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
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