Sept. 18, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hello Hello,

This week was just wild, but great!! We had a meeting with all the new missionaries and their trainers at the Joseph Smith memorial on Tuesday which went really well. It is always so nice to be up there! It is really pretty and they have hymns playing and it is great! :)

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Winthrop Elders! Elder Peterson (my mtc companion) went with Elder Bester and I went with Elder Jacobson and Elder Wells, they are a trio. We had a great day, and on this one street found 6 new people to start teaching! We also ran into one of the people they were teaching named C. and got to teach her, which resulted in her calling us later in the week on Saturday night and deciding to come to church!

Thursday we got to go teach people most of the day and then had to get ready for Elder Bednar. We had dinner with the Blair's and planned, which was super fun and exciting!

Friday, Elder Bednar came, which was awesome!! That morning was crazy since Elder Bester and I were in charge of getting everyone there and in place and ready for the meeting. We were going to take a picture outside, but knew there was a chance of rain. The Blair's were picking up Elder Bednar and we had to move people a ton because it started raining so everyone went in the gym and set up for the picture inside. Then it stopped raining so he all went back outside and set up again! Haha, but everything ended up going really well! He was fun and taught a lot. He had it be really interactive and was always having us ask questions and he was asking questions. The main message I got from it was that there are agents and objects in the world. We need to help people to be agents and use their agency. As missionaries as well as in life, we need to try to make situations for people, ones where they can use their agency to choose the right. He talked about how putting people on the spot as well as asking questions in a way that makes it the "guess what's in the teachers mind" game both turn people into objects and doesn't let the Holy Ghost touch them. After the meeting he just had to leave quick and didn't have time to shake hands, but since Elder Bester and I were sitting next to him he shook our hands and just said, "You learn things sitting up here that you learn in no other way." That was a pretty neat experience!

Saturday we were on exchanges again and I was with Elder Dudney. We had some massive pancakes up in Laconia NH and then worked in Manchester for the day!

So sad news this week. T.'s mom is getting involved with his baptism. It's a long story, but he won't be getting baptized this Friday any more and we're not sure what'll be the end result. :( M. came to church though and brought her grandson, J.! C. also came and they all loved it. M. will probably get baptized in 3 weeks, since general conference is in 2 weeks.

Sure love you all and have the best of weeks!! :)

Elder Branch

(Thank you dear Senior Missionaries and Sister Blair for the great pictures!)

Nov. 14, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey Pals!

This was a good week! The weather wasn't too bad, it has been a bit warmer which was nice, like only in the 40's so sweaters worked well! We got to teach more this week which was nice! It is always the best when there are nice people who will hear you out! 

We found a really cool guy named M. this week and had a great time getting to know him! He is a hospice worker and is on the volunteer fire department! He hopes to become a full time fire fighter! He had a 12 week old kitten that came and curled up on my lap for the whole lesson and purred while I pet it, it was so cute!!! The lesson details are included in my letter to President Blair, so you can see more there!

We are also teaching a few other people, I'll tell you about one more of them today and try to keep telling you about more each week. One lady is named J., she is super nice! Her boyfriend was LDS as a kid but left home as a teenager. His brother is a bishop in Canada, and J. sees that there is something different in their lives that she wants for her family and her granddaughter who she takes care of! She has been sick recently and going thru a lot of other stuff, but hopefully we can see her more this week! She calls herself Nagy-hagy, use to work in the circus, and she brought us Mars bars from Canada a few weeks ago! :) She has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it! She has a few questions about things she has read and wants us to help her out every step of the way, and that is just what we like to do! :)

The most spiritual experience I had this week was in the lesson with Mike who I talked about and mention more in my letter to President Blair. When we were testifying that there is a prophet on the earth today, that God loves us all, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that you can test it for yourself the spirit was incredible! Mike had tears in his eyes, and so did we! :)

How was your birthday?
My birthday was so fun!!!! The day before my birthday we were serving at a senior center and one lady was asking me how old I was. I told her 18 but my birthday is tomorrow, and she just started singing happy birthday! Pretty soon everyone had joined in even though most didn't even know whose birthday it was yet, then they all were confused why my name was Elder, but they finished off the song! ;) It was super fun!
Then the I. and G. families threw a party for me which was so nice! We had pizza and cake, and talked a lot and juggled! The H.'s brought me a treat too and cards which were really nice!! :) There are some amazing people out here! :)


Letter to president:
"Hey there President Blair!

1-9 are yes's again.

Elder B. and I are doing well together, we have a great time! It was my birthday this last week and we got to have a little dinner time party for it with some members in the ward which was sweet!
We got to see the Badgers as well as Sister Blair this week at our chapel which was great, we're sorry we missed you! We hope your meetings went well.

