August? For Real?

Well, since last week's email got cut short, Melissa made up for it this week by sending us a tremendous epistle!  Hooray for long emails!  My favorite.

Well hey. 

This has been quite a wonderful week. Sorry about the overly dramatic cliff-hanger last week - I hate not having a billion hours to e-mail you! But I shall try to tell all my stories from THIS week, the remainder of my stories from LAST week, and some Book of Mormon insights. I didn't ever doubt that you enjoyed hearing them... but I thought it was maybe a little boring for you. BUT since listening to those sound clips from Steaver, I decided to be better about including those. It's nice to hear that they are appreciated, so I will try to share them more.  

Before we begin, I would just like to announce that eating healthfully, exercising regularly, taking multivitimins, and getting plenty of rest are apparently NOT the solution for completely avoided illness because I woke up this morning SMITTEN with sickness. Ugh. I had a sore throat yesterday but this morning it has spread to dried out sinuses, massive headaches, and a cough. BOOO. Let's all take a moment to pray that (for the sake of the WORK - not even for my own comfort) I will not get sicker. And because faith without works is dead, I will take 800 packets of Emergen-C today. 

*WARNING* this is going to be disjointed and probably only mildly funny because I'm going to actually try to be funny. And if I've learned anything from Andrew, it's that some jokes are funny and some are not. So I'll just throw out a numbered list. Let's see how high we can get to today!! 

1) The Olympics are going on! Ah! I love those Olympics with a great percentage of my heart molecules. How were the opening ceremonies? Are there any heroes? I keep seeing Appolo Anton Ohno's face on Subway Sandwich stores around here and getting very confused because I thought he was a winter olympics olympian. Shouldn't it be good ol' Michael Phelpsey? Have you watched any beach volleyball? I will name all the athletes I can actually remember from the '08 olympics and you can tell me if they are still kickin' nowadays: Shawn Johnson. Michael Phelps. The Beach volleyball chicks. That one male gymnast from Idaho (might be the '04 olympics....). Usain Bolt. YEP - that's all I've got. 

2) The story of M* — M* is this wonderful Bengali man who works in the Budget Mart right by our apartment. We stopped in for an emergency dishwasher soap run and started talking to him. His English is less than perfect but still understandable. When we explained that we were missionaries he said, "Oh, that is why you appear different than most people who come into this store. You are light. You are much more pleasant than normal people." hahah. Yes, M*, that is exactly why. So we asked about his background and he came here from Bangladesh about 10 years ago. He works 7 am to 7 pm SEVEN DAYS A WEEK - aka EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WORLD - without any time off. That is just crazy to me. So we called up our zone leaders and said, "How soon can you get us a copy of the Book of Mormon in Bangla?" They had one to us the next day. That is because they are awesome. So we were SO excited and we ran  home after district meeting last week (er... two weeks ago, now) to give it to him. Sister Jordan said we had a present for him and that it was a book, he got a little sad and said, "My English is not too good but I will try to read it" so she whipped it out and gave it to him and as he read that gold lettering on the blue background his face lit up and he said, "How did you get this? I didn't know you collected books in Bangla!" hahaha it was so cute! He was thrilled and then started firing off a billion perfect questions, " If there is just one God who created us, why are there so many religions?" "When we die is it the end? Or should I be preparing for another life after this?" "How can I know what God wants me to do?" Yeah. I'm being serious right now, even though it sounds like a demonstration video with a fake investigator. It was wonderful. So we gave him an English copy of the BoM as well and had him find 2 Nephi 31. He promised to read it and we told him we'd stop by and check on how he's doing. We've done so once so far and he said he reads it when he doesn't have any customers but he's not too far yet. It was just the coolest story. I'm glad I finally got to type it all out because I sure as heck haven't had time to journal lately (as in... for the past 8 months).  

3) The weather has been absolutely stellar here. I don't know why I am being showered (ha! meteorology pun) with so many blessings in this department but I am going to proclaim my gratitude from the rooftops. Did you know that (with the exception of 3 days in the past 2 weeks) it has been COOL in the morning when we're running? That's right. Cool. And even during the day time it's not too hot! There are many nice breezes. Hallelujah. 

4) Another episode of, "Public transportation is a doozy but I love it" (<-- that's for you, JenMo). On the Orange Line (train) last week, there was a man who looked like Zach from Saved by the Bell (90's blond wavy hair and all) who was holding a cat. It was a Bengal and she was beautiful. He keep kissing its face and she was very affectionate back. He would play with her and then stuff her into his over-sized fanny-pack when he was done. Then get her out again. It was a DELIGHT to witness. We got off at the same stop and then he walked over and we got on the SAME BUS. Score! Let's hope I see more of this guy in the future. 

5) Interfaith fireside. Not last Friday but the Friday before, we got a call from President Packard. He told us that there was an interfaith fireside down in Bridgeport, Connecticut the next Sunday (as in a week ago yesterday) and that he wanted Sister Jordan and I to perform. We of COURSE agreed and arranged something that very night. It was so cool! President and his two daughters, Natalie and Angela, picked us up around 2:00 in the afternoon and we drove down to that oh-so-remote little town. It was quite the drive. Along the way he asked our opinion of the rules and genuinely wanted our feedback! Then we got talking about Michael Jackson and he agreed with me that Man in the Mirror is totally about the Atonement so it's okay to sing. Then HE went off about how great Michael Jackson is and how there's no one that will ever compare to him because he's just ultimate. Yes. All of these words that you are reading are true. What a great little conversation! He told us a story about how his younger brother ended his farewell talk with, "Make that change." hahahaha. It was a fantastic conversation. Anyway the fireside went great. Natalie accompanied us on our own arrangement of "I Need Thee Ev'ry Hour" which was very well received. Then we stayed for some mingling and finally left the church building at about 9:45 pm. We didn't get home until 12:20! Holy cow it was late but I was with President so I'm not too worried about getting in trouble. 

6) On the drive down, President also told us a story about how when his oldest son (who is now 19) was about 13, he (President Packard) let his inlaws borrow his car for the day (it was a BMW - he's a lawyer, remember?) and he (President Packard) used their (the in-laws') Buick. Well, when he was dropping off his son at school, his son asked if he could be dropped off like 3 blocks away and then WALK to school. President Packard FLIPPED OUT at him and said, "Are you saying you're too COOL to be dropped off in this Buick? Oh NO. You've got the coolness disease. That is DEADLY for people your age." So he dropped him off RIGHT AT the school and then sold his beamer that night and bought the Buick from his inlaws and used that car until his son turned 16 at which point it became HIS car. HAHAHA. Isn't that a great story? That just shows how you can be successful and even rich and still be down to earth. Love it. 

6) Friday morning I was taking my vitamins and something very strange happened called, "I forgot how to swallow." I took a sip of water, then put my hand to my mouth and put the pills in, then spit it all back out into my hands and all over my desk. It was like I got all the steps except for closing my mouth and swallowing. Man, it was rough. And I just sat there for a minute, incredulously, staring at the caplet dissolving in a pool of water in my palm and wondering what happened to me. Then I laughed but to be honest I am still a little confused because I do NOT know how that occurred. 

7) A couple weeks ago, Sister Jordan and I were tracting a bit around our dinner appointment's house because we got there early. At one place we talked to this guy for a little while but he was really skeptical. So we gave him a card and I just wanted to shake his hand and say goodbye. So I said something like, "Well, have a good night. By the way my name is Sister Broekhuijsen, what's yours?" and extended my hand. He just looked at me and grumbled/moaned... "uhhhhhhhhhhhh" and closed the door. It took a lot of self control to not just bust up. Luckily we held it in until we walked around the corner and then laughed there. It was a great time and is now a fond memory as a high point in tracting awkwardness for me.  

8) P* is doing well! We had a dinner with Sister G* and her adorable little two year old, S*, and P* came late (he got held up at work) and we got to have a lesson with him. It was a wonderful evening overall because we got to learn about Sister G*'s background (point 9) and the food was AMAZING. She kept saying that she's not much of a cook but oh BOY I am a fan of Nepalese food. I swear their naan is better than Indian (or maybe I was just starving [or maybe both]). Anyway, in the lesson, P* had a lot of good questions about the pamphlet we had left him and even SAID THE CLOSING PRAYER! It was his first prayer aloud, presumably in his whole life. So that was really cool and he did a great job. We love teaching him so hopefully he will be a regular occurrence in these e-mail updates. 

