Anyway, here are some portions of his e-mail home last week - pay attention to the "P.S." if you've been using DearElder.
Also, some logistics got changed - starting this week Andrew's P-day (the day he's allowed to write e-mails) is now Wednesday so we'll be getting another e-mail tomorrow!
...On Sunday, I finally figured it would be okay for me to go to Music and the Spoken Word. They play it every Sunday in the multipurpose room, but we're encouraged not to make a habit of going since it's right in the middle of our block of time where the Branch Presidency interviews us. Since I (finally) got interviewed last week, I felt safe going this week. Anyway, it blew me away. I know I love music and that Motab is fantastic and stuff. But I think a combination of just being somewhere so special as the MTC and having been mostly deprived of music for about 2 months now gave me this supernova of appreciation for the music that happened at the Spoken Word. I may or may not have cried a little during For the Beauty of the Earth, especially when they showed that giant panoramic view of Yosemite that had half-dome in it. The Nearer My God to Thee was also fantastic. In fact, I'm getting goosebumps even recalling it. I'm SO going again next week. Music is without a doubt the easiest way for me to feel the Spirit, and it was indescribably beautiful.
So tomorrow I host new missionaries (and my friend Elder Lewis comes in, so maybe I'll see him!), and the following Monday, we get our TRAVEL PLANS! Also starting on Monday I believe is 100% SYL. We did every other day SYL last week. It's hard, but at the same time I'm surprised with how much I've learned. Thanks, Spirit. Molodiets (awful English spelling, but I'm running out of time and I don't want to waste any switching to the Russian keyboard and hunting for the right letters). Mahl-uh-dee-ettes means "Good Jobber." They basically use it like "Good job."
Funny Russian moments from this week:
-CT. Smith was getting to know his investigator in the TRC and they said he looked like Zac Efron (which he totally does). He was trying to say "People tell me that all the time," but he accidentally confused a couple of verbs that are inexplicably similar, and instead it came out "People give birth to me every day." Win!
-Greensleeves, or What Child Is This is in the Russian Hymnbook, and it's not considered a Christmas song there; they sing it all year 'round. Which is awesome, because I love that song. But anyway, when you translate the title, it includes a common idiomatic saying that kind of means like... "What's the deal with this"...ish. So the title isn't "What Child is This," but "What's up with this kid?" Win! Russian is the best language.
Well, I love you all. I have a lot to say in my handwritten letters this week, so I probably won't be able to get back to all of you who mailed me this past week. But I'll do my best! Thanks for all your prayers and support! I really do notice them. There's no way I would be learning as much as am or enjoying it as much without them. I know this church is true. My testimony of that gets stronger every single day. Can't wait to get to the field!
покой,
Elder Broekhuijsen
P.S. I don't remember if I told you this before, but when you send me Cyrillic characters in letters through DearElder, they get translated into this terrible hex codes before printing, so it's unintelligable. Jay Dee figured out how to get around that though... just use English characters that look like Cyrillic letter! Like 6 = Cyrillic equivalent to "B." 3 = Z, 4 = Ch, etc. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment