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

April 4, 2016 in Statesville, NC

Hello y'all!

Wow, we sure had a busy week! We had some really good service opportunities for a neighbor of some members. One of the members contacted us and told us that this lady had just found out she had cancer, and needed help digging tons and tons of small weed-like onions out of her garden of rose bushes and flowers. So we spent most of our week with the other elders working in her yard. She was so amazed that we would come and do that for free (well, she did buy us Cook Out and Chick-fil-A). We got to know her and the best part was we ended up watching a session of Conference with her at her house! We asked if we could come back and share a message about our church, and she accepted! It will probably be the other Elders teaching her, but it was great none-the-less! The best was at the end, when she started to tear up from the help, even though it wasn't a big deal to us. I love service, and moments like that as a missionary are the best!

Along with that, we had a couple other miracles happen too! There was a child's baptism on Sunday before conference, and afterwards a member of the Bishopric told us there were some visitors who had attended. These same visitors witnessed the baptism, it touched the heart of one named D. and she asked the Bishop how she could be baptized! We set up a time to visit them, and they were even able to stay for Sunday Morning Conference when President Monson spoke. We will be going over to teach them this week! :) It was just another testimony to me that God will lead people to us, as long as we are ready and worthy. 

We taught A. and set a baptism date for the 16th! We watched a session of Conference with his family on Sunday afternoon, and it was super fun. D., who the other Elders are teaching, came too and stayed for dinner afterwards. He is super fun! We have met him lots, and he hangs out with the other Elders. He met the Church because he was hired by the BSA and was helping our Ward's scouts get some fundraisers done, and Sister B. invited him to meet with the missionaries. He sang with the Elders when he came to church, and this weekend he sang at that child's baptism (I played the piano, it was fun). He just needs the consent of his wife to be baptized, so you could pray for him!

That's about it for this week, besides the fact that General Conference was AMAZING! I loved all the talks, but some of the particular ones were Elder Bednar, President Uchtdorf in priesthood, both of President Monson's, and of course Elder Holland wrapping it up. All of us Elders were cheering once we heard he was the last talk. D. just looked at us like we were crazy until he heard the talk. His favorite though was President Uchtdorf's from Priesthood as well. Elder H. and I were freaking out, because this was our last General Conference on our missions. Man how time flies!

Thanks for everything! Love ya! :D
Elder Branch

Pineapple

Some pipes burst as we were trying to fill the font, 

which created quite an adventure!

This is the awful pollen 

that has been causing major allergies! 

It literally looks like yellow frost over everything!

Pollen, close-up

Feb. 1, 2016 in Catawba, South Carolina A week of many funerals.

Hello!

So this was a very interesting week. We were able to see some good blessings this week and found a couple people who seem pretty interested! We decided to go and tract a couple streets that I hadn't been on before and on one of them we had like 0 success, besides a conversation with a elderly fella who talked about how birds are racist because they segregate between the different species. 

Then as we were walking along a big main road knocking a couple doors along there. We knocked on this one house and right after knocking we looked up and there was this wild looking devil head above the door with 666 on its forehead. We looked around the yard and there were a bunch of other demon-angel things, and the house was all black and stuff. It was super creepy! Fortunately no one opened the door.

The very next house was a family who had tons of scriptures and things all over their porch and the father came out of the house, told us his whole experience of being saved, and then tried to save us, despite our assurances that we had already accepted Jesus as our personal lord and savior. So he talked with us for about 20 minutes and then we were late to dinner.

The next day though, just one road down from all those interesting experiences, we found like the best road. Everyone was just homies with us, and 2 different families said we could come back this next week! Even the people who weren't interested were super chill, and would offer us water or refer us to everyone else on the street. So that was a plus.

I guess the other main focus of the week was funerals. The members say that in this area, people always pass away in waves. Well, the next wave just happened, and we have had 3 funerals in the past 4 days (and possibly 2 more coming up).

The first was for the Assistant Chief in the Catawba Tribe, and while he wasn't a member, they did the funeral at the church because he was buried in the graveyard behind it. The current chief offered the prayer and in the prayer he said something like "We come before thee with much sorrow and rejoicing, which we know is a contradiction, but it is because of the sorrow of loosing W. and the rejoicing that we were able to know him." After he spoke, they played a Blake Shelton song called God Gave Me You over a CD player. Then a member in the Rock Hill Ward talked about Jesus and the Plan of Salvation which brought the spirit. A lady sang Amazing Grace for the closing song then everyone headed outside and they had some Indian drumming as well as a 21 gun salute for him.

