Elder Foutz and Elder Knowlden

Brayden when he was Baptized at 8 yrs old

Solving the Rubix Cube

Brayden with Mom and Dad

Brayden with Mom & Dad

Braydens Baptism

Zone Conference

Week #19 2-25-19
     It was a really slow p-day last week because it was Presidents Day, and everything was closed. We stayed at the house for the day and just relaxed. I was able to call home and talk to my parents and 2 of my sisters, and my nieces and nephew. It was awesome talking to them!  That night we went to the Brown families home for dinner and we had a fun time getting to know the members of the Branch more.
     Tuesday I had an awesome personal study, while reading the Book of Mormon. Right now I am focusing on the atonement and repentance. I have learned a lot from it so far. While reading Preach my Gospel I am studying all the Christ Like Attributes and I am learning to be more of an example on how I can share these same attributes with others!  We are using our technology to our advantage and we called the Brewster Elders (other elders in our district) and did a few role plays. Later that day Elder Foutz taught me how to solve a rubik's cube, it was so cool to learn! That night we left to Brewsters apartment to get ready for Zone Conference. It was fun to travel back to the main land!
     Wednesday we had zone conference! I really did enjoy it. We focused on helping getting members involved with the teaching, and have them share the gospel with their friends. Another thing we talked about was baptism, and we were invited to ponder on what we remember and felt when we were baptized. We learned the Greek word for baptism it is βάπτισμα. For Zone Conference we were paired up with another missionary for the day, I had Elder Christiansen, he was Elder Pulu’s companion right before me. It was an amazing conference. After we had our interviews with President Mavromatis, and during the interviews he is starting to get to know each of the missionaries on a more personal level. Getting to know their strengths and seeing how he can best help the mission.  That night we came back to the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
      Thursday we had a lesson with an older lady and we talked about the Plan of Happiness. It went really well, we even had a member present to help us out, they are already good friends. Later on we stopped by the post office to drop off 10 letters I wrote. I am now at 95 letters so far! 
     It was a quick morning because we had to get the 9:30 am ferry to the mainland so we can be at District Counsel. At District Counsel we talked more about getting the members involved and having role plays with them. As we got back to the Ferry we started our exchanges and I stayed on the mainland with Elder Halsell. We drove back to the apartment to do our studies and they went really well. I am always, wanting to learn more from the missionaries around me. We then did a few contact attempts and had luck with 2 of them. To end the night we had English Corner, that's where the English and Portuguese members come together and help learn English and have fun.
     Saturday we had a lot of fun doing service with a Portuguese member helping them move into their new home. It is so different working with the language program.  We then did some studies and headed back to the ferry to end our exchanges. As I got back to the island we just had a late dinner and prepared for the night.
      Sunday was great, even though a lot of members were gone due to it being school break, the branch felt really small. We had two amazing talks on forgiveness.  In Elders Quorum we talked about praying to know right from wrong and to know for ourselves. After church we sat down and made an awesome survey about the restoration and personal beliefs, we posted it to the island group page. We hope that this will help us find more people to teach, we already have an appointment! The rest of the day we did calls from the apartment. It was a really good week I would say


     2nd Nephi 26:27-28
   "27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.
 28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden"
 
      As I have learned from being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is that we chose to come down here on Earth to have agency. That is the act to choose for ourselves and to learn right from wrong. As most know that Jesus Christ chose to come down and to be crucified for our sins, so that we can be forgiven. He did this and gave this opportunity to us freely, but it is our choice to use our agency to accept it. We have to have the desire to be forgiven. We should repent and ask for forgiveness and the strength to do better each day. We are all children of God and we ALL have the same opportunity to this free gift he gave for us, and none of us are forbidden. Amen

Valentines Day

Helping fix the greenhouse

Laying on the Ladder-Helping fix the greenhouse

Helping fix the greenhouse for a member

Store in Martha's Vineyard

https://elderbraydenknowlden.blogspot.com/

Members Home

View from our Apt

Members Tree Swing

Service Project fixing the Greenhouse

Boston Temple

Fixing the Greenhouse Roof with Elder Foutz

A sign at the Ferry Port

#18   2-18-19
HOLY COW it's already been 4 months, time sure does fly. This past week has been pretty good, and the weather has been pretty warm for the winters here on the island.  This past week I had to go see a specialist doctor all the way in New Hampshire, it was a long fun trip. We decided to do exchanges that day so Elder Lemon drove me up there. Best part about this trip is we went out of our mission boundaries. Not many missionaries can do that! On the way up we drove through Boston and it’s completely different from where I've been serving the past 4 months. We even drove by the Boston Temple!  It was a long day of traveling when we got back to Brewster we picked up Elder Foutz and Elder Halsell for our drive to the ferry. Before we left, we stopped by the Cape Cat a cool little shirt shop owned by a member.

       We finally got back to the Martha’s Vineyard Island later Monday night. Because we didn't have anytime to do anything (like shopping and laundry) on Monday, we did our P-day stuff on Tuesday morning. That night we had a purple dot because of the snowstorm coming in to the east coast. That night it snowed but by the time we woke up it was all gone! The next day our appointment had to reschedule till the next day so we did some contact attempts while waiting to go do some service. Brother Powell picked us up for the service, we brought wood over to an older lady and we just started to get to know her, she said she is interested in hearing more about the Gospel. One thing she really liked was Family History. That night we had dinner with our Branch president’s family the Bilious.

     Thursday came and that means it’s Valentine's day! Didn't expect to much but when we got to Rods home for our appointment we ended up helping him set up for a small family Valentine's party! It was fun we got to know his wife more and she said she also would be interested in taking the lessons! We went to go check the PO box and I got 2 surprise packages, one from my grandma and one from the LaRose family back in Madison (my last area). Friday was pretty awesome there is new revelation for missionaries, now we have the option to call or facetime home every week. I know this is inspired of God to have this it will for sure help with the work as we are able to talk to our families back home, and we can better teach about our eternal family's! We also went to a family we are teaching to help move a large and heavy treadmill up a flight of stairs, we got it done after turning on its side. Saturday was a fun day for service we helped out Jamie Norton (part member family) on there family farms Greenhouse. One of the panels at the top fell in. Elder Foutz and I got onto the top of it using ladders to screw it back in. That day I also got two packages from home, one of them had binders to help me be more organized with all the letters I will get throughout my mission.

     Ah-Sunday my favorite day of the week, because I can partake of the sacrament. We had two ladies from the Stake Young Women's come give talks. One was about revelation and how it comes at the time of need. The second one was keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We then had our last Sunday School class as the teachers, and we talked about the miracles Jesus did in John 2-4. After church we met with Steve to do more family History work. While we were getting it all set up he had questions about the Book of Mormon, he said he started to read it! We hope to meet him later this week.

    Isaiah 58:13
"13 ¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:"

     Sunday's are truly my favorite day of the week, most importantly it's the day I of the week I get to attend church and learn more of him. Even better, I get to partake of the sacrament. I know that I will be blessed for keeping the worldly needs to the rest of the week, as I focus on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy while remembering Jesus Christ, I know I will be blessed. Sunday is always a delight! Amen

Ride in MA

Nobska Lighthouse

Sign while Tracting

Helping a Member Move

Wild Turkeys

The only fast food place on the Island

Ferry Ride

Feb 11th 2019   
 It has been almost 2 weeks into the new transfer. I am still just taking day by day here on the island, but I still have some moments where I feel anxiety coming on. Last week on P-Day we went to the wonderful beach and got to collect a few sea shells. I got a blessing from the Branch President.  There was one thing that stood out to me in the blessing ",Brayden, you will serve a full and successful mission". Though I may be struggling right now, that gave me the reminder I needed, I know that God is aware of me and that He cares for me so much at this time of need.
Later on in the week we did a few service projects with members of the Branch. First was with the Polley’s Family where we did a bunch of moving. We had to send a couple dressers out the window on the second floor down a long ladder.   (sadly, no pictures). Our next service project was removing cut wood from a families sheep farm, as we were there I was able to see the area where baptisms happen here in Martha's Vineyard, it's the ocean. That would be pretty cool to see an ocean baptism!  While with Brother Powell we talked a lot of family history and how the spirit of Elijah can be the step some people need for the Gospel.
This week while studying out of “Preach My Gospel”, I was studying the Christ Like Attribute "patience" and I learned a lot from it.

     Doctrine and Covenants 24:8 “Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days."

     Satan is trying hard at this time on everyone, especially the righteous. Satan will do anything he can to make you lose faith in Jesus Christ. He will put you through the hardest trials of your life to tempt you to fall away.  Just remember the Lord is always with us through anything that you will go through. He loves us all so much, and we should just have patience!

     That night I woke up about 5 or 6 times and I was so tired the next day. As it came time for District Counsel meeting we did It over video message. Elder Foutz and I had the lesson, we talked about following up with our friends we are teaching. We first learned how to solve a 2x2 rubik's cube and then I was asked to solve it. I was shown and told how to do it, but I still struggled because I only saw it once. As we teach our friends and invite them to act on their Faith and follow the commitments we give them we should always check in to see how they are doing. We had another day of service helping move the Polley’s home again to help them get the final touches with the house they are starting to repaint. They then took us out to Lachozas the only "fast food" on the island. It was a pretty good burrito. Finally, Sunday is the best time of the week.  I love that I have the opportunity to partake of the sacrament, it's to help remind me of my personal covenant with God when I chose to be baptized. The peace I feel each week is amazing and it always brings me closer to our wonderful Father in Heaven. We ended that day by going to the mainland for an appointment for me the next day. We spent the night with the Brewster Elders and did some tracting along the way.     

Madison Memories & Welcome to the Island of Martha's Vineyard

Dionisio Family

Brook Hodgkinson

Carlos, Rebecca & CJ Rodriguez

Old Truck

Sister Mitchell

Brayden & Turkey

Weaver Family

Vince Family

Turkey, Liz Ron, Austin

Turkey, Liz, Ron, Austin

Malcarne & Betts Family

Malcarne & Betts Family Unicorns

LaRose Family

Jason Lewis

Elder Hodgkinson Companion

Dioniso Family

Dionisio Family

Carlos

Campell Kids

Traveling to my new Area

My new Companion Elder Foutz from Ogden Utah

,

Brayden was having a difficult time missing the wonderful people and his companion Elder Pulu from the Madison Area.  He is getting adjusted to his new area on the Island.  He likes his new companion and is learning the new area.

Week 16 Feb 4th 2019
      It's the new transfer, and I am now in Martha's Vineyard a tiny island off the coast of Massachusetts. I won't lie, I have been struggling in this new area and I have been going through a lot of emotions these last few days and leaving Madison to this tiny island was a huge change. I went from a ward of missionary involved members to a tiny branch of around 25 members. It's nothing what I am used to. The island is a 45 minute ferry ride to and from the mainland and its 20 mile long and 10 miles wide. While being here I have felt isolated and claustrophobic and it has been tough for me. This week's letter is going to be short but that's okay.

2nd Nephi 19:10 "The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars"

Even though we see change as falling away, breaking down, or even cut off from what we were used to, because of the love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father have for us, we can be built again but made stronger. We can grow to be stronger. It is because of these hard changes and the faith we continue to have in our Savior Jesus Christ, we can be stronger then we were before these changes!

I am doing my best because I love my mission and I want to continue. Amen