Sunday, March 20, 2011

David Rick Bryce - My missionary son serving in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Rick's birthday is this week and it's the first one I have ever missed. I am a little sad about that and so I thought I would go through some of his pictures that he sent us and  post a few - a little recap of his first year as a missionary if you will. I posted a video of him taking us on a tour of his house in Huehue as well. Happy Birthday Rick! We love you! Here is a link to his official website http://www.davidrickbryce.com/ where we post his letters. This last one was interesting. He got caught between two shoot outs between police and Drug dealers. One bystander got killed.



Rick spent his first three weeks in the Provo MTC

They spent 12 hours a day studying Spanish and the Gospel in this room. At least it seemed like 12 hours a day. I remember, I did it 25 years ago.

Rick and his first companion, Elder King


Rick made lots of friends there

Then he got sent on short notice down the the CCM which is the same thing as the MTC but in Guatemala City, Guatemala. This is his companion Elder Crockett. They were both called as Assistants to the President which meant he was directing meetings in Spanish after only three weeks of Spanish. His first couple of weeks was rather interesting. First they had a small earthquake and then the Volcano by Guatemala city blew. It left three inches of ash on the city. Then a few days later Tropical Storm Agatha hit and made a mess of everything. It clogged the drains and a huge sink hole appeared about five miles away from the CCM. It was 200 feet deep and took out a building and an intersection. They also had mud slides that killed several hundred people. I wasn't worried though. I survived a Cue in Ecuador!



President Steimle of the CCM

The Guatemala City Temple was just across the street

This photo he obviously took from the window of a bus with a tree in the way but I liked it. It looks like a poorer part of Guatemala City

The food looks delicious!

He made many soccer friends here

This is a boy after his mothers heart!

His first area was in Santa Cruz del Quiche

His kitchen

His yard


His study desk

The back of his tag


These are the people he serves and plays with

He loves Eddie who has Down Syndrome like our son Joseph

This looks like a picture right from my mission 25 years ago in Quito, Ecuador except for the little jeep and there were few telephone lines









A cute little family that got baptized just after he left this area



Where's Ricko?

Elder Bryce and Elder Griffey

Washing his own clothes in his Pila! I think he thinks its fun



He takes us on a tour of his house in this video





Indiana Jones

They often don't have electricity and so they study at night by candlelight




Guatemala has beautiful sunsets too

There's nothing better than a bus full of missionaries!

Rick and his Mission President and wife. President Lorenzana

Ruins at Zaculeu



The missionaries have this place to themselves. That's amazing


Some kind of celebration? Dia de la Muerte?

Frying up some platanos 

Looks like Crab soup- Yummy!


Merry Christmas!


He says "So these pictures you are recieving are mostly of us at the Mirador. Its a look-out spot really high in Huehue. The volcano in the background on the left is actually in Xela. And my area in Calvario was right below it. To the left is Momostenango and Quiche, and then straight below is Huehue. Pretty much half of Guatemala can be seen from there."






Even President Lorenzana went

Looks like he's eating well 


Then he gets transfered to Momostenango which is up in the mountains. This is the branches baptismal font


The roads only go along the tops of the mountains. There's a lot of climbing up and down and he said he lost the extra inch he developed the first part of his mission

This is pretty much their entire house and there were three missionaries living here. They only could buy their food once a month


Wearing out his shoes in the service of the Lord


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