Thursday, October 30, 2008

New Address

WHATS UP?!

This week has been sooo awesome, maybe even a little too awesome haha. My new companion is Elder Pond. He came out with Elder Dunn, so its way fun. I guess I'm senior comp but like that even means anything. It was cool. The first night we talked till 12 about the atonement. It was great. Laughing and crying all at the same time. I'll never forget it. That's for sure. There is definitely a reason why I'm here. We are working super hard trying to talk to as many people as we can and get as many new investigators as we can. Its been pretty fun. We cover 2 wards, the Daniels Park Ward and the Summit View Ward. They are in Highlands Ranch.

My address is . . .

C/O The Gibb Family
10198 Fairgate Way
Highlands Ranch, CO 80126

So everyone and there dog can now write me a letter!!! I know right. I would too. This is super rich area though, which basically means that we talk to a lot of people and that no one is ever interested. Its kinda lame, but we are working with some people and should have a baptism by the end of the transfer. . . (that's only cause the mission president promised everyone that if they worked hard this transfer that we could all have a baptism), so we are going for 2 cause we are already going to work hard anyways. Haha.

But yeah, the family we live with is pretty cool too. They have 3 sons and the oldest is a freshman in high school. We try to always set the best example for them.

Anyways I best be off, but I love you all!! Thank you for all your support. Remember to keep the country's that haven't been open to the church in your prayers and ALWAYS remember that the worth of EVERY soul in great in the eyes of god. So that's how it should be for us as well. No one doesn't deserve a chance to hear about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So share it with everyone. Think about the impact it has made on our lives. Think about the happiness it brings us. That's what I do. And remember the atonement is a free gift to everyone, but we are the ones who choose whether or not we are going to use it!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Elder Colton Bragg

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Transfers

Hey Hey Hey!! So this last week has been great.

There is some sad news though. . . after 4 and a half months/ 4 baptisms/ 3 transfers / and lot of work. . . I'm getting transferred. I know right! I was thinking I might be training too, because there are 28 new missionaries coming this transfer. So everyone and their dog is training. It's insane. I guess the Lord has other plans for me, and that's O.K. too. It was funny there is this kid in my district who really wanted to train. He was way disappointed when he found out he wasn't. I talked to him about it for a bit. I asked him if he has been working as hard as he could and he said yes. I asked if he trusts the Lord with everything he has and he said yes. I told him how it doesn't matter if your a trainer, district leader, zone leader, assistant, or a regular missionary. Each one is just as important as the other. I guess I realized I'm thankful I'll be just a regular missionary for now. I'll get to study the scriptures more in depth then I would if I was training, and I get to focus all of my time to the work that I am out here to do, which is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Anything that takes me away from that I don't really want to do, to tell you the truth haha. So I'm thinking I might not be in any leadership for a while, haha. After I talked to him about it he seemed a little better.

Since I am getting transferred I'll find out tomorrow where it is I will be serving. I'll let you know my address in a letter or something. The Anderson's said they would send all my mail to where ever I am. I'll tell you what though, this has got to be one of the hardest parts of being on a mission. I have to leave those people that I have grown to love so much. It's horrible. I feel like I'm leaving the airport all over again. There is still so much work to be done here too! It kills me. Hopefully Elder Bryson will be able to keep the work moving forward. This last transfer has really been a trial of my faith. It's crazy to see how the Lord truly raises you up, when you put all your trust in him. I love it. I was listening to a CD this morning before we left and I heard something that might seem way lame and stupid but I'll always remember what it said. "When the rain begins to fall, remember where the rain comes from." Just the day before, we were reading section 122 of the Doctrine and Covenants . . . I think that's it. . .where it talks about how all these things can happen to you and they will all be for your good. Well I'll tell you I know that that is true, no matter the trial. . . it is for our good.

Anyways, I have to go but I want you all to know how much I love you and how much of a difference everyone has made in my life. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God's church restored back on the earth today, Jesus is the Christ. He is the savior of the world. When we put all of our heart, might, mind and strength in him, he will raise us up. He will help us carry our burdens. It is a blessing I wish everyone knew about and knew how real it is. Again I

Love you all!!
Elder Colton Bragg

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

So cool story time


So cool story time. . . ready. . . go

Elder Penrod and I were teaching this guy named Jim Froese. I'm sure you remember him, he basically dropped us. . . sad stuff. Anyways, we were still in contact with him and teaching little things and sharing spiritual thoughts. Then when we helped him move the Bishop was there and he. . . not the bishop, but he asked the Bishop if he could speak in Sacrament meeting. . . I know right. So after getting over the shock the Bishop said sure. We were all kinda wondering what he was going to say. The day before, Saturday, we went over and watched the Joseph Smith : Prophet of the Restoration movie. His wife watched it with us. After the movie ended we were gonna say something but we both felt like we just needed to not talk. We sat there in silence for about a minute when Olivia (Jim's wife) just started crying. Now Olivia is from Peru and doesn't say much, but is an incredible lady. She told us all these things that she had gone through, which were incredible to hear about. Her ex-husband left her when they were in Siberia and she literally escaped back to Peru fleeing for her life with a 6 and a 2 year old, and many more things. Then she told us how when ever anything happened she could tell that the Lord was helping her through every single trial. How she wished Jim could feel the love that the Lord wants to show him. . . . so it was a good visit. The next day he spoke in Sacrament meeting and when he was speaking he said "now I'm not a member of your church YET but. . ." elder bryson and I at that point just looked at each other and kinda smiled and then kept listening. He proceeded to tell us about different struggles that he's been through, drug use, and how he kinda of blamed it all on God. And how that all changed when he met his wife Olivia and how we have helped him. It was great. I think now he knows God loves him. We saw him yesterday and asked him to pray about baptism. I'll let you know how it goes. Pretty cool!

