Jan. 29, 2018 Last week in Manchester, New Hampshire - winds of change, great week, and got crashed.

"Do you hear that, those are the winds of change." -Randal from Monsters Inc.

Hello Everyone!

It is amazing how much serving a mission changes you, and I think Manchester has changed me the most. I've been here for 5 transfers (7.5 months) just like my first area. In other places I have learned a lot more about the scriptures, about how to talk to people and things like that. Here in Manchester I have learned a lot about what really matters in life, how to fit the basics into a busy schedule, and how to be a leader. There are so many things and people that I'll miss in Manchester as well as around the mission, but I'm excited for new opportunities.

I'm heading up to Ellsworth Maine! It is on the coast, includes Acadia national park and bar harbor, and is going to be awesome! I'll be training a new missionary there who will be arriving on Wednesday, so neither of us will know the area. I'll also be serving as a district leader with three other sets of Elders in my district, so it is going be to an exciting transfer!!! :) I'm excited to have a lot more time to focus on the people we have to teach and serve. I've got some ambitious goals for rest of my mission. (Also, to follow up, a couple months ago I said I wanted to run a mile under 6 minutes. Life got busy so we didn't get to run for a long time, but we have been again and I ran a 5:48 this week)

This week was good, lots less time to work, but we found some people and had G., D., and B. at church again! They really liked it and are excited to come again next week! B. is doing really well and has a ton of potential. He likes how church feels peaceful and he is reading in the Book of Mormon! He understands that coming back to God and making changes in his life are important.

There was a baptism of an awesome family in the Bedford Ward this week, and we had our little friend D. come, as well as their family friends who we're teaching, R. (23) and his little brother D. (5). R. really liked the baptism and although he couldn't make it to church this week, he is really excited to come next! :)

The baptism was of a family named the F.'s who were found my first week in Manchester at the fourth of July parade. They have learned a lot, given up coffee and tea, and were almost ready to be baptized when they called it off (this was in December.) They liked the people, but didn't know if the Church was true. They decided to keep learning from the missionaries, but to go look at other churches. They said none of the others felt right. The family has a little 8 year-old daughter who LOVED the Book of Mormon. Every night she'd carry it out to the family and have them read before bed. As the daughter did this, the family was touched and had the spirit tell them the Book was true. They then were baptized this week. It is AMAZING the impact a little 8 year-old girls had on her family, and will for generations to come. :)

Love you all and have a great week,
Elder Branch :)

=D

Guy crashed us.

We had a green light and he was in left lane. 

We were driving in the right lane and he accelerated into back side of our truck.

Jan. 22, 2018 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hello Everyone!

This week has been good, lots and lots of exchanges and meetings!

Tuesday was a Zone conference, then Wednesday I was on exchange in Essex. We were going to Pizza Hut buffet for lunch and decided to set a goal to invite 2 people in there to learn about the gospel. Turned out there were only 3 customers there and one walked out as we sat down, so only the young couple sitting next to us were left. That made things easy, so we talked to them! They ended up being really cool! They are active in their church, but said missionaries could come visit! Then we started talking with our waitress. She was really interested and those Elders are going to go see her and her grandpa! Setting goals works again! :)

Exchanges with the Saco Elders in Manchester the next day were good, except for the mean people we met! One even threatened to call the cops because we knocked on his door, looking for his wife, which "terrorized his dogs" (poor things, I hope they recover! Haha) As we drove out of their apartment complex, a state trooper drove in! We decided that's not how we wanted to leave, so we circled back around to find someone nice! That time, the state trooper drove out as we drove in. We ended up just meeting an older couple who was kind but not interested, but it was cool to face our fears! :)

Saturday I got to go to Exeter! We saw C. who I baptized last year! She is doing great and said the only regret she has with joining the church is that she wishes she had done it sooner!!  She said when we first met her that she had started talking to us as a joke to try to make fun of us, but was impressed and wanted to learn more. She said it is amazing how many crazy things people say about the church from the outside, but from the inside you can really tell it is God's church and you feel loved and supported.   :)

We also saw M. and Bro G.!

Later that day in Exeter we were walking down the street and met some people sledding! We talked to the parents for a while, became friends, taught them about the Book of Mormon and how it blesses families, and set appointments to go see two families again! :) After that we had a prayer and then each asked if we could take a ride down the hill! ;) I took a sled and hit the jump, and Elder J. took one of those Walmart snowboards, actually jumped off the jump, then landed hard and wiped out!! Luckily no clothing damage!

D. and a new person we teach named B. came to church! We found a crazy amount of people this week and are really just trying to get them to church.

Good week overall! Super tired now, but life's good.
Have a great week! Remember to pray and ask God if President Nelson is his chosen prophet, I know he is! :)
Elder Branch

Tried drinkable yogurt...

 not a favorite.

Jan. 15, 2018 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hello!!

Well, it warmed up for about 2 days into the 50's!... and now it is 6 degrees again. Haha! This week was good! Double Zone Conference weeks are always busy, it was fun to see missionaries and learn a lot. Tomorrow we go to the Joseph Smith Birthplace for the last Zone conference. It is crazy to think transfer planning is already next week!!!

D. came to church again this week! D. is 10 and is way smart! His mom had come to church with him a few weeks ago, but she isn't very interested in changing her lifestyle right now. We're working with David and his older Sister S. who is in her 20's. D. really liked church and we're hoping we can find a way to help him.

G. also came this week! G. is from the family of R., D. and G. that I've talked about a few times. This week we invited G. to come, and then he said later that night he was thinking about church and was in a Walmart bathroom. He saw a sticker that said, "Are you going to heaven?" He said he felt like that was his sign that he needed to come! :) He ended up actually liking it a bunch! The members did a great job saying hi to him and making him feel welcome, which was huge! Other than finding people for the missionaries to teach, being kind to the people we bring to church and saying hi is probably the next best thing members can do!

