"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;" (D&C 121:7)

"no pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called children of God. It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in Heaven." 

With that said, Elder Broulim has RE-Broke his foot and returned home on a medical release last Saturday (July 27).  He had surgery Monday morning (July 29).  The surgery lasted almost 3 hours and he now has 4 screws in his foot.  He WILL NOT BE BRIDGE JUMPING this time around.....and no more thinking he is Michael Jordan on p-day.  The doctor said that he will be "non-weight bearing" for 6-8 weeks where he will have physical therapy during this time as well.  After a period of time, he will have the opportunity to return to the New Mexico Albuquerque mission.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for Elder Broulim!

I'm in Albuquerque Rio Rancho Area

I have email time today to tell you about my new area, new companion, new everything.. but unfortunately you have already heard the news. My new area and new companion are the greatest blessing to me. I absolutely love the high range rio rancho area of New Mexico. The area is my forte completely. Dirt roads, mountains, coyoties, people riding rzr's and horses, waking up to the sound of dirtbikes... its awesome. My companion is such a blessing. Elder Brown is his name, he is from twin falls. He has been out only 1 transfer. I was called to help him finish his training. I am senior companion and drive a truck. MY FIRST TRUCK. We live in the basement of a members home, we are spoiled absolutely rotten. (pool table, bowflex, AC,...etc) It is a 180 from El Paso. I will forever be grateful for el paso because I learned so much, so humbling.

I love my Heavenly father with all my heart.  I DO. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart. I have a very strong testimony that I love to share and I have so much to learn. 

I'm being Transferred!

I have some big news! This will be the last email from El Paso! Saturday night I found out that I am getting transferred up north to a new area! Just when I started to get comfortable and thought I had things figured out, I get thrown a curve ball and find out that I am leaving! I didn’t realize how much ive grown to love the people here until I found that im leaving. The Elder’s are my brothers and the El Paso 11^th ward is my family. It is going to be hard to leave! I was looking forward to a change, but didn’t expect this! It has been a rough transfer, a fresh start will be good for me! We have made my last days in El Paso the best..we used me leaving as an excuse to have some fun! Elder Mongeli and Mower had a sleep over last night ha we played cards again all night and had a lot of fun! It is going to be hard to leave these guys!  “Ill go where you want me to go, dear lord.” I am so grateful for the hard times and trials I have had in my life. Especially the trials I have faced this last transfer, I have never felt closer to Heavenly father. It is so humbling to work towards aligning  my will, with the lords will. Thy will be done.

I was reading a conference talk from President Uchtdorf and he said, “Not to get discouraged-never give up or flea our allotted field of service. Take courage, find our faith, and keep trying. Your Heavenly father mentors his children and often sends unseen heavenly help to those who desire to follow the savior.” I know that unseen Heavenly help has, and will continue to help me get through this. As we desire to follow the savior by aligning our will with the lords will, our burdens  will be a lighter weight to bear. The desire to follow the savior will turn our feelings to feelings of compassion and love for the great work that we are involved in!

It was really hard to say goodbye see you later to everyone yesterday at church. We just found out that Jose Montoya is gaining custody of his 2 son’s and they have decided to get baptized into our ward! Huge bummer but im so excited for them! I am almost all packed up and ready to go north to my temporary new home! Tomorrow at 10:30 I will be leaving El paso and making the drive to with lots of stops along the way. I have no idea where I will be going to but I will find out when I get there! My guess is somewhere in Albuquerque! At least I will be escaping the El Paso heat! Have the best week for me and know that i am working hard.

I love you,

Elder Broulim

Weekly Journal

7-15-13

It used to be that I would wake up on Mondays and say “ahhh noo its Monday!” Now Monday is a day I look forward to every week! Im in love with the voice recorders! I love hearing your voices! Emails went great, it sounds like everyone is doing awesome! After emails we had a bbq at the church as a zone, Elder Mongelie cooked up some bbq chicken Samoan style! We had a fun day and a good night. We had a lesson with Ishmale and his family. I gave them a book of Mormon and they gave us some awesome mexi food! Good trade. There family would look so great dressed in white! J Their main question was why we need another book (the bofm). This is a great question because there are so many easy answers! Ishmale really struggles with the word of wisdom, so we will work on that down the road. I love you all!

7-16-13

Got my last Dr. appointment out of the way today, so it was a great day you could say! Everything checked out pretty good! We had a good night teaching with our Elders quorum president, brother tolman. We visited a lot of less actives. We had an awesome lesson with a lady named Alecia Maldinado and her non member husband. We talked about the importance of raising a family centered around JC. Families are my favorite to teach about, it blows my mind how important families are! I love you guys!

7-17-13

Wow 3 months today! Whoop whoop. We had a pretty exciting morning! The whole apartment complex woke up at 6 am to no power and the fire alarm going off! It was pretty funny to see everyone standing outside in there PJ’s! There were some very unhappy people to say the least! When lunch rolled around we hit our favorite toco tote! The people there know us by name. I met a lady named Julia and had an awesome gospel conversation with her. She was very interested in learning more but didn’t live in our area..bummer. We contacted missionaries in her area and hooked it  up though! Tonight we had some good lessons. We had a good lesson with a guy named paul. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and it seemed to really open his eyes. I invited him to baptism and he told me that he couldn’t swim! HA. He should have a date pretty soon. I found a cool scripture this morning that I want to share.. D&C 122:7. EVERYONE READ THIS. No matter what the trials, rejection, and hard times we go through are for “experience, and shall be for thy good.”

