525,600 Minutes

Today's email made me smile!  Of course, that is almost always the case, so I suppose I should say it made me smile even more than usual…  :-)

Hello one, Hello all. Welcome to my e-mail, great and small. I have some words to say to you, but before I'm through, I'm TELLING you, you'll be alarmed - I come unarmed, but I feel really weird today. And always. 

Why? No one knows. I'll leave that up to you, Ma, whether you want to include that on the blog. I won't be offended in the least if you want to keep that one in the closet so as to not mar our family name.  [Editor's note:  Are you kidding?  How could I leave it out when it is so very Melissa!] 

I feel rather poetic, so I think I'll make a goal to make all of my bullet points for today rhyme in some way. 

Actually, that sounds really hard. I think I probably won't do that. But I do have a lot to say, and it WILL be random. Of that you can be assured. 

• You'll be happy to know that I "got" another word this past week. It's not a compound word, so I guess what I really mean is that I discovered a connection. The word ridiculous has its root (I legitimately just tried to spell that word as "rute." wow.) in the word, "ridicule." Probably, at least. Isn't that cool? Think about it. I think I use that word incorrectly because there are a lot of things that I would call ridiculous that I actually wouldn't ridicule. You know? 

• We had a great lesson with P* this week. Yet aGAIN. He is a delight to teach! It was so great because at the end we asked him how he felt about baptism (remember that last time we brought up baptism, after we taught about ordinances, he was not the biggest fan of the idea and didn't understand why we would need to show something outward if we're already living gospel principles) and he said that he recognizes that that is the natural next step for him. He testified that he knows God will help him to accomplish it since it's a commandment. Oh P*. He is such a gem. He also told us that he really enjoys meeting with us and learning. That he thinks no one else could understand how he feels and that this whole experience of learning and progressing in the gospel is "beyond price." Aw! So that was just lovely. He is so nice - we need to find him a little wifey! 

• Because there needs to be opposition in all things, we had some not so great experiences as well in just these past four days. The most notable of which is that we had an appointment scheduled with a potential investigator, K*, who once again stood us up for our appointment. She was definitely home (or, at least, her KIDS were), and when we called she answered the phone and then when we said who we were and that we were here on her front porch ready for our appointment she straight up hung up on us. HA! Luckily, Sister Jordan and I choose to be positive, even in moments like that. It's just sad that she won't even give this a chance, since we all know it would change her life for the better. 

• (Knock on a gigantic piece of wood...) It has been not too hot! Maybe it's just because I was so worried about the humidity that I really geared myself up for miserableness, but I have been pleasantly surprised. It's still cool in the mornings when we run and that makes a huge difference.  

• Here's a cool story. I think its title tells it all, "A Girl Named L*: The Investigator Who Went on an Extended Vacation and Came Back Baptized." She was someone we inherited from the Hermanas when we came in to Boston 6 weeks ago. We left notes and made calls and texted but we could never find her. We found out just this past Friday that she was in DC and went to the temple visitors center and felt the Spirit like crazy, took the lessons at light speed, and got baptized. AWESOME. Too bad she's moving to Vermont in 3 days to go to college :(    But still a really good story. 

• We met a man who was probably more interested in us than the Restored Gospel who had a GREAT line for us. As he was giving us his info so we could call him, he told us his name is, "S* - it's in the Bible"  - as if that was really going to impress us. That is now a beloved inside joke between Sister Jordan and me :) 

• There is another young couple who just moved into the ward. They are the C*s and they came here from Vegas so that the husband could go to Berklee School of Music for film scoring. SHE is a physics and math teacher. What a great combo! My heart explodes with joy whene'er I get to spend time with them. They took us GROCERY SHOPPING TODAY so we could buy heavy things without breaking our little backsies. They are SO nice. I am so lucky to be in this ward. 

• We had a good lesson with B* this week. She is a musician/professor of music at some hoity toity academy here in Boston. We met with her once before and she scheduled the next appointment for 5 weeks later! ha. Busy woman. We did have a wonderful discussion as we read through 2 Nephi 2 together. Man that is such a doctrinally dense chapter - I LOOOve it. Go Book of Mormon. 

