July 4, 2011

Dear Family,
Wow there are a lot of crazy adventures going on at home it sounds like. I hope that everything will be ok, and I know that everything will be ok. Jenna you didn't need to send me anything but thank you! You really are one of the very best sisters anyone could ever ask for. I'm still trying to find something that you would really like for your birthday, I know I've already missed it but I'll get something sent eventually. I just don't have a lot of time to look for stuff, but I have some good ideas. That's way too bad that Grandma isn't feeling very well, please tell her that I love her and that I'm praying for her.
This week here in the mission field has been a ton of fun. President Boswell has come in and he's so cool! He came up here this last Saturday we had a zone conference and he stayed for Sunday. It was way cool being able to be a zone leader because I got to spend quite a bit of time around him. He's way funny and just way inspirational. This week was also way crazy because I got to go on a two day exchange with one of the Assistants. He name is Elder Grahm. He's from Georgia (USA) and he's like 6' 10". We had a lot of fun working together he taught me a lot. I wanted to tell you a really cool miracle that has been going on for the last couple weeks, and when Elder Grahm was with me the miracle just amplified. Well it all starts when I was with Elder Koegler, on the day he was leaving down to Lithuania. We had a couple of hours before his bus was heading out so we decided to go out and contact on the beach up in an area called Kopli (it's very pretty) We weren't having a lot of success it actually just felt like we had been walking and not talking to anybody (cause no one was there due to bad weather). So right as we were leaving the beach we saw a lady with her dad and pushing a little kid in a stroller. They were really out of the way and we had already past by, but Elder Koegler and I both felt like we had to go back and talk to them. So we awkwardly turned around and went back, and started to talk to them. We soon came to realize that Inna (the mom) was really really prepared to listen to what we have to say. She went on to tell us that three years ago the missionaries had come over but she was so distraught over a tragedy that had taken place in her life she just couldn't believe in God so she told them to leave. But now she says that the tragedy has strengthened her, and she knows that God put her through that because it helped her grow, which has blessed her life. So she said that she really wants to meet and she's ready to follow the things that we are teaching. But that's not even the fullness of that miracle it turns out that her boyfriend's mom is a member (very active and solid) of our church. So we were way excited to meet with her, but she is just so busy that it's been really really hard to meet with her for the last couple weeks. But yesterday when I was on exchanges with Elder Grahm a lesson finally worked out. So we took the member that she knows and the Branch President. We had a way good lesson about God and baptism, and she said she has made it to the point that she is ready to be baptized! We were just so happy, so I really hope and pray that she can make all the steps towards baptism, she has a lot of support. I just remembered another amazing miracle that happened this week that I really want to share with you I hope that I have time (I only have an hour total) the other day, I think on Tuesday, Elder Waddoups were out doing missionary work. We had just got done teaching an active member, and we had about 45 minutes to stop by someone. So we went stop by this lady that we had found the other day with a really cool little family. Sadly her children were sick so we weren't able to talk to her, so we left that apartment and went out on the road. I was flipping through the book we had been making of all the doors we have knocked and what the people said, and I noticed that we hadn't finished knocking the whole building yet. So we decided to go back and finish cause we had some time. When we got to the second door a lady answered and said she wouldn't be interested but her neighbor would really be interested in talking with us, so we got her name and went to talk to her. When we started talking to her she told us that we had answered her prayers. She had seen us walking around and she wondered why we had never stopped by her. And she had seen us earlier when we were trying to stop by that lady and she was outside smoking. She saw us walk away out onto the street so she went inside and prayed to God wondering why he had never sent us to her and when we came back and knocked on her door she was so happy that God had heard her prayer. We met with her the other day and she is so excited to meet with us and work towards baptism because it's "what God wants her to do". I'm glad that God was able to work through us to find these people and when we just go out and work God puts people in our paths. We actually have 3 people that accepted dates to be baptized this week but I don't have to time to tell you the third story he's a really cool guy.
Thank you so much for the email I'll try to answer your questions real quick because we have no time left. We had a lot of really crazy stuff that we had to do today and so I have to be done soon.
1. How was your Skype meeting with the President? It was a lot of fun. We talked about the goals for the mission. It was really cool being a leader for that so I was able to take part.
2. What is your exercise like? Do you exercise every day or do youjust walk a lot? yeah we exercise every day, I find myself doing a lot of pushups and sit-ups because I'm to lazy to do other stuff haha. We also walk a lot. I rode in a car the other day (when I was with the assistants) for the first time in a long time it was way crazy I was kind of freaking out haha.
3. How are your suits and shoes etc holding up? Do you need anything? As of right now everything is fine, I'll let you know if I need anything though.
I love you all thanks for everything

-Elder Pack