Dobriy Vecher

From 4:00 to 5:00 a.m. today I couldn't sleep, but I didn't want to get up and check email, because I didn't want to read it and then know that I wouldn't get another email from Elder (Andrew) Broekhuijsen.  So, I waited until 5:00, and then gave in.  No email.  When I finally got back to sleep, I slept right through my alarm and didn't get up until 6:45.  Oops!  Happily, there WAS email by then!  So, without further ado or explanation from me - here is the last email from Elder Broekhuijsen written in Russia.  (But hopefully I can talk him into writing at least one post once he gets home!)

Dobriy vecher. (That's Russian for buenos tardes) 

Well. I've been having a pretty weird day. We got up, did our normal study, etc., and then cleaned up the apartment and hit the store to buy groceries for the week. Good thing we're so fiscally responsible, because otherwise we may have ended up with more than 1000 rubles to spend on food for an entire week. We wouldn't want to actually EAT the last week of my mission, Elder Broekhuijsen grumbled, before remembering that he really likes rice anyways. 

Then we came home and I spent 4 straight hours writing letters to as many of my mission friends as I could. I even got permission to write to a few of the sisters that I've gotten to work with. Usually that's not allowed. So thanks, President! After that, we came straight here. And now we're here. 

I would like to report on a success from last week. You sent me away with $300 and a task to find a suit. I definitely found a spicy euro suit for 4500 rubles ($150). Haggled it down to $120. It fits really well. It's not custom tailored, but it fits almost as if it were. I would like to look into shortening the sleeves and hemming the pants sometime, but yeah. It's really really dark muted blue, and has cool pinstripes that are vaguely shiny, in the Russian tradition.  

So I consider that a victory. 

To answer Sister C's question, yes, I would love to do a duet with Melissa for our homecoming, and yes, I would love to sing a verse in Russian. Let's do Be Still My Soul! I love that song, and it's even prettier in Russian. 

To answer mom's question, [What would you like by way of foods you've been craving when you get home?] — anything with sugar in it. As you know, I decided to go off sugar for this transfer to see if I could do it. I could. But I love sugar so, so much. So I figured I would give myself a week after I get home to splurge and then make some more long-term healthy eating habits to follow. But in terms of meals... I would love to hit up some Bahmi (or however you spell that). With saus ketchang. [Some favorite Indonesian foods of ours.]  Oh, yeah. And I definitely need to make a run to Iceberg for a shake. And I want to make you all Plov and Borsch and stuff because it's so delicious and I'm not even close to sick of it. 

There are my requests. 

So I think I've overcome the "moping around about how sad it is to leave my mission" phase. Actually, to be perfectly honest, this week ahead of us doesn't feel much different than any normal week. So maybe I've just regressed into the "denial" phase again. I guess we'll have to see. 

I don't know what to write. We had some really awesome meetings and new investigators and stuff this week, but it seems pointless to tell about them here when I can give you all the juicy details from not only them, but my entire mission, in like a week. We did end up getting a meeting with a guy named I* from an ancient potential investigator list in the dark depths of the area book (the section that's recorded in reformed Egyptian) from 2006. He came, and is a huge boss. He was an exchange student in Salt Lake City of all places when he was 15. Speaks English pretty well. He's 24 now. And he could be a stake president with a little bit of surgical false doctrine removal and a steady IV of the words of life. Thanks, Heavenly Father! 

I don't have much to report. I'll be seeing you in a week. I keep thinking of vaguely interesting questions I'd like to ask, but then I remember that there is no point in asking questions this week. 

Joshua, Garrett - you better be ready to give me the run down on the G7, Steam, etc. etc. when I get back.   Dad, I get the feeling there will be some in-depth talks about photography and videography in the near future.  Mom, I want to hear when I get back what you did the last week of your mission. It will be interesting to compare to my own.  Melissa, keep smashing it to the end.

I'm out of stuff to say. Back to work over here. 

