Jan. 9, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey family and friends!

First of all, I'm SOOOOOO sorry my last few emails have been nonexistent/small!

I am doing well!! This has been a great, hard, and miraculous transfer! Being District Leader has really stretched me more than anything before and I'm still working on trying to do all I can.

We currently have 3 people who have set baptismal dates here in Exeter!! The ward members are so excited and so are we! There is so much good happening right now and I hope I stay! Transfers will be next Tuesday so we find out this Saturday what will happen. I bore my testimony this week and talked about how there are "Good things to come". I shared the story found in the Mormon Message "Good things to come." I have come to LOVE this ward, the town of Exeter, and all the good people here that I have met and taught.

Mormon Message: Good Things to Come

So, we have J. who I have talked about before. Her date to receive the ordinance of baptism is March 18th. C., a really cool guy who has been coming to church with us the last few weeks has a date for February 25th, and a lady named C. who we met a week or two ago is going to be baptized on February 4th!

So with C. I want to share her story. We were contacting people for a holiday food drive that the ward was doing. The people needed to be at their homes at a certain time so we could drop the food off for them, and while trying to confirm all of those, there were several who wouldn't respond to phone messages, so we were asked to go confirm with these people. After talking to one of them, we saw a lady who had lots of things she was trying to carry into the apartment. We asked her if we could help and she was really thankful! That was C. She is in her 30's and has lots of health problems, but she is really nice and cool! We shared a Christmas message with her and set a date to come back. Fast forward a week and we have gotten to meet with her a time or two. We invited her to church and she was kinda hesitant, so we asked if we could do a church tour with her that night. She really liked the building and it was good to show to her. I had a feeling to invite her to be baptized while we were there at the building, and she said that she might, but she wasn't sure yet. That night M.B., a member of the ward, drove her home and they stopped for pizza on the way. As they talked during dinner he told her about all the ways the church and Jesus Christ had blessed his life since being baptized a few years back. That really touched her, and the next morning at 9am she called us and set a baptismal date for February 4th! :) It was such a cool experience! We have the Elders from the Derry area here today and Elder D. and I will be meeting with C. again tonight! :)

So there is a lot more, but I am out of time, so I will talk to you all next week! LOVE YOU ALLLLLL! :)
Elder Hunter Branch

Jan. 2, 2017 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey pals!!! :)

The people that texted you those pictures live in the Derry ward, but they are super cool and nice! I've only met them at Jeanie's baptism and last P-day, but they are neat!! :)

J. has sadly been sick all week, but we started going to her house and bringing chairs into her room and teaching her!! It was pretty awesome!! :)

C. is still doing really well too! He came to church again and really liked it! Elder C. and I spoke this week which was really cool! C. is having some hard stuff going on right now but he is doing really well and is loving the gospel! :)

We met two people named C. and N. this week and they are awesome!!! They have been taught before by the assistants in Manchester a few years ago, before moving to Seabrook. They are having a really hard time in Seabrook but hope to move soon.

Sorry guys, I'm out of time, but I have lots of pictures for next week! 

Love you all and happy new year!

Elder Branch

(Note from mom...)

Hunter didn't mean for this next part to go in the blog. Sorry handsome, I just love it too much, had to include it. What a kind-hearted guy ;) 

Hey mom, could you send 2 more of the red/coral ties that you sent to me a few months ago? C. LOVES it, and he wants to get one! He had a really hard time when the missionaries he'd know before got transferred, and it would be a nice thing to do to get him a tie so whether I'm transferred or not, he feels really loved! The reason for the other would be for Elder C., then we all three could have matching ties, and that would be sweet! ;) I can pay for them if needed. It is the reddish/coral colored one with little whitish dots. 

I think it was off tie-coon. 

Thanks so much, sorry I have been horrible at writing!! :(  I'll try to do better!

Dec. 26, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

(Christmas post from Hunter's Family)

Every once in a while we'll get a picture anonymously 

on our phone from some wonderful person in New Hampshire. 

We love those people!!! 

Here are a few of those from this Christmas season...

Talking with him on Christmas over skype was the best!!

Merry Christmas!

<3

Dec. 19, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey pals!!

I hope you all have had a great week!

So we had a great week this week! J. wants to be baptized and she decided on March 18th, which is actually her birthday!! It's so sweet!

C. couldn't come to the Christmas party or church this week (we think because of the snow and freezing rain), but we did get to meet with him and R. (his girlfriend) on Wednesday which was sweet! We hope to go back and see them tonight or tomorrow.

We've been contacting people in the area to confirm with them that they would like to have some donated food brought over to them for Christmas, and it was a really cool opportunity to meet people!! There was one lady named E. who was super nice and she has been wanting to get into religion! We were able to share a message with her and become pretty good friends. We will be checking back with her this week! :)

The church had a pipe break so on Sunday rather than ward council meeting, we cleaned out water! The building is all ok now though. :)

Elder C. and I are great!! Last night we had a really cool contact with a guy who we actually are going to start teaching, and Elder C. took the lead and did most of the talking, which was really awesome! He is a really good guy! Elder D. and C. seem to be getting along really well, so that is awesome! They found 10 people to begin teaching this week! ;) The Sisters also are doing well. Sister D. was really sick but she is doing better now.

I'm still working on being District Leader. Teaching this week was a lot more fun because I knew what to expect from the week before. It is actually really fun to get to teach and lead the conversation! The Zone Leaders give me good advice after each meeting, so that has been nice to have them there to help me improve and change! Elder M. and Elder W. are super great, Elder C. says that we are lucky because they are really good Zone Leaders, and I agree!

So for Christmas I'll probably be calling you from the G.'s house, so that'll be fun!

We have a half mission Christmas meeting this week that will be at the Joseph Smith Memorial, which is where the prophet was born, so that will be really cool too! :)

Sure love you all and Merry Christmas!!
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Baby it's cold outside!

During our dinner hour, 

we made magic cookie bars for our friend

 who had a loved one pass away. 

Dec. 12, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire with a new companion, Elder C.

Hey Pals!

We had a GREAT week this week! I was worried because getting a new companion is stressful and you don't know what they are going to be like, but Elder C. is great!! He is really nice, and has a strong testimony that what we teach is true and he likes to work! He's from a little town called Oak City in Utah. It is kinda near Delta and Nephi. He is the youngest of 5 and all his siblings are married! He has been serving for 15 months now, he came out on his mission in the same group with Elder B. He likes sports a lot, so it is fun to play darts or with a mini door basketball game at lunch or after planning!      :)

We actually had the best week Exeter has seen in the last 3 years! We got to teach people 17 times this week, and we found 5 new people who want us to start teaching them and invited us back! :) One of them who is named C. came to church yesterday and we will be seeing him again hopefully tonight and Wednesday! :)

J. sadly was sick all week this week, but she just got better! Elder C. hasn't gotten to meet her so we are excited to see her!

I am doing really well! I was really scared to be the district leader, but I am figuring it all out now and stuff is going great!! 

It is really cold here, but luckily I'm surviving so far! ;)

We had MORE CAR PROBLEMS this week! When we went to park the car the shifter went to park, but the car thought it was in reverse. The shifter stuck and then the car kept moving back, so we had to turn it off and pull the emergency brake, and then it wouldn't start again... 

So we ended up getting a different car for the time while ours is in the shop, so that is nice!! :)

Hope you are all doing great and staying warm!! :)
Love,
Elder Branch

Visiting the C.'s and Santa before Elder B. was transferred. 

Dinner with the M.'s before Elder B. was transferred.

Our district after transfers. 

Elder C. and me

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

Nov. 28, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey there!

I'm so sorry, we had a crazy P-day so we had to split up e-mail time. We had our studies and did laundry, then took our car to Portsmouth to get an oil change and tires rotated this morning, then had zone interviews at the Portsmouth chapel, and then had to leave to help rake leaves for a family, then had Taco Bell with the I.'s, then we got hair cuts!

So this week J. is doing well, she got really sick which was sad but she is coming along. The stake is putting on Handel's Messiah this week so we are hoping to have her and a bunch of others there!

We are teaching a boy in Seabrook who is way cool! His name is E. and he is 14. I don't remember if I had told you about him. He is really nice and we hope he'll be able to come to church soon!

Thanksgiving was so fun with the C.'s!! Their whole family was there and it was great!! :)

I got to meet D.'s friend, the General, this week and he was awesome!! He has lots of cool memorabilia and we got to have a great talk about family! :)

I'm sorry it was such a crazy P-day, next week should be better! We have transfers next week and from the way it is sounding from interviews today Elder B. is leaving and I'll be taking over the area, so we are excited about the future but bummed because we have a good time together!

Love you all so much!!
Elder Branch :)