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A Father's Last Letter

Dear Elder Broadhead,

Well son, I'm writing the last email to you as a missionary. It's kind of bitter-sweet. We have enjoyed watching you learn and grow throughout your mission, and have been proud to wear the mantle of "missionary parents." Our family has been blessed while you've been serving so faithfully, and I'm going to miss those extra blessings. And I know your life and the lives of many, many people in Veracruz and beyond have been blessed by your service. You've brought many souls unto Christ, and shown them the way of the Lord. Not all will remain faithful, but you have planted an important seed in their lives. Many generations of families will be blessed in the years to come because of your influence, and that should put a huge smile on your face!

I am grateful for the service of your mission president and his wife. I am thankful for the good influence he's been in your life, and I know you look up to both of them. I'm also grateful that they've looked after your well being and safety, and loved you like a son while you were in their care. Please tell them thank you from both of your parents. You have fought the good fight. You have left it all on the field. I hope you will have peace in your heart as you prepare to return home, knowing you did your very best, and served the Lord with all your might. He will bless you for the rest of your life because of your dedication. I can't even imagine all of the lives you've touched in two years - investigators, citizens, members, less actives, companions, fellow missionaries, your mission president and wife, and on and on.

Now the time has come for you to move forward with your life. There are so many wonderful experiences that await you as you move into the next phase of your life. Be excited for what the future holds in store for you. Your service in the church started many years ago when you were first ordained to the priesthood. You have always served faithfully, and I know you will continue to serve faithfully. The rest of your life will be spent in the service of others in one way or another, and I know in my heart that Heavenly Father has great plans for you. You are one of his valiant children, and He knows He can count on you. I have tears in my eyes as I think back on the life you've lived so far, and what a gentle and caring person you are. Thank you for being our son, and living your life in a way that you and us can be proud of. I thank God every day for the blessing of you being a part of our family. May peace be with you these final few days as you wrap up your mission experience. We look forward to being with you again, hearing of your experiences, and enjoying your spirit. Safe travels.

Love,

Dad

January 13th-20th, 2014

hey guys,

well i don`t know what to say. i feel a little embarassed cause i`m crying as i write this last e mail but i have no idea where the time has gone. 

i think i better just tell about how the week went.

we definitely worked hard and i gave it my all, we had some of the usual challenges but everything was ok. yesterday was a bit tough because the three baptisms that we were going to have fell through. it was weird because they were really sure. edit disappeared completely. her dad is really worried but we are thinking she probably ran off with an ex boyfriend. nicacio and jose manuel went to sacrament meeting and everything but the little girl, dulce, was really sick with a fever so they had to rush home to take care of her and their baptism got postponed till next week. its ok, if i`ve learned anything in my mission its been how to deal with hardships. the best part of the week was that we found two new great families to teach that look like they are going to progress really well. that made me feel a lot better knowing that i am going to leave the area in good shape. the members here have been really nice, saying goodbye and everything. yesterday one of the ward members gave a talk about how he baptized a woman in tijuana that later married a less active member and helped him to become stake president after some time. at the end of the talk he mentioned the name of that family in tijuana, "zamarripa". after the services i told him that my trainer was elder zamarripa from tijuana and he told me that he is the son of this lady that he baptized. small world. the point of his talk was that we really don`t know how many reprocutions are actions are going to have, or how far they are going to reach. thanks to this good brother elder zamarripa went on a mission and helped me to become the missionary that i am. i know that the lord has guided me in this great work and that a little farther down the line thanks to some of the things the lord helped me do here, many lives will be touched and a lot of good will be done. i feel incredibly grateful for this great chance the lord has given me to be a missionary. i will never be able to thank Him enough for it. my life will forever be diferent.

i`m sorry if this e mail sounds sad haha, i do feel sad. but i am also really happy and excited to see you guys again. right now we are just going to go back to the house and pack up my things. and then go to a lesson at six, the ward mission leaders house at seven, and then with the yepez family at eight to do a noche de hogar. and then tomorrow i head in to the offices and thats it. there will be some training meetings and on wednesday president takes us to the temple and out to eat and then thursday we head out. it`s just me and elder wirthlin, my mtc companion. it`s a small generation but i`m really happy to be going home with elder wirthlin. we had a lot of good experiences together in these two years. i remember when i met him on the first day at the mtc.

well i think thats about it. get all of your questions ready that i never answered in the e mails haha and i will be more than happy to answer all of your questions and share some of the experiences that i had. i love you all soo much! tillthursday!

love elder broadhead

ps did you talk to the stake president?? is it still dalh?

January 6th-13th, 2014

Hey guys,  

well, i don`t have any special music requests, i`ll be happy with anything. i assume there gonna be missionary hymns, which will be fine. if i remember right she`s pretty good at playing the piano, i don`t know if she is going to play a special number or anything but that would be cool. also, thanks for letting me know about the talking assignment. 

 

this week we worked a lot with the members, we went around sharing third nefi eleven, when the nefites had to be told three times before the heard the announcemnt of the advent of the lord and we applied it to them saying that lets not be like the nefites and listen to the prophet the first time he tells us to preach the gospel. we also commited them all to start praying for missionary opportunities, like finding someone to teach, offering service, or something like that. i was surprised to find out that almost none of them had ever done it.  

we have two baptisms for this my last week. edit, and nicacio. they both are going along good and are completing with there commitments. should go off without a hitch. i want to leave the area in good shape so we are going to work hard this week to put a ton of fechas for february. our goal is to find at least one new person to teach every day from our own efforts, like contacting and knocking doors. apart from the normal references and old investigatores and things like that. 

i feel happy and a little weird. sorry i didn`t have a lot of time to write today. we went to the aquarium and carls jr for the district activity today. it was fun. i`ll show you the pictues despues. 

i love you all and we`ll talk to you next week. i`m not sure how the getting relieved proccess works, can you talk to the stake presidente about it and let me know if it is going to be the same day i get home or the day after. thanks!

love elder broadhead

December 30th-January 6th, 2014

hey guys,

well i`m not gonna lie, its hard on mondays now that everyone is reminding me nonstop that i don`t have too much time left. it makes me feel weird. but thanks for the e mails i always love hearing about what you guys are up to. 

presidente let me know that he had approved the extension that i asked for to be here for the visit of the general authority, but you`ll be happy to know that i explained to him that you guys had got mad when i mentioned it and so i turned it down. 

on new years eve we worked until about eight thirty then went to eat dinner at the house of a sister that lives close by that had invited us until nine thirty. then the next morning we had a conference with all the zones of veracruz cause president knew that all the people were hung over so it wouldn`t do any good to go out and work in the morning haha. 

the sucky part was that the investigatores didn`t go to church cause they were all out of town, but edit is still going strong for her fecha on the 19th. and the american sister missionary that was in my ward went home this week so we took over all the investigatores that they had and we went around gettin to know them. we are still working with silvia and maria delia, two great investigator families, but we have to get them married. 

on sunday i gave a class to all of the liders of the ward and their families about how to share the gospel and use preach my gospel. i think it went well, we`ll see if it gives restults. it`s part of the new ward mission plan that we are implementing this year. 

all in all it was a pretty average week, i`m just really happy that all the festive dates are over cause it makes it a litle hard to work. everything is getting back to normal. today is a festive day here in mexico, its called the day of the three wise men. the kids get more gifts, and the custom is that they eat a big piece of delicious bread called a rosca. 

i still feel fine and am continuing to work hard to bring souls to christ, i love doing it. i feel fine about going home, i`m obviously going to miss the mission a lot and all of the friends that i have here, but i have no regrets. i have tried hard to live everyday of my mission like it was my last and though i have had difficulties and hardships i have learned alot and given everything of me. the only thing i`m a little scared about is adjusting to the change. but i know that i can do it with your help and with the lords. 

dad i can`t visit that website till i get back, but thanks anyways. mom i`ll try to remember to get you my drivers licence number for next week. thanks guys i love you all!!

love elder broadhead

December 23rd-30th, 2013

Hey guys,

wow, i really enjoyed talking and seeing you guys, it made me more excited to get back home. And i am way excited to go to florida mom! thanks for always preparing fun family vacations, its way worth it!

thats to bad about cody dad, si, i remember him. straight to the celestial kingdom. 

well this week the lord really blessed us. right after we got done talking to you guys, we went out to start working we turned the corner from the bishops house and i contacted a lady that was walking with her little kid. she let us write down her dirrecion and accepted a cita for the next day. so we went by to teach her and she accepted everything, including to get baptized on january 26th. on sunday she went to church and brought her kids with her of 13, 7, and 4 years old. they loved church and the kids saw some people they knew. yesterday night we went to teach them with the bishop and his wife cause they live close and she (silvia) started to tell us about how the day we contacted her she had been praying for god to send her a sign cause she has some problems in her life. so she left her house, turned the corner and we contacted her. she took it as an answer to her prayers. then sunday after church she was praying to know if the church was true and right after, we showed up with the bishop and she is like, that was another sign, yeah, after all these signs i`ll be willing to get baptized. the only problem is that she is not married. aghhh. we also found another really escogida señora that accepted to get baptized on the 2 of february. i feel like the lord has really recognized my efforts and is giving us lots of blessings. i know that if we work hard he always puts people in our path that are ready to accept the gospel. i`m going to miss this place. i`m excited to keep working hard this week and put more fechas!

the pictures are of us with the family that invited us to dinner on noche buena and with the cake on navidad. 

i love you guys! i know god lives and loves us.

love elder broadhead

Veracruz Christmas 2013