Nov. 27, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello and happy Thanksgiving! 

Hope your having a great week! We had a great week and saw some awesome progression, but no one ended up making it to church! Haha, you can't win them all. We'll try extra hard for that this week! :)

Also, saying we had no one at church isn't quite true. We found a less active sister whose family we're teaching now, and she came to church! She is from the D.R. and is awesome! She was baptized as a teen and hasn't been in forever! We met her on the street, brought her a Spanish Book of Mormon and she is doing great. Between her family and a few other we've met at her house (an amazing 10 year old named D. who is a genius and is super exited to learn, as well as a teen named O. who is pretty excited to come to church this next week) it has been a goldmine!

This week we went on exchange with a bunch of missionaries!

Nashua: Elder Collins (who replaced me in Exeter) and I had a great time, where we taught a lot, and talked to everyone we had time to and found a couple awesome people who want to learn.

Exeter: This was fun to be back in my old area!

I went with Elder Augir and had a good exchange. We didn't get to go see many people I knew, but we got to see some great people and promised some amazing things like health if they committed to pray and ask God to help them make it to church on a set date, as well as a promise they could quit smoking if
they read the Book of Mormon everyday for the rest of the year. We also had
an awesome experience with a less active dad and his family! We had dinner with them, helped prep for thanksgiving (first time sticking my hand in a turkey skin, that was exciting!), and shared a powerful thanksgiving/Restoration message! The family really felt the spirit. They plan to check out church soon! God really does direct this work!

Peterborough: I went with Elder Spadafora, who just left Manchester!

We tried to talk to people, but it was on the streets of a small, wealthy downtown on Black Friday, and I don't know if I've had a harder time getting people to talk!! We were knocking on car windows, sharing the #lighttheworld video, talking to people on the street and shops, and just NO ONE would have it! It was insane, it humbled me with finding for sure! We talked about why and talked about finding good finding atmospheres. Rich, Black Friday, dusk, and cold were not a good mix, especially using a new finding tool of light the world and transitioning to Book of Mormon and Restoration. We eventually found one really cool lady at Dunkin Donuts, thank goodness! Not everyone you meet is nice, even when you're just being a pal and spreading Jesus, but that's ok, it makes it exciting! ;)

Thanksgiving was great, aside from the seasonal allergies after playing football. We had two really cool guys we're teaching come to the game and they had a really good Time! They are both young, so it was huge to just get to connect. On top of that our team won, so good times!



On a sad note, we stopped teaching Carol who was going to get baptized. I'll spare you the details and just say things didn't work out there. It's sad and hard sometimes to be a missionary, but that's only when you lose sight for a second of how amazing the work you're doing is! :) There are so many amazing people we're teaching right now who are wanting to change their lives. :)

Hope you all have a great week,
Love ,
Elder Branch

Zone p-day activity

Thanksgiving dinner with the awesome Collett Family - thank you!

Boxed water while on exchanges

Thanksgiving with the Blair's

Nov. 20, 2017 Happy Thanksgiving!

Hellooooooo!

So this week I was sick ALL WEEK! It was rough, but luckily I think this is the first week since being in Manchester that we didn't have some sort of important meetings, so it was well timed, except for that we had been really excited to have the chance to work!

Tuesday we went up to Maine and went on exchange. I was already sick but decided to ignore it, which worked until we had to call President Blair for something, and then when they heard my voice they told me to go buy medicine and go to bed! It's a good thing we have adults to help all us rookies out!! ;) That morning though on exchange, the four of us set goals for the day. We started with each companionship wanting to find 4 new people to teach, then since that would be 8, we decided why not 10!? We went out into the cold on foot and talked to everyone, and by lunch at 12:45 (we got Chick-fil-a all together) we had found 10 people already!!! We decided to keep going and by the end of the day we found 14 new people to teach (each companionship found 7!) It was a crazy cool miracle because usually not everyone and their dog is dying to talk to the Mormons! (Which is still a wonder to me, I think we look pretty good!) I was on exchange with Elder N. and we had a great time. We stopped and talked to people with ear buds in, people on the corners, people just walking out of houses, and we even got the information for a mail lady who was still in her mail car! :) We were just pleasant, joked around a ton with people, and made lots of friends!

The rest of the week was a lot of sleep, medicine, office time (I couldn't do much else), and a couple of lessons. We had some of the nearby missionaries go on exchange with us so one could stay with me while Elder Petersen went out and worked.

I'm glad to report that I'm feeling better now and C. has her baptismal interview tonight at 6! :) She has her baptismal date coming up soon so keep her in your prayers!

Hope you all have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving, I'm so grateful for all of you!
Love,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Nov. 11, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire - happy birthday!!!

