"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