He Sounds Like a Real Missionary (and more about pants)

Pant situation is not as serious as I originally thought. Turns out, Jos A. Bank dry clean only suit pants are indeed somewhat washable. So I washed my one pair that wasnt destroyed or supposed to save for meetings. They work. Other note. I was playing with some kids and I was running and tripped and fell and hurt my knee and put a hole in my pants that didnt have a hole. Pant situation is back up to red alert. 

Something cool, on sunday we got a less active to come to church. She hadnt been in a few years and she brought her granddaughter with her. She is baptismal age. Her mom is a nonmember and we will be able to baptize her! Hopefully this saturday. Thus fullfilling the standard of excellence of one bap a transfer. However next transfer we are lined up to baptize 4 or five others!! Awesome. 

Once a week we have been able to go to Salina. But we couldnt do that anymore because of miles. Also salina is a different zone, and that is where the granddaughter is from and a bunch of other investigators. So we called the pres. skipping the line of command and got permission to go up there everyday this week and use as many miles as we want. So we no longer have a mile limit and can leave our zone whenever this week. 

This week the attendence in the spanish branch was triple about than what it usually is. We are working hard to keep it because the main english ward is trying to split and the spanish might dissolve. No queremos eso. It turned out good. That is how we strike in the church, via going to church. 

Other than pants, I have had another problem. I seem to be losing shirts somehow. I dont even have seven anymore....what? No idea how that happened, but it is a problem. 

We had some good lessons this week. Felt the spirit really well in one. We were teaching in a restaurant and the worker was listening to us. She was sort of crying the whole time, and when I was teaching about the spirit I felt like asking her how she was feeling. So I did, thinking that I would then use that to explain what she was feeling was the holy ghost. Things didnt quite work out like that. I asked and she just broke down and started crying. She kept saying that she didnt have words and couldnt express herself. It was awesome. And that was in Salina by the way. 

Love you so much mom! 

Pants Problems

Well here goes week one of planner writing. Last time I said that I would write stuff down so I can remember. 

First up. From day one: pants. I really need some pants. All the pants I have are dry cleaned. One of them a sticker from a bush grabed it and tore the whole leg part in half. The other it riped in the middle, and the last is good. I have another nice one, but it is the blue nice suit that am not supposed to wear that much. So in conclusion of this topic, I have one pair of normal pants I can wear everyday that work. 

Next; stops. My comp is from mexico. They dont have street rules down there, so I sort of back seat drive a bit. He doesnt like it. He asked me not to help for a bit. In that twenty minute ride, he took two wrong exits and ran three stop signs, and almost tried to go through an army no through street. I stopped him on that one. I still do it now, much to his chagrin. 

Music; I really want a bit more if possible. Everything LDS artist or over 100 year old classical.  

Re emphasis on pants. and ties also, could you send me the rest of my ties? I dont know why I didnt take them all. 

And last and not least because it is awesome, sort of. There is this homeless lady who walks laps around the city. She has a beard. An actual beard, full out. Probably better than stuart could grow.

Shout out to ross who told me how to make toast, and Grace. And to Robby for sandwich! I am looking forward to trying those! Especially the toast. I have never had that yet. Mom also pulled through with some great ones.

In which Brady commits to writing better letters and calls on (all) his family (by name) for help

After reading part of one of Jacob's [Osborn] letters I have decided to make my letters better. They are boring. So, first on the agenda, the oath. I Brady, do solemnly swear, that I will write better letters and that I hate this keyboard. There see? Started already. 

But this week was good. We started teaching in Manhattan and Salina. The latter is out of our zone. But since we are spanish elders we get to go out there for that. Oh cool. Manhattan is awesome. K-state is there. Love it. The work is a lot of fun. And when it comes to email time I cant remember what I was going to write about. I can start keeping track in my planner. 

I got a k-state clock. I dont know if I told you but I burnt my hand. Also my letters might seem unorganized because I remember what to write while writing it. And I hate this keyboard so I don't want to fix it. But while we were cooking the pig I grabbed that bar that going in his mouth and out his rear and it was still above the fire. In that half second I cooked the outside of my hand. I love my ocarina and I love shopping in Walmart. Especially in the book and skin care sections because you can hear the music the best. Last time I heard In the Middle by Jimmie Eat World. Raddicuullll. One quick comment about your little call-signs at the end of the emails, dad, yours is good, mom, yours is redundant. I will have children also...I hope. 

Now I need some help from all of you folks at home. I need some recipes. My email is brady.daines@myldsmail.net. They need to be simple also. Right now my breakfast is cereal and a poptart. Lunch is some times top ramen, then hardboiled eggs and a poptart. If we come home for something in the afternoon I eat a pickle. And when we come home at night I eat a... take a guess... poptart! Seven days a week. No bueno. So starting this week we will have a compitition. Person who sends me a really good one will get a shout out in my next letter. 

