He could always use more letters so if you are reading this and you haven't written him lately (or at all) maybe you could write him a quick note? Or, even easier, you could use DearElder.com
I'm sure he'd really appreciate it!
Here are some excerpts for you:
So I realized I have never really given you an idea of what an average day is here.
I wake up sometime between 6:00 and 6:30, depending on what time I need to shower and what time I need to be places, and where. Generally I shower right when I get up, then go to class or MDT (MDT = Missionary Directive Time, which is basically study time for Personal and Companion study, preparing lessons for TE investigators, practicing the TRC language tasks and lessons, and studying anything else in the language that you need to be working on). Every day I have around 10 hours-ish of class or MDT time, which changes around based on the teachers' schedules. Somewhere in there we have Gym; it changes from day to day. On Thursdays we do service and clean another building. Tuesdays are firesides and also choir, although right now Tuesdays are also our Preparation Days (this will change on the 26th). Sundays are preisthood meeting, interviews with the branch presidency, sacrament meeting, lots of down time that isn't really MDT (we usually just watch conference talks and Mormon Messages on LDS.org), and then choir and a devotional at night. After that, Sunday nights are MOVIE NIGHT where we can watch the Testaments, the Joseph Smith movie, the District, conference talks, etc. in a variety of languages. It's a great day to unwind.
Starting on April 26th, our schedule gets re-done and they start a new cirriculum for everything that has been in development for a long time. From what I hear, I definitely prefer our cirriculum now, so I'm glad I'll only have about a week and a half of the new one before I fly out. The biggest change on your end will be that my P-days get moved to Wednesday, effective the 26th. So that's when you'll be getting emails, etc.
Funny stuff from this week:
-The Russian word we use for "companion" literally translates to "copilot." Awesome.
-One of our teachers, Brother McKleary, is considering becoming a seminary teacher. Elder Frandson told a pretty good joke... What's the difference between a medium pizza and a seminary teacher? A medium pizza can feed a family of four. Ouch. :D
-I had kind of an off day this last Friday. Not bad, just like... I was kind of out of it. I definitely wore my slippers to gym. Stop laughing.
-This last Sunday we had a special musical fireside by the BYU Men's Chorus. Oh man. Fantastic. It was like a breath of fresh air (music is not allowed here, since before we came in there were a bunch of problems with elders having contests to see who could blast their Mo-Tab louder. Nice.). They did a few songs I recognized, and one in particular that I did on New York Tour my Junior year, called Ubi Caritas. So beautiful and it brought back some great memories. Also, a friend of mine, Chris Hurley from Chamber was in the choir. It was awesome to see him. If anyone sees him regularly, let him know he did a great job for me. I was laughing so hard when the choir was stepping onto the risers at the beginning of the performance--the organist played this awesome fanfare that I'm pretty sure he was composing on the spot.
Our Dyedooshka Shannon left on Monday. About time. I'm happy for him; he had to wait forever because of his kidney troubles. He's in Vladivostok, which is like right above Korea. So he normally would have been flown to LA, then Seoul, then Vladivostok, but for some reason, he went through Atlanta, Moscow, and then all the way accross Russia to Vladivostok. Makes me wonder if the Lord had a Russian or two prepared to receieve his message on the plane or something. A fitting reward for his patience, I think.
So that's kind of the update. Things are going great. I'm excited to get out of here but I'm also enjoying myself immensely. All of you who are getting mission calls and stuff, PLEASE DearElder me when you get them! I love hearing where everyone is going. If you do get your call and tell me, make sure you include your address so I can write back (not allowed to email anyone but my family) and the date you report because I'm curious.
I know this church is true. I love being a missionary. Love it. Can't wait to get to the field. In a workshop I had yesterday, the teacher said the church in Russia is in its infancy. He said something along the lines of "when you see an infant, it's an exciting thing. You don't look at it and say, 'I am so much bigger than that baby.' You look at it and say 'Wow, it's learning how to walk!' It's the same way with new areas of the church. You have the opportunity to be a huge part of the work in its early stages of development there. What you do will have huge repercussions on how the church forms in the area." And it's true. It's like... a Brazillian missionary can baptize 100 people and it's a drop in the bucket. I don't want to minimize the importance of work there or anything of the sort, but if I baptize one person, that's a big deal in Russia, where the church is just starting out. I'm honored that Heavenly Father would trust me with this kind of a responsibility, and I've once again had my committment re-affirmed to be the absolute best missionary I can possibly be.
Love you all. I'll see you in a couple of years!
Love,
Elder Broekhuijsen
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