9-20-11

Hey Mom, First off, Shelby did get baptized and ended up getting confirmed then too because her husband was there. Everything worked out perfect, except it was a little stressful because her interview didn't happen until Thursday so we didn't get a set time for the baptism until then. Shelby's friend and our Relief Society President gave the talks, and her friends daughter played an arrangement of I Believe in Christ on the violin that she arranged that day, and then Shelby shared her experience after she was confirmed. There was quite a few members that came also. Last night we watched the Mountain of the Lord with the PM family and it went really well. Anne had tons of questions about eternal marriage that we tried to explain and I gave her the Ensign about temples. She wants to be sealed to her son and husband. She seemed sad I'm leaving. We also met with Shelby today. She's still way wiped out from Saturday and Sunday. 3 hours of church is going to be tough on her. She is still doing so good and trying to understand the mormon termonologies. She's going to feed me lunch on Saturday before I leave. There's a lot of people I need to say bye to. Even though coming home is easier than leaving, it'll be quite a change. Why were you surprized I want to come back up and work in the summer? I don't have anything set up, but I have a couple people I could call, and a lot of companies look at BYU for employees. I am so lucky and happy to be leaving at the beginning of winter. It might not even snow before I leave. That'd be nice. I better end, because we spent too much time at Shelby's and have a lot to do today. I'll be driving down to Anchorage on Monday, but I'll write you if I get a chance. I'm hoping since we're driving down so early I'll have time to see a couple people when I drive through Wasilla and Anchorage. See you so soon! Love, Elder Bryce Wainwright PS- We had Zone Conference yesterday with Elder William Walker of the Seventy, so that's why I'm emailing today.

9-12-11

Hey Mom, I'm getting way excited for Shelby's baptism too. It's what I was praying for. She made it to Stake conference yesterday too and she loved it. It was broadcast from Salt Lake with Elder Snow, Sis. Dalton, Elder Holland, and Elder Packer. It was all about the gift of the Holy Ghost and other stuff we'd been talking about with her. She's getting interviewed tomorrow and everything else should work out as long as her health is good enough. I'm also excited for this week because tonight we're meeting with the part-member family again, tomorrow we're meeting with a cool former investigator, and on Thursdays we meet with a guy that the zone leaders started teaching who is well into 1 Nephi already. He also got a gospel principles manual from the ZL's and our lesson was so good because it was just answering his questions the whole time. He's a single 35 year old and he was telling us he loves how we just tell him the way it is and it just makes sense. I love it when they actually get it and can understand how important it is. Kinda like the focus on Seek, Recieve, and Act. I do like the idea of going up to conference. That'd be awesome. Because I have to see the brothers soon anyway. I'm trying to think of what I could do before school starts. Next summer, I'd like to come back up here and work a tourist job maybe in Denali, but probably in Ketchikan. I could maybe even drive up with you and Dad and take you through my areas. Wouldn't that be cool? I am getting pretty excited to come home. I just realized next week is the last time I'll email you. I think that's why your last 2 letters were so short. Love you! Have a great week. Elder Bryce Wainwright

9-6-11 Hey Mom, Thanks for that article. Pretty crazy. We did have a fun Pday last week. Bro. Illguth took us to the city North Pole and to Santa's house and there was even reindeer. Santa was gone but they have a cool little shop. We helped him lift his engine, and he drove us around in his Bronco a little bit before we had to go back. Well, Shelby has been doing so great. Last week she asked us about a few more concerns and we helped her understand them like polygamy and baptisms for the dead. Then she said she only had one more thing that hasn't sat well with her and if she could get over it she'd start preparing herself to be baptized. I had already prepared some scriptures because she'd brought it up before, so we met with her the next day and it ended up just being a misunderstanding about the pre-existence how Satan was a fallen angel who rebelled. But when we resolved it she asked when she could get baptized. So she decided on the 17th. I'm so happy I got to see her accept the gospel and she is so happy and ready. I'm hoping her husband will support her and eventually join her. We also started teaching another cool guy who the Zone Leaders introduced to us. You're right, we are being led to people who are ready. I hope I can do all that I need to. I love you and hope you had a great weekend and labor day. That's why I'm emailing today. And thanks for Sara's note too. Elder Bryce Wainwright

8-22-11

8-22-11
Hey. Alright. So this was a pretty good week. Elder Arnold is cool. He's from south eastern Mississippi, and not even in a town near Crosby. He's in the Louisiana mission, so I don't think he's in Kendall's mission. He doesn't have a terrible accent, but it's definitely there. He has a younger brother, and did ROTC. He's served in Eagle River for 5 months. Things have started to pick up already. While I was waiting to pick up Elder Arnold we contacted a referral and he took a Book of Mormon and said he'd read from it. So, a couple cool things like that.
Know what else is cool? The Bethel family that I taught just got sealed in Anchorage on Saturday. Elder Simmons flew back up, so at least he got to go with them.
Those pictures of Crystal were neat, I guess. My zone leader saw them and thought she was dying. I like Annelise. I'm way excited to see her so soon and the others. It's coming up. Everyone brings it up because I have a new companion. I was looking at the BYU application stuff and Scholarships are due Oct. 1st which is about 2 days after I get home.
Give Bruce a hug for me. Are you driving him up then? This should be a good week. It's my hope I can do something good for the area while I'm still here. Love
Elder Bryce Wainwright

