July 23rd - 30th, 2012

 

 

Whats happenin guys?

hey sounds like everything is goin well, thanks for the e mails i love em. first i got a crack out of elder riley broadhead`s comments about his dad haha it reminded me of you pops, and then i got a crack out of grandpa calling the MTC the IMC haha i love it. also tara thanks for the play by play you gave me on the very eventful journey to your car haha. hope you guys have fun on your vacation! how`s the weather like where you guys are?

well this was the first week with my new companion elder wheeler. he is from arizona and a good missionary. he has one more transfer than me in the mission. the new mexico veracruz mission is full of new missionaries, over half of us have six months or less! we had a mission conference last week that was very good. learned a lot and said goodbye to elder zamarripa and welcomed elder wheeler to tres valles. we work fairly good together and i`m sure we`ll have success. we weren`t able to baptize this week but we have a date for this weekend that should be solid. her name is lizoli and she is a single mom. her little boy is so funny, he cracks me up everytime i see him, he`s like four years old i think but he`s soo funny. he misbehaved pretty bad at church yesterday though haha. lizoli works at a taco stand and gives us free tacos, very good might i add. she has met with the missionaries before, a long time ago, and she always has really good questions when we teach her. i`m fairly confident she`ll be baptized this week, she`s one of those good people that just belongs in the church ya know.

well i really don`t have much to say this week. we got soaking wet before church yesterday cause we went to pick up investigatores and it started to rain really hard and i was the only one with my umbrella of course (constantly) so we both huddled under it but like twenty five minutes later we got to church soaking wet and my companion got asked to give a talk. it was hillarious though cause he was dripping wet giving his talk haha.

we`ve been doing a lot of finding this week and we will continue with it this upcoming week and we`re confident the lord will put chosen people in our path that are ready to be baptized. it`s my first time as senior companion and there´s a little more pressure but it`s still a good time. the people here are hillarious and they always make me laugh so that helps me not get so stressed out with all the responsobility we have as missionaries. sometimes it`s a little overwhelming but the lord helps us constantly.

mom that`s really nice of you to offer to send baptismal clothing but i think we can get some smaller sizes we just have to ask the other elders or the mission office, and they`ll help us out. thanks a lot though.

well i love you guys and i am very thankful to be part of this family. i`m also very grateful for the opportunity that the lord has given me to share the gospel full time! thanks for all your support.

the pics are of my new companion and of me and my old companion at the mission conference. they gave us pins for the four bautizonas haha.

oh and also i got the package you sent thanks so much!

-love elder broadhead

July 16th - 23rd, 2012

Hey my peeps!

hows it going? it was great to hear from everyone this week i love it. also thanks for forwarding me riley´s e mail that was cool to read. rather short though right? maybe that´s what happens at the end of the mish haha. thanks for the updates on everyone and my old buddies and stuff, that´s pretty funny about daniel and about ben b. and tyler. tell ben to stick it out, i loved the mtc but the field is a ton better, tell him i had to stay in the mtc an extra week so i had ten there, but i think he is going to be there for twelve, speakin chinese. i´m sure he´ll be fine though. also dad i got a laugh out of mom´s word choice of ´shoe´´ last week as well. also ash thanks for the e mail. i haven´t heard from dust in a while, give him a shout out for me will ya? i havent got the package yet but we´re going to veracruz tomorrow for transfers so i´ll look for it at the mission office.

 

well this week was pretty crazy again. we worked all week with nancy and israel her husband so they could be baptized, even the district leader came to our area to help us out with them twice. on thursday night they finally commited to be baptized on saturday. we were soo happy because again we were the only ones in the zone that didn´t have a solid date for this last weekend. the problem with nancy and israel is that they are having trouble in their marriage. we tried to help them understand that the gospel would help them in their marriage. israel alwasy wanted to get baptized, he just wanted to do it together with his wife, but nancy had her doubts about baptism. so on thursday nancy finally commited and it was a huge relief. one of her problems is that it was that time of the month for her and she didn´t want to get in the water hahaha. anyway we were way happy and friday we went to the ciudad aleman to help the district leader because his companion had gotten sick and he had to go to some appts. so i took care of his companion while my companion went out with elder ramirez to his appts. while i was taking care of elder slade, i get a message on the phone from nancy that says they don´t want to get baptized anymore! aaahh, their baptismal interview was scheduled for that night! so we hurry back to our area to go visit them but their not in their house! so at this point we start scrambling to get a baptism for saturdy, after much thinking we go and visit the mother of two kids that we baptized two weeks ago to see if she would want to be baptized. once again heavenly father recongized our work and she accepted to be baptized the following day. so we taught her everything that day and had a wonderful servicio bautismal the next day on saturday! her name is leticia and she´s pretty awesome, single mom.

 

everyone else in the zone baptized as well and we had four bautizonas in a row! definite mission record, possible world record. we have inspired other zones with our work and this last weekend two other zones had a bautizona as well. because we broke the record president trevino has called for a mission conference and so tomorrow before transfers take place there will be a mission conference! last night we went to tierra blanca to make a video for the occasion. in the video they asked us some questions about how we feel when we baptize and why we came on the mission and we´re all going to get a copy! it´s pretty cool. they made shirts for it too that are cool as well.

 

but my new companion is going to be an american! i´ll get to speak a little bit of english now! his name is elder wheeler and they tell me he is a genios, he studied at stanford haha. well i´ll find out more tomorrow when i meet him but i think he has like eight months in the mission so i´ll stay here in tres valles and i´ll be with him for this cambio. my companion is being transferred to just outside the city of veracruz. change is always exciting. we´re going to work hard to find someone to baptize for this week. we don´t have anyone on date but the lord always blesses us with someone, we just have to find em! the goal is baptize every week!

 

in answer to your question mom, spanish is coming along pretty well. i can speak just fine and say what i want to say more or less, also i read it with no problem, but i still have trouble understanding everything. some people i understand perfectly, some people i don´t understand at all haha. i still pray everyday for the gift of tongues, but it takes time.

 

everything is going well though and time is still flying like i can´t believe. lovin it.

 

have fun in south carolina and with everything! sounds like you guys are doing a lot of partyin with ward members, sounds like a good time. i love you all and thanks for everything! well i´ll talk to ya next week!

 

attached are a picture of the baptism, and one of our district having dinner in tres valles. one of our investagotores works at a taco stand and she gives us free tacos! she´s really nice, if she would come to church she´d be baptized!

 

also could you forward me ben grubers e mail as well? gracias

 

also dad, my companion has been to that place you mentioned, he says it´s pretty cool.

-love elder broadhead

 

 

 

July 9th - 16th, 2012

hey fam,

 

thanks for all the letters guys! i got lots of e mails from friends this week, it´s too bad i can´t write any of them back cause pres says we can only e mail family so sorry about that. tara´s stories are always classic, mom and dad you should read them too and then tell me how much of it is true haha. i always get a good laugh though.

 

 

well this week was pretty crazy. we started out on tuesday with a zone meeting in tuxtepec, president treviño came all the way out here to congragulate us on our two bautizonas in a row and he brought with him snacks and the movie called ´the book of mormon´ it felt like a real party it was so cool and relaxing haha we got to watch the movie as a zone, and then we went back to work in tres valles. but last monday night we started working with one of the alcoholics that came to church, i think i told you about him last week, his name is hernesto and he agreed to be baptized in the first visit. it was a huge relief to us cause we were the only ones in the zone that didn´t have anyone on date for this last weekend, so we were happy to have hernesto on date so we could continue with three bautizonas in a row. he´s a pretty unique guy though and as the week went on and we continued to work with him and teach him we realized that he might not show up to church or for that matter his baptism haha. he has had a pretty crazy life as a farmer here in mexico and he is the grampa of two of the kids that we baptized two weeks ago. his wife is a member as well as some of his kids. but in this mission the investigator has to go to church twice before he can be baptized. our plans were that hernesto could be baptized after church yesterday and confirmed next week. but because of some obstacles he wasn´t able to come to church and so he couldn´t be baptized. he really has the desire though and hopefully he comes to church next sunday so he can be baptized. but anyway we were bummed out cause at this point on sunday morning all the other companionships in the zone had baptized and we were the only ones that hadn´t. but while we were outside of the chapel greeting people before the meetings for the ward started, my companion felt inspired to ask one little girl how old she was. she looked to have about five or six years old but she said she was nine years old! he then asked her if she had been baptized and she said no! both her parents are members though, but only the mom is active. so right then and there we asked her mom if the little girl, miranda, could be baptized that day! she said no, next week would be better. aaaahh we almost had it! but after church the zone leaders called us and said they were coming to tres valles to go with us to visit the family of miranda so that she could be baptzized as soon as possible. so they came and we went to visit the family and after a bit of a battle we took them all to the church and had a baptism about eight o clock last night!
miranda was so excited to be baptized it was awesome to see, and i felt lucky to be able to baptize her. we´re taking them a cake tonight and going to have a family home evening with them. i attached a picture of her and her family.

