Life in Saratov

Judging by the length of the emails, Zone Leaders must have less time to write home. But we won't complain - it's always great to hear from Elder Broekhuijsen. Here are some selections from today's email.

So we're having some really awesome success here. L* is doing awesome. He is such a good man. He is sensitive to the Spirit. And he has such love and respect for Jesus Christ, it's awesome to see that in him. So far, he's right on track.

Our other baptismal date is for a man who was sent to us by God. His name is V*. His life has been tough lately and it's REALLY humbled him. He is currently living with his cousin, who is a rock solid member in our branch. We met with him and talked about the Restoration of the gospel. He accepted everything and committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying to find out if it was true, and if Joseph Smith was really a prophet. Then we began talking about faith. Important note: this entire meeting was out on a patio, and they had cut up a watermelon for us all to eat while we talked. V* stopped me and said, "You want to know what faith is? I'll tell you what faith is. Faith is looking at this tiny seed, and believing that if you put it in the ground, you'll get a watermelon." Needless to say, we excitedly assigned him Alma 32 for that night's reading :D We met with him again yesterday after church. He thanked me profusely for giving him that chapter to read, and said it blew his mind. He said that for some reason on our first meeting, he really just felt for some reason like he should give me a watermelon seed, and couldn't explain why he felt that way. It was awesome. The man is golden. He said during third hour of church, "Man. I feel so good when I'm here. I wish I had already quit smoking by now so I could just get baptized like today." His son, I*, is also totally ready, but we haven't been able to extend him a date yet. I'll keep you updated here! I love it when you just KNOW that you've found one of the people that God has prepared for you. I love V* and L* so much, they're just rock-solid people. I often feel like members here and even investigators are better people than I am. That's one of the ways I know that the Lord has prepared them to receive the Gospel.

On some more... interesting... news. Saratov is definitely a rougher place to live than Tol'yatti. I never once, in 12 weeks in Tol'yatti, had a problem with a drunk person who was angry, or a punk kid who wanted to fight. But already, two weeks in here we've had some close shaves. A drunk guy stopped us and started yelling at us about how our church is ruining Russia. While Elder Morris was on splits with one of the brand new missionaries who got here two weeks ago in Zavodskoy (an area in the zone), the new missionary, Elder Elwood, walked up to a guy and said "Hello." Without a word, the guy pounded him in the face with his elbow. We also had a guy a couple of nights ago start yelling at us. So we left and stopped trying to talk to him, and he kicked me on my way out. He was being girly about it so it wasn't a big deal, but it is interesting to see the differences between here and New City. This is where the REAL adventures happen :)

Anyway. That's about it for now. Things are going really well. I'm loving the mission!

Love,
Elder Broekhuijsen

P.S. Got a haircut last week after email. The lady didn't listen to a word I said about how I wanted my hair. Well, no. She listened, and then told me that that would look stupid and she would do something better. Then she stopped listening when I began to protest. Well the popular hairstyle around here is really short, maybe 3 or 4 millimeters all around, except really long bangs. So I definitely have the "buzz cut with bangs that were really long but then got hacked off by scissors at my house a week ago" look going on right now. It's a good one.