8-15-11

Hey Mom,
I know you hate short letters, but I'll be pretty brief. It's transfers again. I'm actually staying here in Fairbanks, but Elder Fryer is leaving. He's going to my Greenie area in Anchorage, Jewel Lake Ward. And he's serving with Elder Williams who I served with in Ketchikan. It's pretty crazy that he's leaving after one 5 week transfer, but I kinda expected he'd leave. Something I'll miss is we've been playing tennis after we plan on a court in the middle of our apartment complex. My new companion is Elder Arnold, but I don't know him so I'll tell you more next week. He'll be my 5th companion in Fairbanks. That's wonderful news about Grandma Snow and Crystal and Ionut, baby. Those were great pictures. The housing market it weird. Even up here it's been hard to sell homes and it's supposed to be really stable up here, like Shelby is really stressed about not selling their house. But I know the Lord has a hand in even those things. Thanks for always being so positive and faithful in all you do.
I love you all, and thanks for thinking of me always.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

8-8-11

Hey Mom,
Maybe I'll have to do some more birthday shopping. Dad's birthday is coming up too. I didn't realize I got some money. Thank you Grandma Snow, Grandpa & Grandma Wainwright and Aunt Janet. I bought a cool cd of Jenny Oaks Baker- "Serenade" in Anchorage. Oh yeah, so last week I got called on Tuesday that I was invited to go to the temple in Anchorage with my Zone Leaders and Elder Fryer. I had asked President Beesley if I could go to the temple sometime before I go home and he suggested carpool during the Zone Leaders' meeting. It ended up that I went with all the Zone Leaders and President Beesley at 5am. I was so happy. It was a neat drive, and good to be in the temple again. It was about a 6 hour drive there. In Denali we stopped at a gift shop and I got to talk to the girl who just got baptized there who I taught once.
We had planned to have 2 lessons with Shelby but she wasn't feeling well for the second one, but she should still have been studying so I'm excited to see how that went tomorrow. We only taught one other investigator all week, but I think if we can stay more focused and work hard, we'll have a good starting point for next transfer. Next week is already transfers and we have no idea what will happen. What's nice though, is we get called Saturday night again, and we'll still have p-day on Monday and transfers Tuesday.
So this week is the fair, and we're about to go over with some of the missionaries. It'll be pretty neat.
I can't believe Crystal is already having her baby. That's way exciting. I'm sure you'll remember, but pictures would be cool. And I'm glad Bruce has a nice place.
Anyway, hope things go well this week. Let me know how Grandma is doing. The time is just flying by. Bruce said to let you know when I'm coming home. It should be Wednesday the 28th of Sept. I think they send you the info about 6 weeks before.
I love you Mom and Dad. I'll talk to you soon.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

8-1-11

8-1-11
Thanks for your letter Mom,
I hope I answer all your questions. I did get my birthday package, and if I didn't tell you, sorry, I very much enjoyed the tie and cd's, I'm not sure if I should know the elder Peter. I'm sure Bruce will be happy with help getting set up for school. I hope I get a little more time to slow down when I get home but I definitely want to help Dad out too. I wouldn't even mind another project like the shop.
The duck race was a bet, so yes they gathered them with a buoy and the first ten ducks won. I don't even want to know how it started. They have crazy lotteries up here, like the largest lottery to guess the closest time when this giant tripod will break through the ice of a lake. I think it comes with the interesting people here. Next question- we borrowed bikes from some members and went on a really nice single track trail. In fact, one of the only single track trails here. I actually got to ride a really nice bike, which helped me be more careful.
Shelby is not on date. She seems to be doing well, though, and she wants to spend this week studying while her husband is down south fishing. We're going over there tomorrow for another lesson. As far as the rest of our work, it's been a little slow. Our district is having a hard time teaching too, except the Zone Leaders are having 4 baptisms this month, right before Elder Smith goes home too. Our main focus is we made a "hit list" of all the members we haven't met yet or been in their home and giving them a flier we made to help them with a missionary focus.
Ok that's all I got.
I do love you and hope you spend plenty of time with Bruce.
Talk to you later,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

7-25-11

Hey Mom,
That would have been a blast to be there with all the family, and it is a little weird with Bruce being home, but not too weird. This week was pretty fun, a little slow, but good. For Golden Days the parade was cool and we had a barbeque after with some of the members. Then we saw a rubber duck race down the river that practically the whole town went to. I'll put in a picture. Something else neat is we've seen a bunch of foxes lately in the evenings. Other than that we've just been trying to work hard and be motivating to get the ward a little more involved in the missionary work. We did get to teach Shelby, and ended up taking most of the day, because she cooked us lunch and we helped her move a couple things around. It was a good visit, she really wants to have a strong conversion and understanding, and then she said she wants to start working on her family. We went biking again today, so it was a great way to start the week. I love you and am so grateful for the many thoughtful prayers from you and everyone else. I hope you get to enjoy some time with Bruce. It sounds like he's already having some fun.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

