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
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
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
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
Monday, October 4, 2010
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
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
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