Seeking out the aloe.

 Hola,

These past two weeks have been crazy long. Probably the longest weeks of my mission ever besides when I got transferred to the Vegas zone. Those weeks felt super long too but eventually they sped up, so I hope it's the same here. Life in the Alta Loma ward has been really fun actually. We are teaching lots of people and finding lots of people. Our area is pretty large so I can just go anywhere I want with my Tacoma pickup.

There are alot of people we are teaching but most of the people that are progressing live up in Logandale. So, we go up every weekend and go hangout with them. 

Logandale

One of them is Jared and that guy is the most elect person I have ever met and he's super funny. He's getting married to a member and he wants to be sealed in the temple with her. Super cool guy and I can't wait for his baptism this weekend. There are honestly a lot of people that we are teaching up there and if everything goes according to plan then we will see 8 people enter the waters of baptism. Very exciting! Elder Medina and Jared have basically become best friends and all they do is message each other on Facebook messenger like a high school couple or something. It's kinda funny but a little odd at the same time. Anyways so that's been fun. 

We went up to Logandale and we were backed up with so many lessons. I didn't have a chance to breathe we just kept moving. Wish everyday was as fast paced as that. We've been teaching a lot of kids, so we've been doing a lot of fun object lessons with them. Still love the drive to Logandale. It's so nice to just vibe for a whole hour watching the desert scenery. I'll probably really like driving long distances after the mission. Instead of staying Sunday as well though we went back to Las Vegas for church on Sunday. Kinda cool to have my first sacrament in Spanish in the Alta Loma ward. It was fast and testimony meeting so a lot of people shared their testimonies which was super cool. I'd be lying if I said I understood every word because I definitely I had no idea what they were saying most of the time. The spirit was still there though which was cool. I could tell that it was a good meeting. 

Doing district council in complete Spanish is kind of a struggle. I definitely use a lot of English, but it was about 50% in Spanish. I hope by the end I can do 100% in Spanish. That would be sweet. I've definitely been practicing and learning a lot which is good. Elder Medina doesn't really like speaking Spanish with me for some reason even though he's fluent in both languages. That's a bummer but it's okay, I'm still able to learn a lot. We talked alot about goals and how district council will be structured throughout the transfer. Then we did a training about who we are becoming and how and why we need to change as missionaries. It was pretty fun. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Judi this week which was super awesome. Probably the highlight of the week. We had a pretty incredible experience where we prayed and chose an exact neighborhood to go knocking doors. I've found a lot of success when we pray and study a map for a really long time whenever we want to tract. I like profiling people to and most Spanish speakers have aloe outside their house so I knock on doors with aloe. 

We knocked on this door and we've been doing this method of asking to bless people's homes for free. A lady let us come inside and we said a prayer together in her home. We then asked her if she felt the spirit. She said yes so we explained that we have a message that goes hand in hand with this feeling that she's feeling and then we asked to sit down and teach it. We taught her the whole restoration on her couch. She started crying when we taught her the first vision. Literally balling her eyes out. She asked us if we actually believed that happened, and we told her "yes, yes we do." She was crying a lot. Then we invited her to be baptized and she said YES. Wow, pretty incredible. That's the experience I've been praying for because I really wanted Elder Judi to have an incredibly powerful teaching experience like that. So awesome. Wish Elder Medina could've been there too but that's okay. One of those experiences that you never forget because of how incredible it is. 

We also got to go to a Zion's Youth concert which was cool. I went in November last year and now I got to go yesterday again. Our mission president is so cool. The concert was really good and I got to see everyone of my friends again. I saw Elder Plaster and immediately hugged him. Miss that guy so much. I love all my companions but that guy is special. He's such a beast. 

Well that's about it this week. Powerful exchange that gave me a spiritual boost and listening to Zion's Youth on Sunday was awesome. 

