Dear Family,
That is was too bad that you have no snow at home. We just got a bunch of snow this last week and it makes me really happy. Winter has finally come just in time for spring haha. Its still pretty warm here, only like 27 degrees F. I'm sorry that every one has been getting sick lately, my companion has been getting a little sick lately as well. Its really cool that Frank is going to be speaking in church this upcoming Sunday, you will need to tell me how it goes. What is his topic? I think Robbie will totally get his new year goal, he has always been really good at video games I think that he can beat them all in a year. That does sound a little like something that I would have done as well. I actually think I might set that as one of my goals for when I get back jk.
This week in Riga was a ton of fun. Elder Stucki and I have been having a blast together, he makes me laugh aproximately five thousand times every day he is hilarious. We've been working really hard to find new people to teach and help those that we are meeting with to progress. I really feel like we've been super blessed lately because we have been working so hard. ***** is doing super well, and it makes me really happy. She will have her baptismal interview this week and her baptism will be next saturday!!! We've been meeting a lot with members lately and she has been progressing really fast because of it. This last week we went over to one of the senior couples apartments this week and ate dinner with ***** and on of the members. It went really well, we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, its probably my favorite of the missionary lessons to teach. There was also a lady who passed her baptismal interview this last week who is being taught by the sister missionaries. She is really cool her name is *******. It was actually a really cool miracle the day that she was found. The sisters had been struggling the last few weeks trying to find someone to teach, and they were kind of getting a little down. So we were all really praying for them so that they would be able to find someone that they could teach, so continuing on with the story I was preparing for zone leaders council a couple weeks ago, and I was stuck in the office all day trying to make an outline of the English program that Elder Froelich and I made, because President Boswell wanted to get outlines to all of the zone leaders so that we could use them accross the mission. I was sad because we didn't really have any time to work all day, but when we were on a bus on our way from the office I started talking to one of the nicest ladies ever that I noticed reading my tag. I got her number and found out where she lived (which turned out to be in the sisters area, I was really happy because we had really been praying for the sisters to have some success). When I gave the number to the sisters I was just like you better call this lady she is totally going to get baptized. Since that day she has been to church three times and she is getting baptized next Saturday. The Lord really does answer prayers, and like I have said a lot of time he always is putting people in our path that are ready for the Gospel. In her baptismal interview ******** said that she didn't get on the bus that she wanted to, for some reason she felt like she needed to get on the next one and when she got on the next one there we were. This week we also did something really fun. Elder Waddoups and I organized a zone seminar and took all the missionaries in our zone to Daugavpils to do some training. It was way fun, and very very uplifting. It was really fun to get together as a zone and talk about the things that we can work on, and set goals and make plans on how we can accomplish all those things. As far as cool things that i've been studying lately: I've been really enjoying studying some parts of the New Testament. I've been working a lot lately on how to ask better thinking and soul searching questions, so I've been studying the questions of Christ a lot because he was the master of using questions in teaching. It is really cool to look at a situation and pull apart his questions and see why theyre so good. He always asks the perfect question to prompt soul searching and to help people understand his teachings. I would suggest looking at some of them, it makes for some really uplifting studies and at least for me it really helps me see how I can be a better teacher by using better questions. For example even when he was a little kid he used amazing questions. While he was sitting in the temple teaching the scholars and doctors and his mom walks in and says, where have you been? don't you know we've been looking for you for the last 3 days? Why would you put us through this? Then Christ answered, Didn't you know that I've been about my Fathers business? (words changed cause I don't remember them word for word). At the moment they didn't understand the lesson that he tried to teach him, but we see in the next verse we see that that question sunk deep into marys heart and it caused her to ponder over it for a long time after the incidence. I want to be able to ask questions that cause people to think after I'm even gone.
Well now that I've told you basically every detail of my life, I hope that you have a great week. I'm relly grateful for all the support that you give me, and I'm really gratefull for the fact that youre willing to listen to all the stories that I have to tell. I hope that you have a great week and I'm excited to hear from you next week.
by the way I did find a suit and I really like it a lot thanks for the money!
-Elder Pack
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
January 9, 2012
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
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
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
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
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
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
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