News!

Sorry this is late - it actually arrived yesterday, but we were out of town until last night and I haven't had time to get this posted until now.

Hey family and friends -

I hope you've been having a good couple of weeks. Last Monday was kind of my baptism-by-fire week for running a transfer schedule all on my own before my next companion got down to help me. Ooh! I forgot. None of you know anything about the transfer yet. Ha. Let me tell you.

Elder Morris is spending his last cycle as a Zone Leader training a new Zone Leader (Elder Taylor) in Tol'yatti. They're doing really well right now. My new companion is... *drum roll* ... ELDER LANGSTON AGAIN! Yeah baby! I'm so pumped about it, it was hard not to tell you as soon as the transfer was decided. Anyway, he came down last Monday and we've just been sprinting ever since. I love all of my companions, but I definitely got the most/best/happiest missionary work done while I was with Elder Langston during the winter. It seems so far like we're in for a repeat performance, since we set a baptismal date like 3 days after he got down here. For whatever reason, we just work really, really well together. It's not likely that we'll be together still by Christmas calls, so you probably won't get to meet him until we have him up for dinner one of these days. Most likely I'll be here for another two transfers (3 as an absolute maximum) and then go be either Zone Leader or a District Leader somewhere else in the mission until... *gulp* the end. Gosh. I hate thinking about that. I just keep clinging to the idea that I still have until the winter is almost over. With the weather like it is these days, that seems like forever away. My only comfort.

So anyway, we're tearing it up here in good old Avrora West. I'm extremely pumped about it. Things are going great, even though we've been insanely busy. It's the GOOD kind of busy, when you don't have time to get bored, and you are forced to use your proselyting time as effectively as possible in between being out of town and taking care of administrative stuff.

On Saturday, we had a rather unique opportunity to be at a CCM Priesthood Meeting. President Sartori's regular translator (a member named S* who served his mission in the states) was unavailable, so we got to translate for 7 hours straight. It was pretty brain-melting. But we got to eat pizza. And it was super interesting to see just how much the Priesthood leaders here do for the church, worry about the members, etc. That is, it was interesting while I still had a brain inside of my skull to pay attention. After so many hours, all that was left was a slushy puddle of gray liquid with the sole ability to translate from Russian to English and back.

I'm going to attach a couple of photos, which means somebody will have to forward this to Melissa. Sorry, Melissa, you won't get this until the fam gets home to forward it. Sorry.

This morning, while we were eating breakfast at about 7:30ish (here), I was thinking about Steaver, and I realized that at that exact moment, you were all almost definitely sitting around a campfire with the fam. Lucky. But I was eating delicious toast with jam on it from a squeeze bag. Yes, you can buy jam in a squeeze bag here. And mayonaisse. Yes, it is 100 times better than using a jar.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week. Elder Langston and I are sure planning on it. Doubt you'll read this before it's too late, but pass on a big old привет to everyone at the Millward reunion.

Love,
Elder Broekhuijsen