10.26.15 New Adventures

Well Family,

As a missionary when the day comes you get a message from President that you are getting transferred, it usually comes with feelings such as sadness, anticipation, and maybe a little happiness if you don't get a long with your companion. This Friday, the message came through and I was pretty stunned. Elder Clegg and I have just been together for one transfer and  there are some exciting baptisms and families that we have found and begun teaching. There are so many great things happening here so it was definitely bittersweet to say goodbye to the families this week.  I have only known them for a little amount of time but they are amazing people that I will miss. But whatever lies ahead will be what God wants and is his plan for me! I’ll find out Tuesday where my new adventure will take me.

I'll share 3 sweet and interesting experiences that happened this week.

#1  We started teaching a family . . . . Interestingly,   the Dad found the Book of Mormon in an alley and he started reading it, later we met him while we were doing service at the Methodist soup kitchen. Coincidence? I don’t think so. We had a great first lesson with them. They are pretty glued to their church, but as we testified of the Book of Mormon, as we did there was special spirit filled the air, bearing testimony is so powerful. They are going to continue to read and pray about it!!

#2 Our most progressing investigator William, toughed out 6 hours of conference this weekend (Yes we got to watch conference! It was so awesome!!), I only caught him sleeping through 1 talk lol. He will be baptized in about 2 weeks and things are just going so well for him. He sees a lot of positive changes in his life and wants to bring his family (who lives 4 hours away) to church as well. I'm jealous of Elder Clegg, his baptism will be a hard one to miss!!!

Taxi Ride. . . No need to explain.

#3

This week I also had the chance to go on exchanges with the missionaries in Etwa-twa. They are trying out taking taxi's to get around, which I would compare to the bus on Harry Potter that goes a billion miles an hour and screeches to a stop. Anyway it was awesome and an adventure to experience Africa in a tight Toyota Quantum that smelled like Pap (An African food that definitely should not be used as an air freshener).. 

Another area down and another adventure to go! 

Love you all,

Elder Broadhead

10/5/15 The blessing of a long sunday walk!

October 5, 2015

                                                                             Dear Family,

You can see why we are always happy to see Sis Dunn

Another week in the spring time paradise of Springs, things are really heating up here and it has been another amazing and humbling week. This week, we had a lot of traveling to the mission office and back, but we were able to take some time out and see some of our devout members and investigators in the remote parts of our area. I'll share the stories of 3 of these people.

Nelson is in the sun glasses.

#1  Nelson  This guy is about 100 pounds, about 5 foot flat and 100% Malawian. He lives about 25 kms from the church and works at a farm earning a very little amount of money each day. He was baptized in Malawi about 2 years ago and moved to this sided to support his family. He is an awesome guy, so we went out and drove through the middle of nowhere and finally managed to find him. He invited all of his friends to join and we taught them the first lesson and handed out a ton of Books of Mormon. Who knows maybe this little place will one day be a stake !? Jk

#2 Notokozo (don't know her last name yet). Even Crazier, Notokozo lives about 45 kms from the chapel out in a place called Devon. There aren’t any units out there so the closest ward is Springs so she hops in a taxi and it takes about 45 minutes to get the chapel. She is the girlfriend of a member who stays in Soweto and has been taught by at least 8 sets of missionaries and every time she is about to be baptized she moves. So the challenge now for  Elder Clegg and I to see it through. She is super prepared, just needs to stay in the same place long enough to be baptized and make good friends.

#3 Geraldine . Possibly the coolest story so far of my mission. She is a pioneer of the church here in Springs. She is an incredible lady who is in her mid-fifties and joined the church agessssssssss ago. She lives on a plot (farm)that is far from the chapel. She doesn't drive so she gets up at 6 every Sunday and begins walking on the main road back to town with her thumb to the sky looking to hitch hike it to church. We are starting to teach her brother who hitchhikes with her now,  at least she has company which I feel better about! but I am humbled by her faith in  our Savior and dedication to do all that she can to help the church.

When I came to Africa, I was thinking that I would be see such acts of faith in walking long distances to hear the gospel. I feel so blessed to witness them, and there is no way that I am going to complain about having to drive 5 minutes to church or 10 minutes to the temple #countyourblessings. #longsundaywalks

Love you all!

Elder bhead

9/29/15 #Kony2015

Sept 29,2015

Hey fam,

This week has been an interesting one, with the Rugby World Cup and mixed in with a South African holiday of "Heritage Day" it has been a pretty hectic week with appointments dropping, people leaving, and straight up crazy stories. Hence the title of the email this week because of a lot of FINDING. Elder Clegg and I have made it a goal to at least place 6 copies of the BOM every day, and it has been going really well. We are blessed to be in a place that hasn't yet BOM'd :), so we are doing are best to accomplish that.

