Humble Yourself, and Call Upon God

 Hola,

This week I realized something. I was looking back on my time here as a missionary and this thing is going by way too fast. Seriously, it's flying! In just around the time of two transfers, I'll have been set apart as a missionary for a year. A whole year!!! And I hit 9 months this next week. That's even more wack. People can have a child in 9 months! People literally have children and give birth in that amount of time. Anyways let's talk about my week.

Elder McGee is still a beast and we're still on the gas. It's pretty cool seeing the fruits of ours labor and the zone notices it too. I know we shouldn't boast about it and all, but I relate it to the 26th chapter in Alma, where Ammon gets called out for boasting but he says he is 'boasting in his God'. So that's what I'm going to do. Heavenly Father is so good to us and providing us with plenty of people to teach and to see miracles. Having 2 people on date and potentially more is so sweet. I know that it's not us or our doing that has convinced these people to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ, but the Spirit which testifies of truth. We have seen miracles and our success is apparent. What's also pretty cool is we have a senior missionary couple in our ward and they have accompanied us on lessons, they then later told us and have pointed out our success and teaching skills to President Reese. So that is pretty neat. I'm just so thankful to be with just an awesome companion and grinding in this tough time with him. 

Speaking of my companion, Elder McGee and I have achieved almost FULL companion unity. As missionaries it's really good to learn to be ONE with your companion. Elder McGee and I have learned to teach in the Savior's way and be in unity. It's pretty sweet, it's almost like we're reading each other's mind and can prepare and predict for what the next person is going to say. Not going to lie, it's pretty cool. When we go to share scriptures, afterwards we talk about how that was the same scripture the other person was thinking of to share. And we don't have to do that looking thing at each other to signify that it is the other person's turn to speak. It's so powerful and awesome. THE ONLY thing that we are not one on is which Spiderman movie we think is the best. Elder McGee and I literally got in a heated debate twice this week about Spiderman movies. We agree on everything except for that. So we compromised by agreeing to watch all the Spiderman movies together after the mission. Elder McGee thinks that the Andrew Garfield "The Amazing Spiderman" movies are the best. I was about to throw hands when he said that. Just so you know, that is a completely incorrect opinion and he is wrong. Those movies are buns.

Anyways, the sisters in the ward are pretty fun. They haven't stolen any of our dinners which is nice, but, what's weird is that they accompany us on each dinner. So since we get fed almost every night, we have dinner with the sisters and a member almost every night. It's interesting. Sometimes the member just sits there silently and it's like a double date which is a little weird but I try to not think about it too much. Sister Harris and Sister Black are fun, they both are Portuguese speaking (sort of) and are also in the Portuguese branch that covers the whole mission. Sister Black is technically Spanish Speaking but they reassigned her to speak Portuguese this transfer. I think that's so interesting because there are so many Portuguese speaking sisters who would love to be in the Portuguese branch for the entire mission and learn Portuguese but instead they put a Spanish Speaking Sister there and told her to learn Portuguese. That's a little odd but hey whatever I just work here. Also, we trade off giving short spiritual thoughts in dinners and I've never seen Sister missionaries teach before and it's just a weird vibe. They are just so bubbly. I also got to take a look at some of the sister's scriptures and they are just impossible to read. Every verse is highlighted with a different color and it's like a Unicorn puked all over them. They just have a different way of doing things I guess. 

Lately we've been taking members with us whenever we knock member doors in the area and that has been pretty effective. Lots of less active families have returned after visiting them. We took with us Brother Wiser one time and this guy is just a beast. We literally just stood there as he dominated every contact. He literally spoke with everyone that breathed outside and found potential interested people. He's basically a cheat code. Although the downside is he is too powerful. We ended up just standing there listening to them talk for like hours. It was kinda awkward since we were just watching them from the distance trying to jump into the conversation. But, Brother Wiser is still a dog though. He's a beast. 

I went on exchanges again this week and I finally got to go to the Truman House on the mission. So, there is this legendary apartment where Elders live on the mission called the Truman House. I now understand why it's so legendary. It's not even an apartment, it's a whole house. Brother Truman has a lot of land and two houses so he let's the Elders live in his second house. Literally 6 Elders live there and that is just a huge mistake. Most of the district leaders and the zone leaders live there so it's not too bad. But we literally get a whole flippin house. There is legit a basketball court and pickleball court in the backyard for morning workouts. Also the Truman's supply them with sodas every single day. It's seriously too nice of living conditions. There is wifi and everything. Like what?!? That's not all, the Truman's have breakfast with them every Sunday morning, and they supply the Elders with legit frozen bags of Chick-fil-A chicken. The same frozen chicken they use at Chick-fil-A. I don't even know how the Truman's get it but whatever. OH! I almost forgot, they have a whole massage chair too. Seriously, that's not even all, there is so much more. Living there would be so sweet. Anyways it's safe to say that exchanges there were pretty sweet. Except I ran into a cactus on my bike and got another flat tire. That kinda sucked. I think I've had 6 flat tires this transfer. 

So we taught Javier and Marita again. Javier is so elect and we could totally baptize him today if we wanted but we want to teach him everything first. Marita however has a lot of questions and doubts and won't except a baptismal date. We taught the plan of salvation and she had SO many questions. Luckily Elder Child and Llontop were there and could answer hard questions in Spanish. They came in clutch. I know that if she prays and asks God then all of her doubts will go away. She just needs to humble herself down and get rid of her pride. She needs to ask God in sincere prayer wanting to receive an answer, and God will let her know through the Holy ghost. That's what Javier did which was so cool. After the first lesson he literally prayed and received an answer from God and knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was true. Javier is so awesome. That's honestly all it takes and seeing Javier do that is so powerful. They made us Peruvian tres leches cake and it's so good. That cake was so delicious. Way better than Mexican tres leches cake. Also Javier did the hugest leap of faith. We needed him to come to church Sunday but he works Sundays so we promised him in the name of the Jesus Christ that if he exercised a particle of faith then he would find a new job. Then during our next visit he told us he can come to church every Sunday because he quit his job and got a new job. And his new job has better hours and better pay. Because he took a leap of faith he is now experiencing blessings. It's literally so sick.

Wyatt and Javier are still on date but Marita is struggling accepting one, but we will keep working with her. This transfer has been one of the best transfers so far on my mission. I've loved my time here in Las Vegas in the Cheyenne ward with Elder McGgee. I know that this church is the only one true church led by Jesus Christ and that God is real. I know that there are prophets today who talk with God and we can communicate to God through sincere prayer. If you ask God, you will receive an answer but you have to humble yourself down and ask with real intent. Lose your pride and experiment on a particle of faith. Take a leap of faith and try something new. Plant the seed and watch it grow. From my experiences and my studies, I have come to understand the point of existence and realize that God is REAL and that the Book of Mormon was translated the exact same way Joseph said it was. Throw away your pride and call upon God in sincere prayer and watch the miracles abundantly pour into your life.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack