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.

Missionary Helping Hands

A woman in Melissa's Connecticut ward who has a Public Affairs calling, wrote an article about the clean-up efforts of the missionaries in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  She was kind enough to let Melissa send it to us, and gave us permission to put it up on her blog.  The photo at the bottom was also  part of the article.

200 Missionaries as Helping Hands

               Hurricane Sandy Cleanup along Connecticut’s Shoreline – Week Two (10 Nov. 2012) 

(Submitted by Lyn Greenwood, Tri-Stake P.A Assistant Director)  

On Friday, 9 November 2012,  200 missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons, or LDS) began a service mission to cleanup neighborhoods along Connecticut’s coastline that were devastated by Hurricane Sandy and exacerbated by the Nor’easter ice and snow storms of 8 Nov., just a week after Sandy hit. 

The missionaries drove from all over Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut to the New England sea village of Madison, CT.  They brought sleeping bags, toiletries and their work gear for the next day.  After a mission-wide conference with leaders, the young men stayed over night in the gym of the local LDS church building.  Senior missionaries and twenty-eight sister missionaries were housed in the homes of local congregants. 

At 6:30 the next morning, wearing their Helping Hands vests and T-shirts, they were all ready to eat the breakfast prepared by congregants.   In addition to the name tags known worldwide, the vests featured a small white sticker designating a group in which they would later be serving.  They blessed the food and the hands that prepared it, and sang a hymn.  More than 200 voices sang out:  “As I have loved you, love one another.  This new commandment:  Love one another.  By this shall men know, ye are my disciples, if ye have love, one to another.” Then they waited patiently in line for their breakfast.  Over and over again these young people thanked locals for their hot meal. 

After clearing up tables and chairs, the missionaries piled into cars and headed out for Trumbull, CT. to join 200 local LDS congregants who also helped, for a second weekend, as Mormon Helping Hand volunteers.   From there, the 400+ volunteers received work assignments in Fairfield, Milford, or Bridgeport shoreline neighborhoods.  Local LDS Helping Hands continued to work, for the second weekend in a row, in Madison and Killingworth, CT, as well.  An early estimate of just Saturday’s help is that over 3,000 hours of aid was volunteered on Nov. 10 alone.

Guiding this large group of missionaries was Boston Mission President Packard, attending with his wife, Sister Alison Packard, and 3 of their children – all of whom have moved to the Boston area for three years.   (Their oldest child is serving a mission of his own in northern Chile.)  Pres. Packard noted that with LDS Church President Monson’s new age guidelines for serving missions, there has been an almost 5-fold explosion in the number of young LDS men and women applying for missions.  This means that mission presidents all over the world, he said, will be more and more looking for ways that their young missionaries can find meaningful community service opportunities of their own, and with other faith groups, and organizations.  He added:  “They come out in what typically is the most selfish time of their lives, and they give all that up, pay their own way, and serve not for 2 weeks or 2 months but for 18 months to two years.  It’s a beautiful thing.”  His own children are in Boston area high schools and middle school and finished homework up early in order to participate with the group today.  “They love it.  They do not want to miss one minute of being here with these Elders and Sisters.  They just buoy us up.” 

Missionaries serve in pairs.  The two missionaries currently assigned to the Madison ward (or parish) and its 17 towns are young women (“sisters”):  Sister Broekhuijsen, of Highland, Utah, and Sister Vicente, of Cape Verde, Africa, have served two weekends in a row to cleanup Hurricane Sandy destruction.  On Nov. 3, they worked in Old Saybrook and went on to Milford, Connecticut.  On Nov. 10 and 11, they worked with a larger team at one house in Fairfield.   

Each shared their thoughts on Nov. 11:  Sister Vicente, who has so far served 4 months of her 18-month mission, said that nothing can match the wonderful feeling that comes from the chance to be just a little bit like Christ in helping people who are waiting in a setting where everyone all around needs so much: “their happy faces, their gratitude – this is all so rewarding.”  There’s so much devastation that it would take one family months to accomplish what can be done in a few days with many hands.

Sister Broekhuijsen, a missionary for 15 months so far, pointed out that the neighborhoods where the two had worked already had a great sense of community and the Mormon Helping Hands just added to that.  For instance, one local citizen saw all the workers in yellow vests and came to see what was being done, asked if she could help, went home and changed clothes, and came to work the rest of the day with the Helping Hands group.  Another neighbor baked a cake and brought it to the young people.   
“From a missionary perspective,” adds Sister Broekhuijsen, “it was very interesting to see that people are so willing to accept this kind of help because, as full-time missionaries we know that what we share when we teach and preach the gospel is more valuable than physical help.  But people aren’t always able to accept that spiritual help.  So it’s very rewarding to share something that people are willing to accept and are appreciative of.”  Both sisters agreed joyfully that this weekend of service was “the best weekend of our missions.”