 

so we ended up having another bautizona, three in a row and tomorrow we are going to tuxtepec for another zone meeting so we can stay motivated and have another bautizona this week! we´re going to make this record unbeatable haha. we feel blessed though and because of our hard work, the lord helped us to have a baptism.

 

we have hernesto and another family on date for this weekend in tres valles so hopefully all goes well. it´s the last week of the transfer and my last week with my trainer so i´ll most likely be gettin a new companion next tuesday! it´s kind of exciting! also we´re getting the first group of new missionaries this transfer, since i got here, i am already getting old in the mission aaaah!

 

oh yeah mom we killed the tarantula with a broom and there was lots of guts. and dad i forgot to ask my companion about that place but i´ll do it right now! no i haven´t used the bug spray haha i´m just used to it now! and yes it is still raining everynight and hot and very humid in the day! everything is going well though and i´m lovin it!

 

have a great week guys i love you so much!

July 2nd - 9th, 2012

hey fam whats happenin,

first off it was classic to get your e mails today, cause i read ashleys first and was just laughing my way through the whole thing cause i can imagine her writing it and also they way you talk ash is pretty classic. in the letter she tells me something then mentions not to tell mom or dad about it haha. then i read dad´s letter and he obviously had read the e mail ashley sent to me haha, so sorry ash, but he knows that two of his pudgster grown children ´snuck out´ hahaha. thanks for the letters though, i love hearing from you guys.

to answer the questions- i will probably be here in tres valles another transfer because at the end of this transfer my companion will most likely leave, he´s been here for six months, so i can show the ropes of tres valles to another missionary, then after that i would leave that next transfer, but who knows. i could leave at the end of this transfer, or be here two more. i do like it here in tres valles though, it´s a great area for the most part.

and no mom i haven´t gotten any mail here in mexico! with the excepcion of one dear elder from a buddy from college. it´s ok though cause it´s a huge hassle to send mail as well. my district leader did tell me that the zone leaders have recieved a letter thats for me so i´m excited for that. i´ll get it tomorrow morning, were going to tuxtepec for a clase de zona or something, we´re not sure. the big news of our zone is that every companionship in our zone has baptized two weeks in a row. when everyone in a zone baptizes it´s called a bautizona and we had two in a row! it´s the first time it´s happened in this mission. the zone leaders are getting t shirts made for it haha. it´s a cool accomplishment though and the best part is of course all the new converts.

also mom yes there´s lots of exotic animales and insects that i don´t know the names of and lots of dangerous ones that you have to avoid. really pretty birds and stuff like that. also theres a million dogs here, they are all homeless and sickly and annoying as well.

no i haven´t used the bug spray, you just get used to all the mosquito bites. now that i think about it though, i might start using it haha.

and for the talks and lessons we use preach my gospel, the scriptures, and the pamphlets that the church gives us to pass out. that´s about it, but it gets the job done.

well we had a good week in tres valles, we had to kill a huge tarantula the size of my hand in our house, but we also found some good new investigatores through references. two of which are alcoholics but really want to change and they came to church so we´re going to work with them to overcome that. yesterday when they came to church we didn´t know they had that problem, and i gave a talk on the word of wisdom haha. but they´re good people willing to change for the better. it´s been way rainy today and everything is all flooded, we had to walk in water ankle deep to get here in to the internet place haha. and we´re gonna get wet tonight working and also i just remembered that our clothes that were drying are now soaking wet again cause we left em outside haha. oh well. everything is going great though and the work is moving forward.

but yeah mom we´re pretty busy on p days so we don´t usually get to the e mail part until the very end. the member we had lunch with cooked us mole though it was really good but mole usually comes back to bite me later if you know what i mean. also we went running again with julio this morning, he´s a pretty funny guy we had a good time.

well this week we are working to get a couple married, the parents of sharon, so they can be baptized. the mom is married to someone else though and he won´t sign the divorce papers unless they give him some crazy amt of money, but there is a lady in the ward studying law and she is helpin us try and get around this guy legally. it´s been frustrating cause they´re great people that want to get baptized, we just have this dang obstacle. the dad, gaudencia is an immigrant from guatemala that has had a rough life but is such a nice guy, he always gives us things when we visit them. like this last time he gave us some random pictures of a jaguar haha, yeah it´s hillarious but really nice of him. he has a great heart and loves to tell really long stories.

well i think that´s about it, i attached some pictues i think, of the baptisms we had last week and one of me posing with my umbrella for a model shot, then one with the new district leader.

love you all so much and thank you for everything that you do! talk to ya next week! have a wonderful week this week and listen to the promptings of the spirit!

-elder broadhead

 

 

June 25th - July 2nd, 2012

hey guys!

thanks for all the e mails it sounds like everything is going great and i love the stories. especially the ones about seven peaks tar, pretty classic and funny. we´ll have to check it out when i get back. thanks dust and nana as well for the e mails. hmm it´s been a while since i´ve heard from a certain sister....not tara....ash! write me something will ya?

dad all i could see was just a picture instead of a video but it looked pretty awesome and i´m glad to hear that it all went well!

funny story about ben in france haha, classic new missionary stories, i still feel pretty new as well even though i´m almost at the six month mark aaahhhh.

thanks for sending the package mom, how much did it cost, you can use my money if need be! you won´t need to send anything more, sorry about that!

yeah we got rid of the rats, haha turned out to be more than one of them but they should stay away for awhile. we fed them to our pesky dog scrap.

this week we´ve been suffering through what´s called the borchoro. it´s when it rains really hard at night then is really sunny during the day and all the water evaporates and it gets even more hot humid and sweaty haha but it wasn´t too bad.

the mission split yesterday and president is really sad about it but i´m sure he´ll get over it. doesn´t feel any different for us here in tres valles haha. oh yeah before i forget this week i ate a chicken foot and the skin of a pig, seperate occasions. the chicken foot was nasty to look at cause it was a chicken foot, but the pig skin tasted nasty, both are just pure like fatty substance. they cook with a lot of fat here and for that i am getting skinny everywhere else except my pudgy gut is gettin bigger haha. oh well it´s all parte.

well we had three baptisms this week! we baptized one niño that is called sharon on saturday and two others that are named hasslid and henry on sunday, there confirmacion will be next sunday!

all of those niños we met at the begging of last week but they all had the desire to be baptized and so we got them right in the water haha. i´m trying to attach some pictures but the little girl sharon is a cutie pie haha. when i told her that she had the same name as my mom she thought it was the coolest thing in the world, her face lit up and everything, it was so cute haha. her family is really great though and we plan on baptizing the parents as soon as we can get them married.

yesterday was elections here in mexico and we had to go back to our house at seven o clock because they were going to announce the results and apparently it was going to be dangerous but we didn´t hear anything too bad. a woman won the election and there will be a woman president for the first time in mexico.

during that extra time that we had my companion and i got to talking and he proceeded to tell me that he was really disobedient before i got here and almost got sent home. he told me lots of things i didn´t want to know haha. but he has changed for the most part so i´m glad for that. there are lots of disobedient missionaries here in mexico i´ve realized, a few from our mission got sent home two weeks ago cause they had personal cell phones haha. crazy i know. don´t worry i don´t have any problems with obedience, (had to get rid of my personal cell phone though) jk.

other than that it was a pretty good week. i´m constantly trying to improve and be a better instrument in the lord´s hands. i really love reading the book of mormon and learned a lot from the book of alma and mosiah this morning, the stories in that book are great and the missionaries are awesome, some served for fourteen years! how lucky right!

learning tons and loving life, we went to tuxtepec this morning because the mexican missionaries in my district really wanted to go to dominos pizza haha. it wasn´t that great obviously, but they loved it haha.

i love you guys! have a great week!

love elder broadhead