Sept. 8, 2016 in the MTC

Hello all!! :) 

To answer some of your questions...

"How was your week?"
It has been just a dandy week! I only have a few days left at the MTC which is nice! I like it here but I am so excited to get out to the field. 

"How is your district doing?"

My district is doing well this week. We are all use to the MTC and are over homesickness which is nice! This week flew by, just like every other missionary says the second week does! We learned a ton this week and have all grown. I love all the Elders and Sisters in my district, they are real deals! 

This week we had interviews with the Branch President as companions which was nice! Since I'm DL he had me and Elder Petersen (my comp.) go last. It was really nice cause the Branch Pres said that without asking about how I was doing, 4 or 5 of the other missionaries had brought me up and said I was doing fantastic as DL, and he said he was impressed by how much they loved me. That was really nice to hear! :) :) We have some of the craziest guys in my district, but also the funnest so it's good! :)

I'm all done with teaching here at the MTC, and I only have 3 more classes!! Tomorrow we have In-Field-Orientation which all the missionary's seem to love so we're excited!! 

"What will you miss most about the MTC?"

I think I'll miss the other Elders and Sisters from our District and Zone the most of anything from the MTC. It's sad how I won't see lots of these people again, at least not for 2 years. I've already grown to love so many of them so much that it's gonna be hard. I'll also miss the devotionals a ton!! We got to hear from Chad Smith (played for BYU and then in the NFL for the Eagles when they went to the Superbowl) on Sunday and D. Todd Christofferson this Tuesday and it was really cool!! You get so many notes and so much inspiration during devotionals!

"What will you miss least about the MTC?"

 I think I'll miss sitting in classes the least! While the classes are really good, they start to get old after you have heard it a few times.

"Do you get to go to the Temple every week?"
We get to go to the Temple every P-day at the temple. It is really cool to do sessions there with so many other missionaries! We also get to go walk around the temple on Sundays which is a nice break. 


When we were having our interviews this week with the Branch Pres, our schedule said we should study some things in our green book of references. Lots of missionaries from our zone were hanging out in my districts classroom right then and looking at missions and stuff on google earth. Elder Jones and I decided to go out into the hall lounge on exchanges to study the green book so it would be quieter, and pretty soon a few other missionaries followed us which was cool. The Sister Training Leaders for the Zone are in my District and they came over to study with Elder Jones and I. We had a really good study and learned a lot together! After like 40 min Elder Jones had to go for his interview so I started to head into my room to grab a new companion so we could keep studying. The Branch President is a cute and fire-y little older man, and he saw me heading towards my classroom and asked where I was going. I told him I needed a new companion now cause Elder Jones had to go, and he said something like, "It looks like you already have 2 good sisters right there." So I got to be an honorary Sister missionary for 10 minutes!  It was a little different to not have any other Elders around, but it was fun! Not to brag, but... the sisters told me that Elder Jones and I are their favorites in the District and they are glad we take it seriously and know our stuff, so that was nice!

Oh, also about Elder Jones, we decided to celebrate "Jones Day" this week! We found out just this week that Elder Jones had a girlfriend who worked in the cafeteria for the MTC!!!! Legendary!! ;) So that night we all got candy and met in a lounge in the dorms building to hear the back story. After he told us all about it some Elders picked him up on their shoulders and ran around the halls with him while cheering Jonezy!! It was a pretty funny night! :)

There are some pretty great nick-names in my District. We have Elder Jones-Jonezy, Elder Thatcher- Thatch the Catch, Elder Glenn- The Warrior, Elder Thorpe- Huckle (because it's his actual name and it's fun to say), and then they call me Elder Branch, Overlord (cause I'm DL), President Branch, and Branchy. It's a party! ;)

In closing, something I've really noticed this week is that as missionaries, who you are is up to you. You have to be the missionary you want to be. I heard a song called I Decide by Dustin Christensen that explained it pretty well. As a missionary you can become by really studying, learning, striving for the spirit and putting everything into becoming who you can become thru the Lord and his atonement. It takes lots of work and study, but doing these things and being obedient is what separates the missionaries. In the words of my 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency, there are normal missionaries who go to an area and help people and teach them the gospel. When you leave the area some people will miss you. Then there are exceptional missionaries. They go to an area and change lives! When they leave people cry, names kids after them, and always remember them. These missionaries really understand the gospel and they truly love the people. Then, once in a while, there are legendary missionaries. These missionaries learn to understand the spirit. They study for hours, go the extra mile for more knowledge. They dedicate themselves entirely to the lord, not just for their mission, but for the rest of their lives. I though this was really amazing counsel, you can guess what kind I'm gonna work to be. ;)

Love you all so much, thanks for all the emails and love, I sure love all of you and am so grateful for your support. I'm so sorry for any who I haven't gotten to write back to, I'll try to write next week!

Elder Hunter Branch

Doing laundry

Elder Jones

Sept. 2, 2016 Missionary Training Center

Hey there Pals!! :D

To answer your questions,

1. I am doing really well! It has really hard to have to wait over a week for a slightly relaxed day, but it was a fun week! The first 2-3 days of the MTC, like all my friends were saying, were really slow and really hard. It is so much class with all these new people, and everything is so new and slow and fast all at the same time that it makes it really rough. I was made District Leader for my MTC crew the first day too which added a lot more work and stress to my beginning at the MTC, but I love getting to serve and getting to know people so it has also totally been a blessing! :)

2. I don't get my IPad yet :( It sounds like I'll get it in the field. I've heard we'll be leaving the MTC on the 12th, we get flight info this week I think. 

3. So once you make it to Sunday in the MTC, the week really picks up! The first few days were hard, I'm trying to think how to even word the feelings. You miss home, but not like miss miss... I knew why I was out here and wanted to be here, but thinking about the things I was missing was hard. I couldn't hang out with my fam and play with the dog, I couldn't just text someone when I wanted to talk, I couldn't just go play Pokemon Go with the pals! ;) I didn't get all the good food my mom makes, I couldn't go get a snack for free when they feed us at the MTC at 4:15 and you're starving by the time you go to bed at 10:30. And really just missing talking to people I already knew and trusted, family and friends. So the first few days are incredibly rough, I don't think there is really a way to prepare other than having a solid testimony, knowing it is gonna be HARD, having faith, and getting to know your district and become close. It was also hard cause I had late meetings the first few days as DL, so I would get back to my room around 10 with the other new DL from my zone (we would send our companions back at 9 and we would be companions on the way back to our dorms) and after getting back at 10 you still have to get ready for bed and plan for the next day by 10:30, so I got no alone time to write in my journal which made things rough too. BUT, once Sunday came it was so much better!! We had a Devotional which was good that night, but some struggles and questions came into my mind during the end and I just wasn't really feeling it. I was wanting a spiritual experience but I just had this empty feeling. It was really hard, but I kept praying for the last 20ish minutes of the devotional. Finally at the end I was feeling a bit better, but still was trying to really feel a strong spirit. I wanted to gain personal revelation on how I could change to become an incredible or a "Legendary Missionary" (as the 2nd counselor in our Branch Presidency says), and also how I could help my district to become the most they could in their time at the MTC. After the devotional we went and watched The Character of Christ by Elder Bednar, and that was perfect!! I prayed again as we sat down to watch it and got out my notes and pen, and the next hour or so I wrote so many inspirations down I filled up the last 20 pages of the mini notebook I had been using! I didn't write things that Elder Bednar said either, I just had so many promptings that were inspired by the talk, but then were lead by the spirit. I learned a ton about what I need to do to become who I need to be to change others lives, and also about how I need to lead my district. It was an incredible experience! :) Also, I just have to say how much being on a mission changes your perspective of missionary's emails! All of a sudden all the stories of other missionaries are so much more real! There is just so much that can't fit in the email, and so much work, and most of all emotions that I never felt before from the outside looking in! 

So that experience on Sunday was probably my favorite part. Oh, also getting letters or packages is the most exciting thing ever!!!! :) Real letters and the Dear Elder letters are both so fun! Since I'm DL one of the things I do is go get mail for my district at the end of lunch and dinner each day, then pass it out before we head to bed and it is like the most exciting part of the day! Thanks so much fam and Deb for your letters, I absolutely loved them! :) :) :)

Monday night was also really awesome! We had a meeting with just our district (so no teachers), and as we were having the opening song and prayer, 3 of our Elders just started laughing for no reason and they couldn't stop! It was okay and funny for a bit, but after a minute or two it was really distracting so I had to ask them if they could step out in the hall so we could continue our meeting with the spirit. They all were cool with that and left, and then we had the other most incredible experience as a district... well most of a district ;) We'd planned to go over some things from the Fundamentals in the Green MTC book, but the class went a totally different direction! We had a really good time sharing inspirations, worries, and thoughts. The spirit was super strong and when I talked to the class about how we can get priesthood blessing to help us, one of the sisters asked if she could get one! It was way cool! The 5 elders who were still in the room all participated and the spirit was booming! Then we also all knelt down and had a prayer as a district to help us and strengthen us as we adjust to mission life and I think we were all crying, I know I was. :) 

4. My companion is super cool, his name is Matthew Peterson from Springville UT, so he lives like 5 min from the MTC! He is super good at spikeball, doing funny accents, kendama, and being really happy and fun with investigators! :)

Sure love you all family and friends!! :) I'd love to hear from you in emails and/or letters! 

Elder Hunter Branch

Companions

Wow, what a nice shed!

Aug. 25, 2016 I'm alive!

Hey pals!

I don't have long but just wanted to let you know I got here great and am doing great! My companion, Elder P., is super fun and we're having a good time. 6 of us in my district are going to New Hampshire! My P-day isn't till next Thursday so i'll write more then!

Love ya!
Elder Branch :)

And thanks for the candy ;)