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
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
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
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
Monday, May 10, 2010
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
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
Monday, May 3, 2010
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
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
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