Adventures with my Greenie!

 Happy Mother's Day! 

I know you all are reading this like a week after Mother's Day, but I don't care. I got to have an awesome video call with my mom on Mother's Day! I was super thankful for that even though we talk every P-Day haha. This week was definitely much better than last week (mostly because we actually had food). I felt like we were also progressing really well with people we're teaching. We had Buddy and Rose at church the other day and Buddy said he wanted to come every week! We're going to put them on date to be baptized real soon (honestly we should have done that earlier haha). When they were at church, the whole ward fellowshipped them so much! Everyone introduced themselves and told them they that they were so excited to see them there. It was so cool! It made Buddy and Rose feel right at home. 

Elijah is another kid that we're teaching and he is progressing well too! He will probably be baptized before the end of the transfer as well. His grandmother is a member but hasn't been in a while and they ran into us a while back. Elijah was interested in playing basketball so we'd play basketball and then do a lesson. He was so eager to pray about the book of Mormon, it was awesome! He was also excited to learn about the Priesthood and that he could use it. He was like "wait, I can have God's power?" And we're like "heck yeah dude".

This area is crazy! We find people to teach super easy. We meet so many people that sometimes we forgot to contact some people. There are so many names to remember. It's still super fun learning from people and talking with everyone. Just the other day this random dude from Germany invited us inside to have hot dogs. We literally just had dinner but we're like "haha sure okay!" I'm super gullible now like for all I know he could've drugged those hot dogs. 

I got to demo a house on Saturday! This guy wants his whole mansion taken down so he gave us all a sledgehammer and said go to work. So we all just started ripping drywall out and knocking out studs and tearing down everything. At first I thought I didn't need a mask but eventually I started straight up dyeing, so I got a mask to block the dust from getting in my lungs. There was this one point when we were in the basement and some elder just hit the roof and couple times and everything started collapsing and I thought I was going to die. But it was only drywall so we're okay. Also there was a lot of rat droppings in the ceiling so we got a steady fall of rat poop on us while we worked. Afterwards he got us all In-N-Out so that was cool. 

Our district after the demo

I got a tie dye shirt this week from someone in the ward. I was pretty hyped at first until I found out it was a V-neck. I hate V-necks. Basically what happened is we had a ward fund raiser and I told someone to buy me one of the tie dye shirts and I would pay them back. So I got it but the one I wanted was finessed by this dude who didn't even bid. I got scammed so the only one left was the dumb V-neck one. The one I wanted was literally so cool, it was a huge XXL and I wanted it so bad. The one I got was not a bad shirt but the neck is dumb. Whatever I guess.

The V-neck shirt I got

Training Elder Caldwell has been interesting for sure. This is not a flex or anything but when I came out on the mission and I could already just teach fairly well. I don't know, it just came naturally I guess. But for Elder Caldwell, his teaching needs a little bit of work. Our companion studies right now are just focused on the lessons. I want him to feel like a confident teacher and help him get points across easily to our friends. He's honestly improved a lot so that's been cool watching him grow that way. I think there are 5 great tips to remember to be an effective teacher.

1. Eye contact and body language (if you look like you don't want to be here or you're uncomfortable, chances are, the people you're teaching are as well) 

2. Memorize lessons points and power statements (it makes it more professional so you're not randomly hitting topics and doing whatever)

3. Ask questions (check for understanding or use questions to help them apply this to their lives) 

4. Less is more (some people aren't going to grasp things just as fast, gage your quantity of content and vocabulary to the listener, for example, kids won't understand what the actual heck you're talking about if you bring up dispensation, apostasy, Priesthood, the fall, spiritual death, and the atonement all in the same sentence. Just chill with the vocab and take time to explain what it thoroughly or don't bring it up at all) 

5. Use the spirit (this is self-explanatory, always start with a prayer) 

Anyways, just thought I'd vent all that. This goes if you're teaching in other circumstances as well. Being able to help Elder Caldwell and be his friend has also been awesome. He is such a joy to be around and his smile is contagious. He is never afraid to talk to people. As I'm writing this, he just turned to me and said "you want to learn how to fart on command?" Now he is just ripping them loose. What a guy.

Photo of my new zone

Anyways, I love being here and I am so thankful that you all read my emails. I love to write and its pretty cool that there are people who care enough to listen. So thanks! Also Happy Mother's day to all the mothers in the world and I love you mom! You're the best! 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

My plate of cream of mushroom noodles I made

We have no food, and we are going to die!

