A sigh of relief that this week is over!  We had a great baptismal service yesterday for a family of five, they are amazing and already have a very strong conversion. I think the father will end up being a bishop! … By the way dad I am trying to type with my hands on the home keys, its kind of funny.

Okay, so last night I found out that I have transfers tomorrow, I don’t know to where, however, we have to be in Mexico [City] at 1 pm and I am going to be a District leader. Pretty crazy huh? I am excited to have a change and I am less than a week short of completing a half year in this area.

A new companion will be nice too, however, I will miss Elder Nuñez! So today is all busy, busy packing and visiting all of our converts here. By the way, no I haven’t received the package from Kristi or you yet, however tomorrow is when all the mail comes.

Yesterday one of our converts gave me one of his homemade hand-painted didgeridoos (the instrument from Australia). It is sweet! He made it from a plant called “maguey” which is like a large aloe vera plant that they use here to make funky moonshine and they also fry and eat the grubs/maggots that live inside. They call them called “chinicuilis” yum… So I’ve been practicing with my new instrument. It will interesting to see how I will end up transporting it seeing as it is around 1.5 meters [about 5 ft] long. That’s okay remember the time I brought an arm chair on the airplane? I’m sure this will be easier!

Ahhh, I am going to miss the people here so much!!! Oh by the way because of transfers I won’t be able to mail the DVDs of photos till next week. I am glad to here everyone is doing well …and that everything is getting resolved Heather! Oh yea I got to spend some time with  Parley (Horacio) Valdez, the childhood friend of Spencer, who claims he taught him how to ride a bike, ¿Is that true Spencer? any ways he is a really neat person and he wants to get in touch with you Spencer, don’t worry he speaks prefect english, actually he is an english teacher… The first time I met him I thought he was a gringo.

I can write more in less time which is good, so I guess this is the way to go.

I love you all so much and thank you all for your love and support.

Elder Packer

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.]