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. :)