 Hola todos,

This past week has probably been the weirdest week of my life. So many crazy things happened and this email will only cover the tip of the iceberg. First of all, after getting emergency transferred last Monday, I'm now in the Vegas zone which is pretty different from where I was originally. Elkhorn Springs had a lot of more affluent people with not a lot of missionary work going on while this area is just popping with new people to teach. There are so many people taking the lessons in this area it's insane. The people here are a bit more humble too so when we go out and street contact, people actually listen to our message. It's pretty wild. A lot more people speak Spanish here so I have been able to practice my Spanish and I even got to refer some people to the Spanish Branch elders. I can have conversations with people in Spanish now but I still am awful at it. The communities here are a bit poorer and it can get pretty sketchy at times though. People don't mess with us though because they know who we are! There are a couple people we're teaching that were apart or the gangs here and escaped and some other interesting stories.

My new companion is Elder Caldwell and he is fresh out of the MTC. He got here at the beginning of April and now I get to finish his training! It's kind of cool being the senior companion now and getting to train. He's a good Elder and is really fun to be around. He talks with everyone and knows how to make conversations flow naturally. He is pretty rough around the edges when it comes to teaching but we are working on that. He's just a goofball and a lot of fun. 

This area is so different. It honestly feels like a different mission to me. We met quite a few homeless people so we talked with them for a while. We've been teaching some of them every once in a while and one guy actually really loves reading The Book of Mormon. There is another guy that worships Satan and believes Satan is the Messiah, that guy was weird but pretty chill though. The people here are great and I actually get to use Spanish as well. The kids around here are pretty fun too. We were playing basketball with some of the them and they kept calling me an angel. I'm super fair skinned and my hair is so blonde since I'm outside all day. We got a bunch of the kids to go to church too and they loved it! They even bore their testimony in sacrament meeting which was fun to watch. Elder Caldwell helped them a lot with that.

Gracie's baptism day!

This past Saturday was super stressful with the baptism of Gracie. Luckily, President Reece let me go back to Elkhorn Springs with Elder Caldwell to be apart of Gracie's baptism. It was such an awesome experience but things kept going wrong so it stressed me out. I won't talk about too many of the things but one thing that just makes me cringe is the musical hymn afterwards. Without telling me beforehand Elder Rehkow asked me to play a piano hymn at the end and I just suck at piano right now so you can imagine how that went. It was so embarrassing, people were laughing and I just wanted to die. But I kept going through the hymn and pretended I wasn't missing every note. Afterwards, Elder Rehkow apologized for asking me to play and I was like sick thanks. Anyway, just writing about this Saturday makes me want to die so I'm gonna stop. Hopefully Gracie enjoyed her baptism and being able to teach her and watch her progress was an incredible experience.

Me draining the font in my suit.

After getting to the new apartment Monday night, I checked the fridge because I was pretty hungry. Turns out, the previous Elders that were there just chose not to buy food for the week. There was barely anything in there! Since we can only go shopping once a week on P Day, I was like, "What are we going to eat?" Elder Caldwell was like, "I honestly don't really know, The Lord is going to provide I guess."

My companion Elder Caldwell

 Somehow we made it a week by scavenging around for some food in the apartment.  I'm not getting fed every night anymore so now I have to figure out how to make some legit stuff. Somehow we didn't die. We had miracles upon miracles of people giving us free food. We lived off the land this whole week. haha! What we had to eat this whole week was just milk, cereal, eggs, some tuna, and some bread.

My new area

The Vegas Zone

Although, I'm excited to train and I'm excited to be here. I'm a little nervous but change is good. Its so hard saying goodbye to people and all the friends I made in Elkhorn Springs. Hopefully I can see them again. The people here are really humble and willing to listen to our message. It's so nice being able to teach people and watch them all progress.

I want to share a short spiritual thought for today. It's a short scripture, but I think its really inspiring. 

It says in Alma 34:32:

"32- For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors."

I love how the Book of Mormon simply and plainly illustrates God's plan and talks about our purpose in life. Its so comforting to know where I came from, why I am here, and where we are going. 

I hope you all have a great week and I super appreciate you taking the time to read my emails! It really means a lot! My life now is so different than what it used to be and this adventure is so new. I'm doing things I'd never thought I'd be doing and actually making a difference in peoples lives. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

Me walking down Iowa Street

I got the vaccine! (Part One)

 Hola!

