I Wanna Be A Rattlesnake Hunter

 HOLA!

Life here is really great in the mission field! Not only am I working hard, but it's also a ton of fun. I am very blessed to be in a fantastic ward with so many people. I love meeting everyone in the ward because literally everyone is so interesting. I have only had to make food a couple of times, which has been pretty epic.

One of the coolest people that I've met here is a rattlesnake hunter. This guy, FOR FUN, goes out and captures rattlesnakes alive. The dude just picks them up with a hook and puts them in a bag. Then when he gets back to his house he puts the bag in a freezer so the snake will curl up and look cool then just die. It's pretty awesome. He showed us all his rattlesnakes in his freezer and they all look alive which is freaky but totally awesome. I wish I took a picture. Elder Rehkow is super scared of snakes so he wasn't having it. Since the rattlesnake hunter is in our ward, I asked if we could go snake hunting with him but Elder Rehkow vetoed that. Lame.

Most of the people grew up and still live in Las Vegas. I don't blame them, this place is pretty cool. I mean, I am in the perfect season right now. Even though it's winter, it's 70 degrees. It's so nice! Nights get pretty cold though, especially when your riding a bike and get blasted with some wind. Every time I bring up how nice it is, people can't wait to be negative about the summers here. Apparently the summers here make people go insane. I bet I can handle it though, I'm a tough cookie. Yeah but anyways, it's so nice here.

What my area looks like.

What my area looks like when there is a sunset

Speaking of bikes, WE GOT OUR CAR BACK! The previous elders crashed our car so that's why we were on bikes. I wouldn't mind it if the bike I rented from the mission office wasn't garbage. If I ever get stuck on bike again I'm going out and buying my own, this thing literally was the worst. The best part is that Las Vegas is basically a giant bowl so you feel like your always going uphill. Anyways, we got our car back. They fixed it all up and now it's good as new. Being on bike really gave me a perspective though, I will never take a car for granted. The car is super nice too, it has like bluetooth and stuff. Growing up, I never had bluetooth in my car. What a blessing.

Picture of my bike. It looks big in the picture but its super small. 

Friday was Elder Rehkow's birthday which was pretty cool. Someone in the ward dropped off a ice cream cake and we have been eating ice cream cake every night. Elder Rehkow and I have been getting along well. We are both very different people so sometimes I want to give him a knuckle sandwich. But we are patient with each other so it works out pretty great. One thing weird that I do is I'll just zone out or something and my brain is just completely inactive so I'll end up staring at Elder Rehkow. Every time he thinks I'm mad at him or something but I'm actually just lacking any brain activity.

Elder Rehkow and his birthday brownie
while we were hanging out with some members 

This week a miracle happened. I have been praying for someone to teach because all we have been doing is hanging out with members and that's great and all... but I wanna teach. We were street contacting (basically you just walk around and talk to people and see if there interested in a message about Jesus Christ) and we asked this guy if he was interested about hearing a message about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And he looked at us and was like, Sure. So we set up a time Tuesday when we were going to teach. I'm actually so excited to teach it's crazy. I'll let you guys know about how well it goes next week. 

A tree with some yellow fruit (I don't think they're lemons)

We get fed all the time so this is one of the first meals
Elder Rehkow and I made

Another picture of the bike I had to ride for the last few weeks.

I wish I could express in words my testimony. I am so thankful for my savior Jesus Christ and this opportunity to be a missionary. It has been so awesome and fun and hard at the same time. I know that Jesus really did walk the earth and die for us. And I'm not just saying that, I know for a FACT. I'm grateful for a Prophet in the latter-days that could guide us. 

I love all of you and hope that you can feel God's love in your life. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

A selfie of me walking around

I have HUGE legs!

 Hola!

I can't believe that this week went by this fast. Like seriously, what? I still have yet to have a horrible day so that's super cool. Everyday I'm learning and doing all I can to invite all to come to Christ. It's the most awesome and important work ever. Everyday I am studying and learning how I can be a more effective missionary. Ever since I have been ordained an Elder, I have been more motivated to strive to be like my Savior, Jesus Christ. It's hard to describe, but I am so motivated to do everything I can. I can retain information from my studying and share them without thinking of it. It's actually so cool. I know that I couldn't do this by myself, I have never been good at this kind of stuff. But now it feels natural. 

Each week I want to focus on a Christlike attribute and harness that in my life. This week is humility. I have been doing really well with thinking about the needs of my companion and others before myself. I hope that one day I can be super humble and never have any prideful thoughts come across my mind. Humility, in my opinion, is one of the most important attributes. Through thinking of others more than yourself, you can live a happier life. 

I still have yet to teach a nonmember of the church, right now, Elder Reykow and I are focusing all our efforts on inactive families in the Stone Mountain Ward (our first assigned area). Just today, we had a lesson with a family who have showed interest in coming back to church. We had one of the most awesome lessons I have ever had. I came into the lesson completely unprepared and words and phrases came out of my mouth and I have no idea where they came from. The lesson was so awesome and I could feel the spirit the whole time. The message was clear and I am still in unbelief how we did it. My companion and I never even stuttered and bounced off each other perfectly. 

I had this idea to compare driving a car to following the commandments . The commandments are like stoplights and stop signs. We are required to follow the rules of the road even though we really don't want to. It's so tedious to not just blaze through the stoplight. Because of our obedience though, we can avoid dangers that we never even knew were there. Because we stopped at the stoplight, we didn't get into a car accident. Sometimes though, due to the choices of others,  we get into a car accident anyways. We need to show them love even though it can be hard and be an example of a good driver.

The hardest part about this week has been the biking. We don't have a car because the previous elders crashed into a stop sign and messed up our car. So now we have to bike everywhere. Our apartment is 5 miles out of the area we are assigned, so that sucks. So everyday we bike 5 miles to the area and bike around to appointments until at night, then we bike 5 miles back to the apartment. Even though this may seem like it's pretty bad, my legs are going to get massive. The members make up for it though, there are so many in Las Vegas and they are so nice and feed us all the time. Biking with Elder Reykow has been fun too. Not gonna lie, were are both pretty hilarious, so we run into a lot of great situations. 

Well, I love all of you and I'm so grateful that you listen to my emails. Just know I think about you guys and wish you the best. 

Until next week,

Elder Pack

The cows here

Selfie

Me in an XXXL shirt

A local park

New Years in Vegas!

 Hola a todos!

It has been quite some time since I last sent an email and I'm so sorry about that. These past few days have been pretty insane and I can only email on p-day, which is Mondays. I have to send emails from my phone too since I don't have a computer so hopefully by the time you read this my mom can catch all of my typos. 

Last I wrote to you all was before Christmas so that's really weird. It just shows how fast this year will fly. Since then, I had an excellent testimony meeting with my district and we all said our goodbyes. It was pretty hard saying goodbye to all those people. I felt the spirit in that meeting and I know that all of those people are going to do great things. Then on December 30th, I headed to the airport with my family to say our final goodbyes. It was so hard. But I know at some point in life, we all will have to walk down that lonesome road all by ourselves. For some of us, we already have, and for others, it has yet to come. 

Saying goodbye to my family

That day was one of the longest days ever. After driving and dropping me off at the airport at 5:30 AM Illinois time, I was on a plane and in the airport until 12:30 PM Las Vegas time. I remember the first plane ride and the layover were shorter than I'd thought they would be but still pretty long. My plane had like 10 other missionaries on it so that was cool. 

After arriving in Las Vegas, we all met up with all the other missionaries that arrived that day. What's awesome is I ran into Elder Zuniga (my companion from the MTC) in Las Vegas! It was an awesome reunion. We got to catch up and then we both got a ride from the Mission President to the Las Vegas Temple and then had lunch. After lunch I said goodbye to Elder Zuniga and met my new companion, Elder Rehkow (pronounced Rico). Elder Rehkow is pretty fun and his Spanish is pretty great. Listening to his Spanish kinda makes me feel like trash, but I'm getting better. 

President and Sister Reese

The new incoming group of missionaries

My first apartment is actually super sweet. Elder Rehkow is new to this area as well so that's interesting. When we first got here, it smelled so horrible inside and there was trash and stuff just everywhere. But then we spent the whole day cleaning and now it is such a nice apartment. The previous people in there must have just not cared at all. The other elders in my apartment are nice too. Elder Thayne and Elder Whipple. To describe them just think about some stereotypes of people with those last names and you're probably right. They're great though and we've had so many laughs. We've also gotten super great at playing Jenga. All four of us celebrated New Years Eve by playing Uno Flip and Jenga. 

