Well this is going to be a short one as I’ve been trying to prepare a small package to send you all for Christmas.

First of all the Christmas call… you can call me on the 25th in the morning at my office number. I’ll confirm the time with you next week.

I’m sick with a sinus/throat infection, however it hasn’t been too strong.

This week was our Christmas conference and we got to enter into the temple with President and Sister Bulloch. It was AMAZING. I learned and forgot so many things, not having entered since a year ago. I love the temple.

The mission Christmas conference was split into two days, so I was in charge of organizing the transportation for the parts of the mission that are a little far, like Pachuca. I also rented rooms in the CCM (MTC in Mexico). Then the President asked if I could spend the night to make sure that everything went over well. 64 Elders and 11 Sister missionaries for a Christmas sleepover. Yah, you can imagine—it was a night.

Oh, I also finally bought a new suit! It was a really good deal and is great quality.

Well I love you all and you are in my prayers…talk to you soon!

-Bryce

Well first things first…

¡¡¡¡¡HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! I know that you probably don’t want much… probably to rest for a moment! However, I wanted to let you know that I am grateful for the grand effort and many sacrifices that you make for me and all of the family. I couldn’t do it without you!

I got a nice package from the Kogers, with a letter, drawings from Isaac and Adeline, much needed socks, and homemade caramel and trail mix. We already ate all of the trail mix… it brought back lots of memories of hiking in the mountains. I’ve been trying to ration the caramel. Thanks Kogers!

I also got a “Dear Elder” letter from Denna (Harper Tenney) Russell, Aunt Dawn’s daughter. I think her son will be serving a mission soon! And I received a Florida postcard from Nick Ogden; he’s such a funny kid. Please tell them Thank You!

Well, this was a very exciting week, because President Johnson [the Area President] came to speak in the mission. He taught us so many important things and as he taught, my heart yelled amen over and over. He taught us how to recognize a person who is ready to receive the gospel, how to contact in a way that the spirit can testify and about self empowerment. One of the things he explained is that if we truly want something (that is right) the Lord will give it to us. However, we often say that we want something, but we don’t truly want it, that is, we aren’t willing to pay the price to obtain it. So really, we are everything that we want to be and have everything that we want to have.

It’s not a new concept for me, however they are strong words to reflect upon, that make you really evaluate if you are cheating yourself out of being something more than you could be, if you we will to put forth your maximum effort. Sometimes, do we allow ourselves to be calloused, insensitive to our state of progression? Are we in one of those “sometimes”? If so, let’s not be satisfied with the mediocrity. Evaluate the things that have become relaxed in your life and you have become comfortable with.

Make a list and specific goals to improve those things. It will be hard, but we must be willing to pay the price! And self-improvement has a high price! However, the rewards are far greater. I promise you if you put forth you greatest effort to repent and become better, placing complete trust in the Lord to help you, He WILL “make weak things become strong unto you”.

Four things that will help to make this process successful:
- Prayer
- Fasting
- Prayerful study of the Book of Mormon
- Regular church attendance

I am grateful for the perfect example of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grand mercy and love He has for us. I pray that we may all awake to our true state, accepting our flaws and weaknesses before the Lord, that we may be able to overcome them with His help, and become as He is.

Love,
Elder Bryce Sterling Packer

Hello my wonderful family,

Happy Halloween! All is great here! We have a baptismal service in a few hours. Our investigator’s name is name is Ricardo and he is amazing!  He’s about my age. We also had a baptism last week and get this, his name is Shazam Jovany. He’s great as well. We’ve not had much time in our area, but the Lord is blessing us greatly!!!

My companion and I have made the goal to baptize every week this cycle and to baptize a complete family. I know with the Lord’s help and lots of self-sacrifice it will happen.

