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

So I don't have tons of time to write today, but I just want to let everyone know that they need to be thankful for the things they have and not what they don't have. I love this time of the year, it is a time where we get to be thankful for things and focus on the Savior. The beauty of the Christmas season, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and are thankful for what you have.

Love

Elder Elquist

I hope you all are doing wonderful this lovely November morning. I can hardly tell you what all has happened in the past week, because it feels like just yesterday I was emailing you and telling you about my last week. Pretty insane, it has caused me to think a lot about this. The thing that has come to my mind on why this is. I think it is are perspective. In reality I understand I have 3 months left of the 24. I have already come 21 months. So it seems super short if you look at what you have done. This has caused me to think a lot on things.

I imagine when we move on to the next life and we will look back on what we did while we were on earth only to see it was such a short period of time in eternity. Most of us will only live until we are 90 or so. So 90 years in eternity, we have no idea how long we were with God before we came her but we know it was a while. He got to know each and everyone of us individually and if you think about that, there are currently 6.5 billion people on the earth and you think of all the people that have ever lived and it is insane. But God knows each and everyone of us personally and he knows how to communicate best, with each and everyone of us. Often times we lose perspective on who he is to us and what  he is going to do for us. Often times we have to count are blessings instead of are trials. We have to understand God has given us commandments to free us not bind us. Satan Binds he doesn't Free, but he wants you to see it as if he frees and God binds. Not the case though.

So after that rambling the thing I have come to realize is we have to count are blessings and change are perspective on things. So do it. Be thankful and look at the positive side of things. Love you all and hope all is well with you.

Love

Elder Elquist

Braden's Update for November 11th, 2013

Wow this past week has gone by super quick, I am starting to just forget to think of something to write about, I hope you all are having a great November day, I can't believe how much has happened over the last week but at the same time I don't know what to talk about.

So the thing I decided to talk about today is sacrifice. This word has different meaning for each and everyone of us, but my own personal feelings have really changed towards this over the last little bit. I have realized that all that we are required to do is Have a willing Heart and a Willing mind. I think the key word in this is Willing. We need to be willing to give up everything, but the Lord is going to take everything from us, he requires a little here and there, but then repays in abundance. We also have to realize how much we have. We are a blessed people and we need to be willing to sacrifice in order to recieve blessings, the Lord will tell us what he needs and if we give, we are blessed in abundance.

Just a thought for the week, another thing I have been thinking a lot about is just the amazing power of the Atonement and what all it does for us, I can't imagine what things would be like if it hadn't been for the sacrifice the Savior did for us, I can only imagine what things he went through in Gethsemane. But I am truly grateful for it, it can carry us all, I have seen the amazing power of the Atonement and what it can do for others. So have Faith and Trust in Christ. Love you all.

Love
Elder Elquist

Selected excerpts from other emails:

"New things in the Dayton Area, the weather has decided to get cold here, I am hoping it will warm up, the forecast says a high of 35 tomorrow. Scary. But oh well. We picked up a Former investigator this past week, so we will see how he progress's, his name is Money or D'Arius. He is pretty cool, he was taught by the last set of missionaries and he is doing well, he is just really flaky sometimes, which makes it a pain to meet with him. The Package arrived safely, so thank you for all that was in it. I always like getting new garments, they smell awesome. There is just something about the smell of new garments that just hits the spot.  Weird I know. Oh also if you find some of my old clothes in any of those places, I would keep them if at all possible. I am pretty sure I will fit in them when I get home.

So this past week for us, was slow but at the same time it felt like we had a billions of things to do, so that is always fun and makes life interesting for us.
Monday we met with Lamar and he is doing really well, he is progressing really well and is starting to gain a testimony on his own. Then we had to organize rides for a Leadership council on Wednesday, I will talk about that more on Wednesday. Also on Monday we had a less active come play Basketball with us and we had a good time with that.
Tuesday we had a slower day, we had to prepare a lot of reports and stuff for Stake Coordination on Sunday. Then we got to see Lamar and it went well, we are focusing with him on understanding the need for baptism by the correct authority. 

Wednesday we had an awesome Leadership council, we had 2 people from the missionary department in Salt Lake come in and trained us and it was awesome, we learned so many things, I had the opportunity to be paired up for role plays with a young missionary, and they are on fire, let me just tell you. The mission is in good hands. It is truly amazing to see all that has happened in preparation for this big boom of missionary work, so it is pretty insane to think about the miracles that have happened to make having this many missionaries possible.

Thursday we had a pretty good day, we planned out zone meeting, only to find out later that day, that the mission decided to move it to Saturday, so they could get us more information, then it got moved on Friday to Tuesday. So tons of fun with that. Then Friday, we tons of service, we are helping to dig a trench to get this spanish Family power. So that has been fun to do. I am learning Spanish while doing it, I am pretty sure this family loves me, they love me coming over and trying to speak spanish. I am going to be fluent when I get home.

Saturday was a slow day, we had a couple of lessons go through with some other investigators, for some reason we were not able to meet with hardly anyone this past week, so we will have to see how it goes over the next week.

Sunday we had a really good Stake Coordination meeting and got a lot of assignments from it, so it should be a good month this next month. 

That was my last week, hopefully it all goes well with you. Hopefully you guys don't have any more cool medical stuff that happens over the next few months. I get to miss all of the really cool stuff. That sucks by the way. Everyone decides to have all these cool things happen while I am gone, Jason breaks a leg and needs surgery and then Kaylee getting her knee fixed, what a bummer missing all of those, I also missed Jason and Alyssa having braces, so there goes my plan to tease them like they did to me. You guys should hold of on anything else exciting like that."

So how is everyone doing this lovely November morning, that is pretty weird it feels like it was just Christmas and everything yesterday. So that is pretty interesting to see how quick it has gone.

One thing I have been pondering as of late has been just the amazing things we have been blessed with. It is amazing to think about how much each and everyone of us are blessed and we get to see the Lords hand in are everyday life. So my quick spiritual thought today is just to count your many blessings instead of looking at what you don't have.

Love
Elder Elquist