April 11, 2016 in Statesville, NC

Howdy!!Our area is going well but we figured out our apartment had mold. 

Adding to the apartment horror stories that are the last 6 months of my mission, on Tuesday, Elder H. and I were on exchange. As we were going to bed (Aka: talking for like 3 hours, and then sleeping), Elder H. asked what was up with our windows. Previous missionaries had put up these foam boards with tarps covering them to cover the windows so that no light came in.

Anyways, he took a look behind the tarps, and lo and behold, black mold everywhere. The worst window was the one that is right next to my head when I was sleeping, which was a big cause of allergies and sickness that has plagued us this whole transfer. So that being said, we actually felt pretty accomplished that we were able to still teach quite a few people while also cleansing our apartment. Hooray! Miracles!

This area has so much potential, I can feel it. We had a great lesson with a new couple this last week named the P.'s and it was a good faith builder. Their first names are D. and D. We had received a Book of Mormon referral for her back at the beginning of this transfer (over a month ago), and had tried calling the phone number a couple times and never got in touch. We had their street they lived on, but not the actual address. One day we went to the street, prayed that we could find them, and then went out to knock. We didn't have very long, but we were given a huge tender mercy, because the very first door we knocked on, he opened. We talked a bit, and he took our number so he could add it to his phone contacts, and then informed us that her nephew in Mooresville was a recent convert. The next week, we got in contact with him, and had been trying to discuss when/how we could see them, as we still hadn't had an answer from the phone. Yesterday we went by and knocked on the door. They were both home this time, and they invited us in! We got along with them super well, and had a great Restoration lesson. At the end, we were able to invite them to be baptized and they accepted once they come to know it is true :) So we are going back this Wednesday, and are pretty excited. Please focus prayers on them! They are miracles for this area.

Every appointment we had with D. and J. fell through this week, so we will be meeting with them next week. She still wants to get baptized, so we will work on it. They are pretty hilarious and nicknamed Elder H. "grinny" this week, because I was already nicknamed "smiley". Elder E. is named "Poindexter," and D. doesn't recognize who we are if we go by any other name... It's interesting but fun.

Sister B. came to church Sunday but her daughter didn't. Bishop has good feelings that they will eventually come around. Please pray for them too. Thanks

Oh, One other fun story. On Saturday, our entire Zone got together to help with a Just Serve project in Morganton. It was actually a project sponsored by a group called KaBoom, and they go around and make playgrounds for kids. They use a hashtag, #playmatters. Anyways, 300 people put together an entire playground in 1 day! Starting at the dirt, and building the park, wood chipping it, and doing other projects like a stage with benches and an outdoor exercise cement pad thingy. It was intense, and lots of fun :D I will send some pictures of that too.

Love you all,
Elder Branch

At the beginning they had us all dance to warm up. 

I'm just left of the man in red pants. 

There were 4-6 inches of wood chips covering the whole ground. 

This is nearing completion. 

Elder G. is smack in the center 

with his back turned, right by the cement wheelbarrow. 

There are 8-10 missionaries in this picture.

The total project was 5.5 hours long. It was great! :D

Feb. 29, 2016 Last week in Catawba, South Carolina with Elder P.

Hello!

We had a great last week, with some good finding. That was really our focus as we didn't want to leave the area with transfers with few investigators. We were lead by the spirit for sure, and found some prepared people. I feel really good about my time in this area, it has been a great learning experience.

We found a couple new solid people this week that we are excited for!! We also got a referral from a member in Waxhaw. He is a pilot and knew these members back in Oregon before they came here as well. He has a copy of the Book of Mormon already and has been reading it pretty consistently apparently. 

