Josh's Mission Letter Dec 29 2014

We had a wonderful video chat with Elder B!!  It was great to see him!!  To laugh with him, talk to him and cry with him!!  He is a good man and such a great missionary!!



Salut Family!

it was so wonderful to talk to and to see you. :) I'm really glad that we are able to so that. When I finished and went in to the other room, everyone asked "are you crying??" so now all the Crawfords know of the Broadbent blessing :) It's such a wonderful blessing to have our wonderful family. Constantly I am reminding of Heavenly father's purpose and goal for each of us, to live with him and to be a part of His eternal family, and I'm grateful that we are able to have a little taste of that here. The gospel is so special that way. When we live the Commandments Heavenly Father has given us, we are blessed with a glimpse of what we have to look forward to.

This week, was wonderful. We were really blessed to see Tammie quite a few times. I don't know if I've really told you about her yet, it's only been about 2 weeks that we've been teaching her. Tammie just moved to Iowa City, she left her family, because her boyfriend was not very good. She is working and trying to find a place to live. She is so accepting. we talked about the Plan of Salvation and she just ate it up. She loved the truth that we lived with Heavenly father before we came to earth and that we would return to Him one day, if we choose to. 

We are still working with Linda, but she didn't come to church yesterday. She had family over for Christmas and we got to meet her kids so that was really great! 

We also were finally able to meet with Erick, a guy from the Congo. And we learned a couple more things in French. He was trying to teach us some commen phrases (if I miss spell these, sorry), like pas de souci -which means no worries- and a couple others i can't remember. it was great to teach him. Erick is so humble and he loves the gospel, he said that he really believed Joseph Smith is a prophet, and we got him talking to a missionary who speaks french on mormon.org

 

thank you so much for your love support and especially your prayers. I love you and I hope that you have a happy new year! talk to you next year!!

ij iokwe eok!!
Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Dec 15 2014

my dear family!

I can't believe that Kami is home already, it feels like yesterday that she was leaving. that's great that Kandice did well! Kalib Brandley?? he's getting his eagle, that's awesome!

that sounds like a really great Christmas Program. :) that's way cool that there was a few different faiths there, that would be really neat.

this week, we had a Christmas Party for our ward, which was really good, we sang it with the ward mission :) it was great :) and we ate loads of food, it was great!

So, to start off, I love Christmas!!! it's just such a great time of year! I was thinking of all the great traditions that we have :) I just love the feeling of this time of year. :) yesterday in Church I was just thinking of how special it is to know that we have a a Savior who loves us. the Church has a great new video about seeing Christ in the acts of service that we give. it's called the old shoe maker.

I love that when we are trying to do all that we can for each other that we are helping the Savior. We have been going caroling as a ward mission, and it's been really awesome to see the effect that it has on people. :) the Christmas spirit just opens peoples hearts, when we get right down to the real reason for Christmas, it's a wonderful time of year. :)

Linda is doing well, she was a little sick this week, but the ward is just welcoming her and trying to help as much as possible. She is really enjoying everything so far :) then we were really blessed to find a lady named Tammie. She is going through a lot of really hard things right now and it was really a miracle that we found her. We had been trying to see a few people in these apartments and happened to be leaving when Tammie and a member from another ward were coming in. :) it was sweet!

oh and on saturday we had a huge miracle happen in our Zone, there was a baptism in the YSA ward here. Marco is his name, he orginally wasn't going to be baptized for a couple weeks, but he is going out of town and so he decided to be baptized this week, and then in the next couple of weeks, there are a few people who will be baptized which a really amazing Christmas miracle.

We have some plans to take a couple of Christmas Pictures, so I'll send some to you.

Please know that I love you and that i really appreciate everything that you do! thank you so much for your love and prayers! I pray that all is well. I know that our Savior loves us and that he was born and still lives!!!


ij iokwe eok!!
Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Dec 8 2014

Salut My family!!

it's been a pretty crazy week, but really good. It was crazy how fast the time that I had with e styles, it really felt so much shorter than 6 weeks, but we had a really good time together. I really learned a lot from him. So my new companion is elder porter. He is from Blackfoot Idaho, has 3 months left on his mission, is super funny, loves to laugh and have a good time. what else about him, he love basketball, reading, and music. and really he's just super awesome!