• I got to go to a baptism yesterday in the Haitian ward. It is CRAZY. I love it. There were 800 children running around and singing in French is a blast. The most awesome part (besides, you know, the fact that someone entered the waters of baptism) is that after the baptism the Relief Society came out with GIANT plates of food and just started handing them out to everyone! haha. It was so much food. Each plate (and there were probably 60 or more people there) contained 2 cups of rice, a cup of bowtie pasta salad, and another half cup or so of a hamburger pasta thing, and a drumstick. It was delicious and terrible for you. I have found that that is a common combination of adjectives for food, especially when it comes to the ethnic populations out here. It was really cool to see how unified that ward is. Everyone loves each other (to the point of extreme irreverence) but it's just awesome. That was a great experience. 

• I got a package from the Mia Maids in the home ward last week! That was so nice! They sent sweet notes and encouraging quotes from Preach My Gospel as well as excellently-drawn robots, dinosaur erasers, dino napkins, Burt's Bees, and dino fruit snacks. What a treat! It was so sweet and I felt very loved. It came on a day when I needed to be reminded of how much I'm loved... so... 27 thanks to each of you. 

• You may or may not (shame on you) be aware that this Wednesday the 29th is Brother Michael Jackson's would-be 54th birthday. I have never missed an MJ birthday since 2006 and I don't intend to start now. I bought all kinds of business to make MJ themed cupcakes (fear not, little flock - the decorating will be well documented) and we are going to deliver them to people on Wednesday along with a quote by our sweet Michael about repentance. You may know it as the lyrics from Man in the Mirror. It is going to be the BEST! You know how creativity flows more freely when there are restrictions placed on it? Well, I think the restrictions of a mission are going to produce some wonderfully creative MJ experiences to be remembered for years to come. 

• Two days after the wonder of MJ's birthday celebration is my ONE YEAR MARK (hence the reference to that horribly overdone RENT song in the subject line). That is so weird! But it is good. I love the ways that I have changed in the past year, and I hope I have been able to help OTHER people, too. 

• Sister Jordan and I gave talks in Sacrament Meeting yesterday! That was fun. The topic was simply "Missionary work" and we were told we could be as tangential as we wanted. I framed my thoughts around a quote by (I think) Julie B. Beck where she said, "You are doing better than you think you are, but we can do more." or something like that. I compared it specifically to member missionary work, and my goal was to encourage people that what they're doing right now is good (help them to realize that not all missionary work results in their best friend getting dunked) and let them know that if they make it a matter of personal revelation, they can find ways that God has in mind for them to improve. I felt good about what I said and I hope I was entertaining. No one will listen is they're bored, you know? I am annoyed by boring speakers, even if the content is good. 

Well. That is a lot of stories for you. Thank you for writing me! I'll try to get out individual e-mails to you, but they'll be short. 

I love you more than I love the fact that I found sea salt at the dollar store today,
Sister Broekhuijsen

Lovely

It was a long ten days to have to wait for an email, but it's here and, of course, it was worth the wait!

Hey hey hey! (Fat Albert style) 

What a lovely time of year in a lovely place doing a lovely thing for a lovely reason. I have been blessed with another great week (well, 10 days) since I last wrote. In case you couldn't tell from my amazingly creative diction, I am doing lovelily (<--- whoa!! That's an actual word? Who knew?). 

Remember a few months ago when I compared my brain to mushy oatmeal? Well, I would say that it is now more like ground beef plus breadcrumbs (you know, the makings of some delish meatballs) or perhaps some really good chicken salad. I am good at remembering small details for about 48 hours (as in, long enough to compose a write-up of a lesson on a teaching record), and I'm great at remembering how to navigate, but other than that my brain is pretty much a giant struggle. I have had several more "put-water-in-mouth-and-feel-it-dribble-out-down-my-chin-and-get-my-shirt-and-desk-wet" moments this week, and also I sometimes lose my thought-trains mid sentence! Also sometimes I spell the word "sentence" like "sentance" and "obedient" like "obediant" and "of" like "uv" (<-- that's when you know it's getting REALLY bad when I'm thinking phonetically haha). So, I guess the reason for me telling you this (aside from encouraging you to laugh and celebrate your own mental prowess which is magnified by my void) is to just gear yourself up for some random bullet points. 