7-18-11

Hey :) I did realize I gave you the wrong area code so I wasn't surprised to not get your package. I'm glad you figured it out, but I haven't gotten it yet so probably soon. Saturday was great. We did service most the day, most of last week for that matter. We had a nice moose burger and salmon dinner with the McGraw's and our ward mission leader's family. We played Apples to Apples too so it was great. Thanks for having a birthday cake for me and Bruce :)
It's a little weird covering just 1st ward again, but feels like I went back home, and the ward was happy to have us totally there too. That's way awesome and funny Elder Fryer's mom called you. I really do hope we can help improve the work here. We had our first interview with President Beesley and his wife Saturday, and now I'm not so sure I'll stay here next transfer too, but we'll see. I'm impressed at how planned out Bruce's homecoming thing is, sounds like a blast. I can't believe it's this week. Up here they have a festival called Golden Days on the 23rd and the ward invited us to come to the parade with them so I'll be having fun too. My email is so late because a part member guy took us fishing for Arctic Greyling today. They were tiny, but it was nice. I probably won't have time to tell everyone, but let them know I'm grateful for the nice letters I got. I got one from Gma and Gpa Wainwright too.
You're so great. I love you too!
Elder Bryce Wainwright

PS- Me and Elder Fryer in the picture

7-5-11 - 7-12-11

7-5-11

Hey Mom,
I can't believe you didn't write me. I guess I said I wouldn't be able to email. However, our new mission President told the Zone Leaders that we could email for an hour today. So, we were excited about that. We were able to meet President Beesley on Saturday. Most of it was just him and his wife talking about themselves and we were able to ask them some questions. I like them both a lot already. President Beesley was the head of security for Lockheed Martin and has helped design and test fly a lot of the new military jets, and during lunch he showed us some videos of his test flights. We had a really nice Sunday too. We went to Sacrament at 11 in 6th ward, then drove an hour down to Nenana for Sacrament, then drove another hour down to Healy and set a date for an investigators baptism who is down there. We stayed and went to their church at 5pm (because of all the tour guides who work on Sundays). We taught the Gospel Principles class and had a nonmember there someone brought with her who had never heard anything about the church, but he stayed all three hours. By the end of church he wanted a triple combination and the Gospel Principles manual to read. So, that was pretty cool. We spent the night at a member's home in Nenana so that on Monday we could help out with the town Fourth of July festival. That was a really fun way to spend the Fourth and was definitely the most exciting part of this week. Small towns are so cool, and the members acted like we were celebrities who never get to come around.
Brandon told me he got a full time job to teach at Price. That's pretty exciting. It seemed like he had a fun birthday too. Well, I don't have too much more time. I just wanted to let you know how my week went.
Love you,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

Next week is transfers, so I'll write you on Tuesday again. I'm pretty sure I'll stay, but who knows.
7-12-11

Haha, I knew you would feel bad for not getting a letter to me, but it was my fault and I was happy I got to send you something. The college library was closed on the 5th too, but when this black lady we were doing service for heard that we couldn't email our families, she called up her daughter who was in the computer labs to let us in so we could write you.
So transfers, we were pretty sure that if anyone was leaving it would be the other trainer, Elder Boyer, but it turned out that Elder Hartelius went to North Anchorage and Elder Boyer and I are separating into our old areas. Elder Boyer is training again, and the funny thing is I'm getting Elder Fryer who is from St. George too. He was in Fairbanks in the ward on Fort Wainwright. I'm way excited for this transfer and we have some good things started in 1st ward. It's kinda weird not having three of us anymore, and I probably will miss how busy we were covering so much area last transfer. Hopefully, we can make things this busy in 1st ward.
I have a fun birthday planned. I found out a less active member who's wife we're teaching has the same birthday (David and Anne McGraw) so they want us over for dinner, and they invited our ward mission leader's family too. It should be way fun and good for the McGraws too

Thanks for thinking of me, and all the reminders. Have a great week, and I will too.
Love, Elder Bryce Wainwright

PS- Our mission president swapped from Russia as well as another president because Russia was questioning if the US was sending in CIA intelligence through missionaries. And President Beesley knows more about the new military jets than probably anyone in the world. A good reason to pull him out, but it was cool when President Beesley shared how each mission president that was switched had some kind of experience to confirm that they were where they were supposed to be. Pretty cool. 

6-27-11

Hey Mom,
Thanks for the letter, and Gary and Sara's. I just wrote them back. I'm surprised the AP's are still that busy. That'd be tough. I complain when I don't get a full 8 hours of sleep. It has been exciting being so busy though. This week we picked up 2 new investigators. One was a referral from our High Priest Group Leader. The other was a former investigator, Moses. We'd helped him stack some wood he'd chopped down, and we were able to drop by and read the Book of Mormon a little with him. He opened up and he really believes in the church, but his wife is very unsupportive and he's worried about that. Otherwise he'd probably be baptized by now. Also, we were getting a little worried about our investigator Ryan Shaw, because we hadn't heard from him. But he made it to church, and commented that everything that's been on his mind was brought up. So, a lot of good things have been happening. Oh yeah, plus we get to go down to Healy, by Denali National Park to teach an investigator there on Sunday and go to their church. Plus, we'll head back up and stay in Nenana so we can help out with a 4th of July festival that the whole town does. Speaking of, I won't be able to email on the 4th. Maybe I'll hand write you. But it'll be an awesome trip. It's Elder Smith's birthday today, so I gotta go. We're having a pizza lunch. Here's a picture with Elder Smith at his last Zone Conference before he leaves.
Love you too,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

6-20-11

This week we've been so busy with lessons and some more service again. We've been so tired, we try and nap while the other 2 are showering after service or instead of eating lunch. On Sunday, we went to the other ward's sacrament meeting, and then left early to drive to Nenana (about 50 min. south) and went to church there. The branch is tiny. There was less than 30 people including babies. After church we went on splits to try and visit a couple investigators there. It's a cool little town and is a very pretty drive. We got back just in time for a nice dinner and lesson with an innactive Harvey Lafever the 14th, who we're trying to help gain a testimony.
That was the most exciting thing this week. I'll be thinking of Liam, and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa, and Grandma Snow. Dad, thanks for your emails. You'll have one in the mail. Hope you had a nice Father's day.
Love you always Mom and Dad,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

6-12-11

Mom,
Once again, I liked reading your stories. Gary and Sara are way too smart. I don't know what it is, but ward council is the most intimidating meeting for me, I know what that Sister missionary feels like. How's the Southern Utah mission going anyway? Do the AP's tell you much about the success? I wrote Crystal a letter for her birthday, but I don't think it got there yet.
We had a lot happen this week. This weekend we had a baptism for Abby and Gracie Palmer. They were way nervous, but it was great. Their dad was able to baptize them because he got ordained a few hours before the baptism. We also had an investigator come to church the first time and saw the confirmations. Something that was pretty sad was we had our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Dance on Friday. In fact it was the last time I'll see them. I know I'll love the next President, but it won't be the same. I'm very grateful I spent so much time with them. Know what's weird? We're not getting the Clarks from Midway anymore. They're going to Russia, St. Petersburg mission and the Beesley's are coming here instead of Russia.
We're doing good and very busy. I love it.
I don't know how I am going to thank you for making my scholarship work for BYU. I'm impressed you even got them to consider it. I would have given up after that first letter. I guess I could try to keep up my grades and not waste it. Anyway, thank you. You're the greatest. Love, Elder Bryce Wainwright
 

6-6-11

Thanks for all the notes, sorry to make you worry. We didn't have anywhere to email because of memorial day.
OK. So, the past 2 weeks have been great. You're right, since we're covering 2 wards, we're keeping very busy. I really enjoy serving with Elder Boyer. He most reminds me of Sam Poulton. Our trainee, Elder Hartelius (or Hercules we sometimes call him) is a great elder. He's from Lehi Utah. He's a little goofy sometimes, but we seem to all get along great and work well together. It can be hard trying to teach with three of us, and it's probably intimidating when we're tracting, but it's better than I thought.
Last week since we couldn't email, we drove north and went on a cool hike. Elder Hartelius isn't much of a hiker, but he enjoyed it afterward. This weekend we're going to have two baptisms of the kids of a part member family who just baptized the mom. Another really cool blessing was a single guy, Ryan Shaw, called up the former bishop and wanted to learn more about the church. We gave him a call and he had us come over right then to teach him. He told us a little about how he's ready for religion in his life right now and we taught him the Restoration and he believed it all and wants to be baptised. He came to all of church and the next time we met with him we tried to set a date for his baptism, but he said he wants to finish the Book of Mormon first to build his understanding. He's already in Mosiah chapter 2, so that's way exciting and he has totally prepared himself for the gospel.
That was the highlight. I am so grateful for all the effort you put in to your letters and informing me on what's going on. Thank you so much for contacting BYU. I wasn't expecting to get that scholarship anymore, so that is awesome. That will help a ton I'm sure. Do you know if it's for a semester or a whole year? Thanks for telling me about the Farnsworths and Aunt Mary.
Gotta go. I love you and Dad and am so grateful for you.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

5-23-11

Hey Mom,
Alright, so I'm staying in Fairbanks but quite a lot is changing. My area in 1st Ward is getting combined with 6th Ward, because we've been struggling in our area. I'm with Elder Boyer from 6th Ward, which I'm way excited about because we're already good friends. We are going to train a new missionary, so we'll be in a threesome. We find out in about an hour who our trainee will be. My district is with the Fort Wainwright elders(Elder Fryer and Anderson), who are both from St. George, and the sisters, one of them is from St. George too(Sister Davis). Pretty funny, huh? This is Elder Boyer's first area and he's been here for 6 months, so he really knows 6th Ward and he's very hard working and going to help out a lot with training. He's from Las Vegas and loves cycling.
Something that was disappointing this week was my ward mission leader, Brother Illguth, spoke in church about member missionary work. It was a great talk and he was very blunt that our ward needed to be doing better, and in Sunday School a lot of people even commented about how we should be doing more missionary work. However, only 2 families from our ward showed up to the missionary fireside that we had planned for that night. We do have some more ideas that we're working on, though, and we should be plenty busy working in both areas. It'll be fun getting to know some more people and another huge area.
We visited Timbre again, the one who was in the bike wreck, and he was home from the hospital and walking around a little, and he appreciated our visit.
Tell Grandma Snow thanks and I know that she loves me. I am so grateful for everyones thoughts and prayers for me. I appreciate them and need them. I love you all,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

5-1-11

Hello.
Yeah, that was the toughest moving job I've ever helped with. We had some more service this week too, but luckily it wasn't until the weekend. Thanks for the updates on the family. That was neat Sara asked for a blessing.
Alright, so I have to tell you a little about what happened this week. It's ok if you laugh, because I laughed at first too. I had to take Elder Savaiinaea to the ER because he hit himself in the eye with a plastic 2 liter bottle cap. He had bought the soda that day and drank some then put it in the truck. When we got home he went to open it and the cap blew off into his open eye. It hit him pretty hard and caused some damage. The eye doctor didn't even believe it was a bottle cap and had me step out of the room to ask Elder Savaiinaea if he wanted to tell her the real story. He's doing alright now and just has some eye drops he has to take to help it heal. It reminded me way too much of when I hit Elder Offley in the eye with the raquetball. Anyway, it kinda threw off our week. I am also excited and can't believe I get to talk to you this weekend already. Have a wonderful week. Much Love
Elder Bryce Wainwright

4-25-11

Easter weekend was great. We ended up doing a lot of service which was nice being busy. We hauled a bunch of wood for the Ashcraft's who do our laundry with their son while they were gone. And Saturday, went like this, we got up at six to pick up 2 elders to go to basketball for exercise and set up the volleyball net for an activity we've been organizing. At 8am we went with 4 missionaries to move Heather and Ryan(from St. George) out of our ward. We got the Uhaul loaded and went to start up volleyball at 10am. There was a pretty good showing, and right after that Elder Savaiinaea and I drove back to move the couple in. We were the only ones who could help and their new place was on the 3rd floor, so we were about toast by the time we finished, which somehow was only 3pm. We just went to the Hawaiian dinner in our service clothes and got there in time to say the prayer. The food was awesome, but we were super tired and there was only one member there and some alcohol so we felt kinda out of place and didn't stay long. I was just surprised we were able to do all of that and I'm getting tired just writing about it. Sunday was really nice. We had dinner at the High Priest group leaders, and stopped at the Bishop's house afterward. That was the biggest thing that happened this week.
Sounds like your Easter was nice and quiet. Well, maybe not if the grandkids were there. It's too bad they're getting sick again.
I'm excited to talk to you soon. Love Elder Bryce Wainwright

4-18-11

Hey Mom
Thanks for being thoughtful and writing an early letter. I'm also grateful you write every week. That's cool Ghica's put grass in their back yard. I was thinking Ionut, birthday today, but I'll still have to write him a note or something anyway. Are the Wainwright's going to St. George again for Easter? On Saturday we're going to do a little Easter egg hunt with our ward mission leader and hopefully some people. Also, we were invited to another Easter party with some Hawaiians.
Something interresting. A part member couple in our ward, Ryan Duvall, is from St. George and he went to Panorama and Pine View Middle the same year as me. We didn't know each other, but we had to have crossed paths before.
This week was a bit slow. We tracted practically all day Saturday, and I actually was sweating and got a little sun burned, which I didn't think was possible in Alaska. The snow is almost melted finally. It's in the 40's and it feels pretty warm.
Have a wonderful Easter. Talk to you soon.
Love Elder Bryce Wainwright

4-12-11

Hey Mom,
I feel bad that I missed Grandma's and Emily's birthdays. I've forgotten to write for so many people's. The pictures are awesome. It looks like so many kids. Today is transfers, so that's why I'm writing on Tuesday. But, Elder Savaiinaea and I are staying together again, which I expected and am glad about. I've enjoyed serving with him, even though it's been kinda slow and hard, I've learned a lot and have had fun. This week was pretty successful. We started teaching a couple, Angel and Sky, who we had gotten a call from a member to meet at their house and give them a blessing. We ended up teaching them the Restoration before we gave the blessing and they want to learn more and said they might make it to Stake Conference on Sunday. We also had dinner with and taught an inactive part member family and should be teaching them more. We taught Shelby again, but she's not really progressing right now. Also, we gave another investigator who we haven't met with in a long time a blessing because he has bad arthritis and has been out of work for 6 months.
Thanks for being considerate about making me "trunky" talking about Bruce going home. I might miss being there, but I do enjoy hearing what's going on. Speaking of Bruce going to school, I don't know if I need to start applying for classes or anything? As of now, I'm planning on going to BYU in the winter.
I love you and Dad and hope you're all going good.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

4-4-11

Hey Mom,
Conference was so great. It's always been so amazing for me since I've come out on a mission. Sadly, we didn't have any investigators there. I didn't notice which one talked about shying away. Was it the one about being committed to act, I think by Elder Eyring? My favorite was probably in the last session by Lynn G. Robbins about being, more than just doing. And he said that baptism and taking the sacrament are what we need to do, but having faith in Christ and worthiness are what we need to be in order to do the other. Something like that. Anyway, he said the "be" we will never be able to check off, but always must work on. Priesthood Session was way good, about using the power of the Priesthood more.
We missed some of the Saturday afternoon session too, because we decided to go tracting between sessions and we ran into a Hawaiian couple who have had missionaries over before and she started making us lunch at 11:45 and it was almost 1 before we got out.
That was a way awesome April fools party. It seems like you guys have something fun every week. Somehow, we managed not to be pranked. And the only prank we were going to do got ruined. We were eating dinner with another set of missionaries, and on our way up to their area I started making a plan that we would call the elders and tell them if they still wanted us to come to dinner they would have to come pick us up because we just slid off the road into a ditch and hit a tree. Just as we made up our plan, we drove by the missionaries and they waved at us, and it totally ruined our plan.
Our dinner with the Baptist preacher went better than I thought. We were able to teach most of the gospel of Jesus Christ and a little of the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. It was pretty jumbled because they kept asking tons of different questions. When I was explaining the gift of the Holy Ghost and how he can be our constant companion, they got stuck on that the Spirit can leave you if you sin. They basically believe that once you believe and declare it than you are saved. And your not saved by works. They invited us over again for dinner tomorrow so that's pretty good. I like what you said about just bearing testimony, because they want proof in the Bible, but even if I can show them anything only the Spirit will let them know the truth of the Restoration through sincere prayer and reading the Book of Mormon.
So, this should be a good week. It's crazy it's the last week of the transfer. Hope you have a good week too and get to do something else exciting. Love
Elder Bryce Wainwright

3-28-11

3-28-11
Hey Mom,
Shelby isn't on date. We had a good lesson with her and our ward mission leader and Relief Society President, but something is still keeping her from getting baptized, so we'll have to figure that out. Also, they sold their house so they could be moving anytime and she didn't make it to church again. That's kinda disappointing, but I still feel like she will join the church. Something interesting is a Baptist preacher is going to feed us dinner tomorrow and wants to have a "Bible study" with us. We had tracted into them and they wanted to talk with us. Hopefully, we can prevent it being a Bible bash. I'm hopeful that as we get closer to summer, things pick up for us. Right now it's still really icy and it just snowed last night. I'm excited for conference, it came way fast.
Something they do here, that I haven't seen anywhere else is have a transfer site next to the dumpsters where people leave stuff that is still good for someone else to take. That way people don't have to dumpster dive. We've found some cool stuff like an Iron Man pull up bar and running shoes. We drive by on our way to our apartment.
Not much else happened this week except we had specialized training from President Dance, mostly about making baptismal services more meaningful. Thank you so much for your care and your prayers. I love you and hope you have another wonderful week.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

3-13-11

Hey Mom,
We had a pretty good week. Our investigator Shelby Butler is on date to be baptized on March 26th. Did I tell you about her? She's 64 and just had back surgery and is pretty weak right now. But she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet and she understands the need to be baptized by proper authority. The main thing is if she's physically able. She hasn't even been to church the past 2 Sundays because of her health. President and Sister Dance were at church, which was cool to see them. They said they just wanted to come to church up here, so they flew up at midnight. It's good they didn't go to our apartment because there's mini marshmallows all over the floor. We found 2 marshmallow blow guns with ammo in my desk that the last Elder had gotten in a package, so we had a war on Saturday night.
So, we go to the Ashcraft's when we wake up and start our laundry with 2 other missionaries while we study and Sister Ashcraft makes us breakfast. Quite a convenient system. Missionaries really get spoiled. Maybe it's just like that in the US. I didn't know Gary had been in Fairbanks. Do you know how long?
It's warming up a bit here. The roads are super icy. We had part of our bumber replaced where previous Elders had broken it, and of course the next day I slid into the back of a Toyota. Luckily it didn't do any damage, and even more luckily the guy in the Toyota just came back and said nothing's hurt, I'm happy if you're happy, and drove off.
The one thing that I was hoping to see while I was here was the northern lights and they came out for 2 nights last week. It has something to do with solar flares and how cold it is when you can see them. I got some decent pictures but it doesn't even compare to what it was like. They move pretty slow, but all the sudden they started dancing around like crazy, and I could see hints of red and blue in it. Here's a picture.
Anyway, I better go. Shelby's husband is the head of security on the base at Fort Wainwright and he said he could let us take a picture on the base so we're going to try and do that today. Do you or grandpa Wainwright know if we're related to General Wainwright who the fort was named after? That'd be cool to find out. Also tell Grandma thanks for the letter. Talk to you later.
Love,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

3-7-11

Hey Mom,
So far I like Fairbanks a lot. It's been sunny everyday, and has hardly been in the negative degrees. We have a cool ward and a lot of really nice houses in my area. We have one investigator Shelby, who is probably going to be baptised soon. She was going to get try and get baptized with her husband but I don't think he wants to. This last week was pretty slow, but I have good hopes for the ward, and we have a brand new ward mission leader here, who wants us to be tracting less and teaching more. I feel like I'm kind of a sloppy District Leader, like I forgot to call my district for the weekly report until 10:20pm last night. But I'm trying to get everything all figured out. Bruce was saying that he wished they gave more training to District Leaders when he was new, but they really don't tell you much. Elder Savaiinaea is a lot of fun. (pronounced So-va-ee-na-ya. I don't know if that helps.) He's been teaching me some Samoan words like soa(companion). He played rugby for his country, and his younger brother died from breaking his neck playing rugby. We are playing volleyball today so that'll be fun. We can see Mount McKinley from here in some places and hopefully I can still see the Northern Lights.
Glad you got to talk to Britnee and everyone went to Red Cliffs. The member who showed us Mount McKinley last night has been to Red Cliffs before.
The box was stuff I didn't need or have room for. I still have my carhardt which is plenty warm. I left my gloves in Ketchikan, so I just bought some new ones.
Have a great week. Love you.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

PS - It was Elder Savaiinaea's birthday last week and we didn't do much except I bought him Pizza Hut for lunch, so this morning a really cool family, the Ashcrafts, who do our laundry, made him breakfast today. Then we played air hockey.
-Here's a picture of my pen- it's made with an olive tree from Jeruselam.
-We did service at a worldwide ice sculpture competition

2-21-11

Hey Mom,
Thanks for the letters. They were nice. Janet is so awesome to write me so much too. I'm glad you told me how Scott is doing. That was encouraging to hear. I've been praying for him too.
Next Tuesday is transfers already, so it pretty much means my time here is done. You could still send those cd's though. Elder Williams would like to hear it. We had some cool stuff happen this week. We were just calling all the less active members we haven't met and one lady said she'd feed us the next day. We found out that she was a convert and just hadn't been to church hardly at all since she moved to Ketchikan. In fact, she asked us to get her membership record number so she could order more temple clothes. They invited us over tonight for dinner too and their going to let us spin our own wooden pens. And we're bringing the Burkman's over because Mike wants Bro. Burkman to teach him how he makes bows. Also, last night we had dinner with a nonmember couple who we tracted into this week. She, Maggie, said she knew some members, but wasn't interrested. We left her with our number in case she had any service that we could help out with. A couple hours later, their tv broke and the husband can't get around well so she called us up and fed us for it. We didn't think we'd get to teach them, but they kept asking us so many questions about our missions and said how much she respected members of the church that we ended up teaching the Restoration and Maggie committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and even said the closing prayer. So that was cool. We found out she's doing genealogy and has even done family home evening in the past. It dumped a coulpe of inches of snow last night so we shoveled their driveway this morning.
Those were some highlights. I always love meeting with and having dinner with Susan Nolte, our recent convert. She's a cool lady, and it's exciting to see how strong her testimony is. I don't worry about her not making it, like what you were saying about them governing themselves after you teach them truths. Hope you have a great week. Tell Gary he needs to get better now. Love you.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

PS- I like the scripture you quoted Moroni 7:33. That's one of my favorites.

2-14-11

Happy Valentines Day Too!
Hope you and Dad get to do something fun. Your stories about Gary and Sara make me laugh out loud. I can only imagine how chaotic it was. Did you manage to get a picture of the bubble bathroom? You probably weren't thinking of that at the time. All the kids seem to be getting so old.
Zone Conference was great, as always. We were trained mostly on focusing on the Restoration and using mormon.org. If you haven't checked out the updated mormon.org you need to. It's way cool and we have new pass along cards for it. We're even supposed to come to the library and check it out for an hour not on P-day. I do like flying, especially over Alaska, but this time it was dark on the way up and I slept all the way back because I got a fever in Juneau. I guess I hadn't quite kicked my cold, but it's finally gone. I think.
Anyway, I hope you have a great day. I love you both so much.
Elder Bryce Wainwright
 

2-6-11

Hey Mom,
Thanks for Gary and Sara's letters. Let them know I miss them too and I'll be home as soon as I can to play with them. I know what Gary feels like. I'm better now. I took zinc pills the whole time and I think that helped it not be so bad. That's crazy Mark's family is still sick. Glad to hear that Dad is enjoying work and has some. When does Bruce come home? July?
We got to butcher some old chickens and keep the meat. They said it's tuff but good in soups. We tried fishing this morning at low tied. No luck. We heard there's winter King's in. I'm not so sure though. We had kind of a slow week. But it was still good. It's helped me to focus on listening for and acting on the Holy Ghost. We were excited about the First Presidency message. We're trying to implement it and rally or encourage the ward to do missionary work and help us find. The ward here is already so missionary minded, with a little motivation it could explode. Then it'd be like we have a whole army of missionaries here instead of just us. That also means we'll have to be on top of our game, and really be there for the ward and have their trust. We want to get an email going giving ideas, quotes, successes, and encouragement to go and invite. Really that's how missionary work works best.
Anyway, we're going to Juneau again for zone conference on Wednesday night and the Metlakatla Elders are coming over here until then, so I'll have to go soon to get ready. Thanks for the camelpack and stuff :) Bro. Taylor gave it to me. Was it dad's camelpack? The bladder is new. I use it every day for my backpack because it's small. Thanks for Steve Wainwright's address too.
Love you. Have fun with the kids.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

1-23-11

Hey Mom (and Dad),
Yeah, I'm so lucky I get to stay again. Right now it's kinda slow, because our main progressing investigator is Vedrene, who is leaving this week. But it's really awesome because a lot of people are starting to hand out their Book of Mormon's, starting with the little kids. Like Jaden Taylor (7 yrs old) gave a Book of Mormon with her testimony to her old school aid the day after she got the Book of Mormon. I like that quote Dad said. That's why member missionaries works so well, because they already have that relationship built. Elder Williams and I were just talking about how the last couple Sunday's have been the most spiritual and the most we've ever paid attention, and part of it is because we know and care about the people speaking, and understand their intent and where they're coming from. Also, I'm sure that a lot of the people who reject us, especially tracting, comes from not knowing who we really are. In fact, the Edler's quorum lesson yesterday was Elder Uchtdorf's talk of Things that Matter Most. And it's our relationship with God, our family, our fellow men, and ourselves that matter most in this life. I've been thinking lately especially about my relationship with Heavenly Father. My thoughts were I know that He loves me. I just need to make sure that He knows that I love Him. And I can do that by the choices that I make and what I do with my time. That also includes if I act on the impressions that He gives me through the Holy Ghost. So, I'm going to try to listen more carefully for things I feel directed to do, and then be willing to do it.
That's what I learned this week. I've been feeling crummy with a cold or something all week, and it just humbled me a little bit and got me thinking. I finally asked for a blessing yesterday so I'm starting to feel better. I actually gotta go soon. There's a lady that needs some help. I love you Mom and Dad, have a great week.
Elder Bryce Wainwright

PS- "Stay safe and be smart" isn't what I was thinking when you said we're covered again with Dad's insurance ;)

