Ring Out Wild Bells!

Sorry I didn't get this posted sooner.  We were up in Salt Lake when it came - but it was a very pleasant surprise to come home to!

It was beyond wonderful to get to skype with you, my favorite family of all. Fun fact to those of you who haven't heard, I actually got to "talk" to Andrew in RUSSIAR for about 3 minutes while he was skyping home! It was 6:00 pm in Russia, 7:00 am in Utahr, and 9:00 here in Connecticut so I called and got to say a little howdy to him.

I will now tell you about my week in chronological order.

The night of Christmas eve was spend with the F* family (the same family that had us over for Thanksgiving). We had a delicious dinner and then sang Christmas hymns and read the Luke account of the Christmas story. That's just how Christmas Eve SHOULD be. When we got home, Sister Rivera helped me to continue my lifelong tradition of getting brand new pajama pants on Christmas Eve. Fear not, little flock! I got pictures.

The next morning was just lovely! We went to a wonderful couple in our ward and they fed us breakfast and then let us have a great Christmas morning with a real Christmas tree! We brought our presents and opened them one by one with the couple. It was so fun to have that sense of "family" away from home!

After breakfast we headed down to New Haven and picked up some Elders and went to J*'s house. She had 2 laptops and her iPad all hooked up and ready to skype on her super super hi-speed internet. It was SO nice of her to invite of us over! Sister Rivera and I didn't end up skyping there, but the 3 Elders got to (the fourth was just calling - not Skyping). J* was so cute saying things like, "I might not ever be good at baking cookies, but I can still be a good Mormon because I can serve in OTHER ways!!" haha. It was, indeed, a FANTASTIC way to serve, J*.

Dinner was to be had at the B* family. Brother (or should I say, "doctor"? He's our dentist that does free work on us missionaries!) and Sister B* have one daughter who is 11 and so wonderfully mannered. It's a little miracle. They let us Skype on their equipment, and after Skyping I got to have a long, deep, intellectual conversation with Sister B* about passion and finding a career that's eternally significant and about moral relativism and the cankers it's causing in our society. MAN! I LOVED it! So it was just a marvelous day overall. It felt a bit weird to be Skyping with you because I knew it was my last time - I don't have another one to be looking forward to. Yikes.

The day after Christmas, which usually proves to be one of the most depressing of the year because you know that the NEXT Christmas is as far away as physically possible, was actually really nice again. What do you know. We got to go to the soup kitchen for service and it was fun to introduce all the cute Italian old men to Sister Rivera, She was, unsurprisingly, very well received.

That night we went to the Y*s for dinner. They are another favorite family of mine. I feel like I say that about EVERYONE in this ward, but really, this is one of my favorite of the favorites. When we were driving there around 6:00 we saw a few snowflakes! Fun! We had a delicious dinner and then a great lesson with them where they all set fabulous member missionary goals. Sister Rivera shared her conversion story (which is AWESOME, btw - I'll have to tell you about it sometime) and they loaded us up with leftovers and  Bath and Body Works (Christmas presents - SCORE!). When we walked out to our car, we were surprised (but delighted) to find about 5 inches of snow on the ground! And it was still coming down in big, fluffly ol' flakes! I was unable to get out of their driveway because their house is set in, down, off the road (does that make sense?) - as in, you have to go UP their moderately steep driveway to get to back to the street. So, Brother Y* offered to drive us out. Fine with me! I am a good driver but I've never had to deal with a two-wheel drive compact car in the snow. I miss my baby Subaru! The thing is, HE was unable to get the car out either. SO, after about 15 minutes of spinning and going nowhere, he went and got his huge truck (I'm talking... Andre the Giant would have needed to sit on a phonebook to reach the steering wheel) and towed us out. Moral of the story - don't buy a Toyota Corolla for a winter in New England. We drove nice and slow and made it home just fine, but it was a fun little adventure.

Unfortunately, it rained all night and when we woke up there was no snow to be found in Clinton. Sad.

Thursday we had district meeting. That was very nice. On the train ride home, Sister Rivera and I both got SLAMMED with a virus. I mean, SLAMMED. We were so sick and weak we could barely walk home! My lymph nodes were going nutso and we were congested and had all kinds of headaches. That was no fun. Our district leader is also sick and the word on the street is that there's just "somethin' goin' arayound" (apparently everyone in Connecticut has a hick accent - that's how I've typed them out to be, at least). So the rest of the week (until now) we have been fighting an illness with the courage of lions and the wisdom of ravens and the cleverness of snakes. And the niceness of a badger? Too far, Sister Broekhuijsen. Not funny.

