Let's Go Get Olive Garden!

 Hola todos,

Well, I officially hit my 9 months a couple days ago. Elder McGee hit his 9 months too so we decided to celebrate. I suggested getting ice cream or whatever, Elder McGee said Olive Garden. So we went to Olive Garden. Now, I'm not the hugest Olive Garden fan because I've been there only twice and it's ight, but my companion loves it for some reason. So to prepare practicing submitting to and compliance to my future wife one day, I agreed to go out of my comfort zone and eat Olive garden. It wasn't too bad. We had some soup and pasta and it was pretty good. Anyways, this week was pretty good too. It was full of miracles and hilarious moments so let's just dive into it. 

As of writing this it's my P-Day and my mission president is going to do something super special this P-Day. He's taking us to a baseball game at 6:00 PM. Elder McGee loves baseball so he's super hyped. I'm just excited to watch a sport. It's an Aviators game and the whole mission is going. There is going to be a section reserved for all 200 of us missionaries in Las Vegas. 

Zone Conference Pic

Elder McGee loves baseball so much and he has been waiting for this moment for weeks. His favorite team is the Cubs which is pretty cool. I like the Cubs a little too. To prepare for catching a home run during the game, Elder McGee and I have been playing catch and baseball every morning for our exercise time. 

A recent convert is going to the temple for the first time pretty soon and he invited Elder McGee and I to join him! What's even cooler is he asked me to be his escort. I was pretty excited but his temple appointment is after transfers so Elder McGee and I could be transferred. So I was pretty bummed about that. Maybe I can ask my mission president to let me come back so I can help him with that, but I don't know. To be honest, I'm just ecstatic that he invited me to do that personally for him. Even though I might not be able to make it, the fact that he asked me means a lot to me. 

Another pretty cool miracle this week was how many people we're teaching showed up to church. We had a lot of people we were teaching but the sisters in our ward were on the gas. Sisters are basically cheat codes. For elders, we have to go out of our way to talk to people but sisters just have to stand there and people find them. It's a little ridiculous. Between this ward and the Portuguese branch, they had 14 people that they're teaching at church. I was like bruh. The sister missionaries in the Cheyenne ward are good at what they do I guess. The Cheyenne ward has been popping off though, and seeing inactive families returning is so sweet. We're chipping away at this inactive 400+ number and going off. I love the families here too and I've made some awesome friends here. The people are so sweet. Our bishop is hilarious too. This guy straight up bribes some of the kids sometimes to come to the activities. It's wild. Just some fun times.

The sister missionaries, Sister Black and Harris, had a crazy miracle that they told us about the other day. Saturday night they were contacting and ran into a lady and they felt prompted to invite her to church Sunday. All they did was hand her a pass along card and say church was the next day. Then on Sunday, Elder McGee and I welcomed her into church and thought she was a member the whole time. She brought her entire family. She even stayed for the second hour and made it to relief society and her son was in the priests quorum. It was so crazy. Everyone thought her son was a member because this dude was dropping bombs about how the word of wisdom was inspired by God because of coffee. It was wild. Now her family is coming back next Sunday and the kids want to go to mutual. Seriously, miracles happen, it's crazy! 

Other than that, not a lot happened this week. Wyatt is getting baptized this weekend and Javier is getting baptized soon too. It's funny, most of the people that I find end up going to the Spanish ward. We keep giving referrals to them. I'm not even in a Spanish ward but Elder McGee and I doing so much work for them. It was sad to officially refer Javier to the Rainbow Vista Spanish ward but it had to be done. 

