[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

¡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

Duh duh duh duh! Happy birthday Kerry! How old are you now? Wow you’re a geezer! … It’s a good thing I’m still a young’un! How does it feel to be 27? It feels a lot more, huh? … in your back, neck, and possibly even your knees. No really, I can’t believe your 27, that’s almost 30. Soon you’re going to be bald, but that’s okay, I’ll be bald with you!

My companions call me “ruco” because I’m older (actually they call us “rucos” because Elder Lauterio is 24 as well) But that’s okay… I really do feel the difference though!

Well, I hope that you all had an opportunity to do the activity I sent, and are working to complete the goals established. As we focus on what is most important, with a specific desired result, the actions we must make every day become clearer, easier and more meaningful. And that’s a blessing in such a diluted world that has yet to realize its purpose.

As I’m sure we have all realized in one way or another, the time is short, and even more so when filled with activities whose end result is undefined or unestablished. We must cherish our time by planning what is desired, then acting. By doing so we will be able accomplish great things in short periods of time, filling the time we have been given with fond memories and events, which will have contributed to the development of our personal success and happiness as well as that of them whom we serve.

I love serving as a missionary and all the challenges that includes! I am grateful for the blessings I have received and the services I have been able to provide. I am proud of the person I have been able to become through the Lord’s help and by diligently living His Gospel. Elder Lauterio and I have been having great success in the last few weeks and have had two great baptisms and more on the way.

I love you all and pray that God be with you!
-Bryce

Hola Familia y a todos [Hello family and all],

¡Feliz año nuevo! [Happy New Year!] It’s been an eventful year and I know this one will be too! New Year’s Eve we had an activity where we evaluated what we had accomplished and set new goals for the remainder of the mission. It was a really special experience, which helped me to know how many blessings I have really received throughout the past year. I would like to make modified version of part of this activity and invite each one of you to do it. I promise that it will give you direction and greater success throughout this next year.

1. Make a list of the accomplishments/results that you REALLY want to see happen this year. …While doing so ask yourself how you are going to respond when someone asks you, “What were you able to accomplish during this year?” Focus on results that have to do with others rather than just your personal progress. So I guess the question is better phrased, “What were you able to accomplish for others during this year?”
2. After making this list share it with someone else (who is also participating in this activity).
3. Go over you own list again and revise and add to it following the inspiration you received from your partner’s list.
4. Next, make a list of your accomplishments from the past year.
5. Add to it a list of the reasons you were able to accomplish what you were able to.
6. Next, make a list of the things you would need to do to be able to have more success.

From this activity you will be able to make several goals that are in harmony with your desires for this coming year. I feel that the most important is that of service!

You can also add prayers and singing hymns and reading scriptures to this activity which will help to invite the spirit and conduce personal revelation.

Well, times up. Have a great start of the year and do what is necessary to make the whole year that way!

Love
~Bryce

Well, this week is going to be exciting, because… we get to talk [on the phone] on the 25th.

On Sunday, my companion and I discoursed in sacrament meeting (like every second Sunday of the month). While starting to prepare my talk, I thought about diligence, then Temples, then the Holy Ghost, and finally Service. So, in the end I choose a different topic, Establishing and completing goals. Within this topic, I talked a little about the others. However, I focused on: Why we need to set goals? How do they help us to complete our purpose in life and become happy? What is a worthy goal? And how can we accomplish our goals?

Why we need to set goals? And How do they help us to complete our purpose in life and become happy?

To make it simple I sighted this wonderful passage.

“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” ~ Elder M. Russell Ballard, Preach My Gospel, p. 146

We are here to become like Jesus Christ. How can we bring that about if we are not actively engaged in directing our thoughts and energies towards that overwhelmingly large task? And what better way to do that through goals? Goals give direction to our life!

Accountability: “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” ~ President Thomas S. Monson, Preach My Gospel, p. 150

The supreme example is the Lord, who gave an accounting to The Father in all things He did from the six days of the earth’s creation to His atoning sacrifice.
As Elder Ballard and President Monson have stated, to reach our full potential we must establish goals and give and an accounting. Truly we cannot achieve success unless we have previously established goals, because success is the completion of a goal.

So… What is a worthy goal?

I stated three of my biggest.
• Serving a Mission
• Temple Marriage
• Higher education

I won’t go into these in this letter due to my time restrictions. However I did state that earnest prayer and fervent scripture study are key to receiving the inspiration of the Holy Spirit necessary for establishing worthy goals.

How can we accomplish our goals?

The first step is truly committing yourself. I shared my experience of hiking the Application trail and how many mornings I awoke cold, wet, exhausted, lonely and very hungry. So why did I keep on going? Because I committed myself. I bought the gear, I bought the food, I reserved the time, and I told everyone “I am going to do it!” We must commit ourselves through our words and our actions, and commitment also means sacrifice.

Next ,we must break our large goal into small simple acts.

“Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.” ~ Alma 37:6-7

I hiked 1,400 miles literally one step after another, day after day. We all have our spiritual journeys to make, and they are made slowly and constantly. That’s where the attribute of diligence comes in.

I know that the Lord Jesus Christ lives! He has shown us the way by his perfect example. Our goal in this life is to become like him; we established it before we came to this earth. May we assess His life and the selfless acts that filled it, then assess our own life, and make the goals necessary to bring that which is missing to realization. It is my goal and my prayer and I leave it with you in His sacred name.

- Elder Bryce 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