Dear Family,
It sounds like you had a pretty good week. I'm really sad that there were some sad things that happened, but I'm pretty sure that everything will work out in the end :). I'll make sure to pray for all of you and for everything that's going on... I'm glad that everyone had a successful Halloween. I love Halloween, and I really miss it being out here. That is also way super cool that my ski was found! That was some really good news. Thanks for all of the effort that you all put into finding it.
Well this week was super mega ultra awesome, with a hint of some sadness. As far as the sadness goes, Elder LaCroix is no longer my companion, he has left to Daugavpils... I'll miss him, but it's ok because I'm his zone leader so I'll get to see him when I go there on exchanges. But as far as the happiness goes I'm now with Elder Froelich. I was actually getting kind of scared that I would never get the opportunity to serve with Elder Froelich on my mission. I'm still in Riga as a zone leader, I'm pretty happy about it actually. This area is super super awesome, and this is like the best zone. There are a lot of very great missionaries in Latvia at the given time. The work is still moving forward. That man ****** is doing super great still, he just soaks everything in like a sponge. This week we had a really cool miracle while we were teaching him. He had just finished reading the story of the tree of life, and we asked him, "if you were to place yourself in this story what does it mean for you?" And he went on to tell us that 2 weeks ago he was wondering around in the field of darkness, but then we called out to him like Lehi calling out to Laman and Lemuel. And now he's holding onto the rod because we gave him the Book of Mormon and he's making his way to the tree of life "Baptism". It was so cool! He's doing amazingly well I'm so happy. The Zone is also doing incredibly well. I went and did a baptismal interview over in Imanta this last week and there's going to be a baptism this Saturday I'll make sure to get some pictures and send them to you. Elder Froelich and I have been working really hard to help lift and inspire the zone. And I really feel like things are going in a very upward and outward direction. Another cool thing that happened this week was when the first presidency approved the building of the first stake center of the Baltics. Because baptisms in the last year have gone up, especially on the side of member missionary work. I don't know when it will be done, but I'm super excited for the people here.
Well I'm glad that everything is going well over in little cache valley. I always love hearing from you and I'm excited to hear from you again next week.
-Elder Pack
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
October 31, 2011
Dear Family,
Wow I'm so happy to hear that everyone is doing so well. Thank you so much for the picture, stuff like that really means a lot to me. It's cool to see how much everyone is changing and growing, it's kind of a little depressing also haha. You'll have to let me know how your Halloween was this year. I remember last year you had a good time also. Were the kids able to figure out how to do adventure time? It's crazy to me that a year ago on Halloween I was in Vilnius. Time is going by so fast, it feels like that was just yesterday. In the Baltics they don't really celebrate halloween. Some little kids dress up and walk around, but no one gives out candy. I asked some Russians what would happen if I dressed up like a vampire and I knocked on doors asking for candy, they said that I would probably get arrested haha.
This week in the life of a missionary everything was awesome. Except for Elder Thomas has left the companionship and headed down to Vilnius. It was very unexpected because transfers aren't until this week, and we don't really know why it happened, but it did. The Assistants and President Boswell are always thinking up crazy ideas for transfers haha. On the missionary work side things were very awesome as well. The other day we were out finding and just knocking some doors as it was getting late. When we exited from one of the stairwells there was a way pretty sunset over the Daugava River so we walked a couple hundred feet over there and just looked at it. It's amazing, the most beautiful things in existence are God's creations. So after we got done looking at the sunset we started walking down a little path along the river when we ran into a man named ******. We started talking to him and we went over and sat down on a bench with him and talked about our church. When we were talking to him he told us that he went out in the morning that day and worked out and when he got home he really didn't want to leave his house again that day, but for some reason he really felt like he had to, and that's when we ran into him. We've taught him three times since then and he's read a ton in the Book of Mormon. One of the times we met with him we were like "we're going to teach you about a prophet named Joseph Smith" and he already knew everything about him because he read the pamphlet, he even knew the years when everything happened like finding the plates, and organizing the church it was incredible. He perfectly explained to us why the restoration was necessary and we had never taught him that before even once. He's doing incredibly well and we're very excited for what will happen in the future. It's amazing how the Lord puts you right where you need to be in order to find his children that are seeking for truth.
Thanks again for all that you do. I'm glad that I'm able to share all the cool things that are going on out here with you. It's also very nice to hear from you I hope that you have a great week.
