July 28th, 2014

Another week flew by, I don't quite understand how it slips away so fast here on the mission!  

You can see by the pictures we are being well fed and being put to work, a good life!  The missionary work is going really well, moving right along.  We found a few new investigators and the ones on date we already have are progressing closer and closer!  All in all, I am enjoying the work and staying somewhat cool, I haven't burned up yet so gotta be thankful for that ! 

Deer here are stupid.  I don't know how in the heck they have survived this long here!  First off there's no food for them as everything is dry and dead. Second, they all come within  ten feet of the bumper, I venture to say they have a game of, " who can get the closest with out death happening" kind of thing going on!  This is short and sweet again today, so much to do!

Jesus Loves you.  I kinda do as well. 

Have a great week and do something wild, but don't get caught!!

Love,

Elder Joshua Braman 

 We put a shed in a hole felt like an Egyptian it was so neat   

 That mallet split three cords of wood like that and is still going strong!

Sister Sandberg in our ward made us an awesome breakfast, it was waaaay good!!

July 21st, 2014

Howdy Folks!  This will be sort and sweet!

This week was good and I am packed, we are staying very busy and productive!

We have another person on date and a two new investigators! One of them is like a scholar with the Book of Mormon so its been fun to watch him connect things and learn things. He has read it twice in about a month and a half and is already on his third time, amazing!  

The work is going good, my companion is good.  It's crazy to me to think I only have a little over ten months left, NUTS !!!! 

We bailed hay this week, only a trailer load of hay but it was fun and sure brought back some dang good memories. It was fun so get some labor work done! Oh, and just to let every one I am a girl and I wear work gloves now because I've lost all my calluses on my palms and hands! 

Thanks for all the emails! I loved reading all your deep dark secrets! 

Love you all!  Have a great week, take care and do something out of the ordinary and weird!!

Have Fun.  Enjoy life.

 I miss you all! 

Love Elder Joshua Braman

I finally got a hair cut!  My hair was getting so long!

July 7th, 2014

Another Fourth of July passed by with out seeing a explosion of any kind...its not that important, maybe next year.  We had a good week this week, stayed busy and some what cool!  Its been super hot here, sometimes I feel like I am in Utah, that's how dang hot it is! 

Our investigators are doing good and the area is doing better and better every day!  Weird stuff happens every day, we meet some fairly odd people.  For example, today while we've been emailing on our prep-day, a guy with a legit bath towel wrapped around his head asked us if we could talk to him outside.  We did and he said some interesting things.  Then he said,"Okay lets pray and then I have to go talk to more people", what?!  Nice guy though, but for real there are some odd people out there folks!  

I've learned a few things lately, mostly just about the scriptures and the gospel. One thing is that the Gospel is simple and if we try to over complicate it then we are asking for trouble.  If we will just focus on the basics: Faith,  Repentance, and Enduring. Those things will keep us busy enough and we wont need to worry about  things like if Adam and Eve had belly buttons or any of that useless info!  If we focus on the basics of what Christ taught and we do are darnedest to follow the commandments, we will be okay!

So often we as people sick our noses in other peoples business, if we neglect to tend to our own affairs and our own lives we will find our self's always trying to measure up to some one else and then we will forget to be who God wants us to truly be.  So, be yourself. Work to become your best self and when you find a huge gap between you and perfection, use the atonement and become better every day. 

I hope you all have a great week!  Stay cool, don't touch pokey things, never stand behind an angry donkey, and make sure you don't leave your kids in the car on a hot day. Check your tire pressure weekly, drink your milk, never put a CD in the microwave and always wash behind your ears while your in the shower.  But more importantly, remember to thank God for the little things!! 
WEAR THOSE KNEES OUT!!

Love you all,
Elder Joshua Braman

 A deer in our back yard with a floppy ear! 

 The truck name made me laugh, thought I should show you!

 Me holding a Restoration Pamphlet in front of that sign ...  

June 30th, 2014

Hello, Ladies & Gents!  This week was great and we had a lot of good lessons and met a lot of new people which is nice for missionaries. Transfers came and this week!  I am staying in Kamiah 2nd ward with Elder Baczuk I was hoping for a transfer back up to Republic but that hasn't happened yet, not likely that it will!

Our investigators are doing good, we had 6 at church so we enjoyed that very much.  The work here is going good picking up slowly but surly.  I don't have any pictures to send, there isn't much that is picture worthy down here, unless it's the cows you like.  I am looking forward to this week, we have more lessons  set up and a few good other things.  Again, sorry this is so short, gotta run! 

Love you all!

Take care and have fun and play hard!!

Love Elder Braman  

June 23rd, 2014

Well, good day to all of you humans!  Glad to see you're alive enough to read this email. 

