I was thinking really the best gift that I have to offer my family, my Heavenly Father, and everyone I know is my testimony:
"I am so very humbled and grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and to hold the Holy Melchezidek Priesthood of God. I know that this is Christ’s true church. I know that the prophet Joseph Smith was called to restore the church and bring forth the Book of Mormon as a witness of the gospel in its fullness. The Book of Mormon is filled with important principles and covenants that will bring us closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and therefore understand His will for me and how I can return to him and my Heavenly Father. I know that without the love of Jesus Christ for me and His Atonement, I would be nothing and nowhere. All I must do is accept Christ as my redeemer, repent of my sins and short comings, and make and keep the sacred ordinances of salvation. I long for the day my family will be united forever. My responsibility now is to help the rest of God’s children back to their Heavenly Father, and do all I can to prove myself worthy to return to my heavenly Father’s presence. This is the great plan of Happiness meant for as many as will accept it. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen". Bryce Wainwright
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Happy Monday
Darn it, I had a letter written and then it got closed because a worker was showing a customer this laptop. Oh well, it'll just be shorter than I want it. I just wrote Bruce though. Thanks so much for your letter and email Mom. I didn't realize Kendall already left and he might be in Mississippi right now. Maybe I could write him if you have his address. I feel bad I never wrote Kyle. Anyway I kinda have been a little discouraged I guess from not having anyone to teach and maybe from the dark. But honestly it's not bad a all, especially because we've already had one baptism and Saturday he baptized his daughter and niece. We haven't seen the sun for like a week from tons of fog. It's actually pretty cool and everything is frosted white. Oh yeah I'm going to try and send a package home tomorrow with some pictures and stuff I don't need. I'm glad Grandma got to come down and see the nativity and the kids and stuff. That's too bad you did all the decorating by yourself. Have a great week Mom and I'll talk to you soon!
Elder Bryce
Elder Bryce
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Jrnl 11-24-09 through 12-3-09
Jrnl 11-24-09
Last night it was actually raining and melted some of the snow, so today it all turned to ice. I only slipped once and that was leaving someone’s house in the dark. Actually, it was our new investigator, but she’s a funny lady. She is living with a Samoan member family and she’s native American, and the first thing she said when we got there is she’s not going to be a Mormon. She’s even read some of the “Mormon Bible” already. So we cleared up some stuff up for her and committed her to keep reading. Right after that we were able to give Shenna a blessing because she’s having a hysterectomy or something and has been in a lot of pain. We also went with Beau to get her an MP3 player and stuff. She’ll be in the hospital for at least 2 days and Beau has to work so it’ll be tuff, but the Relief Society is going to provide meals and stuff.
Jrnl 11-25-09
Elder Connors gave a good district meeting this morning, mainly about the importance of gathering in the 12 tribes in preparation for the Second coming and having enough faith to do God’s will and expect Him to provide a way to accomplish His purposes.
The new missionaries came in today. 2 sisters, and like 12 Elders. They keep opening or reopening areas like Nome, another in Fairbanks, and stuff. Our district did the Greenie tract with some of the new Elders. Elder Connors and I actually stayed together with Elder Fishburn from Ogden area. It’s funny I was in that spot only six weeks ago. Sister Cranney who came out with me went by herself with one of the new sisters. It was interesting to remember my perspective then and how it has changed. I don’t know if it’s necessarily better now. I liked how bold Elder Fishborn acted even though he barely knew what to say or how to follow up. (I’m not saying I do any better). I just always want to be confident in my God who has called me here and never doubt, and never fear.
We started teaching a Samoan recent convert tonight after our dinner appointment and they wanted to feed us. I made the mistake of trying to refuse (which Elder Connors previously said you can’t refuse Samoans) and he said it’s an insult to not accept things where he’s from so we had a lot of soup and baked bananas – peel and all, that were like as hard as wood. It was good except my stomach almost exploded.