Shovels, Spasms, and "Sand"wiches

It's always great to hear that our favorite daughter is happy and doing well!  I'm sure you'll enjoy the following email as much as we all did!

Greetings!

I am a happy, happy lady. I have had a wonderful week and it's now Christmastime and my heart is jiggling around so much I keep checking for Bill Cosby. (<--- NOT funny, I'm sorry. When will I learn?)

Where do I even start? Well, first of all, there was a cute miracle that occured last Monday. Right after I finished e-mailing we went home to drop something off before heading to our dinner appointment. I checked the mail and there was a letter from C* (a recent convert from Boston). When I opened up the envelope, approximately 800 cat pictures/stickers/calendar cut outs fell out. She knew that I love cats and included a bunch of cat memorabilia for me. So cute of her. So that was just so nice and perfect timing because I was still a little (<--pronounced, "a lot") weepy about learning that my sweet Zorro had died. Then we went to our dinner appointment and they have 6 cats so I was a happy girl. It was nice of God to let things work out that way for me.

Here's some exciting news: P* is officially the newest member of the Boston 1st ward!!! Isn't that amazing? He was baptized at 12:30 yesterday, EST (in case anyone wants to thoroughly document that in their memoir). I was invited to come up and even got permission from President and the APs (which is remarkable because we couldn't find a member to drive us up and we definitely didn't have the miles to drive ourselves without going over our limit) to drive up to Boston and we had everything arranged and I was SO excited. But then I remembered that the ward had asked us to do sharing time this week because it's all about how they can prepare now to be missionaries. So that was a bit of a bummer, but the Church is just as true and the ordinance just as official, even without me having been there. So I'm really happy that that happened!

On Wednesday we went to a dinner appointment and I got to meet our kind of investigator, J*. He's the husband of one of the ladies in the ward. He's really, really nice and really, really not interested in learning more about our church. But he's cordial and just a great guy. He's SO funny (not in a stand-up comedian kind of way, he's just a funny guy, you know?)

Do you remember how I had a regular feature in my e-mails while I was companions with Sister Edwards called, "Sister Edwards says the darndest things"? Well, I have enough material to start that up again for Sister Vicente. Only now it's even funnier in some ways because English is not her first language and she has an adorable accent (Sister V if you ever read this, I'm sorry. (She hates it when people say her accent is cute!)). The other night we were looking through a Walmart catalogue that they stuck in our bag (did you know Walmart started their black Friday sale on THURSDAY? Come on, people!!) and there was a stupid-looking boy with even stupider hair. I said, (with a bit of attitude), "Why does that kid have such ugly hair??" and without missing a beat she looked at me and said, "His mom!" hahaha. I will have to be sure to write the quotes down more, 'cause she's full of them.

Thanksgiving Day was just wonderful. We headed over for the big meal around noon and it was great! Amazing food, and so fun to be around the kids (<--- who AM I???) After we ate we played some games (Sorry, Apples to Apples, and Candyland) we headed over to see C* and W* (our recent convert and investigator, respectively). They were both doing well — it was their first Thanksgiving in the States (since they're both from Ecuador) but they seemed to have caught on just fine since they offered us apple pie when we walked in. haha. Then we headed to another family in our ward for a dessert party. Surprisingly, I was able to escape all three of these houses while only consuming a total of 1.5 pieces of pie. Isn't that impressive? Don't worry, our neighbors gave us some pie last night and I've subsequently negated all my hard work on the actual holiday :)

J*, our wonderful friend and kind of investigator that I told you about last week, had an amazing Thanksgiving as well! She texted us Tuesday and told us that since her two kids were going to be away for the holiday (her husband passed away a few years ago) she was going to drive up to Sharon, Vermont and spend Thanksgiving at Joseph Smith's birthplace, being thankful for the Restoration of the true Church. Isn't that incredible? She is one of the most golden people I've ever met (in every sense of the word).

On Friday we had our first District Meeting with our new district leader, Elder Ramos. He was with me in Boston for one transfer, then he got transferred down here to NH, and then I followed him the next transfer! So fun. He is a wonderful missionary and it's nice to see that he really takes his calling seriously. He gave me the most specific training assignment I've ever heard of. It was so funny when he called me and said, "I want you to give a training on Doctrine and Covenants Section 20, verse 17 up through the first comma. Use verses 8-16 as support." haha. But I did as requested, and, as usual, I learned a whole bunch! I love teaching. I love preparing to teach. I feel like I need to be a teacher when I grow up.

