Tuesday, October 25, 2016

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