Hello my lovely family!

It has been another glorious week in the work of the Lord, in the which he has blessed us greatly. My companion and I worked diligently and hard the past two weeks, however at the end of last week our overall impression was that we needed to be more humble and rely more on the Lord, so that is what we’ve been striving to do this week. The Lord blessed us greatly this past week in being part of the baptisms of two amazing people, Laura and her daughter Susi. They are wonderful people who have received a true conversion to the Gospel. He also blessed us in being a means by which 14 investigators attended church services yesterday. I feel very grateful! Actual its funny our ride fell through and we had to rent a public transportation van, so everyone could come. I’m sill working to recognize that success in this work comes from the Lord and rely on Him for guidance and strength.

Coming to this area, I’ve just felt blessed and full of energy and excitement to work hard and make the Gospel flourish here like it never has before. My initial excitement is what got me going, however the Lord has been showing me along the way what it is I need to do (change) to keep going. Being humble and relying on Him is part of it, now I have felt what I need to do is work hard to just really truly love the people and desire their salvation. I love the two people who were baptized yesterday and am so happy to see how the Gospel has made them happy! And that is my motive, that was (and is) the motive of Christ and His mission, the great cause of the Gospel.

When we allow pure motives (the well being of others) to motivate us to act (service) and we repeat these actions to the point that they become habits, our deepest desires become converted to that which is pure, righteous and godly. The strength, energy come as needed and God teaches us along the way what more we must do (change). What we love we will seek, and what we seek we will obtain.

I know that Christ lives and that He loves us. May we seek Him and His pure love and may it motivate us to loose ourselves in the service of God’s children even as He has done.

I love you all and pray that God will bless and keep every one of you!

-Elder Packer

¡Bienvenidos al campo misional! [Welcome to the mission field!]

Hola Familia,

Here I am, very happy out in Bautizaluca (Ixtapaluca)! [Pronounced eextapalooka. South-east of Mexico City.]

San Francisco is the name of my area which is a soon to be branch of the ward Los Heroes (which is the Assistants area). And it is amazing here! My companion, Elder Alacantar, and I are working harder than I have ever worked in my whole mission! It is his last cycle in the mission. He is a really exceptional missionary, we’ve been running in the mornings, studying hard together and have contacted thousands! Really I feel great and can say with 100% there is nothing more I could have done! I love being able to give that type of an accounting to the Lord at the end of every evening! And that’s what we’ll keep doing everyday!

Our district is the “dream team”; two of the best zone leaders are in my district as trainers. Ixtapaluca is the most successful part of the mission and President just wiped it clean and put in some of the best missionaries to just explode the place. It’s just nuts, nothing like this has ever happened in the mission before. Our district includes: Elder Carretero and Elder Padget in the Aylotl ward, and Elder Winters and Elder Cordova in the Izcali ward. [Bryce is the District Leader.]

“Todo por el Señor” [Everything for the Lord] is my theme for this cycle. I will stay humble and 100% focused and know that the Lord is going to support us in our goals and give us the strength and the inspiration to complete them.

Well, take care all, we’ve got to get back to working! I love you!

-Elder Packer

It’s been a crazy week. Where to start? They had a three day multi-stake youth activity here and me and my companion went to help one of the days. The coolest thing is I saw two of my converts from Pachuca and three of my converts here went, too!

Okay this will probably be short, SORRY. However I have to finish packing and visit all of our converts today.

Wahoo! I have changes [transfers]. My zone leaders told me at about 4:30 pm yesterday, however I thought they were joking and still didn’t know who had changes yet, then right as I hung up with them the Mission President called me (which isn’t too often) telling me that the zone leaders were going to call me and tell me had changes, then my heart almost stopped as I prepared myself to hear that I wasn’t going to have changes, however he hold my that he was calling me to tell me that I was going to have changes and to tell me what I would be doing (which he normally doesn’t do). He said that the Lord wants me to be the Financial Secretary for the mission and that it is one of the most trusted positions in the mission, that I will be handling the funds of the mission, and that it is by far the person who works closest to the Mission President (even more that the assistants). He said it is something that will help to prepare me for a life time of church service and that he wanted me to keep this confidential until he announces it tomorrow (but that I could tell my family.

I have to say that wasn’t a call I was expecting. :/ However, I am super excited. I don’t know all I will be doing, but I think my area is in Mexico City which is cool because that’s where I wanted to go. Before, when I was in Pachuca, I told everyone when they asked me that I wanted to come to Chimalhuacán… and that’s where I am and have been for the past half year… so I guess I need to be really thoughtful of what I want, because it seams to become reality. Amazing how these things work out, huh? Well, I’ve got lots to do! I love you all very much, you are all in my thoughts and prayers, and I thank you for you prayers and support!

Les Amor! [love]
- Elder Packer

The two photos are of the leadership training about a month ago. (I am standing next to my cousin Elder Reed, on my right, in the brown suit).

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

It sounds like things are [happening] all over there. Heather and mom improving the everything, dad in Seattle [visiting Emily's family], and Kerry and Ceci getting ready to go to Peru. What excitement!

Nothing too crazy has happened in the past week. This week we are marrying a couple, and on thursday, we have to go to Mexico D.F. for a conference for all of the leaders in the mission.

Today I got a call from the Mission President, telling me that the grandfather of one of the missionaries in my district died (luckily I was in the church with that missionary when the Pres. called) so then President talked with him and told him. That was kind of rough, because his grandpa lived with him his whole life so he was like his dad. We went for a walk together and talked and he seems to be handling it well, which is good.

We also had a zone council in the morning, brainstormed together and made some great goals for the zone and our districts. I’m pretty excited to start with that. Tomorrow is our last day in our program to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days… I’m a little behind; however, its been great. I have found answers to so many interesting questions while reading El Libro de Mormón [The Book of Mormon] this time and strengthened my testimony of this book so much. I hope all of you take time every day to study it… if not, start now; it will make a difference that will bless your life. Several times while studying, later in the same day someone would ask me a difficult question that I answered with scriptures that I had read that same morning, questions I didn’t know the answer to previously (little miracles). It has also been an amazing guide and director in my life helping me understand what I really want and guiding me daily to accomplish those things…

¡Ya me voy! ¡Cabó el tiempo! [I already have to go! It's time to end!] I love you.

-Bryce

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