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

Josh's Mission July 27 2015

Hello Family!

it has been a wonderful week! These weeks of the Pageant have been so wonderful! but they've all kind of smushed together... everything seems to be the same and yet there are wonderful times every week were we see so many miracles :) 

a huge miracle that happened this week was a 10 year old child named Quwinell was baptized in Hamilton this week. He has been taught by missionaries for a long time! and just recently his mom (who is a member but less active) , who lives in Colorado gave permission for him to be baptized. it's taken a lot from the elders there to help him and his family see the importance of his baptism, but it finally all cam together. He was living with his grandparents here, who are members, and he is now going back to live with his mom. It was really awesome! 

We've been working with Eric Watson for awhile now, and he was on date for Aug 8th, but he has to quit smoking first, so we are trying to help him do that. and we've been trying to find more people that are willing and committed to progressing and repenting, it's been kind slow going but recently the Lord has blessed us with a few people who are really wonderful!

So at the Pageant this week on Saturday, while trying to talk with people who were there, we talked to this guy who is the supervisor over the stage missionaries. He helps out with all the stage crew people and does a lot of the maintenance and things like that, especially during the performances and things. anyways, he talked a lot about the great opportunities there are to serve in the Pageant, and he was pretty convincing, I would love to come back and perform in the Pageant, help out with it, and definitely come play in the bagpipe band :) so while we were talking to him, he mentioned that we could go in the back of the stage and watch how everything operates. it was so awesome!! there are pullies everywhere, counter weights for all the moving parts and just so much going on. it looked like a lot of fun work. :) yeah, elder Wardle and I were pretty excited about it all :)

oh yeah, and we were on exchanges down in Keokuk this week and I met this member Gary Mason, who called you :) that was pretty awesome! He was teasing me while on the phone, he's a really cool guy though :) we were helping this lady move into an apartment and Brother Mason had some furniture for her. so we grabbed our truck and loaded it all up.

right, sister Abby Froerer emailed me a picture of that. :) that's pretty awesome! I remember telling her to look for you :) it's awesome to have a mom who everyone in the Ogden area can go visit

that's really awesome about all the good news!! there is an elder here from Court e lain. that's good that Kris got a job!! and I have been wanting to go see that wall as well. I remember going to see it 

thank you so much for everything!! i love you and I hope and pray that all is well!! 

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent

Josh's Mission July 20 2015

Hello family!! 

the computer I am using is being very slow, so this will probably be a short one.

It has been a wonderful week!! We've been seeing many miracles all around us, the pageant is wonderful!! the weather has been crazy (blazing hot one second and tornadoes the next) but it has been great!! 

This week we had a meeting with all the missionaries in the Nauvoo and Iowa City Stakes, about 90 missionaries, which elder Wardle and I had the opportunity to give a training at. we talked a lot about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and going to church to receive revelation. it was great! after this meeting was over, the main cast from the Nauvoo Pageant came into the chapel and did a small presentation on what the early apostles did to prepare for their missions and how their missions went. It was so powerful!! The spirit was so strong the whole time, it really amazed me how these men and women did all the could, gave everything they had to the work of the Lord, even though they had so many hard things to go through. 

We also went down to the pageant this week with Collin Smith, the young child who was baptized a couple of weeks ago. it was great! he loved it and had a lot of fun. 

well, I love you all thank you so much for everything!! I am so grateful, every day I marvel and thank heavenly father for our wonderful family and for the gospel of Jesus Christ that we have in our lives! It's a blessing and great responsibility we have to help all those around us to feel of God's love as we have. 

I hope and pray that all is well!! I love you! 
ij iokwe eok!! 
Merci beaucoup 
Elder Broadbent 

Josh didn't name the pictures in his email - the Sunset is of the Statue of Joseph and Hyrum looking across the Mississippi. 
The picture with the car gauges is indicating how hot it was that day! 
The last picture is the Nauvoo Temple

Josh's Mission July 13 2015

Hello Family!!

