December 1, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
It sounds like you guys had a good trip up to Forks and the place looks beautiful from the pictures you sent so I'm excited to go see it when I get back. But apparently the roads are ugly though. It's funny cuz we got the first snow of the season here and everybody is crapping bricks about how bad the roads are going to be if it keeps snowing. The thing about here though is the traffic comes to a standstill if the snow gets more than a few inches deep. And they don't know how to drive on snow either. Last year me and Largesse witnessed 5 or 6 car accidents just from people who don't know how to drive properly and rear end each other. Kinda like when the road is too slick for the person behind to stop but somehow the one in the front was able to. Pretty wild huh Mom? haha Remember that? Sorry I couldn't help myself.
Our Thanksgiving was really good here. We had a good dinner and everything was fun and whatnot. It was about as good as it can be without actually being home. We had to speak in church this weekend about missionary work and that went really well I think. I don't particularly enjoy speaking but I've gotten used to it now so it doesn't bother me too bad. And besides that we only had to speak for 6-7 minutes each this time so it was really easy. My comp was scared to death of it though. He was losing sleep the whole week over it. Maybe it didn't help that I told him we had to speak for 15 minutes and had him believing that til Friday when they told us on the previous Sunday. Our new convert Sharon gave a 10 minute talk and she did awesome, especially for only being a member for a little over 2 months now. It was just awesome. I was so happy to see that. And life is going pretty good other than that as well. We've been spending alot of time finding lately so that's been alright. It's getting flippin cold though. I had to bust out the big gloves this week for knocking doors to make sure I kept all of my digits.
My debit card has about had the weiner and is cracking. I'm afraid it'll break before too long and we'll be up poop creek without a rowboat. So if you could go up to the bank and see about getting me a new one that would be sweet. I'm not really too bothered with what it looks like so just pick something that isn't girly. And I don't know if they do them or not but if they offer the cards with the chip and pin thing it would be a bit more convenient to have one of those but if not it's ok I can manage just fine without one. Thank you very much! Did you get your post yet?
And one more bit of good news. You already know I'm staying in Redditch which I'm really happy about but also Elder Rapana is our new zone leader so I'll get to see him all the time now. I'm really excited for that. 
Anyways I better get going now. I hope you are having a good week and I'll email you on Monday again. Love you both!
Love, Elder Brice Anderson

November 22, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
It sounds like your trip is pretty interesting haha. I bet the "oh $%^!" handle is about to come off its hinges by now knowing you. It's bad enough when the wind is blowing over 3mph but when it's snowing it gets rather ridiculous. So Kristi and Neal are going up too? I didn't know that. That should be pretty fun I think. I always enjoyed when we could all get together. And this weekend will be cool just to be venturing off to somewhere different.
Thank you for agreeing to the shoe thing for Sharon as well. Her son wanted to order some custom made Converse All-Star shoes for his girlfriend so he got them all designed and everything but then he found out they don't ship to the UK and he happened to know a couple of nice Americans who might be able to help him out. So I gave them the address to your house so when they get there I'll give you Sharon's address to send them over here. She said she will cover all of the shipping and whatnot and she wanted to know if you wanted to have it sent over through the post or what? I don't know how long it'll take for the shoes to get there either so I'll have to ask Sharon and let you know when to expect them and everything. I'm not sure what is going to happen with transfers this go round but I think I might have a chance of staying here for one more. So hopefully that's what happens. I'd really hate to leave all the people here just before Christmas cuz I'd rather spend it with people I know and not have to meet all new ones just before the holidays. We'll have to see what happens I guess.
Everything is fine for Thanksgiving with Gerry so that should be really fun I think. I'm really excited for that. Nothing got messed up or anything so all is well. So at least I'll have a little piece of home this season. I've been luckier than most missionaries here cuz I got a Thanksgiving both years of my mission.
It sucks that the football team lost the game but hey 2nd at state is a heck of alot better than anything we've accomplished in recent years so they should be proud. I'm happy for them.
I think the idea you had about donating things to Primary Children's for Blake's birthday every year is a good idea. I couldn't help myself every time I saw the donation things for Primary Children's back home I had to give them something. They played a huge part in Blake's life for alot of years and some of that was fueled on other people's donations so I think it's only fitting that we give them something back so they can do it for someone else who needs it.
I'll make sure and get some good pictures of Thanksgiving this week. It scares me that I haven't taken enough pictures of everything over here. I've been trying to be better about it lately. I just wish I had taken more of the places I've been to and everything. We'll just have to take alot of them when you come over and we visit my areas. It's shaping up to be an easy visit for you guys if I get transferred to close areas for the rest of my mission. I've spent 16 months all within about 25-30 miles. Redditch is even in Worcestershire, the same county as Worcester. I'm sure you gathered what Worcestershire meant but I thought I'd clarify myself just a bit in case I never explained what a shire is.
Anyways I better get going now. I hope you have a lovely holiday. I love you both!
Love, Elder Brice Anderson

