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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

December 16th-23rd, 2013

 

 

Hey guys,

the 26th is good for me at 1230 mexico veracruz time. i don`t know what time utah.

this week was awesome because i recieved the surprise news that cindy and arturo and their baby jacobo were going to get sealed on friday. presidente treviño called to tell me and give me permission to go. it was pretty cool cause i got to be the acompañante of arturo for the endowment and also we were witnesses in the sealing and got to sign the certificate and everything. it was one of the best experiences of my mission. i felt really good being with them in the celestial room, it`s  a great family. i really didn`t know what to say, overall i just felt really motivated to do it again, to help another family achieve that. i know i only have four weeks left but i am not going to stop being a missionary when i get home.

it was also a good week cause we helped jorge get baptized. he was really happy and the baptismal service was nice. that`s another great family. i also took an oral spanish test this week via internet in the offices, it was kinda hard but i got "advanced" i`m not sure if thats the top level or not but i`m happy with it.

i`m excited for this week because it`s christmas, we are going to take advantage of the chance to teach people about the birth, ministry, and mission of christ and try to teach a lot of lessosn and find news. on the 24th and 25th. it`s gonna be good.

i got the christmas package mom!! thanks so much we enjoyed it all!! i am so lucky to have such a good family that remembers me at christmas time even if i am far away. i`m sorry that i can`t send you guys gifts this year but just know that i love you all and will be thinking and praying about you oft.

love elder broadhead

December 9th-16th, 2013

hey guys,

well first things first. i`m thinking it would be best for me to do the skype on christmas eve in the afternoon. like at three thirty or something like that but if you guys cant i can do it on the 25th or the 26th as well. let me know exactly what day and time you want to do it in your next e mail so i can make the arrangements here. 

something funny happened this week because american girl missionaries are starting to get here and one of them is in my district and when i met her she was like way surprised and said, your elder broadhead?? i was like, yeah, why? she said that she was a follower of my blog and had read all my letters home haha. i`m not gonna lie i felt a little embarased cause i feel like she knows all my secrets haha. weird.

well the time keeps flying by and another week is down. this week we confirmed elva and kept teaching jorge. he is solid to get baptized this week. we are working hard to find new people. edit went to church with her family so that was awesome she should be baptized on the twenty ninth if everything goes well. the only problem is her work cause it is crazy in december so it is hard for her to go to church and for us to find time to teach her. yesterday we had an awesome training from pres treviño and one of the area seventy from here on the obra de salvacion. wow it was awesome. half of the mission was there and all of the ward council of every ward in half the mission. it was packed but amazing because i got to see all the ward leaders of my old areas and it brought tears to my eyes to be able to see and feel the love we have for each other and i recieved the confirmation that this was definitely the place for me to serve my mission, the lord doesn`t make mistakes. i could really see that i did make a diference in these peoples lives and it made me feel really good. i got to see arturo and cindy from tres valles and they said they are definitely going to get sealed before i leave, the delay has been because they are going to move to veracruz at the end of the month. but they are still going strong. i`m so happy to be a missionary. i love you guys a lot!! till next week!

love elder broadhead

December 2nd-9th, 2013

hey guys,

thanks a lot for the emails i alwasy enjoy reading them. 

well this week was great cause we had the baptism of elva. the only bad part was that there were problems with the font cause our building is really old and it didn`t fill up all the way, only to less than waist deep so it was a hassle getting her under but it turned out ok. the service was great because this week the ex stake president got called as our ward mission leader and did a great job planning the baptismal service. i absolutely love having a responsable ward mission leader!! we also are teaching a really great part member family that is called jorge. he is really excited to get baptized on the 22 but we are thinking about moving his fecha up to this week cause he is progressing good. he went to church. then came back at four for the baptism, and then went with us to the stake center at seven for the first presidency devotional. he loved it all and loves to have all his family with him in churhc. we are going to take our ex bishop tomorrow with us to the lesson. this week we went to the temple, oh my heavens it was awesome. i love the temple!!! we had the christmas conference as well and i passed in front to give my final testimony. i felt weird. don`t know how to describe it. i have been having a lot of mixed emotions lately about going home but i know i can`t avoid it and am going to take it with a good attitude. i got my travel plans this week as well. looks like i`ll be going to mexico city then los angles then home, it`ll be a long day and i hope my bags don`t get lost. well thanks for everything guys it sounds like your doing well at home, i hope you get feeling a little bit more better dad and i hope taras boyfriend doctor invites her to get married soon. thanks for the updates, love you all!!

love elder broadhead

oh ya also pres called me and asked me to help him out by being district lider this last transfer here in revolucion. that`ll be a nice little change. 