-Elder Pack
Wow I'm so happy to hear that everyone is doing so well. Thank you so much for the picture, stuff like that really means a lot to me. It's cool to see how much everyone is changing and growing, it's kind of a little depressing also haha. You'll have to let me know how your Halloween was this year. I remember last year you had a good time also. Were the kids able to figure out how to do adventure time? It's crazy to me that a year ago on Halloween I was in Vilnius. Time is going by so fast, it feels like that was just yesterday. In the Baltics they don't really celebrate halloween. Some little kids dress up and walk around, but no one gives out candy. I asked some Russians what would happen if I dressed up like a vampire and I knocked on doors asking for candy, they said that I would probably get arrested haha.
This week in the life of a missionary everything was awesome. Except for Elder Thomas has left the companionship and headed down to Vilnius. It was very unexpected because transfers aren't until this week, and we don't really know why it happened, but it did. The Assistants and President Boswell are always thinking up crazy ideas for transfers haha. On the missionary work side things were very awesome as well. The other day we were out finding and just knocking some doors as it was getting late. When we exited from one of the stairwells there was a way pretty sunset over the Daugava River so we walked a couple hundred feet over there and just looked at it. It's amazing, the most beautiful things in existence are God's creations. So after we got done looking at the sunset we started walking down a little path along the river when we ran into a man named ******. We started talking to him and we went over and sat down on a bench with him and talked about our church. When we were talking to him he told us that he went out in the morning that day and worked out and when he got home he really didn't want to leave his house again that day, but for some reason he really felt like he had to, and that's when we ran into him. We've taught him three times since then and he's read a ton in the Book of Mormon. One of the times we met with him we were like "we're going to teach you about a prophet named Joseph Smith" and he already knew everything about him because he read the pamphlet, he even knew the years when everything happened like finding the plates, and organizing the church it was incredible. He perfectly explained to us why the restoration was necessary and we had never taught him that before even once. He's doing incredibly well and we're very excited for what will happen in the future. It's amazing how the Lord puts you right where you need to be in order to find his children that are seeking for truth.
Thanks again for all that you do. I'm glad that I'm able to share all the cool things that are going on out here with you. It's also very nice to hear from you I hope that you have a great week.
-Elder Pack
October 24, 2011
Dear Family,
I'm glad to hear that everything is going so well. That's way cool that Frank and Alycia are getting their patriarchal blessings soon. Patriarchal blessings are actually a huge blessings. It gives us just a little glimpse of what God sees in us. He knows us better than we know ourselves and he knows our potential and he lets us see that a little bit. It actually reminds me, could you send me a copy of my patriarchal blessing when you send me a Christmas package, that would be awesome. Please pass a hello to Mariah also. I'm glad that people haven't just forgotten about me while I've been on the other side of the world haha. Could you also pass my congratulations to Nate and Sierra. That's way cool that they'll be having a baby. A new deck?!? that's going to be way cool, our barbecue possibilities are just going to be to the max now. To answer your question about the threesome, we'll probably only be together for about a week and a half more.
We had a great week this week. Elder Thomas, Elder LaCroix, and I are having a great time serving together! This week the Lord really blessed us in our finding. We were able to find three new investigators and we have some other people that are going to become new investigators really soon. Having two companions makes it so there's never a dull moment. I'll share a few cool things that happened this week. First of all we have an investigator named xxxxxxx who is doing very well. She told us a really funny story this week about when she got an impression to do something. It was a few weeks ago and she was laying in bed when she heard a really quiet small voice say "your pension has come, go check" so she got up and got dressed and went to go check the mail, but when she got there, there was nothing in the mail. She was really confused, so she just went back inside and got in bed and when she was laying there the little voice came back and just said "Sorry". It was so funny to hear, we laughed for quite a while. We also have an investigator who's getting baptized in November who we've been asking him to cut his hair for a long time now, and he finally did! We're also teaching a Texan! It's way cool. Elder Thomas found him about a week ago when he was on exchanges. We just taught him for the first time last night. He's way awesome. He's about 24 years old and he's here serving for a non-denominational missionary program. We had a way good lesson about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and we're meeting with him again tomorrow. It's a small world.
Thank you so much for all that you do. I hope that everything this week goes well. I pray about all of you every day and I'm glad to see that God has been answering my prayers. Have a great week.
-Elder Pack
I'm glad to hear that everything is going so well. That's way cool that Frank and Alycia are getting their patriarchal blessings soon. Patriarchal blessings are actually a huge blessings. It gives us just a little glimpse of what God sees in us. He knows us better than we know ourselves and he knows our potential and he lets us see that a little bit. It actually reminds me, could you send me a copy of my patriarchal blessing when you send me a Christmas package, that would be awesome. Please pass a hello to Mariah also. I'm glad that people haven't just forgotten about me while I've been on the other side of the world haha. Could you also pass my congratulations to Nate and Sierra. That's way cool that they'll be having a baby. A new deck?!? that's going to be way cool, our barbecue possibilities are just going to be to the max now. To answer your question about the threesome, we'll probably only be together for about a week and a half more.
