I got the vaccine! (Part 2)

 Hola otra vez! 

Its so nice to write again this week! So many things happen throughout the week that it's getting hard to remember everything. It's for sure a roller coaster and after a couple days you're just like "what the heck actually happened." After around 30 days I finally got the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine! I got it on the 20th of May and at first it really wasn't that bad. My arm stung for the first day but other than that I was doing well. Then I woke up the next day and I just felt like I got hit by a bus. I was so tired and my body was sore and I just was like "what the actual bruh." But I still went with my day, we had two lessons that day and I just was not in the best mindset to teach. Ibuprofen really helped but once it wore off I was so tired. Then I woke up the next morning and was completely normal. Everything was fine! 

We met a new person named Lesa the other day! We asked if we could share a message with her and she was like sure I got time. So we taught her the Restoration lesson and how God loves her and all that stuff. Then we talked about prophets and the Bible and then talked about the Book of Mormon. It doesn't replace the Bible but it is another witness that Jesus is the Christ. We gave her a copy and asked her to pray to ask God if it was true. So the next morning we texted her to see if she prayed and she said that she did! She prayed at night and in the morning. We asked her about what she thought and how she felt and she was like "I felt great!" So we're just like yeah that's The Holy Ghost telling you its true and she's like "yeah I know." It was pretty cool to be honest.

Most people I teach struggle with praying over the Book of Mormon. They either forget or just choose not to. Like I literally don't get that. All you have to do is read from it and ask God with a desire to know and if you listen carefully and wait, you will feel the Holy Ghost. I taught this one guy named Wendell once and this guy was taught for like years and would never read the Book of Mormon or pray about it. That's so ridiculous! Faith requires work, like any muscle you need to exercise it. If you want to know if its actually true then read from the book and pray. Just start with 5 minutes a day! If you're taking lessons then this really isn't that much of a hard requirement because its just 5 minutes each day. Anyways that's my rant, just read the book please. 

Buddy got out of the hospital! Let's goooooo! He and Rose went to the ward picnic too and got to meet a lot of people. It was pretty cool! He is so elect but we just haven't put him on date to be baptized due to random things getting in the way. During church, Rose learned about all the experiences the early Saints had to go through and she started crying. Its kinda interesting to think that people don't even know about the early pioneer saints and all the persecution and garbage they went through. The life they lived with all the hate was brutal and then on top of that to live through everything on their trek west. Just the fact that Joseph was willing to die for The Book of Mormon, something that critics say he fabricated, was amazing! Why would he give a fire testimony of the Book of Mormon right before he knew he would meet his creator. If he made up this book, was murdered, then met God, well it would be really awkward. No man, so focused on God and gaining eternal life, would ever do that! 

Elijah, Leanna, and Eric are not making really good progress, and I honestly don't really know what to do with them. Elijah could be baptized but won't stay active at all. This ward probably wouldn't support him and I know for a fact that his grandmother is not taking him to church. I'm just in a pickle right now.

We met this lady a couple days ago and she was so interesting. This lady was never baptized or anything and she has no friends in the Church but when we ran into her street contacting, she gave the most fire testimony of temples. She said that they were the closest place you could go to feel God's presence. We're just like wow! That's so awesome! You should come to church with us and she was like no I'll never be baptized. You should've seen Elder Caldwell's face. He squinted and was like "bruh??" So one thing about Elder Caldwell is when someone says their not interested, then he immediately gives up and speed walks away. I'm kinda hesitant on doing that sometimes, some people just need you to say the right words and they will be a bit more intrigued. For example, with this lady. Elder Caldwell is about to dip and I grab him and I'm just like wait a second elder. "So let me get this straight, you believe that temples are of God and just being on the temple grounds you can feel his presence?" She's says yep. So I said, "Have you ever been inside?" No but I've seen pictures. "Would you like to go inside?" She was a bit more intrigued after that. She said that we could come over next week and talk about temples and what she can do to go inside one day. We even got her phone number. So we'll see how far this will go with her but hopefully we can help her feel the spirit that she feels when she is around the temples. 

