Mar. 27, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire C.'s Baptism!! =D

Hey everyone! :)

We had such a great week! It was so awesome to see C. get baptized!! :) We visited her a bunch this last week and she just did so great all week! It was super funny cause C. had a nose ring, and we had been teaching her other things that she wanted to learn about, so we didn't even remember to talk about the counsel given to us by a Prophet and apostles that our bodies are a temple, that men should refrain from piercings and that women should only have one set in their ears. So we brought that out the morning of her baptism and it was so funny and cool to see her response! She was just like, "You guys!!! Ahh... You guysss!! I just had that put in a few months ago and I like it and it cost money! Ahh... ok fine, I'll go take it out. You guys!!!"  We tried to apologize for not telling her sooner and tried to explain more but she was like, "Nope, if a prophet said it then I agree, but you guys!!!!" It was super awesome to see how strong her testimony is and how much she's learned! 

So we made invitations to her baptism and handed out between 70-80 of them!! It was cool to get to talk to so many people! It ended up that no one we gave invitations to came, but we did find 8 new investigators this week, which was sweet! :) One of them was a man named A. who is from Albania! He had talked with missionaries a few years ago and we found him and he is a super cool and nice man!! :)

C.'s baptism was super sweet, like the whole ward came and so did most of our district so that was really cool! We had some good talks, C. was baptised, then we had a special musical number by the youth and children, and the testimonies of S. S. and M. F. (recent converts from our ward and Portsmouth.) It was such a cool service and everyone loved it! C. had such a great time and the spirit was there so strongly! :)

Today was actually C.'s birthday so Elder M. and I brought her magic cookie bars and a cool mirror thing given to us by J. to give to someone! :) We sang happy birthday and had a fun little time! This week should be pretty sweet with C. too, we plan to do family history!

So one last cool thing is that Elder M. and I have been so blessed by children! First of all there is E., who is the coolest 9 year old in New England! Then she introduced us to A. who is 10 and is E.'s best friend, and we are teaching their family now! Then we have this cool family of investigators who are from Jamaica, and when we visited them this week their 6 year old daughter talked to us for a long time, and she was the one who started asking when we were going to come back again, and when we picked a day and time she was like "yay!" :) THEN, the other day when we were inviting people to C.'s baptism we were in Brentwood, a more residential part of our area and we met a super cool 10 or 11 year old girl named E.! She was sitting on a long board while her dog pulled her! ;) We said hi then she started talking to us, then one thing lead to another and she started leading us around the neighborhood to help us find the people we were looking for! It was so nice and cool! Then she said we should go invite her dad so we went to her house and talked with her dad, who wasn't the nicest at first. It was pretty funny actually! So we walked up to the house and E. knocked on the garage side door and her dad opened it. He said hi and E. said we were Elder Branch and Elder M. and we were inviting people to a baptism! Her dad said, "Oh, church guys, have fun walking." Haha, ya, that was kinda harsh, but then Elder M. was like, "Oh, can I actually use your bathroom?" The dad said sure and we all went in. While Elder M. was in the bathroom I talked with the dad and he started to lighten up. He was actually a pretty cool dude! Then we gave him a invitation to the baptism and E. was like, "Dad, can we go!?" He said that sadly they were busy. Then as we were saying bye the dad said, "If you are in Brentwood and ever need a bathroom or drink feel free to stop by!" That was super nice and then we asked if we could come by in a few days and share an Easter message with them. The dad was like, "Ya, if you're in the area and were around." And then E. said, "You are welcome ANY time!" and she shot her dad a 'gotcha' look and it was way funny! ;) Kids are the best, never doubt what good anyone can do!!!

Well I sure love you all and hope life is going well! :) Thanks for the prayers and know that many of you are in my prayers specifically and all of you are generally! Get pumped for General Conference, and invite a friend to watch it with you! It is such a blessing to have an actual living Prophet of God on the Earth and that is definitely something you should share! Don't be afraid, "Just do it!"

Oh, one last funny story, I decided to have some fun with missionary work today and so when Elder M. and I went to McDonalds drive-thru today for breakfast (breakfast of champions right there!) I gave the person who charged us, and also the person who gave us the food each a sweet new Easter pass-along card with our names and number! ;) It was pretty funny to give them something, but they both said thanks and took them, so mission accomplished! Who knows, maybe if I keep doing that it will make a difference for someone someday!? HAHA!

LOVVVVVVVVVVE,
Elder Casador Rama :)

Cassie's Baptism!

Look at all the palindromes

Elder Erbe, my first District Leader

Mar. 20, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire Best week ever!

Hello friends and family!

So, this week was basically the best ever, as is every week! :) C. is getting baptized this Saturday then her and the ward women will be watching the women's broadcast together so it will be basically the coolest thing ever! :) The ward is SOOOOO excited! The Lord is really blessing us here in Exeter! It is fun to see so much more life and excitement about missionary work in the ward! :) Elder M. and I are getting kinda anxious and a little sad cause we're having such a great time, and we think I'll probably be leaving this transfer and we would love to stay together for another here in Exeter, but I guess we'll see what the Lord has in store! :)

We had a crazy storm on Tuesday this last week which was rough cause the missionary cars were grounded, but luckily we have a secret weapon named M. B. who took us to go visit people! ;) We only made it to one lesson with J. before it got too bad and scary to drive, so then M. took us back to his apartment and we were stuck there for the day. We got to teach E. which was really sweet, then we did some planning for upcoming events, we want to do a cool ward Easter party! Then E. came back and was bored, so first we built a snowman with her and her family, which was fun! Then a while later Elder M., E., and I played hide and seek in the blizzard and it was basically the most fun and epic thing ever! We set some boundaries around in a small courtyard kinda area and a few surrounding buildings, and it was super snowy and epic and really windy! You could dive in the snow and you could try to find each other by following tracks in the snow, so it got harder the longer we played and the more tracks there were! :) It was crazy fun, I would definitely recommend blizzard hide and seek: 10 out of 10, would play again! ;)

We were able to see a crazy cool miracle this week with E.! So, the deal-io with E. is that she is the coolest, and she wants to get baptized, and her mom and sister like us missionaries, but don't want to make those commitments. We really want for E. to get baptized and confirmed so she can have the gift of the Holy Ghost, but we need to make sure she has support to help her grow spiritually and to help her stay involved. It was really hard to know what to do, and so we prayed to see a miracle with E.. As it says in Mormon 9:15-21, God is still a God of miracles! (Look up those scriptures btw, they are straight spiritual fire! 

(15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?

17 Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his word the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought?

18 And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles.

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.
21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.) 

A day or two later we hear that E. has a best friend named A. who would be hanging out with E. that weekend! E. really wanted for us to meet A., and A. is basically the real deal E. version 2.0!! We taught them about the Book of Mormon using this cool paper object lesson we have, and then A. just started asking questions! She knows some about God and Christ, but has tons of questions!! It was so awesome to just get to talk with her and help her know who Jesus Christ is more, and we shared the video Because of Him, which was sweet! 

Video...Because of Him

We had a ward party on Saturday which was way cool, and E., A., S. (E.'s mom), and of course the real deal C. all came! Then the next day E. and A. went to church, along with C., Brother R. (who is not a member, but is the husband of a family who are all members who we have been meeting with), and also S. S.'s (the awesome dude who got baptized back in October) 9 year old daughter who we've been teaching a little bit! They all liked church which was sweet! So, back to E. and A., we were able to teach them again, and then today for p-day we went bowling with E., A., M., the W.'s (awesome family in the ward), and then E.'s and A.'s moms watched. A.'s mom really liked us too, and they invited us over to their house to meet the family after bowling! We went over and got to meet A.'s two older sisters and her dad, who were all super cool! We shared a message with them, and we are going over again on Thursday because it is A.'s birthday and she and the family want Elder M. and I to join their family for her special birthday dinner!! It was such a random cool miracle, and we hope that we will be able to keep teaching them all! A.'s dad really liked us and he talked to us a bunch at their house! Then as we were leaving he gave us each his card cause he wants to stay in contact! :) Miracles are the best!

I finished the Book of Mormon for my 9th time this week and I just wanted to let you all know that I know the Book of Mormon is true! I echo the words of Elder Hollands great-grandfather who said, "No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so." I have read the book and have prayed. I know it is true, and that it teaches the truth; that Jesus Christ is our brother, our example, and our Savior. I know that living this gospel brings so many blessings to individuals and ESPECIALLY to families! As said in the Book of Mormon, when we live the gospel, the statement in 2 Nephi 5:27 becomes true, "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of ​​​happiness​."

Sure love you all and thanks for all you do! Remember, Y'all need Jesus!

Elder Hunter Branch :)

Mar. 12, 2017 in awesome Exeter, New Hampshire

Hello everyone!!!! :)

I hope your week was been super duper!! :) I have had a few crazy weeks so I have not really been able to talk to you all about the people we're teaching! So first off, there is C.. Elder C. and I found her back in December. We were visiting people for a Christmas food drive and delivery thing for the ward and we met C. in the foyer of an apartment building where we were delivering food to someone. She was carrying some soda upstairs and we asked if we could help her. She accepted and as we talked more she was interesting in learning more from us. We taught her for a while and she even had a baptismal date! Sadly then some hard things came up in her life and she basically disappeared! :( Her phone was disconnected, her car was never home, and her apartment lights were never on. The ward members had met her and really liked her, and our Bishop said that we should keep praying for her, and he would ask us about her every so often. After about a month of no contact with her I started to give up.

So fast forward another month and Elder Branch is still loving life, but he is sick of not seeing any awesome people blessed by the covenant of baptism for two transfers. I started praying a bunch and had a fast for the opportunity to help another person receive the ordinances of baptism and confirmation before I left Exeter. I was staying here for a sweet 5th transfer, so there must be more the Lord knew I could do here! 

