Feeling much better this week!

Dear mom and dad,
It was great to get your guy’s email, I feel like I really needed it today.  Every time p-day comes around and I read my emails it’s like I’m getting my power back up for the following week.  So I’m very grateful you guys write me every week, some of the parents don’t.  But I don’t think you guys have missed one day. So thank you.
 And I first wanted to start out and say so sorry to dad.   I completely did not realize it was your birthday last Monday.   I did not even know what day it was when I was emailing.  Then the next day I saw that it was the 19th and I realized I had missed it. So Happy Birthday! I wish I could give you something!  I will soon be sending a package for you guys.   I think there will not be much in it but  a CD,  but hopefully I can bring some things back when I come home.  I hope your birthday was nice though.  There are some songs that me and my companion wrote on that CD so you can count that as your birthday song.
The week has been pretty good, we had another bap yesterday of a girl named  Janet, so that was nice.   I feel like we have had a bap every Sunday I have been here so far, so the area is doing really well.  Me and my companion had a very long walk during the week to a place called phase 7.  It was like a 2-3 hour walk and so we got to talking and I got to know him a little better which was cool.  I found out some crazy things about him.   He was telling me a lot about his family and how he never knew his dad and that his mom died when he was 17 years old.  He was left to take care of his 2 younger brothers at the age of 17, to pay for their school fines, food, rent and everything else.  He did all this while he was also in the process of saving up for his mission.  When he finally got enough money to go on his mission he did not have any money to buy a suit or shoes or anything.  I don’t know… I have been thinking about what me and him were talking about a lot this week and it’s just crazy at how dedicated he was to serving a mission, with no support at home, and with money he could have used on other things like buying a house or something.   It was just crazy to me, and It made me realize just  how  freaking lucky I am to have the support of my whole family, that has supported me for all my life and is still supporting me now. So I just realized how awesome you guys are, I have no idea what I did in the pre-mortal  life to deserve such a sweet family who are all members of the church.   It’s just sweet, so I love all you guys and I appreciate everything everyone has done for me to go on a mission.  I have learned more on my mission then I could have ever learned in my whole life, and I still have a year left.  I have realized what is important in this life on earth as well, which is probably the greatest lesson I have learned on my mission.
And yes I am feeling a lot better now.   I’m not sure what was wrong there but I’m fine now.  I actually had to miss church for the first time on my mission which was kind of weird but I’m good now, thanks to the Morgan’s.   They are super cool I love them very much. It will be sad when they leave.  I have not received my package yet but I think I will get it before my birthday....just a feeling I have I guess.   Ha-ha, I did not mean for the Comment I made in my last letter,  to get out of control. About something crazy happening to me,  but the reason why I don’t tell you guys a lot of things is because we are not supposed to until we get home.   It can cause problems for the mission.   But I will tell you if you promise not to make a big deal out of it.   Just the other week we were teaching a lesson, and being a white guy in this area or just in Africa is kind of not good sometimes for a lot of reasons.   So we were done teaching the lesson and we started to walk away and some drunk guy tried to steal my watch.   So I pulled my arm away then after that another drunk guy came and grabbed me around the waste.   Then pretty soon there was like 4 guys grabbing me all over the place, and so I was trying to get away,  I was choking the one in front of me but he was not feeling  any pain because he was so wasted.   I finally was able to just like throw them off me and then me and my companion walked away very fast....and that was it.   Things like this happen a lot but we are not support to say anything and this will be the only time that I will mention anything because it’s a no no!  So you can’t call the mission office and say anything.  Okay?!?  Or elder Brey gets in trouble!
 I’m glad everything is going well at home.   I hope the piano lessons are going well mom.   I am expecting you to be pro by the time I get back.  Those pictures would be awesome dad for me to look at.
Anyway… love you guys very much and hope the rest of the week goes well.   O! I forgot to say that I got like the best email yet on my mission from my last companion.   When he sent me a picture of Nelson and his family, I was like nearly crying in the computer place because it was just so awesome! I do love this mission!

Love

Elder Justin Brey

Nelson and his family are finally together!!

I have been kinda sick this week.

Hello,
Things are going pretty well, currently I have been kinda sick and I actually missed church yesterday which was the first time on my mission so far.  It was kinda weird. And sorry, I had to take out that money...  something is wrong with my camera and the screen broke some how, so I saw this camera for 400 pula which is very cheep and its actually really nice. It's a HP, 12 mega, I think and they were having a sale. They only had 4 left so i jumped on that before they were all gone. I actually have some bad news... I have not got the package yet which is kinda worrying me.  It might have got stolen because it should have been here by now. Do you have a tracker on it? Or was there anything really valuable that you put inside? I'm hoping the senior couple just did'nt see it or they misplaced it somewhere else. 
That's a crazy story about the missionary, he is lucky he did not get killed! I kinda had a crazy experience this week as well that I will probably have to tell you when I get home, so remind me in a year. This week I was able to go to my very first area in Mochudi! It was super cool, we were doing a zone activity down there to help them find father led family's and so I got to go down there. I don't think to many missionaries get to do that on there missions. I got to see some of the people I baptized and got to go contacting with this kid Thuso.  I was really close to him when I was down here. I never got to see him get baptized because I left before then. But he got baptized and has now received the priesthood and is preparing to go on a mission. I had a really good time. Also it was funny as we were walking down the street all these kids started walking toward us and I waved at them and they all shouted ELDER BREY!  There was like 15 of them, it was pretty cool!  It kinda felt like I never left. It feels like I was just there a month ago, time does fly. I loved the pictures you guys sent me. I like it when you guys send pictures. I wish I could be there to help you with all that stuff.  Hopefully there will still be things for me to do when I get there. I know you probably already told me this but where is Preston going again on his mission? 
It's great talking to you guys, tell everyone I say hi.
Love, Justin

