Last of 2011

Happy Day!  We DID get an email from Melissa today - a little later in the day than usual, but we'll take it — whenever it comes!

Hey Family!

I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed seeing your faces on Sunday. It was so nice to get to talk to you! I feel so blessed to have M*, who was willing to let me use her computer to Skype, and to have what's known as the Internet, so that we COULD Skype! Thanks so much for giving me a little tour of the house, and my old baby computer. Also the cats! I liked when you held up Zorro and made him look at me and love me. Also I liked when you squeezed Cleo and made her whine - I've missed that lovely sound. Also I liked when Presto just walked across the puzzles you were working on and then laid down on them. That really showcased her personality. 

But really, my Christmas was amazing. I had a very relaxing day. I had a nice time but felt very selfish. I had a pajama party with M* and my comp/roommates, and had a nice dinner with a couple members and our Elders, and that was amazingly fun. But I just wanted to serve. You know how people always talk about how they forget themselves and serve? I wanted that. But I didn't know how. Our food pantry was closed, I didn't want to just go to the nursing home and carol with just my companion, and it would probably be unsafe to go up to random homeless people and ask "How can I serve you today?". But it was a still a great day. I enjoyed myself, but wish I had enjoyed myself a little less, and helped others a little more.

I told you a bit about this during our Skype call, but we have a new investigator! Her name is P*, and she is amazingly sweet. We have met with her a couple times now, and she came to Sacrament Meeting with us on Christmas! It was her first ever Christian service, and she did a great job and even tried to sing along with the hymns! So far we think she might be interested in the church only on a social/educational level, but hope to make it clear to her that this can change her life in more ways than just increasing her knowledge.
In other investigator news, L* is still doing well and is on track to be baptized on Saturday! If anyone who reads this is going to be in or near Provo on Saturday the 31st and wants something to do.... comment on this post and my mom can get you the details so you can go. It's going to be a really cool baptism. The elders that are baptizing her both are physically handicapped. They aren't strong enough to baptize her on their own so they're BOTH going to baptize her. Should be interesting and really tender. (<--- I know that's a cheesy word but it somehow actually DOES fit this situation.)

I love this work. I love my companion. I love serving the Lord at all times. I'm working on improving myself. I want to be more disciplined and use better language and become selfless. Basically I just want to be the kind of disciple of Christ who is truly converted and actively strives with every decision to become more like Him.

I love you and thank you for your continued support. I want to thank my wonderful extended family and ward members who are contributing financially and otherwise to my being able to serve a mission. It is a blessing to me, and I hope it can be a blessing for others as well. Let's all pray that I can find and help people.

Love you,
Sister Broekhuijsen

P.S. Boston Fun Fact of the Day: The world's first Staples (Office supply) Store opened in BRIGHTON MASSACHUSETTS! That's right. I'm basically a celebrity because I live in the same neighborhood in Boston as the first Staples store. The 64 bus takes me right past it! Crazy.

Christmas Joy

I don't know why we haven't received an email from Melissa yet today, but I'm going to guess that it has something to do with one or more of the following:

• We talked to her via Skype for an hour yesterday and she couldn't think of anything to write…

• She mentioned when we spoke to her that tomorrow (meaning today, Monday) on Pday they were going shopping with the Elders from their district who had specifically requested her presence because they need her input to make sure they are dressed fashionably!

• The library where they usually email from is probably closed for a Christmas holiday.

• She didn't like her Christmas presents and is protesting by not emailing us!   :-)  (I know that one's not right, because she thanked us profusely for everything.)

Anyway, we did have a lovely visit with her on Christmas Day.  We carried the laptop all around the house and showed her the Christmas tree, the cats, the new computer, her old computer, etc.  :-)  It was wonderful to hear her voice, to see her smiling face and to experience her fun personality!  It felt like she was home for a visit!

She told us how happy she is, how much she loves her companion and the people she is serving.  It is wonderful to know that she is doing so well.  I hope to have email tomorrow that I can post here.

Training = Joy!

I happened to be on the computer this morning when Melissa sent her email, so we got to have a little "email chat!"  That was fun!  It makes me all the more excited to talk to her on Christmas!  Anyway, here are some excerpts from our various communications today.

Hey there, family!

I sure love you, but guess what? I've been blessed with the gift of not being homesick! We've just been so busy with the craziness of transfers last week and now I'm TRAINING that my mind has been off of it! I call that a blessing.

So this week has been crazy busy, like I said. But the best news of all is that my greenie, Sister Edwards, is ENORMOUSLY an answer to prayers. She is nice. She is gracious. She is clean. She is hard working. She has a great desire to be obedient. She is excited and grateful for the opportunity to serve. She is everything I could have hoped for in a greenie. I say a trillion "thank you" prayers a day because it's almost like my life is too good to be true. I'm thrilled about Sister Edwards and I'm still so grateful that I get to stay here in Brighton and my lovely LP wards for the holidays. 

I've been LOVING opening my 12 days of Christmas presents! The Tums one cracked me up. Also the Christmas CD is still a hit. I listen to it at least once a day. It is the only Christmas CD we have in our apartment so we always have it playing in the getting ready room. 

We spent a lot of time Wednesday last week and Saturday cleaning. Deep cleaning. It was AWESOME. There are a lot of gross things that happen when you have 4 girls with long hair living in the same apartment, and spending 90% of their time in the apartment in the same room. All of those gross things revolve around hair. Let's just say we could only have the vacuum on for like 30 seconds at a time before we had to empty the chamber and clean out the brush. But it feels so good to have it all clean. We did some rearranging for our CHRISTMAS TREE! That's right, we have a Christmas tree. In our APARTMENT. L* gave it to us (we fit it in her MINI COOPER - miraculous) before she went home for Christmas break. It is a REAL tree! It also smells like a real tree. The lights are strung crappily and the ornaments are few and struggly, but it's adorable. We have a tree skirt and all our presents nestling under there. It is a sight to behold. I just love it. 

I just e-mailed you last Wednesday so I don't have a ton of stories..................... hmmm. I'm drawing a bit of a blank here. This is a lame e-mail. Andrew's e-mail this week was lame too, so I guess you all just have to deal with lameness. Sorry about that. But in less than a week we will get to talk and possibly even see each others' faces. So that's fun! I don't know what the timing will be like exactly, but I'll plan on between 1:00 and 5:00 my time. Huge window, I know, but you can just be home the whole afternoon, so stop complaining.

Well, I love you! If you have the time/desire, you should come up with a list of questions or something for our chat on Christmas. I don't want it to just be me staring at the screen crying ;)

Have a delightful week leading into Christmas and know that I am a happy, happy girl. I am so grateful for this time to serve my Heavenly Father, and (especially at this time of the year) invite people to come closer to Christ. 

Love you,

Sister Broekhuijsen