Dear Family,
Hey everybody! Darn that's a bummer about all the lost football games. But luckily everything will be ok :). I'm having a lot of fun out here in the field. Me and Elder Reeves are having a lot of very fun adventures, transfers are actually coming up this Thursday and I have no idea what is going to happen. It's just super crazy to me that I'm going into my 3rd transfer in the field already! Time goes by so fast when you just lose yourself in the work. It's so much fun. This last week was pretty fun, we actually had a Thanksgiving celebration with the branch over here and there was a lot of good food, so I was really happy. As far as the missionary work side of things over here, things were pretty slow, but that's ok because all we can do is try and get better. I wish I could have a cool story to tell you, but right now I can't really think of anything off the top of my head. I really just need to start bringing my journal when I email because I have a whole bunch of things in there that happened I just don't remember by the time I get here. Oh wait I just remembered something really cool that happened this week. Me and this other Elder, Elder Thomas, were on exchanges this past Thursday over in this area called New Vilniu. We went to go teach this lady that him and his companion had met the other day, she lives in very very poor circumstances. She lives in a one room little cottage that has no heating no electricity or even a bathroom, so me and elder Thomas decided to get her some bread and meat so she could make some simple sandwhiches. So when we got all that stuff and finally found her house, we walked in and taught her a simple little lesson about prayer and then gave her the sandwich stuff and blessed her house. She was so happy and grateful she started to cry a lot, I felt so sad for her I really just wanted to give her anything I've ever owned in my whole life. There are amazing people out there, and it doesn't matter that they don't have very much stuff but we are all children of God and we can all be blessed by this gospel.
Answers to questions
* Did you buy you a coat this week? Hopefully, you bought something that will be a fun reminder of your mission and will keep you warm. Yes I was able to get a really cool jacket that wasn't very expensive at all and it should keep me warm. I actually wore it when I went and played sports this morning and I felt really cool.
* They probably don't celebrate Thanksgiving over there. What do the missionaries do? Yes they do not celebrate Thanksgiving over here, but we had an activity with the ward and it was a lot of fun and we were able to get investigators there. There was actually this one investigator there, her name is Valera she's getting baptised in a couple of weeks and the sisters are teaching her and she made this beat salad that took her two days to make and then no one ate any of it and she was really sad so then I ate all of it cause I wanted to make her happy, but then when I finished that she pulled out another one that she wanted me to try, I was so full my throat would just not swallow food any more haha, but she was happy. It wasn't very good at all that's why none of the other missionaries wanted to help me eat it.
* How are your discussions coming? They're coming along really well, me and Elder Reeves still have a ways to go but we're getting better and better. We've learned a ton this transfer we've been together.
* Do you have more pictures for us? Yes I do have more pictures that I can send to you, but I forgot my cable to connect my camera to the computer, so I'll have to send them next week sorry.
* Is there anything that you need? Nope I'm doing really fine, luckily as a missionary all we really need are Books of Mormon and warm clothes haha.
But yeah that's all I basically have this week for you, so I hope that you have a great week. And I'm way excited to hear from you next week.
-Eder Pack
Monday, November 22, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
November 15, 2010
Dear Family,
Wow it sounds like you all had a pretty amazing week, kicking butt in sports, birthdays, and farewell talks. It will probably take another week just to recover from this last week. This last week was pretty good out here in the mission field also. Wow it's crazy to me that how far everyone in this family is going along. We used to all be so little but we're all growing, it wasn't weird for me when I was getting older but now that the rest of the family is growing up to it's really starting to hit me. This week me and Elder Reeves had a lot of fun adventures and we're really learning a lot about missionary work together. One really cool thing that happened this week is we had 2 investigators at church!!!!! It was so awesome. And this week was fast and testimony meeting because last week was district conference in Kaunas so there were some really amazing testimonies. The members over here have been through so many hard times, they have incredible stories from the Soviet Union and coming closer to Christ through all of their trials. We all can really learn a lot from the people over here. And especially as it is getting closer to Thanksgiving (which I'm sad I have to miss the Turkey Bowl) we need to remember all the things in our life that we are thankfull for, we have been so blessed. Thank you so much for all the support you all have given me while I've been out here on my mission. I really am having a great time, and the way that I'm able to be out here is because of you. THANK YOU. Also I need to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY Alycia. I can't believe you're already 15! how was your Birthday? What did you do? What did you get? you better answer these questions. And also Frank good luck with the Championship football game dude! You are so much better at football than I ever was. I'm rooting for you all the way over here from Lithuania, I'm excited to see how it goes. Robbie good luck with basketball, you're about five thousand feet taller than everyone else, so good luck with all that, you'll probably be able to go really far with basketball one day. And Jenna what have you been up to lately? How is school? You're getting really old, I'm gonna get home and it's going to be really weird cause you won't be the little Jenna any more. Make sure to have a lot of fun in Elementary school, but you don't need me to tell you that you've always been really good at having a lot of fun. But yeah I'm really glad that you're having a lot of fun, and I'm way excited to get your email next week and see how you're doing! Here goes another week of missionary work... Hooray!
