Happy Halloween!

If you know me at all, you know that Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday - but getting emails from our missionaries makes it a WAY better day!

Today is Halloween. I hate Halloween, but it is not too annoying this year. I'm hoping that I don't have any trick or treaters. It's likely that I won't because I live in an apartment complex where you have to buzz someone or have a key to get in (I feel like my life is a bit like Seinfeld in that way). Also, no children live in my entire complex of 24 apartments so... blessing! As far as what we will do as missionaries, there is a curfew for missionaries in the city - we are to be in our apartments by 6:00 at night. We'll just be working on our lesson planning and stuff, but we'll also make cookies and some fun stuff I'm sure. Apparently the Book of Mormon musical has made "mormon missionaries" one of the most popular costumes this year, so you're right, it's definitely going to be best for us to not be outside. There have already been SO many Halloween parties, and I've seen enough drunk people around that I'm not going to fight it at all.

Thank you for the package! It arrived on Wednesday. Doing dishes is a blast now with my awesome IKEA scrubber. The letter file thing is already being put to use (it's exactly what I was wanting, so thanks for that!). The Reese's pumpkins were ah hah hawesome. They are so delish - like the Easter eggs. They are so much better than just normal Reese's. Also the scarves came very much in handy because it DID snow. They were saying 7 to 8 inches in parts of Mass but we only got about 2 where I live, and it's already all melted off the sidewalks and roads so that's nice. I DID make a purchase. Since the heaviest jackets I had were those button-up sweatshirt things, it was necessary to get a coat. Sis. Meier and I went to the Goodwill and I got 3 coats for 20 bucks each! Can you believe that? I got a thigh length brown one, and an ankle length black one. Also a lighter weight khaki one. TWENTY DOLLARS EACH. The Goodwill is twenty thousand times better than DI when it comes to cute clothes. Probably because it's right by BU. So that was a blessing. I tried on maybe 12 or 13 coats and bought three of them. Definitely the fastest coat shopping of my life. They're not the cutest things known to mankind, and they smell like dead old people, but since they were so inexpensive I can afford to get them all professionally cleaned and they'll still be cheaper than just ONE back home from what's known as a real store. So I'm gray hay hateful. <-- I don't know why I keep doing that.  [Editor's note:  In case you didn't figure it out, I believe she's just trying to spell out "grateful" as if she were saying it really weird.  :-) ] 

 Let's see.... this is the last week of my first transfer! That's pretty cool. We found out that no one in our whole zone is being transferred except for one guy who is going home. The rest is all the same, and I'll get to stay at the apartment in Brighton for at least another 6 weeks. Also we had Stake Conference this week! That was fun. We as Sisters were invited to go to the Priesthood session on Saturday afternoon because the topic was missionary work. That was a weird experience. But it was good. Then the adult session was Saturday night, and the Sunday one was 10 to 12 yesterday. My favorite was definitely the adult session. It was just SO good. There were three musical numbers and they were all superb, and the talks were all about missionary work too! The Stake Presidency out here is awesome, and Pres. and Sis. Evans spoke too. My favorite musical number was a barbershop quartet version of Lead Kindly Light. Did you hear me? I said BARBERSHOP QUARTET version of my favorite hymn in all the land! That was a cute little nice thing of God to do because barbershop always reminds me of being with my family at Disneyland (Big Thunder Mountain). So it was awesome and I was definitely displaying my most frequently used gift of the spirit (the ability to weep) :)

Quick, funny, unrelated story, but our ZLs are hilarious. We had a meeting that was supposed to be with the companionship of Elders that are over the LP wards with us, but they were on tours (that's what they call exchanges, isn't that weird?) with the ZLs so instead of having VanderHoek and Winegar, it was VanderHoek and Ellis. Elder Ellis is this big, hilarious black guy from Oregon and he just is one of those people that you want to copy. I'm totally using some of his phrasing already. One particularly hilarious moment  was when Elder VanderHoek said something but it came out wrong so we were all really confused at what he meant. Ellis just looked at him and said, "Son, that doesn't make a DARN piece of sense!" Oh mother. It was the greatest phrase I've ever heard. That will never not be funny. I just thought you'd appreciate that.

So, sickness. Yes I'm feeling almost 100% better. I just have a bit of a tickly throat but even that is almost unnoticeable. Blessing! Last Monday, right after we finished e-mailing, actually, we got a call from the mission doctor whom we had called the night before. When we called him, he said he lives in Natick which is not that far away in real LIFE, but is one of those places that we just couldn't get to on the T. It would be like an hour trainride down to the farthest south point, and then we'd still need a car to get there. So we were just going to tell him that we'd rather suffer for another week than walk a thousand miles to get to him. But when he called he said that he and his wife were just going to come up to Brighton, and that they wanted to take us out to lunch! So cute. They came to our apartment and checked us out. They thought it was viral and not yet bacterial so they just said to pay attention to how we feel, and if we weren't better by Friday to call them back and they'd give us ABX. Luckily we WERE better by then. But yeah, they took us out to lunch and were so sweet and wanting to take care of us. They lived in Highland for like 20 years, but then moved to AF (and then Massachusetts, obviously). Their last name is the Saunders, not sure if we know them or not, but they lived in the Alpine Country Club. One of their sons is the founder of Zupas! Fun stuff. So that was a giant miracle! Super nice of them, and way convenient for us. 

~Sister Broekhuijsen 

I realize this ends rather abruptly, but the rest of the email was kind of more addressed to immediate family - so if you're the highly curious type, you can give me a call and I'll let you know what shoes she needs to have sent to her, etc.  :-)

A "Unique Week"

It's nice to see that Melissa is able to see the good - even in "less than optimal" situations!  It was great to hear from her today.  So, without further ado…

So, last week was a very... unique week.  Today marks the 11th day of this mysterious sickness of mine. Last Monday, after running around like crazy working hard (because we didn't take a pday, remember? Because we wanted to teach 20 trillion lessons, remember?) Sis. Meier and I both crashed. Hard. As in... we could barely speak. I remember one time in high school I woke up with a really deep voice and went to the piano to test my range. I could hit two Gs below middle C. Disgusting. Well, I'm pretty sure I was at least that far down there Monday night. It was awful. But hilarious, so, haha! So Tuesday morning we cancelled our morning appointments and just slept. I love sleep. It heals my body wonderfully. Tuesday we just trekked out for a 7 o'clock dinner appointment and then one other appointment after that. That drained me. Wednesday we felt awful too, so we had to cancel everything in the morning (we had an AWESOME week set up on Sunday with 19 appointments scheduled throughout the week! In the city that is like, very impressive) and just headed out from about 2 o'clock on. Then Thursday we still weren't better and just made it out to a couple appointments. Friday was the same, and Saturday the same. It's very frustrating because we wanted to be so productive but knew that resting would be better for us! Also, I had flu like symptoms and didn't want to be going around spreading viruses like a........ pigeon. I don't know. What kind of thing spreads viruses?

Anyway it was a very frustrating week. We slept a LOT. Up until Saturday I was able to sleep every time I had time, AND through the night! So that was a huge blessing because usually if I take a lot of naps (I'm referring to pre-mission life, obviously) I have a hard time sleeping at night. So I know that was a blessing from God. We had a lot of other really cool experiences that reminded us that this is God's work. One day, in particular, we had been in the apartment all day, just feeling awful. Neither of us could really talk, and when it came time to go to our appointment, Sis. Meier couldn't find her planner (which contains our T pass). We spent about 30 minutes tearing the place apart trying to find it, but couldn't. We missed the bus that would allow us to get to the 6:00 appointment on time, so we called and cancelled that, and decided that if we couldn't find the planner she would just pay the 4 or 5 bucks that it would take to get to our 7:00 appointment with cash. Well, we couldn't find it, so we just headed out. I was so tired and felt SO miserable but I was determined to just do what I could, and to pray for strength. It's a long (not THAT long, but it seems long when you're sick) walk up a very steep hill to catch the 86, and I was not looking forward to it because my head was pounding, my throat hurt, my voice was almost gone, I was hacking up a lung, and every muscle in my body ached. Also, it was pouring rain with 5 inch deep puddles everywhere, and I don't have rainboots. I don't tell you this to make you feel sorry for me, just to show you how powerful God is. I was dreading the walk up the hill but I just said I would DO it. Do you know what? I just focused on talking to Sister Meier and distracted myself and VOILA! We were at the top of the hill and I wasn't even winded. How is this possible? Well, it was not normal, that's for sure. It was a cute little miracle.

