September 10th-17th, 2012

 

hey guys,

 

thanks for all the emails and everything! i got gramps too, sounds like everything is going along ok with you guys, i still pray for you all the time!

 

this week was mas o menos we didn`t baptize, our fecha didn`t come through. she is named alejandra y lives very far, we have to take a 15 minute bus ride to arrive to her house. we couldn`t see her all week because she works a lot and she didn`t come to church. but this ward is great because siempre someone comes to church that we didn`t plan on cause the ward is so grande one of the people usually manages to bring someone. another one of our investigatores named dyra came and her baptism is schedules for this saturday. she sixteen and her mom is member but not her dad. she`s an antigua investigadora de los elderes que were here before me. so this week we`re going to work with the other one that came to church (alejandra) to try and baptize her after the services this sunday. me and e charles both talked in church yesterday, his was pretty classic with his spanish. i actually got a little nervous cause i`m not used to this big of a ward but it went fine haha.

 

me and e charles get a long pretty well and we laugh a lot. we were walking in the streeet two days ago and someone stopped us and started waving a book of mormon in front of our faces and said that he wanted us to come by his house. the only thing is that he is missing one hand, but he doesn`t seem to care haha. he makes lots of hand motions and uses it a lot to illustrate points while he talks haha. it`s pretty funny but anyways we went to look for his house that day and we couldn`t find it cause ni yo ni mi companero know the area very well haha. so we had to start asking people if they knew were the guy lived that only had one hand haha and we eventually found it. he didn`t come to church though so we have to drop him. he`s a pretty classic guy though.

 

today we did a pretty good cleaning job on the house, it was pretty nasty. it`s alwasy nice having an american companion cause they value cleanliness haha. also we found this cafeteria dentro de sam`s club that is way good cause it`s all american haha so we`re gonna hit it up again tody haha.

 

mom`s questions. my comp is from arizona. yes we still walk everywhere and take buses that are pretty crazy and classic. the walking is taking a toll on my feet i have several ingrown toenails but there`s never enough time to go to the doctor haha. and no, i haven`t been sick yet on the mission, aparte de some minor coughs and colds. there hasn`t been a day where i haven`t left the house to work and i hope to keep it that way. and your idea about the chirstmas thing is just fine mom, gracias.

 

i have tons more that i alwasy want to tell you but there is no time! i am learning a lot and loving everything! i absolutely love, love studying the gospel, the only good part about getting home is going to be able to study whatever i want instead of for my investigatores haha.

 

the question that i ask everyday to the members that we eat with, is what was your missionary experience this past week? and i feel like i should direct it at you guys too! if you haven`t had one, look for one and constantly share your testimony!

 

i love you all and apreciate everything thanks for it! have a great week!

 

the pics are of my area, and my companion taking a pee in the bushes haha i alwasy take pictures when my comps pee in the wild haha.

 

-love elder broadhead

 

September 3rd-10th, 2012

 

 

hey fam,

 

thanks for the e mail mom, i didn`t get dads though. i pray that things will get better for him everyday. i also wish i could take some of his pain. i`m sure it`s how heavenly father felt watching his son go through the atonement. sometimes i wonder why heavenly father isn`t taking better care of my pops while i`m out here but i`m sure there`s a reazon/plan.

 

everything went smoothly for the transfers and the ward in camino real is really great and huge with tons of people. i`m in the northern part of the city and it`s mainly a suburb. there`s tons of people and houses. i`m still not used to the faster pace of life here, everyones in a hurry, my last area was a lot more tranquil. this week we didn`t have a baptism and we`re working hard to find one for this week. my companion e charles is really great and a good missionary but his spanish is not too shnazy haha. i`m his padrasta which means stepdad. when a missionary is new in the mission he is called hijo which means kid, and his trainer is his papa and his next companion is his padrasta haha. this sunday we were supposed to have three people come to get confirmed and only one came. it was kind of embarassing when they didn`t come and this bishop was calling for them but i learned a valuable lesson that you have to look out for the converts of the missionaries that were in the area before. we`re going to visit them this week so that they can be confirmed. it`s been kind of weird in this ward we have a ward mission leader and a ward council meeting. i`m going to have to learn how to work with these new tools. it`s kind of sucky not knowing the area but it`s all part of it.

