it goes quite fantastico

oh, it goes quite fantastico, my muchisimo-ly cool madre!

actually no, we were quite rain free this entire week, except for two nights ago when it rained in the evening, but we were all inside for the night. ha, what am I saying. the only time we go outside is for gym and going to university. ENTONCES, we were all done for the evening, not all inside. xD oh my gosh though, I love the thunder. it's so sickly awesome! :D but you might just have that chance to experience it when you come to PICK ME UP :P since you won't let me come home first... :P

I know what you mean by the whole not being able to socialize with the other wards kinda thing though. it's just so difficult, cause I totally feel like our ward is the outcast ward, cause no one really would socialize with US cause they already had their friend groups... but I didn't let that stop me, I would still go out and party it up as much as I could. you know. :) but I think what you could do abouts that is that you could just give 'em a talkin about how they would all SOCIALIZE! :D tell them to just not care and go out and have fun. I now talks like that always got me pumped up. xD

speaking of other wards though... how's Shawn doing? whats going on with him now?

that's really cool that Dad got to party it up with some of his old friends. good deal. I love chillin with my old friends. in fact, I loved it so much that I just kept hangin out with 'em. but that's a story for a different time. HA! AND there was somebody you knew from beauty school?! COOL BEANS! :D

Also, I can't wait for all of my snackage. :') *sniff* it's going to be SOOOO tasty. oh, and the balancing it out thing will be no problem. seriously though, I have had a banana a meal everyday for the past four weeks. I love those things! it's so weird. seriously, that is one of the things I look forward to every day. they are just like candy. oh, also I'm going to get myself a picture of the food to send to you guys, so you can get a better idea of what I have to go through every day. :P

oh gosh, I wouldn't LISTEN to all the stuff on there! I would just have it to LOOK at! :P also, I don't know if I would be able to get all the stuff from the CDs on to the MP3 player, so I might have to improvise or pick myself up a CD player out there.

also, my flight plans for next tuesday is that my flight leaves at eleven and I get to puerto Rico at about noon thirty. so there is a chance that I might get to talk to ya guys, but you have to be home and AWAKE so that I can call. so pretty much just don't go anywhere all day Tuesday and there is that slight chance that we might get to talk. also, have Bryan there. that would be nice.

DOH! it's service time, so I will be back in about and hour and a half. also, I like how you wait till the last minute to send me an email. :P gosh. ;) anyways, be back in a bit.

ok, so I'm back. we had to run down to the gym/hair cutting room too, cause Elder patrick was getting his head buzzed. everyone in the district is getting their head buzzed for "unity". yeah... I'm not letting that happen to me. I already look bad enough, and if I got my head buzzed... I don't know, I don't think I'd be able to handle it. :'( but it's all good, cause I'm NOT going to! :D

also, I thought dad was going to just be posting things on the blog, so thats pretty sweet that he's sending stuff out to people personally. that way it looks like I'm making a larger effort than I actualy am. ALRIGHT! :D

and as for Bryan, if things go well, they way that it's lookin is that if I tried to, he would. I'll have to forward it to you, but even though we cant talk to each other face to face, our friendship is getting even stronger, which I LOVE! nothings wrong with having a guy thats just SO perfect wait for me. ;)

but yeah, I wouldn't mind going to LDS BC first. really. it's just that my crappy grades scare me. :'( also, I dunno... I mean, I love moochies and all, but the fact that I come home smelling like grease and stuff isn't really that appealing to me. I loved to do it, but I didn't love the smell. so that would be a fight. xD

hmm... speaking of Stephanie. yes. well, I got three letters from her when I first got to Provo, and then I replied, but I never got anything back. nada. not an email or a letter. so I sent her another letter about four weeks ago, just to stir the pot a little bit, but I havent gotten anything back from that either. so I'm just hoping that she's waiting for me to get to Puerto Rico before she replies. yeah, thats it. she ujst waiting till I get out into the field.

and yes, I actually DID know about ATW. (atrigan tank wars) it was pretty sweet, but its a bummer they quit working on it. I was pretty excited to FINALLY be able to see the finished product when I got back. xD ha ha ha!

but yes. check my facebook messages. I wish to know what people have said. cause that would be nice. oh, and Dillon called!? see if I have his email written down somewhere... I need to get back to him! I coulda sworn I told him that I was leaving... I'm not sure... he might have been on vacation while I was telling everyone... :-/

heck YES I need a machete! what kind of question is THAT?! :P ha ha ha! but no, those rats aren't here. they are up north, from what I know. up in santiago, where my comp is going for his mission. (Elder Patrick) same for the spiders. luckily for us, la CCM is on the temple grounds, and the church has put in a filter system for the water, and we are actually allowed to FLUSH OUR TOILET PAPER. did you know that Dom Rep doesnt have a water filtering system? so the water is bad. and you can't flush your toilet paper after you use it. and the government turns off the power whenever they want. :-O but we have backup generators here, so we never have to worry about the power. from what I understand, we are pretty lucky to have the stuff that we have. and I believe it too, from what I've seen out side... I guess Santiago has Riots all the time too. citizens trying to get money from the government. Karaizee!

whoa, like, Ella literally has a bone sticking out of her arm?! what, they didn't set her arm at the doctor? :-O wait... and her grades that she got here don't count? are you serious? so whats the point of her coming here then? I thought it was for immersion, english study, and to take classes here. also, her not being allowed to use the comp would explain why I havent gotten an email back from her yet. I was gonna say that she better not be avoiding me! I would beat her if she was. :P

and yes yes, I AM getting pictures of all my comps. :P and I'm working on getting some of our whole district. also, we've instituted this little dance thing that we do every night. ha ha ha! I'ts so great. I'm gonna see if I can get a recording of it. xD my beatboxing "skills" are coming in handy! :D

and yes yes yes. I write in my journal every night. :P so calm yourself down. gosh! ;) at least a page every day. but my average is two a day. :)

and please tell donny that I AM having fun, and that I want his email, seeing as you didn't get me hannahs and his. :P

oh gosh, I'm sure mr bain didn't know. :P how is he doing by the way? you gonna be a band mom again since donny's playin the Baritone in there now?

YES!!!! WOO HOO! Dad got a JOB! :D YES YES YES YES YES YES! whats he do? twelve an hour isn't too bad, it's still better than nuthin. is he workin fourty hours a week?

lets ee. wo what has been going on with me since I have some free time to reply now...

well, I've been memorizing a scripture a day. Elder Blake, one of my old roomates told me that President Hinkley gave a talk, and he promised that if you memorized a scripture a day, that you would come home with a photographic memory. now how sick would THAT be, huh?! fo sho. I am totally down for that. Imagine the uses! oh my goodness, when he told me about that, I got so excited. thats alwasy something I wished I could have, and now I have the means of making it happen. so right after he told me that, I got right on it. I've already noticed that it's SO much easier to visualize things. I love it. super excited! :D :D :D :D :-O :)

ah yes. and I'm getting a nice tan, since it's sunny here practically every day. that and I tan super quick. and don't burn. thats always a bonus. :D

hmm. most of our days are spent totally inside except for the fifty minutes for gym time. and now that we are in the last six days, our teachers are FINALLY working on really teaching us grammar. ha ha ha, that's always a bonus, right?

i think our district is the reject district here... ha ha ha. a few of the guys in there are really... they aren't super super spiritual, so that's not what they come to class for... they come to joke around... it makes it hard, but last thursday, we had our weekly planning session, (in the evening) and we turned that into a "district inventory meeting" and you know the coolest thing, was that I was able to introduce the Socratic Method to them. I think I've explained that to you, but I learned that back in mrs. fullers class in eleventh grade. we learned about it from a text written by Kant about the third level of friendship. so anyways, I explained that to them, cause a lot of them have a real bad habit of trying to talk over people if they have something to say, cause they want to say it right THEN. not after the other person is talking. no, they want to say it right THEN. ha ha ha, ridiculous. so yeah, that thursday, everyone learned how to listen. and I cried because it was so beautiful. also because the spirit was there. because we talked about how to improve ourselves as a district. but mostly because it was so beautiful. :P

so yeah. thats a little bit of where I'm at. I'll get some more whenever my next P-day is, seeing as I have no idea when P-days are out in Puerto Rico, BUT, I will do my best.

until then,
I love you all!

~Brandon