what IS the dealio here?

Wed, Feb 23, 2011

same descriptions/order of last week
3 )overlooking La Guancha from this super cool tower thingie
4) sunset over La Guancha
5) alternate sunset foto

Re: What's the dealio

Wed, Feb 16, 2011

just in case. :P

---------- Forwarded message ----------

*ahem* ... erm... anyways... eh... moving on? (1 Nephi 16:2)

Anyways, that’s really weird that my pictures didn't send... I'm gonna try and get that all fixed up first before I continue typing so that I can get those off. :)

So. Same descriptions/order of last week
1) Elder Black and I our second day together! :D
2) my name in the sand at La Guancha, Ponce
3) overlooking La Guancha from this super cool tower thingie
4) sunset over La Guancha
5) alternate sunset foto

so anyways... some cool thingies for this week.

this morning I had been talking with Elder Hargadon (Elder Radmalls companion/one of the four Elders in our apartment) about some of the places that he's been to (he's been all OVER EVERYWHERE. he's a very lucky man. most all the countries in Europe... Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Canada... and more. Lucky, lucky, man.) and when he brought up Ecuador, he mentioned that after he had graduated from High School he had been talking with a friend, and she had mentioned this program that you can sign up for and volunteer at an orphanage. in Ecuador.  and since he hadn't been doing anything after he graduated he went. Here’s the linkie-link: http://www.orphanagesupport.org/ he went and did it for four months after he graduated. he was telling me about his experience with the program (and in his free time there) and said that it was absolutely amazing. Quite honestly, it was kinda inspiring. He also mentioned that there was a pretty big need for volunteers as there weren't many people applying. but I had been thinking... I mean, that would be a fantastic way to keep up my Spanish. You know? plus, it's helping others. Can’t lose with that. Elder Hargadon said after explaining it to some of the people in his ward they donated money (now... he DID live in California... and he DID know lots of Rich people... but still.) he ended up not having to pay anything. but how amazing would that be?! :D I think it would be the coolest thing eva! and I can imagine I could get some kinda of college credit for doing it as well... so... yeah. it would be amazing. What do you think?

and in other news... WE FOUND A FAMILY!!!! :D and they are totally the coolest family ever! :D let me start from the beginning. So, was had a trade off with Elder Oviatt (our great zone leader guy person) back on the 25th and he contacted a grandma and her three grand kids. we got the info from him and since then we have been trying to contact the family, but every time that we stopped by the house, they weren't there! They just were not there. Granted, the grandma was taking care of the kids until 5 and then the parents would get home from work around 5 to 6... but after stopping by at least 3 times a week trying to contact anyone for two weeks, we finally got a hold of them last Thursday. And then had an AMAZING appointment with them on Friday. :D wow. First off. Nestor, the father, plays the guitar. *ding* His favorite band? Van Halen. *ding* his favorite guitarist? Eddie Van Halen *ding* the oldest son, also named Nestor (14) plays the guitar *ding* the next oldest, Gabriel (12) has the favorite colors of black red and white. *ding* and the youngest son, Ian (10) plays the trumpet. *ding* is there a more perfect family?! I think not. ;)  we started the restoration lesson by referring to the family: a proclamation to the world pamphlet and Eternal families. Then throughout the entire lesson we connected all the points to Eternal families as well. :) The only reason we couldn't share anything with them the Thursday that we talked to them is because they were working on homework as a family. :-O otherwise they would have let us in. the mother, Marlin, was a little bit apprehensive about the whole thing (both she and Nestor studied in a catholic university right here in Ponce) so we'll have to see how everything plays out. (I'm pretty sure it's going to play out for the better though. :) ) But at the end of the lesson, Nestor was willing to kneel down and pray to find out if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. And he committed to read the Book of Mormon, and said that he was going to finish it within two weeks. Wow. He is amazing. :D but look at that. a whole family, and they are almost ALL priesthood holders. We have been blessed. Very much so. So if you could be so kind so as to include La Familia Ruiz-Rivera in your prayers that would be absolutely fantastic.


Plus, president has given us a new schedule for working. :) I think I might have already mentioned it... but we weren't able to implement until this last Monday due to schedule conflicts. And wow. We were highly blessed. We were able to find a WHOLE lot more people to talk to that early in the morning. There is a whole lot more families out that early, taking kids to school and the like. And now we have some appointments with more families coming up! :D I'll report on how those go next week. :D

To give a small report on Reynaldo... well... things didn't go as well as they could have. He has quite a few doubts... and he hasn't exactly been reading because he doesn't like the style that the Book of Mormon is written in (in columns like the bible...) and he believes that Jesus Christ is an alien... so we're working on that. But other than that, he's great! :D

I still have yet to get my package from the office. I'm not really sure what’s going on there. >:(

so, I should be getting my memory card sent out TODAY, :) we have to stop by the post office so I'm going to pick up a small flat rate box to send some stuff home that I've been meaning to send. INCLUDING THE MEMORY CARD, which will be sent off in the box that I will be getting today I will send home the memory card. There. Nice and redundant for all of us to be redundant. And stuff. so Yea. I'll get the memory card sent off. ;)

but yes... I suppose because I've put a bit more substance into this email I've run out of time... so I'm going to have to bust a move. buuut, at least I have some pictures right? That’s what counts. :)

so yes.

I love you more than I love almost sending the memory card. ;) :P Naw, I love you more than I love biking around on a broken pedal. :3

~Elder Bryan (Brandon)

wait... what?

Wed, Feb 16, 2011

What do you mean I didn't send you my email? :P I sent you TWO last week! :P the first one was a reply to your email, and then the second one was a completely independent email. So I dunno know what you be talkin' bout, yo, but I guess I'll just toss last weeks into this one as a forward. geeze. :P

So yes, singles awareness day was fairly uneventful :-/ no mail. Just a ridiculously, early get up time. Blah! Even more tired! But, more recently I've been sleeping better. theres one interesting thing that I've noticed so far. In all of my experiments to figure out what’s going on and how I can make my kidney complain less, there’s something that I noticed WILL work: if I work out a lot right before I go to bed, it doesn't hurt in the night. And maybe even for the next couple days. quite thought provoking, eh? I'm not sure why, but it works. And it has to be right before I go to sleep. It can't be like during the day or in the morning or anything, cause I've been riding my bike a very large amount during the day and that doesn't make any difference. it must be right at the end of the day. :-/ so... I dunno. But I’m glad that I was able to inspire the Laurels to realize the truth about this day. Everyone just knows who's single on that day. :( *sigh* oh wells I suppose.

So, for Ecuador. Ha, ha, ha, you're funny. :P NO, I didn't want to go there just because Stephanie would be around there. Gosh. I just wanted to do it cause it would be fun and I mean, what a great thing it would be to just be able to go and help those little orphan children. :3 did you see them? They’re so cute! Plus, South America! :D and cool Amazon trip! and cheap shopping ;) ha, ha, ha, but really. I've always kinda wanted to just do some service like that. I dunno, I've just felt this draw forever to like, go volunteer at Pioneer Valley, or at Clair Bridge or something. But I never really got the chance. so now that I'm slightly less mentally tired than I was before the mission, and dying just a little bit less, I wanna be able to go and do something. It was weird though. When Elder Hargadon was telling me about it I just felt this draw, like I was being sucked in to it. But alas, you are right... I have WAY too many decisions that I have to make when I get home. BLAH! no more easy life. do you think that you would be able to figure out if Pierce credits are transferable to LDSBC? Also, if I were to stay, where do you think I would be able to get a job at? Any of the places that I suggested, or someplace new? :-/ I DO know that I'll be able to know what to do and stuff, but I wanna know what YOU think. or I could just go to Roberto-Venn? ;) Or Summit school in Canada, eh?

So, training! :D woo! I'm gonna have to say, I'm pretty lucky with my son. I got off easy, I think. He’s pretty good at understanding and speaking Spanish already (both his parents served Spanish speaking missions) and he's not suffering from greenie-pride-itus. He knows the doctrine pretty well. So basically it's just the whole being a greenie and not knowing what to do thing that he's working on. Fortunately he catches on quick. Alrighty. So, we HAVE divided up the area actually. We now have Alta Visat, Villa Flores and that area all the way to Coto Laurel, which is basically its own little pueblito. :) So, this last week, now that we've been talking with the bishop to get the goal of 125 people in church, things are going up! :D we went from 63 two weeks ago, to 73 this last week! WOO! Obispo Feito is a beast. He’s super willing to work with the missionaries and get things working. Plus we have some amazing members here that all want to make things go. We actually just got a new ward mission leader this last week. His name is Raphael Rivera. He is very up and at 'em. :D he's an Ex-Marine, so he's very thorough and systematic. Perfect. But I've got some high hopes. Super good. Yes.

anyways. IVE GOT GOOD NEWS!!!!!! :D so we went back to Yauco this last Saturday, right? And we get inside the apartment. lo and behold, there’s a package sitting on the floor right next to the window. (Our neighbor squeezes things through our little open window next to the door.) It’s from the Dorado family! :D it is now safely in my possession. Turns out they had a family emergency and had to stay over on the east coast till like two weeks ago or so. So, that's what happened there. but everything’s good now, it sounds like. Especially now that I have a FREAKIN SWEET ORNAMENT! Oh man, that thing is awesome! :D I love it. :3

Aw, no more suburban... now how are we supposed to take ridiculous amounts of people places? or home from mutual? Do we have to walk to church now? ...*sigh* now everythings gonna fall apart! we don't even have the Trailblazer either! AH! the end of the world is coming! AH! 2012! AH!

OH! update on la familia Ruiz-Rivera. so, we stopped by for our appointment on Friday, right? this time, they didn't have the entire family gathered together... :-/ after a little bit of talking, it seems like Nestor's wife maybe talked to him, cause his attitude seemed a bit different this time. but, we talked about the importance of knowing if this was the only true church or not, and how if our message is true, then it's the only way to "be saved". (Sorry, we ran into some Pentecostals yesterday. I just wanted to use that phrase) so we left them with the challenge to read and pray more firmly to find out if this message is true. We’re going to bring Raph with us to the next appointment on Friday so I'll give an update on that.

*old chinese man* one MORE thing, so that ridiculously early schedule? well, it's preparation for the "flooding of Ponce" where everyone outside of the city (Juana Diaz, Guayanilla, etc...) comes in to work in our areas. I worked with Elder Pezo from Peru yesterday (He's Elder Crawleys companion normally. from Juana Diaz) and so everyone comes in the night before, gets ready to get up super early, and then we all attack Ponce for a day. But it's sounding like things are gonna happen two days a week and yesterday was just a pilot day.

well... I guess I took a bit too long messing with Elder Radmall's picture... so I think I might have to send that to you, just so you can see what I was doing... it's kinda small though.

but, I love you more than I love trying to figure out my kidney mystery.

~Elder Bryan (Brandon)

FOTOS!

1) oh sí. (chevere means cool in puerto Rico) found that when we got lost looking for a referral the other day. it was in an old folks home parking lot. Those old people really know how to party! :D

2) Elduh Radmawl

aw poo, I forgot!

Wed, Feb 09, 2011

I wanted to think about the job/school situation too...

now...

possible jobs for when I get back, right?

~Exchange student program
       -July-

~Moochies
       -the fair in September-
       -anytime-

~Macy's
      - would they re hire me? would I want to work there again?
      -and if so, for how long?

and whatever else is available... like, if I decide to just work on credits in Washington, I imagine that I would be able to work at Warmoth.. if I stayed there for a while.

but I'm still not sure if I want to start school September or winter quarter... If I start later I can work longer... or go to Ecuador. :3 but if I start sooner, that's just a little bit sooner that I can switch over to BYU...

what are your thoughts on it?

I love you!!!! :D

~Brandon

Re: sun, glorious sun

Wed, Feb 02, 2011
by the way: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (old lady :P)

woo hoo! so yes, last week’s email, just to clear up confusions was in reference to what is now currently THREE weeks ago, which would otherwise be known as two weeks... wait... is that two weeks from today? ...mm... I'm not really sure about that... eeehh... well, I think that it's two weeks back now. Yes. Because I missed two weeks ago... and then I was writing about it last week... so that should be two weeks. yes. I go with that.

