Thanksgiving in Russia

Sounds like Andrew had a great Thanksgiving.  Hope you all did too!  Here's what Elder Broekhuijsen had to say this morning…

It's pretty cold down here in Samara. On exchanges with the Avrora Office Elders this week, we had a lot of meetings fall through, so I spent a good two hours on the street with Elder Long (Elder Johnson's [<-- that's Melissa's friend!] companion from the MTC), just contacting. Man it was chilly. Found out later that day from a member that it was -16 Celcius. So we're not hitting -40 yet, but we're on the way. It was cold enough to finally get the cool "breath freezing on your scarf and eyebrows" effect. Luckily, my coat and thermal stuff weren't phased at all, and my hands stayed in my pockets unless I was giving someone an invitation to church or a Book of Mormon.

We also had exchanges with assistants this week. I got to spend a night with Elder Morris out on the streets. He's such an awesome missionary, I was so lucky to serve with him. And I'm way pumped to get to see him and work closely with him as long as he's assistant and I'm zone leader here, which will most likely be a minimum of one more cycle after this transfer is over.

Happy Birthday Mom! I know it's not yet, but it's soon! I love you! I'll probably find a day to send down a big ol' package of Christmas and Birthday stuff for everyone. I don't have a ton of money to spend on it, but there are certain things here that are cheaper and better here than in America. One of them starts with a 'C' and ends with "hocolate." 

We had Thanksgiving Dinner with the whole district and the office couple and President and Sister Sartori on Wednesday! It was insanely delicious and SO much fun. I haven't eaten that well since before my mission. It really was a fantastic day to think about all the billions and billions of things I have to be grateful for. I remember having a hard time thinking of stuff to write in the Thankful Turkey guy back at home. Man. I guess I was a pretty stinking ungrateful kid.  [Editor's note:  Not true, but still the kind of thing a parent appreciates hearing on occasion!]   :-) 

Elder Wood and I found a really awesome elect man named J* from Georgia on the streets yesterday. He believes in God SO strongly, but he's not real satisfied with religion, especially in Russia.  He wrote his dissertation on Religions of the World back in the Soviet Union times, and told us some stories about how he had to be really sneaky to get his hands on books about religion at all (including one story where he bribed a librarian to let him see the religion books by giving her expensive chocolate). There was also one about how he tricked his professor into writing him a note so he would have permission to get into the restricted section of the library. Madam Pince almost didn't let him in, but in the end of the day, he didn't have to bust out the invisibility cloak. Okay, I made that last one up.

Anyway. Other than that, not a whole lot out of the ordinary going on. I'm loving my mission more than ever. I'm happy to hear there's some sick nasty computer-construct-age going down in the Broekhuijsen house. If I had heard about that my first cycle in the field... oh, man. Distractions. But thankfully, I've gotten past that phase of my mission. Seriously, I'm really glad I don't care about that stuff very much right now. It's not that I won't be interested in it again when I get home, but God has changed my brain somehow. I can just turn off the part of it that cares about my old hobbies for the most part. It's really a huge blessing. 

Speaking of old hobbies (I leave the "caring about old hobbies" part of my brain on on P-days.) :D  Elder Wood Senior (the husband in the office couple... yeah, names are confusing, I know) is a really good photographer, turns out, AND he highly enjoys pen turning. I see  some cool hanging out with him, me and Dad some day in the future. I'll have to make sure to get his contact information before whichever one of us goes home first actually goes home. 

Okay. Well have a wonderful week! 

Happy Thanksgiving/Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday Mom!

Love,

Elder Broekhuijsen

Baptism Photos

Andrew sent us a couple of photos on Monday, but  I'm just now getting around to posting them!  These are from E*'s baptism last Saturday (19 November.)  Jerome showed them to a coworker of his who served his mission in Samara about 8 or 9 years ago.  Jerome said something about the people not looking overly happy, at which point his coworker explained that the Russian people don't always show a lot of emotion outwardly because in years past (in the Soviet Union) "if you were smiling, then you must have something valuable - so people would follow you to your home, break in, and steal it."   So, the people just got used to not showing a lot of outward (positive) emotion.  Anyway, I thought that was an interesting insight.

Bratya & Syostri

I'm not sure why Jerome's alarm goes off at 4:45 a.m., but at least it was helpful today.  (I can't say that I was as happy about it yesterday…)  Anyway, you can thank him for getting this post so early this morning!

