Week 19- Gilbert

Hello mom and family! good to hear from you guys! every week! yes i knew it was halloween week haha. this week is going to be kinda rough too because we have a zone conference, a mission conference, and interviews. and we have to be in by 5 on halloween. so not a lot of time to proselyte this week. yes i am definitely doing well! and i am healthy. well NOW i am haha. i got the flu the other day. woke up on friday morning around 2ish and went to the nearest container (happened to be a trashcan). i don't remember what i hate but it didn't matter anymore! haha so after a few more purges and a priesthood blessing, i was good to go! thank goodness for the priesthood. "in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest." and you could definitely feel it! anyway... yes bishop turley asked if he could do so. good to hear it made ya cry! haha i knew it would. Bishop turley is a stud. love that man. He is such a good bishop. every time me and my companion meet a new less active member, we immediately refer them to the bishop because we know how awesome he is. there is a whole in his ceiling where revelation just flows straight down. i swear. haha
 
yes! you are correct! the gilbert temple dedication has been announced. it'll be open to the public for tours in mid january. yes it is in our mission. i hope that we will be a part of the dedicaition, but more importantly, there will be so many members inviting nonmembers. the nonmenbers will feel the spirit, and then we will teach them! that's the hope of course. We are trying to help members understand that it would be best for them to be spiritually prepared for the temple, so we should start inviting to other things now. it's a work in progress. But we love the members here. all of them are so faithful, and love the missionaries. How could you not?! just kidding. but they really are awesome. Yup frank was baptized. He is a stud. Hasn't received a clalling yet but we're working on it. yes the osorios got baptized this weekend. It was such an incredible program too. They were so excited and the ward REALLY helped out with the program. the spirit was so strong. i'll send a couple pictures in a bit. But if that didn't make saturday the best day ever, stake conference certainly did! We were able to go to the adult session of stake conference and Elder Perkins of the first quorum of the seventy attended. The spirit was so strong to begin with, but on top of that, Elder Perkins kinda went out of the ordinary and stood up, asked for a microphone, walked down off the stage, and asked a recent convert to come out from the pews and express her feelings (we were talking about missionary work the entire meeting. that's what the bretheren said they wanted this session to be focused on. So elder Perkins decided to talk about the reasons why we do missionary work. So he asked Amanda to express herself). It was pretty awesome. She talked about her experiences. AND THEN. Elder perkins asked Alle (our investigator) and Eric (her less active boyfriend) to come up. We have been working with them for a couple months. they are so awesome and progressing. but slowly. anyway so he asked them to come up and share their thoughts. So Elder perkins began talking about them (because he had previosuly met with them earlier that day), and Eric began to cry ( he always cries). But the spirit was sooooo strong. And Then he asked Eric to share his feelings and he did. in front of the whole stake (while the whole stake was on the edge of their chairs). And then he asked Alle to. And she began talking. Elder perkins asked her what she thought about what the missionaries were teaching her. she relplied, "ya know, i just feel something when they teach me. i know it is true." She said that to the entire stake! it was so awesome!!!! and then Elder Perkins asked Elder Abramson and me to come up. so we did. He asked me to share a few thoughts and i did. and then bishop too. he then concluded with, "this is why we do missionary work." the meeting was so powerful and the spirit was so strong. I remember sitting in that meeting never wanting to leave. feeling like this is it. This is home. The gospel is real. it blesses lives. and families. i love teaching. i love witnessing change. i love the mission! so that about sums up saturday. good day huh?
 
that is awesome that myou came up with that analogy for seminary. i love it. yes we had a fall festival in one our wards and we have another one on wednesday. hailey's last primary program? that is an awesome idea mom! what a perfect missionary opportunity. you never know whose lives can be touched. so invite everyone! anyway i don't have a ton of time to write back becaus Elder Glaus wants to leave the library right now but anyway... good to hear Hailey is still the athlete in the family! keep it up. and she didn't want to go to the ceremony on sunday. what a stud. you're raising some good kids mom! the call over christmas will be skype. yeah that is sad that so many people are coming down with cancer. yeah don't tell me the sad stuff. 30s? yeesh it's still in the 80s during the day. sometimes 90s. night it'll get to 60s. sometimes 50s. but that's how it is all summer i hear. yes we eat every night. our ward missionaries take care of it. nothing i've tried that i didn't like! the mexican food down here is ridiculous though. Sister Garcia, the wife of the wml makes the best food in the world. but yes nothing compares to your cooking of course.
 
but i would love some letters. i haven't had one in a few weeks and it's killing me haha. so post it on facebook or something i don't know! i  need letters! love and miss you all!

Kind Words

Dear Bro. and Sis Bronson,

 I asked Elder Bronson for your email address.  My name is Mark Turley and I am the Bishop of the Pioneer Ward.  I have seen your son grow and develop since he came into the mission.  I knew when I first met him that he was special.  Before being called to serve as the Bishop, I served for almost 5 years as the ward mission leader.  In all my time serving in that capacity as well as my time serving as Bishop over the last year, I don't think I have seen a more dedicated, hard working, full of the spirit missionary as your son.  He is cream of the crop.  You have done a marvelous job raising him and I am thankful for him.  I have a son serving in New York New York South Spanish, and Elder Bronson reminds me a lot of him.  I am grateful that Elder Bronson is seeing the fruits of his labors with the Baptism of Frank Romano last week and the three Osorio children this Saturday.  He was and is an incredible trainer for both Elder Nue and Elder Abramson.  That is so important to have a good trainer.  Elder Cook, who trained your son was a great missionary as well.  We have several others that he and Elder Abramson are working with that I feel will also come to the waters of Baptism.  I have had the opportunity to be in discussions and see Elder Bronson teach, and he is amazing.  You call feel the Love that he has for the people he serves.  We had he and Elder Abramson over for dinner tonight.  They are great young men.  The Lord's BEST!!

 Well, again I just wanted to thank you for raising such a wonderful son.  We Love Him!!!

 Take Care,

 Bishop Turley

Frank Roman

Week 18- Gilbert

hey mom and family! everything is going awesome! i love it here! love the members, nonmembers ha, missionaries. and no i wasn't trying to teach you a lesson by not writing you. i can't remember what happened last week. i think we had to fill out a survey that took up a lot of emailing time. sorry about that...
 
and yes conference was awesome!!!! yes i did have a greater appreciation for everything. I didn't miss a second of conference, and loved every second of it too. it's incredible the difference of being a missionary. conference is sooo different. and no skittles conference bingo... i tried to convince my zone leaders but... no i'm just kidding. no i wasn't able to listen to Aunt Linda's talk! I'm sure it was awesome. My ward mission leader's wife said it was really good though. favorite talks? of course elder ballard's on missionary work. Elder Holland's was really sincere and touching but didn't have much doctrine in it... but way good anyway.Elder Bednar's was good! but i loved Elder Ballard's. he mentioned that sometimes we are scared as members to even pray for missionary opportunities for fear of actually receiving them. I related to that. i remember being so lame back home. of course it's different now! All we do is pray for missionary work! ha. I loved President Monson's on his wife. and President Uchtdorf's on "join us." It showed that the Gospel is for everyone! sometimes members of the church judge others. it's easy to fall into such a mindset, but what if we could look at everyone as children of God? isn't that what they are? that works with missionary work too. Sometimes people look at others that are awesome people and think, "man they would make great mormons! because they basically are already." when really we should be looking at the person struggling and thinking, "wow, the atonement can really bless that person's life." the ones that are struggling are the ones that are going to be receptive to The Lord's Gospel! so get rid of labels on who YOU think would make a good Mormon. And think about who The Lord thinks would make a good Mormon.
anyway... i loved all of the conference addresses. They were incredible.
 
Good to hear the cruise went so well! that sounds like a ton of fun! but no i don't know a Bishop Welch. He's in the tempe mission? yeah i wouldn't every meet him. but that's cool! i don't know about that but going on a mission certainly hasn't rid me of my personality. I'm still pretty upbeat and social so no worries... and  yeah it helps a lot with missionary work.
 
Kellie gets her wisdom teeth out? oh gosh. worst experience of my life. i would cut off a finger before going through that again. ugh. that was horrible.
 
investigators? awesome. Frank, someone we've been teaching since the beginning of last month finally accepted the invitation to be baptized! We are super excited. He said that he prayed and asked our Father in heaven if he should, and he really felt like it was the right path. he passed his interview last week too! He's an awesome guy. he's 32. He'll make an awesome member of the church. But we are also teaching Ashley, tristan, and tobin. They are the kids of a less active lady we started teaching. They just this last week accepted the invitation to be baptized as well!  We still have a lot of things to teach, but the spirit was so strong when we invited them. It was so awesome. We were told not to invite them too haha, but the spirit told us to so we did! It was awesome. we invited tristan to be baptized first, and she looked at us with wide eyes and replied, "YES!", and then looked over at her mom like... "wait, can i?" it was pretty funny. But then tobin and Ashley accepted as well.

Well I'm glad you are praying for me. Frank is actually getting baptized this weekend. I forgot to mention it the last couple weeks, but we commited him to pray about baptism, and he came back and said he did, and that he felt like this was the path that he needed to go. It was actually kinda funny because Elder Neu had already left to Brazil, and Elder Abramson hadn't come in yet. So it was just me on splits with my wml brother garcia. But we put him on date for oct 19. He passed his interview last week so things are lookin up. Elder Neu and I taught this less active lady once also, who has 3 kids that are not baptized. And then Elder Abramson and I taught them once and put them on date. It was kinda funny too because the fellowship told me not to invite them to be baptized because the less active mom was not ready for it at this point. But we taught an inspired lesson about trials and the Holy Ghost that we had been planning for a couple days, and were prompted to invite them! so we did. We put them on date for the 26th, but we have some other things to go over so we may have to move it to november 2nd. But we are so excited for Frank. He is a stud. convert for life. He's going to do so much good in people's lives as a member of the church. We're pumped.

 
Oh! Elder Neu left it was sad. he's in Brazil now. So it looks like i'm going to have posterity in Brazil. But I'm training again! i love training. Elder Abramson is my new companion. He's from york, pennsylvania. he's a little quiet, but he's awesome. We work really well together. He's a stud. I sent a picture to courtney of us too. I held off on sending all the pictures i took of him falling asleep in studies, and in the morning. pretty funny.
 
 the only way you can EVER convince someone that this gospel is true, is through the spirit. if ye receive not the spirit, ye shall not teach. so if someone starts fighting with you, do exactly what you did. bear your testimony and leave. Tell them what YOU know to be true. and invite them to know for themselves. So you did the right thing! keep up the good work!
 
Anyway... i hope i answered all of your questions. i sent a ton of pictures to courtney.
love you all!
 
Love, Elder Bronson 

Picture Update- Week 18

Bishop Turley

 Parker said he thinks he scared off his new comp by taking this picture lol

Elder Poff



Being normal with Elder Poff

Eric and Alle

 The Pridays

Saying goodbye to Elder Neu before heading off to Brazil

Elder Poff

Week 16- Gilbert

Hey!

the missionary work is definitely picking up. We took frank to the visitor's center this week and he loved it. the spirit was so strong. We were supposed to take him to a baptism yesterday to see what it was like but he canceled last minute. and cancelled the appointment. he still wanted to but satan was workin pretty hard on him. Frank had a group project due the following day and 2 of the people doing the project with him dropped the class, and the teacher made him pick up the slack. ha and we were fasting for him that day too! it's kinda funny because last time we fasted for eric and ally, it ended up bad too. just temporarily though! so i'm counting on that with Frank too! Hopefully we can have another lesson with him and commit him to another date, since he probably won't be getting baptized this Saturday because he missed the other baptism and lesson and such... But it's fine! I have no doubt that he will be baptized. it's just a matter of when! But he's a stud. ANYWAY... transfers are next week and i honestly don't know what's going to happen. really not sure. My Bishop says that he's going to personally email my mission president and tell him to keep me here. So we'll see haha. Our Bishops love Elder Neu and me. He talks us up so much in all of his meetings too haha. Members will come up and say, "man, Bishop was sure talkin you up in pec today..." And we're always confused. Sorry this email is going to be short, because i don't know what else to say!  ummm we also just started teaching this guy that's been inactive for 30 years. all of the oldtimers in our ward think we're incredible because we're teaching him, when really the Lord was just preparing him. it wouldn't have mattered which elders started teaching him. I guess it's just a way that The Lord was blessing us with member trust! along with our  bishops talking us up. and our stake president ha. oh we've been teaching another less active named Ashley. She told us the other day that when we first started teaching her she didn't want to be LDS, but now she's coming to church and loving it. pretty cool. oh we ran into another inactive in the apartments the other day. started teaching him. we were super bold with him and got him to meet with Bishop. That's the best part about being amissionary. the spirit is so strong because of the mantle of being set apart as a servant of the Lord (and because we don't do anything but serve The Lord all day) that we can be super bold with people. doing missionary work as a member missionary, the line between bold and overbearing is pretty low. but as a missionary you can be incredibly bold and they won't take offense to it. as long as they first recognize you as a representative of Jesus Christ. You have to have the spirit to be bold. and you won't be confounded before men (i always use that scripture. because its awesome). if ye receive not the spirit, ye cannot teach. but if you do have it, the words will be given you in the very moment you need them! go promises!   lately, we've been working with members a lot too because well.... it's Gilbert Arizona. Anyway we seek to build their faith by sharing the restoration, and bringing the spirit in really strong, but then after that we give them an apostolic promise given to us by Elder Anderson in the last conference in the talk, "it's a miracle." it's like the coolest promise ever. you have to look it up. actually i'll just tell you it. do it with the fam. please.   Elder Neil L Anderson: As you pray to know with whom to speak... 1. names and faces will come to your minds 2. words will be given you in the moment you need them 3. Opportunities will arise 4. faith will overcome doubt 5. the lord will bless you with your very own miracles.   this promise is awesome. but it's not just a promise. it's a promise given to us by a special witness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. These promises are real. The Lord is bound by these promises, because they are given to us by his servants. Try him. Pray and ask our father in heaven to know with whom to speak. and he will let you know. but you have to do so with real intent, faith in Christ, and sincerely (just like you do when you seek any personal revelation (moroni 10:4)). But real intent means that you are really intending on acting on the personal revelation. please. act on your personal revelation. talk to and invite those people that WILL come to your mind. As you do so, I promise you that the Lord will bless you with the words to say, the opportunities to arise, the faith to overcome doubt, and with personal miracles. You will be able to "catch the wave of missionary work."   So Bronson Family, will you pray to know with whom to speak? ( i know.. just another one of Elder Bronson's assignments. false. this one is awesome)   

Love, Elder Bronson

Week 15- Gilbert

Mother and Family (well just family i guess)! yes you can still call me parkie, but elder bronson is preferred. how come i'm not getting another from marcus soon? tell him to get on that! paper letters are like 10000% better than emails. it's hard getting to bed at night for seminary? i have an idea for you mom! do missionary work all day. trust me. you will have no problem falling asleep at 10:30 haha. yes we definitely have a lot of sisters coming in. and next transfer is at the beginning of october. which is super crazy because it feels like it just started. Elder Neu and I have been workin hard so it's been going sooo fast. it's amazing that i've been out for 3 months because it seems like i just got out. training is coming along great though. We work well together and teach well together, so our teaching opportunities go up and up each week.
cooled down in tennessee? what? lucky. it's cooled down like ten degrees since june though so it's only about 105 or so in the day now. but i think it might go up again this week. yes some ties and pants would be so awesome. and i actually never wore a 30 waist ha. a 32 would be preferred. 32 length too.
Our investigators are doing awesome! and yes we got a couple new ones this week. I think i told you last week but we have someone we're working with named Frank. He's a stud. We've taught him four times and he's come to church the last couple weeks. He's so ready to get baptized. We're taking him to the visitor's center this week, but i have no doubt that he'll be baptized in the next 2-3 weeks. He's so great though. We commit him to read a chapter or something at the end of the lesson, and he'll come back having read it like three times. He then proceeds to explain it with incredible detail, and the spirit always is super strong. It didn't take long for him to really feel the spirit because he was super prepared. The Lord was preparing him for years. Our last couple lessons have been awesome too, and i'm super pumped for the visitor's center on tuesday. and he is too! anyway, Ally (eric the less activie's girlfriend) is doing well too. We've been teaching them for a few weeks and the had a bad week this week... but we fasted for them last week, and they ended up agreeing to meet with the Bishop. Anyway Bishop did his thing (like bishops always do. I swear there is a hole in the ceiling of every bishop's office where revelation just shoots down from the windows of heaven). So anyway, we visited Ally and Eric yesterday, and Eric kept telling us how much ally was crying after the bishop's office. We held back our excitement until we got home...  haha but they are doing awesome.
Yes some of the ward members are doing awesome. It's kind of a hit or miss kind of thing. There are many members that have such a desire to do missionary work so we help them make a family mission plan, and teach them how to do member missionary work. other times it is harder to get them motivated. And the only way we can get them motivated is to let the spirit do its thing. Our mission president has advised us (as well as pmg) to share with them the restoration to let them feel the spirit of the message and have them desire to share it. However, when Elder Anderson came the other day, he advised us to not cast our pearls before swine, and said specifically to not share the restoration if they aren't ready to hear it. So Bronson family, if you want the missionaries to share an awesome message, talk to them about missionary work at dinner. Tell them about the experieneces that you are having. or that kellie is having. Get them excited about the work that you are doing. They will recognize your desire to do missionary work, and should share some encouraging advice for you guys. unless they're lame missionaries. Anyway... i keep getting off track.
Good to hear that you are still having an awesome experience with seminary! keep it up! want to bring the spirit in? bear your testimony to them. There is nothing more powerful than someone bearing powerful testimony about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and validity of the prophet Joseph Smith. The spirit will not let you down. When you sincerely say, "I know that the book of mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God", the spirit will accompany your statement with conviction. He will carry your testimony into the hearts of the children of men. and you will not be confounded before men. There are so many incredible promises given to us in the scriptures. God does not put those incredible promises in there for us to read them and move on with our lives, but to use them. He says "prove me herewith." try him. see if he doesn't carry your testimony into the hearts of those that hear you. alright. off track again.
thank you for the tennis updates. That is awesome that the match was so good. go nadal.
the apartment is nice. we sometimes keep it clean. we don't cook much because the members love us. and i don't really need gift cards. i am fine financially. pants and stamps and ties sounds good to me! oh and a tie clip. a conservative, plain one. Oh is Ben gone already?! man time flies! I am sure that Kathy is having a hard time. But his letters that he sends will comfort her i'm sure. as I hope mine do! and yes my letter is long enough too haha.
Love you all!
 
love, Elder Bronson

Week 14- Gilbert

Mom! How are you doing? it's so good to hear from you. i'm sorry you get the short message today. I hope i'm making it even because i never remember who gets the long message each week. Anyway, It's pretty unknown when Elder NEU (not niu) will get his visa. He likes it hear though of course. Oh and training him is awesome. i love it. He's an awesome missionary. It's not really that different, except that he looks to me for a lot of things. But he is learning quickly. yes i got the ribs. we ate one rack and it was delicious. Even in the microwave! yesterday was just awesome. we ate ribs, and my relief society president gave us peach coblar and icecream to take home! so we ate that too. and i ate it this morning too haha... .

that is a sweet matchup. nadal and djokovic. tell me how it goes. yeah i'm itching to play all the time! i miss tennis. Elder Glaus and i played some ping pong last p day though. it was fun but he beat me. it was close though. braces for the chilluns? oh yes that's going to be awesome. i want pictures. yes brother priday is awesome. i don't think it's okay that you are telling him to call me and tell me stuff though... but he's awesome. He and is wife are awesome missionaries. their daughter? umm yeah she's pretty cute. how are my investigators doing? some are doing well but all of that info is in dad's email. i'm still working on eating all of the yummies you sent me. yeah it's cooling down a lot, but it's still above 100. Except the last couple days it's been pouring. my crease is gone in my suit. but anyway... good luck with seminary! sorry i don't have anything else that you can read to your students, but love you too!

Love, Elder Bronson

oh and Elder Neil L Anderson came to our mission. i don't even know how i forgot to mention it. but he was so awesome. and funny too. We got to shake his hand and he talked to us for a good two hours. We made sure to get there super early so we could sit up front. The spirit was so strong, but the best part was at the very end when he bore his testimony of the savior. I never used to pay attention to the witness that they bore. But it was incredible. I just knew. that's the only way i could describe it. Elder Anderson is a literal apostle of the Lord. It was simply amazing! new favorite apostle. I'll talk more about it next week i guess. i can't believe i forgot!!

Week 13 - Gilbert

how's it goin?! good to hear from you guys again. and good to hear that you put it off until when you were in the car two hours ago. haha but thank you for writing me!
ummm.. sounds like a ton of fun! are you sure mom wrote this? because she put "there" instead of "their." that's not like her. yes i got my care package! thank you so much! pistacios? you read my mind. and oreos? gosh best care package ever.
dad - i never got any ribs. i don't even know how that's possible anyway. so you'll have to tell me haha. yes the couple attended church. we hope to put them her on date this week, but they have to get married before too. it's gonna be crazy. yes some more new prospects but i'll tell you next week. we went tracting in an apartment complex. management tells us we can't tract there so we do it at like 8 when it's dark haha. but we got four return appointments from it so we're gonna keep doing it.
marcus - i'll see if i can write you a letter today. but i may not get to it. i hope i do,. i heard boise state got killed. which stinks because they beat them last year. top 25 comes out every sunday evening. send the top 25 every monday. deal? love you. keep up the good work in high school. it's tough. i don't know if i have much advice except keep good friends. social status means nothing.
hailey - i'll try to write you a letter this week too. emailing took a long time today because it was a holiday so the library was closed so we had to all take turns on some members' computers. keep it up with soccer. you're a stud. a girl stud.
mom- i haven't spoken yet. but yeah they do sometimes. the stake is super missionary minded and the work is picking up quick. some from ward efforts. ties would be awesome. pants wouldn't be bad either. i wore the same pants for four weeks because i was getting the other ones hemmed. haha alright love you guys!