We had a great week this week. Elder Thomas, Elder LaCroix, and I are having a great time serving together! This week the Lord really blessed us in our finding. We were able to find three new investigators and we have some other people that are going to become new investigators really soon. Having two companions makes it so there's never a dull moment. I'll share a few cool things that happened this week. First of all we have an investigator named xxxxxxx who is doing very well. She told us a really funny story this week about when she got an impression to do something. It was a few weeks ago and she was laying in bed when she heard a really quiet small voice say "your pension has come, go check" so she got up and got dressed and went to go check the mail, but when she got there, there was nothing in the mail. She was really confused, so she just went back inside and got in bed and when she was laying there the little voice came back and just said "Sorry". It was so funny to hear, we laughed for quite a while. We also have an investigator who's getting baptized in November who we've been asking him to cut his hair for a long time now, and he finally did! We're also teaching a Texan! It's way cool. Elder Thomas found him about a week ago when he was on exchanges. We just taught him for the first time last night. He's way awesome. He's about 24 years old and he's here serving for a non-denominational missionary program. We had a way good lesson about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and we're meeting with him again tomorrow. It's a small world.
Thank you so much for all that you do. I hope that everything this week goes well. I pray about all of you every day and I'm glad to see that God has been answering my prayers. Have a great week.
-Elder Pack
October 17, 2011
Dear Family,
Wow I don't even know what to say anymore... Right when I read that Frank is going to Armenia all other thoughts in my head got erased and I don't know what to say any more. That is so cool! I'm really excited for him. I've heard Armenian before... It's nuts. I don't understand at all, and the alphabet looks like a whole bunch of h's turned upside down and backwards and stretched to different lengths. I do like the sound of it though. I've also met a few Armenians, and all the Armenians that I've met have been way nice so that's a good sign. One thing I would suggest for Frank is that he starts learning the alphabet and the sounds that the letters make and some vocabulary, it will make the MTC a lot less stressful. I'm really happy that I knew the alphabet and some grammar before I got to the MTC it was really nice. That's also way cool that Robbie was called as the second councilor in the Deacon's quorum. Everyone is just doing so well it makes me so happy. Except for Dad's shoulder... I hope that gets better soon.
This week was a lot of fun! We worked really hard, and taught some really cool people. We had a huge miracle with a less active member this week. Missionaries haven't met with her for a really long time, but we were able to start meeting with her a few weeks ago. This week we had a good lesson about the Gospel and how it blesses us. She said she felt the spirit way strong, and we were able to set up a lesson with her non-member husband this upcoming week because she wants him to be baptized so they can be sealed together as a family. It was really cool to see that when she felt the spirit it brought back all the great feelings that she's felt in the church before. She knows the Gospel is true and when she felt the spirit all of her desire came back. Missionary work is so awesome! I love it so much. I would never trade these experiences that I'm having for anything.
Thank you so much for all of the support and keeping me in your prayers. It means a lot to me and I know that it really helps a lot. I hope that you all have a great week. Keep me updated about how the mission prep is going, and tell me some cool facts that you find out about Armenia I'm way interested!
-Elder Pack
Wow I don't even know what to say anymore... Right when I read that Frank is going to Armenia all other thoughts in my head got erased and I don't know what to say any more. That is so cool! I'm really excited for him. I've heard Armenian before... It's nuts. I don't understand at all, and the alphabet looks like a whole bunch of h's turned upside down and backwards and stretched to different lengths. I do like the sound of it though. I've also met a few Armenians, and all the Armenians that I've met have been way nice so that's a good sign. One thing I would suggest for Frank is that he starts learning the alphabet and the sounds that the letters make and some vocabulary, it will make the MTC a lot less stressful. I'm really happy that I knew the alphabet and some grammar before I got to the MTC it was really nice. That's also way cool that Robbie was called as the second councilor in the Deacon's quorum. Everyone is just doing so well it makes me so happy. Except for Dad's shoulder... I hope that gets better soon.
This week was a lot of fun! We worked really hard, and taught some really cool people. We had a huge miracle with a less active member this week. Missionaries haven't met with her for a really long time, but we were able to start meeting with her a few weeks ago. This week we had a good lesson about the Gospel and how it blesses us. She said she felt the spirit way strong, and we were able to set up a lesson with her non-member husband this upcoming week because she wants him to be baptized so they can be sealed together as a family. It was really cool to see that when she felt the spirit it brought back all the great feelings that she's felt in the church before. She knows the Gospel is true and when she felt the spirit all of her desire came back. Missionary work is so awesome! I love it so much. I would never trade these experiences that I'm having for anything.
