December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Hey Mom.

So first off they send my letters back to the sender with my mission address on it. Second of all, I'm not leaving until the 5th of January now. That is just great. I'm glad that I have that last week to prepare. That story about the nativity stuff is hilarious. I miss that little guy every day. He's just the funniest kid I know.

OH MY GOSH!
So the Christensen's sent me a Christmas card. I knew that the letter was going to be a hilarious one as they always are. So I read it to the Elders in my zone to cheer them up. I dont know if you have read it yet but there is a line towards the bottom where it says, "Mom decided to do something fun with her hair/She died it brown. DAD IS HAVING AN AFFAIR."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!ARE YOU SERIOUS! I wished so bad that I was reading it with Ben Brian and Dad. It was the funniest thing ever. I couldnt breathe I was laughing so hard. Tears were streaming out of my eyes. Hilarious... I loved it.

I got your Christmas packages this week and yes, I'm waiting to open them until Christmas. You're welcome. As tempting as it is to bust that tube open.
Christmas so far has been pretty good. I've gotten a few Christmas cards(ours was the best with a "winning" new year). And some scented letters (from Jessica). That was such a treat! I loved it. I should be getting another one today or tomorrow. And some gifts.

I'll email you next Wednesday with all my flight stuff. Remember. Its the 5th now.
Hope that everything is going well, I love you all.

Merry Christmas
Brandon

December 16, 2009

Hey mom.

So first off, I thought for sure that I had either wrote letters or emails thanking you for all the packages...I got the fudge one on Saturday I think. It was pretty good. At nights all the Polynesian Elders come and hang out with me and my companion in our room. They love me because I understand their culture like no white guy they have ever seen. Their words.One of them, Elder Jenkins just came up and asked me if this was girl number 1,2,3,4 or 5. I said it was girl number 1, my mom. He said she better be.
I busted open the fudge and chex for them. They loved it all. Here are Elder Iosefa's words after having a bite of your fudge. "Solay, tell me why my soul is in heaven now after eating this." Hahahaha. I LOVE those guys. Every night we kick back with them.
So I've gotten all your packages. Aaaaaaand, John and Ame sent me a WHOLE Magelbys cake! I'm not sharing it. My companions understand. Hahahaha.
So I'm going to be sending home my SD card for my camera. I suggest you show it on Christmas Eve. There's gonna be some 30 minutes or so of video for you all. :)
Idk, I think a calling card might work in the airport.
I'm going to either send home a box with all my winter stuff or give it to Greg. Idk yet. I get my flight plans on Christmas I think.
Tell Ben that I said to call his coach. His coach is putting forth the effort and if he calls him, the two of them will be much closer. For sure. Thats how it was with Jun.
Thats great about Brian. Can you ask Tara if she got my letters for the kids? I'm really concerned about that.
Christmas fireside!!!! Me, Ben and Dad's personal favorite. I remember sitting next to Ben and watching that....thing. Whenever someone would give an awful performance we'd look and each other and give our look...
Alright mom. Thanks. I love you all so much.
Brandon.
I love you both.

December 9, 2009

Hey Grandma!
Everything is going great this week! The language is really starting to click. My teacher Sister Lillywhite is hard to understand but my other teacher Bro. Morrey is EXACTLY like me and he's really easy to understand when he speaks the language. Probably because he uses so much body language when he talks.
I'm definitely a long ways away from fluent but I just finally tacked down a method that works for me when learning new words. I have to teach the first lesson in all Cebuano tomorrow night and I'm terrified. I've watched the older Cebuano district when they did their teaching and it didn't go so great for them. But it got better over time so I'm not too worried.
...Give all the little kiddies hugs for me. Even Chloe. She'll accept it from you. Hahaha.
Something cool happened in the past couple of weeks. One of my buddies from an EFY three years ago came to the MTC and I was his zone leader! That was so awesome! He just headed out on Monday to the California Santa Rosa mission. His mission is the whole Northern Coast! Pretty sweet. But we became the best of friends and we're writing each other just really excited to hook up in Provo when I'm at BYU and he's at UVU. THey aren't joking when they say that the friends you make at EFY last forever. Hahaha.
I love you and grandpa so much! Take care!
Love Brandon.

December 9, 2009

Hey mom. This email is gonna be short. I loved your testimony. Its always a good boost to hear a testimony. We had testimony meeting on Sunday for Fast Sunday. That was the hardest fast sunday of my life. Usually Ben and I are fasting against each other in a way. We make it until dinner because we just need to outfast each other. And without him it was tough to fast on my own.
If you could send me Aunt Heffy's address and one where I can get a letter to Bert and Amber that would be sweet. Aunt Jan sent me a letter so I have hers now. I wrote Dad a huge letter that has most of what I would say here in it. Its on its way today. I feel pretty set on stuff. I wouldn't mind another tie or two though.
The language has been coming along nice and I'm doing a lot better with it.
Thanks for all your prayers. I love you all.
Brandon

December 2, 2009

Subject: Re: Hi Elder!!


Did you enjoy Thanksgiving?
--Yes. Thanksgiving was very nice. We had Elder Holland come and he answered questions that the missionaries asked. They were pretty awesome. Some of them were about things like divorce, foreordination and other cool things. We had a sack dinner but a Thanksgiving lunch. It was pretty neat.

Did you get the pie dad and I sent? Did it taste good?
--YES!!! Thank you so much! I was going to send a letter to you thanking you but I didnt have time until about Saturday and so I figured I might as well write you an email thanking you since it would probably get there the same time.

Did you get a new companion or what have they done with you?
--I didn't necessarily get a new companion. I'm just now in a threesome with Elder Boehmer and Elder Tapusoa. But now Tapusoa is in quarantine so now our District is Me, Elder Boehmer and Sister Loveland....awkward.

Did you get the message about the shirts and backpack? Did the trade go okay? I have heard nothing and need to know this for sure.

--Yeah. The trade went great.

Do the shirts fit now?
--Yeah, the shirts fit.

Will the shoulder bag work?
--The shoulderbag is awesome.

Did you get to hear the game? Did you get to find a window somewhere to see the score or was that a no no?
--I could hear the game. I couldn't tell what was happening. Only when we got a first down. But as I'm sure you can guess, I had some sources. There's one teacher for the Cantonese missionaries that really likes me so he checked up on the score for me. 26-23 (OT)! That's so awesome! Brian told me about what Max Hall said. I agree. 100%. Although there are some Ute fans that I like. There's one on my floor three doors down. We both wore our team colors to gym. He's way cool. He came in when he found out the score, gave me a hug, and said, "Your Cougars are dead next year" and walked out. He's way cool.

During the game, did you hear me yell to you that I love you ? Yeah, I thought you did.
--I heard you. And did you hear me yell back?

In a nutshell, things are going great. I've been meaning to ask you for some time but can you send me Jessica Goold's apartment number? I have the building address and everything but it got sent back because it didnt have her apt. #.
Can you also see if Jenny got my letter? I sent her one and never got one back. I'm starting to wonder if the mail service lost some of my letters. I sent one to Brian, Cierra, Grandma, Jessica Taylor (the one in Temecula) and Tyelar and haven't gotten a response from any of them except Brian. I was really worried about it when Brian said he didnt get a letter from me when I knew I sent one.
Can you please have Jenny or ben check to see if those people got my letters? They can just message them on Facebook.

If anyone asks what I want for Christmas, just tell them that cash would be excellent. I dont have any money to spend for myself in the Philippines and the exchange to Pesos is going to suck through Wells Fargo. I hear their exchange rate is pretty gay. So cash all around. Although, I would like some more garments. I have 6 pairs of Dri-Lux. So I think another 6 would be great. I wear LARGE round neck tops, and Large Short bottoms. Thank you so much!

I love you all.

Brandon