Emails 10-26-09-LAST EMAIL

The Mommy-
Yep this is it, the LAST email you recieve from Elder Brickey. That is so crazy. This last week has been nuts to be perfectly honest. It is so weird to know that I am coming home and to have SO many people saying goodbye because they KNOW that I am leaving. In sacrament meeting my companion and I said the prayers. I thought because the guy who got our names wrote mine down first that I would say the opening prayer. Nope Elder Weight did, so I sat there kinda nervous for the rest of the meeting. Then they get up and announced the closing hymn and prayer. It was the first councelor in the Bishopric and I noticed that the bishop whispered something to him. He got up and announced the hymn and then said "Then we will have the closing prayer by Elder Brickey one of our fulltime missionaries that is going home this week." The ENTIRE ward turned and looked at me, it was so WONDERFULLY awkward. I got my bike and box of stuff in the mission office, they will get it sent out so I am not sure yet how that is going to pan out. I did get the package from you which took me by surprise. It was cool though because everyone really enjoyed the treats. I am up for whatever when I get home. Go to the Temple on Wed, sure. I was actually thinking about trying to find a day of the month that all of us from you and dad down could go and do a session. We will have to talk about it and see if we can work something out. Anyway. I am all packed up and only have a suit for clothing so that is a little weird and scary. But I think that I am ready, so I guess the thing to say is SEE YOU TOMORROW!
Love,
Elder Brickey

Hello-Well the time has come for the end of Elder Brickey. It is a weird feeling though at the same time exciting. It is weird to think that I will be home in under 24 hours. I do look forward to seeing you all again. I do not know though about the whole seeing a lot of people thing. The people that I want to see are going to be at the house or come to me so that is nice. I do agree that it will be nice to not have a shadow 24/7. That is the one thing that I am really excited about. I still LOVE to have alone time and it is hard to get on a mission. I have taken some LONG showers a few times. Well yeah this last week went well and things are going well. I am all packed up and ready to go. Ready or not here I come! Love ya and see you tomorrow!Love,Elder Brickey

Emails 9-14-09

The Mommy-On pday we have until 6pm. Then we are suppose to have dinner and then lessons and such. Transfers are a little bit harder though because of having to pack and such. Speaking of transfers, I am staying though Elder Lancaster is leaving and going to Chico (Chico 1st to be exact). My new companion is Elder Weight, I have served around him before but not really that close so it will be interesting for sure. From the list of Elders on the plane home I know Elder Carter (he is the one from Chad's stake), Elder Clark is from PG, Elder Hansen went to Lone Peak and other than that I know them by meeting them a couple times. Elder Dalton will be going home on the same plane and he is the Zone Leader over Antelope right now. I basically know them all just some more than others. I think that the weight limit is like 50 lbs for checkon and 40 for carryon. I also can take my backpack through so that is nice. I am shipping my bike home through the mission office. They do it for really cheap I think and I really like my bike so that sounds good to me. The baptism went really well. We had a really good turn out for the baptism of family that are not members so that was really good too. The home teacher did the baptism and the Bishop did the confirmation. It was really quite beautiful. The blessing went really well. It was really fun to get to go and see Lincoln again. There was a lot of people though that were surprised to see me and pretty well all of them were all "Don't you go home soon?" which was fun. It was a really good weekend. Wow a shirt that is white until you go out into the sun, that is cool. I have seen some of the two year calendars for missionaries and they are really funny. Some of them can be a little over the top, but some are so very very true. That is really quite gross that the mouse decided to die in Ryan's shoe. Well at least he found it. You could really joke about Ryan having some really potent smelly shoes and that he might want to get that checked out. Well other than Elder Lancaster, Elder Bailey is also leaving. He is going to Roseville, so I will see him at Zone Conference in October. Well other than that things are good. We have the other baptism this Saturday of Richard Garcia. He is ready and super excited so that is good. I cannot believe the good fortune that we have been given in the 6 weeks that we have been in this ward. Well how are things going for you? What is new and exciting? I love you and hope you are doing well. Take care and I will talk to you later.Love your son,Elder Brickey


Curley's-Hey there! It is good to hear from you and good to hear that you are all doing well. Well at least for Ryan. I do have to say that if your boots are new and the mouse was dead in there you have some really smelly feet and might want to get that looked at. Just kidding. That is a really gross way to find it but hey you are right at least you have visual confirmation that it is dead. It sounds like your kids are doing well, except for the whole spitting up thing with Aleana. Hopefully things settle down and that goes away here soon. That is funny that Dallin was talking to whoever in the bathroom. That kid sounds like a character. The baptism and the blessing were awesome. We had an awesome turn out at the baptism and it went smooth and beautiful so that is nice. The blessing was really nerve racking though. I was really quite scared that I would mess up or something but it was really cool. The little boy that I blessed stood up and waited for me cause I was in the back and he was in the middle. Then he held my hand all the way up to the front which was really cool, and was a really weird insight for me. I am still terrified of the thought of having a kid but I look forward to it because of the look that I got from him at that moment and after. Well anyways. I am glad to hear that your knee is doing better Shan. I have to admit, which I did not tell to mom or dad, that I am sick as a dog. Well something like that. I only got like 4 hours of sleep Saturday night and then last night I passed out at 930 but was wide awake at 130 until about 5ish when I finally fell asleep again. Hopefully these drugs that I am going to get will help me out. If not, oh wells I guess. Wel I am staying. My companion is going to Chico. I am getting a missionary that I have served around a little bit named Elder Weight. He is actually coming from Paradise which is near Chico. Well things are going great here. I hope you are well. Take care and give some love to your kids and each other for me. Might as well give some to our lovely parents too. Make it everyone! Whatever. I love you and hope you have a wonderful week that the job stuff works out.Much Love,Elder Brickey

emails 6-29-09

Mommy-Well things are HOT here in California. Especially since I am on my bike again. I really miss the car but I guess I will get back into some kind of shape due to this. I am actually having some really bad luck with my bike. The left side crank arm is falling off a lot so I have to replace the assembly to get it fixed to not fall off. I got a ride down with one of the less active members that I was working with. Do you remeber me talking about Daniel Adams it was him that gave me a ride. He is so funny he almost cried when I went a told him. He insisted that he take me or else I would get a whooping. It was really fun riding down with him. My new comanion is Elder Lancaster he is from Wyoming. I have actually served around Elder Lancaster twice now so I knew him which was nice. It is a little hard coming into an area and becoming the DL but hey I can do it if the Lord asks. The missionary that I replaced actually went up to Mt. Shasta and the DL that I replaced went to Redding to be a ZL. My new address is 4400 Shandwick #52 Antelope, CA 95843. Wow that is crazy that the Temple was so busy, at least people are going I guess. My stuff is holding up pretty good actually the only thing that I have been a little hard on are socks, pants, and g-bottoms. I will have to find a dentist to get this thing finished or else I will just have to wait till I get home and just take it really easy with my tooth and eating. The city of Antelope is VERY busy. It is a crowded city which you know me I am not to fond of that. It is good though there are a lot of nice people. There are actually a lot of muslims and russians so I was joking around that I needed Brad to come out and help us out. We are actually really close to the Temple and people in both Chico and Oroville said that when they go to the Temple they might just have to swing in and grab me. I would not mind that I love going to the Temple it is georgeous. Wow that is really cool that Chase took state in science. How is he doing? I wrote him a letter but he is probably super busy and has not written me back. My area is pretty small, probably the size of our stake doubled maybe tripled cause I do not remember how big our stake is anymore. I am over 5 missionaries 2 of which are sisters. There is also a sister missionary that is from PG that is in the Zone so that is cool, though she does not know Harpers or Walkers. Well it sounds like things are going well for you. I love you and hope you are well. Take care and I will talk to you later. LOVE YOU MOM!Love your son,Elder Brickey

Curley Family-Well it sounds like you have an eventful week ahead of you. I will admit that I am not jealous. It is hard enough moving stuff that is SUPPOSE to fit into 3 suitcases, though now it is the three, my backpacks, a couple bags, and a couple boxes. Yeah you accumulate a lot of junk on the mission. Though some of it is really cool. Well I hope that everything goes well for the move and such for you. I would love to help but am a little indisposed at the moment so sorry. ;-) The area is good though VERY VERY HOT and that has to deal with the fact that I get to ride my poor falling apart bike. It is in mint condition other than that left crank arm keeps falling off so I need to get it fixed because it falls of a lot. My new comanion is Elder Lancaster and he is from Wyoming. He actually reminds me a lot of Uncle Kirt for some reason. He is fun though and has a big heart. He is getting me use to the area as quickly as he can. Though it is not very fun while sweating gallons of fluid. This could very easily be my last stop. I have three transfers left counting this one so I am not likely to move. I do agree with you though Shan, I may be dying as a missionary but will be reborn as Kincade which will be a little weird. One of the missionaries called me by my first name the other day and it really threw me off. Not sure how use to it I am anymore. Though it did sound good, like a memory of a past life. Anywho. Things are great we are building up the ward and I can already tell why I am here and why I was suppose to be in Chico. The first Sunday the Bishop starts talking about the "Circle of Love", the member missionary plan put out by the brethren, and he was so confused so it was nice that I have had tons of experience with it over the last 6 months. Well I love you and wish you all the best. Take care and give your chillins a SQUEEZE from their favorite Uncle that is a missionary! Love you!Love,Elder Brickey

emails from 11/18/2008

The Mommy-It was AWESOME being able to baptize and yes I did have to get special permission to go back down there. I got the permission pretty easy though because my trainer is now one of the Assistants to the President and they love me anyway! That is to bad about Utah Auto, I have a lot of friends that worked there. Well I hope that you do well with the volleyball stuff. I am actually really sore right now because we went and did a 10 mile hike yesterday and we did it in four hours with stopping and playing too. With the garments I want the normal kind, the cotton poly ones. The fires that are in Cali are down south right now and we are not having any problems with them up here so that is nice. We are getting fed every night and getting fed really well too. Things are going really well right now and the work is going awesome too. We are having really good success and we actually have a baptism that is coming up so that is sweet. My comp is good we have been getting along really well. It is easier to say that he goes home on the 23rd of December than say how long he has been out. Well how are you doing mom? What is new and exciting? I love you and hope you are doing well.Your son,Elder Brickey


Curley Family-Well it sounds like you have had quite a week. It seems like things are going well around the house and it is finishing up. It is weird to think that the house will be different when I get home. Than again it does not surprise me cause mom does like to change things up and improve. I won't lie in saying that I want dad to get the shop done. I am hoping that he does the loft thing cause that way I could sleep there when I get back. I did not know until today that Taylor was getting married. Man it is weird to think about that. There are not going to be many single people when I get home that is for sure. I am sure that mom will like her new stove. I love the gas stoves that we have here in Cali, they seem to work better. It does take a little while to get use to but once you do man they are nice. Well transfers are actually this next week. Though my companion and I are staying together though we might get another companion because my comp now goes home mid transfer, actually on the 23rd of Dec so right before Christmas. Well the work here in Cali is going well. I got all fired up from being able to baptize Maryellen. We have a 9 year old girl that is going to be getting baptized by the end of the month or beginning of next month. We are also going to talk to our other progressing investigator about baptism. The last time we talked to him he side stepped the commitment, so this time we are getting something solid out of him. Well things are going well here and it sounds like things are going good back there too. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the holiday season. I love you all very much. Take care and I will talk to you later.Love your brother,Elder Brickey