Here is an excerpt from a scripture that I read today: 

"Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their reviling's"

-Isaiah 51:7

Some people make fun of me for being a missionary or trying to be obedient but to that I have this scripture. I fear no one! Besides God of course haha. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack

El Principio de mi misión otra vez

 Hola! 

Wow this has been one of the craziest and probably most stressful weeks of my mission. Most of the stress has been just me putting it on myself but has been absolutely crazy. This was seriously the beginning of my mission again. Honestly, I had a lot of fun but high intense moments. So, let's just jump right into it.

So, as you know from the tearjerker that was last week as I left Elder Plaster, I am now in a Spanish ward called Alta Loma. It is in the northeast part of my mission which is pretty nice. It's relatively close to Elkhorn Springs which is where I first came out in the mission. The Stonemountain ward if you remember that. Those days were so fun. Yeah, but my new zone Shadow Hills is super close to that. My zone leaders are Elder Barney, who I honestly love and admire so much, and Elder Rehkow again. Haha I just keep following this guy around. He's awesome and so glad he is in my zone again. Yeah, but on top of serving in a Spanish ward I am also covering 3 out of valley English wards in Moapa Valley or called Logandale. We go out there in person every now and then. My apartment is super nice, Sister missionaries lived there before us, so they did a good job cleaning it, but it is a two-man apartment. No extra friends at night which is a huge adjustment. It's really not fun but it does give me more time to journal and study which is good. 

Logandale on Google Maps

Me leaving my mission on accident.
The red is my mission, and the blue dot is me.

Okay so Alta Loma is like starting my mission over again except it's more difficult. Obviously, it's not serving out of the country in a language you don't understand but for me this is pretty hard. I feel like I am a super hardworking missionary and can easily do what is asked of me but now I can't communicate with the people I'm teaching because my Spanish is terrible. It's so fun (not). I love teaching and now I just have to sit there and jump in when I understand what they are talking about. Uggh. Luckily my companion is completely fluent, so he carries a lot of lessons. I love my personal prayers though when I get to talk one on one with Heavenly Father every night. That's super helpful. I still like going into the closet to say my prayers out loud so no one can hear me and it's super impactful. I try to do it every night but sometimes things happen, and I can't. Elder Medina (my companion) thinks it's stupid, but I think really helps me so I'm going to keep doing it haha. We taught a lot of Spanish lessons this week and I could understand probably 25% of what people said and would chime in whenever I felt like it. The gift of tongues is real because words will be brought to my remembrance all the time which is so great. I attribute that to the powerful personal prayers I have every day where I earnestly plead for the gift of tongues. I really need it to teach, it's honestly crucial. 

My companion is a really interesting guy. Obviously, I really admire him and love him a lot but he is just super different. He's from Mexico but he grew up in Arizona. His Spanish is so cool to listen to, his English is also perfect as well. So, whenever we do language study (even though I insist he talks with me in Spanish) he just takes a nap. *sigh*. There are a lot of things that are super different between us, but I hope it doesn't stop us from working. This transfer is definitely going to be a memorable grind haha.

So, one of the most fun things we did this week was Sunday we went to Logandale which is about a one-hour drive from Vegas. Super cool to finally leave Vegas after a full year of living here. Coming back into it when it was night, and you could see all the lights was kinda cool. In Logandale there was so little light pollution you could just see the whole galaxy at night. That was fun. We drove there from 7:30 am til 8:45 am and made it on time to welcome people into sacrament meeting. We had 3 sacraments that day, so I got my spiritual fill of talks for a while. It was good and needed as we got to sit next to the people we were teaching who came. They were all so full of people since there are a lot of members there and that was cool to see. Everyone and their mom offered to feed us but unfortunately, we had to tell them that we only come to Logandale every two weeks and on Saturday and Sunday. This week we only came Sunday. Some members offered to let us stay the night there which is so kind of them. Logandale was really cool. It's a small tight community and most people know each other. It's awesome. Elder Medina really wants to see if we can go out there every week. I'm super down for that that would be fun. 

It's not honestly all bad haha, I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining. The bright side is that I get to learn Spanish! And we have a lot of people to teach! That's always super good. We also cover Logandale wards which is also super cool. There are a lot of members willing to help and feed us. When you look at the glass half full it's actually super awesome. Honestly it was a pretty long week and that's all I have to say. I love my comp, love my president, love the mission, love working, love the people. It's great. 

I mentioned it earlier but really prayer is something that I really look forward to now. That and personal study, those two things are super awesome. I get a lot of answers when I pray out loud. I've come to realize this week that this really isn't my work but it's actually the Lord's work. Always has been. After applying that this week, my stress has just melted away. It's been nice. Looking forward to next week.

Sincerely,

Elder Neil Pack

Me in Logandale

The Beginning

 Hola mis amigos!! 

I don't have a lot of time to write but wow this week has blown me away. This is truly the end of something good and moving forward to something better. I am so scared and happy and nervous and excited. It's hard to explain my emotions. Well first of all Elder Plaster and I had the most incredible last week together reminiscing on good old days because we knew that we'd be split up. Just a wholesome week full of miracles in finding and teaching. It was stake conference and it was cool to see a huge stake event with all the wards. I love the Laurelwood, but the activity rate is kinda small. Nice to have a lot of people in church. 

My District

Me and Elder Plaster

We went to a place called Dave's Hot Chicken in Las Vegas and then got our transfer calls. It was honestly so crazy. Everyone in the zone is staying! Except me... I'm getting transferred to a new area. Elder Plaster's new companion is Elder Slack which is kinda funny because it rhymes with Elder Pack. Nice. Yeah, and my new companion is Elder Medina! He is from Mexico and speaks Spanish and English fluently. He has been 6 months on the mission. Can't wait to baptize so many people with Elder Medina. I am in the Shadow Hills zone and cover a lot of wards. A couple English ones and a Spanish branch called Alta Loma (which kinda translates to tall hill but the grammar is wrong). I also cover an out of valley ward in Moapa Valley or called Logandale. Kinda cool. Elder Medina and I are about to go off. He seems like such a beast. 

Exchanges with Elders Hughes and Pukahi

Our new apartment is a two man, so I hope Elder Medina likes me haha. Were about to spend a lot of time together. I've always lived in four man's my whole mission and now I get to be in a two. I've also almost been in every zone in the mission. I've been in Canyon Springs, Lone Meadows, Vegas, Shadow Hills, and Spring Lakes. Now I just need South Diamond and Red Desert. 

So excited for this transfer. Elder Medina and I are also going to only speak Spanish or at least as much as possible so I can learn quickly. I honestly thing that's why the Lord gave me Elder Medina so I can get along really well with someone and then learn really good Spanish. I'm also still the district leader which kinda sucks because I honestly have no idea what I am doing with the out of valley ward and the Spanish branch. All my district councils will have to be in Spanish, and I'm stressed as freak. 

Elder with a broken ball on his head

Our last day together with Elder Plaster was spent closing down the cockroach apartment. We then opened a brand new one which will be nice for Elder Plaster and Elder Slack. It literally took all day to clean apartment and take everything out. 

Moving from my apartment

A rubber chicken in our bathroom

Anyways I love you all, sorry it was short today. Can't wait for this week and to screw up over and over and over again. 

Sincerely,

Elder Neil Pack

Oops! That's a lot of bleach

 Hey,

This is confirmed my last week with Elder Plaster. Wow I am so sad. At least I have a week left and I can prepare for the next transfer, but I love my companion so much. I'm probably going to be super depressed without him. President told me a couple weeks ago and that confirmed I will be in a Spanish area and so I won't be with Elder Plaster anymore. Besides, he's so ready to train a new missionary it's not even funny. It's time for him to move on. So sad. I would love to train again, but I know that won't happen probably again. I've trained twice and half trained someone so it's more than likely I'll not get that opportunity again, but it was awesome. I'm also almost positive I won't be the district leader anymore which is exciting and sad. I'm so ready for it and look forward to it honestly.

