12/18/11

 

Hey Momma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I think that this will throw you off a little today but today they are turning off the power to our apartment so we needed to get out of there early today but we will come back and read emails later today after we play soccer.

Not much happened this week.  We just were doing more missionary work but my testimony has grown a lot in the past couple of days.  Things are really awesome right now.  Being comps with Elder Olive has been really awesome! He has had a lot of really cool experiences in his life that he shared with me and it was really cool.  Honestly there is not much going on but I will tell you a couple of things that I have listened to and have read that have probably changed my life.  But a few things that are going on and that have happened right now.

Elder Appleyard had to go home this last week.  He was having some really bad foot problems so he is going home and getting it taken care of and then he will be back in a couple of months.  It is a bummer that he had to go home.  I miss him already but he will be back in no time.  They just asked us to pray for him and his family so if you guys could pray for him that would be really good too.

I think that I told you about one of our investigators that was really awesome.  The one where we were starting to teach her daughters and everything.  It turns out that she is not in our area so we have to hand her over to the Elders in the area next to us call Bang Kapi.  It is gonna really be sad but really good too.  She is really ready to be baptized and so are her children.  They really have a desire to know if it is all true.  They all love Jesus Christ and they all have a desire to follow him but they will just have to be baptized in another area and I really dont have a problem with it.  They are a really good family and I really don't care where they are baptized as long as they are baptized and endure to the end I am just happy with that.  Its not like it is my baptism hahaha.  Sorry that is a joke with our district right now so sorry if you don't think that it is very funny.

I did just hear that we are going to be getting a missionary coming back into the mission.  He went hom about a year ago and he just came back today to take the place of Elder Appleyard in Bang Kapi.

Ok just a couple of things that i need to tell you about my facebook.  There is a member here who has been taking a lot of pictures of us and she requested me as a friend on facebook.  If you could accept her request that would be great and then you cna have a lot of pictures of me and some of the members.  There is one picture on there that is me eating a really gross Thai fruit called turien.  It is the worst thing that I have ever eaten in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They all said that it was going to be really good but it smells really bad and when I ate just a bite of it I wanted to vomit.  They took a picture right when I ate some and my face is really funny but it was really gross.  It really tasted like poop.  Other than that I haven't eaten anything else weird.

This last week I got to go on switch offs with the greenie.  He is way good!  He has a really good spirit and he is just willing to get out there and serve.  I learned a lot from him but that day was the weirdest day of my mission.  The lessons were not very good and we didn't get into a single house but we still had a lot of fun and talked a lot about really cool things in the gospel.  It is really cool to see how he is growing.  I haven't really seen the difference in me but seeing him and being around him really helps me see how much I grew.

Ok so yesterday was really awesome at church.  All of the talks were on forgiveness.  One of the members that spoke has had a lot of problems in his life and he has had to repent a lot for the things that he has done.  He gave a really awesome talk and then after church he was given the preisthood.  He is now getting ready to serve a mission.  After church we just had a really good corolation meeting where we finally got to sit down with our mission leader and ask him what he needs us to do and to ask him for help in the work.  Ever since the flood his life has been pretty crazy so he hasn't been able to meet with us at all but now things are all good.  The Branch President here is really awesome and so is his wife.  Their son is on a mission now in California and his son loves it there but they only have 3 people that they are teaching.  They let us read his emails all of the time and it is really fun to do that and hear about what a state side mission is like.  I am pretty sure that those are some of the hardest missions in the World.  Everyone knows the church and just put up walls.  I have noticed it here.  When ever we meet a foreigner they always know who we are and what we do.  Now Thai people are starting to know who we are. haha

Well I want to tell you about my experience that I had yesterday while we listened to some talks.  A talk that really helped me was one from John Bytheway.  His talk was all about building people up and becoming a builder and not a reckor.  It was a really good talk!  It was just about building up the Lords kingdom by building up the people in it.  Just never saying bad things about other people and jsut always looking for the positives in others and just being like Christ.

Another talk was about the Book of Mormon that I heard.  The guy proved that everything in the Book of Mormon was true.  That some of the early settlers of New York found a lot of lime substance on the surface of the ground at Cumorah which only comes from thousands of bones that used to be on the surface.  They also found millions of arrowheads and tons of stone tools around the hills and surrounding areas.  The French found trenches where they found the bones of thousand of Men women and children were burried.  They found forts and other things there and more stuff that points to an advanced civilisation that was there a very long time ago.  Then he talked about the translation process and everything was just way cool and it really opened up my eyes.  At the end of his talk he said that all of that stuff did not matter.  But the only way that we wil ever know that the Book of Mormon is true is to read and pray about it.  That is the only way that we all will ever know of the truth of the Book of Mormon and after that we will know who Christ is and that He is our savoir.  Joseph Smith is a prophet and that this Church is the only true church on the whole earth. It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all so much and thank you Mom and Dad and Ciara and Cassie, Matt,  Adam, Steph, Rachel, Maija, Micah, and even little Savannah.  I want you all to have a Merry Christmas and one thing that Sister Smith said is to keep in mind the really meaning of Christ-mas.  I love you all so much and thank you for everything that you have done for me.

