Jan. 17, 2016 in Catawba, South Carolina

Howdy howdy howdy...

So first off, an update on the whole bed bugs deal. The exterminator sprayed and the total kill period is 15 days to make sure it got all the eggs too. So far we have seen 0 new bed bugs and we are up to day 10 or so, so we are still just hoping and praying that they are gone. It seems that so far we are good, I hope it did work!

I'll start off this week with an update on last week's p-day. We had a zone activity at the park and played Pioneer Paintball! Essentially we put flour and colored chalk in socks and threw them at each other all while playing capture the flag. There were no safe zones or anything, you just had to not get hit. Anyways, we did Senior Companions vs Junior Companions and it was a fun activity. Today we are having one final district activity with the district before transfers. We are doing bowling and possibly laser tag, so as always it will be a blast!

As far as transfers go, the only changes in our district are Elder H. and Sister D. who go home this transfer. (It's weird! My Sisters are going home! I'm old!) Sister K. will be getting a trainee, and Elder R. will be getting... Elder L.!!!! :D

Well, I can say one thing for this week, and that is that we did all we could. We were able to see some good blessings as a result, for example, we have quite a few investigators who are keeping their commitments to read the Book of Mormon currently, and now we are mostly working on inviting people to baptism and finding new progressing investigators and families. We have been struggling with finding recently, and as I was pondering on why, the Spirit whispered "Once you start inviting people to be baptized more, and show that you are focused on the Doctrine of Christ, then I will lead you to those who are truly ready to make those covenants now." It was a humbling thought, and we are definitely going to be better at inviting our investigators to be baptized!

We worked really hard to find people and once again only found like 2 people, and they are both super scary. (As in they know the Bible super well but seem to get caught up/lost in all the minor details.) For example, we were just beginning to teach them and talked about how understanding our message takes time and keeping invitations. They asked what invitations and we told them CPR (Church, Prayer, Reading). They asked why those three things and we were like "Cause that is how you can know of truth." They were all like "Show us where it says that in the Bible" so we shared James 1:5 and Matthew 7. Then the guy went off about how we were using those verses out of context, and how they were originally talking about other things, not about praying or learning truth. Then he showed us a verse where it talks about the people comparing Paul's teachings to the Bible, and how because they compared they came to know what he said was true. It was so frustrating because they couldn't even accept answers to prayer or the Holy Ghost as ways to know truth. The only scriptures I knew that would have taught ways to know truth are in the Book of Mormon, and I knew that if I used those they would be like "Well how do you know that is true?" and I would say "I prayed about it.." And they would not take that as legit. Anyways, got any suggestions? We are going back next Sunday, so we will see how it goes.

Later that day we met an interesting guy who believes the Book of Mormon, but doesn't believe Joseph Smith is a prophet. He said he could be an Apostle though.. He also believes abominable doctrines about the Fall, and he wants to read "The Gospel of Mary." Anyways, so the finding aspect of the work is kinda rough right now, but we're hoping it will improve.

Our investigators are all doing kinda ok-ish. The C.'s are good, and this next week we get to go bowling with them and then teach them.

B. has been reading the Book of Mormon, but had to move a couple appointments, so we are hoping to meet this Wednesday (pray for that!)

Pastor R.C. is hilarious as always, and seems to be enjoying the Book of Mormon. So yeah, it's not all bad here, we're getting along.

Well, thanks for the fun emails! I sure love y'all!
Happy P-daay!

Love, 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___

May 5, 2015 in Rock Hill, SC

As far as how I am, I am stressed but surviving. We just seem to have backslid the past couple of weeks, even though we have been working hard.

We do have a bunch of super families we are working with. That would be great if you could pray for them please!! :)

My favorite visit was with the N's this week. Ever since being in the area I have felt a special connection with them, and I feel like they are definitely people I was friends with in the pre-earth life. We had a great lesson about how to receive the Spirit and discern the Spirit. It was a really good visit. I love them, they're great.

Love ya!

Elder Branch

Pictures of District activity to Lazy 5 Ranch