Also Summer had her interview and is going to be baptized this Sunday! We are way excited.

A bunch of other stuff happened this week, but those were the highlights.

I love you all and just remember to keep praying for those country's to open to missionary work like the prophet asked. That would be way to cool.

THANKS!!!
LoveElder Colton Bragg

Friday, October 10, 2008

New Phone

Its pretty cool my mission president was in the temple a couple years ago and all the sudden he got this impression that he needed to retire early. Like, the next day, early. He was in a position of great worth. . . (aka lots-o-dough) so he went home told Sister Christison and then retired the next day. A week later he was driving with his son in the car and the prophet called his son's cell phone. . . and now he is our mission president. Pretty neat hu? I just thought that was a neat story.

CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME!!!!!!
Haha Saturday was so good. There were times when I wanted to get up and cheer. In fact during one of the Saturday sessions I nearly did. Sorry I don't have my notes but the guy from the 70 who spoke on the atonement and said that Jesus Christ is the only way. . . and any other way is madness. I got so excited. H was awesome. I would just tell you everything that I loved but then I would just be writing down all my notes. Everyone who spoke was incredible and I learned a lot. I'm already looking forward to conference in 6 months, but a little more to the conference ensign that will come out. THINK OF THE HIGHLIGHTING I WILL GET TO DO!!! Dang I'm excited. I can't wait to share quotes with investigators from that. I could talk all day about that though so I'll move on haha.

This week has been good. haha funny story. . . so we got new phones yesterday because the entire mission was breaking 3 phones a week. . . I know right. So they got us 300 dollar phones that they use in the military that are never supposed to break. If they do, you pay for it. Yeah kinda sucks but none the less. We were riding to the area we were going to tract and I said to Elder Bryson "Hey now if I fall the phone will be okay!" and I have never fallen before so the next part of the story was very unexpected. No more then 5 minutes later and only having the phone for about a hour. We were going down a trail to get to this area to tract. When I turn the corner and to my surprise. . . There is no bike under me anymore. It just completely lost traction and slipped out. So I proceeded to belly-slide down the rest of the hill (about 10 feet or so) completely on my right side, more particularly my right pocket. . . Which is where I put the cell phone. . . Naturally I just jumped up real quick and thought oh no hahaha. Breaking a 300 dollar phone would be pretty bad, so I took it out of my pocket and it was completely fine!! After sliding over rocks and dirt and having a perfect outline of where it was in my pocket on my pants. The phone was fine. Not even a scratch, so we took pictures and had a good laugh about how I was just testing it out to see if it really was "indestructible." well it sure showed me haha.

We have been doing well. Did I tell you that summer wants me to confirm her! Cool I know, but yeah we are still working hard and doing our best.

I love you all! Thanks for your support and remember to do what the prophet said and pray for those areas to open that are not yet!

Love
Elder Bragg

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Letters are never a bad thing

Howdy! How's it going? Good, cool.

Well, congrats on the job HD.

That's cool your reading the BOM with me. It's good stuff. I'm going through highlighting all the good stuff and I'm pretty sure I need to settle down on it a bit, haha, everything is a different color. It looks cool though.

This last week has been pretty sweet. We met up with this lady Elder Penrod and I found, named Mary. We call her Crazy Mary. She's pretty funny to talk to. We are trying to help her stop smoking. There is a 15 step program that we give people and it's way awesome. There are a lot of hard things to do in it though. I think the worst is the unsweetened grapefruit juice after every meal. I told her I'd do it with her, so basically I gag after every meal, haha. She needs all the support she can get.

Also Summer Power's dad just got back from Qatar(I think that's how you spell it?) But we are going to have her baptism the end of next month. It's gonna be awesome. She asked me if i could confirm her, pretty exciting as well. But there is way too much going on to put down, so you'll just have to hear about it as it comes. . .. haha, yeah sorry.

Elder Bryson and I are doing well. It's pretty funny. I'm not much of a complainer, as in I just don't on a mission cause I figure Christ didn't complain on the cross so I think I can get through a mission. It's interesting, every once in a while we're tracting, he'll just freak out over something that happened 3 weeks ago. And it doesn't help that I just start laughing, because it's so out of left field. so I'm working on that. But we are still getting along, so it's cool. There is alot going on in the area, so I like it.

Oh man, can I just tell you how excited I am for conference!! That's going to be sooooooo good! I'm way excited!! I can't wait for 2 years when I get the chance to actually be there live again. . . if that happens. Anyways, I'm sure I'll talk to you about it next week. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Bragg

ps. Letters are never a bad thing. . . What??