July 2, 2018 in Ellsworth, Maine

We have had a great week!

We got to go find!! I LOVE finding! :) Preach My Gospel says nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach. Talking to new people is a hard skill to learn, there are plenty of rude people out there. When you meet amazing people though, it’s the best! :)

We found 10 new people to teach again this week which was great. We have had a big cleaning process with those we are teaching and are starting fresh. We REALLY want to help someone get baptized in July. I had a cool train of thought this morning about faith and desires. If we really really desire something then we will try to achieve it. In the gospel sense, that is when we can see miracles. Just like how Grace works, we can’t accomplish miracles by ourselves. We do all we can, but in the end the only reason any of it is possible is because of our Lord. We have goals and plans in place to do all we can!

We had a few exchanges this week which was fun. It’s great to get to learn from and teach other missionaries. :)

We’re in a parade this week for the 4th, and President and Sister Blair will be joining us! :) That’ll be fun, who’d have thought I’d spend both of the fourths of July on my Mission with President Blair!? :)

Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Branch

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

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.