December 30th, 2013

So how have you all been these past few days? I have been enjoying life and just loving everything. It was good to get to talk to a few of you on Christmas. Sorry for not being able to talk to you all of you, I was supposed to be done calling by about 12ish are time. So I will just talk to the rest of you all in person when I get home.
 

This past week has been insane, we had a super busy week of exchanges and Christmas stuff going on.
 

So Monday we were able to get a lot of stuff done and we had to be done with Preparation day at 1 so we could take the rest of it on Christmas. So we went on exchanges with the greenville which was good we got a lot of things done.
 

Tuesday was Christmas Eve and we went and had a good dinner with a great member family, really good food and it was good company.
 

Christmas day we woke up a little early and went down to dayton for breakfast and then made calls and played basketball and then went to appointments and then we had Brownies at a members house in Dayton which was a blast. Got to love Dayton.

Thursday we were on exchanges in Dayton and got to see a lot of people with the two different sets and get work done with them, try to get things moving more smoothly down there.
 

Friday we were told by the assistants to try to go round up one more baptism in the zone, so we went to Dayton again and couldn't get anyone on date. So the was a bummer.
 

Saturday more exchanges and soccer with the spanish branch. Then Sunday was calm, got to go give a blessing.
 

One thing that has been really cool is I have been working with a family that has a really bad addiction to drugs. What has been really cool is they are cleaning themselves up and making a lot of progress on that front. They are now 4 days clean and pushing strong and getting there lifes in order. The Dad actually came to church and it was awesome.
 

That was pretty much my week. Kind of packed full of exchanges and stuff not a ton of time in are own area. So that was pretty much it for us.
 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great rest of your day and happy New Years.

Love

Elder Elquist

Elder Braden Elquist, December 23, 2013

Wow how insane is it that it is pretty much Christmas again and we are getting to talk on Wednesday, it has been insane here with us, we have been super busy with the work just cruzing and getting things done. I can't believe how quick time is flying and we are just super busy with tons of stuff going on.

So one miracle that has been happening here is as a zone we have been struggling to get member present lessons and people at church and so we have been working really hard at changing patterns and getting stuff done. So this past week we actually were at the top of the mission for all of those except one. So we are doing a lot better and it has been awesome to see everything progress.

So Monday was a good day I am trying to think of what we did and I am having a brain fart right now so I am going to cheat and look in my planner. So Monday was preparation day and we got to get a lot of stuff done with that. We spent like 3 hours working out I am not going to lie and so I was getting ripped or attempting to. I actually ran a consistent 3 miles in 25 minutes. So I am pretty proud of that so I am going to continue to step that up and see how quick I can get it down. So Dad get ready to run when I get home.

Tuesday we had a pretty good day we were down in Dayton on exchanges and it is always a fun experience doing that and helping them out. I love working with the Elders down there and I get to see lots of cool people.

Then Wednesday we had a fun day with lots of stuff going on with Christmas conference in the next day. We got a call from President Porter telling us that Elder Thompson was leaving because another missionary went home so they needed him to go to muncie for 2 weeks then he is going to get transferred again.

Thursday was Christmas Conference and got to see a ton of missionaries and so that was tons of fun and had a lot of things happen.

Friday was the ward Christmas party and it was fun.

Saturday I went down to dayton again for and exchange on Sunday. So that was fun. The weather has also been treating us nice, it got up to 68 yesterday and it was awesome. So needless to say it has been a good week. Then to top things off I get to have a way awesome week this next week and we will see how it goes over the next little bit I am sure it will be awesome.

So yeah it has been and awesome few days and the work is going really well and things are taking off and heading in the right direction and getting stuff done. Well I look forward to talking with you some of you on Wednesday and others other times. Love you all and take care.

Love
Elder Elquist

Elder Braden Elquist, December 16th, 2013

Okay so my past week has been a lot of fun and business, for the main part I have been super busy with exchanges and stuff like that. I am trying to get to as many of area's possible in are zone as quick as I can. We have a mission goal that everyone should baptize in the month of december and so I am trying to get a handle on that and get things moving in the right direction.

So Monday we had a really good day and got a lot of work done and got to have a zone activity and got to see a lot of people so that was really good. We also got to see Matt and prep him for Stake Conference. Stake conference was awesome Elder Christofferson came and we got to meet him, so that was really cool. I definitely was super excited to be here for that. He is an amazing speake. Even though I couldn't hear very much it was awesome. I got to say good bye to my trainner who just went home today. It was a pretty sad thing but at the same time we will hook up when we get home and hang out.

Tuesday we got to work in are area and see a lot of different people, we set up a district service activity and got to see help the Pierces get there house ready for the Christmas season. So we will have to see how that goes. There house was really messy and we got to get a lot of stuff done. Through out tons of trash and just got rid of who knows what.

Wednesday was the service day and we cleaned the house. Elder Barnett and I teamed up on the Master bedroom and spent the whole time in there and got everything clean. It looked good by the way.

Thursday we had exchanges with Dayton Elders clear through Friday night and got to help them and get them to get some people progressing and see how they worked so we know how to help them.

Saturday we had zone conference and got to see a lot of people and get a lot of stuff done. So we will have to see how it all goes over the next few weeks to see if the training paid off. Then Sunday I already told you about. That was pretty much are week. Sorry to keep it short we are having to rush because we tons of stuff to do before the end of preparation day and we are at a library and only get a hour.

Well love you all tons and look forward to hearing from you on Christmas.

 

Love

Elder Elquist

Elder Braden Elquist, December 9th, 2013

Well it's good to hear from everyone this past week was a really good one, we had a lot of interesting things happen and so hopefully I can give you a run down of what all happened. So Monday was a normal day, just craziness breaking loose and having a million things to get done, but that is are life.

Tuesday was a really good day, we had Mission Leadership council which went from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, talk about a long meeting and then having to go on exchanges the next day, we ended up just winging zone meeting on Friday and it turned out really well, we got to see a lot of great things happen and we got to see the work of the Lord all through out the week.

So Wednesday we went on exchanged down in Dayton and it was good we got a lot of work done for them and hopefully we can get the area down there progressing. It has been really frustrating at times because the zone has hit a bit of a slump lately, but at the same time we have been doing awesome and so we are going to be showing the zone what we do and hopefully they can learn from that and then take it into there area. So Thursday we were in are area and it was really good we got to meet with a couple of different people. The big stuff happened at night when I got a call from one of the district leaders in the zone saying they needed permission to leave there area to a place they didn't know. So of course I said no. They went on to ignore that and left the mission and ended up clear down out of the mission. So by this time I am fuming mad and getting after them over the phone. So we end up having them get dropped off some place in the mission boundaries by the person that took them out of the mission. So the assistants pick them up and then we had to go down and pick them back up. So that was fun. Not. So Thursday we got back by 11:30 at night and just hit the hay.
Friday was zone meeting and we got hit with a huge snow and ice storm, so the cars got grounded and so we just made the best of it by working around in the area by the church and then had to go home. So that was fun.
Saturday we had a baptism and it was an awesome experience getting to see Myonah get baptized so we were super excited to get to work with her over the past 4 months. So it was hard work paid off. Then Sunday we were in meetings with church and then Stake Coordination with the Mission President and Stake President so that was really intense and fun. Definitely a long Sunday of meetings. So that brings us to today.

The work here has been going awesome and we are getting a lot of work done, it has been super fun with my new companions and we are just trying to pluck away at the work and get stuff done. I will make sure to send some pictures with this email.

Love you all and take care, keep up the hard work of shoveling back home.

Love
Elder Elquist

Braden's update for December 2nd, 2013

So I am going to start emailing a little differently, I keep running out of time to email everyone, so what I am going to do is send a mass email like this one to everyone that emails me and then I will send shorter emails to everyone answering specific answers to questions and such. So let me know  if you don't like that, most likely I will just do this for know on.

So this past week has been awesome, I have been super busy with tons of different things. So on Monday we had a couple of lessons and Elder Irwin had to get all packed up and get things ready to go home, so we did that. Then on Tuesday was transfer day. So I actually got 2 new companions Elder Barnett is my Junior Zone leader who has been out almost 11 months, and then I got another normal junior Companion Elder Thompson who has been out just over 1 year. The reason for the extra companion is President Porter is worried because most of the zone leaders go home in the next 2 transfers. So they are giving us young zone leaders and young missionaries to go with us because they are convinced we can teach them something. It was pretty funny we had a meeting after transfers with President Porter and he told all of the junior companions to pretty much just do what ever the Senior Zone Leader tells you to do. So that was pretty funny, now I have these two just following me around for the next few months. It has been fun. They are both from northern Utah. So that is pretty funny.

Wednesday was a good day it was busy with bunch of different things going on. The week pretty much was a giant blur and we were able to get a lot of work done and be able to see the Lords Work progress. I always loving seeing everything work out, are zone has been struggling with getting people to church and so that has been a focus of ours. This next week we are going to be on exchanges a ton. Pretty much every day this next week we are on exchanges and so we have to make every second count. It is the mission goal to baptize some one in every area. So we have to get on top of are zone to get things moving in the right direction. So we will have to see how things go.

One thing that I have realized the past little bit of my mission is I am just starting to not really give a crap and just say stuff. I called a missionary out over the phone on zone conference call for making excuses, of why he didn't have some one at church. So that has been kind of fun.

Saturday we had a really good day I was on exchanges with the Assistants and they pretty much just gave me a ton of training that I need to take to the rest of the zone to be able to get them to do things the right way. We have a super young mission and we have to give them a ton of training to get them in the right direction.

So a cool story on Thanksgiving we had an investigator invite us over for dinner and that was a lot of fun. It was good to get to be there and in there house just to celebrate the season. So that was really fun. The cool thing happened later when we were teaching Donald the investigator a lesson and his wife Candice called on the phone that his son Dakota was having to get admitted into the hospital because he wasn't breathing very well. So he asked us to come with him and we went and talked with them a little bit and I was able to give his son a blessing. It was a really short and quick blessing because we had nurses and doctors coming in and out, but I gave a short blessing and then we had to leave to get home in time. So we got going and we got a call from Donald after we were about 5 minutes away and he said as soon as we left and after the blessing, his breathing immediately improved and he was running around and smiling again. So it was an amazing testimony builder to me that the Priesthood is real and is wonderful. So that was amazing to get to have happen.

Well that is pretty much how my week went, a little scatter brained and all over the place, but yeah. Well I hop all is well with all of you and you are enjoying the Christmas season, I know I am. Merry Christmas and everybody should listen to Christmas Music.

Love

Elder Elquist