 

this wednesday we had a zone class and i gave a training, and then friday i went to cardel to do a baptismal interview. cardel is about a half an hour busride north of the city and it`s the only other area in my district. the elders there are are really good though. it`s kind of a bit more stressful being the district leader, i have to remind myself to just have fun sometimes haha. the mission can get stressful sometimes though. we have the weight of the salvation of the people in our area on our shoulders and it gets heavy when they don`t fulfill with their commitments.

 

we have two investigatores that are going to get baptized on the 23 of september, rafael and his mama. there only problem is that they have to take a bus to get to the church and they don`t have enough money to do it next week. we`re going to visit them tomorrow to see what we can do.

 

the president of the mision has raised all of the weekly goals and now we have to get a ton of references and teach a ton more lessons to inactives. he wants us to prosilyte less and work more with members active, less active, and inactive. in order to get a reference. it`s really good though i think we`ll baptize more working in this way.

 

right now we`re going to play voliball with the zone, the zone is a lot smaller than my other one so we can get together on p days now. we have to go get the net and the ball from some members right now. there is a wallmart right next to my house so it`s been great being able to eat all the american brands and stuff, and finally i could buy refills for my razor haha. the house is not too bad but it`s not too great either.

 

well everything is going great here, i hope you all have a good week. i`ll talk to you later!

 

oh yeah the stake sent me the stake news letter, tell brother burnett thanks for me!

love ya all!

-elder broadhead

August 27th-September 3rd, 2012

hey fam,


thanks for the mail and updates!


well the big news is that i´m being transferred to a place called camino real, and i´ll be the district leader over there. there has been a ton of changes in the mission this cambio, all of the old zones got split up, and reaorganized was the whole mission to create new zones since now the mission is smaller and new missionaries are continually arriving. areas are beig split and new/old ones are being reopened/created. my new area will be in the zone mexico veracruz. i think it is in the city veracruz, or just outside of, if i´m right. its definitely in the northern part though. i´ll have more information about that next week. my companion will be e. charles. this elder either just finished the 12 week training program, or i will be teaching him the second half, i´m not sure right now but i´ll find out tomorrow! either way he´s pretty new. i´m not gonna lie i was hoping for a mexican companion but i´m sure elder charles is great. i´m a little nervous to be district leader but i´m excited for the opportunity to learn and get better. also a little sad to leave tres valles.

this saturday we baptized cindy. she is really great and one year from now when her and her husband and baby go to the temple, me and elder wheeler can accompany them! that´s gonna be pretty cool, i´m way excited for that, they just gotta stay strong in the church! last night they invited us over to their house and made us hot cakes! their baby jacobo is a cute little guy. we also confirmed miguel, the niño that we baptized two weeks ago. the look on his face was great after he got confirmed haha. i think that´s one of my favorite things of the mission, is the look on the faces of the investigatores right after they´re confirmed/recieve the holy ghost. they´re alwasy so happy and filled with the spirit. it´s inspiring and good motivation to continue working.

we had a good week and i was trying really hard to fill the tank of investigatores so that my companion and his new companion, which he will be training a bran new missionary, have tons of baptisms.

president of the mission is trying to start a new thing where we solamente work through references, and we don´t proselyte at all. it´s pretty bold and it will take time but we are going to start working with the members more. he has put on the temple interview questions, have you given a reference to the missionaries this month? crazy stuff i know, but he´s a bold guy.

change is alwasy good and exciting and i´m alwasy going to work hard and baptize no importa where i am. now i just have to keep my elders in the district motivated and baptizing.


i love you all and pray for you much. have a great week and keep loving life with a postivite attitude. love ya!

love elder broadhead

August 20th-27th, 2012

dear family,

thanks for the updates and everything. i´ll keep a look out for the package mama, thanks! i hope everything went well with gramps surgery! i´m sure it did. yeah dad it still is raining, but mostly in spurts of about fifteen minutes of hard rain, then the sun comes out and we roast in the sauna, then it repites haha. i´m used to the heat and the sweat now, doesn´t bother me, just have to drink lots. me and my companion get a long pretty well. we disagree on some things but we´re working on it. i´m learning a lot of patience here in the mision. as well as other things, the most important thing i´ve learned so far i think is how to recieve revelation. all you have to do is invite the spirit with prayer or scripture study, and then ask yourself questions and search the answers in the resources available, and in your mind. i think a lot of times we forget that a key part of recieving revelation is the meditation. we can learn through modern day prophetic revelation, for example in doctrine and covennts that some of the prophets recieve the most profound revelation just through thinking about things. like section 138 where the prophet has the vision of the spirt world. it came to him from reading the scriptures and then thinking about them is the key. every day we teach as missionaries that to recieve an answer to wether or not the book of mormn is true you have to read, MEDITATE, and then pray. sometimes we skip over that middle step but it is the mas important. the lord will confirm to you in the prayer what you have already thought about and drawn conclusions about.

this week was kind of a huge bummer, our baptismal date that was really a sure thing, fell through and cindy couldn´t be baptized. it´s cause they were´nt able to get married cause the offices were closed on friday. thursday night i remember telling elder wheeler, ´this is going off too smoothly, i´ve never had a baptism go off this smooth, i hope something doesn´t happen´ then the next day they weren´t able to get married. i jinxed it haha. this saturday though it should happen. we desperately looked for another baptism but couldn´t find one. we were following up on a lead of a nine year old girl whose parents were members, but after a lot of work we finally found her and she only had eight years old! that was another bummer, and then saturday night we went to visit miguel, the niño we baptized last week, and he was in a bad mood and told us he wasn´t going to church the next day to get confirmed. lo and behold him and his family didn´t show up for his confirmacion so last night we went to visit them and found his dad drunk in the street. so we brought him to his house and tonight we´re going to go see them so miguel can get confirmed this sunday. we have other investigatores who are being lazy and not getting married or fulfilling with their compromisos so we are going to leave them and look for others. president of the mission has asked us to focus on the elect people that are willing to be baptized the fastest as possible. this week we are going to improve on that.

we have high hopes for this week, it´s the last week of the transfer and perhaps my last week in tres valles so we´re gonna go out with a bang aka a baptism. we found a great family of four yesterday but the problem is they can´t read, that makes it a lot harder to teach but we feel they are escogidos de dos semanas. i´m to the point where this letter would be easier to write in spanish i think. some of the words come to my mind first in spanish haha and it´s a hassle to put them back into english.

thanks for the e mail dust, that´s pretty cool about your filming the hippies!

i love you all and hope you have a great week!

time goes so fast we have to do the things most importantes today!

love elder broadhead

August 13th-20th, 2012

dear fam,

thanks for all the letters and updates and i hope all goes well with gramps hip and with dads appt tomorrow. i´m sure it will.

well yesterday we baptized a little boy of nine years old. his name is miguel. it was a miracle that he was able to be baptized. i feel like all of the baptisms here are miracles. i have found out that the people that get baptized are usually not the ones we have plans of getting baptized when the week starts haha. i´m not sure why that is but all i know is that when we do everything possible to baptize, the lord helps us baptize.

this week we only met with miguel three times, they would never be home when they told us they would be, as usual here in mexico, so we couldn´t teach him very much. he is nine years old and both parents are members inactive. he is a great kid though and the problem was that his mom didn´t want him to get baptized at first. she would hardly speak one word to us, she is really shy. so we had to work with her and thanks to our heavenly father she consented. miguels dad is really great and he was alwasy on board for the whole thing. the thing is that the missionaries before us had already taught miguel everything, something happened and they couldn´t baptize him in that time, so we just had to review the teachings with him. the baptismal service was great and we feel really blessed right now. the goal was for every companionship in the mission to baptize this last week. everyone but one companionship baptized! it was pretty awesome that we almost completed with that goal.

on tuesday we had a zone class in tuxtepec and then i went back to the ciudad of aleman with elder parco to do divisons. it´s elder parcos first transfer and he does not speak any spanish haha, it´s classic to watch him have the struggles that all new missionaries have and i was glad to have the opportunity to teach him a little bit. he did good though, he knew the area pretty well even though he´s only been there four weeks.

the new house is working out pretty well. we just don´t have a washing machine anymore so we have to take our stuff to the nearest members house with a washing machine to do it.

sorry the e mail is a little bit late, we´re running behind today, my companion is very nit picky.

the baptism for this week is a lady named cindy. the guy she lives with is a member so this wednesdy we are going to marry them and then her baptism is scheduled for saturday. the only problem is that she just got sick with genge! it is the thing that the mosquitos give but we´re praying that she gets better!

everything is going well i love you guys and now we gotta get going we are busy busy busy!

love elder broadhead

August 6th-13th, 2012

hey fam how´s it hangin

thanks for all the letters i love em! they´re always so classic and i laugh a lot.

sorry i don´t have much time today to write because we still have to change houses but i´ll type fast. so this week we had to spend a lot of time lookin for a suitable house. somebody could make a lot of money on a real estate agency down here cause there are none haha. i now feel certified to be a real estate agent in tres valles because i know of everything thats up for grabs haha. because of that, we just had to work through people and references and what not, we started with the members, obviously, and worked our way outward. we found some reasonable houses and apartments but only one had airconditioning. the only thing is that it is really small, like the size of the kitchen at your house haha. i told my companion no several times, that our things wouldn´t fit but he was relentless and doesn´t like how hot it is here so i finally relented because i will probably be leaving here in three more weeks and he will have to deal with it for much longer haha. so right now we are going to move all of our things across town to the new bachelor pad. the only thing is that we won´t have a washing machine anymore so we will have to take our laundry to the bishops house about a block away and do it there on p days. ill send pics of the new house next week eh?

apart from that the missionary work went fairy well this week. we didn´t have a baptism but the thing is that lizoli, our baptism for this upcoming week, didn´t go to church. this week is the bautimision for presidents birthday and i think we are the only ones in the mission without a sold date haha, it seems to always happen to us but we are going to work hard and have the faith to baptize. in this mission the lord has asked us to baptize every week and i believe it´s possible. president called us and told us to work hard to fulfill with the goal. it´s just been hard cause we had to spend a lot of time looking for a house cause mission presidents wife was pressuring us to find one.

well mom about my hacked debit card, my first thought is that it was probably a mr. elder gruber over there in france that hacked it haha. no but i haven´t had to use it yet and the only time i think i will use it is towards the end of my mission when i wanna buy things, but it´s probably a good thing to have. so send it on down here and pray that it makes it. i´ll keep a look out for it. try and conceal it in the package somehow.

yeah dad you can keep forwarding me the letters. i don´t alwasy have time to read them but when i do it´s fun.

it is true that a hurricane passed through here this week. we did get lots of rain and wind but we made it through ok haha.

i love you guys and thanks for everything. keep trying things to get your back better pops, i wanna beat you in basketball when i get back. i´ll bring you back one of these mexican hammacks. they´re pretty sweet and comfy, it should hit the spot.

other than that things are going well and we´re workin hard!

-love elder broadhead

July 30th - August 6th, 2012

hey fam hows it hangin,

thanks for all the letters and updates sounds like you guys had fun on your trip. how´s dust doing? i haven´t heard from him in a while.

well this week was kind of a long week. we have been working hard to find new investigatores and we some that we thought were good but none went to the church so we were very frustrated. we didn´t baptize this week and we can´t get ahold of lizoli who we were plannning on baptizing this week that is coming up. early in the week we went to work in the small town of novara. its called a pueblo in spanish it just means like small village. we have to take the bus about twenty minutes to get there. there are about six or seven members there, two of which are active. we don´t work there much because it´s really hard to get people to the church in tres valles. but we figured we better try so we went and found a great family that was really interested the only problem is that the dad works on oil platforms in the ocean and so he rests for 15 days and then goes out to the platforms for 15 days. they weren´t able to go to church yesterday but we have hopes that they will accompany us this next sunday. they are called edit y hugo and have one of the pudgiest little boys i have ever seen haha. they good people though and we´ll continue to work with them. we have been hunting down the inactives in novara and tryin to get them to church and getting references. inacitves and less actives are a great way to get referencias.

also president trevino and his wife came to tres valles this week to interview us and to look at the situation of our house. i had a good interview with president and his wife is gave us lots of good things that we didn´t have for the house, for example we finally have a mirror in the house. but last night we got a call from president and he told us we need to look for a new house because our house is too hot and not up to standards, he doesn´t want us living there anymore. its true our house is sooo hot but i think i have gotten used to it. my companion is still adjusting to the heat. so this morning we went house shopping haha. a mission really prepares you for everything. we looked at several houses and the limit that we have is 2000 pesos monthly for the house. we we think we found a good one and it has air conditiong too, so we´re excited. we´ll keep looking throughout the week and next monday we´ll be moving to a new house.

in answer to your questions the book you sent has helped me a lot thank you! my companion is skinny and very neat, sometimes too neat like sometimes reminds me of dad haha. but he´s good and we work well together. his spanish is good as well, between the two of us we do just fine with spanish. a brand new missionary came to our district and can hardly speak or understand spanish and i realized that i have come a long way since i was at that point haha.


well gotta get going we still have a lot to do! love you guys all so much and constantly pray for you! have an awesome week!

-elder broadhead