When we were on the bus, Sis. Meier looked up suddenly and said, "I know where the planner is!" It was weird, but good that we knew where it was. Then we ended up accidentally getting off a stop too early. So we had to walk a couple extra blocks. About 2 minutes after we got off the bus a cute little Asian girl tracked us down and asked us for help reading her map. She was headed to a street pretty close to ours so we just walked with her. When she found out we were Mormon missionaries she said, "Oh, my friend is a Mormon! That's who I'm going to see!" We asked for the name and whatdoyaknow? She is in our ward. So we got talking a little bit and got this cute girl to the member's house. She was very grateful and probably wouldn't have made it there without our help because she was headed in the completely wrong direction, and her phone died so she couldn't call for directions. If we hadn't been sick, then we wouldn't have come from that direction. If we hadn't lost the planner, we wouldn't have been on the later bus. And if we hadn't gotten off on the wrong stop, we wouldn't have run into her. So God told us, "Hey ladies, I've got this all under control. I have REASONS for doing things, even if your puny minds can't always understand why." Except He said it in a nicer way.

All week when we WERE out of the apartment, we were less than wonderful at contacting because we didn't want to send the message that "if you join our church you get a free cold." But it was amazing to see how many people approached US. Very unusual. God really does provide for ways for His work to go on, even when it's not under what we would consider ideal conditions. 

Switching gears: despite being mentally clouded because of the sickness, I was able to come to a really cool realization this week. In district meeting on Friday, and Elder gave a presentation on one of the Christlike Attributes found in Preach My Gospel (the best chapter EVER - you should all study it.) He chose humility and the discussions mixed very well with the advice from Mom and Dad in your letters this week, and this combination led to personal revelation so thanks! 

In Mom's letter she shared a quote by Steve Jobs, "Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." Pretty cool, eh? Mom elaborated and reflected back on her own mission. Like me, she sometimes had a hard time just opening her mouth. Looking back, she asks herself, "What exactly did I think I had to lose?" but it was exactly what the quote says, "pride, fear of embarrassment or failure," etc.   

I definitely have similar issues for the same reasons.  I realized that again during the district meeting. In the training he brought up two points that specifically stuck out to me. First that humility is our willingness to submit to the will of the Lord. We got into a discussion about "What are you willing to give up for the Lord?" It made me really examine my life as a missionary. I realized that I'm totally willing to do the big things--I'll quit my job, leave my family, wear this nametag and fly out to Boston but when it comes to the smaller things like actually opening up my mouth to the stranger next to me on the bus, I'm somehow unwilling/unable. What is my problem? Why won't I give up THAT for the Lord? It goes right back to that quote. I'm scared of embarrassment and failure. Why can't I give up that pride?? Gah. 

It ties right into the second point from the training:  "Humility is not a sign of weakness--it often requires boldness". That also got me. It is actually more prideful of me to sit there quietly than to boldly declare God's word. Can you believe that? It's so true though!  Pride  is what stops me from being bold and inviting everyone around me to learn more about Christ and His restored church. I never even realized that it was pride before then. I always just thought it was fear/shyness/weakness. But now I think it really just comes down to faith. Do I trust the Lord enough to be bold? I should. Even though I can sincerely say that I believe and even KNOW that Heavenly Father will take care of me, somewhere along the line from knowing to DOING there is a disconnect. I guess that stumblingblock is pride. I feel so blessed to have come that the understanding that this problem of mine is a lack of humility. I definitely don't want to be prideful! That would mean I'm ungrateful and that sounds disgustingly rude and awful. So. Once my voice is back to normal I'm definitely going to try harder to just SPEAK! Please pray (how many times a week do I ask for you all to pray for me??) that I'll be able to do that.

 So. That was one of my favorite things that I learned this week.

I hope you all are doing well! I hope you know how much it means to me to know that you're thinking about and praying for me. I love hearing from you, and I loved seeing the pictures from Capitol Reef.  Joshua - that hair makes me want to vomit on a kitten. Cut it a.s.a.p.  

 Love you,

 Sister Broekhuijsen

[Editor's note:  In all fairness, Joshua had "bed hair" in the picture - it usually looks better!  I just had to leave the quote in, though, because it made me laugh!]

Week 6? 7? I Don't Really Know…

I think it's a good sign when missionaries lose track of time - it means they're "losing themselves in the work" right?  We loved hearing from Melissa today - here's some of what she had to say…I didn't include her entire email, because a lot of it was directed just to us, her immediate family, so I'm sorry if it doesn't all "flow together" as well as usual.