Friday we had lots of lessons scheduled, so that was fun to get to work! Our dinner appointment mixed up the days we were coming so even though we confirmed with her the day before, she was not expecting us when we showed up. "That's okay" we told her, "We'll just go home early and sleep because we're actually feeling rotten." haha. Blessings in disguise.

Saturday we had an early meeting and then two lessons with investigators. R* (our sweet 82 year old) and M* (our sweet 16 year old). Man I love being a missionary. Sister Rivera and I teach really well toGETHER and it is just so fun to get a be a missionary! I love everything about it except for the parts that are not fun. But even those are things I'm GRATEFUL for, I just don't always like them. Make sense? Probably not. Like I said... we're sick. It started flurrying when we went into the library for our lesson with M*, and when we left there were 5 inches on the ground and it was snowing SO HARD!!! We got lots of pictures - it was just beautiful!! I love snow (until January - then I will be sick of it. Guess I'd better love it as much as possible for the next 7 hours).

Saturday night Sister Packard and her daughter, A*, came down (despite the huge storm) to see us and by the time they got here (about 5:00) we were both feeling so much better! "Yes!" we thought, "We have been healed! We can now get back to a normal schedule and work harder/longer!" So the Packards took us out to dinner and we talked about ideas for our Sister conference coming up in January. It was a great time. We got home and shoveled the driveway - I don't know why but it was a BLAST. I've never had more fun shoveling! But it was coming down so hard that by the time we finished there was already 3 new inches where we had started!! So we called it a night.

Saturday night was a roughie. To put it lightly. Probably the worst night's sleep I've had on my mission. I started coughing like a deranged hyena. Luckily, it was a very dry, unproductive hack. Not fun. I woke up at 12:30 and layed there WHY-HI-HIDE awake until after 3:30. Sister Rivera wasn't doing much better. So Sunday morning we decided that we were definitely contageous, we were getting worse, and that we shouldn't/couldn't go to church. It was the first time Sister Rivera had missed church since she was baptized when she was 16 years old. Can you believe that? That tells you how sick we were.

BUT

The story gets better. So we rested a lot yesterday, and we were very well taken care of. The bishop called and arranged for our WML to come give us a blessing, our WML's wife, Sister C*, brought us delicious soup, and we made therapeutic brownies. How are they therapeutic, you might ask? Well, I made them in a special way: I put chocolate chips and Hershey's kisses on top before I baked them. Therefore they were more concentratedly chocolately. Therefore, they made us feel better.

Today I am feeling a lot better than yesterday, despite having another less-than-ideal night's sleep. I still have a cough but my throat hurts a LOT less and my headache has come down significantly as well.

Hmm... this seems very complainy. I'm sorry, I've just been terrible at writing in my journal this past week so I'm writing down as much detail as possible to try to make up for that. I really have been in a GREAT mood even though I've been physically down. I'm super happy! Sister Rivera is a riot so we're always laughing. :)

Whelp - the library is closing now so I'll have to tell you about my next two bullet points:

Sister Rivera-isms
Old Navy cardigans

next week.

I love you, family! I'm bummed that Andrew didn't e-mail today, but I suppose I should just count my bleepin' stars that the library was OPEN for ME! :)

Hasta next week,

Sister Broekhuijsen

P.S. Happy Birthday shout out to my PAPA!!! This Saturday. I think I'll celebrate by watching J* get baptized. :) 

P.P.S. Do you realize that tonight end of 2012 which is the only calendar year in which I didn't see Andrew or the rest of my family for the entirety of it? (<--- awkwardly worded, but you know what I mean, right?) Bring on 2013. I've still got plenty of time to be a Melissionary!!

Mr. Kruger's Christmas

Well, I was 0 for 2 in my predictions about whether or not we'd get email from our missionaries today!  I've rarely been so happy to be wrong!  :-)  So, here's a quick message from Melissa!

This will be short but I wanted to let you know that I have had a great week!

