[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

A sigh of relief that this week is over!  We had a great baptismal service yesterday for a family of five, they are amazing and already have a very strong conversion. I think the father will end up being a bishop! … By the way dad I am trying to type with my hands on the home keys, its kind of funny.

Okay, so last night I found out that I have transfers tomorrow, I don’t know to where, however, we have to be in Mexico [City] at 1 pm and I am going to be a District leader. Pretty crazy huh? I am excited to have a change and I am less than a week short of completing a half year in this area.

A new companion will be nice too, however, I will miss Elder Nuñez! So today is all busy, busy packing and visiting all of our converts here. By the way, no I haven’t received the package from Kristi or you yet, however tomorrow is when all the mail comes.

Yesterday one of our converts gave me one of his homemade hand-painted didgeridoos (the instrument from Australia). It is sweet! He made it from a plant called “maguey” which is like a large aloe vera plant that they use here to make funky moonshine and they also fry and eat the grubs/maggots that live inside. They call them called “chinicuilis” yum… So I’ve been practicing with my new instrument. It will interesting to see how I will end up transporting it seeing as it is around 1.5 meters [about 5 ft] long. That’s okay remember the time I brought an arm chair on the airplane? I’m sure this will be easier!

Ahhh, I am going to miss the people here so much!!! Oh by the way because of transfers I won’t be able to mail the DVDs of photos till next week. I am glad to here everyone is doing well …and that everything is getting resolved Heather! Oh yea I got to spend some time with  Parley (Horacio) Valdez, the childhood friend of Spencer, who claims he taught him how to ride a bike, ¿Is that true Spencer? any ways he is a really neat person and he wants to get in touch with you Spencer, don’t worry he speaks prefect english, actually he is an english teacher… The first time I met him I thought he was a gringo.

I can write more in less time which is good, so I guess this is the way to go.

I love you all so much and thank you all for your love and support.

Elder Packer

¡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

Hello my lovely family,

Things have been a little rough, however successful this week. We had divisions [splits] with our Zone Leaders, I learned A LOT and we are working on applying what we learned. We have one really amazing investigator named Ramon. He reads everything we give him and then in the next visit we talk for along time about all of it.

He almost gave me a heart attack this week. We were waiting outside of the church for him and he was almost 30 min. late for his first sacrament meeting… we had talked with him that morning , so I knew he was going to come. When he went to get dressed he found that his suit was moldy, because he hadn’t used it since high school.

We also found a lot of families that we have been teaching this week. I think we are going to start focusing more on families. None of our investigators have been baptized yet, however 2 have a date for the 9th of November, and I believe everything will work out. We usually take a cab to church and we visit as many of our investigators as possible before, to remind them of their commitments.

[Kerry suggests that we should all specifically pray for these investigators and that their baptisms will go forward on the 9th.]

This week we are going to Mexico City three time to help with the open house, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I am so excited, however we have to work so hard because we have little time to work.

[The rest of this are answers to questions we had ask Bryce.]

I didn’t really have any culture shocks mainly the language. The thing that I’m not really comfortable with is that people minus the drive [I think what Bryce is trying to say is that they drive crazy and...] don’t use seat belts. The food is fine, However I don’t like checheron much… its fried pig skin… yummm.

I hope that will do for now All is well here. I love you all very much and hope that everything is going great!

Love, Bryce

[Tanda] I had written and asked Bryce a bunch of questions (in italics). His answers follow.

First question, who is your companion and where is he from?
Elder Cardenas de San Louis, from Mexico.

Bryce lives with just one companion. Elder Cardenas de San Louis.  They live in a house.
My house is nice, its small, big for two people in Mexico though and in a gated community called Pitahays we rent it from members that live in northern Mexico.

Bryce wishes he was sleeping in a hammock.  He sleeps in a bed that feels like a floor, but by it’s time for sleep he LOVES IT! They do not have a maid, cook or anyone to wash their laundry and shop for food.  In other words…
We have to do it all ourselves.  Its nice though we have a washing machine …kind of (I’ll send a picture sometime) and we eat with the members for lunch around 2-3ish and they don’t really have dinner in Mexico.  The clothes are line dried of coarse.

I looked up Panchuca it said that it is 8,500 – 9,000 ft high have you had any problems with the altitude?
Nope  but I live in the lower part of Pachuca… it was originally a mining town for 500 years.

I don’t drink the water,  but I’ve accidentally used it a couple of times… I’m fine and the natives don’t even drink the water!

It also says that Panchuca means “windy beauty” and that their is a constant wind out of the northeast and that it is one of the coldest places in Mexico.
Yep it really windy here and it rains ALOT!

I asked Bryce if he needed a coat, or long sleeve shirts.  He said that some sweaters might be nice every once in a while.
I am nice and warm.  I’m ok almost all of the time, the natives think I’m crazy when they all have scarfs and coats on when its cold.

Who are your investigators?
Agostin Piña who is 20 really neat person and has a baptismal date but we are having challenges actually getting him to the church… he came to the Temple Visitors center with us a few weeks back.

We are in a  ward. It is a new ward formed from splitting a larger ward and its very small. We have a new chapel which is very nice.

Do you walk?
WE WALK ALOT! and bus a lot too and vans and taxis also.

How much computer time you get each week?
I have one hour of computer time. However I have to write the Mission Pres. and secretaries in this time too and I type and read in Spanish really slow. How ever last week I got you DearElder.com [letter] from the 17th of Aug. and Kristi’s from who knows when and the end of your DearElder was cut off too.

Oh, please tell Kristi congratulations for me, I’m going to be an uncle! [for the ninth time]

What is your mailing address to your apartment, in case we want to mail letters, photos, etc.?
ONLY mail letters to the mission address.  You can mail anything there, but only single sheets through pouch, everything else through normal mail.

[The address of the mission home is on the Current Address page.]

Thanks for your letter mom! It really made my day! I think about you all and pray for you a lot… were going to have to make up for lots of time when I get back.

Last Lunes [Monday] I went to Mexico [City] to immigrations for the last of my visa stuff. I got to ride the metro there; it is insane! I’m sure people die. And I got to see Elder Covington (my old companion) and Elder King my old roommate in the MTC. that was very nice. And today the whole zone went up into the mountains to a campground kind of thing and played soccer and cooked food. It was awesome. Well I’ve got to go. I wish I could say more.  I Love you mom, and all of you.

Bryce

[Here's a short note to Shayne]

Hey Dad,

I read your letters last week and this week. It sounds like things are going well. You are an awesome dad and a great grandpa. you can help me out to when I have kids.

love, bye, Bryce

Hey Family,

I only have 20 min. to email so it might be short… if so I’ll try to write later. The MTC is crazy, the first few days were pretty rough to get used to, but things better. The district I am in has 9 other Elders 2 of which are going to my Mission the other 7 to the Mexico City West Mission. My companion Elder Covington is from Cedar City, UT and he is the nicest/happiest Elder. The food is differently not your cooking mom, but we don’t go hungry, so don’t worry. I feel like it has been one long day… and that I haven’t slept yet! Its pretty neat to be around so many missionaries. Spanish is coming along, I’m kind of learning slower than everyone in my district though :/ I can’t believe how much don’t know about the Gospel. Oh, I can only email parents in the MTC and Family in the Mission field. It is actually better if you guys use DearElder.com because I have to pay to print and read my emails, plus I get the DearElder letters faster : ) How are things back home? Can Isabella say my name yet? Soccer is fun. El perro corre. I love you all a lot! Write soon PLEASE!

Love,
Elder Packer