I have an eggplant.

 Hola, 

Well, we started the new transfer! Transfers are always so shocking and it can be pretty crazy with new changes. I already talked about that last week, but now I got to find out what was new haha. Let's just hop right into it. 

So as teaching goes, we are still teaching the same people, Cody, Amber, Wyatt, Jabri, Javier, Marita, and more. But we found two new people this week which was cool. They seem pretty interested but we'll see what happens. We teach so many restoration lessons and then come back for another appointment and they're like, "haha psych! I actually don't care about learning more or praying about the Book of Mormon." I love teaching all of these people though. I am most excited for Wyatt's baptism on the 28th. Everyone we're teaching is pretty cool and they keep commitments well which is good. 

So there are some new changes with the Lone Meadows Zone and in the Cheyenne Ward. First of all, 70% of the original missionaries here dipped and we got a bunch of new ones. Also, we got 32 new missionaries in the mission and mostly everyone here in this zone is training a new missionary, except Elder McGee and I. It's kinda fun having so many newbies in the zone. Also Elder Zuniga returned to this zone again, so that's pretty neat. Seems like it's going to be an excellent transfer. ALSO, our ward go shrocked when we found out were not the only missionaries in our ward anymore. We have 2 sets of missionaries, and they're sisters. Their names are Sister Harris and Black and they seem fun. Now we have to work together and I don't really know how were going to do that so we are going to have a free for all. They also cover the Portuguese branch so they're balancing both assignments. And of course they have a car and we are stilling chilling on the bikes. 

Also speaking of the bikes, I popped both of my tires again. I was so angry. The road here is just completely covered in glass and garbage. We checked the rims again and tubes to make sure there wasn't anything inside that was poking them. I'm so frustrated and hate this junky bike. But, I'm too lazy to waste P-Day time to get a new one. That's 4 flat tires in the past two weeks. I guess I'm just going to have to buy new rims or something. 

And that's about it for this week. Super lame and super boring. Actually, something fun did happen. We got an eggplant from a member. So now we are going to figure out a way to cook eggplant. Maybe someday this week we will throw some garbage together and make something fun with the eggplant. I imagine it might be good in a soup or something. 

I'm actually kinda glad there are Sisters in the ward now though. Even though they're stealing all our member dinners and baptisms... haha just kidding... no they're actually helpful. This ward is really big and their help is much needed. Everyone loves sisters so much more than elders though. When the sisters came in they were swarmed by the members during church. I was like bruh. So now it might be a competition with them no biggie. 

Anyways this week went by super fast and not a whole lot to talk about but I will share a short scripture because I LOVE short scriptures. 

"29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another." - 3 Nephi 11:29 

This means I shouldn't be mad and yell at my dumb bike because that is the spirit of contention. I also run into a lot of people that want to fight but this scripture is a good reminder of my purpose and who I represent. I represent Jesus Christ and He doesn't fight. Enough said. 

I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that Jesus is Real. I know that because I have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. Because of that, I know I can live with my family forever. Thank you all so much for reading my emails and I wish the best for all of you. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

We tye-dyed t-shirts (this ones mine)

Quarantining is not fun!

 Hola todos,

Here we are again with another week down. This whole mission thing goes by way too fast. This week has definitely been an interesting one full of miracles and insanity. Looking back on it, it was a pretty fun week. Transfers were this week which is crazy! This transfer with Elder McGee has gone by so fast. Luckily there is no new changes in our companionship. Our roommates are the same too. We're just chilling together. We're still on bike and are just over the Cheyenne Ward. Glad I still have Elder Llontop too. I love that guy and he teaches me good Spanish. 

Me wearing Elder Llontop's glasses

First of all, the people were teaching are still the same. Wyatt moved his date AGAIN to the 28th of August. Hopefully this will be the last postpone but I'm gonna be real sad if I can't make it to his baptism if it goes out of this transfer. Jabri, Amber, and Cody are still where we saw them last and we have a bunch of other people we're teaching but they aren't really progressing that well. However, we found two new people that are very promising! I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to be baptized this transfer! Javier and Marita are the most humble and awesome people I have met on my mission. So basically, we did a member lesson with the Hanson family and they are from Peru and mentioned that they wanted us to come over for dinner and try Peruvian food. Then we had this delicious Peruvian dinner and it was so good and I wish I could've gotten seconds but it's alright. Anyways the Hanson's has family staying with them from Peru who don't speak a lot of English so they joined us for dinner. We did a spiritual thought in Spanish after dinner and Marita and Javier were super interested. Elder McGee doesn't speak any Spanish so it was really all on me and I was freaking out a little bit. I actually did a pretty good job and we talked about the Book of Mormon.

What's awesome is that Javier and Marita wanted to read the book of Mormon and come to church. They literally came to church Sunday and couldn't understand anything because it was in English but they really liked it. THEN we came back for dinner again and had another lesson in Spanish and gave them copies of the Book of Mormon in Spanish(they had them in English and Javier read the whole introduction in English). We finally set up a time to come back with the Spanish branch elders(Elder Child and Llontop) to teach them the restoration. And that all happened in the past week. Just an incredible miracle. 

I know it's cliché and cheesy but those two lessons were the strongest I've felt the spirit ever. I wish I could've said that my Spanish was perfect but it really wasn't. But what I do know is that because of what we said they are reading and praying about the book of Mormon. I may not have said everything perfectly but they are progressing and that's what matters. I'm just excited to do a restoration lesson in Spanish next week with Elder Child and Llontop. Those lessons were so powerful and they will be moments I will never forget for the rest of my life. 

I'm still trying to memorize 20 new words in Spanish everyday. It's definitely helping my Spanish TONS. I may not have all of them perfectly memorized that day but when I need them in conversation they are brought to my memory which is cool. I've gotten to a point in my Spanish where I know the grammar and how to speak but I just need more vocabulary so that's really what I'm focusing. Oh and understanding what people are saying. It can be crazy sometimes. I literally don't understand anything anyone says when they're from Chile or Peru. It can be really tough understanding Javier and Marita. People from Mexico are so easy to understand and I love it. Their Spanish is so clear. 

We got a call Wednesday night by the bishop and he asked us to give a priesthood blessing to an older lady in the ward. She had pancreatic cancer and it looked like she was not going to make it, she wanted us to give her and her family a blessing of comfort as she passed. Hearing about her story left me so devastated. I remember knocking on the door with Elder McGee at 8 pm and seeing her and her family, it was definitely a humbling experience. I didn't perform the blessing, Elder McGee did, but I could feel the spirit so strongly as he said the blessing upon her head. I felt the love that Heavenly Father had for her and her family. I know that whatever happens in this next month she will be at peace. What was cool was after the blessing, a gentleman approached us and asked if he could be baptized. Apparently it was her sisters boyfriend and he hasn't been baptized yet but he wanted to be apart of the church. That was pretty neat. We setup a time to come back and teach him. 

I made brownies in quarantine!

Another downer was the fact that I may have accidently gotten the whole zone sick. Remember how last week I mentioned that I was a little sick and so were my roommates? Well, a lot of other people are sick and I realized it might've started with me haha... yeah so now Elder McGee is super sick and we talked to our health coordinator over the mission and she said that we had to quarantine for 3 days. You've got to be kidding me. So we ended up just doing Facebook work for 3 days. Quarantine is so boring and NOT fun at all. The only cool thing about it was I literally read the Bible for 3 hours straight. Elder McGee and I were tried to do Bible speed reading and we got pretty into it. Quarantine is still depressing though. What made it a little better was that Elder Llontop and Child quarantined too so we weren't super alone. It was just so boring and I never want to be sick again. I've heard some talk that they might quarantine the whole mission and I really hope that doesn't happen. But since people who are sick are getting transferred I could totally see this spreading through the whole mission because I got sick last week. Oops. 

You know this transfer has been probably one of my favorite transfers so far. My district was fantastic and I felt like I made a huge difference in the Cheyenne Ward. I've had some pretty crazy stories too. I remember at the beginning of this transfer I tried to make crockpot chicken and I accidently left it on over night on the highest setting and it could've exploding and killed everyone but luckily that didn't happen. Instead it just made super tender and delicious chicken. Two flat tires and crashing my bike to constant flash floods everyday, this has been one awesome transfer. It's monsoon season here in Vegas and it's been flooding like crazy. Because of that though it's no longer 117 degrees everyday. It's like 100 so that's neat. 

It is RAINING!

When you ride your bike in the rain it stains your clothes
with muddy Las Vegas mud water.

This has been so wild here. I wish you all could see what I see and do what I am doing. It is really spectacular here and I love being a missionary. My life here is so different than who I was and its like I'm on a constant roller coaster going 900 miles an hour sideways. Sometimes on the roller coaster I want to puke my brains out but really it's a pretty cool roller coaster (quarantining was the puking part). 

I know this church is true and I'm making a difference a difference in the lives of so many people. Thank you for reading my emails and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Pack 

Street contacting with my comp

Quarantining selfie sticky note inception