May 9, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

Hello everybody! 

Happy Mothers day to all, it was a blast to talk to you, family! What a fun fun time. I don't have much time today, and we talked yesterday, so I will keep it short.

Wow, what a week! I had so many tender mercy moments, from seeing Dw. be baptized to talking to our families, to having lots of friends come to church. Our area is definitely improving, and we are mostly aiming on finding more people to teach even though we have lots of other things going on. 

C. is doing well, both her and her mom came to church so she will be getting baptized this Saturday! That means we have 1 big huge awesome week ahead of us, trying to plan that and finish up the lessons, so please pray for that!!

D. is also doing well and hoping to be baptized on the 21st or 28th, but if it is later that will be ok. We cut down some trees for her this week and got poison Ivy, but we were able to shower right after and use soap and never got the rash. Hooray!!

Service has also been fun at Rescue Ranch and Yokefellows, we haven't been to 5th street in a while though.

Some of the biggest news took place Friday and Saturday. Dw., the other Elders investigator, got baptized!!!!! His family has struggled with it but he knew it was true and got baptized! Please pray for his family. At the baptism, while Elder H. and L. were doing a musical number, the piano player lost all of his sheet music in the middle of the song! Luckily I had stayed on the stand and was able to grab it. He did an amazing job keeping the song going even while I was grabbing the sheets, the Elders didn't even know he lost the music! 

After Dw.'s baptism, we were having a luncheon and a random guy was walking past the church and said he felt lead to it by the spirit! Turns out he has been less active for years, but all of his family are not members. As a result, the other Elders now have 3 new investigators! How about that!

On Sunday Dw. was able to be confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost, and should get the Priesthood this Wednesday. The Alexanders (mission president and wife) came to see that happen at Sacrament, and as a result they also saw my Mothers Day talk. That in and of itself was miraculous, considering I didn't finish writing it until Sunday morning, and our church was at 9:00am. I had literally only read through it once, and I ended up praying my way through. I prayed probably 60 times that morning that it would be personal and spiritual, and Heavenly Father did not disappoint! I cried a couple times through the talk, especially when talking about the Savior, and mom. It turned out great I was just grateful that Heavenly Father helped so much! He's great!

Anyways, that is about it for the week, but it sure was good! I love ya!

Elder Branch

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

Apr. 20, 2015 in Rock "Thrill", SC

Hello all!

This past week has been so wild, and I'm not even sure all what happened. I spent the majority of the week with Elder S. because the other Elders were still so sick. Then on Saturday Elder D. and I worked together while the other Elders went to Charlotte because Elder S. needed a shot for Poison Ivy because it has only gotten worse since 2 weeks ago when he first got it. Finally on Sunday we had a flash flood and tornado warning here in Rock "Thrill", so we decided to drive to the college, send in our report, and call it a day.

On Tuesday, Elder S. and I had a big long meeting/lesson/discussion on theology with a Baptist Preacher named M. He invited us back this week to continue the discussion. It was interesting, because he believes strongly that were wrong, and he was using the Bible to point out reasons why, but never once did he find something that obviously showed where we are wrong (because we're not). But neither could we show him anything to "prove" the gospel from the Bible alone. It built my personal testimony of the Book of Mormon, even if he didn't agree. Really that's what it comes down to, is that we have the full truth restored, and we know the way to not just salvation, but exaltation. The church is true because Joseph Smith is a prophet, and Jesus Christ loves us!! :)

Finally, Elder S. and I had a wild service opportunity. We helped bishop and a couple other Elders, along with the Relief Society President move a woman from her house, and it was a humbling experience, one of those that you don't get often. I felt for the woman. She has some special needs and was super nice. She loves cats! We would pick up something and cat hair would just cover us, and float through the air. We had to move a bed, and in the process happened to find 3 cats hiding down under the pillows. They bolted when we uncovered them, freaking us out super bad. One of the men swelled up on his neck from allergies, and I don't know how Elder S. and I survived, considering the day before a couple other cats had totally taken us out. It was a service project that will definitely stick out in my head.

It impressed me to see how happy and grateful the woman was for our help, and how willing these brothers and sister were to help her in such conditions. I'm grateful for disciples of Christ, everywhere, that are such great examples. It makes me think of the talk again of being Truly Good and without Guile.

B. and T. didn't come to church this week, but we are working with them. It's just hard to keep contact with them. Fortunately, we did have a great lesson with B. where we were really able to talk about testimony, and it was great! He believes the Book of Mormon, he believes in prophets, and knows pretty much all the doctrine behind the commandments, now it's really about helping him to learn more. So keep praying for him!

My go to scripture this week has been 3rd Nephi 5:13 from the talk by President Uchtdorf we got a while ago. I love that scripture, and I love that I have the same opportunity as Mormon did to share the gospel.

I sure love all yall! Thanks for the emails and pictures!! :D

Love, Elder Branch

 

 

Feb. 2, 2015 in Huntersville, NC

Saturday morning, Elder S., Brother C., and I got to help Brother S. with a yard project. It was a sweet way to end the week for sure!

Yes, I'm keeping a journal on my mission. I heard a quote recently and it said "It doesn't matter how often you write in a journal, it just matters that you write one." SO I've been doing that, and just writing maybe twice a week while Elder S. is doing district leader call ins, and it's been pretty neat.

Yes, we download videos from the gospel library app and use those (Mormon messages and such). Its way handy!

These past weeks in Huntersville have been very positive. The members are excited about going out teaching with us. Probably the biggest blessing for the area has been J. He came to church last week and this past Friday he accepted a baptismal date for the 14th of February!! Everyone here is so excited for him! Throughout teaching J., I've learned to rely more on prayer and the Spirit. As we pray and plan with the Spirit how best to help J., we have seen Heavenly Father's hand in the work. He has helped us know which lessons to teach, what members to bring with us, and how to help J. come to church. He has also been answering J.'s prayers. The day after accepting his baptismal date, he told us he was reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma 34:3-5 and he felt the Spirit tell him that he needed to get baptized, and that this was the right step! It was the best!!. He loves the Book of Mormon, loves the members, and loves the feeling he gets at church. We are so excited to see him make this, and future covenants. He has some health concerns so please pray for him and his health.

Well, I sure love ya! Thanks for the emails and pictures and prayers!! Please pray for J., and for more people for us to teach! Thanks so much! Ya'll are the best! 

Nov. 10, 2014 in Huntersville, NC

As far as talking to 10 people a day, it's getting better! So on Saturday Elder K and I went on a temporary exchange because our companions were sick. We actually went to a neighborhood we both felt inspired to go to and were able to talk to 12 people! Not all accepted return visits, but 2 did, and we felt the Spirit guiding our conversations in every contact! It was so wonderful!! And such a testimony builder for me. So we will be working hard to continue seeing such miracles. 

That's so great to hear about y'all helping the Sisters! I'm sure they are soooo grateful for your help and your invitations! We're trying to help our members do exactly what you are doing, so that is so great!

M couldn't come to church this week but we will be following up with her. Also, a man named G (he runs the horse rescue place that we help out at), said he would come this week but he wasn't their either. We will be following up and trying to help him as well. We did have a Spanish speaking man come to church and we will be bringing a Spanish speaking member with us to a lesson tomorrow. So pray for him! His name is L.      :)

I loved your spiritual thoughts! God is hastening His work, and it is our choice whether we want to join Him and help out or not. Love you so much! Thanks for the emails!

Love ya!

Elder Branch :)