Dear Familia,

BIG NEWS! I'm staying here! And so is Elder Rowley! That was weird. I was not expecting that. They are re-opening the Spanish area this week so we'll be back up to 6 Elders. No one signed up to feed us this week, or the Zone Leaders, and definitely none for the Spanish Elders, so they day they come in Elder Rowley and I are gonna cook a big meal in the Crock-Pot(which a family gave us for Christmas) for all 6 of us. It'll be a fun experiment. :) I do love to cook.

Christmas was awesome. I loved it. Thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts! :) They were very much appreciated! :) BTW, I got a copy of Lectures on Faith from another missionary, so I got that too! :) haha. I'm spoiled.

We spent Christmas Even night at the other Elder's apartment. We slept in till about 9 a.m. We had French Toast and bacon(I bought 2 pounds, haha). The French Toast was good. Elder Woodward made it. Instead of mixing milk with the eggs he mixed in Coffee mate Creamer. He usually uses the Pumpkin Spice flavor but they didn't have it. So he used the Cinnamon Bun Flavor. It was so good. Cinnamon Roll flavored French Toast.(he also sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon on the toast itself). We each called home. That was fun. Then Elder Rowley and I went and had dinner with a family. We then went to our apartment and the missionaries brought over games they borrowed from a member. My favorite one was a Mormon card game called "It Came to Pass." It's KINDA like Uno, but way more fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it. it wouldn't be all that fun with only 2 people, but if you have 3 or more people, it's a blast. They then spent the night at our apartment. Then we went to Church the next day of course.

I'm going to go buy a desk today. Probably at Staples. Last time I was there I saw one for like 30 bucks. I haven't had a desk the whole time I've been here. Studying at the the kitchen table gets old. All I can think about is eating, haha.

Overall, I'm still enjoying life. Our investigators aren't progressing very well right now. We need to find new ones. We're working on it. :)

I don't have all that much to say this week, since I just called home, sorry.

Have a great week! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Go to the temple!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
WOW! Steak! Holy Carp! That was amazing! I didn't know you could ship steak to people! :) That was "just a real nice surprise." :) I haven't cooked them yet, but we will soon. :) Thanks! All the packages(as far as I can tell) got here safely. So, thank you! :)
 
I can't wait for you to open up the package I sent you. I hope you enjoyed the job I did taping that thing, haha. I may have went a little overboard. I used most of a roll of packing tape, haha.
 
We've had a pretty good week. We've had some good success tracting. We're really excited for a family that we're going to go teach tonight at 7. They seem golden. So, if you wouldn't mind saying a prayer that the Floyd family will be receptive to the Gospel, that would be wonderful. :)
 
For phone calls, I will call around 11:00 a.m. here. So 10:00 a.m. there, if all goes well. I look forward to hearing you. :)

 
I would like to share with you something I've learned from my studies recently. I went through the Savior's Discourse in 3 Nephi Chapters 12-14 and compared it side-by-side to the sermon on the mount(this is a study activity suggested in Preach My Gospel). At first glance they're almost identical. But there's a few significant differences. The difference that caught my attention the most is this:
 
3 Ne. 12:23-24 reads:
 
"Therefore, if ye shall come unto me, or shall desire to come unto me, and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee- Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to they brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you."
 
So, we must repent and forgive our neighbors before we can come unto Christ, but that's not what I'd like to focus on at the moment. Cross reference this with Matthew 5:23-24:
 
"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there they gift before the alter, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer they gift."
 
Interesting difference there. In one place he tells us to come to the altar, in another place he tells us to come unto Him. I realized(or rather it was revealed to me) that to come to the altar is to come unto Christ. That's what we're doing when we go to an altar. Now, where do we have altars? Primarily in 2 places. First, in the Temple. There are many altars there, all used for seemingly different purposes, but if we really think about it, the purpose is the same. Christ. Coming unto Him to receive Salvation.
 
The other typical location of an altar is the Chapel. The Sacrament table is an altar. Every week we have an opportunity to come to the Altar, to come unto Christ through the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. As I was pondering this yesterday while the Sacrament was passed to the Congregation, I thought of the words of the Sacramental Prayers which plead to the lord to "sanctify" the bread and water to our souls. My mind was cast to another scripture on the topic of Sanctification. Moroni 10:32-33:
 
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all  ungodliness, and love God with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye shall in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the Grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot."
 
So, we come unto Christ by going to the Altar. We go to church to partake of the Sacrament. We repent and commit to deny ourselves of all our ungodliness. We choose to follow Christ and not Satan. We do not lay hold upon the unclean thing. We love God. Then he makes us perfect in Christ. You and I will never attain perfection in this life. We sin daily. But if we do our VERY best, and we follow Christ with all our hearts, we can become perfect in Christ through His Grace. He makes up the difference. The gaps are filled. The rough places are smoothed over. His infinite atoning power pays the debt of which we are so incapable of paying. Now when this happens, if we do not deny the faith and God's power, we become Sanctified. We become holy, without spot. We retain the remission of our sins. What blessing! The "covenant of the Father unto the remission of [our] sins" is Baptism. Where do we renew that covenant? At the altar. At the feet of the Savior. We have now come full circle. We now understand how we may lay hold upon Eternal Life. Do you understand how totally, supremely important it is that we partake of the Sacrament each week? We WILL not and CAN not receive Salvation and Exaltation without it. We will not be sanctified. We will not be holy. We will not be perfect in Christ. We will be of a lesser glory. Of a terrestrial or telestial glory.
 
So that's what I learned yesterday as I partook of the Sacrament. I know it to be a true, saving ordinance. We MUST do everything in our power to partake of it regularly. May the Lord bless us as we do so is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
We got our car back on Thursday. Hallelujah! It also saved me some money. See, we were right about to go take my bike to the shop to have work done on it(which I've been procrastinating on for many months). I have no idea how much it would have cost to do everything I really wanted done. So, just before our ride came to get us I called to check on the car and they said it was being test driven and we could go and get it right quick. So our ride dropped us off at the Dealership and that was that. :) One of these days I'll still go take my bike and get at least some of the stuff done so it will at least be ride-able. But for now, I'll enjoy the car. (Knock on wood)
 
We had no investigators at church yesterday. Our "Eternigator" had a bad breakout of Gout so he couldn't even walk. Another doesn't "like the cold," she said as she was standing outside talking to us....... hmmmm.......  So yeah, that was annoying. We did have a Less-Active come that hasn't been in awhile, so that was really exciting. Another Less-Active went to church, but at a different ward. So that was good, too.
 
The weather has been very cold and windy. That's about it, haha.
 
With any luck I will get y'all's Christmas package sent out this week. If not this week, then the next for SURE, but it should be out today, in all likelihood.
 
At the used book store I picked up a joke book. Of sorts. I found "The Volunteer Minister's Handbook" by L. Ron Hubbard. It is the handbook on how to be a Scientologist minister. It pretty much comes right out and says that their beliefs are nonsense. Oh, they also claim that Jesus was a Buddhist. And their "volunteer" ministers get paid! What a deal! It's very funny. I'll send that home too, one of these days.
 
We had interviews with President Merkley this week. It sounds very very probable that I will get transferred at the end of the month(after Christmas). Elder Rowley will be "promoted," if you want to use that term, to Senior Companion.
 
As for phone calls home, I have no idea what's going on with that. I'll see if we can get that sorted out this week. I don't have a companion who has to call internationally this time, so we should have some more flexibility, I hope. This is my last phone call home. Isn't that weird?
 
Well, I suppose I'll get going. It's been a good week. I'm doing well. Life is good!
 
Have a wonderful week! Go to the temple!(with your current recommends in tow, haha)
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
I don't know if you are still open to ideas for what to get me for Christmas, but I thought of a couple things. The first thing that I would totally LOVE would be a gift card to Sonic. Being able to go there any day during happy hour and get a drink or a slush with a gift card would be AWESOME. Also, I would love a copy of the Lectures on Faith(that's approved reading for us). But if you've already got everything for my package, that's okay. :) Sometime in the next couple weeks I'll get one sent off to y'all. I hope you'll like it. :)
 
So, yesterday was interesting. We went to church. We had 3 investigators at Sacrament Meeting. That was awesome. We had this lady and her kids come that we've been working with for quite awhile. It's taken everything we could do to get her to church. Finally we got her to agree to take a private tour of the chapel with us Saturday and she enjoyed it. So she came Sunday. Hallelujah!
 
Church overall was really good. Then, we left to go back to Van Buren. A couple hundred yards from the church there is a 4-way stop. We pulled up to it, stopped, and then went to keep going. I pressed the gas and.... nothing. Dead. Car is dead. Wouldn't start. So, yesterday was interesting. We spent most of it with the other Elders. We spent the night with them(they're apartment is equipped for 4 Elders but currently only has 2, so that's convenient). Our car's getting towed to the Toyota Dealership and HOPEFULLY they'll be able to find the problem and fix it all in one day.
Other than that it's been a fantastic week. I really do love it here in Van Buren.
 
I had Deer-Steak the other day. It was REALLY good. Excellent with Head Country BBQ sauce.
 
I loved the Christmas Devotional last night. Good music. I especially love the Doctrine of the Grinch. Is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" scripture now? haha.
 
Well, anyways. I hope y'all have a good week and that you have no car troubles!(knock on wood). And since you have a functioning car, why not drive over to the temple and do a session? ;)
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
I don't know if you are still open to ideas for what to get me for Christmas, but I thought of a couple things. The first thing that I would totally LOVE would be a gift card to Sonic. Being able to go there any day during happy hour and get a drink or a slush with a gift card would be AWESOME. Also, I would love a copy of the Lectures on Faith(that's approved reading for us). But if you've already got everything for my package, that's okay. :) Sometime in the next couple weeks I'll get one sent off to y'all. I hope you'll like it. :)
 
So, yesterday was interesting. We went to church. We had 3 investigators at Sacrament Meeting. That was awesome. We had this lady and her kids come that we've been working with for quite awhile. It's taken everything we could do to get her to church. Finally we got her to agree to take a private tour of the chapel with us Saturday and she enjoyed it. So she came Sunday. Hallelujah!
 
Church overall was really good. Then, we left to go back to Van Buren. A couple hundred yards from the church there is a 4-way stop. We pulled up to it, stopped, and then went to keep going. I pressed the gas and.... nothing. Dead. Car is dead. Wouldn't start. So, yesterday was interesting. We spent most of it with the other Elders. We spent the night with them(they're apartment is equipped for 4 Elders but currently only has 2, so that's convenient). Our car's getting towed to the Toyota Dealership and HOPEFULLY they'll be able to find the problem and fix it all in one day.
Other than that it's been a fantastic week. I really do love it here in Van Buren.
 
I had Deer-Steak the other day. It was REALLY good. Excellent with Head Country BBQ sauce.
 
I loved the Christmas Devotional last night. Good music. I especially love the Doctrine of the Grinch. Is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" scripture now? haha.
 
Well, anyways. I hope y'all have a good week and that you have no car troubles!(knock on wood). And since you have a functioning car, why not drive over to the temple and do a session? ;)
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
Yes, I did get my Thanksgiving package. Thank you. I enjoyed it. :) I especially love the tie. On that same note, a few weeks ago, the family down in St. George sent me a package of delicious goodies and athlete's foot medicine, for which I am most grateful. I do not recall if I mentioned it in my email that week or not. And I'm not sure who specifically was responsible for it. So, at any rate, whoever sent it, Thank you!
 
On  that note of gratitude I would like to thank all of you for your prayers, packages, letters, and general support to me. It means so much to me that people back home are supporting me. It makes my burden so much easier to bear. Thank you. :)
 
I had a great Thanksgiving. First, we ate at noon at the church. They provided a meal for anyone that had nowhere to go. It was really good. That evening we went to a lady named Khouanh's house. She had tons of friends and family, many of which were non-members. So it was good interaction with them.
 
It has been raining here. Raining and raining and raining. No snow though. I doubt if we'll have any this year. But you never know. The weather  here is insane. I still want to see an ice-storm. :)
 
I have really appreciated the Sweaters you sent me last year. They have been very nice to have.
 
As far as a picture, I will try to get one off. That will give me an excuse to send home a package of excess "shtuff" that I don't need to lug around. :) So that'll be nice. Sometime in the next couple weeks I will also send a Christmas package home, which you must not open 'til Christmas. :) I hope you'll enjoy it. It should have some good stuff, if everything works out as planned. :)
 
I have been reading the New Testament as well, Dad. I'm in the middle of John. I prefer Luke and John. Not a big fan of Mark. I find it boring, haha. It has a few gems that the other Gospels do not, though.
I don't know what you could get me for Christmas. I don't need anything that I can't get. The money would more wisely be spent on others. Or saving it for when I get home and need new stuff. I just already have too much stuff. Ties would be nice, though, if you find any awesome ones by chance. Candy is always welcome, of course. :) (I have a HUGE supply of tuna now, though, so we can hold off on that for awhile).
I don't have much else to talk about right now. Missionary life is missionary life. And I love it. I hope you all have a great week and that you take the opportunity to go to the temple and worship the Lord this Holiday season!
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

Yes, Mom, we're eating at someone's house on Thanksgiving! :) We'll be fine! :)

We did buy a little 3-footer tree. We already set it up, haha. It's a nice little tree. I've taken plenty of pictures of it, which you'll see sooner or later, haha.

As far as Christmas goes, I will think about that. I really don't need a whole lot. New ties are always welcome of course, if you can find any awesome ones.(my taste in ties has changed a lot on my mission as well). I could use a new watch. I stopped wearing mine. It was giving me a rash. It's starting to rust, so I think that's probably what was irritating my skin. So I'm not wearing it anymore. I think I'm fine with clothing, really. Not a problem there, really. I only need(and can only haul around) so much. One thing I've seen that I want really badly is this Book of Mormon. It's a replica of the 1830 edition. I have no idea where you'd get one. The church doesn't sell them(on their website at least). It's really cool though. If you happen across one of them, I would love that.

I would LOVE a copy of that Elder Holland talk. I don't THINK I have that one. I have a fairly large collection of Elder Holland talks. He's a missionary favorite. I'm a fan, for sure.

BTW, did you ever get to watch any of the Preach My Gospel DVD's I sent home? If so, what did you think?

Yeah, I remember Kevin Laws from High School. I didn't know him all that well, though.

I can't believe how fast time is going. It makes me sick. One of my Zone Leaders just went home at the end of his mission. He was texting a member in the ward here and, apparently, he HATES being home. I don't blame him. I wish time could just slow down a little. I love being a missionary.

We had a cool ward activity last week. This Women's choir from the local University came and put on a concert. It was pretty cool. There was also a Bell Choir and some Irish Dancers. It was interesting.

Well, I had better get going. I hope y'all have a wonderful holiday! Go to the temple!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
So, we got transfer calls on Saturday. Strange things happened. Firstly, Elder Rowley and I are staying together at least another 6 weeks(I predicted that). Also, I was assigned to be a District Leader. The Spanish area is being semi-dissolved. Elder Lloyd is leaving, and no one is replacing him! So, Elder Bartholomew is going to be in a Tri-panionship(as it is coloquially known) with the other Ft. Smith English Elders, who are the Zone Leaders. This presents a problem. The Zone Leaders are usually out attending other District Meetings. So for probably 2 out of 3 weeks this leaves Elder Rowley and I alone with 2 sister missionaries for District Meeting. So, we're going to have to do a lot of planning and scheduling to make sure that the Zone Leaders or at least Elder Bartholomew can be there at every district meeting in order to keep things appropriate.
 
So that's the news.
 
Last week I bought the Mannheim Steamroller 25th Anniversary Christmas Collection. It's AWESOME! I don't know how I survived last Christmas without this stuff. On a related note, today I'm going to get a 3 foot or so Christmas Tree for our Apartment. We don't have one, sadly. That needs to be fixed. So I'll pick one up at Wal-Mart today. We were looking at them last week, but I didn't want to pay for one until I knew 100% for sure that I wasn't going to be transferred, haha.
 
That's the big excitement, really.
 
We had the Primary Program yesterday. It was SO good! I love the Primary Program. Best Sunday of the year, I think. It's the only church meeting where you are GUARANTEED to feel the Spirit, I think. :) Unfortunately, we had no investigators present. I was upset about that. But that's how it goes sometimes. We really need to find some new investigators. Our current ones aren't going anywhere fast. We're doing our best to help them progress, but you can't force them.
 
So, suprise! I like Pumpkin Pie now. Weird, huh? I baked one of my own the other day. It was very good. It's interesting how your tastes change as you grow. You'd be surprised what I like now. Still not fruit though, haha. Though I do enjoy canteloupe on occasion, in small doses. The other day I tried Honeydew, and it was similar to canteloupe. I enjoyed that as well.
 
 
I would like to bear you my testimony briefly that I know the Church is true. I know that if we follow the counsel of the Living Prophets, we will be led to safety. I know that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and that he arose 3 days later, granting us immortality and the opportunity to have eternal life. I know that through the ordinances of the Temple, families can indeed live together in love and harmony for time and all eternity. I know that God lives and loves each of us, and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
Great to hear from you, as always!
 
Sorry I didn't email yesterday. We had Zone Conference. It was really good. It was all about Following the Spirit, setting Baptismal Dates with investigators, and How to Begin Teaching. I really enjoyed it. Excellent conference.
 
Last week we went to the local Used Book Store. We found some interesting gems there. A number of copies of the Book of Mormon(a couple of which were fairly old). Articles of Faith by James E Talmage. A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by Legrande Richards(I bought those last two). Several Teachings of the Presidents of the Church manuals. Volume 3 of Teachings of President Brigham Young(Elder Rowley got that one). It was cool. :) I love the Gospel! :) I just can't learn enough about it! Every time I learn something knew, it just makes me hunger and thirst after more knowledge. It's incredible. I want to know the Gospel better than anyone(with the possible exception of General Auhtorites because they have access to things that I don't, haha. In fact I'm fairly certain that the Church is already in possession of the records of the Lost Tribes of Israel, but that's totally beside the point :P )
 
As far as things you could tell Caitlin about my Companion: He's a little shy. He loves basketball. He's smart and has a strong testimony.
 
We had homemade Fried Chicken the other day. It was SO good! :) Fried Chicken is probably my favorite food.
 
I don't know what else to say this week. So far, I'm getting along fine without my home card, but we'll see what exactly I'll be eating at the end of the month. Probably Top Ramen. Haha.
 
Well, have a good week! Go to the Temple!
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

Mom, you're not old yet! Old is 50, remember? :) (I'm so glad I'm gonna be home for Dad to turn old haha)

So yeah, the whole debit card thing, that was a surprise and a half. We went to this Restaurant called The Cuban Grill. I've never had Cuban food before(to my knowledge) and wanted to try it. It was just okay. But anyways I went to the cash register to pay for it. I whipped out my trusty debit card and.... it wasn't there. That's weird. So I looked through all the other slots really fast, a red alert going off in my mind. I handed the guy my missionary card silently praying that our November allotment had come in early. It went through, hallelujah! So, we were on foot(short on miles) and as we were walking home I called President Merkley to tell him. He said he would call you. I was afraid you'd have a heart attack when you realized who it was. I'm glad you didn't. :) It's funny. On the back of the card it has a 1-800 number to call if it is lost or stolen(that's useful....not). My entire mission I've had this feeling that I needed to write down the phone number just in case. I didn't.
And look what happened. I'm just glad no one used it. What I'm fairly certain happened is that I didn't take the card when I used the ATM on Tuesday(I was getting cash to pay an alteration shop for fixing several torn pairs of pants). I believe those machines are programmed to "eat" the card if it is left there for too long. It's probably in the machine right now. Oh well. It's cancelled now. Maybe now I'll learn how to live on a budget for reals haha. Ya know, the other thing that has always been in the back of my mind is that my card would've expired a month and 6 days before I go home, which would be awful. That's when I would need it the most to send stuff home.

