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