Last Few Days at MTC

Hii guys!!

This Monday at 5am i leave for for the field!!! It's a 6 hour flight to DC, so wish me luck hahah. I fly out with a few of my fellow elders in my district and then we have like 20 other missionaries as well. Watch us convert the entire plane and then we could just fly it straight up towards heaven. But anyways I'm super excited to make it to the other side of the gates of the mtc and be back in the real world hahaha. No more prison food!!! Yall have no idea how excited i am to eat some real food. The moment it touches my taste buds will be glorious. In all seriousness though the MTC has been a great experience and i have grown to love my district so much and each of their unique personalities. Ill miss our little family in the MTC. 

The past week we had a couple more lessons in spanish. We taught a lady named Elizabeth and the lesson went really well. She didn't talk much at all so we had to work pretty hard to get her to talk and asked a lot of questions and had scriptures to get her involved. We also taught another lady named Angela from Mexico. We were planning to teach her the restoration, but ended up taking it more into developing a relationship with God and about the Atonement. She had a TON  of questions about the atonement and it was very difficult to explain some of the things in spanish. But Elder memmott and I did our best and I shared my testimony maybe 20 times with her cause I didn't know what to say some of the time. We both walked out thinking it went so rough because we got really deep into the atonement and didn't know the exact words to help answer her questions, but we got our review back and she gave us a perfect score for everything and said she felt a lot of peace and comfort and just good feelings overall, so that made us feel a lot better.

Since Elder Memmott and I are the zone leaders, this week Elder Memmott got to get to know the new districts in our zone. They are French speakers and Haitain speakers, which is so cool hahaha. They're a bunch of great guys and I'm excited for them.

We have been talking a lot with the native Spanish speaking district here at the MTC. They are seriously so funny! They teach us how to say some different phrases and slang and it's super helpful. It was also funny because one of the Hermana's and I have a mutual friend in Colorado so it was funny. 

This week we also have been given the challenge to speak only in spanish. It has been so hard, and ngl we did really well for maybe the first two days but then it kinds feel apart after that. But I have noticed everyone's spanish sounds so much better. I know we have a long way to go but I'm proud of my district. 

Nothing else has really going on this week, we're all just anxious to get out to the field. I can't wait to share my experiences with all you and about the people!! 

PS: I know everyone knows what day it is and that you have all been anxiously waiting for this day. 20 years ago little baby Braxton was born. Yes crazy to think it's been 20 years. I'm happy today is my pday because we get to go to the temple and can do a few fun things instead of being in class all day, which is a wonderful blessing ahaha. Anyways thank you for the birthday wishes it means a lot!!:) 

Here are the pictures from this week, we didn't have too many but after this weekend there will be many more I promise that will bless your eyes. SIKE I am uploading them rn and there are actually a ton so forget what i said.

1: me and Hermana Rodriguez (native speaker with mutual friend that I mentioned)

2. Just some missionary bonding with Elder Glover

3. Me working diligently in class

4 and 6: our district after 50 tries of getting photos but none really turned out but it's okay

5. District with our maestro, THE Hermano

Anderson 

 

10 DÍAS MAS of MTC!!!!

 Hi Guys!!!! I just have 10 more days of the mtc and then we fly out to DC! The mtc has been a great experience and have met so many cool people. The classes are still hard to stay awake through but I have been doing better! Also my Spanish is getting better.

Since my last email, Elder Memmott and I have had 3 lessons in spanish!!! We have met with a man named Dario from Ecuador, a woman named Oliva from Mexico and then yesterday a guy named Nick from Columbia. Two of them were for only 15 min and one was for a SOLID 30 MINUTES. Pure Spanish. The lessons actually went really well! It's cool seeing the gift of tongues in action because my companion and I could understand everything everything were saying in the lessons, and they were even speaking really fast. The only hard part was answering questions they had because we knew how we would answer the question in English, but using our limited vocab we were able to find out ways to answer their questions and to communicate with them. There were some pretty funny things still that happened in the lessons. In one of them we were sharing a scripture on the atonement in Alma 42 and had them read it, but we accidentally had her read a verse in  Alma 43 and it was talking about the lamanites sending spies and then the nephites and lamanites murdering each other!! Elder memmott and i just look at each other very confused and then we all started laughing so hard. It still ended up being a great lesson but that was just one of the funny things that happened in them. 

Here in Provo it has been raining pretty much everyday, and i hate the rain. Luckily i got a fancy umbrella and let me tell you, I used to hate on umbrellas because I thought it made me look like a loser, but now that I am a missionary I don't really care and I have been using it and they work surprisingly well!!! So now i carry it around with me everywhere and I love it and when i am feeling christlike ill even sometimes cover my fellow missionaries.

