Letter from Andrew

Andrew is the one with glasses

We got an email from Andrew on Bryce's birthday.  It was great to hear from him...he lives in England.  He was never Bryce's companion but served in some of the same areas.  Here are some of the things he had to say--thanks Andrew for sending it!:

On his birthday, I want to tell you a funny experience I had with him.

It had been a long day on exchanges in Port Elizabeth, and being new to SACTM, I wasn't really used to the Bikes that Elder Christensen and Elder Later enjoyed. Of course, the considerate Elder Christensen planned to park the bikes for the evening and do some contacting and knock a few doors. I say knock, but I mean ring buzzers of the gated properties of Walmer. We got to one house which was behind a fence and lowered at the bottom of a hill, which had a long twisting drive up to the gate. We walked to the gate and pressed the buzzer...the conversation went like this:

Man: Who is calling?

Elder Christensen (EC): Hello we are missionaries from...

Man, abruptly: I'm sorry, who are you looking for?

EC: Well, we're missionaries and we share...(cut off)

Man, abruptly again: Please state the name of the person you are looking for.

EC: Well, we share with everyone in the home, we are...

Man: Please state the name of the person you are looking for.

EC: Everyone, we are from the Church of...

Man, Very Angry: Please state the name of the person you are looking for!!

EC: Well...whats your name?

The Man hung up, and we laughed and laughed. The Man was terribly rude and would hardly let Bryce finish a sentence, but it didn't phase Elder Christensen. He was resilient and kept such a positive spirit with him. I learned so much from that one experience, that rejection, hardship and trial do not need to be miserable - we could rejoice in the journey and instead of having bad feelings towards others, we could happily go about doing our duty with a smile on our face. I took this lesson through the rest of my mission with me/ Bryce's wit and positive attitude made missionary work with him a absolute joy, and even a year later while serving as district leaders in East London together, we still laughed about it.

Bryces Friends

Cooking Steaks in Our Back Yard--Bryce's 19th Birthday

Bryce's Friends Today

 

 

 

One of the "rituals" Bryce loved to do with his friends would be Macey's runs and cooking steaks over the grill with them.  He was pretty much a carnivore before going to South Africa but learned to like other foods during and post mission.  These cute boys have come over for Mother's Day, Bryce's birthdays, and on Jan. 7th.  They have come individually at different times to introduce their girlfriends, to bring flowers ( that would be Jessica), and to see how I am.  One particular memory was a day I was out in the front yard weeding the summer after Bryce's death.  I was really struggling with my thoughts and emotions when Brad drove up and came to see how I was.  I told him I thought Bryce had probably nudged him.  I am so grateful each time I see these friends because Bryce cared a lot about them.  They camped, shot guns, did paintball, fished, sat around the campfire, cooked, came home for lunch, played guitars, played Halo, rode long boards, and just hung out and did very weird and crazy things together.  They have taken really good care to make sure I know they haven't forgotten Bryce.  I sure love them. 

Bryce's 21st Birthday--The Real Bryce...from his journal

Well I am 21 today.  Yipee!  Sunday was great.  Nozoko came. She is awesome.  She didn't get fellowshipped for much but she stil liked it.  She has really good questions.  She wanted to go to the fireside with Elder Koliker, Sister Mkosi said she would call her and go with her but she never di.  It was a pretty frustrating experience.  Mbleldo brought a friend to church.  The Johnsons fed us a dessert before our DZ.  It was so rich and i was stuffed and then we had to go to our D/A.  I suffered it hurt so bad and there was even a dessert.  Sister Muuh had the Olympics closing ceremony on and Jimmy Paye came out of the ground and started playing the guitar "a Whole Lot of Love"...we quickly got them to turn the TV off because it was trunking me.  Yesterday was nice email.  They were playing Michael Jackson the whole time then we went to Cape Point.  It's a really nice drive.  We met up with Elder Nielsen, Farr, Baker and Seely.  We played with penguins for a bit then checked out Cape Point for a while.  It was pretty sweet.  We took lots of awesome jumping karate pictures.  It was a fun day.  Then we had an appointment with Nozuko.  She is awesome.  She knows the church is true.  She's gonna get baptized soon.  I can feel it.  Well I think I poisoned myself during lunch.  There was a war going on in my belly and the toilet took the casualties.  We had like nobody for Sacrament today.  I got omo in my eye and it has been hurting all day.  Elder Bean set up a surprise party for me @ Mbdelo's.  He played the drums and we had this not real good cake with tons of frosting from LuLu's bakery.  I am now on exchanges with Elder Smith.

