October 28th, 2013

Let me start off telling you some important stuff.

Only in Republic WA 

--People where boots Carhartt's and a white shirt and tie to church.

--The crowd looks more like a group of Loggers or people at a Farmers Association meeting. 

--They use first names rather than brother or sister, that's my favorite so far. 

-- Where in the church parking lot there are more trucks than mini vans.

A week in Republic.  So far its been amazing!  Good scenery, good people. We've done a lot a service and we have stayed somewhat busy ... not as busy as I was in Spokane Valley but still pretty dang busy. 

My companion is Elder Saunders he is from Palmer, Alaska.   Our first conversation blew my mind.  I gave him a hug, introduced myself and asked him where he was from.  He goes on to tell me and I ask if he hunted, fished, snowmobiled, ice fished, had wild bonfires, liked guns, or the opposite gender.... or eating steak or hiking .... and this is where i got desperate then i asked if he liked the out doors or cows or any animal... or if he liked sports... to which all of them he answered with a big fat "Nope".  

But, he does like Pokemon ...

So as you can tell the things he does like are none of what I like but oh well, right?  Although I must say the kid does work and he is not afraid to talk to people so those things are a huge benefit, especially when you're training. Don't worry though i love the kid even know he is messy.

Well on that note I will complain about one thing but before I do I will tell you I already got over it so again don't worry I am mentally normal. 

The first thing I said when I got into my new apartment was '' yup this ain't gonna fly. This place is freaking gross and it's a mess"  So for the first hour and a half I cleaned all the crap out of there like tons and tons of junk, garbage, clutter and just plain old JUNK . Four full garbage bags of crap then I spent the next couple lunch/dinner hours giving the place and ol' fashion thrashin!!!

Gave it the Reimer/Braman cleaning the way my mom taught me!  Now about 70 Gallons of elbow grease later the place looks good and I actually feel comfortable living in it and would even eat something that's been in the microwave.  Yeah.

Republic is on a scenic byway so its prettier than heck up here.  The town is also conveniently placed on the side of a mountain so that makes biking great.   The view I wake up to is amazing so I really don't have much to complain about I have include some picture so you can see what it looks like up here.

Sunday there was 63 people at church, its a small branch.. the bright side is there was only 63 peoples names to memorize and the down side is less member work and very few dinners but the bright side of that is I wont get fat.  The branch is a family and there all good people and very tight knit and they are good ol' country folk.  I have also included  some pictures of a service project we did swapping motors in a 97 grand am .. it was fun and a new experience for me. 

I had another neat experience you might say... I got pulled over going 55 in a 25.  In my defense I was over a mile from the school and the 55 mph sign was nonexistent so I didn't know the school zone kept going after the national forest started.  I told the cop that and he understood so I just got a warning .  Whew!

Well kids gotta run but I hope ya'll have a good week.  

I venture to say I will have another good week!  

I love you all and miss ya tons!!

Enjoy the pics and god bless ........ that was cheesy 

Anywho, later!

Love Elder Braman 

October 21st, 2013

Washington Spokane Temple

Hey ladies and gentle boys 

well its transfer day, woot! woot!  I don't have much time to email but I will tell ya quick I am going to Republic Washington!  Yay the boonies!!   Finally out of the valley so happy now I am off to a town of 900 people so I will feel right at home my new companion will be ............................. ya I don't know yet I get him on Tuesday so I will tell ya next p-day. 

-I did have a good week though, it is going to stink leaving this area, seriously every time I get to an area we get some baptisms scheduled then I leave but oh  well as long as they do it.  Anywho, ya good week lots of fun and hard work .. I tell ya what though at the same time I am almost going to miss the valley but then again I am glad to get out the the boonies!! 

 

Well gotta run and do some crazy stuff today.

 Take it easy kids & have a good one,  talk to ya next week.

Love ya'll 

Love Elder Braman   

I took this picture, thought it was funny... 

October 7th, 2013

 Well its been a great week !!!!!!!  I loved it!  We had a super busy week, I have said that before and we were busy then but this week like eight times that of the past. I have eaten food but I don't remember eating any lunches and very few dinners but that's alright.  Anywho.. its been great and I love the work. Its finally cooling down here in the 50's and 40's so its the best for just the t shirt its nice to not be hot and gross all the time.  Cant wait for a so-called winter here in Spokane!!