The second funeral came the next day and was much more spiritual. I think they had her cremated because there was no burial. Brother B. sang Amazing Grace at this one and it was nice.

The third was today, and it was for Brother B. He was the only one of the 3 that I knew, he had been super healthy just a month ago and gave us tons of rides to Charlotte and all over. His service was probably my favorite. There were lots of good stories shared, as well as strong testimonies born of the Plan of Salvation. Once again, a lady sang Amazing Grace. 

At the funerals, we had several people come up and tell us to come by, and lots of other people were in the church feeling the spirit, so we are hopeful some good will come.

We are seeing blessings as we continue to work forward through trials.

Thanks for your prayers, love y'all!

Love, Elder Branch

Nov. 2, 2015 in Catawba, South Carolina

Hello :)

So this week was absolutely killer crazy fantastic wild! We were super busy almost all the time (except for Tuesday), and we saw lots of good stuff. For the most part, this week was super rainy due to the other hurricane that apparently came close to land, so we bundled up and went a-walking. 

Monday: Had p-day and went to that citizens building we sent pictures of last week. We also stopped by a little farmers-markety kinda store except it was in downtown and bought delicious chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered toffee. Then on the way out I was stopped in my tracks by a glass bottle cheerwine soft drink that screamed in my face "buy me!" It was so annoying that I decided to appease him and bought him. Then just to show him who was boss, I drank him. He was delicious.

After p-day, we went and taught some investigators named A___ and A___. It went well except A___ is being kinda stubborn. He says he wants to know the church is true because it would be fantastic if was, but he won't do anything! He openly admits that it is cause he is lazy and church is boring, and it is driving us nuts. We are just trying to help him understand that if he wants to know, he has to do it.

Tuesday: As mentioned above, we didn't have much going on Tuesday. So we went out and tried to contact lots of potential investigators. We saw like 1 person briefly, but at least we tried. It was super wet and kinda cold, and as we were standing on the side of the street, a truck hit a huge puddle and splashed us. But it was funny for the most part, and we laughed about it.

Our dinner was good though, the family (who actually live in a different ward but are assigned to help out in Catawba) took us to a local deli style restaurant and it was delicious. The man's mother came as well, and she is Pentecostal, and we had a fun little discussion about Christ washing the Apostle's feet, the 3 kingdoms, and corrupt preachers. That night, we went out with our Bishop and visited the A___ family and had a super good visit with them! We are going to start giving them the missionary lessons.

Wednesday: We had district meeting, and then taught a couple people with members. We taught M___ and reviewed the baptismal interview questions with her. She is coming along, but there are still some things she isn't sure about. Unfortunately, she is having some health issues, so we can't see her again until Wednesday. It was a good day in all, and I got to go out with a fun member at night on some visits and he told me all about Stalin (the Russian general guy).

Thursday: Absolutely rushed crazy day! We had 3 member present lessons, 1 recent convert lesson, 1-2 other lessons, and no time left for weekly planning. One of the other lessons was with a lady we met out in Van Wyck, and as we were teaching, her 2 teenage daughters showed up with their friend and we talked with all of them. We are going back by in a week and a half. That night, we had a lesson with a woman named R___ who actually lives just down the hall from us in our apartment building. She loves to go on vacations, so we talked lots about the west. She is the most solid person ever though! We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she loved it. She has been reading the Book of Mormon, and in the closing prayer said she is excited to be baptized! The only hold up is that she works on Sundays, but she is talking to her boss this week about coming in for the night shift so that she can attend church. She's the best! Please pray that it will work out and she is able to come to church :)

Friday: We weekly planned, and at night we got to go to the ward Halloween party/chili cook off. They asked us to be the judges, so this is the 2nd official chili cook off I have judged this year. The Catawba's know how to cook, and I liked this one a lot! Judging was hard, but the one chili that won had super delicious smoked pork in with the beans and everything. Turns out the member had stayed up until 2:30 the night before smoking it, so we were glad we had chosen him ;) Then all the kids went around the church building and trick or treated, and Elder B___ and I got to hand out candy at our door. I kept asking the kids to do a trick instead of a treat, but none of them would, so I took it upon myself to do the tricking for them by juggling the candy and then tossing it into the kids buckets. "Consider yourself tricked, kids!" It was a good time.

Saturday: Halloween! Wasn't much different from any other day, except that we had to go in at 6:00 so that we didn't get mugged or framed for any Halloween mischievousness. We got to borrow some board games from some members though, so it was fun.

Before our curfew though, we were able to teach like 4 people, including a members friend who lives down in Lexington, SC. He had already been taught before, knows the church is true, and has even stopped smoking, so he will get to be baptized soon we assume. He was great! We also got to see some other friends. One of the people we ran into I had actually met before over in Rock Hill! So there is a member family in Rock Hill named the Y___'s who have a daughter who lives in Catawba with her husband. When I was in Rock Hill we got to help the Y___'s move their mother in law/grandma into the Y___'s house, and this family was there too. Anyways, I realized just a couple minutes into talking with this man, that he had been there and that we moved a 500 pound gun safe together. This obviously made us homies so he said we could text them and come by sometime. It was funny.

Sunday: Went as follows: Church (my favorite thing!), choir practice (my favorite thing!), walking to an investigators house in the rain (my favorite thing!), eating dinner (my favorite thing!), and then taking R___ to a fireside in Charlotte done by President Alexander (my favorite thing!). It was a super good fireside too, and helped R___ lots.

This was my favorite part - President Alexander gave us an assignment.

He asked us to write a book about ancient Tibet, we can't be older than 23, and can only have taken 3 years of formal schooling. We aren't allowed extra research. It must be 3,000+ words and we can only use 1 unpaid scribe to write it all. We must describe 2 main groups of people, and cover their religion, their politics, their geography, their economy, their monetary system, and everything else about their society. It must include 50 war chapters, 20 historical, 70 doctrinal, 50 with visions, and 20 chapters about Jesus Christ and his personal ministry among the people. We have to make up 280 completely new names. It should include allegories, parables, poetry, and it has to sound like it has been translated from another language. We have to use about 24 different writing styles spread logically throughout the book, as if multiple people wrote it. Archaeology research for the next 180 years must support this book. We have to have 3 witnesses who are respectable people in the community claim that they saw an angel with the book, and they can never deny that which they said. It must include a promise that if anyone reads it and asks God in faith, they will receive a witness that it is true, and it will change their lives for the better. Millions have to try this promise and receive an answer. We have to watch our followers be persecuted and killed. We will be persecuted (just like Jesus), and at age 38 must willingly give our own life to protect our testimonies and this book. You have 65 days to write, good luck..

Yup, pretty obvious that it is true. And the best part is that I have felt that spirit too, and know it is true. 

One other thing happened on Sunday. One of the members of the Church was the chief of the Catawban Tribe for 30 years. He gave me an official Catawban Indian name this week, it's "red woodpecker." Pretty cool to get an Indian name!

Anyways, so that was the week for the most part, honestly it may have been the busiest week on my mission, or at least close to it. I am excited for whatever comes this next week! 

This week I have decided to ponderize Shiblon, in Alma 38:2-3. And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end. I say unto you, my son, that I have had great joy in thee already, because of thy faithfulness and thy diligence, and thy patience and thy long-suffering among the people of the Zoramites.

I love this chapter, and am super excited to ponderize it! Anyways, thanks for all the stories! I sure love you, y'all are the best!

Love,

Elder Red Woodpecker Branch

There is a cemetery behind the church building.

Halloween at the C___'s home.

Oct. 19, 2016 in Greensboro, NC Transfer news....

Hello!!

Wow, this last week was crazy! We weren't able to meet with E___, but we made plans with the S___'s to have dinner with them and E___'s whole family in a couple weeks. We were also able to go and visit another family named the K___'s, and their son E___  who is pretty nice and we are hoping to teach him in the future.
 

On Tuesday we had a mission conference with Elder Kopishke of the 70 that was super legit and revelatory! He talked lots about receiving personal revelation and acting on promptings. He talked about how in Doctrine and Covenants 82: 3-4, it says that when we receive revelation, but then break or don't follow it, we are 'condemned'. To explain, he took a piece of paper and put it on the floor and asked how thick it was. Apparently, according to one Elder, it is 7 one thousandths of an inch thick (not very thick). He stood on that piece of paper and said  "if this is all the light we have, and we are condemned, we only fall 0.007 inches. But if we were standing on the podium, and were condemned, we would have a whole lot further to fall!" So then we talked about ways to use revelation and to avoid being condemned. It was good stuff!

