Picture Update

Week 58- Gilbert

good morning! man you get up earlier than i do! but you get the weekends! "there aint no rest for the mission, money don't grow on trees.." tell that one to marcus. he'll like it. 17 students, huh? that's awesome. the seminary teachers here, in coordination with president Nattress, want elder lybbert and i to drop in and teach every week. so we're trying our best to hand it off to other missionaries. because we like to proselyte. church was good yesterday! had an investigator come to church yesterday. and another! oh good story. our stake president's son got back from his mission last week. before he got on the plane, he prayed to father to be able to teach the gospel one more time as a set apart missionary. so he got on the first plane to texas from mexico. no go. then on the plane from texas to arizona. yes go. the woman next to him began talking to him about how she is on a spiritual journey. and how she feels like it's ending. so elder allred (now mitch allred) taught her the restoration of the gospel. both in tears. he invited her to be baptized. on the plane. she accepted. so she came to church yesterday ( just a few days after the flight) to see him give his homecoming talk. she loved church. we met with her a few hours after church at the allred's home. it was an awesome lesson. spirit was way strong (pretty crazy... we asked her to read galatians 5:22 because we were talking about the role of the holy ghost in conversion. and she says "whoa... i just got the chills. i just marked my scriptures there this morning with the restoration pamphlet mitch gave me the other day.) pretty neat. anyway there were a lot of super cool experiences in that lesson. the gospel is the best. we also tracted into a couple more investigators last week. elder lybbert and i love tracting. but a good week. elder tagg, our district leader, noticed this morning, that for the last 7 weeks, our district has had a baptism. we only have 4 companionships. so that's pretty amazing! we have not gone a week without one! anyway.. the blessings of the Lord are certainly pouring out upon the Higley Stake. okay... back to answering your questions. our new member family?  doing great. 3 of them went to the temple to do baptisms this last week. pretty awesome. we got to confirm them, but the temple president doesn't like us to baptize. which kinda stinks. but still pretty awesome. Jamie (the 20 yr old babysitter) wanted to pray before we left the temple. so she asked if she could say it. we all gathered in the lobby (just us, the wadley family, and jamie, hailey, and makala) and jamie offered a simple prayer. i've had a lot of experiences on my mission. but that was definitely one to remember. it was powerful. talking about it later, jamie said, "i felt like i could barely speak. the spirit was so powerful!" so pretty awesome week, i'd say. so they're definitely progressing to answer your question. haha yes i've heard much about obama and immigration. many people have plenty to say about it. but you are right mom! the second coming has to come somehow! thank goodness that we have a prophet of the Lord on the earth today. we cannot be lead astray. Wilford woodruff, "The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty." pretty comforting words right there. i'm sure dad has read it, but read, "the seven deadly heresies" by bruce r. i read it this morning. i don't know how i haven't read it before! so good. that is awesome that you are going to the church sites! i would love to do that. my personality? it hasn't changed much haha. my testimony and knowledge of the Gospel has. and i'm still working on becoming a little more humble! but anyway.... love you much! and the whole family of course.

elder bronson

Week 57- August 4th Gilbert

mother and family! good to hear from you! first day of school, eh? i get to say 'eh' now. my district leader is from edmonton, canada. i don't know why that gives me the right, or the confidence to do so. but anyway... summer is way too short? haha yes you are correct, we have different opinions on that. we went iceskating for a zone activity a couple mondays ago and it was super weird to feel cold. but after busting out some backflips i was back to being hot again. i lied about the backflips. good scripture... d&c 6:36. it's easy to quote, but hard to do. look up d&c 35:13. good one. helps me out a lot. that's too bad that they switched some things up in the districts there. they seem to do that here a lot too! but not the school districts. just the mission districts! haha we have to keep changing our mission 3rd verse to called to serve. because it includes all the zones in the mission in the song. so we have to memorize a new song every couple months. anyway... you had an elder for 10 1/2 months? not bad. i remember those days. not quite so long. but i stayed in my first area for almost 9 months if you recall. i was certainly ready to leave when i did leave. as much as i loved pioneer ward. i'm sure he was happy to move on as well. oh jeff and karlee are going to live with you guys? 30 minutes, huh? that would be tough. i'm sure it works out better financially to live with you guys, regardless of the 30 min drive. yes dad told me about the fishing trip. he's still getting skinny? shoot that's crazy! i keep seeing pictures and thinking, is that just the camera?" haha anyway... i'm not sure if i sent pictures last week. actually i think i did. probably to courtney though. a picture of the last baptism. we had a baptism this saturday as well. 5 of the kids that jamie (who got baptized last week) babysits got baptized. they are so awesome! so young but such powerful testimonies. three 12 yr olds. hailey makayla and liliana. all are so excited for the temple. already got their limited use recommends for next tuesday. we'll probably be able to go too. they are so great. anthony and june got baptized too. also part of the family. the mother of makala and hailey came and actually stood up and shared a few thoughts during the testimony meeting while elder lybbert and i were getting dressed. she's not a member, and she stood up and thanked everyoen and told them how much their support means to her. pretty incredible. sad i didn't get to hear it. we will be trying to work with her this month. but pretty incredible week. i will send pictures to courtney's email. oh! and they love the gilbert temple. well who can't love it? when i get sealed... it's going to be there. don't care where she wants to go. it's going to be at the gilbert temple. 

anyway that is so cool that hailey got up and bore her testimony so powerfully. dad said, "by the mouth of babes." true prophecy right there. jerry (5 yr old in the same family that got baptized) on our second lesson with before we taught him the plan of salvation said, "i lived with God" and when we taught him the restoration, when quoting the first vision, he walked up to the pamphlet (because we were showing the picture of the first vision) stared at it, and then put his hand up and slid it across God and Jesus Christ. it was awesome. didn't really hit me until after the lesson but it was pretty amazing. he was just in awe. a 5 yr old. not sure what the realease date is. but i'm pretty positive it's june 23. actually yes it is. or else like may 2. they let us choose./ but i don't want to go then. so june 23 it is. anyway yeah that will be crazy when kellie and i go to byu together! love you mother and family!

love elder bronson

Week 56 - Gilbert

Hello mother. that's great you got to see her again! i started reading this email thinking it was dad for some reason. and as i read i thought to myself, why would calv and court need help with the baby from dad? hahaha anyway... and you're watching walking dead? shoot mom! do you like it? that's an intense series. and lost? pretty good. don't get too into it. or you'll do just that... get too into it. D & C this year, huh? that'll be great. when do you do book of mormon? hopefully i'm back by then. i'll just teach it all for ya! i'm good with that! haha! sorry i may be a little brief with you today. got a few emails this week and i have to have time to send you some pictures! I always love it when someone asks to take a picture, because i know that you will love it. yeah we were all at cafe rio at the same time. and none of us meant to be there at the same time. the reeses puffs weren't mine! they were our mini missionary's! we went shopping on saturday because he needed food. we picked him up that morning. he's still with us, and will be until wednesday. just a guy preparing for his mission. he's going to minneapolis minnesota! pretty crazy. awesome guy though. he'll be a great missionary. jamie's baptism went great! she was confirmed yesterday. i'll send you pictures in a sec. yes christie came, and jean even came. which is a miracle. they all loved it. we will see them again tonight. 4 of the kids should be getting baptized this upcoming saturday. anyway.... got to go so i have time!

elder bronson

Week 55- Gilbert

good to hear the week went well. the week went well over in higley zone too! yes i received a ton of pictures. and a ton of my new niece. in fact. i had 55 emails this week. and i was pumped. until i realized that 90% were pictures of andi. haha i'm not complaining... but it was just funny. anyway... yes i heard that she surprised everyone. that's pretty typical. i bet she was planning i t the entire time. everyone gushed. yes i believe it. i saw a few pictures. and everyone looked like they had just been to a funeral! yes everything is going well for the new family. Jamie is getting baptized this saturday if she can keep it up with not smoking. she's doing great. and progressing so well. miracle yesterday. her aunt (kristie) who came to church once and wasn't very interested talked to us for a while yesterday. the kids were at their dad's house so it was basically only jamie and kristie and a few kids. so we were talking to jamie about some things and i don't remember the exact chain of events, but we just started talking about the restoration. she asked tons of questions, relating to the plan of salvation and the restoration. very smart lady. she would make comments like, "oh so after Christ and his apostles were killed, people started to make up their own things. and start to worship idols and stuff. Ohhhhh!" It was pretty awesome. we basically taught her pieces of the plan of salvation, the restoration, and the gospel all in one fairly short 20 min lesson. and she gained a huge interest. so we're going back tomorrow and seeing if the interest is still there. this lady, 3 weeks ago, was totally turned off to the kids getting baptized, and is now pretty interested. we're pumped. the Lord's tender mercies. anyway... hahaha i'm sure jeff and karlee would love to sub for seminary. the seminary teachers here love it when the missionaries come and help teach. in fact, we are currently sitting in the family history library at the seminarybuilding/stake center and brother jardine, the semiary president keeps asking us about his email to president regarding who will be helping teach this school year. pretty funny.  i just want to do traditional good ol missionary work. yes we always celebrate pioneer day. usually a parade or something. a few parties. pretty cool.so i don't think he can be better than him. i'm glad you liked my letter. yes it is all due to you're wonderfully facilitated family gatherings, that the family is what it is! thank you much mother! and family. love you all so much! hope i answered all the questions. and i'll probably email you elder lybbert's funny moment of the week too.

love, elder bronson

Week 54- July 7th Gilbert

hello mother and family! yes i had an awesome week. full of miracles. yup we had our first dust storm of the summer! they're great. a lot of fun to watch. we are advised not to go outside, because you can catch what's called "valley fever" from breathing in these viral spores. so hopefully i'll be okay! haha yes thankfully we have a car. i can't believe i am not an uncle yet! i don't think i can wait another week! you will have to send me a picture or something during the week. maybe i will have a member send you a picture of elder lybbert and i and you can reply with a picture of my niece! sunday was good yesterday. yes the family that we are teaching came again yesterday. pretty crazy story... so jamie, who is 20 broke her foot saturday night. she is the most progressing of the investigators in that family. she is basically the leader if you will... so she was in the hospital all night sunday morning and didn't get back til like 5am with the family. so she didn't come to church. and a couple of the kids who needed more sleep didn't either. thankfully 4 others in the family came. kind of a weird family situation. but there is kristie the parent, jamie the babysitter who is 20, blake 13, hailey mekayla and liliana 12, anthony 10, mary june 8, alex 7, jerry 5.  we we were thinking about how much of a setback it was that jamie broke her foot. But the Lord is the driver. The Relief society president, when she heard about it in ward council, organized some meals to be brought over. we went over this morning to check up on them, and the mother of some of the investigators (kristie) was so grateful for everything the ward has done thus far. Kristie has been a negative factor in the family's conversion. She doesn't want them to go to church, or participate. but The Lord has a way to soften hearts. We have really been praying for her heart to be softened, and the Lord provided a way. as he always does. So I will keep you posted. 

anyway... back to answering your questions... playing, eating, and walking, huh? that sounds great! wednesday is when it will happen? man! when was the estimated date initially? what did i do for the 4th? went to a morning breakfast, went to a baptism, did some proselyting, and was in by 7. we were not allowed to be outside due to potential drunk drivers. new gators probably coming this week. we have a ton of appointments scheduled. yes it is horribly hot. good to hear you are keeping up with the book of mormon reading. keep up the good work! if you are only underlining the phrase, "the doctrine of Christ" you will only find it probably 10 times in the book of mormon. probably 50 for the phrase, "gospel of Jesus Christ". so you have to underline the content! faith in christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. anyway... I love the area. love the zone. love the ward. love the members. everyone is great. i love gilbert. there are about 20 missionaries in our zone. but it's the biggest zone. 

good to hear you're starting up with tennis again. you'll need to reteach me everything. i'm probably horrible now. 

anyway love you much! nothing else to report!

elder bronson

BOM Challenge

underline "faith in christ" in green (or any other color you want)

      - belief in Jesus Christ

      - obedience to his commands

underline "repentance" in red (or any other color you want)

      - maybe include sin if you'd like to go that broad

      - humility, confession, forsaking, asking forgiveness

underline "baptism" in blue (or any other color you want)

     - baptismal covenant

     - baptismal ordinance

     - i even went as broad/general as just covenants. i included even the abrahamic covenant. but you can do whatever. just ideas.

underline "the gift of the holy ghost' in black (or any other color you want)

     - i included promptings that came to prophets from the hg

     - of course the gift itself

underline "enduring to the end" in orange (or any other color you want)

     - things like 2 nephi 31:19-20

     - other things you want to do to "endure to the end"

underline "the gospel of jesus christ" or "the doctrine of christ" in all colors

i hope this doesn't sound controlling. i am just suggesting ideas. just trying to get the point across that when i did this exercise, i wasn't simply reading the book of mormon. i studied it. picked it apart. and underlined the doctrine of christ everywhere. and it changed my mission. and my life. love you all! i will be doing it again! and i want to hear all your incite and experiences!

love you much bronson family!

elder bronson

Week 53- Gilbert

Hello mother and family! well first off... might i remind the family of our unofficial bet of who would have the first baby... Although kristen was not married at the time (only engaged), we all guessed that she would be the first to have a baby. lo and behold... she is the last to have a baby (unless I am but uninformed). pretty crazy, huh?! i can't believe it! i'm going to come home to a 1 year old and a 6 month old! maybe even another (kristen) (or courtney again...). anyway i'm just super excited. 

thank you for writing me even though you were on vacation. i got transferred back up to Gilbert! I love gilbert so i am so excited. I mean san tan valley is great... but gilbert is the best place ever! I love it so much! so i'm serving just about 3 or 4 miles south of my first area. i'm serving in the higley stake, in the higley ward. and we cover a singles ward too. i have an awesome companion, elder lybbert. He is awesome and we do really well together. He's going home in 12 weeks though... so we won't be together too long. and the Higley zone is awesome too. just pumped to be back in gilbert. no i don't know anyone with the last name escobido. i didn't have to throw away anything this time when packing. I don't really have much anyway. i try not to gather a ton of junk. it's weird having only a large suit case and its contents to your name. 

new address.... well i'm just going to use the mission office because we apparently don't know where the mail key is... 1001 n burk st gilbert, az 85234

moment of the week-- pudding, kid, mom, lick

elder bronson