This week was crazy! We saw and did a lot and we had some good lessons and some great cancellations... haha, any way just another awesome  week as a missionary! We went on exchanges that was a nice break!! 

This week we also got to watch two bulls fight! It was pretty neat to watch.

The one got its butt kicked, the bigger of the two shoved the other in to a fence so he gave up, I guess he didn't like the barb wire poking him. 

Monday we played basketball at the local high school and I landed on a kids foot and rolled my ankle pretty good, that's been a great thing to have always bugging me, oh well just keep on keepin' on, eh? 

The Kamiah 2nd Ward in which I serve in is very very boonie. For example the biggest town in our area is has 226 people called Stites, Idaho. Then we cover Harpster, ID and Clearwater, ID both of which are very tiny.  One can imagine it is very hard to talk to people simply due to the lack of people!  Here is the kicker, the place where most people go is the dumpster!  The county does not do personal garbage cans so people have to take there garbage to one of three locations (in our area, the county has like ton) That's where people are so that's where we go!  It's weird to sit and talk to people/or wait for people to come but its the best way to contact people in this area so we do it! 

We got a flat tire this week so we put the spare on and went to a few more appointments

and then went home.  We woke up that morning did studies and then went outside to to get our tire fixed and then, as luck would have it, our back tire was flat as well! We were up a creek with out a paddle!  We called a tow and the guy picks us up then we started talking to him, we learned a bunch from him and then gave him a book of Mormon . He also told us a ton about our area so that was good!! Then another tire experience!!  We were on exchanges and as we were driving we stopped and helped a guy change his tire!  We learned he was from Wisconsin and we gave him a Book of Mormon and got him in contact with some other missionaries!  Flat tires can be a blessing!! 

All in all we had a really good week, stayed busy and had a lot of lessons. The work in this area is picking up and moving along which makes time fly even faster which I dislike and like at the same time but it sucks when yesterday feels like today and tomorrow feels like so far away but then I hear the alarm go off and its the next day suddenly!  Mission time is freakishly fast.  

I hope all you kids have a good week and take care of yourselves  now, ya hear me?  And don't go doing anything silly (please say that in a Minnesotan accent)

Love,

Elder Joshua Braman  

 Cool sign, good quote. 

 Sweet Sunset in Kamiah, ID

Another flat tire!  And the spare tire is already being used.  Yaay.. 

June 16th, 2014

Attention people who adore me and love me!  Glad to see your all taking time out of your day to acknowledge me and my presence in writing form. I will start by saying hello and end this most likely saying goodbye in some form.  In the middle of my email I shall inform you of my week!  Now we all know the plan let us begin.  

To whom it may concern, 

Hello and welcome to this letter.  This week was great we went to the temple and had Zone meeting and interviews with President, three of the days this week were all driving and all sitting but we did have a jam packed rest of the week.  All of our investigators are doing good, some better than others but still good! Church was good and I learned a lot there. I think I actually got my call to the coast of WA because its like none stopped rained for the last couple days which is nice, but bad at the same time!  I got my hair cut today . Emma and the rest of my sisters would be proud, I actually cut it different lengths. instead of all one half inch on the top and one fourth on the sides.  Almost over an inch on top was taken off which is like a huge deal because I HATE my hair long!

You might ask yourself why did Elder Braman just tell me about his hair?  He could have just told me about a spiritual experience or something like that. That is because last week was a blur, time is getting faster and faster and when I sit here its like the hardest thing to remember details of my week!  Good thing I write in my journal every night, eh?   

All in all we had a great week and looking forward to this up coming week. I hope you all have a great week!

Love you all tons & take care!

Elder Joshua Braman

 Josh just hanging out with his new friends. 

 Climbing a 50 foot tree house

June 2nd, 2014

Well this week was another good week, crazy things as usual! 

Our ward is just referring all their friends to us like crazy, we have been so busy teaching driving and then sleep, its great.  I have been working on learning to follow the small promptings of the spirit more on my mission and its been hard because some times I don't like to talk to people or chase them down because sometimes it can be awkward.  Not saying I don't talk to people but like when people are walking on the side of the road and your driving and then the spirit tells you to talk to them but its such a small voice its can be easy to ignore. For the last couple weeks I have been working on following those promptings, and as I have we have had great meetings with people and have picked up a few investigators from it. I have learned that the Lord is guiding me a lot more then I thought, its actually been the best part of my mission thus far.  All in all I am doing great, loving the work and enjoying myself.  My companion is pretty cool, this morning we played hockey with milk jugs and brooms in our two car garage it was a blast!

  

I hope you all have a great week!!

  

Love,

Elder Braman