Dear Family,
HEY! hey family I'm glad to hear from you. I'm really happy that everything is going so well. Everything over here is just fantastic. I love walking around and just talking to people. Sadly this week was about the slowest week I've had in a long time, so I don't really have any cool stories to share with you cause nothing really worked out haha. But it's ok we're working hard and all we can do is try to improve ourselves and give people a chance to listen. The weather is also moving really really slowly towards the warmer side of things. It's really weird lately since daylight savings happened so now we have a lot more light, I still don't know what I think about it though haha. That's way awesome that mom and dad are going to Italy that will be a lot of fun, we'll be in Europe at the same time! I'll get to answering your questions now cause I really have no idea of what to say.
1. What do the people in Daugavpils do for fun? Do they fish in the river or go somewhere interesting. Have you met anyone that skies? Well Russian people for some reason LOVE to go on walks for free time. There are so many times a week when we go to try and find somebody and their parents are like "oh sorry he's out on a walk with his friends". At first I thought it was just an excuse cause people didn't want to meet with us, but they really do just go on walks. A lot of people like fishing also, especially men that are over 50 and receive pension. I've met a few people that "really" ski. A lot of people cross country ski but there are no mountains in the Baltics so there's no a lot of people that go downhill skiing.
2. We are putting a package together for your birthday. Do you have any requests? Do you need any clothes or anything? I don't really need anything specific... I don't know what's up with me lately haha, as a missionary living out of two bags and having no free time I don't really know what to ask for. I could probably use like one or two short sleeve white shirts for the depths of Summer but more than that any other clothes would just be a burden cause I'd have to carry them around. I would like some more pictures of the family, it would be cool if they were in a small album that I could carry around and show to people :) (the people here love looking at pictures of families)
3. Tell us about your companion. What does he like to do? I think you said he is from Utah. Is that right? Where? How long has he been out? I myself don't know a ton about my companion Elder Gudmunson because we haven't been together for so short amount of time haha. He's from Pleasant Grove, Utah. He's about 6'4" Just a way nice guy. He served here a year ago so all of the members remember him so that's really cool. He loves to play basketball which makes sense cause he's tall. He's been out for about a year and 4 months. So he's pretty experienced and speaks Russian really well. We're having a lot of fun together, but transfers are this week so we have no idea if we'll be together or not.
4. Did your headaches get even better this week? Let us know if we can send you anything like vitamins in your package. You need to definitely stay hydrated. They better sometimes and sometimes not, but it's ok they don't really bug me as much anymore. I don't need any vitamins Sister Dance has sent me some medicine so that should help.
5. What have you been studying lately in your scripture studies? I've just been reading through the section in 3rd Nephi when Christ appears to the Nephites. It's really amazing to see how much the Lord loves his people. As a missionary and just a person living in this world it makes me think about how much Christ loves me, but not only that also how much he loves everyone else just as much as me. It's a way amazing feeling when you're walking down the street and you see someone that you don't know at all but you just know that God loves them just as much as he loves me!
Thanks for always emailing me have a great week I hope that all goes good for you this week.
-Elder Pack
Monday, April 11, 2011
March 21, 2011
Dear Family,
Yes I am well on my way for the record of emergency transfers. I might actually already have it because usually missionaries don't even go on one haha. It just makes everything a little more exciting haha. They sent Elder McNerney to Imanta, which is Riga basically just on the other side of the River. Sadly the story of my mission and investigators is they're progressing really well and I feel like nothing could go wrong because of the effort that they're putting in, but something always goes wrong haha. We're back to only one person preparing for baptism and that person is kind of shaky. We're still working as hard as we can and miracles are still happening. Even if I don't get a baptism is will all be ok as long as I did everything that I could :). I actually have absolutely no idea what to talk about this week... Not a lot happened. We had a record low amount of lessons for my whole time in Daugavpils this week haha, but that's still more that I basically ever had in Vilnius. My headaches are getting better slowly but surely. They're not as bad as they were but they're still not all the way gone. You won't need to send me anything right now I'm just gonna watch and see if they just go away. Do you have any other questions? you should ask some questions cause I have no idea what to say haha. I'm way happy that everyone is doing so well. It's weird being on a mission because even though I'm all the way over here, life still goes on as if I was there haha. Well I hope you all have a great week. I'm sorry I'm so bad at writing emails, I just can never think of enough to say in a weekly email.
