New Address

Elder Trevor Broadbent

Spain Madrid Mission
Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2, Office 8B
28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes
Madrid
 SPAIN

I Love this Country

I'm here in beautiful Spain and I love this country. The language is hard to understand and people here are very sensitive on topic of religion. I find myself constantly wishing I was back home. But the members here are the happiest people I've seen, their willingness to help the missionaries is incredible. There are five in particular that are amazing. 

Andres is from Peru and is a less active here. He comes with me and Elder Shwenke what seems like everyday. He's quiet, but loves being the missionaries and he teaches me Spanish every time we see him. Javi is from the Dominican Republic and 17. He's always with a missionary when I see him.  Elizabeth is from Ecuador and is the sweetest person I have met. She's less active because her work is only on the weekends, but she actually teaches us about the Book of Mormon when we see her.  Fredrico is from Puerto Rico and is not a member. We teach him English classes on Saturday. He says what we teach is not what he desires but he knows many that want to hear from us. And he says that the missionaries have always been his best friends.

Jose is from the Dominican Republic and he has a baptismal date set. We don't need to teach him he understands all the material already and says he has always thought that's how God is.

I am amazed at how faithful people can be when we are surrounded by an harder life. These people have such a huge heart that I want to share it with everyone. 

 

Love,

Elder Broadbent

Hi, it's Monday

My first week in the “real” mission field. I´m serving right in the heart of Madrid. Nope no more park for me. Sometimes people don’t want to hear what we have to say. It´s a hard job but I love it. We have two investigators already and one baptismal date set. The one who has a set baptism is named Jose´ from Valencia. I hope he´ll continue through.  My trainer is Elder Schwenke from Orem, and he´s been in the field for 18 months. He´s hard but he does it out of love and so I can have the best mission I can possibly have. Send prayers.

President and Sister Lovell
 

 

Love you guys.

Elder Broadbent.

Into the Missionfield!

 

4 And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.

 5 Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.

 6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

D&C 68:4-6

Elders Broadbent and Anderson
 

Heading out into Madrid now. Last day in the MTC and I´m happy for the time I had here. Just excited that I´m finally heading out and seeing actual people now. I don´t have much time to write. But I will say this is my best decision I´ve made. I love the people of Spain. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and I am here because of him.

Three things I´ll miss from the MTC: Hermano and Hermana Ponsoda, Being with my district, and listening to Elder Weiss, Campbell, and Fairbanks playing the piano.

Love Elder Broadbent.

 

Last week in the MTC

''God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming,

than about who we once were.''

 

Elder McMillan, the Canadian Blue Chicken.

Hello. This was a good week. We have native speakers now and I´ve had to use more Spanish because of it. One of them, Elder Veis, Speaks: English, Spanish, French, and Swiss German. He can understand me but I can´t understand him when he speaks German.

The park this week was the best I had in terms of numbers. Elder Renner and I gave out seven copies of the Book of Mormon, had in depth conversations with 28 people, and received one referral from a young couple. But I didn´t feel that accomplished.

 

Elder Renner and I at the Park.

We were walking towards this couple that had a poodle running around them.  We began talking to them and found out that they spoke German, Spanish, and English. The dog came up and licked my hand and the lady said she doesn´t do that to a random stranger. We talked about why we´re here as missionaries and she asked if we had a book to give her. They declared themselves as Catholic but she has been going through a real rough time. We bore our testimonies in English about why we know the Book of Mormon is true. She loved them.  We then asked for their information so missionaries that spoke the language could come over and talk more about the Book of Mormon. She said no. Her father told her to read a good book when she was in a rough time. Not sure if she meant read any book or a special book. But I felt the spirit, Elder Renner felt the Spirit, and they felt the spirit. Still wanting to know why she refused.

I leave the CCM for the Streets of Madrid in four days. I´m happy for that.

I truly do love this work even though I had a rough last two weeks in the CCM. 

 

Love

Elder Broadbent.

Madrid is Awesome!

Hi. Sorry I havn't been sending much. P-days are hectic and the server we have for the computers doesn´t help out. 

 

Elders McMillan, Broadbent, Fairbanks,

 El Presidente Lovells, Anderson, Horrocks,

Eklund. My companion is the shortest

 one on the right, Elder Anderson.

This week was a little tough. Just came to the realization that in two weeks I´ll be out in the streets of Madrid. My Español is better but not speaking perfect Spanish. But we have teachers that play as investigators and they say I speak very broken Spanish.  But they all say I speak from my heart and invite the spirit when I speak. My Companion Elder Anderson does most of the talking and he´s great at speaking and understanding the language.

 

Today we´re going to a parade about Christ when he bore his cross in the streets of Jerusalem and eventually his crucifixion. It´s amazing how faithful the people of Spain are to their beliefs. But it makes me depressed that the majority of people we talk to claim there is no god or say the bible is a good fiction novel.

 

 

But my highlight of the week was the park again. I love going to the park and talk to people about the restored gospel. I was paired up with Elder Pemburton again and had success after success. We met this group of Romanians at the park and the spoke little Spanish like us. Two of them were listening to Pemburton and I was off on the side listening to them. One came up behind me and wanted to know more. He sat down on a bench and I started talking to him. He cut me off and said no, you sit next to me. I sat next to him and talked to him about the Book of Mormon. I didn´t talk much just listened to him talk about how he loves god so much and wants to know more about him. His name was Chirachi and he basically stole the Book of Mormon from us. As I was walking away I looked back at him reading the book. I then noticed he was smoking while I talked to him. There was a bill board up in front us that was not desirable. And the two Pemburton were talking to had liquor on the space I was before.

 

I never would have thought I would be in that situation in my entire life. And I was in that situation and didn´t even question to sit next to Chirachi.

 

We do have Easter conference in English because its gospel study. German comes in handy when we get transfers from Russia and they only speak Russian or a little German.

 

That’s all I can type.

Love Elder Broadbent.