Love, 

Elder Broekhuijsen

January 21, 2013

It's the best of both worlds!  It's a holiday here, so we get to sleep in and not go to school/work, but it's not a holiday in Russia, so we still get email!  (It's a good one, too!)

In an attempt to get my brain used to the idea of living in America again, I decided to title this email in the US date format, with the month first. I figure if I continue making baby steps like this, I'll be ready to go home in about 2 years or so. [Editor's Note:  Good idea, Andrew, but you need to remember that the year is actually 2013 now!  I'm glad I'm not the only one who still writes/types 2012 all the time!]  Man. Every day my brain screams louder that it doesn't want to go home. But I'm not going to think about going home anymore, because it gets me all sad and stuff.

 Well, the coolest event of the week I think, would definitely have to be T*'s baptism.  Elder Christensen and I went down to the Volga at 4:00am with a pickaxe and a shovel and got to work. After about 4 hours, we hadn't made much progress, so we called President Blinkov and he called a guy who had a jackhammer. That really got things moving at a better pace. The baptism was scheduled for 9, and we actually made it on time.

Okay, I'm going to let my conscience take over here. None of that happened. Presidents Blinkov and Klimov talked President Sartori out of letting me baptize her in the Volga. Besides that, there was another guy named R* getting baptized that day, so they decided to just do them in the Bezimianski branch building. If you want to Google earth that, it's Улица Победы 100А. I spend a lot of time in that building. So that was Saturday at 6:00pm. It was so wonderful. The service went really well and T* is so happy. I'm sure she's emailed Elder M* the pictures by now, but on the off chance that she hasn't yet, someone make sure he knows, would you? He'll be stoked. I got some pictures too, but don't have a way to email them.

Also, S* (a sick member here who served a mission in Washington State, speaks fluent English, and oh yeah, by the way is a legit DJ) and V* (my brat-tan) both loaded up my flash drive with like 4 GB of sweet Russian electronic music for when I go home. Happy birthday to me! 

Other than the baptism, we had some wonderful interviews and exchanges with the Avrora Sisters. They are doing well. In case you were wondering. During the exchange review (where we give each other feedback), I got some really good advice from some of the sisters on things I can do better in my missionary work. And I had this weird realization that I wasn't going to have time to implement it all. And then I got sad, but then I got happy again because I realized that I can just implement it after my mission and it will still be useful and valid. 

Last week after emailing, I went to the reenok and hit up a couple of places selling suits. I found one that I liked, but didn't love. It's a little darker than my current charcoal one, and the pinstripes were not as dense, but it's okay. I tried it on, it fit well (but I still wanted some tailoring done), and said, "Okay, how much?" 8500 rubles. Nope. I haggled him down to 4000 rubles in less than a minute. Is that a testament of Elder Broekhuijsen's legendary haggling skills? No. That is a testament of the Suit Salesman's legendary price inflation skills. At the end of the day, I got him to about 3800. I would have paid 4000 (about $130) if he had included the cost of tailoring, but he wouldn't budge. So I walked away. I wanted to be sure I had permission and money for it anyway. Today I'll go back and see what I can do for about 4000 rubles. Too bad I don't have Elder Benham with me. He would have been able to buy that man's entire store for like 25 kopecks. Seriously, that Elder can HAGGLE. 