It has been a crazy week! and so good!! :) it's probably been one of the most hectic weeks I've had on my mission (and I've a few intense ones). Pageant started this week which is the reason why it's been so crazy. we also had a meeting in Iowa City for all the mission leaders were we were trained on how to be a better leader. We had a district meeting Thursday and Friday, and 2 nights this week we went to the pageant :) it's so crazy  but awesome! it's really amazing how much you can get done in a day and still feel as if you weren't able to finish everything... 

did we do anything fun?? We drove up to Iowa city, road trips are always fun (although they definitely aren't as fun as the ones we had...) We also went down to Nauvoo like 3 times, maybe 4 I forget.. So that was really awesome! the spirit there is unlike anywhere else :) We also went to Macomb IL on Saturday to speak at a youth conference, which was way cool!  I actually really enjoyed talking to all the youth.. being a motivational youth speaker looks pretty appealing right now (although I'm really awful at speaking in front of people, so I would probably just make a fool of my self :).... but on Saturday as we well, we were supposed to go to the temple and do a session, but we got out of Macomb late, so we weren't going to make it. Instead we decided to stop in Carthage, which is on the way to Nauvoo from Macomb, and do a tour of the jail. It was really wonderful!! the spirit there is so powerful!! it really reminds me of the talk that elder Holland ("Safety for the Soul") gave where he talks about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith being a prophet. It's a really wonderful talk! I espcially love what he says  

"In this their greatest—and last  hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. 9  Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as impostors and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

Then as we were driving to Nauvoo, there a a huge thunder/rain storm! it was so crazy! there was flooding every where. the roads were turned in to rivers! We could hardly see 5 ft in front of us... as we were going along, there was a particularly flooded part of the road that a couple of cars had tried to go through but had gotten swamped... we pulled over and pushed them out of this lake size puddle :) it was pretty amazing. Then we when we got to Nauvoo, it had stopped raining and since we were staying for the Pageant that night, we started to clean up the grounds. it was really amazing, as the night went on and it was almost time for the Pageant to start the clouds were starting to look really bad and everyone was wondering if it was going to rain again, if it did they would have to stop the show. But it didn't... in the prayer that was said at the beginning of the show, the man asked that the storm be kept at bay. and is was! it was really awesome, you could see the clouds go around Nauvoo and then gather on the other side. :) 

in response to mom's email:

:) yeah, there has been a lot of people lately who have wanted to take our pictures, but its been really good, it's nice that so many people want to let everyone at home know that we are doing well here :) it was so crazy to see the Medskers!! I saw Brother Medsker and at first I couldn't figure out who he was, I thought he might have been somebody from a previous area, but the as i went up to him it remembered! it was awesome! then there was a member who was at the pageant from Florida who just wanted to take our pictures and send them home. and like I said we were in Macomb at that youth conference, and a member took our picture there too :)

That Pioneer Devotional sounds like it was awesome!! it really is amazing when we look at what we are really doing, how much better we could be. It kind of reminds me of Pres Uchtdorf's talk, "Your Potential, Your Privileges"  We can always be evaluating our actions and doing better. it's often very difficult for me to know always what is the most important thing that Heavenly Father would have us do, but I know that when we act in faith He will guide us always to do the correct thing. 

Well, thank you so much for everything that you are doing!! I really appreciate and thank you for your love, prayers, and support!! I hope and pray that all is well!! I love you!!

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent

ps here's a couple pictures of the storm and the pageant

 The following pictures are ones that people who have seen Josh and have sent us pictures.

Josh's Mission June 29 2015

hello family!!

alright so first off this is gonna be kind of short because the computer is being really slow and we don't have much time. 

but it's been a really awesome week!! in the zone we had 3 baptisms, 2 were in our ward (the sisters here) and another in the ward in Nauvoo. it was really great!! and Collin, who I've told you a lot about, will be baptized this week on Wednesday. I don't remember if I told you, but his mom just had a total turn around. the spirit has really worked on her and she is allowing Collin to be baptized. I was so awesome to see her change. :) 

besides that it has been a wonderful week. We have been so blessed! And it's hard to narrow it all down :) it's been such a wonderful time. Oh elder Wardle and I will be staying together for one more transfer, he goes home next transfer and then I'll get a new comp for my last transfer. 

and Pageant is starting in about a week, which is gonna be so great!!

thank you so much for the Birthday wishes! :) when I woke up, my first thought was the family song, which I haven't heard in awhile. :) it was great

those pictures are awesome!! it looks like a lot of fun! I'm excited to hear more about it! wow, I can't even imagine what that would be like to have 23 young men pass the sacrament. :) that's amazing!! 

well I hope and pray that all is well and that you all have a wonderful time down at Philmont! I love you!! thank you so much for everything!

ij iokwe eok!!

Merci beaucoup

Elder Broadbent