Josh's Mission Aug 17, 2015

Hello family! 

It has been a wonderful week! It was pretty sad seeing Elder Wardle go but it was alright. He said bye to a lot of people and on Thursday we went to Transfer meeting where I got my New companion, Elder Jacob Todd! He's really great! He grew up in Indiana but his family now lives in Spanish Fork, UT. He's been out for 14 months and is just a really great missionary! I'll be honest, I was a little worried about getting a new companion right at the end, probably more than I have been since I got finished being trained, but it all worked out great, Elder Todd is awesome! We like a lot of similar things and we've been working hard already.

Things have been going well, we've been trying to find new people to teach and just talk with everyone. We haven't been able to help anyone really progress very much, but we know that the Lord will bless us as we are faithful. It's been really great to go out and talk with a lot of people. It's really amazing to see just how many of our brothers and sisters who don't have the gospel! There are tons of people who need the gospel yet who know not where to find it.

We've also been trying to think of ways that we can help the ward become more active in the Lord's work. Our Bishop has talked a lot about the need to be better fellow shippers and to help those who don't have the gospel come and see what they need and to also help those who have lost their way to find it again. He talked about the need to understand better what fellowshipping in the church really means, which he explained it is that we take an interest in the lives of God's children who are around us. 

We also talked in church a lot about service and need to give our all to the Lord's work. The covenants that we've all made help us to understand what the Lord requires of us and what we need to do better to apply the Atonement to our selves and to others. the Service that we give to others is done in many forms, but like it says in Mosiah, when you are the service of your fellow being you are only in the service of your God. and service makes you feel great! it heals the soul and helps you to feel a love from God that you wouldn't other wise. That reminds me of the Mormon message "Lift". 

Well, as always, thank you so much for all that you do! I love you all and I really appreciate your love! this gospel is wonderful and true! I know that God's love is real and helping others to feel that is the best opportunity that we have ever!

I love you all!

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Aug 24 2015

Dear family! it's been a really great week!! 

early in the week we had a leadership meeting up in Iowa City, where we were trained on a few things that we are trying to improve upon in the mission. it was a wonderful meeting! We talked a lot about respect, especially for Heavenly Father, for the Priesthood, and for others around us, specifically other members.We also talked about the importance of the Spirit in the work of Salvation that we are a part of and listening effectively to what the Lord has to say to us

I've been thinking a lot about the temple lately and yesterday there was a talk given about the importance of families and temple Marriages. it was really awesome especially because we had a lot of people at church. so this is an awesome blessing, this transfer I get to go to the temple 4 times, which is how many I would have gone my whole mission if I hadn't been in Burlington.  f it's such a great blessing to be able to go to the temple :) I love it so much! In Bishop Causse's talk in conference, he said

 "There are so many wonders in this world. However,sometimes when we have them constantly before our eyes, we take them for granted. We look, but we don’t really see; we hear, but we don’t really listen"

That's really true, I didn't appreciate the fact that there are temples everywhere in Utah, and even one my mission having the Nauvoo Temple right here, it's just amazing! I can't imagine what it's like in places where there aren't any.  sometimes though (especially some of the members here since we are so close to such a sacred place) we just don't realize the things that are before us, we don't always see the hand of the Lord in what we are doing. Like this week, we have been struggling really hard to find some new people, we even fasted for it on Sunday. It was pretty amazing though, when we sat down for the meeting to start, Eric Watson was there, and the Watson's brought a friend of their son's, Sterling who we will be teaching and we're going to talk with his family. And also an investigator named Byron came with his fiance, who is a recent convert, Nina. We were able to set a date for baptism with Byron for the week after he is getting married in November. It was just amazing to see the hand of the Lord in the work that we are doing and it's really amazing that once we humbled ourselves and asked for more guidance and were willing to do the work the Lord's way that we were blessing to help those who were put in our path.

It's very interesting too that the success that we see, which is really all around us, is very dependent of our own personal faith. When we have the faith that Christ is our Savior and the the Atonement is real, we can better understand that the Lord is preparing our brothers and sister, who can change everyday, to receive the blessings that He has for them. Something that I was thinking about that's related to that is an example of the stars that we see at night. Stars are always shining but we can't always see their light.

it's so interesting to think about the stars, and the fact that the light that we are seeing from them isn't even real (it is, but not... I'll explain :)...) The light that we see is simply a reflection or an image of what the actual star looks like, we can't see what they really look like because they are too far away, their light is so great though that we are able to see it illuminate the sky. it's very much like how the world perceives truth and what actual truth is. Real truth illuminates everything around it, makes everything brighter, and we are able to understand more. But there are some truths that require faith in what is not seen, most gospel truths are like this. We know that God is there and we can even sometimes see the result of His light and glory and maybe even feel the effect of them as well, but I haven't seen His actual being, there aren't many who have, but we know that he is there. this can also relate to ourselves, we can't always see what the Lord has in store for us or for those around us, but we can still trust that we can obtain a greater light.

