Dec. 26, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

(Christmas post from Hunter's Family)

Every once in a while we'll get a picture anonymously 

on our phone from some wonderful person in New Hampshire. 

We love those people!!! 

Here are a few of those from this Christmas season...

Talking with him on Christmas over skype was the best!!

Merry Christmas!

<3

Dec. 19, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey pals!!

I hope you all have had a great week!

So we had a great week this week! J. wants to be baptized and she decided on March 18th, which is actually her birthday!! It's so sweet!

C. couldn't come to the Christmas party or church this week (we think because of the snow and freezing rain), but we did get to meet with him and R. (his girlfriend) on Wednesday which was sweet! We hope to go back and see them tonight or tomorrow.

We've been contacting people in the area to confirm with them that they would like to have some donated food brought over to them for Christmas, and it was a really cool opportunity to meet people!! There was one lady named E. who was super nice and she has been wanting to get into religion! We were able to share a message with her and become pretty good friends. We will be checking back with her this week! :)

The church had a pipe break so on Sunday rather than ward council meeting, we cleaned out water! The building is all ok now though. :)

Elder C. and I are great!! Last night we had a really cool contact with a guy who we actually are going to start teaching, and Elder C. took the lead and did most of the talking, which was really awesome! He is a really good guy! Elder D. and C. seem to be getting along really well, so that is awesome! They found 10 people to begin teaching this week! ;) The Sisters also are doing well. Sister D. was really sick but she is doing better now.

I'm still working on being District Leader. Teaching this week was a lot more fun because I knew what to expect from the week before. It is actually really fun to get to teach and lead the conversation! The Zone Leaders give me good advice after each meeting, so that has been nice to have them there to help me improve and change! Elder M. and Elder W. are super great, Elder C. says that we are lucky because they are really good Zone Leaders, and I agree!

So for Christmas I'll probably be calling you from the G.'s house, so that'll be fun!

We have a half mission Christmas meeting this week that will be at the Joseph Smith Memorial, which is where the prophet was born, so that will be really cool too! :)

Sure love you all and Merry Christmas!!
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Baby it's cold outside!

During our dinner hour, 

we made magic cookie bars for our friend

 who had a loved one pass away. 

Dec. 12, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire with a new companion, Elder C.

Hey Pals!

We had a GREAT week this week! I was worried because getting a new companion is stressful and you don't know what they are going to be like, but Elder C. is great!! He is really nice, and has a strong testimony that what we teach is true and he likes to work! He's from a little town called Oak City in Utah. It is kinda near Delta and Nephi. He is the youngest of 5 and all his siblings are married! He has been serving for 15 months now, he came out on his mission in the same group with Elder B. He likes sports a lot, so it is fun to play darts or with a mini door basketball game at lunch or after planning!      :)

We actually had the best week Exeter has seen in the last 3 years! We got to teach people 17 times this week, and we found 5 new people who want us to start teaching them and invited us back! :) One of them who is named C. came to church yesterday and we will be seeing him again hopefully tonight and Wednesday! :)

J. sadly was sick all week this week, but she just got better! Elder C. hasn't gotten to meet her so we are excited to see her!

I am doing really well! I was really scared to be the district leader, but I am figuring it all out now and stuff is going great!! 

It is really cold here, but luckily I'm surviving so far! ;)

We had MORE CAR PROBLEMS this week! When we went to park the car the shifter went to park, but the car thought it was in reverse. The shifter stuck and then the car kept moving back, so we had to turn it off and pull the emergency brake, and then it wouldn't start again... 

So we ended up getting a different car for the time while ours is in the shop, so that is nice!! :)

Hope you are all doing great and staying warm!! :)
Love,
Elder Branch

Visiting the C.'s and Santa before Elder B. was transferred. 

Dinner with the M.'s before Elder B. was transferred.

Our district after transfers. 

Elder C. and me

Dec. 5, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire A new companion...

Hi guys!!!

It's been an exciting week! J. is pretty great! The stake preformed The Messiah this week and J. and The General came to it! :) It was so fun!! She was sick for church but she is doing really well! :)

E. is a sad case, we were worried about what would happen with him because he doesn't have really any support at home, he has a hard family situation. We talked with President Blair about him in interviews too and President had the same concern. E. also has a really hard time reading, and the children's copy of the Book of Mormon we ordered for him a month and a half ago never came in, so he hasn't made any progress reading. This week when we stopped by, his grandma who seemed kinda out of it.. answered and said she didn't think E. was interested anymore. :( So whether that is the deal, or whether he has no support in the Gospel at home, we had to stop teaching him. Missionaries will have to go by in a few years and hopefully then E. can have a fair chance to find out the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We are visiting The General about once a week, and other than that we have a bunch of people we don't get to see that much. The people here are very blunt and not overly friendly as a whole, so it can be pretty hard to get in with people, but we will keep trying. We want to do more finding again because there aren't a lot of solid people we are teaching right now.

I am doing pretty well, it is fun to be serving a mission! I bought a bunch of winter gear this week, so hopefully I'll be fine in the cold! It was 24 last night as we were walking around! :)

So I just finished training today, and so we have transfers now! We're sad, but Elder B. will be leaving Exeter and going to Oxford, Maine. It has been really cool and touching to visit people and see what a difference Elder B. has made in the area, since he will be leaving tomorrow morning. Elder B. said he didn't really get to know the members until I came cause then everything was just fun and we could be ourselves, so I'm glad I got to come here and serve with him! :) Exeter still needs a lot of work, but he has laid a great foundation to rebuild the area! :)

I was called as the District Leader right out of 12 week training - pretty crazy! My new companion will be Elder C. who came out with Elder B., so he has been out for a year and three months.

I sure love you all and hope everything is going well! One cool thing from this week is that S. (who got baptized a little while ago) was asked by his 9 year-old daughter to baptism her this week! :) It was so cool! He is going to have her take the lessons first and he's going to talk to her mom, but it is cool to see her desire already as she has seen the change in her dad! :)

Love you all again!
Elder Branch :)

The I.'s are the real deals, we really have awesome people in this ward! :)

They had a farewell dinner for Elder B. because he was being transferred.

 Transfer meeting 

(pictures from the mission facebook group)

  

Our Christmas Tree

My new companion, Elder C., taken during an video by Sister Blair about #lighttheworld

Nov. 28, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey there!

I'm so sorry, we had a crazy P-day so we had to split up e-mail time. We had our studies and did laundry, then took our car to Portsmouth to get an oil change and tires rotated this morning, then had zone interviews at the Portsmouth chapel, and then had to leave to help rake leaves for a family, then had Taco Bell with the I.'s, then we got hair cuts!

So this week J. is doing well, she got really sick which was sad but she is coming along. The stake is putting on Handel's Messiah this week so we are hoping to have her and a bunch of others there!

We are teaching a boy in Seabrook who is way cool! His name is E. and he is 14. I don't remember if I had told you about him. He is really nice and we hope he'll be able to come to church soon!

Thanksgiving was so fun with the C.'s!! Their whole family was there and it was great!! :)

I got to meet D.'s friend, the General, this week and he was awesome!! He has lots of cool memorabilia and we got to have a great talk about family! :)

I'm sorry it was such a crazy P-day, next week should be better! We have transfers next week and from the way it is sounding from interviews today Elder B. is leaving and I'll be taking over the area, so we are excited about the future but bummed because we have a good time together!

Love you all so much!!
Elder Branch :)

Nov. 20, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey there!! :)

I told you last week about a man named M. who we had met and had a great first lesson with. Sadly he is no longer interested, he didn't answer calls or texts, and when we went to his house we saw him look out the peephole and then he didn't answer the door. :( We are going to drop by one more time just in case, but it is really sad to see someone who was learning and loving it then just decided to stop listening.

We had another man named K. who had the same thing happen. We went to his door at 5:30 and he shouted thru the door that he was sleeping and we should go away. His wife then called us to complain about the missionaries who were visiting and calling her husband even though he had told them to stop. (He hadn't, he gave us his number and invited us to come back. The last time we had seen him he also told us he would get us visitor passes to the gym he goes to so we could go with him. We had also only called him once.) Ya, she said he was too upset to talk on the phone so she was calling. She did say however that we could write him paper letters to contact him...
To give a little backstory, K. had told us about when he saw an alien space ship next to his apartment, and aliens on the roof, and in his room, so there might be some problems there... His wife also called our church building and left a similar message, but it was pretty funny to explain that to the bishopric! We all had a good laugh. :)

We did however get to have a great week this week! We focused a lot on our investigators who are growing this week, so that was really cool to see them more! We brought our awesome Elders Quorum President with us yesterday to see J. and it was great, it helped her a lot!! :)

Oh, another win, here in Exeter we hadn't been invited to ward council. Yesterday we were invited however because we were talking about the ward mission plan. It was a great meeting, Elder B. and I were able to help insights about several of members in the ward that the ward has been missing but who we see every week or two. Our Elder's Quorum President gave a sweet intro to the oval chart and got the ward to start that. Then, at the end of the meeting I asked our Bishop if it would be okay if the missionaries were to come back to ward council in following weeks, even if it were only for a few minutes to talk about the missionary work. He said it would be fine if we started coming for a while! We're pumped, we've got into ward council and I can't wait to start working with them to help ward members and our investigators!!

The coolest moment I had this week spiritually was when I was watching the video "Only a Stonecutter" on the gospel library. It was such a cool story and the man in it is a great example to everyone! (Mom, could you attach a link to the video? Thanks!!!!)

Video: Only a Stonecutter

When are transfers?
Transfers are the first week of Dec!

What are your Thanksgiving plans?
For Thanksgiving, we are going to the C.'s for dinner, and then the L.'s for dessert with the C.'s!! :)

Sure love you all, and have a great Thanksgiving!!!
Elder Hunter Branch 

I got this letter from one of my awesome Primary kids! 

We found this sweet bird's nest when we were out tracting. 

Nov. 14, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey Pals!

This was a good week! The weather wasn't too bad, it has been a bit warmer which was nice, like only in the 40's so sweaters worked well! We got to teach more this week which was nice! It is always the best when there are nice people who will hear you out! 

We found a really cool guy named M. this week and had a great time getting to know him! He is a hospice worker and is on the volunteer fire department! He hopes to become a full time fire fighter! He had a 12 week old kitten that came and curled up on my lap for the whole lesson and purred while I pet it, it was so cute!!! The lesson details are included in my letter to President Blair, so you can see more there!

We are also teaching a few other people, I'll tell you about one more of them today and try to keep telling you about more each week. One lady is named J., she is super nice! Her boyfriend was LDS as a kid but left home as a teenager. His brother is a bishop in Canada, and J. sees that there is something different in their lives that she wants for her family and her granddaughter who she takes care of! She has been sick recently and going thru a lot of other stuff, but hopefully we can see her more this week! She calls herself Nagy-hagy, use to work in the circus, and she brought us Mars bars from Canada a few weeks ago! :) She has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it! She has a few questions about things she has read and wants us to help her out every step of the way, and that is just what we like to do! :)

The most spiritual experience I had this week was in the lesson with Mike who I talked about and mention more in my letter to President Blair. When we were testifying that there is a prophet on the earth today, that God loves us all, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that you can test it for yourself the spirit was incredible! Mike had tears in his eyes, and so did we! :)

How was your birthday?
My birthday was so fun!!!! The day before my birthday we were serving at a senior center and one lady was asking me how old I was. I told her 18 but my birthday is tomorrow, and she just started singing happy birthday! Pretty soon everyone had joined in even though most didn't even know whose birthday it was yet, then they all were confused why my name was Elder, but they finished off the song! ;) It was super fun!
Then the I. and G. families threw a party for me which was so nice! We had pizza and cake, and talked a lot and juggled! The H.'s brought me a treat too and cards which were really nice!! :) There are some amazing people out here! :)


Letter to president:
"Hey there President Blair!

1-9 are yes's again.

Elder B. and I are doing well together, we have a great time! It was my birthday this last week and we got to have a little dinner time party for it with some members in the ward which was sweet!
We got to see the Badgers as well as Sister Blair this week at our chapel which was great, we're sorry we missed you! We hope your meetings went well.

So this week we found a really cool guy named M.! We found him while trying to visit some people who had been having the missionaries over before. We knocked their door around 7:30 or 8:00 and Mike, a 24 year old guy, answered. We explained who we were looking for and he didn't know them, but then Elder B. asked him if he would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ and how there is a prophet on the Earth today. He said that he is already Christian so... but then I said that we love to share messages with everyone, not only people who don't believe in God or Jesus! He said "Oh ok, well would you like to come on in then?" We got to talk to him for a while and got to know him, and then taught about Jesus Christ, how there are prophets and apostles on the earth today, and about how we came to know this for ourselves and how he can as well, thru reading the Book of Mormon, putting it to the test, and by praying to God to ask if it is true. He was very interested at the chance to learn more! We hope to get to see him again either today or tomorrow!