November 25th-December 2nd, 2013

hey family,

it´s good to hear you guys had a nice thanksgiving dinner. we did too haha. the keelers (temple missionaries) put on a nice thanksgiving dinner for some of the missionaries and we got lucky enough to be invited! it was really awesome to eat some good classic american food, oh how i had missed mashed potatoes and i didn´t know even know it hahaha. we had stuffing and turkey and pie. it was really good. i have had two good thanksgivings in my mission. my birthday was also nice because we got a good day of work in, we found a really good lady to teach. we went on saturday morning, we had contacted her last week and put an appt. we got there and she started telling us about all of her problems, hurt knee etc etc but most of all she started talking about how she feels so lonely because a year ago her husband died and she hasn´t gottten over it. we listened and then taught her about through baptism she can one day be with her husband forever, obviously she accepted to get baptized on the fith of january. i love teaching the gospel. we have lessons like that all the time and the spirit testifies to the people and if their heart is open they accept everything. i am saving the two little birthday cakes you sent me mom for my companions birthday that is going to be this sunday. on sunday also we are going to have our first baptism here. elva is going to get baptized. she is really commited and we are happy with the conversion process that she has had. we also have been working with the ward list and going to hunt down a lot of the inactives. yesterday the lord gave us the great blessing of arriving with an inactive family and the dad was like, how awesome you guys got here, because yesterday i was telling my cousin that if he saw you guys to tell you to come by. i love how the spirit guides us to people like that. he proceeded to tell us that he wants us to pass by and teach his daughter so she can get baptized. she´s 22 and the only one in the family that is not member. we have an appt forwednesday. well thats basically what we have been up to lately. i have really been enjoying my studies lately and love learning more about the scriptures. especially i like studying the new testament and third nephi to learn directly from the saviors teachings. i love taking the sacrament and then during the week enjoying and battling to have the companionship of the spirit. its great. i love you guys a lot and miss you. thanks for everything you do. that´s great dad that you are studying pmg because when i get home we are going to go to work. it would be awesome to make a family mission plan and try to start sharing the gospel a little more. i know there are people in your lives that the lord is preparing to accept this message. it would also be awesome if you guys could start learning about the work of salvation. go to the web page and watch the videos. those are the same videos we always watch with the members to get them excited to share the gospel.


love you guys

hasta luego elder broadhead

November 18th-25th, 2013

Hey guys,

 thanks for the emails. i didn`t know about my return date but its nice to know. thats good advice dad. hey thanks for sending me the photos. i sent them to the offices already.

this week was good but we didn`t have much time to work. because on thursday we had interviews with president and we were in the offices all day waiting for our turn cause it was scheduled badly. And on Saturday it was the stake conference. Elder de hoyos and Elder Ortiz came and it was awesome. The messages that they shared were all about the work of salvation and i loved being able to be there and it was awesome to see them motivate the members so good. Presidente Treviño also participated and it was a really spiritual Saturday. The conference on Sunday was good because a new stake presidency got called but the bad news is that our awesome bishop alvarez got called to be second counselor. Dangit! He was such a good bishop. Now we just have the two consouleros that aren`t so good. Oh well. We will have to work with what we have. The other good part was that the hermano yepez took one of his other inacitve sons to church. It was awesome. Little by Little the whole family is getting activated. Our investigator elva was the only one that went to church, her fecha is still good for the ocho but the others didn`t go. we are still teaching them but our patience is wearing thin.

 

Elder rojas had a rough week because he got down on himself a Little bit. But he looks better today. i exigir a loto out of him but its for his good.  He has taught me really good how to throw a trompo (top) its a mexican toy that all the kids play with and it is really addicting. We play it in the night. I`m getting good.

 

Today we went to the church and played volleyball with the district. There wasn`t a net so we improvised.

Well guys i know that the church is true and am happy serving a misión. I have learned a lot and i love the daily battle of trying my best to follow the spirit to find teach and baptize!