-Elder Pack
Wow it sounds like you all had a pretty amazing week, kicking butt in sports, birthdays, and farewell talks. It will probably take another week just to recover from this last week. This last week was pretty good out here in the mission field also. Wow it's crazy to me that how far everyone in this family is going along. We used to all be so little but we're all growing, it wasn't weird for me when I was getting older but now that the rest of the family is growing up to it's really starting to hit me. This week me and Elder Reeves had a lot of fun adventures and we're really learning a lot about missionary work together. One really cool thing that happened this week is we had 2 investigators at church!!!!! It was so awesome. And this week was fast and testimony meeting because last week was district conference in Kaunas so there were some really amazing testimonies. The members over here have been through so many hard times, they have incredible stories from the Soviet Union and coming closer to Christ through all of their trials. We all can really learn a lot from the people over here. And especially as it is getting closer to Thanksgiving (which I'm sad I have to miss the Turkey Bowl) we need to remember all the things in our life that we are thankfull for, we have been so blessed. Thank you so much for all the support you all have given me while I've been out here on my mission. I really am having a great time, and the way that I'm able to be out here is because of you. THANK YOU. Also I need to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY Alycia. I can't believe you're already 15! how was your Birthday? What did you do? What did you get? you better answer these questions. And also Frank good luck with the Championship football game dude! You are so much better at football than I ever was. I'm rooting for you all the way over here from Lithuania, I'm excited to see how it goes. Robbie good luck with basketball, you're about five thousand feet taller than everyone else, so good luck with all that, you'll probably be able to go really far with basketball one day. And Jenna what have you been up to lately? How is school? You're getting really old, I'm gonna get home and it's going to be really weird cause you won't be the little Jenna any more. Make sure to have a lot of fun in Elementary school, but you don't need me to tell you that you've always been really good at having a lot of fun. But yeah I'm really glad that you're having a lot of fun, and I'm way excited to get your email next week and see how you're doing! Here goes another week of missionary work... Hooray!
-Elder Pack
Monday, November 8, 2010
Pictures!!!!
Elder Pack looking over Vilnius, Lithuania
Vilnius, Lithuania
Elder Pack and Elder Koegler at the Riga, Latvia bus station before his transfer
November 8, 2010
Dear Family,
Well it sounds like everything in Cache Valley is going nice and smooth. I'm glad to hear that. Things out here are going really good, I'm really enjoying the time out here being a missionary. I can't believe I've almost been out here for 5 months, that's a long time! It's going by so fast, so I've just been trying to live everyday to its fullest. Because before too much longer I'll be home. That's so awesome how much success all the family is having... It makes be way happy to hear that everyone is having so much fun. This week was a pretty good one in the life of a missionary. We taught quite a few lessons, and we found some new investigators. Elder Reeves and I are having a lot of fun together still, we only have a couple weeks left in this transfer so we'll see what happens around the corner. The language is coming along really good lately, it's very handy to be together as a companionship with another person who doesn't speak very well cause it really forces us to learn. Hopefully by the end of this two years I'll be able to speak Russian decently. One thing I've been forgetting to mention that I really remembered today, is that's it's freezing here, and I don't have a Jacket for like regular cloths. I'm fine when I'm just in missionary stuff, but when we do service and sports I've just been wearing tee-shirts with thermals haha. So would it be ok if you could send me a jacket perhaps? you just send me one of the ones that's at home. That would be really nice of you :). Wow for some reason I really can't think of what to say this week. I'm sorry I've never been very good at writing emails. One cool thing that happened this week is yesterday we went up to Kaunas for district conference, it was really good there were a lot of really good talks. The things that really stood out to me were that we need to remember that missionaries aren't the only ones that need to do missionary work. When members help it's a lot more effective. And the blessings of bringing someone to the knowledge of the gospel is just amazing. But yeah that's all I really have to say this week. I'll try to think better next week so I can tell you some cool stories.
