Week 44 - San Tan Valley

Momma and family! yes it was so great to talk to you guys yesterday! i thought i would be trunky after talking to you but i was totally fine! so that's good. ready right away to get back to work. ummm yes my face is a little better. here and there i get some acne (i hope this isn't going to be sent out), but yeah overall it's fine. haha a sister missionary said she wanted broccoli? oh that caserole is so good. our mission is so small, that when we play ball on mondays, it's usually a zone or 2. or whoever wants to come in the area. oh yes i forgot to forward you that email. i'll take a sec and do it right now. there ya go! Sister moody is seriously awesome. I remember first talking to her. We just saw her on the ward list, and didn't know who she was so we went and contacted her! She was friendly, but didn't want much to do with us. she lived in an apartment, and she had like 30 cement bricks behind her. we were in a service kind of mood that week so we decided to go bring them to the trash. it took a 30 mins or so, but later she said that was one of the defining moments for her. not a defining moment like, "the gospel is true", but a moment like, "maybe i should reconsider". We would try to build her testimony on the porch week after week, with not much success. However, Elder Abramson (who is decently quiet), really spoke up that day, and basically told her, "hey christine, experiment upon our words. come to church. if you want to know if it's true, you gotta do (john 7:17. that rhymed, unintentional). so she decided to come. She came and felt the spirit powerfully. ever since then, her faith has been building. She's made incredible changes.

anyway... moroni 6 is awesome. i love using that. "nourished by the good word of God." just like President Hinckley said. once their baptized, they gotta keep coming. meet together oft to fast and to pray. alma 6:6. you're right, we need to help others. most of the time, we focus too much on ourselves. even building our own testimonies. why am i not happy? the best way is to fix all the problems at the same time. serve others. it's part of our baptismal covenant (mosiah 18), and if we do it, he will pour out his spirit more abundantly upon us. we can be happy, we can have our testimonies strengthened. Just this last week, we were teaching an inactive family (who came to church this last week). and she brought up a concern of hers. she said that she doesn't receive the attention and doesn't have all of her needs met. no one has reached out to her for the year that she has been here inactive. except us. For a short time i almost lost my temper, and wanted to rebuke her for thinking so much of herself. i wanted to say, "how can you say that? you have not so much as thought of yourself, when there are others in the same position! why should they be required to help you? who have you helped to come back to church?" thankfully i did not say such things. but simply invited her to try again. they did and were met by good members of the ward that showed interest and love. It's too easy to think of ourselves. But when we think to feed his sheep, he rewards us (mosiah 2:22). and then we are still indebted to him. i digress.

love you too! have an awesome week!

elder bronson

Week 43 - San Tan Valley

Mother! and family of  course. yes easter was solid. and the week was too. We got a new bishop last week, and i don't know if it was the new bishop, or if it was the fact that it was easter, but that sacrament meeting definitely made the top 5. So good. no better song than "i know that my redeemer lives" it's my favorite. Anyway... yes i got the see's candy. actually they send it with ice packs. so it stays. and they are great thank you! yes i got the ties in time. and yes i wore one for easter, and yes i got some complements thank you. yes i know elder prestwich. he's a stud. awesome missionary. teaching is going well. yes found a few new investigators last week. Elder Legrand is doing awesome. oh! we went to the easter pageant on wednesday. it was so awesome! there were so many people there. the spirit was so strong right when you walked on to the grounds of the temple. and the production was excellent. Mama jean was there. She is one of our investigators. i don't know why she likes to be called that, but we have no problem with it. she is hilarious. anyway, she went to the easter pageant and loved it. this is the lady that hated the book of mormon and joseph smith, and then after the miracle of the book or mormon, and the spirit that accompanies it, she knew it was true. this woman knows and loves the bible like no one you've ever seen. and soon she'll love the book of mormon just as much! anyway, we saw Elder Zwick there. he spoke in conference a few weeks ago. He talked to us for a while, and then proclaimed to our ward mission leader so that we could hear, "these are the best lookin missionaries in the entire kingdom!" He was speaking to me and elder haus. so this past week my neck has been super sore trying to lug around this giant head of mine. But anyway, mama jean talked to elder zwick for a few minutes about joseph smith and the book of mormon. it was amazing! anyway... yeah!" i realized the other day that mother's day was coming up. and in sacrament meeting they said it was may 11, and i was like, "hey! that's my mom's birthday!" Dad better do better than a bug zapper. short sleeve shirts are doing fine. we have a washer/dryer in our house. love you much!
Elder Bronson

Week 42- San Tan Valley

Hello mother! haha i apologize for the chastisement. i should not have done that! my apologies... things are pretty good in san tan valley. yes it's getting warm here. we're well into the hundreds nowadays. no one is having us for dinner tonight. it is p day. but we had awesome mexican food a couple days ago. at the acuna's. is kellie on the path of kristen as far as piano goes? not as far as boyfriend going on a misssion goes. the entertainer? haha yeah i remember that song. haha yeah having 4 kids play piano in the house is certainly annoying. you got the book for your graduating seniors. excited to talk to you guys soon! it's been a while, huh? I'm actually more excited this time which is a little bad, because i shouldn't be excited! excitement leads to trunkiness! anyway... feels weird to be out so long. i liked being a greenie much more. but yes it goes by extremely quick. sorry mother, the long one went to dad today. i hope you don't delete all these emails. put them in a folder or something. it's going to have to be my journal when i get home, because i certainly never write in mine. love you much!

 

Elder Bronson

Week 41- San Tan Valley

haha don't feel guilty mama! you are fine. yes dad told me about marcus getting his life. pretty crazy. he's way ahead of the curve. well the bronson curve. marcus is going to efy? oh shoot that is hilarious! wait did he go last year?  oh my gosh haha. kellie hit a mailbox too? that his downright hilarious. elder haus just commented on your statement there, "three different cars, three different girls, three different mailboxes" like it was a preview for a movie. "this summer... the bronson girls.." i don't know if that made sense. 

Week 40 - San Tan Valley

Mother and fam. yes i should definitely start writing things of significance to you via email because it's certainly not going in a journal. i'm terrible at that stuff. kinda like emails are the large plates of nephi, and journals are the small plates of nephi? now i know how nephi felt when commanded to make a second record… you're in 3 nephi in seminary? the best. nothing better than 3 nephi 11. not there yet though. i started a couple weeks ago from the beginning underlining The Doctrine of Christ (Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, Repentance, Baptism by emersion for the remission of Sins, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end) in a separate book of mormon. And yes i underlined each principle/ordinance in a different color. it's amazing! you really see how, as the introduction describes it, that the book of mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel. You cannot go a page without underlining something about Faith  Christ, repentance, baptism. hg, endure. I advise it for everyone. i still have a little bit of the groceries left. not much. went through it pretty quick. i need some more chocolate milk… when buying that for me, you actually brought back a previously overcome addiction. Good to hear the Egberts came in town. i always remember you having her on the phone during elections. i hear a few comments about politics here and there and i feel absolutely lost. we found four new investigators this week (which is really not that significant, but you told me to tell you about our experiences). 3 are pretty solid. we are looking forward to teaching them this week. We found two of them by contacting old potentials from the area book. The potential ended up not being there (because she moved), but the people that moved in ended up being prepared. pretty awesome. 

Happy anniversary! the big 28. wow!  no i'm fine without pants… a tie here and there wouldn't hurt… but no obligation whatsoever. yes i will miss easter when it comes time too. have you heard about the "because of him campaign?" The church put out a video entitled, "because of Him" from yesterday until easter. share it on facebook and stuff. they want it to go viral. it's awesome too. anyway love you much!

Elder Bronson

http://easter.mormon.org

Week 39 - San Tan Valley

hello mama! and family! what do you mean i should have a lot of things to tell you in this letter? haha that sounds like i'm in trouble. i flash back to the times i received a text like that, "well you should have a lot to tell me, right?" "uhhh...." i start flashing back to anything i ever did wrong. i hope this really means something like "there's a lot that happened this week. i want to hear about it all!" so i'm going to take it that way. anyway that is so good to hear you went to conference. yes i saw all of the pictures. Aunt linda did so amazing! My old companion, elder haus leaned over to me before her talk and said, "all the sisters give the same talks. they are all 'feel good' talks". and then Aunt linda got up there and proclaimed to the whole world the dangers of pornography. i turned to him, "man, those sisters and their 'feel good' talks..." but needless to say, she did amazing. There were so many incredible talks. I loved President Packer's! i love when he said there are some things that cannot be taught, only learned through prayer, study, revelation. i've certainly learned that on the mission. obedience brings knowledge. prayer, study, pondering, keeping the commandments, that is how you obtain knowledge, progress. i also loved his testimony of Christ! at the very end he gave (what sounded like a dying testimony) an incredible witness of the existence of Jesus the Christ. he mentioned joseph and sydney rigdon's witness, "after the many testimonies that have been given of him, this the testimony last of all, which we give of him, that he lives! for we saw him!" the next words he spoke were, "there words are my words." Wow. Anyway... so many good talks. Elder Holland's, President Uchtdorf's on gratitude, Elder Hales. i haven't heard much on the whole women wanting the priesthood thing, but whatever it was, elder oaks put an end to it. "stop thinking about your rights, and start thinking about your responsibility." shoot son. Anyway... so many good talks.

surprise birthday present was great! thank you much! nothing is better than chocolate milk, mom. you read my mind. yes elder thornock was laughing while talking to me. he kept saying that i had an awesome mom. i could only agree. Thank you mom!!

anyway... you didn't give me many questions to answer. so i'm not really sure what else to say. oh district meeting this week is on the book of mormon. "the book of mormon and the spirit are our two most powerful resources in conversion." it would only make sense to use them together. listen to the talk by Elder Holland entitled, "safety for the soul." it is one of my favorites, if not my favorite talk. watch it though, don't read it. you know how elder holland is. anyway.... love you much!

Elder Bronson

Dayquan's baptism

having a good conference elders??

Week 38- San Tan Valley

thank you mom and family! i am doing well. 20 years old? doesn't feel much different. good birthday card, yes. after reading it i thought, "sounds about right." well i'll see what i can do. P-day ends at 6:00. we work from 6:00 to 9:00. so i'll see what i can do to make it home five, maybe ten mins early. so maybe you can relay the message to the person. I hope you are planning on staying within the rules. yes people knew it was my birthday yesterday. it was good. we had cake at a member's home. and i got to confirm dayquan in sacrament on my birthday! pretty cool. he was baptized on saturday. solid service. companion is doing awesome. learning english quickly. the more english he learns, the more facetious he gets. it's a win lose scenario. haha just kidding he is awesome. he's got a solid testimony. his parents were actually converted/baptized by somebody in the ward's son. small world. yes we attend gospel principles every week. "the book of mormon" musical? ugh. welp... any publicity is good publicity, right? get's people thinkin! just long enough to where they get smashed with the spirit! i have heard of the different advertisements the church puts out to combat the play. pretty cool how the church makes light of something that is making light of us! anyway.... you're going to general conference? solid! i'm so excited! i was wondering when aunt linda was going to speak! and kathy doesn't want to go? haha that's hilarious. anyway... nothing much to report. awesome week. eddie, shelby, and emily are back on date. i don't know if i've ever talked about them. but we're meeting with them again tonight. ummm... i don't know what else to say! so sorry... oh! thank you for the see's! best gift ever. and for the gift tonight. just thanking you in advance. but another heads up. we work between 6 and 9. so i can be home at the earliest at 8:50. otherwise the gate is open on the side, and the potential intruder is free to go around back. 

love, elder bronson