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 :)

Nov. 20, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey there!! :)

I told you last week about a man named M. who we had met and had a great first lesson with. Sadly he is no longer interested, he didn't answer calls or texts, and when we went to his house we saw him look out the peephole and then he didn't answer the door. :( We are going to drop by one more time just in case, but it is really sad to see someone who was learning and loving it then just decided to stop listening.

We had another man named K. who had the same thing happen. We went to his door at 5:30 and he shouted thru the door that he was sleeping and we should go away. His wife then called us to complain about the missionaries who were visiting and calling her husband even though he had told them to stop. (He hadn't, he gave us his number and invited us to come back. The last time we had seen him he also told us he would get us visitor passes to the gym he goes to so we could go with him. We had also only called him once.) Ya, she said he was too upset to talk on the phone so she was calling. She did say however that we could write him paper letters to contact him...
To give a little backstory, K. had told us about when he saw an alien space ship next to his apartment, and aliens on the roof, and in his room, so there might be some problems there... His wife also called our church building and left a similar message, but it was pretty funny to explain that to the bishopric! We all had a good laugh. :)

We did however get to have a great week this week! We focused a lot on our investigators who are growing this week, so that was really cool to see them more! We brought our awesome Elders Quorum President with us yesterday to see J. and it was great, it helped her a lot!! :)

Oh, another win, here in Exeter we hadn't been invited to ward council. Yesterday we were invited however because we were talking about the ward mission plan. It was a great meeting, Elder B. and I were able to help insights about several of members in the ward that the ward has been missing but who we see every week or two. Our Elder's Quorum President gave a sweet intro to the oval chart and got the ward to start that. Then, at the end of the meeting I asked our Bishop if it would be okay if the missionaries were to come back to ward council in following weeks, even if it were only for a few minutes to talk about the missionary work. He said it would be fine if we started coming for a while! We're pumped, we've got into ward council and I can't wait to start working with them to help ward members and our investigators!!

The coolest moment I had this week spiritually was when I was watching the video "Only a Stonecutter" on the gospel library. It was such a cool story and the man in it is a great example to everyone! (Mom, could you attach a link to the video? Thanks!!!!)

Video: Only a Stonecutter

When are transfers?
Transfers are the first week of Dec!

What are your Thanksgiving plans?
For Thanksgiving, we are going to the C.'s for dinner, and then the L.'s for dessert with the C.'s!! :)

Sure love you all, and have a great Thanksgiving!!!
Elder Hunter Branch 

I got this letter from one of my awesome Primary kids! 

We found this sweet bird's nest when we were out tracting. 

Nov. 14, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey Pals!

This was a good week! The weather wasn't too bad, it has been a bit warmer which was nice, like only in the 40's so sweaters worked well! We got to teach more this week which was nice! It is always the best when there are nice people who will hear you out! 

We found a really cool guy named M. this week and had a great time getting to know him! He is a hospice worker and is on the volunteer fire department! He hopes to become a full time fire fighter! He had a 12 week old kitten that came and curled up on my lap for the whole lesson and purred while I pet it, it was so cute!!! The lesson details are included in my letter to President Blair, so you can see more there!

We are also teaching a few other people, I'll tell you about one more of them today and try to keep telling you about more each week. One lady is named J., she is super nice! Her boyfriend was LDS as a kid but left home as a teenager. His brother is a bishop in Canada, and J. sees that there is something different in their lives that she wants for her family and her granddaughter who she takes care of! She has been sick recently and going thru a lot of other stuff, but hopefully we can see her more this week! She calls herself Nagy-hagy, use to work in the circus, and she brought us Mars bars from Canada a few weeks ago! :) She has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it! She has a few questions about things she has read and wants us to help her out every step of the way, and that is just what we like to do! :)

The most spiritual experience I had this week was in the lesson with Mike who I talked about and mention more in my letter to President Blair. When we were testifying that there is a prophet on the earth today, that God loves us all, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that you can test it for yourself the spirit was incredible! Mike had tears in his eyes, and so did we! :)

How was your birthday?
My birthday was so fun!!!! The day before my birthday we were serving at a senior center and one lady was asking me how old I was. I told her 18 but my birthday is tomorrow, and she just started singing happy birthday! Pretty soon everyone had joined in even though most didn't even know whose birthday it was yet, then they all were confused why my name was Elder, but they finished off the song! ;) It was super fun!
Then the I. and G. families threw a party for me which was so nice! We had pizza and cake, and talked a lot and juggled! The H.'s brought me a treat too and cards which were really nice!! :) There are some amazing people out here! :)


Letter to president:
"Hey there President Blair!