Also on Wednesday my companion and I got called to be zone leaders lolll. A couple weeks ago we thought we were going the clear of not being a district leader, but nope they had bigger plans for us. I think we're pretty good zone leaders, there really isn't much to do besides planning sacrament and introducing new districts in our building and making sure everyone is in bed. We have been bad about thay because lately as a whole floor with 20 plus missionaries we have been playing a human version of Among Us every night. We have gone all out with it by making cards for tasks and playing the music and getting real serious about it. It's been super fun but I'm sure if a member of the branch presidency saw it they'd think it's so dumb and might get Elder memmott and i in trouble. But it's a sacrifice were willing to make for our districts. 

Anyway that's pretty much what has been going on!! Here are some muy guapo pictures from the week:)

1: (From left to Right) Elder Memmott, Elder Bennett, Elder Handsome ;), and Elder Jolley

2. Us after the temple today. I do be looking like i gained 60 pounds but I promise i am not fat. Its muscle I promise I am still the same weight lolll. 

3. Us with the elders in another district that we love 

4. The view of the mountains from our classroom.

Hola Amigos!

 Hola!!! I'm coming up on a month of being a full time missionary! Time has flown by but also been going really slow, so been trying not to think about it too much lolll. 

I have been desperately trying to keep the gains over the mission so far. It's funny cause I'm known as like the buff one in the district and I always have other missionaries asking what my workout routine is and everything so it's just funny. They have some weights here so that makes me muy feliz.

This general conference weekend was a special one for me. For those of you who know me I normally am asleep for any sort of church meeting, including conference. But this time I made an effort to stay awake and I took notes on every speaker and I got so much more out of it! I hope you all were able to listen and if not I invite you to look back at a few of the talks because there were a lot of good ones this conference, one I especially liked was given by Elder Rasband. We even ran into Brother Sikahema, who gave a talk at conference, and took a picture with him. Also as President Nelson said about attending the temple as often as you can, my district and I have made an effort to go more, so we went again this morning and it was a good experience, however we got poured on on our way back. 

The dorms have been a lot of fun but also really crazy!! There's always someone screaming and the bathrooms are pretty gross. The clean freak in me is going just a bit crazy. Last night one of the districts axe bombed one of the rooms and our whole floor so we're all gonna be smelling like middle schoolers for the next few days.  

There was also some beef with another district. Basically my district leader said a joke to this guy he was playing chess with earlier and then the dude got super pissed. He grabbed our leader and said "A tip for the mission, don't be a d bag!" Our leader told us what happened and we were ready to throw hands. We would die for our leader. 

Tomorrow my companion and I have our first lesson in spanish!!! We have had several in English already but we're gonna me full on Spanish for this one! Not gonna lie I'm feeling pretty good about it. I know it probably won't sound too well but I know know I can find a way to get my point across. I'll definitely be using a lot of hand motions so they can understand lol. We have been practicing a lot in our classes and with being in class for basically 6 hours straight I've been having a hard time staying focused and awake, so maybe if one of yall can send some sort of caffeine it will be greatly appreciated:) 

Sorry my email is all over the place hahah. 

I'll let yall know how our lesson goes next week! 

3rd Semana of MTC!!!

 Hola Amigos!! This Wednesday I arrived at the Provo MTC and it's been a blast so far! My district is so chill and we get all get along really well. Our classes have been pure español and it's so funny because we all have a longggg way to go. We also had a chance to go to the temple yesterday which was good, but a one of the sisters ended up throwing up and everyone was just chilling while this girls masks was filling up and spilling all over!! I felt so bad but made it a memorable experience so thank you Sister, whoever you may are. Don't know what else to talk about because not much has been going on but enjoy a few pictures of me and my muy guano district from our top of the line Samsung cameras;) 

Saludos,

Elder Hirsbrunner

Off to Provo MTC

 On 9/29/21 Braxton was off to the Provo MTC for four weeks to finish his studies and focus on learning Spanish before his final destination in D.C.  It was hard to say good-bye but we knew he was doing what he was supposed to do and would be a strong force in spreading the gospel and serving those in his mission.  

Mission Farewell

 Braxton had his mission farewell on 9/12/21.  Kaylee and MJ flew in from Arizona and Grandma and Grandpa Hirsbrunner drove in from Utah.  It was a special day to spend with family.  He was set apart right after Sacrament and was officially a missionary.  He started home MTC for two weeks on 9/13/21. His Grammie came to stay with us to be his companion during that time.   It was great to be able to spend a few more days with him before he was officially off to D.C.