Birthday Month and Thinking of Bryce August 26, 1987

I belong to a missionary mom group.  One mother asked us to write what things our missionaries learned from going on a mission.  I wrote a few things about our returned missionaries and this about Bryce:
I had one son in particular that I was never sure if he really was going to serve a mission.  He was not exactly loving church activity while growing up.  I would drop him off for Young Men's and found out later that he would walk inside the church and walk to the other end, leave and go visit friends.  He struggled with fasting and paying his tithing.  He didn't want to do scouts or Duty to God.  I was thrilled when his last year before applying  to go on a mission, he began to change and his heart soften.  He was thrilled when he was called to South Africa.  I have been able to read his mission journal and in the beginning, he wrote that two years was a very long time. He wrote it several times.   He actually got home sick which surprised him because he was always happy to leave home.
  Things began to fall in to place eventually and all that he had been taught at home, began to make sense to him.  He read the Book of Mormon with a desire to learn for the first time and picked up great study skills as he tried to live the mission rules.  He always avoided all service projects as a teenager and now he learned that he liked to help others and had many opportunities in his mission to help the members with their homes, yards, and to participate regularly in Helping Hands. 
When he left for his mission, his plans were to return and spend the winter snowboarding and working at Park City.  When he returned, he re-took tests that he had bombed in high school and applied at UVU and BYU and was accepted at both.  I know his mission gave him direction.   After he returned, he continued his morning studies of the scriptures, placed goals he wanted to accomplish on his wall by his light switch and had names of his friends that he wanted to help activate, how he was going to do it and the date he would complete his ideas. 
He also came home with a desire to do things with his family.  He apologized several times while on his mission to his grandmothers for staying home when we would go to do things with them.  He promised to do better.  As soon as he got home, he made the trip to see one of his grandmothers and took her to the temple. 
Bryce was blessed by going on a mission, our family was blessed and I think he continues to serve the people of Africa.  

The Hot Pots and Bryce...Ringtones

This is one of my favorite pictures of Bryce.  He is holding MY cell phone that took he took over when  home from South Africa.  I used to get his friends calling  and I would have to explain that Bryce did not have his own cell phone  yes...this is my cell phone.  He took it to the Hot Pots in January and forgot it was in the pocket of his swimsuit.  Thus the demise of my cell phone.  Bryce was rather happy because he got a new cell phone out of the deal when I went to replace my ruined one.  He tried to make recompense  by downloading new ring tones for me.   I never knew what ring tone my mom had until out of the blue a long time later when Bryce was gone, she called my cell.  It was the Beatles, Eleanor Rigby.  Ahhh...look at all those lonely people.   It brought tears because I knew he was trying to remind me to remember the Grandmothers.  His sister Kira was given the song, "Under Pressure" which was appropriate considering she had just started her first job as an RM.   My hubby got a Beatles song also...She Loves You ..yeah, yeah, yeah.  Brooke's song....You're Beautiful....I saw your face in a crowded place.   I always thought that song was a little strange but Bryce had it as a ringtone before his mission for his friends.  His ringtone....Bob Marley.  I don't know the name of the song but he loved Bob Marley.  His ears could pick up the music of Bob in the Townships and it always made him happy. 
I was sad when I got home with my next new cell phone a month ago and none of the ringtones had copied over.  Neither did the picture of Bryce, Dallin and McKay that I had as my wallpaper.  Bryce has a tube of toothpaste up his nose, Dallin has a grapefruit and orange for eyes and McKay is in the middle of them looking cool.

Kim and I  went up to the hot pots yesterday.  We like to do Bryce things in August.  It was a beautiful day, no one was naked and there were few people soaking in the warm water.  We had to hurry because I had a meeting so we got up there, tested the water, said yep these are the hot pots, and hurried back down the trail.  It was great.
I am glad Bryce had some adventures when he got home.  Even at the sacrifice of my phone. Thanks Pete.