Branding; as a Cowboy and a Missionary

      I love branding time. I look forward to it all year. Out on my mission I have branded afew times. I love getting the call from a rancher to see if we are able to come out and help him brand on Saturday. I love to be out there as the ropers rope the calves and and us muggers wrestle the calves. I really enjoy the team work it takes to work with them.

      It takes a whole team of people working together to tackle this task. Not just one or two people can brand without having the help of others. Branding would be very hard, expecially when the one big one gets roped and its your turn to wrestle it. But it is those difficult ones that make the job alot of fun. This is when you have to rely on your team to come help you. Without the help of others you wouldnt be able to accomplish this task

      We as missionaries are kind of like the muggers. But we dont force out friends to do anything that they dont want to do. We are simply here to just lead and guide them to better their understanding of our Father and his Son. The ropers bring the calf to the mugger just like members bring their friends to us missionaries. It takes two muggers per calf, and it takes two missionaries per investigator. As we teach our new friend, the rest of our team, the ward members, come and help out our new friend. Just as when our branding team comes and doctors up the calf.

      Then comes the branding. When we brand the cattle we leave a mark on the outside to show everyone that it belongs to someone. When we brand our friends it is on the inside. This is called baptism. It is an inside brand that reflects on the outside. But just like with cattle, others can try to brand over your brand or the hair might grow over it, but that brand will always be there.

      Just as ranchers have to tend to their herds we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have to tend to our new friends that have just joined our herd. This means pulling them out of a ditch, getting them untangled when they step off the path and end up in a barbwire fence, and so on. Ranchers dont get a day off tending to their cattle and neither do we.