November 3- Gilbert

Well hey there mother! always happy to respond to your emails. 

my week? went very well! always does though. there are always frustrations. but everything moves on haha! oh thank you for writing/sending the answers to my request. some other missionaory said he did it and i thought that would be perfect. freezing there? it's been freezing here! i know it's all relative. but man arizona has turned me into the biggest wimp. proselyting last night on our bikes. i had to wear a jacket. because it was 65. and i was still cold. it was messed up. pretty sure your blood thins out over time to acclimate to the dry heat. haha you can still take a girls trip to phoenix. as long as you don't tell me about it. i actually was in phoneix the other day going to the temple open house. took a family through. prettys sweet. not as cool as the gilbert temple thought o be honest. love that place. 

haha the sister missionaries are going to hailey's soccer game? haha that's interesting. well i hope she does well! she's our last hope at a successful athlete! i'm glad you are so willing to allow the sisters to go over and meet your friends. it's difficult getting half referrals from people. the ones that are like, "yeah you can go to that neighbor, but don't tell them i sent you!" so good job mom! keep up the good work! never be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ! in the long run, they're going to ask you why you never told them! there's a missionary named sister caron shared her conversion story with the mission and mentioned that she said to her friend something like, "why didn't you tell me earlier? or at all?" we just never know who is ready to receive the gospel. we just have to invite. and pray for the opportunities. pray with faith for the opportunities. and have the courage to act on them. sometimes it's hard for even missionaries to have the courage to act on opportunities, believe it or not... one of the principles in finding in preach my gospel talks about talking to everyone you see. seems like a no brainer but a lot of times we're late to an appointment, or we have something else on our minds, that keep us from talking to everyone we see. but if we qualify ourselves for better opportunities as we just open our mouths. 

oh yeah crazy how the sister peterson knew hannah hyde. halloween was good. we actually were in the temple from 5-9 anyway. so we didn't even have the opporutniety to open the door. but we wouldn't have anyway. we had to be accounted for because people dress up as mormon missionaries and do stupid things. so president wanted to make sure that he knew where everyone was. i love kit kats. good job hailey.

yikes the ACT is tough. but i feel like if i took it again right now, after brushing up on a few things, i would actually do better. after all the scripture reading, my comprehension has definitely improved. and that's where i lacked before! but yes it's a difficult test. give her positive reinforcement though! i'm sure she'll do great.

tennis is improving? oh good! i'm sure my game is terrible. maybe we'll do that next monday. dad turns 53, huh? wow. my dad's gettin old! any gray hairs yet? 

anyway... love you much! sorry for the little to no update on investigators. we picked up a couple awesome ones last week. so to be continued..

love, elder bronson

October 27- gilbert

Hey mom how are ya?! yes of course i had a great week. well actually i thought it was going to cool down. but it was still in the 90s all week. but i think it'll cool down next week. who knows though. it's arizona. everything has gone very well this week! well geri was out of town the entire week at a ranch. but she got back last night so we taught her. we are having dinner with her and the stake president tonight. so that will be fun. we took her to the temple last week but i think i already shared that with you. however, the family that we had dinner with we took to the temple on saturday. it was so good! the dad who has been inactive for 20 years, was pretty emotional going through the temple. and on the way home. elder bailey overheard them conversing about how he missed going to the temple. and the changes he would need to make to get back. yes he was eavesdropping. but it was good! they will need to take it a little slow though. so i will hopefully tell you more about them later.

no i haven't ran into any of the families that you have met on vacations. but you never know! two new sister missionaries from utah, huh? mom i feel like you just say these things to make your son feel good! haha that's awesome that hailey is doing so well in extra curriculars wouldn't expect anything less! but i've been doing a bit of soccer playing myself here on the mission. sometimes on pday, some of the missionaries in the msision go to this indoor field. it's so fun. and i don't even like soccer! but i'm gettin pretty good so watch out hailey! started tennis again? i haven't played in so long! but there is a sister missionary in our zone that wants to play so maybe we'll make a zone activity out of it! haha she actually is from boise too. yes we will not be out on hallowee. this year though we will be in the temple from like4:30 to 8:30. it will be pretty awesome. president said that we could do other ordincances following our endowment session. pretty pumped! i realized the other day, that i not only had not done baptisms for over a year, but actually had not been immersed in any sort of water regardless of ordinance work for over a year! pretty nuts. maybe i'll take a bath tonight an put my head under the water. haha just kidding.

hahaha that is so hilarious that dad announced that in singles ward. that is definitely the dad i remember! i'm sure she was so embarrassed. you hear weird jokes like that across the pulpit every other sunday. sometimes people cry during testimony meeting about how they are not married. others talk about when they were on their mission, their mission president promised them 40 virgin wives if they worked hard. weird stuff like that. kinda uncomfortable sometimes but you live with it!

 thank you for all that you do! and all the updates and inspiring words! love you much!

elder bronson

October 20- Gilbert

Mother and family. i think i start out every email that way. hope it doesn't get boring... oh you're at courtney's again? oh that's right for the baby blessing! how was it? did calvin do it? was it good to have the family together? you've been doing a lot of traveling to NC ever since andie got here! yes it is so crazy how fast everything changed. they all had like 2 years to have a baby but they chose to wait until i left to have 3! what in the heck! but it's okay. no worries. and marcus is a giant now. and hailey looks way older too. everything is just weird haha. in a good way though of course. 

church yesterday was good! Geri was not able to come though. she was on vacation. and will be until next sunday so we cannot teach her this week. wouldn't it be nice if every time we got a new investigator they stopped life so t hat they could keep all of our commitments and get baptized quickly? haha just kidding. but she is progressing quickly. the ward is really pitching in and it is such a blessing to watch. many have gone by to meet her or to drop off gifts for her birthday and such. one lady in the ward said that she was almost in tears when she brought her something. anyway it helps so much to have the ward involved! get to know your missionaries' investigators. and do something for them. the missionaries will definitely appreciate it. on top of t hat we took her to the phoenix temple open house yesterday. way good experience for her. it took forever though as it is an hour outside of our mission. but hey we got a miracle for ya! sorry i say "we" all the time. it's a habit. but we've been trying to get in with this pm family forever! less active return missionary. two kids. anyway.. we finally got in by askking if they could feed us one day. after one cancellation they finally had us over for dinner. anyway... it was a good dinner... elder bailey and i received revelation earlier that we needed to talk to him about his mission. it was a really cool story just how we came to that conclusion (we were in trasnfer meeting and president nattress said "nobody ever forgets about their mission." and this man came to mind. i thought, "man we gotta talk to him about his mission." and then elder bailey turned to me and said, "elder bronson. we gotta talk to bj about his mission." it was awesome). so we talked to him about his mission at dinner. and it sparked conversation about miracles and such. at the end of dinner he began tlaking about his wife's health how it's not that good. pretty young couple too. and talked about her current physical ailments, and then with tears in his eyes said, "we were actually wanting to ask you guys if you could give her a blessing before you leave." of course we said we would. she invited us back for this wednesday for dinner. and we texted her the other day and she said she wante dto go to the phoenix tmeple open house with her family. major blessing. anyway... lots of miracles this week. figured i better take mom's advice and email some stories to you because i don't keep a journal.

anyway... forgot to answer questions. good to hear kellie is taking the ACT again. hope she does well! am i interested in summer term? well i can choose between going home june 23 and may 12. so i'm pretty set on june 23. yeah i guess i would just try to earn a few bucks before fall semester and not go to summer term. unless you have any other ideas. i don't even know what else i could do. but i'm not sure i want to think about it anyway. suggestions for family vacations? umm how about gilbert, AZ! haha i don't know anything would be fun. whatever you choose is perfect! 

okay i think i answered all the questions. oh! so guess what i did this morning! i took elder anderson's promise in conference regarding reading "the testimony of the prophet joseph smith" pamphlet and recording it in your own voice. i've only listened to part of it. but it really does put a whole new perspective on it. you really understand the sincerity of his words. and it defiinitely helps to increase your testimony in the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. anyway... it takes ,like 20 mins to read but it is a really amazing activity. do it! it's a little weird listening to yoruself. but you'll realize the significance when you do it. 

love, elder bronson

October 13- Gilbert

Mother! yes i am doing very well! i loved seeing all of the pictures from nauvoo. that is so cool. how far did you say it is again from our house? we should take a trip there. yes i can imagine that the house is a little quiet. that is crazy that there are only 3 kids left in the home. you two are gettin OLD! haha but don't worry mom. it doesn't show! oh the family you met lives nearby the temple? if they are very close to the temple then they are in the williamsfield stake. and i am in the higley stake. so just one north of them. but our singles' ward covers a few wards in the williamsfield stake. what ward are they in? i will know their missionaries. we took out a couple mini missionaries with us the past few days from the williamsfield stake. they were so awesome. our last minis were good... but these were awesome. just so ready to work! brother packer and brother zoller. just good missionaries. obviously they didn't have the common teaching skills developed while on the mission. but they had what they needed to quickly develop those skillls... humility. they were so teachable! just an eager desire to learn and ask questions, and accept advice. i kept thinking to myself... "man, could you imagine how easy it would be to train if misisonaries didn't go to the mtc?!" nah i'm just kidding... but i know i had a big head when i got out of the mtc so i know i was probably difficult for my trainer. but all in all they were great. i can forward a picture or two to courtney or something. 

yes we went to cafe rio on our own. dinner bailed on us again! haha we've been planning in a lot of dinners with less actives, investigators, formers, potentials, part members... hence the frequent fall throughs. no just kidding they've been good though. seen some real miracles from doing it. we picked up a couple formers from 8 months ago so that's good! and looking forward to picking up more this week. anyway..

anyway... yes that is so cool that this week is on prophets. general conference wass all about that! one of the underlying themes for sure. elder nelson, president eyring, YW lady... and 2 or 3 more. all about sustaing and following the prophet. probably also because president monson is going down hill a little bit mentally. 

the other missionaries at the general conference picture were elder tagg and elder nelson. elder tagg is the tall one. elder nelson with the etcha sketch. elder tagg just got the call yesterday though. he's leaving. me and elder bailey are staying! woot woot! pretty pumped. elder bailey is awesome. such a good missionary. we get along super well. i've been lucky pretty much my whole mission getting good companions. so anyway.. 

oh yeah... quick events that happened this week..

elder bailey sat on elder tagg's desk chair with him and it broke.

we saw the prescreening of meet the mormons. awesome movie.

we had a super stressful saturday. don't want to tell you about it because it was so stressful.

geri (who watched conference with the plewes last week) attended church this week. 

brittany is getting baptized oct 25.

it's cooling down. 80s now. pretty nice. 

and i can't remember what else to share. i know there was more but love you!

elder bronson

October 7 - Gilbert

mother and family! yes dad told me that you were on the road. 8 hours? that's not even bad! we'll have to go see when i get back too. YES I LOVED CONFERENCE. definitely the best conference i've ever heard. so many incredible talks. elder christopherson's was so good. and elder bednar of course. but really that conference was legendary. man all that food sounds great. we are about to go grocery shopping and i think i just found my shopping list. yes ryan emails me and told me about her. who knows! we'll see. holy cow i can't believe dad has lost so much weight. it was always up and down for him. awesome that he can put his mind to it and accomplish it. and just in time too! when jorge something of the seventy said that one of the things we can do to be confident in the sight of God is to exercise and be healthy! that was an eye opener for 50% of the church haha. anyway i don't think i have any questions to respond to. i think i answered them all. which stinks because i've only written like 10 lines. umm... this week was great. we taught a TON. we set some hefty goals as a companionship and as a zone. and we accomplished them. it's amazing when you can set a goal that is perfectly on the fence between impossible and barely possible. makes you stretch. accomplish. set new goals that will help you to progress. so quite a successful week. we found some new investigators too. and a lot of potential as we put forth our faith and diligence. elder bailey is an awesome missionary. i learn so much from him. humility. patience. it seems that i always get to learn from the best! thankfully... because there are plenty of missionaries who get tough companions. i've had maybe one. anyway... good things are going to happen this week. keep your eyes open! oh hey wasn't it crazy how many talks were on sustaining the prophet? it's natural to feel a bit uneasy about his mental condition but he's still the prophet of the Lord! follow his counsel. it's a commandment!

September 29 - Gilbert

hello there mother and family!

all is definitely well on this side of the country! yes another picture from the woodwards. yes it was a pizza place. best place ever. it's called "sal's" an italian pizza place. way good. they have these garlic knots they give you. and i can't remember what it's called... but the garlic bread thing with basil and tomatoes on top. so good. and yes it was tomatoes. but still so good. i don't know how they did it! or maybe i'm growing up or something... not really sure where we are planning on watching conference. we always watch it at the stake center though unlesss an investigator is at a member's house. we asked the plewe family to invite geri (a neighbor we've been teaching) to their house for a session. so hopefully that goes through. she wasn't able to make it to church this sunday. so we have to wait two weeks to get her there now! church is the best here in gilbert. the members are so great. they help so much with pushing investigators along. the fellowhip, the family. i didn't like it as much down south of gilbert because of the sense of family for investigators is not as prevalent. but i'm back. freaking gilbert.

yes i saw pictures of your palmyra trip! so amazing. just like the pictures in the quad haha. haha i love that although you had an amazing time at palmyra and wish you could take the kdis, in retrospect you still choose the beach! classic madre. don't worry i'm right there with ya!

 the miracle was definitely andre.  andre was baptized on saturday and confirmed yesterday. what an awesome testimony. that guy gives the most amazing prayers. so sincere. sometimes investigators, by listening to our relatively wrote prayers, think that eloquence and experience make a prayer powerful. wrong. nothing is more powerful than an investigator offering a sincere and simple prayer at the end of a lesson. so we're working on setting a baptism for the dead date next. and he's in singles ward so we won't set a sealing date. he can work on that. 

yes we get to go see the meet the mormons movie. in fact, salt lake wants us to know what's going on in the film so that we know how to advertise it. so they sent a copy to mission president and we should be watching it probably a week before it comes out... boom. yes it's always a tough decision to make whether you play on sundays or not. but always leave it up to the individual. if they make a mistake, they make a mistake. you and dad were always good at making sure that we learned from ourselves, rather than forcing righteousness upon us. 2 nephi 25:26 i think. i love sharing that scripture. 

anyway love you too mother and family! hope all is well in the ole tennessee. i tried to use that the other day. "oh you're from tennessee? oh that's great i'm from *SLAM! aww dang"

haha love you!

elder bronson

September 22- Gilbert

mother! 

on your way to palmyra? that is so awesome! president and sister nattress have mentioned a few times in their testimonies the time that they went to the sacred grove. so that's pretty awesome. tell me how it goes! oh my district leader is from canada! his name is elder tagg! sometimes we call him elder "tague or taig" though. just because canadians say "bag" like "bague." haha anyway.. whoa that is awesome that grandma passed away on that date. and that you'll be on the hill cumorah on that same date too. you should try to find out the time. man that is cool that karlee gets to teach seminary for a few days. i love teaching seminary. we only do it for like 10 mins per class but we do like 8 classes. once a week though. i always like getting called on to teach unexpectedly. we taught this week again in higley ward because someone bailed. we taught last week too. but this week it was on missionary work so of course it was passed off to the elders. haha but it went really well. elder bailey shared an awesome story that you may have heard. it's called "testimony of a missionary." it's pretty sweet. sounds a little cheesy and you may have heard it before. and obviously it may not be depicted exactly like this. but the message is cool. 

http://www.comportone.com/cpo/religion/christian/motivate/testmony.htm
anyway... this week went well. everyone is doing awesome. andre is getting baptized this saturday. he is so solid. oh i would've left it at that but i just read your part of the email that said i have to write details about investigators' conversion because i don't write in my journal... so... andre is awesome. when we first met with him we taught him the restoration and talked to him a lot about change. and asked him what he was looking for. he replied "change." so we taught him about the doctrine of christ. how that's what it is all about. progressing to become better. talked about the role of the holy ghost in conversion a little, but focused more on helping him make commitments that will bring about change. we were pretty upfront and clear with him. telling him that he will see change as he begins to obey God's commandments and such. put him on date for sept 27 on our first lesson. and he's been pretty solid since. he's had a few questions regarding receiving revelation. some things that helped him were like alma 5 verse something when alma is talking about his conversion and how he knows for hismelf. and "patterns of light" by elder bednar. good videos. so yeah. hopefully that's good enough. 

yes my feet are better. i won't give any details on that. but maybe i'll send you a picture to freak you out haha. oh i do have a couple pictures to send. a couple with elder bailey. he's hilarious. love the guy. we do good work together too.  anyway love you much!

elder bronson

September 15th- Gilbert

hello there mother and family! yes of course i am doing well! really? more rain? interesting. we are getting quite a bit lately. carter woods is leaving for a mission? holy heck that's crazy. i always felt like he was so much younger than me. apparently not! any other news from idaho? haha i remember her taking a picture and asking, "are your moms on 'missionary moms?'" and i responded that i had no idea. so she decided to put it on anyway. of course i should've taken into consideration that somehow you'll know someone who knows someone who's heard of someone but willing to contact them that knows me. just like the athlete's foot! haha. palmyra new york, huh? that is so awesome! the prophet joseph is incredible. tell me what you learn! i wanna hear! 

yes i am of course still liking my new companion! he is awesome! he was one of the first missionaries i met in the mission field. we came out together, and spent our first night in the field in the same member's home. just us two. we were split up randomly. he is from longmont, colorado. church was good. we had our two singles ward investigators at church this sunday. Andre is awesome! he is doing so well. accepting every commitment we give him. we had our lesson at the church so we could show him the baptismal font. good lesson. word of wisdom. 

anyway... thank you for all of your letters/emails. always love receiving them. this may be a little short because i'm not sure what else to write. i think i answered all the questions. oh shoot! yes my foot fungus is healed you don't have to worry, mother! 

love, elder bronson

September 8th- Gilbert

hahahaha oh gosh... yeah i was trying to make sure you never figured it out. IT WAS BAD. and that's why i didn't want you to know. i figured it would just go away. and it didn't. and 9 months later. it was really big. and the podiatrist didn't know what to do. in fact he made me spend a ton of money on random ointments that weren't working! it turns out it was more eczema, than it was athletes foot. so the dermatologist solved it pretty quick. i gotta send you picture now that it's basically gone. it was SOOO bad. i forgot to take a final picture before it healed up. so the latest one i have is like a month out of date. anyway.. it's bad. i have both insurance cards. but missionary medical usually takes care of it. i think i used both to cover the deductible. i have a new companion. elder bailey! he's awesome. i've wanted to be his comapnion for a long time! we spent our first night in the mission field together! since we came out with like 30 missionaries, we didn't spend the night int he mission home, we had to go to some random member's house. and we went in twos. and i got put with elder bailey. didn't know him at all before hand. but he's awesoem. good worker. super funny. yes a couple of investigators caome to church this week. andre in the singles ward is ond ate for sept 27. he's doing awesome. he texted us the other day... "hey so how do i receive revelation. how do i know if i am getting any? how does it feel? what's supposed to happen?" we called and answered his question for him. it was awesome. well with a few scriptures. alma 5:20ish i think. alma talking about how he knows for himself. anyway... he's doing great. he wasn't going to make it to church yesterday. but booked it out during his break so that he could make it to sacrament. what faith. i don't know what else to day. saw a ton of miracles with our mini missionaries this week. we got to take a couple out from a nearby stake. they were hilarious. it's pretty funn doing that. they have an awesome time. we do too. and they always decide to go on missions. the stake president, president lines, was like, "these two were on the fence about going on a mission and it's amazing to hear them bear their testimonies that way." (they bore their testimonies during the closing of the mini mission. little meeting thing). it was great. anyway... love you much family! i'll send pictures

elder bronson

Picture Update

mini missionaries with us for a few days. brother ray and brother patterson. love thsoe guys

haha sad

elder benson is back!

elder fuhrman and sister rawlings. my ward at byu. in the tempe mission. had an mlc together. 

elder rohrbacher. love that guy. tempe mission. in my district int he mtc. 

September 1st- Gilbert

hello mom! yes i'm having a good day. well kinda... we have to drop elder lybbert off at the office today. in like 2 hours. so that's too bad. but other than that it's been pretty good. actually a little hectic. lots of mini errands to run this morning. but we're pushing through! there's a small BBQ in singles ward but we won't be going because i will be sticking with some other elders for a couple days covering two areas. oh that pizza place with the woodwards was so flippin good. hahaha classic courtney. that was quick! i'm sure he didn't like that joke either. i don't know how much weight i've gained because we don't have a scale. but i don't think i've gained too much. however... the other day i looked at my license picture (taken senior year when i was working out a lot), and then at the mirror. and then at my licence picture. and then at the mirror. i've got some nasty neck fat.however, it was so relieving to exit the denial mode and enter the "fix it" mode! so here we go haha. 

yes andie is very cute. it's weird not being able to interact with her though. i got way excited when dad sent a video of her. but this ancient computer won't play it. sad. but anyway...

yes elder lybbert goes home tomorrow. yeah it's super sad. he's an awesome missionary. we did great work together. he's loved by many. haha it's actually kinda funny... we go to say goodbye to some people, and they cry. and i'm sitting here like, "whoa this is weird. he's been here for like 4 months." so it looks like i gotta develop a little more charity. because i haven't shed a tear yet, and don't see it happening at all in the future haha. his plans? he doesn't have much for plans. he went to a community college before his mission. he says he may want to go to byui. or byu. but he hasn't applied at all. so he's going to go home and work and such. and then go to school. i don't think he'll be married, but you never know! i know that was a joke but it really happens. some of my old zone leaders are engaged. so yeah. it happens. 

yes thank you so much for the package. i love pecans. and the pistachios were a nice addition! and all the rest of course. that week was awesome. i got like 5 letters and a package! and we had 14 people at church this week. it was pretty great. so we went off with a bang for elder lybbert. we get transfer calls today because

yeah we have a dust storm once every couple weeks. it will rain hard during the dust storms too. it's pretty cool. anyway love you too!

love, elder bronson

August 25- Gilbert

hhahaa i love it. that would've beeen a catchy title! if you just said, "i can't come up with a catchy title." sorry i have to be short this week. whenever i say that, i end up writing a lot though... hailey has her first soccer game, huh? take some pictures! i wanna see her in action. she is our last hope for an athletically successful family member! courtney was the closest... but no one else could make the cut! that's awesome that jeff and karlee were the witness couple though... pretty amazing. i remember you telling me how special it was to, about 5 years ago, have your whole family in the temple. every sibling for the first time. pretty awesome. can't wait for that day! president nattress says, when speaking about the temple, "imperfect people, can have perfect moments." that's one of those perfect moments. where nothing else matters. and all you feel is joy. pure joy. no baptism this week. she fell off date. but she will be back on soon. "it's like Novocaine. give it time, it always works.." (remember the titans). some are referrals... some are tracts/street contacts. the family we just baptized was a tract. but the one that fell off date this week was a referral. but i did get a text the other day from the assistants that said... "you've been requested to attend a sealing for the westcott family. give them a call." an inactive family that we just knocked on their door. and they just took off. just needed a little kick in the pants. he just received the melchizidek priesthood. and they are taking temple prep right now. they will probably get sealed in september. so i will be able to go to that. they are awesome. i've sent a picture before. so you'll just have to search for it. yes i feel like i will stay for a while in this ward. next transfer is next wednesday. but elder lybbert is dying this transfer and they won't whitewash the area, so i will definitely stay another transfer. i feel like i'll be here a lot longer than that though. which is fine because i love it here in higley ward. love the members. 

Brother and Sister Bronson,
My name is Rodney Ross (I go by Rod or Rocky). Just a few moments ago, your son left our home after having dinner with us. I want you to know that Elder Bronson is an excellent missionary. He is a natural leader, very spiritual and personable. You should be very pleased that you have sent out such a fine young man to serve the Lord.

You will note that I have included a few pictures of your son and his companion, Elder Lybbert. These pictures are just a few minutes old. We take great joy in sending them to you.

Our best to you. Your son has changed lives here in Gilbert. I'm confident he will continue to do so.

Rodney Ross (the fat guy in the middle of the 3rd picture!)
Gilbert AZ

August 18- Gilbert

hello mother! i'm doing well, thank you for asking! finished seminary? oh good. mondays are tough? no! mondays are the best! emailing family. playing ball. relaxing. good stuff. hahaha jeff bowling? you may have to take him to practice before his orientation. teachers quorum president? that is awesome. one of the few people in the ward that hold priesthood keys. make sure he understands that! we had a meeting at president nattress' house this weekend. and he talked about a 12 yr old kid that came up to him and started asking him questions about his calling. he told him a few things. but the main thing he told him was, "aaron... you have the keys of finding, teaching, baptizing, and reactivating all the 12-13 yr old people in those ward boundaries." months later, he ended up reactivating every single deacon. and had four 12 yr olds meeting with the missionaries. pretty amazing. so same thing for marcus. except 14-15 yr olds. so that's the advice i would give him. that's his responsibility that the Lord has entrusted him with. He can know he is fulfilling his calling if he is building the faith of the current teachers and helping them to make right decisions (perfect the saints), reactivate and baptize (preach the gospel), and he can redeem the dead too through the temple. his mission is the same as the church's. and the same as the missionaries. to invite others to come unto Christ. anyway... utilize your missionaries. investigators are coming along well. Marlene is getting baptized this weekend. thomas should be getting baptized at the end of the month.  we love the Higley ward. elder lybbert goes home in 2 weeks though... yes my clothes are holding up. shoes are good too. cup of bleach, huh? yeah i don't think i've ever used bleach. my garments are super nasty too. arizona sun will do that. i don't need money for drycleaning. we get it free here in gilbert. just got free haircuts today too. I LOVE GILBERT. anyway... love you so much! sorry i'm short today! thank you for your support! 

elder bronson

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