Sounds like Elder Broekhuijsen, a.k.a. Andrew, is well and happy - which of course makes US very happy too! We sure appreciate all the friends and family members who write to him and keep him in their prayers - we know it means a lot to him. Here are some words from the man himself!
Wow! It's been a crazy week! First things first. I'm training!? My new companion is fresh out of the MTC; his name is Elder Lewis. He's from Brigham City, Utah, and he's awesome. I actually saw Elder Swartz while we were all getting our assignments in Samara. It was cool to catch up with him, and also really, really weird to see someone from "old life." Really, really, really weird. But he's in Penza, an area in the Samara Zone that has maybe the "best" branch in the mission. But I'm absolutely positive that Elder Lewis is the companion I'm supposed to have right now. President Sartori told me that he hadn't even finished his interview with Elder Lewis before he got a prompting to put him with me. So evidently, there is something that I need to learn from him, or vice versa, or both. Probably both.
He's crazy good at contacting. He's not afraid to talk to everyone with his broken Russian, and on numerous occasions I have just told him, "Okay. Go talk to that family. I'm not going to say a word." And he pulls it off. One time I was on the phone with the Zone Leaders discussing a baptismal candidate and he just stopped a guy without me even noticing or paying attention and got the guy's contact info and stuff. It was awesome.
New City is on fire! The branch is like emerging from a cocoon and becoming a family. It's turning into like a Utah ward. Nobody is talking about a stake in Tol'yatti yet because we still need quite a few more members before that's an option. But I think the idea is simmering in the back of some people's minds. And it's awesome. I love the members here so much. They're amazing.
Something I love about New City is that all the people are super nice! Or at least, compared to Saratov, everyone is nice. Nobody just gives you the silent treatment and blows past when you try to contact them. People listen to what you say. Even the punk kids are kind of cool. Or cool in that they don't want to beat us up, they just think we're awesome because we're from America and speak English. As a result of contacting without having to worry about avoiding certain areas or people, we found 7 new investigators in this short week that began Wednesday night. We have about 18 investigators right now that were just found on the street and didn't have a whole lot of interaction with us yet after that.
We also have a really awesome investigator with a baptismal date that we inherited with the area. His name is V* as well, ironically enough. He apparently asked the other missionaries that were here before we got here if he could be baptized because he understood and accepted everything so well. He's in the final stages of cancer treatments and it's looking like he'll make a full recovery. His date is for October 15th right now. We've only met with him once, but he was like hungry to know all the stuff he had to know before he could get baptized. He kept asking us more and more questions about commandments and we ended up teaching him quite a bit more than we planned for. It was awesome.
I can't believe how much of my mission has already gotten over. Being with a first-cycle missionary makes me realize how much I really have learned since I got here, especially with the really noticeable things like the language. It's weird... but I think I could say I'm fluent in Russian now and not be lying. I think that's really weird. I'm fluent in Russian. Obviously there's tons of ground to cover before I'm "satisfied" with my language skills, if such a thing exists. But I started a hardcore study regime of Modern Russian, which is the textbook that the BYU curriculum uses from what I understand. And the more I read, the more I realize that I already know like 90% of the stuff in there. It almost seems like it's mostly a matter of vocabulary at this point. But I'll keep studying just as hard. There are specific things I really want to work on and get good at while I'm still here, like translating, writing, reading (written Russian is quite different from spoken Russian), and my accent and pronunciation.
Anyway, I'm about out of time. I love you all! Have an awesome day!
Love,
Elder Broekhuijsen
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