Another week has gone by again! A lot of great stuff has happened this week! We put Mia on date to be baptized and were trying to meet with her friend Allison again. Bill had a decent restoration lesson and said he was considering being baptized. Right now things are just going great! Adrianna's mom is still ghosting us and Jackie is completely off grid. Other than that life is good. 

So right now missionaries can now get the vaccine! It's been encouraged that we do that so I decided to go do that. I got the first shot of the Maderna vaccine and haven't noticed anything weird yet so that is cool. I'll let you guys know if I grow a 3rd arm or start flying. Right after the shot my arm hurt a little but after a day it wore off. I'm going to get my 2nd shot in May. I'm hoping everyone gets vaccinated here in Nevada so we can take these masks off haha. 

So after our flooding incident a while back we called the apartment complex and complained. They said they would send someone to replace it! The next day after coming back to the apartment, we noticed that we got a completely new washing machine. I've never been so excited to do laundry in my life!

Were still going to Seminary and working at the Spanish resource center so that's pretty fun. The Seminary kids are almost graduated! That is so weird, I feel like I just graduated but here I am watching the next Senior class dip out. It's pretty cool being here for so long and having everyone know you. Its pretty awesome.

Another thing that is pretty awesome was watching the YSA elders get to baptize someone we knew. We met this guy playing basketball a couple months ago, and after beating him, we invited him to church and now he got baptized in the YSA (Young Single Adults) ward! He is such an awesome guy and seeing him have so many new friends in that ward is so awesome.

This week I did exchanges with Elder Michaelson. It was probably the best exchange I ever went on. It was so fun. Elder Michaelson and I are super similar and we like the same things so that was cool. He's going back home soon so he is going to ask president to see if for his last transfer him and I could be together. Elder Michaelson's original assignment is Guatemala and some of his experiences there were insane.

So I got some bad news today. I got a call from the Assistants to the President and they said I was going to be transferred early this week. An elder went back to his original assignment so his companion needs and a companion. They called me to be his new companion so now I am headed to the Evergreen Ward in Vegas Zone. My new companion's name is Elder Caldwell and I'm pretty excited to meet him! Hopefully I can do this. haha I'm pretty nervous.

I don't really have a spiritual thought today but I do want to share my testimony. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the original church that Jesus set up when he was on the earth. There really is a God and He speaks to us today. We can receive answers to our prayers and I see miracles everyday. 

Sorry if this email felt a little rushed today. I didn't have a lot of time to write and I need to pack since I'm getting transferred to the Vegas zone. I love all of you and hope you all have an excellent week!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

I'm literally so rich!

 Hola mis amigos!

The grind never stops as a missionary. The days are starting to blur together and weeks are flying by. Good news is that life is still good here. It wasn't super hot this week which was nice. It's nice being on bike now rather than later during the summer. I will probably die if I am biking during the summer. 120 degrees on a bike sounds pretty close to the fire and brimstone mentioned in the New Testament. 

Speaking of bikes, Elder Rehkow and I went to a member's house this week who is a big bike guy. We had him supped up our bikes so now they're pretty awesome. My $60 bike was good at first but now it's even better! With these upgrades, the work will probably triple! The brakes work so great now, so when I tried them after getting them fixed I almost flew over the front of my handlebars. I've also been practicing riding my bike without using the handle bars. I see people do that and I wanted to try it so that's been cool. It looks pretty funny just riding around without even holding on to anything with your hands. Since we're on bike, we can't drive to go get food so I haven't used my MSF (missionary spending funds) in like forever. It just refilled again this month so now I am just rolling in cash. I don't even know what to do with it all! We never go eat out so I guess I am just going to be rolling in dough forever.:) 

My desk in my apartment

Elder Percival looking at me

Life is still moving on after Harlie's baptism. She left for Oklahoma and we've been trying to get in contact with the bishop there so she can smoothly transition into that ward. She was really excited to move but it was really sad saying goodbye. Gracie wanted to move her baptism from this week to May 1st so that way she didn't miss some volleyball games. Hopefully we can do it May 1st and that way Elder Rehkow and I will be able to see her get baptized. The transfer ends on May 4th. Man this transfer went by so fast.

There was one day this week where we just did service all day. We helped someone move from 9:00 to noon and then afterwards went to another person's house to help them move for an hour. Then we went to someone else's house to climb a ladder and drill a hole in their house. That was kinda fun. We didn't get into our normal proselyting clothes until like 5:00. 

