March 30- HAPPY 21 BIRTHDAY! - Gilbert

it seems that these emails are getting more and more personal! haha so when i get them personal, i send them personal. so mother... this probably isn't for the crowds. thank you for everything you do for me! you truly make it easy to honor the family! because the family is so awesome! i truly have been blessed with an incredible family. perfect parents. and siblings all sealed in the temple. ya done good, mom. 

anyway.. yes i'm feeling old! even though i still look like a little boy. what have i planned for today? well we're going to play some ball. and i'm probably going to go get some free meals from some local places that give free meals on birthdays! woot woot! 

well about 30 minutes ago... i got a knock at the door. sister richards was adamant that we email here today because she needed us to be home to receive her package. well it wasn't HER package, was it mom? haha thank you so much for the cake! haven't had any yet.. but i'm sure it is great. thank you. 

good to hear hawaii was good. haha you made me laugh when you said taking care of a trek family. haha oh trek... 

that's funny that you've never seen those heirlooms before. 

yes it is crazy that april is almost here. it's getting warm over here. 98 the other day. but i'm getting transferred. forgot to tell you that. just got the call last night. i knew it was coming though. but i played innocent. president told me a couple days back. so i'll let you know next week how the new area is! 

oh so sorry for forgetting kristen's birthday! so sad. ugh i'm horrible. it's not that i picked one over the other! and it's not like i remember everyone's and forgot hers! the selfish story went more like this, "oh it's almost my birthday. whoa 3 more days? oh it's march 27. march 27! shoot that's courtney's birthday! quick sister richards! send her a note!" haha so it was purely by coincidence that she got wished a happy birthday and kristen did not.  but yes she is looking pretty big! can't believe there was  a little bit of a scare the other day.

anyway... love you much!  

elder bronson

March 23 - Gilbert

hello mother! wow such a short email! they say that your emails get shorter the longer you are out. guess the rumor's true! nah i'm just kidding! but yeah this last one was pretty short. thank you for the quick note. loved all the pictures you sent. looks like you're having a ton of fun! 

savanna got baptized on saturday. got to confirm her short notice on sunday. in short, it was a great baptism. it was in the new singles ward building. so we assumed the faucet would run just as fast as all the other stake center we've been in. we were wrong. so we had to fill up giant pots of water from the bathroom sinks to add to the water. all ended up going well from everyone else's perspective. but from behind the scenes, it was a little stressful... ya know... filling up a baptismal font with pots. but she is doing well! and we are meeting with her best friend tonight. hope all goes well in hawaii! you send a short note, you get a short note. no just kidding.. i'll keep going.

We had mini missionaries again this week. Brother blanchard (from my old ward in higley stake) and brother willis (also from higley stake). they were stellar missionaries. Brother blanchard and I were praying for a miracle and wondering what to do at8:00 in the evening. so we got out of the car and started streeet contacting. no one was there but we went to an open garage where we met mike and ty. two high school kids. mike was sarcastic and uninterested. ty was sincere but also seemed uninterested. we began to teach about the doctrine of repentance and forgiveness through the Savior. long story short, we asked ty what he thought, and he began talking about the mormons at school and began to cry. we identified the spirit and he came to church the next day. and accepted the invitation to be baptized. cool miracle. i'm sure i could've given more detail. but that's all i got! we'll let you know how everything goes this week!

elder bronson

March 16

hello mother!

sorry i have to be short today... just about to head out for a pday activity. that is so cool that you're going to hawaii. elder tahuri thinks it's weird that that is the vacation spot for a lot of americans. yes dad told me all about his blood clots.... after the fact. nobody tells me anything! haha 

yes vanessa got baptized last week. she is doing great...  she was baptized into the family ward though. but savanna, who is getting baptized this weekend will be in singles ward. she is awesome. i think i already told you in past emails about her though.

haha injustice?? that's what i thought when i first got my mission call. well not initially. but after it set in i was like, "man..? arizona? of all places?"  but trust me. you figure out pretty quick how much better it is to go stateside. learning a new language is pretty cool. but that's about it. don't tell calvin. no i'm just kidding there is no reason to be partial in any way. there is truly no reason except that of God's decision. and the sooner you realize that, the better! I love Arizona! 

unusual on pdays? nope just basketball or soccer or baseball. wish i could play tennis. an elder in my zone found a racquetball racket and gave it to me as a gift. he's from albania. and i don't know if people in albania know the difference between a tennis racket a racquetball racket but he doesn't. haha

anyway gotta be short today. i hope that doesn't mean you'll be short with me nexgt week! haha

love, Elder Bronson

March 9 - Gilbert

hello mother!

yes they are going by very quickly.  that's awesome that you're going to hawaii though! not too much has changed from last week! well actually Vanessa got baptized! i can forward a picture. actually i forgot my camera so it'll have to wait until next week. but it was a great service. yes we are having quite a bit of success, here in good ole gilbert. i love gilbert. i'm going to move here. haha maybe. ummm savanna is getting baptized on march 21 which will be great! she is so stellar. she announced again on sunday in gospel principles that she was getting baptized. it's awesome when an investigator does that. very humbling. 

andie and quinn are looking awesome. so sad that they are growing up so fast! guess courtney will have to have another one that looks exactly the same so i can see the progression in her growth in real time! yes Jeff seems like an awesome dad. maggie is getting old? pretty sad. the richards (people we live with) have a cocker spaniel. but she's a lot more skiddish than maggie. 

missionary work is going great! The Lord always blesses me with awesome areas and awesome investigators. i usually do hardly anything and boom. investigator falls out of the sky and wants to get baptized. it truly is the Lord's work. he says in 2 nephi 29 it hink... twice, "i am able to do mine own work." and he means it! he just allows us to be in the process to help US grow. but in reality he can do it himself. and he does! we don't do any of the conversion. he does it through the power of the holy ghost. and thank goodness he does! because it would be really hard to sell a religion where you have to give up all that you have just to join and stay worthy. haha 

yes i'm still enjoying my companion he's awesome. we bought some more tim tams today. he introduced me to them. they are an australian cookie that you slurp up hot chocolate through and then throw into your mouith. it's called a tim tam slam. it's awesome. no not first time in the states. no he didn't go to school before. his father is a convert. 

okay yeah i will probably go down to provo or at least utah during the summer to find a job. that would be very nice. do you want to find a job for me?? haha muah! thank you mother!

yes i am happy and healthy thank you! love and miss you!

talk to you next week!

elder bronson

March 3

From one happy family to another! Thank you!

Mecham Family

March 3 - Gilbert

Hello mother! good to hear from you every week! ya know... one of my last companions had a hard time... his parents never wrote him! or rarely. so he would always have to remind them every week. so thank you for writing me every week! i am extremely lucky. well blessed. haha this guy we were teaching yesterday. his name is joe mar. he is from the Philippines. he is awesome. he says that his friends always tell him how lucky he is, and he corrects them and says, "no i'm not lucky. i'm blessed." so i'm blessed! not lucky. That is so awesome that kellie got into BYU! man we're going to party it up! oh wait... excuse me... we will have an enjoyable time studying. haha no but that is awesome to hear! she worked so hard. i remember thinking to myself, after i got into BYU, "ummm... now what." for so long you were trying to get good grades in middle school, so that you could get into good classes in high school. and get good grades in high school so that you could go to BYU. and now you're in... haha i remember feeling like, "what's next?" thankfully it all kinda worked itself out. 