9) Sister G* is incredible. She grew up in Nepal (as did Brother G*) but she was always outcast because of her father, who, when she was in middle school found Christianity and started reading the bible and preaching Christian truths to anyone who would listen. That was not very popular and he lost his job, and the whole family was shamed. Even their relatives turned away from them and she never got to date or have friends because she was "the daughter of a CHRISTIAN." She said that people didn't even know what that meant (SHE certainly didn't - she just knew that her Dad read the bible) but that because it was abnormal, it was apparently shun-worthy. So she had a really hard time as a teenager and didn't even get to finish school because she had to come home and work to support her father and brother since her father couldn't hold a job. Somehow (I don't remember all the details) she got an arranged marriage and came with Brother G* to the United States. She said her Dad was so thrilled for her when he found out she got to come to America and told her, "Now you can learn about God and Jesus Christ! Now you can learn all you need to learn because you will be in a FREE land!" (*Yes, in case you had ANY doubt, I was sobbing as she told us this story*). So she came and wanted to learn about Christianity. She talked to her husband's uncle who just happened to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and he invited them to come to church with him in Cambridge. She read the Book of Mormon and was quickly converted. She was baptized 5 years ago, and since then her husband has been baptized and they got sealed in the temple! They had been trying to have kids for a long time and then got pregnant less than a month after going to the temple so they call S* their "temple blessing". She said she has been wanting to share the gospel with her father but that he lives in a very very remote part of Nepal (they don't have running water or electricity) and the only missionaries in Nepal are in a main city and aren't allowed (for legal reasons) to leave the city. Her father is like 80 years old but he makes the long, expensive trek (including two days of walking and another 3 or 4 on a bus) once a year. So she is going to arrange it so that he can meet with them when he's in town next. Such an amazing story! She got so excited when we offered P* a Book of Mormon in Nepalese because she wants to send one to her father so he can read it before meeting with the missionaries. Isn't that lovely? I am so lucky to be around such incredible people.  

10) While getting on a bus this past week, I smiled at the busdriver and she asked, "how are you doing?" Without knowing what I was doing I yelled, "THANK YOU" and walked away to find a seat. WHAT? why??? I cannot answer either of these one-word questions. As with the pill incident, I am still rather confused. 

Well, 10. That's a pretty good number! I should come up with one more so that it can be a prime number. 

11) Ooh. Sister Jordan and I did a duet for the musical number in Sacrament Meeting yesterday! We did "Abide with Me" and it turned out nicely, I think. I recorded us practicing both this song AND the "I Need the Every Hour" from last Sunday at the fireside so whenever I get a chance to mail out an SD card, you can hear/see those. 

Now some Book of Mormon insights because I'm almost out of time! Yikes! 

- 1 Ne 7:3-4. Looks like Laman and Lemuel didn't murmur at ALL when commanded to go back to Jerusalem for THIS reason. hahaha. 

- 1 Ne 7:17-18. The Lord doesn't always answer our prayers in the way we expect/ask for. But He will always deliver us if we have faith. I love this because Nephi (like most 16 year old boys I have known) asked for strength to burst the bands with which he was bound. I'm sure he had faith that God could just bless him with some really meaty forearms so he could make this happen. But God instead just loosed the bands. What an interesting example. 

- 1 Ne 8:11 and 1 Ne 11:21-24 - I made some cool connections here. If the tree = the love of God in the form of sending his son to die for us, then the fruit of the tree - the works of the Son, specifically the Atonement. So partaking of the fruit = applying the atonement in our lives and REPENTING! I'm sure most of you already knew that but I had never seen it spelled out so plainly before and I just loved it. 

- 1 Ne 15:3 - How many times do I get angry or frustrated rather than asking the Lord for the gift of understanding? Probably more often that I should. 

- 1 Ne 16:2 - I read this really great quote by Neal A. Maxwell who explained that this cutting ("cutteth them to the very center") is part of "spiritual surgery... painfully severing pride from the soul." Isn't that cool?? 

- 1 Ne 16:18 - Another good one from Elder Maxwell. Saying that the broken bow was not devastating to Nephi, it was merely irritating. He then explained that "Irritation often precedes instruction." oooh. You are so wise, Neal! 

