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...