I have been sleep walking :)

Hey mom and dad,
Ha, ya I’m glad I survived as well. And oats and bread is kinda yummy. President Omer is the new South Africa Johannesburg Mission President and President Morgan is still here in Botswana. Ya they do not call sister missionaries to South Africa and even some parts of Botswana. I don’t have the exact address of where we are but I will try and get it next time.
Right now we are having a really good teaching pool and last Sunday I was able to baptize my very first father led family on my whole mission, so that was really cool. I will try and send pictures of that. And no I have not heard anything about Neilson yet. I’m still waiting for a response or a letter or something hopefully sometime soon. This week has been very good though and the area is doing really well. Before my companion got in the area they were getting like terrible stats on everything, but he has really helped the area improve a lot into one of the highest baptizing areas in Botswana right now (besides Francistown, which is one of the highest in the whole mission. They got like 20 bap on 1 Sunday). I also get along really well with my companion.
For some reason I have been like sleep walking a lot, like really bad recently though. A couple of nights ago I kinda had a bad incident. So I was having a dream that I was like running really fast on the mountain, then all of a sudden I like fell into this huge hole and I knew I was in trouble. Then all of a sudden, BAM, I hit my head on the corner of the desk in our room. Turns out I was running on my bead and ran right off if into the table, and it hurt! My eye was swollen for a couple of days. We all have lots of fun in our flat though. Recently we have figured out that whenever we put something in the front of our gate it magically disappears. So we like started testing stuff like old pans and pots and whenever we come back, there just gone! Ha-ha it’s been kinda a fun game so just before we left I put this like really ugly sick green pillow that looks like it has been in the garage for way to long in the front yard. I will see if it’s still there when we get back. People in Botswana just like take anything that looks interesting I think.
Oh, I also wanted to ask dad if you could somehow send me like the layout of what you want to do with the yard. I would like to see what your planning if that’s okay. I just think it would be cool to see the sketch. I’m sure work will pick up soon, it sounds like you’re doing better than most businesses so that’s good. Hope all the guys at work are doing well. I know they miss me ha-ha.
Mom you just made my day by telling me not to touch any blood.....I think I just died in the computer room. And yes I promise you I will not just randomly touch any blood if I see any on the street:)
But I’m going to try and send some pictures now. The Internet is a lot slower in bots so hopefully I can send some. Take care though love you guys a lot and I should be getting the package this Friday because President Omer is coming up for interviews, so hope I will get it! Take care

Love Justin

I have been very blessed with good companions!

Hey mom and dad,
It’s good to hear from you guys again. And yes I meant he is from Zimbabwe, and we get along really well. It’s very true what mom said; I have been very blessed with good companions, which is really rare I hear. Its kinda the same problem here with all the Africans. A lot of the Africans and Americans do not get along for whatever reasons, but we get along really well and so does our district. I actually forgot to tell you guys but there are Sisters in our District, which is kinda weird but its good. We stay in Extension 4, and I’m not sure of the plot number. We stay next to the main road, kinda, and our house is bright green and in a corner at the end of the street.

Thanks for the money. I was able to use some of the food from the previous Elder who left. He left behind some rice and oats and bread so I have been eating that for a week, but we went shopping today and I’m all good. Thank you though.

This last week was actually somewhat of a pain in our flat because the electricity went out for like 2 full days. It was somewhat hard especially with the cold showers, so we finally decided enough was enough and went to our Chapel one night to just make food there. And when we got back at night of course the electricity decided that it wanted to come back on after 2 days! God does have a sense of humor, I promise all of you.

I forgot to tell you guys though that we have a brand new missionary in our flat from America. I have realized how stupid I was when I got on my mission. We are having lots of fun with him. It’s not as fun with new African missionaries because they already kinda know what’s up, but Americans have no idea what’s going on. But it’s been fun, we have a good time in our district.

It still continues to be cold and people are still continuing to just burn things all over the place. For some reason everyone hear thinks that it is a good idea to burn tires like all over the place. I’m sure you all know that breathing in tire fumes is extremely bad for you and causes TB. But there are freaking tire fires all over the place, so we always have to walk about with things over our faces so we don’t breath it in. Its only like that in the townships though, like where we are. In places like Nelspruit that stuff is not a lot, but in the townships it’s just like burn whatever you want. But I only have 10 minutes and I still need to email the President. I think I forgot to tell you guys but we have a new Mission President; his name is President Omer, I think. I have never met him; he just got here a few days ago. But Hope you guys have a good 4th of July!
love ya

Justin