Apr. 9, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine - The Hope of God's Light

Hello!

Well, we have officially had snow now for 6 months of the year, hooray for Maine!  The word on the streets is there are one or more storms left... honestly it just makes it easier to talk to people by joking about the snow and anyone will laugh cause it’s so ridiculous!

We had E, K, and D at church again! D had been off the map for a bit but we met with him this week, he came to church, and he’s praying about baptism in June. We have two families were still working with who want to come this Sunday! We are so hopeful!! :)

We had some AMAZING experiences this week. We have a family who we were able to teach a powerful restoration to this week. We offered to say the opening prayer while inviting the mom to give the closing prayer. She was nervous but we taught her how to pray at the start and let her know we’d teach her again at the end. We gave an overview of what we’d share, used scriptures, asked questions, and that's when the dad came out from the shower (that’s where he was when we started) and started making noise, popped open a bottle, plopped down on the couch and interrupted the lesson. We told him we were right in the middle of a really important lesson but that we’d love for him to join us. He did. They know they need to ask God if the message we shared it true, and they are excited for us to return. They missed church this week cause of a sick child and work, but we plan to teach the Plan of Salvation and keeping the sabbath day holy this week and help them come to church! :)

We had another miracle where a man (P) let us in and told us he wasn’t interested in our message, but his parents were always rude to or avoided missionaries, which he didn’t think was right. We thanked him and had a great conversation. He is a very very good man and loves his kids. He has a religious background and knows he should be going to a church. He asked us if we have ever questioned our faith, as well as how can God let bad things happen to good people. I asked Elder Powell what he though and Elder Powell did a great job talking about agency. I shared Alma 14 with him about the people who were thrown into a fire when they obeyed the words of Alma and Amulek. P understood and seemed to be slightly comforted. We shared one of my favorite quotes from Life of Pi, which says “Doubt is not the absence of faith, but an element of it.” We explained if our doubt turns us away from God, then we are crippling ourselves. If it turns us to him in question, study, and prayer, then we will grow closer to Him. We shared a bit about the restoration with P and then showed him the Mormon message, The Hope of God’s Light. 

Video: The Hope of God's Light

In it, a man is reached out to by his friend, telling him that God wants him on his side. The man works for 2 years then finally receives another spiritual confirmation. P thought it was a great message, then we told P that the most important part was when the man received a spiritual confirmation for himself. P said he though it would be hard not to believe after the first experience the man had with his friend. The spirit spoke to me and I asked P, “Well, what is the difference between that man’s friend calling him and God sending us to you when you are looking for a church and have questions?” P paused and said really nothing was different, and he had thought that too. P then rushed over and found a piece of paper and pen, wrote down his name and number, and asked us if we would please come back. He told us all about his schedule and we’re going to see him this week. It was such an amazing experience! :)

God truly know each of us and is there whenever we feel like letting him in. Have faith, and use it to see a miracle. If you don’t act on your faith nothing will happen, but if you do, God will be there.

Love!
Elder Branch :)

Exchanges in Rockland

District p-day a few weeks back

Last p-day

April 2, 2018 Happy Easter in Ellsworth, Maine

Happy Easter!

What a General Conference! As they said, “One thing constant in the Lord's Church is change.” The vital things for all people of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and Receiving the Holy Ghost never do, but as people change many other aspects are put in to best meet Gods children’s needs. I love the devotional “What is the Blueprint of Christ’s Church” by Tad R. Callister, which likens the church to a house.

This week was busy! Exchanges Tuesday were good! We got to work with members and they are awesome! We continued our Easter egg thing and the members have loved it. Wednesday we met a lady who hasn’t been to the church in years. She lives with some family and 2 of her grandchildren and her 8 year-old grandson came to the Easter Celebration! We had a meeting in Vermont for all the new missionaries which was awesome! It is nice to be back on the learning rather than presenting sides of those meetings, there is always so much more to learn! On the way back our car had bald tires we realized and had to wait for a couple hours, until it was determined that we could switch cars with some Elders in Manchester. We only made it half the way home that night and had to crash with some other Elders on the way. The next day was a blur as we got back and prepped for the Easter Celebration! We had lots to get ready, and had a meeting to video call into p, but we finished everything! We even got tablecloths and center decorations for the tables (we thought the Relief Society would be impressed by that, not bad for some young punks like us!) When 6:00pm came there were only two families there! I was pretty sad and thought it was just going to be us, but then 6:15 rolled around and the peloton arrived! We had that family I talked about earlier as well as an investigator and her family, and a bunch of the ward there! We ended up needing all 9 tables we set up, so it was a win for sure!! :) The moms especially loved it because they didn’t have to risk getting dye in their houses with the Easter eggs we dyed! 😂 Only one spill happened, and it was an easy clean. 👍

Conference went well and a few people watched it. E is doing ok, but we think he's struggling with stopping smoking. K is awesome, she took our challenge to read the “Nephite Easter” of 3 Nephi 9-26 in the Book of Mormon. J. also watched Conference during work and we met his wife today which was great!

About a month and a half ago I met his little family who was having a baby THAT DAY and were headed to the hospital. We fell out of contact and were just able to swing by before Sunday morning conference. We got to meet the 6 week old baby now and are teaching them again this week.

Preach my gospel says missionary work is the “most compelling” of any work and I know that’s true.

Love,
Elder Hunter Branch :)

Mar. 26, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello family and friends!

We have district p-day today and are going to Acadia, so I’ll have to make this a quick one. E cut his hair!!! He looks so great! Smoking is still a work in progress. K is great too, we’ve started sharing chapters with her and teaching over FB. D has still backed off. We have a couple new families and old families we’ve followed up with like the C's and N's who are really interested and ready to go. J. read all of 1 Nephi but still has lots of questions.

Midway through the week we decided to have a get together at the church on the 30th for a message and to dye Easter eggs! We have a bunch of members coming and a few less actives. We’re working on getting more people we’re teaching to come, and the members are inviting friends! :) When members invite friends to come and see, miracles happen. The success in sharing the gospel isn’t in if they accept, it’s in the invitation. Do you invite them because you love them or because someone told you to? Do you do it lovingly? Do you do it with the plan to still be their friend whether they accept or not? Do you talk about the gospel naturally? These are what make inviting friends to learn about the church a joy.

I love the song “If the Savior stood beside me”. The song, as many of you know, is about how or if we would live differently if the Savior was with us. The second verse says...
If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He was never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more rev’rently
if I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

I noticed the importance of a line in there recently that I’ve never thought about too much, and one that I know I could improve on from who I was before my mission, “Would I try to share the gospel?” I think most those other things in the song I would specifically try to do each day, and I’d always hope for the chance to share the gospel, but did I actually try to share it myself? I was excited for the opportunity to come along, but that’s not enough! I love the thought of trying to share the gospel with the savior at my side, and I’m grateful that’s how it truly is. :)

We’ve been doing a thing with the ward where we open an Easter egg with a scripture and related object inside, and the ward loves it! For those we can’t visit, we post a picture each day on the ward FB page with the family who did it, so others can follow along. The ward loves it and it’s helping us draw a lot closer to them. :)

Love you all and happy Easter!
Elder Branch :)

Mar. 19, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hi!

Boots. They are pretty awesome. I think I've worn my snow boots more this last week than I have dress shoes because of all the snow we've gotten. It's awesome!

This week was good! We made treats and took them around to investigators who we were out of contact with which went well!

We found some really cool people and a few families, so that was great! We had to plan a lot with a new transfer, Easter, and finding or dropping people we're teaching. I don't like planning, but it's a good skill to have I guess. My angel mom would try to get me to plan or make lists back home and the concept never made it through to me, but now I understand she is a genius!

E. has quit smoking, so let's hope he can keep it up! He's come to all 3 hours of church for a month straight now!  K. hadn't really been progressing much since she was nervous to meet in person and wanted to do her own journey (she has been coming to church for a few months by herself) so we decided if something didn't happen where we could help more, we would have to drop her on Sunday. We came into the day fasting, and then at the end of Sacrament Meeting the Sunday School Teachers had to leave cause they were sick so we had to teach all of a sudden! It went really well! We are doing this nifty thing for Easter and are scheduling members to visit and do it with (more to come next week on that) and so we asked K. if we could do it with her and her family too. We ended up talking with her all the way through 3rd hour and long story short, she told us her story, agreed to take the lessons online, and we discussed baptism! I love how miracles come as a result of faith acted upon. :)
We missed seeing D. this week because of crazy schedules but we hope to see him again soon. The funeral is coming up so we're praying for him.

Life is going well though. More snow this week, and the temperature dropped again, but that's the way we like it!

Love,
Elder Branch :)

Serving on pday ;)

I forgot in my email, 

but we did a family history night 

for the youth this Wednesday!

This was us clearing out a path to the church before. 

Cars were grounded Tuesday so we walked. 

Still coming down Wednesday morning. 

The new district after transfers :)

Our pday hike, Blue Hill.

Mar. 13, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello!

It has been a wild week! With snow storms, partridge people, stage preforming, lost keys, returning to Newport, and so much more, this has been a full week!

I think I'll do a day by day breakdown this time.
Monday:
P-day, great time hiking in Acadia!! :) We also met some guys there who were our age while hiking who were pretty cool then one of them started trying to mess with us for being Mormons. We were able to clear up some misconceptions, and call him out for getting his "facts" about Mormons from Southpark and some other media. His friends thought it was pretty funny when we called him out.