-Elder Pack
Yes I am well on my way for the record of emergency transfers. I might actually already have it because usually missionaries don't even go on one haha. It just makes everything a little more exciting haha. They sent Elder McNerney to Imanta, which is Riga basically just on the other side of the River. Sadly the story of my mission and investigators is they're progressing really well and I feel like nothing could go wrong because of the effort that they're putting in, but something always goes wrong haha. We're back to only one person preparing for baptism and that person is kind of shaky. We're still working as hard as we can and miracles are still happening. Even if I don't get a baptism is will all be ok as long as I did everything that I could :). I actually have absolutely no idea what to talk about this week... Not a lot happened. We had a record low amount of lessons for my whole time in Daugavpils this week haha, but that's still more that I basically ever had in Vilnius. My headaches are getting better slowly but surely. They're not as bad as they were but they're still not all the way gone. You won't need to send me anything right now I'm just gonna watch and see if they just go away. Do you have any other questions? you should ask some questions cause I have no idea what to say haha. I'm way happy that everyone is doing so well. It's weird being on a mission because even though I'm all the way over here, life still goes on as if I was there haha. Well I hope you all have a great week. I'm sorry I'm so bad at writing emails, I just can never think of enough to say in a weekly email.
-Elder Pack
Monday, March 14, 2011
March 14, 2011
Family!
Hey! Wow it sounds like everything is going really well. Except for the boys that are chasing Alycia around that is very forbidden! They better be ready to deal with Elder Pack in a year ;). Isn't it crazy that I've almost been out for a year? It's basically making my mind explode. And speaking of minds exploding my headaches have actually started to slow down a bit. They don't come quite as often as they used to and so that's a good sign, maybe they'll go away completely eventually. Thanks for the prayers I know that they're helping. I don't really know what I want to do with my Christmas money. The more things I buy the more things I need to carry around so that's kind of stopping me from buying a lot of stuff. I thought it would be cool just to save up all my money and then I could get really good souvenirs when I'm coming home for the whole fam. Would that be ok? This last week was a really crazy week here in Daugavpils, I just went through my second emergency exchange haha. A girl fell in love with Elder McNerney so they had to send him away... It was actually pretty funny, but it's kind of sad too because I'm Elder McNerneyless now. My new companion is Elder Gudmonson. He's from Pleasant Grove Utah and a way good missionary. He's been out on a mission for about a year and three months. He actually served in Daugavpils a year ago when he was getting trained which is cool because we've been able to stop by some of the people that he was teaching and they let us in and we were able to teach them. Sometimes people just need some time. I am sorry that my emails are always so boring. I sit down to start emailing and for some reason all my thoughts just disappear and I can't remember anything that happened this week. We helped a lady move this week it was pretty cool. We don't have a ton of opportunities over here to do service cause no one ever lets us help. Everyone here just has to do things by themselves. But we helped a lady this week who's a member but she's like 89 years old so she can't come to church in the winter because it's too slippery. We take the sacrament to her every once in a while and she is a really nice old lady. She speaks like the most confusing Russian in the world though haha. I don't quite understand it she conjugates everything different than anyone else. But she likes to talk so we listen and it makes her happy. But yeah the adventures keep coming and I feel like this mission is changing me a lot and I'm having a lot of fun doing it. Have a great week!
-Elder Pack
Hey! Wow it sounds like everything is going really well. Except for the boys that are chasing Alycia around that is very forbidden! They better be ready to deal with Elder Pack in a year ;). Isn't it crazy that I've almost been out for a year? It's basically making my mind explode. And speaking of minds exploding my headaches have actually started to slow down a bit. They don't come quite as often as they used to and so that's a good sign, maybe they'll go away completely eventually. Thanks for the prayers I know that they're helping. I don't really know what I want to do with my Christmas money. The more things I buy the more things I need to carry around so that's kind of stopping me from buying a lot of stuff. I thought it would be cool just to save up all my money and then I could get really good souvenirs when I'm coming home for the whole fam. Would that be ok? This last week was a really crazy week here in Daugavpils, I just went through my second emergency exchange haha. A girl fell in love with Elder McNerney so they had to send him away... It was actually pretty funny, but it's kind of sad too because I'm Elder McNerneyless now. My new companion is Elder Gudmonson. He's from Pleasant Grove Utah and a way good missionary. He's been out on a mission for about a year and three months. He actually served in Daugavpils a year ago when he was getting trained which is cool because we've been able to stop by some of the people that he was teaching and they let us in and we were able to teach them. Sometimes people just need some time. I am sorry that my emails are always so boring. I sit down to start emailing and for some reason all my thoughts just disappear and I can't remember anything that happened this week. We helped a lady move this week it was pretty cool. We don't have a ton of opportunities over here to do service cause no one ever lets us help. Everyone here just has to do things by themselves. But we helped a lady this week who's a member but she's like 89 years old so she can't come to church in the winter because it's too slippery. We take the sacrament to her every once in a while and she is a really nice old lady. She speaks like the most confusing Russian in the world though haha. I don't quite understand it she conjugates everything different than anyone else. But she likes to talk so we listen and it makes her happy. But yeah the adventures keep coming and I feel like this mission is changing me a lot and I'm having a lot of fun doing it. Have a great week!
-Elder Pack
Saturday, March 12, 2011
March 7, 2011
Family,
Yeah things are always good over here in Daugavpils. Elder McNerney and I are having a lot of fun working our butts off. But when you get out there and work as hard as you can, that's when you enjoy it the most, and the most miracles happen. It makes me way happy to hear that everyone is doing so well, and enjoying their individual activities. I'm jealous that everyone gets all this awesome familyness together time and I'll have to deal without it for another year, but it's all ok cause I know why I'm out here, and maybe it can bless other families to have all the same blessings that our family has. The Gospel truly does bless families. Everything with my head is still basically the same. I still get headaches, but they said that everything is fine so I'm able just to get over them and keep working. It's actually a blessing in disguise because I'm able to show my faith and just deal with it and continue to work. The lord can only perform miracles according to our faith. Ok so I'm going to get to the super miracle that has slowly been happening over my transfers here in Daugavpils. Once upon a time when I had barely arrived to Daugavpils I was looking through the area book and calling people trying to set up some lessons and find people that the missionaries had maybe forgotten about. So I ended up calling this family that was in there that hadn't been met with for about 5 years and right when I called they were like come over right now! But when we went over there was only girls there for the daughter’s birthday so we had to leave, because if we want to teach a girl there has to be 3 men so we have to take a member. So we set up a lesson to go back. This was a long time ago and we've taught this family probably 5 or 6 times because they love our message and are always inviting us older. But the big miracle of it all was a friend that they had over for one of the lessons. It was a girl that was over there the first time we went by when they were having a big party and she saw us and was really interested in what we were doing. So we started teaching her separately also. She told us that she believes in everything that we tell her, she really wants to be baptized, and her mom and her grandma really want her to be baptized also. And just to add to all of the amazingness that is going on she invited a friend onto one of the lessons who has now been to church twice also and loves the message and they want to be baptized together! Their names are Renata and Natalia. They're just progressing way well and we're so excited. The best way to find people to teach is through people you already know and members! So you should try to find someone you know who is struggling without the basic knowledge of the gospel in their life, and share the gospel with them. It's so much better than the missionaries going out and trying to find people. People already don't like missionaries, but friends and neighbors can really see the blessings in your life. But yeah that was a really long miracle so I ran out of time. Thank you for always emailing me. I hope you have a great week and don't forget that the lord loves us and is always watching out for those who love him.
