June 25, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello!

This week was pretty strange, we were out of our area or doing random stuff all week.

We had new missionary and trainers meeting on Tuesday which was really good. It is beautiful at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Monument! The meeting was really great, as always. That’s my favorite meeting. 

Wednesday we went on exchange in Nashua NH. We did that because of a meeting the following day, so rather than drive all the way up back, we went on exchange. We had a GREAT time! We talked with these Elders and decided to go hard! On just Wednesday alone, we found 14 new people! They ended up getting just over 30 for the week! We were so busy and met so many great people. Nashua is a bigger city, like Manchester, so that was really fun.

Thursday we had our meeting and it was awesome! Elder Bennett of the 70 came and talked to the whole Mission! He didn’t have time to take a group picture or to talk to other missionaries, but we got to wave! He talked about lots of things, several of which he had talked about when he came to the Mission when I was a new missionary. The most important part in my mind is helping people do things to learn in-between visits. If they only act or progress with us there, then they will never gain the spiritual traction needed to keep moving when we leave.

We played in Phillip’s softball tournament this weekend. It was great to have the ward help us out and I believe it made a big impact on P. :) 

We think life is relatively more smooth now, so we’re excited to get things going in our own area again!

Have a great week! :)
Elder Branch

Dec. 5, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire A new companion...

Hi guys!!!

It's been an exciting week! J. is pretty great! The stake preformed The Messiah this week and J. and The General came to it! :) It was so fun!! She was sick for church but she is doing really well! :)

E. is a sad case, we were worried about what would happen with him because he doesn't have really any support at home, he has a hard family situation. We talked with President Blair about him in interviews too and President had the same concern. E. also has a really hard time reading, and the children's copy of the Book of Mormon we ordered for him a month and a half ago never came in, so he hasn't made any progress reading. This week when we stopped by, his grandma who seemed kinda out of it.. answered and said she didn't think E. was interested anymore. :( So whether that is the deal, or whether he has no support in the Gospel at home, we had to stop teaching him. Missionaries will have to go by in a few years and hopefully then E. can have a fair chance to find out the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We are visiting The General about once a week, and other than that we have a bunch of people we don't get to see that much. The people here are very blunt and not overly friendly as a whole, so it can be pretty hard to get in with people, but we will keep trying. We want to do more finding again because there aren't a lot of solid people we are teaching right now.

I am doing pretty well, it is fun to be serving a mission! I bought a bunch of winter gear this week, so hopefully I'll be fine in the cold! It was 24 last night as we were walking around! :)

So I just finished training today, and so we have transfers now! We're sad, but Elder B. will be leaving Exeter and going to Oxford, Maine. It has been really cool and touching to visit people and see what a difference Elder B. has made in the area, since he will be leaving tomorrow morning. Elder B. said he didn't really get to know the members until I came cause then everything was just fun and we could be ourselves, so I'm glad I got to come here and serve with him! :) Exeter still needs a lot of work, but he has laid a great foundation to rebuild the area! :)

I was called as the District Leader right out of 12 week training - pretty crazy! My new companion will be Elder C. who came out with Elder B., so he has been out for a year and three months.

I sure love you all and hope everything is going well! One cool thing from this week is that S. (who got baptized a little while ago) was asked by his 9 year-old daughter to baptism her this week! :) It was so cool! He is going to have her take the lessons first and he's going to talk to her mom, but it is cool to see her desire already as she has seen the change in her dad! :)

Love you all again!
Elder Branch :)

The I.'s are the real deals, we really have awesome people in this ward! :)

They had a farewell dinner for Elder B. because he was being transferred.

 Transfer meeting 

(pictures from the mission facebook group)

  

Our Christmas Tree

My new companion, Elder C., taken during an video by Sister Blair about #lighttheworld