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