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It was a relief to receive a nice email from Melissa, since Andrew's was super short this week!  So hooray for Sister missionaries!  

Hello! 

This week went by faster than you can say, "I love dinosaurs!" 

I don't have any funny stories this week! I mean, I'm sure funny things happened, but I don't remember them. And I don't feel like writing a long e-mail. You know how you get that way sometimes? I have to be in the MOOD to write a ton. And it's not here today. Who knows why? Not I, said the cat. Okay, I am definitely in a weirdo mood today. This should be fun. 

I had a really great week spiritually! On Thursday we had Zone Conference! Rather than having to get a ride out to Worchester (feels weird to write it out like that because really, we say it "wuh-stah") like last time, it was just at our beautiful Stake Center in Cambridge! Just a walk from M.I.T. Yeah, I'm a lucky girl. I heard a rumor that that Stake Center is the largest Stake Center in the world! So that's interesting. It has a PARKING GARAGE. UNDERNEATH IT. Isn't that cool? Yes. 

At Zone Conference I learned a lot. Not just from what was said, but because the Spirit was strong I got a lot of personal revelation, so that's nice! here's some bullet points for you, since I know how much you love those. 

-"You can be as good as you want, as fast as you want." 

-Boston is sacred land! If you look at the history of the Church (meaning, Christ's church, not just the Latter-day version) there are some very prominent places. Jerusalem, of course, and the entire Holy Land, Missouri, the New Jerusalem, and New England, where the Restoration took place! Pretty cool to be here. Boston/Mass specifically is also cool because this is where the Pilgrims landed - one of the first areas of religious freedom in the whole world! And our founding fathers spent a lot of time here! The Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House right across the street from our chapel is a place where George Washington stayed! And they camped in Boston Commons! So cool. It also makes certain D&C scriptures even cooler than if I was serving somewhere else. I've always taken a lot of comfort from D&C 100:4-6, but at Zone Conference, Sister Evans pointed out that in verse 3 when it talks about missionary work in "eastern land" it is actually talking about Boston! That is one of the first areas that opened up, and it's immediately east of New York, where the revelation was given!! So cool. I love cute little things like that. 

-At church yesterday, the phrase "proclaim His love" or "His love proclaim" kept sticking out to me. We sang Hymn #81 TWICE, and also Hymn #176. In 81, I especially love the 3rd verse, "Press on, enduring in the ways of Christ. His love proclaim through days of mortal strife." I think that's a good reminder for me! That even if I'm sick and I don't know how to get better, or I don't even know what it IS - I just need to keep going and "press on". I need to press forward in the same direction I'm already going: teaching others about the love of God. That is one of my favorite things to talk about when contacting. I think that if people could really understand (or even BEGIN to understand) how much God loves them, they would be happier and automatically want to do better/different things so they could please Him. 

-In one of my Relief Societies, we were talking about testimonies of Christ as gained through the scriptures (I love the George Albert Smith book so much!!) and the teacher invited people to come up and share a favorite scripture and how it strengthened their testimony of Christ. As I was flipping through my scriptures, looking for highlighted verses and thinking of what I might share, I was overcome (meaning, I cried. Ha. Shocker.) with the realization that EVERY scripture in the Book of Mormon that I had highlighted has strengthened my testimony of Christ! Everything can be related to Him! I just love that. I always loved the scriptures, but since coming out here my testimony has grown exponentially. There was a time when I thought I had left my scriptures on a train (they were definitely next to my purse and coat) and I started FREAKING out and was SO sad. It was terrible! I have put so many personal notes and such in there that losing them would be devastating. 

-The Why I Believe Fireside last night went GREAT! Even better than we had imagined. We had recent converts speak and it was so nice to hear such powerful testimonies. I loved it, and I think we accomplished the goal which was to have everyone (members and investigators alike) leave feeling edified and encouraged to come closer to God. 

Whelp, that's about all I can think to say. I had a very sugary breakfast and it literally feels like I have RLS in my arms. I keep taking a baby break from typing to do some fist pumps and Elaine dances. It's bad, but hilarious. 

Love you,
Sister Broekhuijsen