Along with our finding success, I wanted to share how we found a couple people. We went to a street that we had wanted to try for a while, and the first 2 people we talked to totally accepted us back! One of them was friends with members for years and years, and when we talked to her she said she already had a Book of Mormon. She said we could come back this weekend too. The very next house we went to, we shared the Restoration with the lady who answered and she was also super interested, especially how the Restoration described why there are so many denominations. It was great fun :)

So as far as transfers, I am getting transferred. Elder Oaks cancelled transfer meetings worldwide, and as a result we get our transfer information earlier. That means I already know that I will be going to Statesville, NC in the Hickory Zone! Even better is that Elder L. got transferred to Hickory as a zone leader!! So we will be partying on. My companion will be Elder E., he came out with Elder P. and sounds pretty funny. Elder P. will be getting Elder N., who came out with me! It will be super fun.

That is about all I have time for, its been crazy trying to say bye to everyone so we are heading out.

Thanks for all you do!
Love you!
Elder Branch

Elder H., one of my favorite Elders who goes home this transfer. 

Zone Conference

Feb. 16, 2016 in Catawba by way of Fort Mill, South Carolina

Howdy all!

Darn Bed Bugs! At least we are safe here in Fort Mill. The adventures have continued to pile up, some good and some bad. But first, an update with our investigators:

B. has kind of dropped us, he still has committed to read and pray but it is less and less likely it seems that he will come to church :( We are just praying that he will have some new spark of interest or insight.

The C.'s are doing great though! We went back and had a Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson on Wednesday with Brother R. and it was super solid! We reviewed the whole gospel using verses from 2 Nephi 31 and at the end invited her to baptism again. She still wouldn't accept a date, and said it will still take lots more thinking and praying, but at least she is moving on the right track, and she likes everything she is learning. She is reading the Book of Mormon and really enjoying it a lot!

Pastor C. is hopefully going to be able to meet this next week. We are super excited for that!

We also have a new man named R. that we will be hopefully teaching at the church this coming week (we think), and he may have some real potential if he doesn't end up moving!

So our main miracle this week was our finding! We were so blessed this week to find a whole 5 new people! A bunch of them were all on Friday. We went out to this one street that we have had planned for a while, and literally 3 of the first 5 people we talked to accepted return appointments. On one of the doors, we noticed as we were walking up that they had a no trespassing sign. We trespassed anyways, and as we got to the door, we noticed that the house had like 3 big padlocks and a couple of chains on the other side so it couldn't get kicked in or anything. We knocked and heard some footsteps. I honestly thought we might get someone answering with a gun, but it was actually a 50 year-old woman who introduced herself as T. We started talking with her and she was way open!! Elder P. shared a fantastic brief Restoration message, and she started asking questions about the Prophet. She told us that she has had a rough life and that she had a testimony of God but doesn't understand why there are so many churches. The best part of the whole thing was she started committing herself to do everything! She was like "So if you could schedule me for 45 minutes next Friday, I would love to read this pamphlet and we could discuss it. I'll read this and write down my questions on a piece of paper.." It was amazing! I am super excited for her, she is so great :)

R. is doing swell, she had her temple recommend interview for baptisms this last Sunday! She is also a Bronco's fan, so we were happy about the super bowl. We are seeing her tonight.

Anyways, that's about it for the week. Life is good here. My foot is feeling better. Living with Elder W. and S. is pretty fun. Living with 4 Elders is always a wild experience, but we are getting along and working hard. We got the pizza from Sister P. and it was delicious! Thanks lots Sister P.! I also got the package and it was super fun!

I sure love y'all!
Elder Branch

Jan. 4, 2016 Happy New Years from Catawba, South Carolina

This last week we sure worked hard! It was a week of many meetings. The meetings were very inspiring, and I am so excited for where the mission is heading. There were like 2 training meetings, and when you add weekly planning and 12 week training for Elder P___ on top of that you end up with plenty of stuff to do and not much time to do it! It was a better week than the past few though, we weren't as "bugged" by the bed bugs, they have seemed to stay in our room and ever since we killed 14 in one day, the numbers of them have seemed to go down. We have only killed like 5 or 6 since. I keep telling Elder P___ that its really just survival of the fittest, and that we are only killing the dumb, slow bed bugs while all of the fast, smart, vicious ones are hiding as they combine their efforts to breed a massive bed bug army that will completely overwhelm and surprise us in our sleep, sucking us dry and leaving nothing but a fragile empty husk of us left. It's not a very pleasant image.. I hope the exterminators come soon...

So anyways, R___ is doing well. We are doing family history tonight with her, which is super exciting!

We had lots of other appointments set up for this week, but after loads of cancellations we spent most of our time finding. We were rewarded for our diligent efforts with 0 new investigators and the knowledge that we have loads more patience than we thought we did! We did meet one kinda eccentric guy named M___ M___ who told us he was looking for a church! We also had a lesson with our favorite Pastor R___ C___, and it was one of the most intense Restoration lessons ever!! We are like in the middle of the first principle, God is Our Loving Heavenly Father, and I mentioned we are his spirit children. Next thing you know, we are being asked what our thoughts are on the triumvecta (probably not spelled right), and why we believe God has a body. We were able to kinda answer (kinda), but told him we didn't really know and that we would study on it. 5 days of studying later and I still don't really know what the triumvecta even is (or why it is important) and the best I can come up with for God having a body is if Joseph Smith is a prophet, then we have to trust him and the translations/revelations he received (in other words, pray about it). So yeah, the rest of the lesson was pretty good, and more deep and funny and interactive and random and yet still powerful than any I have ever had. Elder P___ did a great job answering lots of the questions, and in the end Pastor C said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon! That night a member showed us a neat video of a Baptist Preacher being interviewed about the Book of Mormon, and how he actually really likes it, and so we sent that to R___ and asked about how his church went. He said "Hey Elder, Church was awesome on SUNDAY. We had a great time! Thanks so much for asking. Looking forward to getting into my Nephi this week!!!" So yeah, he is lots of fun :)

For this next week, my ponderize scripture is Doctrine and Covenants 33:9-11 to help raise my faith that there are more people ready here to hear God's message, despite the tough weeks we have been having. I believe there are, and we are just doing our best to find where they are at.

I sure love all of you! Fight the fight, keep the faith! God IS your LOVING Heavenly Father!!! :)

Happy P-daay! 

Love, 

Elder Branch

So this was funny. We tried knocking on a trailer over behind this house, and no one answered. We thought we had seen someone inside but it was pretty quiet. We went over and took some pictures next to the house, and all of a sudden a man came out of the trailer. I guess he was freaked out that we were taking pictures of the place, but he turned out to be very nice. We shared the Restoration and he wasn't interested, but we were laughing afterwards that we had found the secret way to get to talk to people. If they don't answer, just start taking pictures and they will come! Haha, anyways, hope you have a great week!

Dec. 14, 2015 in Catawba, South Carolina with a new companion, Elder P___

Hello!

R___'s baptismal interview was perfect! She is getting super excited, she told us more about an experience she had where she was driving to work and thinking about the church and the Christmas devotional and how much she likes how it all runs. She said the thought just came in her mind: "It's because it's true." She got the warm feelings of the spirit, and realized what happened. She said she spent the rest of the day thinking about it. We went by last night and set up all the arrangements for the baptism. She asked me to baptize her, and lots of other members to do the other parts. It is so exciting! :D Just pray that she will be protected through this last week and then into her new convert stage! :)

To answer your questions about Christmas, we get the packages on the 22nd at a Mission Christmas party thing they are doing. I am in charge of putting together a musical number for our zone for the party too, so that will be fun. There is a specific version of the song "I heard the Bells" that our ward choir has done a couple times that I'm thinking we will try. If you could maybe find a copy of that online or something, and email it to me, that would be amazing! Thanks. Speaking of Musical numbers, this week we had our stake nativity festival and all the missionaries in the zone sang on the closing night. Lo and behold, I got made the conductor, and fortunately I was inspired I guess to make some copies of the music. It worked out, otherwise I would have nothing to go off of! As it turned out, my inspiration wasn't all the way perfect, as I only brought 2 out of the 4 songs, so I ended up conducting 2 of the songs with no music! It was very very intense, but once again the
spirit had helped by having Elder B___ and I practice the songs on the piano with me singing while he was still here, because we had thought that he was going to be the pianist. Once he got transferred, a member in one of the wards took over the piano, but the practices we had done stayed in my head well enough for me to conduct the whole thing, including the breaks in the music, the timing, and everything. Twas super exciting! We are sure there were angels singing with us missionaries, cause it sounded way too good for it to have just been us. ("us" meaning 20 or so missionaries with very little musical practice and only 20 minutes of total practice before.)

So besides the musical number and R___ being fantastic, our week also consisted of District meeting, interviews with President Alexander, transfers, 17 lessons, me trying to figure out how to train someone, the ward Christmas party and miracles! I will expound on a couple of these.

District Meeting:
I gave a training on helping investigators make and keep commitments. My favorite part was a story I heard from Elder B___. At the end of my training I brought out a little bucket of rocks I had picked up and cleaned, and handed it around, letting everyone pick one. I then told a story about how when Elder B___ was in the MTC, they were in a class and their teacher told them about how we invite people to be baptized at the first lesson. All the missionaries were like "That's too soon!" "That would scare them!" etc. etc. The teacher looked at them, and then said "Elders and Sisters, follow me." She took them outside and told them to find a rock. They all found rocks and brought them back. Then their teacher said "Elder and Sisters, look at these rocks you found. I invite you to be a "little boulder"! ("little bolder"). Haha, so I shared that story and they all laughed. So yeah, district meeting was fun. I love the district we have right now, it is such a fun group!

Transfers:
Elder P___ is from Twin Falls, Idaho, but has also lived in Utah, Colorado, and Wisconsin. He likes all the trees out here lots :) He liked to wrestle back home, as well as mountain bike, camp, and fish. He has 6 siblings, including an older brother who is almost done with his mission, and a twin who is putting in his papers soon. He has a great attitude towards the work, and is always excited to go out and work. Bad news though - he got hit on his bike on our way to go play laser tag. Fortunately they just hit the bike and not enough to damage it. He didn't even fall off (There's where the mountain bike skills come in). But he is okay, and we still had a super fun and intense laser tag battle) ((Elder P___ beat me, but it was close!)) but yeah, what a good first p-day for Elder P___!

Interviews:
Probably one of the best interviews I've had! It was like 2 days after transfers, and I was kinda feeling overwhelmed with how I am apparently supposed to be perfect so I don't mess up my trainees mission and life. President was super positive and encouraging, and it was super good to know that he trusts me. Like I told him, it hasn't been me, the Lord has just been blessing us with so much good stuff right now! He added, "Keep remembering that, but also remember that you are placing yourself in positions to receive his help. Keep doing that, and you are going to be one of the Elders to help lift our mission." So yeah, hooray for good interviews! :)

Miracles!
The C___'s are asking questions and looking for more answers again! So pray for her to feel confidence and to find answers to her questions. Other miracle, we met a man named B___ this last week who has an incredible story! I won't go into too many details, he has told us pretty wild stuff, but essentially about 8 months ago he was in prison. He read the bible, changed his ways, and has been a youth minister for the last few months. He was just switching churches when we met him, and showed him A Savior is Born. We got to go back a couple days later, teach the Restoration, answer some questions, and we are going back by to read the beginning of the Book of Mormon with him today.

So that about sums up my week. Once again, crazy, but super good. Thank heavens for that! I am sorry that y'all are so busy and trials, it's almost like my blessings have stole yours, but I pray things will work out for all y'alls good too!

Happy P-daay! From Elder Branch

Handshake video with Elder P___

July 27, 2015 in Greensboro, NC

Hey there!