 

Love Elder broadhead

November 11th-18th, 2013

dear family,

thanks for all the emails, it`s always nice to read them.

mom i need you to do a favor por fa, because the zone conference before a missionary goes home the mission does a little video tribute to the missionary, like with the video of when he got to the mission and some photos from his mission. my last zone conference is coming up so they are going to do the video tribute to me and they are already asking me to send them photos. i just need you to send me a photo of before the mission of me by next monday. i was thinking of that photo of me right before i got my haircut and had a red semi afro? i think it would be good for the missionaries to laugh at haha. and you could also send five or six of the photos that you think it would be good to use for the slide show of during my mision. if you don`t have time that`s ok i can look through the ones on my camera and choose a few but i was just thinking if you have all of the photos over there in a file on the computer or something it might be easier. so the total would be one photo from before the mission and five or six from during. thanks!

this week was really nice because all of our investigatores that have fecha are doing well. it was great to see vicente go to church in a white shirt and tie and jesus really liked the church as well. he was even asking us a lot for the book of gospel principles haha. we got one for him. we also helped a family of five that was inactive go to church and another hermano that was inactive. we owed it to a fast that we did this week so that the persons would go to church. it worked. i know that prayer and fasting works. this is the most success the lord has ever given me with the inactives in my mission, its been really great to see and we feel really blessed. we`ll keep at it. the bishop really likes it, it was classic yesterday he said you guys are giving more results than the home teaching program as a whole haha. last night we went to a stake training for the ward mission leaders. ours just got called yesterday, he is the bishops son. we went with him and the bishop, and president treviño gave the training. it was really good and  helpful. i don`t know about utah but here in mexico there has been a ton of focus on the new work of salvation program. it`s really great. now everything is combined, if there is a training for the missionaries, the members are invited, if there is a training for the members, the missionaries are invited. its all for one nowadays. i like it. our bishop is really great. the stake president here is getting realesed this week in stake conference. that means elder de hoyos is coming!! i`m really exicted. 

well thanks for everything guys i love you lots! today we went to littler ceazars haha it was great. i`m full. 

love you lots.

love elder broadhead

November 4th-11th, 2013

Hey guys,

Well first off, happy birthday on the fifteenth mom!! i hope you have a great birthday and i will be thinking about and praying for you a lot. thanks so much for being the best mom an elder could ask for, i am very proud to be your son. happy birthday!! 

We had a good experience this week because we started working the the inactive husband of one of the sisters in the ward. we had two lessons with him this week that we tried hard to listen to him and try and help him come back to the gospel. the great surprise was that he went to church on sunday! the best part was the smile on his wifes face. she was so happy to be there in the church with him. we have had really good success working with the inactives. in ward council after the services the bishop with tears in his eyes, thanked us for the work we have done up until now. he then asked us to explain to the council how we had done it. we just said, "with love". for the work we have done with the inactives we definitly have the confidence of the bishop and members. we are also working with the brother of one of the sisters of the ward that is really liking what we teach him. he accepted to get baptized on the first of decembre. we are also working with vicente still. he didn`t go to church cause his grandma got sick so we are going to have to push his date back to the eighth. 

my companion is teaching me a lot about patience and how to be patient. he is not progressing as fast as i would like but the good part is that he is talking more in the lessons and not as homesick. he really likes basevall and is also a red soxs fan and was happy when i told him that they had won the world series haha. today we went to mcdonalds haha it was way cool the macdonalds here are like upper class restaurants and only the rich people go haha so we felt out of place but it was fun. 

elder benjamin de hoyos is coming to a stake conference that we are going to have here. and i am really excited. he is in the area presidencia. also one of the american missionaries from the temple invited us to an american thanksgiving on the twenty eighth cause it doesn`t get celebrated here. it should be fun.

thanks for everything guys i love you a lot. 

the pictures are of my chapel and me in one of the rich houses that we have in our ward. 

love elder broadhead

October 28th-November 4th, 2013

Hey guys,

congrats mom that the red sox won!! glad your back is feeling a little better dad. Happy birthday ash!!! i hope you had a good celebration with the fam and i hope you have a good day on the seventh. i can`t believe you are going to be 19!! i hope you do something fun on your b day!! love you!!

well i am really happy here in revolucion 2. my hijo is called Elder Rojas he is from obregon sonora. in the north. he is a little rough around the edges but all around a good guy because he is sincere. he is struggling to leave his family behind and learn how to teach the gospel but all the new guys have to go through that. we have been going around this first week getting to know the members and have found some good investigatores. we share the ward with two sister misionaries. sister de orbe and sister jaquez. the obispo is really good cause he is really focused on the missionary work and a really organized guy. i like him a lot and can tell that we are going to have exito in this area because of him. i have learned that a good bishop is one of the keys to success. one of the parts of our area is the nicest part of the mission. like big houses, nice cars and stuff like that. president treviño lives in our ward but doens`t attend it because he didn`t like the young womens program for his daughter so they go to a different ward. the best part was that the first week we brought 2 investigators to church and two inactive families. the best part was that one of the inactive sisters that we went to church got up and shared her testimonio in the sacrament meeting and thanked us and called us angels. those are the moments that motivate me to keep working. i am working really hard just like before and i can tell we are going to have a lot of sucess here. it`s a good ward. i`m happy to be training and teaching everything i know to elder rojas.