In other news, this is the second-to-last email I will ever write as a single full-time missionary. That is pretty dang freaky. They always said it would be way harder to leave the mission field at the end of 2 years than it was to leave your life at the beginning. I didn't think they were right until now though. The weird part is, I didn't think I had done all that great of a job at developing some kind of mega Christlike love for the Russian people. I love my cool investigators and friends and stuff, but it's like Christ says - even wicked peeps like their homies. That was a little bit less formal than Christ worded it, I believe, but you get the point. I still sometimes have trouble staying patient with the people who are just BEGGING for a well-worded, one-sentence reply that will crush all of their logicless brainwashed arguments and make them feel like an idiot for picking a verbal fight with me. At least when I'm in a bad mood I find myself biting my tongue a lot. But I love what I'm doing. I love what I'm learning here. I'm learning SO MUCH. I love the things that I can do here that I can't do again. I love helping missionaries. I love interviewing with sisters. I love sitting around the table at zone leader council and receiving inspiration with the awesome servants of God that are always there and then watching it work to change the mission in a better direction. I love baptizing those elect few that make it through Satan's obstacle course. I love wearing the tag and being immediately judged for it, and then succeeding in changing someone's mind about what kind of people we are, even if they're not interested in learning more. I love letting go of a Book of Mormon when the other person actually wants it. I love those days that I forget my hankerchief and my nose is running everywhere because it's freezing. I love falling asleep during my personal prayer at the end of the day because I'm so exhausted from meetings falling through and hitting the streets, and then waking up at 1:30 in the morning and realizing I'm still kneeling. I love barely containing my emotions when we sing a really awesome hymn. I could list this kind of stuff for hours, and I don't think when the time comes that I'll be ready to leave it behind. I can picture the bus out of Samara for the last time (the airport is an hour outside of the city), and it's not a happy picture. It's like a physical sensation of loss, like I forgot all of the possesions that are dear to me in my apartment before I left or something. 

Anyway. I know there's a ton of good stuff on the horizon. Short term and long term, it's easy to think of things I used to get excited for back when the end wasn't looming so bad. And I'm excited, but it's kinda not at the front of my mind. So don't get me wrong. I'm not going to come home all mopey and teary-eyed and bummed out and be no fun and missing out on the happiness of the moment. I'll be smiling and walking down the escalator with my brethren around me (that being the other Elders that land in SLC International with me) and presumably wearing some exceedingly shiny pointy-toed shoes and a spicy new suit. And I'll probably be able to distract myself from the sadness of my mission being over with all the cool stuff there will be to do long enough for all those feelings to quiet down and stop being a problem. 

But at the end of the day, the Lord knew that a big part of me was supposed to stay in Samara, Russia. 

Have a great day everyone! I'm off to the market; Old Man Jenkins was worried sick when he didn't see me last week. 

Love,

Elder Broekhuijsen

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Wow!  Elder Broekhuijsen turns 21 today!  His mother must have birthed him when she was very young!  :-)  Anyway, it sounds like he's doing just fine as a legal adult.  See for yourself…

Elder Broekhuijsen here. Who is now a legal adult in all meanings of the word! 

It's been a fun day. I got to wake up at 6:30, take a 7 degree bath (not that bad, actually; and it's a better simulation than a shower), do regular study, and clean the apartment! The Bezimianski Sisters kindly faxed me a card with a wonderful poem on it that they wrote. That was really nice of them. A few friends here and there from the branch, investigators, missionaries, etc. have called and sang to me and wished me a happy birthday. Then we went and bought all of the things we needed to eat food this week, including the ingredients for a GRECHKA CAKE! What is a grechka cake, you may ask? Words do not do one justice. You'll have to wait until I either a) write in a post office so that I can send pictures, or b) come home and make you one. 

For the record, being 21 feels about the same as being 20. 

Yesterday, T* came to our branch after 3rd hour to discuss details and planning of the baptism on the 19th. They're having a hard time finding a place where we won't have to cut through like 2 feet of ice, but President Blinkov is on the case, and if anyone can find a place, he can. She also gave me a really nice picture dictionary that has 12,000 some-odd words in it for all sorts of objects and parts of objects. I now know how to explain in detail how to build a guitar from scratch in the woodshop. That will come in handy, I think. Probably what I'll teach my MTC district on their first day. 

Also: I am going to look at suits today at the market. I'm also going to buy a fresh pail of buttermilk and have the cobbler mend my galashes (sp?) while I peruse Madame Rosemary's apothecary. GOSH! Reenok. I hate that there is no English word for that. 

Point being. Probably won't buy anything today. I'd like your opinions on buying one. But my suits are pretty hashed up after 2 years (I DID take good care of them though - most missionaries here replace their suits long before they go home), and it's not going to be any cheaper to fix them than it is to buy a new one. Also, it's going to be a lot cheaper to buy one here than in America. So I figure that can be my birthday present. 

Other news. A few days ago I had a dream that I came home, and right when I stepped into our house, before Dad even said anything else to me, he just handed me a box that had a 5D Mk II in it.  [Yeah, dream big, Andrew!]  I was, of course, quite excited to play with that and immediately started. I was excited to see everyone. All the good things that I'm looking forward to after my mission were there, basically. And yet... the whole dream was just overcast in sad. The closer I get to the end here, the less I want to leave. I know it's time, but man. I didn't really believe them in the MTC when they said it would be way harder to leave my mission than it was to leave my life before. But it's like 392x harder to leave here. I'm going to miss these people and this place so dang bad. I can talk to many of them on Skype and stuff. But I can't go walking on Leningradskaya Street or Kirov Square on Skype. I can't talk to any of the missionaries that are basically brothers and sisters to me on Skype. I can't put on a nametag and go preach on Skype. I'll stop whining now. I'm going to enjoy everything to the end here. But I can really honestly say that if I could go home for a month or so and hang out with all of you, and then just come back and do another 2 years, I would do it. Even though that would make me a 23-year-old freshman. 

We had a good week. Actually, in terms of investigators moving or "measurable" missionary work getting done, we had one of the worst weeks of my mission. But that's beside the point. We had interviews and "exchanges" (basically we work in a group of 4 all day) with the Bezimianski Sisters. They were the best interviews I've ever had. It was weird, because Elder Christensen and I were conducting the interviews, and I feel pretty safe in saying that we were able to help the sisters find answers to some of their questions and feel better about some of their stresses, but the Spirit was so strong on the interviews that I was like receiving personal revelation in real time, live streaming. It was mostly quite unrelated to the things we were discussing on interviews. I think I probably learned way more for myself than the Bezimianski Sisters did that evening. I don't know how to describe the experience very well, but before we knew it, we had spent about 5 hours doing 2 interviews. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that THAT was exactly what the Lord had in mind for each one of us that day. I also had the opportunity to give one of the sisters a blessing. Probably more than any other blessing I've ever given, that one was really obviously not from me. The Bezimianski Sisters weren't like "struggling" in any sense of that word, and we didn't have any specific reason to be worried about them, so I'm not sure why the interviews turned out so awesome. I dunno. This paragraph isn't doing very good justice to the whole experience. The Spirit lingered over us the rest of the day, and through personal study the next morning it was like a continuation of the personal revelation flood. It was awesome. 

Anyway, things are great. Thanks for the birthday card! It looks awesome. I know several missionaries here who would approve. Don't worry about not sending one, I don't mind at all. [Editor's note:  We had to scan and send the card via email, since SOMEone didn't get it in the mail in time!]

My mission is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I'm not pumped that it's almost over. But I still have 3 full weeks to tear it up here, and the Lord can teach me a LOT of things in 3 weeks if I let Him. 

Happy Birthday Dad, BTW. I didn't say anything about that in my last email even though I celebrated a little bit here and didn't forget. So I felt kinda bad about keeping quiet. So hope it was a great day! 

Love you all! 

Love,Elder Broekhuijsen

Happy Surprise!

I admit it.  I had abandoned all hope of getting email from Andrew this week, when "Poof!"  A magical email appeared in my inbox at precisely 6:35 this morning!  Hooray for happy surprises!

Wow, it's not even 2012 anymore. Ask me if I still say "2012" every night when recording in my journal, and then hastily correct myself every single time. Yes.
So I guess I'll start off with an explanation for the weird emailing happenings of the last couple of weeks. On New Years' Eve, of course, nothing was open (well, bars and liquor stores), so we didn't even try looking for somewhere to write. And last week was, as it happens, Russian Orthodox Christmas. Same connundrum (slightly fewer drunk people). Luckily, we got permission to write today. So anyway, that's the dealio. 

I do have some replies from your emails last week, which I was allowed to print in the office after the first day of Zone Leader Council last week.

