Hello Family,

Sorry I don’t have time to write but its not my fault!!! I really want to. Quickly, Happy Birthday Colby!!! I can’t believe how old you’re going to be when I get back!

You’ll never guess this. I was eating at a members house this week and they were saying they knew someone that was renting the apartment of President [Boyd K.] Packer (which had birds painted on the wall) when they lived in Utah in 1980-83. [Boyd painted them. He is quite an artist.] Then they said that the name of the family that was their friends in Provo is “Fugal” hmmmm…and he was studying Law and She was the Relief Society President. She helped René (the father) learn English. I asked if their son’s name was Spencer… they said yes and that Spencer and their son Parley (who was older) were good friends. Weird huh! It is the Family Valdez Rabi and they are René and Maria. They said to say Hi to Spencer and his parents. They are doing well, Parley is married to a woman named Vanessa and they have a daughter also named Maria

This week is the rededication of the Temple I am sooo excited!!

Oh I got the Bishop’s letter please tell him hi and thank you.

So…Not so funny language error that happen a few weeks ago… we were teaching and I was saying that Christ paid the “punishment” for our mistakes. Well actually I said “castidad” not “castigo” which means punishment. Casidad means chastity and I didn’t just say this once but 3 or 4 times without my companion correcting me :/

Yeah …ahhhh got to go… I love you all so very much!

Bryce

Hello my lovely family!

So I was working under the refreshments tent at the Mexico City Temple open house on Saturday, and I saw someone I thought I knew. Weird right, so I stopped and thought if it could really be this person and figured, should I go over and find out? sure!, If it’s not them they will think I am a weird gringo, esta bien [white man, but that's okay]. It was who I thought is was!  So I saw Bro. John Marin from Merrimack, he was my Young Mens President. It was crazy, and we were both a little emotional.

The open house has been really busy, but successful; and the Temple is really beautiful. ahhhhh I am out of time. The internet has been having problems today.

Lots of Love, Bryce

[Editorial: John Marin emailed Shayne and sent a couple of photos.]

We came to Mexico City for the Temple open house and ran into Bryce, what a surprise. I was a great joy to see him as a missionary. Here are the pictures we took with Bryce Saturday. I’ve subscribed to Bryce’s blog… John

Bryce and John Marin

Bryce and John Marin's family

Hello my lovely family,

Things have been a little rough, however successful this week. We had divisions [splits] with our Zone Leaders, I learned A LOT and we are working on applying what we learned. We have one really amazing investigator named Ramon. He reads everything we give him and then in the next visit we talk for along time about all of it.

He almost gave me a heart attack this week. We were waiting outside of the church for him and he was almost 30 min. late for his first sacrament meeting… we had talked with him that morning , so I knew he was going to come. When he went to get dressed he found that his suit was moldy, because he hadn’t used it since high school.

We also found a lot of families that we have been teaching this week. I think we are going to start focusing more on families. None of our investigators have been baptized yet, however 2 have a date for the 9th of November, and I believe everything will work out. We usually take a cab to church and we visit as many of our investigators as possible before, to remind them of their commitments.

[Kerry suggests that we should all specifically pray for these investigators and that their baptisms will go forward on the 9th.]

This week we are going to Mexico City three time to help with the open house, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I am so excited, however we have to work so hard because we have little time to work.

[The rest of this are answers to questions we had ask Bryce.]

I didn’t really have any culture shocks mainly the language. The thing that I’m not really comfortable with is that people minus the drive [I think what Bryce is trying to say is that they drive crazy and...] don’t use seat belts. The food is fine, However I don’t like checheron much… its fried pig skin… yummm.

I hope that will do for now All is well here. I love you all very much and hope that everything is going great!

Love, Bryce

Hello familia,

Things are going well here in Pachuca, It has gotten really cold in the mornings and nights here. Elder Nuñez and I are working hard and praying hard.

Right now our main investigators are a family, including the grandmother and her sisters family too; and two young men around 20 years old named Ramon and Cesar. We have a family home evening tonight with the family, and it’s in the house of some members who live on their block. I am really excited for it! 

Training is going well, I feel like I’m probably learning as much as I am teaching!!!

Oh I mailed 2 CDs of pictures today… it was only $7.75, I thought it would be more. they said normally it takes 15-20 days but could be 8 at best and 31 at worst.

I already know when I leave I am going to miss the people allot… and the food too. My favorite food here is called “tacos al pastor” or Shepherds tacos. mmmm ¡Muy rico! [very delicious]

Heather, that is awesome you are going to Tahiti, have an amazing time and say hi to Bob for me. 

The dedication of the Temple is on the 16th it is going to be amazing. The Prophet and Elder Eyring are going to be here. I get to help at the Temple 2 days of the open house and participate in a cultural presentation on Nov. 15th with more than 1000 other missionaries from 6 missions. I can’t think of what else to write… questions are good.

Love you all,
Elder Packer

[Related link: Mexico City Temple Opens Its Doors to the Public]

Hello all,

All is going great here… it was really rough the first couple of days this week transitioning from being trained to being a trainer. My new companion is Elder Nuñez from Tuxpan, Veracruz. Mexico. He is great! We are both excited and working really hard, we had a baptism Sunday but it fell through. :/ Besides that we have lots of new investigators who are really great. We made a really hard goal of contacting every person and its amazing how the Lord has put the people in our area in our path and is helping us to keep our goals and find the people ready to receive the Restored Gospel. We had an activity today with our zone and it took a really long time. I still haven’t been able to send the CDs of picture, sorry! Well, we have lots of work to do. Have a great week!

I love you all so much!

Bryce

Dad, Thanks for writing me every week, I really enjoy ready your letters. You are such a great dad and granddad, I admire you so much for your sacrifices for all of us. General Conference was great! …I have some exciting news, that I’ll tell you in the letter to everyone. Well I’ll right more in my letter to all. I love you very much Dad, and I’m grateful you are my father! Have a great week and… EXERCISE!

Love Elder Bryce

¡Hola mi familia maravillosa! [Hello my marvelous family]

¡Conferencia General fue increíble! ¿no? I wasn’t able to attend all of the sessions but I saw part of the first in Spanish and the last two in English I was able to understand more or less the message in Spanish but really enjoy hearing the voices of the leaders. The night before conference I was reading the discourses by Pres. Monson from April, titled “Treasures of Eternal Value”. I really liked two things he said —

“Success is the progressive realization of a WORTHY ideal” [Earl Nightingale]

“Preparation is hard work but absolutely necessary for our progress” and “This is the day of our opportunity…” [Thomas S. Monson]

I find it interesting and very important to note and ponder on the fact the he gave practically the same discourses twice in a row… maybe that means it’s important …and we didn’t get it the first time or are miss something. Both, I thought, were wonderful. He focused on GRATITUDE and the perception and use of time. I believe both to play a large role in our happiness and well-being. I also enjoyed and learned a lot from all of the other talks given, and unlike when a child, I listened intently!

Sooo… Tomorrow is transfers and my companion/trainer is being transferred and… I am going to be a trainer. It’s hard to believe I have less than 2 months in the field. I am every excited/nervous! Well, we have a lot to do.

I love you all so much and am grateful for your love and sacrifices for me and each other… we really are the best family.

Elder Packer

[Editorial note by Shayne: A trainer means training a new "greeny" missionary. Being assigned as a trainer after 2 months means Bryce must an amazing missionary; doing everything right. I've never heard of this so soon.]