Josh's Mission Nov 25 2013

yokwe family!!

I honestly didn't see that coming. that is so amazing that dad is the 2nd counselor.(Doug has been put in as the 2nd Counselor in our Stake Presidency) wow, my heart is just so full at hearing that. and that's so great that Marinda's dad is bishop. The Lord truely has a plan for us. I know that that is true. We are here to do His work. I love this gospel so much and I am so grateful that I have a wonderful family. Thank you everyone for being great examples and for helping me to become who the lord wants me to be. 

dad, I love you. thank you so much. I don't even have words for what I am feeling right now. I know that you will do great! I love you!! 

that's so great about caden, that's awesome that he got that answer and recognized it.(Caden is an 11 yr old in our ward who was just baptized) I was thinking about that the other day. how many times does the Lord give us an answer and we just don't recognize it? will you this week, look for and pray that you will recognize answers to your prayer? I  know that you will find them. because we have found them in the most unlikely places. We met a guy last week that had talked to missionaries before and really liked them, but had never been taught by them. He let us right in and this week we had a great lesson with him and his daughters. Bill, that's his name, is great, and I really hope and pray that we can help him with his life and help him to accept the gospel. We also have been trying to meet with a less active for awhile, Franly, but he works a lot. but he just recently lost his job (blessing in disguise?) and we meet with him and carlina, his girlfriend. they are marshallese so they don't really stress getting married. they have two kids and live together. we are helping them to be together as a family together forever. Carlina, really wants to join the church and be with her family. the Lord blesses us so much!!

Things are great! we have ups and downs, but things are slowly getting better here in our ward. the members are starting to get the vision of helping each other with the work and the ward council is trying really hard to get more involved with us. It's really great to know that the Lord has provided a plan for us and that as we are faithful, things will work out the way they need to. I've been thinking about prayer a lot lately and making heavenly father's will ours. what does that mean? to make his will ours? I know that He has a plan for us and that as we trust in that, have faith that he knows best, everything will be made for our benefit. the Lord has promised us that as we are faithful, he will bless us. I know that that is true. I know that the Lord has blessed me so much. It's so great to be here on this wonderful earth in this great day and age! 

So for thanksgiving we are spending most of the day with a member family. I'm not exactly sure what we are doing, but I do know we're having dinner with them. So this next sunday, our ward is putting on a Christmas celebration, it's going to be so great. we are actually singing in it. I'm pretty excited. 

I remember going down to DBH for thanksgiving. that was so great. that's something also that I've been thinking about. Serving others. I know that when we serve people, we think less about our selves. In PMG, it talks about how serving other will benefit not only them by the service you give, but you as well. you will feel a love for them that the savior has, charity. one thing that I like that it says is that service and selfless actions destroy envy, jealousy, self doubt, and thoughts that are harmful to your testimony. I know that that is true. 

I love you all so much and I am so thankful for you! I'm so glad that we have the gospel in our lives, I can't imagine being with out it. This thanksgiving, I would challenge you to do something that our bishop challenged us, write a list of 100 things that you are thankful for. that sounds hard but as you get going, it's pretty easy. One thing that helps is making categories and writing 10 things in each category. I know that showing gratitude is so important. Will you do that? I will, and I'll tell you how it goes next week. 

Again, I love you and thank you so much for everything. I'm so grateful for everyone's prayers especially, thank you. 

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Nov 17 Letter

Yakwe Family!!

 

 You know, I've really come to appreciate being a Broadbent. There are a lot of Marshallese people that we work with, most of them can't even say my name right, but I know that I represent two of the greatest families of all time. The Broadbents a wonderful and while everyone might get a few scraped heads, here and there (it's a good thing that everyone has hard heads) it is the way that we react to our trials and tribulations that matter. I hope that I am doing everything that I can to be best Broadbent, and that everyone who I meet knows that my family is the best. Also, I and really everyone who is baptized, represents the Lord Jesus Christ. While I might physically bear his name next to my heart, we all partake of the sacrament each Sunday and covenant with Him to take His name upon us. What does that mean to you? what does it mean to take His name upon you?