• Last pday we went to GoodWill because Sister Jordan wanted some new tops. I was not going to get anything because I already have way too many clothes out here,  and because money doesn't grow on trees, did you know that? So we walk in, and after about 45 minutes she walked out empty-handed and I walked out with two new skirts! Oops. But they were 5 dollars apiece so luckily I harvested the funds necessary off my money bush (<-- I tried SO hard to word this sentence in a funny way. It's not even funny and I should just delete it but it's actually so NOT funny that I want to leave it in). So no worries there :) 

• You know how I sometimes "get" words (like "rainbow" and "trashcan")? Well, I had a good one a couple weeks ago: "discover" OOOOOH. That's right. It's awesome, yeah? Tell me I am not the last person on earth to figure out that that is actually a compound word... 

• We got our t-texts last Saturday and Sister Jordan and I are both staying in Boston 1st! There was QUITE a bit of shifting around this time. 4 new zone leaders, a new AP, and (most applicable to ME) they CLOSED OXFORD AS A SISTERS AREA! What? Man, that means I won't ever get transfered back there :( But the good news is that they transplanted Sister Burr and Sister Caldwell who were in Oxford to the BELMONT WARDS, which is an area that had been closed for a couple transfers. I don't think they've had sisters up there in like 10 years! So that makes another area that I could possibly be transferred to. Exciting! 

• We just discovered that there is a Greek pastry shop on the way to the library. 5 minutes from our house. NOT good. Now excuse me as a wipe the baklaava off my lips... 

• D*, the awesome young NEU student that we had an AMAZING first lesson with STOOD US UP for our appointment last week where we were supposed to pass him to the Elders! Grrr. He still has not responded to us. Such a bummer. 

• I mailed home an SD card this morning. It has stuff from my first week in Oxford on it - yikes! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've sent anything home! There's not a TON on it, but there are some fun videos so hopefully you get a kick out of it. Also, we no longer live right next to a CVS so I'm at the mercy of the Post Office for what kind of packing goods are available to me. Please don't laugh when you get the very heavily secured and oversized package whose actual contents weigh less than an ounce. haha 

• We had Zone Conference last Wednesday. It was the BEST Zone Conference of my entire mission so far. MAN I love our mission president and his family! Also, we just got our mission presidency organized and guess who is first counselor? Oh, no big deal, just Clayton Christensen who just won an award for being the smartest man in the world. YEAH!! I love Clayton Christensen! I think I would cry just listening to him read an owner's manual to a lawnmower - THAT'S how powerful he is as a speaker. He is so humble. I love everything about him. And he gave a GREAT training at Zone Conference about asking the right questions (related to that article you sent, Pa, but specified for missionary work). In order to COME to Zone Conference, he had to drive over an hour, then stayed only for his speaking portion and left to go teach a class at Harvard Business School, where he's also the Dean. Wow. I am SO blessed to get to work with/meet/learn from such incredible people in this magical area.  

• Our lesson with P* last week went well. We had planned to go in and teach about the Holy Ghost and personal revelation. Right after the opening prayer he referenced his homework assignment in Moroni 10 and asked, "So how can I feel the Holy Ghost? How can I "know the truth of all things"? and "What does the phrase, 'By the power of the Holy Ghost' mean?" HA! I love that. So we had a really good lesson and… 

• I met a little girl named S* this past week, and absolutely fell in love with her. She is 6 years old, and is from Nepal (though she's been here for more than half of her life and doesn't speak with an accent). Her parents are friends with the G*s in my ward, and Sister G* watched her for a couple days while her mom was in the hospital giving birth to their second child. She was there when we went to visit Sister G* and we sang "I Am A Child of God" with them because that's S*'s favorite song and the only thing that keeps him still. She LOVED it and memorized it after singing it like twice! It was so cute! Then she came to church with the G*s and sat by me in Sacrament Meeting. She sat very still and was very quiet all throughout Sacrament Meeting and turned to Hymn 301 and just started writing out the lyrics. Then she looked at my name tag and wrote out "Sister Broekhuijsen" and then put next to it "Sister S*". AW! It was so cute. Neither of her parents are religious, but she just loved church and when she was looking at the pictures in my Gospel Principles manual she got to one of the Atonement and pointed to it and asked, "Is that Jesus?" Oh man. I am tearing up just thinking about how wonderful she is. I just love her. 