So a couple of really amazing things that have happened the last week. We were super blessed with a few new investigators. One, Linda Johnson, is so prepared and such a huge blessing. We knocked on her door Saturday night, talked to her, and invited her to church. She came to church - loved it!!- then she also came to the Christmas devotional last night at a members house (the Crawford's). It was really amazing too, at church she really felt like this was what she wanted for her family. She has gone to a lot of different churches and just never felt like any of them really felt right or fit what she believed. The members really took her in and it's just super great! it was a huge miracle. we're hoping that everything goes well with her and that we'll be able to continue to help her.

We also had a great time watching the Christmas devotional. I really loved Elder Christofferson's talk. And Pres Erying's was amazing. 

I loved that they they talked about the great example that Holy family: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. One of my favorite quotes was "when God wants something really important done or a great wrong righted, He goes about it in a very unusual way." I just thought how very true that was, that Heavenly father always has a purpose in what he does, we won't always understand those purposes are, but if we have faith in Him, then everything will be okay. It's really amazing to see throughout the scriptures how Heavenly Father always does as much as He can to help us. 

Also, I think I mentioned it last week, but I just have to again, the He is the Gift video is really amazing and everyone should look at it and share it with everyone. 

 I was thinking about what I really want for Christmas, and when we were talking about Christmas with a member, he brought up something that really made me think. I think one of the best things that I would really want for Christmas would be a letter from each Family member. in the letter will you right your testimony, how you have come to know it, and experiences that have strengthened it. also, if you have any missionary experiences, i would love to hear them. The reason that I kind of change my mind is because I have just come to realize a few things that I need to work on. I have realized how not important a lot of the worldly things that I hold on to are. I know that the really important things are those things that we will take with us when we depart this life, family, relationships, and testimony being a few. 

that is so wonderful that Jr was baptized!! any chance I could get pictures? please tell him how much I love him and am really happy for him and his family. 

that really sounds like a great family party!! and I really hope that you get feeling better dad, I will keep you in my prayers. thank you so much for everything that you do, please know that I love you and i really look up to you. 

again, I have to say I love you and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you, my family and friends. I love this Christmas season! it is a wonderful time of year to increase in faith of our Savior Jesus Christ who I know lives! He truly is a Gift. 

I love you, thank you so much for everything. especially your prayers, and love. I hope that all is well and you enjoy this wonderful time of year

ij iokwe eok!!

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Dec 1 2014

Hello family!!

I was thinking about the good times that we had helping out at DBH this week, and how much I appreciated that time to serve others and be with the family. that was really a great blessing. and that's awesome to spend some time with the rest of the family. could you send some pictures of the family?? I realized that I don't have very many. we really are blessed with a wonderful family! I'm so grateful for you all and the wonderful examples that you are to me, I love you!

that is wonderful news that JR is going to be baptized, tell him that I love him and that he is awesome! I will keep him in my prayers.

thank you so much for your love, I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate the wondeful family that heavenly father has blessed us with. it is such a huge blessing to be able to share that love we have with others and help them to enjoy the blessing of eternal families.

Well, it's been a really good week, lots of food, good times with our ward, exciting news for transfers and as always ups and downs. But I just have to say that this past week I have really felt a greater appreciation for our Savior and how he feels. I know that he really does love us and he knows exactly what we go through. I am very grateful for the atonement and I'm trying to better understand how to really apply it in my life and in the life of others. 

So first off, transfers are on thursday, elder Styles, will be transferred and I will get a new comp. It's been a way fast transfer and I'm sad to see elder styles leave but I know that we've had a good time together and we'll be good friends always. 

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. we spent most of it with the Crawfords. They are really sweet and definitely they make me feel like family, I'm excited to be able to stay and work with them closely. 

Other than that not too much happened this week, with the holiday, it was kind of slow, and black friday didn't really help anything either, but I'm very grateful for the good times that we were able to have with the people here. 

I've realized very recently just how important it is to really rely on Heavenly father. I have really gained a deep appreciation for the scriptures and prayer and the sacrament, in doing what heavenly father wants we come closer to him and are able to better understand how to follow the perfect example of Jesus Christ. How do we become what Heavenly Father wants us to be? what are we supposed to do? I know that Father in Heaven has answers for us, he is readily waiting for us to talk to him and ask what we can do for him. 

I'm very grateful for this time of year to focus more on what Christ means to me. On LDS.org there is a great video about a new initiative called He is the Gift. it's really powerful and I'm excited to see what will happen with it. I'll let you watch it, and not ruin it for you, but I just love how when we really focus on who Christ is and following him, everything works out, I'm very thankful for you all and please know that I  love you!! thank you so much for your love, support, and prayers, they are felt and help. 

ij iokwe eok!!

Elder Broadbent