I shook hands with Elder M. Russell Ballard!

 Hey! 

It's been a little bit since I have a week where a lot had happened, and I get to talk about. It was a great week and definitely some wild stuff has happened.

Elder Rehkow with a rabbit

 

Something definitely went wrong when we tried to fill up the font.

Elder Pukahi and a cat

Okay so first of all, we have had some great lessons with some of our friends. No one is on date to be baptized yet. But that's going to change very soon. We've had some powerful lessons. We're teaching a decent amount of people which is great. That is so fantastic. I really hope though that Elder Plaster and I can take at least a couple of people to the waters of baptism. We definitely have that faith and we're working really hard, but I guess we have to work smarter and be more in tune with the spirit. That is what I want to study for these next few weeks, is being super spiritually in tune. I want to be worthy and smart enough, so I am directed to the elect people. I have the hard-working part down, but I think I need to be more spiritual. 

So last week we heard that there was going to be a special guest speaking to the mission and we found out it was Elder M. Russell Ballard. It was so cool to listen to an apostle of the Lord. I had really good seats while listening to him, literally front row. It was sweet. When he came in it was so unreal. He walked right by me, which was even cooler, I literally could've high fived him. Then he spoke to an elder standing next to me for a long time, but I never quite got to talk with him. He talked for like 3 hours to all of the missionaries in the mission and also the Las Vegas east mission's missionaries. It was super packed with two missions there. We got there really early so we could claim an awesome seat up close. He spoke about so many awesome things, and I wrote most of them down. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever on my mission. Apparently, he came to Las Vegas for a senator's funeral and then came to speak with us afterwards. He like free styled a 3 hour talk without writing anything down which was cool. He spoke about the importance of having the people you teach pray for themselves and how the missionary assignment process works. I wish I could've taken pictures, but they asked us to turn our phones off and not record anything. He talked about some other cool stuff too and mentioned how if you want to baptize more then you should talk to more people. He also said that most of the reason people don't get baptized is because of the way the missionaries are rather than the doctrine so you need to be the best you can. Then because of covid he air shook everyone's hand over the pulpit so technically I shook his hand which was cool. 

After having those incredible spiritual experiences, I had an experience that wasn't so pleasant. I woke up Monday morning feeling like garbage, it was awful. But I'm not a quitter and I'm the kind of Elder to not take a sick day because I'm not wasting a day in my mission. Anyways I went out and felt terrible all day and eventually it got so bad that I couldn't even function. Pretty sure I had covid or something. I told Elder Plaster that I needed to go back to the apartment because I couldn't take it anymore. My whole body hurt, and I had a crazy high fever. It was honestly a miserable experience and I ended up sleeping for 5 hours straight during a nap. I woke up and still felt awful. I was literally moaning in pain (which I have never done before) and after a little bit I asked Elder Plaster to give me a blessing. He agreed and the other Elders had just come home too, and they joined and gave me a blessing. After the blessing I went back to my bed and then 20 minutes later woke up again. I felt perfectly fine and so I got up and started walking around. I felt normal again other than a slight stuffy nose, I felt fine which was pretty insane because I honestly thought I was going to have to go to the hospital 20 minutes ago. I said a prayer of gratitude and told the others I felt great. Only Elder Sorensen was in the apartment because Elder Rehkow and Plaster didn't want to stay in the apartment doing nothing, so they went on an exchange and Elder Sorensen told them that he'd stay with me and clean the apartment. But we stayed in anyways so that way whatever I had didn't spread. That was a very interesting experience. I don't think I've ever gotten a blessing for the sick and afflicted before (that I can remember) and it really gave me a testimony that it works. It was a really cool experience and now I know how important the priesthood is. 

Yeah, so Elder Plaster didn't get transferred and neither did I so I'm still in the Laurelwood ward and I've been with him for 3 transfers, so this is hype. Love Elder Plaster. Excited to be with him for another 6 weeks.

Love you all,

Elder Pack