June 23, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hola!

What a fun week this has been! It was soooooo busy!

So, we had to do the 4 hour drive down to Manchester for the court case. The court case made me frustrated, but at least it’s all over now. I thought about writing out my big story and complaint, but decided no one wants to hear that kind of negativity, so I’ll summarize by saying that I’m fine and it won’t go on my record or anything, I learned a lot about court and people, and the church only paid part of what the guy wanted. 👍

The rest of the week was awesome though! Being back in Exeter for a few days while we waited for transfers was AWESOME! I love the people there. :)

It was sad to see Elder Lockwood go, but I’m excited to see what he does. He’s down in Lawrence speaking Spanish now and I know he’ll do super well!

We then headed back up to Ellsworth, and I have 2 new companions! Elder Anderson (from Springville Utah, been out for 18 months) and Elder Sika (from Missouri, been out 15 months). We helped out with the Bucksport Bay Festival this weekend and had a great time! It was great getting to serve there, and we also had a booth where we did the Book of Mormon experience.

Sunday we celebrated Pioneer Day as "Ellsward" and all dressed up like pioneers for church!

Ward lunch after church

It’s been such a busy week, so I’m excited to see all our people again now!

Y’all need Jesus. Prayer works.
Love,
Elder Branch

June 11, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine - transfers

Hello! This week has been great!

Elder Dayley headed up to Vermont, I was sad to see him go. He’ll do well though!

I received Elder Lockwood who is just starting his mission! He is from Ohio and is super awesome! He loves sports and is really kind. He’s doing a super good job and we’ve had some great experiences together already! :)

A. gets baptized Saturday!! She has been getting hit with things still but has done a great job! She’s so excited and so are we! She had us over to celebrate her birthday and gave us lobster, fiddleheads, Maine ginger beer, and a Friendly’s ice cream cake, so it was an authentic 100% Mainer meal! ;) So nice of her!

P. is good, we weren’t able to see him this week but have had good contact. He reached out to us and said he’s really excited for us to visit tomorrow, so that’s a great sign! The ward and we are going to participate in his softball tournament, so we’re pumped to support him and his cause, as well as play some softball! :)

J. is good, we’ve got a good idea of what he needs, and what we can share the next several lessons to help him most. He was busy this week for church but we want to get him to A.'s confirmation.

G. is a really great lady who is RLDS. She had family in town so she missed church, but we’ll see her tomorrow and try to set a baptismal date with her! :)

We, as always, want to emphasize finding this week and find at least 10 new people to teach. It’ll be a busy week, as we have a General Authority (a church leader) coming to speak to us this week so we have to travel.

The weather is getting warmer and we’re loving how nice it is! We’re going to go hike this afternoon to get the most out of this beautiful part of the country.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Branch:)

Elder Lockwood and I at A.'s "party"!

D. hazing my tadpole

I caught a tadpole!

Apr. 30, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine - Transfers...

Hello!

So, I had written out my email and was almost done, when my iPad crashed and deleted it all. 😭 So, my motivation and time are lessened to write, but I’ll still give you the basic highlights.

Wednesday we had to pack because we left that night. We were able to stop by and teach some people that day too so Elder Powell could say bye.

We drove for about 9 hours Thursday because of the drive down, back up, and picking up Elders along the way to bring them to their new areas. Looooong day, but fun to see people. Elder Powell will do well in Vermont. I received Elder Dayley. He is from Idaho, is a saxophone wizard, likes the indoors, but isn’t opposed to the outdoors, and likes to joke!!

We found a track by our apartment, that made me so happy! My mile time on a treadmill got down to 5:47 in Manchester, but that was 3 months ago, but the weather is nice now so we can finally run, and I had a 6:27 mile on the real track without feeling to tired so I’m excited to get to keep running in the mornings! :)

We stopped by a guy named A. who we had stopped teaching a few months back and had a great lesson! Things in his life are clearing up a lot more now and we’re doing a church tour with him tomorrow morning!