Alright, Bratya & Syostri,

Let's get started! I had a great week! We went on exchanges with the Elders in Novokuybyshevsk this week! They're doing really well. They like finding entire families to baptize. Turns out they just moved apartments and are now living in the apartment of a recently-deceased 80-something-year-old schoolteacher. He left SO MUCH cool stuff in his house and the landlord pretty much said "you can do whatever you want with this stuff." Among the awesome finds: A copy of Anna Karanina in Russian; printed in 1965, with a note written in the front cover "Given to Mr. Whatever his name is from the 5th class as we celebrate the day of our Soviet Army's victory - February 23, 1965" The same day I came into the MTC. Lindsey Webb is SO STINKING JEALOUS right now. Of course, I left it there because I want to double check with the landlord that all this stuff really doesn't belong to everyone before I just start taking stuff. But I'm feeling like I will be the owner of this book before too long. Also: a big old jar of random old assorted Soviet Union coins. Everything from the 1 and 3 kopeck coins (worth 1/1000th, and 1/3000th of a dollar, respectively) to the 50 ruble coin, which is worth like $2.00. Hopefully I can add a few of those to my coin collection as well. Anyway. Enough about me wanting to loot an old dead man's house. 

E* got baptized! She was baptized on Saturday! It was wonderful that she was baptized, but there was some confusion as to who was supposed to turn on the water for the font that takes a minimum of 4 hours to fill, and at what time. So basically V*, our cool new convert who got baptized in August (and baptized E* two days ago) had to baptize her in like 18 inches of relatively cold water. It took three tries. Ooooh. 

The same day E* got baptized, there was a Nigerian man who's here in Samara studying who got baptized in Avrora. His name is T*. I met him yesterday as I was translating for his interview with a branch president so he could get his ecclesiastical endorsement to go to BYU Hawaii. He's been in Russia for 3 weeks and speaks pretty much no Russian, but excellent English. Anyway, he of course, passed the interview with flying colors, and said the prayer at the end.  It was the most amazing prayer ever. He thanked God for leading him to the land of Samara, Russia, so that he could find the LDS church and be baptized. The way everything worked out with his schooling (he wasn't able to get into any classes that were available in a language he speaks), it's quite obvious that the only real reason the Lord led him here was to find the church. SO cool. He's so excited to get the Priesthood and study at BYU. He looks kind of like LeVar Burton, BTW. Extra bonus.

Yesterday after church, I had 15 minutes or so to talk to President Haran, the district President of the Samara District (hopefully the Samara Stake before too many years). It's the first time I've ever met him, although I've heard about him for quite a while. He's just an absolutely amazing man. He's learning English and speaks really quite well. He has such an awesome testimony. He said that there are certain missionaries that he just immediately recognizes as his "brothers" as he puts it. That is, brothers in the tribe of Ephraim. Apparently I'm one of them. We have a lot in common; he's also really into music and sings as a tenor, among other things. We talked for a while, and then he just came out and said "I believe that we were friends in the pre-mortal life. I'm glad to see you again. You're my brother, and I love you." And then he gave me a big hug. I felt the Spirit SO strong. That is such a cool miracle for me that God sent me here knowing I would get to meet (or really, re-connect with) this awesome man. Just another testament that I am supposed to be here. And that means the apostles really are inspired. And that means the church is true. That's what I love about this church. Everywhere you turn is more evidence that it's true.

Let's talk for a second about how all the Zone Leaders and the Assistants were given Bluetooth headsets. When I wear mine, I increase both my efficiency on the phone and my desire to punch myself in the face by approximately 200%. Luckily, we're only allowed to wear them inside. The streets in Russia area dangerous enough without looking like a complete nerd.

Well. I'm out of time again. I love you all! You're the best!

Love,

Elder Broekhuijsen

Russian is the Best!

Andrew was in rare form when he wrote this email - his personality really comes shining through - he was definitely in a good mood!  (Which, of course, is music to this mom's ears.)

Hello family and friends!

I feel a little guilty for having such a fantastic week while Melissa had such a terrible one. [Editor's note:  Andrew gets his sister's emails a week late because of the time zone difference - so he is actually referring to her email from last week.]  But I guess that's nothing to feel guilty about. Just take this in the spirit of "Elder Broekhuijsen rejoicing over his blessings" rather than "Elder Broekhuijsen bragging about how easy his mission is," okay? 