-Elder Pack
Yeah things are always good over here in Daugavpils. Elder McNerney and I are having a lot of fun working our butts off. But when you get out there and work as hard as you can, that's when you enjoy it the most, and the most miracles happen. It makes me way happy to hear that everyone is doing so well, and enjoying their individual activities. I'm jealous that everyone gets all this awesome familyness together time and I'll have to deal without it for another year, but it's all ok cause I know why I'm out here, and maybe it can bless other families to have all the same blessings that our family has. The Gospel truly does bless families. Everything with my head is still basically the same. I still get headaches, but they said that everything is fine so I'm able just to get over them and keep working. It's actually a blessing in disguise because I'm able to show my faith and just deal with it and continue to work. The lord can only perform miracles according to our faith. Ok so I'm going to get to the super miracle that has slowly been happening over my transfers here in Daugavpils. Once upon a time when I had barely arrived to Daugavpils I was looking through the area book and calling people trying to set up some lessons and find people that the missionaries had maybe forgotten about. So I ended up calling this family that was in there that hadn't been met with for about 5 years and right when I called they were like come over right now! But when we went over there was only girls there for the daughter’s birthday so we had to leave, because if we want to teach a girl there has to be 3 men so we have to take a member. So we set up a lesson to go back. This was a long time ago and we've taught this family probably 5 or 6 times because they love our message and are always inviting us older. But the big miracle of it all was a friend that they had over for one of the lessons. It was a girl that was over there the first time we went by when they were having a big party and she saw us and was really interested in what we were doing. So we started teaching her separately also. She told us that she believes in everything that we tell her, she really wants to be baptized, and her mom and her grandma really want her to be baptized also. And just to add to all of the amazingness that is going on she invited a friend onto one of the lessons who has now been to church twice also and loves the message and they want to be baptized together! Their names are Renata and Natalia. They're just progressing way well and we're so excited. The best way to find people to teach is through people you already know and members! So you should try to find someone you know who is struggling without the basic knowledge of the gospel in their life, and share the gospel with them. It's so much better than the missionaries going out and trying to find people. People already don't like missionaries, but friends and neighbors can really see the blessings in your life. But yeah that was a really long miracle so I ran out of time. Thank you for always emailing me. I hope you have a great week and don't forget that the lord loves us and is always watching out for those who love him.
-Elder Pack
February 27, 2011
Dear Family,
Things are still going really good over here in Daugavpils. It's about the best area ever I'm really enjoying it. Me and Elder McNerney are having a lot of fun and having a lot of success. We actually had a super mega awesome miracle this week with a girl named Renata and her friend Natasha, sadly I have basically no time to email today cause me and Elder McNerney have to head to Riga cause he's the district leader and there's a leadership meeting in Riga today and tomorrow. So next week please remind me to tell you about the super miracle cause I really want to tell you. I'm really sorry that I don't have a lot of time to write. I hope that all of you have a great week and I'm so happy that you're all having such good times. Frank you need to go on a mission! It is about the best thing in the whole entire world. It's so much fun and you'll never regret it. I'm so happy that I decided to come it's one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. And also the sooner you start to prepare the better it will be ;). Have a great week family. I'm so sorry again I'll write you a really long letter next week!
-Elder Pack
Things are still going really good over here in Daugavpils. It's about the best area ever I'm really enjoying it. Me and Elder McNerney are having a lot of fun and having a lot of success. We actually had a super mega awesome miracle this week with a girl named Renata and her friend Natasha, sadly I have basically no time to email today cause me and Elder McNerney have to head to Riga cause he's the district leader and there's a leadership meeting in Riga today and tomorrow. So next week please remind me to tell you about the super miracle cause I really want to tell you. I'm really sorry that I don't have a lot of time to write. I hope that all of you have a great week and I'm so happy that you're all having such good times. Frank you need to go on a mission! It is about the best thing in the whole entire world. It's so much fun and you'll never regret it. I'm so happy that I decided to come it's one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. And also the sooner you start to prepare the better it will be ;). Have a great week family. I'm so sorry again I'll write you a really long letter next week!
