Patience Pays Off

Hallelujah!  We did get an email from Andrew after all!  He didn't really explain why he wrote so late, but maybe his email just took the long route to get here - via Saturn or something!  Anyway, here's today's update.

Man. It's May. [Technically, Andrew, it's April 30th, but we'll let it slide…]  We just got done with Zone Leader Council. This one was an especially good one, because a huge focus was on preparing for the training of all the District Leaders in the mission tomorrow. We have a special meeting set up for that; and we've brought all of them into Samara for a day (which, in case you are wondering, is a logistical nightmare). But it's all going to be worth it. This leadership training tomorrow is going to be epically good. I think the entire mission is just going to get a big ol' boost from it.

It's been a good week. The key indicators in our area weren't so hot, but we got to go do exchanges down in Saratov, with the Zone Leaders. There's a lot of cool stuff that's related to that... in no particular order:

There is a new convert in the Volzhky branch named T*. At the end of my transfer with Elder Wood, there was a Zone Conference in Saratov, and they brought all the Zone Leaders in the mission down to teach breakouts. After the conference got over, I flexbusted out of the branch building with Elder Woolley and we found four new investigators in an hour. Tanya was one of them. Elder Wood taught her and it turns out she was super golden, and ended up getting baptized on Elder Wood's last Saturday on his mission. Anyway, she had a lot of problems with her family after that (they committed her to a mental institution and forbade her from coming to church). I'm actually not very in-the-know about the whole situation, but I know that she's recently been coming to church regularly again. I hope next time I go down to Saratov, I get to meet her.

While working with Elder Lythgoe, the senior Zone Leader in Saratov, we set a baptismal date with an awesome woman named N*! She's about 22, and has had a really rough life. It's amazing to see what living with church members and conforming her life to fit the gospel has done for her. It's a really awesome example of the gospel in action. She's so much happier, and was just glowing with excitement at the prospect of having all of her sins washed away.

When we got home, we stepped into our house and it smelled like a rotting corpse. That's one of my favorite welcomes after getting home from exchanges. Elder Morris and I did everything we could think of... we cleaned out the fridge, emptied the trash, did the dishes... nothing helped the smell. Within a day or so, we found the culprit. A boiled egg had, at some point during the week, amidst all the movement of missionaries in an out of the aparment that we always have, fallen on the ground, cracked open, and rolled under the stove. Yay. We sweeped it out and discovered that it was, indeed, the culprit. I'll send you a picture next week; I didn't bring my card reader to the office today. It's a shame a still photo doesn't really capture the lovely wriggling of the maggots we could see once the egg was in the light :). Oh, jeez. That was probably the grossest thing I've seen my whole mission. Actually, no. But anyway. Luckily, our apartment has returned to a normal, clean smell again.

So I'm happy to hear at least one of you got to meet Elder Wood, at least over the phone a bit. He's really an amazing guy, and an amazing missionary. I think he taught me just as much about being a missionary as my trainer, Elder Walton, my first cycle. He certainly taught me how to be a halfway decent Zone Leader. Funny that he mentioned transport contacting... the word, by the way, was probably either Marshrutka, or Gazelle (which is a type of Marshrutka). I remember one day riding to district meeting on a big ol' bus with him. There was a ton of traffic, and the first person I talked to rejected me, so I gave into the awkwardness of it and just shut up for the entire ride. We got off the bus, and he basically said, "What was that, Elder? You're a Zone Leader. You don't get to not talk on transports anymore." It was exactly what I needed. I haven't kept my mouth shut on a transport ever since. And that's a good thing too, because we found G* (who is now an awesome member) on a Marshrutka. Actually I've found a ton of new investigators on transports, now that I think about it. I love transport contacting to death. If you end up having Elder Wood over for dinner, make sure to invite Elder Hale too. I think they're roommates :D. And send me a picture if it works out! And don't force them to come up with compliments about me. Just let them eat in peace. And ask Elder Hale about stories from Texas or Iowa. He used to live there.

One last cool thing that's going on right now - I'm running out of time for writing. Remember V*, that got baptized back in New City before I came to Samara? HE'S DATING AN AWESOME MEMBER FROM NEW CITY BRANCH! HAHA! YEAH! VICTORY! It's getting serious, too. Man. Think of all those potential children of the covenant.

So I tried to send Melissa a super awesome package on her birthday. I bought a box from the post office, and loaded it up with awesome stuff, and then brought it back, and they were like, "What are you sending?" And I was like, "Lots of stuff." And they were like, "No, what are you sending?" And I was like, "Don't worry about it." And they were like, "Okay, let's look." So I opened it up, and they pulled a bunch of stuff out (basically everything that was paper, like the birthday card, etc.) and were like, "You can't send this in a box. You have to send it in an envelope." And I was like, "Lemme explain to you how packages work. I put stuff in a box, and write an address on it, and pay you some rubles, and you make that box go to that address. And we don't worry about what's in it or who needs to send what in envelopes." And they were like, "No, you can't send paper products in a box. That's the rules." And I said, "Fine, can I send this Super Snickers with hazelnuts and instant borscht in the same envelope as these paper products?" And they were like, "No, you have to send those in a box." So I wasn't particularly happy with that answer.

BUT. I'll find some other non-paper-product stuff to put in the box, and send the paper stuff in an envelope, and probably Melissa will get her two birthday packages from me sometime towards the end of her mission. But at least there are TWO birthday presents instead of ONE!

Also, there's a rad member in our branch named Y*. And Elder Morris and I left her a message where we sang the song from Robot Unicorn Attack for her. And then the next day we did a service project with the branch, and she came up to us and was like, "Hey, Elder Broekhuijsen, call me." And I called her, and she had downloaded the real song and put it as her ringtone when I call. Ha! Win. Elder Morris's by the way, is Barbie Girl.

Okay. I'm out of time. Love you!

Elder Broekhuijsen