April 2, 2018 Happy Easter in Ellsworth, Maine

Happy Easter!

What a General Conference! As they said, “One thing constant in the Lord's Church is change.” The vital things for all people of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and Receiving the Holy Ghost never do, but as people change many other aspects are put in to best meet Gods children’s needs. I love the devotional “What is the Blueprint of Christ’s Church” by Tad R. Callister, which likens the church to a house.

This week was busy! Exchanges Tuesday were good! We got to work with members and they are awesome! We continued our Easter egg thing and the members have loved it. Wednesday we met a lady who hasn’t been to the church in years. She lives with some family and 2 of her grandchildren and her 8 year-old grandson came to the Easter Celebration! We had a meeting in Vermont for all the new missionaries which was awesome! It is nice to be back on the learning rather than presenting sides of those meetings, there is always so much more to learn! On the way back our car had bald tires we realized and had to wait for a couple hours, until it was determined that we could switch cars with some Elders in Manchester. We only made it half the way home that night and had to crash with some other Elders on the way. The next day was a blur as we got back and prepped for the Easter Celebration! We had lots to get ready, and had a meeting to video call into p, but we finished everything! We even got tablecloths and center decorations for the tables (we thought the Relief Society would be impressed by that, not bad for some young punks like us!) When 6:00pm came there were only two families there! I was pretty sad and thought it was just going to be us, but then 6:15 rolled around and the peloton arrived! We had that family I talked about earlier as well as an investigator and her family, and a bunch of the ward there! We ended up needing all 9 tables we set up, so it was a win for sure!! :) The moms especially loved it because they didn’t have to risk getting dye in their houses with the Easter eggs we dyed! 😂 Only one spill happened, and it was an easy clean. 👍

Conference went well and a few people watched it. E is doing ok, but we think he's struggling with stopping smoking. K is awesome, she took our challenge to read the “Nephite Easter” of 3 Nephi 9-26 in the Book of Mormon. J. also watched Conference during work and we met his wife today which was great!

About a month and a half ago I met his little family who was having a baby THAT DAY and were headed to the hospital. We fell out of contact and were just able to swing by before Sunday morning conference. We got to meet the 6 week old baby now and are teaching them again this week.

Preach my gospel says missionary work is the “most compelling” of any work and I know that’s true.

Love,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Mar. 26, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello family and friends!

We have district p-day today and are going to Acadia, so I’ll have to make this a quick one. E cut his hair!!! He looks so great! Smoking is still a work in progress. K is great too, we’ve started sharing chapters with her and teaching over FB. D has still backed off. We have a couple new families and old families we’ve followed up with like the C's and N's who are really interested and ready to go. J. read all of 1 Nephi but still has lots of questions.

Midway through the week we decided to have a get together at the church on the 30th for a message and to dye Easter eggs! We have a bunch of members coming and a few less actives. We’re working on getting more people we’re teaching to come, and the members are inviting friends! :) When members invite friends to come and see, miracles happen. The success in sharing the gospel isn’t in if they accept, it’s in the invitation. Do you invite them because you love them or because someone told you to? Do you do it lovingly? Do you do it with the plan to still be their friend whether they accept or not? Do you talk about the gospel naturally? These are what make inviting friends to learn about the church a joy.

I love the song “If the Savior stood beside me”. The song, as many of you know, is about how or if we would live differently if the Savior was with us. The second verse says...
If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He was never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more rev’rently
if I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

I noticed the importance of a line in there recently that I’ve never thought about too much, and one that I know I could improve on from who I was before my mission, “Would I try to share the gospel?” I think most those other things in the song I would specifically try to do each day, and I’d always hope for the chance to share the gospel, but did I actually try to share it myself? I was excited for the opportunity to come along, but that’s not enough! I love the thought of trying to share the gospel with the savior at my side, and I’m grateful that’s how it truly is. :)

We’ve been doing a thing with the ward where we open an Easter egg with a scripture and related object inside, and the ward loves it! For those we can’t visit, we post a picture each day on the ward FB page with the family who did it, so others can follow along. The ward loves it and it’s helping us draw a lot closer to them. :)

Love you all and happy Easter!
Elder Branch :)

Mar. 19, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hi!

Boots. They are pretty awesome. I think I've worn my snow boots more this last week than I have dress shoes because of all the snow we've gotten. It's awesome!

This week was good! We made treats and took them around to investigators who we were out of contact with which went well!

We found some really cool people and a few families, so that was great! We had to plan a lot with a new transfer, Easter, and finding or dropping people we're teaching. I don't like planning, but it's a good skill to have I guess. My angel mom would try to get me to plan or make lists back home and the concept never made it through to me, but now I understand she is a genius!