the pictures are of us at a dairy queen haha i am glad to be back in veracruz because there are a few american restaurants as well. we also went to wal mart today. wow it feels good to be in a walmart haha. 

love you guys, thanks for everything,

 love elder broadhead

October 21st-28th, 2013

Hey guys,

sounds like everything is good back home. i hope you have a happy halloween! thanks so much for the package!! loved it. wow how i missed candy corn haha. thanks alot. 

we had an activity that we did this week that turned out not too bad but not too good. it was a rally with lots of little games but it was poorly organized by the district. oh well they tried hard. lots of people didn`t come through for them and al final the missionaries had to do almost everything. it was a good learning oportunity.

well i`m getting transfered to ciudad aleman of the zone tuxtepec. and i`ll be training!!! president told me that before he read my request to train he had already done the transfers so i know it is the will of the lord. last night they told me that i was going to open an area in veracruz because an area that already has missionaries was gonna divide in half. the other missionaries that are already there are sisters, so i wasn`t to happy about it, but then they called this morning and told me that there had been some minor changes and that i would now be going to ciudad aleman. me and my hijo will be getting there in whitewash. i`m excited because i used to do divisiones there when i was in tres valles. because it used to be part of the same district. so i know a few of the members. it`s a branch. they don`t have a chapel so they meet in a prayer house, i think its called. casa de oracion. i`m really excited for the change. i was tired of being zone leader. 

the members have been really nice here giving me gifts and inviting us to eat today cause yesterday i talked in church and announced that i was going to leave. a little later we are going to eat with preisdent masa (branch president) and then in the night we are going to eat with presidente vasquez (district presidency) 

filiberto, the investigator we were going to baptize yesterday didn`t get baptized because we didn`t think he is ready. he had started telling us that people had been coming to him in visions and attacking him and things like that so we were like, well we are going to wait a few weeks for your baptism. he still went to church though. he`s a good guy and understands everything, he just might not be allright in the head.


well thanks for everything guys, i love you all. i`m trying really hard to have the spirit with me to have great lessons.

love elder broadhead

October 14th-21st, 2013

 

 

Hey guys,
 

mom, my ministerial certificate says the 20th of january. but i don`t know the exact date still. this week was rough cause we couldn`t find any new people that were good. we are working hard to always have the spirit to be with us to be able to find people. it is very obvious the difference between a lesson with the spirit and one without it. i asked president today in my letter to him if i could spend the last two transfers of my mission training cause this is the last week of the transfer. we`ll see what happens. we had zone conferences this week and for the first time the local priesthood leaders were invited so that we can learn how to work better together. it seems like it worked cause they are a lot more willing now. the mission also gave us a new book that talks about how to deal with stress in the misison its pretty classic. i am still working hard everyday and trying to talk to as many people possible about the message of the restored gospel. today in the morning we went out early to the houses of some of the elderes in our zone to surprise them and found a few problems with disobedience.

 

overall i am happy and trying my best to be better every day.

the picture is of me and some investigators in catemaco. great people. i was able to teach the elders in catemaco how to teach people and not lessons.

i loved the pic of the jazz game mom, looks like you had fun.

love, elder broadhead

October 7th-14th, 2013

Hey guys,

first off, thanks so much for the pictures, it was awesome, lets see if you can keeep em comin. it was great to see that i`m not the only incredibly red person on earth haha. love you guys. second off, i`m not sure what to say about the arthritis in your hips dad, it`s good that they found what could be the problem but bad that you have arthritis. when would the surgery be? i`ll have to ask my companion aragon (he`s a male nurse) a little bit more about arthritis.

thanks for sending the package, i`ll be on the look out for it. if you happen to send a nother package before i go home i would need some new garments tops and bottoms, like three, and a english - spanish visual dictionary by darling kindersley. i saw one of the missionaries that had it and it looks really helpful. its just like a dictionary with pictures of everything like food and body parts and sports and thinkgs like that.

that`s cool to hear about ryan short going on the mission. there is lots of missionaries these days. i was reading the liahona of october and it talks a lot about the work of salvation. i don`t know if you guys have read it yet but i hope so. it is awesome, i`ve learned a lot. i`ve been doing allright on my conference goals, i`m trying to talk with absolutely everyone i come in contact with like i did at the beginning of my mission and i`m memorizing the articles of faith and trying to not get mad at all costs.

this week we found a great family that looked like they were going to progress until saturday we went for the appt and the dad told us that we shouldn`t come back and that they were happy in the catholic church aaaahhhh heart breaker. this week on friday we will be having zone conferences and be looking for new people again.

i`m also a little confused on what happened with scott cause nana told me that they were moving to utah.

also i will have a ton of great farting stories to tell you guys when i get back haha.

well i`m happy to be part of the true church of god and am trying my best in every moment. i have learned that for me, the biggest battles in life will be mental. anything i put my mind to, i can easily do. sometimes its just that a lot of doubt and fear of failure and other things come into my ind that i have to fight out. like dad used to always say is true, it`s all in the head. god is a person with a body like us, his power comes from his mind. al que cree, todo es posible. thats the mission theme.

love elder broadhead

the pics are of a zone activity we did today. i really don`t like doing them, it`s a big hassle but it turned out fun.

September 30th-October 7th, 2013

hey fam,

good to hear from you all. first off, mom no they haven`t told me about any release date and i`m not asking. second off i really haven`t heard anything about the world series. it`s pure soccer here. dad, i hope it goes well at work with your back this week and i hope you can get some relief. where did you take that beehive down from?

This week was pretty cool because of the general conference. wow i absolutely love the general conferences. i love the spirit that can be felt. i remember on saturday morning by the time i got to the church for the conference i was a little mad and frustrated because we had passed by for some investigadores but they couldn`t go, but i remember that when i got there and started listening to the choir it was just an awesome feeling of peace and the spirit that came over me. i don`t know how anyone can watch the general conference and not feel the spirit. there were soo many messages that were shared that seemed to be just for me or the mission or my investigatores. i got to watch almost all of it in english which was even better. every time i see the conference my testimony gets strengthened and i know that the church is true and i know that those men are inspired by god. they can do what they do so well because they have learned after a lifetime of experience, how to recognize and listen to the influence of the spirt, act according to the prompting, and recognize the tender mercies in their life that come from it. i have already analized my notes and set some goals to improve. i hope you guys can do the same. 

after the conference we baptized jesus. it was a great baptismal service and the young mens president, lehi, baptized him. he`s a good kid. it`s gonna be hard for him cause he is the only member in his immediate family and he`s young. but i have the feeling that he is going to stay strong. this week we will be working hard to find new people to teach. that is the key in this new programs of five times in the church. we have to find at least 2 new people cada dia.

our other investigator that has a fecha is filiberto. he went to the conference and loved it. he has a few problems with the word of wisdom but he is on track to get baptized the 27th. he`s a really humble guy, in the heart and in the world. he is really poor but accepts everything we teach him without questions.

the other picture is of us at a restaurant we went to eat one day because the hermana couldn`t give us food. it was a lot of chicken and after my comp felt really sick with gas cause he ate too much and it was hillarios cause he accidently let some slip in the lessons haha.  

i love you guys a lot and am proud to be part of your family. i am trying hard to be more like christ everyday and develop christ like attributes. i know god lives and loves us and i know the scriptures are true. my prayers will be with you this week as always. thanks for everything, peace out.

love elder broadhead

September 23rd-30th, 2013

Hey guys,

well i spent a lot of time reading your e mails, good stuff. keep up the diet dad!! thanks for commenting about that mission conference, here the mission himn is brillan rayos de clemencia. brightly beams the fathers mercy, or something like that. 

well the hermano lehi went and bought me a 4000 peso camara for 1800 haha so i bought it from him for 1800 pesos. its like 170 dolares if you wanna put it in my acount! the camara is way nice, it even has wifi haha to send pictures direct from the camara. it can take hd video haha it´s a sony. i got a killer deal. way nice. electronics are way cheaper in mexico.

well i don´t have much time to write but i am way excited for general conference, it is gonna be awesome. we found a new family to teach. a single mom and her kids and nephews and nieces. they all went to church yesterday!! it was awesome. we also found a really humble guy named filiberto that also went to church, he got there on his own, it was awesome. teaching him is going to be hard cause he is really poor and not very educated so it is hard for him to understand some of the things. but we can do it. the training we had in veracruz on friday was great but we got back here way late and didn´t get much sleep. we are going again on tuesday for the zone leaders conference. after the confrence on sunday we are going to baptize jesus in the stake center. he is really excited and making a lot of changes in his life. he loves the church.

i love the gospel and know it is true, i love being led by the spirit to be able to fulfill my missionary purpose. i know that faith is one of the most important principles of the gospel, for something it is the first principle.

thanks for everything, i love you guys.

love elder broadhead