Elder Whipple about to lose at Jenga

New Years Jenga

Pics of our apartment

 

Most people think that the Las Vegas mission will consist of us going down to the strip and trying to preach to sinners but that is not where we will go ever. Las Vegas has so many members of our church and it's pretty great. I have been fed by them almost every night. One night we were all four walking around  Walmart to get some food and a member offered to buy us so much food. She literally bought us bagel bites, pizza rolls, and basically everything. I feel so blessed to be here. 

Well, before I head out to a new week in the field, I want to share a spiritual thought with all of you. Words of Mormon 1:7 "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, He worketh in me to do according to his will." 

I do not know all things or anything which will come. I'm putting my faith in Him to carry me through this. My life is in completely in his hands now. 

I love all of you, and hope you all had a Happy New Year!

Elder Pack

Christmas!!!

 ¡Feliz Navidad!

As of writing this, it is currently a few days before Christmas. I have no idea when you all will read it so Merry Christmas! I am literally so excited! It's so crazy how Christmas is just around the corner. It feels like yesterday that I started my Online MTC and now I'm in the final week. Pretty soon, I'll fly out to Las Vegas, and then it gets real. This last month with my family has been so incredible and they will have a special place in my heart. Saying goodbye to my friends in the district is going to be hard too. We've gotten so close from these past 6 weeks that I am genuinely sad I won't see them again for a long time. But for now, I am going to cherish every second I have with them. I'm just glad that Facebook exists so we can stay in contact.

The District having a fiesta

Daniel accidentally tears a hole in the Space-Time Continuum while we are teaching him

Elder Wall getting thrown across his room

I am specifically going to miss Hermano Santander, my afternoon teacher. That guy is crazy. The weirdest things happen in those classes. But he is also hilarious. I hope his next district learns to appreciate him as much as we did during our time with him. Since Hermano Santander is a return missionary, we are not too far in age. I feel like because of that we all just connect easier. It makes learning so much fun!

            Hanging out with Hermano Santander

If you are wondering how my lessons and Spanish is going, just know that they are going great. Except for when we teach Rodrigo, I have no idea what I am doing when I teach him. But hey, I'm learning. My Spanish is progressing and earlier this week, I had a normal 15-minute conversation with someone in Spanish. I felt so cool! To be honest, though, I know I don't deserve any credit. God has blessed me with the ability to learn incredibly fast and retain information. Like, I have never learned so quickly and efficiently in my life. In my Spanish class in High School I basically just messed around the whole time. But now, I am remembering things taught to me from High School off of the top of my head. I pray that every day the Lord can keep blessing me with this knowledge. Even though I am not fluent in Spanish or anything, I am learning and hopefully, one day I will be.

Christmas in the Pack house is going to be pretty awesome. My grandparents are in town and we're all just chillin' here. I'm really glad I get to see my grandparents before I leave for my mission. I am also excited to see everyone open their gifts on Christmas Day. I have some gifts too if your wondering but I'm almost positive they're just socks. I also needed a new bike for Nevada, so apparently, I am getting a new bike so that is pretty epic.

This Christmas Season, I hope all of you experience love from our Savior. The comfort and joy I receive from following the path of Jesus Christ is incredible. I know this church is true and that one day we can live with God again after death. I know where we came from, where we are going, and why we were placed on this earth. I know God has a plan for us. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I am so thankful for all of you!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

"Through the power of the Holy Ghost..."

 ¡HOOOLAA!

I hope you all had an excellent week! I know the week for me has been awesome! Christmas is right around the corner and I am so excited. I can't believe that my MTC time overlapped Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was so blessed and got an extra couple of weeks to spend time with my family. It will be hard to say goodbye to them soon, and I am trying not to think about it too much. When I go to the airport and leave on December 30th, I am going to cry my eyes out. But hey! Está bien! I know for a fact that what I am doing is right and nothing is stopping me from fulfilling my calling.

"For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ" 

Doctrine and Covenants 90:11

I am literally fulfilling prophecy! That's pretty epic not even going to lie.

This week in my MTC experience, I had the usual. Lots of studying and feasting. Plenty of incredible experiences and hard ones too. I forgot to mention in past emails, but I am actually teaching lessons in the MTC. Elder Zuniga and I are teaching 15 - 20 minute lessons in Spanish to people over Zoom. Even though they aren't real people requesting missionary discussions, their acting is pretty good. Each lesson I feel like we're progressing a little. We are teaching two different people, Rodrigo and Daniel. Rodrigo knows a lot about the church but doesn't believe that there are really prophets in our day. Daniel literally knows nothing and he is a little awkward. But everything is actually going pretty good and they are both learning and progressing. Also, learning a new language is pretty crazy. Like, there will be times where they will say something to me super fast in Spanish and I'll just be like, bruh, and then there will be an awkward pause. But hey! Está bien! A veces mi español puede ser bueno. Through the holy ghost, I have said some incredible things. There have been so many times where I will say something incredibly fast in Spanish and bear witness to the truth of the gospel and then I'll be like "Wow, how did I do that?"

Elder Zuniga and I have been having a lot of fun together. Everyone in my district is so awesome, but Elder Zuniga is pretty much the best. I hope that I can at least see him once in the field since we are going on the same mission.

Hanging out with Elder Zuniga

I want to share a spiritual thought Hermano Santander shared with me earlier. As a missionary, our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. We do this through missionary discussions and setting goals with them, such as baptism and following his commandments. One of the most important parts of the early discussions is gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We invite individuals after receiving a copy of the Book of Mormon, to ask God and pray whether it is true. If they pray with true intent and a sincere heart, genuinely asking if this is really the word of God, then through the power of the Holy Ghost, individuals will receive an answer about its truthfulness. Hermano Santander said that typically, people do this once and when they receive an answer about its truthfulness, they never ask God again. A testimony is not a one and done thing. It is a process. We are all going through this process right now. He said that we should renew our testimonies every week. We can ask God in prayer every week to find The Book of Mormon's truthfulness and every single time he will deliver an answer. I liked that message from Hermano Santander so I thought I should share it with you all!

"And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things" Moroni 10:5

I love all of you and wish you the best. See you next week! Also, shout out to my Mom for turning all of my emails into a Blog. You're awesome!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

My power levels are increasing!

 ¡Hola Amigos!

I'm back after another week at the Online MTC! Technically, since I'm at the Mexico MTC it is actually called the CCM, fun fact. I look forward to my classes every day. I am particularly fond of my afternoon class by Hermano Santander. He is so funny, and we get to play Kahoots in his class. Every class with him is just so fun. Although, sometimes he will pull a fast one on us and it can be pretty scary. For example, on the schedule, it will say that we are having a grammar lesson, but instead, he surprises us and has us teach a lesson to people over Zoom in Spanish. With no preparation or anything, he just sends us to a Zoom meeting and has us teach people who have no idea how to say anything in English. So that always keeps us on edge. 

Every chance I get, I try to study Spanish and read my scriptures. I am now realizing the importance of the book 'Preach my Gospel.' That book is literally so awesome. There are so many good doctrines and interesting stories in there. Plus, the lesson plans are in there too so that is pretty important. I'm learning so much and harnessing my skills. The more I practice Spanish and learn, the more knowledge and power I gain. My gospel teaching abilities and scripture references are growing and pretty soon, my ultimate power will be immeasurable!!!. Haha just kidding... hopefully one day I'll be able to speak fluent Spanish though, that'd be awesome. I'm not going to sugar-coat anything, but Spanish is hard people. This is taking my whole brain! Although, now I can have conversations with people, so that's pretty cool. The only problem is I stutter like crazy. I'm sure I'll get it down with more practice though.

My District is basically the coolest district ever. We have so much fun together and I have grown to love all of these people. They have become good friends, even though I have actually never met them in person. Two people in my district are actually going to the same mission in Las Vegas, so maybe I will get to see them after the CCM! My companion, Elder Zuniga, is also going to the same mission I am, which is an interesting coincidence. Everyone else in the district is going to Puerto Rico, Chile, or Ohio, or something like that. I am excited for Las Vegas, Nevada though. That will be way awesome. Elder Zuniga and I have a lot of fun and I am so glad he is my companion. 

I have to memorize a lot of stuff as a missionary. I don't think I have ever memorized so much stuff in my life. After all this studying though, I can recite Moroni 10:5, The First Vision, The Mission Purpose, The Baptismal Covenants, and Doctrine & Covenants Section 4 in Spanish from memory. My brain is overflowing with Spanish memorizations. Whenever I am not studying or practicing, I am spending time with my family or playing the piano. I feel like I would never say this before, but now I am actually enjoying practicing the piano. I really like to just pick up a book and sight-read it or learn a really cool song. I wish I felt this way when I was taking piano lessons. I look forward to it every day. Spending time with my family has always been so incredible too. I feel so blessed to have them in my life.  