Jrnl. 11-26-09
Happy Thanksgiving! This was a really different day. We had a nice breakfast at a members house with the zone, but I tried not to eat too much to save up for dinner at 4. We went to the Mission Home to pick up Elder Powell and his new companion from the MTC, Elder Stone. They’re staying with us tonight on the couches or something and tomorrow morning we’re dropping them off at the airport going to Saint Petersbury down South. They seem like great missionaries and Elder Powell served here for 6 months, so he knew the members and he loved this ward. it snowed pretty good last night so the roads were way slippery. Especially because it’s Thanksgiving and the roads didn’t get plowed at all. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at a Spanish members home (Rueda’s). it was a fun dinner from 4 till about 7. Elder Powell was from the same town or ward as sister Rueda’s family so that was funny we happened to be eating with them the night he was there. Actually it was really good thing it was Elder Powell staying with us because Sister Rueda wouldn’t have fed us if she didn’t know the missionaries coming. She’s a way funny lady though. She saved her son’s cell number when he called for Mother’s Day on his mission and she tried to call him. I can see mom doing that {cw: In my defense, I’ve had Bryce’s phone number for a couple months. He sent me a letter to his mission President with his cell phone number on it. I have never tried to call it!}. Well, hopefully not. He was a good missionary though and had his companion tell her not to do that.
Jrnl 11-27-09
We shoveled a lot of driveways today. It was warm so the snow was heavy. I’m probably going to be sore in the morning but it’s a good thing to be physically tired. We got stuck right in front of Bishop Kimpton’s house when we parked. Luckily he was out of town. The UPS guy stopped to help push, but then he said good luck, I got to go. We got out easily though after we shoveled the snow from under the car. So it was lucky we had snow shovels.
Jrnl 12-1-09
Today was an average day. We got in some tracking and found some members home before 4 p.m., even though our 1 appointment today fell through. It is so hard to find people home during the daytime which is about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. now. We had a good dinner with the Clark’s including Megan’s twin sister, Page, who actually made dinner which was churrito’s. Cheyenne is funny. He ate like twice as much as me, and I thought I had a lot, and he is way skinny. He says he always eats like that. He’s lucky he can eat so much without gaining anything. Anyway, last night we talked to the Clark’s about family home evening. (We were supposed to have FHE with the Motugas’, but they must have forgotten). We played a game with them, one of those aggravating ones where you have to figure out a certain pattern. We were going to guess which book of Mormon they picked. . . I’m not describing it well, but it was funny. Except Savannah got a little mad she couldn’t’ figure it out. It was a good thing to do with them though, because Cheyenne said he’s never just played games in his family so hopefully they’ll start doing something like that. Those are some of my most favorite memories is playing games with my family and cousins.
Jrnl 12-3-09
Today was, how about interesting, day. We got all zeros on our key indicators, but we happened to give out a Book of Mormon to an old man who the Pettijohn family had been working with, or at best is friends with. So that was cool. We happened to influence that and Sister Pettijohn got really excited about it. We ate at a Samoan’s house tonight, the Motuga’s and at the Omna’s last night. It is good food, but we almost exploded. The Omna’s actually fed us American food like potatoes, bbq, chicken, meatballs, and corn. At the Motuga’s we had this Hawaiian noodle stuff that was pretty good, fried pork, crab salad, shrimp, raw octopus (which actually wasn’t too bad except the nubby suction things were weird) and some raw fish that I wasn’t man enough to try. Then to top it off we had cake and ice cream. They think they’re doing us a favor, but they might end up killing us. No, it wasn’t bad because we prepared early and had tiny lunches.
Last night it was actually raining and melted some of the snow, so today it all turned to ice. I only slipped once and that was leaving someone’s house in the dark. Actually, it was our new investigator, but she’s a funny lady. She is living with a Samoan member family and she’s native American, and the first thing she said when we got there is she’s not going to be a Mormon. She’s even read some of the “Mormon Bible” already. So we cleared up some stuff up for her and committed her to keep reading. Right after that we were able to give Shenna a blessing because she’s having a hysterectomy or something and has been in a lot of pain. We also went with Beau to get her an MP3 player and stuff. She’ll be in the hospital for at least 2 days and Beau has to work so it’ll be tuff, but the Relief Society is going to provide meals and stuff.
Jrnl 11-25-09
Elder Connors gave a good district meeting this morning, mainly about the importance of gathering in the 12 tribes in preparation for the Second coming and having enough faith to do God’s will and expect Him to provide a way to accomplish His purposes.