Investigators are doing great! vanessa is getting baptized this weekend.  She expressed to us yesterday how happy she was to be able to turn her life around. "The Lord works from the inside out. ... Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums." President Benson. Vanessa is proof of that! We picked up a few more investigators this week. One is Savanna. We received a referral for her so we contacted her and told her that we would have a lesson with her before this mission choir concert thing (that i don't participate in because i'm not a singer). So we taught her 30 minutes before. The fellowship that was with her recognized someone else that was hanging around the church building waiting for the choir concert to begin (some other missionaries brought him but he was just coming to come. not interested at all). so the fellowship dragged him into the lesson. He announced at the beginning of the lesson that he was agnostic and that he just wanted to be a bystander in the lesson. initially Savanna said she just wanted to learn about different churches, but we taught about the role of the holy ghost in conversion. and about faith in Christ and repentance. we invited her to be baptized (elder tahuri was practicing for the choir concert, so it was just me and a guy from the ward teaching), and she said something like, "i'm not ready for that. i want to learn about the church." So we kept teaching her. and we asked this fellowship to talk about his conversion. he joined the church like 5 years ago. he did so. the spirit was super strong. so we invited her again and she accepted. mar 21. it was a great lesson. but the best part is that the "agnostic" attended the choir concert, and walked up to elder tahuri and said, "I felt something." and then decided to come to church. so we had savanna and collin (agnostic) and a guy named darshan, who is another investigator nto even part of this story, in singles ward yesterday. kinda a long update for investigators. i could've just said, "all is well" but i know you don't like it when i just say that! i'm getting better! 

nothing in particular for my birthday! i'll think about it this week i guess. because i know you don't like to hear that!

love you much!

elder bronson

February 23 - Gilbert

Mom said that it's exactly 4 months left and he said....

that is the WORST start to an email i have ever seen! haha it's okay it is not a pride thing. i've had to take a step back and see if it is just pride that is making me want to go home in June vs May. some missionaries (probably out of pride) extend their mission to exactly two years just so they can say they served 2 years. which is kinda dumb. so thank you mother for helping me consider both sides. holy cow i cannot believe 4 out of 5 days were cancelled! that is pretty awesome. i'm sure they did a whole lot of nothing... haha

the week was good! domenic got baptized! and his mother, vanessa will be getting baptized in 2 weeks. she came to the baptism of course and was so excited for her baptism/confirmation. she is making so many changes.  you have a lot of different opportunities to teach different types of people on your mission. that have had a lot of different experiences. a lot of different weaknesses. each investigator or convert struggles with different things, but no matter what... the Gospel helps them. vanessa, whenever we would teach her, she would accept all of our commitments. in like 3 weeks, after complying to Father's commandments , her heart is in it. and her actions are evidence to that. but she is awesome. the Savior heals all wounds (3 nephi 9), strengthens all weaknesses (ether 12), truly changes our desires (mosiah 5:3ish). Truly when we are wrought about by the power of the Holy Ghost, we feel a desire to do good continually. to do no evil. This power of the Holy Ghost invites us to make covenants with Father (mosiah 5:5ish). It is the doctrine of Christ. 

anyway... we look like twins? haha are you sure? yes he is from new zealand. gisborne. yes he has an accent. it's hilarious though... every time he says he's from new zealand, every person we talk to finds it necessary to let him know that they have a sister's daughter's friend's mom that has been there once. or something like that. it's almost a game to see what percent of members will say soemthing like that. so funny. that's crazy that i am related to matthew cowley. i've never even heard of the guy until i got elder tahuri as a companion. now i hear about him from everyone. sounds awesome. 

Elder tahuri is awesome though. so funny. way hard worker. he's an incredible missionary. i've learned a ton from him already!  anyway... i hope this email is sufficiently long... it's definitely longer than yours! sorry about not sending pictures. my camera battery died like 6 weeks ago and i keep forgetting to charge it. i'm really bad at taking pictures.

love, elder bronson

February 10 and 16, 2015 Gilbert

February 10

hello mother!

once again, had an awesome week. only because elder allison is such a good missionary. oh yes i get to go back to higley for a baptism on valentine's day. his name is e-man. he's awesome. i think i may have told you about him in past emails. yes jordan grigg came home this week. so crazy. i remember when he left! ugh time goes by too quick. he already emailed me and told me he'd rather be on his mission. haha i think that happens to every RM though. well they are on date for feb 21. so not for a couple more weeks. 

i heard that elder holland spoke and that it was incredible. love that man. ya know a year back he was supposed to come to our missions. but he cancelled on us last minute. elder wright of the seventy came instead. he said... "well i know you were expecting elder holland. and i'm sorry you have to deal with me instead. i can only imagine that it feels kinda like getting tickets to the beatles concert and instead getting the dixie chicks. it was hilarious. really lightened the moods of the disappointed missionaries. 