This week some of the people we taught were a family. Its great to watch them progress and learn about the gospel. Had a great lesson and then have another one tonight with them.  The new Companion is great good guy from Highland, UT.   The kid works hard and its been nice to have a companion that gives a rip and that I don't have to boss around or encourage to hurry up or get to work.   I love it and am sad at the same time cuz this transfer/exchange is only going last three weeks.  

I am having a blast and I am so glad I was pushed with love to serve a mission, its been great. I have learned so much and enjoyed the heck out of it. I do however miss you all and love you all and wish that you could be here experiencing this with me.  I have loved it so far and am looking forward to the next year and a half!! 

We helped the community library set up for a book sale this week and we moved literally thousands of books and then I swear we moved some more!  Long to the short, after a few gospel conversations and a good amount of donuts and hot coco they told us we could take any books we wanted so we went to the religion section and took all the anti-mormon books and burned them and dropped off ten Book of Mormon's!!

Well, I hope ya'll have a good week!

Love ya all, miss ya, take it easy and stay safe! 

God Bless!

Elder Braman

September 30th, 2013

Birthday cake on my birthday spent with Brad & Mindy & their family. (cousins) 

I saw my companion from the MTC.  Love this guy. 

I found a fellow Minnesotan!

Well kids thanks for all the Birthday packages and letters.  I loved them all and enjoyed my b-day very much thank you, thank you all very much. It doesn't feel to weird to be 20 but its definitely weird to say I am that old... not that that is old at all but its still nuts, eh.

This has been a crazy week we had a meeting or training everyday this week so we stayed very busy and we learned allllllllloooooooooooooootttttt so it was good to get those experiences and learn from those training's.  As far as teaching this week we didn't do much cuz we were at those training's but we worked a lot with less actives and recent converts and those are always great !!!! 

I got a lot for this week so  here is the list and then at the end I will share you my big announcement/only exciting news ya see. 

Thank you to all who put confetti and glitter in my b-day boxes!  I had a good laugh and when I vacuumed it all up I got to watch a confetti tornado in the vacuum... ahhh good memories.  

We biked a TON in the rain this week at least four good down pours hit us and a few good other rain storms. 

So on Tuesday we did service with the other Elders and we were riding in a mini van and their bishop was driving to the peoples house and while we were driving a car in the other lane smoked a deer and kicked it in to our lane and as we were closing in the deer tried to get up and well lets just say we didn't have much reaction time and we totally finished that thing off!  Crazy times now!  We also got a flat tire.

The assistants to the president made me a birthday cake (we video taped this by the way) but I figured instead of getting fat from the cake might as well have some fun with it so we planned a cake to face slam dunk :) so legit.  They sang happy b day and as I blew the candle out BANG I got cake in the nose and mouth and oh boy it was great and the video turned out sweet . Best part is that it doesn't look staged at all. My reaction was pretty well the best ever and well lets just say it looked real cool like :)  

If you remember a couple emails ago when I informed you of the sad story of my eating it on my bike face first because I took a corner with no hand?   Well I have been practicing ya see and as of my last count I have taken 291 corners's with out hand and with out crashing ....(and 2 whole weeks with out crashing ) but now I have stopped counting and I am just a plain ol' pro at no handle-baring it.   In fact, no to brag but yesterday I rode three miles with a pan of hot dish in one had and and a gallon of milk in the other and I didn't touch the handle bars once ... ya I to was impressed as you were :)

On a spiritual note we were biking to go see a less active member and seriously, this is so crazy its never happened like this or this strong, but as i was going along the Spirit was like 'Turn Around Now'......so I hit the brakes turned around told my companion we need to turn around and just go.   He gave me a weird look and said okay?  I felt like an idiot but we did it.  Put it in the onions gear and cooked it.  As we were flying down the road ahead there was not a soul on the side walk so we just kept going and, long to the short, we eventually came in contact with a lady and got to talking and such.  Turns out she was looking for our number and she wants to start meeting with us again! The Lord knows whats going on he has a plan and I realized I am his instrument and there's no two ways about that.  I cant do his work by myself and he is our guide on this hunting trip ... how did ya like that one hmm ??  Oh ya, came up with that one on the spot as I was typing :) 

Well now for my exciting wild news .  President called and told us we were going on exchanges for three weeks with the Zone Leaders, so that's the rest of this transfer so technically I am not in the Pines Ward with the Reimer's any more :( I am now serving in the Painted Hills Ward.   So what does this mean for all of you?  Pretty much nothing  just send your letters to the 820 S Pines RD Ste 101.

Ya sure,  it will be a neat three weeks  & hopefully I will learn a lot! 

Well kids gotta run have a good week take her easy and stay safe 
miss ya'll!

God Bless
Elder Braman

September 23rd, 2013

No letter today, just a picture.  Elder Braman said he would be spending his time catching up on writing some personal emails so maybe you'll be lucky enough to receive one which is likely if you have written him! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER BRAMAN! 

Josh celebrates his 20th birthday tomorrow (9-24)!  

Hopefully he has a wonderful day & we get to hear more about it next week. 

September 16th, 2013

Elder Wallis & Elder Braman

Josh was just made a District Leader, he is over several other groups of missionaries in his area.  

His companion is a new to the mission and Josh is training him which he has never done before. 

They are also in a new area, new to both of them.  They don't know anyone or the area at all. 

All in all, Josh has a lot of new things to learn & a lot more responsibilities! 

Well first whole week in the anew area!  Overwhelming.   Kinda not really.   Busy? TOTALLY!!

 I have never filled my planner with so many address's and names.  We have learned much and by much I mean a lot like where people live how to get around the ward boundaries  but there's still lots we need to learn spiritually and mentally.

Okay spiritual time now. 

This week I have had to rely on the lord more than ever . More times than I would like to admit I have found my self feeling overwhelmed and you could put in better terms as "stress" but the beauty of the Atonement is that the Lord can strengthen us and lift us up if we rely on him and have faith that he will. I find myself having to take a deep breath and just pause and ask for strength. It's been great though, we had more street contacts and we've met more people ready for the gospel as we rely on the Lord and not on our own wits. we are nothing mere tools in the Lords hands so we need to stop trying to control this ride and let him take over and run the show.  I think that Carry Underwood says it best when she says "Jesus Take The Wheel".  I tell ya what that's no joke ya see, because I've noticed the more I use that theory the better the work goes.   Well kids that's the lesson I have learned this week hope you got something out of it,  if not then at least you got to listen to me ramble on .......... 

I only had two crashes this week the first was totally me being me .. stupid ..... any how my last word were "dude watch I'm gonna take this corner with out hands" (btw i did it like 9 times successfully) the next thing that happened was my noggin eating pavement and my back tire was sky high but all is fine and no major injury's.  

Second crash.  Well a miss placed telephone pole on the edge of the side walk jumped out and bit the edge of my handle bar and I was then laid out in some nicely manicured lawn. Still some how I walked away injury free.  Yay! 

Well, I am an old man now .. almost 20... jeepers!!   I feel so old just thinking about it. 

I had a good week and hopefully I will have another one!

Thanks for all the letters and emails, love them! 

 

Have a good week!

 Miss ya'll, love ya!

God Bless!

 Elder Braman  

 

September 9th, 2013

Hi Family and People! 

Transfers came and went, DUN DUN DUN!   I am sweep training and I am going to be a district leader, that means I am being white washed in to the Pines Ward and I am getting a brand new Missionary!  I get him on Tuesday so I have no idea who he is yet but he is just a baby (brand new missionary) so that will be neat ... my first son. (mission lingo )  

Between a new missionary and a new area and new responsibility's the next six weeks will either be hard and go by slow or by my predictions, super fast.  I am sad how ever to leave Sullivan Ward, they are awesome and have been super cool and I'll miss them.  I have family in the Pines Ward so that trumps everything!    

So there ya have it, that's my new cool super rad news, and to go with all this news and my nervous feelings sorta I have a quote to go along with it. "There's No Growth in the Comfort Zone and There's No Comfort in the Growth Zone."  So I venture to say that that means that if your comfortable then your not growing.  I am going to be out of my comfort zone so hopefully I will do some growing, too!

Well this last week has been good not much cool happened, I got to pet a real life cow that was sweet and I had some good times with my companion.  Sorry this was short but you got some cool news so be happy!

 Gotta run home and pack all my belongings!!  Keep me posted on everything! 

Love you all!

God Bless,

   Elder Braman