Okay, so the first thing is… to call next week. Wahoo! We’re not sure where or when, hehehe. We are going to ask he bishop if we can call in the church, and we were thinking around 3:30 which is 4:30 pm (EST) your time? Anyway, we’ll work it out and I will try to do the same as last time to call and confirm right before.

So the swine flu… called la Influenza here I guess it hasn’t been too much trouble. However, with everyone home and we don’t have permission to knock on doors or contact in the street, it’s pure referrals… So we have been visiting lots of members and inactives and harassing them until they give us someone to visit, which has worked out well because we found new people to teach and we also are helping the members get over their fear of doing missionary work!

We have had a hard time as far as our investigators and baptisms, because there hasn’t been services for two weeks, which messed up stuff for us for almost a whole month of programmed [scheduled] baptisms. However, we are going to baptize a really great woman this week. Her family has been coming to church with us for a while and she could have been baptized earlier, but we let her choose her own date and she wanted Mother’s Day. So that was okay with us. Her husband still wants to wait a few weeks and their teenage daughters want to be baptized too. However, the parents want them to understand a little more, and since they haven’t come to church as many times.

They didn’t have any changes this cycle [transfer] because of the virus, so two of the Elders here will have 6 cycles in the same area… that’s 9 months! I think I would go crazy! One of them is a Zone leader and the other elder is in his first area in the mission…hehehe. Better them than me!

Well, I am super excited to talk with you on Sunday. Oh yeah, I read that Kerry had a sinus infection. Guess what I also woke up last Saturday 25 de Abril with a sinus infection. It was the day after all this broke out. Knowing the flu symptoms, I figured nothing was wrong. However, by Tuesday I was pretty sick and all of my District called me out and told me I had to call the Mission President. So it ended up all was well and it cleared up after a few days. However, I now have boogers thick enough to glue my hands together permanently.

Okay, well the time has come. I hope you are all safe and doing well. I love you and I am extremely excited to talk next week.

Love, Bryce

Sorry I wrote you earlier but the power went out in the middle so…

So I am sure that you have heard all about the viral breakout stuff going on here. Don’t worry it’s not that serious and besides it’s not too close to where I am…and don’t worry Mom, I am being cautious and following all of the safety precautions we have received.

So church was canceled yesterday which created lots of problems with our baptismal services and the groups of investigators we were not able to inform of the cancelations.

The good thing is there is not too much fear where I am, which in situations like this can be the most dangerous thing. The funny part is that everyone is wearing face masks like the dentist uses or like you see Michel Jackson wearing on TV. Its pretty funny one of the members gave us some too. I don’t think they realize it’s not air born! Anyway, besides viral out breaks there was a 5.7 earth quake today in Gerrero not too far from here (I know that’s not very serious) Nothing that has happened has been really serious, however I think there is a message that Someone is trying to get across!

Anyway, this week will be interesting… I had splits last week with my zone leader and that was fun. We found some really good new investigators!  Unfortunately none of them were able to come to church, because we couldn’t hold services…thats okay. Well, I remember writing more that this when the power went out, however I don’t remember what it was.

Really I just want you all to know that I am very safe and that I love you all very sincerely!

Bryce

Happy Easter everyone! It’s been an interesting week… One time I ate lunch and in less than an hour I saw it again… it was still identifiable …Now the real strange thing is about a half hour later I saw the cucumber…. the one I ate about a half hour before lunch!  You guys can try to figure that one out. So yeah, I was sick with the Mexican curse, however I’ve felt better today.

Yesterday [Sunday] we had to help with several baptisms… which involved showering at 4 am and going to the chapel to turn on the boiler and fill up the font…then take a quick nap and then conduct a baptismal interview at 6:45 and participate in the service at 7 am. When that was all over, we left to get our investigators and return to the church.

Later the missionaries from our district came to explain that their scheduled baptisms fell through because they were the children of a Catholic father and a mother who is a member. And the father decided that the children weren’t going to be baptized…So I went with one of the other Elders to the family’s house and we taught the whole family about the restoration and set a baptismal date for the father as well. We had several prayers…and then the whole family came with us to the church for their children’s baptisms. It wasn’t quite as easy as that! To say the least, we had lots of help!!! …Especially considering the father has never even been near our church building. However as mom says, “all is well that ends well”.

Other things that have been going on are… I don’t think that the zone leaders are greatly pleased with my district’s performance, and am feeling like we need to go on divisions [splits] with them soon. Oh well.
My “son”…Elder Nuñez (the missionary I trained) is in the district of Elder Reed (my cousin). Wow that’s a kind of Spanglish way to say that… I’ve really forgotten how to use the possessive “S”.

We had Zone conference with our mission President and he is the MAN. We reviewed what we’ve learned in our 90 day study of the Book of Mormon and he has tapped into another dimension of this book! The Book of Mormon is incredible, especially when you are looking for specific things!

