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