Feb. 27, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey there family and friends!

I've got a bad stomach bug and chills going on as of this morning and feel pretty nasty today, so this is the only letter I'll send out today. Thank you all for the emails, I love to hear from each of you so much!!

So, good news!! We got transfer calls and I get to stay in Exeter as DL and trainer with Elder M., so we are super pumped! That will be seven and a half months is Exeter and I am so happy! It is always nice when people tell you that you're doing well, and this week we got a few of those. With interviews with President Blair it sounds like he is really happy with the work we are doing and is super proud of us. When I got to the ward it sounded like they had been going through a pretty hard time but now the ward is doing so well and we sure love them and they love us! President Blair told us that our ward now is just incredible, and he has been hearing lots of good stuff about us. It was pretty sweet to know that the ward is happy and that they really like Elder M. and I! It was pretty sweet too cause we went to dinner at Bishop S.'s the night we found out we were staying, and when we told him that we were both staying he actually cheered and threw his hands up and gave us double high fives, and told us he had talked with President the week before and had been "putting in a good word for us to stay". :) Sorry to go on about the ward, I hope I don't sound prideful or anything, cause we definitely have a lot we are working on to be better, but it is really nice to know you're making a difference. :) It kinda reminds me of a video called "Validation" that is one of my all time favorites! It's like 20 minutes long and you can find it on YouTube, you should all totally watch it!

(Here is a link to the "validation" video)

Validation

It has been really cool to be getting so much validation from the ward, a bunch of other families in the ward have been telling us that people who haven't had the missionaries over in months/years are inviting us over. The ward trusts us to help them with their missionary work, and they are excited to bring their friends to activities to meet us because they know we won't scare them away. It is all pretty neat! :) I'm so excited to have another transfer here!!!

Sure love you all! Sorry again this is a quick one, I'll try to get better for next week!! ;)
Your pal,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

At Sister D.'s for a farewell for the Derry Elders. 

They're getting transferred and Derry is getting Sisters.

Elder D. and I on exchanges found some people geocaching. 

We signed the log too.

(These are a few pics from a video Hunter took of Elder M.) 

We met some new people this week 

and they invited us back later in the week 

for one of their birthday parties! 

 We told them we would come and bring Magic Cookie Bars! 

To their surprise we actually did!! ;)

They LOVE us now and are cool with us coming by every weekend! :)

(Fixing his tie and busting some hula hoop moves!)

Cute little kitten at the awesome Foxes house! :)

Feb. 20, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hellooooooo everyone!! :)

It has been a great week! We went on exchanges with the Assistants in Manchester, as well as exchanges with the Derry elders in our area this week! They were both really cool and we learned a lot from each other on them!! I am going to work on being more consecrated to the work. I am pretty good at teaching and talking with people, but there are little things that I want to work on like being in bed on time or writing in my journal that I really want to do better at! Also I need to improve at giving correction. I am pretty chill and don't like contention, but I need to work on just giving correction as needed since I'm a leader. It is simple stuff but I know it will help me grow and learn more. :)

President Blair came to our ward yesterday and spoke and it was super good, he is the man! :) It was awesome! ;)

So we have a bunch of new people we are working with and it is so exciting!! I'll try to give you more details about more of them next week since I'm short on time this week (like I am every week... ;) ) but one awesome one is E. She is S's daughter, who I mentioned last week. They lives across the hall from the man himself, MB. We have become good friends with S. and her kids, and E. is the real deal! She is only 9 but she loves to be with us and learn from us and yesterday she even came to church with us!!! What a kid! :)

Transfers calls are Saturday so if y'all could pray that I get to stay in Exeter and finish training with Elder M., that would be pretty neat! ;) I am worried I might leave since I've been here for 6 months, but I REALLY want to stay!! There is so much good going on, and we just got a ward mission leader and so I really want to be here and keep helping things go along! :)

Sure love ya all and hope your week was just as great as you are! :)
Your boy,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

P-day Zone Activity 

P-day studying

Feb. 13, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey Pals!

We ended up shoveling a few people out today during P-day time and have only emailed for 30 min and we have a dinner appointment so I'll get back on later tonight and finish my emailing time! :) Love you guys!!!! ❤️

We're at the M.'s house finishing emailing now! The M.'s are a super cool young couple from Austria and Germany! :) I'm sending a picture of a painting by Brother M.

It has been a wild and good week, just like most are and we're doing pretty swell! :) I am loving it, it is great!! It is hard when sad stuff happens but great when good things do! :) We have had some big storms and are supposed to get a few more so that is pretty sweet! Nothing better than brushing a foot or two of snow off your car and shoveling all around it! ;) We have been able to help lots of other people as well which is pretty sweet!! :) We started teaching a guy named P. who we found through shoveling and we have two others who we want to go back and start teaching!

J. is doing great! She and L. had a crazy week with the snow since he is a taxi driver, but she's doing well! C. is good too, life is still stressful but good! We have become really good friends with and are teaching a lady named S. and her daughter E., who we met through M. We also are teaching a lady named D. and her 2 kids, J. and R., and we hope they will set baptismal dates this week! :)

It is crazy that we are already on our 5th week of this transfer! We have exchanges with the Derry Elders and the Assistants this week so we are excited, and there is a ward party on Saturday! :)

So today we shoveled for this guy named P. and we called him to let him know we were done. We had talked about teaching him before but he was busy, so today Elder Morris said, "Hey, would there be a time that we could come back and teach you a lesson?" P. joking said, "What, you want to teach me a lesson, what are you gonna do, beat me up?" Haha, it was really funny! :)

Sure love you all!!! :)
Elder Hunter Branch

Feb. 8, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire and the Boston Temple

Hey Pals!

It has been the WILDEST week and a half!!! I have like no time so I'll have to send a long one next week, but to give a quick recap:

We got asked if we could get someone a Dime bag ($10 worth of pot), got hit on by a lady a few times our age at an investigators Super Bowl party (we also picked up an investigator at it though which was sweet), had 4 people come to sacrament meeting, had five new people start learning from us, N. and C. came back!, J. read all the way to Jacob in the Book of Mormon!, went to the Boston Temple with M., had some sweet exchanges, went to the place where Joseph Smith was born for New Missionary and Trainers meeting, got too much snow and ice rain and had to sleep in Bedford with no change of clothes, and just had an INSANE but AWESOME week!! :)

Sorry I have like no time, I'll try to write more next week!

Love you all!!!
Elder Branch :)

Boston Temple

on our preparation day

Exchanges with the Zone Leaders

At Sharon Vermont, the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 

for New Missionary and Trainers Meeting

Object lesson at New Missionary Trainer Meeting

Thanks to the wonderful Senior Missionaries for the photos!

Jan. 30, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey all!!!! :)

I am doing pretty swelllllll! This was a good week!! :) I had Mission Leader Training on Tuesday which was really fun, then we had a *drumrolll*.... MISSIONARY WORLDWIDE BROADCAST on Wednesday! It was pretty neat! They changed the schedule (which they told us in my mission about a month ago for all those in leadership, so we have been living that already) and they changed the key indicators (which we hadn't heard about)! It was super cool and they shared lots of sweet stuff! :)

T. is doing well! We saw him at Subway this week which was way cool!! :) He seems to be doing better, he had broke his foot, but he has a boot now! Ya, we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he had been going to start reading it but hadn't when we last went by, that is awesome it sounds like he has started reading! :)

J. has been okay, Elder M. saw her while I was at Mission Leader Training this week, but then she has been really sick the rest of the week. :( C. sadly we STILL haven't heard from! It is really sad, we hope she is okay!!! We did start teaching two other people in her apartment building this week though! C. is well too. We saw him twice this week and he is going to need to move his baptismal date back because he will be moving (still in our area), but needs to focus on that and keep learning. He said he would come to church, but then didn't come again which was super bummer!! We are gonna go visit him again soon though.

Mission Leader Training was soooo cool and fun! It was cool to see all these other missionaries who are super cool and pumped about missionary work and to get to learn with them! :) Elder C. is a District Leader now so I got to see him there as well as a bunch of the other Elders who I have meet who trained people from my flight group so that was fun! :) We learned a TON and I am excited to keep working on improving!

We have been using the GPS a TON, thanks for sending it to me! We would be in trouble without it.

So last week I had been going to say that this transfer is going to be crazy because we have still to come: zone conference, zone interviews, new missionary and trainers meeting, exchanges with the Assistants (they want to go on exchanges so that will be fun!!) exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and two exchanges with the Derry Elders! We also have district p-day and we're going to try to go to the temple with M. for a p-day as well, so it will be a WILD transfer, we're so excited! ;)
 
So this week we were able to have one of the coolest lessons of my mission! Elder M. and I went and visited this way cool guy who Elder C. and I found Christmas Tracting (idk if I ever mentioned that. Basically for Christmas tracting you would just knock doors of people who had cool Christmas lights and talk with them about Christmas. Usually people who put up cool lights are way nicer that the average joe). This guy is named M. and he is super neat! Elder M. and I went and talked with him and he were able to teach and testify of the restoration and the Atonment of Jesus Christ. It was SOOOO powerful and incredible! :) We are going to go see him with Brother L. tomorrow night!

Hope you are all doing well!! Oh, one last cool thing is that Elder M. and I along with a few other guys are going to be singing Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy this week at zone conference, it should be way cool!! :)

Love you!
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Our District

Elder C. at Mission Leader Training

He has a goal to never smile in a picture. 

I have one of him smiling though at Christmas time

 - he said I'm supposed to delete it.   ;)