People I expect an entry from for sure include, but are not limited too: Mom, Dad, Maren, Stuart, Michelle, Grandma, Grace, Krysti, Carley, Hannah, Emma, Nicko, Mckay, Jacob, Julianne, Maddie, Taylor, Covey, Rachel, Rob (uncle), other Grandma, Lauren, Paul, Elisa, another from Mom, Annie, Clara, Hitch, Kathryn, Natalie, Scotty, Luke, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Gandalf, Frodo, Samwise (the dog), Samwise the real, and lord of lake town, and last and least Robert. just kidding, not least, love you Robert.

More Adventures from Kansas

Hola! Well I am back writing. Hopefully you got my picture yesterday. Me and the other elders here were celebrating a birthday so we killed a pig, then gutted it, then cooked it on a spit for a few hours. Fun fun fun. They are polys and they tought me how to! That was awesome. 

We are out here in Junction City and it is cool. I am super excited for that package. No tengo ahora, pero espero recibo. Get that? I dont know if it worked well but I tried. My companion is Elder Garza and he is funny. He is a good biker. I have been borrowing another elders bike because as of now, I dont have one.

Alive and in Kansas

Pues, I am in kasas now. It is indeed hot and humid. But it is awesome. We have a car and we can alternate each week having it with some sisters. I like it though. 

My comp is a native spanish speaker from mexico. He is awesome. So the missionaries that I spend most time with are my comp, who works out hard and has great muscles. Then two other Polys: Samoan, and Samoan/Hawaiian. They both played rugby and are huge. I look super small next to these guys strength wise. I am the tallest but by far the weakest. 

I am learning spanish and it is getting better. I had a hard time in church, it was in spanish. I almost fell asleep many times. But I made it!! There are some awesome families here. And unfortunately, I am having a little bit of a difficult time readjusting food wise. My stomach doesnt like it. 

And if you want to send stuff, you have to send it to the mission home. Use priority mail or something. That we they readdress it and send it out fast. If you don't, I wont get it for a month or two, and don't use like ups or fed ex.

love you all! peace

                -Elder Daines

One more thing:  For p-day today we are going up to Manhattan and playing nerf in the church then basketball. I am very excited. I will miss greatly the daily soccer with latinos though. Love you. Wish Maren happy birthday for me. I will send some letters soon. I have presents for the boys. Sorry. In the missionary store in Mexico there isn't anything really, except food, ties and a few other pieces of junk. I got one for Maren.

Last Week in Mexico

Once again, same thing. Except we also had our first american friends leave this week. So I am a first generation here. 

The food has gotten much better, and my spanish is getting much better. I am excited to get out. I got to go to the temple this week! 

We have played a lot of football this week. By football I mean soccer. With latinos who are really good now, we have some awesome games. And with my three week experience in soccer, I normally played frisbee, basketball, or ping pong, I am getting wrecked, sort of. I am a big chap and can use my excess weight to my advantage.  It is so awesome how you guys are in alaska again. I liked that a lot. I am excited to get out there.

 

Side note: thanks to everyone for the letters, like the tahoe clan, and Rachel (who I did the handshake with), but it can take up to 28 days, true story it happened to my friend, so you should not send anymore for a little because I am leaving, my last week. thats right, six weeker right here!

Day 28

[I'm posting this letter exactly how we got it. At least we know he's having fun and hasn't lost his sense of . . . Brady.]

day 28

28 days in this cage. I have heard rumors of an outside world but have seen no sign of them.  I look out over the wall and only see smog. The people with white name tags get to go on explorations outside the wall.

they say its not safe for me, the tacos could make me sick.  I am stuck in here, reading the BOM and watching old church videos. I play soccer in here. and frisbee. and ping pong. but I see no cars. nor remember the taste of strawberries. nor the touch of grass. just kidding. we have grass. but we play street soccer. I mean football. I am not a man of many words however I believe in harvey dent. I believe that this is the place to be. the outside is dangerous. we had our latinos leave again, this time however, they were the last graduating class from here, this used to be a school before mtc. they all played soccer for them, they had to give their jerseys back at the end of the year though. so they stole them earlier this week. and gave them to us. awesome. however they are beyond my reach. they left the safehouse. I will probably never be able to see them again. our dorm is beginning to look like a war zone. carcases all over the walls and celings. these dang misquitos man. my amigo elder jones came and fought with us for a night. he got 361 in about an hour. we won that fight. I also started my frisbee work out every day. pretty soon 45 jump squats will be nothing.  Elder Grant Owen made it safely into the safehouse. we played that one sport together where you throw the disc around and try to catch it in the endzone. I cant remember the name. even though I typed it a little bit ago.  they also started to figure out the food. even though we still have rice and beans twice a day now, it is getting better. unlimited fruit loops also. what what.

mucho amor

Me (Elder Daines)

Elder Castillo and Elder Slavens (he's being weird); [soup?]; Elder Packard: he ate the coin;

Entrance to my dorm, Elder Crook and Elder Butterfield.