A weird picture of me teaching at district council   

Anyways this week was good. We are still teaching the same people and none of our friends came to church again. Lame sauce. We are always finding lots of people, but all our progressing people are needing some help with sacrament meeting. Edgar is still on date to be baptized but he will get baptized next transfer and I will already be transferred so that's lame. We also found a lot of part member families who all want to be baptized so whoever the next elders are next transfer, they will probably have at least 5 baptisms which makes me sad that I couldn't bring them to the waters of baptism this transfer. But it's whatever, I guess. It's a present to the future elders. We had a lot of inactive part member families come to church though, just no one that we are consistently teaching. We had 5 different inactive households show up to church and 3 of them it was their first time in 20 years. All because we have been grinding. That was cool to see. One of those guys was an inactive member guy who has been through some stuff, and he lives in a trailer. We did a member lesson in his trailer and apparently, he was a film producer and stuff and now he's kinda lost. The baptisms will be plentiful next transfer. This has actually happened a lot in my mission where I'll teaching someone and then the next transfer after I leave, they get baptized. That's happened a couple times, but I know the Lord knows I work really hard even if my mission president doesn't think I can baptize haha....

So, any who, on a positive note we are moving out of the cockroach apartment this week. Even if it is the last week of the transfer we are finally moving out. The new apartment is apparently super nice. I am very excited but not excited to close down another apartment. I did it with Elder Mcgee and now I get to do it again. Kind wack. Also, here's another fun thing. Someone broke into the apartment below us and completely destroyed the door. That was cool, gotta love Las Vegas. 

Look at all those baby cockroaches in a trap   

Also, Elder Hunter Carter left for Chile on his mission so Elder Rojas entered another trio with Elder Haws and Lewis. They are living with us now. It's pretty awesome and I love those guys. Elder Lewis is one of the nicest guys I have ever met, and he literally enjoys cleaning. He says it's relaxing so he's grinded on the apartment and deep cleaned every crack. That was awesome. He's such a beast. Elder Haws was a zone leader for a long time and now he is at the end of his mission. He's a beast as well. Elder Rojas is kind of a goober, so the relationship is awesome.

Elder Lewis though when he was deep cleaning the apartment decided to go absolutely ham on the dishes which is awesome, but we ran out of dish soap, so he found some purple stuff under the sink to use. I remember coming up to him and being like wow you found more dish soap? And he was like yeah under the sink. So, I checked under the sink and found what he was talking about and apparently it actually was all purpose cleaner with bleach and not dish soap. I was like bruh and he was like oops that's not dish soap, but it was already too late because he literally washed every dish with it. I'm sure it's not a big deal and won't kill us but it's kinda wack to eat on our plates now. Elder Plaster and I then made an emergency Walmart run and bought dish soap. 

Our apartment is super nice except for 
the cockroaches.

Yeah, so that's about it this week. Got new roommates and hung out with a guy in a trailer and he said and did stuff that was kinda weird, but we won't talk about it too much. Anyways I love you all and I'll super grateful that you all read my super long emails. Thanks for everything. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack     

Me and Elder Plaster checking out this TV that actually works!

I Might Have Seen a Grown Man Poop His Pants

 Hey! 

This week went by so fast but was really good. Super busy but a super awesome week. First of all, as I write this, I am currently getting a haircut from a Mexican member who doesn't speak any English. It's pretty awesome. Elder Plaster is looking really good. We saw our roommates last week get a haircut, so we asked their member friend to come hit us up. Turns out she only speaks Spanish, and my Spanish is way worse than I thought haha. Yeah, but it's fine though. We got to talk in Spanish a lot and I got to flex on Elder Plaster even if my Spanish sucks. I'm definitely super excited to get a haircut though. It's going to look baller. 

Anyways what made this week so awesome? Well first of all a crazy thing happened, a grown man almost pooped his pants in front of us during a lesson. It was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I won't say his name but basically, we were having a drop lesson with this guy because he wasn't progressing. We've been meeting with him for a while. So anyways, we told him we needed to get going and he said that's fine because I need to go to the bathroom. He was an older gentleman. Then as Elder Plaster and I were leaving he started crouching over and crippled downwards. He was screaming violently. Like really really loud. I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance and our friend was going to have to go to the hospital. Then he started clenching his butt and ran down the hallways screaming violently and yelled, "I HAVE TO GO!" Elder Plaster and I ran to the door to leave but it was deadbolt locked so we needed his keys to leave. As we went to go get the keys by his couch to leave his house, we hear him in the bathroom yelling and some incredible noises were coming out of that room. Elder Plaster was struggling to open the door and I'm like BRO HURRY COME ON! He got it open and then we yelled have a great day and closed the door behind us. We ran to our car and got inside then we started balling with laughter for like 5 minutes straight. Elder Plaster kept saying, "Bro what the crap just happened." And I still can't believe that happened, but it was hilarious. Yeah, the poor guy! 

We also had zone conference this week, that was fun. Eventually you get to a point on your mission where everything you learn is stuff you already know, and it gets real boring. Elder Plaster liked it though which was good. It was M&M themed, so we all got candy which was cool. Then we took pictures and had French dip sandwiches. It was delicious. Especially since I didn't eat breakfast that day.

Then I had exchanges with the zone leaders which was fun. I went to the Palmyra ward and got to do a lot of member work. We also found two new people who are super elect which was awesome. We got to spend time with a family, the McGinn's, whose son served in my home ward back in Iowa which was also awesome. That was probably the highlight of the exchange. We ate ice cream together, it was cool. Then I went on another back-to-back exchange with Elder Hughes. That one was fun too, but I definitely missed Elder Plaster. It's always so nice to be back with my companion. 

Visiting with the McGinn's

Sunday no one came to church that we were teaching which is lame but it's alright. We'll just roast them later. We then had a bomb lesson with Edgar. Love that guy. The member in the lesson did some cool magic tricks for the kids which was awesome. Life has been good.

Our exchanges at Dave's Hot Chicken

Elder Hughes

Elder Pukahi

My District at the Family History activity

Well Elder Plaster's haircut just finished and now I'm finished with my Mexican haircut. Wow it looks so good. It was pretty cheap too. I'm going to get going because I have other stuff to do but I love you all. 

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

My new haircut

Elder Plaster's selfie

Good News, Like Really Good News.

 Hey,

This was one of those weeks where a lot of stuff happened. Like a lot. And I got some really good news to share. Pretty amazing week. First of all, I got to attend a session in the Las Vegas Temple. It was pretty sweet. I forgot to mention it last week. The more I go the more I enjoy it. It was a very good day, and the Las Vegas Temple is so cool. It's pretty amazing to stand on the grounds and look down and out and see the Las Vegas strip in the valley. The temple really is set apart from the world. I like the symbolism, it's neat.

There were so many awesome people that went with me during the temple trip. Most of my district got to go and other missionaries that I knew super well. It was awesome. An Elder that I knew well from back home in Iowa was there too! Elder Kell Bowen from Iowa got sent to my same mission Spanish Speaking and I got to do a temple session with him. He is so awesome. We talked for a long time and caught up. Hopefully I get to serve around him soon. It's cool to have someone I knew from back home here on my mission with me. It was a really good day. 

Elder Kell Bowen from Iowa

The next day we had interviews with my Mission President. That was such an awesome interview. Such a cool experience. President Reese is awesome, and it is sad to hear that his term as a mission president is ending soon. I remember starting the interview and we talked about normal stuff and about the area and all that. President told me that the reason he put me and Elder Plaster together one last transfer is because we got along very well.  He wanted us to have more incredible experiences together. I am super thankful for that. 

I also expressed my concern to him that I have never been in a Spanish area on my mission, and I have been out for a decent amount of time. He told me that I would 100% be in a Spanish area next transfer. I am so excited! He said that he didn't know which one but for sure I will serve Spanish next transfer which I am excited for. I love my life right now!

We finally had one of our homies come to church which was cool. Sam came and really liked it even though people said some weird stuff during 2nd hour 5th Sunday. Also, we had to push Edgar's date back to be baptized since he wasn't coming to church. That made me very upset but it's okay, we push forward. 

I am switching apartments now apparently which sucks. Our hoarder neighbor apparently is causing cockroach problems everywhere, so our landlord and our mission office got together to move us to a different apartment in the same complex. I was very saddened by that because I went ham cleaning the apartment and now, I have to move to a brand new one. It is a brand-new apartment, and it's super nice. Elder Rojas, Carter, Plaster, and I will still be living together. After this switch I will have lived in 10 different apartments on my mission. 

I got into a less active member's home with the power of my bladder. It was 8:45 pm at night and I really wanted to get my member lesson numbers up so I asked to use their bathroom. Then we shared a spiritual message before we left. The power of the bladder works miracles. No gate can stop me. What's funny is they started watching a movie that I really wanted to watch while we were there, and they said we could stay as long as we wanted and watch it and I was so tempted. Fortunately, I said no, and we decided to leave before it was too late. The movie was awesome, and I was genuinely debating staying. haha.

Anyways I love you all and I am so grateful for your prayers and emails. Stay in touch!

Sincerely,

Elder Pack 

My Apartment Was Infested with Cockroaches!

 Hey,

2022 is really flying by. My last year on the mission is going to go by so fast. I really feel bad about this week as nothing really interesting happened. Still working really hard and trying to do all the right things. Love my district and my zone. The Elders and sisters here have become some of my best friends. I love Elder Plaster. Him and I have never ever gotten into a disagreement. Things are looking to be amazing this transfer too with teaching. 

Right now, I live in a pretty gross apartment. It's not old it's just some of the Elders that lived here previously were gross. I deep cleaned the whole apartment this morning which was nice. The apartment is looking so good now. Not a speck anywhere. We also have a cockroach problem which kinda sucks. Yeah, the previously Elders and our neighbors were pretty gross. An exterminator came in today which was nice. The apartment is looking so good now. 

Elder Carter holding Bud Light at a service project. Not sure why.

Something pretty wild happened at a service project this week. We were loading a moving truck and an older gentleman was moving this huge bed by himself and accidently fell out of the truck backwards and it looked like he was going to break his back but then he rolled backwards when he landed like a ninja. So, he was perfectly fine. We thought it was going to be so bad, but he rolled, and it looked awesome, and he was perfectly fine afterwards. Honestly, he should've broken his back 

We are still teaching Edgar and Kayla. We are also teaching a man named Sam. We were directed by the spirit exactly to knock on his house, and he is digging to find the true church of Jesus Christ. It was pretty cool. We had a church tour with this week with him, and he really liked it. I honestly love being a missionary and talking to people. It is the most fun thing ever. Teaching new people is awesome. I have had so many cool experiences. Teaching Sam has been awesome. I really like answering people's questions and blowing their mind. It is so satisfying. He was really caught up on some doctrine that didn't make sense to him, so we read the scriptures together to help clarify things for him. 

Nothing else really happened this week other than finally getting rid of the cockroaches by deep cleaning the whole apartment. Also, I'm trying a new thing on the mission. At 10:00 pm I go into the closet and say my personal prayers out loud and write in my journal afterwards. That's been pretty awesome. I've loved my time here and I love serving. I wish my emails were less boring right now but it's whatever. Love you all and I'll talk to you next week.

Sincerely,

-Elder Pack