We had the opportunity to do some service, we painted this less-active guys house, I got paint all over his patio on accident :0.   I never claimed to be a good painter . . . . but he was still happy that we were there to help him paint his house. After that we had a powerful lesson with our investigators Naledi and Deon. Naledi's dad is the Elders Quorum Pres in Germiston, but she lives with her mom and goes to her mom’s church. We watched the Restoration DVD and it was awesome to sit back and let the spirit work with her. She said really needs to pray about it. So that is awesome!

We stopped at one of our last appointments on Sunday after a long week of lots of finding. Both Elder Clegg and I were pretty tired and we get this awesome SMS on our phone saying. Elders, this is Notokozo. I was wondering if you could help prepare me for baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We both looked at each other like we had seen Canyon View win a football game hahaha just kidding but we both were surprised. Crazy thing is she lives 50 kilometers from the chapel, but she said she will be coming to church!

“Joy” of the week

 Early Saturday morning we were driving on the road and we saw a broken down car. So we pulled over and pushed it to the top of the hill. As we pushed it down we hopped on the back for a little joy ride. . . THEN we asked the girl inside if she knew the where the ebrake was. She kept saying ebrake???  ebrake???  with her Zulu accent. Panic briefly struck Elder Clegg and myself but luckily  Elder Clegg hopped off and got in the passenger side  and stopped the car before we took it off some sweet jumps. We will be seeing them next Saturday (hopefully not on the side of the road)

All is well here in Springs!!!

Love Elder Broadhead

9/21/15 Hello Elder Clegg

Hey Family,                           9/21/15

This week has been another exciting week, from changing companions to some absolute miracles. And it all begins with love. This week started off with some unexpected obstacles, on our way back from the mission office, our car's engine just gave up so we had to push it back about a kilometer back to the flat for the dealership to pick up. Then on Tuesday, I said goodbye to Elder Henderson who is entering into his final transfer and welcomed Elder Clegg as my new comp her in Springs. To give you an idea of Elder Clegg, picture your typical Cali surfer bro and shave his head a little and give him a nametag and there you go. He is one of the hardest working missionaries that I have worked with so Springs better to be ready. As for my week, I will share two sweet experiences that we had this week.

#1 On Saturday, we received permission to go to the temple with our ward. Our recent converts were going for the first time to do baptisms and we also took a few nonmembers to walk around the temple and go to the family history center. While we were there, Elder Clegg met one of the young men who he baptized while he was serving in Tzaneen. It is about 5 hours away from the Temple so it was a miracle that they ended up at the temple together at the same time! Nothing is better for missionaries than to see people they have taught still progressing in the gospel. It was just a wonderful place, we had a less-active member that we showed around and shared a lesson on eternal families. After our lesson he told us that we really need to share the message with his son so his son can be baptized. The temple is amazing!

#2  We had our most successful Sunday ever here in Springs. I don't know why, well I think I might. . . but everyone just seemed to show up. So many prayers are being answered. Interestingly, there was a random lady who walked in, stayed for the full three hour block, then decided to stay for the other wards three hour block, and then wanted to go to a stake fireside for another 2 hours in the evening........... How often does that happen usually they can’t make it three hours :) We just feel so blessed here.

As we learn to love the work we do, life seems to get a lot better. I love being a missionary here in sweet Mzansi.

John 14:15- As jullie My liefhet, bewaar my gebooie.(I’m working on my  Afrikaans)

Love Elder Broadhead

Love Elder Broadhead 

9/14/15 Good Bye Elder Henderson

Sept 14, 2015

Good morning everybody! Another Pday has come and gone and the work here in Springs continues to press forward. We received news on Friday night that Elder Henderson will be leaving Springs. It was a total surprise to both of us because he has 6 weeks left and we expected that he would finish here in springs. BUT, its the Lord needs him other places and it was a quick 6 weeks with him, but it is awesome that you learn something new from every comp that you have. So I will find out on Tuesday who the new companion is.

 Also in other amazing news, Rabie Ridge will be had 6 baptism on Sunday.Thats incredible!  It is so great to see the work is moving forward.  I'll make sure to have Elder Sibanda send pictures.

 This week has been solid. On Saturday we were tracting in some of the high-rises in downtown Springs and we walked up to the door of this building and introduced ourselves. He said, "my wife is a member, I want to know about your church." I don't think there are more magic words you want to hear as a missionary. There a miracles all around us.  So we talked to them and it turns out that she is a member and moved here and lost track of the church, and he wants to learn more about the church. Prayers are being answered.

 We are teaching this family of 4 that is coming along pretty well. Even in the 6 weeks that I have been here I have been able to see their progress in keeping commitments and they came to church for the first time yesterday! They have been to many churches but none of them have seemed right and have just reached the point of staying home and reading the bible. You learn how to really love the families that you see on a regular basis and the Minsi family has become one of my favorite families for sure. So keep praying for the Mnisi Family!

