Josh's mission Dec 30, 2013

Christmas was fantastic!!  I love technology!!  Without it there would be no face time with a wonderful Elder!!  Such a blessing to live in this day and age!!  

Yokwe Family!!

I love you all so much!! It was truly a blessing to see all of you. :) everyone looks so good. I feel like an hour is not sufficient at all, but it was great. Christmas sounds really good, I'm jealous that you had aebleskivers, there is a sister in my district that knows what they are and it's a family tradition for them to have Christmas day, just like us.

We had a really great Christmas. we spent the whole day with members! we have such a great ward family here. I really do feel at home here. it's great. it's amazing, like you said how fast people go from the wonderful spirit of Christ to the other end, not even thinking about what Christmas is really about. I love Christmas though, and I'm trying really hard to keep that spirit of Christ with me, even though Christmas is over.

So transfers are this week. We got a call this morning and Elder Dragon will be getting transferred to a new area, training a visa waiter. I'm not sure yet if I'm staying or not, I'll find out sometime later today. but what ever happens I know that it's the Lord's will. I'm not sure what will happen but I know that I can do what ever the Lord wants me to do. He will provide us a way to accomplish anything. In 1 Nephi 3, Nephi talks about going and doing what the Lord asks because he knows that the Lord will provide a way for him to accomplish it. I know that that is true. and I'm so glad that I've been blessed with a family that knows that as well. mom, you will do great! no matter what the Lord has in store for you.

I love this gospel so much and I love that I can help people feel of our savior's love all the time. :) and I know that by following the example of Christ we can help everyone around us feel the joy that we have as well.

We are still trying to get Carol to pray with us and come to church. and we recently have gottent 3 new potential investigators that seem really solid, Ivan, James, and Andrew. Hopefully we can start meeting with them soon. James' mom just died and he has a really great spirit. The work moves forward, I love that our Heavenly Father trusts us enough to give us his authority and power and to help other people come unto Christ. I love you all and thank you so much for your prayers. really, you don't know how much it means to me. I've realized so much more than I ever knew, that prayer is real and Heavenly Father answers our prayers, as long as we are faithful, in his own way.

Thank you again for everything, I hope and pray that all is well.

Ej Yokwe Yok

Elder Broadbent

Josh's mission Dec 23

Yokwe Family!

It's way crazy that Christmas is already here!

Yeah, there are a ton of Marshallese people here, I can't believe that I haven't told you that yet :) they are so great!! I really wish that I could actually learn it though. I'm just trying to pick things up.

Tell Janis thank you for the poem, that is really great! I definitely know that is true! the Atonement is really amazing, it's what makes everything possible. with our it, there would be no way possible back to our heavenly father and since that is our ultimate goal, there would be no really purpose to life. I've just started reading "Jesus the Christ" and it's been really great! I'm only like 20 pages in, but it's already opened my eyes to so much. I also listened to a talk given by an Elder Scousen I think is how you spell it, back in the '80s about the reason for the atonement and it's meaning. it is such a great talk. He mentions in it that Christ is the only one that could go through the atonement, not even our Heavenly Father could do it for us. Our Brother, Jesus Christ, gave everything to us. think about that... that is amazing! And we have the great privledge, honor, and responsiblity to know that this is His true gospel on the Earth today! how could we not share this wonderful message with everyone around us? It's hard to open your mouth though sometimes, it is definitely scary and not easy, but the Lord always blesses those who open their mouths to share His gospel. At this Christmas season, it's so important to focus on Christ, but what are some ways that you can focus and recenter you life on Christ even after the holidays?? Christ should be the Center of everything, He needs to be the center of our lives. One thing that I've been doing to center my life more on Christ is to share the talents and gifts that I've been given. 

So this week we were able to meet with quite a few more less actives and members than we have. I love Christmas by the way! it's such a great time of year. :) We were also able to meet with Carol a couple times. I don't remember if I told you about he, but she has a lot of problems, but knows a lot about the church. She smokes and won't come to church or pray with us, but She is really great! We've been trying so hard to get her to pray with us, we've really tried everything, any suggestions?? and she was going to come to church yesterday, but church got canceled because of the bad weather. it really wasn't that bad, kind of like a good Utah storm, but everybody was freaking out about how terrible it was. we did have a freezing rain storm though, that was way crazy. do you remember the one that we had last year? it was kind of like that. Ice every where, the roads were pretty bad and you could hardly even walk any where. the cars even got grounded by our mission pres. it was actually really cool, we were  like skating everywhere.

I love you family, I hope that all is well. Know that I really do love you and I am so grateful for you love and prayers.

Everything happens for a reason

Ej Yokwe Yok

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Dec 16, 2013

Yokwe Family!

This week has been really good! We had a  great Zone conference, in Nauvoo! it was so awesome. we drove down way early and stayed pretty much all day. it was great to be there. president said that it is so special to be on sacred ground, not only is Nauvoo sacred ground, but iowa as well, this is were it all started for the pioneers.

on thurday we had exchanges with the Elders in our district and that was really great! I was with Elder Ioteba. we spent a lot of the day at a members house doing service for him, we set up this awesome christmas village, it was huge, I didn't take any pictures of it, maybe I'll do that, but it was so awesome. Then we went and tryed a bunch of people. I do have to tell you that the Lord knows better than we do everything that needs to happen. so we tried this less active family but they weren't home, so we tried a few other people. on our way home we tried the family again, because we were passing them and I figured why not try them, but they still didn't answer... so I was a little bummed, but as we were walking out the door the lady that we were trying to see was walking in, it was pretty awesome. I know that the Lord provided the way for us to see her and her family, it's the first time that we've seen them, they moved in about a month ago. It's small miracles like that that are so important to hang on to and to thank our Heavenly father for. how many tender mercies do we have that we don't notice or if we do we don't thank our heavenly father for. 

One of the best ways to show our appreciation to our heavenly father is to share what we have and what he has given us. it is so important to share our testimony and to share with others that blessings that we have. At this christmas season everyone notices the blessings from our heavenly father and I know that it's important to share them. Will you think what tender mercies the Lord has given you, thank him for them, and then express that gratitude by sharing those experiences with others?

I also have to share with you a scripture that I recently rediscovered, in alma 26:15 I think, I really hope that's right, i don't have my scriptures with me, alma is talking about how it is Christ that brings souls to eternal happiness and we are just instruments in His hands. I definitely know that is true. This his work, this is His glory, we need to be ready tools, so that he can use us where he needs us.

We've struggling to find more people to teach but I know that the Lord will bless us as we exercise our faith and work diligently. We have been able to meet with more less actives and members this week, even though we had a couple days that were not really proselyting.

that is surprising to hear about brother christensen and harrison. it always seemed like they would live forever. but I know that they are helping on the other side.  wow, dad I'm surprised that you haven't put everything up yet, :) just kidding. that's awesome that you are "upgrading" the lights.

I love you all so much! thank you for everything, thank you so much for you love, prayers, and support.

Ej Yokwe Yok ( I Love you) - I'm learning more how to actually right marshallese, I'm getting better...

Elder Broadbent

PS thank you everyone. It's nice to hear that my letters are good. :)

Josh's Mission Dec 9, 2013

Yokwe Family! 

How are things? we had a lady from our ward go to Utah last week and she said that the weather is really nice compared to here. she said that it's nice and sunny and great. It's been snowing a little bit and it's been way cold. we had one day that in the middle of the day it was 2 degrees. it's been really cold, but layers help.

things have been good, slow because of the holidays but really good. We've been trying to find more people that we can teach, but it's hard when it's so cold. we've been seeing a lot more of our members, they are really trying to help us out more. finding people that they can invite into their homes and for us to teach. We talked to carol this week and she said that she doesn't feel like she is ready to be baptized, so we are going to try and help her stop smoking and come to church so that she can feel the spirit. We found this guy, Ceasar, and he is really awesome! He is actually the son of a less active in our ward, but we didn't know that before. He's great though. We've also been having a lot more lessons with our members, which is great! 

We went to a christmas party that a member family does every year and sang a bunch of christmas songs. it was awesome. there were a few non members there and the spirit was really strong. me and Elder Dragon sang as a duet as well, in Marshallese. it's was really awesome! it was Silent night, and it was so powerful, the marshallese people do it way better, but it was still really good. 