1-18-11

Hey,
Sounds like a fun weekend for you and the kids. That's awesome Mark gave Gary his old Xbox and I'm glad you gave him our game. That's cool Grandma, Janet, and Grandma and Grandpa got to come too. It was nice to get their email too.
So, I get to stay here another transfer! I'm staying with Elder Williams too. In fact, all of SouthEast Alaska stayed the same. I've been senior companion with Elder Williams. We were going to teach Vedrene today, but she's sick so she said tomorrow. I'll try and get her address. We just have her cell phone.
Today we tested our luck at catching a halibut from shore, but it is pretty slim luck. I don't think there's much of anything in the water except little herring and starfish. It keeps raining and snowing back and forth.
Sorry I don't have much to say. I'm way glad to be staying in Ketchikan and wasn't even worried about transfer calls, it'll be 7 1/2 months after this transfer. The work slowed down a little because Susan got baptized and a few appointments fell through, but it should only pick up even more.
Love you Mom,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

1-10-11

Hey Mom,
Susan's baptism went so well, thanks. This whole week was great. Elder Williams and I have already seen some effects of this fast in our work and in our members' efforts. We had a cool tracting experience where this black lady from North Carolina, Vedrene, who came up for 3 months to work at the hospital, invited us right in and wanted to hear our message. She'd never talked to Mormon missionaries before and liked everything we talked about. She said she felt like Joseph Smith and hasn't found a church that she can totally agree with and believe in. We're teaching her again tomorrow. She's so accepting of everything we feel like she'd likely accept an invitation to be baptized. The only problem is she's going back to North Carolina at the end of the month(Is Cody in North Carolina?). A few of the ward members have told us they've already handed out their Book of Mormons and most said it was easier than they thought. It's a pretty amazing thing that's going on. Mom, I can mail you one of the 100,100,100 programs and then you can show that to Sister Hintze. Having Susan's baptism right at the beginning of the fast and having President and Sister Dance there and speaking at Sacrament helped so much at getting this program started.
At Susan's baptism, her boss gave a talk on baptism, then Elder Williams baptized her, and President Dance bore his testimony while they were changing. Then Susan's friend Wendy DeGraffenried gave a great talk and told about Susan's conversion and then her own. She was how Susan was introduced to the church at nursing school in Anchorage and she flew down from Wasilla to be here for the baptism. It was cool too, because I found out that Wendy's kids were in my ward in Wasilla.
On Sunday I got to confirm Susan and then President and Sister Dance both spoke on member missionary work. During the whole
block I could feel the Spirit so strong.
I have never spent so much time with President and Sister Dance my whole mission. It was way cool. They flew in Saturday at 1pm and met us at their hotel and fed us at the restaurant there. Then we went to the church and they met Helen West and another recent convert family while we set up for the baptism. The bishop and his family fed us in the sunday school room after the baptism so President could talk with the bishop. They followed us around Sunday too, and we had long 45 minute interviews with President Dance. It was cool to get to know them better. Yes, it was a little stressful taking them around the whole time:) But really they are the most loving, caring people and it was cool to see how they interact with people.
Well, I can see that my letter is getting WAY to long, so I better quit writing fast.
I can get you Sister Taylor's email. Her son, Travis, just quit basketball because the coach was tearing him down. And on Saturday he flew down to St. George to live with his aunt so he can play for Pine View. Not only that his aunt is the one who lives in Brandon's neighborhood and ward. Crazy, huh? Watch out for him, I gave him a painting I just did to give to Brandon. I haven't decided if I want to keep it or give it to you and Dad. Here's a picture of the Taylors and Travis is the one on the right. You can't miss him. He's 6'4" and knows it. I'll tell Brandon to keep an eye on him too.
Love you,
Elder Bryce Wainwright

1-2-11

They really made a Wipe Out game? That's awesome, but still wouldn't be the same as going there. I'm glad everyone liked their gifts. I figured I should get some kind of Alaska souvenirs while I was here. It was fun finding them. I actually started a while ago. Could you let Grandma Snow know I got a big memory card with her money she gave me? I'm glad you had a couple good days at the beach. We're all the Wainwright's there? Sounds like you had a crazy week. Especially on the way back from the beach. You probably have deeper snow in St. George than I have had here. It's raining again today so our snow is gone again. I had a great New Years! The Taylor's got a ping pong table for Christmas so we had a ping pong tournament and played Farkle, a dice game that's way fun. Earlier we helped out at the Pioneer Home New Year's party and we toasted and sang Auld Lang Syne. Something else cool is we taught our investigator Kim and she finally prayed with us. I think it was her first time ever praying out loud. She might have just done it because we've asked her to so much, but it was a good prayer and she seemed happier after.
This fast Sunday was great. I can't remember if I've talked about it before, but our ward is starting a fast for missionary work where different families will trade off fasting for 100 days. It started yesterday and we had a great fireside last night to start it off. A couple that was baptized a few years ago gave their conversion stories. Then Susan Nolte shared her testimony. She was nervous, but did so great and it was so cool to have her speak when she's so new and excited and hasn't even been baptized yet. Then our ward mission leader's wife gave her conversion story. After that, our Relief Society President, who got this whole thing going, talked about having courage to share our testimonies. Then we went in the gym and had 100 Book of Mormon's for the ward to write their testimonies in the cover and give out during the fast. We gave out about 80, which was more than I expected with how many people were there. Hopefully we can give out the other 20 next Sunday when President Dance and Sister Dance are coming down to talk in church about missionary work. They'll also be here on Saturday for Susan's baptism as well. I'm way excited for this next year. I wish I could stay here longer to see how this fast helps out. It would be nice to at least have another baptism set up before I leave. Even if not, I've been so blessed with the success I've had already.
Cool quote mom. Are you excited to be teaching the New Testament now?
I love you all. Have a great week.
Elder Bryce Wainwright