Sept. 29, 2014 in Concord, NC

Hello yall! Time is short this week so this letter will be for everyone. We spent a long day at stores and the mall. It was a pretty great adventure, and we found some super snazzy ties!    :)

I've heard great things about the women's conference, I definitely want to watch it. 

Have you heard of Meet the Mormons? It's a movie coming out about 6 different Mormons and it sounds really great! AND we get to watch it as a Mission!!!!!! We were invited by the First Presidency :D 

We have a Zone Conference this week with our Zone, the Assistants, and President Craven :) 

We saw some amazing miracles in the past couple of days. S will be baptized in October. Also, we have a new family we are teaching and E and K are honest seekers of truth, so we're excited for them. 

This week was full of testimony builders :) It's fantastic :) We have some bad days but it only makes the good days so much better! It started out really slow and we weren't having much success. We had a very spirit lead weekly planning session this Thursday though and after that, we just started seeing miracles!! We found a bunch of potential investigators and talked to lots of our current investigators. All of our lessons felt much more spirit lead as well, and we just got along really well. I'm so grateful for planning, for personal study, and for the Spirit.

Since being out on a mission, my testimony of the gospel has just grown and grown. Literally anyone who wants to find truth will come to know that this church is true, just by study and prayer!  

I'm super excited to see General Conference this week, and to see Meet the Mormons soon. This gospel is great!

LUVS 

Elder Zac Branch

ps.

Sure, I'd love to memorize The Living Christ with you too!

I nearly have the Mormon Message: Mountains to Climb memorized. We use it tons with our investigators. It's brilliant. And so is the Living Christ, and the church, and general conference, and everything else!

Sept. 22, 2014 in Concord, NC

I'm stoked for general conference! We will be watching it at the church unless we get to bring an investigator to a members house. 

We got to serve the other day. A family in the ward had us come over and do some yard work on a house they rent to people. I got to drive a riding lawn mower around some and do some weeding and mulch spreading.  We saw a giant praying mantis while doing it! It was bigger than my hand and it attacked a grass hopper! I saved the grass hopper though by knocking the mantis's legs out from under it. It was super wild! Another time we were picking some weeds by some bushes and I felt a plant fall on my neck. I grabbed it and threw it and when it hit the ground it wasn't plants, it was a freaky crazy looking spider!!! I flipped out! It was super scary! But we're good now :) but yeah, that was service this week.

So last week was absolutely ridiculous! We didn't even go shopping so we just had to survive. It made me happy to hear that Sister W wrote you though, they are a great family! The man in the brown shirt and sunglasses that moved us too is C.H. and they are amazing parents!

The new apartment is in a really nice neighborhood closer to downtown Concord and is practically a mansion compared to lots of missionary apartments. We also saw a bunch of neat critters the other night, including a big millipede, a tree frog (I know that Hunter loves those!) and another big praying mantis. North Carolina is a pretty boss state! 

So I forgot but did I get to email y'all about our mission conference where we had Elder Wilson of the Seventy speak? If not, then it was super great! It was 2 weeks ago and he talked with us about the Book of Mormon and the power it has to convert people. One of the things we are doing now in our mission is asking members to read with our investigators. It's brilliant! Our investigators understand it much better and they learn to love reading the Book of Mormon. And once they know the Book of Mormon is true, then everything else falls into place! And then it's up to them to chose the right and be baptized :) It's brilliant! Haha

We got a great new investigator this Sunday! The Bishop introduced us to him and his name is J. He was in Georgia serving in the military until recently. He's awesome and when we taught him it felt really led by the Spirit and was just a good experience. 

Other than that, life here is good! The church is true! Love ya!

Love,

Elder Branch

Sept. 19, 2014...Still in Concord but it was moving day so no letter

Thank you dear Ashley!!!

It was moving day so we didn't get a letter from Elder Branch.  :(

We did, however, get pictures from the fantastic Ward Mission Leader's fantastic wife, Ashley!
Bless her!!     :)

Here are her pictures...

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 :)

Sep. 1, 2014, Concord NC, Transfer day today in the mission but no changes for him and his companions.

This week we had struggles getting members out to lessons, but we were still able to have quite a few lessons, which was better than nothing!

One of our best days was this last Thursday. On Tuesday we found woman named A that had been on our potentials list and we got the chance to set an appointment up for Thursday. We also found another lady in her neighborhood that same day named S who said we could come back and asked some really deep doctrine questions, like about dealings after this life, our potential to become like Gods and all those other questions! When we went back and visited her, we told her that we didn't know all the answers but we knew the Book of Mormon to be true. The Spirit was able to take over that lesson and direct us as to what we should say and what questions we should ask. It all really boiled down to her and her testimony of the Book of Mormon. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and she's going to pray about it. 

Our lesson with A just added to our blessings. She was so excited to learn about the different denominations and how they all came about because she had those same questions. She got real excited about Joseph Smith too. Her only question was about the Book of Mormon because she values the Bible so highly that she doesn't want the Book of Mormon to take away. We once again were guided to share some scriptures and she came to understand how the Book of Mormon doesn't compete, it only adds to and supports the Bible. We are planning on visiting her and her husband again sometime soon and talking to him about the Restoration. Life is good and I'm so grateful for the Holy Ghost. Thanks for all you do!

Love,

Elder Branch

Our companionship has been quoting the Lego movie and the song recently (they haven't seen it but I taught them the rap ;) ) our favorite line is "Life is good, cause everything's Awesome" :) Life is good, and we are super blessed to have this gospel :) Love ya!

Love,

Elder Zac Branch

Aug. 25, 2014 in Concord, NC

Thanks so much for the letters y'all! So I only got a total of 20 minutes of email today cause just as mom suspected, I did get sick just the other day! I slept it off last night and this morning but that was so wild that you nailed it! So once again, sorry I couldn't write much this week or send pictures! I'll make up for it next week:D
Here's my letter to President C though. We had interviews with
him on Sunday and it was great!

Dear President C
Long time no see! Haha, Thanks for the interview yesterday, it really gave me motivation to be as obedient as possible. Probably the number one lesson I learned this week was when I was studying Preach My Gospel during Personal Study. One line in it really stuck out to me. It said "do Gods will and accept his timing".  We had 6 investigators commit to come to church and every one of them cancelled. I was really disappointed and had to pray hard and search the scriptures. The answer, though, came this Sunday during Sacrament mtg. The first speaker spoke about accepting Gods timing, and having faith that as we do as much as we can, God will bring about miracles in his own time. The second speaker spoke about a time in his life when trials weighed him down. Once he realized the testimony that he had the whole time, he was able to make it through those trials. So all in all, it was a really great ending to my week! The church is true!

Love, Elder Zac Branch
That sacrament mtg was just such a great witness that God hears and
answers my prayers and that he loves each of us :)

Aug. 18, 2014 in Concord, NC

Answering some questions first:
The weather isn't actually too bad, many of the people we've talked to have said that its been a pretty mild summer so that's been helpful.

I'm allergic to something here and every morning I think I'm going to die! I cant even imagine Hunter being out here. Its like sticking your face in a bowl of freshly cut grass.

So once again the week started out a little rough. Most of our appointments fell through and we found ourselves with lots of time. So we put this time to use by trying to find less active members and former investigators. As we visited different houses, we found that many of the less active members didn't even live in those houses any more and we were able to talk to lots of new people about the gospel! Not all of them said we could come back but they were all kind and we were able to plant seeds in each person we talked to.

A funny but sad experience happened this week. We were out on Wednesday night near our apartment and it was almost time to head in. We walked up and down our street real briefly to see if there was anyone we could contact who was outside. We didn't find any people but we did find a tiny little kitten that followed us around the block and back to our house after we pet it. We got to our apartment and it sat outside the screen door and meowed!! It was horribly painful so we tried to give it some tuna fish. It didn't like the tuna though. We took a picture with it and then decided to walk with it over to the house we thought it had come from. We knocked on the door and it turned out to be theirs! It was a young couple named C and T and we talked with them a bit. We were actually able to schedule an appointment for the next night! 

At the end of the week we really got to see the power of inviting and following up with inviting people to church. One person we invited was named D and when we invited him he promised to come if we could find a ride. This was the night before church so we had to make a few different calls but we were able to find a member who could drive him. He had warned us that he stayed out really late last night so he wasn't sure if he'd be up unless we called him. We followed this up by calling him 3 different times that morning until he finally woke up. It was a good thing he did too because the ride was there 10 minutes later and he was able to come. He really enjoyed it and said he wanted to come again so we are planning on following that up tomorrow!

One other important principle I've been working on is how to measure my success as a missionary. A number of really promising investigators let lessons slip or just completely dropped us, including M that I wrote about last week. He said that the Plan of Salvation didn't agree with his beliefs. We're giving him a couple of days and then we will be going back to visit him and see if we can answer questions. So pray for him!

As I've been studying and praying, I've gained a testimony that my success is really based on how hard I work, how obedient I am, and how well I react like the Savior would react in different situations. I like how Isaiah put it in 1 Nephi 21:2-5. "...though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." The Lord wants the people of North Carolina to accept the gospel even more than we do. But even if they reject the gospel as we share it, he definitely doesn't want us to fall away or feel like failures just because of someone else's agency. He is happy that we tried, and that we trusted, and continue to trust, in Him.

Thanks so much for the email! Love ya!

Elder Branch

Aug. 11, 2014

This week has been much more calm and I've really been able to focus on the work. We had lots of cancelled appointments by investigators all week but we were able to find back ups to help fill in. Because of all the cancellations, we actually have found about 20 new people so that has been really amazing! We also got the chance to do service for a number of different ward members. We did service for a man who builds semi-pro race cars and that was a blast! (See picture below of Elder Z and Elder B by a race car.)

Elders Z and B are fantastic and I'm so grateful they are my trainers! As we work towards being exactly obedient, and building relationships with members (We went out with 6 different members last week!), we are seeing a number of miracles in our area. My favorite example of that this week is actually a man we met yesterday named M. 

Early in the week we were feeling disappointed that so many appointments were getting canceled, so we decided to have a fast on Tuesday. The fast went well, but we didn't begin to see the blessings until a few days later (namely, M and a few others). We got his address as a media referral from church headquarters and we had dropped by on Wednesday to see if he was there. He wasn't so we left a pass-along card with our names and phone number on it. It kind of faded to the back of our minds until he gave us a call on Saturday and we were able to schedule an appointment for Sunday evening. We brought a member from the ward with us and dropped by his house and he was there waiting for us. As we asked him questions and got to know him, we could tell that he had enormous potential and seemed very elect! He had come in contact with the church through researching some of his favorite YouTube channels, after he found out that a number of them were Mormons. He felt that he should order a Book of Mormon, and he also felt he should call us back when he found the card after praying about it for a day. The lesson went amazing, the Spirit was booming, and it was just wonderful to take part in that experience. We were able to invite him to read the Book of Mormon and pray, and to accept a baptismal date for September 7th!!! It was the best! It really strengthened my testimony that God will lead us as we try our best to serve him. 

We also had the opportunity this week to give 5 different priesthood blessings and I always love the Spirit that is present in those. So all in all, the mission has been fantastic and I'm absolutely loving it! I'm still working on not saying "Cool" or "Awesome" but my companions are helping with that.  

The atonement is the best!! As missionaries, that's the focus of everything we teach.  :)

Thanks so much for the email!!! Love you!!! Church is true ;)

Aug. 4, 2014

We got a new companion. His name is Elder Z. He is fantastic! I loved Elder K though too!

Studies have been amazing. Right now I'm in 1 Nephi 12 and it's talking about the vision of the tree of life. Also I have read the book "Our search for happiness" and that is one of the best books I've ever read! You guys should try to read it as a family :) I'm also reading "Our heritage" and it's pretty interesting :)

We are back in Concord and the work is starting to really pick up in the area! As mentioned earlier, we have a new companion and district leader, Elder Z. He's from Orange County California and he says that I remind him of his brother in law :) 

There is actually a guy here from Utah named SB for the summer. We haven't even met him but he's called us a few times now and he has found 2 referrals through selling yard care!!! If we could all be member missionaries like that, then the Church would be going crazy with new converts!

So now for the week: the first half of the week was pretty much spent with the zone leaders. They told me that I'd probably been on more exchanges in my fist 2 weeks then they had been on in their first 4 months! It's been good to learn from them though. 

We got back to Concord Thursday and started working right away. As a result we ended up getting in 18 total lessons in those 3-4 days. (The goal is to get around 20 a week) We've been going out with members and finding new investigators too! We have one new investigator whose name is W.  Our first lesson with him was amazing! My first week here, our companionship had been going to a lesson but the people we were going to meet weren't there. We went around and marinated a bit, and then Elder K felt inspired to knock on this one door. We did and W told us we could come back.  He told us that something just told him to invite us back when we had knocked. Anyways, we taught the first lesson about the Restoration and he was saying that it all made sense. We're really excited to see where that all goes :) We also had a great experience with one of the referrals from SB named D. We dropped by her house late on Friday night with a soon to be missionary from the ward named BJ. She was there but she wasn't feeling good to meet cause she was almost involved with a really bad accident on her way to work today. We got to give her a priesthood blessing and the Spirit was just booming!!! It really strengthened my testimony of the power of the priesthood.

Unfortunately, just like with all good things, there is always opposition. We've probably had 7 different lessons canceled or moved in just the past 2 days, including one with D and 2 others with W. The adversary is real and it's hard to fight against him sometimes, but I know as we keep trying and do all that we can do that The Lord will reward us for our effort. People's agency can be difficult to deal with but I'm so glad we get to. It's been amazing to see the blessings and happiness that comes with the trials. I am beginning to understand what the phrase "The Best Two Years" really means :) 

Love you all so much! The church is true! 

<3

Elder Zachary Branch

First week in North Carolina

Hey y'all! Sorry, I don't have time to answer all the questions in their fullness, but I'll do my best. 

So the plane was awesome, I love flying! I didn't teach anyone on the plane but I gave a fair effort with a man sitting next to me ;) 

I got 2 trainers, Elder K and Elder B. They're both great. We're a 3 member companionship.

So there are quite a few 3 member companionships throughout the mission. We have been tracking and teaching and it's been really great!  I'm trying to work on contacting, asking questions, and not saying "um..." ;) the food is great! Hunter and Em will be jealous.

It's amazing how much you feel the spirit every day out here. It just never seems to leave you, which I suppose is how it's supposed to feel all the time, not just on a mission ;) so yeah it's been crazy but good overall! We have a couple of investigators and a few show potential, so I hope we can help them feel the spirit. I've learned since being out that the missionaries purpose is all about the Atonement and the Doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end), and helping people come closer to Christ through those steps. And it's amazing!

I haven't got J's letter yet, hopefully it got sent to the right place! I. Excited for it though!

It was super great to hear from all of y'all! I've been cussed out a couple of times and I can't take my iPad out in a couple of areas for fear of getting shot but other than that it's been awesome! (Sorry mom, don't mean to scare ya) ;) the church is true and God loves us!

Love,

Elder Branch

Totally Awesome Brother Whiteley!

Today we received the following email from a totally awesome Brother Whiteley! What a guy!

When my youngest son was serving in the Pocatello, Idaho Mission (Spanish speaking) some local members sent us some pictures of our son at a local event. 

Elder Branch and his companions were at our house for dinner on Thursday and I like to take pictures of the missionaries and pay forward the kindness that was shown to our family. Here in the Concord Ward of the Charlotte Central  Stake we will endeavor to take good care of your son and keep him busy. Enjoy the pictures.

Thanks,

(Brother) Whiteley

Concord, NC

Address in Concord

Elder Branch arrived in North Carolina on July 21, 2014.

His address is:

Elder Zachary Branch
3020 Hilliard Dr.
Charlotte, NC    28205

USA

 

July 16, 2014 (Email from the MTC)

Hahahaha!! Those were great jokes! And even better letters :) Thanks for all ya'lls support ;) Here's some entertainment for you:

-- Look up a song about Noah. I don't know the name but the chorus goes something like this: "You got your green alligators and long neck geese. Some humptiback camels and some chimpanzees. Some cats and rats and elephants, but as sure as your born, Don't you forget my Unicorn!!"

Haha we've been singing it and a number of other songs all week (don't worry, we've been singing hymns too). Our district (4 companionships) love to sing like, all the time. We decided to form an Acapella group called "The District." :) We will be singing Nearer My God to Thee in our branch's sacrament meeting this week as a district.

Now for a bit of vocabulary: A district is on average 4-5 companionships. Above the district, there is a Zone. A Zone is anywhere from 2-4ish districts. And a Branch is one Zone, plus a Branch Presidency and their wives. Our Branch's second counselor actually taught J business at BYU!! His name is President L, you can ask if J remembers him :)

So as far as your questions:

1. My companions name is Elder D from Chandler, AZ. He loves hockey and lacrosse. He will be sending you a letter some time soon :)

2. Food is super good usually!! It's pretty much just like the Canon center at BYU. It's buffet style and they usually have 3-4 options. And they have BYU creamery ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays, and pizza Fridays. Also there is a cooler of Ice cream sandwiches and pop cycles every meal. And a soda machine with caffeine free everything (MTN Dew, Dr. Pepper, etc). I am like seriously worried about getting fat, cause I haven't been able to work out much D: Haha but its good

3.I already mentioned a bit about my district. Some other info is that in the room with Elder D and me there is one other companionship. There names are Elder J and Elder P. Those two are also our Zone Leaders for this next week. The other companionships are Elder B with Elder H, and Elder L (from Canada) with Elder G.

4. A spiritual experience was when our district read Matthew 26 together and had a discussion. No teachers or anything, just us Elders. Ya'll should read it.

5. Our teachers are sooo amazing! I'll have to tell you about them in a latter email. And like I mentioned earlier, our district is sooo good!!!!! Elder P is the one who taught us the Noah song and he's really great, but literally, I love all of them.

Thanks for the love and support!!! AND FOR THE SHOES!!!!!!!!!! :D :D The Church is True!!! I LOVE you all :)