Bryson emailed a couple of pictures!!!!!!
This is Kennabunk Beach along the coast of Maine
Elder BRYSON SCOTT DEAN!
Monday, March 25, 2013
5th Letter from Sanford, Maine
Mom,
Hey!
Hey!
So the first and biggest thing is that they have changed the rule!!!! I am now allowed to email for...... wait for it........ TWO HOURS!!!!!! Yes!!!!!! I get an hour more to write people and also I am now actually allowed to email friends… so yay!!!!
I have not received a letter from grant yet so it never got here I don’t know his address or email so.....
I am staying in Sanford, it turns out the sisters are going to the Kennebunk/Wells area. To start off I’ll answer some of your questions.
First the ward is so awesome! I really love everyone in it and they are all super nice and friendly people. They are just super awesome to us and do whatever they can to help us. They do feed us often, I can get up to three member meals in a week. If there is a nonmember there I can have as many as possible … so I usually only get three since we have a very small teaching pool. As to what they feed me it’s all sorts of stuff, not really seafood yet, but I’ve had ribs and stew and pizza. The craziest thing I’ve had so far was a moose meat taco soup and it was so freaking good I loved it.
People who we are teaching on a regular schedule… we are teaching a women named (xxx) and her daughter (xxx) she really likes the married for time and all eternity that we taught about. We are also teaching a man named (xxx), he is like a walking encyclopedia and knows a lot about religion, he asks a lot of really deep questions. We are teaching three other people right now and that is about it. As you can see very small teaching pool, we only on average get like 5 to 7 lessons a week and some of those are with less actives members but it’s still fun.
My favorite part about being a missionary is that I feel the spirit all the time it is really cool.
My least favorite part, I have two “least favorite parts”
1. Not teaching a whole lot, and
2. I sill really struggle with being really homesick, its hard sometimes I miss my family and my friends so much....
I never really realized how blessed I was. My president told me in a meeting one time (because I was really homesick in the beginning) that over half the missionaries here in my mission are from broken homes, anything from abuse to divorce things like that, and I am just so blessed. Even though you and dad are divorced you both love me so much and I’ve got Joel and Christine, Alexander, Danielle and Lochlan and its just crazy how lucky I am.
The biggest difference between here and Georgia is obviously the snow and also the people are just so strange at times. I use to think I would never want to live in Georgia but now that’s where I want to spend the rest of my life. I LOVE Georgia SO much (even with the stupid awful humid crappy summers) I love it. I hate snow, its cold and gross and hard to walk in and I’ve seen enough to last me a life time.
That’s awesome that Cameron and Grant came over I miss those two so much. And I can’t believe that Cameron enters the MTC this week it’s so insane. If you can call him or his mom or somebody that might be with him and just tell him I love him and I’m so proud of him I don’t have his email so I can’t send him anything , so only if you can do that.
That’s awesome that you were able to be there for Marlee. I can’t believe she is leaving so soon and I know she is so awesome I really miss her. She is an amazing friend to have. I’m so grateful for such awesome friends.
I miss him Lochlan.
I miss your cooking so much mom, I can’t make anything nearly as good. I love you and I miss you mom
Love Elder Dean
I have not received a letter from grant yet so it never got here I don’t know his address or email so.....
I am staying in Sanford, it turns out the sisters are going to the Kennebunk/Wells area. To start off I’ll answer some of your questions.
First the ward is so awesome! I really love everyone in it and they are all super nice and friendly people. They are just super awesome to us and do whatever they can to help us. They do feed us often, I can get up to three member meals in a week. If there is a nonmember there I can have as many as possible … so I usually only get three since we have a very small teaching pool. As to what they feed me it’s all sorts of stuff, not really seafood yet, but I’ve had ribs and stew and pizza. The craziest thing I’ve had so far was a moose meat taco soup and it was so freaking good I loved it.
People who we are teaching on a regular schedule… we are teaching a women named (xxx) and her daughter (xxx) she really likes the married for time and all eternity that we taught about. We are also teaching a man named (xxx), he is like a walking encyclopedia and knows a lot about religion, he asks a lot of really deep questions. We are teaching three other people right now and that is about it. As you can see very small teaching pool, we only on average get like 5 to 7 lessons a week and some of those are with less actives members but it’s still fun.
My favorite part about being a missionary is that I feel the spirit all the time it is really cool.
