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

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

Hola Familia,

Things are going very well here. We have two baptisms for tomorrow (Serge Miguel, and José Carlos) and many for the week to come. Serge is 11 and Carlos is 21, they are both great! It’s amazing how we’ve seen so many miracles since I’ve been in the offices. As you know, we have less than half of the day in our area so it can be a challenge to find and teach people. However the Lord has blessed us to be able to find and receive the people that are truly ready to change their lives and make and keep covenants!

How about General Conference? A few of my favorites were: Dale G. Renlund, who talked about maintaining your healthy spiritually changed heart. Brent H. Nielson, and the story of his son on the mission. Jorge Zeballas, “God will not require more than we can do…neither can He accept less…” However I think of all the great things said, my two favorites were during the Priesthood session: Walter F. Gonzalez, The Book of Mormon was never intended to be a bestseller, but how we can turn The Book of Mormon into the best read, and the best applied book; and Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s two important principles that sustain us in adversity — 1. WORK. 2. EDUCATION. Truly everything said in the conference was amazing and we’ll have to go back and study it again and again!

I am grateful that we have living Prophets to lead us, to help us in the process of perfecting ourselves and to help us to always do the best we can. Most of all to witness of the truth of God and His Plan of Redemption through Jesus Christ!

I am happy with how the Lord has blessed our family and know He will continue to do so as long as we continue to make our best efforts and humbly put all of our trust in Him. I pray that you all continue to do so and that the Lord blesses and protects you! I love every one of you!

-Bryce

Hola querida familia! Hello dear family!

Wow it’s been a busy busy amazing week! We had our Zone leaders council meeting this week in the mission house; it was over the course of two days. One of the most spiritual and amazing things that happened during the council is we studied the Book of Mormon together with President Bulloch. He was one of the 7 head people in CES [Church Educational System] before he was called to be a Mission President, so to say the least he is a very spiritual man who really knows his scriptures, how to ring them dry and apply them to himself. Something I have been trying to work on.

I just bought the new Bible in Spanish, which is really exciting for the members here. Although I don’t know how much I’ll use it since we try to focus on the Book of Mormon with all of our investigators. Still it truly is an amazing time to be here in Mexico serving the Lord and building His kingdom! “Now is the time for Mexico” is what the brethren of the church have been saying.

I love you all so very much, I am so grateful that we have the Restored Gospel to guide our lives. I know that Christ lives, I have experienced His profound love in my life. He is the only way to true freedom and that is what everyone really wants and needs! Live a week that worth living. May God’s grace be upon every one of us!

-Bryce

So, everything went well as far as receiving and training the 16 new Elders and sisters that came into our mission this week and the transfers meeting (of which I was in charge of arranging the bus transportation for the whole mission). It has been a weeeeeeeeeeek! We haven’t had a lack of rain either! Actually, the highway and streets have flooded almost every day and has caused so much TRAFFIC!!!! The other day I was driving in traffic and we found out it was caused by protesters in the street (protesting for water). Pretty ironic since it was raining. So anyway, because of that we got home that night at 12:15 am. :/

Well, here is the email I sent to President Bulloch last week. I also wanted you to read it.

What a week! As you know we’ve been all over the mission: opening houses, arranging the buses, going to the airport… While driving, I had a whole lot of excess time to think and reflect. While doing so, I remembered earlier in my youth how I almost constantly felt lost spiritually and emotionally. I didn’t understand so many of the questions that many youth seem to have and remember feeling so much confusion and bitterness towards life. I also remember when the desire began to want to make a positive difference, but not knowing how, which in turn created feelings of helplessness and discouragement. None of those feelings exist anymore and I know when the turning point happened, a little before my 22 birthday when I started reading The Book of Mormon for the first time. I remember after reading for the first time a strong doubt, could this be true? Reading once lead me to read again, which lead me to pray (for the first time in my adolescent life). A little time after and I began attending church, every Sunday. I began attending institute, where we were studying The Book of Mormon. The more I studied that book the more I began to comprehend and consequently my life began to change and fall in harmony. I began to create a relationship With my Father in Heaven and Savior. All of those feelings and doubts began to fade from my life.

When my mother and brother asked me what made me come back to the church, I couldn’t explain, I just told them I knew it was right. Now I know it was a result of reading The Book of Mormon, feeling the spirit and the love of God contained within, finding the answers I longed for. That’s what made me come unto Christ; that’s what began and continues the change in my life. The fruit of the word of God. That book is a miracle and I have lived many miracles because of that book. It is because of The Book of Mormon that I know to what source I may look for a remission of my sins. And nothing brings greater peace and joy than that.

I love every one of you and all of you individually are in my prayers. I know that God also loves you and through the Book of Mormon he will bless each of your lives in profound ways. It was written for each one of us and our individual needs. STUDY it prayerfully every day!

Love -Elder Bryce S. Packer

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