I’m in one of the largest cities in the world!
Well, there is lots to tell, seeing that everything is crazy different now. First off, I’m in one of the largest cities in the world! I am in a trio, which is pretty cool. My companions are Elder Olson (the old financial sec. who is training me) and Elder Muñoz (who is the material’s secretary). They are both great! Our area is right across the street from the temple!!! It’s amazing!!! Our church service starts at 2 pm. In my old area, it was at 8:30 am, so that will be hard to adjust to! I was so tired yesterday in sacrament meeting and fell asleep a few times. :/
We live really far outside of our mission boundaries, like 40 minutes. It’s in the West Mission, that’s because we are in the Church/Mission offices Monday-Friday 8 am – 3:30 pm, From there we drive to our area (about an hour with traffic) and work our area till 9 pm then go home (another 30-40 minutes). There are also two other missionaries that are secretaries, Elder Livingston and Elder Lechuga. They also live with us… so our-house is HUGE and about fifteen minutes from the offices. We have our own washer and dryer, two bathrooms, workout equipment, and bunch of other stuff.
The mission home where the Mission President lives is also about 15 minutes from the offices. The offices and our houses are in the downtown of Mexico City! I am actually in the offices right now at my own desk. 
(We have permission to use our own computers to write home and all that is pretty sweet)! We are the only mission with our offices in the church office buildings, which means I am in the same building as the Area Authorities!!! …And yea, we have fans and air conditioning in the offices. 
Also you need to know that you need to write me earlier in the week because, as secretaries, our Preparation days are on Saturday! Another crazy thing is I am going to be getting a Mexican drivers license… and driving our huge mission van all over the mission! Mexicans are also the craziest drivers, the whole country is covered in speed bumps (including some of the highways) it’s the only way they can keep people from speeding too much and to stop at intersections. So that will be another adventure!
We also had a funny experience my second night with the secretaries. We were waiting for the assistants outside of their house, in our big white van (you know the sketchy type that mobsters use in the movies) when the Mexico City SWAT team came with several squad cars and their SWAT van and surrounded our van. They all got out in their bullet proof vests with their big guns and all and we had to all get out…we thought we were going to get stripped down, but luckily my adventure didn’t go that far! We explained who we are and why we were there and that was all. (I guess there are some problems in that area and someone called the police.) Afterwards we took their picture, hehehe.
Well, I am sure there will be much more to write later.
I love you all and hope you are doing well!
Bryce
Oh yeah, I will also get mail faster, because it comes right to where I am, and I found out that you can’t mail stuff through FEDEX because they charge a bunch of taxes, however the US postal services comes fine.
New calling as financial secretary
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).
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter everyone! It’s been an interesting week… One time I ate lunch and in less than an hour I saw it again… it was still identifiable …Now the real strange thing is about a half hour later I saw the cucumber…. the one I ate about a half hour before lunch! You guys can try to figure that one out. So yeah, I was sick with the Mexican curse, however I’ve felt better today.
Yesterday [Sunday] we had to help with several baptisms… which involved showering at 4 am and going to the chapel to turn on the boiler and fill up the font…then take a quick nap and then conduct a baptismal interview at 6:45 and participate in the service at 7 am. When that was all over, we left to get our investigators and return to the church.
Later the missionaries from our district came to explain that their scheduled baptisms fell through because they were the children of a Catholic father and a mother who is a member. And the father decided that the children weren’t going to be baptized…So I went with one of the other Elders to the family’s house and we taught the whole family about the restoration and set a baptismal date for the father as well. We had several prayers…and then the whole family came with us to the church for their children’s baptisms. It wasn’t quite as easy as that! To say the least, we had lots of help!!! …Especially considering the father has never even been near our church building. However as mom says, “all is well that ends well”.
Other things that have been going on are… I don’t think that the zone leaders are greatly pleased with my district’s performance, and am feeling like we need to go on divisions [splits] with them soon. 
Oh well.
My “son”…Elder Nuñez (the missionary I trained) is in the district of Elder Reed (my cousin). Wow that’s a kind of Spanglish way to say that… I’ve really forgotten how to use the possessive “S”.
We had Zone conference with our mission President and he is the MAN. We reviewed what we’ve learned in our 90 day study of the Book of Mormon and he has tapped into another dimension of this book! The Book of Mormon is incredible, especially when you are looking for specific things!
Well until next week…
I love you all!!! And hope you are all very happy!
Bryce
