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 :)

June 19, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello friends!

So, this last week S. had to work at 8 on Sunday and D. at 12. Church is at 10 and we invited D. to attend with us, without S. He said he wasn't sure when we first talked about it, but as we kept talking and following up, he decided to come! It was a great experience and it was awesome to see him start to make some steps independent of S.!

I went on exchanges this week with an Elder who has only been out for a month and we had a great time! We were in a reallllllly rural part of our area and we did some cool things like: Find a turtle (sadly I don't 
have pictures :(    ), work on a farm with a family we started teaching and I got to carry milk in buckets for some calves, and use one of those old gas pumps like in old movies! We had a great exchange and even got some really good chocolate Oreo ice cream!

One funny thing I don't think I'd told you all is that at the beginning of this transfer I decided to go really healthy! I started just eating healthy cereal with almond milk, or making a smoothie with frozen fruit, yogurt, and spinach for breakfast. For lunch we also started having a sandwich or something with a big salad! It has been pretty fun to try to eat healthy on a missionary budget, but I think I've only had food out three times this last month, so that has been a win! :)


This week we rented out a movie theater to show The Other Side of Heaven for the community! I never knew I would learn so many random life skills on my mission, like how to publicize an event or rent out a theater! (If that counts as a life skill) We had a good amount of people come, and the coolest thing is that we are actually going to start teaching the owner of the theater! She had to screen the movie and really liked it, so we talked with her a bunch and are going to go visit her! :)

Life as a Zone Leader is really fun and kinda frustrating once in a while. It is so awesome to see when you teach someone something or make some change and then you get to see it impact a lot of people in good ways! On the other hand it is really hard when people won't just listen and apply what you say.

We had Elder Snow of the Seventy come this week and one of my most inspiration thoughts from the visit happened when we had a little leadership meeting before. We asked what his best leadership advice would be for us in life after the mission, and he said, "Well.. probably just show up. That is most important, as well as doing what you're asked to do. That is what makes you a great leader. Having a vision and plan is important after that, but really just showing up and doing what you're asked." How about that! Show up and do the simple things.

Sure love you all, hope you have a super week! :)

Elder Hunter Branch

Oct. 24, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey Pals!!

Brother Barnes asked what scripture you'd like on you missionary plaque.
Lets go with the Alma 53:20-21, I love that one! :)
"And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity;  but behold, this was not all - they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.  Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him."

How was your week?
It was a good week!! :) We had zone interviews which were really good! President Blair is a great guy!

This week our car is in the shop, which is hard because most of our investigators are a 4 hour walk from our house, so we're gonna rely on members a lot, and also do lots of finding around in Exeter.

We had a ton of appointments cancel this week, we only ended up teaching like 6 to 8 lessons, so that was a bummer. The good thing was that with every cancellation, they went out of their way to set up another time, so we know they are really interested and want the gospel, they just have crazy lives. We still have 12 investigators, but soon that'll be 11 cause S. gets baptized!!!! :) He will be the first person baptized in this ward!! We're so excited for him and so is the ward! :)

We had transfer calls and Elder B. and I are both staying so that is nice!!!! :)

Did you get the recipes and song names?
Yes I did get recipes and song names, thanks so much for all the
family and friends that sent them!!! :) I would love any more people
have to send! :)

What would you like for your birthday?
I'm almost 19!! That sounds old! That is like as old as Zac, minus a year! 😮😜 Honestly, I would love sweaters! It is cold here!! ;) Also ties are cool, and money, and snickers, and sour stuff, and ya, that is about it I guess! ;)

Ok, to understand this, a VGPAA is a goal setting tool my mission uses. It stands for:
Vision (Our overall goal)
Goal (Ways we'll work towards our vision this transfer)
Plan (The thing we'll do this week to accomplish our goal)
Action (Specific actions we'll take this week)
Accountable (Who we are accountable to)

My letter to President Blair this week.
1-9 are all yes for this week.

Hey President Blair! First of all can I just say thanks for all you guys do for us, and thanks for the interviews! You guys are great.

I am doing well, after our Zone Interviews meeting I finalized my personal VGPAA and have been working on that. It is...

V: Become more consecrated as a missionary.
G: Gain the characteristics given by President Blair
- Valiant in Christ
- No fear of man
- Conform to the rule and won't have to be commanded
- Work with zeal and to limits of strength, be really tired
- Forget yourself, not casual or careless
- Humble
- Helaman 3:35 (Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and thesanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.)
P: Valiant in Christ
A: Study Christlike attributes, read in Book of Mormon where Jesus comes, Read
Jesus the Christ by the end of this transfer.
A: My companion and President Blair.

I plan to work on a different characteristic/attribute each week of this next transfer, and read all of Jesus the Christ by the end of it too. I asked Elder B. to keep me accountable, but I would also like to report to you on it as well each week. I know I'll be able to improve as a missionary thru this VGPAA so I'm excited to keep working on it!

Elder B. is doing great, he felt sick yesterday, but he got up and we went out to work. Before a dinner appointment yesterday we were knocking doors about 15 minutes away from the members. We had knocked several and were starting to head back to the car, because we had 25 minutes until the dinner and we wanted to contact a old old referral by the members, when I felt we should knock this other house that was the opposite way as our car. We did it, and no one answered. Elder B. felt we should knock the next house, also away from our car, and the guy there wasn't to friendly as he shut the door in the middle of one of our questions. We didn't feel like we needed to knock any other houses there so we headed back to the car. There were 3 more houses by our car, and as we were walking Elder B. was telling a story, but I felt like we should knock them, so I politely interrupted and asked if we had time to knock the last few, then contact the guy another day. He agreed and we went up to the first house. A younger guy answered, probably in his late 20's, wearing a Patriots hat. I asked him about the hat and we talked football for just a minute, then Elder B. just went right in and asked if we could share a message with him about Jesus Christ. The guy said yes, and we got to share an awesome shortened version of the restoration with him, introduce the Book of Mormon and give him a copy, which he was interested in, and leave him with a restoration pamphlet! We asked if we could meet with him again and he was interested in that! He is around on weekends usually so we're excited to go back and meet with him. Oh, and his name is S. (we liked how he spelled it). Hopefully we can pick him up as an investigator this next week or two! It was cool to be lead by the spirit and get a potential investigator from tracking.

I hope you're having a great week, we wanted to invite you to the Exeter Halloween Trunk or Treat this Wednesday at and to S.'s baptism this Saturday. We hope to see you here! By the way the members here loved you and Sister Blair, they have mentioned it to us a bunch!

We love you guys too, thanks again,
Elder Branch

This week we came to primary as the super missionaries 

and sang and marched around! 

It was like being at Camp Kiesel again 

or teaching my rad primary kids!! :)

From our apartment

At the church