First Baptism and Singing at the Top of our Lungs while Biking

Dear Family,

I just want you all to know that I biked for 30 minutes in order to send you this email this morning. So read all of it, okay? Ha yep, Sister Chou Lee and I are officially car-less. The elders that had our car before got in a wreck, and we've been driving it around with a huge dent in it all transfer, and now they are getting it fixed. Seriously, elders man, I'm tellin ya...So for the next two weeks, we will be biking. Which isn't a big deal, biking is fun. But since we are Sister Training Leaders, we are technically supposed to have a car. We have two exchanges this week, one in Kwinana and one back down in South Bunbury, which is a couple of hours away...the Assistants are currently working that out. We may bus down, or they may give us someone else's car. It's in the Lord's hands! But until then, bikes it is. Which is okay. We like to sing while we bike...lately I've been singing the chorus of "Far Far Away on Judea's Plains" at the top of my lungs. "Glory to God, Glory to God..."

The Hallshead sisters, Sister Waith and Sister Faivakimoana

Well, this week was amazing. Wanna know why?! BECAUSE, Taylor R. was baptized on Saturday!! It was so great. The Spirit was so strong and she is just so golden and prepared. Everything went smoothly, minus one thing....we had the first part of the service, the opening exercises, and two talks, and then walked out to have the ordinance. And the entire hall was flooded. The ward member guy that was supposed to turn off the baptismal font, well, didn't. And so that was exciting! We like to spice things up here in Waikiki! Nah it was good. She still got baptized, it was just a little deep is all. (:

Yep, so that was good. Baptisms are always amazing. So are lots of other parts of a mission, such as less-actives coming to church and teaching someone how to pray for the first time. There is honestly nothing more rewarding than serving the Lord.

Taylor's Baptism!

Mission Leadership Council was on Friday. I always enjoy MLC. It's so cool to be a part of the planning and goal-setting and preparation that goes into running a mission. Elder Cook [Anna's boyfriend since age 16] was there as well. So much for me seeing him once or twice on my mission; I've seen him like 12 times.

Oooh my goodness. Rick, Kyle and Kade better enjoy their late-night video game playing while they can, because when I come home, no way jose'...not in my house! Also, I've been thinking. I think we should have new rules. No movies, no tv, no music...guys trust me. It's so fun and holy. Why should we sit in front of a screen and let ourselves be indoctrinated by Satan?

Family, I'm glad to see you are finally getting Christmas underway! I don't want to brag or anything, but we've had our Christmas tree up since October...and it's beautiful. Alright well, hope everything is going good! Remember as you prepare to celebrate Christmas that it isn't about getting stuff. There is way too much getting around Christmas time in our family, and not enough giving. Enjoy it, because next Christmas we are doing things a little bit differently. (:

Love,

Sister Bryce

The Topic of Study for the Week is...Pride!

This has been a crazy week! Sister Chou Lee and I went out to Kalgoorlie for exchanges. It was so fun! I was there just a few weeks ago, but it was neat to go out and see those sisters. We trained for 7 hours inland to get there, and holy smokes, you would not BELIEVE how hot Kalgoorlie is! The sun is so harsh, you can feel your skin burning like five seconds after it touches your skin...I've been wearing so much sunscreen these days, it's my best friend!

Exchanges in Kalgoorlie with Sister Vaiula

Sister Waith and Sister Faivakimoana, two of my favourite people

Sister Chou Lee and I have been working really hard! On Saturday we spent all day out on the bikes, visiting people and cleaning up the ward list. On the way we found three new investigators, all who have SO much potential! Two of them, Apollo and Samantha, were talking about Jesus Christ when we stopped to talk to them. It was so cool, they said they knew there must be a reason that they met us at that exact moment. We are teaching them this week and I am SO excited!!

Taylor Rickard is getting baptized this week!! She is just the bomb. It is such a privilege to witness the Lord's preparation in the lives of the people we teach. She has been so prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel; it's incredible. She is amazing and we are SO excited!!