-Elder Pack
February 21, 2011
Dear Family,
Wow it sounds like a whole bunch of crazy adventures are going on over in Cache Valley. It sounds like you all are having a lot of fun. That's just way super crazy to me that Nate is getting married tell him congratulations for me, I knew it was just a short way around the corner, I'm way happy for him. As for things over here everything is fine, I went to the neurologist over in Riga this week and things are looking good so you don't need to worry about me :). The Lord blesses us while we serve him so everything will be ok. Elder McNerney and I are having a lot of fun together we just found out that we're together for another transfer so that's pretty cool, this last transfer felt like it was only like a week and a half not a month and a half so I'm glad we have more time. This week we had a cool miracle while we were knocking one day. We decided to go up and knock on this road called Saura, but on the way there we both felt like we needed to knock this building that was on the way there. So we started knocking and for some reason people were being extra rude, I won't even repeat what they were saying haha. So after we were to the second to last door this lady walked up from behind us and was like "hey are you visiting me?" we were knocking on her door right as she walked up and she let us in and we talked to her for a while. It turned out that the missionaries had taught here like 3 or for years ago, she just got so busy with her work the missionaries kind of forgot about her. She has read the whole Book of Mormon and she knows it's true. She wants to start coming to church, and having lessons with us again. The amazing part was that she was only coming home for like 2 minutes to grab a really quick bite to eat, because she's taking care of a an old lady that's about to die and she usually just stays there all the time, but for some reason this day she felt like she needed to go home to eat. It was a great miracle and we're really excited to teach her, and she referred her son and we're going to start teaching them. Sorry if that story doesn't make any sense it was hard to describe, but I hope it made sense because it was really cool. This week is going to be a whole lot of fun teaching new people that we found this week and I'll let you know what's going on with them next week. I hope that all of you have a great week and I'm excited to hear from you next week. Make sure to get some good skiing in before the seasons over.
-Elder Pack
P.S. Lately I've been pondering over Alma 5 and how it applies to not only those who know not God but for us as well. The verse that sticks out to me is the one where he says "have you sufficiently retained in remembrance?" I've been thinking about it a lot because if we just retain in remembrance all the things that God has done for us then staying on the path of righteousness really isn't that much of a challenge. I don't know just some thoughts I've been having about how can we sufficiently retain in remembrance all that we have and have learned throughout the day? I know that if we can just remember and focus on the things that we learned in morning scripture study we will be able to improve the way God wants us to throughout the everyday activities. Let me know what your thoughts are about this?
Wow it sounds like a whole bunch of crazy adventures are going on over in Cache Valley. It sounds like you all are having a lot of fun. That's just way super crazy to me that Nate is getting married tell him congratulations for me, I knew it was just a short way around the corner, I'm way happy for him. As for things over here everything is fine, I went to the neurologist over in Riga this week and things are looking good so you don't need to worry about me :). The Lord blesses us while we serve him so everything will be ok. Elder McNerney and I are having a lot of fun together we just found out that we're together for another transfer so that's pretty cool, this last transfer felt like it was only like a week and a half not a month and a half so I'm glad we have more time. This week we had a cool miracle while we were knocking one day. We decided to go up and knock on this road called Saura, but on the way there we both felt like we needed to knock this building that was on the way there. So we started knocking and for some reason people were being extra rude, I won't even repeat what they were saying haha. So after we were to the second to last door this lady walked up from behind us and was like "hey are you visiting me?" we were knocking on her door right as she walked up and she let us in and we talked to her for a while. It turned out that the missionaries had taught here like 3 or for years ago, she just got so busy with her work the missionaries kind of forgot about her. She has read the whole Book of Mormon and she knows it's true. She wants to start coming to church, and having lessons with us again. The amazing part was that she was only coming home for like 2 minutes to grab a really quick bite to eat, because she's taking care of a an old lady that's about to die and she usually just stays there all the time, but for some reason this day she felt like she needed to go home to eat. It was a great miracle and we're really excited to teach her, and she referred her son and we're going to start teaching them. Sorry if that story doesn't make any sense it was hard to describe, but I hope it made sense because it was really cool. This week is going to be a whole lot of fun teaching new people that we found this week and I'll let you know what's going on with them next week. I hope that all of you have a great week and I'm excited to hear from you next week. Make sure to get some good skiing in before the seasons over.