November 15, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
The work is going ok here. We spend alot of time finding so I'm hoping we can find someone new soon. We'll keep on trying for it. We are working quite alot with less-active members as well and we've been able to get a few of them back the last couple of weeks so we're happy for that too. So at least we are helping less actives anyways. I personally think re-activating less actives is as exciting and important as baptizing investigators so it's all good.
So Devon wouldn't have surgery til after the game in the dome huh? Haha that sounds about par for the course. I'm glad everything went well for him and he wasn't full of infection. The power of prayer is amazing you know.
So the football team is in the championship game now huh? That's so awesome! Tell Dr. Steve I'm proud of him! You know if you flew up to Forks instead of driving you could probably make it over to Moscow pretty easily. Just saying.
It's been cooling off quite a bit here lately. It's started to get dark at about 5:00 now so not too long and it'll be pretty black at 4:30. But it has gotten pretty cold. I've had to bust out the winter hat and gloves a few times in the last couple of weeks. It won't be long til we have icicles on everything again.
That was a pretty intense story about the bull dad, haha. I think you must have had at least a little bit of divine assistance on that one. That reminds me of when me and Rapana got chased by the bulls.  I'll hang on to that video so you can watch it when I get home lol.
I really like the base of Blake's headstone alot. That's really cool. I think it's going to look really awesome when it's all finished.
We went and got my suit fitted so it'll be ready for us to pick up really soon. I'll send you pictures in a while to see it. It's pretty pimpin if I don't say so myself. The Captain Crunch was wonderful so a bit more of that would be good.  I'm about out of time now though so I better get going. I love you both
Love, Elder Brice Anderson

November 8, 2010 #2

This is a bit of information that he shared with Natalie and I felt like it was worth putting it in his blog this week~Wendy
"It wasn't easy here this week but alot of things went well too. Gerry helped me alot here. I don't think it was an accident that I was here for this time in my mission. But when we were in church I was going to get up and bear my testimony but then I chickened out cuz I knew I was going to get emotional but then Gerry said he wanted to hear from me before the meeting was over so I did. It was really emotional but I felt alot better after having said what I needed to say. I don't really ever talk about Blake being gone too much with anybody unless I really trust them so I just explained what had happened and how it was his birthday and everything. Then I bore my testimony of the Savior taking our burdens from us if we lay them at his feet and how grateful I was to know that he would take the burdens away. Then I talked about how there are so many out there who don't have that knowledge and I want to give it to them but I needed help from the members to do it. I wouldn't normally make a plea for help from the pulpit cuz that's weird but I felt like I needed to and we left church yesterday with 3 referrals and some others who want us to help their less-active family members. So I think Blake was giving me a bit of help with the work here."

November 8, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
Thank you so much for the pictures and everything you sent. It was nice to at least see what was going on even if I couldn't participate in it myself. I'm glad you had Nat come over too. That meant alot to me to have her there. I like the new layout of the headstone alot. I didn't really follow what changes you were going to make but it looks nice anyways so I'll trust your judgment. I like it with the family picture on it and the one with the coke. Those make it alot better I think. I'm proud of Mom for flying to Boise, cheers for that lol.
That was funny about Brandon and his suggestion for the the cheese grater and stuff on Blake's grave lol. I remember finding freakin cheese everywhere too haha. That's just how it was with him. And flippin banana peels in the garbage can downstairs that nobody used except him. I cleaned that crap out more than once cuz it smelled like banana bread from the 90's. That's nasty. Great memories!!
The cookies we made at Gerry's were amazing. I forgot how good those really are. We had a bit of batter left after we filled the sheets so Gerry used a bit of ingenuity and put the rest in a pie crust so we made like a massive pumpkin cookie pie. And it was lovely. And Gerry used his first spatula too ;-) haha. Now can you see why me and Gerry get along so well? We're always making jokes. 
The weather here has gotten pretty cold this last week. It got really cold for a week last month and then it warmed up for a while but I'm afraid now we're headed for winter. I'm not all that excited for it to be honest with you but we've got to deal with it don't we?
But other than that life is good. I've got to get going now though but have a good week ok. I love you both! Talk to you later!
Love, Elder Brice Anderson
p.s. I'll be getting my suit this week. I'll send pictures a bit later

