10-7-09 e-mail responses

ah, this week goes by well... I think I'm learning more about myself the more problems that I am having. xD it's interesting how things like that work, eh?

but yes. I only get like twenty minutes this week, because we have a member that is going to take us up to the YUNQUE! :D so I'll have pictures next week for that. :) that and we took a long time shopping for food, and there was a lady at the laundromat that took up all but two dryers, so wee spent two hours there because I had one and Elder Maldonado had the other. LAME! ha ha ha! but it's all good. I'll get an hour next week. but we'll also see if I go to a different area. but that will be why my letter this week will be so short. :)

oh, also. where the pooper scoopers is my patriarchal blessing? :'( I asked for that a half month ago! :'( [Silly boy dad emailed it a while ago!]

ah, and I did get my license. for thirty minutes. ha ha ha! they had to take it away because of the laws in WA make it so that I have to take the drive test, too. and so they set me up with an appointment, but it was at 6 IN THE FLIPPIN MORNING! :'( so we got up super early, and THEN, the lady didn't get there till EIGHT THIRTY! AND THEN! gosh, we didn't have the ORIGINAL car registration, only a copy, so she wouldn't let me take the test! :'( but I do have my permit. and it looks super cool. also, because I had a paper copy of my license they let me keep my WA license! YAY! so I'll try to send that home. :)

I found one guy with a guitar that is an investigator, and music is VERY important to him, so I'll see if he'll let us stop by xD maybe I can use that to get in to teach him a lesson, no? turns out he speaks some pretty good English, so I can use that to my advantage. xD

AH! they had an English room for conference! so I got to see it in English. and seriously, that was probably one of the most fantastic conferences I've ever seen. no joke, they had some absolutely incredible talks. and oh my goodness. M. Russel Ballard's talk? [oops! that would be Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - Safety for the Soul - Click here to read ] INCREDIBLE! the one he gave about the Book of Mormon? it was just... wow. just awesome. and occasionally we get the ensign from the missino home when we stop by every month for transfers or from the district leaders, so I'll see if I get one. if not, you NEED to get me one, cause there is no distribution center here... :'(

poor ella... :'( do you think emailing me would be alright? or would she have to send me mail? gosh... everything in her family seems to just be going crazy. I wish I could have had the opportunity to have met her mother though. I think that would have been nice. ha ha ha!

darn you Shawn! what is the dealio?! this next Sunday is fast Sunday, so I'm going to fast for him. and Bryan, so that he will want to be more interested in the church... if you want to, I sent a letter to grandma last week about my feelings about Bryan. It's like... three pages about him I think... but it's got some good stuff in tehre. so if you want to you could ask her to see it. tell her I said it's ok. xD

(other missionaries)like, native from Puerto Rico? as far as I know, the only one that I know that is from Puerto Rico itself, is Elder Maldonado. but I might know more at this months transfers (which is this Sunday or Saturday... or Monday... anyways, its' one of those three days. so I might be in a new area this next week! :-O

and as for goodies... the one thing taht I really really need is a new laundry bag... my has a tear in it taht gets bigger every Wednesday... so if you could find me one that preferably isn't mesh... but breathable, that would be fantastic, ya know? not one of those solid ones that don't breath, cause then all my wet clothes/ towels will get all moldy. gross. :'( but do what you can. other than that, I'm not really sure... anything that you think I need, ya know? :D like my patriarchal blessing. that would be fantastic. also, no underwear. seriously? :P

ah, and you know that Women's Conferance talk from BYU 2008 that dad put on my MP3 player? the one by Mary Ellen Edmonds? she mentions something in there that I think is nice. she said "mail is like mana to the missionaries" and that is no lie. seriously. mail sometimes seems like the only thing that I can really hold on to in my times of adversity here. besides the gospel of course. :P

also... I think I may be the recipient of a deviated septum... but only slightly. and it's only there sometimes... I don't know. all I know is that I was bashed in the nose back in provo during gym time and ever since then one side of my nose just gets randomly stuffy... for no reason. but like right now? it's fine. I have no idea. I talked to the doctor at the CCM and he was saying that it might just be a little swollen. and as far as I know, that's all it is, but still. I just want it to get better!

just remember. God has commanded us not to kill. To quote GIR "oooo, that's bad, isn't it?" :P

[Invader Zim was a short-lived cartoon featuring an angry alien (Zim) who is sent from the mighty Irken Empire to prepare the Earth for eventual conquest. Zim is very enthusiastic in his efforts to subvert the Earth, and in fact his past enthusiasm had led him to be banished from Irk to FoodCourtia, but that's another story... Zim's trusty (if not fully functional) robot servant. GIR was created by Almight Tallest Red and Purple from spare parts and a few things they had in their pockets, so he can be excused for his eccentricities. GIR normally appears as a short cylindrical robot with blue eyes and a high-pitched voice, but when he is put into duty mode his eyes turn red and his voice deepens. On Earth GIR is frequently seen in his clever disguise - a green dog suit.] Text and picture credit to InvaderZim.tv


AND, I think you should take a look at this scripture. :P Moroni 7:45-48. I think you'll enjoy that one. :P

[45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.]

and come on now! I only went to burger king once! :P gosh, ya meanie head! :P

oh! one thing that might be nice to get is that compound W that I bought a little while ago. It didn't work very well in that wart on my thumb because I think it had some skin covering it. so the cold couldn't get down to the wart. plus, somehow I've gained one on my left elbow. how? no sé, but I don't want it there. xD

but when you talk to Ella again, tell her that I miss her! gosh, and that I want to get a letter from her! cause I sent her an email, that she obviously haven't had the chance to reply to cause of home..., but I want to hear from her!!!!! ha ha ha, she would be an awesome doctor, I think. that would be great. but tell her that she would have to have a practice in WASHINGTON, cause it's way more awesome than Brazil.

DAH!!!! ok, we're going! I love you!!!! (we're leaving a little late ha ha ha!)

hope to be able to have more time next week! LOVE YOU!

~Brandon

E-mail 9-30-09

I'm soooo excited. I haves an eemale! yayz! so yes.

pero primero, yo obteni tu carta. fue en la mailbox I'm thinkin' like... lunes. so monday. but I didn't check the mailbox on Saturday, so I MAY have gotten it then. mail gets sent from here (and GETS here) quicky quick quick, I've noticed.

so yeah. first, I'll answer up yo questions from the emailzies. :)

ok. so. for my Spanish, I've actually been complimented quite a few times on my pronunciation, but I still don't know very much. BUT, I've been told by some of the members here that I know more Spanish than they knew English when they were learning it. ha ha ha! for some reason I doubt that. ha ha. I'm just wishing right now that I could UNDERSTAND people, darn it! that's killing me the most.

ah, the weather. ok, so here for the past few weeks, it only seems to get hotter. oh my goodness, it's killer. but like it's usually up in the 90's. at least. 93 seems to be the average, fluctuating between 90 and 95, ha ha!

ah, my tie. the light blue on with the wight and yellow stripes. I actually got that baby out when we went to the store in the Dom Rep. I love that one. it's so awesome. PLUS, its polyester, so it wont die from the heat or water! :D I've gotten like... seven new ties from here and those are all the ones that I'm using, cause I don't want my nice ones to die, so i might possibly send those ones home... BUT, I'll try and get a picture of the new ones I've gotten here. I showed 'em in the video I had, but it's too big to send, unfortunately, so right now I'm stuck with just the pictures. :D

ah, and no... I have yet to get my suit dry cleaned because I have to wear it every Sunday to church... but, I'll see if I can find a place that I can get it done at. :)

ah, and grandmas box! heck YES I got it. the outside was a little munchied, but that's how life goes, right? at least I got it. that's what counts the most, I suppose. :) and the "can" also made it safe. ha ha ha! saying it like that make it seem likes it's some kind of secret or something. xD

ayh, and a note to Steph (babb) I can't email her, so if somebody could, please tell her that I think she's on letter number seven... but I'm not too sure... :-/

ok. so me and my companion. we've been hitting a few rocky spots in the last week... I think it's the language barrier, or something, but he doesn't seem to listen to me very much... kinda frustrating. blarg, but I don't want to complain. he's a great guy! thats gotta count for something, right? ha ha ha! so. my apartment... I'm thinking is one of the nicer ones out of the apartments for the Elders, cause from what I've seen, the others... are all right. not fantastic. but inside ours, it's nice and enjoyable. :) except for all the fricken ants! >:-( gosh darn it. if you even THINK about leaving food out they come-a runnin!

and El Yunque, it's like ten minutes away from the apartment! it's really sweet! I wanted to go today, but we were a bit occupied. lemme explain:

yesterday, I got my license! :D and my PERMIT! "what?!" yup. that's right. BOTH of 'em. ha ha, after I took my written test, I found out that because of Washington's laws, I have to take the drive test too? no sé, but that's what they say. so they accidentally printed out my license, but then they noticed that I was from Washington and fixed it to give me my permit. they have such COOl licenses here. also, because I had a copy of my license from Washington, I got to keep my old one! :D so I'll send that home to ya guys. :D so yeah, today, they had me set up for a drive test at SIX IN THE MORNING! gosh! so we got to they area for it, and the lady wasn't there. for two and a half hours. and THEN? we didn't have the original car registration! dab nabbit! so now we have to set up a new appointment. :'(

ok. so two emails is a bit overwhelming to try and reply to, so just know that I got it. xD but it'll try and reply to the preguntas in the other one, too. :)

yes! a BAPTISM! her name is Herminia, and she is the mother of one of Elder Maldonado's OTHER recent converts. she's a bit older... I think round 64? MAYBE a bit more. but she has a VERY strong testimony. she actually, after we had taught about the priesthood (after she was baptized) she asked if we could give her a blessing, because she had been really sick the last week. sweet! :D

and, if you could tell the Franzens, I got their letter, but I CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT!!!! :'( *cries* but I'm trying to, and will reply to the best of my ability. xD

wow! Donny's going with Theresa? (to Homecoming)cool beans! that's good to see him participating in something other than video games (:P) ha ha ha!

and Ironically, I've been praying for Bryan... ha! I've been really praying for him to gain the desire to want to learn more about the church so that when (or before even) I return he'll have the desire to be baptized. 'cause wouldn't it be cool if I could chill with him for eternity? I think so. especially since I consider him my brother. :D

yay! you called grandma! I sent her a letter last week, so I hope she got it. I made a promise to her that I would call her twice when I get home to wish her happy birthday twice for the two days that I missed. ha ha ha!


dah! lemme get some pictures before I run out of time. cause elder... dah. nevermind. ;) I'll send them in a seperate email so that nothing gets deleted this time. >:(

LOVE YOU GUYS!

~Elder Bryan (or Brandon) :)

Sophistication

Sophistication: as long as you have a nice white shirt and tie, no one is ever going to suspect that you eat your vegetables out of a can.

Picture of Baptism

OK. so first picture, is Herminia at the baptism :D from left to right: Me, Herminia, Wilber (Omayras son (Herminias daughter)) otherwise known as Wilbito (ja ja ja! cause If you add -ito on to a word, it makes it small! HA HA!) and then Elder Maldonado.

Excerpt from Grandma Nita's Letter

Dated 9/16/09

..~..~...

-Elder Brandon Bryan, your favorite missionary.

Oh my GOODNESS! I can't believe I forgot to put this in my e-mail and in your letter! I got a baptism! Dah! I feel so ridiculous for not remembering that! I got to baptize her and everything! I have pictures, but I have pictures sent them yet and I can't I forgot! duh! OK. I'm going to start have to start making a list of things that I need to remember to write about in my e-mail and letters, 'cause by the time I get to Wednesday I'm so pooped out. but I'm aiming to be more productive.=D

Anyways, her name is Herminia. She's an older lady, and she's actually the mother of Elder Maldonado's converts from I think about three or two month's ago. But he's been working on her to help her get prepared for baptism, and all she really had left was to kick her coffee habit and she did!=D So Elder Maldonado, since I helped teach her a little bit while I was here(a little TeeNIE bit, ha, ha!) he said I could baptize her! WOW! a week and a half into my mission and I'm already baptizing people!? alright! ha ha!

So yea. please if you get the chance, share that with everybody, 'cause I wasn't able to include that in my e-mail.

Anyways, I need to go do personal study now, since I'm using that time to write this! ha ha!

Love you!

Elder Brandon Bryan

yay! one night early! :D ha! not that it really makes any difference, right? xD but thank you for your effort! :D

ok. So. if they change in July... then President Dewsnup should have already changed out then, right? or do they stay in for two years? cause President Dewsnup has been in for... like, from what he said, since they mission opened here... which I think was back in 2004? no sé. so I would imagine that he should be released soon... right? I dunno. but he's got a sense of humer, I just gotta find where he hides it! ha ha ha!

as for the perky, I'm doing FANTASTIK! :D I've discovered that, hey, I'm gonna learn Spanish eventually, right? right. yeah. but also, I've noticed that every day as I sit down during my personal study and during my language study, with a book of Mormon in one hand and El Libro de Mormón in the other and just read it verse by verse, it's totally a booster to my Spanish. huh. interesting how that works, right? yeppers. so every day that I do that, I notice that my Spanish gets better by like... a MILLION times. I can say complete sentences! I can read things! (in spanish. :P cause I'm pretty sure I could read things before I came here, right?) and I remember small obscure dusty verbs that I studied like ten weeks ago. woot! and no. people don't laugh at me, thank you! :P I've noticed that they always sit there and focus on what I'm saying though, so that makes me feel nice. it's always nice to be listened to every once in a while, right? xD :D and thank you. even with my haircut you still think I'm cute. ;) speaking of which, I cut my own hair last week. :-O I know, right?! yeah, it was with a... the... the thingie... OH YEAH! the buzz clippers. there we go. wow! that was weird. OK. so our zone leaders had us get our haircut because we had a general authority come for a conference, and then he came and get our ZONE conference, too! so we got to see him twice. but the second time was more directed to us, because,well... it was a zone conference for missionaries. it was Gary J. Coleman, and I'm not sure if I told you this or not... but back in the CCM, I joined another district to sing for a meeting, and then (because we had this awesome accapella arrangement of how great thou art (gran eres tu in Spanish)) they had us sing to him when he was visiting to talk to the Guyanans that were staying there. so I got to see him three times! :D :D :D he's an area 70 for the Carribian I believe. but he is a really neat guy. really cool to talk to.

[Jennifer - I think I told you last week that Lisa and David had their baby. He finally has a name......Carter Lee. a lot better than Vern! We stopped by on our way to Gma & Gpa's on Sunday. He is so cute! Not bad for 4 weeks early. He will fill out soon enough. The Carlsen's had theirs and named him Emmitt. Franzens are next!]

aw, carter Lee is a cute name. :D whats their last name again? I can't remember... :)

OK. so I hope that I can fill out the email a bit more. I spent like fifteen minutes trying to load up some pictures (and a pretty awesome video, if I do say so myself, of my apartment) but it was taking forever, and I wanted to be able to at least get the chance to email something this weeks, so I'll see if I can email the memory card home soon, cause I've got some good stuff on there. or at least try to get stuff sent next week. :D

oh my goodness. the weather?! it's fantastic here almost all the time! :D it's like 95 degrees out on average, and yesterday was super hot, like 100 I think. but it's just so great. and we have a car here too! :D yes! so I get off pretty easy here. but something I think is really hilerious, is that one of my good buddies from the CCM is on Vieques (the island right off the eastern coast of PR) and he doesn't have a car, so he's walking all day, but I'm like, way tan now. don't even know how, cause I'm riding in the car all the time, but I am. and he's still pretty white. hmm. good stuff. :D