I was feeling a little bummed on Friday because I was deciding to feel sorry for myself. My companion was sick and I felt like I was getting sick, too. Plus I was sad that there were all these transfers/changes right before Christmas. I just felt like I was going to have a really lonely Christmas. I knew that I should have just turned outward and tried to serve my companion (after all, I already know and love this ward - she doesn't know ANYONE and had to leave 10 investigators with baptismal dates (that's right, TEN!!) to come here to Madison) but I was just grumpy. I consulted my heroic District Leader and he had some good advice for me, and I spent a lot of time on my knees and pondering. When we went to our dinner appointment, our hostess, Sister Christensen said, "Dinner won't be ready for a few minutes so I want to watch this movie with you while we wait." It was Mr. Kruger's Christmas, which I have heard good things about, but had never seen before. So we watched it and I CRIED LIKE A PHOENIX IN LABOR. Why it is that no one has ever warned me about that durn movie and the potential that it has to evoke a physical/emotional response in viewers is beyond me. But I loved it. It totally put things back into perspective and changed my paradigm.

So you'll be happy to know that I am not being Scroogina.

Things are going really really well with Sister Rivera! She is a wonderful companion and an EXCELLENT teacher. I feel really lucky to be here in this ward and to have her here with me at this time.

Merry Christmas to you all! 

Can't wait to literally SEE you tomorrow!

Love, love LOVE you,

Sister "It won't be a white Christmas for ME" Broekhuijsen

God Loves Me So Much I Can't Even Really Handle It!

We thought we wouldn't get email from Melissa until Wednesday this week because of transfers, but got a very pleasant surprise when we found out that today was P-Day after all!  Yee Haw!  So, here it is for your reading pleasure:

Well hello!

I have had such a wonderful week. Probably the most appointment-filled, fruit-laden week of my mission. I've said it before, but it's so great to get to see outward results for all our hard work. I know that the times we work hard and DON'T see outward results are also important, but I guess I'm just trying to say that I'm grateful for this week.

With such a stellar, happy, productive, and fun week as this was, it is extremely sad to see that it marked this end of an era. That's right, Sister Vicente is getting transferred on Wednesday. She is going up to the singles wards! She'll be in the apartment where I got baked! She'll get to work at CEOC and take the train every day and walk around Harvard Square! While I'm excited for her, and I know she will (eventually) love it, it is SO sad to see her go. We have been doing SO well together and I feel very attached to my little Cape Verdean princess. My new companion will be Sister Rivera. She is from Honduras originally, but grew up mostly in Brooklyn, NY. She is getting pulled out of the Spanish program to come into this ward, so that is exciting. I am grateful to get to finish up my mission here in the Madison ward.

So let me tell you a bit about this week that was, as mentioned (several times already), quite amazing.

Right after I finished my e-mail last week we headed to the A*s, a family in our ward, for a dinner appointment. Their children are so cute and well-mannered. And their (I first typed "there" - oh dear, time to go back to college) cat, Larry, is HUGE and orange and so cute and floppy and cuddly and relaxed and majestic and chill and I love him. I'm sorry there have been so many animal updates lately (pigs, tomcats, and Mainecoons, - oh my!) but they are apparently an important part of my mission. haha

Tuesday was just as incredible as I was hoping it would be, and THEN some. Fear not, I shall tell you all about it.

We drove up to the temple in Belmont with Elders William and Somppi (in our district) which was SUPER nice because I don't love making that long drive with all the construction. Plus, I have a guilt complex about speeding so I pretty much always follow the speed limit. So, when OTHER people are driving, we get places a lot more quickly!! Sister Vicente and I brought pillows and blankets (you should know that it's less than a 2 1/2 hour drive, haha, but we like to be prepared) so we were very comfortable in the back seat. We got to have lunch with our zone and the Nashua, NH zone in the cafeteria and then headed upstairs and did a session together. It was just wonderful, I love the way I feel in the temple - it is just so different from the rest of the world!

After the temple we walked down to the Belmont chapel and had half of a transfer meeting and a Christmas devotional. We got to hear the testimonies of the departing missionaries (something that usually happens in transfer meeting, that got moved up because those leaving this transfer fly home tomorrow (Tuesday) morning!! That's nuts!) and it was such a weird feeling to think that the next time there are departing testimonies, I will be up on the stand. It's hitting me in waves and it's just very odd, and slightly alarming. During the devotional, President Packard gave a PROFOUNDLY interesting discourse on the circumstances around the birth of Christ. I forgot my notes (durnit!!) but his main point was that Christ, the creator of Earth and Lord of the heavens got to choose exactly how He wanted to come into the world, and He chose to come in the lowliest of circumstances. President led us through several scriptures and made the point that everything about His birth was related to humility. Social, societal, personal, and intellectual humility. I've always known that it was a humble time, but I've never had it laid out so beautifully - it was just great. I feel so lucky to be here with this mission president at this time. I KNOW I'm supposed to be here to learn from him.

