After a Long Hiatus

¡Hola todos!

Transfers have come around again, and I've unfortunately realized that I've only sent out a single weekly letter since my last transfer... oops! Well, here we go.

I'm staying with Elder Taylor another transfer, by the way! He only has one transfer left after that so we'll see what happens. It's going to be a blast!

I also started MTC eight months ago today. Shout out to my district! Hope y'all are doing well! I've been on my mission a while I guess; for the first time I'm actually starting to be around people younger than me (in terms of time spent on their mission). That's wild.

A number of big things have happened in the last six weeks, most importantly General Conference. For anyone who's not aware, General Conference is a twice-a-year event where our church leaders give talks on spiritual topics, the church announces news (including temple construction), and, on a normal year, a lot of us church people would gather in Salt Lake City to view it live instead of over the internet. This being my first GC since I left for Tucson (though not the first since I started this blog!), it was very special: we watched three of the four two-hour sessions at members' homes, and the other at the church. I had planned to write up a blurb with some of my thoughts for my weekly letter each of the last three weeks, and have persistently failed to do so! I really did enjoy conference though and was really excited to hear that Smithfield UT (right outside Logan) will be getting a temple! That'll be awesome to see.

The work is going well in Central Ward; we've met some great new people and I'm enjoying teaching and doing service as usual. We're the only missionaries in the city center on bikes, so if you see missionaries biking around your local university or downtown, that's what I'm doing here in Tucson! Also, if missionaries knock on your door, please give them water for me because it's starting to get hot here.

Spain may be opening soon. One of the top EU leaders said they're aiming to allow vaccinated Americans like myself enter into the EU by summer. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with cautious optimism.

This transfer has been a great learning experience, getting to know a new companion and environment, and learning to better put faith in where the Lord decides to take me, rather than sticking to my own stubborn will. I have been glad for it. Missions are such a wonderful environment for rapid learning and growth and I hope that all of you who are considering going on a mission (or even those of you who aren't but are younger than 26 and therefore could) decide to actually go and do it. It'll be a great boon for your life, I promise you!

A scripture from the Book of Mormon:

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7)

That's what I'm working on right now! I invite you to work on it too! I am really looking forward to next transfer. I'll let you know how things go!

May God bless you all!

Elder Brannon

Arizona Tucson Mission

Spain Barcelona Mission