My favorite quote came from Sister Alexander, who said "every little effort you make on your mission is counted, and is not wasted." Another plus of the meeting is that I got to hear about  J___ from some sisters who had served their recently! Man, I love that guy!

Our Relief Society President told us that there was a Sister they had been writing letters to, and just this last week she emailed back and said she would like to meet with the missionaries! It was a tender mercy because we had tried hard all week to see some good things, but lots of plans fell through. It strengthened my testimony of the things President and Sister Alexander talked about at mission tour. I know that when we do all we can, no small effort is wasted.

P___ loved church, and she came again this week! Later in the week, we got to go out with our Bishop on some visits to Brother R___ and to P___.  She said going to church had really helped her throughout the week.   :D   She is the best. I'll send a picture of her either today or next week. Brother R___ also is doing well. He just has it so rough. He says he is getting better slowly but surely, and he does eventually hope to get back to church, but he has never been to this building without his wife. I feel so deeply for him too, and I'm going to miss him.

Speaking of missing people, I am getting transferred this Tuesday. I will miss the people here.

Now, not to be nostalgic or sappy or anything, but I was thinking about missions last week, and I came up with this summation. Missions can be stupid-hard sometimes when nothing is going on, and they are way challenging, but it is so worth it whenever you are able to actually teach someone. You get all excited and happy and it's just the greatest feeling ever. Haha, and I can't wait to find more of that wherever I go next!

Thanks for all you do! You're the bestestest!

Elder TooBlessedToBeStressed Branch

SO I don't know if y'all heard about experiences of children seeing 2 angels holding up President Monson at conference, but there were 2 kids in our ward, both with autism, who saw them too! This is one of the pictures they drew the night of conference. Pretty neat!

 

Training

A few of the awesome people I'll miss in Greensboro

Oct. 5, 2015 in Greensboro, NC

Hello friends!

Wow, I'm not quite sure what really happened this week, it just kind of disappeared in a flurry of inviting tons of people to conference, and lots and lots of gray skies, rain, no flooding here just a strange, pretty, weird kind of misty shower thing that happens 24/7. It's been really good for our hair though!

We didn't end up getting any one to the church, but we did have a couple different friends who watched it, and we are following up with other friends to see if they watched it on their own. Probably the funniest story was about P___.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon and working on coming back, but she is still nervous to attend with 60 bazillion members there she doesn't know . So we figured that general conference would be perfect because she will be in the church but without the scary crowds! We invited her and she said she would come Saturday morning if she was feeling good. So anyways, we show up, and no P___. So we were kind of bummed, but then Elder B___, a missionary in a different zone, called and asked if we had a P___ in our ward. Turns out she just went to the wrong building!

So conference was absolutely brilliant! I have too many notes and thoughts to share, so I will just share my main part. So I went in to conference with a specific question of "What should I specifically do to improve myself the most currently?" The answer I received during all of Saturday was, "pray and trust the answer you get by the Holy Ghost, it is personal and it is accurate." So I prayed and decided to work on virtue, and just keeping my thoughts totally centered on the work. I asked on Sunday, "What can I do to help direct my thoughts?" My answer came clear as day in talk all about "ponderizing." It was a great testimony of the inspiration and revelation that goes into general conference, and I am excited to start ponderizing all kinds of great thoughts and scriptures!

This week I choose Mosiah 4:30, which says "this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." Kind of intimidating, but I am excited for the revelation that is going to come! I also loved the testimonies of the 3 new apostles, and I loved how cheerful President Monson always was, despite his obvious health issues. Elder Bednar's talk was absolutely amazing! Elder Holland's was fantastic! And Dieter F. Uchtdorf was absolutely brilliant every single time he spoke (like all 26 of them, ok, maybe just 4).

I'm so glad y'all like the birthday gifts, I was excited for this one! I forgot to put the dog recorder in it, so just imagine me singing happy birthday to you both super, super fast :)

Love,

Elder Branch
Elder TooBlessedToBeStressed Branch