1-9 are yes's again.

Elder B. and I are doing well together, we have a great time! It was my birthday this last week and we got to have a little dinner time party for it with some members in the ward which was sweet!
We got to see the Badgers as well as Sister Blair this week at our chapel which was great, we're sorry we missed you! We hope your meetings went well.

So this week we found a really cool guy named M.! We found him while trying to visit some people who had been having the missionaries over before. We knocked their door around 7:30 or 8:00 and Mike, a 24 year old guy, answered. We explained who we were looking for and he didn't know them, but then Elder B. asked him if he would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ and how there is a prophet on the Earth today. He said that he is already Christian so... but then I said that we love to share messages with everyone, not only people who don't believe in God or Jesus! He said "Oh ok, well would you like to come on in then?" We got to talk to him for a while and got to know him, and then taught about Jesus Christ, how there are prophets and apostles on the earth today, and about how we came to know this for ourselves and how he can as well, thru reading the Book of Mormon, putting it to the test, and by praying to God to ask if it is true. He was very interested at the chance to learn more! We hope to get to see him again either today or tomorrow!

It is so cool how there's people everywhere who want to know and learn more, and how they CAN know for themselves if they take the promise of Moroni and study the book and pray.

Elder B. and I are working this week on having more effective comp studies. Comp studies often start off strong for us, but can turn into story time, so we are working on making them more focused on the work.

We hope you're doing well and have a great week!
Elder Branch"


One last story to finish it off, last week on exchanges we visited this really nice lady in our congregation who hasn't been able to come to church for a while. Anyways, so this time it was Elder C., Elder D., and me who visited her. We had a great lesson and then when we were leaving she stopped us and said to Elder D., "You're gonna be a big banker." Then to Elder C., "You're gonna go high up in the church." Then to me, "And you're gonna get home and marry a super hot wife!" When we got outside we all had a good laugh and then Elder D. asked if we could trade futures, which I kindly declined. ;)


Hope you all have a great week and I sure love ya!
Love,

Elder Hunter Branch :)  

Deb, we made it to the General's house. Didn't get to talk to him yet.  

Our District 

Downtown Exeter

Nov. 7, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

I realized last week after my emailing time was out that I hadn't sent you a copy of my letter to President like I said i would. I felt like a goof ;P   Here it is.

Hey President!
1-9 are all yes's again.

We have had a great week here in Exeter! It was an interesting week though. We only got to teach 5 people this week!! :P   We did however still have an awesome week!

This week our car was in the shop so we were on foot. We got a few rides, but mostly we tried to find people to teach in Exeter. We were planning to teach 15 people this week, but then we had tons of cancellations because our investigators we were working with are going through lots right now. So anyway, found 12 new people to teach this week! It was pretty sweet! There were times where we wished we had done better, it rained 5 of the 7 days this week and because of that we weren't as diligent as we should have on been on Friday and Saturday with getting out there with umbrellas. We did still go out, but it took us around half an hour longer to get out than it should have. We talked about it as a comp and repented and promised to be more diligent everyday.

In the Old Testament for seminary last year we learned about how to repent is translated as to change. Repentance really means change, so each time we try to align our will with Gods and try to do better we are repenting! It is cool how we can always be "repenting", always changing and trying to be more like Christ.

S.'s baptism was so great!! He was really excited, we had a good amount of people show up from the ward to support him, and the spirit was there! The next day in Sacrament meeting, after S. had been confirmed and was walking back to his seat, he stopped at the front of the chapel, raised his arms, and said really loudly "Awesome sauce!" It was pretty great, the New England accent really makes it! :)

Happy Halloween!!
Elder Branch

This weeks letter...
Ohloh?
It's hello sir.
Oh, hello?

