January 11th-18th, 2016

Hello Fam!

It was a great first week in Mahomet Illinois. It's the cutest small town on the edge of the mission. It is the exact opposite from my last area in St. Louis and I LOVE IT! First of all, we walk a lot because we can and because we don't have tons of miles on our car haha. But I have found great joy in walking past corn fields in negative 10 degree weather! You might think I'm being sarcastic but seriously it is just so amazing. I look around and it's just flat, corn fields, and grain elevators and I am SO HAPPY haha! Me and Sister Grover just walk and talk and meet lots of great people :) So Sis Grover has been out about 4 months and she is from Arizona! She's a really hard worker and I appreciate that so much. The white wash has been awesome, we already have a lot of awesome investigators and one with a baptismal date! The best part of this area is we get to teach FAMILIES! Haha it's been so long since I've been around families! Well, just 6 months but I MISSED IT! Families are amazing. We have a ton of awesome people that we're teaching. My favorites are a couple named Mama and Biscuit. I will send a pic of them because they are just SO COOL haha. The Ward is amazing and really supportive. We share the ward with Elders who cover the other side of the ward because the boundary is super big. Every night the ward mission leader has us all call in on a conference call and share how we have seen the Lord's hand in our lives that day. I love it, he has us do it because he wants us to constantly be reminded that this is the Lord's work not ours and that He is helping us every day. 

I think the most spiritual experience I had this week was when it was raining, it was cold, we were walking to the trailer park down the road, walking past a corn field, and I realized this is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. I'm in the middle of Illinois in a tiny town having the time of my life! I think there are a lot of things that added to that joy, but the biggest is that I'm living the commandments of God! We are so blessed when we live in harmony with God's will.  

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." Mosiah2:41

Have a great week! Thanks for the support! This is Christ's church and He is at the head. Elder Rasband told us a story of when he was getting called to be a Seventy, he was asked "is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ burning in your bosom as it did when you were a young missionary?" The biggest impact the mission has on us missionaries is that we develop a very personal relationship with the Lord, and our testimony of Him is what drives us to do what we do. He lives. 

Sister Broadhead