August 26th, 2013

 HELLO TO MY FELLOW AMERICANS

Hope fully you all had  good weeks, but I wouldn't know because only one of my loving sisters emailed me .... actually shes the only person who emailed me. 

Email me I have time because I print them out and then mail ya a reply in the mail.  Somehow someone told everyone that I don't have enough time to read them all and now I don't even worry about time because I don't get any.  I would love to hear from ya'll and about your crazy life's! 

I had a crazy good week the time flew by and we did tons of work we had lunch and dinner at members houses every day and most of them we had non members their as well.

AND JUST TO LET EVERY ONE KNOW NEXT WEEK TUESDAY IS MY P- DAY BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO THE TEMPLE so I wont be email on Monday. 

I had another sweet experience on my bike this week .  We were flying down a hill and my back bearing blew out so that was a great time, I just held on for dear life and survived.  I also got a new rim and hub and that will be done tomorrow so that will be great. 

I made more spaghetti ramen this week still just as tasty and good as the first time! 

We did a lot of street contacting this week we found three more people to teach all three are super legit  so it will be great to see them progress.  Yesterday I ate elk and bear.  Not the first time I ate them but this time they tasted way better than the first time. 

The mission has changed me in some aspects like my legs are ripped and my slight belly disappeared thanks to the biking and running every morning. 

I have decided the mission has made me a quieter person but all the changes it's done are all for the good .... don't worry I am still Josh Braman and still the same person 

I have formed a motto that I am a person before I am a missionary and I wont be one of those fake missionaries and being your self is important because the Lord sent me here not to be someone I am not so I have to be myself.

 Ya lot of great things this week we talked to a lot of new people and all in all just a good week to be a missionary.  Time is flying by and I am safe and sound and healthy..... I think!

 Miss You ALL!

 Love ya & God Bless 

Elder Braman

August 19th, 2013

Hello friends and family!

Had a great week short and good.  

Not a super great or cool story this week I crashed pretty dog gone good, tore some pant and wrecked my hand but not really to bad, it was pretty sweet. 

(Emma this ones for you)  I tried another habanero pepper ...uffta those things are toasty now. 

We made some fairly legit spaghetti.   Chicken Ramen, meat Ragu and two cans of chicken and spaghetti noodles. Sounds gross but it was so good tasted like heaven... I dare you all to cook it, trust me you will like it!

I met this lady who seriously, if i told you all the things that have happened to her you would freak out.

Through all her trails and all the bad things and all the mean and terrible things people have said to her, she still has a strong testimony and continues to keep her faith and is positive about everything.  What an example to us all she always says, "worse things could happen!"  It strengthened me to sit and compare my life to hers and I thought how blessed I am and how I thought I was positive but she whoops my butt.  She said she has always  had to been able to rely on the Lord, it lifted me so much! the general sense of the story, we can always rely on the Lord no matter how bad, big or small of trails we are going through.

Take it easy,  miss ya all!

Love Elder Braman 

Both of these pictures  below were posted on the mission's website (www.washingtonspokanemission.wordpress.com) of Elder Braman at Zone Conference.  Thought it would be fun to share! 

Not much to say about this one but thought it would be a good laugh for everyone!  His companion took this of him.  Word is, he got the rainbow pillow pet from a girl in the last ward that he was serving in.  She had a crush on him & this was his parting gift when he left that area.  So funny! 

August 12th, 2013

Hello every one!

We had a neat week everything to thunder storms to seeing my uncle Todd drive by to S.W.A.T teams outside of our apartment.  Sounds pretty crazy, eh?

 First one was cool and the storms kept us up like all night ... reminded me of those good ol' Minnesota thunderstorms

Second one we were walking down Fourth street towards the zip trip on 4th and Sullivan and we saw Uncle Todd drive by.  I waved he drove away haha it was good to see him though ... btw I am 98% sure it was him...

Third thing so long to the short, a guy hit and killed a 18 year old and ran away to his apartment which happens to be in our apartments.  We got home from a teaching appointment and there was a bazillion

cops every where, they wouldn't let us in our apartment so we stood outside  forever and eventually they did there work and caught him but it was pretty cool to see swat blow off his door (its been along time since I have heard explosives go off so that was pretty neat).  Don't worry, we were safe but we still could see everything so it was cool.  Probably should tell ya'll this seeming as my mom reads these, I was safe and still am so not to worry!

We all got a side bag and pretty sure I look weird with it but rules are rules!

On a spiritual note we had a great week picked up another investigator named Kim so now we have two Kim's investigating We  left a chapter with Kim number one to read she read it like 8 times she said it was 2 Nephi  Chapter 31.  We followed up yesterday and asked her what she thought about the chapter, we talked for a bit on it explained it in more detail and invited her to be baptized.  She hasn't picked a date quite yet but it was good to finally have a good lesson with her. 

Other than that we have been doing a lot of finding/tracting its been fun but I'd much rather be teaching. 

It's been a good week, we have had fun and had some more biking in the rain!

Doing great and loving the work miss you all!

God Bless!

Love Elder Braman 

 SWAT guys going in for the take down

 This food is all from a member.  She just hooked us up, it was sweet! ( shes a super coupon-er)

My companion and I made these sweet looking pretzels! 

August 5th, 2013

A picture of the area Josh is serving in.  

Hello family friends and people I know and love!

I have learned a neat and valuable lesson in the past 6 weeks and that is having a good positive outlook on hard situations makes the hard situations easier to deal with.  I have learned the value of staying positive. I usually am a positive person but some times it's hard to stay positive while looking in to the future ... but I learned the value of this lesson during the last week and urge you all to stay positive. Have an eternal perspective on things. Just know that whatever is happening it is only a couple days or maybe a month .. now that may seem long now but if you look at it compared to a life time a month is nothing and if you look at a life time compared to a eternity...then that really puts a month in to perspective. 

When you are feeling down or like the whole world is against you just remember that it will be short lived. And that whatever problem we face no matter how big or small we can  always pray to our Heavenly Father and seek guidance and help. He loves us so he sent his son here to this earth to atone for our sins and he did that because he loves us and he wanted to provide a way back to heaven for us. He is our Loving Heavenly Father and he listens to our prayers and he loves each and every one of us and through his strength he can guide us and help us through those bad days that we all have 

Overall its been a good 2  months and so far and I am looking forward to the next 22 months. 

I am in an all bike area, a very hilly bike area, not a good combo but its good exercise and the members here are great.  Speaking of bikes this week was great.  I got two flat tires in two days and I am not an expert at patching holes and changing tubes.  One of those flat happened when we were biking down a huge hill we were flying, felt like we were going mock ten. Then a staple decided to jump out of no where and flatten my tire so I grabbed my brakes and held on for dear life.  All the crazy stuff I did before my mission payed off because somehow I managed to stay up right and alive ( that's my crazy story for the week) and biking in the rain is the best ... something you all should do at least once in your life 

I am doing good all in all  my companion is good, he's not a loser.  Area is small but good people 

I hope ya'll have a good week enjoy summer and brat season !!

 Stay safe & God Bless!

           Love Elder Braman