Yesterday was a great day. Sundays are a bit hectic because we're running around trying to get our dinner calendar passed around, take care of our members we know need a boost, set up appointments for the next week, make sure our investigators get to the right class, etc. But yesterday was a very relaxing day. Not because we didn't have to do those things, because we definitely did, but because I was so grateful to just have 6 hours to be TAUGHT instead of being the teacher. We have been so busy that we haven't had our studies for over a week. That's terrible, yes, but I'm choosing to look at the positives: church is a bit of a relief! I love teaching, it is absolutely my favorite part of a mission. But it's a bit of a relief to just be fed for 6 hours. A cool thing happened yesterday, too. At the end of September, I contacted a man named H*, from Turkey, at a bus stop. Forgive me if I've told you about him already. But we got talking and Sis. Meier gave him a passalong card with our number and the chapel's address on it and told him he should come check it out sometime. WELL - to our literally astonishment (my jaw actually dropped), he showed up yesterday! The Elders snatched him right away and sat with him in Sacrament Meeting and answered his questions. It was his first ever Christian church service (he's Muslim) but he must have liked it because he is meeting with the Elders this week! This was MY first fruit of the harvest, I guess. I am the one who talked to him first! And you know what? He DID something about it!! That was an exciting feeling, even if nothing ultimately comes of it.

 Jenny [a member in the singles ward Melissa serves in] served her mission in Indonesia! She had us over for dinner last night so we got to talk a bit about that. She loves Bahmi and Nasi Goreng but had never heard of Loempia! How this is possible I do not know. Is it possible that those are more Vietnamese than Indonesian? Who knows but I felt mega smart. 

We finally got a ward mission leader in LP2. His name is Jordan and he just graduated from BYU. He served his mission here in Boston from 04 to 06 and is now going to BU for his MFA in screenwriting. Cool guy, and he's on fire with a lot of cool ideas to get LP2's missionary work going better. We are in a "war" with the Elders this week to see who can teach more lessons, so we're not even taking a pday today! We're going to have to spread it out between the whole week. Our goal is 21 lessons. So... that will be tough but good. We have to budget an hour of travel between everything so it really limits how many lessons we can teach a week. But we're working hard to do it! 

I'm sick. So, that's fun. It's feeling a lot like a sinus infection, just not as bad as it usually is. I'm almost not miserable when I'm on sudafed and ibuprofen, so I don't want to have to go get some antibiotics if I can avoid it. I just went through a round last month! Arrgg. Let's say some prayers that this DOESN'T develop into a sinus infection and miraculously just stays a cold. :) Aka, let's pray that my body doesn't do what it is best at: getting frequent sinus infections. :) 

I've noticed throughout my life and mission, and most specifically yesterday, that I often get answer to prayers in the form of Hymns. I love when people share their thoughts to me via the lyrics of a hymn.  Just yesterday I had 3 distinct experiences like that! I'll share them because they are super cool. I'll include the hymn number and then the specific line(s) that stood out to me. 

#123 - Oh, May My Soul Commune with Thee — "From wordly care and pain of fear, please bring me sweet release." I love this because it's true! I say that I've had an easy life, and truly I know I'm blessed, but it's nice to hear that it's okay to call fear "pain"ful. Because although I don't have any painful diseases or a painful family life, I do have fears. So maybe it's all okay and I don't need to feel guilty about that. 

#130  — Be Thou Humble — Basically the whole song, but most specifically the first 3 lines of the second verse.

"Be thou humble in thy calling, and the Lord thy God shall teach thee            To serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love."

That's exactly what I want! To learn to serve his children GLADLY. Not just to serve them because I love to be obedient, but to be GLAD about it. I'm a bit scared to pray for humility, though, because I don't doubt for one second that He would bless me with it :)

#165  — Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide — "Lone will be the night if I cannot commune with Thee" But GUESS WHAT JOSE? I CAN commune with Him, so I don't have to ever feel alone! It's related to my love of Pres. Eyring's talk from this past conference about feeling hurt at the idea of not being able to testify of Christ. I love that I recognize that my life WOULD be lonely if I didn't "commune" with my Heavenly Father everyday.

Well that's about it! Thank you again for all your support. I'm grateful that it hurts so bad to be away from you all. I really am thankful for that. I want everyone to be able to love their families THAT much. So I guess that's what's keeping me going out here!

Love you!

-Sister Broekhuijsen

P.S.  Boston Fun Fact of the Day:  There are so many squirrels here. It is the cutest thing known to mankind. Also, it is apparently NOT a myth that they bury acorns in the ground for the winter. I've seen it happen with my own true eyes.