Sister Chou Lee told me I was sleep talking the other night. I was setting up a teaching appointment. "Is five o'clock on Wednesday okay?" Ha ha man missionaries are so nerdy and hilarious!

Soo...Australia is very hot. Like, very, very, VERY hot. It's gotten up to 38 Celsius this week....I don't know how hot that is in Fahrenheit, but it's REALLY HOT. And the scary part is, whenever I mention how hot it is the Australians around me laugh and say, "oh this is nothing. You just wait." ......family. I'm scared.

So the topic of study for this week is........drum roll.......PRIDE!!! We all have it, and we all think everyone else has it more!! I have an idea!! Lets all read "Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson!! Seriously though, it's amazing. When you read it, and President Benson mentions one of the....symptoms?....of pride, someone's name and face is going to pop into your head. And you're going to think, "oh yeah, they are so prideful, that's who he's talking about." DON'T DO THAT. He's not talking to them, he's  talking to YOU. All of you. Everyone in the whole world. Minus the kids at Pathway, they're perfect. But everyone else! Oh except for Joseph; he's also perfect.

A real Australian hat in the real Australian Outback

I have learned a million things on my mission. One of the biggest, is the power of the Priesthood. It is REAL power. It is the power we use to fight against Satan's power, which is also very real.

I had a really cool experience this week that I would like to share. So, my back has been really hurting since I got on my mission. Just the muscles are so sore and tight and knotted. It's gotten really bad over the past few weeks, and every morning when I wake up it KILLS. So one night, I was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep. I suddenly had a horrible feeling and I was terrified. I know evil is real, and I didn't see anything but I definitely felt it. We are serving in an area with a lot of Maori's, and Maori's are very spiritual - they are descendants of Lehi. Weird things happen around them. So I just had this terrible feeling. I said a prayer, and asked for angels to be around me, to protect me. Immediately the feeling was gone, and I felt so much peace and warmth and safety. I was just laying there on my stomach, enjoying the peace I felt, and suddenly I felt this warm, tingling feeling, start at the middle of my back at my spine, and it spread all across my back. I don't know how long it lasted, but I fell asleep before it stopped.

The next morning, when I woke up, my back didn't hurt. Like at all. It hasn't hurt since. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I do know that the Lord is very aware of us, and that He knows what we need without us even asking.

I am loving my mission so much! I have had so many incredible experiences. I know that this Work is the Lord's Work. He is much more involved in it than we realize.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Love,

Sister Bryce

SO....there is this Restaurant. It's called Nando's, and it's Portuguese, and it's delicious. It's my favourite restaurant and I'm SO sad we don't have it! The sauce is the best!

Exchanges in Murdoch and Leschenault (Bunbury)

Helloooo! How's it going?!?! Man you guys must miss me so much...who makes all the funny jokes, now that I'm gone?? Who makes the dance parties? It's okay guys just hang in there and I'll be back before you know it. (: Seriously though, it is going by SO fast!! The weeks feel like seconds!!

We had an awesome week. We had two sets of exchanges, one in Murdoch and one down in Leschenault in Bunbury. On Wednesday I went down to Murdoch with Sister Tanaka from Japan, and Sister Vinck from Australia went up to Waikiki to work with Sister Chou Lee.

It was seriously SO fun. I LOVE SISTER TANAKA. She has only been out for 8 weeks and so she's still learning English, but she is hilarious and we get along really well. I've sort of taken her under my wing, because she knows me from last transfer so she feels more comfortable with me than most other missionaries. She can also understand me better since I'm American, so I call her every now and then just to see how she's doing. I LOVE being a Sister Training Leader. It is so fun to get to know the other sisters and to have the opportunity to serve them. I have learned so much about love and service in this calling.

Tracting with Sister Tanaka

Then on Friday night, we went down to Leschenault in Bunbury Zone and exchanged with Sister Kim from Korea and Sister Atkinson from Arizona all day Saturday. IT WAS SO FUN. Okay Sister Atkinson is the BOMB. We get a long so well... she's EASILY one of my favourite sisters in this mission, which is saying a lot because the sisters of the APM are amazing! She's hilarious and she makes me feel like I'm back at college because she's totally someone I would have been friends with. We had such a good time...exchanges are the best. They are so fun and such a learning experience.