Saturday we got to spend the whole day doing Mormon Helping Hands again! Do you remember a couple weeks ago when I talked about shoveling sand for 2 hours? Well, I more than TRIPLED that! Woohoo. We shoveled (and hauled sledfuls and wheelbarrow-fuls to the beach) for 7 1/2 hours (with a 25 minute break for lunch). It was inTENSE. I spent a couple hours in a crawlspace (alternating between being on my hands and knees and sitting) using a number 10 can to dig up sand (GREAT for my obliques!) and plop it into a sled. My goodness. It was hard, hard work but it was so good! The individual tendons and ligaments (I honestly don't know whether they're tendons or ligaments or something else all together) in my palm are strained and bruised. Good battle wounds. I don't say this to complain, because I really would do it all again. And, in fact, we DID do it all again YESTERDAY. Since we didn't finish the project on Saturday we headed back down with the elders and shoveled for 3 more hours. Have you ever heard the phrase, "I feel like I got hit by a truck"? Well, I got to teach that to Sister Vicente this morning as she struggled to find the words to describe how she felt. haha.

Once again, some wonderful citizens dropped off food for us volunteers! It was windy and FREEZING (right on the water!) and everything I ate was nice and gritty. I even ate some sandy donut holes right off the ground. That's how much the labor worked up my appetite! :)

The more I deal with sand, the more I am amazed by Abraham 3:14. Do you KNOW how much sand there is? I was just working at one house in one neighborhood on one beach in one city in one state in one country on one continent! HOLY COW. If that's not at least a googolplex, I don't know WHAT the heck is. One Elder kept muttering under his breath with every increasingly belabored shovelful, "STUPID Abraham's SEED!!" And Dad, you're exactly right. It was so great, Sister Vicente started singing, "The wise man built his house upon the rock" on Saturday and it has never seemed more appropriate.

Sunday was a good day, even though it was hard to move much less get out of bed, pray, shower, get ready, and leave by 7:30 to make it to Ward Council at 8:00! We had a really good Sacrament Meeting (and we had 5 less-actives there! A personal record for me. Woot woot!) and I had a good epiphany. I remembered (and I think I told you about this) that one week in the Oxford ward, someone said something to the effect of, "You find what you're looking for" and mentioned specifically that if you are looking for things that are good, you'll see them, but if you're looking for/expecting things that will annoy you or other faults, you'll be able to find them. I think missionaries too often focus on the faults of their wards. Thinking things like Ugh, I wish the leaders would involve us more or why doesn't the bishop get that we're here to help? For me, it's been mostly why are people so apathetic? Care about something, people! And also complaints about how loud our Sacrament Meeting is because apparently no one in this ward believes in taking their screaming children OUT of the room. BUT I realized that there is so much good to be found! I looked at the screaming fighting children sitting in front of me and I realized that they are probably just having a bad day, and at least they are growing up in a home with the gospel and with parents who love them unconditionally. In the people who fall asleep during Sacrament Meeting I saw an effort to at least show up and do the best they can, rather than being frustrated that they weren't taking things seriously. It was a nice moment to realize that there is good to be found in every situation, and, at least for me (but I feel fairly confident in calling this a universal principle) it is easier to be happy when we focus on and actively look for those good things.

Like I mentioned earlier, we got to do sharing time in both Junior and Senior Primary. I was reminded of my lack of patience. All the leaders were laughing to themselves as I would raise my eyebrows and say (in a somewhat-grumpy tone) things like, "I'm going to need you to give me the answer in a non-yelling way." and "Okay, how about we DON'T be annoying, and we listen to me because I'm actually the one in charge right now." I think the kids appreciated it though. I tried to be not only disapproving, but also fun. Come to think of it, that's probably a very lucrative business idea! "Melissa's Nannying Service: Not only disapproving, but also fun!"

Well, I hope that all things are well back at the ranch. Andrew gave me some good words of wisdom after I asked him for help in keeping my mind focused. He said that it's not bad to be excited to come home. It's not even bad to think about home! It only gets bad when that gets in the way of work. So I've been making an extra effort to be mentally disciplined this week and I have had miraculous results - I am really being blessed because mental discipline is probably one of my biggest weaknesses! I am Ether 12:27ing to the max.

I love you! Thanks for writing, thanks for the Christmas package. Thanks for your prayers and your love and your thoughtfulness. I am happy, healthy, and growing/improving in innumerable (just like the seed of Abraham! ha!) ways.

Love,

Sister "I can't wait for December 1st so I can start my advent calendar!" Broekhuijsen

P.S. Here's a happy birthday shout out to my dear mother! Everyone, please wish her a good day on Sunday!
 

Phun Photos — Phinally!

On the day after Thanksgiving, we received a package from Melissa containing (among other things) 2 memory cards from her camera.  It was great to get to see some photos again - some of these are from back in August!    Here are a few of our favorites:

I'm going to guess that this one is a "self-portrait."  

Sister Broekhuijsen and Sister Jordan - dressed up in "black and white" to celebrate Michael Jackson's birthday.  

Melissa's friends sent her a "cat-themed" package to celebrate her 1-year anniversary as a missionary.  She was so excited that she put this puzzle together in record time!  

There was a fan blowing at the subway station, so she stood in front of it and "felt like a model."  

One day Melissa was just twisting her hair and it just kind of turned into this cool hairstyle.  She took some photos to document it, but unfortunately has never since been able to recreate the effect!

After several weeks in the city, they had a special Zone Conference, which was held in "some place that starts with an 'F'" and this is Melissa enjoying nature!  

A little blurry, but it shows a lovely setting where Melissa and her companion sat one day to fill out some paperwork.  It is also the place where she would like to be proposed to!  :-)  

The last day with her District in Roslindale - they got together and she made fruit pizzas.  She was particularly proud that her design was 1/7ths - a nice prime number!   

The splendor of fall in Connecticut!

A combination of two of Melissa's "favorite" things - Halloween and monkeys!  The expression says it all, right?  

Here is "Melissa Jackson" - her Halloween costume - note the Michael Jackson-esque hair also!  

The house of the left is where she is currently living in Clinton.  That window is her bedroom window and the tree on the ground broke off during Hurricane Sandy.  Apparently her neighbors were there and saw it fall.  They said it was heading right for the house, and at the last minute a gust of wind blew the whole branch in the opposite direction, so that if fell harmlessly to the ground.  Missionary blessings!  

A Flock of Yellow Vests

Our hard-working daughter sounds very happy!  It's so good to know that she's loving what she's doing.  Here's today's email!

Hello to every single one of you.

I am having a great time! Since I e-mailed you last Wednesday I've been getting to do even more Helping Hands projects. I've seen that video that's going viral about the projects going on in NYC, and that's really similar to what we're doing! Isn't it sweet to see how appreciative everyone is?  I love that our church is all action.

Last Thursday we went out with a couple Elders from our District and did helping hands all day. We were mostly sweeping/shoveling sand and raking up muck out of a basement, but we also got to do a fun project called, "Remove dried insulation threads/chunks from a chain-link fence." That was the worst job of them all! Ugh - it was very annoying, and even after 4 of us doing it for an hour, all we got done was a kind-of-clean chain link fence. Not the most rewarding work, haha.

Friday we had district meeting in New Haven and then we went to J*'s house. J* is our kind of investigator. She has a summer cottage in the ward boundaries, and was taught by Sister Vicente and Sister Garcia, but she moved to northern CT right before I got transferred here. The good news is, she moved back into our Zone, into New Haven a few weeks ago! So she's not in our ward boundaries, but she likes our ward a lot better than the ward she's geographically assigned to. So we try to see her whenever we're in New Haven. Last week we helped her clean and paint her new place, and we were supposed to help again this past Friday, but we ended up watching church videos and reading the scriptures with her instead 'cause that's what she wanted! haha. She is such a delight - I absolutely love her. She's one of those people that makes me especially grateful that I got called to this mission.

Saturday was QUITE the day. We left our apartment at 6:45 and didn't get home until 9:30! Whew! We met the Elders at their apartment in Hamden, and then got a ride with them down to Milford where we got divided up into our MHH [Mormon Helping Hands] teams. We worked on one house (picking up debris from the backyard, cleaning out a garage, cleaning up their porch, and then sweeping and shoveling sand) for about 6 hours. It was the BEST transformation I've seen! I wish I'd've (<-- is that grammatically acceptable?) taken before and after pictures. After that project we had some lunch (Mormons are REALLY good at making sure people get fed) and then went to a different house. Sister Vicente spent two hours in a 4-foot crawlspace/basement raking up buckets of muck/rocks/sand which then got passed up the stairs and dumped on the beach. I spent that time shoveling a big mound of sand into army sleds and then dragging the sleds to the beach and dumping it. I have bruises and bloodblisters on my hands! haha It is great to work hard. I love manual labor (don't get too excited, Ma. I don't think I'll EVER enjoy weeding.)

Church was nice yesterday. G*, our recent convert from Ecuador (who got baptized the Sunday before I came down here) got to pass the Sacrament for the first time! That was so nice to see! Then we actually got to teach some lessons, so that was nice! It's been such a good week. We have more projects lined up for this coming week so I'm in heaven.

I must be going now, but I hope that there is a wonderful Thanksgiving to be had for everyone! We'll be going to one place (with cute children! yay!) for dinner and another for dessert so we'll be very taken care of. I'm so lucky to be in this ward!

I love you. I hope that you are all doing well! For all those of you who have been less than exemplary in your letter writing, you still have a couple months to make up for it, so start now. Please and thank you.

