May 31, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

This week we had a super big blessing of referrals! I think all in all, we received 6 from church headquarters, and 3 have become new investigators! The one I feel the most confident with is a man named J. He lives out in the boonies and ordered a Bible but was also interested in the Book of Mormon. The man is pretty elect and prepared by God. He has quite smoking, drinking, and drugs. He absolutely loves going to church AND reading the actual word. :D What more could you ask for!? He committed to read the Book of Mormon and if he finds out it's true he said he would be baptized! Hooray! Pray that he will keep his commitments :)

We saw the M.'s on Monday night right before she had her eye surgery. Since then though we haven't seen them, so we will get back in contact. We gave her a blessing on Monday and that was good.

C. seems to be coming around to feeling the spirit, but their work is still keeping them from church.

Sister T. still hasn't been coming. She sleeps in or has a bad headache the morning of church but she'll get there.

D. is getting less stressed even though nothing has really changed. Thanks for praying for him and his family. We'll keep it up.

I am beginning the "My Plan" training courses this week, because I'm starting my final transfer. (What!!!??!?!?!?!?!) We had interviews this last week so that was awesome! That being said, lets get into some transfer business!!!!

So going into transfers on Tuesday, two of the four of us Elders in Statesville are staying and two are leaving - one has finished his mission and is headed home. The other, Elder P., is being transferred to Charlotte. My companion, Elder H. is taking their area with a brand new companion that he'll be training. He is super nervous, but excited. I'll have our area and will have a new companion, Elder B who's been out for 15 months. Exciting times! We all have some good people to start teaching and it sounds like we have a really good district this coming transfer.   :)

Thanks for all you do!

Love ya!
Elder Branch

The fattest tie there ever was!

May 23, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

Life is going good! We found some really good people this week through referrals and personal contacting. The M.'s are doing well, but they still haven't come to church. We are going to see them tonight in order to give P. a blessing before some eye surgery tomorrow. Brother L. was able to go and read the Book of Mormon with them which was also good. But they still need more! Please pray for them :)

Another family, the C.'s, haven't been coming to church since being baptized mostly because of their work schedule. Recently that changed though and they have been doing good at coming, and are even ready to work towards the temple! Unfortunately, Satan doesn't want that to happen, and everything crazy and bad that could happen has been. So please pray for them too, they could use the help!

D is doing okay though he hasn't been to church for 2 weeks. He hasn't lost his testimony, it's been some hard times though. He will be at church this week though, as it is Elder H.'s last week. Elder H. will be singing a solo, and during 3rd hour we will be teaching.

All in all, there are many miracles happening, and even more ready to come! Sister T. is still struggling to come to church :/ But lots of good is on the way!

Thanks for the fun emails :) I sure love ya!

Love,
Elder Branch

May 16, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

Hello Everyone!

This week was crazy busy but so fantastic in the end! C. got baptized! I think one of my favorite parts was when we saw C. hug her Mom while us Elders sang a special musical number. The confirmation went well the next day too.   :)

D. is struggling to understand the Godhead, and is pretty set on the Trinity, so her baptism is off for now. We had a really good lesson with the M.'s, then on Friday, they came to the church for a church tour, and we had a lesson in the chapel. That was a good lesson too, we were able to read Alma 32 and they are coming along. They couldn't come to church this week, but they said they could come next week!

Sister T. is doing good, and she also plans on coming to church next week! Hurray! I love it when great things happen with the people we teach!

Things are on the up and up here, and we are seeing great things from the members. They pray for missionary experiences often, and even pray for us by name. We love them!

All in all, life is great! Thanks for everything! LUVS!

Elder Branch

C.'s happy day!   :)

May 9, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

Hello everybody! 

Happy Mothers day to all, it was a blast to talk to you, family! What a fun fun time. I don't have much time today, and we talked yesterday, so I will keep it short.

Wow, what a week! I had so many tender mercy moments, from seeing Dw. be baptized to talking to our families, to having lots of friends come to church. Our area is definitely improving, and we are mostly aiming on finding more people to teach even though we have lots of other things going on. 

C. is doing well, both her and her mom came to church so she will be getting baptized this Saturday! That means we have 1 big huge awesome week ahead of us, trying to plan that and finish up the lessons, so please pray for that!!

D. is also doing well and hoping to be baptized on the 21st or 28th, but if it is later that will be ok. We cut down some trees for her this week and got poison Ivy, but we were able to shower right after and use soap and never got the rash. Hooray!!

Service has also been fun at Rescue Ranch and Yokefellows, we haven't been to 5th street in a while though.

Some of the biggest news took place Friday and Saturday. Dw., the other Elders investigator, got baptized!!!!! His family has struggled with it but he knew it was true and got baptized! Please pray for his family. At the baptism, while Elder H. and L. were doing a musical number, the piano player lost all of his sheet music in the middle of the song! Luckily I had stayed on the stand and was able to grab it. He did an amazing job keeping the song going even while I was grabbing the sheets, the Elders didn't even know he lost the music! 

After Dw.'s baptism, we were having a luncheon and a random guy was walking past the church and said he felt lead to it by the spirit! Turns out he has been less active for years, but all of his family are not members. As a result, the other Elders now have 3 new investigators! How about that!

On Sunday Dw. was able to be confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost, and should get the Priesthood this Wednesday. The Alexanders (mission president and wife) came to see that happen at Sacrament, and as a result they also saw my Mothers Day talk. That in and of itself was miraculous, considering I didn't finish writing it until Sunday morning, and our church was at 9:00am. I had literally only read through it once, and I ended up praying my way through. I prayed probably 60 times that morning that it would be personal and spiritual, and Heavenly Father did not disappoint! I cried a couple times through the talk, especially when talking about the Savior, and mom. It turned out great I was just grateful that Heavenly Father helped so much! He's great!

Anyways, that is about it for the week, but it sure was good! I love ya!

Elder Branch

May 2, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

Hello! It's a great day, cause I hear from you guys! :)

(Shorter letter this week because he wrote lots to Hunter about preparing for his mission.)

Elder H. (not the Elder H. my companion) got sick for like 3 days so we did some splits with Elder P. so that he could still get out and see their investigators. All in all, our main people we are working with are still solid and on date, and the other people are not. Only interesting new development is that D. called us crying today saying that she has been wanting the gift of the Holy Ghost super badly, and wants her baptism to come even sooner than the 28th! We are seeing her tonight, so pray that she will be able to keep all her commitments without any hiccups! Thanks again for your prayers, we sure appreciate it.

Our other friends are doing well too, a few are hoping to come back to church this coming week. We got to go see some of them this week with Brother M. He is a Pit Man for Nascar!  It was pretty fun.

Thanks again for the email! 

Love ya!
Elder Branch :)

This was at rescue ranch. 

I don't know why my face looks concerned, 

cause I actually love snakes, but oh well!