Cave Spelunking

 Hola,

So, this week was awesome. Just awesome. Let's start off with the stupid stuff and then we'll get into the spiritual stuff.

So Elder Muraski and I did something kind of dangerous and probably shouldn't have but it was super cool, and we didn't die... but we could've. So, we went to Sandy Valley again, the wild west town in Southern Nevada, and all our lessons canceled. So huge bummer, we went to a funeral for a member there and had dinner with the branch president but other than that everything else canceled. So, we decided to do something fun, kind of disobedient but I was really looking forward to those lessons, so we found online some mines nearby because Sandy Valley was an old mining town, and we went mining. We think it was called Azurite mine, but we drove about a mile or two away from the town and parked our car then hiked up this mountain. Then we entered the mine in the top and explored. It was really cool.

I have lots of videos and pictures. There were straight up bats and stuff. Lots of old mining equipment and structures. Super interesting and cool. So, we went actual spelunking. It went further down but we decided not to go too far down. So cool.

Okay so the reason why we went to Sandy Valley again is because we are teaching Cynthia and Jacob. They are a family that wants to join the church. They are super cool, and we're referred to us by the branch president. We had a lesson with them last week and they are super awesome. We were going to have a lesson in person in sandy Valley but then they were sick, so we had a lesson over zoom the next day. They are so elect and both lessons were legit perfect. What's fun about teaching Cynthia is that she has no idea what church even is and legit knows nothing about Jesus Christ. Teaching their family is so fun. She texted us last week that they read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and God answered their prayer, exactly what we said would happen did happen and now they have a testimony that's true. Very cool. We tried to put them on date but both of them want to attend the church for several months before they are baptized so we told them that could potentially be baptized in two weeks if everything goes right since they need to attend church two times beforehand. I am hoping and praying that they can be baptized before I go home in 6 weeks. I'm a little worried but we have a plan to go in person next week and pray together on our knees about baptism and then it'll be GAME OVER. Satan has no chance. So please pray for Cynthia and Jacob.

I just want to take a moment and point out that a nonmember family prayed about the Book of Mormon and received a spiritual witness that it was true. If this church was not true, then a family with absolutely no reason to believe and just keep living the way they are living, prayed and had those good feelings. If we were making up the spirit in our minds, then that doesn't make sense because they have no reason to do that. It just proved even more to me that all my spiritual experiences are true, and I need to trust in God. This work really is true. 

Other things that happened this week, we had the MLC meeting again. Very cool. We discussed fasting from unvirtue as a mission. 

As well there was a funny story from Sandy Valley. We pulled up to a member's house and this stray dog that was following our truck ran onto their property. It starts scaring the kids who were outside and stuff and then the dad came out with a pistol and just started screaming at the dog and then he disappeared into the wilderness with this mangy stray. We didn't hear any shots but apparently, he shot him a couple times. I'm sure that dog got absolutely wrecked. But that pretty much sums up life in Sandy Valley. Pretty epic. Another epic story that happened this week was during our zone council meeting a random dude walked into the building and walked into the room and announced to everyone, "do you guys have any holy water?" Elder Muraski and I make eye contact and were like "sure we can help you man" then when we're outside of the room we tell him we don't really bless water and then we asked him what he needs to water for. He said he wanted to bless his home because apparently there were demons inside. So, we got his address and went to go bless his home. Elder Muraski and I felt completely fine in there and there wasn't anything spooky so we dedicated his home and then taught a little bit about the priesthood and how faith and love can cast out all fear so hopefully no more wack stuff happens. He also wasn't interested in meeting with missionaries either which was a bummer. 

Well, I officially have one week till the transfer ends, then I'll be in my last transfer of my mission. It goes by so fast and I am definitely enjoying it. 

Sincerely,

Elder Neil Pack

Surprise Baptism

 Hola,

What a fun week. We grinded hard to find new people to teach and we found... no one. But that's okay. We worked really hard with the members and tracting so I'm not sweating. This is just a tough area, it's really nice and rich and sadly all our progressing people are out in Sandy Valley which is an hour away from me. 

We had a stake breakfast where the entire zone showed up which was cool. I love seeing the stake come out and support the missionaries like that. We had a bunch if biscuits and eggs, it was super fun.

One of our members has a Hedgehog which was cool. His name is Quillium. Apparently, Hedgehogs are high maintenance, and you need to bath them daily. It's because they poop and run around in it 24/7. If you don't wash them then they smell like hot garbage. The Hedgehog was actually kind a cool though and he eats mealworms and BABY MICE. So, we fed it dead baby mice which was epic.

Fun story Elder Muraski and I were driving on the way to a dinner, and we were playing with this super filled water bottle. Elder Muraski grabbed it from me while we were driving, and he put it behind his back to itch his back and it popped open and got the seat and his butt wet. He looked like he pooped his pants. He didn't want to drive back to the apartment to change his pants, so we went to the dinner while his pants looked all wet. It was hilarious. He was so mad and of course I felt bad, but I was laughing. The best part is that the family that were having dinner with had some extended family in town and one of their super attractive daughters answered the door and I was thinking the whole time how awesome this was. When we were inside the whole time, he was trying to face them in such a way that they didn't see his butt. The mission is awesome. 