anyway... crazy that ryan gets married on friday. wish him luck! i gotta be short today... going to play some baseball. love you much!

elder bronson

hello mother!

gonna be short because we'rea bout to go play some baseball. sorry about the typo about fifteen words back. too lazy to go back and put a space. good to hear you went to ryan's wedding! haha you told that to ryan?? that's pretty good actually. think he will follow through?? haha yes i got all the letters/package on time thank you so much! good to know when a girl doesn't love you, that your family does! haha 

everyone is doing well. e-man got baptized last saturday. someone from  my old area. i remember telling you about him. zoe is doing well. saw her at eman's baptism. she is still doing great.

sorry i have to be short. in a hurry. i promise only this email will be short! 

love, elder bronson

this is e-man. he's awesome. it's actually emanuel. i was teaching him before i left my last area. and he just got baptized last week. 

Hi Sister Bronson,

Elder Tahuri (from New Zealand) is your son’s new companion!  He seems like a really nice young man!  

Happy Thursday!

Carole

 Sent from Marilyn Fish

February 3 - Gilbert

mother! 

the week was good! church yesterday was good. except in a couple weeks our singles ward is going to move to 11:00. and that kinda conflicts with the other two wards. really bad. so we'll have to figure that out. but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. yes vanessa and domenic are planning on being baptized on Feb 21. is it warming up in Gilbert? no it's pretty much the same. around 70s all the time. maybe high 60s. i don't know just a guess. our phone obviously doesn't do that kind of stuff haha.

oh yes i remember taking that picture at the breakfast dinner! i love breakfast for dinner. who were my favorite seminary teachers and why? hmmm... that's a tough question. i don't remember how involved i was in seminary. of course everyone looks back and wishes they were more involved. it was always good when seminary teachers made it interactive. there are lots of ways to do that... what has been the most difficult part of my mission? hmmm.. that's a toughy too. no it wasn't the beginning. i loved the beginning. i loved just getting out and working. and seeing miracles. i don't know if i could pin point one thing. i think that it changes every day with the daily trials. it's hard to see people you know were part of a miracle use their agency the wrong way. when you know they know enough to choose correctly but choose not to. for instance... elder allison and i street contacted this older couple. taught them on the street for a while and they said we could come back. we taught them again and invited them to read a few things specific. and pray and such. well they loved it. they texted us throughout the day talking about how they were up into the night learning and studying... and coming closer to God. and how thankful they were that we helped to reignite their walk with God. so that was a miracle. however, they texted us the next day and said that they will continue to use the materials we gave them but don't want us to continue teaching them. so kinda sad. but that's probably the toughest. helping people feel, and recognize the Spirit and their faith grow. but still choose not to accept. but The Lord is able to do his own work. and hopefully it will work out to their benefit in the future. such an incredible couple though. so kind. 

overcome or mastered something? hmmm... well i've definitely learned to be a little more patient with other missionaries. and how to be diligent. i have too much to learn though. 

yes i have a car right now. but we still bike and walk a lot. no we do not trade with other missionaries. we always have one. the singles ward that i serve in is great. i sure loved the other one too though. there are probably 8-9 singles wards in the gilbert ysa stake. so yes there are a lot of singles. 

anyway... sorry i was so short but i hope i answered the majority of your questions. gotta get goin!

elder bronson

January 26 - Gilbert

mother and family!

it is going very well. haha yes i will be coming home in june. i was considering the persuasive advice that you lent to me... but i think i though out loud with president nattress next to me... hahaha so june 23rd it is! 