• We had a lesson with an investigator, D*, this past week. We've only seen her twice in these two weeks now but she is great and really wants to learn. The part I wanted to tell you about is that she often gets off on these rambling stories and it can be really hard to reign things back in and focus. So during this lesson she started telling us about a dream she had had where everyone was dressed in white and she knew it was people smiling down on her from Heaven, and then one of the people turned out to be Michael Jackson! He was wearing sunglasses and smiling at her and comforting her and she just kept telling us about how she knew he was a good person, knew he is happy up in heaven, etc. It was cute. 

• A young couple just moved into our ward from Provo. Their name is the E*s and they have 3 dogs, a cat, 2 rats, and a black widow spider for pets. Haha! It was awesome! I got to play with big ol' dogs and force a cat to love me for like 2 hours. PLUS they just got called to be ward missionaries and we are THRILLED about that. They said I could stop by any time I needed my cat fix. :) 

• We had another lesson with J*, our professional bible-studier. It was a great lesson, again! We spent most of the time talking about the Book of Mormon and he said he was really excited to read it and decide for himself if it's true. I love that I feel so comfortable in telling him that everything he knows and loves about the Bible will be supported in the Book of Mormon, and especially that the historical/chronological elements will line up really well.  

Well, I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing but I am running out of time. I shall close here and just wish you all well! Joshua and Garrett - I hope you have a great first week of school! Andrew, keep destroying those bugs. We could use your rubber-band skills over here in Boston with our clouds of fruitflies all over the house. Parents, keep on truckin'.  

Love you,
Sister "I think I've officially survived the worst of Summer in Boston" Broekhuijsen

Monday, Monday

Sounds like Melissa had another full and productive week!  But, I should just let you hear it from her personally…

Before I forget to tell you... next week is transfers, so I will not be e-mailing you on Monday. It will be Wednesday. I don't want to cause any alarm, so I'm letting you know now. 

NOW - Hello to you all. 

This week went by just as fast as the week before. It is crazy! I can't believe I've been here for more than a month already. One of the elders who was AP when I came into the field (and drove me to my apartment that first night!), Elder K*, went home on June 1st and got MARRIED on Saturday. That is way way fast, and mind blowing to me. 

I have been too tired lately to get through my BoM reading (I'm in the heat of the Isaiah chapters and it's exhausting) so I don't have any Book of Mormon insights for you from this week - I've been reading Jesus the Christ and the Ensign. But I will give you some updates on what happened this week! 

Monday - we went up to Haymarket and experienced my favorite things about the North End, namely, sandwiches and cannolis. :) It's a good thing calories don't count on pdays! We had lunch at my favorite sandwich place in the whole state of Massachusetts (and also in the whole United States, and also in the world and universe)! It's called Al's State Street Cafe. I've probably told you about it before - it has the crazy good chicken salad sandwiches (and you KNOW I don't even LIKE those things!) Then we e-mailed, then we went to the famous Mike's Pastry and got cannolis. I got a peanut butter one and Sister Jordan got an oreo one. We took cute pictures of ourselves holding cute boxes with the cute city skyline in the background. Then we stopped at Downtown Crossing and tried to find a watch for Sister Jordan. No luck. After pday ended we had a lesson with J*, finishing up almost everything she needed to be taught before her baptism Sunday. Her cousin, A*, came, so that was nice to finally meet her! We've been trying to meet her since our first week but we could never get our schedules to work. 

Tuesday - This was a great day, although it had the potential of being a really terrible day. In the morning we had our first new member lesson with our recent convert, S* (from Nigeria - so cool!), who got baptized the Sunday before we came out. Our next three appointments (constituting the rest of our day!) all cancelled on us immediately thereafter. Not cute. But we didn't complain, we just went and did some work on mormon.org and then made calls and plans. It was still a good day. That night, we had a cool miracle happen to us! We called up a potential who was originally contacted over a year ago - we found the number on an old potential sheet in our area book. Unsurprisingly, it was a wrong number. BUT *surprise* the guy who NOW owns the number was actually interested in meeting with missionaries! So we got his info and game him as a referral to the "Haitianaries". That was awesome. 

