Email 11/24/09

From: Bryan Barney
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 6:51 AM
Subject: Re: Happy Thanksgiving

Well it´s good to know that everything goes well up north. Just a quick respond and update, then I have to e-mail Pres. Tobias. If not, well, I´m dead, haha.

It´s good to know you´re ready to admit that you´re ready to be a grandma, Mom, but we all know this already. Don´t think nobody heard you make certain comments about holding babies up until now. Haha.

"And hopefully, no one is going to die while you're on your mission!"

Well that was ominous. But actually, if I don´t fool myself, a few people my companions have baptized have died, and at least one apostle. Time goes marching on.

The problem with uploading photos isn´t the cable, it´s that some of the crummy lan houses here don´t have a spot to plug the cable in, because the hide the towers behind boxes. Which I suppose makes sense, since the normal clientel probably shouldn´t be messing with such things anyway.

Wait, are you sure Elder Stapler went to Uberlandia? Morada do Sol is in Rio Verde, which is Goias, and Uberlandia is a city in Minas. But then again, who knows. Me and Elder Stapler lived together in Morada do Sol in Goiania, and I passed a neighborhood called Recanto do Sol here, as well as the fact that there~s a Morumbi here, in Uberlandia, and one in São Paulo.

Wow, the news about the Baileys just made me feel really old. Cindy is hitched, and her husband is at war. Jeanette´s married. Jessica had a kid. Every girl I ever knew will be married before the end of my mission too, haha. Katrina got married years ago. Sam Brickey´s already divorced, if I don´t fool myself. Kate Hetland moved off to Utah and Arizona, which is a surefire sign that a Mormon girl´s looking for a husband (90% of the American Missionaries in the Brazil Goiânia Mission are from these two states, with the next largest part being Idaho.) Cindy is married. I never really paid any attention to the girls in the stake, and as we all know, no girl in the limits of the Brazil Goiânia Mission is allowed, as 1) HAIRY LEGS and 2) You just can´t date someone from where you served.

I think I´ll have to date Canadians. They don´t know what bacon is, but hey, at least they know how to use flannel, huh?

SO, a quick update on me. I´m still here in Anápolis, as I expect I shall be until the end of the year. Transfers are on the 1st, but since I just got here, I´m in no hurry to leave. This week I had a division with Elder Deivison, who, some of you may remember, was my companion back in May. Elder Deivison and Elder Stapler are probably my favorite companions to work with, despite the little amount of time I was with either one of them. This week passed very, very quickly as Elder Deivison and I worked harder than heck, yet felt more like playing than working. It´s funny how that works.

Next month is Mission Tour, which would mean that a General Church Authority is coming to visit our mission. Which means we´re all running around like crazy trying to do our jobs better and make sure our appearances are sparkling and clean. Unfortunately, it´s not as easy as it sounds at times, to make all the missionaries in your care, well, care.

As part of the preparation, we´re all reading the Book of Mormon again, and have to finish before Christmas. I´m in Mosiah 3, but I have to get to Alma 32 before the 6th. On this same subject, as of Christmas, I will have read the whole Standard work in English once, as well as the Book of Mormon an additional time in English, and two more times in Portuguese.

So all goes well down here for me. Let everybody know I love them, and eat a lot of pie for me. Say hi to the whole rogue´s gallery, and tell them to save my seat for next year.


Love,

Bryan.