Sun, 27 Apr 2014
The rest of the photos
Most of these didn't have captions, so I guess they're self-explanatory.
La Venta, Tabasco
Still more photos
Coatzacoalcos
The breakwater
A frigatebird
More photos
Our bishop's birthday.
My companion's birthday.
New Year's Day.
Pemex at night.
Photos christmas 2013
Bryan didn't put labels on all of the pictures, but this appears to be Christmas obviously.
The second
largest petroleum processing plant in the world as seen from my area
(the largest and the as-yet-unfinished new largest are also in my area,
but further out)
Photos end of 2013
This is my house in Allende. It's big because four missionaries live here.
My Thanksgiving dinner.
Elder García, my companion, in the bus station right before going home.
This is actually a better picture of my Thanksgiving dinner together with Elder Nisbet (resident of Elko).
Me, Elder Smiley, Elder Soler (my companion), and Elder Hernández (our district leader). This is right after the transfers.
April 21, 2014
Que bueno que aprovechaste tus vacaciones. Supongo que le cayó un rayo a la computadora y por ésto no me volviste a escribir. Espero que la compongan pronto. Siete horas es aproximadamente el tiempo que se requiere para atravesar esta misión. ¿Cuanto tiempo es de Las Vegas a San Diego? ¿a El Paso? Pues no pasaron muchas cosas en la semana aunque tuvimos un bautismo y estuvo muy bien tenerlo. Os voy a mandar algunas fotos dado que no he mandado nada recientemente. Espero que os guste verme en lo que me ha pasado estos últimos meses.
Jan's note: Bryan told us awhile back that he couldn't send pictures from his other area for some reason so he finally sent several pictures now that he's been transferred. He says above that "I hope that you enjoy seeing me and what has happened to me these last months."
So next I'll post the pictures he's sent.
April 14, 2014
This week was really not very good. My companion got sick, then I got sick, then none of our investigators came to church…Friday was a high point because we had another zone conference. The zone leaders gave me a new card (which surprised me, because these things usually take longer than that), and the missionary who had stuck my Preach my Gospel in his bag at the last zone conference returned it; that gave a certain upturn to the week. Next week we're going to baptize at the beach, so that'll be a mission highlight.
I'm sorry that you won't have company for vacations. Mexican children get two weeks off school for Easter. Which is interesting when we consider that there isn't even a word in Spanish for Easter (they call it Passover. Isn't that interesting? ) Actually a lot of the people here don't even celebrate it. The Catholics have a whole week of drinking and partying, and we always do something for Easter Sunday, but the Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Seventh Day Adventists (the other major religions here) for one reason or another, don't celebrate Easter.
About needing anything. My shirts are wearing out, but they'll last until November. Same goes for everything else. Extra spending money is pointless; there's nothing to spend it on (and actually they just increased our missionary allowance from 1400 pesos a month to 2200 pesos a month):there is absolutely nothing in my area. I suppose I could buy more food, but I already eat enough. But getting real letters and things in the mail is really special.
March 31, 2014
I love
you. This week was transfers. I'm going to a place called La Venta. It
has pyramids and other ruins. Also, according to the divisions of
things, it is still part of the city of Coatzacoalcos. So I won't be
going far. And it's the last of the three zones in the city that I
haven't been yet. I think it's probable that I will spend the majority
of my mission here in this city. But it's nice here, so that's okay. And
I'm not here for sight-seeing anyway.
We haven't started daylight savings time yet. I think it's the weekend of general conference.
Truthfully,
it's been a little difficult here. We haven't seen baptisms for a
variety of reasons. Mainly because parents of our investigators aren't
willing to give permission to their children to get baptized. And one
emergency surgery. But a new area has new challenges and opportunities.
We'll see what happens.
I
hope you enjoy your last few weeks of school. I'll be getting back
about ten weeks into the next school year. It really is amazing how fast
the time goes. I feel like I'm so close to the end of my mission, it's
hard to believe. Where does the time go? I read a book once about that.
All I remember is that at the end someone stuck a flute in some sort of
inter-wordly portal and all our time was being sucked away. I don't
think that's really what's happening, but it makes a good story.
Actually, I don't even remember if I liked the story or not. Anyway,
hope you have a good week. I love you lots, too.
April 7, 2014
I'm glad your party turned out a success. And the
show, too. Also that Dad has a job. What will he be doing: dealing
blackjack? Or managing machines that electronically steal your money (a
Mexican ATM ate my mission debit card last week; it made me think of Las
Vegas).
Here in Mexico, a major method of construction is
filling PVC pipe with concrete. I'm glad Dad is keeping up with the
times. I didn't even know the hot tub was broken. But that makes me
glad, too.
I haven't had any desire to sit in a hot tub as
we've been at forty degrees (celsius) these last couple weeks with the
promise of higher temperatures in the near future.
Conference here was a disaster. Nobody from the
branch presidency showed up on Saturday to open the building; as a
result, we, the missionaries, ran around a whole bunch under the burning
sun looking for keys only to, in the end, not find anything and not be
able to see the morning session. The afternoon session was slightly
better, but nobody showed up to see it except us. The priesthood session
was excellent. Sunday, again, nobody came to see conference. I'm
looking forward to reading it in the Liahona (if it ever gets here; we
still haven't got our Liahona from the last conference).
Also, I seem to have lost my Preach my Gospel at
our zone conference last week. I've already asked the zone leaders to
check in the building for it, but, seeing as our zone hardly ever gets
together, even if they find it, I won't see it for another month. It
wasn't really a very good week. I hope that next week is better.
Te amo y espero que Dios te bendiga.
March 24, 2014
My new area is a lot like my first area, just a lot smaller. There
aren't that many members, but they fill the house of worship (probably
because it's pretty small too). We need to be careful not to baptize too
many because there's just not space for them. My new companion is a
Poblano named Elder Rivera. He's been on his mission the same time as I
have. He's not that into working, but we'll get things done anyway. I've
only had enchiladas once on my mission. The food they call enchiladas
here is actually called 'enmoladas' (and we eat those from time to
time), but actual enchiladas are pretty rare. We do eat quite a bit of
rice, but it's just plain white rice. The most common dish they give us
is chicken in broth with white rice on the side. And tortillas. In any
given week we'll eat that three or four times. Tacos we don't eat very
often. These people generally don't make tacos at home, and we don't eat
out much.
I'm glad spring has been treating you well. Spring
doesn't exist here. We're well into the hot season here. In fact, in
this new area we don't have fans. The last few nights have been
unbearable. The mission secretaries finally sent us money to buy fans,
so we'll buy them today, and sleep better in this next week. I don't
remember complaining that our observation of brassica arapa was boring,
just that the format was poorly done and pointless. I hope you and your
class enjoy your gardening experience and that there are no sudden
plagues to spoil your fun (like there has been here; a plague struck the
Mexican lime crop and limes, which they serve with everything here, have become extremely expensive).
We
put in very few service hours here. People generally tell us no when we
ask if we can help them, and often get offended. We still offer, but
it's really difficult to find things to do.
March 10, 2014
I never said that I wouldn't write this week: just that I wasn't
sure if I would have time or not so that you wouldn't worry if you
didn't hear from me. But here I am. We did travel in bus to the mission
office, and from there to immigration. It's about a three and a half
hour bus ride. The buses are pretty comfortable, even if it gets a bit
boring traveling for so long. On the trip out, it stretched out a bit
because the bus arrived to pick us up an hour and a half late, and
returning it did the same because the bus driver got lost. Which isn't
something you generally expect from a major bus line, but that's what
happened. And it's just fingerprints and a signature. Nothing too fancy.
We've been hearing a lot about improving our
teaching skills here, too. They say that if we want to see different
results, we need to do things differently. This is the mission with the
greatest number of missionaries in all of Mexico, and also the lowest
baptizing. So . . . hope you can change things up at your school.