It is so cool how there's people everywhere who want to know and learn more, and how they CAN know for themselves if they take the promise of Moroni and study the book and pray.

Elder B. and I are working this week on having more effective comp studies. Comp studies often start off strong for us, but can turn into story time, so we are working on making them more focused on the work.

We hope you're doing well and have a great week!
Elder Branch"


One last story to finish it off, last week on exchanges we visited this really nice lady in our congregation who hasn't been able to come to church for a while. Anyways, so this time it was Elder C., Elder D., and me who visited her. We had a great lesson and then when we were leaving she stopped us and said to Elder D., "You're gonna be a big banker." Then to Elder C., "You're gonna go high up in the church." Then to me, "And you're gonna get home and marry a super hot wife!" When we got outside we all had a good laugh and then Elder D. asked if we could trade futures, which I kindly declined. ;)


Hope you all have a great week and I sure love ya!
Love,

Elder Hunter Branch :)  

Deb, we made it to the General's house. Didn't get to talk to him yet.  

Our District 

Downtown Exeter

Nov. 7, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

I realized last week after my emailing time was out that I hadn't sent you a copy of my letter to President like I said i would. I felt like a goof ;P   Here it is.

Hey President!
1-9 are all yes's again.

We have had a great week here in Exeter! It was an interesting week though. We only got to teach 5 people this week!! :P   We did however still have an awesome week!

This week our car was in the shop so we were on foot. We got a few rides, but mostly we tried to find people to teach in Exeter. We were planning to teach 15 people this week, but then we had tons of cancellations because our investigators we were working with are going through lots right now. So anyway, found 12 new people to teach this week! It was pretty sweet! There were times where we wished we had done better, it rained 5 of the 7 days this week and because of that we weren't as diligent as we should have on been on Friday and Saturday with getting out there with umbrellas. We did still go out, but it took us around half an hour longer to get out than it should have. We talked about it as a comp and repented and promised to be more diligent everyday.

In the Old Testament for seminary last year we learned about how to repent is translated as to change. Repentance really means change, so each time we try to align our will with Gods and try to do better we are repenting! It is cool how we can always be "repenting", always changing and trying to be more like Christ.

S.'s baptism was so great!! He was really excited, we had a good amount of people show up from the ward to support him, and the spirit was there! The next day in Sacrament meeting, after S. had been confirmed and was walking back to his seat, he stopped at the front of the chapel, raised his arms, and said really loudly "Awesome sauce!" It was pretty great, the New England accent really makes it! :)

Happy Halloween!!
Elder Branch

This weeks letter...
Ohloh?
It's hello sir.
Oh, hello?

Haha, how are you all doing?? :)

How was your week?
My week has been pretty great!! We didn't get our car back until Wednesday because parts didn't come in, so that was rough! Then yesterday our battery died so we ended up having to get a jump, then it died again, so our plans got killed for the day which was sad, but we did get a ride to go contact people in a neighborhood by the people we were having dinner with and we found a new person to teach which was nice! We didn't teach as much as we wanted because of that dead battery, but we still taught 9 people and found lots of other people to teach. We had exchanges this week on Tuesday, and so I stayed here in Exeter without a car with the two newer Elders in the Derry trio (Elder C. and Elder D. [He came out with me]), while Elder B. and our District Leader, Elder E., worked in Derry with their car. Elder E. said he wanted me to take the lead even though Elder C. has been out for 6 months, and that this would be like a "test". So that was exciting and scary, but we ended up killing it! We only had set up to teach one person for the next day, but after setting some solid plans, being diligent with calls and with working hard during the day, we were able to teach 5 more people, meet a new person to teach, get 2 referrals, give out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon, and talk to TONS of people!! It was so cool, probably one of if not the most successful day of my mission! And that was all done without a car! So that was really sweet!
We will be able to teach S. this week, we hope to help him get to the temple this month! :)

Are you finding ways to stay warm?
Haha, ya I am, I bought 2 sweaters this week so I'm surviving.

I have a great story!! So there is a thing celebrated in England called Guy Fawkes day, and we have some people from England in our ward who have a party for it! :) We also have these 2 super awesome brothers with downs syndrome in our ward named T. and M. who are like 26 and 24. They are so nice and hilarious! They can't go more than like 3 minutes without talking about football! Anyways, for Guy Fawkes day people here burn a fake Guy Fawkes for what he did trying to help assassinate King James I, and after the fire was going and "Guy Fawkes" was burning, M. just yelled out "Guy Fawkes sucks!!!" It was the funniest thing ever, everyone was just dying   :)  :)  :)

Coach Dooley will like this story!

Every Saturday morning we play basketball with some ward members and investigators, and I've been practicing a bunch every p-day too. Elder B. played for Mesa high school in Arizona, which has one of the best basketball programs in the nation, and he is pretty good. So for one game this Saturday it was Elder B., C. G. (a recently RM who is also pretty good at basketball, he played for the Junior Nuggets team back when he lived in Colorado), and Brother S., against Brother G., Brother B., and myself. We had been playing youth and skill VS old age and treachery as my dad calls it, but us young guys won 4 in a row so Brother S. and I switched. In that game though, my team won in a game to 15, and I scored 13 of my teams points!! It was crazy, hit 3 3's and had some sweet drives! It was a good day but especially that game was crazy!

I hope you're all doing great and thanks for all the birthday wishes! :)

Elder Branch

Car repairs...

Oct. 31, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey family and friends!!! :)
How was S.'s baptism?
S.'s baptism was soooo good!!! It was so fun to set up for it all and have support from the ward!

So how did you do without the car this week?
We're doing well, we walked this week and it rained 5 of the 7 days so that was kinda rough, but it was fun! ;) Our lessons got killed!! :( We were planning to teach 15, and we had 14 set up thru the week, but we had a lot of them cancel so we only got to teach like 5! :( We did pick up 2 investigators, a man who lives in our apartments who took the lessons before, and a dad whose whole family are members. We also found 10 new potentials this week thru tracking in Exeter, so it was good! :)
Did you get your Halloween package?
I did get that, thanks so much!!!!!! :) Haha, I broke the green nun chuck!!   :( 

We had a cherry tomato and decided to use the nun chuck as a bat, and when I hit it, the nun chuck broke in the middle, so now it is 2 green sticks! I still practice my ninja skills with the black one though! ;)
What went wrong with your car? 
The car had been rear ended the week before I got here, so it had to go get fixed. We should get it back tomorrow.

I hope you all have a great week and that life is great! Happy Halloween!  :)

The Exeter area with all the towns that we cover. 

Oct. 24, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey Pals!!

Brother Barnes asked what scripture you'd like on you missionary plaque.
Lets go with the Alma 53:20-21, I love that one! :)
"And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity;  but behold, this was not all - they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.  Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him."

How was your week?
It was a good week!! :) We had zone interviews which were really good! President Blair is a great guy!

This week our car is in the shop, which is hard because most of our investigators are a 4 hour walk from our house, so we're gonna rely on members a lot, and also do lots of finding around in Exeter.

We had a ton of appointments cancel this week, we only ended up teaching like 6 to 8 lessons, so that was a bummer. The good thing was that with every cancellation, they went out of their way to set up another time, so we know they are really interested and want the gospel, they just have crazy lives. We still have 12 investigators, but soon that'll be 11 cause S. gets baptized!!!! :) He will be the first person baptized in this ward!! We're so excited for him and so is the ward! :)

We had transfer calls and Elder B. and I are both staying so that is nice!!!! :)

Did you get the recipes and song names?
Yes I did get recipes and song names, thanks so much for all the
family and friends that sent them!!! :) I would love any more people
have to send! :)

What would you like for your birthday?
I'm almost 19!! That sounds old! That is like as old as Zac, minus a year! 😮😜 Honestly, I would love sweaters! It is cold here!! ;) Also ties are cool, and money, and snickers, and sour stuff, and ya, that is about it I guess! ;)

Ok, to understand this, a VGPAA is a goal setting tool my mission uses. It stands for:
Vision (Our overall goal)
Goal (Ways we'll work towards our vision this transfer)
Plan (The thing we'll do this week to accomplish our goal)
Action (Specific actions we'll take this week)
Accountable (Who we are accountable to)

My letter to President Blair this week.
1-9 are all yes for this week.

Hey President Blair! First of all can I just say thanks for all you guys do for us, and thanks for the interviews! You guys are great.

I am doing well, after our Zone Interviews meeting I finalized my personal VGPAA and have been working on that. It is...

V: Become more consecrated as a missionary.
G: Gain the characteristics given by President Blair
- Valiant in Christ
- No fear of man
- Conform to the rule and won't have to be commanded
- Work with zeal and to limits of strength, be really tired
- Forget yourself, not casual or careless
- Humble
- Helaman 3:35 (Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and thesanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.)
P: Valiant in Christ
A: Study Christlike attributes, read in Book of Mormon where Jesus comes, Read
Jesus the Christ by the end of this transfer.
A: My companion and President Blair.

I plan to work on a different characteristic/attribute each week of this next transfer, and read all of Jesus the Christ by the end of it too. I asked Elder B. to keep me accountable, but I would also like to report to you on it as well each week. I know I'll be able to improve as a missionary thru this VGPAA so I'm excited to keep working on it!

Elder B. is doing great, he felt sick yesterday, but he got up and we went out to work. Before a dinner appointment yesterday we were knocking doors about 15 minutes away from the members. We had knocked several and were starting to head back to the car, because we had 25 minutes until the dinner and we wanted to contact a old old referral by the members, when I felt we should knock this other house that was the opposite way as our car. We did it, and no one answered. Elder B. felt we should knock the next house, also away from our car, and the guy there wasn't to friendly as he shut the door in the middle of one of our questions. We didn't feel like we needed to knock any other houses there so we headed back to the car. There were 3 more houses by our car, and as we were walking Elder B. was telling a story, but I felt like we should knock them, so I politely interrupted and asked if we had time to knock the last few, then contact the guy another day. He agreed and we went up to the first house. A younger guy answered, probably in his late 20's, wearing a Patriots hat. I asked him about the hat and we talked football for just a minute, then Elder B. just went right in and asked if we could share a message with him about Jesus Christ. The guy said yes, and we got to share an awesome shortened version of the restoration with him, introduce the Book of Mormon and give him a copy, which he was interested in, and leave him with a restoration pamphlet! We asked if we could meet with him again and he was interested in that! He is around on weekends usually so we're excited to go back and meet with him. Oh, and his name is S. (we liked how he spelled it). Hopefully we can pick him up as an investigator this next week or two! It was cool to be lead by the spirit and get a potential investigator from tracking.

I hope you're having a great week, we wanted to invite you to the Exeter Halloween Trunk or Treat this Wednesday at and to S.'s baptism this Saturday. We hope to see you here! By the way the members here loved you and Sister Blair, they have mentioned it to us a bunch!

We love you guys too, thanks again,
Elder Branch

This week we came to primary as the super missionaries 

and sang and marched around! 

It was like being at Camp Kiesel again 

or teaching my rad primary kids!! :)

From our apartment

At the church

Oct. 17, 2016 in Exeter New Hampshire

Hey Pals,

The little portable speaker you sent is sooooooooo great, thanks so much!!! :) 

You'd asked about the mission music rules. 

Our music policy had been  that we could only listen to LDS artists, but now we can listen to anyone who has good, uplifting music that brings the spirit! :) Can you guys (my family, but anyone else who wants to totally can too) send me a list of good songs like we had on our Spotify and Pandora!? :). Also can you send me a list of our Christmas playlist?? :) Thanks!

How are the people doing that you're teaching and serving?

Ok, so we had to drop our investigator named P. who we've been seeing a lot. He is a really nice guy, but he doesn't keep commitments  and he will not come to church, so that was too bad. 

We also have a 14 year-old named E. who is interested, we set a baptismal date with him this week! :)  He has to do a lot more learning and feeling the spirit to know that it is true  so he can be totally converted, but he is a really good kid!  

We also have his grandma who I haven't gotten to have a lesson with yet.  We aren't sure if she is super interested, but apparently she is nice.

There is D. who is around 30, he has traveled around a lot and loves God  a ton. He isn't sure about the Book of Mormon but he has started reading it. 

Then we have a bunch of others, actually most of the main people I haven't gotten to mention, but this week was hard for lots of them. Like really hard. I'll talk more about them in the future but for now I will leave them out because the trials they are facing are just heartbreaking. We are trying to do everything we can to help them, but there is only so much we can do.  

