Hola
I am angry at my email for being so lame. As I understand it, I'm not the only one in the mission experiencing problems. Hopefully you'll get this one and last week's. I still have been getting all of your emails. Which makes me happy. :)
So. Life is good. Springdale is an interesting place. The work here is slow. But hey, that's why Elder Thomas and I got shotgunned in. It will get better :)
The ward here is AMAZING. They do so much for us. Yesterday we got 3 referrals from members. It makes me so happy. They are also going to give me a new desk(my current one is an abomination), and hopefully a bed(if I don't get a new mattress I'll need a chiropractor by the end of the transfer, I did buy a mattress pad today though). We also have about 4 young men that are willing to go on exchanges with us. One just became an Elder. Another just had his mission papers put into the Stake President's office. Exciting stuff! I remember what that was like. It wasn't very long ago, but it feels like ages. I sure have grown a lot these past 4 months.
In September Marlin K. Jensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy is going to come speak to us. I am WAY excited! And then General Conference is the month after that! Yay!
Mom and Dad, I am so proud of you! Going to AND cleaning the temple? Sweet! I am so jealous! You don't even know how bad I miss the temple! I'm also glad you are taking a trip to San Diego together. You need a vacation. Please take as many as you can. Don't not go somewhere just because I would be jealous :)
I am very grateful to all of you for your thoughts, support, and prayers. It means the world to me. I could not do this without it.
I know that I am where the Lord wants me to be. I know that I am doing what he wants me to be doing. I know that this is the one COMPLETELY true Church upon the face of the Earth. I am very grateful for this opportunity to share it with others.
Love,
Elder Bracken
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Last Weeks Letter
Hello family!
Wow! It's been a crazy week here!
So, earlier this week I spent a lot of time packing and saying goodbye to people and stuff. Friday was transfers. We drove up here and my comp (ElderThomas and I) got dropped off. A member picked us up, took us to lunch, and dropped us off at our apartment.
We share our apartment with 2 Spanish-Speaking Elders. Elder Poulsen and Elder Chidister. They're pretty cool. It way too much fun sharing an apartment haha.
Springdale has 2 wards. Springdale 1st and Har-ber. There are two other English Speaking Elders that cover Springdale 1st. The Spanish Elders go to a Spanish Branch. And here's the interesting thing. We have two Marshallese-Speaking Elders. yeah. Um, 10% of the world's population of Marshallese people live in Springdale, Arkansas. It's the largest concentration of Marshallese people outside of the Marshall Islands. Talk about Random. I hear that it's mostly because of all of the Chicken Factories out here (there's a ton). There is also a Marshallese branch. And there's another ward about a half an hour away (not in our district) that meets in our building. 5 units in one building. Insanity. haha.
My companions name is Elder John LaRoy Thomas. He is from a little town in the middle of no-where called Panaca, Nevada. His father is Devin Thomas. Owner and operator of Devin Thomas Damascus. Apparently, his father is the best in the world at making Damascus Steel. Apparently Damascus Steel is this amazing stuff that most professional knife-makers use. And, coincidentally, there are a ton of professional knife-makers in Northwest, Arkansas. Weird, eh? But Elder Thomas is really awesome. Very Gorilla-esque. Big guy. Big heart. He has great people skills. Great sense of humor. He is the District Leader here.
So on Saturday we first met with the Relief Society President. She is amazing. She gave us like 13 names of people to baptize. We later met with the Elders Quorum President. And apparently, Home Teaching here is just awful. We will have to fix that.
Yesterday we went into church way earlier and had about and hour and a half long meeting with the Bishop here. Bishop Scott. We learned a ton about the ward and about the work that we need to do here. He is very gung-ho about missionary work, which is awesome. I'm excited. He had us over for dinner yesterday. He grilled us up some AMAZING steaks (he used to be a butcher, and now works for Tyson, so he knows his meat). We tried something interesting. Black Raspberry Jam on Cheddar Cheese. Very interesting. Very good.
I like it here. Our apartment is way nice. The complex has it's own 9 hole golf course that residents can play for free. Sweet, eh? It also has a gym which we exercise at every day.
Well. I am glad to be here. Life is good! I'm excited to keep moving the work forward here. The Har-ber ward will be Translate before the end of this transfer, haha.
Not much else to talk about right now. And I've gotta go. My computer time is up! I love you all! Thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support! It helps me so much! :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
Wow! It's been a crazy week here!
