December 17th-24th, 2012

hey guys,

 

thanks tara for your e mails, i laughed at you guys doing easy and enjoyed your letter about coming to the savior with haste. i will try and take you up on your invitation to really come to christ this christmas. the question is always "the how" or, how can we do it? how can we come to the savior with more haste? what do we need to change in our lives to be able to do it. the answer is fairly obvious. through sincere repentance and serving other people. i`ve thought a lot about repentance and studied it as well in my time in the mission to be able to better arrepentirme and teach it to other people. when you think about, repentance is pretty contradictory haha. part of the repentance process is not doing the same sin again. entonces when we think about it we should only need "one repentance" for every sin if we take part in a true repentance. it`s interesting to think about. and the blessings of coming to christ with mas haste, you mentioned them very clearly, mas peace and love in your life. i think it will be worth it.

 

dad to answer your questions, i am starting to get a little sick of the mexican food. the spicy factor doesn`t phase me anymore nor the diarieaha haha but i it`s ok it really is pretty good. i do mis some of the american food though.

 

sounds like your back isn`t getting any better. what are the risks with the procedure that your thinking about doing?

 

that is going to be pretty classic when you guys go sing. but it is a really good service that you`ll be doing. i`m sure it`ll be an experience that you won`t forget. good way to spend christmas.

that was also nice of you to invite the elders over. i`m sure they appreciated it.

 

tonight we are going to eat with the ward mission leader and so we won`t be really working tonight, only for like an hour. tomorrow in the morning we have district class and then i`ll be talking with you guys and then we`ll go to the comida and in the afternoon we`ll start to work again. we have one or two citas. it will be interesting to see if anyone recieves us. i think they will. by christmas night, christmas is just about over by then so i think at least a few people will let us in haha.

this week we could see the blessings of the lord in our lives. the week started out pretty rough again, so on thursday night my companion and i went into separate rooms to be able to pray alone outloud. we both had very good uplifting experiences and personally it gave me the opportunity to repent and recieve revelation to see what i could change and work on to have more success. the next day we put two fechas and both of them came to church. so we felt really blessed. i`m trying hard to improve and become a better missionary but it`s hard sometimes.

 

it really doesn`t feel like christmas for me but it will be way fun to talk to you guys tomorrow i`m pretty excited. think up some good questions so there aren`t any akward pauses eh? haha. thanks for everything and i`ll talk to you tomorrow like at twelve! (here)

love elder broadhead

December 10th-17th, 2012

hey guys,

 

sounds like everything will be good for our skype chat on christmas day then! it will be weird to be able to see you guys. it´s crazy to hear that lots of people in our ward are going on missions but really nice to hear that at the same time. the work of the lord will always go forward.

 

i guess the big news for you guys is that i got the package this week when i went to the mission offices, so no worries there. i am not gonna lie, i did open it. i was thinking about not telling you until next week but i figure i´ll jus tell you that i did indeed open it a bit temprano haha but it was awesome and great. thanks so much for all the gifts and candy and stuff. i´ll be sure to keep on to the wal mart card just in case. i used the twenty bucks today to go to the acuarium, wax musuem, and ripleys believe it or not museum. (i know my spelling sucks but i can hardly remember how to spell in english sorry.) we went with the district this morning and it was pretty cool. the acuarium was awesome and we got to see the last litle bit of a dolphin show. these were the first museums i´ve been to en mexico and it was pretty cool. they are right on the beach. i also really loved that picture of my baptism and dad´s baptism. it is a good keepsake. it is cool to be able to see. i try so hard to get people baptized and it was cool to be able to remember a little bit about my own baptism and dads.

 

this week we had a meeting with president treviño. all of the zone leaders and distric leaders of the four zones of the city of veracruz were present. he called the meeting because we are having trouble baptizing in the city. president concluded it was because of disobedience. so he planched us pretty good. then gave us some ways that we could improve. i´ve never had a problem with disobedience it´s always come pretty natural for me. but afterwards a few of the elderes in my zone confessed problems with disobedience. so now i am dealing with that. nothing too serios though. president talked a little bit more about the importance of the reazons why we are obedient. he taught us through the scriptures that when our obedience depends on someone else, instead of coming from our love for the savior and desire to obey his word. we only recieve half the blessing. i´ve thought a litle bit more about it and it is true. he gave us some examples to illustrate the point. he talked about the difference between being obedient for different reazons. an example of our obedience depending on someone else is when we are obedient because we know our bishop is going to ask us certain questions and we don´t want to have to answer him bad. the other type would be we are just obedient and do what the lord asks simply because we love him. if we are obedient for that reason, we recieve the whole blessing. afterwards i thought a little bit about my own reasons for being obedient and made some goals to improve.

 

we now have two weeks in a row that we haven´t baptized and i know that we have to be the example for the zone and we´re not doing it. we are trying hard but really don´t have very many possibilidades for this week. we have planned a bautizona we are one of the only areas that doesn´t have a solid fecha. we are working hard and sometimes struggle to have the faith suficient to find people. en this time of year the people are usually more open but in these last few weeks we haven´t had too much luck. we are not going to be discouraged though and we´ll keep working hard.

 

on a side note dad the word trunky is used still, even the mexicans use it haha. actually in the announcements of the mission it got used this week. ¡no se pongan trunky por la llamada a su casa! haha

 

i´m looking forward to being able to talk to you guys and don´t get worried if it doesn´t happen righ at twelve o clock ok. cause i´ll be working in the morning and we might be coming from a cita. there was something else i wanted to tell you guys but i forgot so i´ll tell you next week. think up some questions if you want and i´ll be able to answer them right away next week!

 

love you guys.

 

love, elder broadhead

December 3rd-10th, 2012

dear family,

 

first off thanks for the nine worder dust haha i got a good laugh out of it. shoot for a fifteen worder next week! tara i enjoyed your comments on saviors relationship with us. ash, good solid e mail, enjoyed it as well. mom and dad, i got a little confused cause mom said a call would be better and dad wants to skype. but either way i will be doing the call/skype the 25th at about twelve o clock here, i don`t know what time it will be in utah but you guys can figure that out. next week you need to let me know if you want skype or a phone call so i can figure it out here. i`ve heard mixed reviews about skype, sometimes it doesn`t have a signal and everyone is talking over each other but it is cool to be able to see each other. you guys can decide. let me know for sure next week. i will confirm the hour and day as well for you guys next week. but plan on the 25th at about midday here en veracruz.

 

well i thought i was doing a good job answering questions but according to all your grumbling apparently not haha. i`ll try better.

 

mom`s questions: no there is not a walmart nearby, we use a mexican supermarket called chedraui. no i haven`t had a closet but tomorrow i will cause today my companion elder garcia goes home.

 

ok i think i answered all of em haha. don`t worry i`m sure the package will get here.

 

this week we baptized omar. he is really a good guy and we had a few complications in the ordinace because we had another recent convert baptism him and he wasn`t very experienced haha but everything turned out ok. omar has a bright future en la iglesia.

 

today my companion elder garcia goes home and in four weeks e mielnikowitcz goes home. it`s weird being around these two that are going home. it makes me think a lot about home. i`ll be glad to get em outta here haha. no they`re both really good and i`m learning a lot from them.

 

we are still looking hard for lots of new investigatores and we are being patient, confident that the lord will reward our work. it`s weird being a zone leader cause we have to go to lots of conferences and put on conferences and sunday evening we basically just spend it calling all of the elders for their datos. it sucks a little cause we don`t have as much tme to work.

 

we are still working with adrian, the joven that needs permission from his mom to get baptized. this week we are planning to go to his house with the bishop to try and get the permission. the ward is pretty good here in volcanes. definitely a lot smaller than camino real but i like it. we gave talks yesterday about christmas. it was good.

 

we are also working with a hermana that is named ana. she doesn`t tecnically live in our area haha. so we are pirateando (pirating) haha.

 

everything is going well here in mexico and i hope you all have a very good christmas season and that you can focus on what really matters about christmas, sharing the gospel or the good news that we have. dad in your talk just talk about doing the missionary work cause that`s all that really matters. i think i ward in utah might suck at it too cause i can`t ever remember having a convert baptism en our ward. here en mexico the members are a lot more focused on the missonary work and i think that is the only difference. we just don`t focus on it in utah. if i remember right we have two families in our circle that aren`t members. when was the last time you guys invited them to church?? it`s ok if they say no, and they might because one of their names is tatoomania haha but it doesn`t matter. its the invitation that counts.

