Christmas card

this came in the mail yesterday...

Also - Sara (a young women they have been working with for awhile) is getting baptized!
They're so excited.

Update

Elder Church has been pretty busy these past few P-days so his letters have been brief. But he's doing well and freezing his buns off!

halloween? oh dear...

Picture Overload

Sometimes Bryce sends us his camera card to empty off so he can have room for more pictures. Whenever he does I find a lot of pictures he never sent via email. So I thought I'd share just a few. Some of them are old but you get the idea :)

P-day basketball

Apparently he doesn't need any more ties.

This one's for Dad:

We love you Bryce! 8 months to go...

Nationals Game

Bryce and his companions got to hit up a nationals game on their last p-day.

Bryce with Elder Peterson

Elder Bolos and Bryce

"3 homers in the first inning! Not a bad game to go to."

Thanks for praying for more people to teach. We could use it. We are trying to change things up and maybe work with the youth. This ward is the most challenging one I have been in yet and I think I will be here at least until thanksgiving so we gotta try some new things!

Bryce's story of the hurricane & quake

"On Tuesday we were eating lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings when the earthquake hit. It shook for about 10-15 seconds then stopped. We called everyone to make sure they were ok but I don't think anyone in the DC area was injured by the earthquake. the news may say otherwise though. The Washington monument now has a crack in the top, the national catholic cathedral lost millions of dollars worth of heavy statues and other old stuff, and the temple lost 4 of its 6 spires. Those are the only ones I can remember.

The hurricane was more exciting but not quite a big deal. Loudoun county is about an hours drive from the city. Irene was not sure if she wanted to hop on board land, or stay going north up the coast until Saturday. It was 400 miles wide so I woke up saturday to light rain as a result. As the day went on it was overcast by 12 and then for the rest of the day. The only thing that was different from a normal overcast, rainy day was ,the clouds. They were moving quick. We tracted almost all day that day because we had no appointments. It was kind of fun from 7-9 because it was raining nice and hard and at every door we got asked, "did you guys know you are in a hurricane?!" haha and no one let us in either! Only one tree fell in our area that I know of. No power outages of any missionaries in our zone. we live with members so we were just fine.

So there it is!"

Hurricane News

We recently received this email from Bryce's mission president regarding the recent storm: 

"We are grateful to report that all of your missionaries are safe and back to work. The storm caused the second-largest power outage in Virginia history as 2.5 million people were without electricity at one point earlier today. Along with the power outages, four people were killed by falling trees in Virginia. Several days before Hurricane Irene approached, each missionary was able to make certain their 72 hour emergency kits were up to date with nonperishable food, fresh batteries, flash lights and water bottles etc.. Cell phones were charged, each car was filled with gas, and safe houses were designated by each bishop where the missionaries could go if necessary to stay with ward members. The members here love their missionaries!  We hope this week to avoid any major hurricanes or earthquakes so we can have an historic baptismal month! Thank you for your continued faith and prayers."

A Little Update

"I left Annandale on Thursday and went with Elder Pomeroy to the Tall Cedars ward in the Ashburn stake.  It's good.  I like Elder Pomeroy a lot. We had a really good relationship before we were comps because he was my ZL when I was in ashburn.

So far Tall Cedars is a really good ward.  It was recently a branch but a few weeks ago it was changed because of some move-ins.  There are a bunch of huge homes and town homes with minimal apartments so tracting is less than effective (unlike Annandale).  So we work with members and such.  With a little knocking every day too.  It's similar to every other area I have been in before Annandale.

Our most progressing investigator doesn't speak English!  She speaks Thai and I am less than fluent in that so her daughters translates for us.  She comes to church faithfully even though she doesn't understand it.  She would get baptized but I guess in Southern Thailand there are threats of invasion and no church organization there right now and she has to go back because her visa is a visitors and ends in 3 months. Dang. She is great though!"

Jose and Yessenia

Annandale Zone!

Distractions

"Last Monday we found a 16 year old Ghanaian who is so sweet! And we talked to Isaac for a while. We watched the restoration video with him but right when the first vision was about to happen he started sneezing and had to go into the kitchen to grab a paper towel. Elder LaRochelle and I just laughed then rewound it. Then yesterday we were teaching a hispanic man the same lesson, only without the video, and right when I was getting to the first vision, his cute little 2 year old daughter came out of nowhere from her play area armed with her toy airplane that just happen to make wonderful airplane noises and jumped on his lap. These are just two examples of what happens all the time! President Albright says that hes convinced satan controls dogs and cats! haha. They are a big part of the problem sometimes. But I would think that just because distractions always come up while trying to teach this message that it must be true."

The Book of Mormon

To read about how The Book of Mormon goes hand-in -hand with the Bible. Click here.

"Please do not misunderstand. We love and revere the Bible, as Elder M.  Russell Ballard taught so clearly from this pulpit just one year ago.  The Bible is the word of God. It is always identified first in  our canon, our “standard works.” Indeed, it was a divinely ordained  encounter with the fifth verse of the 1st chapter of James that led Joseph Smith to his vision of the Father and the Son, which gave birth to the  Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our time. But even then,  Joseph knew the Bible alone could not be the answer to all the religious questions he and others like him had."

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Sometimes he makes you crash into curbs...

Funny story for you...totally a "Bryce" thing to do.

We decided to ride bikes for most of this week, because our mile count was high for our car. We were riding down a big hill and we had to cross the street so we did while still going pretty quick. I didn't turn sharp enough to hit the lip in the curb so I went down a ways farther so I could hop up on the curb even though there was not a lip. With my infinite bike skills I attempted and failed miserably. I didn't even get my front tire over it and I stopped nice and quick with no mercy towards parts of my medial anatomic parts. The bike stayed leaning against the curb and I stumbled off onto the sidewalk gracefully. I was laughing at myself and then I turned and saw a woman who I had not seen laughing with me. She was more scared though because I had basically fell right in front of her. I Said, "Hi! Just thought I would crash so I could give you this card." She laughed at me then we walked to catch up with Elder Davie and talked.

I found out that her name is Maria and she is from Cochabamba Bolivia! She said that had gone to church every now and then but not much lately. She used to be a "good Christian" but had not been involved with it much since she grew up. We exchanged info and set an appointment for the next day. We went by and she said she couldn't meet but we gave her directions to the church (this was Sat.) She called us on Sunday morning and said she was coming! She was ready! (People say they will come all the time on Saturdays but most don't).

She showed up EARLY and we sat down and gave her the run down of what usually happens at church. It was testimony meeting and after the first one or two I was a bit worried (this is one of the wards that 6 people run up at the very beginning and wait in the back). But all the rest were right on! And they talked about families, Joseph Smith, Tithing, and other things. And all were related to Christ. Afterward she said she loved it! She said she felt in her heart that it was real and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! Remember at this point we have taught her nothing, she has read nothing, it was pure feeling. she is great. We are going to see her tomorrow hopefully and teach her. She works a lot so we haven't been able to get in yet. That is the power of testimony, the power of the Spirit. I have no doubt she will be baptized. Sometimes the Lord guides you, Sometimes he lifts you, and sometimes he makes you crash into curbs and look like an idiot so you can help one of his children be brought to him. :)

Sweet Moment

"We were walking in an apartment complex after visiting a few places unsuccessfully.  We walked by a car pulling in a parking spot without really noticing it.  A few steps later we realized that our car was on the other end so we turned around.  We saw a black lady unloading groceries so we decided to help her out.  Most people say "I got it, I got it," but she let us help her carry some water bottles upstairs.  When we finished she asked us about what we did.  We told her about the two year mission, where we were from, and a few basic beliefs.  She then told us that her name is Philomena (how it sounds) and she is from Liberia.  She was touched by our story and immediately reached into her purse and pulled out thirty bucks.  We refused and told her she could thank us by letting us talk with her and her family about the thing that made us come on the mission and why we were out walking.  She would not give in because she told us about her kids and how she couldn't imagine if they were doing this with no money.  She made us promise to take it and spend it on food.  She offered her information and told us to call her when she had some time. 

It was not long but one of the best moments of my mission -One of the small succeeds, if you will!  We will go back as soon as we can to look for a great one."

Transfers

We found out today that Bryce will be moving! Here's a little bit from him:

"I will be...........leaving Centreville. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think it will be a nice change, because I am getting a little tired of seeing the same desk, fridge, couch :). nah I would be fine staying, but I'm so glad I stayed here for 4 transfers because I wouldn't have had the chance to work with the youth or the ward as much like we did in the last six weeks. Ending on a good note is great.

I am going to Belmont Ridge! Up by Ashburn (Ashburn zone) and it sounds like.....many sighs......I will get to break in my bike. Tiny area. My comp is Elder Bigler who is even taller than 6'4'' Elder Donaldson. Yikes. But he seems really nice. I can't pull off helmet hair.

I will miss Elder Donaldson. We had some good things going and we had a good time. "

And a few pictures before they said goodbye:

Old companion, Elder Donaldson

And he ran into his friend Isaac, from BYU!

Lots of Pictures

Transfers are next week, so we'll see where our boy goes! He's been in Centreville for four transfers.

"something cool"

After transfers Bryce will be staying in Centreville but getting a new companion, Elder Donaldson.

Here's a little story from Bryce last week:

"So this week we had something cool happen. 3 months ago Elder Gubeli and I had a referral from Temple Square to see this girl named Katie. We tried to call her and go see her, but we could not ever meet her. We tracked her street and her neighbor told us that she was a college student. Knowing she was out of town, we ended our efforts. This was in early October. On Tuesday, while on our way back to our apartment from Clifton, we came to her street and I thought we should try because it was Christmas break. We knock on the door and a girl answers. I asked, "Hey, is it Katie?" Her response will resonate with me forever: "YOU CAME!!!!!!!!!" She then proceeded to excrete excitement all over the doorstep. She did a mini dance and felt like she had no choice but to get a picture with us. I was ready to sign an autograph and start my own tv show when she explained to us that she had been on vacation in Utah with friends over the summer and went around temple square and filled out a sheet of paper to have missionaries come. She mostly just wanted to meet with us and learn more about who we are. We set a return appointment and taught her and her mom a few days later. They both said that they would read the Book of Mormon and consider baptism. She goes back to school, but she knows how to find missionaries thanks to the awesome mormon.org and this experience."