So, earlier this week I spent a lot of time packing and saying goodbye to people and stuff. Friday was transfers. We drove up here and my comp (ElderThomas and I) got dropped off. A member picked us up, took us to lunch, and dropped us off at our apartment.
We share our apartment with 2 Spanish-Speaking Elders. Elder Poulsen and Elder Chidister. They're pretty cool. It way too much fun sharing an apartment haha.
Springdale has 2 wards. Springdale 1st and Har-ber. There are two other English Speaking Elders that cover Springdale 1st. The Spanish Elders go to a Spanish Branch. And here's the interesting thing. We have two Marshallese-Speaking Elders. yeah. Um, 10% of the world's population of Marshallese people live in Springdale, Arkansas. It's the largest concentration of Marshallese people outside of the Marshall Islands. Talk about Random. I hear that it's mostly because of all of the Chicken Factories out here (there's a ton). There is also a Marshallese branch. And there's another ward about a half an hour away (not in our district) that meets in our building. 5 units in one building. Insanity. haha.
My companions name is Elder John LaRoy Thomas. He is from a little town in the middle of no-where called Panaca, Nevada. His father is Devin Thomas. Owner and operator of Devin Thomas Damascus. Apparently, his father is the best in the world at making Damascus Steel. Apparently Damascus Steel is this amazing stuff that most professional knife-makers use. And, coincidentally, there are a ton of professional knife-makers in Northwest, Arkansas. Weird, eh? But Elder Thomas is really awesome. Very Gorilla-esque. Big guy. Big heart. He has great people skills. Great sense of humor. He is the District Leader here.
So on Saturday we first met with the Relief Society President. She is amazing. She gave us like 13 names of people to baptize. We later met with the Elders Quorum President. And apparently, Home Teaching here is just awful. We will have to fix that.
Yesterday we went into church way earlier and had about and hour and a half long meeting with the Bishop here. Bishop Scott. We learned a ton about the ward and about the work that we need to do here. He is very gung-ho about missionary work, which is awesome. I'm excited. He had us over for dinner yesterday. He grilled us up some AMAZING steaks (he used to be a butcher, and now works for Tyson, so he knows his meat). We tried something interesting. Black Raspberry Jam on Cheddar Cheese. Very interesting. Very good.
I like it here. Our apartment is way nice. The complex has it's own 9 hole golf course that residents can play for free. Sweet, eh? It also has a gym which we exercise at every day.
Well. I am glad to be here. Life is good! I'm excited to keep moving the work forward here. The Har-ber ward will be Translate before the end of this transfer, haha.
Not much else to talk about right now. And I've gotta go. My computer time is up! I love you all! Thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support! It helps me so much! :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
Monday, August 10, 2009
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!
Arkansas! Arkansas! I just love ol' Arkansas! Love my Ma and Love my Pa, but I just LOVE ol' Arkansas!
In case you haven't figured it out, I'm headed to Arkansas. Springdale, Arkansas. Harbor Ward. According to Elder Perry, it is a bike area, which I do not look forward to. It's the hottest time of the year! I don't want to be on bike! Oh well. Maybe I'll lose weight? My companion is going to be Elder Thomas. He is the District Leader there. According to Elder Perry, he LOVES push-ups. I head out on Friday. So my next e-mail will be from Arkansas. My first time changing areas. Should be pretty interesting.
My new mailing address is:
4193 Links Drive Apt. #206
Sprindale, AR 72762
Oh. My email is on the fritz, it seems. I keep getting all kinds of error messages(at least I did last week). I hope it works this week.
Jenny Hattabaugh is still on date for August 21st. :) yay! She is the only person ready for August though. There is at least 1 in line for September, but hopefully more will fall into place.
Yesterday a lady who lives near the church just showed up to Sacrament Meeting. Apparently she's looking for a local church because she is sick of driving to Tulsa every week. She loved sacrament meeting. She didn't stay for any other meetings though. We plan to meet with her on this week and teach her. I hope she stays interested.
We had to take our truck in to the dealership last week. It had a lot of engine noise. We were out of a truck for a day. They thought it was the clutch fan, so they replaced that. Still didn't fix the problem. Turned out that it was a pulley. They replaced that and it worked. They also fixed a short in the air conditioner. The other problem is the front passenger window. It's posessed. Sometimes it will just roll itself up and stay up. Sometimes it works just fine. The dealership couldn't duplicate the problem, so of course they didn't fix it. Lame-o's!'
