Wednesday, December 14, 2011

December 12, 2011

Dear Family,

Well it sounds like everything is going well, and that always makes me happy. I'm glad that the tavaci concert was a great success, and that everyone enjoyed it. I've realized now that I haven't seen tavaci for quite a while I miss seeing it. It was always fun to watch the little kids sing and dance. That's way cool that Frank got his patriarchal blessing this past week, I've been reading through mine quite a bit lately since you sent it to me and I've really enjoyed noticing the same thing that you did. It really does show that the Lord knows us all individually, and really cares about us. Patriarchal blessing are just a small glimpse into the eternities, we can see a little bit the talents and qualities that we've had through our eternities.

This week was really good in the life of a missionary. Elder Froelich and I have been having a really good time together, and I feel like I've learned a ton. This last week was a lot of fun, we taught a lot of really cool people and had some cool miracles. We're teaching this family right now that is doing very well. The parents are in there twenties and they have a little four year old, and they all came to church yesterday and they really enjoyed it :) I have a lot of high hopes for them. Elder LaCroix and I found them on our last day together last transfer, and they've slowly progressing and getting more and more interested. This last week when we met with them we asked them why they meet with us, what do they want from our meetings. And they told us that every time that we come they learn something new that helps them and they believe us more and more every time. I can see the Gospel changing them. That's one of the coolest things about being a missionary. Especially when you can see someone throughout their entire teaching process, they change so much and they just get happier and happier. We're also teaching another man named ***** and he also came to church yesterday. He's just so excited that our church has the "fullness". We testified of the fullness of the Gospel restored through Joseph Smith, and he just instantly wanted that in his life. He really enjoyed church, and he kept saying that God revealed to him that it's true. I'm really excited. He's a very cool guy, and he just has so much faith that everything is possible. We're working to baptize him on New year's eve. Those were a couple of the highlights from this last week. This upcoming week is a complete mystery because transfers are coming up on Thursday and you know how those are. I have a feeling that I'll still be in Riga, and I hope that I am, but I really don't know for sure. So I'll need to wait to give you my number until I know exactly where I'm going to be.

Thank you so much for all that you do! I miss you all and I want you to know that I think about all of you everyday. Whenever I show my pictures to people they're just like wow... you have a really happy family. I'm really grateful for all of you and for how happy you are. Stay happy, and I'm way excited to hear from you next week.

-Elder pack

Monday, December 5, 2011

December 5, 2011

Dear Family,

Well it was really great to hear from you as usual. It sounds and looks like the Christmas season is sneaking its way into regular life. I love Christmas time, it really just feels different. As missionaries we don't really do anything differently around Christmas we still have the same schedule, but something in the air just feels a little special. That is really cool what Frank's mission called him to encourage him to get out there. I know that when new missionaries come its just a huge party for everyone in the mission. I know that Frank will be a really great addition to the Armenian mission. I've been looking at some Armenian Books of Mormon and that language is nutso, but I think Frank will get it really fast. If you're diligent then even learning a foreign language is pretty easy.

This week was really awesome in the life of a missionary. We were able to have a little more time that usual to work in our area so that was nice. We also went to Daugavpils (I feel like I go there all the time these days) again this week in order to conduct a baptismal interview with a lady that just got baptized this last Saturday. I love conducting baptismal interviews! It's so cool to see people that are so close to baptism and there testimony is big enough for six people. This lady I did the interview with told me about her journey to baptism, how she had ran into the missionaries multiple times and as she had gotten closer to the church it just flipped her life over and made her such a better person. We were talking together a little bit about the persecution that she has been getting from friends, and she said something to me that was really cool that strengthened my testimony. She said "it doesn't matter what those other people say, something that does so much good can't possibly be false" It made me think a little bit. This Gospel really does so much good for everyone that lets it, the only people that have negative views are the ones that won't let it into their lives and thoughts. Elder Froelich and I also had a good week of finding. We were to find a couple new people from our new English club that we started and give them baptismal dates. I've really learned a lot about planning as a missionary. I've learned that if you really plan well and you work in order to achieve higher goals, not just work for that one day, you can really accomplish amazing things. I've been realizing a lot how ineffective I was before my mission. I would just live day to day, it made it really easy to talk myself out of important things, but if we have that higher goal and plans of how to reach it then everyday is so much more meaningful, and we can progress so much faster (random thought from Elder Pack haha :).

Thank you so much for all that you do for me I really appreciate it. I hope that you all have a great week. I did get your Christmas package by the way, I didn't really even consider the thought of waiting until Christmas to open it haha, I'm sorry if I ruined the surprise. It really made me happy. Thank you so much for all the treats, and the cds. I've already enjoyed the Josh Groban cd multiple times for the last few days.


With love,
Elder Pack