This week we had the meeting with the new missionaries which you saw since we had to email late last week. The coolest part of that was the fireside at the end that we really had around a campfire! Last year there were a few more new missionaries so the Assistants to the President did most of the talking, but since we had a couple less, we decided to give everyone a part! They all either taught, prayed, shared a story, sang, or bore testimony. It was so cool and President Blair loved it! It will hopefully stay a memorable experience! :)
This week we got to work! Sad news is that N. who was progressing really well blocked us on Facebook randomly one day and we haven't hear from him since. That's how it goes sometimes though. We started teaching 11 new people this week, had a few new people come to church, and probably the best thing, we had A. at church! She was baptized a little before I got here and hasn't been able to come except for once. This week we celebrated Brother and Sister D. (they are from Nepal) with her and the family, and then she came to church on Sunday! :) It was the coolest feeling sitting in Church, M. who just got baptized sat in front of me, one of the awesome people we are teaching was to my left, A. was on my right, another Recent Convert (D.) who we visit a lot was next to A., and P. (a returned member) was next to her! Missionary work is so powerful and changes people! :) We had a special service about missionary work on Sunday. Elder Petersen spoke, as well as our Ward Mission Leader and Assistant WML. Elder Ricks and I got to sing "Called to Serve" and added a special third verse that we sing in our mission that goes:
"Called to Serve the people of New England,
With the Gospel of our loving God,
Teaching, preaching unto true repentance,
Holding to the Iron rod"
I sure love being a missionary and am so grateful for the missionaries a long time ago who taught my family! There is power in the Book of Mormon! A man we are teaching really wants to find historical proof that the Book of Mormon existed. We shared the talk from this last Conference by Tad R. Callister, and I love the story he shares. He tells of a friend who left the Church, and years later decided to investigate again. He can't get past trying to see if there is historical evidence of the Book of Mormon for a while to build his testimony. It is only after he begins reading the Book of Mormon that he learned that it's true. At last his 3.5 year investigation of the Church ended and he was baptized, all because he finally took a step of faith and read! How powerful that is!
Love you all, go read the Book of Mormon! :)
Elder Branch
Sunday late night dance party on parking garage
after putting in mission numbers and updating all info
