Tuesday, August 25, 2015

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

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