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, September 1, 2010

Re: Dodged the storm!

Wed, Sep 01, 2010

ha ha ha, Elder Lehr actually just got an email from his mom mentioning that you sent her the email with the pickies. she said she really enjoyed them :D but I would seriously love to be Elder Lehr's comp for more time! that would be AWESOME! :D he's great. we are indulging a little bit in our love for video games. but we're just talking about them. that's all! I promise. but it's been great. except for the fact that things are difficult to get done due to me being so tired all the time and pretty far past the ability to coherently think or follow the spirit... :-/ makes things inconvenient,... especially for lessons. you know...

but He's from Orem. he actually went to BYU before hand, and he's going to go back there when he gets back... so if I get into LDS BC, we're definitely going to be hanging out after the mission. he's great. he really is. it's just so fun to be around him.

but yeah! no storm for us. we did have to go in early due to wind and heavy rain, but other than that and a little bit of wind in the morning, that was it. :-/ nothing SUPER exciting. Except that we have a second one coming that might come close to causing us a bit more wind tomorrow. and then the one after that on its way. :D YAY! what fun! I'm excited. so we might get some really fun weather for the next few weeks. We'll have to see.

oh, OK. well, last week I ended up asking for money 'cause I was two and a half hours away from where my money was... that and I had been expecting to be able to pay through the mission account... heh, so it was kind of a surprise. but it should be all good now. I'll pull the money out of my account to pay him back and then I'll get reimbursed.

NO I HAVEN'T BEEN SHOPPING TOO MUCH! ...that's ridiculous.

ok, so. we picked up me results from the 'ospital (arrr). guess what? nothin'. all it says is that I've got "early/mild" evidence of some thing called "Nephrocalcinosis" in my kidney. whatever THAT is... but other than that, that's all the technician felt I had a problem with. wonderful. plus, there's no blood in my urine, which means if there IS a stone in my ureter, its not cutting it while it moves. sooooooo... I've got a ghost stone! nobody knows what my problem is. I talked with the mission doctor yesterday, and he supposed to get back to me yesterday to let me know if I actually needed to get to Caguas sometime to do a follow up visit, but he didn't... he was gonna look up Nephrocalcinosis to find out about it... but alas, I continue waiting. so yes. however, I continue sleeping HORRIBLY and now... there's some slight pain returning in my manhood. in the same spot. "it was driving me crazy!" -Albuquerque. so... I continue falling apart. ISN'T IT WONDERFUL?! *eye twitchy*

a quarter cup of lemon juice. just straight up like that.... huh. I'm gonna have to check that out. we haven't been shopping yet today (plus we juts got our money for the month :) ) so I'll pick some of that up. that'll be nice to see if that will help.
dah... pictures... yeah... erm... well... you see... I haven't sent them yet? eh heheheheh...

*ahem* oh... eh... actually, I haven't emailed Ehren either... DAH! I'm sorry! :'( I've been failing so much recently! I'm going to try to do that today. really. I am.

aw sweet! Tacoma malls getting an H&M?! yes! fancy clothes!

wow, you and Robin are going back down to Cali again? well, tell grandma hi from me! and chase wants robin to move down there... huh... that would be interesting. maybe a problem... Plus, robins always had that draw to Cali... but she hasn't applied to any schools down there, nor does she have a job to be able to support herself... that would be interesting.

but yes, I've got to bust a move so I can go email president.

I love you more than my body likes creating invisible problems! :D

~Brandon

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Re: another week...

Thu, Aug 26, 2010

woot! so. updates on how everything's going. well, as you already know, we stopped by Caguas yesterday. :3 ha ha ha, it was funny cause we actually DID stop by Annie right before we went to the hospital. kinda Ironic that she heard my voice. :D but yeah. we were at the hospital the WHOLE day. super duper fun. we got there at 10 in the morning and left at 5. but basically it was a follow visit for my tests. but he said that basically, because I was still having pain, be it in my special place or in my back, my (possible) kidney stone has been causing me pain for over a month now. So, he gave me orders to get a CT scan to figure out where it is which we got taken care of today in ponce. we get to go pick that up on Monday, and then, unfortunately, we might have to get ourselves back to Caguas, a two and a half hour drive, so we can have Doctor Perez take a look at it. wonderful. but I'm going to talk to Hermana Alvarado to see if there's someplace... well, just a little bit closer, cause Wednesday is our P-day, and I haven't really had a real P-day here in Yauco yet (to answer your question). So much stuff to get ready for. hospital trips, Zone conference prep. stuff like that. it's all so wonderful. :D

a little bit more about our visit yesterday: IIIIIIIII didn't get any sleep past four in the morning cause my back woke me up. and we also got out of bed at six. joyous. that just made the day that much more wonderful. :D so we get to the hospital at ten because the sign up list was supposed to come out at 10:30. buuuuut, we get there and it is just PACKED chock full o' people. LOADED. so we wait till about noon thirty and then we get called in. after filling out a new patient sheet because for some reason I wasn't in the offices system, even though I spent three days at the hospital... I dunno. but anyways, I fill that out and they call me in,
I get the follow up visit and boom. all done with that. so after that, we go out and they ask us to pay. we're like "OK, the mission has an account and we're going to pay for that." and the secretary like "oooo.... you have to pay in cash."

"WHATJKLSD:LF?" we don't have cash!" (it was $85 by the way) and neither of us have very much money this month, eh heh heh... yeah.

"well, lemme call the supervisor. we'll talk with her"

time passes. and some more time passes. "is the supervisor coming?" "wellll, she's actually at lunch, but she'll be back really soon." some MORe time passes. "you sure?" yeah, she's coming back right now." then we come to 3:00 and the supervisor finally walks in. turns out they aren't authorized to charge the account, nor do they have a system to charge it even if they were... (they're in a new part of the hospital.) so we're like "oh crap, what do we do?" we call sister Alvarado- can't send us money on our cards that fast. so after TONS of running around, the number for the Caguas Elders pops into my head (personal revelation for sure). call them up and the zone leaders end up saying, OK we can hook you up with the money. but you're going to have to come and pick it up from the Caguas apartment. hey, that's cool. as long as we can get the money.

well after running up to go pay for our parking, we search around for the parking ticket. it's gone. GREAT! so we can't leave. we call up the zone leaders "um... we can't exactly leave... can you bring us the money? :)" and we had to have the money by four thirty. luckily they get there at four fifteen and I was able to get myself my prescriptions for the cat scan, which they wouldn't give to me till I've paid, obviously.

yes. long day. so we did that, which is basically what we've done this whole last week... it's been really hard cause I haven't got very much sleep and haven't been able to think, so even in lessons I'm just destroyed, and we've been doing some more finding. however, we do have this family that I haven't told you guys about yet, unfortunately...

Francisco and Marcia Morciglio. (more-see-glee-oh. with stress on the "see") but yeah. they have two kids, Justin and Francis. Justin has 12 years, and Francis has 6. Francisco is amazing. he's really reading and praying and he KNOWS that the church is true already. Marcia is still struggling, I think that she might have a few doubts, but part of the problem is that they're leaving to go on vacation from this last Tuesday till the week after the next. so they are going to be out till then, but we just need the chance to extend a baptismal invitation!

Bryan cut his hair! why so short?! :'(

also, that renaissance fair banner with the DC logo is SAWEET! did you get any other pictures from the chain mail artists?

ok... so the current address of where I'm at would be:

Elder Brandon Bryan
Urb. Costa Sur
A21 Calle Brisas del Mar Apt. B
Yauco, PR 00698

and as far as I know, things get here fairly well, although Elder Lehr said that he had a slight problem with one of his packages ending up at the neighbor's house for some reason. but the people here are SOOOOO NICE that if it came for an elder, they know where to put it. but really. the people in Yauco are SOOOOOOOPER nice. you might even say they are souper stars. ;) but I love it. plus, president Alvarado is wanting us to break out of the basic contacting and just start talking to people. be their friends. and then after that, they are going to see that we as missionaries aren't robots, but people that care about them and then they will open up to us. :D

poop... I should probably send this so I can email president. apparently in the west side they started emailing instead of writing letters, so I gotta get that out.

Love you so much! I'm feeling much better though... even though I still get crappy sleep... but yeah...

I love you more than I had to wait at the hospital!

~Brandon

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Look!! Sis... he is pretty good n hope h

Wed, Aug 25, 2010

Look this beautifull n big smile!! don't worry Sis... he is pretty good n hope he feel better son ;-). God bless the elders! He made my day!! I'm sooo happy :-D.

Your crazy n awesome son, he is so special 2 me. The other guy elder Lern it's so cool 2 :-).

Ur son don't have idea how much his visit help me to feel better. Trust me, much better!!.

Ur hug :-D!!

:-)!!

A little blurry, sorry:-(.

Hahaha Chilling in the hammock ;-)!

Hope you like! Love, Annie

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Re: Getting better?

Wed, Aug 18, 2010
woo, so this week... welp, still not much better. still getting horrible sleep, so I'm so tired to the point where I can't really think, and I'm fighting to stay awake... :-/ however, I got my test resultzorz. heh, Wish I took a picture of the doctors "impression": so. we had zone conference last thursday and afterwards we had some stuff to take care of, like car inspections which were at the dealership and by the time we figured out where all of the keys went and why there was a missing set, and pickin' up my "new" bike. (not that it really matters, neither of us have helmets and Elder Lehr doesn't even have a seat for his. (stolen)) so we're going to continue using our car for now. but, we had to go and pick it up from the zone leaders in their apartment (in ponce). so, we figured hey. we're in ponce, lets go get my results. well, by the time that everything was taken care of, and I got my bike, and we got to the hospital, archives was closed. YAY! :D so we had to go back the next day and get them. so, results: after I picked 'em up I opened 'em up. and then I pulled 'em out, and then I unfolded them, and then I read them. well, I discovered that the testicular scan that I had was an unremarkable scan. even worse, I took a look at my renal (kidney area) scan... apparently it was so unremarkable that it was gross! DAH!!! it said "grossly unremarkable renal scan." great. so there's obviously nothing wrong there, if it was so unremarkable it was disgusting. I hope no one threw up.

but yes. things have unfortuantely changed to the point where I'm almost completely sure that its another kidney stone. which sucks. but I'm hoping that it's already made it past the difficult part and is just taking its sweet time going through, instead of getting stuck at everyones favorite spot: the ureter! :D

yeah, Yauco is a pretty small place. but we have a Big K mart and a sweet grocery store called "Mr Special" alright! but no Walmart. we do have the basic fast food necessities, not that I really feel up to eating out anymore. now that I feel like crap all the time, I don't want to feel even more like crap after eating fast food, so I've been trying to cut it down to a minimum. we also have another even smaller town that's attached to our area because they are included in our branch. the branch is pretty small here. we've only got about seven priesthood holders, and two of them are priests. but, the branch president's son has served a mission, and he also has another son out in Mexico right now with about a year left.

ah, the neighborhood garage sale. well, I hope that you don't sell any of my stuff. >:( that just wouldn't be very nice. :P
hey, I got the pics you sent, but they were all so small! :'( I DID find you in the crowd though! :D hidin over on the right side near the bottom. what was that a picture of? it looks kinda 90's ;)

yeah, I just don't really know whats going on. ESPECIALLY since, jjust like you said, I love talking with people and everything. I just don't get it. I don't know if it's connected with the lack of sleep, and I hope it is, cause that means when I start getting more, everything will smooth out. did you know that doctors can't tell the difference in Brain activity between a half crazy person and a person that isn't getting enough sleep? yeah. learned that last sunday in the gospel principles class: Word of Wisdom. great. thats comforting.

emailing steph back and forth? I have no idea what you're talking about. thats ridiculous.

so yeah... basically I'm just gonna be fighting to keep myself awake so that I can at least say "hi" to people for this week... I dunno. just one more thing for me to cause a problem with.

but yeah... gah! I keep fighting to try and come up with something to write, but I'm just running on empty so my minds just blank all the time, :( but, I'm trying. thats what counts, right?

so yeah, we'll see if things go better this week. I'm trying harder to focus myself on whats been going on here more than just replying to your email, so this week I'm gonna write down specific things I wanna go over, that way I can remember them in the computer lab and not spend half my time thinking. :D

well, I think I'll go with that fer now!

I love you more than I need sleep and a clean kidney. you got any spares handy?

~Brandon

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Re: What's new this week?

