It was a little disconcerting to not see an email from Andrew when we checked at 5:30 this morning. Happily, after another hour or so of patient waiting, we DID get an email! Yay! Here it is!
Hopefully Sister Connell was able to inform you of the reason I didn't get to write for the second p-day in a row last week. Darn post offices. Anyway, we decided to skip the post office idea for a while for a few reasons, so we're writing in a gaming place. The guy to the right of me is playing DOTA. Advantages: fast internet, fast computer, ...actually works... Disadvantages: No USB ports, which means no photos or audio.
Luckily, Sister Connell was also kind enough to fax me your emails from last week, so I was able to read them, and that's what I'll be responding to as the bulk of this email.
So in no particular order:
Oh, man Joshua. I remember the hours of rehearsal. They are some of the best times ever. Seriously. It's like missionary work: exhausting and sometimes frustrating, but the best thing ever and you're always inexplicably happy and hanging out with your best friends. And getting pepper sprayed (just kidding, I've never been pepper-sprayed, let alone with ghost pepper). Also, you're the Jester. I'd still have preferred Master of Salt, but to each his own. Or as they say in Russian, "to who, what." The English version makes more sense, but, the Russian version is easier and faster to say.
Garrett: You go get that Eagle. I don't have a lot of regrets really about not being super active in scouting and stuff. But it would have been a good idea to get my Eagle.
Mom: You went and toured DI, huh? Man, I remember doing six volunteer hours there right before a choir concert because of our mandatory "community service" project for Govt. Cit. class. Ha. That place gets about 20 high school students there to "volunteer" at the end of every term, I bet. The night before the project is due. They won't turn anyone away, but I recall my "service" being things like, "organize this glassware on the shelf for the third time today," and "see if you can make the stuffed-animals bin look better," and "no, you're doing a great job; see if you can find anything else useful to do!" DI's a pretty cool place though.
I did hear the election results. I probably would care more if I had bothered studying up. Kind of a bummer that I didn't get to vote, but I guess there's always next time.
Dang it. Danny D* got his call? No offense to Danny or anything, but somehow in my head I didn't make the connection that he wasn't still in elementary school somewhere. I didn't realize he was anywhere near old enough to be getting the papers done. Congrats to him, that's rad.
As far as Hailey's call goes, that's super awesome. I bet she was so pumped to go to France. It's like the most fitting mission call I've ever heard.
Things here are going great. Elder Anderson, an old mission comrade (notice my appropriate local jargon), is my district leader now. The gigantic Samara district of 12 missionaries finally got split up as another companionship was added to our Bezimianski branch. It's awesome to have him in town and in my branch, and it's a relief that I didn't get a change and neither did our sisters (the Bezimianski Sisters are SO rad), but we did have to give Elder Anderson like 3 of our progressing investigators. That's okay though, I won't be bitter, because I can honestly say I'm not really too worried about who baptizes them. I just liked meeting with them, and we're a little bit scrambling to find new investigators again now. Actually, they haven't found an apartment for Elder Anderson and his companion (who flies out of the MTC to Samara tomorrow sometime, by the way), so he's just been staying with us. It's been a blast.
We're still meeting with N* and M*. M* has this recurring eye infection that keeps coming back that keeps them at home (and not at church...), and makes it tough to meet sometimes, and we have an absolutely nuts exchange schedule this transfer (remember how it's only 5 weeks? Well now we have 4 district leaders to exchange with, two of which live in outlying cities, and we also have Zone Training to do in each city in our zone). So we have to plan really well to meet with them, but we're going to make it happen. They're so wonderful and they're still progressing. We just need the Lord's help to get them over their last big obstacle before they can be baptized: church attendance.
Today we made French onion soup, and rolls, and apple crisp. We are turning into a bunch of weird chefs or something. But I realized I love cooking.
I'm way sad to read about Zorro of course. I loved that guy a ton. That's a huge bummer that I never get to see Melissa squeeze loving him again, too. I guess not until we see him again anyway. I guess that means you'll have to buy another kitten, probably. I recommend waiting until around the end of January; that's when they go on sale, usually.
Elders Langston, Benham, Long and I (the four of our original MTC group that are currently in Samara Zone) have really kicked it into afterburn mode. The end, unfortunately, is a little more in sight than I'm entirely comfortable with, so we're just turning up the volume until they make us go home. It's been inspiring. The Lord provides some pretty nuts miracles if you can figure out a way to bounce back after (metaphorically) getting your face kicked in for a few cold hours on the streets and keep going for one more hour. My way is to remember that, although I will, of course, get to do missionary work even after I can't wear the tag anymore, I won't get to do that really nitty gritty missionary work like street contacting ever again, really. And even if I somehow do end up contacting, it won't be the same. Elder Nielson and I have plans to bring the fire down to Penza and Orenburg as well; it's burning brightly here in Samara. I have some goals to leave every proselyting area I touch this transfer having found a person that is ready to be baptized in December or January. I also have set it up so that while we're in Penza, I get to work with Elder Benham for an entire day, and we're going to go without meetings. 12-5: contacting; then dinner, and 6-9: contacting. I've only done that before when I was forced to due to a lack of investigators/cancelled meetings, etc. But when we do hard things because we want to instead of doing them because we have to, they work about 38 times better. So I'm gearing up for a solid 8-hour day on the streets of Russia. I know the Lord + Elder Benham + I can make some big things happen.
Well, I'm probably about done writing. Thanks for always emailing! And for those of you who always write letters, thanks for always writing letters! And for those of you with whom I have had literally no communication for almost 2 years, thanks for NOTHING! Ha. Just kidding. See you later.
Love, Elder Broekhuijsen
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