Current Location and Address

UPDATE: Reassignment (click)

Puerto Rico, San Juan - East Mission


Puerto Rico, San Juan - Mission
E-mail: Brandon.bryan@myldsmail.net


(Remember to keep things upbeat and supportive try to not to share or say things that might distract or make him feel homesick.)


He will be happy to hear from you all.

Current Location:

P.O. box 33
Adjuntas, PR 00601

Mark 1:4 and 9

4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.


Christ was not baptized for the remission of sins because he had none. But, as Nephi recounts, he was baptized for the following reasons:
(1) As a token of humility before the Father;
(2) As a covenant that he would keep the commandments;
(3) As a prelude to receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost;
(4) To gain entrance to and be saved in the kingdom of God, for no one, not even the Son of God, can so obtain without baptism; and
(5) As a pattern and an example for all men, and so that he could say: “Follow thou me” and also, “He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.” (See 2 Ne. 31:5–12.)

Bruce R. McConkie, “A Man Called John,” New Era, May 1984, 4

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Re: Let it snow!

Wed, Nov 24, 2010

BLARG! darn you thanksgiving weekend! :'( so, our email place was closed. we had to come over to ponce to do our email... but it closes at ONE! :'( suckage! blarg.

OK, so Rapidito: we had a lesson with an investigator: Damary's, this last Sunday, and well... she was reading the Book of Mormon and REALLY wanted to know if it was true. she prayed, and she received a VERY explicit answer to her prayer. :) mmm, ghood stuff. and she wants to get baptized as soon as possible. and so were planning for the 18th of December. :3 woo! huzzah por la verdad!

HECK YEAH I GOT BRYAN'S PRESENTS! :D
do you realize that I noticed that you crossed out the expiration date on those pears? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!?!?!?!?!? what IS this?! gosh. I opened one up and took a look inside. very questionable looking. very much so. fortunately the other one was fine. but STILL! >:(

I love my b-day card. very funny! :)

would you mind sending me a picture of the San Diego temple? a cousin of a less active family is asking us tons of questions about the church and he's visited that temple before, and I told him I would try to get him a picture of it. :)

Tawny found me the most amazing Christmas present? that's so epic you don't think you can top it? :3 ooooo... wow. it has to be good. I'm definitely going to have to make a video then.

they DO actually celebrate Thanksgiving. ha ha ha. it's a holiday! OF COURSE they're going to celebrate it! and we've been invited to a TON of peoples houses to eat... so hopefully we'll get the chance to share something with somebody that day. xD

CRAZY SNOW! darn it... how come I COULDN'T be there! blarg. oh wells. when I get back that just means there's going to be more next year. :3

sooo sorry this email isn't any longer... but they are about to close up, so I've got to bust a move...

I love you more than I miss the SNOW! :'(

~Brandon (Elder Bryan)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

moar pickiez! :D

1) my birthday card! :D


2) my magnet from Hannah!


3) SWEET GUITAR PEN!
I used it during personal study today, too. :3


4) push button, receive bacon.


Wed, Nov 17, 2010

pickies!

Wed, Nov 17, 2010


1) our neighbor got me a suprize birthday cake....
and then she found out that we were fasting...
but we got to keep half of it! :D


2) from left to right- some random guy; Anna, our neighbor's friend that helped her out with getting the cake while she distracted us; Armando and Melani, Annas son and Mireya's daughter; and Mireya, our Neighbor. :3


3) my side of the road birthday toad, Dave. ;)


4) he was tasty. :3

Re: Fw: Happy 2 days after your birfday!