E. has quit smoking, so let's hope he can keep it up! He's come to all 3 hours of church for a month straight now!  K. hadn't really been progressing much since she was nervous to meet in person and wanted to do her own journey (she has been coming to church for a few months by herself) so we decided if something didn't happen where we could help more, we would have to drop her on Sunday. We came into the day fasting, and then at the end of Sacrament Meeting the Sunday School Teachers had to leave cause they were sick so we had to teach all of a sudden! It went really well! We are doing this nifty thing for Easter and are scheduling members to visit and do it with (more to come next week on that) and so we asked K. if we could do it with her and her family too. We ended up talking with her all the way through 3rd hour and long story short, she told us her story, agreed to take the lessons online, and we discussed baptism! I love how miracles come as a result of faith acted upon. :)
We missed seeing D. this week because of crazy schedules but we hope to see him again soon. The funeral is coming up so we're praying for him.

Life is going well though. More snow this week, and the temperature dropped again, but that's the way we like it!

Love,
Elder Branch :)

Serving on pday ;)

I forgot in my email, 

but we did a family history night 

for the youth this Wednesday!

This was us clearing out a path to the church before. 

Cars were grounded Tuesday so we walked. 

Still coming down Wednesday morning. 

The new district after transfers :)

Our pday hike, Blue Hill.

April 17, 2017 Transferred to Newport Maine where we got to be the Easter Bunny =D

Hello everyone!!!! :)

Sorry I didn't get to send an email last week! I found out I was getting transferred and then the next few days were a blur! The ward was so nice and after we found out Saturday night around 7 that I was leaving, they threw together a party and all went out and bought food that night and we had a great big dinner and party at the church the next day! It was one of the sweetest things ever, I sure love the people in Exeter! ❤️ We had 4 tables of food and at the beginning they had me come up and they said all this nice stuff about me and had me give the prayer. I'm sure I was blushing, it was so sweet, it was basically like having a second mission farewell! :) I got to see a bunch of awesome members of the ward and it was so great to get to say goodbye! :)

We had a ton of people who wanted us over to say bye and so we ended up visiting people all day P-day! Haha, we taught like 5 lessons, visited lots of other people, and had 2 dinners and I never got to email! It was so wild but fun! :)

Man, SOOOOO much has happened in the last two weeks and I don't have a bunch more time, so I will have to summarize a LOT!

So, I am in Newport Maine now serving with Elder C. He is super cool! He has 4 months left on his mission. We are the Zone Leaders for the Bangor West Zone. We're in a branch here in Newport and they LOVE to feed us! We have someone who's calling it is to arrange meals for us, so we are fed every night, and sometimes twice! HAHA, it is wild! :) We live in a mobile home, and are, as a paper in the mobile home says, "High class trailer trash" haha! :) Also, life as a Zone Leader is crazy, we have to drive crazy far distances and have so much we have to do, so we have only had time for 1 morning workout so far, and won't have time for another one till Thursday!! HAHA :) We get to drive a Jeep Compass which is pretty sweet! The roads here are insanely bad and it is super dusty and spread out. I feel like my moms wish of me going to the middle of nowhere in Montana has come true! ;) It is super cool though, we still found a ton of new investigators this week and teach a lot! Honestly if you take every chance to talk to people as a missionary and are happy, you won't need to go tracking all the time, you will have plenty of people to teach! Just be happy and have fun!!!! :)

Last week in Exeter was super awesome too! We found a bunch of cool people and taught some super promising investigators! Exeter is an awesome place! :)

I'm so happy and I love being a missionary! It is cool to get to be a Zone Leader and to get to help the other missionaries! There is a lot to do, but I know we can do it with the Lords help!

I just want to say in closing to all you who are thinking about or preparing for missions, or who aren't and should be. Going on a mission is the best thing I have ever done. Missions are such an incredible experience! If you go into a mission ready to be obedient, work super hard, and love the people, you will have the best time of your life. We had a crazy spiritual lesson with a family who is really struggling last night. We just had the feeling to go over there and we followed it. It turned out that they were definitely in need of help. We were able to have an incredible lesson with lots of crying and love and completely filled with the spirit. After walking outside from the lesson into the pouring rain, feeling sorry for what they were going through, but totally blown away by the spirit of the Lord and the peace it brings, I couldn't help just saying a prayer of thanks in my heart for the opportunity to be serving the Lord.

I know the Lord loves us all and is so aware of us! I know that if you pray to God, repenting daily, and ask him for help and to know if he loves you, you will receive an answer! :)

Sure love you all!
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Saying goodbye to the awesome people in Exeter

(This is the only pic that caught the awesome Matt!)

Transfer Meeting

In Newport, we got asked to wear the Easter bunny suit 

at the community Easter Egg Hunt. 

While Elder C., the rabbit man, would take pictures with the families 

I got to talk with them! 

I was able to get us return appointments with two families for this week!

Me as the Easter Bunny