In sports news, Elder Henderson and I play basketball every morning for our exercise time. I took the series this week 5-0 and today I won by default. He sprained his ankle, but after applying some frozen vegetables to his ankle he is all good for our final game tomorrow. 

"Work, Work, Work, there is no satisfactory Substitute."

Love Elder Bhead

Mosiah 4:26

8/31/15 Things are warming up.

                                                                                                                          August 31^st, 2015

Hi Family,

With the weather heating up here in Springs, things are literally springing forward here in our area. Great things are happening. Sorry about the last two short emails, it has been incredibly busy so I’ll try to do a little better with a few details.

Tuesday- We had our zone conference with 4 different zones, It is a big meeting, but it was great to see all the familiar faces and check in on what is happening in the former areas. Elder Sibanda-  is doing great! It was great to see my little greenie "Simba" again lol. Also it was great to hear from Pres and Sister Dunn. Hats off to them, they are changing the mission culture here in our mission which is great. We spoke on commitments and becoming more purified people. It was an awesome learning opportunity! We got back a little bit late and had dinner with our bishop and his family (they have 4 boys) and their oldest  son is preparing for a mission. So it was just like being back at home. After that we had a great lesson with our most progressing investigator. She finally prayed out-loud for the first time!!!! Then as we closed her daughter wanted to pray out-loud and it was her first time as well. Prayer is so important!

Zone Conference

Wednesday started off the usual. We volunteer at a Methodist Soup Kitchen in handing out bread and serving soup. It is awesome to help people and especially to build relationships with people of other faiths. We then saw a couple of our "Elderly" members. We thought of sharing the same message as last week to see if they remembered.....hahahha. Then we finished the day at the Sibanda family (no relation to Elder Sibanda) Brother Sibanda is a non-member but loves having missionaries over. He took us through his "gym" which consisted of a vibrating stomach belt and an electrical shocking machine. I don’t always ask a lot of questions because it’s better not to know. . . . . Needless to say he is about as fit as Warren Sapp. 

Thursday- We planned, planned and planned some more. Every Thursday I introduce “ Planning like Manning.”  So we plan everything trying to be like Peyton and not miss a detail.

Fast forwarding to Sunday.  . . .We went to stake conference and it was a sight that I'll remember forever. We got there 1 1/2 hours early and the soft seats were already almost full. Then about 30 minutes before it started literally a flood of people came. I’ve never seen anything like it.  The stake center was max capacity in almost every room! The church in Africa is growing and it’s great to be part of this sacred work!

It’s not where you serve, but how. . . .  so get out there and serve!

Love,

Elder Bhead

8/17/15 Year 1 is in the Books!

August 17^th, 2015

Hey Family,

This week has been one where I have done a lot of reflecting. The year mark will come on Thursday and it’s really amazing at how fast time passes, especially when you immerse yourself in the work. If I'd make a list of things that I have learned so far on my mission, it would be about as long as Rachel Ray's ingredients list. I am so grateful, even for the hard ones!

So I'll share an experience that Elder Henderson and I had this week that has been the reason why I decided to serve a mission. Last week, we received a message from a member in our ward who was at the chapel cleaning. Supposedly, a lady was waiting at the gate and explained to him that she felt like she needed to come to church and learn more. So we were able to see her briefly on Tuesday, but I was on exchanges and so we saw her again on Saturday. The lesson on Saturday was one of those Golden lessons that rarely if ever happens on a mission. We taught here about the Restoration and needless to say and it was as I envisioned as a young boy dreaming about being a missionary, the spirit was there and incredibly strong bearing witness to her of the truthfulness of the things that were being taught. She acknowledged that this was something that she felt she had been searching for. She even read from the introduction to chapter 18 in 1 Nephi since Tuesday. The field is white and I am so grateful to be part of this work.

 I am so thankful to have the opportunity to serve as a missionary. I can't remember the quote exactly by President Hinkley  that says something like, “ You will come to know  what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.”  That is how I feel about my mission. It really isn't  a sacrifice at all to bear the name of our Savior and his true church. It is an honor and a blessing.  It is calling for the rest of my life, not just for 2 years. In simple words, "I LOVE MY MISSION! "

In other news, we visited the same less-active guy and his wife who do fire dancing. . . . After a lesson about the Holy Spirit, they invited us outside and put on a mini fire dancing show as . . . Then he out of nowhere he  just starts literally spitting fire. Last week it was fire bombs this week spitting fire. . . . Only in South Africa, what fun experiences!!!  

Anyway  things are going great here in Springs!

Until next time, love you all!

Elder Bhead