also, thank you for sending that message to Steph. I sent her a letter last week, but it was to her house, cause I don't have her school address yet, so it has to get to her via her home address first, which is gonna be like another week and a half? I dunno. but I love how that was a super awesome run on sentence. LOVE IT! also, what could you possible say that would embarrass ME? :P

that's so weird that Donny's having trouble getting up... has he tried some tums in the morning? I think that might help. :) SPEAKING OF DONNY: he BETTER not be using my backpack! that's my BABY! so you better correct that problem. xD I've had her since 7th grade, and I wanna keep using it! ALSO speaking of which, I STILL have yet to find a backpack... :-/ so I'm looking still.

DAH! Donny? my little Donzer?! no! he CANT be turning 16. that's just ridiculous. but speaking of which, I need to toss him an email next week for that.

well that's good to know that Tawny is still stopping by for haircuts even after I'm gone! ha ha ha! I kinda figured that she like me, ya know? I dunno. kinda obvious to me the way she was acting around me, ha ha!

also, the tie? which Tie was it? I can't remember... but I've gotten a few new free ones around from transfers. I got some pretty awesome ones that were just sitting around. I showed 'em in the video, but I don't know when I'll be able to send it! :'( I'll try, I will!

no.. I haven't gotten my suit dry cleaned yet... I want to though! :'( I just have to find a place that can do it around here. :)

so I'm in Rio Grande. and guess what?! we have the Yunque here! :D :D ha ha! what luck.ours is the only area that has it,so one of these days we are gonna head out and chill there in one of our p days for a little bit. My companion is Elder Maldonado, he's a native, from right here in Puerto Rico. he's from Utuado, pronounced oo-too-ah-doe ;), that last one is a long o, like row. :) ooo! and using the word of wisdom is PERFECT! excellent thinking. but I'm building him up to eating more. also, I'm introducing him to a thing called... *announcer voice* NUTRITION! :D it's this little thing that good for your body so you can eats lots of it, and STILL NOT GET FAT! ha ha ha! thats actually what he's been worrying about, even though he's as skinny as me. RIDICULOUS! so I'm helping him discover salad this week. I finally convinced him to let us buy some.

dah! out of time! ok. I'll have pictures next week, and finish up detailing about the area.

I'll TRY and send some snail mail, eh? hows that? :P we have to get the oil/ filter changed and a few other things, so that's gonna take about two hours apparently, so I've got some time.


OF COURSE I'll make the most of this! :P who do you think I am, a log? gosh. :P

LOVE YOU MORE THAN EVER! :D

~Elder Brandon Bryan.

also, if you really can convince the young women to send me some letters... that would be cool with me, I guess. xD

LOVE YOU!

I'M Puerto Rico! WOOT!

HA! the reason it seems so long is because it IS!!! HOLY COW, it's been two weeks since I've had my last P day and it's just made me feel so disconnected. wow, it was horrid. but anyways, I'm HERE! I'M Puerto Rico! WOOT! ok. so my first area is... wait for it, wait for it... RIO GRANDE! :D YAY! :D ok. so my companions name is Elder Maldonado. he is a native Puerto Rican, he only speaks about as much English as I do Spanish. ha! naw, he speaks more than that, but sometimes it's really difficult, ESPECIALLY since I can't even speak barely any Spanish. but I can handle it. I just think it's so funny though. I torture him all the time. there's just some words that he really has to concentrate on saying, like bathroom. Ha HA HA! he always says barroom instead, so I just torture him on that. but he sucks it up, cause I can't speak ANY Spanish, so he can make fun of me so easily. :'( but it's whatever. I think it's hi-lerious. (yes, it was spelled that way on purpose. that's how I say it. :P )

