Jan. 1, 2018 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Happy New Years!!!

It is COLDDDDD out here! It's been around 3 degrees as an average the last few days, but who cares!! We still found a bunch this week and had a great time!! T., who came to church last week, accepted a baptismal date for the 27th and is praying about it because he is nervous about how his family will deal with it since they are all Hindu, pray for him! :) We had stopped visiting D. and G. as much but then D. reached out this week. We went and had a good lesson with her and G., and D. came to church! She is nervous about going to church alone, but with more friends there she could still keep learning be really solid.

Last week we met a lady named S. who speaks Spanish and this week we had a member of our ward (L.) who recently returned from her mission in Spain come teach with/for us!! :) I was able to follow along and share a few thought with my limited Spanish, but L. was the main teacher. It was so awesome! S. said that she doesn't have a peep hole, but when we knocked on her door she felt like she should open it. Her son told her not too because who knew who it was, but she opened the door anyway! She is from Honduras and as a kid met missionaries there. She felt like it was a sign that we met her here which shows God loves her and has a plan, and we agree! :) We are visiting again this week with L.

For Christmas a really nice family in our ward bought all us missionaries really warm coats. As you know, the temperatures here have been crazy crazy cold so it was perfect! Elder Petersen and I have other warm coats, but one night I was wearing the one they gave me as we were out visiting people. As we were walking down the street in 4 degree weather with a strong wind, we saw a man on the other side of the street. We crossed to talk to him and yelled out hi, and he responded, "Hey Elders!" Whenever someone who you don't know calls you Elders, you know they either are a less active member or have a history of meeting with missionaries. He told us that his name was J. and that he use to be a member. He was baptized in the early two thousands, and his life had taken some crazy turns since. I won't go into too many details, but he is just couch surfing now and doesn't have a lot going for him. He only was wearing a jacket and looked super cold. We talked all about how his life had gone and promised him it's never to late to come back. We shared Mosiah 26:30 (Yea, and as often as my people repent I will forgive them their trespasses against me.) and the Spirit came in so powerfully. He started crying as we gave him a new copy of the Book of Mormon and promised he would be at church the next day. As we were about to leave I felt like I should ask if he had a coat. He said his jacket was all he had and next thing I knew I had taken off the coat the members gave me, removed my missionary tag, and was handing it to him. He resisted for a second, then quickly took it and put it on. He started crying again and we were able to have a prayer and give him a hug. The spirit was so strong as we walked... ran back to the car. (Cause now I was the cold one! ;) ) The next day J. showed up at church in the new coat and had a great time back at church. We'll keep working to help him get back on tract again.

That was my favorite part of Christmas this year. It was awesome how those members generous service to us missionaries was able to do much more than they could have anticipated when they gave it. :)

Love you all and welcome to 2018!!
Elder Branch :)

Dec. 26, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Merry Christmas everyone!

This week was great, we had some great experiences finding which was really cool. Early in the week we had to have some get-real lessons with R., G., and D., as well as with L. We talked about how if they really want to know they have to put in the work (come to church, read scriptures, pray) for at least a month and then look back and see how their life has changed. R., G., and L. weren't willing to put the work in yet. D. got pretty real, and really wanted to keep learning, but since then she missed church and hasn't responded on Facebook. 

A less active recent convert we work with never will come to church, and this week early on they told us her younger sister, who has been interested and loves to have us over, wasn't allowed to go because her dad said no. They have a brother who was way cool and when we stopped by Sunday morning it was just him and the sister. We asked if she could come and then they had a big argument in Nepali, and then B. told us that she had been lying about not being allowed to go and she didn't want to come to church. She just liked having us come as company. It was really nice of him to tell us and he felt bad, but it was good to know the truth.

So, a few bummers this week, but the Lord blessed us by adding 8 new people to our teaching pool!! We found some really awesome people who have a ton of potential. One named T. came to church this week and is excited to come again. Also, there was a three apartment house that we felt like knocking, and the people behind all three doors became new investigators!!! Sometimes you just have to have the faith to let go of people who aren't prepared quite yet and know the Lord will help you find more. :)

Christmas was really fun! It was a late Sunday night in the office putting in the mission numbers, so when we got back to the apartment it was Christmas Morning! We decided we couldn't wait, so we opened some very early morning Christmas presents. ;) Thanks to all those who sent things, it's nice to know there are people thinking about you!

We watched Mr. Kreuger's Christmas last night with James Stewart, and I love the part at the end where it says something like: "'I love you', Clarissa said it to Mr. Kreuger, Mr. Kreuger said to Jesus, and Jesus has said it to all of us in so many ways." That is very true, and I'm so grateful for that. :)

Love you all,
Elder Branch :)

(Picture from some awesome people in New Hampshire that was texted to us.)

(Pictures from the mission facebook page)

Dec. 18, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire Merry Christmas!!

Hey everyone!

So sorry, probably shortest weekly yet, but highlights of the week:
- D. and G. set baptismal dates for January 27th.
- I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about patience. :)
- I lost my wallet and someone returned it! I had had $65 cash in it, because they encourage us to carry cash, which was stolen. :( That was a pretty big bummer, but I guess I'll just try to save up again! And hey, at least they left the change! ;)
- Transfers have come and I'm staying in Manchester again, which will be my second 7.5 month area!!
- We put up Christmas lights and our apartment looks great!

Hope you all have a great week!!! Merry Christmas! I'm grateful for this time and for Jesus Christ's example. :)

Love, Elder Branch

(Pictures put on the mission facebook page 

by the awesome Mission President's wife and the Senior Missionaries.)

They got new missionaries today!

Mission Leadership Conference

Nov. 11, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire, Christmas in the mission

Hello everyone!

This week was CHRISTMAS!!! We had the two half mission Christmas conferences, so it was a blast! Elder Petersen and i had to get there early each night before to set up half a bazillion trees and lights to make it a "Blair-y" Christmas, which was a party! The program had tons of music, lots of Christmas stories and testimonies, but my favorite part was when Luke 2 was read with someone playing Christmas songs in the background. It is so powerful to hear the story of the Saviors birth. Sometimes life can be crazy and we can get caught in the rush, but scriptures and music have a way of pulling us back down to reality.

We're beginning planning for 2018 for the missions goals which is a party in and of itself!! One thing I've learned these last few months is that there is a TON more that goes on behind the scenes than we realize in organizations!

This week we were finally able to get R. to church!!!!!! He texted us the morning of and said he couldn't come, but Elder Petersen went and stopped by while I stayed for Ward Counsel with one of the other Manchester Elders, and Elder Petersen was able to encourage him to come, and he stayed for all three hours! I'm speaking next week so we made him promise to come again then, with G., D., and A. We also had a really awesome and brilliant 10 year old kid named D. come, along with his mom and two younger brothers. The Ward did a great job of saying hi and making then feel welcome, and they had a great time! They want to keep coming as well! We also ran into one of our past investigators who had been close to getting baptized before, and he wants to start learning again! We aren't sure how far that'll go because of really rough family pressure, but who knows!?

Over all, it was a great week! I love to see people come to church and progress! :) 

Love you all and Merryyyyyyyy Christmas!
Elder Hunter Branch

Nov. 4, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire

Merry Christmas!

This week was pretty good, Mission Leadership Conference on Tuesday was good as usual. We were in a parade this week and it was pretty funny. In a two hour long Christmas parade, we were the ONLY float themed on Jesus Christ! Our float was a nativity and we handed out #LightTheWorld advent calendars. If you haven't heard of that yet, check it out! It's a worldwide initiative to do service each day leading up to Christmas! Elder Petersen and I were talking to people on the sides of the road and handing stuff out, and ended up getting left by the float!! 😂 We just walked along after that and asked people if they had seen our float and talked about how it was the only one about the real meaning of Christmas.

One really sad experience was as we were walking back to our car we encountered a man, his young son, and the boys friends. We talked to them and got a lukewarm from the dad who said they were another Christian faith. As we talked to the kids about Christmas we asked them if they knew what Christmas is all about and the first things they said surprised me. People always talk about how Christmas is really commercialized, but people and kids I've met have always known it is all about Jesus Christ. These kids however all shouted out things like: toys, gifts, money, Santa, and food! We told them about how it is because we're celebrating Jesus's birthday and they were clueless. Thanks mom and dad for teaching me the true meaning of Christmas! :)

I hope we all remember to love and serve others this season to honor Christ and His example to us as our Savior.

So, R. and G. played football with us on Thanksgiving. They couldn't make it to church this week, but D., G.'s younger sister who is a junior, came and she brought a friend! They both had a great time and D. wants to keep working towards baptism. It is great to see them all slowly making changes! :)


Love you all!
Elder Hunter Branch

Nov. 27, 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello and happy Thanksgiving! 

Hope your having a great week! We had a great week and saw some awesome progression, but no one ended up making it to church! Haha, you can't win them all. We'll try extra hard for that this week! :)

Also, saying we had no one at church isn't quite true. We found a less active sister whose family we're teaching now, and she came to church! She is from the D.R. and is awesome! She was baptized as a teen and hasn't been in forever! We met her on the street, brought her a Spanish Book of Mormon and she is doing great. Between her family and a few other we've met at her house (an amazing 10 year old named D. who is a genius and is super exited to learn, as well as a teen named O. who is pretty excited to come to church this next week) it has been a goldmine!

This week we went on exchange with a bunch of missionaries!

Nashua: Elder Collins (who replaced me in Exeter) and I had a great time, where we taught a lot, and talked to everyone we had time to and found a couple awesome people who want to learn.

Exeter: This was fun to be back in my old area!

I went with Elder Augir and had a good exchange. We didn't get to go see many people I knew, but we got to see some great people and promised some amazing things like health if they committed to pray and ask God to help them make it to church on a set date, as well as a promise they could quit smoking if
they read the Book of Mormon everyday for the rest of the year. We also had
an awesome experience with a less active dad and his family! We had dinner with them, helped prep for thanksgiving (first time sticking my hand in a turkey skin, that was exciting!), and shared a powerful thanksgiving/Restoration message! The family really felt the spirit. They plan to check out church soon! God really does direct this work!

Peterborough: I went with Elder Spadafora, who just left Manchester!

We tried to talk to people, but it was on the streets of a small, wealthy downtown on Black Friday, and I don't know if I've had a harder time getting people to talk!! We were knocking on car windows, sharing the #lighttheworld video, talking to people on the street and shops, and just NO ONE would have it! It was insane, it humbled me with finding for sure! We talked about why and talked about finding good finding atmospheres. Rich, Black Friday, dusk, and cold were not a good mix, especially using a new finding tool of light the world and transitioning to Book of Mormon and Restoration. We eventually found one really cool lady at Dunkin Donuts, thank goodness! Not everyone you meet is nice, even when you're just being a pal and spreading Jesus, but that's ok, it makes it exciting! ;)

Thanksgiving was great, aside from the seasonal allergies after playing football. We had two really cool guys we're teaching come to the game and they had a really good Time! They are both young, so it was huge to just get to connect. On top of that our team won, so good times!



On a sad note, we stopped teaching Carol who was going to get baptized. I'll spare you the details and just say things didn't work out there. It's sad and hard sometimes to be a missionary, but that's only when you lose sight for a second of how amazing the work you're doing is! :) There are so many amazing people we're teaching right now who are wanting to change their lives. :)

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

Zone p-day activity

Thanksgiving dinner with the awesome Collett Family - thank you!

Boxed water while on exchanges

Thanksgiving with the Blair's