- 1 Ne16: 23 - I love that He could have just prayed about where to go to get food, but he knew that asking his father would soften his heart and show humility and respect. And guess what? He was right. 

- 1 Ne 17:51 - That is an interesting point, Nephi! If my investigators truly understood how remarkably powerful God is, perhaps giving them an answer to their prayers wouldn't seem so outlandish. 

- 1 Ne 18:1 - I like the use of the phrase "from time to time" here. The rest of the time, Nephi had to rely on his own brain. He was instructed by the Lord, but he wasn't spoon-fed. 

- 2 Ne 4:13 - Even thought I'm just the messenger, I may still get rebuked. That's okay - I'm in good company. 

- 2 Ne 5 :10-11 - I've come up with a math equation (shocking, I know): obedience + work = prosperity. Cool, right? 

- 2 Ne 10: 23 - Isn't that cute that we are told to be cheerful because we have agency? I think that is a great way to show our gratitude. We should be cheerful that we GET to choose. So as long as we want eternal life badly enough to actually choose the intermediate steps that get us there, we can make it. ALL BECAUSE WE CAN CHOOSE! So be cheerful, people! 

Alright that's about it. I love you all. I loved the CD from the Millward reunion and I loved the pictures that you sent last week and this week, Pa. Thanks so much for thinking of me. I know that a major reason I am doing so well out here is because I have a force of prayers coming from back home on my behalf. 

I'm going to go grocery shopping and then to bed, now. Hopefully that (in addition to my 800 packets of Emergen-C that I promised) will annihilate this cold pronto. 

Love,
Sister "I get hit on a lot more in the city than I did in Oxford" Broekhuijsen 

P.S. Happy Birthday to Sarah on Wednesday and Grandma and Joshua on Saturday!

I Have Stories

Melissa's email came in this afternoon around 2:48 - which is 4:48 Boston time, which is just a few minutes before P-Day is over for her.  So, not surprisingly, it was kind of a "rush job" email and she didn't get to tell us everything she wanted to.  You will see from reading the post below that there was stuff she didn't get to!  Still, she sounded happy - and that, of course, makes us happy!

I am so glad to hear that you had a fun, safe, and wet family reunion. I was surprisingly not mopey while you were gone, even though I knew how much fun you were having. That is called, a blessing from God because it would have been really easy to be depressed and whiney about what I was missing out on. But I wasn't! So yay for that.

We got to meet some investigators this week! We have 3 with baptismal dates, and so far we've only met 1 of them. But she is really cool! Her name is J* and her grandparents are members of the Church. She moved in with them after graduating from high school in June, and has been coming to church since then and wants to get baptized! It's scheduled for this Sunday. Ha. But we have a hard time meeting with her just for scheduling reasons so we're not sure if she'll have learned everything by then. Let's get some prayers going that that will all work out, please. She is really, really sweet and says she likes Sister Jordan and I a lot. The other investigator we met with is P*. He is from Nepal and is living with a family in the ward who is also from Nepal. He is SO nice! He's a software developer (woot woot) and he has been in the States for 6 years. He went to school and now is working. He has been living with the G*s for about 3 months, and really sincerely just wants to learn more about Christianity. He is very open and I love him. It will be so fun to work with him.

I'm running out of time, but I want to tell some stories!

1) Interviews with the President. We got interviewed last Tuesday. President Packard is just so nice. Before interviews he gave a presentation on what he wants our focus to be. And guess what? The focus is: working with members! yay! Those 9 months that I spent in the singles wards will be helpful HERE, too! Because that's basically all I ever did! Anyway that is his big push. Sister Jordan and I were both so excited to do that because we've both felt strongly that that is key. President Packard even told us that when Elder Perry was here for Boston Youth Conference last Saturday, he pulled President Packard aside and looked him in the eyes and said, "You won't have the kind of success you need to have until your members learn their role in missionary work." So we're not ignoring that advice! We are definitely going to work on that. It's very exciting. In my actual interview, he told me that he wants Sister Jordan and I to put together a musical fireside. And that he wants us to prepare some numbers so we can have a little "Roadshow" which means that we would travel with him to the different stakes in the mission and perform at Stake Conferences, Zone Conferences, etc. So it's very exciting and cool that he trusts us and wants to use us! That leads me into my second story! (At first i typed, "storie." oh no.)