Tuesday:
Exchanges and I went back to Newport! Elder Glenn from my MTC room is one of our Zone Leaders there so it was nice to be with him too. We had a great day and talked to some awesome people. Seeing a few members was really fun again!! It feels great to see people you love and have them be so excited to see you again too! :) Elder Glenn and I talked a bunch and one thing we talked about really hit me and I've thought about it a lot. Sometimes it's easy to be hard on yourself as a missionary and focus on all the small things that you need to be so much better. Elder Glenn said something along the lines of, the Lord probably thinks of our missions just as much for us as for the people we're teaching. I love that. As long as we're trying our best and doing what we should, it's okay if we aren't perfect. That's no permission to start doing less than we are, rather it should encourage us to keep trying and working as we make mistakes and fall short.

Wednesday:
Elder Powell and I had a good day and worked hard. We got to teach D. who is making great progress. It was his first formal sit down lesson, and he accepted a invitation to be baptized as he comes to know its true. E is also doing well, he decided to stop smoking and drinking coffee on the 15th! Pray for him! :)

Thursday:
Ok, this is when things got wild. The Machias (furthest east branch of the church in the USA btw [aka first ones to see the sun rise each day in the country]) elders came down and we worked. Because of the snow storm we weren't allowed to drive, but we walked all over! Elder Gardner and I met a cool guy with what he said was a partridge/grouse in his yard. He was a real mountain man and was super grateful for a copy of the Book of Mormon! 

We also met a new person to start teaching above a bar. Working in the snow is actually one of my favorite things! People usually are pretty nice when you bring a shovel and do service. We also carried around a white board in the snow and got 14 people to write on it what brings them peace. It was a fun way to talk to people! Would have sent a picture of the board but one of the elders smudged it all before I could get a picture. :'(
On the way back though I was talking about things that are fun and decided to jump into some snow. After a few jumps, Elder Gardner decided he'd try it out too. We put things like our tag and such in pockets that could zip. We jumped in the snow from like 9:10-9:29 as we walked back to our apartment. We even found some swings to launch off of! :)

Friday:
We headed out to District Meeting and the Machias elders called saying they couldn't find their keys... We took them to district Meeting, cancelled our exchange with the Belfast Elders, and spent the whole day searching for their keys. Apparently the keys hadn't been put somewhere secure when we were jumping the night before. We borrowed a metal detector and shoveled snow for hours, but never found the keys.

Saturday:
The new vehicle coordinator couple (the Trainers) drove up and brought spare keys. It was soooooooo nice of them to do that! It is a 4.5 hour drive from Manchester, so we made them cookies to say thanks that morning while getting ready. Later that day we had a ward talent show which went really well. E came, brought a dessert, and enjoyed the show! :) The Trainers stayed for the talent show and Elder Trainer helped Elder Powell and I close out the show with "called to serve" :)

Sunday:
E. and K. came, D. couldn't cause he was sick. We took him some food though which made him happy. :)

Monday:
Transfer calls, Elder Powell and I are staying which is great! All the other Elders have someone leaving, and a new one coming. Elder Donn who I served by at the beginning of my mission will be in my District which will be so fun! :)
It was going to be a normal day of missionary work, so we were on exchange with Belfast, but because of the storm coming today they made the last couple hours preparation. Elder Powell and I were caught up so we went hiking for the couple hours we had on a trail someone told us about. It was sweet!

So, lots happened!! I'm excited to keep going and see how the changes take us!
Love you all! :)

Acadia - Beehive Trail

Cars grounded - p day

Mar. 5, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

Hello everyone!

So as you heard the North East had a crazy storm this last week, but upper, coastal Maine seemed to avoid most of it! We had some wind, but it wasn't anything special. No rain or anything even! Bummer, sorry for the let down! ;) Southern Maine had some flooding, but nothing remarkable here.

This week went well! We had a new person at church! His name is D. He had been dating a past member of the church who was still very friendly with the church, loved the missionaries, and wanted to get back into it. She had moved down to Florida for the summer and sadly passed away down there. D. was down there visiting her last week and had just come back when he received the news that she passed away. This week on exchange Elder Petersen (not my former comp) and I prayed that we could meet some solid people to teach. We walked out the door and the first person we met was D. He didn't respond to a hello, or a how are you doing, but when I complimented his coat, he stopped, smiled, and said thanks. I asked him where he got it, he told me, then he said he liked my talk last Sunday! I was confused because I hadn't met him, but he said he had been praying for his girlfriend and decided to stop in at church. He came late and left early so I never saw him last week. We shared Alma 40

(...the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.)

with him on the street, gave him a hug, and prayed for him. He then came to church this Sunday and had a great experience. A member knew him and they talked for half an hour after sacrament meeting, laughing and crying. I think D.'s awesome! :)

E. is doing well too, he came to all 3 hours of church for the first time! He's planning to be baptized the end of April. He read all of 1 Nephi and really learned from it! :)

We still have a long way to go, but it seems the ward really likes us, and we love them! We're getting into more of their homes to share quick messages or have dinner, which is great! :)

Thanks for all your love and support,
Elder Branch :)

Bud the dog

12 week training - 

watching The District