We had a really great zone training this past week. President and sister Jensen came! it was so great. president talked about our covenants that we make. and why we make them. why do we make covenants? why are covenants important? what do they mean to you? I know that covenants are important because it is the way that our heavenly father has set up, so that we can return to like with Him. i think of covenants as goals almost. it's important to work for something, to have a goal to strive for. and even after we make out covenants, we have to live worthy of them to receive the blessings that our heavenly father wants to give us so bad. that is one thing that we talk about with people a lot. Our heavenly father love us, and he wants to give us blessings, but he can't unless we do our part. He wants to bless us so bad, he doesn't want us to fail, but unless we do our part and exercise our faith in Him, then he can't do anything. 

that's one thing that I've been working on, having faith in Christ and exercising that faith. it is so important that we show that we have faith by doing as our Heavenly father asks. In conference Elder Soares said: "Meekness is vital for us to become more Christlike. Without it we won’t be able to develop other important virtues. Being meek does not mean weakness, but it does mean behaving with goodness and kindness, showing strength, serenity, healthy self-worth, and self-control." I know that that is true. being meek is vital for becoming like Christ.

I love you all thank you so much for your love and support and prayer. you are in mine daily. I hope that all is well and that as we approach Chirstmas, that we all think of the true meaning of christmas. 

Yokwe Yok

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Dec 2, 2013

Yokwe Family!

First of all, I love you all so much and it is so great to hear that you took that challenge. It was really amazing to sit down and seriously think about all of the things that I am grateful for. Thanksgiving was great! we had 2 actually on the same day. one was with a member family, we eat and then talked and they have a tradition of going bowling, so that was fun, different, but fun. then we had a Marchallese thanksgiving. tons of food and tons of people. it was really great! but I probably gained like 20 pounds. then the next day we had another thanksgiving with another member family, so all in all We had a lot of turkey!

 

Hm, so not a whole lot happened this week. We taught a pretty cool lesson with some marshellese kids. we started out teaching onw, and ended up with like 5 or 6. they just kept coming in, and as one would come in we had the other ones elplain what we were talking about, it was really great and funny. We also were getting ready for the Chirstmas Cantata, which by the way went great! so that kind of took up a lot of time. the Cantata was so awesome, I know that there were people there that felt the spirit. we had some slips of paper for people to fill out and give to us so that we could come talk to them, which worked really well, we got like 10 contacts from it, so that was great!

 

I have to tell you that the Lord works in mysterious ways. A lot of times things happen and we aren't really sure why, but the Lord knows. This week when we were giving service, we were asked to talk to this lady about her problems, basically she wanted some counceling, and really just someone to talk to. so we talked. eventually we talked to her about how the gospel can help her that we would like to meet with her, but she can't have visitors where she lives, she doesn't have a phone, so there is pretty much no way that we could contact her again, but for some reason we needed to talk to her. not really sure why though, but I trust that the Lord has a plan for us all, and that maybe one day, she will remeber what we talked about and talk to some missionaries.

 

We also talked to this guy on the street yesterday actually, as we were walking to the the church for the Cantata. to make a really long story short, this guy, nick, doesn't consider himself to be religious, but he is majoring in religion at a religious school. he is very philosophical and denies that we can find out for oursleves the truth of the gospel by reading and praying. he trys to reason and use logic and that is not how the Lord works, not really any way. The only way that we can know the truth of the gospel is to read the Book of mormon and pray with a sincere heart with really intent, and the Holy ghost wil tell us in our minds and in our hearts that it is true. I know that that is true. one thing that is kind of astonishing to me, is that there are not many people here, especailly marshallese, that have prayed about the Book of Mormon. have you all prayed about the book of mormon? have tou put it to the test? if not, will you? if you have, will you do it again? I know that if you ask our heavenly father if it is true that he will tell you through the holy ghost.

 

That is so wonderful to hear about cadin and his mom. I really hope that they continue to be faithful, because I know that we see blessings and miracles when we are. that's great that Uncle Jim is improving, I've been praying for him. I really hope that everything is alright and that he recovers soon. that is horrible about James's wife! I can't believe that. but i know that the Lord allows us to have trials that he knows we can overcome. he doesn't give us anythig that we can't handle.

 

I love you all so much. I am truely blessed with a wonderful family. and I can't tell you enough how grateful I am that you support me and pray for me and the people that we work with. thank you so much! I hope and pray that everything is well with you. Keep the faith

 

Yokwe Yok,

 

Elder Broadbent