The Craziest Exchange of My Life!

 Hola,

This week has been so fast but so awesome. Definitely a great week. I love serving in the Cheyenne Ward and Elder Wheeler is such a hardworking Elder. I'm the kind if guy that like I don't care at all whether my companion is like me or not, I just care if you want to work hard with me. Elder Wheeler likes to work so we get along well haha. Yeah it's been a pretty good week. 

Handing out cookies

First of all, we delivered cookies to a bunch of our friends and thanks to one of the cookie visit we put Isaac on date to be baptized. That was sweet. We literally sat down and had a talk and put this man on date. Then we also found a lot of solid new people to teach. One time as we were walking Elder Wheeler felt like walking forward a bit more and so we did. Then immediately a guy named Josh pulled up and was like, "you guys have been trying to call me, I wasn't ready to meet then but I'm ready now." That was pretty cool and we've had two lessons with him already. Josh is a pretty funny guy. He sells merchandise and he's gonna make some missionary merchandise line for us. I'm so hyped. 

Elder Wheeler and I are teaching English now at a Spanish resource center. Elder Wheeler isn't even called Spanish Speaking and now he's teaching English to a bunch of Spanish speakers. He honestly teaches it better than I do sometimes so that's interesting. We mostly talk in English anyways. I want to get as much Spanish practice as I can so I try to speak Spanish a decent amount but also English so they can learn too. It's honestly pretty fun. 

Okay but now it's time for the lit story of the week. So basically I've been doing some exchanges throughout the week. I went another exchange with my district leader and that was fun. But the most crazy exchange was with Elder Jessop. So Elder Jessop and Moa are my zone leaders and since I'm training a new missionary the zone leaders wanted to do an exchange with me. Elder Moa went with Elder Wheeler and they apparently had an absolutely spirit filled exchange where they put a referral on date in the first visit. It sounded pretty incredible. My exchange however was very interesting. I had companion study with Elder Jessop and then halfway through he's like, "yeah so Elder Pack actually I have a pretty bad stomach/ bacterial infection so I'm not feeling that great so if halfway through this exchange I pull the plug don't be surprised." I was like oh dang okay. So naturally we then went to in-n-out for lunch. Then we had a member visit and about 20 minutes later, Elder Jessop is like, "I need a bathroom, like right now." So then we go to a church bathroom so Elder Jessop can release the beast. 

So we're in the bathroom and Elder Jessop is making some interesting noises in the stall and everyone else in the bathroom is like what is going on. Because there is a baptism going on, there is a decent amount of people. I'm laughing like crazy so I need to leave the bathroom because I can't breath and so then I wonder into another room where Elder Child and Whipple are doing weekly planning. I join in with that for about 30 minutes and Elder Jessop comes in and is like yeah we need to end exchanges. But this is where things get crazy. I'm like bro I have so many things planned and I know Elder Wheeler needs to be with Elder Moa sooooo. Then we realize Elder Child needs to pack since he's going to Ecuador, so we make a new plan. I'm going to do another exchange inside the exchange and be with Elder Whipple. Elder Child is going to pack for the rest of the night so Elder Jessop joins him and sits on the toilet for the next 5-6 hours. So that was fun.

Elder Wheeler my companion

Elder Gonzalez

Okay so now Elder Whipple and I are together and we go to our homies Josh's house and he asks us to move his printer. We're like, okay sure we can help with that. Turns out it is a jersey printer so it is absolutely massive. It's 8 feet by 3 feet and weighs 700 pounds. So Elder Whipple and I are like what is going on as we move this thing. Then we have another lesson with him but this time he's changing into a Donald Duck costume for some reason as we teach him. It was crazy. I'm pretty sure he was changing into it for work or something but that was fun. Then we ended exchanges 3 ours later. 

One thing I've noticed is that my weeks are really the same. I'm really scraping the bottom or the barrel for these emails. Last week I literally talked about shampoo. So it's honestly a miracle I've written this much about my week. Life is still good, I love working with Elder Wheeler, and I've learned a lot about myself and who I am. This experience really has changed me so much and I feel like a whole new person sometimes. I still make dumb jokes and all that, but I feel different. 

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

-3 Nephi 5:13 

This gospel is truth. I know it as a fact. Like I know the sun shines or I'll wake up in the morning. This is truth. I'm putting my whole heart and soul into this and working so much. Sometimes people accept or sometimes they reject it. More often the latter. I see these people as I walk past them in the street and I just want to stop everyone and tell them who they really are. Sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. I know there is a God. I am His son. Jesus Christ is real and performed and infinite and eternal Atonement for me so I can live with my family again after I die. I know that is truth.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

An older picture of Elder Caldwell and I

Yummy taco dinner

Oysters and Cup Pong

 Hola,

Another week down, and I've officially hit 10 months as a missionary. Pretty sweet. I'm now in the double digits so I can sound like an experienced missionary! Just kidding, I still sometimes has no idea what I'm doing. But that's part of the fun. I think that will get me ready for life, just not knowing what I'm doing at all and just winging everything. Anyways, let's get into the week. 

The Tacoma is still sweet. We love the Tacoma. Also I think my skin is healing well from all the sunburns I've gotten while on bike. I've noticed a huge difference in my redness of skin. Heck Yeah, life's good. But I still look like a tomato but that's whatever I guess. The Tacoma protects with that. Elder Wheeler is a pretty fun guy too. Loves to learn and ask for help when he needs it. That is a good skill to have and I struggle with that sometimes. I don't really ask for help when I need it. He's a good guy though and I like working with him. He's learning a lot and so that's pretty neat. I think the best learning tool is failure so I let him fail a lot so he can learn what to do next time. I could tell him things but really experience has taught him more than I could ever teach him. For example, I like to go up to random people and tell them my friend has a question to ask them. Its soo fun.

I've really learned a lot about myself since I've been here. Living with a dude 24/7 really teaches you a thing or two. One thing I've learned about myself is I am a huge perfectionist. Things literally HAVE to be perfect and that never occurred to me til now. That attribute of mine is something I've been trying to drop. I think I've been doing a better job of it. I've really stopped caring about a lot of things. I have been trying to work on two Christlike attributes these next couple weeks. Patience and Love. I want to show unconditionally Christlike love and patience to Elder Wheeler and to my fellow peers. I think I've been doing a lot better. It's really been good for my mental health too. I'm less stressed and all that stuff so yeah that's neat. 

Anyways, here is a fun thing though I've noticed this week. Girls shampoo is so awesome. I ran out of shampoo a couple days ago and I went to the store with Elder Wheeler on P-Day to go get more. I found some shampoo that was definitely not for guys but wow this thing is sweet. Why haven't I been using this stuff my whole life. My hair is just like so silky now. Life is good. Just thought I'd share that with you and all the wisdom I'm receiving on my mission. 

Also, I had exchanges with Elder Hatch again. I love that Elder so much. He's so funny and smart. Just a great guy to be around. Plus, I set up some pretty fun things for that day. First of all, a member fed us oysters. I do not like seafood. But, I wanted to try eating an oyster. Wow that stuff is gross. I'm sorry if you like it, that's totally fine. But in my taste buds, it's nasty. Apparently they're alive too and that just weirds me out. So yeah oysters aren't my thing. It was a lot of fun though. Elder Hatch was just downing all of them and I only ate like two. Nasty. I just tried to slurp it down my throat without chewing or anything. It was so weird. 

Yeah that exchange was so weird. We also went to Elder Hatch's baptism during the exchange and were going to be late and they needed to fill the font, it was so stressful. I don't know why we did the exchange with a baptism on the same day but whatever I guess. I ended up getting like 50 "check your speeds" on the Tacoma as I was driving over. Another funny experience during the exchange was when it was later in the evening at night when we left the baptism and showed up at my apartment. A massive group of people was just raging outside our apartment in a party. We pushed through some of them to get to our apartment and someone yells, "YOU GUYS WANNA PLAY BEER PONG?" Everyone is yelling and stuff and the four of us are just like uhhhh.... then we're like nah we're good. We then go inside and my district leader leans to me and says "Elder I really wanna play cup pong and not drink." And I'm like Elder we probably shouldn't play cup pong with those guys. Then the two other new missionaries are like "Sure! Let's do it!" And I'm like bruh. So we go the door and said a prayer to leave the apartment and after the prayer all four of us are like yeah... we shouldn't do it. But then we still left the apartment to drop off Elder Hatch and they asked us AGAIN to play. My district leader insisted we should just play but not drink obviously, and should just contact them and I'm like bruh what? NO! Turns out it was a really good idea not too because someone we were teaching was there and was watching us the whole time. So... that was good. 