Thank you for the package! I am excited to see the basement. :) I hope it's going well. Also, you need to get a couch like the Pyle's have for the basement. It's perfect.

Last Friday there was a Halloween party/Chili cookoff for the ward here. We came wearing these REALLY wide ties for our costume. The Zone Leaders one-upped us though. They came as the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible. The got boxes, cut out holes for their faces and arms, painted them blue, and painted on the titles of the books on it. They were a big hit. It was a good idea, I gotta say. Then won the best overall costume award, I think. They also on the Spiciest Chili award. I didn't have our chili recipe and was too cheap/poor to make some, really. Plus we don't have a crock pot in this area. So, our entry was a can of Great Value Chili with Beans. We just opened it and sat it on the table next to all of the crock pots. :)

Saturday we played basketball with the other missionaries and some of their recent converts/less actives. It was VIOLENT. I'm still sore. See, I discovered something. I'm really really big. So I can just kind of.....tackle people, if I want the ball. :) And there's no fouls in Church Ball. Instead of Church Ball we should just call it smeer the queer. It was fun, at any rate.

Congratulations to Frazier! I'm not gonna have any single cousins by the time I get home haha. Oh, on that note, I'm trying to hook my companion up with Caitlin. We both wrote her a letter. She hasn't written back yet. You should tell her to. :)
I bought a copy of the Apocrypha at a Christian Book Store last week. I read a little bit of it. It was interesting. I read the First Book of the Maccabees. It mentions Jews recording events on Brass Tables. Hmmmmm..... :)

We also went to Parley P. Pratt's Gravesite last week. That was really cool. I liked it alot.

Well, I hope you all have a good week and that you take some time out of your busy schedule to go to the temple. :) Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
Mom, you're not old yet! Old is 50, remember? :) (I'm so glad I'm gonna be home for Dad to turn old haha)
 
So yeah, the whole debit card thing, that was a surprise and a half. We went to this Restaurant called The Cuban Grill. I've never had Cuban food before(to my knowledge) and wanted to try it. It was just okay. But anyways I went to the cash register to pay for it. I whipped out my trusty debit card and.... it wasn't there. That's weird. So I looked through all the other slots really fast, a red alert going off in my mind. I handed the guy my missionary card silently praying that our November allotment had come in early. It went through, hallelujah! So, we were on foot(short on miles) and as we were walking home I called President Merkley to tell him. He said he would call you. I was afraid you'd have a heart attack when you realized who it was. I'm glad you didn't. :) It's funny. On the back of the card it has a 1-800 number to call if it is lost or stolen(that's useful....not). My entire mission I've had this feeling that I needed to write down the phone number just in case. I didn't.
And look what happened. I'm just glad no one used it. What I'm fairly certain happened is that I didn't take the card when I used the ATM on Tuesday(I was getting cash to pay an alteration shop for fixing several torn pairs of pants). I believe those machines are programmed to "eat" the card if it is left there for too long. It's probably in the machine right now. Oh well. It's cancelled now. Maybe now I'll learn how to live on a budget for reals haha. Ya know, the other thing that has always been in the back of my mind is that my card would've expired a month and 6 days before I go home, which would be awful. That's when I would need it the most to send stuff home. [don't blog]I have always been worried I've been such a great financial burden on you. I guess not. You've redone the backyard and finished the basement. You must not be doing to bad. I wouldn't be surprised if you picked me up from the airport in a new Camaro, haha. :) [end]
 
Thank you for the package! I am excited to see the basement. :) I hope it's going well. But, why in the world would Bro. Warner do finish carpentry and THEN painting?
 
Also, you need to get a couch like the Pyle's have for the basement. It's perfect.
 
Last Friday there was a Halloween party/Chili cookoff for the ward here. We came wearing these REALLY wide ties for our costume. The Zone Leaders one-upped us though. They came as the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible. The got boxes, cut out holes for their faces and arms, painted them blue, and painted on the titles of the books on it. They were a big hit. It was a good idea, I gotta say. Then won the best overall costume award, I think. They also on the Spiciest Chili award. I didn't have our chili recipe and was too cheap/poor to make some, really. Plus we don't have a crock pot in this area. So, our entry was a can of Great Value Chili with Beans. We just opened it and sat it on the table next to all of the crock pots. :)
 
Saturday we played basketball with the other missionaries and some of their recent converts/less actives. It was VIOLENT. I'm still sore. See, I discovered something. I'm really really big. So I can just kind of.....tackle people, if I want the ball. :) And there's no fouls in Church Ball. Instead of Church Ball we should just call it smeer the queer. It was fun, at any rate.
 
Congratulations to Frazier! I'm not gonna have any single cousins by the time I get home haha. Oh, on that note, I'm trying to hook my companion up with Caitlin. We both wrote her a letter. She hasn't written back yet. You should tell her to. :)
I bought a copy of the Apocrypha at a Christian Book Store last week. I read a little bit of it. It was interesting. I read the First Book of the Maccabees. It mentions Jews recording events on Brass Tables. Hmmmmm..... :)
 
We also went to Parley P. Pratt's Gravesite last week. That was really cool. I liked it alot.
 
Well, I hope you all have a good week and that you take some time out of your busy schedule to go to the temple. :) Talk to you next week!
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
It has been a very good week. We set a Baptismal Date with one of our investigators. We also committed her 10 year old son to be baptized at the same time that she is. It was pretty exciting. She still didn't come to church though. She hasn't been yet. There's some underlying concern about it that we just haven't been able to uncover yet. I hope we can soon. But we're very excited for her.
 
Our other investigator, Rob, is progressing...... extremely slowly. We committed him to pray to know if Jesus Christ is his Savior. He agreed. He did not receive an answer to that prayer, but he did receive a confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. He already believed that, so he was kind of puzzled that God would reveal that to him.
 
Yesterday we found a really awesome lady named Kristine. She's Methodist, but she's never heard of Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. When we told her about it she practically demanded that Elder Rowley give he the copy he had on hand(which, of course, he gladly did). We are hoping for good things to happen with her.
 
Right now I am doing the "Book of Mormon Challenge" as some call it. It's one of the study ideas at the end of Chapter 5 in Preach My Gospel. I am going through a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon and highlighting all the references to Christ, as well as all of His words and His attributes. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm feeling the Spirit bear powerful testimony to me of Jesus Christ and of the Book of Mormon.
 
Well, Mom, I don't talk TOO much about our investigators because we hardly have any. There's just not much to report on right now. A lot of tracting and stuff like that. The area is starting to grow, though. So there will be cooler experiences to come, I am sure. Also, we are discouraged from writing about people's personal lives. There are some things that I just don't feel comfortable telling the world about with the people we are working with.
 
Well, I hope you all have a good week, and I hope that you have a Happy Birthday, Mom! :)
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
Things are going well for us here in Van Buren! After MUCH tribulation we had a Baptism Saturday and Confirmation Sunday. I can't tell you how hard it was to make it happen. Words cannot describe. The adversary did not want this to happen. Not one tiny bit. But, after a little prayer, a little faith, and a whole lot of phone calls(and I mean a LOT), it happened. Hallelujah! I can breathe now!
 
That's the big news. The work here is slow now. We only have a couple of investigators, and neither of them are progressing at "ludicrous speed." But, that happens. It's not the first time I've been in a situation like this, and I highly doubt it will be the last. I know how to fix the problem. It will take some doing, but it will happen. Obedience, faith, prayers, and lots and lots of tracting. :)
 
So, on Saturday morning we went to Staples to get the Baptismal Program printed(it looked very nice). It was interesting going there. The employees there were in T-Shirts and Jeans! It was weird! But, the store was very nice. It's arranged in a nice way and everything was neat and tidy. It's just weird going back to places you used to work.
 
I'm unexcited for Halloween, as you probably know. But Thanksgiving should be fantastic. I'm working on going to my favorite member's home for dinner that day. We'll see how that goes. I need to start plotting now, you know. ;)
 
I love to see the temple. I'm going there someday. I hope you are too. We sang that beloved song at the end of the Baptism on Saturday. It made me very Temple-trunky. It is such a wonderfully important place. I hope you are taking advantage of the multitude of blessings that await us there.
 
Well, have a good week!
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

My companion is Elder Daniel Rowley. He's from Roy, Utah. He's been out almost a year. He's a great missionary. Very humble. I love serving with him. As far as he's aware, he's not related to Tara. (BTW, he is addicted to Oreos. Just thought I'd mention that in case you decide to send a package while I'm serving with him). I imagine we'll serve together for 3 months or so. I have no problem with that. We get along great.

As far as the Athlete's foot goes, I have no idea what's up with that. It's quite annoying. I might try and get an over the counter medication again. It's gone down a TON from the prescription, but it's just not quite gone yet. Maybe some Lotrimin(I've had 2 pharmacists and a doctor tell me that that's the best over the counter stuff) will push it over the edge. As for the cough, I've had a cough my whole mission basically. I think it's mostly just because I always have nasal drainage down the back of my throat. I don't know how to fix that. It's probably a life-long problem for me.

Our Baptism has been pushed back to Friday for a number of reasons. But that's now big deal. It should happen. It should all go well. :) We're excited. :)

We went bowling yesterday. It was fun. I got like a 136 or something. Pretty good, for me. I enjoyed it.

Some people made us Cafe Rio stuff for dinner the other day. That was a nice slice of home. I miss that place. It's so good! Then last Saturday, a family had us over and they smoked Ribs. It was soooooooo good! I can't wait to get into that!