Today we went golfing with the Ward Mission Leader in the Jenks Ward, Bro. Huckell. Another member named Bro. Williams came. It was fun. Elder Perry and I then went to the Oklahoma Aquarium with Bro. Humphrey's from the Sapulpa Ward. It was kind of boring. I have quite a few pictures of fish though.
BTW. I don't know if I ever told you, but I take Fish Oil now. I've FINALLY listened to the doctor, haha. I'm not sure that it helps at all though. I also take a generic multi-vitamin. I don't know if that helps either.
BTW, do you print out my emails for Granny? I hope so.
Not much else to report on my end this week. I will write to you soon and tell you all about Arkansas! I'm excited!
Love,
Elder Bracken.
In case you haven't figured it out, I'm headed to Arkansas. Springdale, Arkansas. Harbor Ward. According to Elder Perry, it is a bike area, which I do not look forward to. It's the hottest time of the year! I don't want to be on bike! Oh well. Maybe I'll lose weight? My companion is going to be Elder Thomas. He is the District Leader there. According to Elder Perry, he LOVES push-ups. I head out on Friday. So my next e-mail will be from Arkansas. My first time changing areas. Should be pretty interesting.
My new mailing address is:
4193 Links Drive Apt. #206
Sprindale, AR 72762
Oh. My email is on the fritz, it seems. I keep getting all kinds of error messages(at least I did last week). I hope it works this week.
Jenny Hattabaugh is still on date for August 21st. :) yay! She is the only person ready for August though. There is at least 1 in line for September, but hopefully more will fall into place.
Yesterday a lady who lives near the church just showed up to Sacrament Meeting. Apparently she's looking for a local church because she is sick of driving to Tulsa every week. She loved sacrament meeting. She didn't stay for any other meetings though. We plan to meet with her on this week and teach her. I hope she stays interested.
We had to take our truck in to the dealership last week. It had a lot of engine noise. We were out of a truck for a day. They thought it was the clutch fan, so they replaced that. Still didn't fix the problem. Turned out that it was a pulley. They replaced that and it worked. They also fixed a short in the air conditioner. The other problem is the front passenger window. It's posessed. Sometimes it will just roll itself up and stay up. Sometimes it works just fine. The dealership couldn't duplicate the problem, so of course they didn't fix it. Lame-o's!'
Today we went golfing with the Ward Mission Leader in the Jenks Ward, Bro. Huckell. Another member named Bro. Williams came. It was fun. Elder Perry and I then went to the Oklahoma Aquarium with Bro. Humphrey's from the Sapulpa Ward. It was kind of boring. I have quite a few pictures of fish though.
BTW. I don't know if I ever told you, but I take Fish Oil now. I've FINALLY listened to the doctor, haha. I'm not sure that it helps at all though. I also take a generic multi-vitamin. I don't know if that helps either.
BTW, do you print out my emails for Granny? I hope so.
Not much else to report on my end this week. I will write to you soon and tell you all about Arkansas! I'm excited!
Love,
Elder Bracken.
Hey Parents :)
Good to hear from you, as always :). I am EXTREMELY glad that you went to the temple! How was it? When are you going back?
Last Saturday was the Tulsa Stake's "Fill-the-Temple Day." Apparently it was a huge success. The Stake's goal was 400 endowment sessions and they reached 405(by making the temple workers participate in sessions with them, haha). Pretty exciting. A number of people bore their testimony on temples yesterday.
I bore my testimony on Seminary, as that is starting soon. I sure do miss that. Fun times. I hope that sometime on my mission I'll get to sub for seminary teachers on occasion. As I understand it, that's a fairly common thing out here. Seminary teacher is just a calling out here, not a job. And it's just at the church. And if the teacher can't show up for some reason, they call the missionaries. Of course, people do that to fix all of their problems haha ;)
I am doing very well. Life is pretty peachy :). On Saturday we have "Transfer Awareness Night," as some missionaries call it. So next week I'll let you know if I'm transferred or not. I think I will be, personally.
So, dad wanted me to explain a typical day in the life of Elder Bracken. Here goes:
6:30 Wake up, pray, exercise(which I don't really do..... haha)
7:00 Shower, get ready for the day, eat breakfast, etc.
8:00 Personal Study
9:00 Companion Study
10:00 Head out and proselyte
12:00(or around there) Take a lunch hour
1:00 Proselyte
6:00 ish is usually dinner with a member family
7:00 Proselyte
9:00 Come home and plan the next day out
9:30 write in journal, get ready for bed, etc.
10:30 go to sleep.
Our evenings we try and have set appointments of people to teach. And we like to have a member go out on exchange with us. Having a member present in a lesson makes a huge difference.
In the morning we usually pick some people to drop by and visit. Or sometimes we'll have other things in the morning, like District Meeting or Mission Coordination Meeting or something.
In the afterrnoon we try and drop-by some people to teach. We get set appointments if we can, but the afternoon is pretty rough.
Right before dinner is usually when we'll do our "Power Hour." That is an hour of Finding. Which is usually Tracting and Street Contacting. We are supposed to talk to 20 people per day. Tracting is useless. It is pretty much the most inneffective method of finding that a Missionary has at his disposal. But we always end up doing it. Personally, I hate it with a passion. A member in the Jenks Ward told us, "Tracting is for bad missionaries." haha.
The best time is the evening when we have set appointments and an exchange. That's when we get our most effective teaching in. I love teaching. It's amazing.
As far as I am aware right now, I don't need anything. I'm pretty set here. I promised myself that I wouldn't be a missionary that accrues lots of stuff, but I've failed miserably. Every week I end up buying something, I swear. Even if it's something small, like White-Out. But something. But as far as big things go, I'm doing well. I don't really need anything at the moment. But I will let you know if I do :)
Thank you for writing me :) I am very excited to read about what goes on at home :) But I have to get going now. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Bracken
Good to hear from you, as always :). I am EXTREMELY glad that you went to the temple! How was it? When are you going back?
Last Saturday was the Tulsa Stake's "Fill-the-Temple Day." Apparently it was a huge success. The Stake's goal was 400 endowment sessions and they reached 405(by making the temple workers participate in sessions with them, haha). Pretty exciting. A number of people bore their testimony on temples yesterday.
I bore my testimony on Seminary, as that is starting soon. I sure do miss that. Fun times. I hope that sometime on my mission I'll get to sub for seminary teachers on occasion. As I understand it, that's a fairly common thing out here. Seminary teacher is just a calling out here, not a job. And it's just at the church. And if the teacher can't show up for some reason, they call the missionaries. Of course, people do that to fix all of their problems haha ;)
I am doing very well. Life is pretty peachy :). On Saturday we have "Transfer Awareness Night," as some missionaries call it. So next week I'll let you know if I'm transferred or not. I think I will be, personally.
So, dad wanted me to explain a typical day in the life of Elder Bracken. Here goes:
6:30 Wake up, pray, exercise(which I don't really do..... haha)
7:00 Shower, get ready for the day, eat breakfast, etc.
8:00 Personal Study
9:00 Companion Study
10:00 Head out and proselyte
12:00(or around there) Take a lunch hour
1:00 Proselyte
6:00 ish is usually dinner with a member family
7:00 Proselyte
9:00 Come home and plan the next day out
9:30 write in journal, get ready for bed, etc.
10:30 go to sleep.
Our evenings we try and have set appointments of people to teach. And we like to have a member go out on exchange with us. Having a member present in a lesson makes a huge difference.
In the morning we usually pick some people to drop by and visit. Or sometimes we'll have other things in the morning, like District Meeting or Mission Coordination Meeting or something.
In the afterrnoon we try and drop-by some people to teach. We get set appointments if we can, but the afternoon is pretty rough.
Right before dinner is usually when we'll do our "Power Hour." That is an hour of Finding. Which is usually Tracting and Street Contacting. We are supposed to talk to 20 people per day. Tracting is useless. It is pretty much the most inneffective method of finding that a Missionary has at his disposal. But we always end up doing it. Personally, I hate it with a passion. A member in the Jenks Ward told us, "Tracting is for bad missionaries." haha.
The best time is the evening when we have set appointments and an exchange. That's when we get our most effective teaching in. I love teaching. It's amazing.
As far as I am aware right now, I don't need anything. I'm pretty set here. I promised myself that I wouldn't be a missionary that accrues lots of stuff, but I've failed miserably. Every week I end up buying something, I swear. Even if it's something small, like White-Out. But something. But as far as big things go, I'm doing well. I don't really need anything at the moment. But I will let you know if I do :)
Thank you for writing me :) I am very excited to read about what goes on at home :) But I have to get going now. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Bracken
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