AHHHH!!!!!

Wed, Jan 26, 2011

I forgot me fotos! arrrr!

blarg, well, apparently this computer likes to mess with my memory card... I can't get some sent out today... I'm sorry...

~Elder Bryan

Re: Please do not forsake me another week.....

Wed, Jan 26, 2010

WOOOOO! oh my goodness. this week has been sufficiently ridiculous to beat out anything thus far that’s happened. Well... maybe. I still think Steve takes the cake, but we'll see.   my gosh. so lemme start with last week, because I didn't really get to email. Obviously :) alright. so you know what happened.? here we are, Elder Putnam and I, passing through the two weeks that we had together of that transfer, happily working quite hard, I must say, and we go to bed last Wednesday night completely expecting to be working together still until the end of the next transfer. so we say our prayers and finish the end of the night quite nice and chill. And I go to sleep. Then all of a sudden, I wake up to the phone ringing at 11:45 AT NIGHT nonetheless, and I wake up all groggy "what the heck? Who’s calling us so ridiculously late!" gah! So I get up and grab the phone. Lo and behold, it's the assistants. Talk about coming like a thief in the night! ;) Well, I answer it, and it's Elder Knudsen (kuh-noot-son) (yeah, I know. weird way to pronounce that, right?) I answer the best that I can: "he... hello?" Knudsen: "good evening Elder Bryan! You awake?!" (I could just hear his big smile on as he said that) Me: "well... yeah, I guess."  Knudsen:"PERFECT! :D cause I had some news for you!" that was when I woke up. They never say that unless it's something big. I don't remember what Elder Knudsen had started to say at that point, but I DO remember that president just reached over and grabbed the phone out of his hands and goes "GOOD MORNING ELDER BRYAN!" (I swear, he has to have some sort of secret IV hooked up to him somewhere that’s just loaded with sugar, cause he is hyper. always. no matter WHAT time it is.) "How’s it goin?!" he continued. "well, I... I'm fine I guess. A little tired though" I replied. President: "GOOD! At least you're awake! :D" (I swear, his smile was bigger than Elder Knudsen's was.) "cause I have a special assignment for you." then he ran through some interview questions, just to make sure, and then told me: "you and Elder Putnam are going to be at the office tomorrow morning at seven o clock sharp. Ok? Cause guess what?! You both are going to be TRAINING! WOO!" I don't think it really hit me what was actually happening, but I said "WOO!" anyways. He then proceeded to give us some instructions about housing and location, but yet had he to tell us who we were to train. In fact, he NEVER told us who and so, I go back to sleep. Cause I'm tired, you know? And by the time the conversation-ism was all taken care of, it was 12:30. Late and I sleep bad enough as it is! Especially since we had a two hour drive ahead of us and we needed to get up at 5 to get there on time. Wonderful. Five o clock rolls around and I wake up, and Elder Putnam tells me that he barely slept last night. HA, I bet. If I had been training at 7 months I'd be freaking' too. (I'd probably have to call beacon.) So it was a good thing I was the one driving. After about an hour of waiting, POR FIN I get to meet my new companion. So who is it? Who IS this mystery man that is my new companion? The man that I have been with for a week already? is there enough tension built up yet? "why is his head so big? wai-i-i is his head so big?" (obscure cartoon reference. please ignore.) its ELDER... *gasp* oh noes! sudden memory lapse! loozinguh brane powr... mynd shuphting dowen... *kneou kneou kneou*

*beep*

*beep*

*beep*

AH! whoa! what a weird dream! man, that was... that was crazy! I almost though I was training for a second! WHew! that would have been ridiculous. *looks up from computer screen* DAH! it's all real! NOOOO! THIS ISN'T possible! losing vision... *faints*

*beep*

*beep*

*beep*

*wakes up* AH! whoa! what a weird dream! man, that was... that was crazy! I almost though I was training for a second! WHew! that would have been ridiculous. *looks up from computer srceen* DAH! it's all real! NOOOO! THIS ISN'T possible! losing vision... *faints*

