Happy Birthday Andrew!

Wow!  Elder Broekhuijsen turns 21 today!  His mother must have birthed him when she was very young!  :-)  Anyway, it sounds like he's doing just fine as a legal adult.  See for yourself…

Elder Broekhuijsen here. Who is now a legal adult in all meanings of the word! 

It's been a fun day. I got to wake up at 6:30, take a 7 degree bath (not that bad, actually; and it's a better simulation than a shower), do regular study, and clean the apartment! The Bezimianski Sisters kindly faxed me a card with a wonderful poem on it that they wrote. That was really nice of them. A few friends here and there from the branch, investigators, missionaries, etc. have called and sang to me and wished me a happy birthday. Then we went and bought all of the things we needed to eat food this week, including the ingredients for a GRECHKA CAKE! What is a grechka cake, you may ask? Words do not do one justice. You'll have to wait until I either a) write in a post office so that I can send pictures, or b) come home and make you one. 

For the record, being 21 feels about the same as being 20. 

Yesterday, T* came to our branch after 3rd hour to discuss details and planning of the baptism on the 19th. They're having a hard time finding a place where we won't have to cut through like 2 feet of ice, but President Blinkov is on the case, and if anyone can find a place, he can. She also gave me a really nice picture dictionary that has 12,000 some-odd words in it for all sorts of objects and parts of objects. I now know how to explain in detail how to build a guitar from scratch in the woodshop. That will come in handy, I think. Probably what I'll teach my MTC district on their first day. 

Also: I am going to look at suits today at the market. I'm also going to buy a fresh pail of buttermilk and have the cobbler mend my galashes (sp?) while I peruse Madame Rosemary's apothecary. GOSH! Reenok. I hate that there is no English word for that. 

Point being. Probably won't buy anything today. I'd like your opinions on buying one. But my suits are pretty hashed up after 2 years (I DID take good care of them though - most missionaries here replace their suits long before they go home), and it's not going to be any cheaper to fix them than it is to buy a new one. Also, it's going to be a lot cheaper to buy one here than in America. So I figure that can be my birthday present. 

Other news. A few days ago I had a dream that I came home, and right when I stepped into our house, before Dad even said anything else to me, he just handed me a box that had a 5D Mk II in it.  [Yeah, dream big, Andrew!]  I was, of course, quite excited to play with that and immediately started. I was excited to see everyone. All the good things that I'm looking forward to after my mission were there, basically. And yet... the whole dream was just overcast in sad. The closer I get to the end here, the less I want to leave. I know it's time, but man. I didn't really believe them in the MTC when they said it would be way harder to leave my mission than it was to leave my life before. But it's like 392x harder to leave here. I'm going to miss these people and this place so dang bad. I can talk to many of them on Skype and stuff. But I can't go walking on Leningradskaya Street or Kirov Square on Skype. I can't talk to any of the missionaries that are basically brothers and sisters to me on Skype. I can't put on a nametag and go preach on Skype. I'll stop whining now. I'm going to enjoy everything to the end here. But I can really honestly say that if I could go home for a month or so and hang out with all of you, and then just come back and do another 2 years, I would do it. Even though that would make me a 23-year-old freshman. 

We had a good week. Actually, in terms of investigators moving or "measurable" missionary work getting done, we had one of the worst weeks of my mission. But that's beside the point. We had interviews and "exchanges" (basically we work in a group of 4 all day) with the Bezimianski Sisters. They were the best interviews I've ever had. It was weird, because Elder Christensen and I were conducting the interviews, and I feel pretty safe in saying that we were able to help the sisters find answers to some of their questions and feel better about some of their stresses, but the Spirit was so strong on the interviews that I was like receiving personal revelation in real time, live streaming. It was mostly quite unrelated to the things we were discussing on interviews. I think I probably learned way more for myself than the Bezimianski Sisters did that evening. I don't know how to describe the experience very well, but before we knew it, we had spent about 5 hours doing 2 interviews. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that THAT was exactly what the Lord had in mind for each one of us that day. I also had the opportunity to give one of the sisters a blessing. Probably more than any other blessing I've ever given, that one was really obviously not from me. The Bezimianski Sisters weren't like "struggling" in any sense of that word, and we didn't have any specific reason to be worried about them, so I'm not sure why the interviews turned out so awesome. I dunno. This paragraph isn't doing very good justice to the whole experience. The Spirit lingered over us the rest of the day, and through personal study the next morning it was like a continuation of the personal revelation flood. It was awesome. 