Haha, how are you all doing?? :)

How was your week?
My week has been pretty great!! We didn't get our car back until Wednesday because parts didn't come in, so that was rough! Then yesterday our battery died so we ended up having to get a jump, then it died again, so our plans got killed for the day which was sad, but we did get a ride to go contact people in a neighborhood by the people we were having dinner with and we found a new person to teach which was nice! We didn't teach as much as we wanted because of that dead battery, but we still taught 9 people and found lots of other people to teach. We had exchanges this week on Tuesday, and so I stayed here in Exeter without a car with the two newer Elders in the Derry trio (Elder C. and Elder D. [He came out with me]), while Elder B. and our District Leader, Elder E., worked in Derry with their car. Elder E. said he wanted me to take the lead even though Elder C. has been out for 6 months, and that this would be like a "test". So that was exciting and scary, but we ended up killing it! We only had set up to teach one person for the next day, but after setting some solid plans, being diligent with calls and with working hard during the day, we were able to teach 5 more people, meet a new person to teach, get 2 referrals, give out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon, and talk to TONS of people!! It was so cool, probably one of if not the most successful day of my mission! And that was all done without a car! So that was really sweet!
We will be able to teach S. this week, we hope to help him get to the temple this month! :)

Are you finding ways to stay warm?
Haha, ya I am, I bought 2 sweaters this week so I'm surviving.

I have a great story!! So there is a thing celebrated in England called Guy Fawkes day, and we have some people from England in our ward who have a party for it! :) We also have these 2 super awesome brothers with downs syndrome in our ward named T. and M. who are like 26 and 24. They are so nice and hilarious! They can't go more than like 3 minutes without talking about football! Anyways, for Guy Fawkes day people here burn a fake Guy Fawkes for what he did trying to help assassinate King James I, and after the fire was going and "Guy Fawkes" was burning, M. just yelled out "Guy Fawkes sucks!!!" It was the funniest thing ever, everyone was just dying   :)  :)  :)

Coach Dooley will like this story!

Every Saturday morning we play basketball with some ward members and investigators, and I've been practicing a bunch every p-day too. Elder B. played for Mesa high school in Arizona, which has one of the best basketball programs in the nation, and he is pretty good. So for one game this Saturday it was Elder B., C. G. (a recently RM who is also pretty good at basketball, he played for the Junior Nuggets team back when he lived in Colorado), and Brother S., against Brother G., Brother B., and myself. We had been playing youth and skill VS old age and treachery as my dad calls it, but us young guys won 4 in a row so Brother S. and I switched. In that game though, my team won in a game to 15, and I scored 13 of my teams points!! It was crazy, hit 3 3's and had some sweet drives! It was a good day but especially that game was crazy!

I hope you're all doing great and thanks for all the birthday wishes! :)

Elder Branch

Car repairs...

Oct. 31, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire

Hey family and friends!!! :)
How was S.'s baptism?
S.'s baptism was soooo good!!! It was so fun to set up for it all and have support from the ward!

So how did you do without the car this week?
We're doing well, we walked this week and it rained 5 of the 7 days so that was kinda rough, but it was fun! ;) Our lessons got killed!! :( We were planning to teach 15, and we had 14 set up thru the week, but we had a lot of them cancel so we only got to teach like 5! :( We did pick up 2 investigators, a man who lives in our apartments who took the lessons before, and a dad whose whole family are members. We also found 10 new potentials this week thru tracking in Exeter, so it was good! :)
Did you get your Halloween package?
I did get that, thanks so much!!!!!! :) Haha, I broke the green nun chuck!!   :( 

We had a cherry tomato and decided to use the nun chuck as a bat, and when I hit it, the nun chuck broke in the middle, so now it is 2 green sticks! I still practice my ninja skills with the black one though! ;)
What went wrong with your car? 
The car had been rear ended the week before I got here, so it had to go get fixed. We should get it back tomorrow.

I hope you all have a great week and that life is great! Happy Halloween!  :)

The Exeter area with all the towns that we cover.