I'm a lucky mom - two missionaries out and they both write great emails every week! Hurrah for Mondays!
So here's the story of today. Once upon a time, Elder Bullough, my Zone Leader, told me there was this super nice internet cafe in a different part of New City where we would probably be able to send pictures. So I got all my SD cards and stuff together and this morning we set out and found it. Well, you can't use USB stuff there either. So no pictures this week. And that's one less hour for us today. Oh, well. I just tried to type a Russian word that means "it happens." Then I realized I couldn't type that word, so my mind automatically suggested to my fingers a different Russian word that means, "let it be." The third best choice my brain offered after my fingers balked at that request was yet another Russian phrase that means "no big deal." So there you go. I don't speak English anymore, officially.
The Visa trip was awesome! Somehow, I was travel leader. Which is great, because I don't even know how to use English airports. Luckily, nothing went wrong at all. It was smooth as butter. The trip was a lot of fun! We got to hang out on the Kiev temple grounds for about 4 hours waiting for the session. While we were there we tried some really cheap Ukrainian food that turned out pretty good. It was kind of like an egg roll actually or a spring roll, just with more of a doughy outside. Then when we got out of the session, it was dark and the temple was lit up. It was insanely beautiful. Elder Veit, an elder who is almost done with his mission, from Austria, right then vowed to me he would get married in the Kiev temple. I got some really awesome pictures that I'm excited to send home... at some point.
So, transfers happen in one week. This transfer was 7 weeks long instead of the usual 6 because our mission is trying to sync up with the MTC in Spain from what I understand. I think that has something to do with the fact that they're sending a lot of native Russian missionaries there instead of the Provo MTC now for some reason or another. But basically, next time I write, it may be from Samara, or on a Tuesday, or something like that. Then again, I might just stay in New City North, possibly even with Elder Lewis. We'll see. I honestly have no idea where to this time around. Not that I've ever been right about it before :D.
Everyone is going home. Elder Walton, my trainer. Elder Kuzmin, my second companion. Elder Eyers, the guy who's been an Assistant since before I got here and is just awesome and has so much vision for the mission... they're all done in a week. Then there are about 5 or 6 elders or something like that in the whole mission who are older than me. That kind of freaks me out. Although I am 1/3 of the way through my entire mission. What the heck? When did that happen? The next cycle goes halfway through December. Once December's over, it's a hop skip and a jump to February again, and that's halfway. That blows my entire mind.
So I got your package! Thanks so much! Peanut butter-themed candy is a HIT around here, let me tell you. Even the natives love it; I shared some at district meeting on Friday. There is probably enough red scripture marking lead to last me about 4 or 5 more missions after this one, so thanks for that :D. I also this morning decided to quickly format those two new SD cards you sent up, and discovered to my surprise that one of them was full of videos from Joshua. I particularly enjoyed the part where he explained to Melissa that I cannot receive audio. Yeah... I can recieve audio.
So we've had a really great week. We have had five baptisms in October as of last Saturday, when a husband and a wife got baptized together. It was awesome. We also have at least 3 or 4 more, possibly 5 or 6 planned for Friday and Saturday and Sunday of this coming week. So pretty much the Lord is showering down blessings on our district.
Ooh. Also got some letters, including a DearElder from Lindsey Webb. Cool! I'm actually way pumped to read some Tolstoy and Chekhov when I get back from Russia someday. I'm actually fairly convinced now that I will be heading home with a suitcase full of books and that's it. I already have amassed way more than I thought I would. Some nice Baptists gave me a New Testament that has English and Russian right next to each other, and in Samara I finally picked up a nice leather-bound Bible in Russian that I've needed on about 4,328 lessons so far on my mission :D
Got Robin's letter in Russian as well! Aside from a few confusing moments regarding handwriting, it was all understandable :D
Cool. Well it's been a really fun week, although I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time in our own area... haha. Things are looking up. We're hoping to set a baptismal date with a guy named Va* tonight. Hopefully he can feel the Spirit really strongly tonight on our lesson, and make the right decision.
V*'s birthday was yesterday. It was so fun. The branch already loves V* to death, because he's the coolest person ever. So that's good. We all ate a bunch of cake and gave him presents and stuff after 3rd hour. I'm gonna miss that guy if I get transferred.
Anyway, I'm running out of stuff to talk about. Thanks for the package, for everything! Hopefully I can find SOMEWHERE to send some pictures home next week, be it in New City, Old City, Samara, Saratov, or Vladivostok.
I really do have a testimony that this church is the true one. It gets tested every day. Sometimes it's not pleasant. But like that quote says... every person gets backed up to the edge of the cliff of faith (or however it goes) and there he must make his stand. It's happened to me a few times. Turns out it really helps you strengthen your testimony when you just endure through the tough times. And God is ALWAYS ready and willing to confirm to the humble asker the truth, again and again and again.
Love,
Elder Broekhuijsen
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