Well, at the end of the week and after all our hard work we realized that no one that we were teaching came to church again. We had so many people that said they'd come and I was so hyped, none of them showed. It was kinda frustrating. Elder Wheeler and I were just grinding and these people straight up didn't show. It's whatever I guess. Part of missionary work I guess. Keeping commitments is so important. I really have learned the value of a dependable person. Anyways, I know that I'm doing what the lord wants me to do and all that so it's no biggie... but don't get me wrong I love seeing miracles. 

This has been a great week and I love working with Elder Wheeler. I like helping him learn how to succeed on his own and it's a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind training my whole mission but I know that probably won't happen. Thank you all for reading my emails! I hope you all have an incredible week and I'll talk to you later!

Sincerely, 

Elder Pack 

Welp, here we go again!

 Hola,

Well, I finished the first week with the new transfer. I feel like I got so complacent with the way things were and now things are different again. But change is good I guess. Last week I talked about the details of the new transfer but living them is even weirder. I'm training a new missionary and I'm driving around in a Tacoma. Life is pretty good! 

So I got my new missionary Wednesday and his name is Elder Wheeler. He's such a good guy and an even better missionary. Orientation with him reminded me of Orientation when I got trained by Elder Rehkow. That feels so long ago. It's interesting. It was pretty cool being on the other side though. Elder Wheeler is from Virginia but he moved to Germany right before his mission so he tells everyone he's from Germany. I think it's so hilarious. People think he's like some German guy and it gives us so much clout. He is a super nice and friendly guy too. Can't wait to keep serving with him. 

My new companion

Yeah the truck is pretty sweet, not going to lie. Finally getting off a bike and having a truck is so sweet. Basically, I'm like the designated driver for everyone though. I feel bad for a lot of guys on bikes so we give them rides around. Having a truck is so convenient. I can't even describe how awesome it is. I'm a pretty terrible driver though. I'm still getting used to driving again so I'm pretty terrible and make some pretty sketchy decisions. I'm sure I'll be fine though. 

My new roommates are Elder Stutz and Elder Boyce. They're good missionaries and are super funny too. They're always out among the people so I'm glad that they're being a good example to Elder Wheeler. I really want Elder Wheeler to work hard and see fruits of his successes. Elder Stutz and Boyce are Spanish missionaries so I'm glad to practice Spanish with them. Elder Stutz has been out for longer than a year and he has always been in a Spanish branch. I'm super jealous. I really hope one day I can serve in a Spanish area. I hear of some missionaries here who don't serve in Spanish areas til the very end of their mission. I guess that may be me haha who knows. My Spanish has definitely improved but still not fluent. I wish so badly to be fluent. 

Training has been interesting. I basically have to explain everything in detail and sometimes I forget Elder Wheeler doesn't know some things. I really like it though and think it'll be a good experience for me. Elder Wheeler doesn't speak Spanish though so I'm training an English missionary. I really wish I could train in Spanish so that way my Spanish could improve too but I guess my Spanish isn't good enough. Maybe president doesn't think I'm ready for that or whatever haha. I don't know. Life is good though and I'm just taking one day at a time.

We had a pretty sweet miracle the other day. Elder Wheeler and I have been trying to hand out his first BOM but we've been having some trouble. I handed a Spanish BOM and referred a guy while Elder Wheeler was here, but we couldn't get him to give out an English one. Eventually on Friday, we found a lady named Connie. It was so cool and she asked us to sit down and she told us her whole life story. Then she accepted Elder Wheeler's Book of Mormon and said she'd pray about it. It was so sweet. I really want to be a good trainer for Elder Wheeler and leave a good impression on him. I hope he looks back on his time with me and say he enjoyed every bit of it. 

So I got some bad news that I was a little upset about. So last week I talked about I had the opportunity to go to the temple with a recent convert and I was super excited about it. He asked me to escort him through and I was so excited. But then I talked with my mission president this week and he said that I can't go to the temple with him. It wasn't a good use of missionary time. So I couldn't escort him through the temple. I was pretty bummed about it and I vented pretty hard to Elder Wheeler and so that sucked. But Elder Wheeler was super chill and gave me some advice and love so it helped me release some tension I had. Hopefully I'll be able to go to the temple another time before my mission ends but we'll see. I was talking with one of the senior couples about it who went to the recent converts temple session and was confused why Elder Wheeler and I weren't there. They were a bit confused too but they gave me some advice and all that so I got over it pretty fast. 

Anyways I love the mission and my new companion. I can't wait to serve with him and make a new friend. I'm so thankful you read my letters, I appreciate it. This week was pretty short but a good one. I'm excited to train and I know I'm ready.

Love you all,

Elder Pack 

My district leader and I during our calls

I'm Training!

 Hola otra vez,

This week so much changed. I feel like things are going a totally new direction but also I'm excited. I have a weird mix of emotions. First of all, I got my transfer details for this new transfer and I'm so excited. Good news is Elder McGee is finally going to his original assignment: Toronto Canada! But the bad news is I'm losing a good friend. I've loved working with Elder McGee. He is so funny and he works hard which is fantastic! He made being on bikes in 117 degrees so sweet. I'm going to miss him. He is going to Canada pretty soon so I'm getting a new companion in the Cheyenne ward. I will be training a new missionary in the Cheyenne ward! Apparently we're getting 37 new missionaries this transfer so I basically already knew I'd train. Plus President Reese told me already. I'm excited to meet my new companion and I look forward to working with him. I don't care what kind of person he is or whatever, I'm going to be patient and loving with him. 

Finally, the best thing ever happened... I got a car. I'm no longer on a bike under the sun getting skin cancer. I have a car, not just any car, but a Toyota Tacoma. I'm driving a flippin' truck around! This transfer is going to be so sweet. Finally I have nothing stopping us from visiting whoever we want. My new missionary and I are going to go off. I hope I can be a good example and trainer for him. I've been praying every night that I'll be a good trainer and my trainee will be patient with me as well. I've been ready to fully train for quite a while now. I knew my time would come eventually. I really wanted to be in a Spanish area but I guess the Lord doesn't want me there yet. I think after these couple transfers I'll ask president if I can be in a Spanish area. What's the worst that could happen? He says no? I'm down for whatever but I feel like a useless Spanish missionary if I never use the language. All these reassigned missionaries to Chile and Argentina or wherever get first priority to the Spanish areas so I'll just have to be patient I guess. 

A lot has changed this week. Elder Llontop left and so did Elder McGee. A lot of other people left too. Elder Llontop really taught me good Spanish and I love him so much. He is so awesome and I can't wait to see him after the mission. His English is going to be perfect haha. We had to close down Elder McGee and I's old apartment this week too. The Bloom apartment complex was just horrible and that apartment was pretty bad. It was the oldest one in the mission and had some issues. The other elders bathroom didn't really have a toilet seat or lid or a lot of other things so they ended up just pooping in a hole doing the sausage squat for 12 weeks. Our bathroom wasn't too bad though. Yeah so we closed down the whole apartment and moved everything out of there and Elder Child and Llontop parted ways. It was super sad. Elder McGee and I ended up getting moved to a two man apartment for four days which was pretty interesting. That moving day was such a long day. We were in service clothes almost the whole day and moved a member into the ward and then moved ourselves out. It was definitely a long day. Our two man wasn't too bad. It was a nice apartment. Turns out a couple days before we got there a man was stabbed to death outside next to our apartment. We love Vegas. They had to repaint our whole walkway because of it. But the apartment itself wasn't horrible. 