We found a bunch again this week, including some really cool families and people from Honduras and Puerto Rico! It is always so much fun to find; talking to everyone, even in the COOOOOOLD, and making them smile and grow closer to Christ is what it's all about. :)

Love you all and have a great week!
Elder Branch

Jan. 8, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hi Everybody!

Guess what, we didn't freeze to death!!

This week was just as cold, if not colder than last week so it really was an experience! Today though, it has jumped up to 20 degrees and it is incredible how warm it feels!! We usually brace whenever we walk outside, but it wasn't even bad this morning! :)

This week was good, very very busy! We had exchanges with the Acton elders which was fun! We talked to lots of people, almost froze to death, and really tried to do new things! We knocked on some car windows, got one persons number as their train was pulling in and they were jumping on, and even talked to the owners of a little craft shop because we needed to warm up, which lead to a great discussion, one of them giving their info to us since they would enjoy learning, and me buying some funky little pins! Acton's area is where "the shot hear round the world" was fired in Lexington, so that was pretty amazing to be somewhere with so much history took place!

We ended up getting a big storm and the mission had to stay inside because of the severity. We had a lesson that was really close and we were allowed to give other missionaries special permission to go to lessons that they could walk to, like within a quarter mile, so we gave ourselves special permission! ;) We helped push 2 cars out, found three new people to teach, and had a great time jumping in snow!!! Haha, it was a blast! :)

We had the New Missionary and Trainers meeting this week which was super fun. This is probably my last transfer as an assistant, so it was nice to get to go to Joseph Smith's birthplace one more time and feel the amazing spirit there.

We also drove way way way up into Maine for a district meeting and saw some great missionaries. It was nice to get to know some missionaries better and help out a district.

We found a lot of people to teach this week, 14 total, but we felt really bummed because we didn't have anyone at church for the first time in a loooong time! It was a perfect storm of problems, with our Saturday church pump time up taken because we were driving down from Maine, a super busy week, then Sunday was probably the coldest day so far, as well as our church time switched from 1pm to 9am. Oh well, we'll just work extra hard on that this week!

With the passing of the Prophet Thomas Monson this week, I have reflected on what a true disciple of Christ is. President Monson was a true disciple, as his whole life was spent in service. He was called as a bishop in our faith at 22 years old and truly spent his life doing things that mattered. He wasn't out partying and thinking of himself, he loved others, served neighbors, friends, and family, and used his free time to do things that change lives with his friends, family, and especially children. What a great example of Christ-like service. His last testimony shared as a Prophet was of the importance of reading the Book of Mormon daily. He invited us to gain a personal testimony of it, "as the testimony of others can carry [us] only so far."

Love you all,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Frozen Eyebrows

Giant Shredded Wheat or Mini Bowl?

Jan. 1, 2018 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Happy New Years!!!

It is COLDDDDD out here! It's been around 3 degrees as an average the last few days, but who cares!! We still found a bunch this week and had a great time!! T., who came to church last week, accepted a baptismal date for the 27th and is praying about it because he is nervous about how his family will deal with it since they are all Hindu, pray for him! :) We had stopped visiting D. and G. as much but then D. reached out this week. We went and had a good lesson with her and G., and D. came to church! She is nervous about going to church alone, but with more friends there she could still keep learning be really solid.

Last week we met a lady named S. who speaks Spanish and this week we had a member of our ward (L.) who recently returned from her mission in Spain come teach with/for us!! :) I was able to follow along and share a few thought with my limited Spanish, but L. was the main teacher. It was so awesome! S. said that she doesn't have a peep hole, but when we knocked on her door she felt like she should open it. Her son told her not too because who knew who it was, but she opened the door anyway! She is from Honduras and as a kid met missionaries there. She felt like it was a sign that we met her here which shows God loves her and has a plan, and we agree! :) We are visiting again this week with L.

For Christmas a really nice family in our ward bought all us missionaries really warm coats. As you know, the temperatures here have been crazy crazy cold so it was perfect! Elder Petersen and I have other warm coats, but one night I was wearing the one they gave me as we were out visiting people. As we were walking down the street in 4 degree weather with a strong wind, we saw a man on the other side of the street. We crossed to talk to him and yelled out hi, and he responded, "Hey Elders!" Whenever someone who you don't know calls you Elders, you know they either are a less active member or have a history of meeting with missionaries. He told us that his name was J. and that he use to be a member. He was baptized in the early two thousands, and his life had taken some crazy turns since. I won't go into too many details, but he is just couch surfing now and doesn't have a lot going for him. He only was wearing a jacket and looked super cold. We talked all about how his life had gone and promised him it's never to late to come back. We shared Mosiah 26:30 (Yea, and as often as my people repent I will forgive them their trespasses against me.) and the Spirit came in so powerfully. He started crying as we gave him a new copy of the Book of Mormon and promised he would be at church the next day. As we were about to leave I felt like I should ask if he had a coat. He said his jacket was all he had and next thing I knew I had taken off the coat the members gave me, removed my missionary tag, and was handing it to him. He resisted for a second, then quickly took it and put it on. He started crying again and we were able to have a prayer and give him a hug. The spirit was so strong as we walked... ran back to the car. (Cause now I was the cold one! ;) ) The next day J. showed up at church in the new coat and had a great time back at church. We'll keep working to help him get back on tract again.

That was my favorite part of Christmas this year. It was awesome how those members generous service to us missionaries was able to do much more than they could have anticipated when they gave it. :)

Love you all and welcome to 2018!!
Elder Branch :)