Josh's Mission July 27 2015

Hello Family!

it has been a wonderful week! These weeks of the Pageant have been so wonderful! but they've all kind of smushed together... everything seems to be the same and yet there are wonderful times every week were we see so many miracles :) 

a huge miracle that happened this week was a 10 year old child named Quwinell was baptized in Hamilton this week. He has been taught by missionaries for a long time! and just recently his mom (who is a member but less active) , who lives in Colorado gave permission for him to be baptized. it's taken a lot from the elders there to help him and his family see the importance of his baptism, but it finally all cam together. He was living with his grandparents here, who are members, and he is now going back to live with his mom. It was really awesome! 

We've been working with Eric Watson for awhile now, and he was on date for Aug 8th, but he has to quit smoking first, so we are trying to help him do that. and we've been trying to find more people that are willing and committed to progressing and repenting, it's been kind slow going but recently the Lord has blessed us with a few people who are really wonderful!

So at the Pageant this week on Saturday, while trying to talk with people who were there, we talked to this guy who is the supervisor over the stage missionaries. He helps out with all the stage crew people and does a lot of the maintenance and things like that, especially during the performances and things. anyways, he talked a lot about the great opportunities there are to serve in the Pageant, and he was pretty convincing, I would love to come back and perform in the Pageant, help out with it, and definitely come play in the bagpipe band :) so while we were talking to him, he mentioned that we could go in the back of the stage and watch how everything operates. it was so awesome!! there are pullies everywhere, counter weights for all the moving parts and just so much going on. it looked like a lot of fun work. :) yeah, elder Wardle and I were pretty excited about it all :)

oh yeah, and we were on exchanges down in Keokuk this week and I met this member Gary Mason, who called you :) that was pretty awesome! He was teasing me while on the phone, he's a really cool guy though :) we were helping this lady move into an apartment and Brother Mason had some furniture for her. so we grabbed our truck and loaded it all up.

right, sister Abby Froerer emailed me a picture of that. :) that's pretty awesome! I remember telling her to look for you :) it's awesome to have a mom who everyone in the Ogden area can go visit

that's really awesome about all the good news!! there is an elder here from Court e lain. that's good that Kris got a job!! and I have been wanting to go see that wall as well. I remember going to see it 

thank you so much for everything!! i love you and I hope and pray that all is well!! 

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission July 20 2015

Hello family!! 

the computer I am using is being very slow, so this will probably be a short one.

It has been a wonderful week!! We've been seeing many miracles all around us, the pageant is wonderful!! the weather has been crazy (blazing hot one second and tornadoes the next) but it has been great!! 

This week we had a meeting with all the missionaries in the Nauvoo and Iowa City Stakes, about 90 missionaries, which elder Wardle and I had the opportunity to give a training at. we talked a lot about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and going to church to receive revelation. it was great! after this meeting was over, the main cast from the Nauvoo Pageant came into the chapel and did a small presentation on what the early apostles did to prepare for their missions and how their missions went. It was so powerful!! The spirit was so strong the whole time, it really amazed me how these men and women did all the could, gave everything they had to the work of the Lord, even though they had so many hard things to go through. 

We also went down to the pageant this week with Collin Smith, the young child who was baptized a couple of weeks ago. it was great! he loved it and had a lot of fun. 

well, I love you all thank you so much for everything!! I am so grateful, every day I marvel and thank heavenly father for our wonderful family and for the gospel of Jesus Christ that we have in our lives! It's a blessing and great responsibility we have to help all those around us to feel of God's love as we have. 

I hope and pray that all is well!! I love you! 
ij iokwe eok!! 
Merci beaucoup 
Elder Broadbent 

Josh didn't name the pictures in his email - the Sunset is of the Statue of Joseph and Hyrum looking across the Mississippi. 
The picture with the car gauges is indicating how hot it was that day! 
The last picture is the Nauvoo Temple

Josh's Mission July 13 2015

Hello Family!!

