Friday, February 20, 2009

Bryce and things he said on mission


What Did He Say?

The MTC is a lot, a lot, a lot of spiritual and brain work. I’m not used to this much thinking, but it’s good.

The juice is amazing and other than juice drinks there is only carbonated drink, yea I don’t care that I can’t spell, I’m still a good person.

It’s awesome being on a mission. You learn more important things than you ever would without a mission, and it’s great.

Being on a mission is good and hard. I street contacted a guy with three thumbs…I kinda tried to avoid the hand shake, but it happened anyways, it was kinda weird.

Yeah, I haven’t really eaten anything too weird, but I have seen a lot of weird things that I could have eaten.

Everyone offers me carbonation and I have to offend them kinda because I can’t drink it, I tried once and almost died.

The other day we met this guy and we were going to shake his hand but it was dirty so he just stuck his wrist out for us to shake…but I wasn’t sure what he was doing so I rubbed wrists with him…It was awkward—he looked at me really funny and I laughed hard about it later.

P.S. I know I have a creepy smile in the MTC picture.

Okay, here are some things that are weird down here. Albinos. I’m sure they are nice people, I almost even got the courage to talk to one, but it’s weird.

Yeah, I am bummed about grandpa…I knew I would never see him again when I left…now I am crying in a smokie internet cafĂ© and feel…girly…oh well.

Please get after my friends for not writing. .they’re not busy.

Yeah, I don’t give details about how I feel and stuff mom. You know why? Probably because I’m a guy…sorry that is just kind of how it is right now.

I have snowboarding dreams all the time.

It’s hard work being on a mission, but it’s worth it. Being out here on a mission now and thinking about what my life would have been like had I not come, is scary ..all the people I was suppose to teach and all the things I was suppose to learn and grow from would be gone, and I don’t think I would know what to do if I was still at home.

I hope I like him but he seems too competitive, and he has a bad hair cut…we’ll see. I guess it just depends on me. ( His new companion)

We don’t have an iron that works and my shirts aren’t so wrinkle free anymore.

…we got out and my bike had been stolen…they even took my girly helmet with bright pink and blue and yellow stripes…I guess people need to be safe when they steal….so we walked home and ordered pizza—it was nice I haven’t had pizza for a long time.

After we came home and such I made these mini pies and as I was making them and tried one I was thinking about the comparison between pies and people. The crust or outside of the pie is important. It tells a lot about the pie on a first glance. How big the pie is, how fresh it is and how long it’s been out of the oven. We can guess which kind of pie it might be from the shape of the crust and it usually lets a little bit of the inside of the pie seep through. The same is with people. We can see how old someone might be…sometimes even their career. We can even smell them sometimes. People let parts of their insides out by the way they talk or the way they carry themselves as they go about. These things are all very important. But with the pies I made, the crust was really good, but the insides weren’t all that great and I realize that the crust was important but it’s not what makes up the most of the pie. The insides were. So even if the outside wasn’t that great but the inside of the pie was really good, the crust wouldn’t have mattered so much. But it can go the other way as well. If the crust was terrible, even if the insides were great it would have ruined the pie. Just like people, we all know it’s what’s inside that counts. But people will usually never taste the inside if the outside is so horrible that it doesn’t seem worth it to get to the inside.

This week we helped this lady in the ward load up her truck with stuff to take to the dump. It was crazy at the dump. There were hundreds of bums digging through garbage looking for food and hundreds of stray dogs. Bums coming up to you surrounding you and begging you for money. “Please Daniel, please,” that is what some bum was saying to me. It was a crazy experience …I will never forget it…it was unreal.

I’ve given lots of haircuts. It’s cool to see everyone at zone conference and to be like…oh yeah—I cut his hair and his hair and so on.