It is a blessing that we have the Gospel!!!  I hope we can help these people and get them the Gospel  stronger in their lives because it would bless them so much. 

You got to meet Brother M. - he sent us a picture! How did that happen?

We just had Stake Conference and he came up to me and said he was friends with you on Facebook!! :) We talked for a while and then he asked if we could get a picture to send to you guys! :) He is a way nice guy! ;)

So this week was super fun!! :) We went camping and went to the ocean! haha

We had new trainers meeting this week on Tuesday and Wednesday,  so we went to the Joseph Smith's birthplace in Vermont  and did service, putting up lights, raking leaves, painting cabins, and lots more! We also got to go on a hike and have a fireside... Like literally! :) 

We got all 50-60 of us around a big fire and had a great meeting,  then had marshmallows and hot chocolate! :) 

That night the Elders stayed in freezing cabins that had 2 bunk beds each and were open at the corners with nets to keep bugs out, and the sisters went to apartments, but it was fun!  

The next day we had more training and it was great!  Then we had district meeting the next day, then weekly planning the next day, so we didn't get to teach as much as we'd have liked,  but we still got to teach 8 lessons so not bad.  We would have been able to teach more but because of those investigators challenges we weren't able to. 

So this morning for P-day we went to a lighthouse in our zone, in Maine, and studied out there! It was so pretty, I loved it!  Then we hung out as a zone at the Zone Leader's chapel in Portsmouth, 

it's been a party!! :) 

I hope you all had a great week and I love you all a ton!!!!!! :) 

Please send recipes if you can! 

Love,

Elder Branch :)

Pictures from the new trainer's meeting and service project in Vermont 

at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial - mostly taken by the super great senior missionaries.

P-day pictures at the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine.

Oct. 10, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey everyone!! :)

I hope life's good!!!! I don't have a lot of time to Email, but I sent lots of pics this week, so I hope that will appease everyone! :)

Did you get totally poured on yesterday?

It has been pretty rainy here, but it isn't horrid. The rain hasn't ever been really heavy, so that is nice!

How's the work of teaching the gospel going?
For the work, sadly our new baptismal investigator from last week had to move to a special school in Vermont for the next 2-3 months to work some stuff out.

 :(   He won't have any contact other than mail, so we'll try to write him. We didn't get to help the people we're teaching set any more baptismal dates this week, but we did meet 3 new investigators! :) We have 15 people we're teaching right now. We plan to start teaching 2 more this week though so it is still going good. People are really busy going into the cold/Christmas season so getting appointments to teach lessons has been harder, we only got to teach 10 this week. We did however have a day in another area for exchanges this week, and Elder B. and I were both sick for a day. We still worked that day, but were both pretty ineffective. We have some solid appointments this week, and although we are have 2 days of training, we hope to be able to teach 15 lessons! :)  

How is budgeting and meal planning prep going?

Haha, for budgeting, I have been doing well!! :) We get $150 a month for laundry, food, and whatever else we might need. I spent a third of that on medicine this week... But it think I can budget well and make it without using my card. ;) We do usually eat together, I make stuff when I get time. Elder B. doesn't cook, but I have made some mean chocolate chip panacakes ;) a few times. This week I got stuff to make shell pasta salad! :)

On that note, can I please get recipes that are quick and good!? :) Can I get the Coffey's Green Chili Enchilada soup recipe, the Nash's sesame chicken recipe, crepes and any others you have? :) I would love a recipe book! Family and friends can sent recipes too! :)

I bore my testimony this week and introduced myself to the ward. It was really cool, the spirit was way strong and I might have started crying... ;) A bunch of people thanked me for it, talked about Layton with me, and a few people said they thought I was older than 18 and that I was really mature. So that was really nice! :)

One funny story, we volunteer at a senior center every Thursday morning, and this last week some people were talking about us missionaries. They thought we couldn't hear so it was way funny! They were talking about how nice we were and that we looked so good all the time, and then this one older man was like, "Yup, these Mormons come out here and serve for 2 years then go home and run for President." That basically sums it up! ;)

Love you all!!!!! :)

Elder Branch

A typical road for around here

Basketball with our District

The Elder who was here before me loved meat 

and now we have lots of leftovers and we both aren't crazy about meat.

 So far we haven't eaten any of it.