*beep*

*bee... Ok. well that's enough of that I suppose. I guess I should just break the news then. I'm training! :D his name is Elder Black! :D and he's from New York. But not from the city. he's an upstate guy. :) a little teeny tiny place called Hannible. but he says he's from Fulton, right near Syracruse. but that's because Hannible has only about 800 people in it. ;) TAY-Y-Y-NY! I'll toss some pictures that we've gotten this past little week... well... that would only be two, but still. it's better than nothing, right? :) Elder Putnam is training Elder Zepeda, from Honduras. (I think president might have done that to help out Elder Putnam with his Spanish. xD )

so yes. this week has definitely been crazy. It’s now going' back to the basics. Review everything from the beginning. But I tell ya, it's definitely interesting being on the other side of the training. I can definitely see how much my Spanish has improved now. heh, and my comprehension as well. But, instead of working in Ponce 4 with Elder Putnam, I am now sharing an area with Elders Radmall and Hargadon, with one more transfer than me and only 7 weeks respectively. We are also sharing apartments with them as well. I kicked Elder Putnam and Elder Zepeda out and we got to stay. :3 Soooo, since we are sharing the area, we were thinking of just starting from scratch... since it's going to be kind of difficult to get up to date on all their investigators, wo we've been doing lots of finding this past week and it's paying off, too. We’ve found four new families that we're going to be teaching in the next couple of days! WOO! I think it's a perfect way to help Elder Black get used to the whole, working hard to find people to teach. Nothing comes for free. Plus, you have to build a strong foundation on the basics before you start to build your fancy house. :)

So there we are! We’re building up our very own teaching pool from scratch.

But, I've been taking too long! I need to make things more streamlined! On to your stuffs!

I still have yet to get my special delivery... hmmm... interesting and no one seems to be saying anything about it, either. I think president might have just shook it around a little bit then decided to take it, because he hasn't said anything to me either. *narrows eyes* hmmm.

So for my health, I'm feeling a bit better.... I can eat more, plus the fact that we're on bicycle makes me a lot more hungry. Bonus, and I'm sleeping a bit better, if that wasn't eminent by my ridiculous introduction. :) still not amazing, but much better nonetheless. And that's what counts, right? I just hope that it'll continue...

oh my gosh. is Elder Harvey sending me a wedding invitation?! ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?!? ALREADY!? jeeze. but, I take it you were able to find my password for facebook then? That’s good, cause I'm not really sure what it is anymore... :-/ eh heh heh... :)

Goodness... I'm gonna have to bust a move. I've taken a long time doing email today. hopefully things will be a bit more settled next week. they were a bit hectic before, but Elders Radmall and Hargadon are pretty chill and clean, so that will help a bit. :)

AH! and address! since we will only be going to Yauco once a  week if we really REALLY need to, and this apartment doesn't really have a mailbox, you're probably going to have to put my address as the mission office for now. Just to be sure, because I don't really know what it is for now.  I’ll ask today and get back to you on that.

I love you more than president loves doing crazy things!! (Like calling at ridiculous hours and asking me to train!!!!!!!!)

Where's Waldo?

Re: How are the changes?

Wed, Jan 12, 2011

Hola hola hola! so for the changes that have happened this past little while:

NEW COMPANION! and I mean new. He’s only got seven months in the mission. :-O but lemme tell you: he is a HARD worker, especially since he's been getting two foundations for the past four transfers. Straight. Elder Putnam is his name, and Washington state is his game. :D he's from Spokane, just in case I didn't specify antes, and he's a pretty sweet dude. Things with the foundation are... well, they're pretty difficult. :-/ there’s always just one more wrench that gets thrown in to make things just  not go as smoothly as you would like them to go. and it's especially difficult because we only really have three days to work in either area, not including P-day... which really has become our makeup day if we don't do well enough in one area or the other...  but, at the very least, I know that this won’t last any longer than March, cause President told Elder Putnam that he's gonna be training one of the 16 new missionaries that are coming in. :3 ha, so if I can just hang in till then... ;) buuuut, it's a pretty good challenge doin’ all this definitely making me move up into doing literally EVERYTHING I can to make sure that I talk with everyone and teach as I find. :)

As for Elder Lehr, meh. ;) naw, I do miss him, but he had to go. It was his time, so I can't really complain. But the best part about it is that he's not lost forever, just till the beginning of July. :) But yes, his parents did come by on Thursday. :D we got to eat at a little place in the plaza called El Paladar, so we could eat some real "comida criolla" and then we parted ways after some good conversation. But THEN, we had a dinner appointment with a less active on Friday that invited us both, so I had to take the opportunity. :3 I couldn't just leave it hanging like that! and THEN Elder Lehr and his family let me know that he had talked with Marcia and Francisco and that they wanted us to come to dinner right after that! WHAT a surprise that was. Super cool! :)

AH! that’s so cool that President sent out the Christmas party foto! I had no idea he was gonna do that.

Well, the T-shirt place that we were gonna use to make our shirts was CLOSED BECAUSE OF THE RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF HOLIDAYS THEY HAVE HERE! GAH! So we didn't get to see our hopes realized. However, we still have our plans for them, so we'll see what happens.

ah yeah! Donny was telling me about his spiffy soldering skills now! :D he said that he learned it all from watching me. Aw. :3 but yeah! you gotta see if you can get a picture of it for me, I wanna see what it looks like.

Wow, robin might be getting a job in a really nice hotel? So she has her interview tomorrow... what would she be doing then if she gets the job?

Ok, so on to your questions so I can answer those:

Copy of the video: I'm not too sure... they never really mentioned anything about it after watching it, so we'll have to see. I might even ask president about it in my email to him.

leftovers for Christmas: well... we didn't get too much... not as much as Thanksgiving... but that’s because we had two more houses that we went to for thanksgiving and we were so stuffed from it that people told us to just go and grab a bunch to take with us if we weren't going to be able to eat. And then they still gave us like two more plates after that... ridiculous. So, not anywhere near as many leftovers as Thanksgiving.

Hard time about the phone call: naw, it wasn't really a hard time, it was just some teasing, like "gosh Elder Bryan, Elder Lehr got off like an hour ago! :P" and stuff like that. ;)

Still no hand delivered present! >:( blarg! but I'm gonna keep asking about it until something happens. that’s the secret. :D

ha! I'm only like halfway through all that candy I got! I’m trying to budget it, cause I don’t' wanna overload myself on it. It’s been a long time since I've had so much. :3

for Stephs package: she actually came home one day to find it sitting innocently on her doorstep as if it had been there the whole time, with no note to explain why it would have run away from the mail man. so she said that she tried to send it again, but to no avail, as the envelope once again ran away from the mail man. Apparently he's pretty home sick. so she's thinking that she's just gonna stuff inside my Valentine’s day, excuse me, singles-awareness day package so he can't sneak away again.

The second package from you: why yes I did! :D thank you so much, that was a total and complete surprise! :D nothing can beat crazy colored marshmallow guns!!!!!! :D

as for marshmallows: well... I'm not too sure... it doesn't seem that I WOULD have a problem, but then again, I've never really had the need to search them out. But I think they would be here.

and paying back Elder Lehr: well, I never paid him back, per se... whoa, whoa, whoa, hey now, don't jump to conclusions here! he spent all the money that he got for his last week in the first two days, so I had to cover him for all kinds of stuff, so technicolory he owes ME. :P

eh... no. I have not sent my memory card home... eh... I think I might have to do that soon. Just in case. You know. Yeah...

erm, ok. so now I have a question for you! Have you been able to work with my guitar at all since I've brought that up? :P cause I don't want anything to happen to the neck, you know! That guitar is my lucky, lucky glow in the dark one of a kind autographed guitar! It’s been just like a guitar to me! Plus, if it gets messed up, that means I'm gonna have to buy a new one! Cause I can't live without a guitar! that’s blasphemy! ...wait. if my guitar breaks... that means that I would have to buy a new one... ...*processing* *PROCESSING*  *PROCESSING!* on second thought, that’s perfectly fine. Don’t worry about my guitar. I don't mind if it breaks or anything. I'll understand.

