that was a blessing from God. We had a lot of other really cool experiences that reminded us that this is God's work. One day, in particular, we had been in the apartment all day, just feeling awful. Neither of us could really talk, and when it came time to go to our appointment, Sis. Meier couldn't find her planner (which contains our T pass). We spent about 30 minutes tearing the place apart trying to find it, but couldn't. We missed the bus that would allow us to get to the 6:00 appointment on time, so we called and cancelled that, and decided that if we couldn't find the planner she would just pay the 4 or 5 bucks that it would take to get to our 7:00 appointment with cash. Well, we couldn't find it, so we just headed out. I was so tired and felt SO miserable but I was determined to just do what I could, and to pray for strength. It's a long (not THAT long, but it seems long when you're sick) walk up a very steep hill to catch the 86, and I was not looking forward to it because my head was pounding, my throat hurt, my voice was almost gone, I was hacking up a lung, and every muscle in my body ached. Also, it was pouring rain with 5 inch deep puddles everywhere, and I don't have rainboots. I don't tell you this to make you feel sorry for me, just to show you how powerful God is. I was dreading the walk up the hill but I just said I would DO it. Do you know what? I just focused on talking to Sister Meier and distracted myself and VOILA! We were at the top of the hill and I wasn't even winded. How is this possible? Well, it was not normal, that's for sure. It was a cute little miracle.

When we were on the bus, Sis. Meier looked up suddenly and said, "I know where the planner is!" It was weird, but good that we knew where it was. Then we ended up accidentally getting off a stop too early. So we had to walk a couple extra blocks. About 2 minutes after we got off the bus a cute little Asian girl tracked us down and asked us for help reading her map. She was headed to a street pretty close to ours so we just walked with her. When she found out we were Mormon missionaries she said, "Oh, my friend is a Mormon! That's who I'm going to see!" We asked for the name and whatdoyaknow? She is in our ward. So we got talking a little bit and got this cute girl to the member's house. She was very grateful and probably wouldn't have made it there without our help because she was headed in the completely wrong direction, and her phone died so she couldn't call for directions. If we hadn't been sick, then we wouldn't have come from that direction. If we hadn't lost the planner, we wouldn't have been on the later bus. And if we hadn't gotten off on the wrong stop, we wouldn't have run into her. So God told us, "Hey ladies, I've got this all under control. I have REASONS for doing things, even if your puny minds can't always understand why." Except He said it in a nicer way.

All week when we WERE out of the apartment, we were less than wonderful at contacting because we didn't want to send the message that "if you join our church you get a free cold." But it was amazing to see how many people approached US. Very unusual. God really does provide for ways for His work to go on, even when it's not under what we would consider ideal conditions. 

Switching gears: despite being mentally clouded because of the sickness, I was able to come to a really cool realization this week. In district meeting on Friday, and Elder gave a presentation on one of the Christlike Attributes found in Preach My Gospel (the best chapter EVER - you should all study it.) He chose humility and the discussions mixed very well with the advice from Mom and Dad in your letters this week, and this combination led to personal revelation so thanks! 

In Mom's letter she shared a quote by Steve Jobs, "Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." Pretty cool, eh? Mom elaborated and reflected back on her own mission. Like me, she sometimes had a hard time just opening her mouth. Looking back, she asks herself, "What exactly did I think I had to lose?" but it was exactly what the quote says, "pride, fear of embarrassment or failure," etc.   

I definitely have similar issues for the same reasons.  I realized that again during the district meeting. In the training he brought up two points that specifically stuck out to me. First that humility is our willingness to submit to the will of the Lord. We got into a discussion about "What are you willing to give up for the Lord?" It made me really examine my life as a missionary. I realized that I'm totally willing to do the big things--I'll quit my job, leave my family, wear this nametag and fly out to Boston but when it comes to the smaller things like actually opening up my mouth to the stranger next to me on the bus, I'm somehow unwilling/unable. What is my problem? Why won't I give up THAT for the Lord? It goes right back to that quote. I'm scared of embarrassment and failure. Why can't I give up that pride?? Gah. 

It ties right into the second point from the training:  "Humility is not a sign of weakness--it often requires boldness". That also got me. It is actually more prideful of me to sit there quietly than to boldly declare God's word. Can you believe that? It's so true though!  Pride  is what stops me from being bold and inviting everyone around me to learn more about Christ and His restored church. I never even realized that it was pride before then. I always just thought it was fear/shyness/weakness. But now I think it really just comes down to faith. Do I trust the Lord enough to be bold? I should. Even though I can sincerely say that I believe and even KNOW that Heavenly Father will take care of me, somewhere along the line from knowing to DOING there is a disconnect. I guess that stumblingblock is pride. I feel so blessed to have come that the understanding that this problem of mine is a lack of humility. I definitely don't want to be prideful! That would mean I'm ungrateful and that sounds disgustingly rude and awful. So. Once my voice is back to normal I'm definitely going to try harder to just SPEAK! Please pray (how many times a week do I ask for you all to pray for me??) that I'll be able to do that.

 So. That was one of my favorite things that I learned this week.

I hope you all are doing well! I hope you know how much it means to me to know that you're thinking about and praying for me. I love hearing from you, and I loved seeing the pictures from Capitol Reef.  Joshua - that hair makes me want to vomit on a kitten. Cut it a.s.a.p.  

 Love you,

 Sister Broekhuijsen

[Editor's note:  In all fairness, Joshua had "bed hair" in the picture - it usually looks better!  I just had to leave the quote in, though, because it made me laugh!]

Week 6? 7? I Don't Really Know…

I think it's a good sign when missionaries lose track of time - it means they're "losing themselves in the work" right?  We loved hearing from Melissa today - here's some of what she had to say…I didn't include her entire email, because a lot of it was directed just to us, her immediate family, so I'm sorry if it doesn't all "flow together" as well as usual.

Yesterday was a great day. Sundays are a bit hectic because we're running around trying to get our dinner calendar passed around, take care of our members we know need a boost, set up appointments for the next week, make sure our investigators get to the right class, etc. But yesterday was a very relaxing day. Not because we didn't have to do those things, because we definitely did, but because I was so grateful to just have 6 hours to be TAUGHT instead of being the teacher. We have been so busy that we haven't had our studies for over a week. That's terrible, yes, but I'm choosing to look at the positives: church is a bit of a relief! I love teaching, it is absolutely my favorite part of a mission. But it's a bit of a relief to just be fed for 6 hours. A cool thing happened yesterday, too. At the end of September, I contacted a man named H*, from Turkey, at a bus stop. Forgive me if I've told you about him already. But we got talking and Sis. Meier gave him a passalong card with our number and the chapel's address on it and told him he should come check it out sometime. WELL - to our literally astonishment (my jaw actually dropped), he showed up yesterday! The Elders snatched him right away and sat with him in Sacrament Meeting and answered his questions. It was his first ever Christian church service (he's Muslim) but he must have liked it because he is meeting with the Elders this week! This was MY first fruit of the harvest, I guess. I am the one who talked to him first! And you know what? He DID something about it!! That was an exciting feeling, even if nothing ultimately comes of it.

 Jenny [a member in the singles ward Melissa serves in] served her mission in Indonesia! She had us over for dinner last night so we got to talk a bit about that. She loves Bahmi and Nasi Goreng but had never heard of Loempia! How this is possible I do not know. Is it possible that those are more Vietnamese than Indonesian? Who knows but I felt mega smart. 

We finally got a ward mission leader in LP2. His name is Jordan and he just graduated from BYU. He served his mission here in Boston from 04 to 06 and is now going to BU for his MFA in screenwriting. Cool guy, and he's on fire with a lot of cool ideas to get LP2's missionary work going better. We are in a "war" with the Elders this week to see who can teach more lessons, so we're not even taking a pday today! We're going to have to spread it out between the whole week. Our goal is 21 lessons. So... that will be tough but good. We have to budget an hour of travel between everything so it really limits how many lessons we can teach a week. But we're working hard to do it! 

I'm sick. So, that's fun. It's feeling a lot like a sinus infection, just not as bad as it usually is. I'm almost not miserable when I'm on sudafed and ibuprofen, so I don't want to have to go get some antibiotics if I can avoid it. I just went through a round last month! Arrgg. Let's say some prayers that this DOESN'T develop into a sinus infection and miraculously just stays a cold. :) Aka, let's pray that my body doesn't do what it is best at: getting frequent sinus infections. :) 

I've noticed throughout my life and mission, and most specifically yesterday, that I often get answer to prayers in the form of Hymns. I love when people share their thoughts to me via the lyrics of a hymn.  Just yesterday I had 3 distinct experiences like that! I'll share them because they are super cool. I'll include the hymn number and then the specific line(s) that stood out to me. 

#123 - Oh, May My Soul Commune with Thee — "From wordly care and pain of fear, please bring me sweet release." I love this because it's true! I say that I've had an easy life, and truly I know I'm blessed, but it's nice to hear that it's okay to call fear "pain"ful. Because although I don't have any painful diseases or a painful family life, I do have fears. So maybe it's all okay and I don't need to feel guilty about that. 

#130  — Be Thou Humble — Basically the whole song, but most specifically the first 3 lines of the second verse.

"Be thou humble in thy calling, and the Lord thy God shall teach thee            To serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love."

That's exactly what I want! To learn to serve his children GLADLY. Not just to serve them because I love to be obedient, but to be GLAD about it. I'm a bit scared to pray for humility, though, because I don't doubt for one second that He would bless me with it :)

#165  — Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide — "Lone will be the night if I cannot commune with Thee" But GUESS WHAT JOSE? I CAN commune with Him, so I don't have to ever feel alone! It's related to my love of Pres. Eyring's talk from this past conference about feeling hurt at the idea of not being able to testify of Christ. I love that I recognize that my life WOULD be lonely if I didn't "commune" with my Heavenly Father everyday.

Well that's about it! Thank you again for all your support. I'm grateful that it hurts so bad to be away from you all. I really am thankful for that. I want everyone to be able to love their families THAT much. So I guess that's what's keeping me going out here!

Love you!

-Sister Broekhuijsen

P.S.  Boston Fun Fact of the Day:  There are so many squirrels here. It is the cutest thing known to mankind. Also, it is apparently NOT a myth that they bury acorns in the ground for the winter. I've seen it happen with my own true eyes. 

Proof She's in Boston!

We got a camera memory card in the mail today - with photos!  Here are some of our favorites.

Melissa explained that they randomly found this painting of a dinosaur in an alley, and she "loved it."  

This is on the Boston temple grounds.  

Isn't the Boston Temple beautiful?!  They got to go there on Columbus Day (Monday, 10 October.)

The sister in the red sweater is her companion, Sister Meier.

The two sisters at the left of the picture are the other companionship that Melissa and Sister Meier share an apartment with.  

Columbus Day

As promised, I am posting Melissa's latest email now that it has arrived.  Happily, waiting for it didn't require too much patience on my part.  She sounds great, and since she's not a good liar, I think we can all assume she's actually doing great!  Here's what she had to say today:

Well Hello.

I hope you figured out that because of Columbus Day yesterday, i couldn't e-mail because all of the libraries were closed. Everything in the whole universe was closed, actually. Because apparently the East is more appreciative of Chris' achievements. I don't remember even getting the day off from school!! Lame.

But I'm doing so well.

Because of the holiday, they opened up the temple for a special Stake Day. So we got to go! The Boston Temple is simply wonderful.  I was thrilled. It was a beautiful day, and a nice time.

This has been a great week! Tomorrow marks my 6 week point. So I have been on my mission for one transfer! That also means that I've been out here in Boston for as long as I was in the MTC. Awesome. 