 

So a few updates with investigators. It's hard for me to remember who I tell you about, but we have had to stop seeing a few people this week. Tom said that he could no longer meet with us because his parents don't want him to. He had a talk with his mom, who isn't doing very well and she got pretty upset that he had been meeting with us. It was heart breaking, because I know that he has felt the spirit. He really wanted to continue meeting with us, but felt it was best to stop so as to keep the peace in his family. but I know that we helped him and someday he will have the courage to find out for himself that this is true and what he needs. We also stopped seeing Katina and her family, they just weren't progressing.

 

It was great though. we had an investigator at church yesterday. Pierre is his name and he is so great! He totally agrees with everything that our church is, he really loved the Plan of Salvation, and we also had a church tour with him. it was awesome, the spirit was so strong, we invited him to be baptized on 28th of Dec, but he said he couldn't because he would be out of town. He does have troubles with understanding authority, but he has so much faith, really feels the spirit strongly, and learns fast. We are going to try and get him more committed to a date.

 

I love this gospel so much! it is truely amazing how the Lord blesses us. He has blessed us so much here. The members are making plans to work with us more, so that's great. And we are still meeting with Branton, a less active and mike also less active. they both have so much desire, but lack motivation. but Branton has really been thinking about coming back, and he talked about wanting to be with his family forever. Mike is going to make goals, so that he has something to work for.

 

So transfers are this week. guess what!?! I'm staying in Dubuque with Elder Dragon and he is going to be District Leader. He was so surprised, but I kind had a feeling because our DL is about ready to leave. Elder Tekanene, our DL has one transfer left and is being transfered. I haven't really talked much about him, but he is so great. He is from the Gilbert Islands. I am really going to miss him.

 

I love you family! thank you so much for your love and support and prayers. it means so much to know that you are all there for me. I love you, have a wonderful week.

 

tomak eo kojparok

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission 11-12-13

First off, sorry i didn't email yesterday the library where we go was closed for veterans day. 

I love that kind of weather as well, that's basically how it has been the last couple of weeks. but we did get our first really snow storm yesterday. I was great! I love the snow and it's gonna be a great winter.

that is so awesome to hear about Karlie's dad! I can't believe that Bishop Anderson moved! is he still teaching at BL? It is so true that when the Lord wants something done, it happens...fast. We have been working with our members a lot more this past week and We are finally starting to see some improvement and success. One of our members has been talking with less actives that live by them, and they had them over for a little gathering, they also are trying to invite someone to their home for us to teach. On sunday, we had a less active young man come to church with another family that we've been working with, so that was great. and One of our Marshallese members has been bringing a nonmember to church with them. The work is going forward despite the hardships that we go through. I love how the Lord blesses us so much, He has given us everything, we need to realize what blessings he has given us and thank him for that. I was thinking the other day about something that i remember Sis Brandley saying, having a thank you prayer. how often do we thank our Heavenly father for everything He has done for us? I know that I need to do better at that.

Thank you so much for praying for Tom. That means so much. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to meet with him, he went out of town, and he mentioned that his parents don't like that we are meeting together. I know that we've done our part and now we have to let him use his agency. If we can't continue meeting with him, I know that he has felt the spirit and will one day remember that things that we've talked about. I don't know if I told you but we tried meeting with this woman, who was a media referral, from mormon.org. Well we did meet with her, Lauren is her name, and it was a really great lesson. the spirit was really strong and we felt like she was golden. We talked to her Saturday, to see if she could make it to church and she said that she wasn't ready to change religions, but that she appreciated that we had met with her and she felt like she had the tools necessary to move forward. that was really hard, because I could feel how much she needed the gospel in her life. but I know that the Lord has a way of preparing everyone to accept the gospel. It's been a huge lesson for me to learn to trust in the Lord and his time table. I know that the Lord will bless us for what we are doing here.

A great example of that is that we are working with a lot of less actives. we've been able to meet with so many and help the members become more involved. so that has been really good.

Before I forget, we had interviews with pres and sis Jensen, it was great! I love them so much, they are the best! but sister jensen wanted me to tell you mom and dad, how grateful she is for raising such a wonderful family, for being such good examples, and for helping me to be who I am. also she was wondering if we are related to Cecil B Broadbent? I thought the name sounded familiar but I couldn't remember. I guess he served as mission president after her dad in Germany.