-Elder Pack
Well it sounds like everything in Cache Valley is going nice and smooth. I'm glad to hear that. Things out here are going really good, I'm really enjoying the time out here being a missionary. I can't believe I've almost been out here for 5 months, that's a long time! It's going by so fast, so I've just been trying to live everyday to its fullest. Because before too much longer I'll be home. That's so awesome how much success all the family is having... It makes be way happy to hear that everyone is having so much fun. This week was a pretty good one in the life of a missionary. We taught quite a few lessons, and we found some new investigators. Elder Reeves and I are having a lot of fun together still, we only have a couple weeks left in this transfer so we'll see what happens around the corner. The language is coming along really good lately, it's very handy to be together as a companionship with another person who doesn't speak very well cause it really forces us to learn. Hopefully by the end of this two years I'll be able to speak Russian decently. One thing I've been forgetting to mention that I really remembered today, is that's it's freezing here, and I don't have a Jacket for like regular cloths. I'm fine when I'm just in missionary stuff, but when we do service and sports I've just been wearing tee-shirts with thermals haha. So would it be ok if you could send me a jacket perhaps? you just send me one of the ones that's at home. That would be really nice of you :). Wow for some reason I really can't think of what to say this week. I'm sorry I've never been very good at writing emails. One cool thing that happened this week is yesterday we went up to Kaunas for district conference, it was really good there were a lot of really good talks. The things that really stood out to me were that we need to remember that missionaries aren't the only ones that need to do missionary work. When members help it's a lot more effective. And the blessings of bringing someone to the knowledge of the gospel is just amazing. But yeah that's all I really have to say this week. I'll try to think better next week so I can tell you some cool stories.
-Elder Pack
Monday, November 1, 2010
November 1, 2010
Dear Family,
Well I'm sorry I'm always the worst at answering questions for you guys. I just get caught up in the work ;). But I will make sure to answer the questions right here at the beginning so that you can know what is going on.
1. Did you get any of the packages that we sent? I sent a couple of small ones with Savannah from the office, and we also sent a big flat rate box. We sent them to the mission home.
I got one of the packages so far, it was the big one that had snacks and silly putty thanks for that it was way good. But I probably won't get the other ones for a few more weeks, because since I live down here in Vilnius I don't get packages unless people are traveling around, and that probably won't happen until transfers now but I'm really excited to get them.
2. Do you have all of the warm clothes that you need? We put a few bucks into your account, but not much. Do you need more?
Yes I was able to get all the warm stuff that I need, sorry it was kind of expensive I have never been very good at being thrifty with money haha. But yeah I should be all good for a while.
3. Tell us about Elder Reeves. Where is he from? What is he like?
Elder Reeves is super awesome, he's from Ferth Idaho. He is like a star football player, he got player of the year in football and basketball two years in a row in Idaho for 2A schools, which is a lot better than I ever did at anything, haha. He's a really good missionary and we're having a lot of fun. We're having a lot of fun trying to figure out missionary work together.
4. Have you received Nancy Cheals letters? Have you written her back? What about grandma and grandpa robinson? They would love to hear from you.
Yes I have received letters from Nancy, and I'm planning on writing back today actually. Our P-days are always super busy, so hopefully I can get to it today. I really need to write Grandma and Grandpa also, and I will try really hard to get to that also I'll cross my fingers that I have time.
5. We would love to get some pictures. Can you just take your sd card and copy a few to your email? Please send us some. We would love to see you and Lithuania. Just send us your sd card dangit.
Well... that's a little harsh I guess I just won't send you any pictures now... No I'm just kidding, I'm sorry I haven't sent pictures yet. I just don't have very many yet, so I hesitate to send my sd card with like 30 pictures on it. But I guess I'll send that out this week so that you can get those. One of these preparation days soon me and Elder Reeves are going to just have it be a picture taking day. So I'll get a bunch for you.
6. Do you have any requests for your Christmas box? What candy do you miss? We are putting it together this week.
I actually can't think of anything off the top of my head. They basically have anything here that I'd want to eat in America. And stuff doesn't really do me a lot of good cause I'm a missionary and so I wouldn't be able to ever use it. So the thing I would really appreciate the most would probably just have to be getting a card. I don't really need anything besides that really.
7. When we have sent you pictures have you gotten them? We send them in separate email.
Yes I have receives all the pictures that you sent to me, and thank you for them they are really cool. It's really nice to see how you are all doing.
Well there are all the answers to you questions, are you happy now? No but I'm sorry I always forget to answer questions when I email you guys. I'll try a lot harder, and I'll work really hard to send pictures to you so that you can see how everything is going over here. But yeah that's basically all that I really have to say. I'm having a lot of fun out here. This last week was kind of a slow one and I hope that it picks up a bit this next week. We taught a few really cool people though and I'm excited to keep teaching them. So I hope that you all have a great week, and I'm way excited to get your email next week, it's always a nice to know that you haven't forgotten me yet.
I also forgot sorry it's written яа люблю тебя in russian, but it's pronounce Ya Lyoublyou tebya in English it's kind of weird, but that's my life over here right now haha. I love Russian it's like the coolest language in the whole world. Oh yeah and one question why was Frank asking a girl how to say I love you ;)
-Elder Pack
Well I'm sorry I'm always the worst at answering questions for you guys. I just get caught up in the work ;). But I will make sure to answer the questions right here at the beginning so that you can know what is going on.
1. Did you get any of the packages that we sent? I sent a couple of small ones with Savannah from the office, and we also sent a big flat rate box. We sent them to the mission home.
I got one of the packages so far, it was the big one that had snacks and silly putty thanks for that it was way good. But I probably won't get the other ones for a few more weeks, because since I live down here in Vilnius I don't get packages unless people are traveling around, and that probably won't happen until transfers now but I'm really excited to get them.
2. Do you have all of the warm clothes that you need? We put a few bucks into your account, but not much. Do you need more?
Yes I was able to get all the warm stuff that I need, sorry it was kind of expensive I have never been very good at being thrifty with money haha. But yeah I should be all good for a while.
3. Tell us about Elder Reeves. Where is he from? What is he like?
Elder Reeves is super awesome, he's from Ferth Idaho. He is like a star football player, he got player of the year in football and basketball two years in a row in Idaho for 2A schools, which is a lot better than I ever did at anything, haha. He's a really good missionary and we're having a lot of fun. We're having a lot of fun trying to figure out missionary work together.
4. Have you received Nancy Cheals letters? Have you written her back? What about grandma and grandpa robinson? They would love to hear from you.
Yes I have received letters from Nancy, and I'm planning on writing back today actually. Our P-days are always super busy, so hopefully I can get to it today. I really need to write Grandma and Grandpa also, and I will try really hard to get to that also I'll cross my fingers that I have time.
5. We would love to get some pictures. Can you just take your sd card and copy a few to your email? Please send us some. We would love to see you and Lithuania. Just send us your sd card dangit.
Well... that's a little harsh I guess I just won't send you any pictures now... No I'm just kidding, I'm sorry I haven't sent pictures yet. I just don't have very many yet, so I hesitate to send my sd card with like 30 pictures on it. But I guess I'll send that out this week so that you can get those. One of these preparation days soon me and Elder Reeves are going to just have it be a picture taking day. So I'll get a bunch for you.
6. Do you have any requests for your Christmas box? What candy do you miss? We are putting it together this week.
I actually can't think of anything off the top of my head. They basically have anything here that I'd want to eat in America. And stuff doesn't really do me a lot of good cause I'm a missionary and so I wouldn't be able to ever use it. So the thing I would really appreciate the most would probably just have to be getting a card. I don't really need anything besides that really.
7. When we have sent you pictures have you gotten them? We send them in separate email.
Yes I have receives all the pictures that you sent to me, and thank you for them they are really cool. It's really nice to see how you are all doing.
Well there are all the answers to you questions, are you happy now? No but I'm sorry I always forget to answer questions when I email you guys. I'll try a lot harder, and I'll work really hard to send pictures to you so that you can see how everything is going over here. But yeah that's basically all that I really have to say. I'm having a lot of fun out here. This last week was kind of a slow one and I hope that it picks up a bit this next week. We taught a few really cool people though and I'm excited to keep teaching them. So I hope that you all have a great week, and I'm way excited to get your email next week, it's always a nice to know that you haven't forgotten me yet.
I also forgot sorry it's written яа люблю тебя in russian, but it's pronounce Ya Lyoublyou tebya in English it's kind of weird, but that's my life over here right now haha. I love Russian it's like the coolest language in the whole world. Oh yeah and one question why was Frank asking a girl how to say I love you ;)
-Elder Pack
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