After the devotional we headed downstairs to the gym (the Belmont chapel is very oddly designed) and had our Christmas party! It was great to see other zones' skits and musical numbers. Our musical number (that I told you about last week) was by FAR the best, if I do say so myself, and I most certainly do. Our skit turned out well! I will have to try to get a recording of that sometime - I know several people got videos of it. I was... QUITE dramatic. It would take too long to go into great detail, but basically I got to play a very stereotypical Sister missionary. I was extremely emotional (<--- and in all honesty, that's probably a bit of an understatement) and got to throw in lots of corny Mormon phrases. It was fun and I was congratulated several times on my acting skills. Let's just hope people realize that it was a JOKE and that's not really how I am :)

After the party was over, we walked back up to the temple parking lot and waited around for a bit because there were a lot of logistical details that needed to be worked out (we had stuff to give to Sister Garcia that she had left in the Clinton apartment, the Elders were going on exchanges so they had to get the right bedding into the right car... stuff like that). So while we were waiting at the car, I saw a car drive by us really slowly, but it was like 8:00 at night so I couldn't see anyone inside. I just knew it wasn't a missionary car. It went by and then suddenly the driver slammed on the brakes, the doors FLEW open, and two people started running at me with their arms out in hugging position yelling, "Sister BROEKHUIJSENNNNNNNNN!!"

It was none other than L* and A* - my investigator-made-recent-convert from the singles wards, and one of my favorite members from LP2, respectively. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? Let's just think about all the things that had to go exactly right for this to be possible: I was up in Belmont, Massachusetts at 8:00 pm on the exact day that L* and A* decide to go out to dinner together. Then, they decided to take the long way home so they could see the temple. THEN they decided to drive around the temple parking lot. Then I had to be facing the right direction at the right time so that they could recognize me. If any one of those things hadn't happened, I wouldn't have gotten to see them! If we hadn't been waiting around for Sister Garcia to retrieve her stuff, then we would have already been on the road by the time they drove by! I am tearing up right now just thinking about it. This is truly my Christmas miracle and I feel SO blessed that God loves me enough to divinely, intricately orchestrate this beautiful confluence of events.

On the drive home from the temple we got stuck in a HUGE traffic jam. It took 45 minutes to move 1/2 a mile. And for once in my life, I'm not exaggerating. They forced everyone off the freeway - all lanes. I've never heard of that happening before. So that was another reason I was extremely grateful that I wasn't driving that day :) But even the traffic jam wasn't annoying for me because 1) Elder Williams told us the story of his most awkward date and it was supremely entertaining, and 2) pillow and blanket.

Thursday morning I got to go to the dentist! I love the dentist!! There is a dentist in the ward, Dr. B*, who owns his own practice and lets missionaries get free cleanings and even fillings and stuff! It felt so good to get a cleaning. Then we went to New Haven and had our district meeting. President Packard came, so that was fun! When he shook my hand he said, "Ah, Sister Broekhuijsen - my academy award winner!" Once again, I'm hoping that this is a sign that he knows I was JOKING and I'm not really like that. hahahaa. After district meeting we went to Frank Pepe's (the oldest pizza place in the COUNTRY) with C* (Snoop Dogg's cousin). I thought it might not feel as cool typing that out the second time but I was wrong. It was just as awesome as the first time I got to go to the oldest pizza place in America with a rapper's cousin, about 7 weeks ago. ha! 

By the time our meeting, lunch, and transfer predictions were over, it was near rush hour and I was exhausted so I really didn't want to drive home. I jokingly asked Sister Vicente (who has never driven in her LIFE), "Will you drive home so I can just take a nap in the back seat?" She responded, "Sure, but first I have a queston for you: Do you want to go home in February? Or do you want to go to the Celestial Kingdom TODAY? 'Cause if I drive, we're going to die." hahahahah.

Friday and Saturday were both JAM PACKED with lessons. It felt so good! I love being busy, and it was miraculous to see the way that everything worked out with the scheduling so we could just go bam bam bam from one place to another. Sister Packard even came out with us for a few lessons - so that was fun! I just love the whole Packard family. On Friday we had a first lesson with a potential who is now a new investigator. WOOT!!! His name is M*. It was the cutest lesson ever. He is 16 years old and had SO many good questions. "Why are there so many different religions?" "What does it mean when you say you have the 'fulness' of the Gospel?" "How do I know if God is answering my prayer? - What will it feel like?" Pssshhh. I love that. We were so excited to tell him that the lesson we had planned would answer ALL those questions! On the walk back to the car, Sister Vicente and I were hugging and almost crying because we were so happy. We got a text from M* that said, "I think I have that peaceful feeling right now!" :) At that point we just lost it and our hearts were moved unto the gushing out of many tears, just like the Nephite army in 3 Nephi chapter 4 (I've always loved that phrasing). It was the best. One of the many reasons that this week was so remarkable.

A quick weather update - the pictures you sent from Highland are just BEAUTIFUL! We've had lots of rain lately, but no snow yet. It's nice from a missionary "I have to be outside all day"  perspective, but it's a little odd. I would love for it to snow Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then just warm back up and melt on Wednesday the 26th. We'll see if I get my wish. haha.

I guess this will be my last e-mail home before Christmas because I doubt we'll find any libraries open next Monday due to the fact that it is CHRISTMAS EVE. Squee! I love you all so much and I've been thinking a lot about Christmas lately, and I've determined that there is no reason that this can't be the best Christmas yet for ALL of us! Of course I miss you all and it will be a bit sad to not have the same traditions and get to be with you on the actual day, but I feel SO fortunate to get TWO Christmases on a mission!

I love you. I am excited to Skype with you in a little over a week!

Love,

Sister "Joy to the WORLD!" Broekhuijsen

After this email, we got one more short one from Melissa with the following message:

A lot of people have been asking about Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is not in my area, district, or even in the Massachusetts Boston Mission. It is about 45 minutes northwest from me, and everyone here is definitely talking about it. It's easy to feel helpless and like there's nothing we can do in horrible situations like this. But, in fact, there is one thing that we all CAN do, and that is to pray. I know that there is power in praying on the behalf of other people.  

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the [Mission]"

Hooray for Monday emails!  Don't get too complacent, though - because NEXT week we have to wait until Wednesday to hear from Sister Broekhuijsen.  Boo.  :-)

Christmas greetings to you! "What does a Christmas greeting feel like, compared to a regular greeting?" you might ask. Well, I will tell you. A Christmas greeting is full of cinnamon sticks and orange peels and warm feelings. It's full of magic and wonder and well-behaved children. It's full of Santas and "ho-ho-ho"s and holiday trim, trappings, and bows! It's full of kindness and neighbors and lights on the tree! It's full of love and of goodness to all of you from me.

WOW!! Another poetic (and somewhat, nay, extraordinarily grrry) masterpiece.  [Editor's note:  for those unfamiliar with the word "grrry" - the simple explanation is that it means something along the lines of "corny."  For a more thorough explanation, email me or comment on this post and I'll be sure you get "the whole story."]  Again, you'll probably be shocked to learn that I made that one up.  On the fly. It's NOT Dickens or Longfellow or Thoreaux. Or even Silverstein. It's Broekhuijsen, soon to be a household name.

Sometimes I scare myself.

Well, I'm doing just dandily, thanks for asking! It's been just a string of awesome days all leading up to the MOST awesome day which is going to be tomorrow. I have so much to tell you!

First of all, I'm glad to report that we are having wonderful weather here. So far no snow in the past couple weeks and even that melted by the second day. Today it has been POURING rain, but that's okay. We've had very mild temperatures for which I am most grateful indeed.

I'll give you some updates since last week. You saw the piggy picture!! Isn't that thing cute? He was cuter in real life. He squeals like a piglet (my, what a creative analogy, Sister Broekhuijsen) when you pick him up but then he calms right back down and snuggles with you. He was soft and sweet and smacked his little mouth so cutely. I'm a fan. That was very nice of Sister T* (she's our RS President, btw) to offer to send the picture to you. She was so excited because her son just got home from his mission in August, she said that getting pictures was always a favorite of hers. I told her my parents would have to agree. :)

Speaking of parents, and ancestors, and family history work (too much of a stretch??) we get to go to the temple tomorrow! Half the Zones have their trip tomorrow and the other half have their trip next week. I haven't been since May, and I haven't seen the city in over two months! That's the longest I've been away since I first GOT to the mission in September of 2011! I'm excited to see my favorite skyline in the world and even more excited to get to go to the temple. We're having our Christmas devotional and Christmas party afterward, and each Zone is doing a skit and a musical number. We pulled a Weird Al and rewrote the words to "The 12 Days of Christmas" to be about missionary work. It's going to be greatly entertaining, I hope.

