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