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