We got to have our companion study with President as planned. It was INCREDIBLE. He is just such an amazing person, leader, and example. We talked about his vision for the mission and he gave us wonderful advice. We planned a couple of really amazing lessons, and, although we can't usually spend 2 1/2 hours on companion study like we did THAT morning, we learned a lot of good practices that we've already put to use in our other planning. It was wonderfully instructive and a very inspiring time. At the end, he asked us what he could do for us. The main stressor in OUR lives for the past couple weeks has just been the looming TRANSFERS!! So we asked him to tell us if we were getting transferred. :) He politely refused. I understand, but it was still a bummer. haha.

Speaking of transfers (<--- my transitions are just so impressive today. Mrs. Woolsey would be so proud.) they are happening next Wednesday. Everything is thrown off by President moving things up so people could be home before Christmas, so we're not having a normal transfer meeting. Instead, everyone who is getting transferred gets to go to the other temple trip and Christmas party! I've never been so conflicted! I have never wanted to go to transfer meeting more (hello, the temple twice in 8 days???) but I also really REALLY don't want to get transferred! :( We found out that there is one sister coming out this transfer, and SEVENTEEN coming out next transfer, when I go home. Can you believe that? That means that 8 people will be shotgun training because they'll be opening up 8 new sisters' areas!! So exciting. ANYWAY. The point of that is that maybe I will train this transfer? But who knows? No matter what happens, I have faith that it will be what God wants. BUT, I hope that God wants for me to stay here. :) We'll find out Saturday night!

We had a really good week. No sand shovelling, which was quite a disappointing, but still lots of opportunities to serve, so that was nice. We had a couple paint projects scheduled for Wednesday, and we got to help with the ward Christmas party on Friday night. It did turn out great, and Sister Vicente, B* (my favorite 10 year old in the ward and probably world (unless I have any cousins that age...)), and I got to lead the ward in the 12 Days of Christmas. So that was fun!

On Saturday we were ushers for our Stake Christmas Concert. It was quite spectacular! J* brought her LA friend, her daughter and son-in-law, and her friend. She is getting baptized January 5th (happy birthday, papi!) They did a Nigerian Christmas song called "Betelehemu" that was SO fun. I think Chamber (or A Cappella, it would sound good with a big choir) should do it next year! I'm sure you could find it on Youtube, it's a fun one.

Yesterday in church our Sacrament Meeting was all about forgiveness. The youth speaker said something that really resonated with me. He made the point that forgiveness helps us live in the present and look toward the future, rather than dwelling in the past. I liked that idea a lot. Also, Sister Vicente and I (along with 4 YW in the ward) sang "With Wond'ring Awe" as the musical number in Sacrament Meeting yesterday! It was nice - I love singing! I miss it.

Last little bit here - it's time once again for Sister Vicente says the darndest things.

1) Driving on a narrow, pitch black road (oh wait, that description doesn't actually distinguish the road we were on from any other road in CT because they're ALL like that and there are NO STREETLIGHTS HERE. I'm still weirded out by that.) I saw a deer on the side of the road so I slowed down to gaze at its cuteness and also to make sure that it didn't bound out in front of me. I stopped completely and rolled down my window and said, "Mr. Deer, PLEASE do not go onto the road and get hit by a car." Then I rolled the window up and went on my merry way. Sister Vicente looked at me and said, "Yeah, he go die tomorrow."

2) I was frustrated by something (I honestly don't remember but it was, but I remember thinking that it was poorly designed) and I grumbled, "Who MADE this?" Without missing a beat, Sister Vicente said, "The foolish man!" hahahaha

Whelp - that's all, folks. Thanks for your support. I'm so very happy out here. I was just pondering this morning about how I'm so thankful that God asked me to come on a mission. I'm so thankful that that's what was right for me. And I'm so thankful for my family who helped me get everything ready so that it could happen as quickly as possible. I'm really grateful that this mission is part of my life, I know it's going to bless me and my marriage and my posterity forever.