The new missionaries came in today. 2 sisters, and like 12 Elders. They keep opening or reopening areas like Nome, another in Fairbanks, and stuff. Our district did the Greenie tract with some of the new Elders. Elder Connors and I actually stayed together with Elder Fishburn from Ogden area. It’s funny I was in that spot only six weeks ago. Sister Cranney who came out with me went by herself with one of the new sisters. It was interesting to remember my perspective then and how it has changed. I don’t know if it’s necessarily better now. I liked how bold Elder Fishborn acted even though he barely knew what to say or how to follow up. (I’m not saying I do any better). I just always want to be confident in my God who has called me here and never doubt, and never fear.
We started teaching a Samoan recent convert tonight after our dinner appointment and they wanted to feed us. I made the mistake of trying to refuse (which Elder Connors previously said you can’t refuse Samoans) and he said it’s an insult to not accept things where he’s from so we had a lot of soup and baked bananas – peel and all, that were like as hard as wood. It was good except my stomach almost exploded.
Jrnl. 11-26-09
Happy Thanksgiving! This was a really different day. We had a nice breakfast at a members house with the zone, but I tried not to eat too much to save up for dinner at 4. We went to the Mission Home to pick up Elder Powell and his new companion from the MTC, Elder Stone. They’re staying with us tonight on the couches or something and tomorrow morning we’re dropping them off at the airport going to Saint Petersbury down South. They seem like great missionaries and Elder Powell served here for 6 months, so he knew the members and he loved this ward. it snowed pretty good last night so the roads were way slippery. Especially because it’s Thanksgiving and the roads didn’t get plowed at all. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at a Spanish members home (Rueda’s). it was a fun dinner from 4 till about 7. Elder Powell was from the same town or ward as sister Rueda’s family so that was funny we happened to be eating with them the night he was there. Actually it was really good thing it was Elder Powell staying with us because Sister Rueda wouldn’t have fed us if she didn’t know the missionaries coming. She’s a way funny lady though. She saved her son’s cell number when he called for Mother’s Day on his mission and she tried to call him. I can see mom doing that {cw: In my defense, I’ve had Bryce’s phone number for a couple months. He sent me a letter to his mission President with his cell phone number on it. I have never tried to call it!}. Well, hopefully not. He was a good missionary though and had his companion tell her not to do that.
Jrnl 11-27-09
We shoveled a lot of driveways today. It was warm so the snow was heavy. I’m probably going to be sore in the morning but it’s a good thing to be physically tired. We got stuck right in front of Bishop Kimpton’s house when we parked. Luckily he was out of town. The UPS guy stopped to help push, but then he said good luck, I got to go. We got out easily though after we shoveled the snow from under the car. So it was lucky we had snow shovels.
Jrnl 12-1-09
Today was an average day. We got in some tracking and found some members home before 4 p.m., even though our 1 appointment today fell through. It is so hard to find people home during the daytime which is about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. now. We had a good dinner with the Clark’s including Megan’s twin sister, Page, who actually made dinner which was churrito’s. Cheyenne is funny. He ate like twice as much as me, and I thought I had a lot, and he is way skinny. He says he always eats like that. He’s lucky he can eat so much without gaining anything. Anyway, last night we talked to the Clark’s about family home evening. (We were supposed to have FHE with the Motugas’, but they must have forgotten). We played a game with them, one of those aggravating ones where you have to figure out a certain pattern. We were going to guess which book of Mormon they picked. . . I’m not describing it well, but it was funny. Except Savannah got a little mad she couldn’t’ figure it out. It was a good thing to do with them though, because Cheyenne said he’s never just played games in his family so hopefully they’ll start doing something like that. Those are some of my most favorite memories is playing games with my family and cousins.
