May 4, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

¡Hola!

It has been another wonderful week in Ellsworth! We had Zone Pday today in Acadia Nat. Park which was awesome so I’m short on time.

A. is doing great! We had a church tour with him and he loved it! He’s hoping this next Saturday to get his whole family to church. He especially loved the art at the church. Talking about Jesus visiting the people in America, or quoting the first vision while looking at a painting of the experience is powerful! :) We saw him in the park later in the week and were able to have him sign our Mother’s Day board! We had been meeting with our ward Mission leader in the park so we were able to introduce them which was super, they had a great time talking! Thanks members! :)

A. is also well, she and K. came to church. A. is still progressing towards her baptismal date of June 16. We’re working on scheduling her interview! This last week when we taught her she gave us some Vermont maple syrup from her brother who lives there! We had some great pancakes after our run the next morning!

P!! We got to meet him because of a crazy miraculous change of plans because an Elder forgot his tablet after District Meeting. We had been planning on going to Bar Harbor that night but had to head half way to Machias instead. On their way back we adjusted plans and decided to stop by P. He let us right in and we were able to teach. The spirit was SOOO strong, and he understood what we taught. I could go on and on about it, and probably will later, but because of time today I’ll just say he really wants to learn and grow, wants to get his family to church, and has a baptismal date now for July 7th! :)

Others are good. We dropped a few who aren't putting in the effort to learn, and may drop some more. The good part is, meeting new people to teach is my favorite thing! :)

Have a great week, thanks for all you do to share the gospel with those around you! Even if you feel like you don’t know anyone who needs the gospel, I promise you do. Even if your sphere of influence is small, pray for missionary opportunities, fast for them monthly, and do the best to live the gospel yourself, and God will show you who you are called to serve.

Have a great week!
Loves

Elder Branch

June 5, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello everyone!

We have had a good week, The J. Family set their baptismal date! They all came to church, as well as one of their friends, a young couple (S & D) who we've been teaching, and a part member family who we've been working with who have a daughter working towards baptism. C., a 10 year-old who came went up and bore his testimony that God loves us! It was so good! I love how at testimony meeting it is a chance to share what we have grown to know. It shows that these people have worked to gain the knowledge they share. They can learn these things through the spirit and through repentance, which is so cool!! :)

We had a Mission Leader Conference this week which was really good, I learned a lot as always and we have a bunch to help our Zone with! Last transfer we focused on being fearless which went really well! We have a new plan for the upcoming transfer and are excited to see how it goes!

This week we have someone from the mission department coming so we will have another Mission Leader Conference! That kills our time in our area, but the Lord always makes up for lost driving time and blesses us! :)

Sure love ya!!!!!!!!
Elder Hunter Branch

ps. Maine is really really green now and it it is just awesome!! :) I love trees and plants in nature!

Sept. 26, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey Pals!!

This week was really good!! It was a busy week with Zone Conference, a Tuesday P-day, and we had exchanges with the zone leaders in their area, so we didn't get to work in ours as much as we would have liked. It was still a good week though! We picked up an investigator named L. who teaches Latin! Her and her husband are retired now and they have a super nice dog. She has taught LDS kids before and even went to one of their temple marriages and stood outside! She had questions about why that was, because she thought it was just a church. We explained temples and churches and how anyone can come to church. We talked a while longer and she said we could come back, and we even prayed with her so that was rad!! :)

Our investigator with a baptismal date is named S. and he is the real deal! He just got married to a member this week, and is going on a two week at the end of this week and then he will be baptized on October 29th! He has a sweet accent and is so grateful for what we do as missionaries. He is a high up businessman and played football in college. He is such a fun guy and he loves how the gospel not only has the spirit, but that it just makes common sense!! :)

Do you have good conference talks or pretty music to listen to when you want?
For music, our standards are only LDS artists, but can be any spiritual and good song by them. And if it is a group, they just have to have at least 1 LDS member. I have nothing to play music on, so we never have listened to mine, but we listen to Elder B.'s on his USB and iPad.

Do you meet as a district on Mondays?
We actually do our district meetings on Wednesday mornings them eat lunch together. 

Thanks for finding some pants for me mom. I'm 7 pounds fewer than when I left home, 12 fewer than when I left the MTC so those pants make it feel like I just got off the biggest loser!!

Sure love you all and can't wait to talk next week!
Elder Branch

Hey President B.!

I am good on questions 1-9, I do want to start my prayers earlier so I am in bed by 10:30, but everything else is going great!
I forgot that darn paper that gives us the format again, but I found it this week, read thru it multiple times, set it on my desk where I'd be sure to remember it, and then I forgot it... But I will put I reminder in my iPad to bring it for next week, and I'll try putting the paper in my case behind the iPad.

This week has been really good! We had meetings and exchanges which took time out of the week in our area which was to bad, but we were blessed too. We picked up a new investigator who is a school teacher who has taught some LDS kids and even stood outside one of their temple weddings! She was cool with having us back so I'm excited to teach her! 

I've been doing a lot better this week, this finally feels like "home" or life, not just like another camp or something, so that has helped. This area has so much potential! We feel it, as do the members. It sounds like this ward has had some internal struggles the past few months/years, and people feel like the ward needs to keep improving to be blessed with new members, so I hope we can help them. Elder B. is a great missionary and likes to go out working till 9:30 like every night, so I'm grateful for him.

Thanks for all you do for all of us!
Elder Branch