Me on a ladder drilling a hole

We have been teaching Mia this week and she brought her friend Allison which was cool. So now we get to teach both of them at the same time! They loved the Plan of Salvation lesson and were super excited for the next one this week. We gave both of them a copy of The Book of Mormon and asked them to pray to know whether it was true or not that night. They were super excited for it. The other guy that we've been teaching, Bill, is a little more difficult to work with. He has some issues following through with commitments and we don't really know what to do about him. If you all could pray for Bill Duran, that would be fantastic! 

We also had zone conference this week which was pretty fun. We basically learned how to invite others easily and teaching using The Book of Mormon. I learned a lot! There were a lot of zones there which was cool. I got to see and meet a bunch of other missionaries. Afterwards, we had a funny miracle. As we were biking back to our apartment, a lady waves us down and asks if "we have an extra Book." We're like, ummmmm of course we do. So we got to use all of the things we just learned in zone conference in an interaction and it was pretty hype. She was so interested by it that she took two copies of The Book of Mormon. One for her and one for her friend. Haha I love seeing miracles.  

Our Zone my 3rd transfer

The scripture that we shared with her was 2 Nephi 26:33, which is one of the most baller scriptures in The Book of Mormon. It says:

33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for He doeth that which is good among the children of men; and He doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and He inviteth them all to come unto Him and partake of His goodness; and He denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and He remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

After sharing that scripture with her we were like "how do you feel right now" and she's like "wow I feel pretty good" and were like "heck yeah that's the Holy ghost bearing witness of it's divinity unto you." 

Anyways, I'm so glad I got the opportunity to write an email and share my experiences with you all this week. Every day I see miracles and some crazy things happen. Everyday is an adventure and I feel more important than ever before in my life. I hope you all have an excellent week!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

My first baptism!!

 Hola todos!

This week was pretty great honestly. Just an awesome week. First of all, Harlie's baptism was Saturday and it was so awesome. We invited a lot of people and probably about a third of them showed up. Which is a little lame but it's okay. But overall, it was just a really powerful baptism. Harlie shared her testimony and talked about how she is so glad she got on the plane to come live here because she never would have run into the us. Her testimony was really powerful. 

Originally, I thought Harlie was going to ask me to do the baptism, and I really wanted to, but Elder Rehkow and I told her that she should choose who does the ordinance. It should be her decision since it is her baptism! Her answer to mostly everything is basically "God will choose who should" and Elder Rehkow and I are like ummm.... ok.....:) 

So later that week, Harlie is doing a baptismal interview and in the same building was someone from our mission presidency. It wasn't our mission president, but it was his first counselor, President Thomas. So instantly after seeing President Thomas and talking with him for a little bit, Harlie says "I think God wants you to perform my baptism!" So President Thomas is basically like "Heck Yeah I will" and so yeah that happened. Elder Rehkow and I were both wanting to do the baptism and someone from our mission presidency swoops in a takes it.:) Harlie asked a friend from the ward to do the confirmation which was pretty cool. Elder Rehkow and I were basically just there at the baptism to speak. But yeah, definitely a funny experience. 

Harlie's baptism

Another totally epic experience this week was when I accidently flooded the apartment! Our dumb washing machine is broken and we need to get it fixed. Basically what happened is, I started a load of laundry before district council and it just decided to break and flood the apartment. I was doing personal scripture study when I got up and walked over to the laundry room and there was like 2 inches of water running everywhere. I was pretty angry to be honest. Throughout the hour of mopping it up, I decided to put a smile on my face. I realized that being in the a bad mood before district council would only make things worse so I decided to be in a good mood and laugh it off. 

Our dumb washing
machine

Everyone else we are teaching is progressing pretty well. Not as fast as Harlie though because Harlie was awesome with keeping commitments. Every time we asked her to pray about The Book of Mormon or The Plan of Salvation. She did that night and felt through the Holy Ghost that it was true. Everyone else is just are a bit slower which is fine. We're going to see if we can put Bill on date this week and do a baptismal interview with Gracie, who is scheduled to be baptized this Saturday. Jackie and Adrianna are wild cards at this point. Don't really know what's going to happen. 

Last week, I got to do final exchanges with Elder Linehan. He is such a great and hardworking Elder! He is going back to his original mission in Medida, Mexico and this will be the last exchange I have with him. I'm going to miss him. While on exchanges with him we found a guy playing a guitar in his garage. We talked with him for a little bit and he wanted to learn more! It was pretty hype. Elder Linehan and I set up a time for him and his actual companion to teach him this week. Finding new people and getting a time to teach is always a great feeling. 

