Dear Family,
I'm glad to hear that everything is going so well. It sounds like life is just like normal. It’s weird how fast this all is going by because I feel like nothing has really changed at home, but we'll see when I get home things will probably be way different. I'm glad that everyone is enjoying what they're doing though that makes me really happy. That's too bad that Jenna is sick, I hope that she gets better soon.
This week in Riga was a lot of fun. There's always so much going on its a great adventure every day. Elder Stucki and I have been having a ton of fun together. Elder Stucki is always a party and it makes missionary work even more fun than usual, and that's a lot of fun! We've been working really hard to find new people to teach, and we've really been trying to help those that we have progress towards baptism. We've been having a lot of ideas about how we can work with the branch a lot better. It's crazy how important friends are when it comes to being converted. Without friends everything is just so much harder. We're going to start working with the branch a lot more to have more activities and help this branch be one big happy family. There was a baptism this last weekend it was really great. It was a man named *****, Other elders here in Riga were teaching him. He progressed towards baptism really fast, and it was fun to see how the Gospel is blessing his life and family.
I'm sorry I really don't have a lot to say this week. I'm really trying to think of things but nothing is coming to mind. I hope that you all have a great week. I'll really try to have a lot more things to say for next week. This next week should have a lot of stuff going on so I should have a lot to say.
-Elder Pack
Monday, January 9, 2012
January 1, 2012 - Happy New Year!!!
Dear Family,
Well that's just too bad that you all are getting sick. Luckily I haven't really had any sick moments so far, I'm going to try as hard as I can avoid it the whole winter, because some of the missionaries have been getting really sick. That's way sad that there's basically no snow even up in the mountains. Here it’s the very same. It's been way sunny and warm lately, but today it got to about -1 Celsius. New Year as a missionary is just kind of a joke actually haha. I just slept it was really nice. The only think special that we do is that we have to come in early so that we don't get attacked by drunk people. New Year in the Baltics is a huge holiday! It's like ten times as big of deal as Christmas. When I was on my way to church Sunday morning empty beer/wine bottles just lined the streets. But now I can tell that people are already really regretting drinking that much they look way miserable. I used that time to set some sweet yearly goals, they're pretty huge I'll have to work hard to achieve them.
This week was a lot of fun though. Elder Stucki and I worked very hard. The Lord has been blessing us with a lot of success lately; it's been a lot of fun. I can really see the Lord's hand in my missionary work as I do all that I possibly can to reach my goals. I know that sometimes I fall short, but I always learn something useful. Elder Stucki and I have been having a lot of revelation on how we can improve in finding and working with members, it's really cool. We've come up with a lot of ideas that I think will really help here in the Baltics in our own personal missionary work, we're really excited to just make plans and apply them. We worked with our baptismal date **** a few times this week it went really well. She has a big desire to meet with us and be baptized. We also found quite a few really cool people that we're very excited to meet with.
I'm sorry that I don't have a ton to say. This week was just really regular, but a lot of fun. Thanks for all that you do I hope that you have a great week.
-Elder Pack
Well that's just too bad that you all are getting sick. Luckily I haven't really had any sick moments so far, I'm going to try as hard as I can avoid it the whole winter, because some of the missionaries have been getting really sick. That's way sad that there's basically no snow even up in the mountains. Here it’s the very same. It's been way sunny and warm lately, but today it got to about -1 Celsius. New Year as a missionary is just kind of a joke actually haha. I just slept it was really nice. The only think special that we do is that we have to come in early so that we don't get attacked by drunk people. New Year in the Baltics is a huge holiday! It's like ten times as big of deal as Christmas. When I was on my way to church Sunday morning empty beer/wine bottles just lined the streets. But now I can tell that people are already really regretting drinking that much they look way miserable. I used that time to set some sweet yearly goals, they're pretty huge I'll have to work hard to achieve them.
This week was a lot of fun though. Elder Stucki and I worked very hard. The Lord has been blessing us with a lot of success lately; it's been a lot of fun. I can really see the Lord's hand in my missionary work as I do all that I possibly can to reach my goals. I know that sometimes I fall short, but I always learn something useful. Elder Stucki and I have been having a lot of revelation on how we can improve in finding and working with members, it's really cool. We've come up with a lot of ideas that I think will really help here in the Baltics in our own personal missionary work, we're really excited to just make plans and apply them. We worked with our baptismal date **** a few times this week it went really well. She has a big desire to meet with us and be baptized. We also found quite a few really cool people that we're very excited to meet with.
I'm sorry that I don't have a ton to say. This week was just really regular, but a lot of fun. Thanks for all that you do I hope that you have a great week.
-Elder Pack
December 25, 2011 - Merry Christmas!!!
Dear Family,
Hey! Wow it was way great to talk to all of you. Thank you so much for all the nice things that you said and the happiness that you all had. I'm really happy that I was able to talk to all of you individually. The last couple of times that I called I regretted not taking time to talk to each of you, so I made extra sure that I did it this time around. It's really crazy that Christmas has already come and gone again, time is going by so fast I don't quite know what to do with myself. I'm glad that all of you had such a great Christmas and got the things that you wanted. It is really odd that we're all growing up and now Christmas isn't really a little kid holiday anymore in the Pack home. Christmas is one of my very favorite memories growing up.
This week was really good. I already talked about it quite a bit. We did a lot of caroling and service. I really love the Christmas season as a missionary, it's just better than the other times of year. Luckily in Latvia we have two Christmases yay! The Catholic Christmas is on the 25 of December but Russian Orthodox Christmas is on the 7th of January. So I'm going to try really hard to use the continuing Holiday Spirit to find those Russian Orthodox people to teach. This week was just so much fun though. I sang so many Christmas songs that I think I can sing them professionally now.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot more to say. I basically already told you everything that's going on in my life right now. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I love you and really care about you. I hope you enjoy your upcoming and I'm really excited to hear from you I'll make sure that I save up some cool experiences to tell you about next week. I'll make sure to get a suit and some shapkas :)
-Elder Pack
Hey! Wow it was way great to talk to all of you. Thank you so much for all the nice things that you said and the happiness that you all had. I'm really happy that I was able to talk to all of you individually. The last couple of times that I called I regretted not taking time to talk to each of you, so I made extra sure that I did it this time around. It's really crazy that Christmas has already come and gone again, time is going by so fast I don't quite know what to do with myself. I'm glad that all of you had such a great Christmas and got the things that you wanted. It is really odd that we're all growing up and now Christmas isn't really a little kid holiday anymore in the Pack home. Christmas is one of my very favorite memories growing up.
This week was really good. I already talked about it quite a bit. We did a lot of caroling and service. I really love the Christmas season as a missionary, it's just better than the other times of year. Luckily in Latvia we have two Christmases yay! The Catholic Christmas is on the 25 of December but Russian Orthodox Christmas is on the 7th of January. So I'm going to try really hard to use the continuing Holiday Spirit to find those Russian Orthodox people to teach. This week was just so much fun though. I sang so many Christmas songs that I think I can sing them professionally now.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot more to say. I basically already told you everything that's going on in my life right now. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I love you and really care about you. I hope you enjoy your upcoming and I'm really excited to hear from you I'll make sure that I save up some cool experiences to tell you about next week. I'll make sure to get a suit and some shapkas :)
-Elder Pack
December 19, 2011
Dear Family,
Wow that is super awesome news! I'm so happy that Frank decided to go on his mission; he'll never regret it :). I'm glad to hear that everyone else is doing so well too, but it is too bad that the Christmas tree died. That's ok though, the specialness of Christmas isn't in the tree. You'll have to let me know how Christmas is I'm really excited to hear about everything, Christmas really is the best time of year.
This week I wanted to share a little Christmas miracle. Maybe to you it won't seem to big but I thought it was pretty cool. A couple days ago my companion and I were waiting for a member who was coming down into our area to help us on a lesson. While we were waiting a lady passed us and I started to talk to her. I started talking about Christmas and she just really happy. I was able to ask her a couple questions about why she likes Christmas and if we could stop by to give her a Christmas message. She very happily consented and agreed to have us over this upcoming week. I can really see the way that the Christmas holidays really soften people's hearts and spirits. I make sure to let you know how that lesson goes. We also had a cool miracle this last week that I would like to tell you about. About a month ago a lady walked up to me on a bus and asked for a Book of Mormon because her house had burned down and it had burned with the fire. I gave her a Book of Mormon and she gave me her phone number. I tried her a couple times but it never worked out so she kind of got put away in my planner and I forgot to keep calling her. So last Monday I gave her a call and she was like "yeah I would love to meet today". We met up with her at the church with one of our super solid members. It turns out that she reads the Book of Mormon every single night and knows that it's true. It was so awesome. We invited her to be baptized about 1 second after she told us that. She agreed and now she has a baptismal date for the 14th of January. I love missionary work it is so much fun. Oh yeah another miracle that happened this week is that I'm still in Latvia!!! woohoo I love Riga it makes me very happy. Sadly I'm no longer with Elder Froelich, but I have a super awesome new companion named Elder Stucki. He's super cool he's from the east coast.
So yeah details about calling! This year will be just like last year. You'll call me so I'll give you my phone number, it will be on Christmas morning (where you live) just like last time. This year you will call me at 9:00 am (your time) that will be 6:00 pm where I am. I'm very excited to talk to you, it's always very enjoyable. I hope that you have a great Christmas week! I'm excited to hear about it on Sunday.
-Elder Pack
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