Josh's Mission May 27 2014

With Memorial day yesterday I was thinking the other day about all the great times and memories that we've had down in Vernal and other areas and how great our family is! I am so grateful for being blessed into such a great family! So we had Zone Conference this past week and the 1st counsellor in the presidency is finishing his mission hear soon and being released. He asked the question: what would you tell someone if you knew that it was the last time that you would be able to talk with them? He talked about how if you look through the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon and read all of the prophets closing remarks, that you find that they each leave with a little bit of advice and knowledge. He also pointed out the most of them talk about the Doctrine of Christ in one way or another. He addressed the need to understand more fully how important the Doctrine of Christ is. Why do you think the doctrine of Christ is so important? What would you tell someone if you knew that you were going to see them for the last time?

I was then thinking about the great times that we had visiting all of the graves for our relatives and how much I really enjoyed that. I loved talking about the good memories that everyone has about them. I then got thinking about how important it is to keep a journal, so I'm going to work on that.

This week we were very blessed! Heavenly father blessed us to find 3 new investigators: Louanne and her husband that I can't remember his name right now. But they are really great! they are community of Christ members, so they really believe in a lot of the same things that we do. Any advice on how to teach them? Because they read the Book of Mormon and they believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We also found Stacey's boyfriend, who i can't remember his name right now either, but I haven't meet him yet, he was found on exchanges with the elder's in our district.

So on the topic, we had a great exchange with the elder's in our district. I just have to say that we have a wonderful district and I have learned so much from the great elder's here. there is an elder in our district that is leaving in august. And he is so great! He is a great example to me of repenting and doing better. there was this one guy that we were talking with and afterwards, Elder Younger, that's his name, told me that he should have been better at talking about the gospel that one time. It was a very brief interchange with the guy, but he felt that he should have done better. and it got me to thinking, how well do I talk about the gospel as if it's a natural part of me? the gospel should be a part of our lives and I need to do better at talking about it as if it were a literal part of me.

Oh, so we found out yesterday that E Underwood got his visa officially! He leaves on the 17th of June for Brazil. I've really enjoyed being his companion, I've learned so much from him! and I'm going to miss being with him. but that's all right, Heavenly father has a plan, I'm just super excited for him to get down to Brazil!

Thank you all for everything that you do for me! I really appreciate your support, love, and prayers! I love You!!!

Josh's Mission May 19 2014

iokwe baamle!!

Things are going really great! The threesome is different but I think that it's really great! I know that heavenly father wants all 3 of us here for some reason.

It's so true that Satan is working so hard to get us down, but the gospel provides that uplifting power that we need, through the atonement. It really is amazing how much the gospel can change our lives. One of the recent converts that we have here, Cindy, has changed so much since she got baptized. It's been really great to see her feel the spirit and have that change of heart. We went and visited her this week, she's been really busy and stressed with work and life in general (crazy how Satan knows our weak points and pushes them as much as he can). So she's been having to work 2 jobs and on sunday since she got baptized and we talked to her and she is going to be talking to her boss so that she can get that changed. She really feels like she needs to come to church, she knows she's missing so much.

We were also able to meet with Mandy, finally. She's been super crazy busy with work and school, but we had a great lesson with her on Saturday about faith and finding those treasures that he has given us. and Having the faith to do as he would have us. She hasn't been able to meet with us or come to church for awhile now and she told us that she is really feeling the loss of the spirit and she wants to come back. It's awesome to see the change in her and to see her feel the spirit and love of our heavenly father.

We were also blessed with a new investigator this week! Her name is Stacey. She has 2 children, her daughter is awesome and already asking great questions and really wants to learn more and she' 11. We met her the other day walking around and she told us that she had actually met with a senior couple about 10 years ago. She has great questions and is really great! We are very grateful for the wonderful blessing of meeting her.

 

It was a great week! I've been trying to look for the tender mercies that Heavenly father has blessed us with as well as to look for instances of Charity and times that I could have been more charitable and did well. It's been really great to see those small simple miracles that Heavenly father blesses us with each day. I know that he does bless us and that the more that we look for those small and simple things the more that heavenly father will open our eyes to the ways that we can improve as well as those blessings that he's given us. I know that it is so important to be grateful for those blessings.

I love you all!! thank you so much for your love, prayers and support!!

Josh's mission May 12, 2014

iokwe baamle!!

It's been a really great crazy awesome fast full of surprises sort of week.

We got our transfer calls last Monday and lo and behold I'm staying in Knoxville... and so is e Underwood. Also we got a new companion, Elder Blackburn. He's from Layton UT and he is the man! He is a little bit quite but he has a super powerful testimony!!

So after all that excitement, we went around telling everybody that we had told that elder underwood was leaving, that he wasn't leaving. transfer meeting was really great!! and then unfortunately elder black burn got sick coming home. 

Then on Saturday we had an awesome baptism for a sweet family in Centerville (in our district) the Miller's are so great! they are a family of 4 and have such strong testimony's and will one day go through the temple, hopefully in about a year. they are going to do so great in the branch there! they already said that they feel like a family there.

So I just want to share a scripture that I was shown again by a member. it's in Alma 37:44-47, and it talks about the gospel and how Christ is our compass and as long as we are living the gospel things will be alright, heavenly father will help us and it's not hard, as long as we are faithful and living the gospel. and then as I was reading in Hel, near the end (can't remember exactly where) Nephi is lamenting his people and saying how they need to be faithful, that the lord has blessed them so much and they have been through a lot of hard things, but that when things are easy they forget the lord and become wicked. and I got to thinking, how often am I like that, how often do we forget the lord in the easiness of the way. what can we do so that we don't forget him but always have that light with us??

Also, happy late mother's day to everyone!! I hope that everybody has a good week and that we all try to do a little but better than we did last week.

-- 

ij iokwe eok!!

Elder Broadbent

And Elder B found Utah in Iowa!!

Josh's Mission May 5 2014

Iokwe Baamle!!

thank you for sharing that about how some church's do have good things, but we have more. It is so true, there is a lot of good in the world, a lot of great churches that have a lot of truth, but we are the only true church. We have the authority to act in God's name! I know that that is true!!

Some times it really can be hard to be grateful in the trials that we have but I know that it's so important to remain faithful and be diligent that we might win the prize of eternal life.

I saw that they had set a date for the dedication! that is so awesome! it looks great!

 I love you all so much!! thank you so much for your love, especially your prayers!

ij iokwe kom!

Elder Broadbent