Haven't seen any hummingbirds in Mexico. Or much of
anything alive. It's mostly concrete and sand. And coconut trees. And
stray dogs. And more sand.
March 3, 2014
I did sprain my ankle, and last Monday it hurt plenty; the doctoor
told me I would be out of things for two days. But, I woke up on Tuesday
and it didn't hurt anymore, and it never did swell or change colors or
anything, so I just lost a couple hours Monday evening. We hardly ever
play soccer because there's really not time to do it. Mondays are our
busiest days. In fact, it's possible that I won't be able to write you
next week because I'm going to travel to renew my visa (they've never
done it on Monday before, but there was a new announcement that that's
how it's going to be from here on) and I have no idea if I'll get back
in time to write (and while I will probably be able to write the next
week, it's the week of transfers and there exists a remote chance that I
won't be able to then either).
I'm looking forward to getting back to first world problems. Second and third world problems are depressing and worse when you're in the middle of them.
Pretty much the only birds here are pigeons,
pelicans and seagulls. I've seen a few terns and once I saw a frigate
bird. That's it. They don't sing, though. And the pelicans have the
nasty habit of dropping fish bombs that stink to high heaven.
This week we received a visit from Elder Valenzuela
of the first quorum of the seventy, and he gave us some instructions and
corrections about things. It's been really hot. That's about it.
February 24, 2014
I didn't write much because I felt a little pressed
for time, and I wasn't feeling too great. I did read your blog, though. Thank you for
writing me. Everything was pretty good until I sprained my ankle playing
soccer this morning. The doctor says to stay off it for two days, and
then it should be fine. But those are two days of work lost this week.
Oh, well.
February 17, 2014
Estoy muy excelente, si con un poco (mucho) de calor. Estamos a 35 grados. Y a penas se está empezando la temporada de calor. Te quiero muchísimo. He pasado una semana sin mucho de acontecimientos. Pero me siento bien.
February 10, 2014
I had a good week with a few minor setbacks. One of our investigators disappeared and another ended up in the hospital, but in the whole, everything went well. We had seven investigators at sacrament meeting, which made me happy.
Mon, 03 Feb 2014
February 3, 2014
I don't get any of the news, so I know nothing about
the drought, but there's always a drought there. We've got water here.
It's so contaminated as to be practically unusable, but we've got it. We
also have a well. With a bucket and a pulley and everything.
Everything's
good here. The weather has been between really hot and really windy.
They announced the transfers today, and I'll be staying right here.
An
investigator with whom we've been working on and off for six months
surprised us this week when she told us that she was going to get
baptized. At first we didn't believe her, but then she explained to us
how she had had an experience the night before that showed her the Book
of Mormon was true. And yesterday she went to church for the first time.
It definitely made my week.
We
also had stake conference this week. Our mission president was there. I
really enjoyed the stake presidencies messages. On Sunday we were able
to watch from our own chapel because they webcast the conference. Aside
from a few technical difficulties, it was a good experience.
Love,
Bryan
Tue, 14 Jan 2014
January 13, 2014
Hi, Mom. Don't worry about Christmas. I'll be home for the next one, and
we'll do a super-awesome extra-special one. And that you gave Thomas a
phone clarifies Dad's commentaries about Thomas' cell phone going
through the wash. When you say your old phone, are you talking about the
blue one that's fifteen years old? Or have you gotten a new new phone
to replace your Android? See, these are the little things that nobody
ever gets around to tell me.
Anyway, I hope the week wasn't too stressful for you. A short
observation is that taking a little time to read the scriptures every
day will help you maintain your sanity and balance the rest of
your time better. Also: the employers here in Mexico are so much worse
than the employers in the U.S. for work/home balance. The average
Mexican works ten hours a day, seven days a week with an occasional
rotating day off (which is never Sunday which is especially frustrating
for us as missionaries). And they work that schedule not because they're
desperately poor but because that's what the employers demand.