First off deer photos. Pretty awesome! On an unrelated note, how long does it take to get your expert archer license? On another unrelated note, I've heard that deer jerky is real delicious. [Editor's note:  Forget about it, Andrew!  You're not hurting our "pets!"]

As far as Christmas calls, they were awesome. So thanks! And thanks for letting me talk to Sister Broekhuijsen. That was a blast. President K* got LOTS of thank-yous for letting us come over. He's such an awesome guy. So here's the kicker. President K* and his family ARE COMING ON VACATION TO AMERICA! YEAH BABY! I already invited them over for dinner. Sorry if that was presumptious, but I don't think it was. They will be in Utah for the entire month of April, effectively. They will be going to conference if they can get tickets, and just going around seeing the sights, visiting missionaries, etc. I can't WAIT to introduce you to all of them in real life. They are seriously the coolest people ever. 

Joshua is cleaning his room. Ha. Elder Christensen and I spent 5 hours of our lockdown day to DEEP clean our apartment. I'm talking DEEP. Like, there is no dust left anywhere, and EVERYTHING is organized. Fortunately/unfortunately, the Bezimianski East Elders moved out the morning of the first lockdown (they finally got their own apartment). It was fun living with 3 other Elders, but the apartment was always a mess, and I don't like that very much (and Elder Christensen REALLY doesn't like that very much). I have realized how awesome having a super clean place to live/work/be is. Step one upon getting home: deep clean the room. Who knows, I may finally get around to re-arranging the furniture for the first time in 16 years as well? 

Ooh! Note for Grandma! I spent the money for my birthday/Christmas! I bought myself a spicy pair of European dress shoes. I'll send pictures sometime if I ever get to send pictures again. Otherwise I'll just show them to you when I WEAR THEM AT MY HOMECOMING TALK. Oh man. They are so rad. 

So here's some cool/crazy news: T*, who decided a while ago to get baptized on the 26th, changed her mind. She wants to get baptized on the 19th. And she wants me to baptize her. In the Volga. I've started my President B*-recommended "body actualization" training to get ready for the cold water: increasingly long parts of my morning shower need to be at the coldest temperature our faucet will offer: 7 degrees Celsius. Today was 30 seconds. There was screaming involved. Soon, I'm supposed to start trying to completely submerge myself in the 7 degree water in the bathtub for various periods of time. We figured I would need to be in the Volga for no longer than 2 minutes at maximum (which is, for the record, 4 degrees Celsius) to do the baptism. So once I can do 7 degrees for about 2 minutes, my body is "ready." I don't know exactly what that means, but it doesn't seem like the right word if you ask me. 

So that's going to be one heck of an adventure! Also, V*, my brat-tan (don't worry, he has little to no interest in selling me shoes) promised to make all the missionaries a sala and holodyetz feast on the 20th. Sala would be pork fat with various spices melted into it, and holodyetz is Jello if they had a flavor called "Presumably Unsanitary Meat and Stuff (with REAL chunks of animal byproduct!)" Two straight-up real Russian experiences right at the end of my mission? Yes, please. 

This week we had Zone Leader Council with all the sisters in the mission (we have 15 right now). It was a two-day job. The first day was more or less like normal ZLC, except instead of the zone leaders and assistants putting their concerns up, we just had the sisters put theirs up and everyone discussed those. It was not only enlightening to see what the sisters are worried about, but we came up with some good discussions and solutions. We also decided on a handful of breakouts that we were to prepare that night and teach the sisters during the morning of day 2. That night, we feverishly threw together a "play" that had all the breakouts involved. It was quite interactive, with practice sections interwoven into the storyline the same way that strands of pig artery and tendon are interwoven throughout the gelatin in holodyetz. Critics were raving. It actually turned out really good, considering it took 4 times longer to "perform" (teach? I dunno) than it did to plan. I had a fun time, and hopefully it was instructive. 

After that, the sisters went off to go do "girl stuff" while we stuck around and discussed any concerns that hadn't been hit on day one, as well as setting mission goals. Suddenly, the time came for me to bear my testimony. Why, you ask? Because missionaries always are given the chance to bear their testimony on their last Zone Leader Council. Wait, what? Oh gosh, I forgot it was my last one. Wait, I only have a month? Hang on, I had 7 weeks yesterday! After that, we all said our various, "See you laters" and went our separate ways, the way Steve Perry always knew we would. Except mine were mostly "see you later... wait, no we won't. DANG IT! It was fun serving! Keep the fire burning!" S. (<-- now it's plural). 

So that was sad. But it was one good ZLC to end on, I guess. 

During ZLC at some point, N* called. As in, N* and M*. She wants to meet again! Since then, we've met with them once, with the Penza sisters (who hung around in Samara one extra day so we could do interviews and "exchanges"). The meeting was good, but they are still just halted at the "come to church" part of the conversion process. More to come, I'm sure. 

Can I just take a moment and say how much I love Sister interviews? There is nothing more fun than Sister interviews. Sister missionaries are so rad. And nothing feels better than feeling like you actually helped somebody who is rad. 

Today, we made chili. We bought some farsh to put in it. I don't know if I've told you about farsh before. Farsh means "hamburger." Or I can't really think of a better one-word translation for it. The thing is, farsh and hamburger are not really the same thing at all. The average person looks at hamburger and says, "Oh look. Ground-up meat." The average person looks at farsh and says, "Oh, gosh, what is that? Why does it smell like it has been in 20 different armpits? WHO AM I REALLY?" Also, we're pretty sure that today's farsh is a mix of chicken gristle, stomach, and liver. I threw away the package really fast, because deep down, I didn't really want to know. That being said, the chili is pretty good. Man. I promise I know how to cook good, even if every food description I ever email you is horrible. 

Hey did I tell you all that I decided to go off sugar for the rest of my mission? That sounds really impressive to say it that way instead of "I'm going off sugar for a few weeks." It's not that hard actually. You just have to justify really well.
Welp. I'm about out of stuff to say. Thanks for emailing! Looking forwards to reading what you have to say. 

Love, Elder Broekhuijsen 

Mystery Solved

Today (7 January) is the day that they celebrate Christmas in Russia.  I think that just might explain why we didn't get any email today…  :-)

No Fair!

Okay, I'm going to whine now.  We didn't get email from Andrew again today - that Russian New Year's celebration must be ridiculously intense!  I know that (especially in the days before email) plenty of missionary families have had to go more than 2 weeks without hearing from their Elder or Sister, but we've been lucky enough to usually hear from ours every week - so I'm not accustomed to this neglect! :-)  I promise to publish any email we do get as soon as we get it!

Meanwhile, we DID receive final confirmation from the Church travel department on Andrew's flight plans.  He'll leave Samara on Monday, February 4th at 6:35 a.m. (Samara time) and arrive in Salt Lake at 6:18 p.m. on Monday, February 4th.  Sounds like he's only traveling for about 12 hours, but there IS an 11 hour time difference between here and there, so he'll actually be traveling for closer to 23 hours.  Of course, 4 of those hours will be spent hanging out in the Denver, Colorado airport!  How crazy to have him so close and yet so far away for 4 whole hours!  Anyway, I have a feeling he's going to be a little jet-lagged - maybe he can take a nap in Denver!  :-)

New Year

So sorry to report that we didn't get email from Andrew yesterday.  We were disappointed, but not actually surprised, since he warned us on Christmas when we Skyped with him that since New Years is such a huge holiday there in Russia that he might not be able to send email this week.  Apparently, the missionaries are asked to stay in their apartments during the height of the festivities.

Anyway, I will report that we had a great conversation with Andrew on Christmas.  He sounded great (and apparently remembers at least some English!)  He looks great and seems very happy.  If anyone happened to mention anything about how many days until he would be home, he would say things like, "Oh no, we're not talking about that!  I'm not coming home until next year!  That's a long ways away!"

FYI - it's 34 days until he gets home - because although he's not counting down, we definitely are!  One month from this Friday!  Woo Hoo!