My least favorite part, I have two “least favorite parts”
1. Not teaching a whole lot, and
2. I sill really struggle with being really homesick, its hard sometimes I miss my family and my friends so much....
I never really realized how blessed I was. My president told me in a meeting one time (because I was really homesick in the beginning) that over half the missionaries here in my mission are from broken homes, anything from abuse to divorce things like that, and I am just so blessed. Even though you and dad are divorced you both love me so much and I’ve got Joel and Christine, Alexander, Danielle and Lochlan and its just crazy how lucky I am.
The biggest difference between here and Georgia is obviously the snow and also the people are just so strange at times. I use to think I would never want to live in Georgia but now that’s where I want to spend the rest of my life. I LOVE Georgia SO much (even with the stupid awful humid crappy summers) I love it. I hate snow, its cold and gross and hard to walk in and I’ve seen enough to last me a life time.
That’s awesome that Cameron and Grant came over I miss those two so much. And I can’t believe that Cameron enters the MTC this week it’s so insane. If you can call him or his mom or somebody that might be with him and just tell him I love him and I’m so proud of him I don’t have his email so I can’t send him anything , so only if you can do that.
That’s awesome that you were able to be there for Marlee. I can’t believe she is leaving so soon and I know she is so awesome I really miss her. She is an amazing friend to have. I’m so grateful for such awesome friends.
I miss him Lochlan.
I miss your cooking so much mom, I can’t make anything nearly as good. I love you and I miss you mom
Love Elder Dean
Monday, March 18, 2013
4th Letter from Sanford, Maine
Hey mom,
That is so awesome to hear about Tasia leaving on her mission. It is so awesome to hear about Marlee, wish her luck or congratulations…. I don’t really know what but something. That is very cool about Brynn; she already wrote and told me.
Thanks so much for the package I wasn’t expecting it but thank you and I will try and find the time to make the kimbap for dinner one night. I only have an hour to make and eat lunch and dinner and it’s really hard to make something good in such a short amount of time. Again thank you for the package – I don’t care what you send, just about anything that you send me will be great.
So I guess that the pictures haven’t gotten there yet since you didn’t say anything, I sent them last Monday but it takes forever for things to get anywhere with the mail system. Which means you didn’t get my letter and that you also don’t know that I got to go down to Boston and hear Elder Ballard, Elder Christensen of the seventy, and someone else, I can’t remember. I live close enough that we got to drive down there and hear him in person. While the rest of my mission and like half the Boston mission just watched via broadcast. The cool thing was I was able to go and shake his hand! So awesome! You should’ve seen the size of the Boston church building it was four stories, huge!
Other than that nothing else major happened this week. We didn’t teach that many people, most of the time we were tracting and the rest of the time is in meetings. This week was a little better than last week, we taught 6 lessons. Things are moving about the same, we go about our schedule every day and its harder some days then others but most days are good.
The Sister missionaries come next week and I find out on Saturday whether or not I will be moving to Wells, Maine or not on the 23rd. I am going to be sending a package with some awesome things for you in the next week maybe two just depends on time and money to send it all. There is sand from Kennebunk beach, and rocks and shells from the beach. I also bought you guys a bottle of REAL new England syrup that is made by a member of my ward and this stuff is really good also really expensive which is why I hope it gets there safely.
Other than that I don’t really know what else to include… things are moving along at as usual. I hope you and everyone else are doing well.
Tell Cameron, Grant and Connor to move their butts and write me at least once since I don’t have any of their addresses.
I know that I had a lot more to write to you and say but of course I forgot what exactly it was but oh well I might write you a letter and hopefully include whatever it was.
Oh I remember one thing why was the kid grounded? Now I forget the rest tell everyone I love them hug Christine, Alexander, Lochlan and Joel for me. Oh and don’t forget to smack Lochlan for me.
Hope my letters get there soon.
Love Elder Dean
PS. That picture is at Kennebunk beach
That is so awesome to hear about Tasia leaving on her mission. It is so awesome to hear about Marlee, wish her luck or congratulations…. I don’t really know what but something. That is very cool about Brynn; she already wrote and told me.
Thanks so much for the package I wasn’t expecting it but thank you and I will try and find the time to make the kimbap for dinner one night. I only have an hour to make and eat lunch and dinner and it’s really hard to make something good in such a short amount of time. Again thank you for the package – I don’t care what you send, just about anything that you send me will be great.
So I guess that the pictures haven’t gotten there yet since you didn’t say anything, I sent them last Monday but it takes forever for things to get anywhere with the mail system. Which means you didn’t get my letter and that you also don’t know that I got to go down to Boston and hear Elder Ballard, Elder Christensen of the seventy, and someone else, I can’t remember. I live close enough that we got to drive down there and hear him in person. While the rest of my mission and like half the Boston mission just watched via broadcast. The cool thing was I was able to go and shake his hand! So awesome! You should’ve seen the size of the Boston church building it was four stories, huge!