Anyway, things are great. Thanks for the birthday card! It looks awesome. I know several missionaries here who would approve. Don't worry about not sending one, I don't mind at all. [Editor's note:  We had to scan and send the card via email, since SOMEone didn't get it in the mail in time!]

My mission is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I'm not pumped that it's almost over. But I still have 3 full weeks to tear it up here, and the Lord can teach me a LOT of things in 3 weeks if I let Him. 

Happy Birthday Dad, BTW. I didn't say anything about that in my last email even though I celebrated a little bit here and didn't forget. So I felt kinda bad about keeping quiet. So hope it was a great day! 

Love you all! 

Love,Elder Broekhuijsen

Happy Surprise!

I admit it.  I had abandoned all hope of getting email from Andrew this week, when "Poof!"  A magical email appeared in my inbox at precisely 6:35 this morning!  Hooray for happy surprises!

Wow, it's not even 2012 anymore. Ask me if I still say "2012" every night when recording in my journal, and then hastily correct myself every single time. Yes.
So I guess I'll start off with an explanation for the weird emailing happenings of the last couple of weeks. On New Years' Eve, of course, nothing was open (well, bars and liquor stores), so we didn't even try looking for somewhere to write. And last week was, as it happens, Russian Orthodox Christmas. Same connundrum (slightly fewer drunk people). Luckily, we got permission to write today. So anyway, that's the dealio. 

I do have some replies from your emails last week, which I was allowed to print in the office after the first day of Zone Leader Council last week.

First off deer photos. Pretty awesome! On an unrelated note, how long does it take to get your expert archer license? On another unrelated note, I've heard that deer jerky is real delicious. [Editor's note:  Forget about it, Andrew!  You're not hurting our "pets!"]

As far as Christmas calls, they were awesome. So thanks! And thanks for letting me talk to Sister Broekhuijsen. That was a blast. President K* got LOTS of thank-yous for letting us come over. He's such an awesome guy. So here's the kicker. President K* and his family ARE COMING ON VACATION TO AMERICA! YEAH BABY! I already invited them over for dinner. Sorry if that was presumptious, but I don't think it was. They will be in Utah for the entire month of April, effectively. They will be going to conference if they can get tickets, and just going around seeing the sights, visiting missionaries, etc. I can't WAIT to introduce you to all of them in real life. They are seriously the coolest people ever. 

Joshua is cleaning his room. Ha. Elder Christensen and I spent 5 hours of our lockdown day to DEEP clean our apartment. I'm talking DEEP. Like, there is no dust left anywhere, and EVERYTHING is organized. Fortunately/unfortunately, the Bezimianski East Elders moved out the morning of the first lockdown (they finally got their own apartment). It was fun living with 3 other Elders, but the apartment was always a mess, and I don't like that very much (and Elder Christensen REALLY doesn't like that very much). I have realized how awesome having a super clean place to live/work/be is. Step one upon getting home: deep clean the room. Who knows, I may finally get around to re-arranging the furniture for the first time in 16 years as well? 

Ooh! Note for Grandma! I spent the money for my birthday/Christmas! I bought myself a spicy pair of European dress shoes. I'll send pictures sometime if I ever get to send pictures again. Otherwise I'll just show them to you when I WEAR THEM AT MY HOMECOMING TALK. Oh man. They are so rad. 

