Sept. 8, 2014 Concord NC, The lease is up on their place so they'll be moving this week.

Our lease is up in the place were staying so this next week we will be moving to a new address. Please let people know :) I'm not 100% sure of the address yet but I'll let you know.

I've been hearing lots about the temple from friends. I'm soooo jealous! I miss the temple.

Your story about hiking reminded me, Elder Z had a good analogy the other day about hiking. "In hiking we always have to remember to look up. We often spend so much time looking down at the dirt and obstacles we miss the amazing views we are passing. We may make it to the end or the climax of the hike, but we missed all the other rewards along the way! It's just like life. So many times we get caught up just trying to make it past our trials and forget to have fun and enjoy things. It's important to watch out for trials, but we shouldn't spend all our time there:)" It was a really neat analogy. A good quote from Elder Nelson I heard was:
"Real joy awaits each of us on the other side of sorrow... Jesus Christ lives and is the Master Healer"

About study time, we get an hour of personal study each morning and it's my favorite part of the day! Our Mission President calls it our personal interview with the 3rd member of the Godhead.

So my week was pretty good, we met with S who we thought had dropped off the face of the earth but turns out she's actually just starting a second job at Taco Bell. (Taco Bell is the best!!!!) :D

We also met a couple of interesting guys this week. First we met one who called himself Lord Oz!! He asked us to do push-ups for him and then insulted one of my companions about his physical abilities. My companion responded "whatever" and Lord Oz said, "See, that's why I say good day. Maybe once y'all grow up we can talk."  We said thanks, asked if we could do anything  for him, and then went on to an appointment. It was pretty wild!!  Poor fella.

The other three were named D, M, and K. We were walking down the road from S's house to the library and we heard someone call "Hey!" We looked over and there was this little shack house thing and a guy was waving to us. We went in and there were three guys sitting there smoking hard core.  

D, the one who had called us, told us that they needed prayer and that we should pray with them. The one named M was saying that he didn't need prayer and M was saying he was already saved and that we don't believe in God and Jesus. D paused and asked us if we believed in God and Jesus and we told him we did. They all started talking again and D said loudly, nearly crying, "We need prayer man, we need it bad. We're going to Hell if we don't get some prayer now!" Elder Z said a prayer and a ways in they started interrupting saying "End it! Be brief! No vain repetition!" And freaking out (it wasn't vain repetition). He closed the prayer and D started thanking us while the other two started saying how it was too long. K told me he was German and saved already again. D shook our hands, asked our names for the second time, told us their names a third time, and said that Elder B looked like his son. All of a sudden he looked at me and started crying and saying "do you see this one!? There's something special about him! I don't know, but somebody's gonna be blessed by that young man today! Do ya believe me!?" Elder Z said he did and D was like " no you don't! You don't believe me do ya?" And crying more. M was like, "yeah, something about that one, the way he holds himself" and D kept talking more saying the same thing. D asked for a hug so I gave him one and he kept bawling harder. K started in too saying how it was in all 3 of us. Then they all started talking more. D shook our hands and hugged us again, told us he was a drug addict, to which M interrupted and said "No I ain't!!" We thanked them and left them then.   :)

It was da best!!! We were laughing and smiling all the way to the library.   :)

So yeah, never know what will happen, I really like the people we run into.   :)

We were able to get out with lots of members and we were able to visit less active members so it was really great!  One of the things I want to work on is asking less active members for referrals and friends that we could talk to. Another improvement I felt we made was the lessons with the members. Instead of showing a video or just reading a scripture and bearing testimony, we've been committing the members to do things. One commitment is we have them write down some names of friends, to pray for those friends each night that their hearts can be opened and that they will be interested in hearing the gospel. We've followed up with a few people and they have been praying. One final thing we want to work on is staying in better contact with people. Whether through text, Facebook, or in person, we want to check up on our investigators and really help them progress. When we don't see investigators for a couple of days to weeks, it's real easy to lose contact and have them fall away. As we get more contact with investigators, they will remember commitments, ask us their questions, and be able to progress. I'm super excited to see what is going to happen in Concord in the next couple of weeks and months!

Thanks for your emails! And the pictures! The Church is true!

Love,
Elder Branch

Btw, could you send me some of my paisley ties? Turns out they are legal :)Ooh, and plaid ties! I love plaid ties!! :) But not as much as I love you all!! ;) Thanks so much!

This was after p-day last week, after a good bout of chair soccer.  Elder Z, Elder B, and a member of the Kward named C.   :)      He's 18 and is getting ready for a mission and is so great!  He's gone with us a couple of times even though he's in K ward instead of Concord :)