As far as the mission schedule goes, it's not as simple as you
paint it. Sometimes there are meetings and things in the morning when we
ought to be studying. And sometimes our companions aren't interested in
studying. And sometimes we have church at eight in the morning.
Sometimes we get back to the house late and we have to decide if we're
going to plan or go to bed on time. Sometimes lots of things happen. But
if we decide that studying is important to us, we get it done.
To stay warm I've been going out to work with my fleece on and my
raincoat on top (the cold comes with rain and high winds). And today
it's in the high eighties and really sunny. The locals say that another
storm is supposed to come in tomorrow, but the weather report that we
get from the mission says it'll stay sunny and hot all week. We'll see.
Today
we went to the escolleras (breakwater) in my area and saw some pretty
cool stuff. I took pictures that someday I will send to you. I saw a
frigate bird and a puffer fish (there were people fishing and they'd
just caught it) and terns and gulls and oil tankers and giant concrete
tetrahedrons that had to have served some kind of purpose but were
pretty incomprehensible and a skin diver spear fishing. I also got kind
of sunburned, but It was a good trip.
This week we were looking for this
one inactive member who we didn't know in this one part of the city
where we'd never been, and, after looking for her for an hour, crossing
the colony from one side to another, we gave up and headed back; right
then we saw a couple women struggling with corrugated metal roofings,
and stopped to help them put them on top of their house. So we're up on
the roof and the neighbour comes out of her house to ask us to put a
pause on the roofwork because she was going to shower (her bathroom
doesn't have a roof and we were up high to see inside). And it turned
out that she was the person we were looking for! And then after some
more talking, we found out that the woman we were helping was the
ex-wife of one of our members whose daughters we were also looking for.
So it was interesting how that happened.
Amor,
Bryan
Sun, 05 Jan 2014
December 9, 2013Hello,
Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak in sacrament
meeting. I spoke about missionary work. It was a bit different. I've
spoken a lot here; my memory is that the missionaries hardly ever spoke
at home, but that doesn't really matter. And then we got to watch the
Christmas devotional. That was nice. It's been a pretty good week. The
weather won't make up its mind about whether to be cold or hot. If it's
not careful, I'll spew it forth from my mouth. But, it really has been
pleasant. It's my companion's last week in the mission, so we'll try to
make it special by working extra hard (and we have a baptism planned for
Saturday). That's really about everything.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
December 23, 2013
Hello,
Merry Christmas. It's been a good week, but a little
stressful. I got my new companion on Tuesday, and I've spent the week
teaching him the area. He's Elder Soler from Honduras. On Friday we had a
Christmas dinner with President Morales in Minatitlan (which is about
an hour away from Coatzacoalcos and two hours from our area). Then, on
Sunday, we had a stake devotional where we sang "Oh Holy Night" to the
members. It was a good experience. Be excellent to each other, and have a
very merry Christmas.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
December 2, 2013
Hello,
Happy
Monday. We're still in the rainy season, but we've had a few days of
clear weather, so the storm water is receding (and there are fewer
puddles in the streets). Thanksgiving is a non-existent holiday in
Mexico, so there were really no celebrations. I did go out and bought a
little pie thing which tasted almost, but not quite, completely unlike
pie. And the other American who lives with us joined me in singing the
Thanksgiving hymns from the hymnal.
We
did a lot of walking this week, but didn't see many people. But we're
going to continue working. I hope you all have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
Sun, 01 Dec 2013
Nevember 25, 2013Hello,
It's been rainy here, too. The locals say that there are fifty-five
"nortes" that make up the rainy season, and that we just passed number
thirteen. We're right on the beach, so the storms get pretty strong.
The upside to the rain is that the weather actually
stays below ninety degrees (for the next two and a half months, or so).
Thanksgiving is a holiday that the Mexican people have yet to
hijack from the U.S., so there really won't be any festivities, but I
bought a new camera, so I should be able to send you some pictures of
the various ways we don't celebrate on Thursday. Or maybe the other
American elder who lives with us will join with me in putting something
together. We shall see.
