11/7/10

I'll have to be quick, but this was such a great week. We were incredibly blessed. We picked up 3 really good investigators who all are friends (or living with) members. One was an 11 year old, Traesean, who has been coming to scouts and church with Brent Taylor. He understands very well the gospel and we've set a date for him to be baptized on Dec. 4th. We also are going to have a baptism this Saturday for the 12 year old who's living above us. A cool thing that happened to Elder Williams and I with one of our new investigators was we were told to visit Susan Nolte quite a while ago, but we had been knocking on the wrong house. We had gotten the correct house, but still didn't have luck talking to anyone. Last night, we both thought to try her again, even though we hadn't even planned to see her. She answered this time and let us in and wanted to hear our message. She was prepared to hear our message of the Restoration, and she told us she knew we were sincere about what we taught and she wanted to come to church and said she'd start reading the Book of Mormon tonight! That was so cool to hear and I'm so glad we were able to hear the prompting to visit her and we listened. I just wanted to share that with you. We have the Matlakatla and Prince of Whales Elders here and were flying up to Juneau for the next two days for Zone Conference and training so that's why I gotta go.
I love you Mom and Dad and I'm doing great.
Love, Bryce

PS- That was a cool letter Elder Grigorian wrote to you.
We saw 2 humpback whales and 3 orca this week. SO COOL!
Later

11-3-10

11-1-10
Hey Mom and Dad,
I'm so glad you were able to have a fun little vacation with Grandma and Grandpa and you've put the fish to good use. The other week we helped a member in a wheel chair unload a raft engine from off his boat that he's living in. It was cool to see his boat and I had to climb down in his engine room for him too. It probably wasn't the same as the U.S.S. Midway tour, but it was fun. I'm pretty sure I don't use the missionary inflection, but it can be easy to fall into rote teaching or spouting out the principles and not really teaching the investigator. That might just be a visitor center thing.
I had a fun Halloween. They did a trunk or treat thing on Wednesday for mutual and we had a dinner party with the Taylors at another cool family's house. This was also a great week for missionary work. We were very blessed and were able to teach a lot. I don't think I've told you about my new companion yet. His name is Elder Williams from Blackfoot Idaho. He's a big time hunter, and he did rodeo and wrestling. He's served in South Anchorage and Wasilla like me, only he'd get there right as I left. He's a good hard worker and he's going to be a great companion. I don't have much else to say except Helen West's friend Valorie made it to church this Sunday with Helen. It was stake conference, which was interesting because it was broadcast up at Juneau. But I guess even back home they'd broadcast it to the other buildings. The church really is getting pretty big. Have a safe drive home and a great week. I'll be thinking about you all a lot these holidays.
Love,
Bryce

10-24-10

Hey Mom,
:) Glad you liked the stuff. It wasn't much, but I thought it'd be cool. It was lame you weren't there, but it was actually a blessing she saw Brandon and Valorie. She enjoyed it, too. To get to the point- I'm staying here in Ketchikan. Elder Offley is going back to Anchorage. I'm getting Elder Williams. I don't know anything about him yet except he's from Idaho and fairly new. Tonight Elder Offley and a missionary who's going home leave, so I'm spending the night with the Prince of Whales elder(who's also a twin) until our companions come. I might get a little time to write you tomorrow, but I wanted to let you know what's going on just in case we don't have time. I hope I stay for quite a while. I love it here.
I told our landlord about the hole and told him I could patch it, but he hasn't looked at it yet. oop, gotta go. Love you lots.
Bryce

10-17-10

Hey Mom,
I'm glad you and Dad and Crystal were able to go up for Julia's birthday, except it totally threw off my surprise. I shouldn't say totally, because what happened is Vicki Taylor was going down to Utah for her daughter's seizures, and went to St. George to visit her sister. So she wanted to bring a surprise package that she could hand deliver to you and Dad. I was thinking you for sure wouldn't be in Salt Lake, because you were gone last week. But luckily, Sister Taylor's sister lives in Brandon and Valorie's neighborhood and is in their ward. So at church Sister Taylor recognized Valorie and talked to them and ended up giving them the package, so it worked out in the end. Thanks for telling me about how all the family is doing. I'm glad you were able to make Grandma's day.
This week we started teaching another really good investigator who is best friends with Helen West(who just got baptized) and she is awesome. She hasn't ever read the Bible, but she has church hopped a lot and has actually been taught by missionaries and took her kids to mutual about ten years ago. She also knows a lot of members besides Helen. The only disappointing thing is she didn't make it to church Sunday:( We have a lot of good things going on right now, so it's exciting. Oh yeah, we had interviews over the phone with President Dance this morning and transfers are in a week so it'll be interesting to see what happens. That also means I'll likely email Tuesday. Well, we found a racquetball court in the rec center here so we're probably going to do that today. Thanks for all you do. Hope you like the packages. The fish is some members gave us and the Taylors gave you some I think. Love you.
Bryce

PS- Here's some funny pictures. Yes, that boat is pulling the house ... somewhere. And the trampoline picture was me, trying to be smart by making my exercise routine bouncing from the trampoline to my bed. Except I bounced a little too hard and my bum went through the wall. So much for being careful.