It has been a crazy week! and so good!! :) it's probably been one of the most hectic weeks I've had on my mission (and I've a few intense ones). Pageant started this week which is the reason why it's been so crazy. we also had a meeting in Iowa City for all the mission leaders were we were trained on how to be a better leader. We had a district meeting Thursday and Friday, and 2 nights this week we went to the pageant :) it's so crazy  but awesome! it's really amazing how much you can get done in a day and still feel as if you weren't able to finish everything... 

did we do anything fun?? We drove up to Iowa city, road trips are always fun (although they definitely aren't as fun as the ones we had...) We also went down to Nauvoo like 3 times, maybe 4 I forget.. So that was really awesome! the spirit there is unlike anywhere else :) We also went to Macomb IL on Saturday to speak at a youth conference, which was way cool!  I actually really enjoyed talking to all the youth.. being a motivational youth speaker looks pretty appealing right now (although I'm really awful at speaking in front of people, so I would probably just make a fool of my self :).... but on Saturday as we well, we were supposed to go to the temple and do a session, but we got out of Macomb late, so we weren't going to make it. Instead we decided to stop in Carthage, which is on the way to Nauvoo from Macomb, and do a tour of the jail. It was really wonderful!! the spirit there is so powerful!! it really reminds me of the talk that elder Holland ("Safety for the Soul") gave where he talks about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith being a prophet. It's a really wonderful talk! I espcially love what he says  

"In this their greatest—and last  hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. 9  Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as impostors and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

Then as we were driving to Nauvoo, there a a huge thunder/rain storm! it was so crazy! there was flooding every where. the roads were turned in to rivers! We could hardly see 5 ft in front of us... as we were going along, there was a particularly flooded part of the road that a couple of cars had tried to go through but had gotten swamped... we pulled over and pushed them out of this lake size puddle :) it was pretty amazing. Then we when we got to Nauvoo, it had stopped raining and since we were staying for the Pageant that night, we started to clean up the grounds. it was really amazing, as the night went on and it was almost time for the Pageant to start the clouds were starting to look really bad and everyone was wondering if it was going to rain again, if it did they would have to stop the show. But it didn't... in the prayer that was said at the beginning of the show, the man asked that the storm be kept at bay. and is was! it was really awesome, you could see the clouds go around Nauvoo and then gather on the other side. :) 

in response to mom's email:

:) yeah, there has been a lot of people lately who have wanted to take our pictures, but its been really good, it's nice that so many people want to let everyone at home know that we are doing well here :) it was so crazy to see the Medskers!! I saw Brother Medsker and at first I couldn't figure out who he was, I thought he might have been somebody from a previous area, but the as i went up to him it remembered! it was awesome! then there was a member who was at the pageant from Florida who just wanted to take our pictures and send them home. and like I said we were in Macomb at that youth conference, and a member took our picture there too :)

That Pioneer Devotional sounds like it was awesome!! it really is amazing when we look at what we are really doing, how much better we could be. It kind of reminds me of Pres Uchtdorf's talk, "Your Potential, Your Privileges"  We can always be evaluating our actions and doing better. it's often very difficult for me to know always what is the most important thing that Heavenly Father would have us do, but I know that when we act in faith He will guide us always to do the correct thing. 

Well, thank you so much for everything that you are doing!! I really appreciate and thank you for your love, prayers, and support!! I hope and pray that all is well!! I love you!!

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent

ps here's a couple pictures of the storm and the pageant

 The following pictures are ones that people who have seen Josh and have sent us pictures.

Josh's Mission June 29 2015

hello family!!

alright so first off this is gonna be kind of short because the computer is being really slow and we don't have much time. 

but it's been a really awesome week!! in the zone we had 3 baptisms, 2 were in our ward (the sisters here) and another in the ward in Nauvoo. it was really great!! and Collin, who I've told you a lot about, will be baptized this week on Wednesday. I don't remember if I told you, but his mom just had a total turn around. the spirit has really worked on her and she is allowing Collin to be baptized. I was so awesome to see her change. :) 

besides that it has been a wonderful week. We have been so blessed! And it's hard to narrow it all down :) it's been such a wonderful time. Oh elder Wardle and I will be staying together for one more transfer, he goes home next transfer and then I'll get a new comp for my last transfer. 

and Pageant is starting in about a week, which is gonna be so great!!

thank you so much for the Birthday wishes! :) when I woke up, my first thought was the family song, which I haven't heard in awhile. :) it was great

those pictures are awesome!! it looks like a lot of fun! I'm excited to hear more about it! wow, I can't even imagine what that would be like to have 23 young men pass the sacrament. :) that's amazing!! 

well I hope and pray that all is well and that you all have a wonderful time down at Philmont! I love you!! thank you so much for everything!

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent