January 12- NEW AREA -- Gilbert

hello mother! 

yes i was transferred and yes i live in someone in the ward's house. weird huh? i've never lived in a family's home on my mission. on top of that i've never even lived in my own area on the mission. and i got both! yes it is just elder allison and me in the richard's home! yes he is from idaho falls. he's an awesome worker too. we are both super pumped for the transfer because we both can work way hard without having to motivate the other! it's actually pretty relaxing. we have a lot going on too. well not right right now. but everything is about to explode in the area. you can feel it. we 

oh man..... the internet suddenly disconnected... and that is all that it saved ^

so i'll continue but it probably wont be as long or as good as it was before the draft deleted. 

so... yes the richards live alone they are great. new ward is awesome. sat in the best ward council ever the other day. serving in 3 wards. to family. one ysa. am i still a district leader? i actually haven't been a district leader for about 8 months haha. 

crazy that karlee is having her baby! and yes that is so weird that jeff is going to be a dad. i hadn't really thought about it very extensively until just now. and the conclusion is...... yes it's weird. 

good to hear that you're supporting Ryan. seems that he really likes her! he emails me periodically. but he's got the engagement goggles on! so you're going to have to do a real evaluation for me. just to make sure his engagement goggles aren't too blurry. nah i'm sure she's great! 

awesome that you're playing tennis so often! man i miss tennis a lot. i haven't played my whole mission. i haven't really seeked opportunities to do so though... so i guess the fault is mine. but man! you're going to have to tell me how it all goes. getting back into it. when is your first match? 

well nobody had a baptismal date when i got into the area. but things are going to heat up pretty quick. so the next couple weeks should be very successful in that category. yes i am definitely enjoying this phase of my mission. i love getting into new areas. it's always so exciting to rediscover. there are so many people that are just ready to hear the gospel. elder allison and i had only a few minutes to go tracting yesterday. but we planned it in, knowing we only had a few minutes, so that we could get a little finding in on Sundays... which are usually very busy. we knocked on twelve doors in the apartment. six answered. three gave us return appointments. and one is super prepared and was teary eyed when we prayed with her. so we're pumped for tuesday when we'll teach her again. anyway... i love tracting. i think i've said that plenty of times before... 

yes i got hailey's christmas package. it was awesome! i loved it. i loved especially the notebook. so many funny quotes and inspiring ones too! she really worked hard on putting that together. thank you so much hailey! 

love, elder bronson

new mailing address:

4402 e indigo bay dr

gilbert, AZ 85234

or you can email to the same place because that's the mission office.

Brother Mills-- old ward missionary leader in Higley Ward

clint and i... he was the eqp in singles ward. love this man. 

January 10 - Gilbert

Hi Sister Bronson,

We feel so blessed to get to know your son and to have him live in our home!  I’m sending you a picture of him with his new companion, Elder Allison who is from Idaho Falls.

Our address is 4402 East Indigo Bay Drive, Gilbert, AZ  85234.  If there’s anything I can do for you, please feel free to write, call, or text.

Happy Saturday!

Carole Richards

January 6- Gilbert

hello mother!

happy new year to you too! the week was good. actually i haven't eaten the cookies yet. still trying to take down all the other sweets i got this transfer. elder schwabb and elder mason said that they ran into her though! oh my gosh... everyone in the house was like, "how did these oreos get here?" nobody knew! because everyone was out when they came by. haha was i able to see any part of the boise state game? haha no. 

well i'm not sure if i answered all of your questions... but hopefully i did.

but this week went very well! we picked up a couple new investigators. one of them's name is emanuel. he pulled some other missionaries over and said... "hey do you want to have a bible study?" haha usually that means to missionaries that they want to bible bash. but they set up an appointment anyway. and then i was on exchanges with one of the missionaries that intitially contacted them (which is basically a straight miracle), when he called us and asked us to come over. so we did. he is 23 years old, so it was perfect that i was there so we could teach him in the singles' wasrd. we asked a lot of questions. helped him understand his testimony that he already had, and he accepted the invitation to be baptized. so he's getting baptizedfebruary 14 (because he has to go to a military training for a while). he is seriously incredible. he's a true christian. he found Christ about a year and a half ago when he started reading the bible. and he'll quote the bible all the time. when we invited him to be baptized, he paused for like 10 seconds and then said, "ya know... i'd like to think that at the time of Christ, i would've been like peter, that when Christ invited him to come follow Him, that i would drop my nets, and straightway follow Him. except i would drop my weights (he's a lifter). so yes i will be baptized on that day." it was pretty incredible. 

anyway... we're teaching him again tomorrow. he came to church on sunday. he fasted and gave fast offerings. he said, "i know i'm not a member yet, but can i still fast with you guys?" haha "umm no sorry man it's not allowed." haha just kidding... of course we said yes. anyway whenever we bring a member in the singles ward to his lessons, they walk away totally blown away.

anyway... oh shoot i forgot to tell you! i'm getting transferred. sad, i know. don't know where to yet. but we will figure it out on wednesday.

love, elder bronson

December 15- Gilbert

mother! 

yes of course i am doing well! yes i heard about the seminary assessment! we teach seminary for a few minutes every thursday. so we heard the crestfallen groans of a typical high school student, "we have to take a seminary final too?" haha thank goodness they are JUST now enacting such a requirement. good to hear that 9 of them passed haha. i hope that marcus and kellie did! haha

how are things going with me? everything seems to be going great! no we did not have a baptism this weekend. hopefully two weeks from now. but we will see. Zoe is still doing awesome. she was sustained in sacrament yesterday as a relief society instructor. which is crazy for a brand new convert. but hey nothing that she can't handle. we did baptisms for the dead for some of her ancestors on wednesday. well we did confirmations. the temple president doesn't like missionaries doing baptisms. which is kinda ironic but understandable. It was awesome though. yesterday we invited her to go weekly to the temple to do baptisms. which is not something that we would invite any other convert to do haha. i've certainly never invited a brand new convert to do baptisms weekly in the past.. but once again... nothing she can't handle. she already gave out a book of mormon at work. she told us the story. which was awesome. told the lady that it changed her life, told her all about the book of mormon, the church... also is taking one of her friends to the mesa christmas lights this weekend. and hopefully her roommate too so we can go. so yeah... needless to say she is still doing awesome. 

have i had to wear sweaters and jackets yet? Went on exchanges the other day with elder thompson. He's awesome. but we both forgot our jackets. we biked all day. which is fine. but it was sooo cold. it was probably like 50 at the end of the night. which in arizona, after acclimating to the climate change, is FREEZING.

you're recovering from a cold too? yeah it's bad over here. everyone is getting sick! sacrament meeting sounds like a hospital. ummm we can go to the office when we need to. we just don't like to. but we can go any day. 

anyway.. short update this week. but hope that will do!

elder bronson

 this is our christmas tree... it is a broom stick, a can of clorox wipes, elder dayley's bath robe, four ties, and a chair. 

ACTUALLY!!! elder dayley broke the cold water to the washer... so in order to do the rinse cycle, i had to spend 30 minutes filling up the washer with water! one pitcher at a time. it was just great. 

December 8 - Gilbert

Hello Mother. 

I saved your email for last! yeah it was a great weekend. one of the only baptisms where there was not an ounce of stress in me! everything went perfectly fine. usually there is something that causes some stress. haha elder bailey told me that at one of his baptisms... the girl didn't come out to the font. so they went around back. and she was like... "i'm not sure i want to do this." and then they decided to say a prayer. and then she was like, "okay i i'll do it." ugh talk about stressful. i probably just would've avoided the situation and just walked out the door. investigators can cause gray hairs. yes zoe's parents ended up coming. she was indifferent. but he (her dad) was touched by the spirit. i gave a talk and i even saw him tearing up. others said the same when they were up front doing things. so Zoe's going to work on him. haha that's what she said. i have no idea what background she comes from. but she's doing family yhistory so she can do baptisms for the dead in two days haha so i'll let you know. her last name is hooker. that's why i just say zoe haha. geri's in ireland right now. so kinda on a stand still with her. 

shoot hailey's birrthday is this friday? i'll see what i can do. ummm can you choose from one of the pictures that i ahve previously sent? i know that i've sent you a picture or two of the landscape of arizona. ask courtney. you can do anyone you want i don't care. do i have plans for christmas? i don't know what i'm donig christmas day. but we'll see. christmas eve will be with bishop tenney (singles ward bishop), haha okay i'll make sure it's more private this year for skype. yeah they weren't my favorite members. just the ones with lots of devices for all of us. but i'll go to the mills' house this year for skype. or google chat or whatever we decide to do. 

yeah sorry i don't know what else i want for christmas... oh! i want socks! not church socks i'm good with those. but regular short socks. like the ones from costco! pretty please! and ummm you can surprise me on whatever else you want to give! i will be happy.

love, elder bronson

 ZOE and Elder BAiley

December 1 - Gilbert

mother!

how was thanksgiving? excellent. it's always an awesome time to catch families home. less actives, potentials.... and share a quick thanksgiving message. so that was the majority of my thanksgiving. but we did have room for a meal or 4 haha. yes the woodwards were our first meal. they are great. brother woodward is hilarious. the baptism...? we did not have a baptism scheduled for this last weekend. but we do have one scheduled this upcoming weekend. Zoe. She's still doing awesome. progressing of course. how can she not. she is still just as excited about the gospel as she was a week ago. but she has a couple more manuals. she initially received some criticism/adversity from her parents on the news of her getting baptized. but she showed respect and love toward them. and they sent her a text while we were in a lesson with her that said something like, "zoe your father and i have talked about it, and have decided that we will now be attending your baptism this next weekend." she was so excited. We are teaching her family history today and hopefully will set another "baptismal date" for her. we do it twice because the second one is for her ancestors! so that she can do family history and go to the temple a couple weeks later. so she doesn't miss a beat. she's awesome though. she has seriously dropped everything behind her. old habits, friends... it's crazy. last week she told us... my dream now is to live in SLC. oh and i want to go to byu now. and she wants to work for the church now as an accountant haha. seriously she's not all talk either. she already got her recommendation last week from bishop. 

oh man it's crazy to hear about kellie, marcus, and hailey and their ambitions. i was never that ambitious. man you picked kristen's right? dangit.... mom always gets that stuff right. i'm 2/3.  what else is happening with me? ummm..... no we haven't had any authorities visit lately. well a few months ago we had an mission leadership conference with elder robbins. but i think i told you about that. elder packer (pres packer's son) is coming this month. in a couple weeks i think. so that will be cool. oh man ben is so awesome. love that guy. yes we will definitely chill back at byu. hope i'm well and healthy? yeah me too. hahaa just got the cold. but anyway... love you much! sorry short update today!

love, elder bronson

  arizona trying to fake snow....embarassing!