Well, I guess I'll talk with you next week! Have a good one! Go to the temple if you can!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

Interviews went very well last week. :) We always love to hear from our Mission President. It's very weird only having interviews every 3 months now.

Elder Fox is being transferred. He's going to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to serve with a Hmong speaking missionary. Pretty crazy.

My new companion is Elder Rowley. (I wonder if he's related to Tara?) I hear that he's awesome, so I'm really excited.

General Conference was AWESOME. I loved it. (We watched all 5 sessions, as usual). I'm not sure what my favorite talk was. It very well could have been President Monson's talk on Gratitude. I really felt that I need to improve on that. I enjoyed most everybody's talks. I loved Elder Oaks' talk. He's a fantastic speaker. He makes things simple for me to understand.
Not much else has happened here. I'm excited for change this week. It's always a good thing to have change. Makes us grow.

It's starting to cool off outside. Fall is definitely here. Halloween will be here before you know it! And then Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything else. Crazy.

Well, I hope you all have a good week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

Sorry I didn't email yesterday. The Library here was closed for some unexplained reason.

It's been a good week here for us! One of our investigators decided she wants to be baptized! She should be baptized on October 10th, if all goes well. So we're really excited about that. The biggest hold up for her is going to church. She's a child of a Less-Active lady, so she doesn't really have control over when she goes to church or not.

Today we have interviews with President Merkley. That's always an exciting/nerve-wracking event. I'm really curious to see what happens. This will directly affect what happens for transfers. We get our Transfer Calls this Friday, and one of us(I'm sure) will leave the following Thursday. In all likelihood, Elder Fox will leave. I'm trying to get him made a Senior Companion, though(he's more than ready). So, hypothetically, he could stay here and be a Senior Companion. But we'll see. For all I know we could get shotgunned out of here. Impossible to predict what President Merkley will do.

I've had a wicked cough this last week. Deep in my lungs. It sucks. I'm mostly better now. Which I attribute to a Humidifier that we borrowed from a member. It's a Spongebob Humidifier. It looks like Spongebob. You fill him up and the vapor comes out the top of his head. It's so cool! I don't know how it works. It doesn't heat the water up at all. It just transforms it from liquid to gas. Elder Fox touched the little thing that turns it to vapor and his finger hurt for like 2 hours after. haha. I don't know how it works, but it was amazing. I am totally getting one when I get home. :)

Thanks for the Chair, by the way. :)

I can't believe how technologically advanced my parents are! Droid phones! Crazy! I've thought about what I'm gonna do for a phone when I get home, but I suppose I don't really have to worry about that right now. All I know is, I hate texting. I don't know if I've told you that yet. I HATE texting. Worst form of communication ever invented. If I never had to send another text message as long as I lived, I'd be happy. I know that that's unrealistic. But I am keeping it to a bare minimum the rest of my life. I was SO addicted to texting. Being a Missionary broke me of that pretty quickly. I have now seen the error of my ways. It hurt my social skills so much.

Phew! Anyways, now that that's off my chest haha. I don't know what else to talk about really. Life is just missionary life here. We do the same thing every day. Nothing new to report really. So I'll get going I guess.

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

Well, it has been an unexciting week.

We did get a new Bishop yesterday. I am excited to see the transition. I can only hope that he is missionary-minded. Apparently, he has been a Bishop before for about 2 years. So he's not totally new to the job. I suppose that's a good thing.

We have been doing a lot of tracting. That is always an adventure. We found one lady that seemed really awesome. We're going over to teach her tonight. Hopefully she will be home. :)

This past week we baked a bunch of chocolate chip cookies and took to some people. It was a big hit. We got an excellent cookie recipe from a Sister in the Ward. We baked a couple batches and delivered them to people. Everyone loves cookies. Cookies soften hearts and open doors.

I am safe. I am happy. Life is still going well for me. I'm enjoying my time here in the OTM. I don't really know what else to say.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

Sounds like a busy life on the homefront! It's busy here too.

We're mostly doing a lot of tracting. We really feel that there are people here we are meant to find, and the only way we're gonna find them is if we tract a lot. So that's kinda what we're doing. It's always an adventure tracting. You never know what's gonna be behind that next door.

I still love it here in Arkansas. It's a wonderful place. The church is really growing here.

Yesterday we had Stake Conference. Elder Perry Webb, an Area Seventy came and spoke. As well as one of the Counselors to our Mission President, President Renfroe. President Southward(the Oklahoma City Temple President, with whom I am acquainted) and his wife spoke as well. It was one of the best Stake Conferences I have ever attended.

They called our Bishop as the Stake Young Mens President. I guess we'll be getting a new Bishop next week. Apparently the current one has been in for 6 years. So that'll be an exciting thing. I've never been in an area while they got a new Bishop before. I hope the new one lives in the area we cover, haha.

I went to try a local Cajun restaurant for lunch the other day. It was shut down. We looked it up in the Phonebook and called the number. The number was disconnected. I guess it's out of business. That kind of stinks. But hey, there's a ton of places to eat in this town. We just ate at the local Thai restaurant. It was phenomenal. I am addicted to Thai food.

Yesterday we had crock-pot roast for dinner with a family. That was like a little slice of home. I enjoyed it.

Well, anyways. I guess that's all I really have to talk about this week. I hope you have a good one!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

First of all, Mom, I DO answer your questions. You wrote two questions in this email. I will answer both.
1- The area isn't too spread out here. It's mostly just the town of Van Buren, which is probably less than 10,000 people.
2- The temperatures have been quite pleasant this week. I've enjoyed it. I fear that Summer might rear it's ugly head once more before fall comes in full swing though. We'll see. I can't wait for the leaves to start changing!

I love being a missionary! I am so excited for Jason to go! It's such a unique experience. We do and see things that you just wouldn't experience any other way. The Spirit is so strong. I love it.

On Sunday we went over to a Member Family's house. They had a non member friend there that they've been working on for more than 10 years. He is finally ready to receive the Gospel. He knows it is true. We taught him the first lesson. The Spirit was incredibly strong. We invited him to be baptized. He thought for a moment, and said, "I have to!" He was excited about it! :) Unfortunately for us, he lives in Alma, a neighboring ward. So we won't get to see all of his growth, but still. It was really awesome to teach him.
The Stake is trying super hard to get 100% home teaching this month. So we were asked to go visit a few families and check up on them. We went to go see a family yesterday. The husband works out of town, and so he wasn't there. We talked on her patio. She was kind of down because he had left that morning. She was very happy to see us. She is also a vegetarian, but had cooked Roast Beef while he was home, so she gave us the leftovers. That was nice. It was just really cool to see how the Lord cares about each of us so personally. She needed somethign uplifting, and we just happened to show up. She was very grateful. It was just what she needed, she said. I'm glad of that.

I never had a testimony of Home Teaching before my mission. I never had a good Home Teacher, and I never was a good Home Teacher. But boy have I seen the importance of it as a missionary. It's one of the most important programs of the Church, I have no doubt in my mind. It blesses so many lives. People are helped both temporally and spiritually in ways that would just not be possible without Home Teaching. And it isn't hard. You just have to go once a month and visit. It's so easy. I truly regret not taking my calling as a Home Teacher seriously before my mission.

I have also learned the Brownies can heal spiritual wounds. :) We took some homemade brownies to a person who had been offended by missionaries, and the problem was solved. :) Thanks again for sending me the recipe! :)

I had a copy of the new Duty to God book, Dad, and I was very impressed. It's SO much better than the old system! The old one was just a checklist that meant absolutely nothing to me. This is a program designed to help you become converted to Jesus Christ and His Gospel. It helps you understand what the Priesthood is and why it is important. I was very impressed.

Tell Anal-ey that I better get a wedding invitation or I'm going to be upset!

Well, I had better get going. I love you! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

I am now down in Van Buren I love it here. Arkansas is a fantastic place.

This is a weird area, because there are 6 missionaries for 1 ward. We cover a portion of the Ward, the Zone Leaders cover the rest, and there are some Spanish Elders that work all over. So it's pretty different.

My companion is Elder Matthew Fox from Chalis, Idaho. He is awesome. He's been out almost a year. Very talented missionary. He could easily be my Senior Companion.

We live in a house. A very nice one. We have a car full-time(hallelujah!). A Toyota Corolla.

We have quite a few investigators. The area is doing well. By the time I'm done here, this will be one of the best areas in the mission. ;)

I am out of time. I will do better next week. See, we email our Mission President now, so that cuts into our time, and I had a lot to talk with him about this week, what with transfers and all. So, I've got to get going.

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

I am indeed be transferred. I am headed down to Van Buren Arkansas. Supposedly, it's the place where Parley P. Pratt was murdered. Here's my new address:

815 N. 7th Street
Van Buren, AR 72956

I can honestly say that this is the first time I was sad to get transferred. I love this area. Awesome people. Awesome ward. Awesome Investigators. It's just an awesome place all around. I got really attached here. I suppose it's a good thing I got sent away now. If I'd have had more time to get attached I probably wouldn't have been able to handle it. I had a hard time as it is. But, I know that I'm going where the Lord wants me to go. I also know that Elder Mortensen and my replacement will do just fine.

I am nervous, but very excited. I heard that I will be sharing an apartment with the Zone Leaders down there in Ft. Smith. I LOVE sharing an apartment! It's unbelievably fun! I am very excited about that. I also heard that it's a car share, so I'll be spending half of the time on a bike. So maybe I'll get in slightly better shape. That's always a good thing. I also love Arkansas. It's a fantastic place. I'm excited.

I will be sending a package home this week, to save room in my luggage. I will also throw a picture CD in there, even though I don't have very many pictures since last time. I'll be getting a few more this week, saying goodbye to people.

I don't really know what to say. You need to ask me more questions, haha. I never know what to write anymore. Things are going great. They're going as they should be. Nothing too out of the ordinary to report. Besides that we're actually having success. I guess that's out of the ordinary kind of haha.

I loved the package you sent me. :) Especially the pictures. :) It looks like you all had a blast! I hope that you don't decide you don't like fun anymore when I get home. I want to have fun too. And I'm very proud of you for going hiking! It looked fun.You need to do that more often! And you need to go walking around the neighborhood in the Evenings like you used to. (I'm one to tell you to exercise, my exercise consists of laying on the floor for 30 minutes, haha). BTW, I have tried both Hershey's Bliss and Dove Chocolates now, and the verdict wasn't surprising. Dove is superior. I really like the Bliss, but Dove still beats it. Plus, the Bliss doesn't have the cheesy messages inside. :)


Well, I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
 
It's been an AMAZING week. :)
 
We now have 4 investigators with Baptismal Dates. Soon to be 5. It's awesome to see people whom the Lord has prepared for the Gospel. People who are ready and waiting to be converted.
 
One of the people we are teaching is Grace. She has been looking for a church lately. She needed God in her life. We happened to be visiting with her aunt(a less-active member of the Church). She listened in, Elder Mortensen gave her a Book of Mormon, and the rest is history. She will be baptized on the 11th of September. :) Needless to say, we are excited.
 
Zone Conference was awesome. We all got new cell phones. :) The church has a set of DVD's for teaching missionaries how to be Preach My Gospel Missionaries. They've been around for several years. They're nice. The Church has just released the sequel. The new one. It's fantastic. We watched a 40 minute segment from it at Zone Conference. It was amazing. I hope to shmooze my way into getting a personal copy of it sometime soon. I have a copy of the old one that I will probably send home sometime, because I don't really need it. Only Missions can get these DVD's, so this the only chance of my life I'll have to get a copy.
As far as the package goes, I would mostly like pictures. And maybe M&Ms. And a couple cans of tuna. Keep in mind, I could be transferred on the 26th. We find out Saturday night what will happen for transfers. One of us will definitely be leaving. I'm really not sure who. You can still send me the package, but I might have to pick up and leave soon.
 
Life is going really well. I don't really know what else to say. I am very happy. I love what I am doing. I still have a lot of time left, and I am going to accomplish a lot. :)
 
Love,
 
Elder Jordan John Bracken

Dear Family,

It has been a really awesome week. :)

There is a less-active lady in the ward who hasn't been to church in many, many years. Her husband passed away a few months ago. It has been really hard for her. So we stop by and visit with her on occasion. Mostly just because she's lonely and needs a friend to talk to. Her 17 year old niece lives with her. Her name is Grace. Saturday, she sat in on the chatting. Elder Mortensen was bound and determined to give her a Book of Mormon. He did so, and she gladly accepted. She also set an appointment for us to come teach her next week. And she agreed to come to church. Miraculously, she showed up at the church, all by herself, and stayed for all three hours. It was really cool. :)

Sister Weathers, the less-active lady we've been working with who bore her testimony last week, did not make it to church yesterday. But she called us yesterday evening. She told us she was out of town on vacation. She's been reading the scriptures morning and evening and she wants us to come and teach her the Stop-Smoking Workshop that we teach people. So she's doing very very well.

We also have Zone Conference tomorrow. It should be a lot of fun. I enjoy Zone Conference. We're all getting new cell phones tomorrow, apparently. That should be cool. I'm not sure why they're doing it. Maybe we're switching carriers? We currently use Sprint.

I had Wall-eye for the first time this week. It was really good.(or did that happen last week? I can't remember).

Not much else has happened(sorry, life's just very normal at the moment).

Things are going good. I'm happy. I'm excited to be here in Neosho. I love it. Transfers aren't until the end of August, but I expect to be here at least one more transfer after this.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you go to the temple if you can.

Love,
Elder Jordan John Bracken

Dear Family,

Well Mom, in order to fix the length of my letters, I need things to actually happen to me! :P

It's been a good week here in Neosho. The most exciting thing was Sister Weathers. She's a Less-Active Lady we started working with her very shortly after I got here. I am quite possibly the only missionary in the world that would have been prompted to go see her(not being prideful, it's just the way it was, long story). I didn't really think she was going to go anywhere, I admit. God knew better than me, though. A couple weeks ago she finally came to church for the first time in a long time. She just felt really strongly that she needed to go, so she packed her 2 little kids in the truck and took off. She enjoyed it. She missed last Sunday, but she wasn't happy about that. Yesterday she came to church again and got up and bore a brief, powerful, sweet testimony. It was a very difficult thing for her to do. She gets anxious around other people. Let alone getting up ans speaking to 150 people you don't know. And she did it. She did a very good job, actually. I was impressed. It was one of the best moments of my mission. :)

We set a Baptismal Date with our "Eternigator" Ralph. It's not till October, but he'll be ready by then I'm sure. :) We're pretty excited about that.

I don't know what else to talk about, really. Life is just regular old missionary life. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary to report. (sorry Mom)

Send Grammy my condolences for her cat.

Um. I'm kind of upset right now. You never even told me Amanda was working. Last I heard, like 6 months ago, she was leaving Verizon. Not a word till now. :(

I hope you all take the opportunity to go to the Temple soon. Jason wrote me and told me about how awesome it was go for the first time. He loved it. You should go too. :)

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hello Family!

Sounds like you had fun at the cabins. I can't believe you managed to have fun without me! haha just kidding! :)

Life is still going good for me. We had quite an adventure yesterday. We had dinner with a family who live 3 or 4 miles north of town. I knew I could find it super easy coming from town but, long story short, we were coming from north of them. Elder Mortensen's GPS(he has one too) didn't exactly take us to their house. It took us right through the middle of someone's cornfield. I was sure that wasn't the right way to go, but Elder Mortensen insisted. So we drove right down the path in the middle of that corn field. found ourselves in a clearing, turned around, went back through the corn field, and called and asked for directions. It was fun. I have a couple pictures of the middle of the corn field. It was fun. We made it there safely. Our car definitely needs a bath right now.

It sure is warm here! I can't wait for September! The fall here is just beautiful. I love it. I can't wait for that. :) I'm ready for summer to be over. :) Just one more month! :) And it starts cooling down in August anyways, so it won't be too painful.

Mary came to church again today(with her husband, he had the day off!) It was pretty cool. I was glad.

I don't really know what else to talk about. It's been a very normal week, overall. Not much unusual or extraordinary happened.

I'm enjoying myself. :) I hope that you are as well. :) Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

Life has been going very well for me. :)

Yesterday Mary came to church for the first time. She's the one that we just went to their wedding a couple weeks ago. She stayed for all three hours. It was a positive experience for her. We set a baptismal date for her for September 11th(hey, at least she won't forget the day!)

Last week the Tornado Sirens went off. Didn't turn out to be a big deal. That was Monday night. We had just happened to be at the Foster's(they're the ones that do our laundry, and we were picking it up) that night. Br. Foster is a Weather Spotter, or whatever you call it. So he had like 5 HAM radios running.

Friday afternoon we took Br. Foster(who was driving his Ford Excursion, btw) out to teach Mary. They live out in the boonies. Right after we left, we met these 2 ladies who were stranded out there. They had been spending the day playing in the creek that runs through there. They followed the creek about 8 miles in the wrong direction, apparently, and didn't know how to get home. So we gave them a lift home, dropped them off, and almost immediately after, the rain came. Flash Flood. The first real flash flood I've ever seen. Those two ladies could've drowned. We went back up to town and were driving all over looking to see if anybody needed help. Some of the streets were literally rivers. One right by our house. There was a car(unoccupied when we encountered it) stuck with water up to it's windows. Crazy.

Yes, the Ward will be having a Pioneer Day Party. Should be fun.

Those were the most exciting things that happened this week. I don't know what else to talk about really!

Well, I have nothing else to say. Sorry. :) Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

It's good to hear from you again, as always. :) I'm sad that I missed the party, but next year I will be there. :) And I will be prepared to get wet and make others even wetter. :)

It's been a really good week for us. Well, one of our investigators who had a baptismal date until very recently, convinced herself that it doesn't matter what church you go to as long as you're learning about God and Jesus. Which all of us, including her, know is false. So that's going to take some correcting. Interjection: I have always detested Guilt Trips as a parenting method. Hated it. (note from parents : Not so sure that we used guilt trips) Swore I would never do it. But I've learned that it is super effective. I've become quite good at delivering guilt trips. I kind of enjoy it. Anyways. Back to the news. The other investigator with a baptismal date, I think I mentioned last week, moved back in with his girlfriend. He did come to church this week, though, so that's awesome. Our Eternigator, Ralph, is doing VERY well. We will probably be setting a date with him very soon. It's awesome to see him progress.

Last week we helped a non-member move. A man in the ward, Br. Bishop, has been working on this guy for sometime. Trying very hard to share the Gospel with him. But the guy is moving to Michigan. So we helped him for probably 8 hours or so this week. It really softened his heart. He was extremely grateful. And all of the other neighbors and friends who helped(though few in number) were very impressed by us as well. So that made me happy.

Yesterday we had an awesome miracle. We had arranged to go with a member couple(the William's) to go see the Taylor's(our newlywed part-member family) last night. They weren't home. So we went further down the road to another part-member family, the Charon's. The husband, Erik, is a less-active member. Been that way for several years. He recently married a non-member named Stormie. Nice young girl, right out of High School. Very cool. So we talked with them for like an hour and a half. She took to the William's very well. We invited them to the Ward Pioneer Day Party. We set up a day for them to go to the William's and participate in a Family Home Evening with them. And we set up a day for us to go out there and teach them. So, that's going really well. :)

As far as those changes go, Mom, I think it's a good thing. Well, for the interviews especially. If we're truly worthy to serve a mission, we shouldn't have to meet with the Mission President every 6 weeks to declare that we're still temple worthy. My only concern is the dissemination of information. The trickle-down. The Zone Leaders will now meet with the President Monthly. So all important information will come down from there, I think. So the Leader's need to do a much better job of getting that information to us promptly and accurately.

I hate to admit it, but I saw a piece of a movie the other day at an Investigator's house. It was awesome. It was the Little Shop of Horrors. It was a scene of Steve Martin as a Sadistic Dentist. Soooooo funny! I have to see that movie when I get home.

Neither of us is getting transferred, in case you're curious.

Well, I must get going now. I'll talk to you later!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hello Family!

Happy 6th of July!

The library was indeed closed yesterday. We did nothing special for the 4th.

We had an investigator get married to her less-active fiancee(now husband) on Saturday. It was an... interesting experience. Quite a cross-section of people there. They also had many gallons of Sweet Tea there. At the church. That was funny to see. They showed up about an hour late. Then it almost didn't even happen. She almost backed out, but the Bishop talked her into it. Then it finally happened. Short, sweet, and to the point. hallelujah!

Our two baptisms that were supposed to take place this month probably won't happen. One just hasn't been going to church, so she'll have to be delayed. the other moved back in with his girlfriend and doesn't want to be baptized until December. Fun.

We had Mission Tour this last week with Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the First Quorum of the Seventy. It was awesome. It was mostly a question and answer thing. The most fascinating thing he spoke about was the Light of Christ. He spoke of how receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost is really a greater endowment of the Light of Christ. Being a Person(age?), He can only be in one place at a time, so almost always, when you feel the Holy Ghost, what you are actually feeling is the Light of Christ. The Holy Ghost acts as sort of the Manager or Director of the Light of Christ as well as the Gifts of the Spirit. So he does cause the feelings you get, but it's actually the Light of Christ. There are also ties with other scriptures. The scripture about how we get Light and it grows brighter and brighter until the "perfect day." Also, letting your light shine before men. The city on a hill/candlestick thing. There seems to be some literalness to this. The Truth and Righteousness we possess increases our light. It is visible. You can see it in a person's countenance. You can feel it. Fascinating things to think about and study.

He also talked briefly about the difference between the 3 Kingdom's of Glory. Those who go to the Celestial Kingdom have repented of all their sins, we know this. Those in the Terrestrial Kindgom are guilty of Sins of Omission. Those in the Telestial Kingdom are guilty of Sins of both Omission and Comission.

He also spoke about how the structure of missionary work is about to change, somewhat. Zone Conferences will be every 3 months, instead of every 6 weeks. Interviews with the Mission President will be every 3 months instead of every 6 weeks as well. Our goals will be based monthly, instead of on a 6 week basis. So that'll be interesting.

He also spoke about relationships. There are 3 relationships in Missionary Work: 1)The relationship between the Missionaries and God 2) The relationship between the missionaries and the investigators 3)The relationship between the investigators and God. Now, the focus of the old discussions was relationship #2. And the one of the intentions of Preach My Gospel is to shift that focus to #3. Missionaries aren't quite getting that, so every missionary across the entire world is going to be taught these 8 simple lessons on how to do that. We don't know how when or where that will take place at this time.

Life is going well for me, as always. Training is still fun. Elder Mortensen is growing a lot. I love it. The weather has cooled off just a little bit, so that's nice. We're also going to go bowling today, so that will be fun. :)

Congratulations to Jason on your Mission call! Good luck! :)

Well, not much else exciting has happened. Sorry. :)

I hope you all have a great week! Have a good one! Go to the temple!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

I was just at the laundromat. We met a lady named Julie who is moving out to Joplin today and got divorced a year ago. Very turbulent time of her life. She started asking us about our missions and what we do. We talked for awhile. Basically taught a slimmed down version of the first lesson. The spirit was there. We both bore our testimonies. And nothing happened. She is not interested, wouldn't take a Book of Mormon or even a Pass-Along card. Sad. Christ spoke of how the elect will hear His voice, and that His sheep know His voice. She was not elect. I hope that one day she will change. But I am grateful for this opportunity to bear testimony and teach the gospel.

Another un-exciting week, overall.

Monday we had dinner with Br. Throop, whose grandson is a chef.(they feed us once or twice a month. Matt made us Cashew Chicken. It was really good. You would have loved it, Dad.

Saturday we had a Stake General Priesthood Meeting. We took one of our investigators, John. When we went to pick him up, he said he wasn't going to go. He had just got in a huge fight with his dad. But Elder Mortensen talked him into it. And sure enough, he felt the Spirit. It gave him a new perspective on things and helped him deal with his life a little better. The Spirit is truly amazing.

We borrowed some old General Conference CD's that we're listening to in our car. Elder Maxwell was awesome. He gave a talk about lessons we learn from Laman and Lemuel. Fascinating. He thinks about things on a level I never even dream of.


We have a wedding to go to on Saturday. One of our investigators is getting married to her less-active fiancee. So that's pretty exciting. Big step in their lives. Things will definitely improve for them once they start living the Law of Chastity.

I am excited for Mission Tour this week. We will be taught by Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the First Quorum of the Seventy. That should be awesome.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,

I loved to hear from you again. :)

About the Memory Card, I would first suggest taking it to Wal-Marts and using one of the picture Kiosks. Try to get the data off of there to print or make a CD. If that doesn't work, let me know, and I will send you my back-up CD as soon as I can. :)

As far as my toes, yes I had a fungus. Athlete's foot. That was at it's worst point. I've been fighting it the entire time that I've been in Neosho, I don't know why. I'm on my third kind of medicine for it. It seems to be working though, hallelujah.

Don't worry about the Asbestos, Mom. Trust me, you won't be harmed. I had to take that class on it when I became a sweeper, remember? You'd have to be inhaling it for YEARS for it to do any damage to your body. No need to worry. Just be glad that it's being abated. :)

Training is going well. Elder Mortensen is really blossoming. His testimony, desire, and skill are all growing rapidly. It's wonderful to see. :)

It's been a slow week. Nothing mind-blowing has happened, I don't think.

Well, one cool thing, actually. We had interviews with President Merkley last week. He told us of something really cool that happened with the Mission Conference with Elder Nelson. Apparently, there was a Sister Missionary in the mission that had been fasting and praying about some question that she had. She desperately wanted to ask Elder Nelson about it. When he came, just before the Question and Answer session he said, "I know someone here has come here with fasting and prayer hoping for an answer to a question." (or something to that effect). Then, during the Question and Answer session he went off about Repentance(which I told you about last week). That happened to be the most interesting part of his talk. After it he said, "Now how did I get off on that tangent?" Then he shrugged and changed topics.

Apparently, this Sister Missionary was very bashful. Too afraid to ask her question. So she earnestly prayed in her heart that Elder Nelson would answer. He did.

The Gospel is true. I love it. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!(and that you go to the temple)

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hey family!

The weather here is fine. Don't worry about that. Ever. Honestly, the weather is the last thing you need to worry about for me here. My allergies are insane though. That's the only bad thing.

Yes, I got my package. :) Thank you to all who contributed to it. :) I love it. :)

So I suppose you want to hear about Elder Nelson coming.

So, we drove down to Tulsa. We had the entire mission there. The chapel was jampacked, including the stage.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was present. He was accompanied by Elder Richard J. Maynes and Elder Garrett W. Gong of the First Quorum of the Seventy. There were also 2 Area Seventies present(6th Quorum of Seventy, we have 8 apparently, who knew?), but I don't remember their names. I couldn't even pronounce one of them.

The first thing we did is all go up one at a time and shake their hands(we didn't shake the Area Seventies hands, they were coordinating the whole thing and acting as
Reverence Police). That was really cool. Everyone(myself included) felt like Elder Nelson was gazing into their soul, looking for something(sin, I assume). So that was interesting.

Elder Gong spoke first. His was mostly a group discussion about what we would do in certain situations of missionary work.

Elder Maynes spoke next. He spoke about the two greatest gifts that God has given us in this life. First, the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Second, the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He thought it was interesting that the two greatest gifts in this life were two of the members of the Godhead. Which gifts are designed to lead ultimately, to Eternal Life(with God the Father), which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.

Then Elder Nelson spoke. He told reminisced and told some funny stories.

He spoke about the difference between Seventies and Apostles. In D&C 107, an Apostle is described as a "special witness' of Christ. A Seventy is described as an "especial witness" of Christ. He asked what we thought the difference between the two was. We all stared blankly. Finally one Elder spoke up and gave a theory. Then Elder Nelson complimented him on his thought, but said that, to the Brethren, there is no difference. You can same some ink by dropping the "e" he said.

He then opened it up for a few minutes to questions. And you know me, I came prepared. I was not going to hesitate to ask an Apostle a question, if given the opportunity. I had a list. :) I only asked one though. I asked him to bear his testimony that he was called by God and not by Man. I have never heard an Apostle really do that before, so that's what I wanted to hear. His response was quick, "No man would do that." It was very funny. But not exactly the answer I was looking for. Another Elder asked about what Tea we are and are not allowed to drink, as that is a common question here. Elder Nelson stated that he, personally, avoids the appearance of evil. He also spoke of China. He said that they drink Hot Tea all day and all night in China. All the time. They are constantly burning, re-burning, and burning again their Esophagus. Cancer of the Esophagus is one of the most prevalent medical problems in China, apparently. While here in America, it's almost unheard of. Interesting.

He then spoke about repentance. He spoke about how his job is to call us to repentance, but he said, "I don't see a sinner among you." So he talked about what repentance truly is. He knows all the Greek and Latin roots of words, and so he broke it down. The root of Repentance is Greek. It is meta-something(I don't remember, but I did write it down). Meta means change. Then the rest of the word is related to 4 other Greek roots. I don't remember them, but I remember what they mean: 1) Knowledge 2) Mind 3) Air or Spirit 4) Breathe. So, when we truly, truly repent, it changes us completely. It changes what we know, it changes how we think, it changes our perspective, it changes our spirit, and it even changes the way we breathe. Totally fascinating. So, truly, it should be very easy to tell if someone has truly repented. They will have a complete and total change of heart(and of body, I might add). I loved hearing about that.

He also spoke about this one section in Doctrine & Covenants, given through Joseph Smith to a missionary. It promises that the man's family would be taken care of and ultimately receive salvation because of his efforts. Elder Nelson told us that this promise was to us as well. I already knew that though, because of Pres. Meservy.

He talked about a few other things(all of which I wrote down, but can't remember at the moment). Then he left us with his testimony and an Apostolic Blessing. I don't remember all that the blessing contained, but I remember it talked about us having health, as well as being blessed to return to our families in safety.

It was an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I loved it.

So anyways, that was easily the highlight of my week.:)

I will talk to you all next week! Have a good one! Tell Cambry Happy Birthday for me! And go to the temple, too. :)

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hello family!

I am officially training now. My companion is Elder Colten Mortensen from Paradise, Utah. He is really awesome. Very dedicated. He really wants to work hard and be obedient. The perfect trainee, practically. Of course, it is a huge, gigantic, stressful change for him. But that's how it is for every missionary. So it's a pretty exciting thing, overall. The transition is a really interesting thing, going from having a companion that is totally capable, to having a companion who knows literally nothing about being a missionary.

We're going to go down to Tulsa on Saturday and hear Elder Nelson speak to us for a couple of hours. That's incredibly exciting. I'm stoked!

I would also just like to say "Hi" to the Hardman family, if you're reading this. I am so excited for Jason to serve a mission! It's such a wonderful thing! :)

This morning I read through the first section of Joseph Smith-History. It was a wonderful experience. I read it slowly and carefully. Really thinking about what he was saying. Trying to put myself in his shoes. Relating it to myself. I looked up the definitions of a couple words I didn't know. Then when I was finished I sat, pondered, and prayed about it. I felt the Spirit very strongly. I challenge you all to do the same thing. Read over the account of the First Vision, and sit and think about it for a few minutes. Then talk with your Father in Heaven about how you feel and what you think about it. I know you will feel the Spirit, too. One interesting thing I thought about as I read, was the Prophet's total incapacity to write. He is such an awful writer. Very sincere and heart-felt, but lacking in skill. There is no possible way that the author of The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith-History are the same person. No way. He was completely, totally, %100 incapable of such a task. So that is my invitation to you this week(as well as my usual reminder to attend the temple).

The last couple weeks we have been doing our laundry at a Laundromat. My first time. I am so impressed. I want to own a Laundromat. Such a simple business. Huge initial investment, but it would pay for itself in no time. The key, I think, is the location. I'm very intrigued by it.

I don't know what else to write about this week, honestly. But I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hello Family!

What a week! Where to start... Well. Probably with what you actually want to hear about. I'm training! I get my greenie on Thursday! I am so excited! :) I won't know who he is or anything about him till he gets off the truck. It's gonna be a huge adventure. :)

Yesterday we had a BBQ over at the Hancock's house(he's the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric). They invited several families from the Ward, and us. It was a lot of fun. We did a lot of saying goodbye to people for Elder Lybbert, since he is leaving Thursday. So it wasn't a disaster of a day. It was a really good one, actually. We had a huge miracle. We had an Eternigator realize that he needs to get baptized. Granted, it will still be a really long time before he does get baptized. He needs to go to church regularly, and live a few more commandments. It will be a long, slow road for him. But this was a huge step.

We also set a baptismal date with another investigator, Jennifer Hamilton. She will be baptized on July 17th. So that's exciting.

Our other investigator with a baptismal date just dumped his girlfriend and kicked her out of the house. Yay for living the Law of Chastity!

So it's been a really good week. We're working very hard. Doing a TON of tracting. Good things are happening.

I saw the temple model on the Church website. That is really cool. I will love to see it in person.

Also, I just checked out the new mormon.org. There's a link to it on LDS.org. It has a thing for personal profiles, where you write your testimony, and things like that. Pretty cool.

As far as the Ward Computer, we don't use it. Sometimes we'll go have a the clerk print stuff off for us from MLS, but that's about it. That is a really neat program, by the way, when people actually update it.

Happy Birthday, Dad. :) Sorry I didn't mention it in my email, but I did send you a note in the mail. I don't know if you have got it yet. It pretty much just says Happy Birthday, so don't get TOO excited if you haven't seen it yet.

Well, I'm off to see the Wizard. AKA Wal-Mart(BTW, if you're a local here, Wal-Mart is always plural, even when it's singular. Wal-Marts. I shop at Wal-Marts. I'm fixin' to go to Wal-Marts. Do y'all shop at Wal-Marts? Weird). So I will talk to you again next week! Have a good one! Go to the temple!

Love,
Elder Bracken

I don't understand it, but every day seems to go by faster than the last. How does that work? You'd think that time would reach a certain speed then it wouldn't be able to go any faster. And yet it does. I don't get it.

Life is going really well here. We have been working VERY hard to find and teach people. But the work ebbs and flows. Hopefully, it will stop ebbing and start flowing soon. But you just never know when someone is going to finally be ready to accept the Gospel and do something about it.

We did have an investigator at church this week. Her first time. She really enjoyed it. She is making slow but steady progress. Wonderful to see the change in her life.

Yesterday we were asked to attend Primary for a few minutes for a missionary activity thing. I love Primary! Honestly, I didn't like kids before my mission. They annoyed me. But "Not anymore. I like dem." They're so fun. The spirit in Primary is so strong! Singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth" with the children was such a wonderful experience. Children are awesome. :)

The only big news for us is what's going on in June. We already knew about June 30th, Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the First Quorum of the Seventy is coming to tour our Mission. Which I am way excited for. Even more exciting. On Saturday, June 12th, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles(and he is also the Senior Apostle over Missionary Work right now) will be coming to Tulsa. He will be instructing local priesthood leaders that evening. Earlier in the day, however, he would like to meet with the missionaries for a couple hours to instruct us. So, President Merkley, after careful thought and consideration, has decided to include the entire mission in this event. A Mission Conference. This has never happened in the history of our mission(as far as anyone is aware at least), and will probably never happen again. Everyone will drive to Tulsa and meet up. We will be instructed by an Apostle for several hours. We will also get a Mission Picture. Amazing! :)

McKenna's getting married? Wow! Everyone's growing up around me, and I still feel like a little kid sometimes. Weird. Life is strange. Well, if you see her, tell her I said "Congratulations."

This is one of my more boring emails. Not a whole lot to report on. Sorry! We're tryin real hard!

Well, have a good week everyone!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Family,
Good to hear from you again, as always!

I murdered a turtle yesterday. That was fun. I wasn't feeling very good, and I was really tired, and I was barely staying awake while driving. So I wasn't really capable of avoiding the small turtle walking across the road. We were driving about 40 miles per hour. I saw something ahead in the distance. There was a bird to the right, I thought this object might be a dead bird. But as it loomed closer I realized it was a turtle then "Crunch! Crunch!" Right under both of the left tires! hahahaha! Once I realized what happened I laughed so hard! It was hilarious!I took a picture of it's remains. We are lucky that the broken shell didn't give us a flat tire. I've heard of that happening. That's my exciting story of the week.

We've also had some really good spiritual experiences. One example was a lady we stopped by and talked to Saturday Night. She was less active for many years, but has been coming back the last 2 years or so. It's been a real struggle for her. She was having a really bad day on Saturday, so we talked for a minute and cheered her up. Told her to read some scriptures. Then yesterday we went back over and she told us about how a relative of hers called her Saturday Night after we left and invited her to a wild and crazy party with drugs and alcohol. She was really tempted to go. That's how she used to get relief from her stress. But she chose not to go. She read her scriptures, went to bed, and woke up the next morning and went to church. Now she feels like a million times better. If we hadn't gone and talked with her, she might have gone to the party, but she didn't. So that was a cool experience for sure.

So Kenny got hitched finally. That's good. Congratulations Kenny! It worries me that she's from Draper, but I guess every once in awhile a nice person can come out of there. haha. And Kenny does have good taste. So I'm sure she's great.

As far as needing anything.... how about the General Conference Ensign and CD? I would love that. If you haven't sent it off yet, I have a few other small requests. Basically, I would like some more music. Burned onto regular Audio CD if possible, so I can play it in the car. I would love copies of the InsideOut CDs, as well as Sons of Provo. And Manda has a copy of the soundtrack to Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. I would love a copy of that too. If you could do that for me that would be great. I also will have a special surprise in return, next time I send a package home!(who knows when that'll be, probably not till I leave this area haha) You will like it. But if you have sent the package already, don't worry about the CD's for now. Just wait till the next time you send a package for it. :)


Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Go to the temple!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hey Family!
 
Long time no talk, eh?
 
I enjoyed our conversation yesterday. It was fun. :)
 
I was a little down yesterday, because of the Beavers. They're an older couple, in their 50's I think. They joined the church here in October. They were doing really well. Then a few weeks later they heard the song, "Praise to the Man" and the started thinking we worship Joseph Smith. Then a series of events unfolded which drove them away from the church. We've been working with them for months. It seemed that all of their excuses were gone. That all of their concerns were resolved. Then, this past week, they brought up the song again. We talked for over an hour about it. It didn't solve it. Then yesterday afternoon we stopped by and Bro. Beavers told us that they've decided not to go back to the church. Ugh!
 
Don't worry about my cough mom. :) And about the vacations, I will just be happy to go. :)
 
Anyways. Enough about that.
 
Life is going good here, honestly. I love it. I'm glad to be here.
 
I don't really know what else to say, since we spoke less than 24 hours ago. :) So, I hope you all have a wonderful week! (BTW, tell Kenny and Mrs. Kenny "Congratulations" for me!)
 
Love,
Elder Bracken

Hello mi familia,

Your second annual Nacho Party! Woo hoo! I'll most likely be home in time to attend next year. So that should be fun.

I was just thinking about how next week is my 3rd phone call home. I only get one more. I'm old! As far as the time for that, Not sure. It will probably end up being in the evening. We have morning church here and Elder Lybbert's family has afternoon church. So that pretty much just leaves the evening. We also have to work out a means of calling internationally to Canada for him, but we think we've got that sorted out. I may or may not end up buying a calling card. We'll see what happens. Sorry I don't have more specific information for you!

Well, Zone Conference is tomorrow. That should be exciting. Except I think this one is gonna be a kind of a smack-down. Remember how I was talkin about our Mission being disobedient? Well, in our last District Meeting they had the District Leaders announce a number of things. Some of which were A) We are no longer allowed to write a female convert of ours. Period. No exceptions. If it's a family, we can write the family, but not any female specifically. B) We were reminded that we are absolutely never allowed to be alone in a house with females without another male present and C) We have been asked to read the pamphlet we give out about Chastity before Zone Conference. Hmm.......

Also, at the end of June we're having another Mission Tour. Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the 1st Quorum of Seventy will be coming to teach us. So that's exciting.

Not too much else to report this week, honestly. We've dropped a lot of investigators lately, but we've been blessed with some really good new ones. We just need to keep finding new ones.

The other day I saw a half eaten dead fish on somebody's doorstep. You just never know what amazing things you're gonna see out here in Missouri. So random.

Well, I will let you get going. I hope you have a wonderful week!(and that you go to the temple!)

Love,
Elder Bracken

Dear Familia,

Another wonderful week here in Neosho! :)

Things are going really well. Yesterday was tough, though. We had 2 people come to church for the first time, and Scott, from last week, was there for the second time. During sacrament meeting, somebody gave a talk for about 15 minutes about government conspiracies and how the Book of Mormon is the only thing that can save us. That was rough. And then the Gospel Principles lesson was Exaltation. A missionary's worst nightmare. Certainly a strange Sunday. Scott still isn't scared off though. One of the new guys still wants to learn more. I think the third one had had enough after Gospel Principles. He didn't go to Priesthood. :( Oh well. That was the worst part of the week. Everything else has been really fantastic actually. I'm lovin life. :)

The weather here has been great. No tornadoes. It's been one of the mildest Springs they've had in years. No problems there. Perfect temperatures. The only problem is those darn allergies. Thank heavens for Claritin!

Oh man, that's a funny story about about Anal-ey. I'd be so upset. I'd probably get a taxi and drive home haha.

I thought it was weird that you said Thursday was my year mark. I thought it was Tuesday. But I looked back and you were right. It's the 29th. I thought it was the 27th. I've been thinking that pretty much my whole mission. Crazy.

It is weird reaching the Hump-Day. Our mission has no traditions for it. I'm going to bake a cake, put one candle on it, and take a picture haha. But that's it. It's just weird. I don't know what to think. It's been a crazy year. Time has flown. I've learned more in the last year than in most of the rest of my life combined, it seems. About life, myself, the Gospel, God, Families, priorities, the Priesthood. And many other things. But I'm still not a year old yet. Maybe I'll rant more about it next week. We'll see.

I don't really need anything replaced. Well, I'm probably going to buy a couple new pairs of pants at Wal-Mart today, but other than that things are holding up really well. That chould change soon, and I'll let you know if it does. But most little things I can just pick up here on my own.

Anyways, I hope you all have a wondeful week!

Love,
Elder Bracken

Hello Everyone!

Another day in Paradise for Elder Bracken. Nothing to report for transfers. We are totally unaffected. Which, in a way, is kind of nice. Much less hassle, for sure. And Elder Lybbert and I are just starting to really figure out how to work together. It's interesting how you click so quickly with some people and with other people it's like fitting a square peg in a round hole. I don't know why that is. But, the Lord provides and things work out.

We are emailing at the Neosho Library. One of the Librarian's is a member named Sister Moser, she just came over and said to tell our mom's "Hi" for her. So Mom, "Hi."

We had a really great experience yesterday. A member of the Ward brought a relative of hers to church and he really enjoyed it. He believes in God but doesn't really go to church. He sat in on Gospel Principle and it was a lot about the Celestial Kingdom and Exaltation. It didn't even phase him. He also thinks that the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants make a lot of sense. He wants to meet with us and learn more over donuts. :) He's a very hard-working, humble man. I'm very impressed with him.

Tonight we're going over to teach some stalwart Church of Christ members(some of them are Pastors even). That should be interesting. Wish me luck!

The Spoonbill was really good. Deep fried with Louisiana Fish Fry. Dipped in a French Tartar Sauce. Fantastic. Their really convenient to eat, because they have no bones in their body. I also had Fried Rabbit this week. It was great. Hard to get to the meat though. Definitely not as convenient and a Chicken Leg. I also had Catfish. It was good. It's not my favorite fish by any means, but it was very edible.
That's pretty crazy about the Volcano and Earthquake. When I read that in your email, the Toy Story Song "Strange Things Are Happenin' To Me" popped in my head. The Second Coming is imminent, and life is only gonna get crazier. I am so glad that we have the guidance of Apostles and Prophets to give us shelter from the storm. We won't make it without that Divine help.
I've seen so many welfare cases lately. It's driving me crazy. I'm so tired of people who do nothing but sit and complain about their problems, hoping that if they complain loud enough and long enough that someone else will solve them. I've heard every sad story in the book it seems, and I just don't care any more. People need to grow up and take care of themselves. True are the words of Elder Holland when he said something to the effect of, "There is no problem in this world big enough that complaining about it won't make it worse!" I know, I know, I sound like a hypocrite right now. I am a complainer by nature. But I'm getting better and I'm putting forth honest effort to improve. These people are not. And also, I don't get what these people expect from me. I have no money, no resources, no connections. I have no advice. All I do is teach the Gospel. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. I can't solve your pocketbook problems. But I can teach you about Jesus Christ. And the Law of Tithing, on that note.

On a very similar note, I'm tired of excuses. I'm so tired of people feeding me their sad stories of all the reasons why they couldn't read or pray or go to church. Poor them. Boo hoo. President Monson has the greatest responsibility of any mortal person on Earth, and he still finds time to do all those things. He even does his Home Teaching. I've heard many stories of people who go to school full time, work 60 hours a week, run a family, and STILL go to church, read their scriptures, and pray. President Seal, our previous Mission President used to say, "Excuses are like butts. We all have them, and they all stink."

Sorry about that rant, but I really had to get that off of my chest. Phew!

Now I'll brighten things up by telling story of a Miracle. I don't know if I've even told you about the whole story, Mom and Dad. But I may have. Anywho:

Once upon a time I was a very young child. Probably 8 years old I would guess. I got a HUGE(it was huge to me at the time, but it was probably about the size of a Penny) Plantar Wart on the bottom of my foot. It was so nasty. My parents recall that it hurt badly enough to cause me to limp, though I don't remember it hurting. So, my Parents informed me that they had set up an appointment with the Doctor for a few days away. He would have to freeze it off of my foot! Ow! That MORTIFIED me, small child that I was. I couldn't handle that. Freezing it off of me? No way! So, I used the beautiful faith that every child has and I prayed. I begged and pleaded with my Heavenly Father to remove the Wart, so that I would not have to have it frozen off. And guess what happened! Overnight, it disappeared. Completely. As if it was never there. I never had to get it Frozen off. I am so grateful for that experience. Yes, it allowed me to escape great pain, but more importantly than that, it gave me a tesimony-building experience that I've been able to hold to for my entire life since. I felt like I should share that with you.

Well, I've probably rambled enough for you this week. Have a good one!

Love,
Elder Bracken

PS, Go to the temple!

Dear Family,

It's been a long, but awesome week!

Neosho does an interesting thing once a year. It's called a City-Wide Garage Sale. Basically, for one weekend, everyone has a garage sale simultaneously. It was pretty crazy. Everyone was out and about, some roads were made One-Way streets. Hundreds, or probably thousands of visitors from out of town. It was cool. We talked to a lot of people. Didn't buy anything, though.

We also met the 45th President of the United States of America. He gave us invitations to his big campaign speech coming up. He's determined to win. So next election, keep your eyes peeled for a man from Neosho, MO. :)

Our teaching pool is slowly expanding. We just had a part-member family move in. A single mom who has three unbaptized children. She wants us to baptize them. So that should be good. We also taught another new investigator yesterday for the first time. We found here earlier in the week. She had been praying for God to send her an Angel to tell her what to do. We soon showed up at her door. Definitely not a coincidence.

One less-fortunate event is that yesterday my allergies realized that there's a lot of pollen in the air right now. So they're acting up. I'm also experiencing blisters on my left foot. It's so weird. I've never really had blisters on my feet before. I've been fine my whole mission(my whole life, really) until now. Hopefully they will go away.

Oh, I've been meaning to tell you about some food I had in Webb City. It was called Miracle Whip Chicken. Very good. Very similar to Amanda's Ranch Chicken. You just take the chicken breasts and cover them in Miracle Whip, then roll them in crushed crackers(I imagine bread crumbs would work great too). It tasted really good!

Tonight I will be having Spoonbill. It's fish. A pre-historic Sturgeon, actually. I'm excited.

I didn't really get any hints from President Merkley during my interview about if I'll stay or go. I might stay.
We'll see on Saturday. Anything could happen.

We did learn that apparently there is Rampant Disobedience spreading throughout the mission. Especially with things like, missionaries picking up their cell phone and calling home anytime they want(and they want to often). So that was troubling to hear. I had no idea we had the problems he was talking about. Crazy. I hope I never have a companion with problems like that.

Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful week! And that you'll find the time to go to the temple!

Love,
Elder Bracken