Aug. 13, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello all!

This week has been great! Lots of driving, as is standard in upper Maine. We had our friend C. accept a baptismal date!! :) He and CJ both came to church again which was great! One of the members did a great job befriending C.! He got his number and asked C. if he could come help work on his boat, then he’d take him out for lunch. They did that and it was SOOOO awesome! :) I love members.  :)

We have been starting an effort to see and help more members do missionary work. This week we got a call from the Elders Quorum President (one of the men’s leaders in the church) and he said that he and his counselors are going to start setting one night aside a week to go contact people who haven’t been to church recently and let them know we love, care, and miss them! They would love it if we’d come with them! That will be so awesome for this ward!!

Our young couple, J and M are so close, they just missed church this last week. I hope we can give them a baptismal date this week. They are a family that will be so blessed by the gospel! We had a few really great lessons this last week which we could feel the spirit so powerfully during! :)

Well, I LOVE being a missionary. 😆 I can’t believe it’s been two years. I am so amazed by all I’ve learned and become. I’ll just close by saying I know God makes true on his promises. Don’t be afraid to go search for truth! God has given us a divine process to find out. I know Heavenly Father loves us and that He sent His Son to suffer for us and atone for sins. He LOVES us all so much and wants us to love, grow, and learn! :)

Love,
Elder Branch

Aug. 6, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello!

This has been a great week! We had such a busy week!

We had Zone Conference this week, as well as a festival in Newport which we helped out with. Those were both super. At Zone Conference they had those of us who return home soon share one “Golden Truth” which we have learned as a missionary. I had so many ideas, it in the end I decided to share that: God is our Heavenly Father, Christ is His Son and our Savior, and the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion. Also, I know that God makes true on his promises as we continue in Faith. :) Haha, I shared a bunch more, and cried. It was great to hear what other missionaries who I’ve loved and served with the past two years have learned. :)

We had two new friends come to church! Both are young guys. One stayed the whole time and even got up and shared his testimony! The other left early because he was super nervous, but plans to come again! The one who was super nervous impresses me SOOOO much! We got in contact with him because he signed up for a young adult rafting trip the church was hosting! He had never been rafting so he decided to go! We got in contact with him and have talked with him a bunch. He drove about an hour to get to church, after only being invited once! He loved getting to meet people, but also was super anxious because of it. He is excited to come again next week and stay the whole time! It is amazing how people are prepared and ready to exercise faith! :)

Hope all is well for everyone, have a great week!!
Elder Branch :)

July 29, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello! This week has been grand!

We had a party with the trio life as usual, although our wrestling did result in some minor injuries this week. We found a lot of cool people again! On Wednesday we were going to stop by someone who’d expressed interest before any of us were here. We pulled into the driveway and stopped to pray before going up. As Elder Sika was praying I see a man with a gnarly black eye walking towards us! We finished the prayer quick and hopped out of the car. The man was actually super cool and really humble. He hadn’t drank in 3 years, but slipped up the other day. His friend, who was driving, was drinking too and crashed. Luckily no one else was hurt, but our friend got his black eye and some bad damage around his eye. He wanted to make changes and even come to church, then we showed up! We met his girlfriend and their 2 little kids, as well as one of their family friends! We are teaching them now and hope they will be able to come to church next week! :)

I fell down the stairs in the Machias Elders apartment this week. Let’s just say, trying to stand and hang from a little wood ledge isn’t a great idea, and if you do so, make sure you are careful when you try to step back onto the stairs....

We saw K. this week again and she’s been having a rough time. We had a super good visit, but she didn’t make it to church.

We have lots of people right now who are working on having real intent. I like to say “God’s not in the entertainment business.” If you want an answer, really pray and don’t give up, God wants to change you and help you if you put some faith in.   :)

Hope you all have a bueno weeko (semana)
Elder Branch :)

Exchanges

Everyone wants the wheelchair

A band concert in the park
(photo credit unknown)

June 23, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hola!

What a fun week this has been! It was soooooo busy!

So, we had to do the 4 hour drive down to Manchester for the court case. The court case made me frustrated, but at least it’s all over now. I thought about writing out my big story and complaint, but decided no one wants to hear that kind of negativity, so I’ll summarize by saying that I’m fine and it won’t go on my record or anything, I learned a lot about court and people, and the church only paid part of what the guy wanted. 👍

The rest of the week was awesome though! Being back in Exeter for a few days while we waited for transfers was AWESOME! I love the people there. :)

It was sad to see Elder Lockwood go, but I’m excited to see what he does. He’s down in Lawrence speaking Spanish now and I know he’ll do super well!