I think there is a huge trend in the scriptures that I wanted to point out. Literally almost everywhere in the scriptures we read something along the lines of "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." I have a testimony of this, and I know that if you ask God, you will receive, if it be a righteous desire. I find that so cool. Just the other day, Elder McGee and I wanted to find one last new person Sunday night after 8:00 pm. So we were walking around and then said a prayer with righteous desires to find one new person to teach. After 10 minutes we found a guy named Booker who was our new person. It was so sweet, taught him the restoration, gave him a book of Mormon and asked him to pray about it and now we are coming back in a couple days to see how his prayer went. He may not be the most elect person but I know that if he prays then God will tell him that the Book of Mormon is true. This is a huge testimony to me that if you ask, you shall receive if it be a righteous desire. I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ leads this church through a latter-day prophet and apostles. If you want something, ask. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

Humble Yourself, and Call Upon God

 Hola,

This week I realized something. I was looking back on my time here as a missionary and this thing is going by way too fast. Seriously, it's flying! In just around the time of two transfers, I'll have been set apart as a missionary for a year. A whole year!!! And I hit 9 months this next week. That's even more wack. People can have a child in 9 months! People literally have children and give birth in that amount of time. Anyways let's talk about my week.

Elder McGee is still a beast and we're still on the gas. It's pretty cool seeing the fruits of ours labor and the zone notices it too. I know we shouldn't boast about it and all, but I relate it to the 26th chapter in Alma, where Ammon gets called out for boasting but he says he is 'boasting in his God'. So that's what I'm going to do. Heavenly Father is so good to us and providing us with plenty of people to teach and to see miracles. Having 2 people on date and potentially more is so sweet. I know that it's not us or our doing that has convinced these people to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ, but the Spirit which testifies of truth. We have seen miracles and our success is apparent. What's also pretty cool is we have a senior missionary couple in our ward and they have accompanied us on lessons, they then later told us and have pointed out our success and teaching skills to President Reese. So that is pretty neat. I'm just so thankful to be with just an awesome companion and grinding in this tough time with him. 

Speaking of my companion, Elder McGee and I have achieved almost FULL companion unity. As missionaries it's really good to learn to be ONE with your companion. Elder McGee and I have learned to teach in the Savior's way and be in unity. It's pretty sweet, it's almost like we're reading each other's mind and can prepare and predict for what the next person is going to say. Not going to lie, it's pretty cool. When we go to share scriptures, afterwards we talk about how that was the same scripture the other person was thinking of to share. And we don't have to do that looking thing at each other to signify that it is the other person's turn to speak. It's so powerful and awesome. THE ONLY thing that we are not one on is which Spiderman movie we think is the best. Elder McGee and I literally got in a heated debate twice this week about Spiderman movies. We agree on everything except for that. So we compromised by agreeing to watch all the Spiderman movies together after the mission. Elder McGee thinks that the Andrew Garfield "The Amazing Spiderman" movies are the best. I was about to throw hands when he said that. Just so you know, that is a completely incorrect opinion and he is wrong. Those movies are buns.

Anyways, the sisters in the ward are pretty fun. They haven't stolen any of our dinners which is nice, but, what's weird is that they accompany us on each dinner. So since we get fed almost every night, we have dinner with the sisters and a member almost every night. It's interesting. Sometimes the member just sits there silently and it's like a double date which is a little weird but I try to not think about it too much. Sister Harris and Sister Black are fun, they both are Portuguese speaking (sort of) and are also in the Portuguese branch that covers the whole mission. Sister Black is technically Spanish Speaking but they reassigned her to speak Portuguese this transfer. I think that's so interesting because there are so many Portuguese speaking sisters who would love to be in the Portuguese branch for the entire mission and learn Portuguese but instead they put a Spanish Speaking Sister there and told her to learn Portuguese. That's a little odd but hey whatever I just work here. Also, we trade off giving short spiritual thoughts in dinners and I've never seen Sister missionaries teach before and it's just a weird vibe. They are just so bubbly. I also got to take a look at some of the sister's scriptures and they are just impossible to read. Every verse is highlighted with a different color and it's like a Unicorn puked all over them. They just have a different way of doing things I guess. 

Lately we've been taking members with us whenever we knock member doors in the area and that has been pretty effective. Lots of less active families have returned after visiting them. We took with us Brother Wiser one time and this guy is just a beast. We literally just stood there as he dominated every contact. He literally spoke with everyone that breathed outside and found potential interested people. He's basically a cheat code. Although the downside is he is too powerful. We ended up just standing there listening to them talk for like hours. It was kinda awkward since we were just watching them from the distance trying to jump into the conversation. But, Brother Wiser is still a dog though. He's a beast. 

I went on exchanges again this week and I finally got to go to the Truman House on the mission. So, there is this legendary apartment where Elders live on the mission called the Truman House. I now understand why it's so legendary. It's not even an apartment, it's a whole house. Brother Truman has a lot of land and two houses so he let's the Elders live in his second house. Literally 6 Elders live there and that is just a huge mistake. Most of the district leaders and the zone leaders live there so it's not too bad. But we literally get a whole flippin house. There is legit a basketball court and pickleball court in the backyard for morning workouts. Also the Truman's supply them with sodas every single day. It's seriously too nice of living conditions. There is wifi and everything. Like what?!? That's not all, the Truman's have breakfast with them every Sunday morning, and they supply the Elders with legit frozen bags of Chick-fil-A chicken. The same frozen chicken they use at Chick-fil-A. I don't even know how the Truman's get it but whatever. OH! I almost forgot, they have a whole massage chair too. Seriously, that's not even all, there is so much more. Living there would be so sweet. Anyways it's safe to say that exchanges there were pretty sweet. Except I ran into a cactus on my bike and got another flat tire. That kinda sucked. I think I've had 6 flat tires this transfer. 

So we taught Javier and Marita again. Javier is so elect and we could totally baptize him today if we wanted but we want to teach him everything first. Marita however has a lot of questions and doubts and won't except a baptismal date. We taught the plan of salvation and she had SO many questions. Luckily Elder Child and Llontop were there and could answer hard questions in Spanish. They came in clutch. I know that if she prays and asks God then all of her doubts will go away. She just needs to humble herself down and get rid of her pride. She needs to ask God in sincere prayer wanting to receive an answer, and God will let her know through the Holy ghost. That's what Javier did which was so cool. After the first lesson he literally prayed and received an answer from God and knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was true. Javier is so awesome. That's honestly all it takes and seeing Javier do that is so powerful. They made us Peruvian tres leches cake and it's so good. That cake was so delicious. Way better than Mexican tres leches cake. Also Javier did the hugest leap of faith. We needed him to come to church Sunday but he works Sundays so we promised him in the name of the Jesus Christ that if he exercised a particle of faith then he would find a new job. Then during our next visit he told us he can come to church every Sunday because he quit his job and got a new job. And his new job has better hours and better pay. Because he took a leap of faith he is now experiencing blessings. It's literally so sick.

Wyatt and Javier are still on date but Marita is struggling accepting one, but we will keep working with her. This transfer has been one of the best transfers so far on my mission. I've loved my time here in Las Vegas in the Cheyenne ward with Elder McGgee. I know that this church is the only one true church led by Jesus Christ and that God is real. I know that there are prophets today who talk with God and we can communicate to God through sincere prayer. If you ask God, you will receive an answer but you have to humble yourself down and ask with real intent. Lose your pride and experiment on a particle of faith. Take a leap of faith and try something new. Plant the seed and watch it grow. From my experiences and my studies, I have come to understand the point of existence and realize that God is REAL and that the Book of Mormon was translated the exact same way Joseph said it was. Throw away your pride and call upon God in sincere prayer and watch the miracles abundantly pour into your life.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

The Week of Miracles

 Hola otra vez, 

This was a week of miracles. Probably one of the most incredible weeks on my mission so far. Each day brought new miracles and it had some many experiences that I will never forget. Seriously, just a fantastic week. It was a long week too and I felt like it took forever. 

The Sister missionaries and us in the Cheyenne Ward

First of all, the days are inching closer towards Wyatt's baptism. We're so excited for him. He is such a funny kid. He cracks me up so much. It's so cool to be impacting the Cheyenne ward for the better. His family is returning to activity and Wyatt is such an awesome addition to the young men's group. There aren't a lot of youth here and seeing the group grow because of our efforts is such a cool feeling. The ward here has 700 members in the ward boundaries but only 200 show up to church. Not even that, it's pretty small. But what's so cool is that people are coming back! 