We had an AWESOME lesson this week. So Taylor is our investigator that is getting baptized on the 23rd - we went down to teach her, and had the opportunity to teach her older sister Courtney and Courtney's boyfriend as well. It was such a neat lesson. We taught the Restoration, and after we quoted Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision, they felt the Spirit so strongly. You could see it; they like, shivered and went, "whoa!" because it was the first time they had ever felt the Spirit. It was so cool. As missionaries we become so accustomed to feeling the Spirit that we forget how awesome it really is. 

We've got another crazy week coming up. We are going out to Kalgoorlie for exchanges. We go on tons of exchanges since we are the Sister Training Leaders for both Rockingham Zone and Bunbury Zone; almost half of the Sisters in the mission are in our care. It's awesome; like I said, I love it. I do miss the time we could spend working in our area, but I realize that the sisters are just as much our responsibility as the people we teach.

This is Sister Atkinson and I having a wall-sit contest...she kicked my trash.

Sister Chou Lee...man I don't know why, but my companions are always the BEST. Like seriously, I've been so lucky. I haven't had a companion that I haven't adored and gotten along with amazingly. Sister Chou Lee is the most chill person on the planet; she is just so real. She has such a sincere love for other missionaries. One of my favourite things about her is that she actually TELLS you how you can improve! With most missionaries, when you model something all they say is, "Oh that was awesome! You did great!" and that's it. They don't correct you. Sister Chou Lee, though, will point out - nicely and  in a matter-of-fact sort of way - the things that you can do better. I LOVE IT. I have gotten SO much better at teaching because of it. Seriously it's my favourite thing and something that I am definitely going to do with my future companions...you have to do it with love, but when you do it helps SO much!

Alright Family, keep on keepin on and remember to read your scriptures, say your prayers and go to church! Eternity hangs in the balance!

Love,

Sister Bryce

P.S. I hate to bring it up....but if you guys are planning on sending me a Christmas package, you may want to start thinking about it. (: My request is more Trio bars, makeup [Abby, you know what I wear. The kind of foundation I like in the lightest color they sell, black mascara (the orange kind, NOT water proof...etc.)].

My INCREDIBLE companion, Sister Chou Lee. She is the most senior sister missionary in the mission; she goes home in two transfers and has taught me SO much. I'm so lucky to serve with her!

Transfers!

Okay I LOVE my new area and my companion. Seriously they are both amazing. The ward here is incredible; it's entirely Polynesian and so gung ho on missionary work. We are definitely going to see miracles happen in Waikiki this transfer!

Sister Chou Lee and I have really been working on laying a good foundation with the ward. We have been meeting with a lot of the members and offering our service; we decided that our strategy for finding this transfer is going to be through the members. We are starting to really get to know them already and it's been awesome; they haven't had sisters here in years so the ward is excited about us being here.

We set a baptismal date yesterday with T-----, a friend of one of the young women in the ward. Her friend T----- has been so awesome to have introduced her to the gospel. She will be baptized on November 23, and we are going to start teaching her mom as well! We are planning to have study with T---- so that she can help us teach her mom, which I think will be so good. She's golden!

Honestly this week has been so good. We are working on being exactly obedient and completely consecrating ourselves to this work. I have definitely seen a difference in the last few days as I've strengthened my resolve to be a sacred missionary. The Lord will see our willingness to work and will bless us with miracles this transfer; I have no doubt of that. We've already begun to see it.

THANK YOU THANK YOU for the package!! I got it at transfers; it is the best. Those Trio bars seriously save my life. When we got to transfers Elder Cook came and told me I had a package, and it was pretty hilarious when I pulled out pictures of him and he was standing there looking over my shoulder. Our companions had a good laugh about it. Don't worry, Dad, we are totally focused and our relationship is old news here in the APM. We both have earned a reputation as obedient and hard-working, so that goes a long way. I got to see Elder Cook teach at Mission Leadership Council. He is an INCREDIBLE teacher. One of the best I've seen, honestly - I was so impressed. I can definitely see why President is having him be a Zone Leader, train a new missionary, and serve on a leadership council with his girlfriend all at the same time.

