October 25, 2010

My birthday went pretty well all except for the fact that I still havent
recieved my birthday package. Maybe Ill get it today or Wednesday when I see
the district leader. All the mail has to go through this chain of people to
get to me. Although it doesnt usually take too long now since Im only one
bus from the mission offices. One of our investigators got baptized on
Saturday, and she had a cake for me on Friday when we came to visit her.
Then on Saturday I ate some delicious tacos arabes with one of the hermanas
and pizza in the evening with another of our investigators. Besides that I
celebrated my birthday working as usual. Ya! I havent made the cake Grandma
sent me yet because I dont have a cake pan but Im going to see if the
Hermana that lives below has will let us borrow one.

We have hardly anybody to teach right now. So, weve been knocking a bunch of
doors and talking to a lot of people in the street, but most people reject
us right there and the few people that say theyre interested arent there
when they tell us to come back. Its funny because a lot of people seem to
feel bad just telling us no, but I would prefer that over them telling us to
come back at a certain time when theyre not there.

Its warmed back up again. Ive been sweating a lot riding bikes all cross our
huge area filled with hills. I dont know what happened. It was cold a couple
of weeks ago. The rain has completely stopped now. We are definitely in the
dry season now. Its weird how suddenly the rainy season stops. It was
raining like everyday just a few weeks ago.

Did I already tell you I went to the center of Puebla two weeks ago with the
zone? It reminded me a lot of Italy. We went inside the huge cathedral thats
there and took some pictures and that was about it because we realized it
actually wasnt part of our zone when we got there.

One of the wards last Sunday had their primary program and the other ward
had their ward conference. It was good, but sometimes its hard to stay awake
the whole time for two full three hour services.

The members we rent from that live below us are going on a mission to
Merida, Mexico to be in the temple presidency there on Nov. 1.

Thank you for all the thoughts, Mom, Br. Evans, and everyone that has sent
me letters these last couple of weeks. I just recently got a huge flood of
letters from people in the ward and others probably thanks to you Mom. I got
a really cool letter from Br. Bates. Tell him and everyone else thank you.

Love you very much,
Brett

October 6, 2010 - Communication with Brett/Elder Graham

I just wanted to let you all know that Brett does receive your letters at the address posted on the side of this blog. You can use that address or use dearelder.com. It is free and no postage necessary. Dearelder letters go into a pouch and take up to 2 weeks to arrive at the mission home. Then, he gets his mail once a week from there. So, it can be a lengthy process. Please know that Brett, as all missionaries, are very busy and don't have a lot of time alotted to write back. I have asked around those who have been out on a mission in the past and those who are now on missions. They do not have time to write much. We, as a family, receive one email a week which I try to post. Even those can be short. He is only allowed to email his family. We have not received any hard copy letters from him since he has been in Mexico. I will continue to update his blog. He is safe and has support there. His mission president and wife look after all the missionaries. His church congregation is also there for him. He's learning a lot.

Occtober 4, 2010

Ok. I really dont have that much time, but heres a little update. This week the weather has been way cold. Thats right. Mexico, cold. I never imagined I would be cold in Mexico. Its perfect during the day when the sun is out, but in the mornings and evenings, woo. I bought a jacket last week, but Im thinking I might like another one sent to me the next time you get the chance. I didnt even think to bring one.

Today we went ice skating in this huge mall with the zone. Ice skating in Mexico?! How many people can say they have done that?

Conference went well. The other english missionaries in the stake and I watched it in a little room in the stake center via internet in English apart from the Priesthood session which we watched in Spanish. The talks were great.

Dont worry too much about me. I have a good support system here. Yes, Mom, I do have a refrigerator and hot water. Haha. Its really not too bad.

Got to go, I love you guys,

Brett

October 4, 2010 - Marc

Thanks for the email Marc. I treasure each one of them. I really want to send you a piece of lava rock from the volcano that Im living right next to here in Puebla, but Im not sure how to send it yet. I cant believe youre only 10 and you think about such deep stuff like that in terms of God and religion. Wow. You are so smart and so spiritual. I love you, man. Dont ever feel bad for writing me long emails. I love them.

Love always,

Brett


On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 2:35 PM, wrote:

Brett I miss u so much I know I say that in every time but its true. I'm not wearing contacts any more! I got these things that I wear at night and they shape my eyes so during the day I can read a big sign from two feet away I'm so glad about that. Dad says I'm doing really good at tennis my serve is honorable but my forehand is good and my backhand is getting better me, Dad and sean played golf the other day an I was ok at the driving range but we couldn't play a game because I had to go to a birth day party for a GIRL named lauren. It was at the zoo we didn't go in the zoo we went on a bunch of zip lines across the zoo actually there was only two zip lines but the rest we hooked are harneses onto a line. And crossed a bunch of logs or a line it was kind of scary with the line because it was just one line with nothing to hang onto except for you're harness. mom wanted me to tell you about my testimony or something so here goes I've been wondering about things like about how god only told us about the things that we needed to know to get to the celestial kingdom and then he will teach us the rest when we get there I'm thinking about what he will teach us and stuff like what if we get two lives on earth or if he'll give us a big test in heaven or something like that. I've given you a long enough letter hope it doesn't take away from the time you get to wright us so I love you.
Love Marc

September 20, 2010

Well, things didnt get to crazy here September 15 and 16. We just kept working and doing the normal stuff and we didnt see too many crazy things. Although, on the night of the 15th we went over to a members house to see how they celebrated their independence day and to participate in the grito (means yell in Spanish) where they wave a flag around and yell ¡viva Miguel Hidalgo, viva (a whole bunch of other important figures in the independence movement and the revolution of 1910), viva Mexico! And I ate cow stomach, and cow feet! I didnt really like either of them. The cow stomach (mole de panza or menudo) was especially weird, but, hey, I had to try it at least once. I heard there was some big parties in the center of Cholula which is right nearby us and a ridiculous party and parade in Mexico City that was televised.

The change just ended today, but neither Elder Huss nor I are being transferred. I was glad. I like my companion and my area. Six months in the mission and I finally stayed in one place for an entire transfer (6 weeks).

As for requests for my birthday. There is this painting I saw in a Liahona that I love. Its called "Lehi´s Dream" by Greg Olsen. Its the coolest depiction of 1 Nephi chapter 8 Ive ever seen. I would really like to find a small print of it or something. Ive also been craving some american chocolate candy like snickers, twix, milkyway, 3 musketeers, etc. Oh, and pictures of the family and Dad´s GTM. Other than that I cant think of anything, maybe another cool tie or something. You can never have too many ties as a missionary.

Ive been try to stay in shape. Exercising regularyly and effectively is hard. Although riding bikes up hills everyday helps with that. Actually, we havent been riding bikes this week much because my companion fell and we still havent gotten his bike fixed yet. Having bikes makes everything so much faster. They have been really useful. Fortunately, Mexico has a way better public transport and bus system than the U.S. otherwise we would never get anywhere without the bikes. I do still try to eat healthy as well. Even though the majority of the food in Mexico is fried in a ton of oil and terribly unhealthy and I cant really control what the members give us to eat, I always buy a lot of fruits and vegetables. My companion thinks Im funny that way, but fruits and vegetables are cheaper than almost all the processed junk food here. So, it works out good.

Im glad Sean´s having a good time in college. I knew he would. College rocks. I cant wait to go back. What classes is he taking?

I did get Quin´s address. Thanks.

Good luck on your race, Mom. Let me know how you do.

Till next week,

Brett

September 27, 2010

Congratulations on your race, Mom! I always brag about you to people and always acredit all my healthy habits to you. Unfortunately, Ive been kind of lazy about working out in the mornings lately. We have some really cool people we are teaching right now, seriously, theyre like my best friends. I love them and Ive learned so much from them.

Ya, I would like recent photos if youve taken any. Im so glad Austin is doing well in IB. If he thinks its hard know just wait until he gets into his Junior year. I wish I was there to help him with his spanish. Haha. Is he taking chemistry with Mrs. Brennan? Math with Mr. Vong? I know the teachers change a lot for freshman, but I might know some of them.

Sorry, I didnt have much time to write this week. Ill try to give you more updates next week.

Love,

Brett

September 13, 2010

Well, good thing you sent me my white pants and tie. I just used them to baptize this Senora named Maria de Lourdes on Saturday. Shes the first person for which Ive actually been the one to do the ordinance on my mission. She already knew quite a bit about the church and wanted to get baptized before we even met here. Her finanse is a member. I was actually really surprised that she asked me to baptize her instead of her finanse. He was jealous. I think she partially just felt bad about the fact that we had to come to her house and teach her at 6:45 in the morning because she worked all day and she wanted to make it up to me in some way, but who knows. She is really sweet and I think she has a stronger testimony of the Gospel than me. I got everything right the first time I baptized here. Ya! Only one thing went wrong: before the baptism we were wondering why the font was filling up so slowly and even stopped filling at one point. So we started filling it up with buckets as fast as we could. We didnt know what was wrong. Then the bishop came 10 minutes before the baptism and told us that there was a pump that had to be activated in order to fill it. By that time we already almost had it filled. So, we couldnt add that much hot water and it was a little chilly for the baptism, but still bearable. Here, nobody has constant running water. You have to fill up a tank usually on top of the house with some sort of pump that takes water from a nearby well or underground system and then the water flows from that tank to the faucet.

Other than the baptism the work here has been kind of difficult lately. We dont have any progressing investigators right now. Although, we found a couple of less active families while we were contacting and one of them really needs some help. Jeu and his family hadnt been to church for like 9 years until yesterday. They got offended one day at some comment somebody made about their clothes and they stopped going. It appears that his wife didnt get baptized for the right reasons in the first place and after they stopped going Jeu picked up a drinking problem, their three children were baptized in the Catholic Church just to make his wifes family happy, and now he doesnt have a job. He seems like he really wants to turn his life around. I hope we can help. So far this mission is quite like I imagined a mexico mission with a extremely high number of baptisms every change. But, hey, its better than Italy. Haha, right Dad? Still its almost like Utah for Catholics. I hear there are 365 Catholic Churches in Cholula alone. My area is partially in Cholula. The center of every town is centered around the Cathedral that is there. They are beautiful buildings. The coolest catholic church is the one thats built on top of a huge Myan pyramid. Its not in our area. So I havent actually been able to go to it, but you can see from our area. I feel bad for Spencer, though, because at least here just about everybody is very friendly and respectful of our beliefs. If you said hello, Good day or good afternoon, everyone says hello back. There are a few people that dont like Americans and make fun of us (usually younger people, like teenagers), but the majority are very friendly and kind.

It hasnt rained as much this week. Thats good, except that now it feels a little hotter.

I got your package! Man, you spoil me. I love it. The chocolate covered pretzels are so addicting. I was wondering about the colors of the sprinkles, too. Are they Christmas colors or Mexican flag colors? Speaking of Mexican flag. Tuesday is 15 de Septiembre, which is basically like independence day for Mexico, but this year its going to be crazy because this year marks the 200th anniversary of the independence of Mexico from Spain. YA! FIESTA!

Love you all,

Brett