Well until next week…

I love you all!!! And hope you are all very happy!

Bryce

Muy buenas tardes! [a very good afternoon]

Esta semana fue bien rápido por las conferencias. [This week has gone very fast because of the conference.] We had another baptism of a teenager who still has some challenges, however he is improving and we will still be working with him a lot. General conference was great, I got to watch the most part and in English. I liked much of what was said especial Elder Uchtdorf in the introduction of the last session, the guy from Portugal on decisions and the Holy Ghost, and Elder Eyring in the priesthood session. And of course what was said about members finding and missionaries teaching. You should all accept the challenge to find or invite 3 people you know or meet to take the missionary discussions and accept this invitation. This really means you will probably have to invite many to have three that accept this invitation. You will be very blessed if you do this! … and so will they!

I can’t remember of anything crazy of funny that happened this week although I am sure it happened. We started a 90 day program to read the Book of Mormon and mark specific things; it has been really neat. We are going to give a talk about it on Thursday… my companion in English

I love you all and am praying that you all receive the best.

Bryce

P.S. I was telling some missionaries the other day that when the Angel Moroni came to the three witnesses he also came with various things not just the plates… this included a table! None of them believe me, oh well not that important… however I would appreciate  it if one of you (Kerry or Dad?) could look up where it says it in Church History or some where…there is also a drawing and if you could send me the drawing, the account and where you found the info. It will make things fun for me! Thanks

It’s been a long week! Yeah, we got [more] elders to form our district again! …And I have my [mobile] phone again which makes my life easier and it’s a lot easier on my wallet! The new Elders are Elder Moke (who went to high school in Spanish Fork) and Elder Vazquez who was companions with my companion last cycle. They are really good and working hard. I am so excited for General Conference! I’ve been thinking about it every day for weeks. Our stake is going to be packed seeing though as we have 12 wards! We didn’t have any baptisms this week which is kind of a downer however we brought a really great family to church and they own an ice cream, popsicle shop and they are going to teach me how to make mexican ice-cream yumm …Next family reunion, I’ll show you all what’s up.

So I’ve been in the mission for 10.5 months which is almost year and holes are appearing daily in my clothes and shoes and my socks have been “open toed” for quite a while now. I can’t believe how fast time goes when you are always busy. …Mother’s Day will be here soon and I will get to talk with you again! I am very excited for that. This time I would like to have a chance to chat with Ceci for a little bit!

Well, I know its short however I am going to the Post office to mail you those disks of picture that I still haven’t mailed. Sorry!

I hope you are all excited for general conference, it’s going to be amazing! I know that you will hear and learn things that can help make life a little better and more understandable, we all will! I remember the talks in General Conference a year and a half ago (specifically the Priesthood session) that really helped me to make the decision to go on a mission… and this has been a huge blessing for me!

I love you all and pray and hope and know that the Lord will bless every one of you. Take care of one another.

Elder Packer

P.S. One other thing I’ve been thinking about a lot ,Mom and Dad, is how I really know very little about you two. Where, when, and how you meet, what that was like, etc. I would like it if you could write me about your selves, please.

[Note: Tanda wrote and asked Bryce several questions.]

Okay so first I’ll answer some of your questions…

Yes, they are sending missionaries tomorrow to the other ward so we will be a District again and I should get a new phone soon too… which I will be very careful with.

We’re are finally starting to get organized in our new place which is just down the street from our old apartment. It is so much better and is new construction so we’re the first people to live there! However my companion tripped the other day in the shower and broke the skin :/ [maybe Bryce meant sink?] …better than his head I guess. We live alone which I think is the same for every companionship in the mission, and luckily, yes we get feed by the members here too

Another nice thing is that a member from the other ward owns a laundry mat on our street and washes all my clothes for 15 pesos, and they are actually clean and don’t get sun bleached or pooped on by birds or spiders laying eggs on them, all of which happened in Pachuca.

Okay, so after not writing last week, I’m sure the title of my letter almost gave you a heart attack, however about an hour ago I ate a Huarrache which is like a Mexican pizza. I have grown to eat a lot of salsa, which is really hot here, however the guacamole that was on this thing was so hot that it burned my mouth, lips, stomach and I could hardly open my mouth for 10 min. because the movement of air in and out of my mouth on my lips hurt so much. Of course I also had to make a somewhat painful bathroom trip shortly after! I also got to eat cow foot last week which I couldn’t really reject because it was offered to me in a family home evening we had with the member we baptized yesterday! So I politely ate it and politely didn’t vomit. I also ate pig foot about 2 weeks ago. I’m not sure which is my favorite?

Last of the interesting things to happen, is yesterday we were late for our baptismal service because the road was blocked by about 35 cross-dressers who were dancing in the street and asking money from all the people driving through. One of the strangest reasons to have traffic backed up or to be late to our own baptismal service. Welcome to Chimalhuacán!

I love you all and you’re in my thoughts and prayers.
-Bryce