November 1, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
I'm having a bit of a rough time dealing with Blake's birthday and everything as it is so it makes everything seem a bit hard. But I'm doing ok. I spend quite alot of time talking to Gerry when we're over at his house. I'm pretty sure it was an inspired decision to send me to Redditch with Gerry so he can help me out.  I just need a bit of help sometimes.
So Devon is doing better then? Gerry said he asks you about him all the time to see how he is. I'm glad to hear that all is going better for that. Hopefully he'll be out of there soon. You'll have to let me know how he's doing and everything next week. I'm not gonna lie I miss that little turd and his cheeky comments. Remember when we were bear hunting and he kept saying "Hey I'm Wendy, I'm afraid of heights" haha. Good times.
I really miss going to the temple alot. I wish we had one in the mission so I could go on pday or something. That would be brilliant. But unfortunately we don't so I just have to wait. I miss it alot though.
I got a letter from Justin last week and he said he was struggling alot with stuff but he wasn't too specific. He did say he quit going to church because he wasn't happy there and he thought I wouldn't want to talk to him anymore. Now of course this is not correct so I had to write and straighten that out and I'm just waiting for a reply now. I sent the letter on Friday so he will have gotten it this morning I would imagine. So hopefully I'll hear back in the next couple of days. We'll have to see what happens there. I'll let you know though.
So now you'll have the porch decorated with uncarved pumpkins and the exorbitantly priced straw bales. Cool beans. Just so you know I still think those things are ridiculous.
I'm really happy for Dr. Steve and the football team too that's awesome. Where do the have the playoff games for 1A? I've never really paid much attention to that before now. Tell Dr. Steve hi for me though. I miss football. But this is the last season I have away from it. Happy day for me. I'll probably just watch sportscenter for hours when I get back haha. By the way how are Utah and Boise State doing? I heard they were ripping it up this year.
Dad, you'll have to send me pictures of the painting of the Tetons when it gets finished and of Grandpa's house. I'm anxious to see what it looks like. I bet it's pimpin. And to answer Wes's question I still want black for the color of my car. Thank you for the pictures I did get though. I loved the ones of camping they brought back lots of good memories. And Mom on the scooter was a bit comical as well haha. I like it though.
Anyways I better get going now. I love you both. Talk to you later. Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Brice Anderson

October 25, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
Life is going pretty good here. We've been doing quite alot of finding and such all over Redditch and we keep meeting alot of people but none of them have been too overly bothered about the gospel yet so we're still looking at the moment. But life is going good. The Bishop and another member here said they were going to try and shift their schedules a bit and take us golfing in a couple of weeks for p-day so that's definitely a plus. But ya life is going ok, we're just finding quite alot. And it's started to get pretty cold at night here. The days are doing ok but in the morning and after the sun goes down it's flippin freezing I tell you what. And it'll only get worse after we turn the clocks back. That'll mean it will get dark at like 5:30 and continue to get dark earlier. Pretty crazy business I tell you what.
I'm glad you are going to put a family picture on the headstone I think that'll be what it needs. I think it's more important to have a picture of all of us than to have one just of me and him anyways. And don't get stressed about it. Stress is of the devil. Just remember, which is more important, to get a headstone on as quick as possible or to give him something he deserves?
I like the story about Wes' kids on the roof haha. . I was a bit of a turd when we were roofing and building the house and all of that, as you both well know, but I have to admit I've been able to use alot of the stuff I learned doing that to help people out here when they ask us to go and do a bit of service. So it'll be good for them to learn a bit too. We've had some good times doing the old roofing you know. Remember when we filled my sweatshirt with old shingles and threw it off the roof out at Grandpa Max's house? That was hilarious. When I tell people that story out here I get the same reaction, all the Dads think it's funny but the Moms just fail to see the humor. I don't know why.
Thank you for the old Halloween pictures. I remember that very well. I hated the face paint though I remember that part. Something about the sensation of the skin on your face stretching out every time you blink isn't that appealing to me. But it was good fun anyways. You'll have to send me more pictures of Grandpa and Grandma's house later. I'd like to see how it's looking. Are you guys going to have to bust out the old insulated cover-alls to do the siding like we did on our house?
Anyways I better get going now. I love you both and I'll talk to you later. Have a good week!
Love, Elder Brice Anderson