Hi Family,

Well, I am beat! I have been spending the whole day with the assistants making a video for their capacitation (training) … tomorrow. And so pressure has robbed my memory after planning the video, then filming, we have gone on to editing… for 6 hours and 40 minutes now! And about 35 mins. ago the editing program froze … and we forgot to save, so we might be starting the editing from scratch. We are now just praying and waiting for some computer guy who is going to come and try and save the file.

Sorry this is probably going to be a very lame letter. The great news is this week Elder Fernandez (my greeny) is going to have his first baptism! He is very excited. Her name is Margarita and she is a nice middle aged woman whom we found contacting a micro bus (which has about 50 passengers). Pretty neat! When we brought her to church she seemed to be struggling to understand what was going on, till Gospel Principles class, where I presented her to Anna, one of our recent converts… it turns out that they knew each other years ago. So Hermana Anna has been accompanying us to our teaching appointments. It has been amazing to see the power and the spirit that this new convert has! I know that working with members is the best way to do the Lord’s work. I hope that you are all striving to have real missionary experiences!

…Well, the stress is still here, so I’ve got to go!

Love you all!

-Elder Packer

Hello my lovely family!

It has been another glorious week in the work of the Lord, in the which he has blessed us greatly. My companion and I worked diligently and hard the past two weeks, however at the end of last week our overall impression was that we needed to be more humble and rely more on the Lord, so that is what we’ve been striving to do this week. The Lord blessed us greatly this past week in being part of the baptisms of two amazing people, Laura and her daughter Susi. They are wonderful people who have received a true conversion to the Gospel. He also blessed us in being a means by which 14 investigators attended church services yesterday. I feel very grateful! Actual its funny our ride fell through and we had to rent a public transportation van, so everyone could come. I’m sill working to recognize that success in this work comes from the Lord and rely on Him for guidance and strength.

Coming to this area, I’ve just felt blessed and full of energy and excitement to work hard and make the Gospel flourish here like it never has before. My initial excitement is what got me going, however the Lord has been showing me along the way what it is I need to do (change) to keep going. Being humble and relying on Him is part of it, now I have felt what I need to do is work hard to just really truly love the people and desire their salvation. I love the two people who were baptized yesterday and am so happy to see how the Gospel has made them happy! And that is my motive, that was (and is) the motive of Christ and His mission, the great cause of the Gospel.

When we allow pure motives (the well being of others) to motivate us to act (service) and we repeat these actions to the point that they become habits, our deepest desires become converted to that which is pure, righteous and godly. The strength, energy come as needed and God teaches us along the way what more we must do (change). What we love we will seek, and what we seek we will obtain.

I know that Christ lives and that He loves us. May we seek Him and His pure love and may it motivate us to loose ourselves in the service of God’s children even as He has done.

I love you all and pray that God will bless and keep every one of you!

-Elder Packer

¡Hola mi bella familia! [Hello my beautiful family!]

Our area is going well, despite opposition. I feel like our companionship is strong and well. We have been working hard to keep our teaching pool full of investigators, elect investigators.

This week, Marcela is going to be baptized and she is a miracle! Her husband, Fernando, was baptized a year ago and because of it they have been separated for the past year, however we had been teaching her daughter, Fernanda, and she was baptized last week (by her father). During her baptismal preparations her mother was present, even though she wanted nothing to do with the church previously. The spirit has worked with her and a week and a half ago she asked if she too could be baptized. Her husband who has been a faithful and active member since his baptism last year will be preforming the ordinance. This is a hard work, but it makes it all worth it!

I am sad that I will be leaving this area and the people here behind! However I am very excited to have the opportunity to work all day long teaching the Gospel!

I hope you are all doing great and staying warm in all the snow you’ve been getting! I’m sure you haven’t left the house much, but make sure to be safe driving!

All my love!
-Elder Packer

We’ve been having a great week and have been really blessed. It’s been raining a lot (and we’ve been having lots of challenges like I wrote last week), however we’ve been working hard and being obedient to do our part with faith that the Lord would do His, and that’s what’s been happening. I know that difficulties mean blessings are close if we keep our faith.

Today we have a baptism and we have two for next week (one of which will be completing a family) and in the weeks to come we have several families that will be getting baptized. I feel so blessed to share the joy these people have, now that they have embraced the restored gospel. I can see the changes in their faces daily. I pray that we can all continue in our adversities with faith and patience!

I love you all and thank you for your prayers, I need them!

-Elder Packer

I wanted to share the letter I wrote to President Bulloch.

We’ve been having some pretty difficult days where our appointments have all fallen through, and I’m not going to say it wasn’t difficult. Especially so since we’ve been working hard every day these past weeks to become “misioneros de exito” [missionaries of success] and not just working hard and being exactly obedient, but going the second mile, hablando con TODOS [talking with ALL] testifying of the truths of the restored Gospel, exercising at 6:30 am on preparation day, etc.

Yesterday all eight of our lessons fell through, however we contacted in the street, knocked doors, asked for and contacted references, even visited part member families… and at the end of the day—nothing. It was frustrating and I thought maybe we’ll go eat tacos or I’ll go to bed early, I was a little discouraged and ready find a little comfort in something.

After a comment my companion made, I remembered part of the letter I wrote myself: “Trials come that they may prepare you for the blessings or spiritual experiences you are working for. After the blessings come trials, that we may be prepared to receive again greater blessings.” As missionaries, we teach every day that one of our purposes in life is to be tried, to prove to the Lord that we are really His children. Isn’t it the same as missionaries? Now I know it. If we are obedient, working hard and love the people when everything goes well, great! Who doesn’t? However, I believe it’s when everything goes wrong yet we still give our best, that determines if we are truly “misioneros de exito” and representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know that the Lord has great blessing in store for me, blessings that He cannot give if I don’t pass the test. I’m going to do it!

-Elder Packer

Hola Familia,

Well, it’s been another eventful and busy week (just like I like them). Among the many things that have happened are: First, we received 12 new missionaries on Monday and spent the day training them. Tuesday was the big changes [transfers] meeting; all went well with the busses so I was relaxed. I also bought new pillows for all of the missionaries, so they were really happy to receive those.

On Thursday, we moved the assistant’s house to Ixtapaluca (which is really far away) then closed and opened two houses. So I was driving and hauling all day. During this long travel we experienced a miracle as I almost got into a serious car wreck, however I don’t know how, we did not wreck with the car who abruptly stopped in front of us, or flip the van, or hit the bridge, or run over a man selling food in the street… all of which almost happened. I thank you all for your prayers and know that, YES, the Lord is protecting us!

Thursday I completed 20 months in the mission! And that’s helped me realize we need to be wise how we use it. The same day I got a letter I wrote myself on the 16 of July 2008 (18 months to the day). I wrote it in the MTC and my instructor mailed it to me. It’s pretty interesting! And if I can later, I will share some of it with all of you.

The other thing that happened is because of some special changes that need to be made. I received my replacement as Financial Secretary! It’s Elder Cambria from Philadelphia, PA. He’s a really excellent and humorous missionary! So that’s going to be exciting! In 5 weeks I’ll be out in the field full time again!

Well, last and best of all is we have a baptismal service today at 5 pm, His name is Gerardo and he is a miracle conversion… he used to be an Evangelist preacher, and is a very knowledgeable, but sincere and humble follower of Christ. I am grateful to have been able to be part of his conversion!

I love you all and thank you for your love and support! May the Lord continue to bless and protect you!

-Elder Packer