For this last little bit I wanted to share a snippet from a talk I listened to all about The Book of Mormon. This Book is so incredibly important! The Book of Mormon and the Bible work hand in hand in testifying of our Savior. 

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ explains: 

-The purpose of mortal life and death,

-The certainty of life after death,

-What happens when the spirit leaves the body,

-The description of the Resurrection,

-How to receive and retain a remission of your sins,

-What hold justice or mercy may have on you,

-What to pray for,

-Priesthood,

-Covenants and ordinances,

-The office and ministry of angels,

-The still, small voice of personal revelation,

-And preeminently, the mission of Jesus Christ,

-And many other jewels that make up the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This ancient record is proof that God doesn't just speak once and forgets about the rest of his children. He doesn't just call prophets, send his only begotten Son, and then call it good and never speak again. That would make this life an eternal waste of time. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. God calls prophets and He is still speaking. The only way to know for yourself is to read the book, and find out for yourself. 

Anyways, I am so glad that I could write to you all this week. I hope that you can have an excellent week and see how God's hand is in all of our lives.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

We got to see little baby chicks in a box at a farm

It's General Conference! We ate giant cinnamon rolls and I got a new bike!

 ¿Qué tal?

This week really flew by so fast! When I was first out on the mission, I would count down how many days I had left just to always see how far I've come but lately I've just stopped caring haha. I realized that the only thing counting down days does it make it go slower. All I know now is I still have a while left on my mission. Besides, I only get TWO years to wear this tag so I'm going to enjoy every minute of it without wishing away any day. 

All the people we are teaching are basically the same where they were last week. Since it's been spring break, everyone has been out of town and we couldn't get a teaching in. Harlie however was in town so we finished up a lesson on commandments. We're all super excited for her baptism this weekend. Harlie is a little nervous, but she says that she is really excited! Keep her in your prayers so she can keep feeling ready for her baptism! It's literally so awesome to find someone, teach them, and then baptize them. Like I can't describe the feeling I have right now haha.

This last weekend was something super awesome. We had General Conference! So basically, General Conference is a live broadcast when the Prophet and the Apostles speak to us. In the Church of Jesus Christ, we believe that God calls prophets to lead and direct his people. Since God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, he still calls prophets again to lead just like in Old Testament times. Prophets led to the birth of Christ, and prophets will lead to his coming again. So our church is lead by a prophet and 12 apostles. The whole weekend was dedicated to General Conference and we even got a bunch of our friends to watch! Bill, who we did service for last week, watched the Saturday morning session and wanted a recording of all the other sessions because he couldn't watch the rest. He loved it so much! We told Bill to look up the 191st annual session of General Conference on YouTube and he'd find all the recordings.

We ate cinnamon rolls bigger than my hand before Conference.

Harlie even came and watched the Saturday morning session and she really liked it. She said that Russell M. Nelson is really called of God. His talk on faith in that session was particularly great. 

Other than that, not much happened this week. I bought a new bike for $60, that was pretty neat. An Elder was going home after this transfer, so he sold me his bike for real cheap. Later, I'm going to go to a bike shop and see if they can fix some things and make it better than it already is.

 We did service for some guy and made his backyard look like a beach, that was fun. We're still getting a ridiculous amount of cookies every day and we had a bunch of Easter candy. That's basically it. Honestly, it was a quick and good week. 

OH WAIT! I almost forgot! It's getting into the 90s this week and that sucks. No more 60 degree weather.:( Its only up from here! Hopefully summer doesn't come too soon but whatever I guess.

Anyways, I wanted to share a scripture I read in the second chapter of Ephesians in the New Testament. It says: 

19- Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

20- And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

I like this scripture because it easily summarizes how the Church of Jesus Christ is set up. There are prophets and apostles, but they are ultimately led by Jesus Christ himself, Him being the chief cornerstone. In the New Testament, it was Peter, James, and John and then the twelve apostles who received direction from Jesus Christ. I share my testimony that Russell M. Nelson really is a prophet and he receives direction for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Jesus Christ. These gospel truths have really been restored by the prophet Joseph Smith and that there really is a God. I experience miracles every day and I am a witness that the hand of God is in my life and is directing me on where I need to go.

I hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to talk to you all next week! Thank you so much for reading my emails!

Sincerely, 

Elder Pack 

Service Selfie!

  

We helped my cousin put up their crib for the baby

 A weird picture of Elder Rehkow when we were cleaning out Bill's garage. Also since we didn't have a seat for me in the car, I somehow had to lay on the floor behind Elder Rehkow since there was no room for me.

So Many Cookies!!

 ¡Hola todos!

This was the first week of the new transfer and it's definitely been the most different week for sure! We're getting adjusted to the new apartment and new roommates and everything. I have the SIM card now which means I do all of the calling and texting for the both of us and now we're social media specialists for the area (which I still don't know what that means). We've been walking everywhere because Elder Rehkow and I don't have a car or bikes so that kinda sucks. It's still the same area but now we just walk everywhere. We're planning on getting bikes on P-Day! 

The new apartment is pretty nice with just a few downsides. The washing machine is broken so every time you wash clothes it overflows with water everywhere. However, it's balanced because we have a mini-fridge and a couch! Our new roommates are Elder Percival and Elder Jones. Elder Percival is training Elder Jones which is pretty interesting. Reminds me of a couple months ago haha. Those two Elders are pretty awesome! Elder Jones took a year at college before going on a mission and he's pretty cool. Elder Percival is going into the Airforce and he's jacked out of his mind. Every morning, Elder Percival also makes a banana, spinach, and peanut butter smoothie and there's always extra so he gives it to me which is pretty awesome. I get a free smoothie every morning!

Right now, we're doing so well with teaching and finding people! A complete turn around from our first transfer. It feels so good to prepare for lessons and then give them. Watching people progress in the gospel of Jesus Christ is literally the best feeling ever. Currently, we have 3 people on date to be baptized in the next month. Harlie is still progressing at an incredibly fast rate and were super excited for her baptism! Last lesson with her she basically described The Tree of Life story in the Book of Mormon exactly without ever hearing about it so we gave that to her to read this week. Gracie is still ready to be baptized and now we're just waiting for her dad to be ready to do the baptism. What's cool is really soon we're going to be teaching her brother and her step-mom! Elder Rehkow and I are super excited for that. Adrianna also accepted a tentative date to be baptized and we're going to talk to her parents on Monday and hopefully they will let her be baptized. We're a little worried about it but I have faith that it will work out. Everyone else we're teaching are pretty hard to schedule with but hopefully we can meet in the future. 

We had an interesting experience on Friday. Elder Rehkow and I just finished personal study when I get a call on my phone. I answer and say "This is Elder Rehkow and Pack for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, how can we help you?" Some guy we've never heard before answers back and says "Hey this is Bill!" We're just sitting there like uhhhh.... who? We ask for his last name and then it clicks together. Apparently Bill was taught by the Elders a long time ago and he still had our number. He needed some help cleaning out his garage and wanted to do a Bible Study so were like "Yeah absolutely were down for that!"

So we help Bill out for like 3 hours and he goes through his whole life story and its so cool. He's such an incredible person! He also asked us a lot of questions and he liked it a lot, so we set up a time to meet this week! It was pretty awesome. Since it took so long he took us to dinner which was pretty great. Also apparently, this guy worked at area 51 and told us some crazy stories.

So, everyday this week, members keep giving us cookies. Not even joking. Its happened every single day. Members have made cookies or bought cookies and have given them to us. On Saturday, we finally thought we weren't going to get cookies, and then at the very end of the day we stopped by someone's house and they bought us a bunch of girl scout cookies. Yeah so now we have 4 boxes of girl scout cookies.

Another funny thing this week was getting a road sign. There is a member in the ward who is a part of the HOA and takes down the old road signs after a while. So while we were there I asked if I could get a street sign and so now we have a street sign hanging in our apartment.

To finish off, I wanted to share an awesome quote my companion shared with me. I thought it was so cool and I can't help but share it. 

"Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, or tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying the teachings of Jesus Christ in your life. As you do so you are changed to become more like Him."

The name of the person who said this was Lawrence Corbridge or something along those lines. He was a mission president at some point. This is why we are here, to become the best we can be and return to our Heavenly Father. He sent us here to learn and grow and when we apply the teachings of Jesus Christ in our lives, we can do that.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week and I want you all to know that I am loving working in Las Vegas. This area has been incredible and I cherish every moment. This is the Lord's work and can't wait to write to you again next P-Day.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack