It's like dementia up in here!

 Hola! 

I have hit my 8 month mark today as a missionary! It's pretty neat but like means nothing in the long run. It's still kinda fun though. 8 just seems like a big number I guess. I'm above the age of accountability now haha. Anyways let's just get right into the week.

Okay so nothing has really changed with people we're teaching right now. No new updates and not many cool stories to tell. We haven't met with Jabri because he's been busy and I'm super sad about that. I love talking with him so much. We've focused a lot of our efforts on less active members right now. We've exhausted a lot of our efforts hitting up part member families and all that so now we're just going after the less active. This ward has 200 individuals regularly attend church but there are 700 in the boundaries. Sooooo.... We've just been grinding on those. We've got a lot of families to come back to church and it's pretty cool to see the fruits of our efforts there. Yeah also so Eric's baptism had to be pushed back, unfortunately. I was pretty sad. I hyped it up last week and it didn't even happen. Should happen sometime in August though.

Church was good. We helped out a friend teach a Sunday school class which was pretty cool. It's fun to be asked gospel questions or deep questions and then answer them pretty easily. It's very satisfying haha. That's like the only thing I'm good at. Actually, we helped move  that same friend the other day and then they took us out to breakfast. Man! getting fed all the time is so good but it's destroying me. I've gained so much weight. I mean it was probably good for me because I was so skinny but I've gained like 20 pounds. 

Mud Mask on my comp

You know now that I think about it I get fed a lot here. Everyone here is so nice and awesome. The people in this ward are fairly old too and so kind. They're like my grandparents. It's so awesome. They like to fatten us up and are just so awesome, like spending time with your grandparents. I'm having a great time here in this ward and with Elder McGee. There is an awesome member here that gives us so much free stuff. The other day he gave us melons to take back to our apartment but we were on bikes so we biked with one hand and the other hand we each held a giant melon. It was great. Awesome. Crashed again but it was fun. We are still planning on what we're going to do with them.

Some legit fish we found at some Mexican market

Yeah so I got super sick this week for some reason. All of a sudden I just got shrocked with a cold. It was pretty bad. Hopefully it wasn't Covid but I heard a lot of missionaries got a cold or something. My roommates got it to and they ended up quarantining. Hopefully I didn't get anyone else sick but I didn't really quarantine soooo. I was too busy on the grind. The other elders had a great time in quarantine apparently. We came back and the apartment was completely covered in sticky notes. They're  for Elder Llontop since he doesn't speak English. It's like dementia up in here! There's a sticky note with English words on everything so Elder Llontop can learn them. Its kinda interesting but fun I guess haha....

Sticky notes are everywhere!

Other than that not really much happened this week. My back bike tire is going flat so I'm pretty sure there is a slow leak but I'm just too lazy to fix it. Oh I also made sugar cookies this week! That was neat. I burned them so that kinda stinks. They were really bad honestly. 

My burnt cookies

I read this cool scripture the other day and it's pretty much my favorite scripture now. It's Proverbs 27:17.

17- Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Basically what it's saying is that when you have a positive attitude it rubs off on others. People sharpen other people. We can sharpen the countenance of our friends and families. You can't change some circumstances you've been given, so what you choose is to sharpen yourself. Have a good or bad attitude. The choice is yours. Iron sharpens iron! I don't know it just sounds cool. 

I love you guys so much and am so thankful you read my emails. Sorry this one wasn't kinda short and boring but it basically sums up this week.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

I Crashed My Bike!

 Hola otra vez,

This has been the fastest week of my entire life. I feel like that every week, but this one is for reals. Seriously, P-Day just rolled up on me again. I feel like my letter last week was kind of just me complaining haha. Sorry about that, I think I was just sad. This heat has really messed with my brain. Honestly life here is actually really great, and I see so many miracles and blessings. I guess I was overwhelmed last week. This week was way better though. Lots of things happened this week so let's just jump right into it.

Wyatt's baptismal date got pushed back to August. Kinda lame but whatever I guess. Originally it was for the 24th of July but it's alright. Wyatt wants some of his family to perform the baptism and they're out of town until August. I totally respect that but hopefully I stay this transfer then so I can see the baptism. Family is always more important than some random missionary haha. We are still teaching Amber and Cody. Also we met this random guy named Jabri. Jabri is literally so cool. He just pulled up his van on the side of the road as we were walking by and was like, "HEY! I've got some questions for you guys!! Why are we here on earth? Why do bad things happen?" And we're like haha glad you asked. We've taught him a couple times now and he said he wanted to come to church! He never showed up though... we'll give him benefit of the doubt but we will be super hyped to see him and his family at church.

We also had a fire couple of lessons with Edward. Edward was a guy we ran into and he is super cool. It's so interesting because every time we come over to share a lesson he comes outside at the same time. It's an interesting coincidence... We gave him a Book of Mormon and this guy has just been absolutely feasting on it. He said he wants to come to church too and learn more. It's nice to teach and watch people progress. 

Just a random picture of us

So a couple days ago, Elder Caldwell calls me and says, "ELDER PACK GUESS WHAT?" And I'm like "what" and he says, "ERIC IS GETTING BAPTIZED!" And I was like, "BRUH WHAT?" And that's not even the coolest news. Eric has asked me to perform the baptism. He wants me to baptize him! I was so hyped. If you remember, Eric was this 9 year old we found and taught last transfer. I didn't think his parents would let him be baptized but here we are. Hearing about that news literally made me cry. I was so hyped. Elder Caldwell called me during dinner and we were eating buffalo wild wings so I could've been crying because of that too. I got some crazy spicy wings that day. Anyways, that happened. His baptism is on the 17th so be prepared for some pictures next week. 

This week we went to zone conference again and it was a blast. Probably the best zone conference I've been to. There were a lot of good trainings and president laid down some fat bars during his talk. I saw some old friends too! Everyone from Vegas Zone were there and some people from Elkhorn Springs. Elder Caldwell and Elder Rehkow were there. We reminisced on old memories. I forgot how much I missed Elder Rehkow and we had so many dumb memories together. During zone conference I even got a new oil vial which was lit. I lost my previous one haha.... 

My new vial of oil

Elder Zuniga, Sister Sellers, and I (They are from my MTC district)

Our District

The Lone Meadows Zone

I love my companion so much. He is literally so awesome. It's so refreshing to lighten the mood with Elder McGee. We are so different but very similar at the same time. It's fun. It's so hot all the time and pretty miserable but with Elder McGee life is actually pretty good. During exchanges I get pretty sad. I'm pretty spoiled with Elder McGee. I know that the Lord is probably giving me so many blessings and then Elder McGee will get transferred and I'll be super sad. 

Spanish frosted flakes Elder Llontop brought and they suck.

Elder McGee and I messing around

Yeah so my bike went through some garbage this week. I crashed my bike and also go two flat tires. It was kind of thrilling to be honest. Time slowed as I jumped over my handlebars and landed on my feet. My bike got shrocked but I was okay. My bike is still doing some weird stuff to this day. Then I got some flat tires after rolling over glass. Las Vegas always has glass and some other interesting stuff on the road haha.... It was chill though because we rolled up to the church and called our next appointment. Then Brother Barker came in clutch and gave us a ride.

Brother Barker fixing my bike

When Brother Barker gave us a ride and then took us to target I was so thankful. I don't really deserve some of the blessings I've been given but here we are. Brother Barker literally bought me a new tire and fixed it for me. Without him I would've been so stuck. Without members I'm literally nothing. We need members so much. Brother Barker is such a dog. Sometimes we take for granted the members but I am so thankful for them. Missionaries without members is kinda like hands without fingers. Actually that's kind of a weird analogy but you get the point. Yeah you need member help. If you can't have the members testify and invite then you kinda are stuck. I know I have a huge testimony of member work and without them I would be so stuck. 

Anyways thanks so much for reading my emails! I hope you all have a great week! 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack