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