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."