Surprise Baptism

 Hola,

What a fun week. We grinded hard to find new people to teach and we found... no one. But that's okay. We worked really hard with the members and tracting so I'm not sweating. This is just a tough area, it's really nice and rich and sadly all our progressing people are out in Sandy Valley which is an hour away from me. 

We had a stake breakfast where the entire zone showed up which was cool. I love seeing the stake come out and support the missionaries like that. We had a bunch if biscuits and eggs, it was super fun.

One of our members has a Hedgehog which was cool. His name is Quillium. Apparently, Hedgehogs are high maintenance, and you need to bath them daily. It's because they poop and run around in it 24/7. If you don't wash them then they smell like hot garbage. The Hedgehog was actually kind a cool though and he eats mealworms and BABY MICE. So, we fed it dead baby mice which was epic.

Fun story Elder Muraski and I were driving on the way to a dinner, and we were playing with this super filled water bottle. Elder Muraski grabbed it from me while we were driving, and he put it behind his back to itch his back and it popped open and got the seat and his butt wet. He looked like he pooped his pants. He didn't want to drive back to the apartment to change his pants, so we went to the dinner while his pants looked all wet. It was hilarious. He was so mad and of course I felt bad, but I was laughing. The best part is that the family that were having dinner with had some extended family in town and one of their super attractive daughters answered the door and I was thinking the whole time how awesome this was. When we were inside the whole time, he was trying to face them in such a way that they didn't see his butt. The mission is awesome. 

I had my second to last zone conference. It was themed on boxing, and we compared the word of God to boxing. It was pretty cool. It was honestly a super fun zone conference. I saw a lot of my friends too which was cool.

It's September now which means it's starting to cool down in weather a little bit. That's super nice. What's crazy is I have exactly two months left before I go home. November is coming to quickly.

Elder Dawson messaged me a couple days ago and told me about how someone we taught was getting baptized. So, I asked my mission president and he let me go. I saw the baptism for 3 girls that I found and taught last transfer. It was pretty cool. They are all from Belize and speak English, so they got baptized in the English ward instead of Rainbow Vista. The service was pretty good, and the spirit was strong. It's cool to see them choose to be baptized and I didn't even know they were still being taught which was cool. It's crazy how we can affect people and not even know the effects. 

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord

-1 Corinthians 15:58

Sincerely, 

Elder Neil Pack

The Return of Elder Plaster

 Hola,

What an awesome week. I don't have a lot of time, so I need to speed run through this. But it's crazy how my mission is quickly coming to an end. I'm in such a fun area to end my mission.

We had a temple trip. That was awesome. Three zones pulled up to the temple so there was hecka missionaries there. It was a very spiritual experience and day to remember.

Elder Plaster is back! He's in my zone and he was at the temple. For those of you who can't remember who he was, I trained him a year ago and he is one of my best friends. The companionship unity was still as strong as ever when we saw each other. He is in Pahrump so he rarely comes down to see the rest of the zone. Then we went on exchanges with the Pahrump elders twice. I basically spent a ridiculous amount of time with Elder Plaster. We went on exchanges, and it was like old times. It was cool to see Elder Plasters growth and he's become a super good missionary now (he was before but now he's even better).  We actually found someone to teach named Erin which was awesome. Then we found a storm drain tunnel thing and explored around in it. That was pretty cool.

Exchanges in Pahrump was hilarious. We went hiking through some sand washes that morning and the rest of the day was so fun. It's kinda built like Sandy Valley except with more stuff. Still felt like the middle of nowhere though. We had an incredible first lesson with this family that invited us inside. The spirit was super strong as we testified and taught. What's super interesting is later one of the little girls came in and started asking questions. We wanted to say a closing prayer and then she asked, "what's a prayer? What's a God?" It was super cute and then she kept asking to say the prayer. She was super excited. Literally the most elect little kid ever. Pahrump is super awesome though, such a great area to serve. 

We went to Sandy Valley and had back-to-back lessons all day, it was awesome. We found 2 new people to teach and one of them will definitely be baptized next transfer. If we play our cards right, then all will work out with her. Her name is Cynthia, and she is the wife of a member. She wants the church in her life. I'm super excited to start teaching her but the problem is that she lives in Sandy Valley and that's an hour away. But... it'll all work out, I'm sure.

Our teaching pool is kinda small, but we have the whole ward praying for us and I have hope everything will be okay. 

"And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared."

-Ether 12:32

Sincerely,

Elder Neil Pack