Jrnl 12-3-09
Today was, how about interesting, day. We got all zeros on our key indicators, but we happened to give out a Book of Mormon to an old man who the Pettijohn family had been working with, or at best is friends with. So that was cool. We happened to influence that and Sister Pettijohn got really excited about it. We ate at a Samoan’s house tonight, the Motuga’s and at the Omna’s last night. It is good food, but we almost exploded. The Omna’s actually fed us American food like potatoes, bbq, chicken, meatballs, and corn. At the Motuga’s we had this Hawaiian noodle stuff that was pretty good, fried pork, crab salad, shrimp, raw octopus (which actually wasn’t too bad except the nubby suction things were weird) and some raw fish that I wasn’t man enough to try. Then to top it off we had cake and ice cream. They think they’re doing us a favor, but they might end up killing us. No, it wasn’t bad because we prepared early and had tiny lunches.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Jrnl 11-17-09 through 11-23-09
Jrnl 11-17-09
This is the last week of the transfer and Elder Connors is doing “senior week” where I act as the senior companion and make plans and minor decisions. He said his trainer did it with him. This was the first real day like this and it’s actually kind of hard. Especially, with knowing if I am going what the Spirit would have me do. I need to focus more on my thoughts, specifically who I am thinking about. I also notices I haven’t been making it a point to talk to everyone I come across like in stores and restaurants. Our dinner appointment was too busy so they gave us money and we had Subway foot longs and a Cold Stone. I’m still stuffed. We eat so good here. An inactive member, Gary Hamilton, gave us some halibut that is just sitting in our freezer. We’ll have to get someone to cook it for us. Apparently there is a right way to do it. I finally got a picture of a moose. It’s lame, I haven’t taken many pictures at all because we’re not supposed to take pictures while we are proselyting, which is like all the time. Yesterday, I guess it got cold enough that everything are all white. I think it just does that through November.
Jrnl 11-18-09
We had a nice meeting with Bean & Sheena this morning and got them excited about temple work and Patriarchal blessings (except they forgot about the appointment so we basically woke them up). We had dinner at Bishop Kimpton’s tonight and had a good talk. However, we wanted to do “tacking in the home” (list of non members they know and prayerfully decide which to teach) but he refused before we even explained what we wanted to do. He is way busy and starts work at 4 a.m., so I can understand a little. It just seems so hard to get referrals here. So far they’re 8 year olds or less/inactive members. Still, we’re getting a baptism on Saturday and he, Cheyenne, just had his interview with Elder Murphy tonight!
Jrnl 11-19-09
Wow, we drove almost 70 miles today because we had no appointments and didn’t get in members doors for more than 5 minutes. Tonight though we had a good lesson with the Woodards and I got to hear some of Sheen’s testimony. She left the Jehovah Witnesses and Bean was Baptist, I think. They’re a great family and their son Nova is 5 and reminds me of Gary a lot.
Jrnl 11-21-09
Today was a pretty big day. This morning was transfer calls and Elder Connor’s kept talking to the Zone Leaders trying to find out where everyone (particularly if he) was going. We’re both staying for this transfer and Elder Murphy (ZL) is the only one in our district leaving. We had dinner in the church kitchen while we were filling up the font (and shot a couple hoops). Cheyenne’s baptism turned out pretty perfect. Beau Woodard said the opening prayer (he made it just in time), Elder Connors gave a great talk about baptismal covenants, then I got to baptize Cheyenne and I only had to baptize him once (however, I had to pause for a second so I didn’t say “for and in half of. . .” but, yeah. Sister Motuga, a Samoan lady who fellowshipped Cheyenne’s wife and everything, she gave a really nice testimony afterward and it was a perfect way to end it. President and Sister Dance made it to the baptism, too. They even stayed after to help us clean up and lock up. This was such an awesome way to finish off my first transfer.
Jrnl 11-22-09
In Sacrament meeting Cheyenne was confirmed by Elder Connors. President and Sister Dance made it to that, too. Sheena asked us to sit by her and Nova and Blaze because Beau was working in the E.R. and she isn’t really comfortable in the ward yet. The Motuga’s (A Samoan family from Hawaii) sang a great song about our Redeemer always remembers us and while I was listening, I felt lots of love for this ward for some reason. Probably just because thinking about the Savior will fill you with His love.
Cheyenne also got the Aaronic Priesthood in elders Quorum conferred by the Bishop, which is great, so now he can baptize his daughter.
Jrnl 11-23-09
This was a way relaxed preparation day. We did a lot of shopping, at least wandering. The only things I bought besides a couple groceries were 180 degree ear muffs and a Truman G. Madson “Lecture about Temples.” After that and all the regular mission office, email, lunch, laundry, we bummed out and listened to a ton of my Jesus of Nazareth C.D.’s. I kept drifting in and out and this is the least tired I’ve been in a long time. I don’t know if the Spirit wears me out like how Joseph Smith almost passed out after his experience, or if I am just worn down from being out of my comfort zone. But, I’m glad I can have joy as long as I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.
This is the last week of the transfer and Elder Connors is doing “senior week” where I act as the senior companion and make plans and minor decisions. He said his trainer did it with him. This was the first real day like this and it’s actually kind of hard. Especially, with knowing if I am going what the Spirit would have me do. I need to focus more on my thoughts, specifically who I am thinking about. I also notices I haven’t been making it a point to talk to everyone I come across like in stores and restaurants. Our dinner appointment was too busy so they gave us money and we had Subway foot longs and a Cold Stone. I’m still stuffed. We eat so good here. An inactive member, Gary Hamilton, gave us some halibut that is just sitting in our freezer. We’ll have to get someone to cook it for us. Apparently there is a right way to do it. I finally got a picture of a moose. It’s lame, I haven’t taken many pictures at all because we’re not supposed to take pictures while we are proselyting, which is like all the time. Yesterday, I guess it got cold enough that everything are all white. I think it just does that through November.
Jrnl 11-18-09
We had a nice meeting with Bean & Sheena this morning and got them excited about temple work and Patriarchal blessings (except they forgot about the appointment so we basically woke them up). We had dinner at Bishop Kimpton’s tonight and had a good talk. However, we wanted to do “tacking in the home” (list of non members they know and prayerfully decide which to teach) but he refused before we even explained what we wanted to do. He is way busy and starts work at 4 a.m., so I can understand a little. It just seems so hard to get referrals here. So far they’re 8 year olds or less/inactive members. Still, we’re getting a baptism on Saturday and he, Cheyenne, just had his interview with Elder Murphy tonight!
Jrnl 11-19-09
Wow, we drove almost 70 miles today because we had no appointments and didn’t get in members doors for more than 5 minutes. Tonight though we had a good lesson with the Woodards and I got to hear some of Sheen’s testimony. She left the Jehovah Witnesses and Bean was Baptist, I think. They’re a great family and their son Nova is 5 and reminds me of Gary a lot.
Jrnl 11-21-09
Today was a pretty big day. This morning was transfer calls and Elder Connor’s kept talking to the Zone Leaders trying to find out where everyone (particularly if he) was going. We’re both staying for this transfer and Elder Murphy (ZL) is the only one in our district leaving. We had dinner in the church kitchen while we were filling up the font (and shot a couple hoops). Cheyenne’s baptism turned out pretty perfect. Beau Woodard said the opening prayer (he made it just in time), Elder Connors gave a great talk about baptismal covenants, then I got to baptize Cheyenne and I only had to baptize him once (however, I had to pause for a second so I didn’t say “for and in half of. . .” but, yeah. Sister Motuga, a Samoan lady who fellowshipped Cheyenne’s wife and everything, she gave a really nice testimony afterward and it was a perfect way to end it. President and Sister Dance made it to the baptism, too. They even stayed after to help us clean up and lock up. This was such an awesome way to finish off my first transfer.
Jrnl 11-22-09
In Sacrament meeting Cheyenne was confirmed by Elder Connors. President and Sister Dance made it to that, too. Sheena asked us to sit by her and Nova and Blaze because Beau was working in the E.R. and she isn’t really comfortable in the ward yet. The Motuga’s (A Samoan family from Hawaii) sang a great song about our Redeemer always remembers us and while I was listening, I felt lots of love for this ward for some reason. Probably just because thinking about the Savior will fill you with His love.
Cheyenne also got the Aaronic Priesthood in elders Quorum conferred by the Bishop, which is great, so now he can baptize his daughter.
Jrnl 11-23-09
This was a way relaxed preparation day. We did a lot of shopping, at least wandering. The only things I bought besides a couple groceries were 180 degree ear muffs and a Truman G. Madson “Lecture about Temples.” After that and all the regular mission office, email, lunch, laundry, we bummed out and listened to a ton of my Jesus of Nazareth C.D.’s. I kept drifting in and out and this is the least tired I’ve been in a long time. I don’t know if the Spirit wears me out like how Joseph Smith almost passed out after his experience, or if I am just worn down from being out of my comfort zone. But, I’m glad I can have joy as long as I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.
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