whoakay. so yes. STUPHS 4 DIS WEEKSIE! :3

So, now that we are sharing our area with another companionship, we've been trying to figure out how to work the area. And seeing that President didn't really give us any instruction, we just kinda started off from scratch. So, we've been doing tuuoooghns of walking/biking and only a little teenie bit of driving around to get ourselves acquainted with the area and to make ourselves our teaching pool. Which we unfortunately have, as of yet, to get the chance to chlorinate, so we've had to drain the water a few times. Just a few but, we've gotten some pretty clean water in there recently. :) We just found a gentleman by the name of Reynaldo Velez. We had been riding around in this area called La Rambla looking for a less active, and for some reason, even though we had found the street that this particular person lived on, I felt very drawn to just keep going down the street. We continued along for a few streets until we encountered a gentleman talking outside of a house on the corner to an older lady and her daughter. We ride up and start to contact him. We started out by asking if we could share a card with him (the temple card with the questions on the back like what is the purpose to life?) and we asked him if he's ever thought about these questions before. He started to talk about how every religion has their own answers to these questions and went off on another subject for a while, but we got him back on track by asking him if he's ever wondered which answer is the RIGHT answer. God most certainly must have his own answer, right? So we got him talking about that. After a little while the conversation kept drifting off to a point where it seemed as if he wasn't the most open person. He didn't believe in religion, WE create Satan by our own thoughts, and a few other things, but I still really felt the spirit the entire time that we had been talking to him, and from what I could feel at that moment, he was an open mind and a willing spirit. Right then I toned down the conversation a little bit, and took the opportunity to bear my testimony to him that we were true messengers of Jesus Christ and that we had been called as his representatives to bring this message to the world: that the FULLNESS of the Gospel had been restored by God Through a living Prophet. That ALL of the truth could be found in one place and that caught his attention. We both bore testimony that our message was true. After a thoughtful pause he looked at me and said "who is this prophet today?" I told him that it was Thomas S. Monson. I took the chance to tell him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon being convincing Evidence that he was called as a prophet. He thought a little bit more and I asked him if we could read some of the introduction with him. He carefully took the Book of Mormon that I had in my hands and read silently for a few minutes. "I never knew this." He said. "I've never heard about this" I smiled "that is why we are here." I testified once more that this was true. He told us that he wanted to read this book and we explained a little bit more about how he could know that this message was true through prayer. And now we have a return appointment this Thursday. at six o clock. SWEET! :D

so yeah. And then we also had president show up to district meeting yesterday morning. Just as high on the spirit as usual. :D but now we have some further direction as to our area! WOOT! According to what he said, we're going to be splitting up our area now. Ponce 2A and us, Ponce 2B. But if we need to, we can work together, which is what me and Elder Radmall did just Yesterday. We hitched a ride up to Coto Laurel, so he could show me around this new area and explain to me the situation of some of the members and Less Actives.

So, Elder Blacks a pretty sweet guy a little awkward socially, but that’s ok. ;) Everybody is now and then, right? But he's great. I love him to death and believe you me, we've been getting so much done this past little while that we almost got two foundations last week. :D Blacks a monster! His testimony and Greenie fire is an amazing booster. That just makes it all the more fun to go out and work. :)

So I got our address for the apartment. turns out that we don't have our OWN mailbox, sino, the Dueño told us that we could send stuff to the office downstairs (it's an accounting business) and they would hang on to it for us till we ask for it. so, it's sounding like it should be good to get letters and packages. :) And they are there every day except Sunday till about six. SWEET! So here we go. Are you ready? I've got my address right here! Are you listening? Ok.

Elder Brandon Bryan

Urb. Jardines Fagot

Calle 3 C-21

Ponce, PR 00716

(HA! fagot gardens.)

Anyways, I'm liking this apartment. It’s pretty cool to have two other missionaries in the apartment. Helps out with the monotony and you get to relax a bit more at the end of the day. Plus, I've got myself a pretty nice mattress here: a SERTA! :D woo! Quite nice, not that it makes my back feel any better in fact, it's still being retarded. But it seems like it comes in cycles. Sometimes it'll feel alright, and other times it hurts really bad... so I don't know what to do about it... but yes.

Sooo, I do have to say: waking up and it being sixty-nine degrees outside is RIDICULOUS! It’s so cold. :'( I get out of bed and wish I had a sweatshirt or something. horrible.

I really do think that the mission office ate my package, but now that I have the name, I'm going to send it directly to president. >:( just dropa  few names and things happen. :)

ah! I haven't gotten to make the shirt that me and Elder Lehr designed yet... :-/ but it was based on a few machinae supremacy things :3

I did get to read the email from Austin. gah, that guy's so lucky! I wanna go to Scotland...

and Bryans story is ridiculous. I can't believe somebody would actually do that! LOL, oh my goodness. I had to share that with Elder Radmall (he's sitting right across from me).

but, it's looking like I might have to bust a move... however, I love you much. Quite much. It’s more better than how much Elder Zepeda (Elder Putnam's greenie) loves me. :) That’s quite a bit, just so you know.

~Elder Bryan (Brandon)

fotos:

1) Elder Black and I our second day together! :D

2) my name in the sand at the Guancha, Ponce

3) overlooking the Guancha from this super cool tower thingie

4) sunset over the Guancha

5) alternate sunset foto

:)

I LOVE YOU! :D

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. :]