Other than that nothing else major happened this week. We didn’t teach that many people, most of the time we were tracting and the rest of the time is in meetings. This week was a little better than last week, we taught 6 lessons. Things are moving about the same, we go about our schedule every day and its harder some days then others but most days are good.
The Sister missionaries come next week and I find out on Saturday whether or not I will be moving to Wells, Maine or not on the 23rd. I am going to be sending a package with some awesome things for you in the next week maybe two just depends on time and money to send it all. There is sand from Kennebunk beach, and rocks and shells from the beach. I also bought you guys a bottle of REAL new England syrup that is made by a member of my ward and this stuff is really good also really expensive which is why I hope it gets there safely.
Other than that I don’t really know what else to include… things are moving along at as usual. I hope you and everyone else are doing well.
Tell Cameron, Grant and Connor to move their butts and write me at least once since I don’t have any of their addresses.
I know that I had a lot more to write to you and say but of course I forgot what exactly it was but oh well I might write you a letter and hopefully include whatever it was.
Oh I remember one thing why was the kid grounded? Now I forget the rest tell everyone I love them hug Christine, Alexander, Lochlan and Joel for me. Oh and don’t forget to smack Lochlan for me.
Hope my letters get there soon.
Love Elder Dean
PS. That picture is at Kennebunk beach
Monday, March 11, 2013
3rd Letter! (Sanford Maine)
Mom,
How is everything going? I hope everyone is safe and healthy and all is well. It has been a long week.
We have very few investigators that are actually interested in us teaching them, unfortunately two of them decided that they are no longer interested. So now we get to tract even more. Hopefully we will find some more people who are interested. Its hard here.
People in this area are not very religious, and nobody wants to talk or listen to anything about religion. A member showed us an article about religion in the USA, it showed Utah and Mississippi as the top two most religious states, (Utah was number 2). It showed all of the states in New England as being the bottom ten least religious states. So the work here is really difficult.
We drive most places, it’s a lot like Georgia – there are no sidewalks and its 5 miles to the next house. When the new missionaries come to the area next month this area will be a car share which means we will spend most of our time walking on small little back roads with doors far apart from each other. It’ll be nice to walk more, I will like the exercise.
We drove down to the Wells/Kennebunk part of our area earlier this week We were able to visit with a less active member. We went to the beach to eat lunch.
We spent a lot of this week tracting. We also spent a lot of time this week in meetings and studying. Missionary work is kind of a lot different than I thought it would be. Tracting really doesn’t get you anywhere, in order to find people you have to do a lot more. Who knew that we would spend the first like 5 hours of every day just studying and sitting? On some days it is even longer because of meetings. We have district meeting every Wednesday and that lasts from ten until one and then by the time we get back eat lunch and actually start working it’s like 3.
I love this ward I know it is the first ward I have been in out here on my mission but I think it is one of the best wards. It’s crazy we are only allowed three member meals a week but with leftovers we often times don’t actually have to make dinner on the other nights. The members are so nice. Lunch is always ramen….
Funny story! We were out tracting on Tuesday and we knocked on a door, it was the last one that we were knocking on before returning to our car to drive and meet a less active member. Anyway an old guy from inside calls out for us to come in - so we open the door and say we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He said to come in. We walk in and see that he has a full ash tray, the air is thick with smoke and in front of him and like ten finished beer cans, and he is so obviously drunk…. VERY drunk. We start talking about why we are there, he stops us and asks us a few questions about our bible knowledge, and then starts telling how whatever we believe about the bible is true and how he believes not all the bible is true but some if it is and that is the truth…. but whatever we believe is also the truth, weird. He then starts to tell us that we have to believe in ourselves, in the middle of that he stands up… and he is only wearing RED whitey tighties! It was super weird! At one point I thought he was going to give us his truck.
I have realized in the three weeks I have been here with the snow piled up to above your head that I am NEVER living somewhere with snow, I love Georgia, even though the summers in Georgia suck with the humidity the rest of the year makes up for that. I miss the warmth and the sun of Georgia, it’s so cold here.
I know I am forgetting something I wanted to tell you, I always do. I can’t remember right now though (I will 5 minutes after 6:00pm)
I love you mom. I miss my family and friends.
I miss every one hope you are all good and happy
Love Elder Dean
How is everything going? I hope everyone is safe and healthy and all is well. It has been a long week.
We have very few investigators that are actually interested in us teaching them, unfortunately two of them decided that they are no longer interested. So now we get to tract even more. Hopefully we will find some more people who are interested. Its hard here.
People in this area are not very religious, and nobody wants to talk or listen to anything about religion. A member showed us an article about religion in the USA, it showed Utah and Mississippi as the top two most religious states, (Utah was number 2). It showed all of the states in New England as being the bottom ten least religious states. So the work here is really difficult.
We drive most places, it’s a lot like Georgia – there are no sidewalks and its 5 miles to the next house. When the new missionaries come to the area next month this area will be a car share which means we will spend most of our time walking on small little back roads with doors far apart from each other. It’ll be nice to walk more, I will like the exercise.
We drove down to the Wells/Kennebunk part of our area earlier this week We were able to visit with a less active member. We went to the beach to eat lunch.
We spent a lot of this week tracting. We also spent a lot of time this week in meetings and studying. Missionary work is kind of a lot different than I thought it would be. Tracting really doesn’t get you anywhere, in order to find people you have to do a lot more. Who knew that we would spend the first like 5 hours of every day just studying and sitting? On some days it is even longer because of meetings. We have district meeting every Wednesday and that lasts from ten until one and then by the time we get back eat lunch and actually start working it’s like 3.
I love this ward I know it is the first ward I have been in out here on my mission but I think it is one of the best wards. It’s crazy we are only allowed three member meals a week but with leftovers we often times don’t actually have to make dinner on the other nights. The members are so nice. Lunch is always ramen….
Funny story! We were out tracting on Tuesday and we knocked on a door, it was the last one that we were knocking on before returning to our car to drive and meet a less active member. Anyway an old guy from inside calls out for us to come in - so we open the door and say we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He said to come in. We walk in and see that he has a full ash tray, the air is thick with smoke and in front of him and like ten finished beer cans, and he is so obviously drunk…. VERY drunk. We start talking about why we are there, he stops us and asks us a few questions about our bible knowledge, and then starts telling how whatever we believe about the bible is true and how he believes not all the bible is true but some if it is and that is the truth…. but whatever we believe is also the truth, weird. He then starts to tell us that we have to believe in ourselves, in the middle of that he stands up… and he is only wearing RED whitey tighties! It was super weird! At one point I thought he was going to give us his truck.
I have realized in the three weeks I have been here with the snow piled up to above your head that I am NEVER living somewhere with snow, I love Georgia, even though the summers in Georgia suck with the humidity the rest of the year makes up for that. I miss the warmth and the sun of Georgia, it’s so cold here.
I know I am forgetting something I wanted to tell you, I always do. I can’t remember right now though (I will 5 minutes after 6:00pm)
I love you mom. I miss my family and friends.
I miss every one hope you are all good and happy
Love Elder Dean
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Manchester New Hampshire Mission Home Address
Elder Bryson Scott Dean
New Hampshire Manchester Mission
2 Bedford Farms Drive Ste 208
Bedford, NH
03110-6525
Monday, March 4, 2013
2nd Letter! (Sanford Maine)
Hi,
OK so now that I have read all of the emails I can send you the last and biggest one!
I just gave out a mormon.org card as I am sitting here writing so that’s cool! As to this week things are going good, I am still a little homesick - but it has passed and it’s not like the days have gotten any shorter either. I still feel like we are spending most of our time in meetings and not teaching people a whole lot but oh well.
This past week I found out that (my MTC companion) went home; he decided that the missionary life wasn't for him and that serving a mission was a lot harder than he had thought it would be. So he went back home last Tuesday, I think this is really sad. I noticed he was gone when we had a new missionary training meeting and I asked the mission president where he was. President told me that in the interviews with (my MTC companion) where he was trying to convince him to stay one comment (my MTC companion) made was that how much me being nice to him in the MTC had affected him. It hit me that despite all the trouble it WAS to be nice to him and how hard it was (I didn't even think he noticed that I was trying to be nice) and honestly most of the time I tried so hard to be nice to him because I knew it was the right thing to do. Point is he did notice it and it did affect him. It just amazed me because it made me realize that we are never able to tell who will be affected by our behavior or the way that we act. What if I had been mean to him? Who knows what my example will do for him later on down the road.
Moving on with the week, we only taught one investigator lesson – it was to a family of three. It was a really cool lesson because at the end of it the father of the family offered a kneeling pray and the spirit testified so strongly that we all felt it, it was really cool. After that the week was really slow. We had no other appointments. We pretty much spend ALL our time tracting, about 7 to 8 hours a day. We would go from house to house knocking on doors… just to get them slammed in our faces. It’s kind of hard to have that happen all the time - but oh well.
One really cool thing happened while we were tracting though, we knocked on a door and the husband answered it, he invited us in because he knew who and what we were, they had been to salt lake before. We ended up talking for a while, they asked all kinds of questions about us as missionaries and what we do and how we do it and it was really cool. In the end they gave us all this left over soup they had had from a party! Although they weren’t very interested in hearing our message it was still nice and here’s the cool part. I had to use the bathroom SO bad and it was like a 1 or 2 mile walk to the nearest restroom. I had been praying that someone would just let us in so I could pee and they did!!! Hallelujah!!!
I don’t need boots right now because all the snow is melting and it is warming up here, really it is… that’s what all the members say anyway. Also with friends it might be easier if you tell them to use the mission home address because there is a chance that in like two three weeks I could be moving. They are splitting my area into two areas, they are putting sister missionaries in one area and us in the other. Chances are we could be moving to a new apartment, just a heads up. Oh and the apartment will be in Wells, ME.
As an overall experience goes it is a really good one and I am enjoying it out here. It’s still hard and I know it is going to be a very long two years, but I am glad to be here. The members feed us a fair amount nowhere near as much in Georgia - we still have to cook for ourselves a quite a bit and it sucks whenever we do. I am trying to take a ton of pictures.
I hope all is well and that you are doing well and so is the family. I love you mom and I love getting your letters all the time. I LOVE YOU.
Love Elder Dean
PS. Tell Joel I said hi.
OK so now that I have read all of the emails I can send you the last and biggest one!
I just gave out a mormon.org card as I am sitting here writing so that’s cool! As to this week things are going good, I am still a little homesick - but it has passed and it’s not like the days have gotten any shorter either. I still feel like we are spending most of our time in meetings and not teaching people a whole lot but oh well.
This past week I found out that (my MTC companion) went home; he decided that the missionary life wasn't for him and that serving a mission was a lot harder than he had thought it would be. So he went back home last Tuesday, I think this is really sad. I noticed he was gone when we had a new missionary training meeting and I asked the mission president where he was. President told me that in the interviews with (my MTC companion) where he was trying to convince him to stay one comment (my MTC companion) made was that how much me being nice to him in the MTC had affected him. It hit me that despite all the trouble it WAS to be nice to him and how hard it was (I didn't even think he noticed that I was trying to be nice) and honestly most of the time I tried so hard to be nice to him because I knew it was the right thing to do. Point is he did notice it and it did affect him. It just amazed me because it made me realize that we are never able to tell who will be affected by our behavior or the way that we act. What if I had been mean to him? Who knows what my example will do for him later on down the road.
Moving on with the week, we only taught one investigator lesson – it was to a family of three. It was a really cool lesson because at the end of it the father of the family offered a kneeling pray and the spirit testified so strongly that we all felt it, it was really cool. After that the week was really slow. We had no other appointments. We pretty much spend ALL our time tracting, about 7 to 8 hours a day. We would go from house to house knocking on doors… just to get them slammed in our faces. It’s kind of hard to have that happen all the time - but oh well.
One really cool thing happened while we were tracting though, we knocked on a door and the husband answered it, he invited us in because he knew who and what we were, they had been to salt lake before. We ended up talking for a while, they asked all kinds of questions about us as missionaries and what we do and how we do it and it was really cool. In the end they gave us all this left over soup they had had from a party! Although they weren’t very interested in hearing our message it was still nice and here’s the cool part. I had to use the bathroom SO bad and it was like a 1 or 2 mile walk to the nearest restroom. I had been praying that someone would just let us in so I could pee and they did!!! Hallelujah!!!
I don’t need boots right now because all the snow is melting and it is warming up here, really it is… that’s what all the members say anyway. Also with friends it might be easier if you tell them to use the mission home address because there is a chance that in like two three weeks I could be moving. They are splitting my area into two areas, they are putting sister missionaries in one area and us in the other. Chances are we could be moving to a new apartment, just a heads up. Oh and the apartment will be in Wells, ME.
As an overall experience goes it is a really good one and I am enjoying it out here. It’s still hard and I know it is going to be a very long two years, but I am glad to be here. The members feed us a fair amount nowhere near as much in Georgia - we still have to cook for ourselves a quite a bit and it sucks whenever we do. I am trying to take a ton of pictures.
I hope all is well and that you are doing well and so is the family. I love you mom and I love getting your letters all the time. I LOVE YOU.
Love Elder Dean
PS. Tell Joel I said hi.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
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