May 29, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hey pals!! :)

It has been another swell week in Maine!! :) Being in a trio is pretty fun, it is cool to have two companions! We found a bunch more fun people this week and had lots of great lessons! We invited a bunch of the awesome people we're teaching to come to church, and 5 were able to make it! :) It is pretty fun because we have had a bunch of different people with us at church each of the last 3 weeks, now the hope is having them all there! ;) To help one family who came this week, we brought a simple breakfast that morning for them so they could just focus on getting ready! It was pretty awesome to get to help them attend church by thinking outside the box!

So this transfer we found out we will be having a couple extra leadership meetings down in Manchester, as well as we will be visited by someone from the mission department and by Elder Snow of the seventy! It should be a fun and wild time!! :)

This week I had a conversation with some drunk people and it was pretty interesting! They said some funny stuff and were pretty wild, but they were REALLY happy that we like Jesus, so that was a plus! They asked which one of us was driving and offered the non drivers a sip of their vodka, which we kindly declined. ;)

Missions are the best, I'm so glad I get to serve the lord! 

Sure love you all! :)
Elder Hunter Branch

May 22, 2017 Transfer week in Newport Maine

Hello everyone!!

So, it's transfer week and the news is that Elder C. and I are...... both staying!!!! :) We are also receiving another Elder, Elder L.! Elder C. and I will still be the Zone Leaders, and Elder L. will be a third companion! We are excited to be in a trio, it'll be sweet! We have had some wild stuff happen in our Zone so we've had a third companion for the last week or two, Elder B. We have had a great time together and it has been a wild week. We have worked hard and we ended the transfer well!

L., who I told you about last week, was sick this last Sunday but she is otherwise doing well! Since her baptism it's cool to see the difference it's already making! She just seems lighter and a bit happier, I love it!!! :)

We had lobster this week!! It was my first time getting to try it and it was alright, it wasn't my favorite, but it was still pretty cool! :)

We have so many cool people to teach right now! The highlight people for this week is this cool 20 year-old couple from our trailer park we're teaching that came to church! There are doing really well and loving learning! They have so much real intent and it's really fun since they are our age!

Sure love ya all!!
Elder Hunter Branch

May 15, 2017 in Newport, Maine

Hello everyoneeeee!!

So I don't have like any time as usual, but this week was awesome! The missionaries had been teaching a woman named L. before I arrived here in Newport and she had a baptism date but it got pushed back. We've been teaching her now the last 5 weeks and great news she was baptized on Friday!! She is the real deal! :)

Some crazy stuff happened this week in our zone so we had to drive to Biddeford Maine on Saturday and pick up another missionary so now we're a trio for a few days! We ended up having a 4 hour round trip drive Saturday and didn't get home till 12:17am (exactly). I was super tired and so we blasted music, but missionary music isn't very good for keeping you awake. Luckily we made it though!

Other than that we had some sketchy back-road experiences with water and huge pot holes from following our gps, good thing we have a jeep!

Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hunter Branch

May 8, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello everyone!

We have had an absolutely insane but great week here in Newport... or in basically everywhere but Newport! Haha! :)

Monday and Tuesday I was able to work in Newport and we found and taught a bunch of cool people! Wednesday I went to Skowhegan and worked with Elder Boyle. We had a great exchange and we found a lot of people to teach! One cool story goes like this. As I've been on my mission I've realized that one of the hardest things for missionaries to learn is to not be afraid to talk to people and to be lovingly bold. Basically just talk to EVERYONE and don't be afraid if they say no once, keep talking to them and have some fun and they will probably be more willing to listen to you when they see you as more than just a well dressed kid! :) I have made it a point to try to get really good at talking to people and breaking the ice so that I can be more effective. One thing that is kinda off topic is that I always carry candy with me to give to people! It makes them way nicer, cause they expect us to just come talk to them about church stuff, not talk to them like regular people or offer them candy! (You have to practice that though so you don't come off as a creep giving away "free candy" 👀🤔) Haha

So it was about 8:15pm and we had already had a great day and hadn't had dinner cause we were too busy with other things, but we decided to try at least one more person before going in to have a late dinner. We contacted someone who ended up not being home, but across the way from where this house was, there were some apartments and the third story window of one was open. There was a teenager working out that we could see, and he was blasting uptown funk. We walked by and the kid and I nodded at each other. I told Elder B. we were gonna invite that kid and we walked back! He saw us and waved, and then I called up and asked how he was doing! He had to pause the music to hear us then we started having a conversation with him and another guy who appeared at the window. We told them what we do and asked if we could come visit them sometime, and the second guy was like, "Ya, how about right now, I'll be right down!" He came downstairs and we taught him the Plan of Salvation because of some questions he had. Pretty soon the first kid and another one came down the stairs and we were able to teach them the Restoration! It turned out that the first kid we had seen in the window wanted to learn more and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and exchanged numbers! Since then it turns out the Skowhegan Elders have taught him again and even had a tour of the chapel with him!

So I'm short on time and have already talked you to death probably, but to summarize, Thursday was a great Zone Conference and I learned a ton! Friday we went to Manchester on exchange with the Assistants. It was a great, I was with Elder B. Everyone jokes about how Elder B. and I are basically the same person except he is from Canada and is proud of it! Haha, that was a fun exchange too. Then the temple on Saturday was super amazing as well! We got to see a sealing of a family, and also a recent convert went for her first time! It was great! :)

I'm excited for next week to get to Skype! Sure love all so much! I wish I could tell you so much more, but there is just never time! We are teaching and have found so many other awesome people. Life is great as always! Being a Zone Leader and trying to figure out how to help other missionaries so much is a lot to do, but I love it! :)

Happy Mother's Day!!
Love,
Elder Hunter Branch

Zone P-day Activity

Giant Sandwiches

and painting t-shirts

Zone conference

(picture from the mission facebook page)

Boston Temple

Critters of the week

May 1, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello all!

We have had a great week! We helped people set/rescheduled 3 baptismal dates this week which was great! We taught a ton since we started teaching so many people last week! It was great to get to see so many people! I had exchanges with Elder S. in Farmington, Maine this week which was really awesome. We were able to meet lots of people and had a great time! It was insane, we talked to EVERYONE!! We even invited some people who owned a bakery and got really good brownies, so that was super nice of them!

We are having a Zone P-day today and we're going to go play mini golf, but it is raining now so we might have to do other fun stuff.

This next week our Branch is going to the Temple with a few of the recent converts and other members, then one super awesome family is getting sealed (married for time and all eternity)! It is so cool, they asked us to be the witnesses for them and we are so excited! :)

Sure love ya all a ton and hope you have a great week! :)

Elder Hunter Branch :)

April 24, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hey family and friends!

We had a GREAT week! So Tuesday we had a meeting in Manchester with all the other Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, and the Mission Presidency, Assistants to the President and the Sister Training Leader Trainers (we basically have Sister Assistants as well. President Blair started that just a few transfers ago.) We learned a lot and talked about a ton of stuff. It was super awesome! :) I also got to see a bunch of mission friends so that was fun too!

The rest of the week was great as well! We had exchanges with the Waterville Elders and we got to meet and talk with some awesome people! I was with Elder S. who has been out for 4 months and who is 25! He is such an awesome guy, I like him a lot. He has an awesome story of how he got out on a mission, and the main point of it was that God doesn't give up on us. If we really ask if things are true, God will let us know if we really seek it out! We also tried Fruit Loops milkshakes from Burger King and they were pretty good! Solid 9/10, would try again!

Something else that was awesome this week was that even though we had that meeting Tuesday, we worked hard and prayed for help and talked with everyone we saw and met and started teaching 13 new people! It was super awesome, it was so much fun to find and get to talk to so many new people! Meeting people is great! :)

One cool story with the people we started teaching is with a couple, Z. and A. We met them at the Easter Egg Hunt thing for the city last week and they said we could come visit them. In between us meeting them and us getting to visit, they talked together and decided that they would really like for their kids to be raised with God (a religion) in their lives because they knew it would be such a blessing. So when we went by we got to have an awesome visit with them, and at the end A. gave the closing prayer which was super powerful. It turns out too that they know this really awesome family in the ward named the W. who are converts of 7 or so years! A. was really good friends with this awesome family and knew both of the W. before they got married! A. had actually seen us on Sister W. Facebook page and so that was a great connection to make! We are going back to see Z. and A. again later this week and will try to bring one of the W.'s with us! We called the W.'s right after the lesson with Z. and A., and after we told the story Brother W. was like, "Oh thanks, now you made Sister W. cry!" Haha   ;)

Well I hope you all have a super great week! Sure love you!
Elder Branch :)

On exchange with Elder S.

Maine Cooking Utensils in Camo

Mission Leader Conference

A few more pics

April 17, 2017 Transferred to Newport Maine where we got to be the Easter Bunny =D

Hello everyone!!!! :)

Sorry I didn't get to send an email last week! I found out I was getting transferred and then the next few days were a blur! The ward was so nice and after we found out Saturday night around 7 that I was leaving, they threw together a party and all went out and bought food that night and we had a great big dinner and party at the church the next day! It was one of the sweetest things ever, I sure love the people in Exeter! ❤️ We had 4 tables of food and at the beginning they had me come up and they said all this nice stuff about me and had me give the prayer. I'm sure I was blushing, it was so sweet, it was basically like having a second mission farewell! :) I got to see a bunch of awesome members of the ward and it was so great to get to say goodbye! :)

We had a ton of people who wanted us over to say bye and so we ended up visiting people all day P-day! Haha, we taught like 5 lessons, visited lots of other people, and had 2 dinners and I never got to email! It was so wild but fun! :)

Man, SOOOOO much has happened in the last two weeks and I don't have a bunch more time, so I will have to summarize a LOT!

So, I am in Newport Maine now serving with Elder C. He is super cool! He has 4 months left on his mission. We are the Zone Leaders for the Bangor West Zone. We're in a branch here in Newport and they LOVE to feed us! We have someone who's calling it is to arrange meals for us, so we are fed every night, and sometimes twice! HAHA, it is wild! :) We live in a mobile home, and are, as a paper in the mobile home says, "High class trailer trash" haha! :) Also, life as a Zone Leader is crazy, we have to drive crazy far distances and have so much we have to do, so we have only had time for 1 morning workout so far, and won't have time for another one till Thursday!! HAHA :) We get to drive a Jeep Compass which is pretty sweet! The roads here are insanely bad and it is super dusty and spread out. I feel like my moms wish of me going to the middle of nowhere in Montana has come true! ;) It is super cool though, we still found a ton of new investigators this week and teach a lot! Honestly if you take every chance to talk to people as a missionary and are happy, you won't need to go tracking all the time, you will have plenty of people to teach! Just be happy and have fun!!!! :)

Last week in Exeter was super awesome too! We found a bunch of cool people and taught some super promising investigators! Exeter is an awesome place! :)

I'm so happy and I love being a missionary! It is cool to get to be a Zone Leader and to get to help the other missionaries! There is a lot to do, but I know we can do it with the Lords help!

I just want to say in closing to all you who are thinking about or preparing for missions, or who aren't and should be. Going on a mission is the best thing I have ever done. Missions are such an incredible experience! If you go into a mission ready to be obedient, work super hard, and love the people, you will have the best time of your life. We had a crazy spiritual lesson with a family who is really struggling last night. We just had the feeling to go over there and we followed it. It turned out that they were definitely in need of help. We were able to have an incredible lesson with lots of crying and love and completely filled with the spirit. After walking outside from the lesson into the pouring rain, feeling sorry for what they were going through, but totally blown away by the spirit of the Lord and the peace it brings, I couldn't help just saying a prayer of thanks in my heart for the opportunity to be serving the Lord.

I know the Lord loves us all and is so aware of us! I know that if you pray to God, repenting daily, and ask him for help and to know if he loves you, you will receive an answer! :)

Sure love you all!
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Saying goodbye to the awesome people in Exeter

(This is the only pic that caught the awesome Matt!)

Transfer Meeting

In Newport, we got asked to wear the Easter bunny suit 

at the community Easter Egg Hunt. 

While Elder C., the rabbit man, would take pictures with the families 

I got to talk with them! 

I was able to get us return appointments with two families for this week!

Me as the Easter Bunny