Letters from Mission

I have been cleaning out my gmail account and found a letter from Bryce that was pretty nice.

May 26, 2007 It’s interesting that the Sunday I spoke just before leaving to my mission here in South Africa, I was assigned to speak on prayer. Something that would seem so simple. Now 8 months later as I look back at all of the investigators I have had or that other missionaries have had I can link back almost all of their progression or not progressing to prayer. Just the other day we met an investigator who we have been seeing for a few months. We committed him long ago to read, study, ponder and pray to know if the Book of Mormon and the Church were true…as we do with almost every  appointment. I asked him –Ryan, did you pray about the Book of Mormon? Ryan said yes but he didn’t get an answer. Well Ryan, when was the last time you read the Book of Mormon? About a week or two ago. Than I think to myself, no duh! You didn’t get an answer. It has occurred to me that sincere prayer is something that takes up most of your day or even most of your week or month. Every time someone is not progressing it’s because they are not sincerely praying. That means they are not studying and learning about the church or thinking about our message.

 I remember Neeba, my first baptism, when we taught, how he was excited and asked questions. When we would come back he would bring friends and type up reports about what he learned from his study of the scriptures. He received answers to his prayers because he was sincere and put forth
effort. It’s difficult to get everyone to do that. It’s great to see the progress of the people I worked with in my first area. Neeba was baptized in Jan. just before his 18th birthday. Shortly after that he received the Aaronic Priesthood. Then he baptized a good friend of his and taught his two younger brothers and brought them to church each week as well as his mom. He gave us referrals like crazy and asked us for Book of Mormons to give to people he was sharing the gospel with. He brought friends and family to his house for us to teach. He went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead even though he could not afford the 8 hour trip. He has now receive the Melchizedek priesthood and is preparing each day to serve a mission; When he turns 19…this is someone who 6 months ago had
not heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Archie, whose wife and daughter had been members for 1 year was baptized just the last week or two before I left Dwesi. He now has the Melchizedek Priesthood as well and is the Young Men’s President. There are so many good things happening. Those good things happen because of sincere prayer and action on answers and promptings to those prayers. The better we can master communication between us and our Father in Heaven, the better we can fulfill our purpose here on this earth and the better we can help others fulfill their purpose.

Oooh, mom and dad…mission is crazy. I’m still the same Bryce, but I’m different. The gospel is so simple..but it’s so complicated. Things are so easy, but they’re so difficult….it is great thought. I meet so many crazy peopleall the time and see the strangest things. It just happens so much that it doesn’t even faze me.
 It’s crazy to think about the relationship we all had in the spirit world and what we were all like, and what we all did to be blessed with knowing and accepting truth. I love you.