June 4th

Sorry about the delay in making posting Brett's letters. We've been away traveling.
Enjoy!

Another week down! We're on the downslope now...hopefully. As you've
already heard SWINE FLU IS AT THE MTC! Everyone is panicking! haha
everyday there are announcements on the intercom about this terrible
epidemic and it reminds me of like jurassic park when the dinosaurs
are loose. It's kinda just a big joke I guess. There are 3 confirmed
cases here at the MTC but they "Have been placed in isolation for
8-10 days" haha it's funny. Everyone recovers and it's really not a
big deal. With that being said, people are still getting held back.
Nobody was allowed to leave the MTC this week so 600 that were
supposed to go to their missions are all crying. The english elders
in our zone are being weenies. Heaven forbid they have to be here 1
month! It's been fun to hear about Europe! The Mimi/Stephen letter
was my favorite: Action packed and quite eloquent. Tell me more about
Andorra though. Was it as cool as you thought it would be? It sounds
like a neat place. How were all of the languages in Europe? I heard
European food is nasty, hopefully you all survived. What was the best
part of the trip? Megan said it was fun to see you guys. Be sure and
send pics! That was funny about the girls forgetting about EFY haha.
Did Hayley get there in time? That must've been a big trip for her to
do by herself. She's growing up so fast! I remember when I was her
age...a few years ago haha. Back when Pluto was a planet not a dwarf
moon.  Hey, I received a box of mystery donuts. Krispy Kremes! They
were really good and I don't know who to thank. Did you have something
to do with it? I really don't know haha. How's was your apartment in
Spain? It sounded like a neat idea. Our week was good. We have a
"progressing investigator" thing going on where Elder Craig and I are
assigned to a teacher and he is our progressing investigator. Yesterday,
we met him and walked around the MTC and we spoke to him in Indonesian
and asked him about his family and work and his beliefs. I guess the
goal of it is to teach him all of the discussions and answer all of
his questions over the next month. Once we get back to class, we don't
talk about it at all. He asked us a really weird question and we didn't
know what he was saying. When we got back to class, he wouldn't tell us
what he was asking. It's kinda frustrating but I guess it's realistic
haha. We have the hardest investigator our of the other missionaries.
He's Brother Bindrup, our most intimidating teacher. He is really good
with the language and plays on the BYU soccer team and he's successful
and married haha. It's good for us to have a challenge so it's a good
investigator for us to have. We play sand volleyball lots and it's nice
to get outside. We get drinks and lay in the grass in the shade
afterwards haha. It's way nice to relax. Do you have any questions for
me? I'll answer anything you ask. I better go though! Can't wait to hear
from you tomorrow! Be safe!
Love, Elder B-rett.

Ps- Elder Gonzalez of the 70 spoke to us on Tuesday. He was a
Villalobos-esque kinda guy but he had some good things to say. His wife
had a super thick accent and said some really funny things.

PSS- Could you maybe send a Lez De Azevedo Cd? Also, there are some Poly
guys named Adeaze and they do all church music. I heard it from my
Aussie buds so I don't know how big they are but maybe see what you
can do???
Thanks! Love you all!

May 28 Post

They said the mission would be hard, but I had no idea...this
morning, we went todo laundry and the room was full of new
missionaries! Morning is our time! Next,we went to get
breakfast and the chocolate milk was sour! Upon arrival back
to the laundry room, I found that someone had the nerve to
put their clothes in my dryer!...I was demoralized. Haha all
true tales of the morning, but life is good.

We've been here over 4 weeks now! Time has flown. The language
is coming along really well. We're teaching the second
discussion in Indonesian this coming Saturday. Apparently the
other foreign language missions don't start teaching in their
mission languages until the 5th or 6th week so I guess we're
just kicking butt. I figured out that there are lots of things
that I don't tell you guys...The first devotional we had Elder
Ballard come talk to us. Then Elder Nelson, then Elder
Neuenschwander. Elder Neuenschwander was my favorite so far.
He talked about when he was a mission president in Austria,
but his mission covered Russia, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria,
Hungary, Greece, and Egypt. Pretty crazy. He had some good
stories and included interviews with the missionaries that
were serving there at the time. On Tuesday Elder Callister
came and talked to us. He's of the 70 and he has quite the
presence. It would not be fun to be interviewed by him if you
intended on keeping a secret haha. He was like Villalobos
times 10...pretty crazy. He talked about Christ and had some
cool things to say. Um...what else can I tell you...Oh!
Thanks for the package! I got the bun things yesterday.
They're good! I want to microwave them and eat them today,
we'll see. I like the food here. It's pretty good. I weighed
myself the 3rd day here and then i weighed myself yesterday
with the same scale and I've only gained a pound or so. My
clothes still fit! For the time being at least. Every
missionary that goes to Indonesia that has some weight to
lose will lose it. So...I'll come back about 100 pounds!
Haha this week we were playing volleyball outside and like
4 Napoleon Dynamites came to play and than 1 guy that
looked like his name could be Han from Scandinavia. He was
tall and white and blonde and he was a disaster in the
sand. He gave us lots of good insights on how we can be
good like him though.

So lately I've been forgetting how to spell English words
which is kinda scary because I haven't even learned
Indonesian yet. It was so frustrating trying to spell
situation yesterday! Sich...sic...? Languages are screwing
me up. So tell me about Italy! You've told me a bit but I
like history and geography so tell me dirty details!
Megan said you guys are meeting for lunch today? Or maybe
met already? I don't know how the time change is there.
Bytheway, I got a huge package from her last week with
tons of stuff! All of my favorite snacks with some nice
little messages on them. She's nice to me haha. I also got
a postcard from her that she sent the second day she was in
Italy. It only took 3 weeks to get here! The mail system in
Indonesia will be abit slow I imagine. One of my buddies
here got an email from the Dudley dude from Canada. He's
from Cardston but he's already in Indonesia. He said he
doesn't understand a thing but it's all going well haha.
Apparently people love to get pictures with white people.
Todd came in yesterday. I've been trying to find him but to
no avail! On Tuesday night, I went to the book store where
all of the materials for the new missionaries are laid out.
I found his pile and wrote him a little note. I was pretty
bummed when I grabbed some stuff so it's the only thing I
thought I could do to make him feel at least a little
happier haha. I can't wait to see him. First week is pretty
crappy but then it's good. I better go finish laundry but I
can't wait to hear about everything! Take lots of pictures!
I'm going to send some pics home this next week so get
excited! haha take care, be safe, pray for me so I don't go
insane! Bytheway, On Saturday nights we have movie night in
the Aussie room. We hang up a towel that says "Samoa" on it
and it's got some poly's in a boat. We got down a line of us
and tell a story of the people on the towel...We're all going
a little bit insane! Haha but it's fun. K love you all!
Be safe!