I had my second to last zone conference. It was themed on boxing, and we compared the word of God to boxing. It was pretty cool. It was honestly a super fun zone conference. I saw a lot of my friends too which was cool.

It's September now which means it's starting to cool down in weather a little bit. That's super nice. What's crazy is I have exactly two months left before I go home. November is coming to quickly.

Elder Dawson messaged me a couple days ago and told me about how someone we taught was getting baptized. So, I asked my mission president and he let me go. I saw the baptism for 3 girls that I found and taught last transfer. It was pretty cool. They are all from Belize and speak English, so they got baptized in the English ward instead of Rainbow Vista. The service was pretty good, and the spirit was strong. It's cool to see them choose to be baptized and I didn't even know they were still being taught which was cool. It's crazy how we can affect people and not even know the effects. 

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord

-1 Corinthians 15:58

Sincerely, 

Elder Neil Pack

The Return of Elder Plaster

 Hola,

What an awesome week. I don't have a lot of time, so I need to speed run through this. But it's crazy how my mission is quickly coming to an end. I'm in such a fun area to end my mission.

We had a temple trip. That was awesome. Three zones pulled up to the temple so there was hecka missionaries there. It was a very spiritual experience and day to remember.

Elder Plaster is back! He's in my zone and he was at the temple. For those of you who can't remember who he was, I trained him a year ago and he is one of my best friends. The companionship unity was still as strong as ever when we saw each other. He is in Pahrump so he rarely comes down to see the rest of the zone. Then we went on exchanges with the Pahrump elders twice. I basically spent a ridiculous amount of time with Elder Plaster. We went on exchanges, and it was like old times. It was cool to see Elder Plasters growth and he's become a super good missionary now (he was before but now he's even better).  We actually found someone to teach named Erin which was awesome. Then we found a storm drain tunnel thing and explored around in it. That was pretty cool.

Exchanges in Pahrump was hilarious. We went hiking through some sand washes that morning and the rest of the day was so fun. It's kinda built like Sandy Valley except with more stuff. Still felt like the middle of nowhere though. We had an incredible first lesson with this family that invited us inside. The spirit was super strong as we testified and taught. What's super interesting is later one of the little girls came in and started asking questions. We wanted to say a closing prayer and then she asked, "what's a prayer? What's a God?" It was super cute and then she kept asking to say the prayer. She was super excited. Literally the most elect little kid ever. Pahrump is super awesome though, such a great area to serve. 

We went to Sandy Valley and had back-to-back lessons all day, it was awesome. We found 2 new people to teach and one of them will definitely be baptized next transfer. If we play our cards right, then all will work out with her. Her name is Cynthia, and she is the wife of a member. She wants the church in her life. I'm super excited to start teaching her but the problem is that she lives in Sandy Valley and that's an hour away. But... it'll all work out, I'm sure.

Our teaching pool is kinda small, but we have the whole ward praying for us and I have hope everything will be okay. 

"And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared."

-Ether 12:32

Sincerely,

Elder Neil Pack 

The Spiciest Wings

 Hola,

This was a very fun week. Our teaching pool is still mega dry but hey we have faith and were working hard. It's kind of hard to find people here. The members are awesome though and the area itself is mega fun. It's still kind of hot outside but it's not a big deal. We're driving a bright red 2022 Nissan Frontier, so we are big chillin'. 

We taught this Baptist preacher this week or just completely bashed the heck out of me and destroyed me. But then I bore down in pure testimony, and it was epic. He was a member referral, and we had a lesson in the church. He kind of fell away from the Baptist church a little so I thought he'd be down to listen but he's not really into the whole listening and humility thing. Hopefully he reads the Book of Mormon though. 

A member took us and our roommates out to Buffalo Wild Wings which was awesome. My companion Elder Muraski got the blazing hot wings, which is the hottest wings in the menu. I tried one and they were so spicy. It was insane. Afterwards my companion and I got Pepto Bismil to help his stomach. The wings were mega delicious though. That pretty much sums up every day for us. Members hook us up and then we do something ridiculously stupid. And then doing missionary work while doing so.

Elder Muraski is a very special Elder. Let's just say he's probably my most interesting companion ever. He has some habits that are interesting. But he's also probably one of my favorites. He's super awesome and hilarious. Definitely an interesting guy though.

Went to MLC (Mission Leader Conference) the other day. We spent four hours discussing important items in the mission, like the music rule in the mission. We discussed it for around an hour and didn't even come to a conclusion or change anything. It was sad. Our music rule in the mission is very strict so I was hoping they'd loosen it, but I guess not. We talked about lots of other stuff too that doesn't really matter but it was fun. Our mission leaders in this mission can be kind of disobedient which is kinda sad. But hey it's life. 

We went on exchanges with the APs this week. Elder Spafford is pretty cool guy and showed me some baller ways to use scriptures in our lessons. Also, Elder Spafford and I found a super elect person by following the spirit which was pretty cool. We were directed to this door to knock on and the guy who answered was super interested. It was awesome. It's moments like those that are moments to look back on after the mission.