but yeah, I DID send a snail mail letter, but I have no idea if you've gotten it or not, but I DID get your package and grandma Jans package, and a letter from Grandma, AND TWO letters from STEPHANIE! YES! I feel so much better now. I'm guessing what happened was that she sent the on back from the MTC to there, but I had already gone to Dom Rep, so what happened was they sent them directly to the mission office. Which is horrid, because I didn't get them for six more weeks, which absolutely felt like a lifetime! GOSH! But I have them. one was from back when I was in my first week in the Dom Rep, and another was from August 9th asking about me not replying yet, so she still wants me to reply, which is a seriously good bonus booster. Makes me feel warm inside. Which is especially important, ‘cause it's just so hard to stay positive all the time. But I DO know that it's important to be positive and I, for serial, try my absolute hardest every day to be happy. And it's getting easier every day. I'm not sure why, but I got out here and like... I dun no, it was the weirdest thing, and I was just instantly... depressed? maybe that's not the right word... I dun no, I just felt... hard pressed to feel happy. it was the hardest thing. but don't think I’m all depressed or anything. :P gosh, IM NOT, ok? :P ha ha ha, no, I was just feeling a little down, but I find new joy every day when me and Elder Maldonado make fun of each other. also, I enjoy preaching the gospel when I don't know what anyone else is saying. very nice indeed. but one thing I've noticed about here is that everyone is seriously way more willing to listen, even if they aren’t interested. that’s seriously VERY encouraging, cause I don't know if my tender little sensitive heart would be able to handle having the door slammed in my face every day. HA HA HA! woot. but really though, it's very nice to not have that happen.

as for the transfer meetings... no, unfortunately... President Dewsnup is a VERY by the book person, and at the beginning of the transfer, when everyone was like hugging each other and everything cause they were so excited to see each other, he started the meeting early and told us he was very disappointed that we could not control ourselves. LAME! but don't get me wrong, from what I've seen, he seems like a pretty cool, nice guy. he just takes his missionary work serious to the extreme. even if it isn't a super serious meeting, like transfer meetings. which I kinda get, but it's nice to sit back just a LITTLE bit sometimes, right?! tell me if I'm in the wrong here. NO sé.

but no, seriously, those snacks have kept me ALIVE! my companion eats NOTHING! one bowl of cereal in the morning, one sandwich or something small for lunch, and no dinner. he waits all the way till nine to eat when we get back to the apartment. ha ha ha! and then he eats like seven cookies and calls it good. ridiculous. gah! he says eating dinner a waste of time. ?! what? since when is eating a waste of time. this guy's crazy. but I'm ironing that out of him. xD ha ha ha!

but heres about what’s goin' on here. the first night I got here? a LESSON! WHAT?! yeah, serious. ha ha! and it was in Spanish. guess what. I'm fresh out of the CCM, I can't understand a LICK of normal person Spanish. so, fortunately, Elder Maldonado still had Elder Teuch (pronounced - tiech. it's a German thing.) so they taught the lesson, and I bore my testimony of how the word of wisdom has blessed me in my life. yup. good thing I kicked that nasty drinkin’ habit before I got out here.

and for the past few other days, I've been building my Spanish. I've noticed that every day, I get a LITTLE tiny bit closer to understanding what people are saying. its nice. now I can pick out like a word every three sentences. I feel so grand.

also, President Dewsnup has set a rule that email is only for Family and fellow missionaries. solo familia y misioneros... *sigh* which is kinda difficult cause I have a few friends emailing me that I would really love to talk to on a weekly basis. BUT, he did say we can receive them. just not REPLY to them. so they can send me stuff. :D but,if you would be so kind, I wish to include a list of those friends' emails so that you could send them a nice little... actually no. I'm going to write something up by next week that I can send you guys as well as the email list so that you could possibly distribute those. but now... I'm out of time. we get an hour out here, but I can never seem to be able to type fast enough... I'm sorry I couldn't get more out... :-/

also, give my thanks to grandma Jan and grandma Nita for their letters and package.

and thank you guys for loving me. that’s just so nice to know that I have he support of all of you at home. I love you guys SO much. it really means a lot. I can't express it fully, but thank you.

it's difficult out here. I can see why Ehren was having such a difficult time. but we have to make the best of what we have, even if we can't enjoy it all fully. but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be out here.

and now, I am out of time, and I don't even get the chance to reply to much else of your email... I always just have way more that I want to say than I can put. I hate that, don't you?

so I close my email with love. especially now that Elder Maldonado is getting on my back.


I love you all!

~Elder Brandon Bryan

Letter about Packages

THE CHURCH OF
JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

PUERTO RICO SAN JUAN EAST MISSION

Urb. Jardines de Caparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamon, PR 00959
Tel.: (787) 786-2224
Fax: (787) 786-2579

Parents of Missionaries of the Puerto Rico San Juan East Mission:

In the past some of you have sent packages to the Mission Office address for your son or daughter. When the missionary is working on an island other than Puerto Rico, the packages may sit in the Mission Office for many weeks before we can take the packages to them.

We have made a great effort to take the packages to the islands when we travel there by unwrapping them, placing them in sealed plastic bags, labeling them and placing them in our suitcases with our own clothes. We have always asked the missionary for permission to open the package before we opened it. We were very happy to do it.

Due to the increased charge for extra suitcases we will no longer be able to carry the gifts and necessities sent by you and your extended families and friends to the missionaries. The airlines are now charging for the extra suitcases and the costs are prohibitive.

May we suggest that unless you can send the packages directly to your son or daughter on the Islands of Barbados, St. Kitts, Nevis, Dominica, Antigua, St. Thomas, Tortola, Virgin Gorda or St. Croix, that you send them money instead. Again, by the time the missionaries pay duty and you pay the postage the costs can be very high. The other option is if you do send packages to your son or daughter to the Mission Office, they may not receive them until they return to the Island of Puerto Rico.

Please know that we make this request with much regret but we must be prudent with the Lord's resources.

Sincerely,

Ralph L. Dewsnup
Mission President

1st Letter from Puerto Rico

Elder Bryan

My trainer and new address:

Elder Maldonado
Alturas de Rio Grande
Calle 1 A36 Apt. #4
Rio Grande, PR 00745

Elder Bryan's Side Note:-> Elder Maldonado told me that mail sent to this address doesn't get there super often. So if you send stuff to the mission office I'll be able to get all of those wonderful Packages you send all the time once a week. =D

Ah! first letter from the mission field! Whoa!

Woot woot! So here I am sitting in the chapel in Puerto Rico. I'm finally here and safe as evidenced by my photo. Oh, and look at that, you get to see my nice short hair before I send you a picture.

It just feels .... so weird to be here. Actually out here, doing everything that I've been taught to do. It almost feels surreal.:-o But I am really glad to be here, and I'm especially glad to have learn everything I have at the MTC and the CCM.

Ok. So about my first night a little bit. :D yay! first night! OK ... So my trainers name is Elder Maldonado, just like it says up at the top. =) I got to meat his last companion, Elder Teuch (Toich is how it's pronounced. Crazy German words xD) and this is the end of his first 6 weeks here. Guess where he's being transferred now? Barbados! :-o Lucky! alright! and my new area is Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. Que Bueno, no? =D I like to think so. It's so cool here. Hills covered in Jungle trees all over the place, and at night time? Oh my goodness, I swear that the movies got their jungle sounds from here.. it is just incredible! also, it's a bit ... better than the Dom Rep. here the water is clean, and the traffic is slightly more organized.

Dah! almost out of time. OK, so we have a hurricane heading our way, we might just get rain and crazy wind, though it all depends where it goes through. but I have to stay inside until that time! (obviously, ha ha!) So I might have more time ... ha, like right now. But yeah Sister Dewsnup is warning us about the things we need to do to prepare, like water and food.

Doh, outta time now, but yeah, I will try the best I can to write soon.

I love you guys so much. I really do. Thank you guys for everything.

Elder Brandon Bryan

First Picture from PR

Elder Bryan's arrival in Puerto Rico:
We find him sandwiched between
Sister and President Dewsnup