2) Friday night, we got a call from President Packard. Let me just tell you, that is always nerve-wracking. but it was good. Interfaith fireside

3) MDB

4)

SHOOT. I'm out of time. I'm hoping I'll have time to get on here and finish, but probably not. Anyway just know that I love you! I have stories. I'm doing well. I want to share from my BOM reading. I don't have time for any of that but I'll send this now so you can at least have something.

Love you,

Sister Broekhuijsen

Life in the Hood

This email came in yesterday, but we were still out of town.  So, I'm now finally getting around to catching up on blog posts.  Sorry for the delay.

Hello everyone! 

So. Yes, I am back in the city! I only got one transfer in my beloved Oxford before I got shipped back to the city. I love the city, though, so I'm happy to be here. It was just hard to have enough time to fall in love with all the amazing people out there and then have to leave so quickly! Oh well, I guess that's part of mission life! 

So I'll give you some highlights from the past couple weeks since it's been so long since I've been able to send an actual e-mail to you. 

First, on Tuesday the 3rd, we had a kindof zone meeting called "Meet the President". That was a blast. I really loved President and Sister Evans so I was very sad to see them go (as you know) BUT, as usual, it all worked out because I love President and Sister Packard too! They are so young. He's only 43! I'll tell you a bit about their amazing family.
President Packard comes from a very missionary-minded family. He is the 4th of 14 children! 

His father served in South Africa and got sent to open up a new area in the boonies. He didn't see another missionary (besides his companion) or his mission president until his YEAR MARK. During that time, he baptized 50 people and organized a branch. They just found out that that same branch was just split into two WARDS! Whoa. What a cool legacy. Elder Packard the elder (my president's father) only got one piece of mail his entire mission. It was a fruit cake that was sent for Christmas and arrived in April. 

He (President Packard) served an ENGLISH SPEAKING mission in California.  After his mission he went to BYU and met Sister Packard on the first day of Law School. They were married and graduated from law school together. She was first in the class, as well as captain of the Cougarettes. She served a mission in Uruguay but got sick after about a year and finished her mission in Texas where she "gained a huge respect for stateside missions because it's hard to be around and trying to teach people who HAVE heard of Mormons before." Yes! Exactly how I feel! I love them - they are just such an amazing couple! They have 4 kids.

Anyway it was just a really cool meeting and I loved getting to know them. They all had to sacrifice a lot to uproot themselves and move out here away from all their friends. But they are doing it with a positive attitude. And they are being blessed for it! At transfer meeting last Thursday President Packard told us that if someone came to him 6 months ago and said, "You'll be a mission president for the next 30 years and the only compensation you'll get will be the blessings that your family will receive in the first 2 weeks of service." that it would be worth it and he would absolutely volunteer. What a great attitude! 

Wow. That took longer than expected. Moving on to the 4th of July… 

It was a ROUGH day. It was hot and humid. Our barbecue cancelled on us, then our other afternoon appointment cancelled on us. So we spent a lot of it just trying to find people that would talk to us. Turns out, not a lot of people are out wandering around. Instead, they just hang out in their backyards with their families. And they don't like it when you interrupt them. MAN it was a frustrating day. But guess what? God came through. We were stopping by a less active's house (who - SURPRISE - was in the middle of a barbecue with her family and didn't want to talk to us! Who'd have guessed?) and her next door neighbor was outside on his lawn. I wanted to just go back to the car and drive off angrily and pound my fist on something and start crying. But inSTEAD, I went over and talked to him! Well, he was very open and we taught a lesson right then and there and even got a return appointment. At the end he asked us, "Do you guys have like any pamphlets or anything that I can read before we meet again?" hahahahah. Yes, yes we do, C*. So that was just another episode in the series known as God is a 4th Watch God. 

Saturday night we got our T-texts. I really wasn't that concerned. I was pretty confident that we would stay just as we were in a trio for at LEAST one more transfer. But no! When we found out that Sister Jordan and I were shotgunning it was a complete shock. Exciting stuff, though! And is was really cool because Sunday night we got a call from President Packard (*gulp* who died?) and he told us, "Well, I just had a prompting that I should call and talk to Sister Burr and see how she's doing, and I thought I'd better not ignore that." But first (as in before we handed the phone over to Sister Burr) he told Sister Jordan and I that he wants us to use music. Basically he told us that that's a major reason he put US together to go open this area up - so that we could use our gifts together to bless people. Then we heard from Sister Burr that he hadn't planned on making very many changes. He thought he'd just deal with the necessary changes of departing and arriving missionaries and then would pretty much leave everyone else the same, "but when I looked at that [transfer] board, God just started talking to me!" Very interesting. 