We then headed back up to Ellsworth, and I have 2 new companions! Elder Anderson (from Springville Utah, been out for 18 months) and Elder Sika (from Missouri, been out 15 months). We helped out with the Bucksport Bay Festival this weekend and had a great time! It was great getting to serve there, and we also had a booth where we did the Book of Mormon experience.

Sunday we celebrated Pioneer Day as "Ellsward" and all dressed up like pioneers for church!

Ward lunch after church

It’s been such a busy week, so I’m excited to see all our people again now!

Y’all need Jesus. Prayer works.
Love,
Elder Branch

July 16, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello all!

Transfer came again! Elder Lockwood will be heading down to Lawrence, Mass. to speak Spanish in a trio for his last six weeks of training. RIP that man. I’ll miss him tons, but he’ll do great.  

I’ll be receiving Elder Anderson and Elder Sika in a trio! They have both been out for a while so it’ll be a party! Actually it’ll probably absolute insanity cause trios are sooooo much fun! Haha  

We had a good week! We met some amazing people! One lady, K., is INCREDIBLE! She’s Quaker right now, but would love to learn more about what we share. She read 430 pages of the Book of Mormon between Thursday and Sunday, as well as came to church!! She had a great time in the women’s class (Relief Society) at church and a bunch of the younger members who work here in Bar Harbor for the summer talked to her and became friends; they exchanged numbers to hang out! She’s loved how big the Mormon community (which really is mostly in the summer because of workers and tourists) is since the Quaker one is so so so small. Now the trick is getting her to not just add our truths to hers, but learn that what we share really is God’s whole truth for us. As a missionary though, I’ve realized just how easy that is. I don’t ever have to convince anyone. The promise of the Holy Ghost is real, and if people will simply do what we invite them to, THEY come to know it’s true, independent of what we share and do as missionaries. Preach My Gospel (our missionary training book) says: “We will be guides so that you can learn the truth of our message for yourselves. It is your choice to accept and act on the message. Therefore, you should feel free to ask questions.” Amen to that! If you have questions, whether you're a member of the church or not, feel free to try out the promise for YOURSELF. Ask the missionaries, they will be your guides. If you don’t try out what they ask though, don’t be surprised when you don’t receive an answer. If you try it out, acting in faith, you’ll know for yourself.

We have to go down to Manchester to deal with court stuff for the car accident I was involved in last January. The other driver is trying to say it was our fault, which it was not, so we get to go fight it!  I hope we can resolve it there so that we don’t need to go to actual court, but we’ll see.

Have a great week!
Elder Branch

July 9, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

This week was a party!

We had a great 4th of July! We were in the Bar Harbor parade, which was really big! Members were telling us that Bar Harbor is ranked one of the top places in the US to spend the fourth. We pulled handcarts and got a big welcome from the crowd.
Favorite quote: “Are you guys Amish?”

We did some fun things to try to get people to church. We sent fun pictures, and for one person we bought Sundaes then gave them a paper that said, “These Sundaes are good, but not as great as Sunday will be tomorrow at church!”

Sadly none of our friends made it to church this week, but we set a baptismal date with G.! We set three lesson to see her and her granddaughter this week and will be working really hard to help them attend church.

It has been nice to be in our area more this week and doing exchanges with other missionaries. We were able to find some good people and I’m excited to keep seeing what happens!

Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Branch :)

July 2, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

We have had a great week!

We got to go find!! I LOVE finding! :) Preach My Gospel says nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach. Talking to new people is a hard skill to learn, there are plenty of rude people out there. When you meet amazing people though, it’s the best! :)

We found 10 new people to teach again this week which was great. We have had a big cleaning process with those we are teaching and are starting fresh. We REALLY want to help someone get baptized in July. I had a cool train of thought this morning about faith and desires. If we really really desire something then we will try to achieve it. In the gospel sense, that is when we can see miracles. Just like how Grace works, we can’t accomplish miracles by ourselves. We do all we can, but in the end the only reason any of it is possible is because of our Lord. We have goals and plans in place to do all we can!

We had a few exchanges this week which was fun. It’s great to get to learn from and teach other missionaries. :)

We’re in a parade this week for the 4th, and President and Sister Blair will be joining us! :) That’ll be fun, who’d have thought I’d spend both of the fourths of July on my Mission with President Blair!? :)

Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Branch

June 25, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello!

This week was pretty strange, we were out of our area or doing random stuff all week.