Lots of our investigators weren’t able to get together this week, because of the craziness. N. sent us a text that sounded like he wasn’t going to meet anymore which made us super sad! We stopped by though and he actually just meant he was starting work so he’d be a lot more busy and it would be harder to meet. He also was worried about all the commitments he’d have to make. We told him to chill for a second. If we relate the gospel to math, he was trying to do calc without even learning or experiencing addition! We explained that the reason God sent us was to help him, one step at a time. First thing is he needs to read in the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it’s true. We shared Alma 32 and talked about how we had given him a seed of faith, and he said, “ya, and I need to water it, I haven’t done that.” We were really glad he made the connection, hopefully he’ll read!

P. has been busy but we have contacted him a few times and he still wants to meet.

The S. family hasn’t really been keeping their commitments or appointments. We stopped by this week after having scheduled the appointment the day before, to find no one home... we left a note asking them to call us to reschedule because they have missed a bunch recently. If they don’t call we will just wait and come back by in a month or two.

K. is good, she was out of town.

J. had a busy week but we’re excited to see him again.

A lady named A. who had been checking out the church before I got here, came to church this week! We had never met her in person, but had talked on the phone a bunch of times and she had always seemed interested still. She has been sick and busy for the last few months, but has continued to read the Book of Mormon and is noticing how it has been changing her life! We will see her again this Wednesday.

Last thing, I had been praying to receive a sure knowledge that President Nelson is a prophet. I believed he was because I know the church is true, but this week as Elder Dayley and I were praying together before we went to bed, I prayed that God would bless the prophet President Nelson. That was the first time I’ve asked God to bless him since he was called and in that instant, I felt the spirit tell my heart he is a prophet. It wasn’t overpowering or emotional, it was just a happy and sure feeling. I’m glad God answers prayers in his way and time.

Love,
Elder Branch :)

Awesome Elder Powell

A work in progress...

My new comp, Elder Dayley is the second from the right.

Elder Dayley is taking this picture

Apr. 24, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine - Transfers...

Aloha!

So, transfers have come again but I get to stay here in Ellsworth! Elder Powell will be heading over to Lamoille Vermont and I will be receiving a new companion, Elder Dayley! It’s always sad to have a companion leave, I’ll miss Elder Powell for sure! Elder Dayley is from Idaho and I know him a little, so I’m excited to get to know him better!

We had a great week again. :) Some good exchanges (one in Machias [near the most Eastern part of the continental United States] and they had really good Mexican food! There are some workers who come up to pick blueberries and they opened a little take out place!)

K. came to church and we accidentally scared her this week by sending her a spiritual video that had a snake in it, and unbeknownst to us, she HATES snakes!  It’s ok, she survived though.

A lady who hasn’t come to church in a long time who we’ve been visiting came to church! Her daughter who’s in her 20’s who isn’t a member came as well! It was great to have them there for the first time in years, and they loved being back! :) She Plans to come again next week.

J. is good! He usually has lots of questions when we go to meet, but this time he just said, “Tell me more about your church!” He loved church last week, plans to come check it out more, and his big thing is he wants a family centered church. Well, welcome to the right place! ;)

N. had to watch kids this Sunday, but he’s also doing super well! He said he can’t be at church every Sunday right now, but definitely every other! We had a great lesson together too. Back when we had our first visit, he said he just wanted to check out the church for support and wasn’t going to convert, now he’s reading and praying about the Book of Mormon to see if this really is Christ church on the earth again.

P. was out of town (which we didn’t know) so we were afraid we were losing him. He sent us a really nice text though and is still going strong.

We met the coolest young married couple the other day! We usually find several new people to visit each week, some who start to go places, and others who we struggle to see again, but of all we found last week, these two definitely got me the most excited! Hopefully we’ll be seeing them again tomorrow!

There are tons of Jamaicans moving into Bar Harbor to work for the summer. Last week we went to an appointment with a cool young guy but he couldn’t meet then, but as we walked down the street there was an apartment that just had the screen door closed and were blasting some hip-hop. Elder Powell and I went right over and crashed the party! We talked to a lady who is working here, but who’s family is back in Jamaica, and she turned the music right off. We had a great time getting to know her and as we taught she was so excited to learn more about Jesus Christ’s ministry in America as well! At the end we all knelt to pray and she called over to one of her roommates who was on the phone, telling her to hang up and come join in prayer! We should all have that attitude in inviting others to the Lord! :)

Today for a final Pday with Elder Powell we got permission to get up early so we could catch the sunrise in Acadia! It was awesome! We hiked all morning and went a little over 10 miles! 

Hope you all have a great week,
Love, Elder Branch

Feb. 6, 2018 Last few days in Manchester, New Hampshire and first few days in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello all!

I'm super out of time, so I'll have to send a long one next week. I'm up in Ellsworth now and am doing well. The ward received us well and there are some great people. We found our apartment looking not great and our area not much better. We've had a crazy schedule with driving all around and crazy weather, so not much time to work. It's a rough start, but once we get life put together again things will get moving.

The area is super super pretty and we have been able to meet a couple new people so we're excited for this next week. Thanks for all the love and prayers!

Love,
Elder Branch

Manchester, New Hampshire

I hurt my toe on p-day last week. Better now. :)

The Gyro Spot in Manchester, super good!!

The ap bat

Elder Larsen is the new assistant

The Adams, awesome office staff couple from Ogden

The place where Joseph Smith had his leg surgery 

is now a KFC/Taco Bell. 

Mission tradition is to get a chicken leg there...

Last time on top of our parking garage

My new Companion, Elder Powell

Ellsworth, Maine

Our District

Look at that! Even in Ellsworth!

Jan. 29, 2018 Last week in Manchester, New Hampshire - winds of change, great week, and got crashed.

"Do you hear that, those are the winds of change." -Randal from Monsters Inc.

Hello Everyone!

It is amazing how much serving a mission changes you, and I think Manchester has changed me the most. I've been here for 5 transfers (7.5 months) just like my first area. In other places I have learned a lot more about the scriptures, about how to talk to people and things like that. Here in Manchester I have learned a lot about what really matters in life, how to fit the basics into a busy schedule, and how to be a leader. There are so many things and people that I'll miss in Manchester as well as around the mission, but I'm excited for new opportunities.

I'm heading up to Ellsworth Maine! It is on the coast, includes Acadia national park and bar harbor, and is going to be awesome! I'll be training a new missionary there who will be arriving on Wednesday, so neither of us will know the area. I'll also be serving as a district leader with three other sets of Elders in my district, so it is going be to an exciting transfer!!! :) I'm excited to have a lot more time to focus on the people we have to teach and serve. I've got some ambitious goals for rest of my mission. (Also, to follow up, a couple months ago I said I wanted to run a mile under 6 minutes. Life got busy so we didn't get to run for a long time, but we have been again and I ran a 5:48 this week)

This week was good, lots less time to work, but we found some people and had G., D., and B. at church again! They really liked it and are excited to come again next week! B. is doing really well and has a ton of potential. He likes how church feels peaceful and he is reading in the Book of Mormon! He understands that coming back to God and making changes in his life are important.

There was a baptism of an awesome family in the Bedford Ward this week, and we had our little friend D. come, as well as their family friends who we're teaching, R. (23) and his little brother D. (5). R. really liked the baptism and although he couldn't make it to church this week, he is really excited to come next! :)

The baptism was of a family named the F.'s who were found my first week in Manchester at the fourth of July parade. They have learned a lot, given up coffee and tea, and were almost ready to be baptized when they called it off (this was in December.) They liked the people, but didn't know if the Church was true. They decided to keep learning from the missionaries, but to go look at other churches. They said none of the others felt right. The family has a little 8 year-old daughter who LOVED the Book of Mormon. Every night she'd carry it out to the family and have them read before bed. As the daughter did this, the family was touched and had the spirit tell them the Book was true. They then were baptized this week. It is AMAZING the impact a little 8 year-old girls had on her family, and will for generations to come. :)

Love you all and have a great week,
Elder Branch :)

=D

Guy crashed us.

We had a green light and he was in left lane. 

We were driving in the right lane and he accelerated into back side of our truck.