so yeah, that's the main news of things that are going on. I was feeling a bit better before, but today and yesterday I'm just deSTROYED and crazy tired. I can't even talk straight in ENGLISH today, let alone Spanish... *sigh*

WHY!!!!!!??!??!??!?!!??!??!!!!1111oneoneone11!! Do you think the black market people would do a good job on taking out my kidney? I think so. I mean, they probably washed off their scalpel and stuff in the sink, so I should be good, right? yeah. I'm gonna talk to them today. See what they can do. After all, it IS P-Day.
however, I'm gonna have to bust a move now, I've taken a while writing this, once again... so yeah. 

I love you more than the black market people love illegally obtained organs!

~Brandon (Elder Bryan)

Re: start explaning!

Wed, Jan 05, 2011

…. but for what I said about things going on last week... no, it's nothing bad. It's just that I had to go to Ponce because the university was closed in Yauco, and I had been trying to find some pictures for a shirt that me and Elder Lehr had been wanting to make... but the shirt place was closed because of three kings day, DARN IT! blagh! EVERYthings closed because of that. Which absolutely killed us last week, we were lucky to get the foundation last week. But we pulled through just in time.

ok, so I think this week might be a little short in my email, because I'm in Ponce again. :) and the university is closed, but this time it's the one in Ponce that’s closed. We I'm hanging out in the accounting office that’s underneath my NEW APARTMENT! :D with Elder Putnam. he's only got seven months in the mission, and he's from WASHINGTON TOO! :D from Spokane to be exact. :3 and he's sweet. First generation convert, too with an AMAZING testimony. So what the plan is, we're going to be working in both Yauco AND Ponce. And we have to get the foundation in BOTH of the areas. Oh my goodness, I haven't even mentioned what the foundation is... I just realized that. Well, we have a thingie called the foundation, right? To make it simple, it's 20 lessons a week, and 140 contacts. And that is the base, or the FOUNDATION of success. So yeah, we have to get two of those. One in Yauco and one in Ponce and we still have to watch our miles in the car. :-/ crazy. :-O but it's a pretty sweet special assignment, I guess. I'm excited. So we're splitting the week in half, and this weekend I'm gonna be in Ponce, and then next weekend, we're gonna be in Yauco.

buuuuut, seeing as we're having to share a computer and it's taken us forEVER to find a place that would let us email, I might have to go rapidito...

so, geetar... took a little while to get used to playing again... not to mention the strings were pretty stiff on that one, so I had to do LOTS of working with the strength of my fingers to get them back up... but the good news is it only took about a week and a half to get everything sorted out, I don't think it will take too long to get everything back in order when I get back. :)

so, I'm sleeping better, but still not fantastic. I'm only waking up once or twice now, and my kidney doesn't hurt anywhere NEAR as bad as it did at night... I didn't get to try anything new except the ibuprofen, which helped a little bit, but not very much... I dunno. but at the very least, it's not hurting as bad. And that makes me happier, and a bit more rested. I still do wake up tired, but not as stuporly bad as before. :)

I haven’t sent the memory card yet... it's coming. I promise. :]

OK., but I'm gonna have to bust a move and get my email out to president so Elder Putnam can get his email out and we can still shop.

I love you so much mom. I really do. And I'm so glad that we have to opportunity that we have to be an eternal family. so very thankful.

~Elder Bryan (brandon)

(Regarding FaceBook's new look)

AH@! and I swear that I haven't been on facebook. I swear. so I don't know whats going on there. maybe they hooked me up with it because I took a ridiculously long time to do it? I dunno. but just in case, I think you might want to change the password temporarily. at least till I get back. that is, if you can. I don't know if you'll be able to, but take a look and see. :]