We were just a little alarmed when we checked email at 6:00 this morning and didn't have one from Andrew. Happily, by 6:21 we DID have one - and here it is!
What the heck it's almost December.
Mind-blowing realization of the day: Elder Bullough goes home in 3 weeks. I was in the MTC with him.
Mind-blowing realization of the day, part II: Elder Ruesch in Minnessota also goes home in like 3 weeks-ish.
Mind-blowing realization of the day, part III: Actually didn't have one.
So I have not much time to type, and then I gotta get out of here and get on a train to Orenburg. I don't know if you may have sensed a theme, but we basically get Monday afternoons, Saturdays (kind of), and Sundays in our area, and the rest of this transfer, we're on exchanges in various other areas. It's been nuts, but SUPER fun.
N* and M* are doing good. They came to a really fantastic branch activity that was a talent show. Y* put it together. I played Annie's Song with a guitar that a member let me use. Right when I sat down, I realized that it was not particularly missionary appropriate to sing a love song, so I on the spot came up with a devastatingly creative solution: sing it with an insane Josh Groban/Opera voice and practically dance with dramatic enthusiasm and rapture for my absent lover (to whom I was supposedly singing), so that everyone would understand that the whole thing was a joke.
So after the show was over, (M* gave me a rose. Cute! She's 10, don't worry). I found out that Sister Young, who completely understood that I was joking around, had been laughing in the back and a bunch of investigators and members around her got really mad at her because she was "being rude." "Don't laugh, that's so mean! He's not that bad!" Oh gosh. After a random sampling of asking members, I realized that now everyone in the branch is under the impression that I think I'm some kind of reincarnation of Luciano Pavarotti. Great. Well, there's a good mission story I guess.
We have such awesome members. One member came up to me the other day and told me he's planning on giving his suit to a new member that is just getting active again. So Christlike.
So we went to Penza and did exchanges with everyone and some zone training. It went great. On the last day, I decided to go with Elder Benham, (an Elder from my MTC district) and just do an 8 hour day on the streets without any meetings or anything to see if we could stay high-energy the whole time. Long story short, we did, and found a whole bunch of really sick people. [Editor's note: And by "sick" I'm sure he means "cool" or "great" or something other than "infected with disease.] Woot! It pumped me up to do the "dirty work" (i.e. hard work) for so much time all at once. I think that's a lot of what I'll miss. I can always help less-actives, work with missionaries on lessons, etc. etc. But I can't really just slap on my nametag and go do a 2 hour contacting sesh after my mission is over :(
So I got your letter with my homecoming talk assignment. Nuts. I'll probably just prepare that when I. You know. Go home. Or whatever. I also got your Thanksgiving card.
I also got your Christmas package. Yeah... sorry that candy isn't going to make it to December. But I'll use my patience skills to not open the presents until Christmas. :) Thanks!
Well. I'm out of stuff to type. I printed your emails from last week, but I lost them in Penza, so I can't really reply. If you have any questions you wanted answered, please send them again :)
Thanks for everything! Looking forwards to seeing you on Christmas in a few weeks.
Back to work over here. Tell you all about Orenburg next week :)
Love, Elder Broekhuijsen
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