So here is miracle number one: sacrament meeting had so many people at church. It was so full. And almost every single one of the less active members we have met with came. We were blown away when we saw them walk in. Less active family after family walked through those doors. Some that I didn't even think would come. Individuals coming and partaking of the sacrament again after years of inactivity. It was so cool seeing familiar face after familiar face just walk through the doors. Seeing the fruit of our labors working with members is so awesome. So yeah first miracle.

Second miracle: Javier is on date to be baptized. Craziest night of my mission ever. For real. This lesson was all in Spanish and the spirit was so strong we invited Javier to be baptized in a restoration lesson. And he said YES. He was like, "yeah I'm busy this Sunday but next week I could." All four of us elders in that lesson were shocked. Just blown away by the amount of faith he had. Elder McGee doesn't even speak Spanish and he knew what was going on and was blown away. We walked out of the lesson and just started freaking out. We got to the car and then said a prayer of thanks to God and thanked him for the generous miracle we have just experienced. So now, we have two people on date to be baptized this transfer. 

Third miracle: we hit almost ALL of our goals this week. We found all the new people that we wanted to find, put another person on date, and almost had everyone we were teaching at church. We were so close. After every new found person or miracle we then said a prayer of thanks to God. 

Fourth miracle: We had interviews with President Reese and for those who don't know, basically we get one on one time with the president for five minutes. Also, those of you that know me well I can be pretty awkward sometimes. I was so awkward in the interview but it's whatever. President Reese is just so intimidating and he kinda scares me sometimes. The miracle was that if we get a surge of new missionaries again this next transfer then I would be training in a SPANISH AREA next transfer! But he also told me to be patient and that my time would come to be in a Spanish branch or ward. I basically started freaking out. I've been wanting to be in a Spanish area since I've been here. I love being in an English ward but seriously I want to learn Spanish and It's brutally difficult when I'm not in a Spanish area. So yeah, next transfer could be crazy but I will be patiently waiting. I could still be in an English ward next transfer but I know that one day I will. 

Fifth miracle: My bleached tie dye shirt that I made last week turn out amazing. It's so cool and I am so glad that it looks good. Such an awesome shirt.

Elder Child, McGee, Llontop and I in our t-dye shirts

I have no idea why I'm standing like that, don't ask

Now these aren't all of the miracles that happened but there are so many more. So many happened this week and I've appreciated them so much. After every miracle I always say a prayer of gratitude with my companion. Maybe that's why I have experienced so many? We are always praying for miracles but we must say thank you for when the miracles happen. I remember just sitting there at the end of my week reminiscing on all the incredible miracles we have seen. This is the Lord's work and I am an actual representative of Jesus Christ. I have been called by Him to declare His word among his people. 

Me holding a chicken

Elder McGee holding the chicken

Me and the boys in the car

I love you all and wish you the best. Thank you for your prayers and everything you do for me. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

Our whole district

The sister missionaries and the chicken

I have an eggplant.

 Hola, 

Well, we started the new transfer! Transfers are always so shocking and it can be pretty crazy with new changes. I already talked about that last week, but now I got to find out what was new haha. Let's just hop right into it. 

So as teaching goes, we are still teaching the same people, Cody, Amber, Wyatt, Jabri, Javier, Marita, and more. But we found two new people this week which was cool. They seem pretty interested but we'll see what happens. We teach so many restoration lessons and then come back for another appointment and they're like, "haha psych! I actually don't care about learning more or praying about the Book of Mormon." I love teaching all of these people though. I am most excited for Wyatt's baptism on the 28th. Everyone we're teaching is pretty cool and they keep commitments well which is good. 

