June 26, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello pals!!!!

This week was really great!! We had interviews with our mission President, and in mine we started talking about missionaries in the Zone and then suddenly we were talking about raising kids and teens! Haha, it was some good advice, and I'm glad I've still got a while before I have to worry about that!!

This week was so good! S. and D. have been doing well! We currently have 6 people planning to be baptized on July 15, and I'm especially excited for S. and D.! They both came to church this week again and loved it. S. was really sick though so they left after first hour, but I though it was amazing how she came even though she was sick! Originally, she was planning to be baptized on July 1st. We haven't gotten to finish teaching her everything yet and so we were thinking about moving her date back. We thought about the 15th and about how we would talk to her about the date. We thought she has made a ton of progress, but that she would still need a little more time to learn to feel comfortable with getting baptized. When we got into the lesson I asked how she felt about that date of July 1st to get baptized. This is where things went so wrong but right! We had anticipated her saying that she wasn't quite ready, but instead she said that originally she had thought that date was scary, but now she feels like she knows it's true and that date would be great! That was so awesome!!!! But also scary cause we hadn't anticipated that for some reason!!!! Haha! :) It was really good though, we talked with her and D. about their testimonies and they both said that they feel that it is all true, that Jesus is our Savior, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that we have a Prophet on the earth today. :) We told them that we know that is true and that we just have a few more things to teach before they get baptized, so would July 15th work? They both accepted that date! We will be seeing them a lot so keep them in your prayers as we go forward!

This week we also helped a member pour cement early Saturday morning and that was pretty cool! I have never done that on a large scale before so it was awesome!!

Today is Zone P-day and we are going mini golfing (which we didn't get to do last transfer because of rain). I can't wait cause there has been a lot of heatlhy trash talk about the outcome!! ;)

I hope you all have a great week!!
Love, Elder Branch :)

June 19, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello friends!

So, this last week S. had to work at 8 on Sunday and D. at 12. Church is at 10 and we invited D. to attend with us, without S. He said he wasn't sure when we first talked about it, but as we kept talking and following up, he decided to come! It was a great experience and it was awesome to see him start to make some steps independent of S.!

I went on exchanges this week with an Elder who has only been out for a month and we had a great time! We were in a reallllllly rural part of our area and we did some cool things like: Find a turtle (sadly I don't 
have pictures :(    ), work on a farm with a family we started teaching and I got to carry milk in buckets for some calves, and use one of those old gas pumps like in old movies! We had a great exchange and even got some really good chocolate Oreo ice cream!

One funny thing I don't think I'd told you all is that at the beginning of this transfer I decided to go really healthy! I started just eating healthy cereal with almond milk, or making a smoothie with frozen fruit, yogurt, and spinach for breakfast. For lunch we also started having a sandwich or something with a big salad! It has been pretty fun to try to eat healthy on a missionary budget, but I think I've only had food out three times this last month, so that has been a win! :)


This week we rented out a movie theater to show The Other Side of Heaven for the community! I never knew I would learn so many random life skills on my mission, like how to publicize an event or rent out a theater! (If that counts as a life skill) We had a good amount of people come, and the coolest thing is that we are actually going to start teaching the owner of the theater! She had to screen the movie and really liked it, so we talked with her a bunch and are going to go visit her! :)

Life as a Zone Leader is really fun and kinda frustrating once in a while. It is so awesome to see when you teach someone something or make some change and then you get to see it impact a lot of people in good ways! On the other hand it is really hard when people won't just listen and apply what you say.

We had Elder Snow of the Seventy come this week and one of my most inspiration thoughts from the visit happened when we had a little leadership meeting before. We asked what his best leadership advice would be for us in life after the mission, and he said, "Well.. probably just show up. That is most important, as well as doing what you're asked to do. That is what makes you a great leader. Having a vision and plan is important after that, but really just showing up and doing what you're asked." How about that! Show up and do the simple things.

Sure love you all, hope you have a super week! :)

Elder Hunter Branch

June 12, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello all!

This week has been swell! We had such a great week last week getting people to church, but this week lots of stuff came up and we ended up not having anyone! :( We did start teaching six new people this week, so we still had a good week. Every week on the mission is good though. :)

Our young couple, S. & D., who live in our trailer park are doing super well! They have come to church twice now and we text them every night to remember to read scriptures. They had been doing well and reading everyday, but they weren't reading a lot, so we challenged them to read half a chapter a day, and they both accepted! They are super cool! Elder C. and I can solve Rubix cubes, and they have one, but have no clue how to solve it, so every time we go over to teach them they leave it scrambled on the counter for us! Haha   :)

We started teaching these two grandmas who are sisters, and they are awesome!! They have rough family situations so they are taking care of some of their Grandkids. We taught them about the Restoration and have read in the Book of Mormon some with them, and they like it a lot so far! They also really like music, so we listened to "A poor wayfaring man of grief" by Peter Breinholt with them.

This Saturday we have a cool event going on. We rented out the movie theater in our area (it is owned by a town and only has one room) and are showing "The other side of heaven". We have been handing out a bunch of fliers, put notices in the paper and at a bunch of public places. The branch is coming, as well as a bunch of our investigators. We aren't allowed to watch it as missionaries, but we'll go talk to people before and after.

Life is good and I'm glad to be here! :) Sure love ya all!

Elder Hunter Branch

Mission Leadership Conference

Farmington District

June 5, 2017 in Newport Maine

Hello everyone!

We have had a good week, The J. Family set their baptismal date! They all came to church, as well as one of their friends, a young couple (S & D) who we've been teaching, and a part member family who we've been working with who have a daughter working towards baptism. C., a 10 year-old who came went up and bore his testimony that God loves us! It was so good! I love how at testimony meeting it is a chance to share what we have grown to know. It shows that these people have worked to gain the knowledge they share. They can learn these things through the spirit and through repentance, which is so cool!! :)

We had a Mission Leader Conference this week which was really good, I learned a lot as always and we have a bunch to help our Zone with! Last transfer we focused on being fearless which went really well! We have a new plan for the upcoming transfer and are excited to see how it goes!

This week we have someone from the mission department coming so we will have another Mission Leader Conference! That kills our time in our area, but the Lord always makes up for lost driving time and blesses us! :)

Sure love ya!!!!!!!!
Elder Hunter Branch

ps. Maine is really really green now and it it is just awesome!! :) I love trees and plants in nature!

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