I love you right up to the moon..and back 900 times.

7-18-13

It rained today! I guess you could say.. I MAKE IT RAIN! We had a good day today. This morning we had a lesson with a new investigator named Fatima! We taught her the restoration, she had some deep questions that really made me think. It’s lessons like this one that I learn the most! I invited her to baptism and she said, “Once I read that new book I will! Chill out!” the baptism replys always seem to be the best. We had apartment inspections today. It was the first time this apartment has ever passed! We got docked on 2 things.. dirty dishes and a dirty mirror! Im becoming more and more thankful for you everyday mom! Tonight we had an awesome lesson with Dwight! I love going over to his house to chill and read some scripts. We talked about preparing to receive the priesthood, and what an honor it is to hold it! We read D&C 121 together! awesome chapter, read it!

The rain kept a lot of doors closed but it was still a good day.

7-19-13

Busy Busy day and im tired! We had an awesome brunch with Jose Montoya! He cooked us a super good mexi dish as usual. We had district meeting right after and it went great. Our district has had some struggles so we had a group counciling sesh! It was pretty frustrating to see that the sisters (in our old area) taught 5 lessons total for the whole week..ya 5. We teach that many in one day. There excuse is that there is no one to teach..HA. Small taste of what we have to deal with! We taught a lot of good lessons today. Jose has a friend named ferni that he met while he was in prison and rehab. Jose has been wanting us to teach him for awhile now but we haven’t been able to until today! It was a nice rainy day, We sat outside of our apartment and had an awesome restoration lesson! The spirit was really strong and I got a little choked up! Ferni looks like a scary guy but is so sweet. Goes to show that you cant ever judge people by there looks.. It was so humbling to teach about the atonement and how ferni can have a second chance with life. After our lesson, Jose and ferni sat in on our lesson with Manny. We read from the bofm and it was awesome! We find out transfer news tomorrow! My guess is that I am leaving actually! I talked with president and he says he has “big plans” for me.

7-20-13

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. Im so glad you both fell in love 100 or so years ago! I love you. Great day, hung out with Dwight and Joe (I told you his name was paul last week, oops) Had an awesome lesson with them both. They are really funny. Both single and are 19 year olds trapped in a 50 year olds body. The stake had a big pioneer day celebration party. It was an awesome way to get investigators out with us to meet the ward. There was lots of great food and games. Dwight and Joe took us out to eat afterwards while we anxiously waited for the phone call to tell us transfer news. I was pretty shocked to hear that I am being transferred up north somewhere! Ive got a couple days to pack and im out of here. Pretty stressed about it, but its all part of the game! I will miss El Paso.  I will miss my ward family in the El Paso 11th ward.

Ray's Baptism....no slips or cannonballs!

Elder Broulim     Ray     Elder Taylor

El Paso is HOT as always!  It has seemed 20X hotter this past week because it has been really humid.  I am soaking wet with sweat 24-7....who said I wouldn't be able to go swimming on my mission! jk.  It has been a great week!  We have worked harder than ever trying to make up for our down time last week!  The teaching poll for our new area is growing and we are seeing some progress!  We taught 23 lessons this last week and had a baptism Saturday night!  We are teaching a little more than half the lessons we used to teach before the split but it is a good start!  It has felt great to get back into the missionary work!

I went on exchanges with Elder Jensen on Wednesday.  It was awesome!  Elder Jensen is my district leader and is from good ole Boise Idaho!  he has been out for like 10 months I believe.  He played ball for a community college before the mish and is really good!  He knows Kamen from playing Idaho Select.  We found a lot in common and had a good time together.  I learned so much from him that I will be able to apply to my everyday teaching.  I also taught him a thing or two...(smile)

Ray's baptism has been a long process but finally happened Saturday night!  We weren't quite sure if it was going to happen until the night before!  Elder Jensen and I gave Ray his baptism interview on Wednesday and he DIDN'T pass with flying colors!  We had to touch up on a few things and help him to understand the word of wisdom and tithing a little better!  Once we set all that straight, he was more than ready!  Saturday was a special day!  The baptism went great and there were no slips or cannon balls ha.  I was given the opportunity to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  It all went great!  Sunday was so amazing when Ray took the next step and received the Holy Ghost!  Ray is FINALLY a member of the TRUE church!

Something that I have enjoyed studying this week was the topic of Revelation.  The Lord leads and guides the church through revelation given to the prophet as well as to his children here on earth.  Each of us receive revelation daily!  According to our faith we can receive revelation to help us with anything!  We need to be prepared to receive revelation that comes through the Holy Ghost!  Pray to have it and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7-8).  Random, I know, but we live off of revelation in the mission field!

I think the move to our new apartment has thrown the mail off!  I'm still looking forward to those caramel apples!  Take Care and know that I am working hard!