Very, Very Beknownst

Heads up:  There's a pretty gross photo at the end of this blog.  I know - I could have left it out, but it has such a great story that goes with it…

Dobry Den.

It's Elder Broekhuijsen here. Which is good, because if it wasn't me, that would be kinda weird, probably.

We've had a good/crazy week. I guess you could say that about just about every week of anybody's mission, ever. But there you go.

I'll start off by attaching pictures and giving you some descriptions.

This is me and Elder Rosell. He is right now on an airplane, headed home to Carlsbad, California. Just finished his mission. He's super super awesome and really hilarious.

Funny story about Elder Rosell. On a missionary's last day on the mission, (it's always a Sunday), he goes to the mission home and has dinner with President and Sister Sartori. Anyway, Elders Morris and I were headed down to the office yesterday evening to drop off Elder Rosell, and we figured we'd have one more incident for Elder Rosell on the way down. So we randomly ran into not one, but two investigators (who have probably never even met each other) right in the same spot on the way down on a busy intersection (Kuybysheva and Nekrasovskaya, for those of you playing at home with Google Earth). And we were already running kind of late, so I just really quickly explained that we were in a hurry, and we started walking away, when suddenly, a very large, very drunk man, in a fit of gallant and inebriated chivalry, charged across the street into the scene. As near as we can figure, we think he was trying to barge into us, but missed, because he ran right past us but just about brushed my shirt. He LITERALLY shouted "Don't worry, I'll save you!" to our investigators (both middle-aged women), and then started yelling at us and got into a boxing stance. So we rolled our eyes and started laughing (we were already walking away, remember?) but he followed us and grabbed my shoulder. I shrugged him off and told him to go away, and he started cussing us out and stuff, and so Elder Morris sighed and was like, "Well, we're in a hurry anyways, I guess we better run." The rules are, we're supposed to run away when drunk people get aggressive anyway, so we just ran down Kuybysheva and onto Leningradskaya and I guess he chased us for a while, but wasted people are neither the most threatening nor the most diligent pursuers in the world, so we lost him without any trouble. So once again, drunk people inflicting themselves on society and making their alcoholism everyone else's problem strikes again. I have no problem with drunk people that just want to sit at home and get drunk. That's their deal. My problem is drunk people who get involved in other people's affairs for no reason. But that's okay. I've cooled off. Life goes on. And Elder Rosell now has a really awesome memory of the last 10 minutes of proselyting time on his mission :D

This is me on exchanges with Elder Anderson, the senior Tol'yatti Zone Leader. Back in New City North! Woot! My hometown. And I'm chilling with V*, my home boy, and A*, his girlfriend (who is a member from early childhood), and V*, who is a boss member as well (I think she's going to BYU Provo in the next few months to learn English and go to college. V* got the Melchizidek Priesthood a few weeks ago. YEAH BABY! Oh, man. I was so pumped when I found out.

So the reason this week has been crazy is because we were already getting the transfer schedule finalized, which involves 4 people going home and 5 people coming in (all sisters). So of course, as per tradition, as soon as we finalized the transfer schedule, a whole bunch of stuff happened. This time it took the form of an Elder deciding he'd had enough and he was headed home. Sad day. It also screwed everything up. Not that that matters very much in comparison, but it was still unpleasant. There's also a Visa Trip happening tomorrow and we're going to pick up all those sisters tomorrow night around 11:00ish.

Our investigators are doing great. We haven't been able to meet with A* and M* this week because they're really busy, and so were we. But T* came to church for the 4th time in a row, and just loves it. It's awesome, because you can see her conversion happening before your very eyes. She's getting happier and more open and just relaxed as a person, and she's a textbook case of Lehi's dream. I'll explain. Yesterday when we ran into her, she was with a friend, and she pulled me aside super fast and told me that her friend isn't very happy in life and she wants to introduce her to us because she thinks this message will help her. So we met them both out in the park about two hours later and it was like the most book-perfect referral hand-off meeting that Preach My Gospel could ever have imagined. So now G* is a new investigator, and T* was like testifying to her and just really realizing just how much she wants to share the white fruit that she partook of herself not long ago! Man. She's going to get baptized in June for sure. 

This is my planner this cycle. Explaining the Russian parts on it would take enough explanation to render the jokes unfunny, so I'll refrain. Just enjoy the fact that Twilight followed me to Russia.

Alrighty.... remember that one time when I told you the sad/gross story of a boiled egg that sat, unbeknownst to us, under our oven for a week? And then after we got back from exchanges and stepped into our apartment, the egg had become VERY VERY beknownst? This is that egg. You should have seen the reactions of the sisters in our district when I showed them on Friday. Gosh, even looking at that picture gets me feeling queasy remembering the smell.

Okay. Well, I'm out of exciting stories. I'm glad that Melissa has had enough experience with drugs now to decide it's not her thing. I'm glad Joshua and Garrett haven't lost any of their zeal for games. That mouse and keyboard sounds like a SICK combo. I'm glad school is out (didn't school already get out once on my mission?). I'm glad that Dad and I are going to rent Zeiss lenses and go on a road trip to Glacier National Park sometime during the spring or summer of 2013. I'm glad that you haven't sent my package yet, because now, if it will fit, you can include a bag of Hint of Lime chips (I finally figured out my biggest American food craving). I'm glad that I got over my cold after a few days. I'm glad that Garrett looks like a total punk with straightened hair. I'm glad that Mom thinks "The Music We Made" is as desperately sad a song as I do.

Have a fun summer! It's going to be over before anyone knows it. Elder Morris is down to his last 3 months. What the heck? Luckily, I just barely got here, and it's far too early to be worrying about time on my mission.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Elder Broekhuijsen

Back in the USSR

Well, you're getting this post very shortly after we received Andrew's email - thanks to Joshua who was being "kidnapped" by members of Chamber Choir this morning at 5:00!  Oh the sacrifices we make for our children!  :-)

Hey there everyone -

How we all doing? Things here in Russia are great, as usual. Elder Morris and I had a great week. Lots of getting ready for the upcoming transfer. I can't say anything, because transfers are STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. But I can tell you the stuff that isn't confidential, that being that we have 5 new sisters coming into the mission in a week. Three are from the US, one from Russia, and one from Ukraine. Sweet! The scary part is that we have three of our ironclad battleship sisters going home (seriously three of the best missionaries I've ever met in my entire life), leaving a grand total of... 6 sisters in the mission. Which means every single sister companionship is training, including Sister Moe, who has been in Russia for a grand total of 12 weeks. Gosh, I can't imagine training after my second cycle.  [Hey Andrew - guess what your SISTER in Boston was doing after 12 weeks!  ;-)]   I know two missionaries who trained their second cycle though, and they turned out GREAT. So anyway, we're pretty pumped to double the sisters in our mission. It's going to be one interesting night, picking up 5 exhausted, jet-lagged sister missionaries from the airport at midnight. And then the next morning every single sister in the mission will be there for the orientation lunch when they're all assigned into companionships.

Elder Morris and I have spent 1/4 of our missions together now. Crazy, huh? 6 months if you add it all up. Man. We are going to chill so hard after the mission is over. But we only think about things like "chilling really hard" and "after the mission" on P-days. Otherwise it gets distracting! Anyway, I'm looking forward to the day when you all get to meet him. We'll have him over for dinner. If you're lucky, he and I will even whip up our world-famous "Russian Raman in one of the tupperwares that's still water-tight, with ketchup on top." A staple around here.

A few days ago, we decided that it was time to take stock and kind of re-set back on course with where we wanted our missions to go. So we created a document, entitled "Back in the USSR." That's funny, because it includes imagery of returning to times as they once were, especially in the sense that they used to be more strict, and also it is a Beatles song. And the subtitle is, "You don't know how lucky you are, boy (to serve in the Russia Samara mission)." Man. Ms. Woolsey always taught us the first place you look is the title; and there's all sorts of hidden literary meaning there. I strive to live my life by that rule. ANYWAY. We made two columns on that paper - stuff we do that we shouldn't, and stuff we don't do that we should. It was all just a bunch of really tiny stuff (standing up for morning prayers at 6:30 instead of praying 1/3 conscious in bed, speaking Russian on the streets instead of English, using the Book of Mormon on every lesson, etc.). The last couple of days we've been living it, and it's like it jumpstarted stuff. The first day we tried it, we found three new investigators, two of which are these super awesome college students with super bright futures (especially once we add the Gospel). And yesterday, we took our branch president, President Blinkov, on a meeting with A* and M*, our star Armenian friends. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it went SO well. Word. So thanks for all the blessings, God!

I got a tiny bit sick this week; picked up the gimpy little brother of the cold that Elder Morris had last week (because we have legendary companionship unity). So I took this stuff called Cold Act (or actually Колдакт). It makes you feel better alright, if by "better" you mean "as if your limbs were made out of lead, and also you haven't slept for a fortnight." I'll take a gimpy lil' brother cold, thank you. But I bet I left a really lasting impression on the people we contacted that night. They'll never forget the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Zombies.

So T* came to church again yesterday for the third time in a row! Woot! She was telling us about how she has a friend who is having a rough time in life right now and she wants to introduce her to us. Investigator referrals FTW! [Editor's note:  pretty sure FTW stands for "for the win" but I am no expert in abbreviations…]  We're going to teach her Lehi's Dream and point out just how much she is like Lehi in that scenario; tasting the fruit and immediately wanting to share it. Also, she's got a pretty decent number of fingers pointing at her out of the great and spacious building; but she doesn't care. Man, she's so going to get baptized. So are A* and M*. Which means that in 7 years, so will M*, their awesome rad kid that I sent you a picture of. I'm so pumped.

This week we head down to Tol'yatti for exchanges, and I get to hang out in New City North, where they've relocated the Zone Leaders (they used to be in Old City). It's going to be just like old times, chilling with all the old friends like V*, A*, E*, Y*... I'm way excited. I kind of want to end my mission in New City North. But also it would be cool to be in the trenches of Saratov, just absolutely thrashing an area with no administrative responsibility so that I can do my part for the stake they're going to get there within a year. Basically, I haven't decided. I still got like a year and a half to think about that, right? Also, it's not really my call.

Okay. Well. My mission is going awesome, I love it so much. Thanks for all the support I get from back home. It makes it easy out here. Not really, but I've seen what it's like for the elders and sisters who don't have that support. You know what I mean, at any rate. Love you all, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Broekhuijsen

 

Better Late than Never!

We had a great Skype conversation with Andrew for Mother's Day yesterday - such a treat!  So when we didn't have an email waiting for us when we woke up this morning, we thought maybe he had simply run out of things to say!  As it turns out, their internet was apparently down, so the email was sent out later than usual.  It did eventually arrive, however - so we're happy!

How's everyone doing? Funny, it feels like about 22 hours ago that I talked to you all on the phone, with the exception of Melissa. I hope you had a happy Mothers' Day, and enjoyed your Garrett-style patty melts. It was good to see you again, and see that life is continuing in Highland just like always :). I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to the day I have to leave this place and stop spending my entire existence doing missionary work, but at least I know there are a lot of good things waiting for me when I get back. I was also glad to hear some really minor updates from some of my other friends on missions that I don't really find time to write ever, like Elder Davis and Elder Anderson and stuff. 

There were a couple of sweet baptisms in the mission this week! In Izhevsk, a young lady named A* got baptized, and in the Centralney area of Saratov (the Zone Leaders' area), there was a guy named I*. I* has the coolest story ever on his baptism day. In the Volzhsky branch building (where the ZLs attend church), there is no font for baptism. So they use the one in Solnechney, just another branch and area in Saratov. Well, I* had never been to the Solnechney building; he just had an address. So the ZLs were getting a bit nervous when he was 15 minutes late. They called him and he was like, "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming still, I'm just having hard time finding the building!" They gave him some more directions, and went outside to wait for him. After a couple of minutes, they spotted a figure off in the distance, full-out running towards them. Sure enough, I* was at a dead sprint, just epically racing to his own baptism; looking at all the buildings to get addresses and make sure he was going in the right direction. He showed up all huffing and puffing and then got baptized, and is now the happiest guy in the world. What a boss.  

Elder Morris and I are working with an investigator named T*. We met her on the street a couple of weeks ago, and she came to church for the second time in a row yesterday. It's funny, because the first time, she came, sat quietly and didn't really engage with the branch members, and more or less just quietly slipped out after sacrament meeting. We met with her during the week and taught her the Restoration. She had been reading the chapter headings of the Book of Mormon we gave her; and then gotten curious and went ahead and got online and read just about everything about our church. She apparently hit a lot of misinformation, but it didn't phase her at all. She still wanted to meet and just had lots of great questions. Then yesterday she came, was more friendly with people at the branch, stayed for the second hour, and came up to us after sacrament meeting thanking us for inviting her. She said something along the lines of "I feel really good when I come into this place and when I meet with you; it's like all my stress from the week just kind of gets forgotten while I'm here. But I don't know anyone here really very well at all, so I was wondering if I could invite a friend of mine next week?" [Editor's note:  Sarcasm alert - this next sentence is just Andrew kidding around.]  Well Elder Morris and I explained that we don't really like when people invite their friends to church, because contacting on the street for 18 hours a day is much more enjoyable than teaching referrals with pre-established support systems and friends in the church; so that pretty much set her straight. Psyche! She promised that next week she'd stay for third hour. Woot!  

Elder Langston and I got to go on exchanges this week, just regular Assistant/Zone Leader exchanges that happen every cycle. Every single meeting we set up fell through, so we contacted for about 4 hours after lunch, then went in for dinner and contacted for another 3 hours after that. It was awesome. We found a new investigator named A*, who is in college studying to be a beer-brewer. Interesting choice; I wonder how one gets interested in such a subject while in high school? ;)  

Anyway, that's the update. Hope you all have a magical week! Tell Melanie to send some pictures of her baby, but only if it's cute. 

P.S. Children in Russia are approximately 34x cuter than they are in America for some reason. Alrighty. Love you all; have a wonderful day!  

Love, 

Elder Broekhuijsen

Training Meeting

Sister Sartori (Andrew's Mission President's wife) sent this photo taken at their recent Leadership Training meeting.  Is it just me, or is Elder Broekhuijsen the handsomest missionary in the picture?  :-)  (Hey, it's close to Mother's Day, so I'm allowed to be biased!)

Pictures and Everything!

Not only was Andrew's email not late this week, he even sent us some photos.  So fun!

Hi everyone! 

I've had a good week! You may have noticed that I sent some pictures.I collected a few onto my SD card from other people's cameras, so someof these are pretty old pictures. But there you go.

This picture is the album cover for the boy band that Elders Morris, Langston, Hughes and I will be starting later in life. We still haven't for SURE decided on a name, but we're thinking "XPAM Boyz." It has a nice ring to it.

 Our branch did a service project a couple of weeks ago at a horse place. I decided to pop a Russian squat. Lots of young cool dudes in Russia do this on street corners.  Pictured next to me is a big old pot of plov, simmering over some coals. Plov is the best food you have ever experienced. Not only that, but this was the best plov that has ever graced my mouth. LUCKILY, Elder Morris and I found a new investigator this week named A* who is from Uzebekistan, which is where plov originated. And we're planning on picking out a P-day sometime in the next few weeks where we head out and make a big ol' batch of plov together, and A* promised us that he would tell us "a very small but important secret" to making the best plov in the universe. So be excited for me having THAT skill when I get home.

This is a shot from an activity the branch put on for YSA [Young Single Adult] people. President Sartori spoke on mission preparation and moral cleanliness, so Elder Morris and I got to go to translate. There was a costume theme to the party where everyone was supposed to dress up like a decade. I guess Russia had similar fashion. From left to right,you have S*, who is an awesome member from New City, Tol'yatti; Elder Morris, Y*, an awesome member from Bezimianski; me, and V*, another awesome member from Bezimianski who is getting ready to go on a mission. Yeah baby!

This is a picture taken at sunset at Revolution Square in Samara. It turned out pretty sweet, but I want to come back and re-take it with a DSLR, a tripod, and a really nice sharp prime lenslike the 50mm f/1.4. Then it would be print-worthy. The statue is Lenin. 

There is a family of Armenians we're teaching that live really close to our place. They are SO awesome. The dad is A*, the mom is M*, and the little baby is M*. That baby is the cutest thing that ever happened. She is the quietest, un-cry-y-est, smiliest baby in the universe. Gosh I love this family; they are SO rad. A* kept interrupting us in the lesson yesterday (about repentance) to basically testify about how repentance has changed his life, and how he used to be the town terror and everyone was afraid of him in his hometown of Armenia, but then he found Jesus and stuff.  Man, he's such a boss. And M* sits at home with M* all day, and reads the Book of Mormon in Armenian whenever the baby is asleep. They are going to get baptized for sure.   

So this last week, we had a pretty busy week. First off, we had Zone Leader Council on Monday. Then on Tuesday, we had our first ever Special Leadership Training, which is for all ZLs, DLs, and trainers.It was awesome; it went super well and we came to some really satisfying conclusions that were definitely inspired. Among those conclusions were that we need to raise the requirements for church attendance before baptism from two weeks, to three weeks within a six-week period, to help these new members already be in the habit of coming consistently every week. 

Then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were visa trips for the othergroup (there are two "tracks" in the mission because we get new missionaries every 6 weeks, but need new visas only once every 3 months). They were kind of a nightmare actually because we had all sorts of problems at passport control. It doesn't seem to matter to the people at the passport control station flying into Samara that we are 100% legal, and do this every 6 weeks (sending 30 missionaries in three groups through the airport). They just like giving us all sorts of problems anyway. One of them went out and sent the minibus we ordered home one of the nights, then came back in and told all the missionaries, "No, I didn't see a minibus out there." Anyway, we ended up getting called a bunch of times in the middle of the night by missionaries who were having problems with officials. BUT it's over now, so I'm going to put it behind me and stop complaining. 

Tomorrow we meet with President again to talk about the next transfer.  Man, it seems like they just keep getting faster and faster. After this transfer ends, Elder Morris only has 3 months left. What the heck? I remember when he hit his year mark, and now I'm already past mine. No good.   

I hope everything is well down there as I haven't read your emails yet. Have a wonderful day and a wonderful week everyone, I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Broekhuijsen