So here's some cool/crazy news: T*, who decided a while ago to get baptized on the 26th, changed her mind. She wants to get baptized on the 19th. And she wants me to baptize her. In the Volga. I've started my President B*-recommended "body actualization" training to get ready for the cold water: increasingly long parts of my morning shower need to be at the coldest temperature our faucet will offer: 7 degrees Celsius. Today was 30 seconds. There was screaming involved. Soon, I'm supposed to start trying to completely submerge myself in the 7 degree water in the bathtub for various periods of time. We figured I would need to be in the Volga for no longer than 2 minutes at maximum (which is, for the record, 4 degrees Celsius) to do the baptism. So once I can do 7 degrees for about 2 minutes, my body is "ready." I don't know exactly what that means, but it doesn't seem like the right word if you ask me. 

So that's going to be one heck of an adventure! Also, V*, my brat-tan (don't worry, he has little to no interest in selling me shoes) promised to make all the missionaries a sala and holodyetz feast on the 20th. Sala would be pork fat with various spices melted into it, and holodyetz is Jello if they had a flavor called "Presumably Unsanitary Meat and Stuff (with REAL chunks of animal byproduct!)" Two straight-up real Russian experiences right at the end of my mission? Yes, please. 

This week we had Zone Leader Council with all the sisters in the mission (we have 15 right now). It was a two-day job. The first day was more or less like normal ZLC, except instead of the zone leaders and assistants putting their concerns up, we just had the sisters put theirs up and everyone discussed those. It was not only enlightening to see what the sisters are worried about, but we came up with some good discussions and solutions. We also decided on a handful of breakouts that we were to prepare that night and teach the sisters during the morning of day 2. That night, we feverishly threw together a "play" that had all the breakouts involved. It was quite interactive, with practice sections interwoven into the storyline the same way that strands of pig artery and tendon are interwoven throughout the gelatin in holodyetz. Critics were raving. It actually turned out really good, considering it took 4 times longer to "perform" (teach? I dunno) than it did to plan. I had a fun time, and hopefully it was instructive. 

After that, the sisters went off to go do "girl stuff" while we stuck around and discussed any concerns that hadn't been hit on day one, as well as setting mission goals. Suddenly, the time came for me to bear my testimony. Why, you ask? Because missionaries always are given the chance to bear their testimony on their last Zone Leader Council. Wait, what? Oh gosh, I forgot it was my last one. Wait, I only have a month? Hang on, I had 7 weeks yesterday! After that, we all said our various, "See you laters" and went our separate ways, the way Steve Perry always knew we would. Except mine were mostly "see you later... wait, no we won't. DANG IT! It was fun serving! Keep the fire burning!" S. (<-- now it's plural). 

So that was sad. But it was one good ZLC to end on, I guess. 

During ZLC at some point, N* called. As in, N* and M*. She wants to meet again! Since then, we've met with them once, with the Penza sisters (who hung around in Samara one extra day so we could do interviews and "exchanges"). The meeting was good, but they are still just halted at the "come to church" part of the conversion process. More to come, I'm sure. 

Can I just take a moment and say how much I love Sister interviews? There is nothing more fun than Sister interviews. Sister missionaries are so rad. And nothing feels better than feeling like you actually helped somebody who is rad. 

Today, we made chili. We bought some farsh to put in it. I don't know if I've told you about farsh before. Farsh means "hamburger." Or I can't really think of a better one-word translation for it. The thing is, farsh and hamburger are not really the same thing at all. The average person looks at hamburger and says, "Oh look. Ground-up meat." The average person looks at farsh and says, "Oh, gosh, what is that? Why does it smell like it has been in 20 different armpits? WHO AM I REALLY?" Also, we're pretty sure that today's farsh is a mix of chicken gristle, stomach, and liver. I threw away the package really fast, because deep down, I didn't really want to know. That being said, the chili is pretty good. Man. I promise I know how to cook good, even if every food description I ever email you is horrible. 

Hey did I tell you all that I decided to go off sugar for the rest of my mission? That sounds really impressive to say it that way instead of "I'm going off sugar for a few weeks." It's not that hard actually. You just have to justify really well.
Welp. I'm about out of stuff to say. Thanks for emailing! Looking forwards to reading what you have to say. 

Love, Elder Broekhuijsen