Nov. 11, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire, Christmas in the mission

Hello everyone!

This week was CHRISTMAS!!! We had the two half mission Christmas conferences, so it was a blast! Elder Petersen and i had to get there early each night before to set up half a bazillion trees and lights to make it a "Blair-y" Christmas, which was a party! The program had tons of music, lots of Christmas stories and testimonies, but my favorite part was when Luke 2 was read with someone playing Christmas songs in the background. It is so powerful to hear the story of the Saviors birth. Sometimes life can be crazy and we can get caught in the rush, but scriptures and music have a way of pulling us back down to reality.

We're beginning planning for 2018 for the missions goals which is a party in and of itself!! One thing I've learned these last few months is that there is a TON more that goes on behind the scenes than we realize in organizations!

This week we were finally able to get R. to church!!!!!! He texted us the morning of and said he couldn't come, but Elder Petersen went and stopped by while I stayed for Ward Counsel with one of the other Manchester Elders, and Elder Petersen was able to encourage him to come, and he stayed for all three hours! I'm speaking next week so we made him promise to come again then, with G., D., and A. We also had a really awesome and brilliant 10 year old kid named D. come, along with his mom and two younger brothers. The Ward did a great job of saying hi and making then feel welcome, and they had a great time! They want to keep coming as well! We also ran into one of our past investigators who had been close to getting baptized before, and he wants to start learning again! We aren't sure how far that'll go because of really rough family pressure, but who knows!?

Over all, it was a great week! I love to see people come to church and progress! :) 

Love you all and Merryyyyyyyy Christmas!
Elder Hunter Branch

Sept. 4, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hey Everyone!!

Ok, who is ready for some exciting news!? The first thing is that Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be visiting our mission in a few weeks! Isn't that cool!? We're all pretty excited! Since Elder B. has been an Assistant longer he will be conducting the meeting, so that is nice! ;)
Another exciting thing is that our mission is getting smartphones! I'm actually writing this email on my Samsung Galaxy J3. We will also be getting social media shortly! It is pretty insane, so much is going on and it is a great time to be a missionary. These phones and social media won't be for entertainment, they are simply just tools to help us bring the Lords work forward. Right now we only have a few missionaries with smartphones to learn about them, but in the next several weeks all areas will have a smartphone. It will be great to be able to contact more people and be able to be more productive, it is awesome! The smartphones will have data, and we are one of the first missions to try this out. Us missionaries will need to make sure to be wise with these tools, but it'll be awesome. :)

Ok, so this week T., M., and R. came to church. T. is going to take Sundays off from work from now on to keep the Sabbath day holy! M. accepted the Word of wisdom, but she was wondering why we don't drink tea. We talked about it and M. decided if God asked us to then that is good for her! :) We were able to see M. and J. again and it was good to reconnect as its been a while since we've seen them. They have been busy, but he got the job he wanted so that is awesome! We had a few others committed to come to church but sadly they couldn't make it. It was a pretty great week though! T. and M. are both preparing to be baptized on the 22nd!

We had two zone conferences last week, and this week we have 3 exchanges and a zone conference, so it'll be busy busy!! :)

I hope you all have the best of weeks!
Love,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

July 17, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Hello hello!!!

This week has been so busy. I bet like 90% of my letters say that, but don't check! ;)

So, this week we got to go out and teach a little more which was nice! And last week I promised to talk about people more, so here we go!

We have been working with this really cool couple named M. and J. They are in their 20's and have a cute little girl named H. who is like 2 months old! J. is the daughter of someone else we are teaching, but since we have started teaching M. and J. they have just been flying with their progression! It is amazing, they keep all their commitments and are so fun and nice! I have never seen people on my mission who are better at doing what they say they will. We often have gotten to a lesson and they tell us all about what they read and how much they love it! We gave J. the Plan of Salvation pamphlet last week, and yesterday when we went to teach it, she basically just taught us instead!! Then she decided to give the opening and closing prayer without being asked! They have accepted a baptismal date of August 12th so pray for them!

Ok, real quick Newport Maine flashback! So we were teaching S. and D. who lived in our trailer park. I was so bummed to leave after seeing how well they were doing, but I found out this week that they are going to be getting married and then will get baptized later that week!!!!!!! Haha, I'm so happy!! 😊😊😊 Hopefully I can go up to see their baptism!

The last person I want to talk about is a lady named M. We met her last week in the craziest way!!! So if you remember the kids with the snakes pictures last week, that is where we are starting. We were walking down the street and saw those kids with massive snakes! We stared talking to them and suddenly a lady from a nearby apartment walked up. She asked if we were Mormons, to which we said yes! She said that was awesome because she was originally from South Sudan, but lived in Utah now and was a member of the church! She had joined with her husband 7 years prior, and she was actually looking for the missionaries because her mom who lives at the apartment she had come from wanted to join the church! They had been told there were no missionaries in Manchester, but I guess we proved them wrong!! ;) The daughter was actually only in town for 4 days, so it was crazy we got to meet her! Her mom is M. and she came to church this last week and loved it!! She is going to keep coming and wants to bring her grandson as well, who is actually the one holding the snake! :) Isn't missionary work awesome!?!?

It's been really cool to get to see so many missionaries and work with President Blair. Talk about being busy, you ought to see him!

Well I hope you all have a great week and stay happy!!

Love,
Elder Branch :)

(The first two pictures were texted to us 

from awesome people in New Hampshire!

Thanks Sister G. and ?)

These pictures were from the mission facebook page - thank you!