Behind our stove. Ewe!

Some ties that Elder Llontop wanted to give me. 
They are custom made from Peru! I got the pink one.

Before we left we said our goodbyes to Elder Child and Llontop. Elder Llontop pulled out a Venezuelan drink he really likes that his family sent him so we all celebrated by drinking that. I straight up wanted to puke after drinking it though. Elder Llontop loved it but that thing was horrible. Turns out it was non alcoholic alcohol and it was so bad. I didn't have the heart to tell him though so I drank it and told Elder Llontop is was really good. 

Me and Elder Llontop

A t-shirt I made with my district

Elder McMahon and me

Turns out a year ago I opened my mission call on September 2nd 2020. I remember that day pretty well. It was such a sweet day and I remember getting off work and rushing home to open it. I was so curious on where I was going to go, I would've never expected Vegas. I'm glad I got sent here. This is a sweet mission. Super fun. Can't believe it's been a year since then. 

I'm so excited to go off in the Cheyenne ward. Apparently some seriously crazy stuff has happened in this ward. But hey, I'm glad to be here another transfer to hit the grind here with my new missionary. It's so sweet that we have a Tacoma. 

Our ward mission leader

A family in our ward that really helped us.

Here is a fun story that happened this week. It was around 7:00 pm and Elder McGee and I were praying on where we needed to go. We were just standing at the end of this neighborhood trying to find a place to go to talk with some people. So we said a prayer and waited for an idea as we looked at this map. Usually I feel an impression on where I need to go but I didn't feel anywhere. Elder McGee didn't have any ideas either. We just stood there looking at a map focusing on some place where the spirit could tell us where to go. We probably waited there like 10 minutes when suddenly a garage door opened up behind us. We turned around and a family came outside and we started talking with them. Turns out they're a part member family that hasn't been to church in a while! It was a pretty cool miracle that happened just because we just stood around waiting for a garage door to open. It was pretty sweet. The spirit works in really weird ways sometimes. 

Last miracle that happened was this past Sunday. The family of Wyatt surprised us and all the males in the family got the Aaronic priesthood! Even his dad! It was so sweet and the look on Elder McGee's face was priceless when he told us that they were getting the Aaronic priesthood. It was so cool. Elder McGee and I were allowed to participate in the circle as we gave them all the Aaronic priesthood. I am so proud of them! Seeing them progress these 12 weeks has been so sweet. Like seriously so cool. I have a feeling that because of Wyatt's example, the whole family is going to stay active. I love this family so much and I am excited to keep working with them. 

Wyatt's Family and us

The spirit was so strong and I have so much gratitude for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have seen people's lives change and people find true happiness. I know that this work is the MOST important work in the history or the universe. What I am doing is that important. I love being a missionary, I love the Lord, and I can't wait for the future. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

It's Literally Falling Apart

 Hola,

This was a pretty sweet week in the mission field. Lots of miracles and great things happened. I've grown to love the people here in the Cheyenne ward. They are so old but so amazing. They're so generous and I'm so blessed to have them in my life. There are so many families here after the mission that I want to see. First of all, my ward mission leader is so amazing, his name is Brother Carson and every Friday he takes all four of the missionaries in the ward out to lunch. He's retired so he can kinda do whatever he wants. I love him so much. He loves and cares for us like a grandfather would and he is working so hard to make sure the Cheyenne ward is successful in missionary work. I have no idea how long I have with this ward though. Transfers are coming up at the end of this week and I have a feeling I won't be staying here, but we will see. You never know with transfers. 

This next transfer were supposed to get 38 new missionaries (which is a lot by the way) into the whole mission. We got 32 missionaries last transfer so this is going to be exciting to see where president puts them all. That means that there are going to be 38 new trainers which is sweet. President told me I would train in interviews if there were a lot of the new missionaries coming. So I'm pretty sure I'll be training, which is pretty exciting. But hey, I won't get my hopes up so that way I won't get disappointed when something unexpected happens. Our mission is one of the top Instagram and Facebook missions in the world so they like to send missionaries here for their reassignment to learn how to do social media work and then springboard to there original assignments and teach everyone there how to actually grind on Facebook. 

