Washington Spokane Mission - June 2013-2015

Elder Braman won't be able to view this page, if you have questions or comments or want to update him please email or write him as that is the best way to stay in contact with him. This is simply an online journal we have set up to share with all those that love & adore Joshua. When he comes home from his mission we will make this into a book for him.

Email: joshua.braman@myldsmail.com

Send him a letter/package at:
Elder Joshua Braman
820 South Pines Rd Ste 101
Spokane Valley, WA
99206-5420
The Washington Spokane Mission has a website which is updated pretty regularly. Feel free to check it out!

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

March 30th, 2015

This week was way weird for a few reasons . 
We were doing member visits and found out one of the less active members in our ward owns a dairy farm. I MILKED A COW FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 22 MONTHS white shirt and all!  It was the weirdest feeling ever my companion said I had a permanent smile the whole time!  For those of you who talk dairy it was a single side entry 4 cow parlor. 
I got pulled over twice in twenty four hours and both times no ticket ;) 
I got to go proselyte in good ole Dishman Mica Ward 
The work is going well and I am enjoying Sandpoint and the wards we cover. 
I'm loving the mission, we have a couple new people to teach and they are awesome!  I hope you all enjoyed those talks at General Conference! 
Have a great week!!
Love ya 
Elder Josh Braman

Words of Wisdom ..... ''Let your Regrets be the Fuel that help your Resolutions actually happen'' 





Just remember if you feel odd in a crowd there is always someone 

out there who has got it worse. 

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

March 23rd, 2015

This email comes with homework . 
You must read these talks, both are available on www.lds.org

We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down.  
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

His Grace Is Sufficient
Brad Wilcox 

My testimony has grown so much as I have listened to these talks and applied them and focused on the Savior and becoming more and more Christ like. 

One of the lines in "His Grace is Sufficient" that struck me was, 
Elder Bruce C. Hafen  “The great Mediator asks for our repentance not because we must ‘repay’ him in exchange for his paying our debt to justice, but because repentance initiates a developmental process that, with the Savior’s help, leads us along the path to a saintly character” (The Broken Heart [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 149; emphasis in original).


Another that struck me 
"We are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.”

And yet another, 
“Have you been changed by grace?”
 (pretty much his whole deal on that part of being changed, and when he talks about getting in to heaven, that part is dang good!)  ''Heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be heavenly.'' 

If Jesus Christ did not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization of those changes over time. They would forever be surface and cosmetic rather than sinking inside us and becoming part of us—part of who we are. Put simply, if Jesus didn't require practice, then we would never become pianists.

I encourage each of you to read these talks, even if your not a Mormon!  Either which way if you want to read them or if ya don't, still do it!  You can listen to them and watch them.  I promise they will help you find relief, peace, hope and direction in life. 

''Changing our behavior and our nature due to the things we read and hear is the ultimate test of our character and our love for God ''  -Joshua Braman 

*******************************************

I also have another request, I have two months left.  Yikes !!!!!!  Anywho, don't talk about it, its a long time even though I know its short. I am going to finish better than I started, even though coming home scares the crap out of me!

Elder Lyden and I are doing well, probably my favorite companion.  He's a good kid, HUMBLE and a hard worker. I appreciate those things in a companion. One of our favorite thing to do is to make a game of how many times we can get rejected. Not like we are trying to but the more people we talk to the more we get rejected.  Kinda sad actually. 
So far I believe I am slightly ahead of Elder Lyden.  This week we dubbed as THE WEEK OF REJECTION!  In all ways we have been rejected.  By our bishop, our landlord, everybody!  It's been great...

Things are great, I'm loving the mission and loving the work.  I am some how growing to actually like the Young Single Adult Branch ( for those who don't know what that is, it's church for single adults ... reallllly awkward and really quite).  I have seen a tender mercy from my Heavenly Father in all of it. It is really (shhhh!!!) really peaceful and quite during church and wow, I like to be able to focus on the spirit during the sacrament! 

Keep being awesome!
I love you all!!!
Keep on keepin'on. 

You cant say I didn't do anything for ya, I just gave ya some homework!!  Or I just gave you your next three to four family night activities.  

You're Welcome!!

With love,
Elder Joshua Braman 


 Elder Braman riding a very slow train... 


Thursday, March 12, 2015

March 9th, 2015

I am being transferred to Sandpoint, Idaho.  My companion is Elder Lyden he has been out for 6 months or so. I am pretty bummed about leaving PostFalls, ID 2nd ward.  A lot of good people here but I am pumped for Sandpoint.  We will cover three wards; Sunny Side Ward, a YSA Branch and then a ward in Montana, Libby to be exact, so that's pretty neat.  We should have enough on our plates to keep us busy so that will be nice. Elder Padilla, one of my past companions from Republic, WA, will be in my zone so that will be sweet. Sandpoint is going to put me back in the boonies so that will be neat . 

Our investigators here I am sad to leave, but there in good hands and they are all on date for baptism.  The ward is good and has an amazing ward mission leader, Brother Cook. He is literally the best I have seen! Partly due to the fact he is from Brainerd, Mn which helps out, eh?  Also on the topic of Minnesota, a whole family in the ward I am leaving is from Aitikn, Minnesota only a hour away and a couple three lakes from where I call home.  That's a neat fact, eh?
 
I hope you all have a great week love you and miss ya!

Elder Joshua Braman 
 Biking to Spokane, WA.  25 miles before. 
 and after. 
What do you know, I ran into my amazing cousin along the way, Brad Reimer!