 

love you all, talk to you next week.

 

love elder broadhead

 

i forgot haha we also went to the temple this week, it was an awesome experience. after we had a christmas conference with half the mission, and then a dinner. it was pretty good. the veracruz temple is awesome! i really miss going to the temple. until next year i wont be able too aaahhh

 

 

 

November 26th-December 3rd, 2012

hey fam,

thanks for the updates and all. it was good to hear from dustin, even if it was a five worder haha. yeah mom now i´m feeling fine, don´t worry, not sick anymore.

 

tell gramps that i wish him a happy birthday and that i love him and am grateful for the great example that he is for me and the whole family.

 

tara good luck with this guy problem, try not to worry about it so much, it´s something i´ve learned in the mission is that stressing out doesn´t do any good. two scriptures that come to mind. men are that they might have joy, and this life is a time for men to prepare to meet god. in few words these scriptures sum up everything we have to worry about in this life.

 

this week i got to know my area a little bit. my companions are elder garcia from mexico and elder mielnikovicz from argentina, it´s nice having a companion with a harder name to say than mine haha. elder garcia goes home next week, and elder mielnikoviwcz goes home at the end of this transfer, so i´ll be "killing them" both, as it´s said in the mission and next transfer i´ll get a new comp. it is a little weird being around these two that are about to go home haha but they´re still working good. we have a lot of fun and laugh a lot. e. garcia was the trainer of my mtc companion elder wirthlin and i already know him from when i was in foraneos. this week e garcia just went and did divisiones with half of the zone and me and e mielnikoviwc stayed here in volcanes and worked. we´ll be doing the same this week. the ward is good and i like it. we have a really good ward mission leader. the new young mens president of the ward is a missionary that just got back from serving in utah and his trainer was my mtc teacher. small world i know. it was cool to talk with him and continue working with him.

 

this week we get to go to the temple and have a small conferencia navideña! we are pretty excited. thanks for sending a package i´ll be on the look out for it! i´ll buy you all christmas gifts before i go home, but you´ll have to wait a little bit for em haha.

 

the kid named adrian we were going to baptize this week, couldn´t because his mom doesn´t give him permission. he is sixteen years old and really wants to get baptized. we´ll talk to the mom this week. we have another baptism planned for this week named omar. i think he just wants to get baptized for a better shot at a girl in our ward haha. but he understands everything we teach him just fine so we are more than happy to baptize him.he´s a good guy.

 

i´ve had a few chances to get to know the zone this week, we had a clase de zona on wednesday and a consejo de lideres de distrito yesterday. i have ten companionsips in the zone and they are mostly all pretty good elderes. this zone had a bad month last month and i´m excited to try and help us do better this month. today we are going to have a zone activity, and i´m sure you can already guess that when i´m in charge of it, there will be food involved haha so we decided to go to a buffet for the activity haha.

 

the house i´m in is by far the best i´ve ever had. we have a big fridge and a washer and dryer. it´s like living in heaven.

 

hey for the call home i think i will be doing it on the 24th about midday or so. its a monday and so it will be p day. might do it on the 25th. i´ll let you know for sure next week. what number should i call?? well just do it like last time, i call then you call me back, is it ok like that?

 

love you all and thanks for everything

love, elder broadhead

 

 

November 19th-26th, 2012

dear family,

 

first off thanks for all of the updates, the thanksgiving woes. sounds like you had a good time with the family. we had a good time here last p day and enjoyed a mostly american thanksgiving dinner, it was really good. i realized how much i miss american food haha. that sucks you got sick mom, but it sounds like you`re getting better. i got a little sick as well this week, actually i still am a little sick. i threw up quite a few times and continue with a pretty good round of mexican diareaha. i had to go to the dr for the first time in the mission. not too bad for having ten months. and i use the term ´doctor´ very lightly haha. i learned that in mexico, instead of giving you the shots, they just give you the medicine and then you have to buy a syringe and give yourself the shots haha. so i have now learned how to give myself shots. i got a good laugh out of the santa clause letters you guys did haha. some classic lines. i had actually forgot about my birthday and i`m sure i will forget about it again by friday but thanks for the birthday wishes. the only time i remember about it is when someone asks me how old i am haha.