The work is... going. We still only have our one investigator, A*. We are teaching a bunch of lessons, though, which is great! I am really loving getting to know the ward members. We teach a set of "member missionary lessons" to the members at dinner appointments and other just drop in visits. It's really nice because I love telling people how they can help this work.  It's hard because I feel a bit hypocritical because I was like the worst member missionary known to mankind back when I was a normal person. But I guess maybe devoting everything about my existence to serving the Lord NOW makes up for that a bit. 

A* is doing well. I told you last week about the lesson we had with her about feeling the Spirit. WELLLLL... she came to church this Sunday and told us that she FEELS it!! We have a bit more to teach her, but it looks like she is well on her way to baptism, and MUCH more importantly, true conversion. I love her. It's hard because she asks the tough questions. But she is so loving and responds well to our care and concern. One time we told her that we had been praying for her and she was shocked and SO grateful. She almost started crying! I am GREAT at loving people, and so I think that will be a huge way that I can help both investigators and members out here. 

It is heartbreaking when potential investigators cancel on us. Two weeks ago we met a man named J* (I don't remember if I've already told you this story). We talked for a while and got his contact info. He was smoking and we told him we could help him quit (the Church's 12 Step ARP). He seemed SO excited about that and we texted him almost daily after that. Then the day of the appointment he just stopped talking to us. He didn't show up to the appt, and hasn't responded to our calls or texts since. I know I'm growing as a missionary because it was so HARD for me to accept that! Even though I only knew him for like 20 minutes, I was thrilled to be able to teach him about the Gospel! I knew exactly how it would benefit his life and wanted so badly for him to find the same joy that I have found through this Church.

I love the ward members. Our dinner calendar is SO full - the members feed us 6 nights a week! So nice. They are so generous, and I am loving getting to know them. I feel so uplifted by them that I'm starting to think that the reason I was called to Boston was not because of the people I'm going to TEACH, but because of these amazing people that I'm meeting and learning from. 

Well, funny story of the week: "Sister Broekhuijsen Scares Small Children" 

One day, Sister Broekhuijsen was riding on a bus between teaching appointments. She sat down next to a beautiful little black girl who was doing homework. Sister Broekhuijsen sat there awkwardly for several minutes until she decided that she should practice talking to human beings. She looked over, recognized a happily familiar chart and asked the girl, "Are you doing your times tables?" The girl looked timidly, smiled, and nodded her head.

Several minutes elapsed in awkward silence because Sister Broekhuijsen doesn't know how to ask more than one question at a time. Then she figured out the perfect way to keep the conversation going! "I've just GOT to teach her the finger trick for the 9's. She'll be grateful forever!" thought she. So she looked over and asked if the girl already knew the trick. When the answer was in the negative, Sis. Broekhuijsen, trying to be careful, sensitive, and not overwhelming, asked the little girl, "Would you like me to teach it to you?"

The girl smiled and nodded again. So Sister Broekhuijsen, AFTER OBTAINING PERMISSION, began teaching her the trick when disaster struck. The girl looked out the window, gasped, and ran out of the bus without making eyecontact or saying a word.

Sister Meier laughed. 

Sister Broekhuijsen felt terrible because she had almost made the girl miss her stop! "That's what I get for trying to be nice, I suppose." She thought. 

The bus rounded a corner, drove for several blocks, and then got stuck in disgusting rush hour traffic. About 5 minutes later, the little girl came running alongside the bus and knocked to get on. The busdriver opened the doors, let her on, and she ran to the back of the bus and grabbed a little boy who had fallen asleep on the seats. She pulled him by the arm and with eyes wide and panic in her voice urged him, "Come OOON! We've got to goOOO!" He snapped out of it and they ran off the bus and back down the sidewalk together. 

A mean Haitian woman who had seen the whole thing then yelled at Sister Broekhuijsen, "BECAUSE SHE TALK TO YOU - SHE FORGET HER BROTHER!!" 

Sis. Broekhuijsen felt terrible and vowed to never talk to humans again. 

The End.