Transfers!

Transfers!

I forgot to tell you guys, guess what I ate?! A fish eye. Not a little one; like the size of a quarter. We were at a Samoan family's house and I had to prove myself. It tasted pretty much like a disgusting version of the rest of the fish, but hey, I ate it and gained myself some palangi respect.

Hey Dad, if you haven't already done it I have the scripture I want on my plaque. D&C 123:13-15. If you can fit verses 16 and 17 on too then that would be awesome but if not, no worries. Or if it's possible, verse 13 and then just skipping to 17 would be ideal! If it's possible.

Ah Sister Chou Lee is seriously the bomb. She is SUCH a powerful teacher; I am so excited to improve my teaching skills this transfer! I definitely have a long way to go; serving with such an awesome missionary has definitely humbled me. Not that I was prideful; I wasn't but lack of pride and humility are not one and the same. Ha ha the Lord definitely wants me to be more humble. At church yesterday I was praying for revelation on how I can be a better missionary - I prayed for the Lord to show me through the scriptures what I needed to do, and then I flipped them open randomly to a scripture on humility. I read it, and was like, "ah yeah, I'm pretty humble, no worries." And then I flipped them open again, and it was another scripture on humility. Haha ha so yeah, then I got the point. The Lord definitely has a sense of humor! (: I did learn a lot though, and I studied humility in my next personal study. I learned something - I always thought that pride was thinking you were better than others. That is definitely pride, but the real definition of pride is trusting yourself more than you trust God. I think we do that subconsciously a lot more than we think.

Okay family, well I have to go but I love you all! Thanks again for the package! Tell Jared I say hi and make sure he remembers I'm still older. Give Joseph a big kiss for me!

I am really going to miss Sister Lee-lo! It was so sad seeing her at MLC and not being companions. She's seriously the bomb.

Last P-Day in Busselton!

Opening a new area in Rockingham Zone

This was an incredibly fast week! Oh my goodness where does the time go?! I hit my 6-month mark this week. CRAZY. It's going by WAY too fast.

So we got our transfer calls this morning! Sister Lee-lo and I are both leaving Busselton. She is going to be a Sister Training Leader in Southern River Zone, serving in the Thornlie ward (with Elder Cook). I am going to be opening a new area in the Rockingham Zone, and will also be a Sister Training Leader for that zone and possibly for Bunbury as well. My new companion is Sister Chou-Lee. SHE IS AMAZING. Okay if I could have personally chosen my next companion, it probably would have been her! She is such, SUCH a good missionary! She's been out for over a year and she seriously knows her stuff...we went on exchanges two weeks ago and it was incredible. Seriously this next transfer is going to be AMAZING!!! Ah I am so excited!!! I know that I have so much to learn from Sister Chou-lee. I'm going to grow a lot this transfer.

One thing that is really cool...before we got our transfer calls, Sister Lee-Lo had a dream she was companions with Sister Arnold - who is her new companion. And about a week or so ago, I had a dream that we got our transfer calls and we were both leaving and both still Sister Training Leaders...and bam. Happened. Revelatory dreams people.

I am so sad to leave Sister Lee-Lo, we have gotten really really close. She is amazing and I know we will be friends for life. She is going to come to Utah after the mission and stay with me and I'm going to go to her wedding in New Zealand in a few years. (:

Okay so this week we went out to Kalgoorlie!! We drove up to Perth with the A.P.s Tuesday night and spent the night in Perth with Sister Beckstrand and Sister Kennar, whom I adore. Actually I adore all the sisters in this mission. The next morning, we hopped on a train at seven a.m. and trained seven hours to Kalgoorlie. It was so cool, we got to see a lot of the Australian Outback. It's definitely the bush. It is very beautiful and unique to every other area in the world, I think.

On the way to Kalgoorlie!

I know it's really dark...but this is me sitting on the train listening to someone bash America and not turning around and arguing with them about. Family, I have grown so much. You would not believe my new-found ability to keep my mouth shut when people start talking politics. It's superhuman.

Training to Kalgoorlie.

This was our reaction when we got off the train from Kalgoorlie and the Elders weren't there to pick us up. (:

Kalgoorlie was amazing. It has kind of a St. George-y look - a lot of red dirt. The sun is very harsh. I was with Sister Atkinson, who is amazing! She is seriously so funny, and a wonderful missionary. We taught a great lesson to two African men, which was really neat. Exchanges are always fun, it's so good to get to know other sisters and to see other people's teaching styles. I always learn so much.

While we were in Kalgoorlie we stopped by this massive gold mine. Holy smokes. It's amazing the lengths mankind will go to to get a little bit of shiny rock. Seriously, how many schools and hospitals and churches could have been built with all that labor?! It was really neat to see though.

Sister Atkinson

Sister Atkinson

Us standing in a massive dirt scooper at the Gold Mine.

Exchanges in Kalgoorlie with Sister Atkinson, Sister Lee-lo, me and Sister Donaldson.

I am definitely sad to leave Busselton. It's paradise. Its always scary to leave an area, especially when your companion is leaving as well. What about our investigators?! Elders are getting doubled in. We are leaving the salvation of our investigators in the hands of 19 year old boys?! Nah they'll be awesome I'm sure. It's really the Lord's hands that they are in.

Tracting in the Bush.

Our last Sunday at our little Busselton Chapel/old Catholic Nunnery

I'm definitely going to miss making pancakes with Sister Lee-Lo!

Yeah the MLX's have been great!! We've gotten to work a lot more closely with the members. We won't be able to see much of the long-term results since we are both leaving, but it is definitely working. The branch is becoming more involved in missionary work. I'm sure the Elders will keep it up. We have two set baptismal dates coming up, so I am anxious to hear what happens with them.

Well family, it's been real. Sorry this was brief; we have a lot to do before transfers. I love you all! Keep choosing the right and stop getting injured!

I am really going to miss Sister Lee-Lo. I hope we get to serve together again. It happens!

Loved General Conference!

Wow those pictures you sent are beautiful!! It's so weird that you are going into Fall there, yet it is springtime here...crazy. Fall in Utah is definitely the best.

Beautiful Australia. (:

So this was a wonderful week, of course! We went on exchanges with the sisters in Kwinana, Sister Chou-lee and Sister Kim. It was amazing. They are stellar missionaries and I learned a lot! How to make sushi, among other things. (:

Exchanges with Sister Kim from Adelaide/Korea and Sister Chou-lee from Sydney!

We did something that we call spiritual tracting. Ah it's so legit. So what we do, is we all go into separate rooms and hard-out repent. Then we come back together and pray over a map for a specific area to tract in. When we all have the area, we each individually write down the names of 5 streets. Afterwards, we compare, and the streets that have been selected the most we go and tract. Seriously, it was unreal....we found 6 new investigators just on one street. It was so neat. Miracles always happen on exchanges! 

Dinner with the district.

General Conference was AMAZING!!! I agree with you Dad, it is hard to decide which talk was my favorite. I really really loved Elder Maynes' talk; that was amazing. I loved the part where he said - I'm not exactly sure how he worded it - you don't get in good physical shape by watching basketball on tv, and you don't get in good spiritual shape by just watching conference on tv, either. It's SO true! And I have been so guilty of that in the past! I've always loved watching General Conference, but just watching it isn't enough. You have to apply it! David M. McConkie's talk was amazing as well. Ah they were all amazing. I love conference. I especially love the hard-core talks where they call us to repentance. Like when Elder Bednar called those who aren't paying their tithing to repentance...ah I love it.

Yes it is very possible/probable that Sister Lee-Lo and I will be split up. Which is so sad because she is amazing and we have a great companionship. No contention whatsoever. It's the best...one of the saddest parts of my mission is splitting up with companions that I love. And so far I've only had lovable companions! I'm gonna keep it that way.

My little mission family - My mom (trainer) and my dad (District Leader). How cute are we?!

OH MY GOODNESS. When we were up in Kwinana we saw the most MASSIVE SPIDER. IT WAS THE SIZE OF A SMALL CHILD. Hahaha no just kidding it wasn't that big, it was the size of....okay it was like the size of my pinky finger in diameter. Yes just let that sink in for a second. Family it was huge. And Sister Chou-lee was the man and destroyed it. I shudder to think what would happen if I found one of those on my own, with no one brave around me to kill it. Snakes I can do. Serial killers I can do. But spiders; not my thing.

SO we were supposed to have a baptism this week..but he got anti-ed and dropped us. He had a spiritual experience! He KNEW it was true! How sad is that? Ah it was heart-wrenching and one of the hardest parts of my mission so far...we just WISH people could know what we know! If they had the perspective that we had, everyone would get baptized! But they don't, and the world is confusing. Satan is cunning. Ahh it's just hard because you get so emotionally invested in your investigators' conversion.

This week we are going to Kalgoorlie!! We are SO excited! It's going to be so fun! The sisters out there are very isolated, so we are going to do our best to cheer them up and make some miracles happen. It's going to be amazing. I hate to leave our investigators for four days, but I realize that as a Sister Training Leader, the sisters in our zones our part of our responsibility just as much as our investigators are. So it will be good. I always learn so much from exchanges.

Okay can I just say for a second, President Lindsay is AMAZING. Seriously he is an incredible mission president. He handles this mission so deftly; with the perfect balance of love, discipline and authority. It's amazing to see and exactly what this mission/every mission needs. We've gotten to work more closely with him as a part of our calling and that has been one of my favorite parts.

Well family, I'm glad you are enjoying the fall and stuff, don't forget to write me and stuff. You can carve my face into a pumpkin if you want. (: I love you all!

Got to Go to the Temple

I'm sure General Conference was amazing! I haven't actually watched it yet, Australia doesn't get it until this weekend. So we will be watching it October 12 and 13 and we are STOKED.

This week was AMAZING!!! One of the best parts was, we got to go to the TEMPLE!!! It was seriously SO GOOD. Going to the Temple is one of the things that I miss the most! It was amazing. The Australia Perth Temple is so beautiful.

We are starting into week 5 of the transfer. CRAZY. This transfer has absolutely FLOWN by, and Sister Lee-lo and I both consider it one of our very best transfers so far. It's been so neat to be able to go on exchanges with other sisters in the mission. We haven't had as much time in our own area as we used to, but the Lord has definitely blessed us and made up the difference. We have found some awesome families to teach and we are really excited. (:

Well mi familia, I'm afraid this is a really lame letter this week...because I just emailed you like 3 days ago and not much has happened! Oh I know. President Lindsay is having us do this new key indicator called MLX - Member Lessons Extreme. We have to be in and out in less than twenty minutes, share a message from Preach My Gospel, share two scriptures, not eat, extend an invitation, and ask for referrals. It's hardcore and it has been AWESOME!! We've done a few and it's been great, we've gotten to know the members more and gained more trust. It has been really neat. It is so important to coordinate missionary efforts with the members. Because we are ALL missionaries! Family you really should do some missionary things. There has got to be at least ONE non-member in Highland, I just know it. I don't know where, but seriously there has to be at least one. (:

Remember my health kick? Well it is still happening. Oh ye of little faith. Sister Faivakimoana lent us her juicer, and we juice. That's right, we juice. Fruits and vegetables. It is seriously the best thing ever! I don't know how much juicers are, but I am seriously considering buying one when she wants hers back. And for SURE when I get home.

Lets see....Sister Lee-lo is amazing. We have friendship bracelets. She is my best Polynesian. I seriously always get the best companions!

BFFs ...

Things got a little crazy after planning one night ...

We love cooking. We don't really have recipes so we just experiment. Maybe you should send me a cookbook. Mhmmm. Yep that would be muy bueno. BUT, it has to have recipes that can be made in less than an hour.

Well family, I hope that everything is going wonderful and that you are counting your blessings! I love you all!