Week 12- Gilbert

yup definitely an eventful week! haha cool story actually. So Elder Cook got the call sunday night that said he was getting transferred, and we were pretty sad. We get the calls on sunday and transfer meeting is tuesday. But i obviously was going to stay in the area because they wouldn't whitewash the area because we're doing relatively well here. So i knew i'd stay and get some Elder that's been out a while. But we went early to transfer meeting, because Elder cook had to second half train (the training meeting is right before transfer meeting). So i sat outside and waited with some other Elders while he was in there with other people that were training. anyway the meeting was almost over. it had about fifteen minutes left, and Elder Komm (my old zone leader that is now AP) came out and looked at me and said, "Elder Bronson! what are you doing?"
"umm... sitting and waiting for transfer meeting to start." he took me to the side in the hallway and said.
"Elder Bronson, it looks like we forgot to call you on Sunday, but get in that meeting."
"What?"
"you're training"
Elder Bronson proceeds to stare blankly at the wall for a couple minutes trying to figure out what just happened. so anyway... i'm training. Elder Neu is awesome though! he's really confident, and is going to be a great missionary. He's a hardworker, and is pumped to be out here. But i've spent some time on my knees lately trying to figure out how i can be a good trainer. especially on such short notice. But thankfully i'm not in this work alone. The Lord can really help to qualify you. Of course he has to call you first.
 
so yeah i got the sheffield's package. it was super nice of them. i took a picture that i'll give to courtney. and yes i just got jeff and karlee's too. and i felt somewhat tempted to run after them but i didn't. haha but i can't say it didn't cross my mind. But tell them thank you because i probably wont' have time to write them today. good to hear seminary is going good though. even though it's tiring. don't feel bad about napping. that's exactly what i did when i was at school. i'd go to bed at night at like 5, wake up at 8 to go to class, come back at 11 and take a nap til 2. but on the mission i rarely get a nap. sometimes for like ten minutes during lunch hour. ummm i kinda wish i could play better but i'm pretty content.
 
we got 2 new investigators this week. one was a former and the other was her son. she's married to a less active. We've been working a lot through less actives lately and have found 3, potentially 5 new investigators from it. pretty awesome. We were so certain that Ally was going to come to church this week with her less active boyfriend, but they didn't. it was sad. but their ward starts at 8 so it's way hard to get them there. it starts at 9 next week though and Eric (the less active boyfriend) consented to us pounding on their door an hour before church. so i think we will haha.
 
care package? umm yes! a few more ties would be awesome. and a tie clip (conservative one), junior mints, beef jerkey, maybe fast food gift card?, other food you think i'd like, stamps, pictures,.

Love, Elder Bronson

Week 11- Gilbert

good morning! well actuall it's afternoon right now. we went shopping first because we gave a less active a blessing and it threw off the schedule a little bit. But we're meeting with her again on Sunday so it should be awesome. We may just share the restoration to ignite her desires to come back. but anyway... i'm glad that i could be of help to you in your calling! I hope that they can heed some of the counsel that you give them on the spirit because it will make or break them. good to hear you shared some of my letter though! i hope you shared a good part haha! yeah someone told me that there were that many missions in Brazil and the jaw dropped. That's crazy! the work's definitely progressing there though, that's for sure! The Lord is hastening his work (D&C 88:72 or 73. one of the two). And that was the name of the broadcast/website that the church produced a few weeks ago! the mission president one. oh i guess that was like two months ago. CRAZY. time is flying!

Umm... Well transfer calls were last night. My companion is leaving.... So i'm getting a new one on thursday. It's gonna be tough. I have to lead the area completely, regardless of whether he is senior companion or not (which he most likely will be), because he doesn't know the area at all. So i'll tell you next week what his name is! I'm hopingand praying for a hard worker.
the heat is pretty rough though. well for my companion. I actually kinda like it! I love Arizona! i'm definitely going to live here when i'm older. and no my suit is fine. We don't wear suits throughout the week. Only on Sundays. So my other pants only got wet. but they're fine. I've been wearing the same pants for like 3 weeks though. The sewing job was bad on all of the pants, so i sewed the one i'm wearing currently and didn't have time to do the others. so i only recently got it to someone to hem them. So i'll be going on my 4th week of wearing these same blue pants haha. shoes are holding up awesome. thanks again!

You're going to the Bahamas on a Disney Cruise?! I vote "yes." please do that. it would be awesome for the kids too. and calv and court of course.

have i had a chance to speak much spanish? Well we can catch a bunch of mexican workers outside in the mornings so i sometimes use it. I'm not very good with church terms though, so it's hard for me to teach in spanish at all. i have to get a church produced book on that or something. I think my companion has one. But ACTUALLY, i did have a really good opportunity to do it the other day. It was like 8:00 and we i think a lesson fell through or something, but Elder Cook and I saw some lady on the corner of the street in our area that was walking aimlessly. So we went over and asked her how she was doing. Of course she turned around and replied in Spanish, so my companion (who only speaks English. Or tries to. just kidding) looks at me like, "you speak spanish, go for it." Obviously I can't really carry on a conversation with someone though. Plus, she was super distrought because she was lost, and really hot because it's Arizona. And she was like eighty years old. Anyway, one prayer later, I asked her what was wrong (in Spanish), and she told me. We talked for like fifteen minutes. not about the gospel sadly, but just trying to figure out how we could get her back home. Keep in mind this lady was from Mexico, and knew zero English. and she was scared, so she spoke REALLY fast. so we talked, and she told me that she went on a walk and walked to far and didn't no where her house was. obviously we asked if she had a phone. She said no. So we told her she could borrow ours. She told us she didn't know her daughter's number that she was staying with. So we asked her what her address was. She didn't know. Asked her what street she lived on. didn't know. General direction? That way. okay let's go. My companion and i were a great team. He would tell me what to ask/say to her and i'd say it. And then she would reply, and i'd tell my companion what she said (Ask her if she's thitsty. "Are you thirsty?" "Yes." "We have water. do you want some." "yes please" (kinda like that the whole time)) It was so awesome! And a ton of fun. Anyway so we basically walked for like five minutes and somebody pulled out of a neighborhood and pulled over. It was her daughter and she ended up being okay. They thanked us and we rode away. It was fun though. Prayer works.
Anyway that's my story for the day.