 

well before telling you about the activity, i guess the big news is that i`m getting transfered and that i`m going to be zone leader. i`m going to the zone villa rica, area vulcanes (i think, i`m not too sure about the area) i`ll be in a trio (companionship of three) for two weeks and then one of my companions will be ending his mission and i will be with an elder from argentina. i`m a little nervous to be zone lider but i`m sure i`ll be fine. i was expecting another transfer here en camino real, and i couldn`t even finish training e. garcia (the training program is two transfers long) but i`ll go where the lord calls me and do what he asks me to do.

 

yeah we had the activity on saturday and it was a huge bummer. i`ve done two activities en my mission so far and they have both been huge bummers. we had done everything we could and we fulfilled with our part (what the bishop asked us to do) which was have a few baptisms alreadly scheduled for that day. which we did and we baptized both of them (cesar and silvia). the members really let us down though and hardly any showed up and even less brought their friends. we had invited our old investigatores that fulfilled with the baptismal requirments, and a few of them did show up, but they didn`t choose to follow the example of the savior and be baptized. i don`t see myself doing another activity anytime in the near future. i feel that my time and energy is better spent in other things if the dang members won`t support us. but in the long run i did learn a lot of things from the bishops activity. bishop was pretty bummed too.

 

well i feel proud of the work i`ve done here and i feel that i left the district better than i found it so i`m happy with that. i am going to leave my companion with several baptisms scheduled in the next upcoming weeks here and i can say i did my best in this area and am ready to continue working in another.

 

hey tara, sorry i didn`t get back to you in time about the sermon on the mont but i`m sure your talk was great. i did study it and learned a lot i just forgot to write you about it last week. alot of key doctrine is taught in the sermon on the mount and i would`ve loved to be there and listen to it haha.

 

well it looks like we`ve gotta get going, i`ve still gotta pack, play turista con los lideres de zona, and say goodbye to my conversos tonight.

 

i love you all very much and pray to the lord day and night in your behalf. keep being great people

 

love elder broadhead

 

 

November 12th-19th, 2012

hey guys,

 

sounds like mom had a good b day, thats good. glad to hear you got some relief en your back dad, keep going to this chirporacter eh? mom i can just use the skype account of some member so it`s not a problem. i`m just not sure how good the connection will be and it could me more of a hassle than just a phone call. we`ll have to see i guess haha.

 

sounds like thanks giving should be pretty classic again. the other ward in my district, cardel, has a member that is from canada, crazy i know, but she has offered to prepare us a thanksgiving meal for all the missionaries in the zone, so we`ll be going to that at two o clock today! aquí en méxico, se le llama thanksgiving, día de gracias.

 

well this saturday we are going to have our long awaited activity we had three people that were going to get baptized this weekend in the activity, but now we are down to one because silvia, one of the others, didn`t come to church today, and just now in the morning the other fecha, alicia, i called her to set up an appointment for today and she told me that she needed to wait longer before she could be baptized, so now we are down to one fecha aaahhh! it`s a good thing he is really escogido, his name is cesar and is really great. he`ll for sure be baptized this weekend and we are hoping for a few more en addition as well. we have yet to deliver una tarjeta navideña but i think this week we should do some. thats where we sing to the neighbors of the members in case you forgot.

 

i`m not gonna lie it was a huge bummer when alicia just canceled on us this morning. a lot of crazy stuff happened to us this week and it was the last straw and i got a little bummed out and frustrated with our heavenly father. there is a scripture that i alwasy share with investigatores en third nephi that talks about the power of prayer and it says that if we ask god for something, in the name of jesus christ, and the thing that we ask for is just, and if we have faith enough to recieve it, god gives it to us. and after having prayed so much for alicia and done everything possible so that she could get baptized this weekend, and now she doesn`t want to? it made me a little angry for a minute. but shortly after i realized that is was probably because i didn`t have enough faith, and if i continued having faith, she`ll probably get baptized this weekend anyway if she goes to the activity. i`ve learned a lot about faith on my mission and that it is the force that powers the universe and one of the christlike attributes most important that we can have. i`ve read the little book lectures on faith, and now this week i have started to read jesus the christ and i can see that my faith has grown a lot on my mission and that in these ten short months i have changed alot. i am no longer the same person that i was when i started my mission and i know i wont be the same person i am right now when i finish. the gospel of jesus christ, really deciding to accept it and live it, has changed me. which reminds me, i had an interview with president this week and i asked him again if i could extend and he told me that the church is making it really difficult to extend these days, so we`ll just see what happens. but either way i know that up to this point my mission has been the single most important thing that has happened to me. it will affect the rest of my life. i am happy for the chance to serve other people, espeically my companions. i`ve become good friends with elder garcia and he continues to progress and is becoming a great missionary. he helps me out a lot as well, keeps me excited.

