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