First off. We went on exchanges with the elders in Penza this week. Penza is a lovely little city (seems really "village"-ish even though the population is, of course, way the heck higher than pretty much any city in Utah) where they make delicious Kvass. I actually didn't drink any Kvass in Penza, but I've had Penza brand Kvass in New City before and it beats all others, hands down. Just a fun fact. 

Another fun fact about Penza: Elder Swartz is serving there right now! I got to hang out with him and do missionary work for three full days! Can anyone think of something awesomer than doing missionary work for three days with someone who has been one of your best friends since quite a while before the mission? I submit that there are not many things awesomer at all. By the way, Elder Swartz is TEARING IT UP, for those who were curious. The senior Assistant to the President (Elder Hale) said that if the whole mission was doing things po-Swartz-omu (ugh. This translates roughly as "according to the Swartz," but makes approximately 382% more sense in Russian than it does translated into English), we would all be winning. So that should say something, considering he's on his second transfer in Russia. 

Final fun fact about Penza (you thought I was going to take advantage of all that automatic alliteration as always, but I didn't): I respect it too much. As we were taking a taxi back to the train station (fun Russian word for train station: Zhelezhnadorozhney Vokzal), I caught a glimpse of a store that just had a giant Canon logo on it and nothing else. As I was basking in the awesomeness of a camera store in Russia that preferred Canon, I happened to look over to the left and see in passing, a bright white Apple logo on another store, shining through the night like a bright beacon of truth directly to my own retinas. I agree, Penza. I agree.

So, something I don't remember if I've mentioned before or not: we eat pancakes ALL THE TIME here. We made some really beastly large ones in Penza, and we have a specially-formed pancake griddle in Bezimanski where I live, and lots of maple extract to go around. And Elder Wood happens to be a pro pancake chef. Pancakes are good. 

Our investigator E* is getting baptized on the 19th! I sat by her in Sacrament meeting yesterday and they announced it and had her stand up and everything. She's so excited. She has quit drinking tea and coffee and basically ostracized herself from her group of bad-influence friends and replaced them with good-influence friends instead, and is so awesome.

This week in Elder Broekhuijsen's Russian Language Study, I'm focusing on numbers. Numbers are weird because they're kind of like an adjective, and kind of like a verb, and kind of like an animate thing, depending on what you're saying, and kind of inanimate, and there's four possible genders for some of them, and all of them have six possible case-endings times however many genders. What this boils down to is that there are 24 ways to say the number "one" depending on what role it plays in the sentence. Not long ago, I would have complained about this and said, "English figured out how to function without having more than one way to say the number "one." What gives, Russian?" But now, I'm pumped. I'm owning Russian. I have Russian in a headlock right now and I'm cutting off its circulation. It's kind of like Nephi when he grabbed Zoram. He's like, "I was a pretty big dude, so I grabbed him, but I guess yeah I also got some strength from the Lord." I feel like the Lord is helping me SO much with the language right now. I'm not sure why, to be honest. But I'll take it. Fun fact about how you can say 200 like this in Russian: "Dvoomya-stami." You can. 

This morning, I was so tired. I kneeled down at my desk to pray and start personal study, but instead I just started counting in my head. I got all the way up to 60 before I was like, "Hey wait. This isn't why I kneeled down. Something isn't right here..." and then I figured it out. So there you go. 

So I'm not going to attempt to send pictures on this dinosaur computer (Beige-a-saurus Rex, I believe), and I printed everyone else's emails off instead of using email time to read them, so I still have some time. Therefore, I'll give you a rundown of the Samara Zone so you can understand a little better what's the deal. 

There are four cities in the Samara Zone: Samara itself, Orenburg, Penza, and Novokuybyshevsk (say that one five times fast. Or one time. At all.) In Samara we have one district, that includes the Bezimansky Elders (us), the Bezimansky Sisters, the Avrora Elders (The district leader is one of them, and they are also the office elders), the Avrora Sisters, the other Avrora Elders (aka the Assistants), and actually the Novokuybyshevsk Elders (who are baptizing two full families and another guy named N* next Saturday).