Love,

Sister "Goodbye to my dear Zorro until we meet again" Broekhuijsen

Helping Hands

Hello All!  A friend shared this little video with me, and I wanted to pass it on.  I believe it was made in New York, so Melissa isn't actually in it, but it gave me an idea of the kinds of things she's been involved in since Hurricane Sandy went through her area.  The video was made by an individual and is not an official Church video, but he did a great job.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Helping Hands

Bonus Story

When I did the post yesterday, I forgot to include this fun little story that Melissa sent in a separate email.  So, it's a bonus post for you.   Enjoy!

Okay I have one more story for you that I think you'll appreciate.

So this past week we went to Goodwill to find some clothes to do dirty service work in. Last time I wore some capri sweats, but it had snowed since then, so we wanted jeans. I didn't have any, and I didn't want to buy new jeans to get them all dirty, so I thought I might as well (or mine's well) check Goodwill. WELL, lo and behold, the first pair in my size that I found was a pair of GAP jeans. I tried them on and they fit PERFECTLY - such a good fit, plus they're GAP jeans, at Goodwill. They looked brand new, too. So I got those, and then I found a pair of other jeans that also fit (but weren't as nice, and weren't new, so I wouldn't feel guilty getting them dirty.)

Now here's the kicker - jeans at Goodwill are 5.99. BUT BOTH pairs that I found were green, which just happened to be the half off color of the day, so they were 3 bucks each. BUT I found a crinkled up dollar bill in one of the pairs, so I got 2 pairs of jeans (which, once again let's remember that one of those was a pair of GAP jeans) for 5 buckaroos. Isn't that incredible? Once again, God loves me.

That's all! Ciao!

This Weekend was the Best Weekend of My Entire Mission and Possibly Life

We've been waiting (somewhat patiently) for Melissa's email - and it was (as always) worth the wait!   It's always great to hear that she's so happy and loving what she's doing.

Yes, I know that's quite a claim to make, but it is extremely true. [Editor's Note:  See post title.]

I told you last week about how our entire mission was going to come down to help with Mormon helping hands in our stake. Well, President Packard found a way to make a MISSION CONFERENCE work out! You see, in his handbook it says that he's not allowed to hold a mission conference because they don't want all the missionaries congregating in one place. So usually when we gather it's just 3 zones at a time (out of 9 zones total in our mission) for zone conferences or 6 zones at a time for a temple trip. BUT he (President Packard) got permission slash used the helping hands project to justify this meeting. It was absolutely incredible. I LOVED getting to see all my old friends - especially people that I haven't seen for a while!

ANOTHER surprise is that, because our Stake Center is under construction and doesn't have bathrooms, the MADISON chapel got to host the conference! That meant that 200 missionaries plus some senior couples plus the entire Packard family (less their son who's on a mission in Chile) came to my building Friday afternoon! The Elders (and President Packard) all SLEPT IN THE GYM of the chapel, and the sisters stayed with members of our ward! We found out Thursday morning that it was going to all be going down in Madison, so I spent like 5 hours Thursday afternoon coordinating places for them to stay/rides/bedding and all that. That meant that I got to hand pick who stayed with Sister Vicente and me in our apartment :)

Our Relief Society is AMAZING! Like I just mentioned approximately 26 seconds ago, we didn't find out that this was happening in Madison until Thursday morning, and our Bishop and RS President volunteered to feed us dinner Friday night, and then breakfast Saturday morning before we went out! Do you know how much food it takes to feed 180 elders, 22 sisters plus senior couples? A LOT of food. I think they ordered like 70 pizzas. Haha. But it all worked out wonderfully.

Because we had district meeting and then a small service project in New Haven Friday afternoon, by the time we arrived at the Madison chapel, most missionaries were already there. It was an INTENSE experience. Even from the parking lot I could feel the energy of the group (or maybe I was just bladder-bustingly excited to see everyone). All the RS sisters who volunteered to bring/serve food mentioned that there was just a powerfully exciting energy in the building. It was absolutely incredible.

The opening Hymn of our meeting was "Called to Serve" and I have to tell you, I think the only other time that song has hit me as powerfully was in the MTC. But this was different because we were all the Massachusetts Boston Mission (yes, we do call it the MBM - how did you know? Is it because we're Mormon and Mormons like to acronomize everything?) and we were all together for the first time EVER that I've seen. Unsurprisingly, I was crying like a she-goat in labor.

All of the Packards spoke. I love every single one of them - my GOSH! Sweet little M*, the 12-year-old is the most precocious person I think I've ever beheld. I adore him. He gave a talk about how reading the Book of Mormon is like serving a mission and gave several great analogies. He also got choked up when he talked about how much he looks up to all of us and thinks we're all his big sisters/brothers. SO sweet. Amidst the Packards' talks, there were a couple musical numbers. President and N* (the 15 year old) sang "I Feel My Savior's Love" together - it was SO sweet. The way he looks at N* when she's perfoming reminds me of the way Dad looks at/feels about me when we would perform together. So, again I lost it.