Sorry that my emails haven’t always been that informative. It’s just that my brain is like a butterfly jar and it’s full of all different kinds of butterflies ( thoughts) and it’s difficult most of the time when I go to the email shop it’s like the butterfly jar has been opened, and there are butterflies flying around everywhere and I can see them, but it’s hard to just focus on one long enough to describe it until it flies away. But when I am at my boarding the environment usually allows all or most of the butterflies to be in the jar with the lid on so I can look at them and describe them. So if my emails ever leave you hanging just know that the butterflies are out of the jar.



Sister Peggy made this huge mac and cheese casserole thing. It was way good and we had tons. Elder Maremela had like twice as much as me and I had enough that I thought I was going to explode and I’ve got a good 50 lbs. on E. Maremela, so I was impressed with his eating skills.

…I ‘m going to work hard because there are a lot of families who need what we have.

Well, I cut my hair today…I have administered over 30 haircuts on mission to people from 5 different countries—that’s pretty cool eh?

…the last few weeks have been the hardest of my life, so I just haven’t felt like writing. Sometimes I just want to get hit by a car or something so I can have a break.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Bryce wakeboarding

I (Tyler, his big brother) have been trying to digitize one tape each week from Bryce's personal stash of home videos. This week was wakeboarding in 2005 with his friends. This was his first time so there isn't anything too impressive and I'm only uploading two short clips (I can send you the longer, 30 minute version if you want).



Sunday, February 1, 2009

Bryce Sings

Today I found a tape of Bryce singing some of the songs he wrote while in High School. They're short songs and kind of hard to understand, but still pretty funny. Here they are:





Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Bryce and his board

I finally found some footage of Bryce with his board, so I through a bunch of short clips together. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Videos of Bryce

I've started uploading Bryce videos to youtube. You can see the ones I've got so far by clicking here.
Here's a sample of what you'll find...

Bryce telling anyone and everyone that they are, in fact, "codfish." (He liked Peter Pan).

Bryce on his mission with a meercat on his shoulder.

Note: If you have any video clips with Bryce please email them to me and I'll get them posted (tylerchristensen@tyandnat.com). Thanks.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

For Those I Love and Those Who Love Me

When I am gone, release me -- let me go.
I have so many things to see and do.
You must not tie yourself to me with tears.

I gave my love, you can only guess
How much you gave to me in happiness.
I thank you for the love that you have shown,
But now it's time: I travel on alone.

So grieve awhile for me, if grieve you must,
Then let your grief be comforted by trust.
It's only for awhile that we must part,
So bless now, the memories within your heart.

I won't be far away, for life goes on:
So if you need me -- call, and I will come.
Though you can't see me, or touch me, I'll be near
And if you listen with your heart, you'll hear
All my love around you, soft and clear.
And then when you come this way alone,
I'll greet you with a smile and "Welcome Home".

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Mom's cooking


I was remembering yesterday how just a couple of weeks ago Bryce had told Willy to make sure he let him know the next time I made my Mexican Enchiladas. Well I served a spanish mission and learned how to make what I think, are the very BEST Chicken Enchiladas. I guess Bryce heard from Willy how good they are and he wanted to try them. Well, just a couple weeks ago i made these delicious enchiladas and Willy told Bryce to come over right after church and eat some. Both Bryce and Brad showed up to eat the pan I had saved for them. They both scarfed them down so fast and Bryce told me 2 or 3 times he thought they were really good. Then I asked... "Bryce, aren't they the BEST enchiladas in the whole world!?" he shocked me when he replied, "yeah, they're way good.... almost as good as my mom's." WHAT! "almost?" i answered. Bryce looked at me and smiled, I could tell he was being careful with his words. "they're really good" he said, "but.... my mom makes really good ones too." I sat there for quite some time and tried to force Bryce to tell me they were better than his mom's cooking. Then I tried to get him to say they were equally as good. It was useless. Bryce confirmed that he loved my enchiladas, but they still didn't top his Mom's delicious cooking. I think I'm going to have to try your enchiladas Wynette.

~ Mary Wollenzien

I'm going to miss that funny kid.