Hola Familia,

Things are going very well here. We have two baptisms for tomorrow (Serge Miguel, and José Carlos) and many for the week to come. Serge is 11 and Carlos is 21, they are both great! It’s amazing how we’ve seen so many miracles since I’ve been in the offices. As you know, we have less than half of the day in our area so it can be a challenge to find and teach people. However the Lord has blessed us to be able to find and receive the people that are truly ready to change their lives and make and keep covenants!

How about General Conference? A few of my favorites were: Dale G. Renlund, who talked about maintaining your healthy spiritually changed heart. Brent H. Nielson, and the story of his son on the mission. Jorge Zeballas, “God will not require more than we can do…neither can He accept less…” However I think of all the great things said, my two favorites were during the Priesthood session: Walter F. Gonzalez, The Book of Mormon was never intended to be a bestseller, but how we can turn The Book of Mormon into the best read, and the best applied book; and Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s two important principles that sustain us in adversity — 1. WORK. 2. EDUCATION. Truly everything said in the conference was amazing and we’ll have to go back and study it again and again!

I am grateful that we have living Prophets to lead us, to help us in the process of perfecting ourselves and to help us to always do the best we can. Most of all to witness of the truth of God and His Plan of Redemption through Jesus Christ!

I am happy with how the Lord has blessed our family and know He will continue to do so as long as we continue to make our best efforts and humbly put all of our trust in Him. I pray that you all continue to do so and that the Lord blesses and protects you! I love every one of you!

-Bryce

Well, guess what. Elder Olson, the previous Financial Secretary, was sent to a proselyting area yesterday, 11 days before planned. The President figured it was a good plan and knew that I have been doing everything for a while …so now I’ve got the reins. The first of many plans is to CLEAN OUT and reorganize my office. I’m not very nervous, but there are a few things that are coming up at the end of the cycle that I’ve never done before. :/ I’m sure I’ll be giving Elder Olson a call at some point in time!

Another exciting thing that is happening starting this Monday every week, President Bulloch is coming in to the offices to have a staff devotional with us secretaries. That is going to be AMAZING!

One of our investigators, Martin Olvera, is getting baptized tomorrow. He’s made lots of sacrifices for the gospel and has no family support. That’s all right though; I know he will be greatly blessed for these sacrifices.

Today we spent all the morning and afternoon cleaning and organizing the house and the many many materials that are stored there. Lots of fun!

I know it’s been kind of short, but to end my letter I want to invite/remind you all to study the Book of Mormon every day. I spent a lot of time studying Mosiah 2 this week and learned amazing things there.

I love you all.

-Bryce

P.S. Mom can you send me the recipes for German pancakes, funeral potatoes and biscuits (using a premixed pancake mix that only needs water)? …I have an oven now. Happy days.

This week has gone well. I made and cashed my first check for the mission. Missionaries are ALWAYS calling me asking for Money that they “didn’t receive” so I’ve have to be really hard headed with them. I also trained two new Mexican missionaries straight from the CCM (MTC) about all the finances as a missionary.

This week all of the missions Presidents for all of Mexico are here in the D.F. [Mexico City] with Elder Christofferson for the annual mission Presidency seminar. I haven’t seen him, but two of the other secretaries saw him when they were pulling into the parking lot. Several people have told me that I look just like him, even since I’ve entered into the MTC, people that know him have said that even my mannerisms are the same.

This week I also went with the President and Sister Bulloch to Costco to get an extension in my name to their membership, and to Sam’s club to open up a membership. Plus Sam’s club is right next to our house so next week we are going to make a budget and buy all of our food for the whole month! Mmmm America food!

Really the best thing that’s happened all week is Vicky, our investigator, passed her baptismal interview and after they invited us to have dinner on Friday night. So yesterday we ate dinner with them and it was amazing. They went all out and even made the tortillas by hand. I am really excited for our area we have two families that are supposed to come to church tomorrow, too. We haven’t been able to get in touch with them for a few days though. :/

Well, I got to get going. I hope you are all doing great. I am praying for all of you and am very grateful to have such an amazing family!

Love,
Bryce

Hola,

Well, another interesting week. Last Saturday we went to the National Anthropology Museum which was amazing! They have artifacts from all over Mexico and it was very intriguing to see just how diverse the Mexican culture is.

This week we were supposed to have our zone conference, however President Bulloch had a kidney stone, :/ so he was several days in the hospital and they eventually had to remove it surgically. Not very fun I imagine.Later he showed us the stone (he had it in a little plastic bag, it was funny shaped and quite large). The other thing that happened was that he couldn’t leave the hospital until the medical bill was paid, so we had to make a forum and bring it upstairs to the [Church's] General Financier for all of Mexico to sign it.

Our area is starting to improve drastically…I don’t know if I explained that when I came here the President changed our area so we started the cycle without investigators and we didn’t know anyone in the ward. So we created a member based mission plan for the area and it is going great; we have one family, a part member family, and a young adult who are all progressing, as well as various other. The young adult’s name is Vicky and is going to get baptized next week. She has had some form of abuse in her past and it has been amazing how quickly and thoroughly the Gospel of Jesus Christ heal people emotional and spiritually. I love being a missionary!

Have and amazing week! I love you!

-Elder Packer

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life! I hope everyone took some time to reflect on and give thanks for the amazing and wonderful country we live in. … I do every day.

Things in Mexico are well, we cleaned the house for the first time in over a month. I think and it needed it! Several frogs have gotten into our house and we don’t know how…. there are lots of frogs now with all the rain we’ve been having.

Yesterday we had a nice baptism; her name is Fatima Zepeda. She’s been coming to church for a while because her older sister, Rosa, is a member, who found the church in Chili while she was living there for a year.

Yesterday were the political elections here and I am so happy they are over!!! They are nuts; they pay people for 2 months to drive around with banners on their cars and megaphones strapped to the top playing the jingles of all the political candidates… that’s not to mention there are at least 8 major political parties here. They also paint their signs on the walls of the houses and buildings along most of the streets and post banners and stickers and give dispenses of food, clothing, hats, bags and any other thing you can think of. One of them in particular is Jesus Tolentino representing the “PRI” party, and I always have his song stuck in my head… “…Mas calles pavimentadas, agua potable, drenages tambien. Chimalhuacan votara para ti Tolentino…” [More paved roads, potable water, drainage, too. Chimalhuacan voted for you Tolentino.] I guess where ever you go politicians are the same.

I really like it here, mainly because of the people (because it’s not a very pretty place). However, I feel like I’ve worked about everywhere possible, and next cycle a change would be nice, however we’ll see what happens.

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Bryce

First things first… ¡Feliz cumpleaños a Emily! [Happy birthday to Emily] I hope that it will be a great one! I know as an adult they’re not the same, but for me I enjoy reflecting on all the things that have past… and you have more of a past to reflect on than I do. he he he I love you, Emily.

This week has been well, I had a reunion on Thursday at the temple for mission leaders, which happens every 6 months. It was great. I went with Elder King and Elder Galiana and my companion worked with the missionaries in our district for the day. So there was only about 35 missionaries there and one of the area authorities came and spoke to us as well as the mission President, the director of the visitors center and the assistants to the Pres. I was also asked by the visitors center Director to share about the open house we held last month in our church and how we baptized one of the families that came and 2 other families came to church several times and went to the visitors center in the D.F. It is the only visitors center in Mexico and Latin America, so the area authorities are working to try and help us take advantage of this great missionary tool we have in our mission.

Elder Carbara, who spoke to us in this meeting gave a great example about repentance and how sometimes we grow accustomed to bad habits we need to change. Ex. Have you ever walked into a house where there was a little bit of gas leaking? You can notice the strong smell instantly, however if you stay in its presence your senses grow accustomed and you stop noticing the smell. When we allow ourselves to stop doing thing we should (like praying sincerely, taking the time to study the scriptures every day and enjoying it, going to church, etc.) we grow accustomed and stop recognizing that there is a problem. However, just because the gas is no longer smelt doesn’t mean that the hazard isn’t real, in fact with more time the gas collects more potent and is all the more dangerous. Is there anything that you can change in your life? Yes… of course there is! What are 5 of them? The first step to repentance (a sincere change) is to RECOGNIZE there is something wrong.

I pray that we can all better our lives by “awakening our senses” and looking for the things we need to change, and doing it. Repentance and change is one of the most spiritual experiences we can have. God is happy when we repent, we are happy when we repent, He will help us, the sacrifice of Jesus enables us to change. Without repentance we cannot accept nor apply His sacrifice in our lives. I know that repentance is necessary for our personal progress and is made possible through Jesus Christ!

I love you all so must and am truly grateful you are my family!

-Bryce