Sister Jordan and I were asked (Thursday night) to do a musical number as well! So I got to arrange it! I told Sister Jordan (over the phone) what I had come up with, we practiced a couple times through the speakerphone, and then ran through it twice before the meeting and it went off without a hitch! I'm lucky to have such a talented singing partner that can just go with it and do whatever. She's incredible. We sang (a cappella) "More Holiness Give Me" to the tune of "The Lord is My Shepherd". It turned out great, if I do say so myself! One of the Sisters recorded it so hopefully we'll be able to figure out a way to get that to you. It was one of our best performances and I really liked the way that combination (of the two songs) sounded.

The last part of the meeting was President Packard's talk. He talked about unity and creating Zion. There's so much I want to tell you about but I am almost out of time! It was an amazing talk though, and I learned a lot.

After the meeting we had dinner all together and then got pictures (that was crazy - it's hard to fit 220 people into a picture and keep them still and keep the Elders from being immature and trying to be funny. I don't think we were able to get all three of those things, but at least we fit 220 people into a picture :) Then we started driving Sisters to different places to stay, and then (eventually) made it home. I got to sleep about 1:00, but then I was so happy and excited that I woke up like every half hour with a big ol' grin on my face to see if it was time to wake up yet! eventually 5:30 DID come, and we got up and headed back to the church for a 6:30 breakfast. Then we all drove over to the Stake Center for a safety training meeting and to get split up into our groups.

Sister Vicente and I ended up in a group of about 14 that got sent down to Fairfield. We were working in just one home - he is a hoarder. It was exactly like that A&E show "Hoarders" except that it's a hoarder plus a hurricane. So all his stuff was soaking wet. We spent all day Saturday there with a big team, and then came back and worked for 5 more hours Sunday afternoon. I think people are going to be there every weekend for many weeks to come. It was a great experience to get to help. The stake gave us all sack lunches and then fed us dinner Saturday night! We were SO well taken care of!

So that ends my report. We still haven't been able to meet with our investigators, but we've been very very busy. Today we went down to New Haven to say goodbye to the elders who are getting transferred away from our district (Elder McQueen (my kiwi Zone Leader), and Elder Burton) and while we were there we got a call from the Stake President asking for some missionaries to come help unload a truck full of supplies. So we drove an hour down the shoreline and helped even on our pday. What a huge sacrifice :) just kidding, but that IS why this e-mail is later than usual. Tomorrow and Saturday we'll be doing Mormon Helping Hands all day as well! I love it!!

Well, the last bit of news I have for you is that I am not training this transfer! There are actually no sisters coming in this time. The 44 new sisters are expected to all be here by March, so I may end up training my last transfer (Can you believe I only have ONE MORE transfer after this? That means ONE more t-text that applies to me. ONE more Wednesday pday. That is so crazy. I can't believe it. But for now I am very happy to be staying here in Madison with Sister Vicente. We have a couple different families fighting over who gets to have us for Thanksgiving :) so we will (continue to) be very well taken care of.

I love you all! Thanks for the letters and e-mails. Good luck in your show, Joshua! Can't wait to see pictures.

Love,

Sister "Do you know how cute it is to see someone from Africa see their first snow?? - the answer is: wicked cute" Broekhuijsen

Hurricane "Sand"y

I got to email "chat" with Melissa for a bit this afternoon.  Fun!  I'm so glad to know that all is well with her.  Here's this week's exciting edition:

Well hello there.

I am very much alive! And I didn't lose any of my posessions. I'll try to address the storm things first and then move on to other aspects of my life.

So, we spent all day Monday at our Bishop's house. I wrote letters while Bishop worked from home and Sister R* watched the news (and I also watched/listened because it was all about the hurricane and so that's how I justified it - because my life was on the line!!). I got a lot of letters written, and I learned that I really hate commercials. Especially political commercials. I also learned that sometimes news anchors and meteorologistas (<-- lady meteorologists, of course) wear really ugly/revealing outfits. Especially the ones in Connecticut. So, there's a fun fact for you. The R*s lost power around 5:30 Monday night, but they had a generator so they got that going quickly and it was just great! We stayed the night there in Killingworth and I slept with earplugs so it wasn't even a big deal! We woke up in the morning and it was very clear and sunny! We were antsy to get out of the house so we helped bishop with some yard work and then drove down to Clinton (we got word that it was safe to go) to see what had happened.

Luckily, there was no damage to our house! Our neighborhood actually got evacuated, but thankfully there was no flooding. We didn't see any damage in our whole neighborhood other than trees down (one right on someone's house, but it doesn't appear to have broken through the roof). A big tree came down in our yard, but it didn't hit our house! (Lots of pictures and a video coming shortly - I'm SO Sorry I've been muy terrible at sending pictures. I still have the SD card here from MJ's birthday!! I'll try my darndest to get those mailed off this week.) Our house was out of power so we stayed Tuesday night at R*'s again - thank you, generator, for giving me a warm, lighted shower as opposed to a cold, pitch-black shower, which would have been my fate had I showered at my house.