It was a fine week that culminated in a
baptism, so no complaints there. Also, the weather has cooled down to be
actually fairly comfortable. We're going to be well this week, too. As
long as we keep our feet dry (it's the rainy season). I'm past the year
and still going strong. My companion and I are going to finish out the
year on a high note. I love you and hope the best.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
P.S. The letter is short for time constraints.
Nevember 18, 2013
Hi,
Normally they notify us of transfers on Sunday night, we
get specific instructions via email on Monday, and leave for our new
areas Tuesday morning. This transfer, they notified us on Monday morning
of the transfers, never sent us specific instructions, and told us to
be at the bus station Tuesday before eight (which we actually were
unable to do because heavy rains for two days before flooded the great
city of Coatzacoalcos, and there were no ways to get across the city).
It wasn't so bad for me because my new area is so close. There's usually
not enough time to say good-bye to many people (which is probably one
of the reasons they do the transfers as they do), but we did talk to a
few people before we left. They didn't close my area; they just took my
companion and me out and put our zone leaders in. And I already know my
new companion (Elder Bryan García) because he was my zone leader for
three transfers. He's going home in a month. And he scheduled three
teaching appointments during the day today (I guess he doesn't care so
much about writing home since he's going home soon), so I don't have any
more time right now. I'll see if I can't write something else later in
the day.
Love,
Bryan
(Guess there was no time, because we didn't get another letter)
Tue, 12 Nov 2013
November 12, 2013Hello,
I'm being transferred. The area is called Allende and it's
supposed to be the industrial center of this same city of Coatzacoalcos.
It's in the same stake I'm in now, but a different zone. And, even
though they still haven't published the transfer details and we don't
know for sure, it looks like my zone leader will be the former companion
of my current companion with my future companion being my past zone
leader. Kind of odd, no? But maybe they're just missionaries with the
same last names. We're kind of waiting for them to send us the transfer
schedule which has all of that information on it. It was a good week,
though. It hasn't been too hot, and we had lots of success with
investigators this week. In fact, we've got baptisms planned for every
week of the next month. Too bad I won't be able to see any of them. Oh,
well. I hope you all have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
Mon, 04 Nov 2013
November 4, 2013Hello,
It's been a crazy week. My companion is a physical wreck (the
results of many avoidable sports injuries) and on Wednesday he
destroyed his ankle stepping off a sidewalk. So we spent a lot of this
week in our house on doctor's orders. Now he's somewhat better, but
still has an ankle that looks like an orange. A Mexican orange, because
the oranges in Mexico are green, but an orange all the same. We had lots
of investigators at church this Sunday (most of them were old people
visiting their children who live here, but they're still investigators),
so we're feeling pretty happy about everything, but it is frustrating
to be stuck inside. Halloween was a failure. We actually got one group
of trick-or-treaters, but we didn't have candy for them. The woman
escorting the kids tried to give us jobs as English teachers at the high
school where she works, but we resisted. It was hard because she asked
us in English. There were more trick-or-treaters out on the first and
second of November than on Halloween, which I thought was interesting.
The first of November was the Day of the Dead, so our mission president
told us to go to the cemetaries to contact people. It actually didn't
work out that way because nobody wanted us, but it was pretty cool to
see the people and everything. Yes, we had another week.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
Mon, 28 Oct 2013
October 28, 2013Hello,
Happy Halloween. It's been a good week (or at least we taught
a lot of lessons). Also had plenty of people at church (it was supposed
to be ward conference, but they told us on Sunday that they were
pushing it back to December. So . . . ). Today is a major Catholic
holiday. We also had a zone activity. If you think that's suspicious,
you're not alone. It actually got down into the eighties a couple times
this week, so it was a little more comfortable. And then I got a nasty
cold. But I'm mostly better now. We're happy. Also there are general
authorities coming in the next month and a half, and we may get the
chance to listen to them (or maybe not; they don't let us participate in
a lot of these member events). Que todos tengáis buena semana y estáis
mejores en todas las cosas.