That last line is only half true, because I'm fairly confident she has recovered the ability to talk since then. But I have it from a good source that she really did feel terrible, and all her companion could do was laugh :) 

This past Sunday we had a very interesting day. Here's a bit of background. About 2 years ago, the Longfellow Park building (our normal chapel at Harvard Square) burned down because of an electrical problem. When it caught on fire, the Quaker community across the park rushed over and helped us retrieve as many paintings, documents, and equiptment as possible. Then they let us store a lot of family history records in their basement for the year and a half that it took to rebuild the chapel. So they threw a "Welcome Mormons back to Longfellow Park" day for us! Sacrament Meeting was combined, then our Sunday School hour was taught by two of their members. It was basically an introduction to the beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends (Just fyi, Quakers:Religious Society of Friends::Mormons:Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). And THEIR Sunday School class (called "Forum) was taught by two of our ward missionaries. It was a really cool experience! Then we had a big get together on the grass with food, and gave little church tours in small groups. Very interesting and fun.

Anyway I'm running out of time, but I just want you to know how much I love you all, and I'm so grateful for your support and frequent prayers. I'm grateful that I miss you so bad, because I'm grateful to have people to miss!

-Sister Broekhuijsen 

P.S. I forgot to add a Boston Fun Fact of the Day! Here it is. There is a freakin' giant river here, and also what's known as an ocean. Which means that there is a lot of water, which means that I don't feel guilty taking slightly longer than normal showers. It is a GREAT thing. :)

Patience Is a Virtue

We waited patiently for an email from Melissa today.  Our internet was down for several hours and we hoped that we might get something when it came back up, but no such luck.  We DID, however, get an email from a friend of hers that happens to live in Boston.  Here is what SHE had to say:

I am a friend of Sister Broekhuijsen and she has asked me to give you the message that she is unable to email home until tomorrow because the libraries are closed for the holiday [Columbus Day.]  She just wanted you to not worry and she will be sure to communicate with you as soon as she can.  

I saw her yesterday and she looks fabulous.  As always, her quick wit entertains many.  She is doing such good works here in Boston and we are so fortunate to have her serving in the single's wards.

So, we will wait patiently (some more) until tomorrow!   I think I can do that…

Week in Review

Last week Melissa mentioned in her email home that she was feeling homesick - so we were especially anxious to hear from her today and had been hoping and praying that she was making the adjustment to missionary life.  It sounds like she is!  Thanks to all of you who write to her and keep her in your thoughts and prayers as well.

I am doing SO much better than last week. Thank you all for your prayers and fasting. Cool story, actually: So Monday was really bad when I was e-mailing you, but then I felt lifted almost immediately afterward, and later that night I was really blessed with a great lesson with a member. I LOVED her the instant I met her, and we got too excited about science together. It was a great experience and I know it was because of your prayers. Then, Tuesday, I KNEW that you were fasting for me! I just knew. The Spirit is cool like that. So I KNEW that you were fasting, then Friday I got your letters, and when I read what Mom said about fasting, I said, "I told ya so, Sis. Broekhuijsen!" So that was an amazing thing to have happen too. This week has been really great! We've been a bit more busy, and I'm getting better at talking to people. I'm really good at saying my "Good Morning!"s but when it's not morning time I have a harder time because whenever I say, "Good Afternoon!" I accidentally say it in a fake British accent and it gets really awkward. So I usually stick to a simple "Hello." Also, one day last week I talked to FOUR people on a bus. I didn't get to talking about Jesus, but I made some nice, awkward small talk. It sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I really am seeing it as a blessing -- my tongue is being loosed, just like I'm praying for every day!

So yes, I still have some hard days. It's not fun to wake up and exercise. Who likes that? No one.  But I'm doing it! I have some really enjoyable experiences and last night in my prayers, I said that I was thankful to be here. That was a first and a HUGE step for me. So your prayers are working! Thanks so much!

Wasn't General Conference simply marvelous? We had our only investigator (because everyone else got baptized in the past two months!) there for 3 of the 4 sessions. Her name is A* and she is incredible. She doesn't really have any religious background, but she just noticed that the people that were Mormon were happier than others, and she wanted that. So she walked into church one day about a month ago, and we've been teaching her ever since! She is really eager to learn, and read the BoM in like 2 weeks. That's on top of spending 16 hours a day at school/work. Every night when she got home she would read for an HOUR before going to bed. And she retains it all! She always has really good questions, and is one of the smartest people I've ever met. Anyway, we met with her on Wednesday and she told us that she LIKES coming to Church and reading, but she's just not FEELING anything. At this point she was in 3 Nephi and Sis. Meier and I were baffled. It's impossible for her to be that far, to be earnestly praying to know of its truthfulness, and to not feel anything. So we realized that she HAS felt the Spirit, she just doesn't KNOW it! So every single prayer since then, we have been praying for her to be able to feel. We needed to know what WE should say, and what things to study to tell her and convince her that it doesn't have to be some big, miraculous experience. It has been so cool to be focusing everything in my studies on the Holy Ghost - I've really learned a LOT. Anyway, we prayed and studied SO hard, then Sunday morning, right before General Conference, we had a lesson with her about recognizing the Holy Ghost, and then watched with her some more. It was PERFECT. Even in the opening prayer for the morning session on Sunday, the person asked for the "missionaries to be able to find those who are ready, and for those who are ready to feel the Spirit." Um... THANKS, man!

So yeah, we watched Saturday Morning at T*'s house. T* is a member who lives in Boston proper, right by Fenway Park. Basically I'm convinced that I am walking the same ground as Jimmy Fallon (Fever Pitch, in case you were wondering). She is SO cute and made us all lunch and let us come and watch. Then we went over to the Harvard chapel and watched the afternoon session there. Then Sunday morning we had the lesson with A* that I told you about (also at T*'s house) and then we stayed at T*'s for the last session. It was SO nice. In between sessions we played Cranium. I don't know if that's 100% missionary kosher, but it was fun and I dominated because I rule at that game. Plus I was playing with members, less actives, AND an investigator, so that's okay, right? Oh no, now I'm justifying. Boo.

Anyway, conference was wonderful. I nearly SCREAMED when they announced the Provo Tabernacle Temple. Can you believe it???? I had to explain to everyone there the story of what happened. So, so cool. It makes my heart jiggle with enthusiasm.

And yes, they mentioned Boston twice! It was so funny when they said, "From Boston to Bangkok" because our Elders were there (Winegar and Vanderhoek (what a good, Dutch name)) and when he said that, Vanderhoek said, "Guaranteed, my mom is crying right now." hahahah. It was hilarious. Then on Sunday they said something about a Boston Children's hospital and we all cheered. Yay for references! There were also a LOT of stories about Russia! So basically the WHOLE point of General Conference this time was to be related to Andrew and me. We are way special.

I have too many favorite moments about conference to write here, so I'll have to write it all up in a letter to you.

Boston fun fact of the day: There are no grocery stores close to me. Seriously, none. Also, there are no WalMarts or Targets close either, so we do all our shopping at CVS. I have been told that CVS is the Wal Mart of Massachusetts. Well let me tell you, they are NOT "rollin' back prices everyday." Everything is mega expensive out here. I usually like to gauge things in terms of Ben and Jerry's cartons of ice cream. At Kohlers they're usually around $3.99. At Target they're $3.49, and at Winco (Oh how I miss Winco) they're $3.25. WHELLLLLL. They are like $7.49 here. If THAT doesn't prove my point, I don't know WHAT will :)

Anyway once again I am somehow running out of time. But thank you SO much, and be comforted in knowing that your prayers are working. I am starting to enjoy myself more, and more importantly, I'm not as hindered by my homesickness, so i can go out and just be a better missionary. I am trying to be EXACTLY obedient, so even though it would be WAY easy to spend more than an hour e-mailing, I'm not going to. I know that I am being taken care of, and I'm thrilled every time I hear of a way that you are, too.

Love, love, LOVE,

 Sis. Broekhuijsen

 P.S. A lot of Haitian/Creole old ladies come into the CEOC food pantry where we do service. They are all really really rude, so that's fun. But I DID learn my first word in Creole! "Mum-buh"-- it means Peanut Butter. You're welcome.