Wednesday - This day (like Tuesday) did not go as planned, but it was still a great day. I am learning again and again that a  lot of it is really up to my attitude. One fun experience is that we waited on Hyde Park Ave for an HOUR waiting for the 32 to bus to take us up to Forest Hills (the closest train station). During that time, 3 buses passed us that were all too full to pick up any more passengers so they just drove by mercilessly as the people inside seemed to mock us poor folk waiting in the heat. THREE BUSES! Eventually we decided it wasn't worth it to wait so we walked home, had some lunch, and took a DIFFERENT route to get to Forest Hills. 

We set out to Dorchester (lovingly referred to as "lock-your-dorchester" because it's the most scary/violent place in all of Boston) to contact some referrals. The first was a lady named S* who denied ever even talking to Elder Okelberry (who is the person who gave us the referral)! haha. When we explained that we came because she gave her info to a missionary a couple weeks ago and said she'd be receptive to visits from us, she said, "No, no, no, I couldn't have done THAT - I have my OWN church!" Ha. Her name was even S* so it's not like we just got the address wrong. Methinks perhaps she was more interested in getting a visit from ELDERS than from us. 

The other referral we got to contact was a woman named S* (who is the downstairs neighbor of J*, our investigator!). J* is so awesome for referring her - she (J*) even gave her (S*) a Book of Mormon before our first lesson! The best/most hilarious part of the story, however, is that when we came to the house, J* came down with us and found S* and her daughter, D*, who were chilling in the backyard. When J* told them that we were there for them, S* and D* immediately got up and ushered us inside and had us sit down in the living room. It wasn't until we were like 6 MINUTES into the lesson that they realized we were missionaries! haha. They had an appointment with the National Guard at the same time, so they thought we were them! That's probably the only reason they even listened to us, so that's a miracle. They did hear us out, though, and even agreed to a return appointment so that was good. 

THURSDAY was a great day, too! I woke up and made banana bread for district meeting. A* (my favorite lady EVER - the one who runs the food pantry at CEOC) gave us like 12 overripe bananas so we had to use them up! I used a base recipe that we had and then augmented it (and added way less sugar than it called for) to make 2, new, Sister Broekhuijsen-original flavors: cinnamon-coconut and peanut butter chocolate chip. Both were delish and well-received. We had J*'s baptismal interview after district meeting and it was great because Sister Jordan told her, as she was going in, "Okay, now just answer all of the questions correctly" just teasing her. J* responded, "mmmm, how about truthfully?" haha it was a great retort. 

Our last appointment of the day was with a man named D*. He referred himself on mormon.org and was very entusiastic about having us come over! Because we didn't bring a member with us to be our chaperone, we had to just "go for a walk" with him instead of having a lesson inside his living room that he had very obviously prepared for guests. Luckily, he didn't think it was weird and took us up to this really cool tower//fort thing in Roxbury near his house. From our benches near the fort at the top of this hill, we had a wonderful view of the city and it was peaceful with a gentle breeze - just idyllic. It tuned out to be a wonderful location for our lesson because a lot of D*'s beliefs are centered on being grateful for the beauty around us and in recognizing God's hand in all things. He is so awesome and is really just searching for truth! As we shared a couple passages from the Book of Mormon and challenged him to read and pray about it, he said, "Are you kidding me? I'm going to start this toNIGHT - it'll be done in 3 days!" hahahaah it was a fantastic response. He was so grateful to listen and learn from us and just be able to have a religious conversation (he said most of his classmates at NorthEastern are atheist). 

I feel like meeting and talking with him is a direct answer to a prayer I offered back in May (I think) while serving in the LP wards. I remember being on my knees and just sobbing because I felt so low - I genuinely thought that there was NO ONE in all of Boston who would listen to us and/or be humble enough to change. Finding D*, who is the very definition of a "humble seeker of truth" is such a blessing. We will be passing him to the University Elders, since he's single. So that's a bit of a bummer, BUT the University Elders are Elder Hall (from my district out in Oxford) and his greenie so that is awesome because we love him and we think it will be a good fit for D*. 

Friday was another day where we had many cancellations, which are always a bummer but we still got to meet with Sister G*, and that was good. She feels like she's not being spiritually nourished at church, since her two year old son, S*, won't stay in nursery so she had to just wander the halls with him for the last two hours of the block, and never gets to go to Relief Society of Sunday School. So she asked if we would come over and teach her/leave spiritual thoughts. We were, of course, happy to accept that invitation and had a really great lesson with her. 

Saturday, ALL of our appointments cancelled on us. That's cute. At least we didn't make the hour + trip out there for nothing, I suppose I should be grateful that they called ahead. :) I had a pretty grumpy day (woke up with a headache and really sore muscles - stuff like that) overall, but after a very thorough (and LONG) companionship inventory in the afternoon, I felt better in a lot of ways. We made dinner together and watched The Testaments during our dinner hour. It was nice - I haven't seen that movie in YEARS and I love it so it was fun to be refreshed. I love how they pull in lines from actual BoM characters and weave them into the fictional characters portrayed. And I LOVE how Kohor is crushed to death by the very block of stone he commissioned Jacob to make for him to symbolize his power and wisdom! ha! Sweet justice. 

Yesterday was a good day. We had our early morning meeting and were just go go go the rest of the day, but it was good. J*'s baptism HAPPENED! And not only did it actually occur, but it went well. The copies of the program were thrown together at the last minute and by Elders. Both of those facts were glaringly obvious but that's okay. Sister Jordan and I sang "I Need the Every Hour" for the musical number. It was the same arrangement that we came up with and performed at the Interfaith fireside a few weeks ago, and we even got N*P* to play for us again! J* said she really appreciated it, so that's good. We had a dinner appointment with a new couple in the ward. They seem to like us and even set their own really good member missionary goals. Plus they drove us home which is ALWAYS nice, especially coming from downtown Boston. 

Man - that was a weird way to reflect on the week. I don't know if I like it this way so who knows what next week's will look like. You may want to prepare yourselves for more bullet points and less organization :) 

Well, I love you. I'm thankful for you, and I want to wish you a happy belated anniversary! I'll have you know that I wrote in my journal last night, "Today is my parents' 25th wedding anniversary." I'm sorry I forgot to e-mail you LAST week to prove that I would have remembered without a reminder from you. But know that I was thinking about you and sending congratulatory wishes to you via thoughtspeak (Animorphs, anyone?) 

Love,
Sister "Please pray that I will survive 10 days until my next p-day" Broekhuijsen

Boston State of Mind

I went with Melissa's subject line for the post title - but otherwise, I probably would have titled it "Melissa Is Apparently in a Good Mood!"  I love it when she has a great week!

Greetings fellow earthlings and citizens. 

I can honestly say that this week was the fastest week of my whole mission - possibly even of my whole LIFE.  

Firstly, you should be pleased to know that everyone's prayers on my behalf (and the Emergen-C that I consumed) did the trick! I felt pretty yucky Monday, Tuesday was not awful but not fun, but then by Wednesday I was doing way better! I even ran again by Wednesday morning, so that is good news. I used my netti pot faithfully and he delivered (as usual). Sorry if that's TMI but I like to testify of netti pots as often as possible. In fact, I convinced the worker at Walgreens (who helped me find the saline packs) to try it! So yes - the duration and slamminess of this little virus were very much lessened, and it did not get out of hand and develop into a sinus infections like I feared. Hallelujah! (<-- first I typed "Hellelujah!" not quite the same... 

Secondly, I'll give you a little update on my investigators! J* is doing better and being more communicative. We are meeting with her tonight and she is on track to be baptized this Sunday. She asked Sister Jordan and I to do the musical number in the program so we are extra looking forward to it. P* is doing well, too! Saturday during out lesson, both Sister AND Brother G* were there! They were both able to testify as we answered P*'s questions about ordinances (why do we have to go through such a formal thing as ordinances if we're LIVING the gospel anyway?) and it was a wonderful lesson. P* found the Gospel Library App for his iPhone and got so excited he just read Genesis 1-21 FOR FUN, and then recounted basically every story contained in those chapters (even though he claimed he couldn't remember very much from what he read). So that was very rewarding to see him so excited about the word. We also had a first lesson with a man named J*. He saw our name tags while waiting for a bus and stopped us and asked, "Hey, do you like, do Bible studies with people?" when we answered in the affirmative he asked, "Would you be interested in doing a Bible study with ME?" ha - yes, yes we would. So we met and talked a lot about the Bible (he studies the Bible with people professionally) and we were able to set up into the Great Apostasy and Restoration! Every scripture about either of those topics that we pulled up, he had another explanation for (like the "refreshing" the Christ brought back during His earthly ministry, etc.) but he was still very cordial and interested in our interpretations of the Bible. By the end of the lesson I was worried because I couldn't really read him. Obviously he knows the Bible a lot better than we do, but he ASKED FOR A RETURN APPOINTMENT. So... that was wonderful. 

Thirdly, apparently I am markedly more attractive than I was 3 months ago because I am getting all KINDS of hit on out here. But good news - one of those people (after calling me like 6 times a day and leaving voicemails and whining about why I didn't call him back) turned into a great lesson! We met (and of COURSE brought the Elders with us) and together we had a nice meeting (mostly in Haitian Creole) and he is now a new investigator for the Elders! So that's good news. That is called, "using all your assets to share the gospel." ;) 

Fourthly, do you remember the cat man I told you about last week? Well, he was on our bus again last night and Sister Jordan sat by him and just turned and asked, "How's your cat?" He happily reported that she is doing well. "Her name is Mango, like the fruit." He's trying to find a boyfriend for her. So, there's some good news.  

Fifthly, we got to meet another investigator this week! She's one of the many that we inherited at the move and have been trying to contact since then. It was great that she finally responded to our call and we had a lesson with her. Her name is H* and she is definitely looking for the right reasons. We asked her what she expected from us, why she agreed to meet with us, etc. and she said, "I just want to find a church that makes me feel something - I don't want to just be told what's going to make me happy, I want to really feel it!" Awesome answer, H*! 

Sixthly, I have never been outside so much probably ever in my whole life. Also, I have never worn the same pair of shoes all summer long either, so my tanlines are impressively awkward - especially on my feet. We are out SO MUCH. And we walk SO MUCH. It's good, and I am getting tan, and that's good, but it has been pretty warm and pretty humid. Not my favorite combination, but it's cute that God is sweet enough to send a breeze every time we really need it. 

Seventhly, I saw an advertisement (pronounced "ad-VERT-iz-mint" - as my 7th grade drama teacher from New Zealand would say) on the T the other day sponsored by the Boston Vegetarian Society that looked AMAZING. They often put up pictures of delicious-looking vegetarian dishes, and usually they sound okay, but this one sounds too good to not share with you. It's called "Red Lentil Thai Chili" What? Yes. Go to BostonVeg.org and find the recipe and make it and report back. 

Eigthly, there was a day this week that we just HAD to go to Veggie Galaxy. It was the only option that made reasonable sense. I reluctantly agreed (heh - heh - not true) and partook of yet another magical dish. It was called "Grilled Cheese Special" and it contained: purple kale, green apple, red onion, white cheddar and rosemary jam on wheat. AMAZING. While you're giving the other recipes from Boston Veg Soc a whirl, try this and report back. Also, you should probably just find a recipe for rosemary jam and recreate it because it was a delight. 

Ninthly, (I promise this one is not about food) I am feeling so happy about my progress. I am seeing a very personal fulfillment of the promise in Ether about weak things becoming strong. I am AWESOME at contacting. At bus stops, on trains, at restaurants, at libraries, everywhere. I love that I enjoy it so much! I am grateful for the chance to testify every day. 

Well, I'm sure there are more things that I wanted to share but, unfortunately, I didn't prepare a list before coming to the library. So this sufficeth me. 

I love you, and I'm thankful for your prayers and your words. Be righteous. Just do - it's better that way. 

-Sister "You'd better believe I dragged Sister Jordan out to Haymarket this morning and we are about to go buy her a cannoli" Broekhuijsen

Catching Up

Remember back in May when I said I would try to post some photos along with audio commentary from Melissa?  I never did it because I needed help from Joshua and then I kind of forgot that I hadn't done it.  Anyway, Joshua helped me post some audio on Andrew's blog today, so I remembered that I wanted to do that on Melissa's as well. So, here is a bonus post to Melissa's blog - sorry it took me so long!