That brings us up to the week that I started getting sick. On Monday night as we were driving back to our apartment I was feeling just horrible. I was just focusing on driving home safely while feeling bad, when I had the feeling to look left. I didn't really want to cause I felt so bad, but I did it, and we were just passing C.'s apartment building, and her light was ON! The next day we called her and were sent to her answering machine, but the phone was reconnected! We left a message and she called us back later that day! We have been teaching her again for the last two weeks and today she passed her baptismal interview! :) She asked if I would baptize her since I've been there ever since she started learning cause we carried the soda for her. :) I am just so excited for her; it is hard to contain!! Elder M. will be giving her the Holy Ghost as well, which is SO cool! Her baptism is the 25th, two days before her birthday!    :)

So other awesome people we're teaching include E., one of the coolest 9 year-olds in New England! Her mom lives across from a member, M. We have become really good friends with them and have been teaching E. and S. for a while. They are both super cool. S. (the mom) likes us but doesn't want to come to church or really make commitments, but E. is killing it! She comes to church BY HERSELF every other week (cause she is with her dad on the other weeks). M. drives her and she comes and loves it!! She is such an inspiration, it is so cool to see her determination to come and learn! She is the cutest ever! E. has told M. that she wants to get baptized, and also that she wants to be a missionary like Elder M. and I are when she gets older! :) The problem is that we can't really baptize E. until we get a bit more fellowship from the ward members, cause while her family isn't against it, they probably won't go out of their way at this point to help her in the gospel and staying involved. We are planning some things to continue to help them, last P-day we changed up our schedule a bit and went out and taught during the day so at night we could go bowling with S., E., M., and the G. and C. families! :) It was really cool and we hope to help them all continue to build relationships!

So those are some of the really cool and good things going on right now! We are doing really well and have lots of other things going on with other people, but those are some of the main ones. Hopefully you all can make it thru all that writing! :)

One cool thing I have started trying to do is memorize a scripture a day, it is hard to remember, but I know it will bless me as I keep up on it!

Sure love you all and hope you have a great week! :) 

Know that you're all in my prayers!
-Elder Hunter Branch :)

She's awesome!

Our new District

Mar. 6, 2017 A horrid week of sickness

Hey family!

I am better! It was horrid, we went out and worked everyday though, I think I only rested for an extra 2 hours on the second day. It probably wasn't a very good idea for that whole getting better thing we're supposed to do, but if you rest cause you're sick as a missionary you basically feel disobedient and lazy and like you just need more faith, so I didn't rest. Haha ;) But on day five of eating very little and being sick I called the mission nurse and she told me some specific meds to get and foods (hence the charge on my home card) and I got better the next day. :) Thanks for all you guys do, I sure love ya all! :)

I love what you did with my... Z.'s room!! :) It looks so cool! :) I'm thinking if I get a pillow like Z.'s mission pillow all it will say is EXETER and NEW HAMPSHIRE! ;) 

The ward is joking about how they paid the President off to keep me here my whole mission, and how they are going to change my call to the "Exeter New Hampshire Mission". ;) It is crazy how much I have grown to love the ward, and how much they love us! :) It is wonderful, it makes me start to cry to think about leaving here! :)

Well, I hope you all know I love you SOOOOOOO much, and that I miss you a TONNNNNNN! I am so terrified to think my mission is already 1/4th the way over and that I'll have to go back home someday, but also so excited for that time when I'll get to see you all and all my other friends again! I have already learned so much and am so excited to keep learning! Thanks Dad for your cool insights!! I love hearing about what you are learning, and thank you so much Mom for keeping me up to date on what is going on with the family and others! :) Thanks also for sending me pictures, I look forward to those each week! :) Know that you are doing so much and helping so many people. Like I had said before, I think in a letter to E., I sure love you mom and dad and thanks for all you do and did to help us kids. As I've seen so many different families and talked with companions, us kids were SOOOOO blessed to have to as parents, and I hope I can be even half as great as you guys are!  <3

Sure love you too Z. and E.!!! I'm glad you're doing well with school E.! I still think back a bunch to all the fun things we did and how close we got, especially that last year! :) I miss going to Taco Time to go get food with you, those were some of my favorite memories! :) Also when we got banned from going to Walmart by mom and dad cause we almost knocked over the bagels when I was pushing you on the cart (which was still a bad idea and we shouldn't have done it)... it was still pretty dang funny!!!   :)

And Z., I hope you know I sure love ya and I think about what it must have been like for you on your mission all the time! There is so much that happens that I learn and experience and I hardly get to tell you all about any of it, and I'm stoked for when I get home and can learn more about your mission. I sure respect the heck out of ya for serving and I have always been grateful for your example. :)

Sure love you all SOOOO much!

Elder Hunter Branch :)