 We are so blessed to be a part of this great work! Where we can see change everyday! I am very grateful for everything that you do!! I love you!! I hope and pray that all is well. 

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Aug 10 2015

Hello family!!!

It has been a really wonderful week! We've been doing a lot catching up with trying to see investigators and find new people. We've seen a lot of great miracles! It's also been wonderful to see a lot of the zone pick up and work hard! There were 2 miracle baptisms this week end. One in Macomb and one in Ft Madison. Also, we found out today that I'll be getting a new companion and elder Wardle is going home... (which we already knew I guess :) But I will be finishing strong here in Burlington

Well, I don't have too much time now, our computers are about to die... but just to update you real quick on everything that is going on,

we teaching Collin, a recent convert, outside the other day, and this lady named Mia stopped and talked with us, her grandma is a member in Florida. So we stopped by the other night met Gerritt, her cousin. We had a super great lesson with him!! He is literally a walking miracle! He had a bullet go through is head and he survived. he only has a pretty small scar after 3 or 4 surgeries to fix every thing. It was so awesome!! at the end of the lesson he said such a great prayer! He said that he was glad we met him because he could talk about things that he normally doesn't with other people and he feels like there was definitely a reason we stopped by. 

Then we also found this awesome girl, name Mahala, she's 17 and from around the area. She's very interested in Religion and wants to learn more. it was just pretty amazing, because the house that she lives in I thought that no one lived there and that it was just abandoned, but when we went to knock on it, she came out and we had a great lesson with her.

Also, I've been reading in the book "The Power of everyday Missionaries" and I've been learning so much! He talks a lot about doing the work the Lord's way and not relying on our own natural man abilities to accomplish a work that is spiritual. 

I've also been thinking a lot about the miracles that are all around us, but that we either don't always see or we don't expect can actually happen. In that book, he talks about how miracles that have happened in  the past can and still do happen today. It's so true!! We are a part of the restored Church Of Jesus Christ and miracles do happen! 

Yesterday in church we had a speaker that talked about how to help those miracles happen, through the tools that we have been given. The most important being using the Spirit through prayer, scripture study, and church attendance. 

anyways, I just have to say, I love this work!! it's so awesome to see the hand of the Lord in the work that we do! I know that He love us and that Jesus Christ really is our Savior! that's the best motivation ever, knowing that He lives! and Because He lives, we have a hope for a brighter future as we continue faithful. I love you all!! thank you so much for everything that you are doing!! I know that Heavenly Father is with us! 

i hope and pray that all is well! I love you!!

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent

ps, I went to Denmark! :)

Josh's Mission Aug 3 2015

Hello Family!!

it's been a really wonderful week!! We had a great time with the pageant this week, it's over now but we had a really good time! This week both Elder Wardle and I have been reflecting a lot on our missions and the work that we still need to do. We've also been trying to find more people to teach.

it's been really amazing to be here during the Pageant!! there definitely was a reason for it! I've learned so much about the history of this place and the Spirit is just unlike any other place! Miracle happened ever night! We saw the British pageant 2 times this week, and it is just so powerful!! the whole time they are talked about the converting power of the Book of Mormon and the power of the restored gospel.  There was a really great story of a family in Scotland who joined simply from hearing the words that were written about Jesus Christ. I can't explain how wonderful it was to feel of the Spirit here!!! There is just so much power in the temple and everything that the Saints worked for is coming to pass right now! There was a quote from Brigham Young about how there will be thousands of temple all over the earth one day. The whole pageants theme was enduring to the end! It's so wonderful to have so much understanding from the gospel and to have a legacy of our ancestors to look to for an example.

In church yesterday, we talked a lot about Enduring to the end as well. We talked about Elder Pearson talk in Conference "Stay by the Tree". He emphasizes really well the need to always improve and do better and to endure to the end! There is so much that we need to do, that we can do better, all to help the work of the Lord go forward. We also talked about motivation. the question was asked, what is your motivation? I thought a lot about that. it was also mentioned that the two basic roots of all motivation come down to: experiencing comfort (peace) and pleasure (Joy). the best source of all motivation comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He is the tree! He is the way! He provides the whole purpose of life. though Him, Heavenly father has given us the means possible for Salvation and Eternal Life. because we know that Heavenly father loves us, we know that He gives us the gospel to be happy. We keep his commandments because we love him!  also during testimony meeting, a young boy said "the key to happiness and the gospel is love. if we know that heavenly Father lives we know that he loves us and we do love others!


it was really great! well I hope and pray that all is well and that you know that I am grateful for everything that you're doing!! i love you!! thank you for everything!
ij iokwe eok!!
Merci beaucoup
Elder Broadben