So there are some new changes with the Lone Meadows Zone and in the Cheyenne Ward. First of all, 70% of the original missionaries here dipped and we got a bunch of new ones. Also, we got 32 new missionaries in the mission and mostly everyone here in this zone is training a new missionary, except Elder McGee and I. It's kinda fun having so many newbies in the zone. Also Elder Zuniga returned to this zone again, so that's pretty neat. Seems like it's going to be an excellent transfer. ALSO, our ward go shrocked when we found out were not the only missionaries in our ward anymore. We have 2 sets of missionaries, and they're sisters. Their names are Sister Harris and Black and they seem fun. Now we have to work together and I don't really know how were going to do that so we are going to have a free for all. They also cover the Portuguese branch so they're balancing both assignments. And of course they have a car and we are stilling chilling on the bikes. 

Also speaking of the bikes, I popped both of my tires again. I was so angry. The road here is just completely covered in glass and garbage. We checked the rims again and tubes to make sure there wasn't anything inside that was poking them. I'm so frustrated and hate this junky bike. But, I'm too lazy to waste P-Day time to get a new one. That's 4 flat tires in the past two weeks. I guess I'm just going to have to buy new rims or something. 

And that's about it for this week. Super lame and super boring. Actually, something fun did happen. We got an eggplant from a member. So now we are going to figure out a way to cook eggplant. Maybe someday this week we will throw some garbage together and make something fun with the eggplant. I imagine it might be good in a soup or something. 

I'm actually kinda glad there are Sisters in the ward now though. Even though they're stealing all our member dinners and baptisms... haha just kidding... no they're actually helpful. This ward is really big and their help is much needed. Everyone loves sisters so much more than elders though. When the sisters came in they were swarmed by the members during church. I was like bruh. So now it might be a competition with them no biggie. 

Anyways this week went by super fast and not a whole lot to talk about but I will share a short scripture because I LOVE short scriptures. 

"29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another." - 3 Nephi 11:29 

This means I shouldn't be mad and yell at my dumb bike because that is the spirit of contention. I also run into a lot of people that want to fight but this scripture is a good reminder of my purpose and who I represent. I represent Jesus Christ and He doesn't fight. Enough said. 

I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that Jesus is Real. I know that because I have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. Because of that, I know I can live with my family forever. Thank you all so much for reading my emails and I wish the best for all of you. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

We tye-dyed t-shirts (this ones mine)

Quarantining is not fun!

 Hola todos,

Here we are again with another week down. This whole mission thing goes by way too fast. This week has definitely been an interesting one full of miracles and insanity. Looking back on it, it was a pretty fun week. Transfers were this week which is crazy! This transfer with Elder McGee has gone by so fast. Luckily there is no new changes in our companionship. Our roommates are the same too. We're just chilling together. We're still on bike and are just over the Cheyenne Ward. Glad I still have Elder Llontop too. I love that guy and he teaches me good Spanish. 

Me wearing Elder Llontop's glasses

First of all, the people were teaching are still the same. Wyatt moved his date AGAIN to the 28th of August. Hopefully this will be the last postpone but I'm gonna be real sad if I can't make it to his baptism if it goes out of this transfer. Jabri, Amber, and Cody are still where we saw them last and we have a bunch of other people we're teaching but they aren't really progressing that well. However, we found two new people that are very promising! I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to be baptized this transfer! Javier and Marita are the most humble and awesome people I have met on my mission. So basically, we did a member lesson with the Hanson family and they are from Peru and mentioned that they wanted us to come over for dinner and try Peruvian food. Then we had this delicious Peruvian dinner and it was so good and I wish I could've gotten seconds but it's alright. Anyways the Hanson's has family staying with them from Peru who don't speak a lot of English so they joined us for dinner. We did a spiritual thought in Spanish after dinner and Marita and Javier were super interested. Elder McGee doesn't speak any Spanish so it was really all on me and I was freaking out a little bit. I actually did a pretty good job and we talked about the Book of Mormon.

What's awesome is that Javier and Marita wanted to read the book of Mormon and come to church. They literally came to church Sunday and couldn't understand anything because it was in English but they really liked it. THEN we came back for dinner again and had another lesson in Spanish and gave them copies of the Book of Mormon in Spanish(they had them in English and Javier read the whole introduction in English). We finally set up a time to come back with the Spanish branch elders(Elder Child and Llontop) to teach them the restoration. And that all happened in the past week. Just an incredible miracle. 

I know it's cliché and cheesy but those two lessons were the strongest I've felt the spirit ever. I wish I could've said that my Spanish was perfect but it really wasn't. But what I do know is that because of what we said they are reading and praying about the book of Mormon. I may not have said everything perfectly but they are progressing and that's what matters. I'm just excited to do a restoration lesson in Spanish next week with Elder Child and Llontop. Those lessons were so powerful and they will be moments I will never forget for the rest of my life. 

I'm still trying to memorize 20 new words in Spanish everyday. It's definitely helping my Spanish TONS. I may not have all of them perfectly memorized that day but when I need them in conversation they are brought to my memory which is cool. I've gotten to a point in my Spanish where I know the grammar and how to speak but I just need more vocabulary so that's really what I'm focusing. Oh and understanding what people are saying. It can be crazy sometimes. I literally don't understand anything anyone says when they're from Chile or Peru. It can be really tough understanding Javier and Marita. People from Mexico are so easy to understand and I love it. Their Spanish is so clear. 

We got a call Wednesday night by the bishop and he asked us to give a priesthood blessing to an older lady in the ward. She had pancreatic cancer and it looked like she was not going to make it, she wanted us to give her and her family a blessing of comfort as she passed. Hearing about her story left me so devastated. I remember knocking on the door with Elder McGee at 8 pm and seeing her and her family, it was definitely a humbling experience. I didn't perform the blessing, Elder McGee did, but I could feel the spirit so strongly as he said the blessing upon her head. I felt the love that Heavenly Father had for her and her family. I know that whatever happens in this next month she will be at peace. What was cool was after the blessing, a gentleman approached us and asked if he could be baptized. Apparently it was her sisters boyfriend and he hasn't been baptized yet but he wanted to be apart of the church. That was pretty neat. We setup a time to come back and teach him. 

I made brownies in quarantine!

Another downer was the fact that I may have accidently gotten the whole zone sick. Remember how last week I mentioned that I was a little sick and so were my roommates? Well, a lot of other people are sick and I realized it might've started with me haha... yeah so now Elder McGee is super sick and we talked to our health coordinator over the mission and she said that we had to quarantine for 3 days. You've got to be kidding me. So we ended up just doing Facebook work for 3 days. Quarantine is so boring and NOT fun at all. The only cool thing about it was I literally read the Bible for 3 hours straight. Elder McGee and I were tried to do Bible speed reading and we got pretty into it. Quarantine is still depressing though. What made it a little better was that Elder Llontop and Child quarantined too so we weren't super alone. It was just so boring and I never want to be sick again. I've heard some talk that they might quarantine the whole mission and I really hope that doesn't happen. But since people who are sick are getting transferred I could totally see this spreading through the whole mission because I got sick last week. Oops. 

You know this transfer has been probably one of my favorite transfers so far. My district was fantastic and I felt like I made a huge difference in the Cheyenne Ward. I've had some pretty crazy stories too. I remember at the beginning of this transfer I tried to make crockpot chicken and I accidently left it on over night on the highest setting and it could've exploding and killed everyone but luckily that didn't happen. Instead it just made super tender and delicious chicken. Two flat tires and crashing my bike to constant flash floods everyday, this has been one awesome transfer. It's monsoon season here in Vegas and it's been flooding like crazy. Because of that though it's no longer 117 degrees everyday. It's like 100 so that's neat. 

It is RAINING!

When you ride your bike in the rain it stains your clothes
with muddy Las Vegas mud water.

This has been so wild here. I wish you all could see what I see and do what I am doing. It is really spectacular here and I love being a missionary. My life here is so different than who I was and its like I'm on a constant roller coaster going 900 miles an hour sideways. Sometimes on the roller coaster I want to puke my brains out but really it's a pretty cool roller coaster (quarantining was the puking part). 

I know this church is true and I'm making a difference a difference in the lives of so many people. Thank you for reading my emails and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Pack 

Street contacting with my comp

Quarantining selfie sticky note inception

It's like dementia up in here!

