¡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 Family

English really doesn’t make sense, however I like it anyway (except when it comes to spelling, by the way I am a great speller in spanish)! So I don’t know what is going on as far as calling you all. Another missionary said we can talk for an hour and that I will call you real quick with the phone number to call (probably of a member’s house) and then you will call that number back. And it might be cheaper too for you to use a calling card? We will find out everything on the 17th when we go to Mexico City.  We are going to have a reunion with the Mission President and go through a temple session (which I am really excited for). I am afraid however that I will fall a sleep because we have to wake up at 3 am to go to Mexico City :/ because of traffic. Then we are also going to eat fillet minion in the Temple for an early Christmas dinner mmmm… real steak! Our preparation day is changed to the 24th so I will give you all the details then… and that might be the day we call too?

All is well here, it was a little tough the last week because it was the celebration of the Virgin Guadeloupe, which is a really big deal. Every day large groups on bikes, walking and in cars, trucks, tractor trailers (with framed pictures and statues of the Virgin Mary strapped to the front and sides) have been on a pilgrimage to a specific church in Mexico City.  So it was a little crazy the last week and people haven’t been too receptive to us because of the other religious events going on. Good news, however an old investigator who disappeared several months ago has returned (we were sure they had changed houses). It turns out that they were in Mexico City with their family for a while (3 months?). All of our plans fell through last night and we had nothing. We were searching everywhere and were close to this house, I had the feeling to go by and there they were, just returning that night with their suitcases and all. They were happy to see us and we had a short lesson to end the day. Pretty neat.

Well we’ve got work to do. I love you all so much and I am extremely excited to be able to talk to you all.

Bryce