So this week we found a really cool guy named M.! We found him while trying to visit some people who had been having the missionaries over before. We knocked their door around 7:30 or 8:00 and Mike, a 24 year old guy, answered. We explained who we were looking for and he didn't know them, but then Elder B. asked him if he would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ and how there is a prophet on the Earth today. He said that he is already Christian so... but then I said that we love to share messages with everyone, not only people who don't believe in God or Jesus! He said "Oh ok, well would you like to come on in then?" We got to talk to him for a while and got to know him, and then taught about Jesus Christ, how there are prophets and apostles on the earth today, and about how we came to know this for ourselves and how he can as well, thru reading the Book of Mormon, putting it to the test, and by praying to God to ask if it is true. He was very interested at the chance to learn more! We hope to get to see him again either today or tomorrow!

It is so cool how there's people everywhere who want to know and learn more, and how they CAN know for themselves if they take the promise of Moroni and study the book and pray.

Elder B. and I are working this week on having more effective comp studies. Comp studies often start off strong for us, but can turn into story time, so we are working on making them more focused on the work.

We hope you're doing well and have a great week!
Elder Branch"


One last story to finish it off, last week on exchanges we visited this really nice lady in our congregation who hasn't been able to come to church for a while. Anyways, so this time it was Elder C., Elder D., and me who visited her. We had a great lesson and then when we were leaving she stopped us and said to Elder D., "You're gonna be a big banker." Then to Elder C., "You're gonna go high up in the church." Then to me, "And you're gonna get home and marry a super hot wife!" When we got outside we all had a good laugh and then Elder D. asked if we could trade futures, which I kindly declined. ;)


Hope you all have a great week and I sure love ya!
Love,

Elder Hunter Branch :)  

Deb, we made it to the General's house. Didn't get to talk to him yet.  

Our District 

Downtown Exeter

Oct. 17, 2016 in Exeter New Hampshire

Hey Pals,

The little portable speaker you sent is sooooooooo great, thanks so much!!! :) 

You'd asked about the mission music rules. 

Our music policy had been  that we could only listen to LDS artists, but now we can listen to anyone who has good, uplifting music that brings the spirit! :) Can you guys (my family, but anyone else who wants to totally can too) send me a list of good songs like we had on our Spotify and Pandora!? :). Also can you send me a list of our Christmas playlist?? :) Thanks!

How are the people doing that you're teaching and serving?

Ok, so we had to drop our investigator named P. who we've been seeing a lot. He is a really nice guy, but he doesn't keep commitments  and he will not come to church, so that was too bad. 

We also have a 14 year-old named E. who is interested, we set a baptismal date with him this week! :)  He has to do a lot more learning and feeling the spirit to know that it is true  so he can be totally converted, but he is a really good kid!  

We also have his grandma who I haven't gotten to have a lesson with yet.  We aren't sure if she is super interested, but apparently she is nice.

There is D. who is around 30, he has traveled around a lot and loves God  a ton. He isn't sure about the Book of Mormon but he has started reading it. 

Then we have a bunch of others, actually most of the main people I haven't gotten to mention, but this week was hard for lots of them. Like really hard. I'll talk more about them in the future but for now I will leave them out because the trials they are facing are just heartbreaking. We are trying to do everything we can to help them, but there is only so much we can do.  

It is a blessing that we have the Gospel!!!  I hope we can help these people and get them the Gospel  stronger in their lives because it would bless them so much. 

You got to meet Brother M. - he sent us a picture! How did that happen?

We just had Stake Conference and he came up to me and said he was friends with you on Facebook!! :) We talked for a while and then he asked if we could get a picture to send to you guys! :) He is a way nice guy! ;)

So this week was super fun!! :) We went camping and went to the ocean! haha

We had new trainers meeting this week on Tuesday and Wednesday,  so we went to the Joseph Smith's birthplace in Vermont  and did service, putting up lights, raking leaves, painting cabins, and lots more! We also got to go on a hike and have a fireside... Like literally! :) 

We got all 50-60 of us around a big fire and had a great meeting,  then had marshmallows and hot chocolate! :) 

That night the Elders stayed in freezing cabins that had 2 bunk beds each and were open at the corners with nets to keep bugs out, and the sisters went to apartments, but it was fun!  

The next day we had more training and it was great!  Then we had district meeting the next day, then weekly planning the next day, so we didn't get to teach as much as we'd have liked,  but we still got to teach 8 lessons so not bad.  We would have been able to teach more but because of those investigators challenges we weren't able to. 

So this morning for P-day we went to a lighthouse in our zone, in Maine, and studied out there! It was so pretty, I loved it!  Then we hung out as a zone at the Zone Leader's chapel in Portsmouth, 

it's been a party!! :) 

I hope you all had a great week and I love you all a ton!!!!!! :) 

Please send recipes if you can! 

Love,

Elder Branch :)

Pictures from the new trainer's meeting and service project in Vermont 

at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial - mostly taken by the super great senior missionaries.

P-day pictures at the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine.