I got the vaccine! (Part 2)

 Hola otra vez! 

Its so nice to write again this week! So many things happen throughout the week that it's getting hard to remember everything. It's for sure a roller coaster and after a couple days you're just like "what the heck actually happened." After around 30 days I finally got the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine! I got it on the 20th of May and at first it really wasn't that bad. My arm stung for the first day but other than that I was doing well. Then I woke up the next day and I just felt like I got hit by a bus. I was so tired and my body was sore and I just was like "what the actual bruh." But I still went with my day, we had two lessons that day and I just was not in the best mindset to teach. Ibuprofen really helped but once it wore off I was so tired. Then I woke up the next morning and was completely normal. Everything was fine! 

We met a new person named Lesa the other day! We asked if we could share a message with her and she was like sure I got time. So we taught her the Restoration lesson and how God loves her and all that stuff. Then we talked about prophets and the Bible and then talked about the Book of Mormon. It doesn't replace the Bible but it is another witness that Jesus is the Christ. We gave her a copy and asked her to pray to ask God if it was true. So the next morning we texted her to see if she prayed and she said that she did! She prayed at night and in the morning. We asked her about what she thought and how she felt and she was like "I felt great!" So we're just like yeah that's The Holy Ghost telling you its true and she's like "yeah I know." It was pretty cool to be honest.

Most people I teach struggle with praying over the Book of Mormon. They either forget or just choose not to. Like I literally don't get that. All you have to do is read from it and ask God with a desire to know and if you listen carefully and wait, you will feel the Holy Ghost. I taught this one guy named Wendell once and this guy was taught for like years and would never read the Book of Mormon or pray about it. That's so ridiculous! Faith requires work, like any muscle you need to exercise it. If you want to know if its actually true then read from the book and pray. Just start with 5 minutes a day! If you're taking lessons then this really isn't that much of a hard requirement because its just 5 minutes each day. Anyways that's my rant, just read the book please. 

Buddy got out of the hospital! Let's goooooo! He and Rose went to the ward picnic too and got to meet a lot of people. It was pretty cool! He is so elect but we just haven't put him on date to be baptized due to random things getting in the way. During church, Rose learned about all the experiences the early Saints had to go through and she started crying. Its kinda interesting to think that people don't even know about the early pioneer saints and all the persecution and garbage they went through. The life they lived with all the hate was brutal and then on top of that to live through everything on their trek west. Just the fact that Joseph was willing to die for The Book of Mormon, something that critics say he fabricated, was amazing! Why would he give a fire testimony of the Book of Mormon right before he knew he would meet his creator. If he made up this book, was murdered, then met God, well it would be really awkward. No man, so focused on God and gaining eternal life, would ever do that! 

Elijah, Leanna, and Eric are not making really good progress, and I honestly don't really know what to do with them. Elijah could be baptized but won't stay active at all. This ward probably wouldn't support him and I know for a fact that his grandmother is not taking him to church. I'm just in a pickle right now.

We met this lady a couple days ago and she was so interesting. This lady was never baptized or anything and she has no friends in the Church but when we ran into her street contacting, she gave the most fire testimony of temples. She said that they were the closest place you could go to feel God's presence. We're just like wow! That's so awesome! You should come to church with us and she was like no I'll never be baptized. You should've seen Elder Caldwell's face. He squinted and was like "bruh??" So one thing about Elder Caldwell is when someone says their not interested, then he immediately gives up and speed walks away. I'm kinda hesitant on doing that sometimes, some people just need you to say the right words and they will be a bit more intrigued. For example, with this lady. Elder Caldwell is about to dip and I grab him and I'm just like wait a second elder. "So let me get this straight, you believe that temples are of God and just being on the temple grounds you can feel his presence?" She's says yep. So I said, "Have you ever been inside?" No but I've seen pictures. "Would you like to go inside?" She was a bit more intrigued after that. She said that we could come over next week and talk about temples and what she can do to go inside one day. We even got her phone number. So we'll see how far this will go with her but hopefully we can help her feel the spirit that she feels when she is around the temples. 

Just a couple things before I end the email! So first of all, now the mask ban has lifted in church and a lot of other places in Nevada. It's pretty hype so now we don't have to wear masks in church. If you still want to social distance and have masks on then there is a section really far away so people can do that. But I'm like so excited just to sit there and not have a mask on. Its so cool. Next I had a fun experience on Friday. The Lord takes such good care of his missionaries. Like he is literally in the details of my life. So usually I have water with me so I don't die in the desert.  This time I didn't and I was really thirsty. We were walking down this road in 98 degrees and I was like, "yeah I'm pretty thirsty." We had already been walking for an hour. Elder Caldwell offered to turn around to the car to go get some water but I thought for a moment and said "no, I have faith." And then not even 5 steps later a random truck pulled up and said we looked thirsty, gave us some water, and drove off. 30 seconds after saying out loud that I needed some water I was walking around with a cold water bottle in my hands. Little things like that happen so much as a missionary and its crazy! 

A random walker in our apartment???

Anyways this week was pretty wack, honestly. Life with Elder Caldwell is pretty crazy. He is just insane and I'm just kinda like going with the flow. But life as a missionary is good. I'm thankful for this opportunity to be here and I hope you all have a great week! 

The view out of my apartment

Our kitchen

Our apartment

Sincerely,

Elder Pack