 

the family we baptized last week got confirmed yesterday and i am really happy with them and can`t wait until they get sealed in the temple. it will be a very special day for them and me and my companion.

 

well looks like i`ve gotta get going, thanks for being a great family and look for chances to share your powerful testimonies with everyone. your testimonies strengthen even me and i`m glad i have the chance to read them every once in awhile in the back of my journal.

 

talk to ya next week!

love elder broadhead

 

 

November 5th-12th, 2012

fam,

 

thanks for the e mails. first off happy birthday to grama, and to mom! i hope you lovely gals have a great b day and know that i appreciate you both very much. especially for the example that you´ve given me and all of the support. any birthday gift requests from mexico?? hey tara sounds like everthing is good. that`s pretty awesome you got a missionary specialist and president brown to come and speak to you guys. good luck on your talk i`ll get back to you with some classic sermon on the mont comments. or maybe you could ask dad, he gives a pretty good sermon on the pot jajajaja. ash, i`ll keep a lookout for the family of your friend, but the city is pretty big haha. maybe it would be easier if your friend told them to keep a lookout for a pudgy sunburned redhead. i stick out pretty nicely here haha. mom, classic volleyball tourney, wish i could`ve seen it. cool story about that crook dad, enjoyed it. that`s cool about andrew and ben`s mission calls.

 

about the whole skype thing for christmas, yes we can do it and there are members here that will offer me the computer. so if you want to we can, or we can just do a call. think about it and then let me know in advance.

 

this week we baptized the family of hugo y ana and there two kids. they have another little girl but she is under the age of baptism still. now we are just waiting for a year so they can be sealed in the temple! it was a really special bauptismal service. this week we found three people that will for sure be baptized no the 24th of nobember so that the rest of the people in the activity can follow their example. we are still inviting all the old investigadores, theres a ton. we are trusting in the members a lot that they bring their friends. i called presidente treviño and invited him too so he is going to be there to supports us in the actividad. we are also doing another activity, i can`t remember if i already told you, but in this activity we are going around with the members and inviting people to a christmas activity. our part of the invitation is sing one verse of a christmas hymn and read two scriptures about christmas from the libro de mormon. yesterday in sacrament meeting the bishop was explaining the activity to the members, and then he called us up to demonstrate how in the invitation would be. so we sang and read the scriptures. i`m just glad my companions a decent singer cause i definitely couldn`t be worse haha. afterwards the bishop is like, well even if they can`t sing that good, it`s the feeling that counts haha.

 

of the three people we are going to baptize on the 24th, all of them are escogidos. i was so worrried for finding someone solid to be baptized for the activity and prayed so much and the lord blessed us with three escogidos. i feel a lot more relieved cause now the bishop isn`t pressuring us so much but i`m still stressed out for the success of the activity. i know that if i do everything possible the lord will make up the rest and it will be a success.

 

my elderes in cardel also baptized and we had another bautistrito. i`m happy with them. i did divisiones this week and their area looks to be in good shape. one of my favorite parts about being district leader is that in the clases of district we do fisical competitions halfway through the class to see who will go first when we do the teaching practices. we do wall sqwats and pushups and things like that for the competitions. this last week the competition was to see who could hold their scriptures above their head for the longest.it was soooo funny the elders were trying so hard to win and yelling and screaming in pain hahhaa i was dying laughing it was soo funny. i`m still thinking about the work out we`ll do for the class tomorrow hahaha.

 

the coolest part of being a missionary is when your converts accompany you to a lesson and bear their testimony. this week one of my recent converts jose manuel went out with us to teach and it was one of the best experiences i`ve had on my mission, listening to him bear his testimony and talk about the changes he has experience in his life thanks to the gospel. i`ll definitely never forget these moments and i feel grateful to be a tool in the lords hands.

 

we are continuing to work hard here in camino real and expect the same from you guys back home. i love you!! thanks for everything.

love -elder broadhead