A Photo!

We received a nice letter from Melissa's mission president, President Evans, on Tuesday.  Enclosed with the letter was a photo of Melissa with President Evans and his wife.  So good to see her smiling face!

We're Not in Utah County Anymore, Toto!

After what felt like a very LONG time, we got email from Melissa this morning.  So nice to know where she is and what she's been up to!  Here are some quotes from her email.

I am HERE!  Mondays ARE my pdays, and I get an hour to e-mail so hopefully I'll be able to write everything that I want to. Time is already ticking and I'm a slow writer/thinker so I'll do the best I can.

I am serving IN the city. I live in Brighton.  Boston is beautiful. We often drive on the highway right along the Charles River and see the skyline all lit up - it is fantastic. Ah, I have so much to tell you I'm already getting stressed out but hopefully what I say makes some sense.

So. I am with Sis. Meier. She is a wonderful trainer and is very kind and patient with me. She is going home December 16, so she's training for her last two transfers, which, as I understand is somewhat atypical. But she's great! We live in an apartment with two other sisters, Sis. Barben (from Cedar City) and Sis. Carpenter (from Gilbert, AZ). They are all super nice and trying really hard to make me feel welcome. When I got in on Wednesday night (after dinner and some orientation at the President's home in Needham) they greeted me and had even made my bed for me! Super thoughtful.

So yesterday was my first baptism! Her name is J*. She's 42, a single mom of 2 teenagers, and is about the most loving person ever. She is technically my first baptism because I was here, and because I did help with the service and everything, but because I never taught her and she's had this date set since before I even entered the MTC, it doesn't feel quite the same. She's so nice. She calls us all her sisters and calls me "Brookie" because she can't say Broekhuijsen. She was just so READY. It was cool to see her really understand, and then bear her testimony about how much it means to her to really KNOW that she is a daughter of God. Oh man, I was a wreck (surprise, surprise). I wish I could give you more details but I really don't have time! I'm hoping to maybe send some pages from my journal home so you could read them. I write a LOT in there.

Let me tell you a bit about how my day to day life is. Sis. Meier and I sleep in the family room (we do have beds, in addition to the couches that are in there) and we have a big beautiful desk and lots of space for books/binders/notebooks. The other sisters are in the one of the bedrooms, and the other bedroom has all our dressers and is where we all get ready, because the bathroom is teensy tiny. We do have a kitchen, but because we're out all day, we don't cook a ton. A lot of times the members or our investigators take us out for dinner/lunch. I've eaten more pizza here in 5 days than the rest of my life combined. We volunteer at a food pantry, and they give us a TON of food for free, so we don't have to spend any money on groceries. It's such a blessing!  It's kind of like "Bountiful Baskets" because we never know what we're going to get, but then we just have to try to come up with meals based on what we have. It is a fun challenge.

Because we live in the city, our schedule has to be modified a bit. Normally, our schedule would be: 6:30-7:00 exercise, 7:00-8:00 get ready and eat breakfast, 8:00-9:00 personal study, and 9:00-11:00 comp study (this new 12 week training program gives us an extra HOUR of comp study!) then head out for the day. BUT because we're here and we have to take public transportation (which will now be referred to solely as "the T" because I'm a true Bostonian) we have to leave way early for everything, so we have to fit in our studies whenever we can. It takes at least an hour to go anywhere helpful. Our church building is just off Harvard Square. That's right, the actual Harvard. I walk around Harvard almost every day! I even met with an investigator on campus and ate in one of the cafeterias in the law school. It's weird, but it's cool. I think just by sitting in there my IQ went up several dozen points (as well as my pride.) It's cool to be that close. I'm starting to get the hang of the different buses and subways I have to take everywhere. We pick up the 86 about 3/4 of a mile up the hill from our place, and that can take us straight to Harvard, which is nice. Then the 57 takes us to Kendall Square/MIT when we need to go to the Stake Center. And on our way home from the stake center, we take the greenline and then hop on the 64? I think? We've only done that one once. It's tough but it's not phasing me too bad. I've got a pretty good head for direction, and I'm trying really hard.