Wed, Aug 11, 2010
so, to start off, I HAVE been transferred :D I've been moved over to Yauco, on the south side of the Island, twenty minutes away from Ponce. I now have a new companion, as well. his name's Elder Lehr. he was born in Cali, but he moved to Utah when he was a kid. kinda strange that Annie asked how I was liking the west... huh. how did SHE find out?! :-O that's weird. but yes, I'm officially in the west mission. President did a lot of major moving around this last transfer, probably to get the integration of the two missions moving.

yeah, I've had a chance to go to the doctor. we've been driving a lot to ponce these last few days to get some tests done. :3 so I got a Urine test and a Sonogram. yeah, that was weird. especially since they checked out the "problem areas" *ahem* soooooo..... we're going to be getting the results for that tomorrow after Zone conference (which also happens to be out in Ponce) and then we take the results of the test to the Urologist to find out whats been the problem. buuuut, it might just be another wonderful buddy. yay. that makes me so excited. :D can you tell? :D

for the printing out, I would just say the last email from you, and the last one from dad.

we also had a small trade off for the past few days. Elder Tartakoff came to stay with us two starting Sunday at six PM till noon on Tuesday. he actually just got released as an AP and is now a zone leader, but ironically, he's really basically an AP, because he still has some AP responsibilities. but he is amazing. just one of the most loving and Genuine people. I unfortunately... I've been lacking a LOT in the caring about other people category, I don't even know why, either. but that's one of the other things that bothering me. I'm not sure if other people are rubbing off on me in their apathy, or if I'm just tired or worn out, but I just have to try really really hard to put happiness forth... :-/ *sigh* lame.

anyways, Elder Tartakoff is amazing. he's just... he knows how to teach, he knows Spanish, and he's awesome. so I feel all lame. yeah.

ah, Stephanie says you haven't updated the Blog in forever! whats the dealio, yo?!

so robin spent some time with Chase in Cali, or is she still there? she came back with you, right?

but yeah... I;m sorry I haven't written very much... I'm going to try and just focus on other things next week. I need to quit writing about my problems and just focus on the amazing people around me. that's what I need to do. cause there really is some amazing people here. so much more nice than the people in Santurce. :D plus Elder Lehr is amazing. I'm going to try and be more focused on others this week. serving. plus, the scriptures say that when we lose ourselves, we find ourselves. so maybe that's all I need to do.

Well, I love you lots and lots and lots. more than not, I suppose. :P :D

~Brandon

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Re: Ya, right!

Tue, Aug 03, 2010

yeah.... I know I need to relax... I'm sorry. everything has just really built up to the point were I have gotten sick of it. I don't really know what the problem is.

But you asked about transfers. I honestly wish I could tell you. Everyone seems to enjoy keeping secrets now, so we keep getting people telling us there’s not a transfer meeting, and then there is and all kinda of ridiculous stuff. BUT, at least one of the three of us is leaving, because we've been told that we need to ALL pack our bags and be at the meeting by 8. Suckage, cause we don't have a car. Which means we have to take the train, 20 minutes walking WITHOUT all of our baggage. so we might just have to get up nice and early tomorrow sweet. so, MAYBE I'm going somewhere, maybe I'm not. But at least you guys know that I'm going to transfer meeting tomorrow. if that counts for anything.

So. Both your message and the one from dad really helped me get things back... into perspective. So thank you. Very much and Thank you very much, Dad. I'm sorry that I haven't written any more. I was mostly pondering on your guys' emails. They’re very helpful. I just wish that I could print them out. Yeah, that would be nice. but I'm going to do my best to keep myself up on top of things this week. Both of your emails had things that I just really needed some assurances and help with, and they really gave me a boost.

but times up, so I’ve gotta bust a move.

Thank you so VERY, VERY much, Mom AND Dad. I love you so very much.

~Brandon

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Re: Ya, right!

Wed, Jul 28, 2010

GAH!
OK OK, I'm sorry! :'( I didn't mean for you to worry so much... but still. So... basically... *sigh* well, I mean, I don't even really have a problem with things being slow here. I understand that sometimes things just don't go overly fantastic and are kinda slow sometimes. (I also have been sleeping a little bit better, bit for some reason I still can't manage to sleep a whole night through...) but... how can I really explain the problem? I don't know. It's wierd, 'cause it's like, the problems this, or the problems that. but really, it's more of... this?

*sigh* well, basically I had been considering going home. I... I don't know. I've... past tense? I had? I don't know. just being stuck with people. people that, sure, they're cool... you know, I don't even think thats what the real problem is. is it? I don't know.

no, I didn't forget the WAY TOO OFT quoted "forget yourself and go to work". no, I didn't forget the whole, this is work for the lord, this is salvation for other people. I already knew that it wasn't an option for me to go home. besides the fact that president wouldn't let me anyways.

I'm sorry... this has all just really been stuck up in my head. I didn't even really tell president that, just a little skiff about that I had been considering going home. like I said, I already know that going home isn't an option. I think of all the people that have told me they look up to me. Donny, Hannah, Cameron. what would they think? how would they feel? what about you? and dad? and Grandma? what would the adverse effects be? and then it comes down to: am I being selfish by wanting this? *sigh*

but don't worry any more. I'm quite a bit ways away from wanting to go home as bad as I did last week. I know that I have the support of president if I need it.

so yeah. thats... thats it. kind of. but really, I need to write a little bit. something about this week. just something else.

well, two days ago I got the flu. still got a little bit of it, and it wsn't as bad as it was yesterday morning. (threw up a little bit) but I picked up some theraflu and stayed home for most of the day to get some rest. I'm feeling better now. my stomachs calmed down quite a bit and I'm not as stuffy, but the congestions still there. so hopefully I'll be better within the next few days.

I also wanted to ask: did Dad get my Fathers day card? I'm trying to figure out if people have gotten my last few letters that I've sent out, cause I sent one to Andrea like my second week here and I havent gotten a reply yet. so I was just wondering if things were getting where I sent them. :)

we've also found a person! :D he's a twenty year old Dominican. we contacted him just out on the street on his way to work and we stopped by to teach him yesterday. we shared a lot about the book of mormon. He seemed SUPER excited to read it and started right after we left. He lives alone, and NOT with his girlfriend which solves a few problems there. but we're going to be stopping back by tomorrow to see how his readin gwent and to teach a little bit more. :3

we also have two Elders staying with us in our tiny apartment. they came from the west side from an area that sounds like its going to be closing. so they'll be staying with us for the next week till transfers.

President is shifting the focus of the mission from baptisms more to retension and reactivation. thats one of the biggest problems that is going on right now, is that the church is shrinking here. :-/ people are going inactive faster than there is baptisms... like, in Rio Grande, 30 maybe active members. 350 on the whole member list.

poo... out of time. well, I've got to bust a move. I will be doing email on Tuesday next week, for the next week is transfers.

so yeah...

I love you more than the computers here love to take their time to boot up!

~Brandon

Monday, July 19, 2010

suprize! :D

Mon, Jul 19, 2010

hey, guess what? P-day was on Monday today. :3 turns out they have a mission-wide leadership training for all the missionaries that are leaders, so they had to re-structure the whole week. :-/ so I get to email you today. *sigh* which sucks cause nobody emails me until it's Tuesday. but it's OK. it's whatever. I'll just try to ramble on the most that I can so I can fill up some space. but we're also having interviews with the president today as well, which started at one and we're STILL waiting to get in.

so yeah. this week has kinda sucked. :-/ we only taught one lesson this whole week. and the only other lesson that we taught was to a member who invited us over for dinner. so yeah... kinda sucked.

I'm still having this horrible sleeping problem, but I'm getting better. it got really bad a few days ago, and I even took some of those Advil PMs, but that just made me feel tired ALL day, plus even then I STILL woke up. so I just was feeling like CRAP... goodness... this last week and a half has just sucked. it really has. I'm not really sure if I wanna talk about it just yet, but I more than likely will next week. we're still waiting for our interviews with president, so I'm just gonna sit here and type away till it's our turn to go. :D but don't worry. it's not a problem with Elder Ralston or a worthiness issue or anything like that, but I want to talk to president about it before I say anything. sorry to be leaving you hanging and stuff, but I just wanna grab some guidance from him first. :) so DON'T WORRY, and "don't panic"

my minds still super fuzzy though from all that lack of sleep, but it's getting better.

lemme see... our search still continues for new investigators. AH! we had a trade-off with one of our zone leaders on Thursday. heh heh, it was actually with him that we found that one person to teach. maybe he had a fresher mind than we did? :)

hey, hows dad doing? hows the job and everything? I sent him an email like a few months ago and I haven't gotten anything back so I had been wondering if he got it and all that stuff. but mostly it was just about like, his mission. how it went and if he had any stories or anything, 'cause I never really heard too much about it.

well, looks like it's my interview time!

LOVE YOU!

~Brandon

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Re: pooped

Wed, Jul 14, 2010

well, it's alright if you're having a hard time typing... I'm just utterly destroyed right now... gah, I have had just the most HORRIBLE time trying to sleep this week... actually, it's been more these past two weeks... *sigh* I don't even know why, but I just have this inability to be able to sleep the entire night now... last night I woke up at 2 in the morning. blasted wide awake. so I'm like, great, what am I going to do NOW? so I try to go back to sleep. cause, you know, it's good to get lots of sleep. so, after I fall back asleep, I wake back up. five different times. and for the past two weeks, I've woken up at least twice if not more every night. it's seriously just destroying me, it really is. i forget what I'm saying halfway through my sentences in Spanish, I can't really think, I have to FIGHT to focus on what people are saying... I dunno, man. I had been thinking... i still have those advil... er whatevers PM pills... so I had been considering just drugging myself up before I went to bed... but I'll have to see how things turn out. I'm thinking about calling Sister Alvarado to see what she thinks... well, I should actually probably do that first, eh? yeah. I'm gonna do that.

yeah, it woulda been kinda inconvenient had me foot been broken... but I was blessed. and super lucky. good thing I put tons of points into my luck my last level up. helped me out a TON.

aw man... that's too bad that you haven't been able to find Luigis or Yoshis... gosh though. you've got to keep trying! cause YOSHI'S MY FAVORITE! :D but having all three would be amazing. :3 would you keep trying please?

wait... buy me pants? what do you mean? ha ha ha, I don't need any pants... the one pair I brought are doing me pretty good so far. :)

my goodness... I just read about cleverbot. I don't think you told me about it before, so I had to go look it up *hush hush* HA! that thing is AMAZING! I LOVE IT! I had to try it out a little bit. wow. I can see how you would be able to spend hours on that thing. I just love how sarcastic and joking it is. how did you guys FIND that thing? I LOVE IT! it's perfect for finding your own random generator inside.

oh my goodness. you have to show me all the videos when I get back. I'm losing all my "culture" ha ha. that one with the french guy dressed up like Mario sounds HILARIOUS! you have to just get a nice collection of videos to blow my mind with when i get back. I'm excited. :3 and maybe some other fun crazy websites. :D

*sigh* I'm just so whipped I can't even really think... lets see...

well, Elder Taylor, our district leader had been training Elder Perry, but then President Alvarado gave them (the moving Elders) the responsibility of cleaning up every. single. apartment. in the whole mission. so they got a new companion, elder Perez, and then about last Saturday Elder Perry got replaced! :'( they just took him away, cause he wasn't really getting the chance to learn or anything. all he was doing was cleaning... so now we have Elder... erm... Elder Holler... Elder Holles... I can't remember... this sucks. I can't even remember simple things anymore. plus, my teaching is just going downhill... I can't track where I'm going with things, I'm tired all the time, I'm getting even LESS organized... I'm just falling apart!

lemme see... OK. so like, the moving elders. they now have the commission to help clean up every apartment to spic-n-span cleanliness (which sucks for us, we have one of the worst apartments. no joke. (not that it's us or anything, it's just a crappy apartment) ) and then they have to teach the Elders about the doctrine of cleanliness. the moving Elders hit up one apartment everyday (excepting P-day and Sunday) so yeah. whelp, just forgot where I was going with that.

look at this, isn't it fun? :D

other than that... not much has really happened. we're still searching for people. every day. we haven't had any appointments set up ALL day for the past three... or four days, so yeah. that makes for a FUN day, especially because we have to walk and there's barely any members to visit... we've just been having some really long days the past little while. but we're trying. we've also taken up trying to discover how many people ACTUALLY still live here in Santurce...

but yeah. I'll probably have some more exciting news next week. maybe a bit more FULL of an email, but I do have to go email Donny really quick, so I'll go do that...