We had new missionary and trainers meeting on Tuesday which was really good. It is beautiful at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Monument! The meeting was really great, as always. That’s my favorite meeting. 

Wednesday we went on exchange in Nashua NH. We did that because of a meeting the following day, so rather than drive all the way up back, we went on exchange. We had a GREAT time! We talked with these Elders and decided to go hard! On just Wednesday alone, we found 14 new people! They ended up getting just over 30 for the week! We were so busy and met so many great people. Nashua is a bigger city, like Manchester, so that was really fun.

Thursday we had our meeting and it was awesome! Elder Bennett of the 70 came and talked to the whole Mission! He didn’t have time to take a group picture or to talk to other missionaries, but we got to wave! He talked about lots of things, several of which he had talked about when he came to the Mission when I was a new missionary. The most important part in my mind is helping people do things to learn in-between visits. If they only act or progress with us there, then they will never gain the spiritual traction needed to keep moving when we leave.

We played in Phillip’s softball tournament this weekend. It was great to have the ward help us out and I believe it made a big impact on P. :) 

We think life is relatively more smooth now, so we’re excited to get things going in our own area again!

Have a great week! :)
Elder Branch

June 18, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello!

I’m convinced every time I think it’s really summer here, it’s a trick. It’s like April fools, but each week! ;) It gets warm and we’re sure we’re about to die because our apartment has no ac, nor does it have any windows that would work with an ac. (We have 3 mighty fans though 👍). Then, just when we’re sure the end is near, it’s chilly again the next day and we’re wearing jackets. What a blessing! :)

We did have a splendid week! A. was baptized!! 😃 She worked so hard and she did it! I’m amazed at the true conversion she has had. I’m 193% convinced that if you want to know the church is true, you NEED to read the Book of Mormon. M. read religiously and got all the way to 3rd Nephi before her baptism. A. has read the Book of Mormon almost 2 times through! She brought her copy to the church to have people mark their favorite scriptures at her baptism. We asked if she wanted a new copy, but she said she wanted to use hers! :) When I got to mark mine at the baptism I was so touched. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a classic missionary blue copy of the Book of Mormon that was so worn! It wasn’t worn because of poor care, it had been seriously searched. I have to say again, I was so touched. I hope I’m as awesome as A. when I grow up. :)

We were so busy with that and the Mission tour this week I don’t have a lot more to report. I have been considering how to work smarter, rather than harder as a missionary. Elder Stanfill said we work hard as missionaries. We plan, contact people, and do all we can. What we need to do to move from a good Mission to a great Mission is work smarter.

We have an insane week with New Missionary and Trainers Meeting tomorrow, then exchanges down there the next day before some other big event and meeting we’ll be helping with. So, we’ll get back late Thursday. Then Saturday we are doing the Softball tournament for P. We have dropped his date to be baptized because of how busy he is, but we did a little dtr and decided to take a break for 2 weeks from trying to meet because of his busy schedule. We’ll still send little inspirations though. :)

Life is good, lots of things going on. Hope you all have a great week!
Elder Branch

June 11, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine - transfers

Hello! This week has been great!

Elder Dayley headed up to Vermont, I was sad to see him go. He’ll do well though!

I received Elder Lockwood who is just starting his mission! He is from Ohio and is super awesome! He loves sports and is really kind. He’s doing a super good job and we’ve had some great experiences together already! :)

A. gets baptized Saturday!! She has been getting hit with things still but has done a great job! She’s so excited and so are we! She had us over to celebrate her birthday and gave us lobster, fiddleheads, Maine ginger beer, and a Friendly’s ice cream cake, so it was an authentic 100% Mainer meal! ;) So nice of her!

P. is good, we weren’t able to see him this week but have had good contact. He reached out to us and said he’s really excited for us to visit tomorrow, so that’s a great sign! The ward and we are going to participate in his softball tournament, so we’re pumped to support him and his cause, as well as play some softball! :)

J. is good, we’ve got a good idea of what he needs, and what we can share the next several lessons to help him most. He was busy this week for church but we want to get him to A.'s confirmation.

G. is a really great lady who is RLDS. She had family in town so she missed church, but we’ll see her tomorrow and try to set a baptismal date with her! :)

We, as always, want to emphasize finding this week and find at least 10 new people to teach. It’ll be a busy week, as we have a General Authority (a church leader) coming to speak to us this week so we have to travel.

The weather is getting warmer and we’re loving how nice it is! We’re going to go hike this afternoon to get the most out of this beautiful part of the country.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Branch:)

Elder Lockwood and I at A.'s "party"!

D. hazing my tadpole

I caught a tadpole!