May 23, 2016 in Statesville, North Carolina

Life is going good! We found some really good people this week through referrals and personal contacting. The M.'s are doing well, but they still haven't come to church. We are going to see them tonight in order to give P. a blessing before some eye surgery tomorrow. Brother L. was able to go and read the Book of Mormon with them which was also good. But they still need more! Please pray for them :)

Another family, the C.'s, haven't been coming to church since being baptized mostly because of their work schedule. Recently that changed though and they have been doing good at coming, and are even ready to work towards the temple! Unfortunately, Satan doesn't want that to happen, and everything crazy and bad that could happen has been. So please pray for them too, they could use the help!

D is doing okay though he hasn't been to church for 2 weeks. He hasn't lost his testimony, it's been some hard times though. He will be at church this week though, as it is Elder H.'s last week. Elder H. will be singing a solo, and during 3rd hour we will be teaching.

All in all, there are many miracles happening, and even more ready to come! Sister T. is still struggling to come to church :/ But lots of good is on the way!

Thanks for the fun emails :) I sure love ya!

Love,
Elder Branch

April 18, 2016 in Statesville, NC

Hello All,

This week we had a mission tour with Elder Zwick. He and his wife are super super amazing speakers!!!! They had some wild crazy stories from the missions they have been on. There was lots of good council too.

A.'s baptism went really well! His family is having very hard times right now though so please pray for them heavily!

We took Elder E. to East Coast Wings for his birthday (which is delicious!) We got transfer calls and Elder E. will be going up to Burlington. I will be staying here with an Elder H.

We had some good teaching appointments this week too. We didn't get to see the P.'s, but we did see the other D. who has been attending church, and she came to stake conference this week! Also, the B.'s came!!!! :D We spent 2 days there this week helping clean her house because the government was threatening to take C. away if it wasn't cleaned. We found tons of mold in the fridge, which explained why they were sick all the time. But since it is clean, everything is good and they were able to come. We are always working on finding more people here, and we expect some mighty miracles this coming week!

Other fun parts of the week included going to a Rescue Ranch volunteer appreciation dinner. Rescue Ranch is the place we volunteer that has tons of 'exotic' animals they take care of (tortoises, lizards, snakes, etc.) The had a dinner this week and we got to go. At it they were doing a casino based thing, but instead of real money we played for tickets to put into a raffle. Elder E. and I had no clue what we were doing, and the other Elders (who knew how to play) hadn't showed up yet, but the lady that runs the place showed us some of how to play roulette, so we did that for a little bit. It was fun, but probably the weirdest dinner for missionaries ever... haha.

Probably the funnest random thing we did this last week was on Saturday, we got invited to go with D. to a city celebration for Arbor day. We went on a 2 mile run, and then we got the chance to play bubble soccer for a couple minutes! It was pretty great! Ill send you some videos.

Well, that about covers it for this week. Thanks for the fun emails! Thanks so much for all your help! You're great! I love you :)

Elder Branch

ps...Hunter!! You got your mission call!!! Wow, I was so excited! Actually, Elder E. had just barely added mom and dad on facebook when you opened your call and they made the post about it, so I saw it and was freaking out for like an hour and a half. Haha, I am super excited for you, you will love it. It's fun that we are both on the east coast, too bad you're a durn Yankee ;P Haha, congrats Brother. Hey, when you have questions about what to buy, keep me involved, I have 60 bazillion pointers or things I learned since serving that I think will help when shopping and preparing and stuff. I'm glad we have a month and a half, we can do a mini 12 week program, except in 6 if you want :) Congrats again, I sure love ya!

A.'s baptism day!

Bubble Soccer Video

Elder E. 

 This gentleman goes home this transfer! I'll miss him

EJ runs the Rescue Ranch 

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

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

Mar. 21, 2016 in Statesville, NC

Hello again!

Wow, so this last week has literally been like the longest week ever. It seems like 2 months since last week! So along with that, we actually had a pretty rough week. We joked all week between the companionships that it was the worst week ever, which it wasn't, but lots of annoying things happened. All of our set appointments cancelled, we spent all our money, we ran out of miles, we locked ourselves out of the house, and we had some wild food. I will expand on a couple of these stories, and then I will tell some actual good ones.

The other elders have a mom and daughter who are getting ready for baptism, and they couldn't find anyone available to come to the lessons. Since we had no lessons, they recruited us to join and my role was to play baby sitter to 2 of the younger kids, a girl and a boy. It was wild, but their lesson went pretty well and I got made hero status in the kids eyes, so all was good.

We also taught a less active man-woman who is Trans right now. He had his name changed last week. It was very very interesting, and honestly really sad. His wife was there too and we brought a member who used to be his scout master. We shared the Hallelujah video, but in all I just felt empathy for him. There are lots of youth and even adults here who are struggling with LGBTQ temptations right now, and I feel for them. That would be so ridiculously tough.

Anyways, off of those subjects, and on to the miracles!! That whole thing about sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven is totally true! At church we had 2 friends who have been attending for a while, named D. and J., ask us to come visit and possibly review the discussions!  Also, we have these members named the B.'s, and they have been trying to adopt an 8 almost 9 year old named A. for a while now, and this last week they got it finalized! :D They are one of the homie families in the area, and we were pretty excited for them. Our main goals are to find a new family this week! One that will actually let us show the Hallelujah video, and then teach them the gospel! :) So yup, good things are a comin.

Thanks for all the fun stories. 

I sure love ya!

Elder Branch

Forsythia!

So in Carolina, there are all these fantastic trees 

that turn super white 

in the spring! 

They create the impression that there are 

70 billion tree's of life in every direction. 

This is Elder H.'s and my friend. 

She doesn't like Elder P. and Elder E. never tries to touch her

 because he is too busy playing with a tortoise. 

This is at the Rescue Ranch, 

a place we like to volunteer. 

The people are super nice there, and the animals are super neat! 

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

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___

Aug. 31, 2015 in Greensboro, NC on Elder G.'s birthday

So today is Elder G's birthday!! He doesn't like parties so he wouldn't tell me the specific day, but I managed to buy birthday cake Oreos without him seeing last week so it was fun.  ;)

We went to the Guilford Court House Battlefield Visitors Center today, and it was super neat!! They had tons of revolutionary war artifacts, and it turns out it is technically a National Military Park.

Our week was fairly decent. Brother R. drove us around today for shopping, and we are going to go back this week and play some guitar with him. We got a referral for a man named D. but haven't been able to contact him since, so that's a bummer. At least he has a Book of Mormon now. I'd say my favorite part of the week was on exchange with Elder S. We were in his area, but we were just super busy and had lots of great lessons. Back in our area, Elder G. and Elder L. saw good things too! I love exchanges, because we always see wonderful "exchange miracles."

Dad (Oh man, that was bad! I just typed "Brother Branch" and "Elder Branch" before I finally got it right!) mentioned in his letter how we are staying optimistic, and we actually had a conversation about it last night. Sometimes in missionary work we don't have much control about what happens. In the end it sometimes comes down to timing. That doesn't mean we can't find people, and that doesn't mean we have an excuse to be disobedient, but at least it helps explain why we struggle so much sometimes. So we are just continuing to pray and work and hope that whoever we are meant to find, we will find, and until that happens we will just keep trying.

We have been having good dinner messages focused around inviting people to learn of Christ and His gospel, and this coming week we are both speaking in Sacrament meeting. We are fasting and praying for the members, that as they open their mouths, they will know what to share with their friends, and that their friends hearts will be receptive to the invitations they extend.

Sure love y'all!!! Thanks for the emails!

Elder TooBlessedToBeStressed Branch

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.