The mission is super awesome. I love it. Can't wait for this next week.

Sincerely,

Elder Neil Pack

Midwest in the Wild West

 Hola! 

Wow, what a week. This week flew by but honestly was probably the most fun I've ever had in the mission. So, I got transferred to the most southern part of the entire mission, the South Diamond Zone. It's all new houses, rich people, desert, off-roading, and dinners every day. Reminds me of the beginning of my mission up north. The wards I'm in are called the Coronado Ward, Huntington Cove Ward, and the Sandy Valley Branch a bit south of here. My new companion is Elder Muraski. He's from Washington but grew up in Illinois. He's hilarious and will probably be one of my favorite companions. I have less than two transfers left and so it's possible he'll be my last companion, but you never know what the Lord has in store for you. 

A lot happened this week. Our teaching pool is very small and it's super hard to find people, so we just work heavily with members and knock doors in apartment complexes. It works well and we are always inviting people to church. We made our zone theme this transfer mining because the name of the zone is south diamond. We then gave a Minecraft training to the entire zone. It was awesome. A lot of old trunky missionaries get sent here to either die or waste time so we're trying this thing to make people absolutely hyped and get an absurd amount of church invites and commitments. It's super fun. Seems like everyone likes it and is engaged. Plus who doesn't like Minecraft? We write Minecraft on the mini white handheld board and then completely broke the board in half. It super cut me but was totally worth it. Elder Plaster, my old companion, is in my zone if you remember him, I'm excited for that. He is so awesome. Helping encourage the zone and work with it is so fun. It's nice to help other missionaries out and get to know them.

Elder Muraski is such a goofy guy but also apparently knows how to do pretty much everything. Like he sewed my shoe back together and gave me a haircut. He learned to cut hair on the mission by telling everyone he did even though he didn't, so he had a lot of experience giving haircuts. Now he's really good. The first couple days he noticed that my previous haircut was terrible, so he offered to fix it for me. He did a really good job.

I'm kind of sad to be back speaking English again. I'm still practicing my Spanish every day and trying to still use it here. Hopefully I don't lose it. I like speaking it, I'm definitely not fluent but I can talk pretty well with everyone. My companion doesn't speak Spanish unfortunately. There is this member that let us use his gym, so we go there every morning and now I'm going to get big. 

So, we accidently picked up a branch in the south part of Nevada called Sandy Valley. We asked our president if we could go out there and he said yes! We'll be the first missionaries out there in a year. It was an hour drive, but my companion and I spent the whole Saturday in Sandy Valley. It's basically anyone who hates people and Las Vegas so they just live super far away. They all commute into work in Las Vegas however. It's basically like the modern wild west. Legit wild west. Seems like there is no law enforcement and there wasn't cell service. It was awesome. The Church building was this little, small shack. The people were honestly either mega nice or terrible jerks. There was no in between. Just the west. We had some guy get mad at us for getting on his property so he flashed his assault rifle. So cool. There's not a whole lot of work out there so we probably will only come back one more time. We found two interested people though which was cool. The population in Sandy Valley is 1600 people so it's just super small and super spread out. 

Anyways, that was pretty much the entire week. Super fun. Can't wait for this transfer.

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself

-John 7:17

Sincerely,

Elder Neil Pack

I'm Going to Get Really FAT!

 Hola otra vez, 

I ate 4 dinners in one day this week. That is honestly my new high score. Pretty insane. We accidently set up 3 dinners that we forgot about all in the span of 4 hours. Also, later that night a member surprised us with chicken shack, but I didn't throw up. I took it all down like a champ. One of those dinners was with an investigator so I had to eat everything. It was ceviche which was like a fish dip thing and it's really good actually even though I don't like fish. That was such a good day. It was actually my last day in that area. Because we got our calls for transfers that night. 

Eating our 4th dinner of the day

Zone pictures

    

Yeah so, I got transferred to a new area. I'm sad to leave Rainbow Vista but all good things come to an end, I guess. My new companion will be Elder Muraski. We also came out together and he's super awesome. We were actually in the same district when we came out. I'm super excited. My new ward is English speaking though which will be interesting. It's a super nice area which will also be interesting. 

I got a haircut from an elder who has never cut hair before. I was super desperate for a cut, and he said he found clippers underneath the kitchen sink, so he decided to fade me up. It was terrible haha but it's not like I'm out here to hit on girls so I'm chilling. It was super fun though. 

My free haircut from the Elder with no experience.

Rainbow Vista saw a lot of miracles. First of all, literally everyone and their mom brought a friend to church this week which was incredible. Hopefully the missionaries next transfer get lots of baptisms. We also saw a great miracle of being led to a Cuban's door and finding them. It was a new family and their interested in the gospel. I'm super excited for them. 

Our District before we all got transferred

Anyways yeah so, I'm going to get really fat in this ward. It's going to be crazy. I love you all, I know this week didn't have a whole lot but it's just one of those weeks, I guess. 

The Truman House officially signed tie

Sincerely, 

Elder Neil Pack

My favorite member in the Rainbow Vista Ward