 Hola! 

I have hit my 8 month mark today as a missionary! It's pretty neat but like means nothing in the long run. It's still kinda fun though. 8 just seems like a big number I guess. I'm above the age of accountability now haha. Anyways let's just get right into the week.

Okay so nothing has really changed with people we're teaching right now. No new updates and not many cool stories to tell. We haven't met with Jabri because he's been busy and I'm super sad about that. I love talking with him so much. We've focused a lot of our efforts on less active members right now. We've exhausted a lot of our efforts hitting up part member families and all that so now we're just going after the less active. This ward has 200 individuals regularly attend church but there are 700 in the boundaries. Sooooo.... We've just been grinding on those. We've got a lot of families to come back to church and it's pretty cool to see the fruits of our efforts there. Yeah also so Eric's baptism had to be pushed back, unfortunately. I was pretty sad. I hyped it up last week and it didn't even happen. Should happen sometime in August though.

Church was good. We helped out a friend teach a Sunday school class which was pretty cool. It's fun to be asked gospel questions or deep questions and then answer them pretty easily. It's very satisfying haha. That's like the only thing I'm good at. Actually, we helped move  that same friend the other day and then they took us out to breakfast. Man! getting fed all the time is so good but it's destroying me. I've gained so much weight. I mean it was probably good for me because I was so skinny but I've gained like 20 pounds. 

Mud Mask on my comp

You know now that I think about it I get fed a lot here. Everyone here is so nice and awesome. The people in this ward are fairly old too and so kind. They're like my grandparents. It's so awesome. They like to fatten us up and are just so awesome, like spending time with your grandparents. I'm having a great time here in this ward and with Elder McGee. There is an awesome member here that gives us so much free stuff. The other day he gave us melons to take back to our apartment but we were on bikes so we biked with one hand and the other hand we each held a giant melon. It was great. Awesome. Crashed again but it was fun. We are still planning on what we're going to do with them.

Some legit fish we found at some Mexican market

Yeah so I got super sick this week for some reason. All of a sudden I just got shrocked with a cold. It was pretty bad. Hopefully it wasn't Covid but I heard a lot of missionaries got a cold or something. My roommates got it to and they ended up quarantining. Hopefully I didn't get anyone else sick but I didn't really quarantine soooo. I was too busy on the grind. The other elders had a great time in quarantine apparently. We came back and the apartment was completely covered in sticky notes. They're  for Elder Llontop since he doesn't speak English. It's like dementia up in here! There's a sticky note with English words on everything so Elder Llontop can learn them. Its kinda interesting but fun I guess haha....

Sticky notes are everywhere!

Other than that not really much happened this week. My back bike tire is going flat so I'm pretty sure there is a slow leak but I'm just too lazy to fix it. Oh I also made sugar cookies this week! That was neat. I burned them so that kinda stinks. They were really bad honestly. 

My burnt cookies

I read this cool scripture the other day and it's pretty much my favorite scripture now. It's Proverbs 27:17.

17- Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Basically what it's saying is that when you have a positive attitude it rubs off on others. People sharpen other people. We can sharpen the countenance of our friends and families. You can't change some circumstances you've been given, so what you choose is to sharpen yourself. Have a good or bad attitude. The choice is yours. Iron sharpens iron! I don't know it just sounds cool. 

I love you guys so much and am so thankful you read my emails. Sorry this one wasn't kinda short and boring but it basically sums up this week.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

I Crashed My Bike!

 Hola otra vez,

This has been the fastest week of my entire life. I feel like that every week, but this one is for reals. Seriously, P-Day just rolled up on me again. I feel like my letter last week was kind of just me complaining haha. Sorry about that, I think I was just sad. This heat has really messed with my brain. Honestly life here is actually really great, and I see so many miracles and blessings. I guess I was overwhelmed last week. This week was way better though. Lots of things happened this week so let's just jump right into it.

