It's Hot and Wet.

 Hola! 

It's nice to finally write again this week. A lot of interesting things happened this week and I saw some pretty awesome miracles. Always forget to take pictures but I took some decent pictures this week. It's still kinda hot but not as hot as last week. Last week was nightmare fuel. This week wasn't so bad. We actually got some rain so that was interesting. It rained for like 10 minutes and then it stopped. Apparently there is supposed to be a stormy rainy season during the summer but were still in a huge drought here. Elder McGee loves the rain and so we went outside for a little bit. My life is so different than my life last year. I feel like sometimes I'm living someone else's life. Like I look in the mirror and it's me (besides the fact that I'm sunburned 24/7) but I just feel so different. It's hard to explain. 

There are quite a few people were teaching and if it were up to me I'd drop a lot of them because they are not progressing but Elder McGee wants to keep them. We have a couple individuals that are promising, most of them have specific situations that are holding them back and need a miracle. Amber is one of those people, she is ready to be baptized but just needs to work on one thing. Once she gets that sorted out she can be baptized. Elder McGee and I are waiting for a miracle. Cody is another one that really needs a miracle. What's cool is that Cody has been being taught by missionaries for over two years and he came to church for the first time last week. He has never gone to church before. Our mouths dropped when we saw him walk through those doors. I couldn't believe it. One kid that we meet with is named Wyatt. Wyatt is so cool and his family wants to get him baptized. His family has been inactive so we knocked on their door and now we're talking to the whole family and getting them to church. Wyatt hasn't ever been baptized and so we are teaching him so he can have a desire to be baptized. 

We gave another talk in sacrament meeting. We had to take 35 minutes so Elder McGee and I each spoke for 16 minutes. Elder McGee's talk was pretty awesome! I love speaking and I felt I gave a pretty fire talk as well. We dropped some bars over the pulpit for sure. We talked about how we gained our testimonies and it was a very spiritual experience. I talked about how I read the Book of Mormon and prayed over it for the first time and got an answer. Some guy came up to us afterwards and told us he was literally crying during it and I was like whoa bruh. It was a really good talk for Cody and everyone of our other friends there.

My companion Elder McGee is such an awesome guy. I love working with him.

None of my previous companions really laughed at my sense of humor so I was a little depressed every now and then but Elder McGee laughs at my jokes! I know that sounds kind of selfish and childish but it means a lot to me when my companion laughs with me. He's pretty hilarious too so it just makes every dull moment full of energy. I feel like myself again and it's refreshing.

 

Well other than the rain and heat, not really anything happened. I gave a talk and we saw a bunch of scorpions and lizards at the church.

Really I'm just chilling here. So, I wanna share a quote from the prophet that I used in my talk: 

"...choose to believe in Jesus Christ. If you have doubts about God the Father and His Beloved Son or the validity of the Restoration or the veracity of Joseph Smith’s divine calling as a prophet, choose to believe and stay faithful. Take your questions to the Lord and to other faithful sources. Study with a desire to believe rather than with the hope that you can find a flaw in the fabric of a prophet’s life or discrepancy in the scriptures. Stop increasing your doubts by rehearsing them with other doubters. Allow the Lord to lead you on your journey of spiritual discovery.

...act in faith. What would you do if you had more faith? Think about it. Write about it. Then receive more faith by doing something that requires more faith."

Just a fire quote. Very inspiring for sure haha. Thank you so much for reading my email and I'm sorry I couldn't write about any more interesting stuff. It's just one or those weeks I guess haha. Anyways, I love you all and hope you have an excellent week!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

I have a mammoth tooth!

 Hola todos, 

Well, after getting transferred to a new area again, life is so much different. I liked the Evergreen Ward but I was ready for something new. I loved Elder Caldwell too, he taught me a lot of valuable lessons. One of the most valuable lessons he taught me was how to hug. I was never a hugger before but now I like to hug because of him. He taught me real kindness and my time serving with him well probably impact me for the rest of my life. Honestly though, I was excited to hear I was going to this new area. So this new area is pretty big, it's probably the biggest ward I've ever served in. The Cheyenne Ward is huge and the people are ancient. This ward is just old people. I feel bad for the primary and the one youth kid. Nothing wrong with an old married adult ward but it can be tough to ask them to come along on lessons or other stuff like that. 

