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
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