church was great again. yes bishop is awesome. well all 3 of them. we cover 2 family wards and a singles ward. so we definitely are kept busy. there are lots of small and big christian churches around here. but they do help us have a lot of success too! help people gain that background on Christ. but stay positive, mother! involve the Lord in His work. He will lead you to those that are prepared. but you must be prayerful. he told the apostles, after ordaining them to the ministry (i can't quote verbatim because i do not have my scriptures with me), "you have not chosen me, but i have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain (retain). and whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name, he will give it you." as part of the charge to do missionary work, he gave the apostles, the missionaries, and all those who have a desire to serve god ('therefore, if ye have desires to serve God, ye are CALLED to the work), a blessing... a promise. we each have a promise that through prayer we will obtain. it's all part of the calling! so be prayerful. stay postiive. optimism brings hope. and hope, faith. and faith, action, and action, success. 

thank you for that story of the high councilman in the stake that joined the church. it is truly by the power of the spirit that conversion occurs. and by nothing else. why daddle around with information when you can fill them with the spirit! do so by your testimony. the Lord reminds us in 2 nephi, "i am able to do mine own work." why can't we get it through our heads? he prepares. we invite. we find the prepared, we don't prepare the found. He thankfully, has invited us to help him out. but in reality... he is able to do his own work. anyway... 

 that is awesome that you have been using tennis to share the gospel. 

anyway... don't have much time left. gotta get going.. but thank you for the email! keep writing! haha

love you!

elder bronson

January 19 - Gilbert

good morning mother and family! all is well thank you for asking. it is awesome living with the richards! we have temperpedic mattresses! i don't know how i scored that.. pretty pumped though. i don't think i've woken up in the middle of the night yet! and it's been a week and a half in my new area! no we see them whenever we're home. we just have a separate room upstairs. yes it is so cool to hear that quinn was born healthy. she looks like both of them? i can't even tell. she looks a little asian though! yeah church was great yesterday! we did have a lot at sacrament this week. pretty pumped. we had an all around incredible week. it feels so good to be able to work nonstop! elder allison is such a hard worker. i feel super humbled to be able to have him as a companion. he is just an incredible missionary. just a stud! we do great work together. and are looking forward to what the Lord has in store. dad always emails me and encourages me... telling me that it's my last 6 months, and i gotta push harder than i ever have. and don't worry. i am! not that i wasn't working hard before! but i feel like we both have the same desires to work hard and see success. i don't have to help him. because he's a better missionary than i am! anyway... i hope that all make sense. 

how does the area compare? well i have one extra ward. the wards are the same time. the dynamic is pretty much the same. bishops and wmls are awesome. anyway yeah i definitely have a lot to respond to and not a ton of time. but all went very well this week and will go great this week too!

thank you and love you!

elder bronson

January 12- NEW AREA -- Gilbert

hello mother! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

love, elder bronson

new mailing address:

4402 e indigo bay dr

gilbert, AZ 85234

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

Brother Mills-- old ward missionary leader in Higley Ward

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

January 10 - Gilbert

Hi Sister Bronson,

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

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

Happy Saturday!

Carole Richards

January 6- Gilbert

hello mother!

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

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

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

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

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

love, elder bronson

December 15- Gilbert

mother! 

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

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

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

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

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

elder bronson

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

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

December 8 - Gilbert

Hello Mother. 

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

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

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

love, elder bronson

 ZOE and Elder BAiley

December 1 - Gilbert

mother!

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

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

love, elder bronson

  arizona trying to fake snow....embarassing!

November 24 - Gilbert

Hello mother and family!

yes all is well in Higley, Arizona. well gilbert arizona. but it almost is a town. i'm still in the same ward as i was six months ago! but i am so happy. we got transfer calls last night.... aaaaannnndddd... i'm staying!! woot woot! i just wanted to stay one more transfer. at least haha. elder baailey and i have really worked hard to pick up the area, and it is doing SO well right now. so we are way excited that we can stay together one mroe transfer. 

yes i heard from kristen that i am the only one that thinks it is a girl! but you just wait... i called jeff and karlee's and i'll call kristen and jeff's! 

how is everything with me? everything is so well! we had 5 investigators at church yesterday which was awesome. Zoe, not sure if i told you about her, she is doing awesome. She was the one that we fasted with last saturday (9 days ago) so she can come to know that the book of mormon is true. she had been blasting through it but could not admit that she knew it was true. she had received so many witnesses/amazing experiences but that still didn't cut it. so we fasted with her on saturday, and she read all of alma from 2:00 to 8:00pm. we followed up with her at 8 and had a quick lesson. we told her "we're not giong to invite you to be baptized (because we do every lesson (probably have invited her 5 times or so...)), but do you believe the book of mormon is the word of God?" and she replied, "yes i do." so two days later, after FHE on monday, she came up to us, and said "i'm ready." so she will be getting baptized on december 6. she is the most prepared investigator i have ever had my whole mission. we had a lesson with her the following day on tuesday, and she said to us, "elders, after we had that lesson last night, i was just so filled with the Spirit, that i went to the temple and just stood outside of it for like an hour crying..." and then she said, "oh have you ever heard of the store, deseret book?" "haha yes..." "look what i got" She then proceeded to show us everything she got. She bought a quad. and a personal progress. and all the seminary books so that she can make up everything she missed while she wasn't a member of the church. she got "jesus the Christ." she got "the articles of Faith" by james e talmage. she even got a preach my gospel! and she read the rest of the missionary lessons and even the missionary white handbook. she is incredible. anyway... then there's Geri. she has been smoke free for two weeks now! progressing toward baptism on Dec 27. doing so well. and a woman named kasey came to church with her less active mother in law that we taught a couple days ago even though she was ill. and then a guy that we tracted into named zach, only a few days ago, came to church as well. oh and frankie did too. a PM family that we found a couple weeks ago. So everything is going well here in the Higley ward and the Williams YSA ward. 

happy birthday padre! i'm sorry i am so bad at writing/wishing everyone happy birthdays. everything goes by so fast! what do i want for Christmas? your guess is as good as mine! i really have no idea. i couldn't tell ya. a couple ties would be good. 

well thank you for the updates! i hope that this email was sufficient.

oh... great that ryan is getting married. but man! 3 years without seeing each other and he goes and gets married. great...

haha

elder bronson

November 17 - Gilbert

November 10 - Gilbert

hello mother. yes i've had an awesome week as always. actually a little stressful. as always haha. haha man you recruit the missionaries quite a bit to teach seminary. but i guess that is good. we teach seminary once a week too. to be honest i don't really like it. but we deal with it. it excites the work. even though it's never for our ward haha. oh man you're in florida? is it as warm as it is here? 

that's cool that the sister missionaries went to hailey's soccer game. hopefully all will work out in the future.

man hailey seems to be a lot better than the rest of the family. we were all quite procrastinators. it seems that she'll excel past most of us! haha. it is a little humorous that she's always a step ahead of everything. and you always had to hound marcus about his homework. i'm sure he thinks it's funny as well. 

that's cool that there are so many hispanics. kinda like arizona. probably not near as much here as there is there, but we do have our fair opportunities to speak spanish. i can carry on a conversation... and refer them to the spanish missionaries. we've actually passed on a few referrals to the spanish missionaries just from talking to the hispanic workers or people we run into. it's actually really fun. i'm obviously not that good. i'm secretly wishing that President calls me spanish speaking for the last 6 months of my mission. 

okay quick updates...

geri is progressing well. she is stopping smoking this week. she's preparing for baptism hopefully in december. she's doing so well. and she's hilarious too. she came to church yesterday... haha she always wonders why everyone cries when they get up to bear their testimony. i'm still wondering that myself... 

we gave andre the aaronic priesthood yesterday. it was awesome. he's such a stud. singles ward guy that got baptizedsept 27. he got his temple recommend for the phoenix dedication this sunday.

zoe, a new investigator, is awesome. she knows everything already. we started teaching her last week. she's in the singles' ward as well. we're teaching her again tonight. reading the book of mormon with her. 

a few others that are in the runnings. the Higley ward is really turning around. there is a lot of missionary work going on, and the ward is starting to catch the fire. i REALLY hope i stay one more transfer at least. otherwise i may have to experience that whole "sewing" without "reaping" thing. not cool. i like to do both haha. 

anyway not sure what else happened this week...  i promise i'll have a better email next week.

elder bronson