Wed, Nov 17, 2010

ok. whooo.... so there is a TOOOOON of stuff that I need to tell you about first before I get into anything else. but first:

Thank you everyone for wishing me a happy birthday!!!!!! :D


and now for something completely different:

so. first off, we had zone conference yesterday. absolutely AMAZING. *whew* wow... It was a very powerful meeting. and actually, it's a part of some of the changes that the first presidency is making. so we had a new format that involves the meeting being, at the very least six hours. but it's ok, because it's so spiritually packed that your brain feels like it's going to explõd! :-O this whole zone conference was about the restoration... but not just about the lesson itself, but a little bit about the HISTORY of it, to give us some better perspective. and after that was my favorite part. :3 we got to watch the Joseph Smith movie. :D oh my gosh that movie is so amazing. we actually got to see it in the MTC as well, but this time....... I dunno. it was just so much more powerful. it really strengthened my testimony of Joseph Smith. I know without a doubt that he was a prophet called of God, and that through him, God and Jesus Christ restored the true church on the earth and that this church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. punto. there's no doubt about it. and it's amazing.

and this last Sunday I also got the opportunity to give a talk about Agency. Perfect. especially because we got the chance to hear from Elder Bednar in our missionary meeting about that when he came. and speaking of which... I DID tell you in depth about that, right?... I coulda sworn I did... Elder Bednar, in our missionary only meeting, talking about Agency, and how all of us are Agents unto ourselves, not objects? right? like in second Nephi 2? and how we, as missionaries, need to help our investigators be agents unto themselves, and us not turning them into objects? :3 well... either way, I wanna invite you guys to read second Nephi 2 and search for agency. well, you know what? just be an agent unto yourself. read 2 nephi and follow the guidance of the spirit. find what HE wants you to find. :3 but read it, at the very least. it's amazing. would you do that? I wanna know what you guys learn.

and YAY! I got my birthday package! :D those ninja band aids are perfect. just what I was needing. because REAL ninjas don't really need band aids, right? so this way... when I use one, I will be able to throw people off of my REAL identity. I'm actually wearing my birthday Tie right now. :3 it's amazing. :D guitar pen? LOOOOVE IT! now I'm REALLY a rock star. only real rock stars have guitar pens. and that guitar book... ooooooo. OoOoOoOoOo... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! gimme gimme gimme! :-( I wanna know whats inside! gah, only seven and a half more months. and then guitar-ness. it's coming.

BRYAN sent me birthday presentS?!?!?!?!??!??!?! PLURAL!? what?!?!?! I don't believe it! This is almost as intense as the time I forgot how to sit down. but not as intense as camping. I don't even know what to say. especially since he already sent it. but if he got it from a website... then it has to be VEEEERY good. oooo, I'm excited. also, I like how Dad wished me a happy veterans day on my EPIC birthday card of win and awesome! that was great!

so, another thing that they have started changing in the mission field, which is to coincide with the new and improved missionary curriculum, as they put it, is something called the Doctrine of Christ. when we first started studying it, they had us start with 2 Nephi 31. so, I also wanted to invite you guys to study that too. maybe you can add these two things to your family home evening scripture reading, or family scripture study. I dunno, but just study the heckstersickle out of it. there is something AMAZING waiting within. I promise you. it is incredible, and it's changed my view of the entire gospel. and if there's anybody else that wants to join in, Do it. then email me about your stuffs. I wanna guide anybody that has any questions in this quest for awesome and amazing. :3

so. NOW onto stuff in the email. :) so, Elder Lehr opened up his Mario ball, and the one that he got was the Mario on his Motorcycle. that thing was pretty sweet! and he was pretty excited too. now he has a Mario cart AND a Mario motorcycle. :3

now unfortunately... they made us fast in preparation for zone conference... so I didn't get to eat ANYTHING on my birthday!!!!!!! WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I died inside when Elder Crawley called us up to let us know that! >:( Grr, angry. so we might just pick up some ice cream tonight, or during our shopping today. :3

YEAH! it gets SOOOO FREEZING at night, you don't even know! I feel the cold just eating away at me in those low 70's! i't hurts so bad! :'(

and whats the fish head song?

aw, hannahs first date with Mckay! :3 how did she like it? was it cute? ;)

so, for missionary correlation meetings: we usually start out with our investigators, but then it moves into stuff about some of the families that are needing help that either WE have found, or ones that the auxiliary leaders think would need some help, or be the most probable in bring back to church. unfortunately, when we had our zone conference, we had Presidente Rivera (stake president) come in, and some of the things that we talked about with him, was how the Ponce stake used to have FOUR wards in Ponce, and now there's only 3. there is over 1500 members in the stake, and only a little bit less than 600 are active... things are getting bad in the ponce stake, and both him and Presidente Alvarado want us to be working the stake program of CRR: or conversion, Retention and Reactivation- right now, we only need to be working on conversion and reactivation (retention naturally kinda comes anyway... that is, if your ward is supportive enough... which doesn't happen ALL the time. but still) so yeah.... things are a little dire here, I guess you could say. and it's getting worse every year, so we're having a very big need to work HARD in everything that we do.

and we DO have a Branch mission leader. he's actually the return missionary son of the Branch president, and he's the go getter type of attitude. very good for the Branch.

so yeah... I think I might just have to bust a move now and email President. but it's OK. I've got some good stuff in this email, right? so yeah. but I wanna hear about your studies in 2 Nephi 2 and 2 Nephi 31! :D

I love you more than how cold it gets here at night!!!!! BRRRRRRR!!!!!!

~Brandon (Elder Bryan)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Wed, Nov 10, 2010

Wed, Nov 10, 2010

Ha ha ha ha! yeah, alright alright. I won't go out partying for my birthday. *sigh* you convinced me. at least I get ice cream. but NEXT year... ;) naw, but how cool that Steven and Bryan and Devin came. thats cool beans that they still stop by... makes me happy inside. :D and speaking of birthdays: pin the body part on Mr. potato man?! GENIUS! when I saw that I laughed. out loud. that was great. I still have no idea how to play Bunco. :-/

my gosh, Bryan. ridiculous. no punctuation for ANYTHING. but good. I'm glad that he was thinking a lot of the same stuff that I was thinking. that means that we're still on the same brain-wave-length-mind thingie. yeah. go special connection thing! so, now we just have to get the money together. perfect. and I still haven't gotten that letter that Steven sent. but now I know whats inside. at the very least did Bryan drop off the Rock band pedal?

so, before I continue on, NEWS! :D we've been doing really really good this past little while. we've found three families just in the weekend. :) one of them was the sister of our Dueño apartment owner person that we met Saturday night at a party they were having for the Dueño's birthday. she told us that they had the missionaries over about 9 or 10 minutes ago, back when there was sisters in the area and she wanted us to stop by. :3 and another family was a daughter of an under-the-radar less active that got baptized about three years ago in another area. the daughter's name is Damaris and she's got three little daughters: 5, 7 and 11. and she told us that she had been reading her moms Book of Mormon along with her Bible reading and she said that she really likes the Book of Mormon more (good choice. ;) ) and she wants us to teach her about it. but she also told us that she's had the sisters over before (at least 10 months ago). but still! she WANTS us to teach her! :D woo!

and for other news: How's Hyrum doing? has he gotten out yet? is he feeling better? I wanna give him a hug!

the weathers just been really, really rainy this past week. fortunately not any wind or anything... just a ridiculous amount of rain. but it's nice. :) it makes the nights nice and cold.

and for Marcia and Francisco: well... they've been talking... and it's looking like Marcia is going to be moving out... :-/ they told us that it had only been a temporary housing situation anyway... and so for now, Marcia is going to live in Guánica. which, for the least, is in our area. it's just a bummer that we couldn't get things resolved yet... but maybe this is the chance that we've all been praying for, because now technically they CAN get baptized... but I was thinking in consulting with President about what would be the BEST way to go about this. but maybe this is what they need. maybe they'll get baptized and then the spirit will help clear things up. :) We'll see. we just have to keep moving forward.

I also wanted to ask if you happened to have a spare copy of my baptism foto that you would be able to send along with my special foto of my... dare i say it, my BIG present? :) so what is it? and speaking of fotos... jeh jeh jeh... I actually got my haircut... like two weeks ago... :D we have a sister in the branch that has a little home salón and transfer meetings have been changed. :-/ the first presidency has been doing some rearranging of things in the mission field, and now only people that are getting transferred go. otherwise we just hang out back at home or whatever.

and we might not be doing much for P-Day today... Elder Lehr has had this nasty head ache for the past 6 days, and so sister alvarado suggested that we stop by the doctor today... but we had been PLANNING on going to Guánica to hike up to a cool little castle up by the coast with a less active guy (19). so we'll see how long the doctors visit takes. also... I forgot to mention it last week... but Elder Lehr's Birthday is the twenty-fourth of this month... heh heh heh... ooops? so yeah... OK. now seeing as I have three cards that I have to send... Donny, Hannah and Bryan, I might just get myself a small box and send those along with my memory card. :P that way you'll finally get it!

YAY morning family prayer! :D boo for 5:15 in the morning. and YAY for ms. knight! alright! :D can you get any pictures? ;)

OK... I've got to bust a move. we're gonna be heading out to take Elder Lehr to the doctor then. soooooo, I love you more than Elder Lehr's head hurts!

~Brandon (Elder Bryan)

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Re: Happy election day! Pictures

Wed, Nov 03, 2010

alright! so, picture one, normal picture.



picture two: CRAZY PICTURE! :D I love Elder Lehr's face in this one! xD

Re: Happy election day!

Wed, Nov 03, 2010

Hola mami!

not much went on this last week... we've been working extra hard to try and find people to teach, and we've been having some slight success, but I know that as we continue, the lord will bless us for our diligence.

but for an update with things that are going on with Marcia and Francisco! so, seeing as the last time that we were able to stop by them, we weren't sure if we were going to leave or not we were able to get some pictures, so I'm gonna upload those in a minutorz.

alright! so, picture one, normal picture.
picture two: CRAZY PICTURE! :D I love Elder Lehr's face in this one! xD

so yeah. Marcia was able to make it to church last week, but Francisco couldn't because he had to work SUPER late. He's an electrician, and ever since some of the storms have been passing by, a lot of people up in the higher parts of the island have been without power for a while... so he's working to replace some lost power poles, and stuff like that. but, the class in gospel principles last week was about eternal families... and marcia was very attentive. very good. hopefully things are working around in their heads so that they will feel more comfortable talking with president. :D and they've both also read the family: a proclamation... so yeah. we keep praying for them! :D

oh my gosh, are you serious? dad was gonna forge my name for my vote?! that's so ridiculous! xD ha ha ha!

eh heh heh heh... yeah.... it seems that there be no more... manly issues. for now.

ah, so robin DID have a cancerous moll then. speaking of cancer... wait.... molls? no... that's not it... speaking of then (yes, that's it.), YAY! robin went to church! so awesome! but that crazy fat black lady... uhm, not so much. but hopefully chase will start going to church. should I send a letter for her home, or do you have her new address?

whew... the tie and the spork... do I want to save those for when I get home... or do I want their awesomeness here? ooo... I think it might be best to keep those at home. I wouldn't want anything to happen to an 1nd3struqt@b1e ut3nsi1. or an 8-bit artic1e of c10thing.(indestructible utensil. :) ) however, just knowing they were there waiting for me nice and cozy would give me such joy. just like knowing that Yoshi on a cute little cart-like vehicle is there. :D

so yes. whoops. sorry 'bout that. if I don't keep my concentration, my mind powers change the text color without me knowing. *ahem* anyways, you should tell Hannah that her pictures are aMayzeeng! I had no idea that she had SO many pictures. and so many awesome ones, too! sweet!

ah blarg, I'm gonna have to bust a move to email president...

I love you more than very hard, hybrid utensils and 8-bit objects!

~Brandon (Elder Bryan)