The Oxford half of last week was really nice. We got to say our goodbyes which was hard, but good. Brother D* hugged me and I didn't stop him. Don't tell. His was the hardest goodbye for sure. My allergies were really flaring up if you know what I mean. We also got to have a lesson with a former investigator from Kenya that we've been trying to reach since I got there! Finally, 2 days before we left, he responded to our voicemail and we got to have a good lesson with him on Wednesday night - just the night before we left! 

Transfer meeting was really good. We took a little detour on the way up to Belmont so that we could drive through Brighton. That was weird to see again! Very weird to be driving where I used to only walk and take 40 bajillion buses! But it was fun. At the actual meeting, President Packard made a really good point. He said, talking about the prayers offered on the rameumptums, "Let us not do this as missionaries. Don't pray things like, 'Oh God, we're so thankful that we have the gospel and we're so much better than these heathens here in New England who just tell us they're all set. We're so thankful that we're so much more enlightened than them and that we have the fulness of the gospel and we're so much better than them.'"  

And since transfer meeting Sister Jordan and I have basically spent all our proselyting time going through our area book! There are 10 towns (Boston, South Boston, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester, and Dedham) divided into to companionships North and South. So we took Spanish and English work divided north/south and changed it into Spanish vs English for ALL 10 towns. Very exciting stuff and we're just about done. Finally. Now to get some appointments! haha. I was a bit worried at first because I can imagine that if new sisters came into my area and took half of my investigators away just because they spoke English, I'd be pretty upset. But I was relieved to find that there's so much work that they were actually THANKFUL to have us here! What a delight. So we live in Roslindale. It's a pretty okay area, but there are many very sketchy places in our area. The house is really big and nice, though there's one mirror for 4 girls... not the best situation logistically. We live with Hermana Lopez (who came out with me - she's from Puerto Rico and SO nice!) and Hma Hales (from SLC). So far it's a good combo with us four.  

Church yesterday was great. It's very different from both the Oxford ward and the singles wards. I just love diversity. Our chapel (which is only a 15 minutes walk from our house! Score!) is home to the Boston 1st and 3rd wards. The Boston 3rd Ward is the Haitian ward and it's the only Haitian ward in the WHOLE WORLD outside of Haiti. Isn't that cool?? Yes, it is. The Boston 1st ward has about 60% English speaking and 40% Spanish speaking (though obviously there's lots of crossover between those two groups). The Spanish group meets together for their own meetings, rather than translating the English meetings, and they're hoping to become their own branch sometime soon so that they can meet at a different time. It's a very diverse ward and just awesome to get to serve here. Everyone is very welcoming. There are Spanish speaking Elders in the ward, too, which makes this ward the only (as far as I know) ward in the mission with 6 missionaries in it! That makes for very exciting coordination meetings haha. Our WML [Ward Mission Leader] is really nice and on the ball.  

Anyway, that's a lot of info that I've dropped on you. I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting but that's good for now. We're heading up to Park Street now to get Sister Jordan a new bag. Yay for having giant malls in our arear! 

I'll try to remember to type out some BoM insights for next week's e-mail. 

Love you all,
Sister "I really do love riding the on the T - it feels like I'm at Disneyland!" Broekhuijsen

Catch Up!

We were in Stanley, Idaho last  Wednesday and received this surprise email from Melissa.  Unfortunately, though we had "enough" internet to read her email, there was not enough to post anything.  I tried, but it didn't work!  So, here is last week's email, and then I'll post this week's.

Don't hate me. My gosh, I'm so sorry to alarm you, but this week was TRANSFERS so pday isn't until Wednesday! Also we showed up at the library with enough time to e-mail for half an hour and then found out that it closes at 5, not 8. So I only have about 20 minutes to e-mail!

I will give the briefest of updates...

I am getting transferred back to the city!! Sister Jordan and I are opening a new area for English Sisters! The Boston 1st ward, which until now has always been just spanish sisters and spanish elders. So there will be 3 companionships in that ward and I'll be living in Roslindale. I don't know the exact address, but don't worry, Sister Burr can forward my letters that I assume you sent to the Oxford apt.

I have SO much to tell you but I have to keep it brief!

I will be thinking about you so much while you're all at Steaver. I love you, and hope that you can feel that. I'll have stories and much more details on the transfer, Meet the President, etc. next Monday.

Love, love, love you,

Sister Broekhuijsen

:-(

We waited (somewhat patiently) until we were sure Melissa's Pday was over - and still no email!  We didn't get email from her brother, Andrew, either, so now we're starting to wonder if something is wrong with myldsmail.org…   Anyway, sorry to disappoint you faithful readers!

Happy Independence Day from Jolly Ol' (New) England

Once again - the email was worth the wait - even though I had to wait until 3:32 to get it!  :-)  Melissa was in rare form today - which is good because it means she's happy!

Hello to you, one and all!

In case you haven't heard, this week we celebrate Independence Day. It lands on the 4th of July nearly every year. Well, this year, unlike every other, I am living in what's known as "the birthplace of American heritage and history and patriotism and everyone should love America". I may have made that up, but it's an appropriate nickname for Massachusetts if you ask me. 

Well, in case you can't tell from my extraordinarily unfocused opening paragraph, I'm in a really good mood. We had a wonderful week! We had some hard times (seriously, days when NO ONE lets us in all day and I hear the phrase, "We're all set" approximately four hundred thousand times are NOT my favorite) but we had some really GOOD times, too! I'll tell you some miracle stories.

1) The miracle of the move: It was a long day. It was the "I'm all set" kind of day. NONE of the people we had planned to drop by were home, and our only lesson cancelled on us. Also it was rainy in the morning and then hot and humid in the afternoon. We prayed that SOMEONE could just let us in. We explained, in our prayer, that we were really working hard and that we were becoming a bit discouraged and we would really love to just be able to testify to someone before they closed the door on us. We were in Dudley and wanted to stop by a potential investigator, K*, that a previous companionship had street contacted into, and there hadn't been any follow up in a few months. When we knocked on her door, a man answered and we found out that K* had moved. The man LET US IN (*miracle alert*) and we got to talk to him and his two (adorable) little girls. Then about 15 minutes into the conversation, his wife walked in and was SO nice and they invited us to come back next week after their vacation! Woohooo!

2) The miracle of the man who knows the church is true but doesn't know that he knows: G* is an amazing man. I don't know if I've told you about him before, but he's just a gem. He's 62 and works 14 hours a day, 6 days a week, so he can pay for his girlfriend's (he's a widower) medical bills AND build a new house while he lets his late wife's sister's family LIVE IN HIS HOME. He is so generous. And since he works so much, we only get to see him about once a month. But we had a really powerful lesson and got to testify to him, and he told us that he just wants to do what God wants for him. He just wants to serve and, basically, be an instrument in the Lord's hands! When he realizes that he knows the church is true (and he already kind of does) it will be a huge day. So cool.

3) The miracle of getting two new investigators in one day: One day, we got two new investigators in one day. That never happens. They were both just potentials that we've been trying to contact for a long time, but when we knocked on their door on this magical day, they both let us in, and we got to have 2 sweet lessons, and got return appointments with them. They are both fairly solid as far as being honest seekers of truth. Go truth!!

4) The miracle of the greatest ever response to the Restoration DVD: J*, our YSA investigator, watched the Restoration DVD that we left him. When we met for our lesson the next day he said casually, "yeah, and I FREAKED out at that video." Uh oh. Not what we wanted to hear. Nope, actually it was EXACTLY what we wanted to hear because he freaked out in a GOOD way! He said he could relate to Joseph Smith in that he couldn't understand how there could be so many different sects, he just wants to do what's right, find the truth, etc., and that he had an experience when he was 16 where he got a very specific and unique answer to a prayer in the woods. Talk about meant for this church! It was fantastic. He is praying for a baptismal date now, so hopefully I will still be here to see that one through. But if not (to quote myself (because I'm apparently a severe narcissist)) "it doesn't matter". :)

This week we also had Zone Meeting in Ludlow. It's a 40 mile drive (not great for mileage) out there, but it was fun. This Zone is much different from the Dirty South. The Cambridge South zone is the smallest in the mission in terms of both number of missionaries AND geographical area. The Springfield Zone is the LARGEST in terms of area, and one of the largest (if not THE largest) in terms of missionary companionships. So it's a big difference! But our Zone Leaders are wonderful and we have a SENIOR COUPLE in our Zone. They call themselves "Elder and Sister Corbin" because Corbin is their last name, and they're missionaries. They are from ENGLAND and when they talk I feel like I'm in England. I may or may not have closed my eyes while they were talking and pretended I was hiding under an invisibility cloak, eavesdropping on their conversation in Three Broomsticks.

Yesterday, one of our members came up to me and said, "I'm sure you get this ALL the time, but you remind me of Harper from Wizards of Waverly Place!! Do you think so??" First I had to act not shocked because she is a mother of teenagers and probably shouldn't be watching Disney Chanel (let's not put that line on the blog) but then I told her that I've never seen it. So. Please do some research (including, if necessary, watching a clip of that show on YouTube) and tell me if I am indeed like Harper. I don't know why this is suddenly so important for me to know but I feel that it is urgent.

Next, feel free to send me a blue ribbon or some balloons or an edible arrangements fruit basket because we WON our miles competition. That's right. We drove 1278 miles last month. That is more than 450 miles fewer than last month. Therefore we earned a pizzar. Go us.

I got a few videos of Brother D*. He is a riot. I don't know when I'll be sending an SD card next, but hopefully soon. You should be excited.

This week I finished the Book of Mormon. Oh man. That was sad but also happy because I got to start 1 Nephi again! I'm such a Sister Missionary. Look at the things that thrill me. :) Anyway I had a really cool experience as I read Moroni 10 because it talks all about spiritual gifts. So i went through my Patriarchal blessing and identified and wrote out the spiritual gifts/attributes listed in there. It was very interesting and I was surprised by how many things were mentioned - I never knew it was so focused on spiritual gifts! I recommend that process (pray, read Moroni 10, cry, pray, read patriarchal blessing, cry, identify gifts listed, cry, pray) to everyone. I learned a lot just from the beginning of the BoM too. Just in 1 Nephi 1:1, even! I love that word "nevertheless" because it proves that "having seen many afflictions" and "having been highly favored of the Lord" are not contradictory statements! It's so true that "whom the lord loveth, he chasteneth" (or something like that). I also loved what i learned in 1 Ne 2:12 that the reason Laman and Lemuel murmured so much was because they "knew not the dealings of that God who had created them." I learned that the better I come to understand God and his reasonings, the less I will complain about my trials.

One last update and I'll call it good for now. This update is called,


Wildlife in New EnglandThe "Holy cow - BUGS" Story


There are a lot of bugs that live out here that I was not actually aware lived out here. Also, there are more of them than I ever anticipated. Also, sometimes I wonder if I was ACTUALLY called to Africar, not Massachusetts because some of these beetles look like they belong on sarcophagus. I'm not complaining, I'm just letting you know. Call me Steve Irwin, if you want, because my greatest desire at the moment is to spread my knowledge about critters in an exaggerated Australian accent. There are lots of beetles (I keep typing "Beatles" haha). Some of them are gold. Some of them are brown. Some of them are black. Some of them are little. Some of them are 3/4 the size of my palm. I'm pretty sure all of them fly. One of them (of the HUGE and BLACK and ANTLERED variety) is laying on the sidewalk where we run every morning and is being devoured by ants. That makes me happy every time I see it. And then I get scared on account of, "what if he was a member of a gang and the other members of his gang fly out to Oxford in a giant tornado storm of beetles to avenge their brother's death?". Then I remember that that is not likely. You should also know that one time sister Jordan accidentally stepped on one and orange frosting squirted out of it. Yeah, ask me if I ever want to eat frosting again.

Well, I just love you all. Your prayers are working because I'm having a really happy week! I am enjoying the journey, and not so focused on the destination(s). I hope things are going well in Utahr, and that you can survive the heat and avoid the wild fires.

Love,

Sister "our mission president said we could stay out late to watch fireworks if we want" Broekhuijsen