Wednesday we were at the soup kitchen when we got word (because our awesome landlord slash next door neighbor texted us) that we had power back! So Wednesday night we were able to spend at our own place. There were no trick-or-treaters because most of Clinton still had no power (seriously, it was just our little strip of the street that had power for the first 3 or 4 days! haha - we're so blessed) so the city postponed it until THIS Wednesday. Yeah, I know, weird. They should have just cancelled it. Everyone bought candy anyway, so they could just share THAT candy with their stupid children, right?

We spent most of Thursday doing service for people! It is so fun to rake leaves. I love it. I'm being completely serious and not sarcastic - I really do love it!! At one place we were loading branches into a trailor and when it would get stacked too high, Sister Vicente would get in and jump all around to flatten them, so we could fit more. It was very fun. We were very sore on Friday. But it was a good sore.

On Saturday we got to do Mormon Helping Hands!! Yessssss. It was fun - I look wonderful in a yellow jersey vest, in case any of you are wondering. We started off doing stuff locally in the ward (going down to Old Saybrook, the city in our ward that was apparently the worst-hit) but there really wasn't much to do! So when the ward dispersed we drove down to Milford and joined up with a billion other Mormons and helped out there for about 5 hours. About 90 missionaries from other zones came down to help with the cleanup so I got to see Sister Jordan and Sister Garcia, and some Elders that I used to serve with! That was a fun reunion. We were on East Broadway in Milford - I'm sure you can Google pictures of the destruction. It was HEARTBREAKING. There was one place where we could see the ocean THROUGH someone's house. Like, the sides were still there, but the front and back had been completely washed away.

We did a lot of demolition (like hammering and pulling apart dry wall, pulling out wet insulation, and ripping up soggy carpeting) at first, and then shoveled sand for the last couple hours. Let me ask you something, have you ever shoveled sand for two hours? It is a very enlightening experience because you learn about muscles that you didn't even know existed! I had a blast, really. It was very interesting to see the whole community out and about, helping each other and accepting help from us. Everyone was so thankful for us being there - I've never been called an angel so many times in one day. Residents were going around offering granola bars, water bottles, bags of chips, etc. to the volunteers. One family made hundreds of sandwiches and drove around handing them out to people, saying thank you. It was SO sweet. It was amazing that even with so much destruction, the people were in high spirits! The house where we demo'd for a few hours was a really sad case. When you walked in, you could see a line of sand at about 5 feet all long the walls - that was where the WATER CAME UP! It was crazy! The worst part is that they had just finished remodeling from hurricane Irene last year, where they had also had to rip out all the carpet and redo all the insulation and drywall. So sad. But like I said, people were in a good mood for the most part. There was a sense of camaraderie that I just loved. Nothing like a natural disaster to bring people together, I guess.

This Saturday, the WHOLE MISSION is coming down to our zone to help some more! That means I get to see ALL my old favorites!! I'm so excited for the opportunity to serve and to have a mission reunion while ON the mission! :)

I think that's all my storm news. Now I would like to say that I am very much excited for this election to be over. I hate political signs and I hate listening to ward members talk about politics. There is one lady in the ward (whom I really do love, I DO) that somehow manages to slip the words "Mitt Romney" into nearly every sentence she utters. I'm ready for it to be done.

Here's some more exciting news. Remember how I said that President Packard told me he had requested at least 30 more sisters? Well, we just got word on Saturday that they are sending in 44 MORE sisters in the next two months!! We only have 22 now (between English and Spanish) so that will literally TRIPLE the sisters in the mission. That also means that every single sister that's here will be training next transfer, and that many will be training two at a time. It also means that they have to open up 22 more sister areas, so many of those trainers will be shotgunning AND training. Can you believe it? So... I don't know if I'm going to get to stay here in my beloved Madison ward or if I'll be asked to open up a new area. But I'm going to be happy either way. What an exciting way to finish up my mission!

On Friday, after district meeting, Snoop Dog's cousin took us out to the oldest pizza restaurant in the United States. Yes, that is true, and almost too much "cool" for one sentence to handle. A member of the New Haven YSA branch who joined the church 7 years ago is Snoop Dog's cousin (well, Snoop dog's WIFE'S cousin, but still) and is really generous, likes to take out the missionaries every once in a while. So he took us to Pepe's Pizza Place in New Haven, CT which, I am told, was the first pizza restaurant ever in the US. Pretty cool stuff! They are famous for a white pizza with fresh clams. I partook and became a witness of its awesomeness.

We didn't get to meet with our investigators this week (again - boo!) because of all the storm drama. Hopefully as people's lives get back to normal (I think everyone in Clinton has power again now) we'll be able to see them. In the meantime, it's been fulfilling to be spending more energy on people's temporal salvation this past week.

In other, less-important, non-eternally-significant news, I bought two cookbooks at TJ Maxx this morning. One has 100 recipes that are 100 calories or less and the other has a bunch of 400 calorie meals. I read through one already and surprisingly, the serving sizes are actually larger than a Tootsie Roll, which is what I would have expected. I'm going to be the BEST healthy food cookeress in America. Or at least in Connecticut. Or at least in my house.

Well, I love you all so much! I'm excited to see what happens with transfer texts this Saturday night. I love you and I wish you a happy start to your November.

Love,

Sister "Here's a shout-out to my Ukranian-bound Sister Ham who enters the MTC next WEDNESDAY!" Broekhuijsen

And When October Goes…

Great news, people!  We DID get email from Melissa today and it was even several hours earlier than usual!  You can bet that made MY day!  So, here it is - without further ado…

....The winds begIIIINNNN to flyyyyyyy. 

Yes, I have been saving that subject line for a couple months now. But this Hurricane is just so perfectly timed! So I couldn't help myself hahaha. 

So, I am a survivor (presumably) of the biggest hurricane in the history of the human race. Wow. I feel pretty special. One reason I KNOW I've grown up on my mission is because I am not even scared! So far the winds here have just been like a moderately windy day in Highland :) 

This week was great. I've been listening to the Book of Mormon while I do my hair and makeup (which just takes longer and longer the older I get! Shouldn't the reverse be the case?) and I've been extra loving it. I listen to the same set of chapters 2 or 3 days in a row so I can make sure that I get everything out of it (since i'm not actually reading it, you know?) and it has been the best. I am on my favorite part - the stories in the heart of Alma. I just love those stories. I think of my baby brother every time I read about Alma and the sons of Mosiah being excited at their reunion. So cute. 

We didn't get to meet with any of our investigators this week because they're only available on weekends and by the time this weekend came around everyone in New England was scrambling to buy supplies and get gas, etc. So that was disappointing but it was a GREAT week for meeting with members! I got to meet a bunch of new families and even met with a less active woman who loves us and wants weekly visits! I love meeting with families. I even love a little family of rowdy blond boys.  [Editor's note:  This is an amazing statement on many levels.  Let's see:  Melissa loving children (boys at that) and rowdy ones?  Even loving blond children is pretty huge!]  :-)  Man I'm very happy here in this ward! 

On Saturday we had our ward Halloween party - complete with a trunk-or-treat (my first!), a chili cook-off and a corn bread bake-off. It was a great time! I dressed up —

**Weather update!** Oh wow!  Just got news that everyone south of Route One along the coast is being evacuated - that means my house. Glad we're 6 miles inland and at about 500 feet! :) 

Anyways, I dressed up as Michael Jackson, like I told you. I think the jacket turned out great!! I was very pleased with it, and the hair was pretty darn authentic if you ask me. And I would know. No one could tell who I was, though. That was a bummer. Not ONE person guessed right! 

**Weather update!** It just started raining! It's swirling outside. Very exciting :) I guess the worst of it is supposed to be the next 24 hours.  

But it's okay - I got lots of pictures and I guess I'll give people a break since the jacket was 1984 but the hair was more 1992. That could have thrown people :D 

Yesterday after church we had a nice lunch appointment with a new family and then just prepared for the storm! We made peanut butter bars. How does this help us prepare for the storm, you might ask? Well, I'm not sure but I was sure happy. 

Well, I'd better get going - don't know how long we'll have power. The R*s have a generator, but obviously they'll run it only for essential things haha. 

I love you! I'm excited to see how this storm affects the shoreline communities. To tell you the truth, I haven't been praying that the storm doesn't hit, I've just been praying that if it DOES hit, people will be humbled and more receptive to our message :) 

Love you all! Thanks for your updates - it's exciting to see how many people from our ward are going on missions! I love it. This is such an historical time. I'm sad that my mission is nearing its end but I'm happy that I still have a few months left to work at it!  

Hopefully I'll have lots of time to write people back over the next couple days that we'll be cooped up inside - I've got quite the stack of letters to respond to and time's a tickin' (<--- ew. I can't believe I just typed that out). 

Have a fantastic week. I'll try to e-mail some pictures home next week - I know you're all dying to see how my costume turned out. Please, be patient. Sheesh. 

Love,
Sister "I think of my Ma every time someone calls this storm 'Sandy' :) " Broekhuijsen

[Editor's note:  Of course, Ma doesn't go by "Sandy' anymore and even when she did, she was cool enough to spell it "Sandi."  :-)  But I still like knowing that my daughter's thinking of me a lot right now!