[Editor's note by Bryce's dad: My wife and I had a fun Mother's Day phone call with our son, Bryce, who has 5 more days left on his mission in the Mexico City East Mission. We are so excited to have him come home!]

[from Bryce]
Today we got our hair cut. My companion called his family (in México, Mother’s day is always on the 10th).

I also did some last minute shopping. I also started to dejunk some stuff and packed. Tomorrow is District Class, so I still have to prepare that [Bryce teaches the class]. On wednesday, we will be working hard, and on Thursday, we will work and visit all my converts to say good bye and take pictures.

Friday morning, I will go to the temple in the morning with a brother from the ward and my companion will stay here with the Assistants. All of my generation [missionaries going home Saturday] will enter the temple for a session, and [afterwards] we will have some activities and a class on the perpetual education fund. Then in the evening [with the mission president] we will go eat tacos at La Onda! mmm… TACOS!!! I probably won’t sleep at night, and early Saturday — like around 5:45 AM — we will head to the airport.

I know that this week is just going to fly by so I am going to work harder than ever to do all I can while I’m still here, and in my last few days of full-time service!

Have a great week! I love you all and I will see you are talk to you soon!

-Elder Packer

[Editorial notes by Bryce's Dad, Shayne: Bryce has 13 days left in his mission, then he flies home! I ask what he was doing for the Cinco de Mayo (Mexico Independence holiday) this Wednesday? Here is his answer.] — WORK!

Well, I’m excited to talk with everyone on Sunday! [Bryce gets to talk with the family for Mother's Day!] I can’t believe how the time keeps flying. Today we went to El Centro, which is downtown Mexico City. It has been a hot 97 degrees! Yesterday we had some major miracles in the church, and next week (my last Sunday in the mission) we are going to have 3 baptisms. I still don’t feel it! And I am sure it won’t hit me till after next Sunday! MAN IT’S HOT! Well, I think my brain is melting, because I can’t think of what to write you. However, I do love you all very much! Talk to you sooooon!

-Elder Packer

Hello Family!

Well, just to update on the video last week… [See last week's email Fun Stuff about having their computer editing program crash while creating a training video. ] …It was lost and we tried until the night to recover it, however no luck. Oh well, we did all we could!

Yesterday was nice because of Margarita’s baptism she is a sweet, dear hearted lady who reminds me of mom! It was Elder Fernandez’s first baptism and he preformed the ordinance perfect. I also had him confirm Luis who we baptized a few weeks ago… so now he is getting more confidence and experience. I have been trying hard to teach him how to be a leader, accepting responsibility and participating in every aspect of the work.

I spoke in Sacrament meeting about Missionary work, of course, with an emphasis on the importance of members. It went alright; I was about 12 min. into my talk and about 2/3 of the way finished when the bishop said I’d gone over time. So… I guess I’ll be able to use the 20 min. Bishop Abbot is giving me to talk on ‘Obedience to God’s commandments’ just fine. I really can’t believe its coming to an end. I’ve just been working hard to keep finding investigators and trying to help them to overcome their fears, etc. to come to church and prepare them for baptism and teaching my kid how to do the same. We got some good investigators, and with lots of help from the Lord, they’ll soon be converted. Please keep praying for me, my companion and our investigators these next few weeks!

Dad, I’m super excited that they changed the date for the father and sons campout! About a party, you can invite whomever you want, and either Saturday or Sunday would be fine for me. If you want to put some photos on a slide show, that great, but I don’t want to stand and narrate anything.

Emily, you are just looking huge… and just to let you know I’ve gotten real fat the past few months! I’ve been suckin’ my gut in to the pictures J.

Have a great week! I love you!

Elder Packer

…by the way, just kidding, I’m not fat!

Mom, about the money, that should be great. Thank you so much!

Hi Family,

Well, I am beat! I have been spending the whole day with the assistants making a video for their capacitation (training) … tomorrow. And so pressure has robbed my memory after planning the video, then filming, we have gone on to editing… for 6 hours and 40 minutes now! And about 35 mins. ago the editing program froze … and we forgot to save, so we might be starting the editing from scratch. We are now just praying and waiting for some computer guy who is going to come and try and save the file.

Sorry this is probably going to be a very lame letter. The great news is this week Elder Fernandez (my greeny) is going to have his first baptism! He is very excited. Her name is Margarita and she is a nice middle aged woman whom we found contacting a micro bus (which has about 50 passengers). Pretty neat! When we brought her to church she seemed to be struggling to understand what was going on, till Gospel Principles class, where I presented her to Anna, one of our recent converts… it turns out that they knew each other years ago. So Hermana Anna has been accompanying us to our teaching appointments. It has been amazing to see the power and the spirit that this new convert has! I know that working with members is the best way to do the Lord’s work. I hope that you are all striving to have real missionary experiences!

…Well, the stress is still here, so I’ve got to go!

Love you all!

-Elder Packer

¡Hola mi querida familia! [Hello my dear family!]

It has been a nutty week. My new companion is Elder Miguel David Fernandez Perez, He’s from Chetumal, Quintana Roo. It’s super far from here! [in the Yucatán Peninsula] This week was a bit of a trial at first since my companion is a greeny, but he is really humble and not afraid of working + he has learned really fast. The Lord couldn’t have blessed me with a greater companion! Funny story: I talked him into waxing his unibrow today… tell you all about it later. Oh, yea another funny story last week with Elder Padget: we were sharing the [story of the] first vision, when all four of the legs of the chair our investigator was sitting on flew out from under her. It’s been said that all sorts of distractions will always come up in the first vision, but this was a funny first.

I was reviewing my notes on General Conference again and noticing how a big part of the theme was doing our duty to God.

This week we had a family of 9, 6 in baptismal age who were going to get baptized, however the father decided that he doesn’t want to get married so that was a hard blow! However we had an interesting fast and testimony meeting… because we share the ward with the assistants and it was General Conference last week we had 12 confirmations, then 2 baby blessings, one of which was the child of one of the families that was confirmed. So in the end there were only 4 or 5 very brief testimonies shared before the service ended. Plus there are a few other pending confirmations and if they would have come like planned, I’m sure that it would have only been a confirmations and baby blessings meeting. I hope our investigators who came for the first time don’t get weirded out by their first experience!

Well, I’ve got to run!

I love you all so much! Take care and make the best decisions this week!

-Elder Packer

P.S. ¡¡¡¡Attached is the new mission photo!!!!

¡¡¡Happy Birthday Heather!!!

I hope you are doing great!

…and to everyone, Happy Easter!

It is SO hot!!! I am sweating like a pig! And to think it’s only going to be getting hotter…

It’s been a strange and busy week. I have been serving with Elder Padget (a new American missionary in my district) since Thursday and it has been a pleasure, even though he can speak very little Spanish and can not pronounce the “R” to save his life, the people react in a special way to his warm spirit and positive attitude. I’ve learned a lot from him, and one of those many things is what pure motives really means.

So… I am going to get a greeny! Yep. I’m going to be training my last cycle! I’m excited, and nervous, because I know that means that I will be even busier and that means the time will be going by even faster. However I am grateful for this new opportunity to serve, teach and learn. As before, I am sure I will learn more than I teach. I often wonder why the Lord is so good to me and all of us.

General Conference was wonderful and I am grateful for the guidance I and others received. It is incredible how the Lord can answer my specific prayers and those of millions of other in the same moment. I love the Lord! I also found it incredible how all of the talks where so in line, even though there were no assigned themes. I felt that two of the strongest themes were prepare the children and protect the youth. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my notes with me right now to share all of my favorite thoughts, however I do remember a few.

Joy and happiness don’t come from circumstances, but faith in the Lord. That is a lesson that I am learning more and more, its not where we are, who we are with or the blessings or trials that we are going through that determine our state of happiness. We need to be creators of circumstances not creatures of our environments. As Elder Bednar clearly stated, we are to act not to be acted upon, and faith is not merely believing, but acting. It is our works, that are in accordance with the teachings of Christ that determine our state of happiness! I love the clear example stated that if we are struggling and turn instead and focus on the needs of another rather than our own needs, than we will quickly become happier and our burdens will become light. I know that  this is the truth and that we will be happy and at peace in any season in any place and with anyone as long as we follow the teaching of the Master!

I am grateful for the teachings and the works of Jesus! For his perfect example and mercy. May we all exert ourselves to be more like Him is my prayer and hope.

I love you, my family! I pray for you and desire your well being!

-Elder Bryce Packer