July 4, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

Howdy ya'll,

I had my departing interview yesterday, and it was a blast! Really good and really spiritual. It was a great review and I am so grateful for all I have learned. It's weird that I start hitting my "last's" this week. I had my last zone conference last week, and bore my departing testimony. I am very excited for this last week, this is such a great area and I love the people here. Elder B. is great, he can do anything it seems!! I am just so grateful for everything this week!

N. had her interview and is getting baptized on Saturday! There were some wonderful testimonies on Sunday from the Bishop and his wife about being able to teach her, and it was so touching! There were many testimonies of Christ. The spirit was very real, it was one of the best fast and testimony meetings on my mission! We are teaching her a couple more times this week, and I can't wait for Sunday!

The other really exciting thing this week was exchanges! On Thursday, Elder J. (Spanish Elder) and I went to our area and spent the day doing service and teaching a couple families. Several said we could come back this week, so we should hopefully have some great new investigators once I leave! Then on Friday we had a Zone Conference and it was super good! We had a big training on the Atonement, it was such a great discussion to have for a last zone conference. Elder H., Elder W. and I got the chance to share our testimonies and none of us cried! We all felt like it, but our testimonies came out more powerful than reflective, and it was a good moment. We sang the mission song one last time with the missionaries, and then Elder H. and I spent the day on exchange. That was a super fun exchange, and we taught like 6 lessons with members present and had the best sushi in the world!

Church was fun in general, and I am way excited for this last week! More good stuff! :) Thanks for all the stories! Sure love you folks!

Love,
Elder Branch

We chopped down these huge trees at Sister F.'s with some dull ax's, and got loads and loads of blisters. It was in the middle of a rainstorm and the chainsaw was broken. All in all, we felt like real men. Twas good.

July 20, 2015 in Greensboro, NC

Hey!

Thanks so much for the fun pictures!! I love them!

Our week was pretty good. We were able to teach a lot more than we did last week, which was really good. We didn't find any new friends, so our teaching pool is still pretty small. We are going to work on that this week. We are excited for interviews with President A. this week!

We got to go see the S. Family this week and had a great visit and committed them to read the Book of Mormon all the way through by the time Elder G. and I go home. Their daughter left for youth conference the next day, and then on Friday we got a call from Sister S. telling us that her father had passed away. It was rough. We went over on Saturday night and had a plan of Salvation lesson and it was so good. It really strengthened my testimony even more of the Savior.

Another wild story was on Saturday. We had a friend named P. we had been praying for, and when we dropped by she invited us in. We didn't have another male though so we couldn't go in, so she came and stood outside for a bit. She all of a sudden told us that she was a member and had always loved the gospel, but had just been away from it for a while. She doesn't want us to tell the ward yet, but she is working her way back, so we are super excited!! So pray for P.!

Final story. Yesterday we went and visited some former friends and they were way funny. They showed us a bunch of swords he had, and they were great! So those pictures will be coming your way as well. Thanks for the letters! I love the family blog posts! Hope all is well!

Love, Elder Branch

Elder TooBlessedToBeStressed Branch

We made ties!