Wow, it's hot outside. Like I'm surprised even I am truckin' through some of this garbage. Being stuck on a bike in 115 degree weather is pretty horrible. First of all, the wind is just killer. I feel like I'm getting blasted with a hair dryer 24/7. I'm just sweating like a pig so all my white shirts and ties are just so wet. Someone will try to shake my hand or something but I'm just soaking wet so I whisper "sorry" as they shake my drenched hand. Apparently I can tan now which was never a thing before, either that or I permanently screwed up my skin. What's weird is people are still outside in this weather just hanging around. Like I'd expect to find no new people while contacting, but people are still just hanging out in their yards doing nothing. People here are interesting. Like we'll walk up to someone and be like "what's up?" and they'll be like "It's too hot for you guys to be out," as they're just sitting on a lawn chair, so we say "what are you up to," and they're always like, "oh nothing." Who just hangs out in this weather?! Anyways rant is over. 

Me after I dropped spaghetti all over the floor

Me and Elder McGee eating pizza

Besides the whole heat wave garbage, life here isn't so bad. I'm still not getting fed as much as when I was in Stone Mountain but I'm definitely getting fed more than when I was in Evergreen. However, Evergreen gave me an opportunity to learn how to cook well. Plus, Elder Caldwell is a beast at cooking so he taught me so many great tips and tricks. Which now I'm teaching my new companion, Elder Mcgee. I love Elder Mcgee so much. Like, he is just so awesome. We work really well together and he's just genuinely nice and a cool guy. He reminds me of all my friends back home so we get along perfectly. Everything about him is so awesome, I am so glad I get to be his companion. Before this transfer I was praying to Heavenly Father for him to let me know somehow that next transfer was where I'm supposed to be and that the mission president would receive revelation on where I need to go. I think Elder Mcgee was an answer to my prayers. Hopefully he thinks the same about me but serving with him during this week has made my life so much easier. 

Our roommates, Elder Child and Llontop are cool too. Elder Llontop is from Venezuela and his English isn't the best but he is teaching me good Spanish. We just talk every night. Speaking Spanish with him has been good for my Spanish. Elder Child is training him and he is super awesome, but his English is not the best. Listening to him speak English makes me laugh because his grammar is all over the place. I laugh in a loving way of course, we're all learning plus English is super difficult. Elder Llontop played a lot of video games before the mission so we mostly talk about that kind of stuff in Spanish haha.

Boundaries of my new area

A scorpion we found at the church building

 

We met this guy named Arthur and this guy is so interesting. He reads the book of Mormon in Russian and his theories about life are so out there. We try to teach him but he doesn't listen to what we have to say. However, I asked a question that made him listen to what we have to say for a little bit. He was talking about how he is spiritually woke and that we are infinitely changing and growing and all that stuff. So I interrupted him and asked him "what he felt his next step to coming closer to God would be?" He literally paused and sat there for 30 seconds and looked up and said, I don't really know. I basically told him that there is always a next step and that I know that the Book of Mormon will lead you to that next step to understanding the true nature of God and understanding your purpose in this world. To know if it is true you have to exercise a particle of faith and read the book. When you read with an honest desire to know the truth, then the truth will be manifested unto you by the gift of the Holy Ghost. But you have to read with a desire to know, you can't read going in like a skeptic. Only then will you feel the spirit. You could do the same with the Bible and tear it apart. Having a willingness and humility to know if its true is crucial for a spiritual witness. 

Anyways, Arthur afterwards gave us a wack gift. First thing he let us hold was a meteorite that was "older than the earth." He said that the meteorite would probably be the oldest thing we have ever held. It was pretty cool looking, it was all compact and dense. Then he gave Elder Mcgee and I some "Mammoth teeth." It looks pretty cool but I'm not quite sure it is actually a Mammoth tooth, but just a cool rock. He pointed out the naval cavities and stuff and said how it was worth $25,000 and stuff like that. It was pretty cool but not quite sure its actually worth that much. 

Something interesting that I've noticed as a missionary is that I can answer almost every philosophical question now. Meaning, every question that I've been asked during a lesson or on the street can be answered, either by my companion or I will. There are some that I don't know the answer to but every question that I've been asked so far in these past 7 months, I could answer. All people have to do is listen and experiment upon the words of Christ, meaning pray and ask God if it's true. There are so many people that I run into that talk too much or won't listen intently, they always ask a question and we give an excellent answer but they won't listen. Why did you even ask in the first place? Because of this gospel and the doctrine of Christ, I have come to understand the true nature of God, His plan, why we are here, where we are going, what happens to people that never learn of Christ, the role of Jesus Christ and his Atonement, the purpose of Adam and Eve why they NEEDED to partake of the fruit, why bad things happen to good people, and so on and so forth. I am always asked these questions but if people listen then they can actually know for themselves.

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

Goodbye Greenie....

 Hola Todos!

Well, today is the end of the transfer and we got our transfer details. Unfortunately, my trainee and I are getting separated. I was so sad when I got the details. Elder Caldwell is staying in Vegas Zone and I am getting transferred to the Lone Meadows zone. I am big sad. However, my new companion is really awesome. I've been with him for like 12 hours and I already love him. His name is Elder Mcgee and he is from Utah. He is another ginger haha and is so awesome. Such a hard worker and diligent missionary, which is super good. I need to work hard. Our apartment is the oldest apartment in the mission but it is still a good apartment. There is a hole in the door to one of the rooms so that's a little odd. My new roommates are Elder Child and his new trainee. 

Saying goodbye to everyone in the previous zone was a little sad but I love meeting new people and transferring. I was especially sad to say goodbye to Elder Zuniga, my MTC companion who was in Vegas Zone with me. Getting to see more of the area and experience new companions is great. I'm excited to work in the area and I feel really comfortable in this ward. It's called the Cheyenne ward and it's pretty small which is great... but I'm on bike again. Its going to start being above 110 degrees and I really don't want to bike in that weather but it's the Lord's will. 

Elder Zuniga and I

I had a bunch of weird experiences happen while I was in that area. The people were so interested. I loved them, but they were interesting to say the least. A lot of experiences that I can't unsee for sure. A cool thing I got to do last week was eat sword fish with a member. I don't know why but every member dinner we had this week we ate fish. I do NOT like fish. Like I'll eat it if I had to, but if I have a choice I won't. I ate salmon this week and then swordfish the next day. When the Bishop rolled up with some swordfish I was like "bruh.... you've got to be joking." 

I met this lady named Debbie who was not interested in a message but she literally was my favorite person ever. We met her in our apartment complex and she came to our apartment every other day and gave us cookies, meatloaf, and a whole crock pot full of a Sunday roast. Debbie became the best person ever. She said she wanted to serve the Lord by serving us but didn't want to hear our message or be baptized. We were like "Debbie that literally makes no sense" but free meatloaf is free meatloaf.

We got to speak at a baptism for a random little kid in our ward and it was so cool. Elder Caldwell gave the funniest and most spiritual object lesson ever with a baseball and a glove. Ayson, the kid getting baptized, loved it! Elder Caldwell and I signed a baseball glove and gave it to him since he loved baseball and it was so cool.

Ayson's Baptism

I got my first "aggressive driving" on the mission. Our car has a device that detects our driving and monitors our speed and stuff. So an aggressive driving means that we took a turn too fast or slowed down to fast or got t-boned by a semi truck. I slowed down too fast and the car yelled aggressive driving at me. I was so angry because I've never gotten one before and didn't plan on it haha. I wanted to go my whole mission without getting one. Whatever I guess haha.... 

Homemade ice cream

Papusa

Making El Salvadorian Papusas

I want to share an experience I heard from Elder Sheridan and Dew, my roommates last transfer. They told me this story of a guy they are teaching and its so odd. So as an Elder for the Church, we can give blessings and stuff like that for people. This guy that these Elders were teaching was blind for a year! Basically, an Elder gave him a blessing and he literally received his sight. It was a miracle! However, even after months and months, this guy is still not baptized. He refuses to be baptized yet but he knows that the blessing was from God and it restored his sight. But he is halting his progression for some reason. This is a witness unto me that signs don't create conversion. We are converted and then we see signs. I hear of so many people that claim they would be baptized if they could see a sign but that'
s not how is works. Signs don't create conversion. 

Anyways I love you all and am so thankful that you are reading my emails. I hope you all have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

This is the Lord's work!

 Hola todos! 

It's crazy how fast this transfer went by! Transfer details come next week! I feel like I just got here with Elder Caldwell and now we could be leaving. It's going to be sad if I get transferred because I love the people here. The Elders I live with are especially incredible. Elder Sheridan is such a funny and hardworking Elder. He literally extended his mission so he could serve a little longer. I find that so noble, at least that's just what I think. He is finishing up his last transfer with Elder Dew in the Spanish branch. Elder Dew is so fun too. He is exactly obedient and it inspires me. They are just a powerful companionship. Elder Dew just learned he was going to be district leader next transfer and training a new missionary. Anyway, the area is really good and I will be big sad if I have to leave. 

We're still reading the Book of Mormon with Eric and playing basketball with his friends. His parents are showing a little more interest now too. We met his dad for the first time and he was so nice. He literally said he appreciated us stopping by and teaching Eric and playing with his friends. He says we're making a big impact on this 9-year old. We tried to see if we could teach his dad but he said he was super busy. But apparently all Eric does at home is talk about us and how cool we are. Eric's favorite Book of Mormon character is Nephi because he is the youngest brother in Lehi's family. He loves how even though Nephi was the youngest, he was the closest with God and he chose him to be a leader. Since Eric is the youngest and is learning about God and enjoying it, he relates to Nephi a lot. We just got done finishing reading Enos with him in the children's Book of Mormon and he loves it.

It was literally so funny, so Ann, Eric's mom, tried introducing this new idea of just going to church every other week instead of every week with the kids. She was trying to find an excuse not to go but Eric literally shot her down so fast. He was like, no mom, I will go to sacrament meeting EVERY WEEK! I cant afford to miss a Sunday! Afterwards I just started laughing, like Ann just got absolutely wrecked by that 9-year-old. I was like "Well Ann, the kids have spoken. Every week it is!" Eric inspires me so much. I want to have that same attitude for the rest of my life, "I cannot afford to miss any Sundays! I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded!" He's such an awesome kid. I really hope we can help him enter the waters of baptism one day and that his family will follow.

One of the most funniest things happened this week and scariest. I was so shook. So we were playing basketball with some of Eric's friends in the street. His neighborhood is legit pretty sketch. Like I wouldn't walk around after dark here ever. We hear some rap music in the distance and we see this guy riding a bicycle towards us. This dude straight up looked like Stevie Wonder and pulling up on a 50$ bike. He's blasting some random sound cloud rapper while he pulls out this gun from his pants. He starts laughing and shooting us with a jelly gun. Now at the moment I didn't realize it was jelly but I thought we were all going to die. Eric legit screams, "It's a drive by!!!!" Everyone was getting shot with the jelly gun and those things kinda stung. It was similar to airsoft or a BB gun. Like afterwards we laughed for a bit but it was pretty wack. Apparently the biker was the dad of one of the kids.

I won't discuss some of the stuff I see here in this neighborhood. It's pretty sketch. It reminds me exactly why I'm serving a mission. Because I want to help people, I see the people here and I want them to receive so many blessings from this gospel. What's cool is that we can talk with so many people here. We can find people to teach left and right. We found this one couple named Melissa and Brandon. We taught them the plan of salvation and they loved it so much. They seem like pretty solid people to teach who follow commitments. We found them while I was on exchanges with one of the zone leaders. It wasn't the best plan of salvation lesson but it had the spirit. It also had like 40 cats. Melissa had so many cats and they were just in love with us. 

Playing a board game on PDay called Root

Bruh! Its 109 degrees.

We put Elijah on date to be baptized! He hasn't been wanting to come to church though so we need a miracle. This kid just has no desire to come to church. I literally have no idea why Karen, his grandmother who is a member, is not pushing him to go to church. He is a good kid and keeps commitments but literally won't come to church. So yeah were kinda stumped! Buddy and Rose are also doing good. We couldn't teach them this week so that really threw a wrench in our plans. They're kinda worried about baptism but we just need to meet with them and then we can ease their concerns. 

Honestly I'm so glad I could be serving here in Las Vegas. This is exactly where I need to be and there are people I'm changing. I am also changing. My life now is so different and sometimes I can't recognize the person I'm becoming. It's pretty wild. Its hard but it's also so worth it. I am literally making an impact on peoples lives. I feel so awesome! By the way for all of those who emailed me, I unfortunately didn't get anytime to email. There were a lot of people I wanted to write but I ended up distracted. But anyways I wanted to share my testimony of Jesus Christ in Spanish before I closed the email.

Yo sé que este evangelio es verdadero. Testifico que a través del la expiación de Jesucristo podemos regresar a dios. He leído el libro de mormón y yo sé que es la palabra de dios. José Smith fue un profeta de dios y podemos recibir respuestas a nuestras preguntas. Si oramos para saber si este es verdadero, recibiremos un respuesta a través del espíritu santo. 

Gracias por tu tiempo y los amo!

Sinceramente,

Elder Pack 

Someone broke into my car!

 Hola otra vez,

You know, this is one of those weeks where nothing really happened. I feel like I worked really hard but at the end of the week nothing really changed. I'm currently sitting in a foldable chair at my church building trying to think of some things that actually happened this week. These weeks go by so fast sometimes I forget if anything actually happened haha. I'll probably think of a title for the email halfway through writing it.

