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