Yeah, so with the new trainings and such, we are given the option to make Blogs! I decided to give it a try, it always seemed fun!   :)      It's called "A Branch in Israel" - here's the link.  

A Branch in Israel  

We were able to get P.'s phone number this week so we are meeting with her next week :) we also saw some crazy wonderful miracles this week that we are so excited about! We were really blessed to be led to prepared people all week, I will highlight a couple.

So on Wednesday we were over near a friends place and talked with her for a bit. Then we started walking around the apartment complex and there was a woman out on her porch on the second story, so we started talking with her. Her name was W., and she was great! She has just started getting into a church here, it took her a while to find one, and she is interested in the Book of Mormon and learning more. Then on Thursday we got a referral for a woman named J. who the Lakefield Sisters met! She said she wants to be baptized and we get to go teach her today with a member couple!! She actually lives in our complex, how about that. We met another man named H. who lives in our complex and has lots of questions about the Restoration and how to receive spiritual answers.

On Friday we met S. while trying to contact a girl named A. She said she had been up almost all night "thinking." We asked why and she said it was about family troubles. We testified of our message and she is super super interested! We are going back on Tuesday night when we are on splits. She is 21 and said she wants to make her way back to God. It's always a good sign when people say "will you really show up?? Good!"

So last night, we were out trying to find just a couple more people this week, and we were in some apartments we hadn't been in before. We saw a lady down at the end of the street sitting outside with a dog. We went and talked with her, but normally all situations like that (a person, outside with a dog, watches us walk up) usually don't go well. But she was super nice and we had a great conversation! It was totally lead by the Spirit!! We gave her a restoration pamphlet after talking for quite a bit, and as we explained it she got really interested, so we are following up with her and her husband on Friday. :)

Interviews with President were super! He likes Elder G. and I, and we are hoping we may stay together again.

Thanks for all the stories and the prayers! Good things are happening! We love ya!! :)

Love, Elder Branch

Elder TooBlessedToBeStressed Branch

Oh also, a CTR class from home sent me letters. They are great!! I'm definitely hanging them on my wall of inspiration.

May 26, 2015 in Greensboro, NC

Hello :)

P-day is today due to yesterday we had a "day of finding." It was a rather humbling experience, because the past week we have had quite good success talking with people and at least getting their address or phone number so we could come by. When that happens though, it is tough not to get prideful in how well it seems to be going. Even though I knew in my mind that pride was dangerous, it still must have slipped in, and we were really struggling yesterday because of it. It just seemed like no one wanted to talk and we weren't seeing much success. I said a silent prayer asking for forgiveness and help. The very next friend we dropped by, named A., talked with us and it all just went so smoothly as we felt the Spirit guiding us. We made an appointment for in 2 weeks, which was better than not at all! Then as we rode away from his house, Elder G. and I each felt impressed to stop and talk to this man by his truck full of yard care equipment. We talked with him about his business (yard work), and also his family and church, and once again we were lead to start talking about the Book of Mormon and what it is, and he accepted a copy! He said "usually I'm not always comfortable accepting things like this, but I feel ok with this one. After all, it seems to be all about Christ from what you explained." It was great!! So pray for N. that he will read and feel the spirit :) It was once again a testimony builder of prayer and of God's willingness to help us know how to share the gospel as we humble ourselves and let Him lead.  :)

Our teaching appointments were great this week, Elder G. and I are learning all kinds of new things as we go and things just keep looking better and better. Specifically we would like you to pray for J. He is a friend the Sisters met 9 months ago, but they were transferred and lost contact with him. We were at his apartment complex visiting other friends and decided to give J. a try and so we knocked. He came right out of the door and started talking about how he had met the Sisters and how he just had so many questions about religion because of all the different denominations, that the only thing he knew to be true is that there is a God. We set up an appointment for that Saturday, and asked C. to join us. We went to the appointment and J. was so excited. He said he didn't think we would come back, but when we did it really made him feel special. We had a wonderful Restoration lesson and he wants to be baptized!! He hasn't been baptized before and he really understood the importance of Priesthood Authority. It was great!! He wasn't able to come to church this last week, and we can't reach him by phone so we are going by tonight, so please pray that he will continue to learn and feel the Spirit!

To answer some of your questions:

We usually get the car 2 out of 3 weeks (tri-share), but the sisters in the S. ward are both leaving so we gave it to them for an extra week so they could visit members and such. We have been on bikes the past 2 weeks but we will get the car today from the G. Elders ;)

  

-Our ward is pretty small, but the people are all really nice and willing to help us.   :)

-Our area has tons and tons of apartment complex's which is tough because in the past, people kick us out and threaten to arrest us. Fortunately, most of the people here are still pretty nice even when we knock on their doors or when they aren't interested. They will still at least talk to us and sometimes give us water :)

Hey, we showed the Mormon Message "My Brother Hyrum" to a woman who teaches the special needs kids at her school, and she loved it! The pictures of Hyrum's baptism really added to the story! So if you hear from them, tell them thanks for the great video, it is a wonderful, wonderful, message to share!  :) I hope all is well always! Sure love y'all! :)

Elder Branch :)

PS: I've picked up sir and ma'am the past 2 weeks. They come totally natural now. Dad will be excited ;)

May 20, 2015 Transferred to Greensboro, NC with Elder G.

Transfers were quite exciting, and I'm glad to be with Elder G. here in Summerfield. The work here is progressing well and we have seen quite a few sweet serendipities this week. When I got in the area Tuesday, there wasn't much going on investigator-wise, but we were able to plan and work together well throughout the rest of the week and were blessed to see so many people open up to us. We found 2 new people to teach, and a number of other people that we are hoping to set appointments with. It's been great. As of right now, we have 10 lessons already scheduled for the next 3 days, and we have members to come with us to every single one! It is so exciting! The Lord has been so good to us.

When we have been contacting people, it's been really interesting to see their attitude throughout the conversation as we ask questions as lead by the spirit. We get the opportunity to watch their hearts soften right in front of us. It's a great privilege to witness those experiences.

One person we met this week was named M. We knocked on her door one night and she came out and started talking with us. She feels there is too much arguing between different denominations and she doesn't understand why there are so many. It led us into a discussion about the Great Apostasy and how so many churches were formed, but how through the Restoration, Christ's church was brought back. Then I felt impressed to add "and it's not so much about the denomination, but it is really about strengthening our relationship with and faith in Jesus Christ." Then she started asking more questions. At one point her boyfriend came out to tell her to come back in but she shushed him and told him that she was talking with us, so he headed back inside. At the end, she asked for a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet. It was great to feel the spirit lead our words,  And it wasn't just with her that that happened, we probably saw the same thing with at least 4 or 5 other people too. One lady wanted nothing to do with us at first, but as we talked about our common relationship in Christ and showed her "Because He Lives", she ended up accepting a pamphlet and giving us some root beer! :)   so tender mercies have been everywhere, and we are so grateful! Thanks for your prayers for us!

So last thing from this week. On Sunday it was Greensboro Stake Conference and we had Elder Kopichke. It was neat to see him again. The Stake Conference was on the same topic as the one in Gastonia-Councils and the Sabbath Day- and it was super neat to see some of the same things as last time, and also some different things. One of my favorite parts was when he talked about signs we have to help us bring spiritual experiences into our life. Some of the main signs or reminders we have are the sacrament, our garments, scriptures, and the one that really stuck out to me is how we use the Sabbath Day outside of church. He said that how we dress and appear on the Sabbath is a sign to the rest of the world. We should treat the Sabbath day as a specific, holy day, and when we as latter-day saints keep it holy (wearing church clothes all day, spending time with family), it provides a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great conference, and gave me lots to think about :) so yup, all is well!

Sure love yall!! You're the greatest!