Amor,
Élder Bryan Hall
Sun, 27 Oct 2013
October 21, 2013Hello,
Due to negative client feedback, all sentences will be
non-fragmentary even for artistic reasons. This week in church, we had
unprecedented attendence by members (probably because of the Primary
program), but zero investigators. That was sad. But we are still happy
and excited to keep working. Next week we will have investigators with
us at our ward conference. The weather has been unpredictable and
changeable, but we're all okay. It's a good thing my raincoat folds up
and fits inside my bag. Actually, I haven't worn my raincoat at all this
week, but it's still nice to have. Everything's peaceful. I will write
again next week.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
October 14, 2013
Hello,
Good week. Hot. Sunny. Not many investigators at church. But
we had some good lessons. Made some progress with some investigators.
Looking for new opportunities to teach and working on finding new
investigators. Unfortunately the baptism we had planned for this week
couldn't go through, but we'll see other baptisms in future weeks. Todo
está tranquilo. I love you all, and I'll write you again next week.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
October 7, 2013
Hello,
It was a good week for us; we were able
to teach a lot of lessons and find some promising new investigators.
Conference was also an excellent opportunity for us (even if conference
in Spanish leaves something to be desired). We have more investigators
progressing towards baptism than at any other time in my mission. This
last week has been really hot, but we woke up today to cloudy and cool
with a stiff wind. One of my pairs of shoes has been falling to pieces
for the last couple weeks (it has multiple holes in the soles), so I
sent it to be resoled today (I've heard stories about soles made from
airplane tires that they use here, but the cobbler says he can't put
those soles on these shoes. But he has a pair of "industrial soles" that
are for PeMex boots that he assures me will last forever too, so I'll
wait to put airplane tires on my other shoes if they need it). I
realized just now that I forgot to take a picture of the holes, so I
won't be able to show you what it looked like, but it definitely needed
something. My other shoes are looking fine, though. Hope that all of you
have a good week. Sun, 06 Oct 2013
September 30, 2013
Hello,
Transfers this week. This big news is . .
. nothing. The only change is my district is our district leader and
that's because he's been a missionary for two years and one month (at
this moment he's probably already at home). They still haven't told us
who our new district leader will be, but it's not that important for
right now. We're getting ready for a baptismal service on October
twelfth which has got us pretty excited. There are always a few problems
with getting someone ready for baptism, but that's part of the mission.
The weather has changed from occasionally tolerable to unbearably hot
with temperatures well over a hundred degrees and a scorching sun. We're
still working hard, though. Also drinking lots of water. I've been
drinking about four liters a day. General conference is going to be a
big deal next week, we're right now wroking to get as many people as
possible to attend. My companion's birthday is this month which means
that almost all of my companions have had birthdays with me. If I had
had as many birthdays as my companions, I'd be thirty by now. It's been a
good week, we had lots of people at church and lots of people
progressing. Hope you're all doing well and driving carefully (that
means you, Melody). I love you all, y que Dios os bendiga.September 23, 2013
Hello,
Buenas tardes, todos. I'm here in Mexico for another week.
They were predicting hurricane, but the weather continues the same as
always: sunny and hot. We've had some disappointments this week, but
also some good experiences. We were going to have a baptism, but that
fell through. We did find some promising new investigators including an
American named Mike who we're teaching in English. This Monday the
washing Machine we normally use to do laundry broke down, so we weren't
able to wash on Monday. Or on Tuesday. Or any day until Friday when we
ran out of clean clothes and it became imperative that we do it
immediately. So we found a member who was willing to help us out. The
thing was that on Thursday we were taking a shortcut and we both fell in
a river and got our clothes scummy and black. I don't know what exactly
was in the river, but it wasn't water, and it smelled foul. But we were
already out of clean clothes and there was nothing we could do except
finish out the day in what we had on. But it was alright. And all our
clothes are clean now. That's about it. Transfers are next week, so
anything could happen. Que Dios os bendiga,
Amor,
Élder Bryan Hall
Bryan Elliot Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 09 December 2017
