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 :)

Jan. 30, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey all!!!! :)

I am doing pretty swelllllll! This was a good week!! :) I had Mission Leader Training on Tuesday which was really fun, then we had a *drumrolll*.... MISSIONARY WORLDWIDE BROADCAST on Wednesday! It was pretty neat! They changed the schedule (which they told us in my mission about a month ago for all those in leadership, so we have been living that already) and they changed the key indicators (which we hadn't heard about)! It was super cool and they shared lots of sweet stuff! :)

T. is doing well! We saw him at Subway this week which was way cool!! :) He seems to be doing better, he had broke his foot, but he has a boot now! Ya, we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he had been going to start reading it but hadn't when we last went by, that is awesome it sounds like he has started reading! :)

J. has been okay, Elder M. saw her while I was at Mission Leader Training this week, but then she has been really sick the rest of the week. :( C. sadly we STILL haven't heard from! It is really sad, we hope she is okay!!! We did start teaching two other people in her apartment building this week though! C. is well too. We saw him twice this week and he is going to need to move his baptismal date back because he will be moving (still in our area), but needs to focus on that and keep learning. He said he would come to church, but then didn't come again which was super bummer!! We are gonna go visit him again soon though.

Mission Leader Training was soooo cool and fun! It was cool to see all these other missionaries who are super cool and pumped about missionary work and to get to learn with them! :) Elder C. is a District Leader now so I got to see him there as well as a bunch of the other Elders who I have meet who trained people from my flight group so that was fun! :) We learned a TON and I am excited to keep working on improving!

We have been using the GPS a TON, thanks for sending it to me! We would be in trouble without it.

So last week I had been going to say that this transfer is going to be crazy because we have still to come: zone conference, zone interviews, new missionary and trainers meeting, exchanges with the Assistants (they want to go on exchanges so that will be fun!!) exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and two exchanges with the Derry Elders! We also have district p-day and we're going to try to go to the temple with M. for a p-day as well, so it will be a WILD transfer, we're so excited! ;)
 
So this week we were able to have one of the coolest lessons of my mission! Elder M. and I went and visited this way cool guy who Elder C. and I found Christmas Tracting (idk if I ever mentioned that. Basically for Christmas tracting you would just knock doors of people who had cool Christmas lights and talk with them about Christmas. Usually people who put up cool lights are way nicer that the average joe). This guy is named M. and he is super neat! Elder M. and I went and talked with him and he were able to teach and testify of the restoration and the Atonment of Jesus Christ. It was SOOOO powerful and incredible! :) We are going to go see him with Brother L. tomorrow night!

Hope you are all doing well!! Oh, one last cool thing is that Elder M. and I along with a few other guys are going to be singing Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy this week at zone conference, it should be way cool!! :)

Love you!
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Our District

Elder C. at Mission Leader Training

He has a goal to never smile in a picture. 

I have one of him smiling though at Christmas time

 - he said I'm supposed to delete it.   ;)