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you mom and dad and everyone else. I really can't even tell you how much it means to me to know that I have a family that loves me, supports me, and prayers for me and the people that I work with. I want to tell you that the best thing about teaching people is the knowledge that I have that we as a family can be together forever with our Heavenly father. I know that the Plan that He has for us is the only way that we can return to him. I was wondering, how has the knowledge of the plan of salvation affected you lives?  and what does that mean to know that we have that plan? do you feel like that is restricting? why or why not?

I love you all, thank you for your prayers.

Kojparok eo tomak

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Nov 4 2013

It's been a really good week. That's awesome to hear about the scout activity. and that is so awesome that dad invited people from different churches. The relief society activity sounds like it went great as well. I told Elder Dragon that dad was a cook, so he asked me if I cooked, I said that I liked to. I tried to make an Asian dish, with pasta, chicken, and veggies, but it didn't turn out so well. I put too much garlic salt in it, and so to try and calm it down, I tried putting peanut butter in it, trying to go for a sort of Tia style, but it didn't work....

I just want to say that I love going to church. I love that it's a place that is completely away from the things of the world. there are so many distractions in the world and church is a great place to get away from that. We have a problem here with retention of members and so I just appreciate it so much. If we could understand the importance of church, we would never consider missing it. We would look forward to it and go through our week thinking about the Savior and what He did for us, how we need to improve, and what He wants us to do. Yesterday we had a lesson with a less active that hasn't been to church in a while. When he was going to church he baptized a bunch of his friends and helped so many people. But then he started working and got busy and lost sight of the important things. As we talked he told us that he knows that he needs to go to church and that he can see how happy he was and that he wants to feel that happiness all the time. He really wants to change, and I hope and pray that he does. 

 

Elder Dragon and I were talking the other day about how great Utah is. He is from Farmington, not sure if I told you that. We were talking about how there are so many people there that are LDS and that even those who aren't, for the most part, act like they are. There are just good people there. So then I got thinking about something that Brother Brandley used to say all the time, that is "do your neighbors and friends know that you are Mormon? if not, tell them."Does everyone know that you are LDS, if not, will you tell them? One thing that our Bishop has been working with the ward members on, is to use LDS terms and words in our everyday lives. When people hear us talking about hometeaching, the sacrament, going to church, or using any words that they are unfamiliar with, the ask questions. It's a great way to start conversations. Will you do that? will you let people know that you are LDS, by your example and conversation?

So Tom is struggling. He has been having a lot of back pain. He was hurt while in the military and has a lot of pain. His parents, who live near by him are really struggling as well. His dad has Alzheimer's and is having a really hard time. His mom has kidney stones and has been in the hospital for the past week. He still is struggling with the concept of God and praying. Although he did pray with us, which was so awesome! We explained to him the pattern of prayer and why it is important that we address our Heavenly Father and close in Christ's name. Have you ever thought about that? he asked who we are praying to if we say it in christ's name. We pray to our Heavenly Father in Christ's name, because it is only through christ that we can make it back to our Heavenly Father. It is only through Christ that we can receive answers to our prayers. Thank you so much for praying for him, I really appreciate it. really you don't know how much that means to me. oh, and we set a date with tom, I don't know if I told you that. He was really hesitant to accept it, but I know that he can receive his answer.

We also met with a lady named Lauren. She was a media referral. and she is so awesome! she really wants to know what our church is all about. She wants to know why LDS people are so happy. Why are we so happy? what is it that makes us happy? She has so much desire to find out for herself. She is really busy though, so that will be our biggest hold up with her. We told her the Joseph Smith story and said, yeah, I believe that could happen. She accepted the invitation to be baptized and said that if she got an answer she would do anything for it.  

I love this gospel so much! I love how the Lord works. I love that He knows us perfectly and if we do all that we can, seriously do everything that we can do, then we will bless us and make up the rest. I know that this Gospel is true. I love the people here so much and I want them to feel of the joy that comes from the knowledge that our Savior suffered, died, and was resurrected, for us! 

I love you all! Tomak eo Kojparok (Keep the Faith, in Marshallese)

Elder Broadbent   

Some pictures finally!

