WEEK 85 Service, A cat, Humility

Bryce stayed in Chihuahua with transfers.  He got to keep his companion Elder Sanchez and they work together well.  Transfers brought some new and prior friends.  Elder Parry (from Utah) arrived to the mission and is in the same zone as Bryce.  Elder Mucino also was transferred into the zone. Mucino was Bryce's first companion and trainer and Bryce is happy to spend time with him.  Mucino will be ending his mission in 11 weeks.  Elder Perry is lucky to have him.

Bryce and Elder Sanchez

Last week Bryce and Elder Sanchez found a family that was beside themselves. They lost their business and had zero resources to get their belongings out of the business to a place of storage. They found a neighbor that had a truck and together they spent a day clearing out the business and helping the family.  Randomly that same Sunday the entire family showed up to church. Bryce was so surprised because it usually takes much effort to bring a family to church. They showed up all on their own and that was such a happy day for Elder Sanchez and Bryce.

A second thing Bryce was grateful for last week was hot water!!  Their hot water heater gets frozen every night and since he is the tall companion, he gets the honor of climbing on the roof every freezing morning.  He pours water down a pipe while Elder Sanchez turns on the boiler.  A neighbor taught them a trick to cover the pipe a certain way and now they get hot water without climbing the roof each morning.  :)

 The guys came home one night last week and this cat was asleep on Bryce's bed.  He doesn't know how it got in but he said the cat was friendly and not afraid of him but either way, he still had to put him back out in the cold weather :(

Bryce is starting to feel the wind up of his mission and is focused on working as hard as he can and leading the zone with full focus.  He's familiar with missionary life at this point and nervous about returning to normal life.  I told him to let us worry about that part and he could just worry about the mission.  He said, "Deal".

Week 82 Christmas, and emergency changes

WEEK 82 - LOTS OF SWITCH UPS

This is a photo intensive post!  The Elders were in mid cycle week 81 and Bryce emailed home saying there were changes in his District.  Shaw went home so there was need for an Elder in Parral.  That meant Templeton was taken from the Delicias district and moved to Parral.  This meant Templeton's comp was now solo so they took the comp from another Elder that returned home and paired him with Templeton's comp in Delicias. (Still with me?)  Bryce was kinda bummed Temps was changed to a new area.  He liked having him in the district.  

Week 82 rolls around and 5 days after Temps leaves, Bryce had emergency changes also.  Bryce was moved from Delicias to Chihuahua and is serving in the Chuviscar Zone.  The Zone Leader in Chuviscar was ill and they needed a replacement.  (Thanks to Juve for the quick text to me telling me my son had moved).  So I have no idea who will move in to be comps with Elder Lopez.  The end of the cycle and real changes are in two weeks.  I'm sure it will all be sorted out then.

This makes comp 14 for Bryce.  That's a lot of moving around!  Also on a sweet note.  We mailed Christmas gifts to Bryce and to his comp Elder Lopez (He is from the Dominican Republic).  Bryce also purchased a few things for him in Mexico.  It was heartbreaking and endearing at the same time to hear this was the first time ever Elder Lopez had received a gift on Christmas! I'm so glad we had the inspiration to postpone mailing the package until we knew which comp Bryce had.  We were able to send items of the correct size.  Bryce said Elder Lopez had tears in his eyes and wore his new jacket all Christmas day.  In the photo below I see he's even wearing it out while they are having ice cream.  We meant it for a pday/casual jacket but we are just happy he loves it so much!

Delicias Zone

Final week with Elder Lopez and the Delicias Zone

 WEEK 81 - Christmas/Reunion dinner Delicias Elders traveled to Parral

Grandma from Parral that Bryce loved!  So happy he got to see her again during his mission.  

Bryce, Elder Templeton, Elder Shaw

Bryce, Elder Martinez(prior comp), Elder Marx

Bryce and Juvenal

Elder Requena(Prior Comp) and Bryce

 

Bryce, Elder Lopez (current comp), JUVENAL :)

THEY WENT TO THE MOVIES!!!!  

It was approved for the missionaries in Mexico to go to a theatre and watch Coco.  Bryce was super excited and you can tell by the photos he took he thought a real movie theatre was a novelty. 

ZONE BBQ