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

May 21, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello!

This week was fast! Everything is so fast now!

We had some exchanges this week and I went to Belfast. We had a really cool miracle while there! It was night time and we were getting eaten by black flies and mosquitoes, so we went to the store to get bug spray. The Elder I was with saw a member of the ward so we went and said hi! She was really nice and shared some of her story with me. She’s been a member her whole life, but went inactive as a teenager after some poor decisions that she thought were true freedom at the time. Over the years she has gone in and out of activity. Eventually one day she was thinking about when she’s felt the best, and she realized the place she’s felt the happiest was in the beautiful celestial room of the temple. She decided then to live worthy to enter the temple and has been active since. As she was telling us this story, another lady walked up the aisle. As she walked by us I said something , I don’t remember what. She stopped and we started talking. I realized she had some really cool earrings that my sister would love! I asked her about them and she said she made them! We continued to talk and we learned she was actually an inactive member of the church! She shared some of her story and the member we were originally talking with jumped in and talked too. They connected well and we discussed lots of things like dealing with loss, the Book of Mormon, and eventually divine design. I told her about the great talk given by Elder Rasband 

"By Divine Design"

which talked about how lots of things happen for a reason. I knew that us all meeting up in the store that day was by divine design. She agreed and shared that her young son has just begin to talk about God these last two weeks. Her husband isn’t interested at all, and she doesn't know if she’s ready to come back, but she was eager to set up an appointment to meet with the missionaries again!

A. is doing so well! She is excited for her baptism and we’re beginning to plan out all the details. She has great real intent and has truly read and asked God if the Book of Mormon is true!

P. missed church again which was really sad! We had some ideas, and he’s doing a charity softball tournament in a bit, so we're organizing a team to play for the ward! The members are really excited! :)

J. is good, we taught him Wednesday and sent him a video from some awesome members on Friday which he LOVED! He’s hoping to make it to church again this week.

We have started sending K. daily 3 minute video’s of us just teaching one principle at a time. She loves those as well, and once or twice we’ve been able to have members do them with us which was great!
:)

Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Branch

Feb. 19, 2018 in Ellsworth, ME

Things are looking up here! 

We have had a great week finding, we started teaching 16 new people! It's always a struggle to stay in contact with people when you find a lot, but we're excited with the potential it brings! None of them came to church, but we did have two others come. I really am looking forward to having some new faces come with us! Wards get excited when they see missionaries bring new people to church - they're supportive and great!  :) 

Life is continuing to settle. It feels like things are going a million miles an hour with how many ways our attention is pulled, between finding more people so our area is productive, teaching, planning, studying and practicing lessons, helping other struggling missionaries, and keeping life together. It is all starting to improve, but there is still a lot to be done. :) The trickiest but most interesting part of life is that lots of things depend on other people and their choices. And, to other people, we are their "other people"! 

We had an amazing experience this week teaching a man named G. who we found last week. He is from Jamaica and we met him at an indoor soccer field. We taught him on the sidelines about the restoration which really excited him. He desired to learn more and even said he would probably read in the Book of Mormon that night so he could see if it was true! :) We have a had a hard time getting back in contact with him, but we'll stop by this week and see him. 

We met some amazing people this week, one with an autistic son, one family who were going to head to the hospital in an hour so the mom could get induced to have a baby, and others in different stages of life. We met two 19 year-olds who could really benefit from the message we share, a young couple who were disillusioned with religions proselytizing but realized we're regular people and could benefit their family, and even an older lady who has kids who are members of the church and had heard some false information. I have come to know that God really has a plan for us, and no matter what is going on in life, if we do what he asks, we can help others change their lives. This week wasn't all easy though. Yesterday Elder Powell and I invited 12 people to learn who said no, and tried to invite others who slammed doors or turned and walked away. One thing was in common with all those people. They had never heard the true message of the restored gospel and tried to find out for themselves if it was real. 

I know for myself it is. I love to tell people we meet that as missionaries we are here to invite and to help. We don't force things on people. If you just listen to what we say, you'll never know if it's true. Rather, we invite you to find out for yourself, from God, if what we share is true. Listening to Him is a lot more reliable than two 20 year-olds you met on the street. 

Hope you all have an great week! 

Love, Elder Branch :)

Oct. 30, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hello everyone!!

This week we had MLC on Tuesday and then exchanges the rest the week!

One crazy experience this week was on exchange with a new missionary. One of the people we're teaching called and told us about how he had talked to his Pastor about us and his Pastor had told him the classic few things that people use to talk bad about the Church that are all lies or misunderstandings (us believing that we have to work our way to heaven is one example [Answer: Mosiah 3:12 "...For salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ." That's all we have to say about that!]) So we talked to this man and answered his questions, and then he told us his Pastor would like to meet with us to talk. It was interesting because the natural response could have been yes, which would have led into a big Bible Bash that wouldn't have done either of us any good. Instead the spirit guided me to say very sternly that we would love to meet with his Pastor, but not until he had done his research. We have read the Bible, the same one his Pastor reads, and we believe in it, but the Pastor was making fictitious claims that would easily be resolved if he were to do what he should have and read the Book of Mormon before trying to attack it. We talked more about that and I was able to very lovingly but boldly testify to our investigator that I know the Book of Mormon is true and that he needed to read it and ask God if he wants to know if it is true as well. 

After the conversation the new missionary was pretty surprised because he had never seen any missionary be so bold to their investigator, but it was pretty cool because we stood for the truth firmly but respectfully, and the Spirit was there with us to testify.

Elder Petersen had a lesson with that man later that day, and when they arrived, he was listening to the Book of Mormon on his computer!

We have an awesome lady named C. who has a baptismal date for Dec 2nd! She called us, and has been to church a few times over the past 10 years and has almost gotten baptized but things came in the way, and now she is ready to finally get baptized! :) It is awesome to see how happy she is with everything! She came to the Halloween party and had the best time, and she thought church was great and was just so happy! The gospel is a happy thing! :)

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

Exchanges and p-day activities from the last little while...

Our activity for the Ward Halloween Party