Well hello!
This week was good. I love that lately I get to say that all the time. I am so blessed.
I'll start with church yesterday and then do some other general updates.
I learned a lot at church! In LP2 Gospel Principles class, we talked about the Holy Ghost. The teacher pointed out that there are so many scriptures that talk about the role of the Holy Ghost, but that when you start comparing them, they may seem a little disjointed. We learn that He is a messenger, that He is the tool by which Heavenly Father answers our prayers, that He testifies of truth, that He is the comforter, etc. You know what I'm talking about. Anyway, the teacher made the point that if we think of His main role as being to testify of Christ, then everything else falls into place. I LOVED that and totally agree. He IS the messenger sent from God, to proclaim truth. The greatest truth we can know is that Christ lives! Also, the message of Christ's Atonement and love for us is the greatest tool we have to feel comfort. Cool stuff. It's all related! In LP1 I was asked to do the musical number in Sacrament Meeting. I sang hymn #122, "Though Deepening Trials". I recognized the tune once my accompanist first started playing it... but it's not one I had ever studied or thought of performing. But I'm glad I did. I sang verses 1,3,5, and 7. 1 and 3 were like my testimony of member missionary work to all the members that we've been working with. Verse 5 was my testimony to all those who oppose missionary work, or discouraged me to serve a mission. Verse 7 was just my testimony to the world. It was a good experience, but not my best performance. Oh well. "Seek to bless, not to impress," right? ;)
Also at church there was a fun "It's a Small World" moment. I was meeting a new member to our ward, J S-H*. He shook my companions' hands first, and then shook mine and when I said, "Sister Broekhuijsen" he said, "I like Broekhuijsens. I met one in Russia!" HA! I was shocked. "Um... in Samara?" "Yeah! He was my Zone Leader for my last transfer!" "Oh. Well... that's my baby brother!" That was hilarious to me. And awesome. He said that Andrew was great. I tend to agree.
Investigator/recent converts update! First, P* is still meeting with us, which is good, but she has no desire to make any changes on her end, and won't come to church. So she's not actually progressing, but she is receiving knowledge. I guess we'll just have to make due with that for now. H* is doing well! We met with her Sunday night and decided to take a bit of a step back and make sure that we were understanding how she's doing. She does not have a baptismal date that she's working toward (which actually is probably a good thing because she told us she doesn't yet know if she believes in Jesus Christ) but she DOES want to learn. She realizes that this is different, and has a sincere desire to come closer to God and have more spirituality in her life. She is a sweetheart and I feel the Spirit every time she prays, "to the Heavenly Godfather" hahaha. More good news... L* went to the temple for the first time yesterday! She had dinner with a member in LP2 afterward who reported that L* is on "cloud 1000" haha. Glad to hear that she had a good, spiritual experience.
Now for yesterday. It was a very exciting day! Our Stake had a special temple day for the Monday holiday and lots of us missionaries got to go. I look forward to it [going to the temple] so much! It's sad to be limited to only go once every 3 months! But I understand why they have that rule. Either way, it was just an amazing experience. I feel so much peace there. After the temple we were supposed to go have a Zone Activity and take a tour of M.I.T. The timing didn't work out, unfortunately, so that was a no go. BUT, since the ZL's had arranged to have a giant 15 passenger van for us... they were determined to use it. SO we went on a little day trip!
First we went to Marblehead, Massachusetts. It is BEAUTIFUL! Google it. There was a lot of beachfront. It was more like the beaches I've been to in the Pacific Northwest than SoCal. There were tidepools (I saw some baby hermit crabs!), lots of seaweed, and two crab legs. That was fun. Also, I found out that seagulls are smartypants! They would go pick up a muscle, then fly way high and drop it, so it would break on the rocks, and then go have some morsels of lunch! No wonder there are so many seagulls. Darwinism at its finest. We got to walk around on the rocks and I got lots of beautiful pictures. Also I tripped on a rock and I a little bit fell into the ocean! It was my first time touching the Atlantic Ocean! My left foot and calf got to smell like salt water, seaweed, and seagull poop for the rest of the day. I'm sure that everyone in the 15 passenger van was excited about that.
Next we went up to Salem! As in the real life witch town. There is SO much history there. I got a lot of pictures. We went through a really cool cemetery -- the gravestones said things like, "here lyes bluh bluh bluh". Yup. We're talking pre-standardized American spelling, people! Also there were the "s"s that looked like lowercase "f"s! There was a church history site, too! And we walked down a cute baby cobblestone road with lots of shops. There was a HARRY POTTER STORE and lots of signs talking about witchcraft and wizardry. Also a lot of creepy stores. I hate Halloween. But it was fun to get to visit! I can check that off my eastcoast bucket list.
Whelp - that's about it for this week! Thanks to you all. Garrett, hope you have a wonderful 14th birthday! Enjoy the Stake Dance. It is probably the biggest change/improvement from 13 to 14 :)
Love you,
Sister Broekhuijsen aka smelly foot
We also received another quick email from Melissa letting us know that D* (the woman they taught who returned to Korea) was baptized on Saturday! So, that was wonderful.
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