Bring on the Campfire!

Last week we didn't get Melissa's email until late afternoon, so it was quite a pleasant surprised to hear from her this morning!  Yay!  She sounds great!

Things are going well here in Oxford! It really is just SO beautiful and green. You would not believe the amount of time I spend driving 20-30 mph on narrow, windy, rainforesty roads. It's nuts, but I love driving. I had to buy sunglasses, and they are super cute so I'm not actually that upset about it.

Let me tell you about some of the people we're working with out here! There are probably like 14 or 15 investigators spread out over our 11 towns, and 2 have baptismal dates, but in reality, only 2 of those 14 are really progressing (and they're not the two with baptismal dates - go figure). We spend our days just being OUT - we plan our appointments around our dinner appointments, so we don't waste miles (we're allotted 1350 miles per month, and, looking at the records, these sisters have never been under 1600. UGH. Just got a call from our Zone Leaders asking us to cut back to 1200 for this month! GRRR. Don't know how we're going to do it, but we'll make it happen). We have long lists of potential investigators (found from referrals, tracting, and street contacting) and former investigators in each town, so we can always have people to be visiting during travel time before and around our lesson appointments. It is great! The intersections here are insane, though. I've never seen crazy stupidity like this. I wish Brigham Young had settled the greater Springfield area as well as SLC :) Two of our areas, Southbridge and Webster, are pretty low income. I don't feel, like, GANG unsafe, it's just really poor. There are some really poor conditions where 3 or 4 families are all staying in the same teensy, rundown apartment. It's very humbling. Because the area is so poor, Southbridge is where we have the most work! It's sad to say, but really, it takes people being brought down in order for them to consider listening to the missionaries. So we spend 3 to 4 days a week JUST in Southbridge. We have so many formers and potentials that I've yet to tract a street, but we hope to get to do that soon.

Back to the people - I have run in to so many cool, interesting, and hilarious people! let's start with D*. D* is a "crochety ol' Yankee" (<-- his words, not mine) who wakes up at 4 in the morning to work on his garden and chop wood (last week he chopped wood for 5 hours straight!). He lives alone in a house that he probably built himself and has a huge garden, tons of fruit trees, and a nice lawn. He mows his lawn on his jurrasic lawn mower like 3 times a week, and doesn't let anyone help him. He is also like 83 years old. And he hates his neighbors. He thinks they're all nosy. And he hates when people bring him goodies. When we asked him if we could bring him anything he started off on a story about how his "stupid neighbors" brought him a quiche that he hated. Then his "dumb  neighbors" brought him a rhubarb pie that was "so hard even the da*# DOG wouldn't eat it!" hahaha. But he lit up when he told us about his mothers peanut butter cookies. He loves those, so we'll make them for him and stop by again some time. He's so sweet to us - he said once his vegetables come in, he'll give us bags full of vegetables from his garden. Ah man. He's just so funny. He is my first official Yankee, and I can't help but grin the whole time I'm with him.

Next we've got Bro. P. He is the nicest, funniest old guy ever (tied with D* - but nicer and doesn't hate people). We stopped by his neighbor who is less active, and he (P*) invited us in to share a message. He is having us over for dinner tonight, and wanted Sister Jordan to pick out the menu. He kept bragging about his cooking skills and said, "You name ANYTHING - I can make it. I'm the best cook you'll ever meet. I've NEVER met a woman who can cook as well as I can." bleh bleh bleh. So Sister Jordan said, "okay, tacos." He waved it off and yelled, "I don't know anything about Mexican food. I'm talking about AMERICAN FOOD!!!" It was SO funny. So we'll have to see what he makes us tonight. I'm going to try to video him because he's hysterical and you need to experience him.

I'll finish up this portion by talking about N*. She is a single mother of two, E* (10) and J* (3). We have teaching records for her dating back to 2007! We decided to stop by and just see how's she's doing (the drop note on her was from almost a year ago and just said that she wasn't keeping commitments). She recognized us immediately as Sisters and was just like, "So you want to meet and talk about God? When's a good time? Do you want my phone number?" hahaha it was the BEST response ever. So we set up a time to teach, and we had that lesson last week on Thursday. It was SUCH a good lesson. She asks all the right questions, "Well, if there are prophets on the earth today, how come I've never heard of them?" and "How can I know WHICH Church is right? I've tried so many - I just really want to raise my kids in the right church." She even recognized (BEFORE we shared Moroni 10:4 with her) that perhaps the reason she didn't ever get an answer about Joseph Smith and the Church in the past is because she wasn't actually willing to change. God wouldn't give her an answer unless she would DO something WITH that confirmation! Can you believe how great that is? She was tearing up and told us that we always seem to show up again right when she needs us. And then at the end, quietly told us, "Thanks for not giving up on me." YAY! It was a really great lesson. She didn't come to church yesterday, but we'll figure it out. I really think this might be the time for her and her family!

In other news, we are headed to Purgatory Chasm State Reservation this afternoon. We drove though it last week on our way to an appointment, and decided that it was beautiful, so we asked the Elders if they would want to come hang out with us on pday, and guess what? We are awesome and fun so they said yes! So our whole district PLUS our ZL's are coming (one of my Zone Leaders is Elder Lawter who was with me in the Dirty South before he got transferred away to Springfield). I'm so glad to be bringing a bit of the city (in that we are actually friends with the Elders) to this zone. We are going to have a hot dog roast, because Sister Burrville and I love fire and camping and nature, and Sister Jordan does not, and has NEVER ROASTED A HOT DOG BEFORE. We're going to remedy the HECK out of that problem. So that should be fun. You should google this state reservation. It's a real pretty place. It's on Purgatory Road, in Sutton. Such a fun name (Purgatory Road, not Sutton).

Funny story. Sister Williams left her GPS (a TomTom) with the car since she's now in the city and doesn't need it. That's super nice of her because I was under the impression that the mission provided them, and they don't, and I don't have the money to just be buying up GPS systems left and right. So we have a GPS. That is essential and super nice, but I'm still going to complain about him for a second. We have affectionately nicknamed him "Krunk" (ala The Emporer's New Groove) because he's a little... special. He likes to tell us to turn onto one way roads. And if you overshoot a road, instead of rerouting you the next closest way, he will lead us in a 2 miles circle and take us back to the same road. That doesn't work so well when the road is blocked off for construction. haha. His specialty, however, is thinking that maybe we're a jeep, and not a ford fusion. Sometimes the road we're on will end and he'll tell us to turn right into a pile of trees. Or into a lake. Or my personal favorite, lead us to the head of a hiking trail and tell us to drive on it. So great. We've got several hilarious pictures of Krunk on the windshield telling us to go straight ahead, and you can see a little hiking trail in front of the car. Good, good times.


Whelp - I'd better peace out.

I love you so much! Thanks for your letters, I've been showered with letters from friends this week, too, which is always so nice. I love hearing from everyone back home.

Love,

Sister "bring on the campfire" Broekhuijsen