Dominican Republic MTC update

HEY! whats the deal, yo? no reply in two weeks?! :'( I'm totally dying here and you're just like, "oh, meh. it's just Brandon." :P

ANYWAYS, if you didn't get my email from earlier (besides the fact that I sent it to jlbryanx2@gmail.com instead of juno.com, but this is what I said:

"Hola Mi familia! I have to make this quick cause that's all we get for now, but my goodness... I didn't call you guys back yesterday cause we were delayed like... seriously four and a half hours or five hours in Dallas. :'( no es beuno. from there we went to Miami and then were totally just shoved onto a flight last second to Santa Domingo cause it was so late. so you wanna know whats great? I don't have my luggage. nothing except my carry on which I decided to fill up with all of my books and three polos which I can't wear anyway! blarg. so heres my address for now and my time us gone! Love you guys! oh, and I'm safe. By the way. :)

Elder Brandon Bryan
Dominican Republic
Centro Capacitacion Misional
Av Bolivar 825
Los Robles
Santa Domingo, DR"

and that SHOULD be the correct address. :) and we used to be able to do pouch mail, but not anymore, so you're going to have to send it through nrmal international mail, which means that all the stamps that I have don't work here, and you're going to have to send them with international stamps. :) but yeah. so I ended up getting my baggage back three days later, which means I wore the same shirt (and MY SUIT! :'( ) for three days straight with no deoderant. lame sauce. yeah. I didn't even get a chance to shower.

well, right now I'm feeling like I like the Provo MTC better. this one is seriously tiny. beyond tiny, actually. and they won't let us take pictures. at all. none. only on the first day and the last day. and we didn't get a first day because we got here at two in the morning. oh, speaking of which, we were super delayed in Texas. for like five hours. first we had a problem with the landing gear hydrolic fluid, then we had an instrument problem, then we had to have the airline inspectors come to make sure that everything was ok, so by the time we were all done there, we had been there for five hours. :'( so we get our flight, get to Miami at like... nine? nine thirty? no se. but our group leader talked to one of the flight attendants, and get us on a flight that was literally leaving five minutes later. so they rushed us on there. well, from there, we get to Santo Domingo at like 11. well, we go to customs, get our "tourist card" ('cause we're only gonna be here short term) and then went to baggage claim. and waited. and waited. and waited. no luggage. crap. so we go to wait on the other side of the room hoping that something might happen and they would magically appear (which they STILL don't :'( ) and then we all decide to go to the baggage claim counter. they got nuthin. woot! that and the mission prez wasn't there to pick us up. xD ha ha ha! what a fun day! yeah, that was some fun stuff.

anyways. here at the CCM, every morning we have cerial for breakfast. three choices: raisin bran, corn flakes, or fruit loops. then beans and rice for luch. NO exceptions. xD ha ha ha! but occasionally we get a nice little suppliment, like today we got pancakes as well, and yesterday we got French toast, which was SICK! :D I was like "YES! finally a REAL breakfast!" and dinner is usually tacos or burritos. :-/ so yeah. not much variety here. :'(

my new companion is Elder Patrick. he's a fun guy. knows some good spanish. oo! and my spanish... yeah. about that... heh heh, it's going alright. the teachers are using simple words for our benifit. so I can understand almost all of what they are saying, when they speak slowly. xD but we got the chance to do contacts out at the local university two days ago. yeah. I know NO spanish whatsoever.

but yeah, that's pretty much the highlights around hizzle. whats going down out there?! cause you totally don't email me anymore. or send me packages. I need some SNACKS! :'( all the vending machines here take PESOS! I don't have PESOS! so i have no more snacks.

OO! I willingly had a banananananana(s) <--(for the hecksters of it) yesterday (also, that would be one. and then this morning I had another.) one of the TWO hermanas that we have here are going to the West Indies mission <---I think... (english speaking) and they are from Surinam (sister Girdharry (pronounced: gird-ari) and the other sister... I can't remember her name. yesterday she had to take some pills instead of getting one of the shots, and she is totally a weeny. ha ha ha, but she tried to hide them! and then throw them away. so I tattled on here. ;) ha ha ha, so she had to take them, and for that I had to eat a banana. and I did. and I guess its ok. :P

so yeah, that's pretty much that.


oh, so I'm gonna need some new shampoo soon. maybe in two weeks? three? four? I dunno. Elder Patrick doesn't have any, so I'm down to half a water bottle left. (I know that, because that's what its in.) xD ha ha ha, I dropped the bottle and the bottom broke so I needed something to put it all in. xD yes, and I need snacks. LOTS of them. not just sugar, but like crackers, cookies. ANYTHING! I just need some variety! :'(

also, If you have the opportunity, could you check the price of the eternity circle ring? I think it's the one that's Joseph smith had? I have no idea, I coulda sworn that's what I heard. but the "distribution center" that's right next to us has them for like twenty bucks. :) but yeah. since I just wrote to you guys so much, I had no time to write to anyone else! :P but alas, this concludes the end of my email. I shall include another letter with it, and it will hopefully get to you. from what I know, it takes about eight days from the postmark date. :-/ no es bueno for time, but it's better than nuthin, I suppose.

I shall email again in a week! :)

OH! also, I've heard that if we are out far enough, like on one of the islands, we don't have to send letters at all cause the mail takes FOREVER, so we might get the chance to email alot more often If I go out to one of those. :)

Till next time!

~Elder Brandon Bryan.


Write me back! send me A PACKAGE! por favor!

Leaves for the Dominican Republic on the 23rd

oh my goodness... Ella broke her arm? that totally sucks!!!! how bad was it? worse than mine? :-O isn't like the humorus practically the entire length of your arm? and her mom was there... so did you get to meet her? that must have been interesting... I can't believe that her mom totally made her fly down there right then. that is the lamest thing ever. >:(

...but yes, I did get an email from Steven, and Stephanie Babb too. xD how did SHE manage to get my email? cause all she said was that she did some scrounging. ha ha ha!

oh, I leave for the DR on the 23rd. its a really early flight. I don't have the itineraray with me, but I go from here, to texas, to florida, to another Island, and then I believe I take a boat from there, cause it doesn't say that I'm going to DomRep in a plane. so yeah. tahts all the info I have right now, and I would totally run and get it, but I only get thirty minutes on here, which is lame. but hopefully I don't have that limit out in the field. maybe you could ask the elders about that? :)

I think that if you send the pacage normally at this point it wouldn't make it on time, so maybe if you spent just a little more money on your most favorite son ever for a two or three day send it would make it. ;) what bottoms where they?

also! it would be "su madre" ;) not tu madre. su is your, tu is you. ha ha ha! I actually know some spanish now!!! :D woot woot! anyways, I'm cutting it down to the wire and only have fifty seconds left, and it will erase it if I don't finish it and send it before time runs out, so I will email you later!!!!

I love you!

~Brandon

YAY!!!! :D

huzzah for me! I just got my email set up! :D and guess what? well, you probably already saw what my email was, but it's exactly the same as my home email, so it's great! :) so, it's my first REAL P-day, and I just got your letters yesterday so I figured I would send you an email first and THEN get on to your letters. but yeah. it's so different here. it TOTALLY almost feels like EFY cause we have the whole dorm thing, so I don't think that my mind hasfully gotten used to the fact that I won't be seeing you guys or a while. :-o but I'm sure that I'll just get hit by that when I get to go out to the mission field.

so in the mail yesterday, I got a little itinerary for my flights. It's looking like Grandma won't be able to see me. they had a little note on there that mentioned the fact that they don't really want us to see any family there, so yeah. thats pretty much that. ha ha ha! xD

also, you need to tell Robin that she needs to get out of denial and admit to the fact that she misses me already. don't belive that "oh, no. I don't miss him" crap.
:P ;)

so my companion is Elder Eversole. he is such an awesome guy. he is from the big Las Vegas! suuuuuper nice. he actually has a really great conversion story. I might have to just get that in my letter though. it's a bit more private. :) the food is really just your basic college cafeteria food though. it's cook by the BYU staff and everything. but it is pretty good. and I'm happy to say that I STILL havent gained any weight. :P so HA!:P :P :P

and you guys are getting elders?! and they are staying at the OZIERS?!?!?!?! QUE BUENO! that is so awesome. that means they will get the Oziers to start going to more than just sacrament meetin', eh? ha ha ha, thats so cool.

also, Ella owes me a letter. right now. I demand that she teleports it here as soon as she finishes it. because I derserve it. :P and I get one from Donny too. and DAD! :P

also, I really did want to get the chance to talk to Grandma laster before I left. I will most definitely send her a letter for sure.

but the spirit is just so strong here. I love it. I get to go to the temple every P-day in the morning, and we have constant testimony "builders" like the lessons and tesimony meetings. hmmm, and every tuesday we get the chance to get a fireside from a general authority. this last tuesday we had a talk from Brother Angel Abrea of the seventy. we actually don't get to find out who speaks until we get there, but the prophet hasn't been here for a while, so theres a chance that I might get to hear him speak before I leave!!!!! :D :D that would be so incredible. :3

but getting the opportunity to just be here at the MTC has built my testimony SOOO much. I can tell you guys with absolute certainty that I know that this church is true. I mean, whow could it NOT be? were ELSE could you learn a language almost completely fluently in nine weeks?! I've seriously learned more about spanish here in a week and a half than I did the whole two years that I took at school. well... ok. maybe not COMPLETELY, but still more than nothing, a'ight? :P

he he he, I got two letters from Stephanie today. :D doin good SO far. no dear john yet. :P but if it's supposed to happen, it will. I just so hope it does. xD ha ha. I mean, I DID get that feeling that it wouldn't be able to get our situation resolved until I got home anyway, so we'll see.

ANYWAYS, I have no idea how much time I have left, cause my computer is the only one without a pop up timer, so I'll have to end it here.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!