School and stuff.

Hello everyone. Thought I would check in. Went to orientation on Wednesday, and officially signed up for classes at the University of Central Florida. Two more years and I should have my bachelors. I am so excited. Chak has been taking classes as well, and with that on top of us both working, we are really busy. I attempted to make brownies without eggs and it didn't go over to well. I found a website that said you could use cornstarch as a substitute. Apparantly not a substitute for brownies. They look like a big thick gooey sponge. Chris I need a baby update. It has been so hot and humid here. It has been in the mid to high nineties for the last couple weeks, it's ten o'clock and it has finally started to cool down(it's 83) but it looks like we are in for some storms for the rest of the week. We don't have any plans for the 4th as of yet. Maybe we'll walk up to the lake by our house, maybe they'll have some fireworks going on. Anyway I miss all of y'all, I am posting a link to info about my school, because I am just so excited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Central_Florida

Happy 4th of July

Maddy sang the national anthem for the Plains swim meet.

Now, everyone get your butts up to the lake for the 4th! Oh, sorry Arizonians...we'll have a blast with or without you!

BRYAN PICS

EMAIL FROM BRYAN - FIRST SINCE ARRIVING IN MEXICO

Sorry for not writing until now. My Preraration day has changed to Monday upon getting here. Anyway I made it here to Mexico on time. There were no delays or problems with my luggage so that was perfect. Me and the other new elders which there were twelve of us and six were from my district in the MTC spent the night at the President Bullochs house. We ate some pizza and went straight to bed. Then the nextday we learned a bunch of stuff about money and health and stuff. Then about noon we went to the chapel right by the temple for the Meting and getting our companions. My companion is Elder Celaya. He´s from Tebasco Mexico or something like that I  can never really remember. Anyway he´s great and now that I´m sort of starting to actually understand him we can actually talk about things. The work is going great! This first week was difficult because we are in a white washed area and the missionaries before us were losers. The apartment was trashed and the area book was useless. So we have just been knocking on doors like crazy and meeting with members trying to obtain referrals. I´m understanding more and more every day so that’s helping. My favorite part is that since I have the first vision memorized every time my we get to that part my companion lets me say it and its so amazing! Its like time stops and the spirit gets so strong I just love it so much! Right now we have two people commited to baptism and I know there are more people just waiting to hear our message. The members are so amazing too! All of them are so nice and always willing to help us in anything. The other day we were waiting to cross the street and a member came out of the little bakery that she owned and asked for a blessing. At that point I realized I should have practiced giving blessings in Spanish. I Pretty much just read straight from the white handbook for the anointing and then my companion gave the blessing. I have no idea what he said but it was amazing! Then afterwords she gave me a cookie and tried to give us money but we didn´t take it. The people are just so amazing and give so much for the church. They love us missionaries too and feed us so well. Oh my goodess the food is amazing! Its like every time I eat I find my new favorite food and they make a ton. I think we´re done and then out comes another plate and I´m like okay. I would probably be gaining a lot of weight except that we walk everywhere so I burn it all off. Anyway I´ve got to go but I´m sending some pictures. I haven´t received any postcards but don´t worry because the mail takes a while to get to me. I love you all! Tell dad to take better care of himself and sorry about the spelling this keyboard is a little messed up.

Katie's 8th Grade Graduation

Self portrait
All the kids that went thru Valley View together since second grade.
Whoo hoo
Introducing the Valedictorian

Rachel fix for Grandma

Bryan's new address

First recommendation is to use pouch mail:

Elder Bryan M. Sieler
Mexico City East Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Rules for pouch mail:
Postcards or single sheet paper folded into thirds and taped or stapled only. No envelopes.
I made postcards with pictures of the family as a way to get him pictures.

Packages or hard copy Mail:

Elder Bryan M. Sieler
Mexico City East Mission
Av. Fuente de Piramides No.1, Piso 1
Lomas de Tecamachalco
C.P. 53950 Naucalpan, Edo de Mexico
Mexico

When sending packages through the mission office, they recommend United States Postal Service International Priority mail. It costs more but saves the missionary from having to pay additional fees when the package arrives in Mexico.

From Bryan

I'm going to Mexico on Monday! I didn't get delayed after all so Im super excited now to go and spread the word of this amazing Gospel!I hope you all are having a blast without me because I'm having the greatest time of my life. I wrote you a letter so I won't spoil any of the things that I wrote in there but pretty much I am super excited to go! My Spanish has been coming along great which is good since after Monday I won't really be speaking english anymore. I love Spanish though so I'm way excited for it! I love you all so much and thank you so much for supporting me in this wonderful work. I love this work so much and it was easily the greatest and easiest decision of my life to serve. I thank you and love you all so much!

For Chris...

Hey Chris you asked me a question about Muslim dietary laws, and I looked it up, here is just a snippet to give you the idea I'll leave the link if you want to read more.

Explicitly forbidden substances

A variety of substances are considered as harmful (haraam) for humans to consume and, therefore, forbidden as per various Quranic verses:

• Pork meat (i.e. flesh of pig)^{[Qur'an 2:173]}. Pork may be eaten in any instance wherein it will save your life and there is no other sustenance.
• Blood^{[Qur'an 2:173]}
• All carnivores and birds of prey
• Animals slaughtered in the name of anyone but Allah. All that has been dedicated or offered in sacrifice to an idolatrous altar or saint or a person considered to be "divine". ^{[Qur'an 2:173] [Qur'an 5:3]}
• Carrion^{[Qur'an 2:173]}
• An Animal that has been strangled, or beaten to death, or killed by a fall, or gored to death, or savaged by a beast of prey, except that which you may have slaughtered while it was still alive; ^{[Qur'an 5:3]}
• Food over which Allah's name is not pronounced. ^{[Qur'an 6:121]}
• Alcohol and other intoxicants. ^{[Qur'an 5:90-91]}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal

Bailey and Kels

Maddy and wiley!

Just For Fun

CLICK HERE

Chris Allen Sieler

Due date the middle of October