Flying By

As promised in the post I did 10 minutes ago - here is the official email from Melissa this week!  She sounds so great!  FYI:  You may want to have some tissues handy…

Wow. This transfer is just flying by! This is the last full week! Next week is just a nub of a week! We'll get our T-Texts (text messages the APs send out the Saturday before transfers that tell everyone where they're being transferred to) THIS Saturday! That is just crazy to me. I would normally feel relatively calm about what's going on with ME because Sis. Edwards and I should be together for a full second transfer because of this new training program... BUT... There's a hiccup in the plans this time. It is the following: There are only 3 English Sisters who are not currently training anyone right now... and there are FOUR new English Sisters coming out! So something crazy will have to go down. Perhaps they'll put two greenies with a single trainer? Perhaps they'll put a greenie with someone who's already training? Perhaps they'll pull Sister Edwards away from me (since she's so amazing already) and make us BOTH train? I don't know. But it will be very interesting to see how everything goes down.

In other news... there is snow on the ground!! We woke up to about two inches and it was beautiful. It's been MUCH warmer today and yesterday than the days before. On Sunday it was the coldest I think I've ever felt in my entire life. Just the walk from Harvard Square to the church (just over half a mile) I got a real-live headache from the cold. Even though I was in a kajillion layers, we're not allowed to wear ski masks, so the face is just always gonna be cold. It was a very interesting experience to be that cold. I'm not complaining. I really wasn't too uncomfortable except for my hands and thighs and face. Have you ever gotten a HEADACHE from the cold? Mayhaps I'm just a loser and highly inexperienced but it was weird to me. We found out, when we got to the church, that it was 9 degrees out. Thank goodness for members with iPhones who look it up and make us feel like we're really brave for walking half a mile in the cold. Andrew is probably rolling his eyes at me.

So there's that. Weather is always a great topic here in Mass. Everyone loves to talk about the weather. It's kind of funny, but it's a great conversation starter! It's great to be able to say, "Yeah, this is my first winter here in Boston, so I'm really nervous to see what it's going to be like! I'm from Utah, and it gets cold there, but it's such a different cold here because of the humidity!" "Yeah, Utah. Yup - I'm Mormon. I'm actually a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Have you heard of our church before?" "Do you want to learn MORE?" hahahaha. I'm so clever. 

We are still very busy! We have lots of appointments with members and with investigators! We had two miracles this week (among others, I'm sure). They were both in the form of perfect investigators who plopped into our laps and want to learn more. One is named H* and she's from China (you'll see that this is a theme here. All four of our investigators right now are 100% Asian). Elder Winegar talked to her on a bus and she said she WOULD be interested in learning more, so she showed up at Church on Sunday! She is absolutely adorable and very sweet. Brilliant, too (of course), and just an absolute delight. We are having our first official lesson with her on Thursday night. Our other miracle was D*.  She's here from Korea for a month just studying for and taking a huge exam for grad school and she lives in the Elders' apartment complex. Basically, she saw their names on the mailbox, knocked on their door and said, "Hi, is this where the missionaries live?" They answered yes, and she said, "I want to find God. Will you teach me more?"  

Ha!  Isn't that hilariously awesome!?!  So she showed up to church on Sunday too! They were both just so great, and after the meeting they both had lots of questions so we pulled them aside into an empty classroom and started answering them. Sister Edwards was FANTASTIC and explained our belief in the Godhead and then we both went straight into prayer, and how THAT is our most important tool in learning anything. So we invited D* to pray right then and there. She said she didn't know how, so we explained a bit more, then she said, "Is it okay if I pray in Korean?" We told her that of course that's okay. So we all knelt together and prayed. Even though I obviously couldn't understand anything she was saying, the Spirit of the Lord was overwhelming and I lost it. I was crying SO hard! After she was done, we all looked up and we were all crying! Even H*, who also couldn't understand anything! We asked D* how she felt, and she said, "I feel relieved." It was great. Then we asked H* how SHE felt and she said, "I think I would like to say some things, too." So she prayed (in English this time) and I cried some more. There's a shocker. 

But MAN! It was just so powerful. These two amazing women, saying the first prayers of their entire life to a God who loves them more than they can even comprehend right now... all right in front of me. That was a HUGE blessing. I'm SO excited and humbled to be able to teach them how much He does love them. They don't even know!! I get to share with them the greatest news ever to be shared - that because a perfect God loves them perfectly, He sent His perfect Son as a sacrifice so we could all find happiness now and forever. Is there anything better than that? I submit that there is not!! 

So yeah. That was just incredible. Such a spiritual high.  

I had another really great Hymn experience on Sunday.  In Hymn #131, More Holiness Give Me, I LOVED the line, "more longing for home." It's such a great analogy, especially for ME because I know exactly what it feels like to just long for home. To crave familiarity and familial warmth. I realized that the feelings like that, that used to plague me (and now are still there, but better handled) were just a taste of how I should feel for my heavenly home. I should LONG for that home. LONG to be home with my Heavenly Father and Mother. EVERYTHING I do, EVERY single day should be taking me one step closer to being worthy to enjoy that Heavenly home. The best part is, I could never overestimate how great it will be! No matter how grand, lovely, warm, and peaceful I can possibly imagine it to be --- it's better than that. Looking at it like that makes the daily decisions to be righteous just a little bit easier.  

Anyway I just wanted to share that with you all. 

I hope you know how much I love you! You are so great and even though I don't have time to respond to each of your individual e-mails, I still love and appreciate them. I found out that I'm allowed to email for more than an hour on pdays, so next time I'm e-mailing on an actual pday I should have more time to write you back. Don't do anything stupid. Seriously. Just be wise and make good decisions and pet lots of cats. That's what I would have you do. 

Love you,
Sister Broekhuijsen