Love,

Sister "Why don't I listen to Christmas music all year long?" Broekhuijsen

Piggy!

Hello all!  Remember how in Melissa's email on Monday she said something about visiting some folks who just got a miniature pig?  Well, they were kind enough to send us a photo, so we thought it should definitely be seen by all.  It's so cute!  (Not as cute as Sister Broekhuijsen, though!)  :-)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like…

 ... a swamp! (It has been really really foggy here lately. I don't understand it, and it's weird to be on the freeway and unable to see more than 2 cars ahead of you!)

I had to put that part from Sister Broekhuijsen before my "intro" because it went together with the post title.   Anyway, here is the rest of our email from this week.  It's great to know that Miss Melissa is happy!  

I want you to know that I am doing well. I can feel that you pray for me (multiple times a day) and I really appreciate it. I am so happy to have you as my family because it helps when I get to testify about eternal families. I wouldn't be nearly as convincing or sincere if I didn't have a family like you! It helps that I actually want to be with you all for eternity. So thanks for being the kind of people I want to be with forever. What a great compliment.

This past week was good! We got to work really hard, but in a different way than the week before, because we only shovelled sand for 2 hours. The whole week! That was not enough, I tell you. But it was good to get to have lessons, too. Of our many member lessons this week, more than half were with less active people. Isn't that wonderful?

Church was GREAT yesterday. I fasted for an outpouring of the Spirit. I want to be more led in everything. And even though I know that being led doesn't mean getting step-by-step instructions about everything, I would sure appreciate that specific guidance so I don't think it hurts to ask. :) During Fast and Testimony meeting and during Relief Society, there were a lot of references made to us as the Sisters. One sweet young woman that we've met with a couple times bore her testimony about how we challenged her to pray more sincerely, and how that really changed her life. At the end she testified that the missionaries really can help us, and that when we pray more, we're happier! YES! I know that outward expressions of appreciation are not what we strive for. And I know that I'm doing what God wants me to do even when we DON'T get verbal praise like we did yesterday, but it just feels GOOD to be reminded that we are affecting people for the better, you know? I needed that yesterday, so I was grateful to feel appreciated by the ward.

Our latest edition of Sister Vicente Says the Darndest Things is here! In order to fully appreciate this one, you must understand two things: 1) We have a running joke about our fake (kind of?) crush on David Archuletta, and 2) we've been listening to his Christmas CD a LOT lately. Okay so one night when we got back into our car after a lesson, it was freezing. We turned on the heater full blast but it was taking a long time to warm up, so Sister Vicente pushed play on the CD player and said, "David! YOU can make us warm!" hahaha. It was so funny. I'm always laughing with this one, I tell you!

We had a funeral in our ward this week, on Tuesday. That was sad. The man who passed away was older (but not THAT old) and he would attend Gospel Principles so I got to know him a bit and he was always very smiley and jokey. He was the only member of the Church in his family, so it was a very interesting experience to be at the funeral (which was held in our chapel). His family was relatively small but they were very appreciative of our hospitality. After the service and funeral procession down to the cemetery in Bridgeport, they came back and had a luncheon that we put on. It snowed big, fat, wet snowchunks that day and everyone was pretty cold and moist and kept asking where the coffee was. haha. But they were gracious and it was a good opportunity to be exposed to members of this church! The Bishop got really close to the family so that was good.

Well, that's about all the news I have time to share. A little preview of what's coming up for us this week includes:

1) President Packard is coming down and having companionship study with us tomorrow morning. AWESOME. His idea! I'm excited, I love spending time with him and I'm sure we'll learn a lot from him.

2) Our Relief Society President bought a teacup pig for her husband for Christmas. Not sure whose idea that was - hers or his. But nevertheless we get to meet him tomorrow night! He sounds adorable and cuddly (the pig, not the husband). Squee!

3) Our ward Christmas party is this Friday night. I hear Santa will be making an appearance.

Love you all! Thanks for your support. I hereby bestow upon you a lovely, balanced, and fulfilling week. You're welcome.

Love,

Sister "Construction in New Haven is even worse than construction in Utah, if possible" Broekhuijsen

P.S. I have been loving my advent calendar!! So far I have learned about Dad's favorite scripture, a memory from Mom, and one of Dad's favorite General Conference quotes.