Josh's Mission Oct 27 2014

Bonjour family!!

It's been a great week! I really love it here in Iowa City! It's great to be in a big city!! different for sure but really good. it really is crazy how fast this month has gone by, I can't believe that it's Halloween already, again. 

That sounds like a really great experience with the older couple! (I wrote about an older couple who just went through the temple and the experience I had with them.  Their children, who have all been married in the temple, have been waiting 30 years for them to go to the temple!) I love hearing about the different parts of missionary work that go on! I love being a part of those first beginning steps for people to take on the path of eternal life and it's great to see and hear about all the other great steps people make. :) it's really just amazing to me how much happiness the gospel brings to us. 

Speaking of that, yesterday in church we had an amazing miracle. One of our members (B) brought a friend (N) to church yesterday and he loved it!!! we taught him yesterday and he has a baptismal date for Dec 27. It was really sweet! he said that he has been friends with b for ever and that he just felt like he needed to get more spiritual. he really loved church and was just super happy and excited to learn more. We're way excited to help him more. It was great too, I think N's happiness and excitement rubbed off on a lot of the members, because everyone loved him and just really made him feel welcome, it was a really great sunday

We also found a family of French Congo people to teach yesterday. :) the husband is a pastor for a missionary church from Congo, but they all still want to learn. their sister has been taught by missionaries before, when she lived in Spain, so she is excited to keep learning and be baptized as well. It was just really sweet!

 

My comp is so great! Elder styles is from elk ridge, UT. he loves skate boarding, he's been out for 20 months. he's probably on of the best humble missionaries I've been around and he doesn't always see how well he is doing. :) he has a great family, he's the last of 6. 

I'm super excited to learn french. I've noticed already that it's going to be a little difficult already knowing marshallese, but I've thought that maybe I should use marshallese to learn french, but I'm not sure how that is going to work out. though. but it really is amazing how heavenly father answers our prayers, definitely not how we think usually. But something what I've learned is that you tell heavenly father what you want and then you ask him what he wants and you'll do the right thing. so I'm hoping that I can learn french quickly and help the people here, because right now all I can tell people is bonjour and goodbye ( I can't think of how to spell it right now) 

my address is 370 w cherry #2 North Liberty IA 52317, that's really cool that uncle dave and aunt michelle got to come over here. I told e styles that I had relatives that lived here and he said that I'll probably never serve around there :) just because we are supposed to see family members or people we know :)  (my nephew Ben and his wife have moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa)

I love you all and I am very grateful for everyone! thank you so much for your prayers, support and love!!! I hope that all is well and I love you

ij iokwe eok!!

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission Oct 6 2014

iokwe Baamle!!

It's been a really good week. We had a few great service projects, a great time watching the new movie "Meet the Mormons" and an awesome General Conference.

So has everyone heard of the new movie that the Church has come out with called "Meet the Mormons"? it is really awesome! if you have the opportunity to go and watch it, do it! it was a great movie. Elder Holland gave a really great intro to, which I believe is on youtube.com. it's a documentary, about 6 people around the world that talk about their lives and how being a member of the Church has helped them. Invite your friends! it is really good.

I really loved conference! it was really powerful. One thing that I really loved, is how personal it was. It has been an amazing experience to see how aware Heavenly Father is of me. I felt like there was so much that I needed to hear and to feel. One thought that I had was that I was so sad that it went by so fast! I just couldn't believe that 2 days could go by so fast. But as I was thinking about that, I had another thought, just because these 2 days are over doesn't mean that you have to stop. There is still the rest of eternity to go on, and at least for the next 6 months I am excited to look over these talks again and again, so that I can keep learning and growing.

a couple of common themes that stood out to me are: Obedience, Testimony and then Conversion, relying on the spirit, be prepared NOW, and look to the prophets and the Lord for direction- not the world. It really just seemed like there is so much that I need to do and that I need to improve on, sometimes it can be very overwhelming, but something else that i realized is that everything happens in the Lord's time, so it's very important to give ourselves to the Lord so that we can do everything according to His will.

Something else that I really stood out to me is that a few of them talked about Adam and Eve. One thing that I needed to learn again, is that everything happens for a reason! We can not know the Good with out the Bad. We go through hard times so that we can know how to humble ourselves and rely on the Lord and so that when the Lord needs us we will be ready to answer "Here am I...thy servant heareth" (1 Sam 3:4-10)

I'm not really sure what talks I like the most, but it was really amazing to see how as I went with questions to have answered, they were! there were even concerns that I hadn't really realized that I had, that were addressed. We spent Saturday with a great member family, the Bishops. they have a family of 5, 1 boy who is the oldest and 4 little girls. it was crazy! and so awesome! it was really fun to see how even the little children felt the need to listen, when they would actually sit down. :) and then for the priesthood session, we were really blessed to have an investigator (Dave) come and her really enjoyed it. He said that he could feel how the seed that was planted was good. and he wants to keep learning and have it grow! :) Also, Taika was able to watch some of it, and she said that it was very moving.


Good luck with your job! that's really exciting, but understandably stressful. You'll definitely be in our prayers. And that's awesome that you get yo walk to the temple with the primary! :) that will be really great!

i love you all!! thank you so much for everything that you do! thank you especially for your love, support and prayers!

Kajoor ilo Christ
ij iokwe eok!!
Elder Broadbent