Thank you so much for all of the support and keeping me in your prayers. It means a lot to me and I know that it really helps a lot. I hope that you all have a great week. Keep me updated about how the mission prep is going, and tell me some cool facts that you find out about Armenia I'm way interested!
-Elder Pack
Monday, October 10, 2011
October 10, 2011
Dear Family,
Wow I'm super pumped now!!! I'm way super excited for Frank to get his call! The mission really is the best two years. Maybe you shouldn't have told me because now I'll be way super impatient waiting for next week when I can hear where he's going. This will probably be a long week... I'm glad that everyone is having such a good time at home. I didn't know you had a wakeboarding mishap last year dad. I hope that the surgery goes well. Will you be out for a while? I'll keep you in my prayers. What exactly is wrong with your shoulder?
This week was a great week in the life of Elder Pack. I'm having a ton of fun with Elder LaCroix and Elder Thomas. It's so much fun to just lose yourself, so many incredible things can happen. We've been working really hard to reach our goals, and there’s been a lot of fruits coming from it. We've been teaching more lessons and finding a lot more people so lessons will continue to go up. It's kind of weird having it be fall again and remember last fall when I was with Elder Reeves. I've definitely come a long ways since then. We had no idea what we were doing and we were barely teaching anyone haha. Now I'm with another very experienced missionary (Elder Thomas) and a fire ball (Elder LaCroix) so a lot of amazing things are happening. It just seems like people's hearts are being opened. I'll share one miracle with you that happened this last week that is sticking out to me right now. A few days ago after we had just got done teaching a bunch of lessons and watching conference we had like 30 minutes to go find someone to teach so we just walked a couple blocks and started knocking. The very first door we knocked the man that answered let us right in. It was kind of funny cause when we were talking to him he was way curious how many people had let us in that day, and we were just like "everyone because this is the very first door that we've knocked all day". That really caught his attention, and we were able to testify that we are here called of God as his missionaries. We had a great lesson with him. He's really excited to read the Book of Mormon. We're going to pass him to Latvian speaking missionaries this week because he speaks Latvian better, but it was an awesome miracle. The Lord's hands are defiantly in this work.
Thank you so much for being awesome. I love hearing from you every week. I hope that my emails are kind of interesting for you to read also, and that I don't bore you too much. I hope that you have a great week. And I'm way excited to hear from you next week.
-Elder Pack
Wow I'm super pumped now!!! I'm way super excited for Frank to get his call! The mission really is the best two years. Maybe you shouldn't have told me because now I'll be way super impatient waiting for next week when I can hear where he's going. This will probably be a long week... I'm glad that everyone is having such a good time at home. I didn't know you had a wakeboarding mishap last year dad. I hope that the surgery goes well. Will you be out for a while? I'll keep you in my prayers. What exactly is wrong with your shoulder?
This week was a great week in the life of Elder Pack. I'm having a ton of fun with Elder LaCroix and Elder Thomas. It's so much fun to just lose yourself, so many incredible things can happen. We've been working really hard to reach our goals, and there’s been a lot of fruits coming from it. We've been teaching more lessons and finding a lot more people so lessons will continue to go up. It's kind of weird having it be fall again and remember last fall when I was with Elder Reeves. I've definitely come a long ways since then. We had no idea what we were doing and we were barely teaching anyone haha. Now I'm with another very experienced missionary (Elder Thomas) and a fire ball (Elder LaCroix) so a lot of amazing things are happening. It just seems like people's hearts are being opened. I'll share one miracle with you that happened this last week that is sticking out to me right now. A few days ago after we had just got done teaching a bunch of lessons and watching conference we had like 30 minutes to go find someone to teach so we just walked a couple blocks and started knocking. The very first door we knocked the man that answered let us right in. It was kind of funny cause when we were talking to him he was way curious how many people had let us in that day, and we were just like "everyone because this is the very first door that we've knocked all day". That really caught his attention, and we were able to testify that we are here called of God as his missionaries. We had a great lesson with him. He's really excited to read the Book of Mormon. We're going to pass him to Latvian speaking missionaries this week because he speaks Latvian better, but it was an awesome miracle. The Lord's hands are defiantly in this work.
Thank you so much for being awesome. I love hearing from you every week. I hope that my emails are kind of interesting for you to read also, and that I don't bore you too much. I hope that you have a great week. And I'm way excited to hear from you next week.
-Elder Pack
Monday, October 3, 2011
October 3, 2011
Dear Family,
Wow I was really worried when I read the heading of your email, but then it made me laugh when it was about football. It is too bad that the Aggies aren't doing too hot, but I bet everything will be fine. Elder Manning is getting home this coming winter, and he'll lead the aggies to great things. I'm happy to hear that conference was so good, but I guess that's not really a surprise, it's always great! I'm really excited to watch it this upcoming week. We just watch a session a day throughout the week with our districts. Conference on a mission is really really cool, I feel like I get so much more from it than I ever have in my life.
This week was a really great week. Elders Thomas, LaCroix, and I had a great week. Yes there are three of us. It is a little bit crazy, I feel kind of like I'm in a gang. I just walk around and when people are like "no I don't want to talk" Elder Thomas and LaCroix come out and are like "are you sure that's what you wanted to say?"... No I'm just kidding, we don't quite do that haha. It's just a lot of fun all the time though. Someone always has something fun to say, and when we talk about investigators we're basically in a council so we can get a lot of good ideas. Elder LaCroix brought the miracles with him though. We taught a lot of lessons this last week it was a lot of fun. We worked really really hard. We also had a really really cool miracle that I wanted to tell you about. A few weeks ago Elder Thomas and I went to stop by some people that said that the missionaries could come back. When we stopped by one guy it turned that he had moved away and a mom and her little family had moved in. We asked if maybe she would be interested to hear more and she said that she was. It didn't work out to teach her for the last little while, but the other night we stopped by and she let us in. We had a really good lesson about families and how the Gospel will bless her family. We invited her to be baptized to receive these blessings and she accepted, so we set up a lesson for the following day. When we went back the next day to teach her we found out that she had read half of the Book of Mormon the night before. She liked it so much she just stayed up all night reading. She's already gained a good testimony of the Gospel. We're very excited to work with her for the next while. I love missionary work.
Thanks for the email this week. It's always nice to hear from you. I hope that you have a great week, and I'm way excited to hear from you. As for what I need I think I'm pretty good. For Christmas I really liked last year how you sent me General Conference on cd. I'd really like that again, that's a suggestion I'd have. And I'd really like a copy of Josh Groban's Christmas cd maybe. That would be great! Thanks!
-Elder Pack
Wow I was really worried when I read the heading of your email, but then it made me laugh when it was about football. It is too bad that the Aggies aren't doing too hot, but I bet everything will be fine. Elder Manning is getting home this coming winter, and he'll lead the aggies to great things. I'm happy to hear that conference was so good, but I guess that's not really a surprise, it's always great! I'm really excited to watch it this upcoming week. We just watch a session a day throughout the week with our districts. Conference on a mission is really really cool, I feel like I get so much more from it than I ever have in my life.
This week was a really great week. Elders Thomas, LaCroix, and I had a great week. Yes there are three of us. It is a little bit crazy, I feel kind of like I'm in a gang. I just walk around and when people are like "no I don't want to talk" Elder Thomas and LaCroix come out and are like "are you sure that's what you wanted to say?"... No I'm just kidding, we don't quite do that haha. It's just a lot of fun all the time though. Someone always has something fun to say, and when we talk about investigators we're basically in a council so we can get a lot of good ideas. Elder LaCroix brought the miracles with him though. We taught a lot of lessons this last week it was a lot of fun. We worked really really hard. We also had a really really cool miracle that I wanted to tell you about. A few weeks ago Elder Thomas and I went to stop by some people that said that the missionaries could come back. When we stopped by one guy it turned that he had moved away and a mom and her little family had moved in. We asked if maybe she would be interested to hear more and she said that she was. It didn't work out to teach her for the last little while, but the other night we stopped by and she let us in. We had a really good lesson about families and how the Gospel will bless her family. We invited her to be baptized to receive these blessings and she accepted, so we set up a lesson for the following day. When we went back the next day to teach her we found out that she had read half of the Book of Mormon the night before. She liked it so much she just stayed up all night reading. She's already gained a good testimony of the Gospel. We're very excited to work with her for the next while. I love missionary work.
Thanks for the email this week. It's always nice to hear from you. I hope that you have a great week, and I'm way excited to hear from you. As for what I need I think I'm pretty good. For Christmas I really liked last year how you sent me General Conference on cd. I'd really like that again, that's a suggestion I'd have. And I'd really like a copy of Josh Groban's Christmas cd maybe. That would be great! Thanks!
-Elder Pack
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