In Orenburg there is one companionship. Orenburg is like a 12 hour train ride east, and also TECHNICALLY IN ASIA! I can't wait to go there so I can say I've been on three continents. It's the only city in the mission where the time zone is off; it's exactly 12 hours ahead of Utah, while the rest of the mission is 10. Orenburg is its own district, and the companionship there contains the district leader.

Penza is roughly an eight-hour train ride from Samara, so they just do it overnight because it's really easy to sleep on trains (you get a bed). In Penza there are normally three companionships: Two sets of Penza Elders (of which one includes the district leader) and one set of sisters. But right now there's an odd number of Elders in the mission, and we weren't able to find a member of the church here who could serve a short-term mission for this cycle, so there's a threesome (I mean tripanionship) of Elders and a regular companionship of sisters there now. By the way, one of those sisters is Sister Callister, who is from Alpine or Highland and knows Melissa. What the random? She seems vaguely familiar to me, but I don't remember ever talking to her.

Fun fact about trains: They are a blast. But nobody will sell you chocolate frogs. 

Anyway. That's about all I had to write about this week. I love you all. I hope things pick up for you soon Melissa. Sometimes the Lord has to teach us patience. Right now is an opportunity for you to get REALLY REALLY good at being patient, nothing more. Why not take it? 

So. Hopefully that email didn't display too much ADHD on my part. Sorry I'm still pretty much the worst at answering questions people have. I don't remember them really and I get really focused on just writing what I remember from the week when my hour is ticking down. 

Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Broekhuijsen

Extenuating Circumstances

Your reward for the fact that Daylight Savings Time has ended is that I was perkily alert at 5:15 a.m. and have time now to post a new blog entry before waking up my family.  So, here you go!

Hey family and friends!

Well it's been a crazy week. Due to some extenuating circumstances, (did I use that word correctly? I like to think that I can still use large English vocabulary words) I have like 12 minutes to type my entire email to everyone. So that means it's going to be short, and I'm only going to be able to get off one today, for everyone.

Before I forget: I have had two questions that I have been forgetting to ask for like 2 months now: First, is it possible to get a small pair of earmuffs (those collapsible ones that don't go over the top of your head, but around the back) in the Christmas package? My companion has a set and they are RIDICULOUSLY convenient. It took me a really long time to remember the English word for "convenient." Second question: How are my fish doing? Have they all perished? Sad.

So my area is cool! I haven't seen much of it yet because we keep having success contacting in the same 4 or 5 areas that are close to the apartment, so we haven't left them much yet. We also do lots of our meetings with investigators at the branch building. We have some awesome investigators. Strangely enough, our four "main" investigators at the moment are four girls who are 19, 20, 20, and 21. Funny how that works out. Only two of them have asked if we are allowed to have relationships with people while we're on our mission though, so I think it's probably just a coincidence ;) Ha. Elder Wood says there are investigators in Orenburg and Penza (two other cities in the zone) that refuse to meet with the missionaries "unless Wood is there." What a lady killer. The coolest part is that they're all sincere investigators though. One of them is going to be baptized on the 19th, her name is E*.

We eat a LOT of pancakes. They are delicious. So thanks for the maple extract. It's a hit. As is the peanut butter.

It is COLD sauce. The air is a lot wetter here, so even though it's only about -15 degrees C (I don't know what that is in F, but not THAT cold), it feels way colder. Add that to the insane biting wind, and if I get a phone call outside, it automatically means one of my hands will be numb within the minute. I learned the art of wearing a scarf properly though, so at least my face is fine. I also have a nice coat and some cool under-armor type stuff from Cabelas, so I'm not cold. Just the weather.

We took the subway here in Samara once this week to get between two different branch buildings. It is the exact opposite of the New York subway. It is CRAZY clean and beautiful and well-maintained, simple enough to understand even though it's in Russian, and actually SMELLS GOOD. I know. I know. Calm down. Also, we met these 4 old people there who had just gotten back from a dance specifically for old people. They were so happy and in the best mood ever and awesome and one of the babooshkas kissed me on the cheek before she got off the subway. Oooooh. Not allowed.

Anyway, I'm not going to be sending any pictures today as I'm down to three minutes and the internet here is about as fast as the iMac. But I love you all. I love my mission. Hopefully I'll be able to write a better email next week!

Love,

Elder Broekhuijsen

P.S. This computer is trying to convince me that I spelled every single word wrong in this email, but I think it's just because it doesn't speak English.