So, I will make this fairly brief. First of all, we just talked on Friday. Secondly, the library is closed so we are emailing at a members house and I don't want to spend all day on their computer.

Russell didn't come to church and he wasn't there for our appointment on Sunday. So that's a little worrying. I hope that everything is okay.

We had a great Christmas. We just hung out at the Miner's house. Talked on the phone. Played games. Ate food. Watched The Best Two Years. It was fun. :)

Thank you for the gifts. They are very nice. I love the sweaters. :) As far as my birthday goes, I don't know. The only thing I could think of that I could really use is a GPS. They're pretty handy. I don't really need anything else.

Well, I'm gonna get going now. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Hopefully the library will be open on Monday for us to email. :)

Love,
Elder Bracken

Merry Christmas!

I am proud of you for not opening my package. It's nothing terribly remarkable. I hope youre not disappointed. I did get your package and I am very excited to open it. I was hoping that your email would tell me to open it now, but I guess I'll just have to wait too. :)

I am very excited to call home. That's what I'm most looking forward to about Christmas. I will be calling at Noon here. So it will be 11 am there. I hope I get to talk to Amanda & Scott as well, but I understand if they have other plans during that time.

My companion is Elder Robert Sherrick. he is from South Jordan, Utah. He is a good missionary. Very humble. And he never complains. About anything. It's so crazy. That is a skill I definitely need to learn from him during our time together. He has been out 4 1/2 months. He was just serving in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. He has a (fraternal) twin brother serving in Brazil right now.

We gave our tree away. We started teaching this guy Davie(ey?). He's really cool. Very humble guy who just wants to do the right thing. He's helping out a friend of his named Joel. Joel is living with Davie along with his little kids. I think he has 2 of them. So Davie's helping him out trying to make sure they have a Merry Christmas. But they didn't have a tree. So last night we took ours over and left it on his doorstep. Hopefully they will enjoy it more than we did. And hopefully the stupid flashing lights won't annoy them. haha.

Well, I don't have too much else to report this week. Especially since I'm calling home on Friday. I don't want to spoil it. :) So I will talk to you then! Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Well, another transfer is over with. My companion is leaving me! What a surprise! haha. I am staying here in Webb City. I am going to be Senior Companion. My new partner, who will get here on Friday, is named Elder Sherrick. He has been out like 3 months or so. From what I hear at least.

The big news: Our investigator, Andrew Wyrick, whom we love dearly and would do anything for, has left. He was probably going to go to jail for a year. So he skipped town. He's probably in Kansas right now, probably on the run from the law. He didn't even tell us that he was leaving. So, I hope and pray that he will get his life sorted out and will one day accept the Gospel. He's had many spiritual witnesses that this is the true Church.

Bigger news: Russell O'Neill. His wife Jessica and his son Shane joined the church like a year ago. He was not baptized then because he was on probation. And an alcoholic. Jessica and Shane are currently less-active for various reasons. Hopefully that will change soon. So anyways, Russell quit the sauce about a month and a half ago. He messed up only once and that was pretty early on. This man has had soooo many missionaries teach him. And guess what? He set a Baptismal Date on Saturday for January 23rd! Crazy, no? It was such a miracle. The Lord has been working on him for so long. It's a good thing that God is infinitely patient. I am so excited! Also, he(and Shane!) came to Church yesterday even though Jessica couldn't come. So that was amazing.

As for calling home, I don't know any specific time yet. Hopefully I will next week. We are going over to the Miner's house again. We will call home from there. No phone card necessary. The only snag in the plans is that the Miner's have a son on a mission that they need to talk to. So they need to set up a time to talk to him. So, hopefully I will have a specific time for you on Monday. I will do my best. :)

Well, if you can't send me any Hershey's Chocolate Milk Mix, can you send me some Carnation Brand Tuna? They don't sell that here either! Normal mail will be fine, by the way. I don't plan on opening the package until Christmas Day, I hope that will be fine.

Also, thank you for the package you sent me. I love the little tree and the stocking. :) It's so fun. :)

So we had interviews with President Merkley on Thursday. My interview was very interesting. He said, essentially, that he plans on keeping me here for 6-8 months. He feels that I will see good success and growth in the work here. I am excited. I need to grow and learn a lot though, if I'm gonna be ready to be Senior Companion. Yikes!

Are you going to have a White Christmas? Is there much snow there now? It doesn't really snow here, which is pretty lame. I am excited to see my first ice storm. Hopefully we'll get one while I'm here. :)

Have I told you that I have become addicted to Frozen Custard? It is so good! It's not really a big thing in the west, but it's pretty big out here. I love the stuff.

Well anyways. Thank you all for your kind thoughts, prayers, and letters! It means so much to me!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hi there!

Yes mom, I did get your Thanksgiving package. I'm sorry I forgot to mention it. :( I was very glad to receive it. The Line of Authority is awesome. And I loved reading a conversion story of one of my ancestors. It was great. Thank you. :)

Yes, it has been very cold here. We were on bikes last week, and very cold. We were blessed for working hard in it though. We found 6 new investigators. That was awesome. I hope it continues. But by the same token, I'm glad to be blessed with a car this week. :)

What do I want for Christmas? Well. I want some Hershey's Chocolate Milk Mix. They only sell Nesquik out here! Lame! I would also love a bag of Werther's Original Hard Caramels. They are my newest addiction haha.

Now calling on Christmas, I don't know about that yet. I either need to find a member who can call long distance(or has Verizon) or use a payphone. I'll try and figure that all out soon. I IMAGINE that I would be calling somewhere between like 9 and 11 o'clock(your time). But we'll see!

I will try to get a letter written for you, mom. About service. I don't have time right now. Hopefully I will be able to later today so it can get home on time.

We have a nice little 2 foot christmas tree set up in our room. I bought some green trim and some red mini ornaments for it. It looks nice. Except for the lights. Sometimes they work normal. Other times they decide to be blinking lights. So annnoying! I can't fix it!

Our investigator, Andrew Wyrick, is frustrating me. We have done so much for him. We took him to Thanksgiving. We took him to a member's house to watch some of last General Conference. We took him to a baptism. He has had multiple spiritual witnesses that this is true. He knows it is. But he's just not putting forth effort to become a part of it. Also, he just got evicted. So he may just disappear one day. I hope he takes his Book of Mormon with him wherever he goes. I know he'll join someday. I just wish it would be now and not later.

We've dropped many investigators who have been stagnating. Many who, I honestly don't understand why Elder's have hung on to them up til now. Emotional Attachment I guess. It is hard to drop someone you care about.

Well, Elder Stapley has less than 2 weeks left. He's fairing pretty well, all things considered. I mean, he is a little emotionally distressed, but not anywhere near as bad as one might expect him to be.

I need to learn to relax.

Anyways. It was great to hear from you! I will keep praying for you!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Bracken