-Elder Pack
P.S. Lately I've been pondering over Alma 5 and how it applies to not only those who know not God but for us as well. The verse that sticks out to me is the one where he says "have you sufficiently retained in remembrance?" I've been thinking about it a lot because if we just retain in remembrance all the things that God has done for us then staying on the path of righteousness really isn't that much of a challenge. I don't know just some thoughts I've been having about how can we sufficiently retain in remembrance all that we have and have learned throughout the day? I know that if we can just remember and focus on the things that we learned in morning scripture study we will be able to improve the way God wants us to throughout the everyday activities. Let me know what your thoughts are about this?
February 14, 2011
Dear Family,
well not much dawg just chillin the d-pils. That was the answer to your question at the start of your email if that doesn't make sense. I'm sorry that I ruined your week with that 2 line email that one time, I just didn't really have anything to say (like usual) and so I decided since you didn't write me I could rest my brain and try to think of more things to say. That's cool that Sean Miller had such a good experience on his mission, but I might just have to say that mine is better ;). I know exactly how he feels, I feel like we're really protected when we're out here as missionaries and if we follow all the rules and keep all the commandments then nothing will hurt us. This week was pretty good except for the part when my companion got really sick with the flu so we had to just sit at home for a few days. This also made it so nothing really happened this week. We taught a couple of really cool lessons, and we were able to hang out with a really cool member named Anatoli and go around try to find people the last couple of days which was really fun. It also has started to get really cold, I don't know what took it so long to get this cold but it has come. This morning it was -25 degrees Celsius. I don't really know what that is in Fahrenheit but all I know is it is pretty cold. My nose hair instantly freezes haha. We're at a different email place today so I'm going to try again to send some pictures so I hope that it works on this computer. I'm having a lot of fun as a missionary I'm learning so much and I'm really enjoying this time to just immerse all of myself into the gospel. I'm learning things that I didn't know I would ever learn. Thank you so much for all the support. If you want me to send something cool from the Baltics just let me know and I send it right on over.
-Elder Reginald Pack
P.S. Recently I've been getting really weird headaches on the left side of my head behind my eye so this week I'm going to get a C.T. Scan to see if everything is ok. They say that it probably isn't anything to worry about I was just telling you so when $100 dollars is gone from my account you will know why :). Have a great week
Elder Pack & Elder McNerny
Elder Pack
well not much dawg just chillin the d-pils. That was the answer to your question at the start of your email if that doesn't make sense. I'm sorry that I ruined your week with that 2 line email that one time, I just didn't really have anything to say (like usual) and so I decided since you didn't write me I could rest my brain and try to think of more things to say. That's cool that Sean Miller had such a good experience on his mission, but I might just have to say that mine is better ;). I know exactly how he feels, I feel like we're really protected when we're out here as missionaries and if we follow all the rules and keep all the commandments then nothing will hurt us. This week was pretty good except for the part when my companion got really sick with the flu so we had to just sit at home for a few days. This also made it so nothing really happened this week. We taught a couple of really cool lessons, and we were able to hang out with a really cool member named Anatoli and go around try to find people the last couple of days which was really fun. It also has started to get really cold, I don't know what took it so long to get this cold but it has come. This morning it was -25 degrees Celsius. I don't really know what that is in Fahrenheit but all I know is it is pretty cold. My nose hair instantly freezes haha. We're at a different email place today so I'm going to try again to send some pictures so I hope that it works on this computer. I'm having a lot of fun as a missionary I'm learning so much and I'm really enjoying this time to just immerse all of myself into the gospel. I'm learning things that I didn't know I would ever learn. Thank you so much for all the support. If you want me to send something cool from the Baltics just let me know and I send it right on over.
-Elder Reginald Pack
P.S. Recently I've been getting really weird headaches on the left side of my head behind my eye so this week I'm going to get a C.T. Scan to see if everything is ok. They say that it probably isn't anything to worry about I was just telling you so when $100 dollars is gone from my account you will know why :). Have a great week
Elder Pack & Elder McNerny
Elder Pack
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