Just a couple things before I end the email! So first of all, now the mask ban has lifted in church and a lot of other places in Nevada. It's pretty hype so now we don't have to wear masks in church. If you still want to social distance and have masks on then there is a section really far away so people can do that. But I'm like so excited just to sit there and not have a mask on. Its so cool. Next I had a fun experience on Friday. The Lord takes such good care of his missionaries. Like he is literally in the details of my life. So usually I have water with me so I don't die in the desert.  This time I didn't and I was really thirsty. We were walking down this road in 98 degrees and I was like, "yeah I'm pretty thirsty." We had already been walking for an hour. Elder Caldwell offered to turn around to the car to go get some water but I thought for a moment and said "no, I have faith." And then not even 5 steps later a random truck pulled up and said we looked thirsty, gave us some water, and drove off. 30 seconds after saying out loud that I needed some water I was walking around with a cold water bottle in my hands. Little things like that happen so much as a missionary and its crazy! 

A random walker in our apartment???

Anyways this week was pretty wack, honestly. Life with Elder Caldwell is pretty crazy. He is just insane and I'm just kinda like going with the flow. But life as a missionary is good. I'm thankful for this opportunity to be here and I hope you all have a great week! 

The view out of my apartment

Our kitchen

Our apartment

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

6 Months! I'm a quarter done!

 Hola!

On the 17th of May I hit my 6 month mark! Yay!! It's like a holiday here. I'm a quarter done with my mission, which is pretty exciting. I mean I'm not counting down or anything, but it's still pretty cool. This is flying by so honestly I'm going to be done in no time. I'm not in a rush because life has a missionary is super cool and fun. Kinda awkward but the laughs are real.

Okay so this email might be a little rushed, unfortunately, because I totally forgot to write and P-Day ends in a half hour so I'm just typing on my phone as fast as I can. We're still teaching Buddy and Rose but they're in the hospital right now and we're pretty worried for them. We haven't talked with them in a week! We're also teaching a girl named Calia and a kid named Elijah. They will probably be baptized pretty soon. We set a tentative date for Calia but she said she wasn't ready for it just yet. We're just like thinking, ummm yeah you are, but you just don't realize it yet. We basically told her that the baptismal date will be a goal to strive for, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be that day. She then proceeded to set her own date to some day in December and we're like what the heck? So we're gonna work with her on that because she is so ready. 

We have been finding people like crazy here which is pretty great. I've taught so many restoration lessons and that's been fun. Elder Caldwell is getting better at teaching which is exciting to see. I like throwing him into the deep end during lessons. I'll just be like, "and my companion would love to tell you more about that." He is getting good at improvising. Training is so fun haha. 

One fun thing that happened this week is that I got to go to the Stake President's house and make cookies! During quarantine he perfected the chocolate chip cookie recipe and now makes the most bomb cookies. We had to measure every thing down to exactness and I felt like I was in a lab or something. He has perfected everything about it through trial and error. We have a bunch of cookie dough now at the apartment haha. Afterwards a bunch of other missionaries showed up and I briefly mentioned I sang to the Stake President so he made me sing a song for everyone while his wife played on the piano. He was like "before we leave tonight, Elder Pack needs to sing a song for all of us." I was like what the heck! Why? But actually, I'm kinda glad I got to do that. It was a pretty good song and I'm not going to lie I wasn't too bad so that was neat. 

One of the most valuable lessons that I've learned as a missionary is that rice and chicken is a cheat code. Rice is literally so good and it goes with everything. I learned we have a rice cooker in the apartment so I started making rice with like every meal. It's so good. I hope one day that after my mission I can be a master cook but right now I'm going to start small. Rice and chicken though for sure is a mega cheat code to life.

I know its cliché now but I wanted to share a scripture! This scripture is in Doctrine and Covenants 63:9-10

It says: 

"9 But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.

10 Yea, signs come by faith, not by the will of men, nor as they please, but by the will of God."

I literally see signs everyday that there is a God, but you just have to have faith first. Signs don't come until you have that faith and if it's the will of our Father in Heaven. 

Anyways I love all of you and hope you all have a great week! 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

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