First, my friends that I'm teaching are progressing a bit more. We have found a lot of new people to teach but the only ones that will be baptized pretty soon are Buddy and Rose. Right now, they want to be baptized but they haven't set a for sure date yet. They're noncommittal about it which is fine for right now, but pretty soon I'd like them to be ready for a date. Sometimes its frustrating when things don't go our way or as planned but its good to remember that we are on the Lord's time.

Every night we've decided to read the Book of Mormon with Eric, he's a 9 year old who is super awesome. His older sister and mom were interested at one point but now it's just Eric. They still go to sacrament meeting and Eric loves primary soooo... I don't know why this family won't let us teach them. Its kinda frustrating. I think next time we're with them we will just ask them what the deal is and why they won't read or study with us but they'll go to church. Right now I think its just to support Eric because he loves church and the Book of Mormon. Eric just comes outside at around 6:00 and we'll read the book of Mormon with him on the curbside. This 9 year old doesn't really know anything about Jesus Christ and his mom is okay with him meeting with us just not her. She is apparently okay with him being baptized too. So yeah it's just wacky. No one else we're teaching seems to be as promising as them though. 

Here are a couple of fun things that happened last week. We found a crock-pot in the apartment and a bunch of slow cooker recipes so now we're going to go hard with the crock-pot. I'm honestly so excited to be using it. No more crepes, Ramen, Mac and cheese for dinner. We're feasting every night from now on. We went to primary class with Eric and that was a wild experience. I haven't been in primary since I WAS in primary. It was a lot of fun! Singing time with 9 year olds is always lit. Right now in Las Vegas its slowly getting into the 100s and its no longer fun. Now we have to plan our street contacting times accordingly. Clouds are also the best thing ever in the world. Like for real clouds come in clutch. It changes like 15 whole degrees when there is a cloud above you. Also, talking with all these people that speak Spanish has really helped my Spanish. I can understand people a lot better! Unless they're from El Salvador or something. Like I can't understand those guys at all. 

Zone Conference training

Goofing off during a video we were trying to record

Oh here is something that might be kinda interesting. My car got broken into! Yay... yeah so basically Elder Caldwell forgot to lock the car and in the middle of the night some dude opened our car and just took a bunch of stuff. He didn't touch our bibles or copies of the Book of Mormon but he did finesse Elder Caldwell's wallet. That sucks so bad. He lost like 40 bucks and his drivers license. He's not going to be able to drive at all on the mission ever so that really blows chunks. I fortunately never leave my wallet in the car so that's good. I guess Elder Caldwell learned his lesson. Some homeless dude probably is so hyped to have a 19 year old's ID and 40 bucks. We called our vehicle coordinator and he roasted us. We absolutely got flamed. So yeah, lock your car. 

Our Zone

Another thing that was pretty awesome was giving a talk (basically a sermon in our church) in sacrament meeting. I gave about a 15 minute talk and it was about how we can all be missionaries. It was honestly the best talk I've ever given. I dropped some absolute massive bombs at the pulpit. Not to flex or anything, but I can speak. I may suck at basketball and I'm not that musical, but I can talk for 15-20 minutes about random stuff. I'm pretty bad at everything but I can successfully write and speak. My companion had an interesting experience with his talk too. He didn't write anything down and winged a 15 minute talk. Like he probably did 7 minutes but I extended mine a little bit so it all worked out. He had this bass fishing analogy to missionary work and it was pretty funny. He tried this humorous approach and no one laughed so it was mega awkward. Plus he roasted our bishop at the pulpit and I was just like, "bruuuuuhh."

I like to think that missionary work really benefits from strong members. We as missionaries try to build member trust so that way they trust us with people to teach. I've found its the same way with God. Why would he trust us with the elect people to teach if we aren't worthy of those elect people? Sometimes in life we need to build Lord trust, kinda like member trust. We want to show the Lord that we are worthy of his blessings and help when we do things like pay our tithing or read the scriptures. Stuff like that. I'm pretty proud of myself for thinking of that analogy all by myself, unless someone's thought of it before. In my mind I figured it out all on my own.

I'm so thankful for the blessings I receive as a missionary, I don't know where I would be without them. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that this is God's church in the Latter-Days. I hope you all have a great week and I will see you all soon!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

I got the vaccine! (Part 2)

 Hola otra vez! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A random walker in our apartment???

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

The view out of my apartment

Our kitchen

Our apartment

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

6 Months! I'm a quarter done!

 Hola!

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

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

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

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

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

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

It says: 

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

Elder Pack