I love you more than the amount of sleep I'm losing! :D

~Brandon

wee wee.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Re: We finally have sun!

Wed, Jul 07, 2010

YAY! I got my package! :DDDDDDD thank you so very much. made me happy inside. that polo that Donny didn't wear? that things AMAZING! how could he not wear that?! well, I LOVE it, so I'M going to wear it. the only problem is, I would almost prefer to just save that for when I get HOME! that tie was pretty amazing as well... heh, I don't think I'm going to be able to do anything to it! :3 pears... AHHHH!!! the MARIO CART! did you know that those Mario carts COME OFF THE CANDY BASE?! :DDDD that thing is amazing!!!! did you happen to see any more? I was seriously not mind starting a collection of all the different people... :3 you know. just to have when I get back? like a little extra coming home thingie? ;)

OO! story time. ok, so the moving Elders came to pick us up for the combined mission meeting, right? well, they were lost for a moment (and a little late), so we told them that they would be able to meet us on the main road. well, we start to head out there, but then they found our house from behind. they come around and stop right next to us. we start to clean off the seats and everything, and of course my side had more stuff to clean of. so Elder Ralston finished before I did. So he closes his door, and Elder Taylor thought that I was already inside, so he jumps on the gas pedal and jets forward RUNNING OVER MY FOOT! AHHHHHH!!!!. but really, it wasn't so bad. our miracle for the week was that my foot wasn't broken! :D YAY! he only ran over my toes and my foot right in front of the arch in my foot. wow. that was a redundant statement of redundancy. anyways: *whew* any farther back would have seriously broken my foot. that would have put a damper on the whole meeting thing. boy was I blessed there. (man, that would have been a GREAT start to the new mission presidents term, eh? yeah. and great on my medical record, too. along with the four hundred dollar plastic surgery on my toe and my two thousand dollar (approximate) visit to the hospital with Steve. man I suck) so yeah. I thank everyone for their prayers for my safety. they REALLY helped me this week. :D

I like your spiffy text there, by the way! make me think of an old computer screen! :D now if it was only Green and black. ha ha ha!

that's a bonus that the weather was nice for the mariners game, even if they DID lose just like every year the students go, ha ha ha! but it's nice that you had some sun, for sure.

so, info about the CHANGES! WOO! so. first of all, we had a FULL mission meeting last Friday. that's right. east AND west side together. the meeting was VERY revolved around UNITY and WORKING TOGETHER, which is understandable if you have those "eastside purists" ha ha ha! but President was really focused on the unity thing, so all of us have a strong feeling that this next transfer meeting things are just gonna be CRAZY change ups all over the place. ah, one of the MOST fun things: district meeting now starts at 7:00 in the MORNING. yes. and we are to be in our seats at 6:30 studying till it starts. tasty. so yeah. we have that... and the best part. P-Day is remaining Wednesday. SWEET! that's perfect. it's so much better on Wednesdays anyways! makes your week go by much much MUCH faster. plus, Puerto Rican's have all kinds of random holidays that they celebrate on Monday, so lots of stores are closed including barber shops and things like that, so he kept it on Wednesday for us. lets see... those are the two major things that have happened so far. Anything else, we just haven't been told about yet. :-/ people just love to hoard their info! it's horrible.

ha ha ha, my P-day clothes? oh... well... you know. just some really sweet shirts... like a batman shirt, and a thunder cats shirt... they both looked just absolutely AMAZING, so I had to get them. but other than that, I'm still running fairly well on all the stuff that I brought. we don't actually get to spend TOO much time chillin in our P day clothes anyways, so everything's pretty well still fresh. except for my service jeans. those are getting a work out. :D

for the fourth? hmmm.... lamentably, nothing. *sigh* the fourth of July means NOTHING here! :'( it's probably the only thing that they don't celebrate here, ha ha ha!

AW MAN!!!! A ZOMBIE WALK!!???!! ha! that would have been AMAZING to go see! :D

sounds like shingles is just bundles of joy!

oh poo... sisters are out of time... gah! that means I gotta bust a move.

I love you with a love as deep as the ocean *cheesay!*

~Brandon