Mom I will be skyping you guys about 6:00 pm your time on your Christmas.  It is going to be a the 26th at 8:00am here in Thailand.  I love you Momma and Dad.

Elder Bryce

MERRY CHRISTMAS

12/12/11

Sorry, I have been really bad about updating Bryce's blog.  Here are his latest emails and look at the picture tabs to see pictures that he or others have emailed as well as through facebook.

Hey Dad!

Well it sounds like that was a really good trip.  How are things going out there?  How is everything working and has that project that we looked at still going well?

It sounds loke that you have a lot to do this holiday.  Well we are going to be planning on usuing skype this year for christmas.  I will have to figure out the time difference but  we will try to do it when it is chrtistmas eve for you guys.  We planned on talking to you at 8:00am here according to Thailand time.  I dont know when that is for you but I think that should put you at 5:00 pm back at your place.  If you could figure that out that would be great because I would use the internet but I can't do that hahaha.

Well I think that you would like my new comp.  He works for NASA.  He worked and when he goes home is going to continue to work on a moon rover.  He is only 22 years old and ends his mission close to the time that I hit my year mark.  Well he is realy cool and we joke around all of the time.  Also dad I found really cool laser pens here.  I would like for you to find out what is illeagal for those.  There is one that they have that is 5000 wats.  It started burning the case that the guy pointed it at.  I would guess that it is illegal but I just want to know before in case that I want to buy one hahaha.  My last comp gave me one that is only 500 wats and it goes way far.  We chase dogs with is on the 9th floor of our building at night.  You can also really easily point to stars very nicely and it is green.  The other powerful one is blue and it was so cool but super dangerous.

Well that is about all that I have right now.  Things are just going really well right now and I am probably the happiest have been on my mission.  I am working super hard everyday and am tired more than I ever have been but I feel so good every night.  Some days I feel like I get up and 10 min later I am going to bed again haha.  This time is flying by so fast.  Way to fast for me.  I feel the spirit so strong and answers come to me so fast and it is just awesome. I love you so much Dad.  Thank you for keeping me in your prayers and all that you do for me.  I love you so much.

Elder Bryce

Hey Momma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this week is really awesome!  I was a little scared to get a new companion but he is way awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Him and I have so much fun!!!!  We joke around all of the time and he is really out going!  hahaha He is way fun and teaches really powerful.  The best thing is that he talks to peopole the same as he teaches lessons.  He is so outgoing in lessons just like he is normally.  Well just to tell you a little bit about him.  His name is Elder Olive and it is the first one that doesn't have a long name that I cannot spell haha.  He is 22 and he is from Hawaii.  Before he was a missionary he got a job at NASA as a computer engineer because he help design and build a dust sheild for a moon rover that they are going to be using soonish.  He wasnt going to serve at first and then he had a sudden desire to serve.  It was really cool.  He is a really good missionary and we have just been having a blast.  Things have been getting back to normal slowly.  We go and help people as much as we can but most people are getting finished or their house is still flooded.  We have started teaching some new investigators and those lessons have been really awesome!.

When you guys come here I will have to take you to a members place and he make the coolest fried ice cream that I have ever seen and it is soo good.  It is like french toast and ice cream!  I have been running about 2 kilos everyday so i make sure that i am burning it off after i eat it.  Not going to lie i have lost almost all of the weight that i gained in the MTC and am almost back to normal.  I feel great!  The spirit is so strong with us and I feel it everyday.  I also love christmas time here hahaha.  Our recent convert is in charge of our apartment building and she made them put up a bunch of Christmas decorations and she gives us refferals everyday.  It is way fun!  She even brought one of her friends to the service project that we had today.

This week has felt so good!  I feel like it is a fresh start but i did realize that I am starting to get old in the mission.  I have only 3 more transfers until I hit my year mark.  This time is going by way fast!  I always thought that 2 years was such a long time but I feel like I have no time at all to do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wanted to tell you how much I love you Mom.   I make sure that everyone that I meet I tell them about you and Dad.  I love talking about you guys so much.  I have seen how much to gospel has blessed our family and it is so amazing how much it has.  I have been blessed so much out here.  I have not been able to see my progression but my old trainer Elder Gudmundsen says that I speak Thai really well and that I have changed a lot since I first got into country.  I have felt a little bit of a change but it is just a little weird because it is the first time that someone has been a ble to compare my growth.  I feel so good right now Mom and I just feel the love of Christ in me all of the time!!!!!!!  I love you so much and for the whole skype thing we planned on talking to you at 8:00 am our time but we dont know what time that is for you haha.  I love you all so much thank you for all that you have done for me and I thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!  I dont think that  I could ever pay you back for what you have done for me except build those stairs that Adam said he would hahaha.  I love you so much Momma!

Elder Bryce

12/7/11

Hey Momma!

Thank you for the Christmas package.  Sorry I cheated a little bit and I looked in my stocking and I took all of the pictures detached the candy and put all of the candy back into the stocking but kept the pictures out hahaha.  It was weird to see all of those people hahaha!  Now I feel like they are all right here with me.  I think that is one reason why I dont get home sick is if I have a picture with you guys with me I feel like you are here with me the entire time haha.

I have a few pictures from p day and the baptism that we had this last week.  This week is going to be interesting.  My comp is moving and I will be getting a new comp and I really dont know the area so I just have to really use my faith and pray really hard hahaha.

We have basically been serving this week and will be for a while.  Some of the area is still under water so we can't help a whole lot right now but we help as much as we can.  Sorry for this email I am really tired.  We have basically just not stopped moving since we got here.  We have had to go all over Bangkok to get things taken care of and haven't had a moment to really rest for a second.  I love it so much though.  So much is getting done and it has just been nice to work all of the time.  So for Christmas I will be able to skype.  So that will be really cool.  I love you so much Momma!  Thank you for the Christmas tree and the fake snow haha we have been having fun with it.  I took some pictures too so I think that you will like it haha.  I love you so much mom.  Thank you for your prays for me and I have felt them help me in the work.  I love you and everyone so much.  I pray for you everyday.  Sorry just a side not before I stop but could you give Matt my email.  I want to hear from him.

-Elder Bryce

Hey Dad,

Well this week has been a little different hahaha.  We have been cleaning most of the time here.  We have been walking around in the area that is still flooded in rubber boots and just asking people what we can do for them.  We cleaned and built a wall for our branch president and then we cleaned some of his house.  It was pretty fun because we caught a lot of fish too hahaha it was great!.  It sounds like the ward is doing well.  I know that is one thing that we are focusing on is serving the less active members now and getting them back to church and getting them involved as much as we can in the teaching process.  Many of them have just gotten lazy or they just forget what happened to them during their conversion but people are starting to come back to church.

One thing that all of the senior missionaries told us to tell our parents is to tell us to tell you that you all need to serve a mission as a couple and that the world doesn't have enough of you right now to help the church.  We eat lunch with them every once in a while and they always ask about our parents and when they are going to serve their missions.

Not much has happened this week but I do have some cool pictures that I will send in moms email to everyone.  We got to see some cool stuff.

I love you so much dad and I will talk to you next week.

-Elder Brycee

11/27/11

 

Hey Dad!

Well it is really weird because in your emails you always say that it is not getting very cold and the girls always say that  it is freezing and they really don’t know what to do hahaha so what is it really like over there hahaha.

I can't believe that the elk haven’t come down yet.  This late in the season too.  Sounds like you all had a good time duck hunting.  I was talking with my comp and he told me that when I get home he wants me to help him get into hunting hahaha.  I told him to just look you up and that you would help him out so that he wouldn’t have to wait for a year before I get home. Christmas is big here.  I wouldn’t think that it was but everyone loves it.  Not a lot of people put up lights except for bad places.  But most foreigners do and they are in very big neighborhoods.  Thanksgiving was way fun and really weird.  I have not been in a room with that many people who could speak English in a very long time.  We had everything that you would have in a regular thanksgiving dinner though.  They even were watching snoopy in English!  It was way weird.  It felt good when the Thai missionaries that were there came up to us and started talking with us in Thai.  It was funny because they sat at a different table with all people who could not speak Thai.  it was a good time for them to practice their English skills hahaha.

I love you dad and thank you for that story it really helped me out a lot because I was concerned with that same thing.

I love you so much dad and thank you for everything that you have taught me.

Elder Brycee

Well today I have to hurry.  I got one package and I guess that the other one is at the office.  Not much happened this week but we are doing a lot of service for our area and with a lot of missionaries.  The water is going down there so we might get in there this week.  We just need to buy boots and then we are able to go.  Other than that not much has happened this week.

We did have a really cool experience this last week.  One of our investigators got an answer to her prayer.  She said that she prayed about the book of Mormon and that she heard a still small voice from above her tell her that it was true and that she needed to read it everyday and to apply what it says to do in the book.  She is so ready for baptism but all we are waiting for is for the flood to be over so that we can have church again in our branch.  She is so excited about the gospel and everything that we teach her.  She loves us so much and she loves all of the members too and she just loves everything about the church.  We also are helping another area teach this one guy that is way awesome! He is the security guard at their apartment and one day Elder Stott and Elder Alstom just bought him a cake and sang happy birthday to him on a random day and they are just really nice to him and so one day they asked him if he would like to learn about Christ and he said that he really wanted to learn because they were his friends.  Just being a really good example to people really helps them see that we are messangers of Christ and that we have something very important.  Sorry this one is short but I still have to email my president.  I love you so much mom.  I am grateful to have you as my mom and raising me into the gospel.  thank you for being the best mom in the world.  I love you so much and thank you for your example and your support and your testimony to help me grow and learn.  I love you so so so much mom and i am grateful for everything that you have given to me.

elder brycee

ps this year i will see you guys on skype.

11/21/11

 

Hey Momma!!!!!!!!!!!  Ok since I never answer your questions I will answer them now so I don’t forget hahahaha. I have not gotten my package yet.  It is at the office but I went there to get it and the office elders put it into their car and they left because they were going to give it to me and they never met me hahahahaaha so I should get it within the next week or two weeks.  Probably the same time that I get my Christmas package hahahahaha.  No I have not gotten a chance to go to my area.  It is still flooded but this week we are going to try to rent a boat and get some supplies to our investigators and members there.  The Church in our area might be dry by Christmas but they are still not sure because people are saying that there is a lot of water still in the North that really needs to come down so who really knows haha.  We have been able to teach our investigators which is nice.  Some of them are coming to the church here and we just teach them after.  One of them is a lady who is really rich but she has a very soft heart.  She loves Christ!  She is willing to obey every commandment and she really loves the church.  We taught her the law of chastity and she said that she loved this church and knows that the restoration is true because no other church really teaches this law.

She gained a testimony right in front of us that it was all true!  She loves the Book of Mormon and she really wants to be baptized asap.  We gave her a date for Christmas day but she is ready so we are going to be baptizing her asap.  She really is ready.

The only thing that I can think of is to send razor blades and starbursts.  and also my camera is not working anymore.  I heard it is expensive to get repaired here and I was worried about that.  It just won’t take any pictures so I was wondering what I should do about that?  We are not allowed to eat food off of the street anymore or anything with rice because of the water.  So we have had to eat foreign food and that is really expensive. That is really awesome about football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was really odd.  Before I left Buriram I actually saw a Thai newspaper with American football results hahaha I loved it haha.

That is really wierd about Ciara and tanner I will tell you why in a different email why.

This week was really cool.  We have done a couple of service projects and one of them I had something really cool happen.  We just started working and I started to talk with a guy who was working security for the water plant that we were working at that day.  We just talked and I shared my testimony and he taught me some stuff about Thai and I taught him English.  Later that day he had to go do something else but right before I left he came up to me and gave me some Oreos.  When Thai people give a gift to a foreigner it is a pretty big deal.  It’s not huge but it really means something special.  It means that they respect you and thank you for something that you may have done for them.  We bowed to each other and then I had to go.  He was a really awesome guy.

Yesterday was really good too.  We went to a members house to teach a referral that they gave us.  This family is so funny and they joke all of the time hahaha.  They love us and were sad that we might be going to our area this week.  It was a really good lesson and we felt the spirit really strong in that lesson.  This family is so cool here.  It really reminded me of you guys hahaha they were very sarcastic.

Ok about my new comp.  His name is Elder LeSueur.  He is from Arizona and he is the last member of his family.  He is way funny and I have learned a lot from him.  We are setting goals and really wanting to improve.  He actually goes home in April.  Him and I joke around all of the time and have not really had any problems.  He is way different than I am but he is so much fun to be around hahaha.

I love you so much Mom and everyone at home.  I miss you but I know that the Lord is taking care of all of you for me.  I love you.

Elder Bryce

Dad make sure you send pictures.  I have one person here who wants to see them even more than I do haha I forgot to tell you some stuff haha.  Right now we have 10 elders in the house.  It is a little packed but way fun hahaha.

This week we get to eat thanksgiving dinner 2 times.  One is with a Thai family who just likes to celebrate it and the other is with foreigners in Bangkok.  I am way excited hahaha.

One other thing is last week I thought about grandma. I pulled out her picture and I started to cry a little.  Then I opened my PMG to a random page and it was on the Plan of Salvation and that made me stop.  I don’t have time right now but I love you so much and I wanted to thank you for all that you have done for me.

Elder Bryce