Well this is going to be a short one as I’ve been trying to prepare a small package to send you all for Christmas.

First of all the Christmas call… you can call me on the 25th in the morning at my office number. I’ll confirm the time with you next week.

I’m sick with a sinus/throat infection, however it hasn’t been too strong.

This week was our Christmas conference and we got to enter into the temple with President and Sister Bulloch. It was AMAZING. I learned and forgot so many things, not having entered since a year ago. I love the temple.

The mission Christmas conference was split into two days, so I was in charge of organizing the transportation for the parts of the mission that are a little far, like Pachuca. I also rented rooms in the CCM (MTC in Mexico). Then the President asked if I could spend the night to make sure that everything went over well. 64 Elders and 11 Sister missionaries for a Christmas sleepover. Yah, you can imagine—it was a night.

Oh, I also finally bought a new suit! It was a really good deal and is great quality.

Well I love you all and you are in my prayers…talk to you soon!

-Bryce

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. :/

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

Photo of The Mexico City East Mission – May 19, 2009

Bryce is on the 3rd (middle) row, 6th to the right of center.

Countries and number of missionaries

• Argentina:  2
• Bolivia:  1
• Canada:  1
• Ecuador:  2
• Guatemala:  2   
• Honduras:  1
• Mexico:  100
• Panama:  1
• Peru:  4
• Puerto Rico:  1
• Uruguay:  1
• USA:  67

Row 1 (front row)

1 E Perez E
2 E Galindo A
3 E Nucamendi
4 H Garza L
5 H Mendoza V
6 H Rojas B
7 H Lagunes R
8 H Suaste Z
9 H Zavala H
10 H Paredes C
11 H Ramirez C
12 H Meza R
13 H Saldivar L
14 E Foley
15 H Foley
16 E Stewart
17 H Stewart
18 H Morgan
19 H Bulloch
20 P Bulloch
21 Ryan Bulloch
22 P Parra
23 H Garvin
24 E Garvin
25 H Brunt
26 E Brunt
27 H Rivera C
28 H Salcido P
29 H Rivera R
30 H Baca M
31 H Obeso G
32 H Fong A
33 H Ribeiro A
34 H Meza V
35 H Guevara C
36 H Torres O
37 E Lechuga V

Row 2

38 E Ramirez R
39 E Hernandez P
40 E Coyotl C
41 E Reyes F
42 E Crisostomo A
43 E Juarez R
44 E Tzab C
45 E Matta
46 E Segura H
47 E Lara R
48 E Peña T
49 E Guzman P
50 E Garcia S
51 E Guzman C
52 E Gomez V
53 E Guttierez G
54 E Lopez V
55 E Aleman Q
56 E Guzman R
57 E Torres G
58 E Lauterio P
59 E Pastrana F
60 E Hernandez O
61 E Cortazar B
62 E Panoaya R
63 E Juarez L
64 E Cab G
65 E Carrillo O
66 E Puch T
67 E Alcala G
68 E Tadeo C
69 E Stogsdill
70 E Draper
71 E Peterson B
72 E Celaya E
73 E  C Alpuche
74 E Galeana G
75 E Jaramillo G
76 E Monroy H
77 E Reyna S
78 E Ruiz G
79 E Chan C

Row 3

80 E Gomez O
81 E Renteria S
82 E Moreno A
83 E Demke
84 E Dunn C
85 E DePlacito
86 E Sanchez E
87 E Hernandez D
88 E Low
89 E Wray
90 E Nicholas
91 E Nuñez DA
92 E Cardenas G
93 E Ramos H
94 E Perez M
95 E Rojas G
95 E Vasquez C
96 E Valdez H
97 E Salazar B
98 E Vargas G
99 E Camacho O
100 E B Olalde
101 E Mays
102 E Haro C
103 E Herrera G
104 E Lopez R
105 E Alcantar U
106 E Vasquez M
107 E Packer
108 E Alfaro B
109 E Spencer
110 E Israelsen
111 E Perez Albela
112 E Medina P
113 E Tanner
114 E Howard
115 E Salazar O
116 E Castro V
117 E Arguelles D
118 E Cottier G
119 E Valderrabano
120 E Mendoza G
121 E Fuentes T
122 E Gregorio V

Row 4

123 E Rodriguez I
124 E Bryan
125 E Alvizo C
126 E Muñoz A
127 E Olson
128 E Dunn N
129 E Welch
130 E Armendáriz F
131 E  King S
132 E Snook
133 E Rhoten
134 E Pluim
135 E Wilson
136 E Acuña A
137 E Hunter
138 E Hurst
139 E Kartchner
140 E Anderson
141 E Archibald
142 E Lopez H
143 E Lee
144 E Reed
145 E King K
146 E Duce
147 E Sandoval R
148 E Reyes A
149 E Salazar A
150 E Lopez C
151 E Hilario A
152 E Zapata M
153 E Puga B
154 E Inalef A
155 E Livingston
156 E Delahunty
157 E Lauritzen
158 E Farmer
159 E Wright
160 E R Carretero

Row 5 (top row)

161 E Moake
162 E Petersen A
163 E Pickup
164 E Fillerup
165 E Pickard
166 E Hunt T
167 E Berry
168 E Rodriguez G
169 E Heward
170 E Winters
171 E Magdaleno P
172 E Flores N
173 E Miller
174 E Butler
175 E Magdaleno M
176 E Heredia R
177 E Sander T
178 E Mora F
179 E Chavez C
180 E Covington
181 E Knox
182 E Hunt W
183 E Larsen
184 E Boone
185 E Scott
186 E Cambria
187 E Rasmussen
188 E Bertin
189 E Fulton
190 E Ellars
191 E McArthur
192 E Peterson C
193 E Lembke
194 E Given
195 E Christensen
196 E Kowallis

Not in photo

E Morgan
E Bailey
H Bailey

[A very crazy week]

Hola familia! [Hello family!]

¿Como estan todos? [How is everybody?] Espero que bien bien! [I hope well!]

This week was a little nuts, however it went by super fast, so that’s good. First we had a zone meeting on Monday morning (early and far away). Then on Tuesday we went to the D.F. [Distrito Federal, Mexico City] to the temple to take the photo of the entire mission, (I already got my copy!) and to have a multi-zone conference. Lastly, we had an open house in our church on Saturday. (The Visitors Center from the temple came with four sister missionaries and put on a portable version of their tour). It went really well we had 192 people go through, and 130 were non-members, 60 of them asked for more information and visits from the missionaries… and about 40 of them live in our area. So we have lots of work this week, which is really good!

We baptized a man yesterday who was contacted by the missionaries many years ago however never followed through then and now he was ready. His name is Pedro and is really nice he’s about 45.  His 4 kids and his wife are really Catholic and don’t want to listen to us so we have work there too. He is trying to help his family come to church on Wednesday for a ward activity; I really hope they come. It seems like we find lots of women that want to receive the Gospel, however their husbands don’t and then when we find a man who is interested his wife isn’t. :/ I guess that’s the way it goes.

There was an earthquake in Puebla on Friday and we felt it. We were eating lunch and I thought that my companion was shaking the table with his leg.  Then I looked up to see that everyone’s heads were bobbling. It actually put a crack in the concrete wall of the house we were in, however that probably says more about the quality of construction than how strong the quake was.

It’s been raining every night here and there is still a lot of dust and dirt and now mud. Our road is dirt and last night is was a muddy river that was pretty deep in lots of  areas, so we had to hop rocks, jump, hang and climb on things to get home. Oh the adventures of Mexico! Today I spent the whole day cleaning the house which was much needed, so I feel really tired now but good. Okay I guess I’m starting to ramble because I am tired… its time to go.

I love you all, take care.

Bryce

[Editorial by Shayne. We got to talk to Bryce for an hour today. I called the number Bryce had sent at the planned time, and I conferenced the call to my iPhone. Then I added each of the family using the iPhone's easy-to-use conference feature.

Here are some notes from the phone call.

Bryce and his companion baptized a couple more family members of Axel Martinez Sanchez's family. His father's baptism is scheduled for 11th of January.

They baptized a man from Lima, Peru on Dec 23rd.

On Dec. 17th, the missionaries went with the Mission President to the Mexico City Temple. They had steak dinner afterwards — although it was thin and overcooked — still, it was steak.

The weather is 85 degrees in the daytime, and a cold 25 night.

The Wal-Mart store is expensive and nice; not the cheapest place in town.

Bryce expects to be transfered on 30th.]