Hola todos,
This past week has probably been the weirdest week of my life. So many crazy things happened and this email will only cover the tip of the iceberg. First of all, after getting emergency transferred last Monday, I'm now in the Vegas zone which is pretty different from where I was originally. Elkhorn Springs had a lot of more affluent people with not a lot of missionary work going on while this area is just popping with new people to teach. There are so many people taking the lessons in this area it's insane. The people here are a bit more humble too so when we go out and street contact, people actually listen to our message. It's pretty wild. A lot more people speak Spanish here so I have been able to practice my Spanish and I even got to refer some people to the Spanish Branch elders. I can have conversations with people in Spanish now but I still am awful at it. The communities here are a bit poorer and it can get pretty sketchy at times though. People don't mess with us though because they know who we are! There are a couple people we're teaching that were apart or the gangs here and escaped and some other interesting stories.
My new companion is Elder Caldwell and he is fresh out of the MTC. He got here at the beginning of April and now I get to finish his training! It's kind of cool being the senior companion now and getting to train. He's a good Elder and is really fun to be around. He talks with everyone and knows how to make conversations flow naturally. He is pretty rough around the edges when it comes to teaching but we are working on that. He's just a goofball and a lot of fun.
This area is so different. It honestly feels like a different mission to me. We met quite a few homeless people so we talked with them for a while. We've been teaching some of them every once in a while and one guy actually really loves reading The Book of Mormon. There is another guy that worships Satan and believes Satan is the Messiah, that guy was weird but pretty chill though. The people here are great and I actually get to use Spanish as well. The kids around here are pretty fun too. We were playing basketball with some of the them and they kept calling me an angel. I'm super fair skinned and my hair is so blonde since I'm outside all day. We got a bunch of the kids to go to church too and they loved it! They even bore their testimony in sacrament meeting which was fun to watch. Elder Caldwell helped them a lot with that.
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| Gracie's baptism day! |
This past Saturday was super stressful with the baptism of Gracie. Luckily, President Reece let me go back to Elkhorn Springs with Elder Caldwell to be apart of Gracie's baptism. It was such an awesome experience but things kept going wrong so it stressed me out. I won't talk about too many of the things but one thing that just makes me cringe is the musical hymn afterwards. Without telling me beforehand Elder Rehkow asked me to play a piano hymn at the end and I just suck at piano right now so you can imagine how that went. It was so embarrassing, people were laughing and I just wanted to die. But I kept going through the hymn and pretended I wasn't missing every note. Afterwards, Elder Rehkow apologized for asking me to play and I was like sick thanks. Anyway, just writing about this Saturday makes me want to die so I'm gonna stop. Hopefully Gracie enjoyed her baptism and being able to teach her and watch her progress was an incredible experience.
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| Me draining the font in my suit. |
After getting to the new apartment Monday night, I checked the fridge because I was pretty hungry. Turns out, the previous Elders that were there just chose not to buy food for the week. There was barely anything in there! Since we can only go shopping once a week on P Day, I was like, "What are we going to eat?" Elder Caldwell was like, "I honestly don't really know, The Lord is going to provide I guess."
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| My companion Elder Caldwell |
Somehow we made it a week by scavenging around for some food in the apartment. I'm not getting fed every night anymore so now I have to figure out how to make some legit stuff. Somehow we didn't die. We had miracles upon miracles of people giving us free food. We lived off the land this whole week. haha! What we had to eat this whole week was just milk, cereal, eggs, some tuna, and some bread.
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| My new area |
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| The Vegas Zone |
Although, I'm excited to train and I'm excited to be here. I'm a little nervous but change is good. Its so hard saying goodbye to people and all the friends I made in Elkhorn Springs. Hopefully I can see them again. The people here are really humble and willing to listen to our message. It's so nice being able to teach people and watch them all progress.
I want to share a short spiritual thought for today. It's a short scripture, but I think its really inspiring.
It says in Alma 34:32:
"32- For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors."
I love how the Book of Mormon simply and plainly illustrates God's plan and talks about our purpose in life. Its so comforting to know where I came from, why I am here, and where we are going.
I hope you all have a great week and I super appreciate you taking the time to read my emails! It really means a lot! My life now is so different than what it used to be and this adventure is so new. I'm doing things I'd never thought I'd be doing and actually making a difference in peoples lives.
Sincerely,
Elder Pack
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| Me walking down Iowa Street |
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