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 

July 29th, 2013

Hello everyone

Well transfers came and went!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I am staying and my companion is leaving he is going to Spokane Proper which is down town Spokane ( the big city) which is some what good and some what bad but I wont get in to those details but I will miss him. My new companion will be Elder Church ...weird eh church as a last name I haven't met him yet but I will tomorrow at 3 pm. 

Elder Church and I will be serving in the Sullivan Ward  (they split Liberty lake and Sullivan wards so now we only cover one ward) and we will be an all bike area :( sad day tomorrow when i have to say good bye to the car but i will get over it). On the bright side I will burning those calories that would have gone to my love handles so that will be neat! On the other positive side its supposed to cool off a bit! btw its been crazy hot so I have had a good relationship with the highest setting of the air conditioner on the house and car!!

Seeing as one of the baptisms we had was in Sullivan and we spent most of our time in the Liberty lake Ward last transfer( because it was a bigger area) we only have 2  investigators in Sullivan right now so the next few days and maybe weeks will be finding, knocking doors and encouraging members to invite their friends !! so cant wait for that..

I have been out for two months now which is super crazy .... it seems like maybe a 2 weeks!!!

High school teachers would always kill my last name and I never thought much of it! Holy Cow though I don't know if its just these Washington people or just people in general but every one butchers my last name.  It's not even a hard last name I mean come on how do ya get BraHam out of Braman... I mean I get how people call me BRAman but i have been getting Bremer and Bremen and some other ones I don't even know how to type or pronounce ...... it was so bad the bishop had me come up and speak and he asked me how to say it correctly I told him and he still got it wrong and as I was introducing my self I clarified..... like a lot and after that people still get it wrong. 

But their children of God and I love them :)

Well hopefully I will have some neat experinces for yall next week. All in all I am doing good. 

Thanks for all the letters and emails its always nice to hear from people

Enjoy your week and take it easy, your all in my thoughts and prayers

God Bless. 

   Love Elder Braman

July 22nd, 2013

Hello family friends and people I love! 

This last week has been a good one its cooled down a hair but is still pretty darn hot.

I was able to see family which was pretty awesome. It was so nice to see my Uncle Todd and his wife Donna.   To top it off I was also able to see the Brad and Mindy Reimer family ... and holy cow let me tell ya since the last time I saw them the sure have grown! They are all moose's and super tall and all grown up,it was a great surprise to see them & I really enjoyed being able to see them. 

Thank you to all who wrote me letters and emails good to hear from all of you and glad to hear ya'll are alive & doing well. We had a crazy weekend from start to finish it seemed like we never stopped and boy let me tell ya I slept like a rock ! Any who I wish I had some crazy spiritual experiences to tell all of you but the last few weeks we have been trying to find more people to teach when i got here we had two investigators that we put on date to be baptized and we focused manly on them and now they are baptized yaaay!  Now we are looking for more to teach .... but yesterday at church three different family's brought friends and they all loved it so answers to our prayers to find more investigators. So this week we have appointments with all of them. Woot! Woot! 

That's about all the time I have hopefully as my typing skills improve and I get faster I will be able to write more. Love you all and thanks for writing, it's much appreciated, makes my day when i get to read a letter during lunch!

I hope you all have a good week & enjoy your summers and your family.  Remember  that Jesus loves you and he wants to hear from you so say your prayers! 

Love you all 

 God Bless!

Elder Joshua Braman    

Elder Braman on the Idaho Washington border

July 15th, 2013

Me with my district in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. 

Hello all and thank you all for you emails and letters :) 

My past week has been great and we've had a good week . Still need more investigators but we have another baptism on the 20th so that will be good.  Its been a month and it doesn't even feel like a week yet!  If the whole mission is like that,  that will suck ... not that I don't love you all but...... ya I would like to remember this experience a hair more. Fun fact- we are like celebrity's around here . Since there is 20% members here( rough estimate) every where we go we get honks and waves, that's a nice little touch. Hmm lets see what else do y'all want to know..... I do very poorly on these types of letters.    Hmm okay got something .... so I have learned that I am a super neat and a clean freak . I wasn't necessarily a neat freak at home but here I am ... mostly a germ and filth freak .. my companion is none of these things, in fact he is opposite so I find me myself doing all the cleaning.  But that's just a temporal thing, as far as spiritually I am doing great!  Transfers are the 29th of July and right now we have two wards (congregation) that we are over but next transfers they both will be getting there own set of missionary's. Either way things are going to change for me,  what ever happens the Lord knows best!   That is just about all the time I have today. 

 

Love you all!

God bless.

 LOVE ELDER BRAMAN

July 8th, 2013

Hello all who love and adore me!!!!!

 So I have been out a month its going good. It was super hot but thankfully its cooled down a bit. The work is going good ... actually great!  We have a baptism this Saturday at 2 his name is Dutch and his wife is a member,  he's 75 and such a nice man.  His wife is so happy he is finally making the decision to be baptized as he has come to church every Sunday since they have been married and finally he is ready . We are so exited about it.   We have another baptism on the 20th so that's our big happenings for July. We hope to have 3 baptisms for August. Any who glad to hear from every one who has written, I love hearing about the things that are happening in real life. The time hear has been flying by, I guess that's what happens when your busy with the Lords work. Seriously though its crazy to see how people live with out the Lord in their life and how much of a change it can make.

I am doing good and my companion is good.  This week flew by .... never mind this month flew by!  It seriously feels like it's only been a week when doing the Lords work!

 I am running short on time but i love you all and think about and pray for ya, GOD BLESS.   

   MUCH LOVE,  

 ELDER BRAMAN