Elder Brett

Hello all,

What a week it was; a lot of ups and downs, but nevertheless it was a great week. Have I mentioned how fast the weeks go by? Our nickname for sunday is "gameday" and we try so hard to get all of our investigators prepared for gameday throughout the week and it never feels like there is enough time. Saturday always comes so quick and it's always one of the toughest days of the week. The tough day this past week was Friday though. Let me explain...

We ate at a members house on thursday night and the food was great, just possibly undercooked. My piece of chicken looked perfect but Elder Stone's piece looked like it had just been freshly pulled off the chicken. He ate a little but then politely asked for a new piece that was a little better cooked. Anyway, we finished off the night just great. The next morning during studies my stomach started to feel a little uneasy. I didn't think too much of it but as time went on it got slightly worse, but I just kept going through the day like nothing was wrong. We went by a few investigators' houses and then around 1pm we got a call to stop by a ladies house for lunch. She's catholic but claimed to always have the missionaries over for lunch so we wanted to go and see what the deal was (and see why the heck she wasn't baptized yet). The two other elders living in our apartment went with us as well.
On the way over there (by the way, I'm the driver. Elder Stone's license expired) I told all the elders that I'm not eating because my stomach kind of hurt and they were like "You know you can't deny food from mexicans!" and I knew I was in for trouble. Anyway, I ended up eating a full plate of food and my stomach was not happy with me. After eating and sharing a little message, we headed back to the apartment to pick up a couple things and by this time my stomach was really hurting. Elder Stone eventually convinced me to call the President's wife and just let her know.
She told me that quite a few missionaries had gotten the stomach virus lately so that's probably what it was, and she told me to go to the store and buy some imodium. So we go to the store and we pick it up and as I'm waiting in line, I realize that we need to get back to the apartment pronto. We were in the 10 items or less line, yet the two people in front of me had a hundred items in their cart. I was freaking out.
ANYWAY, we buy the medicine and fly back to the apartment. We get to our door and Elder Stone was taking forever to get the door unlocked, so I push him out of the way, unlock the door, and dash into the apartment and manage to flip open the toilet seat before vomiting everywhere. It was terrible. I haven't thrown up in a long long time and I forgot how miserable it was.
I continued to throw up the rest of the day and then I was perfectly fine the next morning. We worked extra hard on Saturday and Sunday and made up for the little lost time and had an overall great week; just a little food poisoning to throw a wrench in it all. It was great.

Okay, I'm not sure why I told that whole story. I just thought it was sort of funny. But I'm totally fine now, and things still are going great. Thanks for all the emails and letters. I tried to send an email last week with pictures but it didn't work. I think the best way to do it is to use a USB flashdrive. Mom, I should have a couple still at home. If you aren't using them, could you send them? If not, I can just buy one here. Elder Stone and I have taken some awesome awesome pictures and I really want you all to see them.

Anyway, y'all are the best. Thanks for everything. I'm always praying for you, and thanks for all your prayers.

Con amor,
Elder Brett

PS - dad, Elder Monson is actually in my zone. I've talked to him a couple times. He's really good at drawing. And what's up with March Madness??!! I've only heard a couple things, but is it Kentucky, UCONN, VCU and Butler???

     mom, thanks for the pictures of Buddy and of your award! I saw all the pictures. That's awesome. I'm still not so certain about buddy's hair...