Back at the Blue & White Y

My prediction came true!  We did get to hear from Melissa today.  Yay!

Thanks a LOT, Christopher Columbus! I know you think you're important since you "discovered America" and all, but I don't know that that really warrants closing my only internet access.

ANYWAY. Greetings from beautiful Connecticut.I have been here for less than 120 hours but it already feels like home. :) I feel so much gratitude! And it's not just because of the fall. To be honest, the colors aren't near peak (at least I HOPE they're not - not much has begun to change). But I have hope that it will happen soon. I guess being at sea level would make a difference - I'm sure Utahr is stunning right now!

So... I have so much to tell you about! *Warning* this may be jumpy. If you are pregnant or have back problems you should not continue reading (<--- SOooo not funny. I told myself, "No, Sister Broekhuijsen. Don't write that sentence - it will be lame and you KNOW it." But then I just HAD to. I'm such a rebel to myself.)

First of all, my companion Sister Vicente is an amazing, amazing woman. I told you last week that she's from Cape Verde. What I DIDN'T know THEN, is that she is a convert of barely 3 years. Her little brother joined the church on his own at 12, and she joined a couple years later. Then her parents joined right before she left on her mission! They're going to travel to Brazil together when she gets home so they can go to the temple and be sealed. Isn't that awesome? She is also incredibly brilliant. English is her 4th (yes, FOURTH) language. Her native language is Cape Verdian Creole, then she learned Portuguese in school, then she studied Spanish in college, and now she's learning English. She is so sweet and has a POWERFUL testimony. I love teaching with her!

We live in half of a house. The LEFT half, to be specific (useless detail, but I thought I'd share). A nice, old couple lives in the right half. It is clean. It is new, it is cozy. It is lovely! The only complaints I have about the whole apartment are that the showerhead has tiny little streams of shooty water and it stings, it's an electric (not a gas) stove top, and we only have 4 linear feet of clothesrod (<-- is that a word? I dunno. I'm talking about the thing that you hang hangers on) between the two of us. But the fact that that's all I can complain about is such a dream. We have comfortable mattresses, a clean fridge, amazing desks, non-creaky and non-splintery hardwood floors, and as far as I can tell, our neighbors won't be providing us any second-hand highs. Another fun fact: we have electricity, so we don't have to do our planning by candlelight (which is probably a good thing because I don't think I can compare to my brother in terms on hand-modeling).  [See this post if you don't know what the heck Melissa is talking about!]  Also, no black mold is always a plus! So I love it. It's in a great location, too! I'm probably like a 1/3 of a mile from the ocean and the pier/marina/dock. I don't know my nautical terminology but there are lots of floating boats that are tied up to things. Also there are people fishing there a lot. And there's a restaurant called "Lobster Landing" so... that's awesome! I'll have to try that out sometime. Friday morning we ran to the dock/pier/marina and watched the sunrise and it was beautiful. My life is charming!

Conference was a delight. We got to watch it on the computers in the Family History Center (which is a wing of the Madison chapel) so that Sister Vicente could watch in Portuguese (I watched in good ol' English). Isn't technology amazing? It was so cool that she could watch it dubbed in Portuguese with only like a 4 minutes delay! I was SHOOOCKED at the lowering of the minimum age requirement. That is amazing. Because we were on the computers, I got to watch the press conference right after. First of all, WHY did they have a question and answer session? They were all stupid questions (except Carol Makita - love her) and the lady from the Salt Lake Tribune bugged me big time. BUT it was interesting nonetheless. I thought it was cool that Elder Holland's response to "Why now?" was simply that they really need more missionaries! How cool to think about this important milestone in the gathering of Israel and know that I was ON MY MISSION when the change was made. It thought it was cute the way Elder Cook talked about Jeffrey R. Holland being one of the first 19-year-old missionaries in his mission.

I loved every talk, but there were a couple principles that stood out to me as being particularly applicable and immediately implementable:

*Honeybees: 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey after a LIFETIME of work?? Wowzer. I should be pleased even if all I get to do is walk around with a name tag.

*President Uchtdorf's "life is not meant to only be enjoyed in retrospect" - "resolve to be happy."

*Don't be motivated to do something right only if you think someone else will see it. Do it right for the Lord.

*It's not enough to just teach what the Savior taught, we must learn to also teach how He taught.

*"First observe, then serve."

*Musical numbers - my GOODNESS. It was so cool that Lead, Kindly Light, Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy, and Does the Journey Seem Long? were all featured so prominently. Those are three of the hymns that have meant the most to me on my mission so far (I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go and Be Thou Humble are also up there). I just love how I'm often reminded of God's love for me individually as I hear/read hymns. The soloist on DtJSL (<-- yes, I'm cool enough to abbreviate that title) was incredible. I could listen to his voice forever!

*Overall I was impressed SO MANY TIMES with the idea that there really is nothing I want more than to just be an instrument that the Lord can use to answer His children's prayers. How lucky I am to be a missionary with such a clearly defined purpose.

Our ward (from what I've heard/seen) seems to be just spectacular. We have the largest youth program in the state! So many active young men and young women. Someone told me there are only 8 less active primary-aged children. SUCH a contrast to Boston. I mean, there are obviously struggles in every ward, but it's cool to see an active, large ward. There's a lot of support for missionaries - we have dinners nearly every night! And they find creative ways to support us in other ways, too. For example, one family in the ward owns a Laundromat at lets us come do our laundry for free on pdays! It's just so fun to be here. There's so much to be thankful for!

Fun fact - Halloween is a BIG DEAL here. You know that house by the Heritage Park chapel that decorates and goes all out for Halloween? Well, it seems like there's multiple houses like that on every STREET here! So funny. On the drive to our church building, there's a scarecrow type thing in someones front yard that is Darth Vader wearing a pink prom dress. Actually, CT in general must be pretty big Star Wars fans because there's an R2-D2 mailbox in New Haven. Like, actual, usually-blue, post office mailbox for dropping off letters. I've gotta get pictures with it.

That brings me to my next order of business. So I'm in the New Haven Stake. Guess what? New Haven is what's called, "The City that Yale Lives In". Never mind that it's only called that by me. That's right! I've traded in my Harvard crimson red for Yale blue! I remember when I first got to Boston and saw a couple people in dark blue shirts with a big ol' "Y" on it I was faked out and thought it was BYU. I was really surprised that there were so many BYU supporters walking around Cambridge, Mass! haha. But then I found out that it was Y for Yale. I will NOT get tricked out here. :) We have our district meetings on campus at Yale! Man - I'm just a lucky girl.

I'll close with something I've been thinking a lot about since transfer meeting. President brought up the point that missions are transformative. At least, they CAN be. But if we're focused only on transforming ourselves, it won't happen. At least not to the degree that it can if we have better intentions. If I study the scriptures so that *I* can learn as much as possible so that *I* can be cool and knowledgeable - if I try to develop character traits so that *I* can be more diligent/obedient/whatever for ME, then I am missing the point. President said that "You can't become who the Lord wants you to become by focusing on yourSELF - It ONLY comes by focusing on others." I just really like that idea and decided that I need to take a personal inventory and determine WHY I do certain things.

Whelp, I love you! Hope to hear from you all soon. I appreciate the support I have from back home - it really does mean a lot even if I don't have time to thank you all as often or as individually as I would like to.

Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria,

Sister "Call me Rori Gilmore 'cause I go to YALE" Broekhuijsen