This week was the Zone Leaders Council and it went well. In it, we read a letter from the new area Presidency, and wow, they’ve got the vision! They made big goals for the members here in México. One is three special consecutive fasts (starting today Nov, Dec, Jan) for the leaders of the Mexicans, so that they can have the wisdom to do the things that they should. Another is to read the whole Book of Mormon before the General Conference in April of 2010 (you know what I’ll be reading). Another is for every member to attend the temple every month before the General Conference in April of 2010. To reactivate a member, and help some to enter into the waters of baptism before the General Conference in April of 2010. And there are more! Exciting times to be in México!

Well, we’ve got to finish preparing our service. Be safe and have a great week!

¡¡Love you all!!

-Bryce

So far all is going well with the financial work; it’s weird to be crunching numbers and making reports, etc. I like it though and am sure it will be a huge blessing later on, because as you all know, I never was the most prudent or cautious when it came to [personal] money.

Today we are going to the museum of anthropology, which is closed on Mondays and out side of our mission I think, so it’s not something most missionaries get to do. So that will be neat.

I still haven’t been able to get my [driver's] license because the immigrations secretary, Elder Lechuga thought that immigrations still had my passport, later we found it locked up in his office, which really is okay, because hours of driving a 12 passenger van in traffic isn’t always fun. Plus everyone is tired of driving so I’m sure they’ll make the new guy drive a lot.

This week was the quarterly Zone Leaders conference, so we spent some time preparing all of that and most of Wednesday was spent in attendance. It is amazing to be around the Mission President so much, he is a truly incredible person, with such a strong spirit.

Other things out of the normal that have happened this week is one elder left his house in the middle of the night and called the President a few days later (in another state) wanting his passport, so we had to go get him very late at night from the bus station have him spend the night with us and bring him to meet with the president the next day… after we brought him to the airport. :/ Kind of weird.

Oh yea, I forgot to tell you all last week that I ate all the weird types of tacos my last day in Chimalhuacan [Ciudad-Alegre], head meat tacos, tongue tacos, brain tacos, snout tacos and eyeball tacos!!! They were all pretty much gross gross gross!!! …and really expensive, too!

Our area is amazing, however we need to work more with members because we have so little time to work there.

I love you all; take care and give everyone my best!!

-Elder Packer

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

[A very crazy week]

Hola familia! [Hello family!]

¿Como estan todos? [How is everybody?] Espero que bien bien! [I hope well!]

This week was a little nuts, however it went by super fast, so that’s good. First we had a zone meeting on Monday morning (early and far away). Then on Tuesday we went to the D.F. [Distrito Federal, Mexico City] to the temple to take the photo of the entire mission, (I already got my copy!) and to have a multi-zone conference. Lastly, we had an open house in our church on Saturday. (The Visitors Center from the temple came with four sister missionaries and put on a portable version of their tour). It went really well we had 192 people go through, and 130 were non-members, 60 of them asked for more information and visits from the missionaries… and about 40 of them live in our area. So we have lots of work this week, which is really good!

We baptized a man yesterday who was contacted by the missionaries many years ago however never followed through then and now he was ready. His name is Pedro and is really nice he’s about 45.  His 4 kids and his wife are really Catholic and don’t want to listen to us so we have work there too. He is trying to help his family come to church on Wednesday for a ward activity; I really hope they come. It seems like we find lots of women that want to receive the Gospel, however their husbands don’t and then when we find a man who is interested his wife isn’t. :/ I guess that’s the way it goes.

There was an earthquake in Puebla on Friday and we felt it. We were eating lunch and I thought that my companion was shaking the table with his leg.  Then I looked up to see that everyone’s heads were bobbling. It actually put a crack in the concrete wall of the house we were in, however that probably says more about the quality of construction than how strong the quake was.

It’s been raining every night here and there is still a lot of dust and dirt and now mud. Our road is dirt and last night is was a muddy river that was pretty deep in lots of  areas, so we had to hop rocks, jump, hang and climb on things to get home. Oh the adventures of Mexico! Today I spent the whole day cleaning the house which was much needed, so I feel really tired now but good. Okay I guess I’m starting to ramble because I am tired… its time to go.

I love you all, take care.

Bryce