Wyatt's baptismal date got pushed back to August. Kinda lame but whatever I guess. Originally it was for the 24th of July but it's alright. Wyatt wants some of his family to perform the baptism and they're out of town until August. I totally respect that but hopefully I stay this transfer then so I can see the baptism. Family is always more important than some random missionary haha. We are still teaching Amber and Cody. Also we met this random guy named Jabri. Jabri is literally so cool. He just pulled up his van on the side of the road as we were walking by and was like, "HEY! I've got some questions for you guys!! Why are we here on earth? Why do bad things happen?" And we're like haha glad you asked. We've taught him a couple times now and he said he wanted to come to church! He never showed up though... we'll give him benefit of the doubt but we will be super hyped to see him and his family at church.

We also had a fire couple of lessons with Edward. Edward was a guy we ran into and he is super cool. It's so interesting because every time we come over to share a lesson he comes outside at the same time. It's an interesting coincidence... We gave him a Book of Mormon and this guy has just been absolutely feasting on it. He said he wants to come to church too and learn more. It's nice to teach and watch people progress. 

Just a random picture of us

So a couple days ago, Elder Caldwell calls me and says, "ELDER PACK GUESS WHAT?" And I'm like "what" and he says, "ERIC IS GETTING BAPTIZED!" And I was like, "BRUH WHAT?" And that's not even the coolest news. Eric has asked me to perform the baptism. He wants me to baptize him! I was so hyped. If you remember, Eric was this 9 year old we found and taught last transfer. I didn't think his parents would let him be baptized but here we are. Hearing about that news literally made me cry. I was so hyped. Elder Caldwell called me during dinner and we were eating buffalo wild wings so I could've been crying because of that too. I got some crazy spicy wings that day. Anyways, that happened. His baptism is on the 17th so be prepared for some pictures next week. 

This week we went to zone conference again and it was a blast. Probably the best zone conference I've been to. There were a lot of good trainings and president laid down some fat bars during his talk. I saw some old friends too! Everyone from Vegas Zone were there and some people from Elkhorn Springs. Elder Caldwell and Elder Rehkow were there. We reminisced on old memories. I forgot how much I missed Elder Rehkow and we had so many dumb memories together. During zone conference I even got a new oil vial which was lit. I lost my previous one haha.... 

My new vial of oil

Elder Zuniga, Sister Sellers, and I (They are from my MTC district)

Our District

The Lone Meadows Zone

I love my companion so much. He is literally so awesome. It's so refreshing to lighten the mood with Elder McGee. We are so different but very similar at the same time. It's fun. It's so hot all the time and pretty miserable but with Elder McGee life is actually pretty good. During exchanges I get pretty sad. I'm pretty spoiled with Elder McGee. I know that the Lord is probably giving me so many blessings and then Elder McGee will get transferred and I'll be super sad. 

Spanish frosted flakes Elder Llontop brought and they suck.

Elder McGee and I messing around

Yeah so my bike went through some garbage this week. I crashed my bike and also go two flat tires. It was kind of thrilling to be honest. Time slowed as I jumped over my handlebars and landed on my feet. My bike got shrocked but I was okay. My bike is still doing some weird stuff to this day. Then I got some flat tires after rolling over glass. Las Vegas always has glass and some other interesting stuff on the road haha.... It was chill though because we rolled up to the church and called our next appointment. Then Brother Barker came in clutch and gave us a ride.

Brother Barker fixing my bike

When Brother Barker gave us a ride and then took us to target I was so thankful. I don't really deserve some of the blessings I've been given but here we are. Brother Barker literally bought me a new tire and fixed it for me. Without him I would've been so stuck. Without members I'm literally nothing. We need members so much. Brother Barker is such a dog. Sometimes we take for granted the members but I am so thankful for them. Missionaries without members is kinda like hands without fingers. Actually that's kind of a weird analogy but you get the point. Yeah you need member help. If you can't have the members testify and invite then you kinda are stuck. I know I have a huge testimony of member work and without them I would be so stuck. 

Anyways thanks so much for reading my emails! I hope you all have a great week! 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack