Here is Bryce with one of his teachers at the MTC.

Click here to see more of Bryce’s photos from the MTC.

Hola everyone,

I just mailed letters, but I want to let you know all is well. Things are going great, the Manns should be here tomorrow I’m going to try and find them. [Bryce's cousin Justin Mann is going into the MTC.]

So I’ve been thinking you guys have a Spanish Himno [Hymn] book and that you should sing in Spanish for family home evenings, I’ll send you the name of one of my favorites every week. Ceci can help you guys out with this, they are so beautiful and help to learn Spanish. This weeks is himno #42 “Jesus es mi Luz” [Jesus is my Light]. I hope you enjoy it!

We had an amazing fireside on Sunday about repentance, how it is the best gift made possible by the Atonement and how it shouldn’t be a bad or negative thing that we need to feel sorry but that we should enjoy repentance and repent often. As taught in Mosiah 4:5-7, repentance should be motivated by the goodness of God. This has helped me to have a new outlook on our ability to change and be forgiven. In fact, the original Greek and Hebrew words for to repent mean “to turn” “to have a change of mind: a fresh outlook about God, oneself and the world”.

Well time is up. Thank you all so much.

Love you,

Elder Bryce Packer

[Editor's note: Bryce got to call home for a few short minutes. His visa is delayed by another 3 weeks or so. The Mexican embassy is behind. So he's staying at the MTC and continuing his studies while he waits.]

Hola me familia ¿Como estan? ¿Como le va?

So I’m supposed to be in Mexico in 6 days! however the visa thing isn’t looking too well. All is well what ever happens though!… maybe I’ll get to see the Manns when Justin comes in next week.

So a typical day for me starts between 5:45 and 6:30 depending on my schedule for the day. I have three 1 hour study blocks personal study (spent studying the scriptures, my patriarch blessing, and writing talks), companion study (usually spent practicing teaching lessons and reviewing principles in Preach My Gospel) and language study (grammar, looking up vocab for words I’ve been trying to say,translating question and principles for lessons, translating talks,etc.) as well as some Missionary Directed time to study what ever I need the most that day.

Sorry if my spelling has gotten even worse, because it is so easy to spell in Spanish and its got me a little confused!

So a lot of days I try to speak only in Spanish, but for the last week(s) I am only speaking in Spanish. It will be more of a challenge and I know it will help a lot.

I have gym five days a week for 50 min. (every day except preparation day [today] and sunday) and we have 4.5-5 hours of classroom instruction split between our two teacher Hno. Sáncheznd Hna. Mears. Preparation days I get to go to the Temple except today, because it is closed for cleaning, also every Tuesday night we have a Devotional, usually be a member of the Quorum of the 70. Everyone in the CCM looks forward to this! sunday nights we have a fireside as well which is usually a little more casual.

On the forth we had a special fireside where we played songs on chimes made from pipes it was neat w/ 3000 missionaries. Then we watched the BYU fire works from the parking lot, they were neat with my glasses off : ) Oh I don’t know if I mentioned my companion is District Leader so we have stuff to do with that. AHH my computer time is up. I love you all every much…I’ll try to write a letter today if I have more time. Thank you all for your letters.

Love you,

Bryce

Hola me familia,

¿Como estais? Thank you all very much for you letters, they have been a big help! So the last week was crazy, with the Mission Pres. stuff going on. Last martes Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the 12 spoke and 4 other Apostles were on the stand as well as general authorities. when he spoke to us he gave us an Apostolic promise. My friend in my district Elder Solomon got to break the sacrament for the Prophet and 10 of the 12 last sunday. Pretty neat.

The spanish is coming quickly. I can’t believe if my visa comes in I’ll be in mexico in two weeks. I hope you are all working to learn spanish too.  Oh yea, so my teacher Hno. Sanchez served half of his mission in Long beach CA. Kerry do you know him? Also right now he lives in Salem, UT, a few blocks from our house, pretty crazy! yea he has a ¡NO Escarbes! shirt, too.  [¡NO Escarbes! means "Don't scratch in the dirt like a chicken"]

Life is busy, all else is well. I love being here and can feel the spirit soo much. tell everyone hello. I love you all much and pray for you often. I’m out of time I’ll try to write more in a letter.

Love,

Elder Packer

Hello mi familia,

Sorry if words are misspelled or it I just doesn’t make sense. It is hard to do stuff in English now… most of everything I do is in Espanol : ) It coming soo much better! I’m loving my time here. I can’t believe if the visas are on time I have less that 3 weeks left. wowsers! Guess what, this week is Mission pres. training week, so the Prophet and the Quorum of the 12 are here and a bunch of other really exciting things have been going on. I hope an Apostle speaks tonight at the devotional. Me and my companion are getting pretty good at teaching the first lesson in spanish, its crazy how fast things happen. Speaking of which I’m out of time. I love you all very much, thanks for you prayers and you letters. Please write soon!

Love,

Elder Packer