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

Oct. 12, 2015 in Greensboro, NC

Hello!

On Monday, after p-day, we tried to see T___. He didn't answer but then we went down the street and saw our classy 85 year-old Pentecostal friend D___, and he is doing well. He surprised me because his tool shed that we helped clean up was magically off of the sketchy trailer it had been on and actually looked pretty good! Mom, you need to forward this picture to Elder G___. His socks will be blown clean off!!!!:) Anyways, D___ was happy to see us, and his wife was too. We talked about his brother S___, who is having health issues and isn't "saved," so D___ wants us to help him. We offered service or teaching him, but when they asked S___ he turned it down, which was a bummer. Anyways, at the end of the lesson, D___ randomly started getting off his chair and onto his knees, and it looked like he was falling or something, only in slow motion. Turns out he just wanted to hold our hands, bless us with power, and pray, which was pretty nice of him!

After that adventure, we 'felt inspired' to go get smoothies from Smoothie King. It turned out it was real inspiration, because we talked to the guy who worked there and he was pretty neat. We gave him a Book of Mormon.

On Tuesday we taught the S___'s and E___ all about general conference, and reviewed our favorite parts. We committed E___ to go back and read/watch the talks once they were posted online.

Probably the 2 best parts of the week though were these. First we got to visit with Brother R___ on Friday morning, and we invited him to a ward cook off that night. Turns out, he came!! That was a pretty big step for him, because so far he has only really come to things if he was going to do service for someone, but this time he came just to have fun and get to know people! It was great!! As for the actual chili and international dishes Cook off, they had a whole competition and everything. People made lots of chili, and there were also a couple international dishes. Best part was... Elder J___ and I were two of the 3 judges! I have a whole new respect for the judges on Chopped and such, judging is really hard!! There were some mighty tasty things there. In the end, we decided that the egg roles were the best, and the Sister who made them was super touched and even cried a little bit :) It felt good.

With transfers coming up, I guess my main focus has been on working as if I am staying forever, while trying to leave things better than I found it. So for my letter this week, I would love to share a story about one of my favorite people I have been able to teach here. When Elder G___ and I were together, we met P___. She answered her door and asked us to pray that she would have confidence to meet with us. We prayed for her, and in 2 weeks, followed up. This time, she said she had to tell us something, and broke the news that she was actually a member but she hadn't been to church in 30+ years. We got to start teaching her, and it was a slow process. At first she didn't want her records transferred in. Slowly but surely, she started opening up. Just this last week, we were able to go over with a great couple and we invited her to church, and yesterday she was right there beside them, taking the sacrament for the first time in 30 years. It was a wonderful blessing to be able to see that, and I am so happy for her! This truly is a work of love.

Elder TooBlessedToBeStressed Branch

(Elder Branch has a friend serving a mission in Russia who sends pictures of Russian cats in his emails most every week. We can only suppose that this is Zac's response to his friend's Russian cat pictures, two North Carolina cats.)

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

Apr. 6, 2015 in Rock Hill, SC

So on Saturday night right before the Priesthood session, we got a call from our apartment people telling us that the apartment next door had a fire! They got it put out before it burned to our place, but we got some major smoke damage up in the attic, which makes our whole place smell horrible!!! The fun side though is that we get to spend a couple nights in a hotel! So I am currently sitting on my queen bed with free wifi and a TV (which we can't watch) ;) haha, but it's been a fun adventure. So as a result we missed priesthood session of conference, but we were able to catch up the past 2 mornings, so we're good. So I have some pictures from our adventure so far that I will send to you.   :)

I loved President Eyring's talk from priesthood session!! I also really loved Elder Holland's and President Uchdorf's on Sunday Morning! They were the best!! Also, on Saturday afternoon, there was a run of 3 talks by seventies, and all 3 of those were so good!!

We each brought questions to conference that we wanted answers too, and all 3 questions I had were answered in those 3 talks!! It was fantastic!! The one that started it off was actually the one about hearing the music that you sent me the quote of. Conference is just the best, and I can't wait to study all the talks as they come out!! Probably my favorite quote from it all was by Michael T. Ringwood. He said "The service that counts most usually is recognized only by our Father in Heaven... All I really want in life is to please my Heavenly Father and my earthly father." Definitely true doctrine! :) I love the gospel which allows us to change and be better :)

Good news, K. came to conference (new member who's great!). Bad news was no one else came, even though we invited all them and their dogs multiple times, followed up pretty much daily, and even promised them if they brought questions, they would be answered. Ah well, what can you do. We did have some really good lessons this week with M. and also with a former friend we met again named B. He is super great! So please pray for M. and B. 

So when we first taught B. again, another man named T. came up and started talking to us. As it turns out he knows the bible super well, and asked lots of questions about prophets and things. Elder A. and I kind of split up and started teaching each guy individually. I was talking with B., and really listening to the Spirit as to how to answer his questions. We talked about the Book of Mormon, prophets, what modern prophets have taught and all kinds of stuff. He was stuck on the final verse in Revelations, and after talking about all his questions, I asked him "so when was revelations written?" He responded "around 30 years after Christ." "So when were the epistles of Paul?" "Around 200 years.. Oh! Oh wow, I'm gonna have to think about that! Oh man, you stumped me!" Haha, it was way fun!! It was the most spiritual peaceful mini bible bash I've ever seen, and actually really helped the environment of the lesson! Haha, I'm grateful for the Spirit that led that lesson!!

So we did a bit of service this week, including moving in a new family, and as we were moving them, I saw a familiar small blue suitcase and said "Oh! I'll bet you those are temple clothes! " to the other elders. The woman happened to be on the ramp and she heard and laughed and said yes, they were the temple clothes. It was super funny, she had the same case as Grandma Earl. :) Haha, so it was a great and very wild week!!!

Well, I'm sure glad y'all are doing good! Thanks for the emails!
Love ya!

Elder Branch 

Elder B. just before transfers.

In a hotel room because of smoke damage from a fire next door.
 

 Elder A. in the hotel

Elder S. and his new companion, Elder D.