MTC district Oct 2013

Elder B with MTC companion Elder Harper

 In Dubueque, Iowa

Trainer Elder Dragon

District Oct 2013

Josh's Mission Oct 28, 2013

Things sound so good. and It's good to hear about what is going on. We are having a devotional for the 100 years of scouting, but we aren't really involved with it. It is great to hear of some of people in the ward trying to come back to church it is so important that they can realize that the reason we go to church is not because we are perfect, but because we are not perfect. We go to church to learn, feel the spirit, repent, and to draw closer to our Heavenly father. we have a few Less actives that have the same problem, they feel like they can't come to church because of the things that they have done. and some of them don't want to meet with us because they realize that they are not doing what they should be and they feel guilty for what they have done and feel like they can't repent, so thank you mom for the quotes, i really think those will help.

Hard to hear about those who don't choose to listen to the gospel!   We have a problem with that as well. We meet so many people that say, oh I don't have enough time, or that they are too busy. I think how sad that is that they don't realize what they could have. and then I was thinking. am i like that. do I make excuses and say that I can't do this because of this reason? how many of realize what we have? We have the restored truth of Jesus Christ. We know that He is our Savior and that we can live with our families with Heavenly father forever. We know that we can repent of our sins and feel our savior's love. Will you help someone feel that love? will you think about the many blessings that they Lord has given you and express that Love by helping someone? Please let me know what happens, i would love to hear about your missionary experiences.

Things are going good. This week has been better. We were about to meet with a couple member families and talk to them about FFT's. I don't remember if I told you about that, but it's that the members need to be Finders, Fellowshippers, and Testifiers. but hopefully that will continue to progress, because i know that we can not do this work with out the members help. We have talked about sharing responsibilities, the missionaries and members. we are all missionaries and we need to be to help everyone feel and know of this wonderful message that we have. 

I don't know if the missionaries there have this problem, but we have a hard time getting meals and lessons with the members. will you invite the missionaries over for dinner some time and have them teach a lesson? 

our area is really big. it covers only half of the ward boundaries though. we stay mainly in Dubuque because we don't have the car every week, we share with the sisters in our ward. so we don't get to see most of the area. we live in a really compact neighborhood. the streets hear are crazy. elder dragon described it like this, it seems like a blind man drew the layout of the city. that's exactly how it feel. it's not a bad neighborhood though. the people are good. there are some crazy neighborhoods, near by though.

thank you dad. I really appreciate that. i love you so much and i am so grateful for your example, love and prayers. 

that's really good to hear about Chad, i've been thinking about him. i hope that he gets better. and that's crazy about candice! (I mentioned to Josh that Kandice - who is Nicaragua - cannot drink the water there and they don't have bottled water, so she has to drink soda, which she isn't fond of.  I told Josh because he isn't a great fan of soda either) 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you. i am so blessed to have a wonderful family who loves me and who can write to me. One last thing, will you pray for our investigators and our ward. we have a few investigators that really need help right now. we committed one guy, Tom, to be baptized on the 30th Nov, but he doesn't think that he'll be ready. He is really struggling. He has so much desire though, it's amazing. He wants to find out if it's true, but he doesn't thin he has the faith. and he doesn't think that he has ever gotten an answer to his prayers.

again, I'm grateful for you and your love. I love the scripture in Moroni where it is talking about charity, "Charity never faileth. wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail - but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever...wherefore pray unto the father with all the energy of heart, that ye may have charity." I know that that is true and that we can have charity for everyone around us, if we do the things that the Lord has asked us.

Love

Elder Broadbent

Josh's MIssion Oct 21, 2013

Things have been pretty good. We've been able to meet with some really great people the last week. We met with a man that has been a member for some time, but he has to work a lot, so doesn't come to church and when he can come, he finds an excuse not to. He knows that the church is true and he has great desire and faith, but for some reason he lacks the will power to endure to the end. He really is a great guy though. We also met with another less active who is Marseilles  works a lot, and doesn't really understand English, but the lesson that we had with him was awesome, the spirit was so strong. 

We have a new investigator as well, his name is Tom. He is really curious and has so many questions, but he doesn't really want to be baptized right now. The first lesson we had with him we talked so much about his life and what he's been through and we also talked about how we know that the gospel will bless his life. it was really great. We also met with an older couple who were taught back when blacks couldn't receive the priesthood, so they weren't baptized, but they are so great. Last night we stopped by just to make a return appointment and they let us right in and gave us dinner. and we talked with them for a while, it was really great and I hope that they will see that making time for the gospel will bless them, that's what they really struggle with, and hopefully we can rekindle that fire they had before.

Thank you for the letter from trudy's daughter, i've actually been think what are some things that I need to change so that the Lord can work through me better, and I know that that was my answer. thank you so much family for your love and support. I truly am blessed to have such a wonderful family who is so strong in the faith. 

this past week we have been talking about how we can get members more involved and we are going to call and talk to a bunch of our members to teach them more about missionary work. What can you do to further the work of the Lord? Our mission President has a little saying that we are using to help the members, it's FFT's. We need members who Find, Fellowship, and Testify. will you all Find some that you can Fellowship and Testify to them of the truths that we have? and then invite them to meet with the missionaries? 

I love you all so much and i really am grateful for all of you. A scripture that I really love is D&C 101:16 " All flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God" I love that! this week I have been really working hard on being still and listening to the Spirit. I love you, thanks again for your love and support.

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Oct 14, 2013

Hello family!

It is so good to hear from you. I really can not contain my joy to hear that all is well with you. I wish that I could have gotten to call you at the airport, but I was the Zone leader and had to make sure that everyone else got to call before I did and then there wasn't time, but that's okay, I can wait till Christmas. I love you all so much and I really am glad that things are good for you. the house looks great! that will really be awesome when it's all done.

This week has been great! I'll just start at Wed, because before that not much happened at the MTC. So Wednesday when we arrived in Iowa, Pres and Sister Jensen were waiting for us at the airport. they are so great! they have a wonderful spirit about them and really remind me of family, Uncle Steve and Dave and you as well dad. and sister Jensen is has a lot of energy, i know that I will come to love them more and more. On thrusday, we drove to Iowa City, we were at the mission home in Des moines, for transfer meeting. we all got together and I met my companion for the first time, elder Dragon. I instantly knew that we would work well together, have our challenges, but that we would be able to do the work the Lord has for us. We live in Dubuque. it's right on the Mississippi, on the east border of Iowa. our ward covers a lot of ground, but there aren't that many members yet. a little less than our ward i would say. it goes about 20 miles in to Illinois and the 40 back into Iowa in a square. the bishop is great. 

When we got home, my first lesson was with a former investigator who wasn't keeping commitments, but is really nice. an older gentleman that can't walk and feels like he can't really do what the Lord want's him to do because of it, but hopefully we can help him to understand that he can. we've met with a family that is really interested in the gospel and we're hoping will be baptized soon if they can come to church and quit smoking. smoking is a huge problem here in dubuque, so many people smoke. elder dragon and his former companion didn't have much success, for what ever reason, but him and his trainer did and e. Dragon wants to get back to where he was at before, with his trainer. we are going to try and really work with the members, because they have a hard time really committing to missionary work. they have the desire, but need help know what to do. so we will help them. 

Just a few things that I should tell you:

when sending letters or packages make sure to send them to the mission home. the address is:

Elder Joshua Broadbent

Iowa Des Moines Mission

8515 Douglas Ave. STE 19

Urbandale, IA 50322- 2924

packages should be sent first class or priority. not us UPS or FEDEX. and Christmas mail should be sent by DEC 15.

It's already starting to get cold here, but the weather is really nice. during the night though it gets cold. 

I love you all so much. I really can't tell you that enough. as you go throughout this week will you each try to do something better? will you try to serve someone that you haven't? and will you try to find someone for the missionaries in the stake to teach and give the referral to the ward mission leader. I know that the only real way that this work will continue to progress is through the help of the members. 

A quote that I love from general conference is "doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith." I know that that is true, and I know that as you keep your faith centered in Christ, He will bless you. 

I love you all so much,

Elder Broadbent 

oh, one thing that I forgot to tell you. there are a lot of marshalese people here, people from the marshal islands. we actually have a marshalese speaking elder in our district. and I've already learned how to say hello and an expression of frustration. hello id yakay (pronounced yag way) and arare ( i think that's how you spell it) ( that one is hard to explain how to say it's like are rawr)