Love, elder bronson


Someone from the area sent this picture to my dad!

"Look who was just here with some AZ sweat. They just got the word about transfers. His comp is leaving. They've been GREAT and got along well. They have the spirit and good things are happening. Elder Bronson's enthusiasm is contagious." Love, the Priday's

Week 10- Gilbert

Things are going great. Missionary work is progressing a lot lately so we're super excited. We have many more teaching opportunities these past couple weeks. that's awesomet that you taught seminary this morning! first time huh? well keep up the good work. You're very right. It's hard to get them interested. especially in the morning. As a seminary student i was kinda the same way. I wouldn't really pay attention much and fell asleep quite a bit. Looking back though, obviously i regret it. Advice? yes. As a high school student, not everyone realizes the influence that the spirit can have on your life. The jobs that the spirit has are incredible. his job is to testify of the Father and the Son, but he also warns, inspires, and comforts. Each one of them have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and therefore are entitled to reap the blessings promised to them each week in the sacrament prayer, "that they may always have His spirit to be with them." However, they have to obey the conditions in the sacrament prayer as well "willing to take upon them the name of thy son, always remember him, and keep his commandments." If they do so (and it is hard to do so, especially in a high school environment), They are promised by our heavenly father, because of the covenant that they made with him at baptism, that they may ALWAYS have his spirit to be with them. it is important to realize how incredible of a blessing that is, to ALWAYS have it with you. but even more important to realize the what the spirit does, and how it can help them. It can warn, comfort, inspire, testify of truth, and speak through them the truths of the Gospel. How incredible it can be and is to be used as an instrument in the Lord's hands through the holy ghost. Ammon describes it as "a blessing" in Alma 26. Study the holy ghost.  you can find in preach my gospel in the "recognize the spirit" section what it really does and how it can help us. if you really want you can get into gifts of the spirit in Moroni, and in doctrine and covenants 40 (or somewhere around there).
 
Anyway... school started in Arizona. We went to the temple last week... However, i had to be in a different session than my zone because the first session was just starting... "Brothers and sisters..." and then i sneezed. and then started bleeding. out of my nose. really hard. so i pinched my nose, and turned to my companion, "Elder, we gotta go." it was terrible. We went to the bathroom and it took about 25 minutes to stop, just enough to make it to the next session. but it got on my tie, my sleeve, my pants (all of which were not mine, they were the temple's). It was bad but ended up being okay.

That's awesome that you're going to the Bahamas! That would be so much fun! sad about the green pool though... hasn't cooled down at all. the locals say it doesn't cool down until about halloweenish. which stinks. but we haven't had a monsoon/duststorm in a while. money on my card is sufficient. the people we are teaching are doing great though! Marshall (the guy i said you could pray for) is doing good. We were able to have another lesson with him yesterday. not a legitimate lesson, but a tour of the church and then a sciptural discussion. but it ended up being super awesome because it was led coupletely by the spirit. We were in the church so the spirit was super strong, and it was much easier to listen to the spirit to know what to say. The spirit was so strong that we think he knows it's true. He's a lifelong catholic though, so the spirit told us to talk about praying with real intent in order to find out if it's true. Because he doesn't want to receive an answer that it's true, because that would mean that he has been catholic for so long. it would just be hard. It's not like cathollicism is wrong, it's just not all right. but we were able to teach him about praying with real intent, but in reality he knows he'll receive an answer that it's true, and for that reason he doesn't want to do it. He committed to though so we'll see. pray for him. We meet with him again on Wednesday at 8:00. We'll be going over the plan of salvation. We are also teaching a less active that's now returning back to activity. We were able to talk about the atonement with him and his girlfriend, and then afterwards his girlfriend (ally) (and his name is Eric) asked us if we could say something about forgiveness. We were like "ummmmm... yeahhhh!!!!" haha so we shared one on forgiveness and the spirit was super strong. And then Eric closed with a prayer and gave the best prayer i've ever heard. It took about five minutes, but he was crying a lot too. So they agreed to take the lessons. Since then, we've shared the restoration with them, and Ally wants to get baptized but doesn't want to set a date yet. We hope to put her on date soon. They weren't able to make it to church though yesterday, so pray for that too! Anyway, i have to go. sorry if i didn't answer all of the questions that you had.

Good to hear from you again! Well every week actually. I love emailing. and nobody else emails me anymore except the family haha. That was fast. good to hear hailey is working so hard at soccer and faith in God. I never got my faith in God. only duty to god and eagle scout. haha you went down that slide? that must've been good. Did anyone happen to catch it on video? haha

I love that thought. i swear you always have the right thing to say. I just emailed Jeff and said that you always have the right thing to say. Last week's was seriously perfect, and it's easier to get along with my companion now. And we work so much better when we're both happy. We teach well, and we find well, and the Lord blesses us as we strive to do His will rather than focus on the companionship. Kinda like a marriage! But this week was perfect because it's exactly what our new mission president was saying! The last mission president had a HUGE binder of rules for the missionaries and consequences. President Nattress has basically two rules.

1. Obey the spirit

2. Pray with Faith

those are the only things he gave us. Of course he explained them really well too but that's what he wrote down for us to follow. It's perfect because if you obey the spirit, you'll be perfectly obedient! President Nattress told a story to the leadership and they told us but he said that one of the apostles, I think it was Elder Oaks, told president nattress "I am perfectly obedient." Can you imagine being able to say that??? As obedient as I am, I am not perfectly obedient. I do strive to be, but fall short. and keep trying, So your thought was perfect because it went right along with what our mission president was saying.

We'll probably end up doing some proselyting time every day in the church on the computer/ipad or something. It's nuts but exciting. With that and with the Gilber Temple opening soon (well not that soon. probably not for like six months) and the new mission, and more missionaries, we're going to be having more and more teaching opportunities. It is crazy how much everything is changing, but we have to change the way, if we want to change the world. It's awesome though. We're excited. The Lord is really transforming our area though through Elder Cook and me. It's crazy to see. We picked up another investigator this week, and had an incredible lesson last night with Marshall (the life long catholic). It's amazing how the spirit can help you understand what people are thinking through the spirit of discernment. kinda like ammon and king lamoni. actually just like ammon and king lamoni. 

Love you!
Love, Elder Bronson

this is my zone leader Elder Komm that went AP this week... sad... but he's so awesome.

(this guy most be soooooo tall!!!) - courtney

Week 9- Gilbert

good to hear from you. and keep up the updates. i love them. maybe pictures even? deal. Anyway... That's awesome that so many people were able to show up at the family reunion. It all sounds like a ton of fun! yeah it's weird that school starts so early. it starts really early here too. it starts this wednesday, august 7. but we love it because that means there are actually people in Arizona! If i didn't tell you already, a lot of people like to leave Arizona in the summer because it's really hot. and humid too. i don't think i told you how humid it was. only in august and september though. and there are monsoons too. weird huh? so basically it's really hot and it pours rain once every couple weeks. haven't seen a haboob though... A haboob is a huge dust storm thing that looks like a wall of sand coming at you. I don't think i'm spelling it right either, so i wouldn't look it up until you can spell it right haha. ANYWAY...

All is well in Gilbert! We gained two new investigators this week so we're excited. and that guy named marshall that we taught last week, we taught this week too. He wasn't super engaged last lesson, but the spirit was strong toward the end of the lesson. we gave him a soft commit, and he said when he comes to know it's true, he'll get baptized. Which is a miracle in itself because He's been catholic all of his life (which is a pretty long time). But we have another lesson with him this week and we're hoping to have a church tour with him this week. Hopefully he'll accept an invitation to church this week too! just this last lesson we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyway i know that was super jumbled, but i don't really have time to go back and make it understandable so that'll have to work. But Marshall is are most hopeful investigator right now. so if you want someone to pray for... there ya go haha. We went on exchanges the other day and came across someone that accepted a book of mormon but we didn't have one with us so we said we'd drop one by this week. So we're praying for success with him. We also have a super good potential investigator that we were supposed to have a lesson with this week but it fell through. We hope to meet with her this week. The work is definitely progressing in this area! The Lord is really blessing us through our patience and dilligence! it's so cool to see the development of the area over the past six weeks that elder cook and i have been here. The Lord has really used us to completely change the area. And the zone for that matter. we came into the val vista zone, which is a new zone (but the areas aren't new, just reorganized into a new zone) with only one progressing investigator. but everything is changing rapidly! We're pumped.

 

I don't need a raincoat. I'm just enduring through the random rain. It doesn't come often enough to need a raincoat. So i don't really need it yet. The arizonans say that it doesn't even BEGIN to cool down until halloween so i'm in for a treat. But when it does i'll probably need some conservative v-neck sweaters. and maybe a windbreaker or something. But not for a while.

 

Anyway... I hope the family is keeping the commitments I've been sending! I know they are sometimes hard but push forward! I'm super pumped that you are encouraging your seminary students to invite nonmembers to activities. it's all about inviting. Our purpose as missionaries is to "invite others to come unto Christ..." Everyone has their agency. It's one of the gifts we are given in this life to allow us to progress. So people are going to say no to the invites. It's going to happen. But that should never stop us from continuing to invite. the invite is the success, not the fact that they come or not. They are not going to get offended when we invite either. We learned from Elder Nelson in the broadcast weeks ago that if we invite our friends out of pure love for that person to come unto Christ, they cannot and will not be offended. Role play with them if you can. Role play with dad. and with the kids. By role playing, we get the lame invites out of our system and learn how to do it well. PMG teaches us to role play a ton.  Show them that video of the one black kid that changed his teachers quorum from just him, to like fifteen people.

 

Sorry for going off on tangents.

Love, Elder Bronson 

Parker writes about a 'monsoon' that happened where him and his companion were totally drenched and had to go home to dry their clothes.

At the temple

Week 8- Gilbert

Hello! 

good to hear Ryan came home and gave an awesome homecoming talk. believe it or not I actually did write him once... but i forgot to send it. It sat in my scriptures for about a year. I can't remember where I put it but i definitely lost it. I wrote it at efy like two years ago haha. Anyway...  that doesnt' mean he can't write me!! he's got it all backwards. he has to write me first!\

 

Thanks for the thought. It's definitely true that we need to be positive even if difficulties lie ahead. All good thoughts. I kinda have something that kinda goes along the lines of that haha but I think that Alma 26 is one of the greatest chapters in the book of mormon. At least missionary related. All of Alma is missionary related but anyway... Alma 26 is about Ammon as you know. but there is a ton of good stuff in it. especially toward the end when it says "and the lord comforted us and said: 'bear with patience thine afflictions, and i will grant unto thee success.'" totally applicable. The work is tough. especially during the arizona summer. not the heat though, that's easy. but the members. not even the members but all of Arizona. they are all gone! haha they call them snowbirds. They leave during the summer and don't come back until it's cool again. But basically 1/3 of the ward comes to sacrament every sunday, and 2/3 are out of town. So those are our afflictions. It causes the work to sometimes be tough. But we've worked with patience and dilligence and faith (D&C 4 and Alma 26), and we were able to see success. and are looking forward to more success. Elder Cook and I were able to have a lesson with a guy named marshall. he's about mid forties. We did some service for him a couple weeks ago and we were able to get in with him. we taught the restoration. He's a lifelong catholic but it didn't even matter. the spirit was there and super strong toward the end when we got into the restoration. It was so awesome. They just stare at you without blinking when you are quoting joseph's experience. I love it. But anyway he said that he'd read the book of mormon and pray about it. We gave him a soft commit too ( that's basically like, "When you come to know that the bom is true, will you follow the example of jesus christ and be baptized by proper authority?") And he said yes so we'll see how it goes! But we have two more lessons set up this week with two other investigators, so we are seeing the work pick up and we're super excited! But it's all about the members! read pmg and it'll tell you the same thing! but definitely in this area. \

 

Elder Cook and I are happy to see the work pick up. There are a few people in our area desiring to come back to activity and so we are working on them slowly but surely! and we had an awesome lesson with a new investigator last week! his name is marshall. and a couple more lessons set up this week with other investigators. We're excited. Anyway love ya Court! but you are definitely right. never let doubt or discouragement creep in. Discouragement can result in a decrease of faith. never doubt. coolest quote ever ready? I'm sure you've heard it and i'm sure i'll butcher it but... Elder Holland, "for two hundred years this book (book of mormon) has been examined, and attacked... but i'm sticking to what my great grandfather said 'no wicked man could write such a book. and no good man would. unless it were true. and he were commanded of God to do so." It's wayyyyyy better when you hear holland say it so look it up! good stuff though!

 

Also as a ward missionary, when you are trying to get members excited, look in the first chapter of preach my gospel. there are a bunch of quotes from all of the prophets about member missionary work. some of them inspire, others condemn. but my favorite one (which is kinda condemning) is by President Hunter, "When you feel the blessings of the atonement in your life, you cannot help but have a concern for the welfare of others. A good indicator of your personal conversion is your desire to share the Gospel with others." Use PMG.  

Maybe you could start incorporating pmg into family night, or nightly scripture study. but there are some quotes in the first chapter from each latter-day prophet about member missionary work. some of them are so awesome, and slightly condemning haha but my favorite one is the one by president Hunter (I actually shared it with court already too but...). It says, "When you feel the blessings of the atonement in your life, you cannot help but have a concern for the welfare of others. A good indicator of your personal conversion is your desire to share the gospel with others.) Pretty intense, huh? i think so! but anyway  love you lots! keep writing!

 

Love, Elder Bronson

Week 7- Gilbert

good to hear you are having so  much fun without me! haha just kidding. that is so awesome to hear that valerie got married! and that whole member missionary story is truly incredible. all the connections!
i'm glad you're sending more letters.. i like letters.. i never told you about the ties because i didn't get them until like tuesday so i didn't have a pday to write to you about them! but i love them! except one of them lost its color the other day when we got attacked by a monsoon. it was pretty awesome. We were just riding our bikes and some guy was like "you should probably get inside, the storm's about to hit." Obviously we shrugged it off because it looked fine outside. and then... we immediately got hit by a gust of wind and couldn't hear anything that we were saying to each other. Elder Cook and I went into the nearest house which happened to be where other missionaries in the mission were staying. but they weren't there. and then on the way back to the apartment from the wml's house we got hit by the rainstorm. pretty eventful day. We had to hang all of our stuff up because it was all soaked haha. arizona's got a monsoon season if you didn't know! haha. yeah don't worry about the water thing. members take care of us. yeah i've met with president a few times. Elder Cook and I always seem to be the ones that run into him. We've had a few ten minute conversations with him completely by accident when others have barely met him haha. good to hear Ryan's back! tell him hi for me!
 
none of the following missionary lingo will make sense to you but here we go. and it's gonna be quick because i'm out of time but..
 
yesterday we had to get 47 oyms to achieve standard of excellence. Elder Ballard said if you talk to 20 people a day then you'll qualify for blessings in the future. So we have been getting standard of excellence in oyms every week. but this week we were at 93 and had to get 47 more yesterday. and yesterday was a sunday. We couldn't get out of church until about 4 and then dinner was at 5, and we had a member visit at 8, so we basically had about two hours to actually be able to contact people. But we prayed super fervently and i did personally a ton on saturday night as well. This is the Lord's work. And if we're praying for help with His work, he's definitely going to give it to us. as long as we do so with real intent, having FAITH. which is key. So on the way to church we usually see 1-2 people we can talk to. But we saw 10. right then i knew the Lord was helping us. it was awesome. And then long story short, we were able to get our 47 oyms by the end of the night, with only having like two hours to do it. it was crazy. awesome actually. prayer works. tell your friends hahaha. anyway, while getting oyms the yesterday, we came across a guy that we've talked to a ton before. His name is renee. he walks his dog like every night so we always see him and talked to him. We've testified and taught him like the first two times that we saw him, but he's not ready yet. he's got it in him though so i guarantee that he'll become a member at some point in his life. but anyway, we talked to him for a while again and i don't remember what the context of the conversation was but i said to him something like "well we got you out there helping us proselyte right?" and he was like "well what would you want me to say to people, something like 'i know a couple guys that can help you out' " and we were like "YEAH THAT'S PERFECT!" so we basically have a nonmember helping us out now haha. we'll see how it goes. pretty awesome though.
anyway that was not short at all haha oops.
Gotta go love you mom! and everyone else!
Love, Elder Bronson