It was hard at first, but we have slowly adjusted to the passing of Elder Pope. Even though life in the district has seemingly returned to normal, there will still be a hole without Elder Pope. I am thankful for everyone who prayed for his family. I know they really appreciated it. The Pope family has received so much love in this time of need and they have so much peace. I hope that in my future family, I can have a strong testimony of my Savior so when the unthinkable happens, I can feel peace.

I wanted to share a scripture that just came into my head: John 3:16

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

We are all children of our Father in Heaven and He loves us all. He gave his only begotten Son, so that we may obtain eternal life. Just as the Son of God suffered, we will go through suffering. Life is hard and things will happen that will test your faith and abilities. But, we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and I know that He does not give us anything that we can't push through. These hard experiences happen so we can learn and grow. I know this to be true.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to my thoughts. I am thankful for all of you and will see you next week!

Elder Pack

Elder Zuniga and I trying to see who can balance something on our heads the longest

I Will Unlock Photosynthesis

 ¡Hola Amigos!

I am already heading into my 3rd week in the Online MTC! Time has really gone by fast. I have gotten used to the MTC schedule finally which has made these days a breeze. Every day I wake up at 6:30 AM and work out. Then I eat breakfast and after that, I plan for the whole day. It is important to schedule everything I need to do for the day or I'll end up wasting my time doing random garbage. For example, my first week I had never even opened my planner which meant that whenever I got free time, instead of studying or memorizing, I just took a nap or whatever. That is no Bueno! I only have six weeks so I better study a lot. Now I literally plan every minute of my day, but don't worry, I still give myself time to relax and play the piano or something. Anyway, after daily planning, I have a Zoom meeting with my companion. It's called companion study and it's fun to start my day by studying with Elder Zuniga. Every day is different, sometimes we study scriptures or practice Español. Then I have classes with my district for the rest of the day! Yay!  

A picture of my whole district! We feel like a family already

Online MTC is basically zoom meetings all day. Everything is done through Zoom. Staring at a screen all day kind of gives me headaches but that is not really a big deal. Wednesdays however are my P-Day. P-Days are super awesome because I can take a break from Zoom and finally see sunlight. For those of you who don't know, P-Day stands for Preparation Day. Every week, I get one. I don't have any zoom meetings and I can spend the day with my family. I also do things like laundry and stuff to prepare for the week, hence the name. But there really isn't a whole lot to do so I basically just end up sitting outside staring at the sun. Maybe if I do that every P-Day, I will unlock photosynthesis. Since I get bored fast, I also study Spanish a lot on that day. So yeah, Wednesdays are pretty cool.

Another highlight of my day is group studies. I love group language study! I basically get to hang out with a small group in my district and study Spanish with them. We have a lot of fun in our group. I wish we could meet in person though... They're such cool people so these group studies are pretty much the highlight of my day.

My Español Study Group! We meet every day after lunch (I have no idea what Hermana Sellers is doing in that photo so don't ask)

However, this week was not all incredible. There was something very serious that happened recently that I feel prompted to share with you all. On the 1st of December, an Elder in my district lost his life. Elder Pope was in a terrible accident which resulted in him passing away from this life. It was all so very sudden and I am still sad about it. I felt close with Elder Pope and he was a good friend. His testimony was one of the strongest in the district and we shared many memories. When I heard the news of his death that morning, I couldn't contain my frustrations and emotions. No one saw this coming and there were so many things I wish I could have said to him. He was an incredible missionary. I suppose that Heavenly Father had a different agenda for him, a mission more important than any of us could imagine. I know one day I will be able to see this valiant Elder again in the kingdom of our Father. The reason I bring this unfortunate situation up with all of you is to ask for your prayers for the family of Elder Pope. They need much comfort at this time and I hope that you all could find the time to pray for them. The Pope family has so much faith and they know that one day they will be able to see their son again, but that knowledge still doesn't completely take away the pain of losing a loved one. So if you could have the Pope family in your prayers, that would be much appreciated.

A picture of Elder Pope in our Zoom meetings, before his passing

 

I used to think that missionaries were immortal. That I would be completely protected without a doubt. No one is guaranteed this luxury. But with that in mind, I will continue my work. I testify that this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ and that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel. It is true without a doubt in my mind and those who read it will gain the same testimony. Through Christ's atonement, we can be saved. There is a life after death and there is a purpose to why we are here on this earth. 

I love you all so very much and I love reading your emails to me. I am thankful that you all can be on this journey with me.

Elder Pack