Hello all!

This week we switched p-day to Saturday so we could go to the Temple in Boston with M! It was a really cool experience! They had us do a ton of baptisms and confirmations, for our group and the group before us, and it was great to get to spend some time there! :) M. loved how pretty it was, and I have to agree! The coolest miracle was that as we were just getting there, who walks in behind us but S., my first mission Convert!!!! :) It has been a year now and he and E. were there getting sealed, or married for time and eternity! We both had to run, so no time for a picture, but it was great to say hi and give him a big hug! :)

This week was a chaotic one, but that is the story of transfers! It is cool to see some missionaries who I got to pick up at the airport, now becoming District Leaders or trainers!

We have started listening to lots of Christmas music now! ;) I am on the side that Christmas music is always game, especially right after Halloween is past! I know some of you will probably have other feelings about when it's okay to listen to Christmas music, and maybe you have a point, I just haven't found it yet! ;) 

We have pretty free weeks the next two, so we're excited to get to work hard! We have a bunch of fun ideas for Christmas so now it's go time on figuring them out! :)

As many of you know, my Grandma passed away yesterday. It was interesting timing because today is my Birthday, and just last week Elder Petersen's mom had a new baby boy. I've been thinking a lot about life and how it comes and goes, and how I'm so grateful for God's plan for us all. It puts everything in perspective and makes sense. I'm also grateful for the Book of Mormon and the testimony it has given me of life after death and of Jesus Christ's atonement for us all, to help us feel joy! :) We have been memorizing "The Living Christ" document as a missionary and I want to end just how that does, "God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."

Love,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Nov. 6, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hello everyone!

It is crazy that another transfer has come and gone. Elder Petersen and I were talking last night about the beginning of our missions compared to now, and it is amazing the difference. The beginning of missions can be really hard and lonely, but they are also so fun and new! Everything you encounter is new, you have a lot more time to learn and study, and you're just beginning to become a missionary. It was hard, but also one of the best times of my life! The people back in Exeter were so great! There were some amazing members in the Ward who changed my life forever, as well as those like C. and S. who got baptized who are both just incredible, and many others who I got to meet, who learned about and are still learning about the Church, who I love so much! The missionaries I served around were also great examples and friends. I'm so grateful for the chance to serve! :)

This week has gone well! We taught some amazing families, one who especially made me happy. That was R. I met him a few months back when on exchange with Elder Hall. He is in his 20's, really likes bass in his car, and loves to joke around. We taught him some and he seemed interested, but didn't respond to texts or calls. Elder Bester and I saw him once, but it had been a while. We decided to stop by this week and he was surprised to see us! We joked around for a while to get reacquainted, then read 1 Nephi 1 with him. Part way through, a 16 year-old cousin walked in. He was surprised to see people reading scriptures in his house, and said he hadn't read them, but asked what we do and then we were able to get him to finish the chapter with us! Then as we were closing up, another cousin who is 17 walked in! She had met us before and we were able to teach her some and have her say the closing prayer! We scheduled a solid return appointment, and then as we left, R. followed us outside. His countenance had changed from how it was when we first got there and he thanked us for teaching his cousins. He was a little emotional and said he had had Jesus Christ in his life before and needed to get back to it, but that those two hadn't. He was so grateful we taught then about it while making it cool and fun. It is awesome to see how the gospel really does bless families and bring happiness!

C. came to church and seems to be doing well! We are so blessed to be teaching her! We're also planning on going to the temple this week with M! She got her Temple Recommend and were going to shoot for the 11th! When she came out of her interview she joked around with is and said, "I passed the test!" :) She usually is more reserved, so it was fun to see her crack a joke!

A., the man who is a member and had stopped coming to church for the last year or two, came to church for his second week in a row, and he dressed up in a sweet suit this time! He was looking good! It is cool to see how people change so much just by living the gospel! I love the quote, "A suit doesn't make a man, but it can greatly improve his appearance." :) The suit didn't make him, it was the gospel back in his life that made A... but the suit did make him look spiffy!

Elder Petersen and I are staying together this transfer which will be sweet! We're hoping we stay next transfer as well, as it is right before Christmas! President Blair has tried to start working on that one to minimize changes right before the holiday, but he wouldn't tell us until that week anyway, so we'll see! It would be the first time for both of us that we would have a companion for three transfers.

This week we've had a big emphasis on the Book of Mormon for some reason, and I just wanted to testify that I know the Book of Mormon is true! You just have to read it.

Love you all!
Elder Hunter Branch :)

We had breakfast at our apartment with the other Elders in our district this morning. Elder Spadafora is leaving (sad face)