So Many Cookies!!

 ¡Hola todos!

This was the first week of the new transfer and it's definitely been the most different week for sure! We're getting adjusted to the new apartment and new roommates and everything. I have the SIM card now which means I do all of the calling and texting for the both of us and now we're social media specialists for the area (which I still don't know what that means). We've been walking everywhere because Elder Rehkow and I don't have a car or bikes so that kinda sucks. It's still the same area but now we just walk everywhere. We're planning on getting bikes on P-Day! 

The new apartment is pretty nice with just a few downsides. The washing machine is broken so every time you wash clothes it overflows with water everywhere. However, it's balanced because we have a mini-fridge and a couch! Our new roommates are Elder Percival and Elder Jones. Elder Percival is training Elder Jones which is pretty interesting. Reminds me of a couple months ago haha. Those two Elders are pretty awesome! Elder Jones took a year at college before going on a mission and he's pretty cool. Elder Percival is going into the Airforce and he's jacked out of his mind. Every morning, Elder Percival also makes a banana, spinach, and peanut butter smoothie and there's always extra so he gives it to me which is pretty awesome. I get a free smoothie every morning!

Right now, we're doing so well with teaching and finding people! A complete turn around from our first transfer. It feels so good to prepare for lessons and then give them. Watching people progress in the gospel of Jesus Christ is literally the best feeling ever. Currently, we have 3 people on date to be baptized in the next month. Harlie is still progressing at an incredibly fast rate and were super excited for her baptism! Last lesson with her she basically described The Tree of Life story in the Book of Mormon exactly without ever hearing about it so we gave that to her to read this week. Gracie is still ready to be baptized and now we're just waiting for her dad to be ready to do the baptism. What's cool is really soon we're going to be teaching her brother and her step-mom! Elder Rehkow and I are super excited for that. Adrianna also accepted a tentative date to be baptized and we're going to talk to her parents on Monday and hopefully they will let her be baptized. We're a little worried about it but I have faith that it will work out. Everyone else we're teaching are pretty hard to schedule with but hopefully we can meet in the future. 

We had an interesting experience on Friday. Elder Rehkow and I just finished personal study when I get a call on my phone. I answer and say "This is Elder Rehkow and Pack for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, how can we help you?" Some guy we've never heard before answers back and says "Hey this is Bill!" We're just sitting there like uhhhh.... who? We ask for his last name and then it clicks together. Apparently Bill was taught by the Elders a long time ago and he still had our number. He needed some help cleaning out his garage and wanted to do a Bible Study so were like "Yeah absolutely were down for that!"

So we help Bill out for like 3 hours and he goes through his whole life story and its so cool. He's such an incredible person! He also asked us a lot of questions and he liked it a lot, so we set up a time to meet this week! It was pretty awesome. Since it took so long he took us to dinner which was pretty great. Also apparently, this guy worked at area 51 and told us some crazy stories.

So, everyday this week, members keep giving us cookies. Not even joking. Its happened every single day. Members have made cookies or bought cookies and have given them to us. On Saturday, we finally thought we weren't going to get cookies, and then at the very end of the day we stopped by someone's house and they bought us a bunch of girl scout cookies. Yeah so now we have 4 boxes of girl scout cookies.

Another funny thing this week was getting a road sign. There is a member in the ward who is a part of the HOA and takes down the old road signs after a while. So while we were there I asked if I could get a street sign and so now we have a street sign hanging in our apartment.

To finish off, I wanted to share an awesome quote my companion shared with me. I thought it was so cool and I can't help but share it. 

"Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, or tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying the teachings of Jesus Christ in your life. As you do so you are changed to become more like Him."

The name of the person who said this was Lawrence Corbridge or something along those lines. He was a mission president at some point. This is why we are here, to become the best we can be and return to our Heavenly Father. He sent us here to learn and grow and when we apply the teachings of Jesus Christ in our lives, we can do that.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week and I want you all to know that I am loving working in Las Vegas. This area has been incredible and I cherish every moment. This is the Lord's work and can't wait to write to you again next P-Day.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack