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

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.

¡Feiz aÑo nuevo! [Happy new year] I capitalized the Ñ for you mom hahaha, thanks for the good intention.

Things are going great here! We had a baptism for yesterday however his uncle died the day before so we are postponing it till later this week. His name is Carlos Copca and he is awesome and ridiculously funny and 19 years old. We really enjoy teaching and talking with him.

So I accidently broke my fast early yesterday because the bishop gave me  a “chapuline” to eat, thats a dried grasshopper. yumm actually it wasn’t very sabroso [tasty].

Two neat experiences we had with the convert family Martines Sanches was their first family home evening which we prepared for them.  We sang “Familias pueden ser eternas” [Families can be together forever] taught them that families can be eternal and  then played Uno (pretty sweet huh) and we also brought some microwave popcorn, however they don’t have a microwave so I cooked it in a pot on the stove top they were all very impressed and I gave all the credit to my mom

…Oh this reminds me of a bad joke I learned in the MTC… Why don’t you play Uno with mexicans?……because they take all the green cards   …hehehe  I love the people here so much!

The other neat experience was that Mireya (the mother) signed up to feed us lunch last week, pretty neat. And she fed us lots of vegetables, which for me is a treat.

I’ve been reading  many of the mornings in the Liahona from Nov 2008 its all the discourses from General Conference.   Mom and Dad I real liked “come what may, and love it” by Elder Joseph B. Worthlin , he put a good and humorous perspective on life, you two should read it together, I believe you will enjoy it.

Another thought that struck me, is in the discourse by Elder James J. Hamula “…being sober means being earnest and serious in assessing your circumstances and careful and circumspect in weighing the consequences of your actions. Soberness therefore yields good judgement, as well as measured conduct.” Clearly the application of the word is more broad than the reference to substance abuse, although it gives an interesting insight to what is lost with the use of mind-altering and addictive substances and how important it is to abstain from them. Applied in a broader aspect not to be drunk with emotions, such as anger, lust, jealousy, greed or materialism, all of which have the power to skew our judgment to be less than well measured.

Well… I love you all! and I hope the best for all of us in this new year.

Elder Packer

Mi queriodo familia, [my dear family]

¿Como estan todos? [How are you all today?] All is well here it was very cold this morning and it very hot right now…the sun is strong, and I am very red as I am told almost every day. Thanks you all for your letters it has been nice to come home at night and lay in my bed reading them.

I had fun yesterday dragging one of our investigators out of bed for church …He was kind of sick, but that’s okay. I am really looking forward to General Conference next Sunday, especially for our investigators to have the opportunities to hear the Prophet speak. I hope I will be able to understand it in Spanish. The work is going well here and I am really getting to know the area and the people. Next week is transfers I hope I am still here, although I’m sure I will be because my trainer has been here for 7 months.

As for your questions… I got the letters form Nick and Bishop, please tell them thank you and that all is well… and I will write them if I ever get a chance. I also got a dearelder [letter] from you, Kerry and Dad. I think, they were all from a month ago… so I guess it takes 4-5 weeks to get them because I am so far from Mexico City. Thanks though I really enjoyed reading them. I copied my pictures to CD and will be mailing them next week! Oh yea, I got the picture of Kerry and Isabella…¡carumba [wow] she is cute! Please, get my proxy ballot for the election… ¿By the way when is it and who is everyone voting for and why?

Wow, Mom tell Margaret and the Hurts congratulations for me! That’s awesome!

¡Santa Vaca! [Holy Cow] Kerry you got $2,100 for you car! That’s unreal. What a week Kerry. I’m glad to hear you are okay… and that your Spanish is improving. I am loosing my English and it is hard for me to remember how to say very common things… also to form full sentences, so if this is all jumbled you know why. Yes, I also find I have to concentrate a lot when listening to conversations, especially because Mexicans use a lot of slang and have 7 words for one thing. 

I email from an internet cafe a few blocks from my house. It’s about time I love you all and look forward to hearing from all of you.

Love Bryce