May 8, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello everyone!

We have had an absolutely insane but great week here in Newport... or in basically everywhere but Newport! Haha! :)

Monday and Tuesday I was able to work in Newport and we found and taught a bunch of cool people! Wednesday I went to Skowhegan and worked with Elder Boyle. We had a great exchange and we found a lot of people to teach! One cool story goes like this. As I've been on my mission I've realized that one of the hardest things for missionaries to learn is to not be afraid to talk to people and to be lovingly bold. Basically just talk to EVERYONE and don't be afraid if they say no once, keep talking to them and have some fun and they will probably be more willing to listen to you when they see you as more than just a well dressed kid! :) I have made it a point to try to get really good at talking to people and breaking the ice so that I can be more effective. One thing that is kinda off topic is that I always carry candy with me to give to people! It makes them way nicer, cause they expect us to just come talk to them about church stuff, not talk to them like regular people or offer them candy! (You have to practice that though so you don't come off as a creep giving away "free candy" 👀🤔) Haha

So it was about 8:15pm and we had already had a great day and hadn't had dinner cause we were too busy with other things, but we decided to try at least one more person before going in to have a late dinner. We contacted someone who ended up not being home, but across the way from where this house was, there were some apartments and the third story window of one was open. There was a teenager working out that we could see, and he was blasting uptown funk. We walked by and the kid and I nodded at each other. I told Elder B. we were gonna invite that kid and we walked back! He saw us and waved, and then I called up and asked how he was doing! He had to pause the music to hear us then we started having a conversation with him and another guy who appeared at the window. We told them what we do and asked if we could come visit them sometime, and the second guy was like, "Ya, how about right now, I'll be right down!" He came downstairs and we taught him the Plan of Salvation because of some questions he had. Pretty soon the first kid and another one came down the stairs and we were able to teach them the Restoration! It turned out that the first kid we had seen in the window wanted to learn more and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and exchanged numbers! Since then it turns out the Skowhegan Elders have taught him again and even had a tour of the chapel with him!

So I'm short on time and have already talked you to death probably, but to summarize, Thursday was a great Zone Conference and I learned a ton! Friday we went to Manchester on exchange with the Assistants. It was a great, I was with Elder B. Everyone jokes about how Elder B. and I are basically the same person except he is from Canada and is proud of it! Haha, that was a fun exchange too. Then the temple on Saturday was super amazing as well! We got to see a sealing of a family, and also a recent convert went for her first time! It was great! :)

I'm excited for next week to get to Skype! Sure love all so much! I wish I could tell you so much more, but there is just never time! We are teaching and have found so many other awesome people. Life is great as always! Being a Zone Leader and trying to figure out how to help other missionaries so much is a lot to do, but I love it! :)

Happy Mother's Day!!
Love,
Elder Hunter Branch

Zone P-day Activity

Giant Sandwiches

and painting t-shirts

Zone conference

(picture from the mission facebook page)

Boston Temple

Critters of the week