Well, it's official, Wyatt got baptized. Last Saturday on the 28th, Wyatt finally got baptized.

We would have had them baptized last transfer but his family pushed it back so his family could be there but then his family wasn't even there. I was like bruh what. But it's all good. I have loved working with his family and we will continue working with them after baptism to help them prepare to enter the temple one day. That's a far off goal but it's good to help build their foundation for that. Wyatt's baptism was probably the most spiritual baptism I've ever been to. The spirit was so strong and there were a lot of people there to see it. There was nothing that went wrong either, everything was perfect! I'm proud of his family and I hope they can continue on the covenant path towards eternal life. 

Monday we went to a baseball game. President approved it for us so we got the opportunity to go to an Aviators game on my P-Day. It was so much fun and we took a lot of pictures! Even though they were only a triple A team, the Aviators were playing pretty good and won in the 9th inning. Our whole mission was there and it was cool to see old friends. After every inning there is a little game they play on the field for everyone to see and they kept getting missionaries to play in the games and that was pretty fun to see. Wish I could've caught a foul ball but I saw some other missionaries who did. I'm so glad our president let us go and it will be a day I'll never forget on the mission. 

I had exchanges the other day with a new missionary named Elder Hatch. It was a pretty fun exchange and I love Elder Hatch, he really likes to read so he was telling me about all these cool books I should read after the mission. I don't know how but this guy got me trunky on books. I don't even like to read but he talked about some super cool books and now I really want to read them haha. Just need to wait a little over a year and then I can. Elder Hatch is fresh on the mission field so I really liked serving with him. He's a good guy, plus his Spanish is pretty good. So many people honked at us when we were biking around, it always surprises me when someone honks right next to me on the side of the road. People always wait till the last second to honk right when they're in my blind spot and it scares me sometimes. Anyways, the exchanges was pretty good, we found one new person to teach and then ran into a basher. After the exchange we dropped Elder Hatch back at the Truman House and then grabbed some glass soda bottles for the road. Elder McGee showed me this cool trick where you can cause the pressure of the glass bottle to push upward and cut the top of the bottle clean off. You use a butter knife and tap it and then slide upwards and it just explodes. It was pretty sweet. What wasn't sweet was drinking from the broken glass bottle afterwards. I cut the inside of my lip on the cut glass part and it started bleeding like crazy. That was fun. 

Anyways, I finally bought a new bike! I had to retire the old one. The one Elder Parrales sold me for 60$ was pretty good at first but it soon became a piece of junk. The night that I had to retire it, the bike was literally falling apart as we were riding home. I got another flat tire making that 9 flat tires this whole transfer and so we walked it home. The gears stopped switching and then the kick stand and some other stuff literally fell off as I was riding. The bike was done. So, Elder Robert's sold me his bike. I got this bike for 200$ which was sweet. His bike is so nice and he sold it to me for a good price. It was even approved by our vehicle coordinator, he even said that 200$ was a good price for the bike and said the bike was still in really good condition. So yeah that's pretty sweet. Since Elder Robert's was trying to sell his bike this whole transfer, Sister Harris told Elder Robert's that my bike sucked and was a piece of junk so I finally got a nice bike. I was a little sad Sister Harris called out my bike like that but really I'm super thankful she told him so I could buy a new bike. It was time to retire the thing. 

You know it's really cliché to say this but I've really learned a lot here on my mission. One lesson I've learned this week is if you have the money and it'll help you, pay for something nice, not a 60$ lump of trash. I'm probably going to end up donating the lump of trash to the mission office, hopefully they can find a use for it. Another lesson I've learned from Elder McGee is patience. This guy is the most patient and loving person I know. He is literally so forgiving and I really am going to miss him if I get transferred. This guy forgives me for all my faults and I am so thankful for him. He's taught me a lot and I want to be an Elder McGee to all my future companions. He's a huge example to me. Anyways thank you all for reading my emails and I'll see you next week. Love you all.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

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