Funny story, and the reason for the e-mail title: The buses do HAVE a schedule, but they don't actually show up according to the schedule. So basically you have to get to the stop 10 minutes before it's supposed to be there... and then you just wait until it comes. It might be right on time, or you might be standing there in the humidity for 45 mintues. So. The other day was one of those waiting days. This girl was getting really antsy and eventually just squatted down, rolled up a joint, and had at it. It was hilarious. She had little baggies filled with paper, another with weed, and just rolled it all up in broad daylight. I'm pretty sure cops were driving by and not doing a thing about it. I guess that's normal but I found it funny. I'm so not in Utah. 

Let's make a list of things I'm grateful for:

-Because we run the AC on full blast 24/7, it doesn't get too humid in our apartment!

-The bus stops are all within a mile of our apartment!

-President and Sister Evans are the sweetest, nicest couple around

-My companion and roommates are all very kind and easy to get along with

-Like I said, totally free groceries!

-Sometimes I have really cool moments where I get to see the Charles, and the Skyline, and I say to myself, "What a wonderful world"

-There is wildlife up the waZOO here. Pres. and Sis. Evans said that they have seen foxes, deer, wild turkeys, squirrels and chipmunks. Plus there are many hideous pigeons

-Earplugs. Nuff said

-So far, I have not gotten yelled at.

Things that I am grateful for because I'm trying to have a good attitude:

-With all this humidity, I'm saving at LEAST 2 dollars a year on moisturizer!

-The fact that it's 46 degrees in my apartment (because of the AC) makes it so that I get to sleep really well under my thick comforter

So, clearly I am very fortunate. Really, I know I'm being taken care of.

I love you all! I'm thankful for your prayers and support. Please write me letters! I haven't gotten any out here yet and I'd really love to hear from people.

Please know that I know that I'm being blessed. I have seen little things that remind me that God loves me. And even though this is hard, I don't ever have to doubt that I'm doing what God wants me to. 

This is truly Christ's church, back on the earth. And I'm so thankful to know that.

-Sister Broekhuijsen

Last MTC Email!

It's a mixed emotions kind of a day.  Of course, it's always wonderful to get email from our favorite Sister missionary, and we're very excited to hear all about the next phase of her mission - in Boston!  But, knowing how much she has loved the MTC, it's a little sad she has to leave so soon!  And, I selfishly will miss having her 30 minutes away (even if I can't go see her there!)  Anyway, here are some words from today's email:

First of all, thank you SO so so much for the packages! I love that I just write a big ol' list of things I need and they show up at my mail room mere days later. I really appreciate it.  I have SO many dinosaur stickers right now that I'm basically bursting forth with joy and gladness. That does NOT mean to stop sending them to me. I could never have enough. With my kitten stickers too, the possibilites are truly endless. :) You know me too well.

It will be fun to have Vancey [Melissa's Uncle Vance, who is coming for the BYU football game this weekend] and crew over this weekend! Let's hope the Cougs don't suck as bad as they did this PAST week. Geez. Speaking of that, Sis. Tofete and I dressed up in blue and white - very matchy - in support of the Y on Saturday. I have more school spirit here in the MTC than I ever did when I was actually going to school. What does that say about me? Anyway, I guess showing my cougar pride was NOT helpful to them because yes, I did hear the score, and yes, I was disappointed. Geez, Jake Heaps! Just kidding. I don't know if it's his fault, that's just the only football player's name I know. Unless Fui Vakapuna is still there. That's the other one.

So, this past week I got a sinus infection. And oh MAN was it a bad one. But you know what, I'm choosing to look at all the blessings. It showed up Thursday afternoon. Very rapidly and severely. I had the worst sore throat I've ever had, but no congestion, so I thought it must be strep. I went to the health clinic first thing Friday morning, and got an appointment for 2:40 that afternoon. By that time the sore throat had lessened, but I had MAJOR conjestion, headache, teethpain, the works. So it was my classic sinus infection, just a really bad version. The strep test came back negative, thank goodness, so I didn't have to worry about spreading that to my companions and other roommates! The Doctor said that because the air is so dry here in all the buildings (because they crank up the ventilation to try to not spread airborn sicknesses so much) it makes people more susceptible to sinus infections and the like. So that might explain why it was so bad.The clinic isn't open on Saturdays, so if it hadn't hit so suddenly, I probably would have just tried to wait it out, and then it would have been really bad on Saturday/Sunday. So as it is, I have already been on my abx for 4 days! I'm glad it happened this way, and I really do know that that's a blessing. I asked the Doctor, with tears running down my face, if this would delay my flight out on Wednesday, and he said that as long as it doesn't get worse, and I don't develop a fever, I should be just fine. 

So Friday night I slept terribly. Let me rephrase that. Friday night, I didn't sleep, and it was terrible. I was in so much pain, and I was coughing really badly and couldn't breathe. Even Sudafed and Tylenol weren't cutting it. I also woke up with really painful sneezing fits. Who has ever heard of those? No one. I swear they're not real, but they happened to me. Anyway, Saturday day was pretty miserable too. And Saturday night was even worse than Friday. I was definitely feeling worse. So Sunday morning I asked Elder Morrill and his companion (Elder Escobar) for a Priesthood blessing. They were kind enough to oblige, and I've been feeling much better. Between the abx kicking in and the blessing, I'm able to feel almost 100% as long as I stay up on my sudafed and tylenol dosing. In the blessing, I was promised that this sickness would NOT delay me getting to Boston. So that was a huge relief. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by worthy Priesthood holders here at the MTC. 

Going without MJ [Michael Jackson - for those of you who read this blog but haven't actually every MET Melissa!  :-)] has not been as bad as I thought it would be. I'm trying to REALLY love the hymns. I hum hymns every night in the shower and I often get awkward compliments through the curtain :) What would REALLY make my day would be if Jim Croce had a CD of hymns. Man, I really miss that guy's voice. I had another really cool experience with a hymn, though, this week. We sang "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" and I choked up at the line "Jesus, listening, can hear the songs I cannot sing!" because I usually CAN'T sing when I get too emotional! I love that thought. 

Something I've come to love here at the MTC is that I get so much comfort and joy out of being able to say, "You don't have to take my word for it!" when I'm teaching a lesson. I feel like LeVar Burton in the Reading Rainbow. But really, that's one HUGE advantage to being a missionary for this church! I just have to teach, and I have perfect faith that God will convert these people through the Holy Ghost, if they're willing to listen. How great is it, that we can KNOW things for ourselves? I'm convinced that that's really one of the biggest blessings He gives us. 

I love love LOVE being here. Even though I'm by no means sick of the MTC, I AM excited to get out to the field. It will be more real, and in some ways it will be easier not being in Provo, so that I'm not constantly reminded of how close I am to my old life. 

I'll leave you with a couple new  definitions for faitht that I learned this past week at Sacrament Meeting. 

"Faith is not believing that God can, it's knowing that He WILL." 

and 

"Faith is not about everything turning out okay, it's about being okay no matter how everything turns out." 

I love to think of it that way. 

Love,  

Sister Melissa Brownielocks* Broekhuijsen

*Brownielocks is Melissa's dad's nickname for her from when she was little.  He starts out his letters to her now, "Dear Sister Brownielocks."

 

Mission Home Address

Since I am still a real novice at the whole blog thing, I haven't figured out how to put Melissa's new address under the "write to Melissa" tab, so I'll put it here for now.  Melissa will be leaving the MTC early Wednesday morning (21 September.)  So, tomorrow before noon is your last chance to write to her (DearElder.com) before she leaves.  You can send normal letters to the following address.  It is not where she'll be living, but it is the address of the mission home and will eventually get to her.

Sister Melissa Broekhuijsen
Massachusetts Boston Mission
182 W Central St.
Natick, MA  01760

A Few Photos (Again)

Hello faithful readers!  We received a letter from Melissa on Thursday, including a memory card from her camera.  So, here are a few photos for your enjoyment - also a couple of miscellaneous quotes from her letter.

The more I am here, the more I am excited for Joshua and Garrett and even Mom and Dad to get here.  How cool that we can all experience this!

Like I said in the email, time is going by quickly, but it still feels like real life was forever ago.  This time next week I'll be nearly packed!  

Random fact, I found a cat hair (Presto's, I think) on one of my skirts the other day and nearly burst into tears.  Not because I'm sad to be here – it was just a weird trigger.  Kind of like Mom and Andrew's sock, ha ha.  [Editor's note:  After Andrew left on his mission, I found one of his socks while cleaning a bathroom and basically had a little mini-meltdown!  Funny the things that can trigger strong emotional responses!]

We get to host missionaries tomorrow!  I'm excited for that.  I don't know how they pick which districts get to be hosts, but I'm feeling lucky.  Especially because I'm here for such a short time!  

Week Two!

I was checking my email every hour on the hour until today's email arrived this afternoon! Sorry it took me a while to get it posted, but here it is!

I have seen so many miracles this week. Not like... part the Red Sea miracles, but miracles still the same. There is an Elder in my district who is the only member of his family (10 children) that is active and that served/is serving a mission. He said one of his main motivations was to be a good example to his older siblings and his Dad. This past week he got a letter from his dad saying that he went to church, and that he's thankful for his example. Good, good stuff.

Also, we had an amazing experience in the TRC. On Friday we had our second appointment with our "progressing investigator" L*. She was hard to teach because she just seemed so apathetic about everything! We made the mistake last time of not opening up enough, and just diving into the lesson so this time we really tried to ask her questions, get to know her, and really develop a relationship with her so she could trust us and more easily accept our message. Well, about 15 minutes in, I asked her this question, "What matters most to you?" and she started bawling. She said that she hasn't thought about that in a long time. That nothing really means anything to her anymore, that since her sister died in 2007 it's been really hard for her. She was crying more than we expected, though, and after a few minutes she stopped us and said, "I'm gonna have to break character. And I'm not supposed to do that, so I'll be sure to tell my boss, but I need to explain something that I can't explain while I'm in character." She went on to explain that her "story" as L* the investigator is actually her real story, 4 years ago. Her mom is a drug addict, she never knew her father. She was in foster care from the age of 9, and ended up on the streets and had cancer. Two missionaries contacted her and she was converted. She came to Utah with 20 dollars in her pocket and went to the Huntsman Cancer Institute for treatment. She has been a member for 4 years. She explained to us that she's been having an especially rought time recently, and that she hasn't been to church in about 4 weeks. But she said that my question made her realize what IS important to her. "The gospel's what matter. Christ's what matter. That what matter to me." She kept telling us that we really followed that Spirit by asking that question, and that she is so grateful for that reminder. She is just the sweetest lady. We were all bawling, and we closed by kneeling in prayer together, thanking God for such a powerful feeling of the Spirit. It was an incredible experience.

I cannot even tell you how fast time is flying here. I can't believe I've been here for 2 weeks already! The days are insanely long (sometimes when I'm writing in my journal I'll think, "Was that really just this MORNING? Feels like forever ago!") but it really is flying by. I LOVE being so busy.

I sang "An Angel From on High" in Sacrament Meeting this week. It was going to be a duet with Elder Morrill but he is a really light base, and my semi-truck of a voice was kind of.... destroying him. So he said it would be better to just have me do a solo. I fought, but he insisted. It wasn't me just being a jerk!! The performance was okay. Nothing great but not my worst.

Being here on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 was an amazing, amazing thing. If you would have asked baby Melissa where she would be 10 years in the future, there is no way she would have said that I would be here in the MTC. Even LAST year on September 11th, I wouldn't have thought it possible. But here I am! And I'm so grateful. For our Sunday night Fireside, we got to watch the Music and the Spoken Word special edition with Tom Brokaw narrating. It was SO cool. If you haven't seen it - GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! I was (not surprisingly) bawling the whole time. For the closing song, we sang "Called to Serve." They didn't have us stand up (because the MTC is trying to get rid of traditions including standing when singing that song, and even tie exchanges! Weird, huh?) but I wanted to stand SO bad. By the time we go to the second verse - we were all standing. We couldn't be contained. It was SO powerful! I absolutely loved it. I couldn't sing because I was crying too hard, but just to listen to thousands and thousands of missionaries singing that with such power--it was an expericnce I'll never forget.

We got our travel plans this week! I'm the travel leader which means I have to call church headquarters if anything goes wrong. Nice. We are going to be on Delta flight 270 leaving at 9:45 am on 9/21. It's the 4 of us from our district, and another four from another district, I think Spanish speaking. Should be cool! I'm sad to leave here, but excited to get to Boston! Perhaps being outside of Provo, this mission will feel a bit more real.

Anyway, the weather has been just incredible and we study outside every chance we get. It's hard, though. Being in Provo and thinking about BYU. I miss it, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm so lucky to get that confirmation so often.

Love you all! Thanks for everything,

Sis. Broekhuijsen

A Few Photos

We received a little package from Melissa (Sister Broekhuijsen) today. There was a letter for us (her parents) and one for Garrett, but not one for Joshua because the "little schmoo schmah" hadn't written to her yet! Anyway, there was also an SD card from her camera with a few MTC pictures. I'm not sure I'll remember how to do captions on the photos, so I'll just tell you that the two other women in the photos are Sister Tofete and Sister Roy, her "tripanions."

Melissa closed her letter to us by saying:

I mostly want to tell you to not WORRY. Keep praying for me, please, but don't worry. I think the worst of the adjustment shock is over. I am getting used to the schedule. I'm following the rules. I'm eating healthily. I'm being watched over and loved. Mostly I'm growing. I know everyone always says this but it's so true — I have learned more about preaching the gospel and about myself in the last 6 days than I could ever have guessed I would. I am not only surviving, I'm thriving here. So please don't worry.

Love, Love, LOVE you,
Sis. Broekhuijsen

First Email!

Oh happy day! How I love P-Day! And I love email! It's great to know that Melissa (Sister Broekhuijsen) wrote these words just minutes before we received them. What a joy to hear from her and to know she's doing well. Here are some excerpts from her first email home. Enjoy!

I have SO much to tell you about but I don't know if I'll have time. I have been writing down things to tell you all week, and they're not in any particular order, so I'll just go, and hopefully they will make sense.

The first day was crazy. After you dropped me off, I went with the elders for a few yards, then met a host sister who took me to do my registration business, and took me up to my room. I didn't even have time to unpack! We dropped off the suitcases and ran around some more. We met our districts and companions, and had a little get to know you meeting. Then we went into a giant hall in the main building and had a little Welcome Devotional type thing where the MTC Presidency and their wives spoke to us. It was really cool because for the opening song we sang The Army of Helaman song, but they changed the words to "We are NOW the Lord's Missionaries to bring the world His truth" instead of "we will be." It was really, really powerful.


So. Let me tell you a little bit about how I live. I'm in a dorm-style room with 3 bunkbeds. There is my tripanionship (which I think I told you about in that first letter) and two other girls, I mean sisters, Sisters Bown and Wilson. We all get along so that is great!

Our district is amazing. This is who we have all our classes with (two 3-hour blocks of class every day) and we eat with them, and go to firesides and devotionals with them. They are so cool! We are the only sisters, and then there are 8 Elders. Elders Escobar, Morrill, and Winegar are going to Boston with me! Yay! Today is Baby Winegar's 19th birthday. We are so proud. :) Then we have Elders Bartholomew, Fultz & Nielsen (companions), and Hill & Troester who are going to Houston, TX along with Sister Tofete. We all get along really well. I love them, and it's cool to see them bear their testimonies, and to hear why they're here. We usually begin class with a song and prayer, and OH my. I'm pretty sure a couple Elders are tone deaf, and a couple others see the notes on the page as guidelines rather than instructions to be followed. But LOOK- the Spirit is blessing me because I'm not even the teensiest bit annoyed :)

So we are on a new curriculum that they just switched to last month. It involves a LOT of teaching. Every day we are teaching a lesson to a fake investigator (who is one of our teachers, acting) and three times a week we teach volunteers who come in and pretend to be investigators. They have very defined characters, so it's really cool.

Our meal schedule is really weird. I'm pretty sure they're convinced we're in a nursing home. We eat breakfast at 7:00 every morning, so that's not bad at all. But then lunch is at 11:30, and dinner is at 4:30! It's funny. The food is not bad. I'm trying to be healthy and I eat at least one banana every day. Even if it is gross and mushy and makes me gag a little bit, I finish it. So be proud.

In one of our workshops, and in class a couple times, we've been using this NY Times online thing where they interviewed a ton of people they found in New York City and set their voice recordings to pictures of them. They are INCREDIBLE. We've been using them to try to learn how to love people as the Savior loves them. That makes missionary work infinitely more personal and easier, actually. We've been told to treat our investigators like our own family. Of COURSE I would share this message with my family if they didn't have it! I LOVE them! And I want them to have it! It's just like that. it's called "1 in 8 Million" and I think you should look it up and have an FHE with that. Just watch a profile, then as a family ask questions like, "What do you think Heavenly Father would say to these people if He were talking directly to them?" "How would having the gospel improve her life?" "In what ways is he already prepared to hear our message?" It would be way cool.

Probably the hardest adjustment so far is not having instant communication. The first 3 days I was writing down all kinds of really cool insights I had found that would help for your Relief Society lesson, Mom. But then I realized that I wouldn't get to tell you until today! So that was weird. I hope it went well even without my incredible suggestions.

Well, I just want to say thanks again for the packages and your prayers. I can really feel them. I'm doing really well, and I know that that has to do with the Spirit comforting me. I couldn't do it without help. I just couldn't. It's so hard, but it's so DOABLE with the Lord's help.

Sorry if I forgot to thank you for something - don't think I'm not grateful I just don't have time, I don't want it to kick me off.

Love you all,

Sister Broekhuijsen

First Contact!

I tried very hard not to get my hopes up about hearing from Melissa today, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find a red envelope in the mailbox from Sister Broekhuijsen! Hooray! I won't include the entire letter (you probably don't care what things she still needs us to send her!) but here are some excerpts from her first letter home.

Well, Day 1 is now over and I'm barely worse for the wear! The more I think about it, the more I'm just so grateful that they do curbside drop off. Like Mom predicted, they've kept me so busy I haven't had any time to be sad. The first day here was so overwhelming, but so full of tender mercies (yup…tender mercies. I'm THAT girl now) that I can't help but be grateful.

First of all, I am in a trio companionship with 2 other sisters. We lovingly call it a "tripanionship." Andrew would be so proud. :-) Sister Roy is 25, from Maine, and is serving in Temple Square. Sister Fofete is from Salt Lake City and is serving in Houston. Our district consists of the 3 of us ladies and 8 Elders who are all serving in either Houston or Boston We're still warming up to each other but I think things will work out just great.

My companions are so awesome - definitely an answer to prayers because we get along really well. I have a lot more to tell you and not nearly enough time so I will just try to write an awesome email. My P-days are Tuesdays (like brother like sister!)<-- not a phrase -- so you will next hear from me then.

Know that I love you, that I'm doing well, and that I could still use about a trillion prayers.

Next in the letter comes the "bossy, complainful list of things I need." Then she says:

Thank you for your prayers. In my blessing when I was set apart I was promised that I would able to feel your prayers, and I really have!

Love you,
Sister Broekhuijsen