Hello Family!

Well, just to update on the video last week… [See last week's email Fun Stuff about having their computer editing program crash while creating a training video. ] …It was lost and we tried until the night to recover it, however no luck. Oh well, we did all we could!

Yesterday was nice because of Margarita’s baptism she is a sweet, dear hearted lady who reminds me of mom! It was Elder Fernandez’s first baptism and he preformed the ordinance perfect. I also had him confirm Luis who we baptized a few weeks ago… so now he is getting more confidence and experience. I have been trying hard to teach him how to be a leader, accepting responsibility and participating in every aspect of the work.

I spoke in Sacrament meeting about Missionary work, of course, with an emphasis on the importance of members. It went alright; I was about 12 min. into my talk and about 2/3 of the way finished when the bishop said I’d gone over time. So… I guess I’ll be able to use the 20 min. Bishop Abbot is giving me to talk on ‘Obedience to God’s commandments’ just fine. I really can’t believe its coming to an end. I’ve just been working hard to keep finding investigators and trying to help them to overcome their fears, etc. to come to church and prepare them for baptism and teaching my kid how to do the same. We got some good investigators, and with lots of help from the Lord, they’ll soon be converted. Please keep praying for me, my companion and our investigators these next few weeks!

Dad, I’m super excited that they changed the date for the father and sons campout! About a party, you can invite whomever you want, and either Saturday or Sunday would be fine for me. If you want to put some photos on a slide show, that great, but I don’t want to stand and narrate anything.

Emily, you are just looking huge… and just to let you know I’ve gotten real fat the past few months! I’ve been suckin’ my gut in to the pictures J.

Have a great week! I love you!

Elder Packer

…by the way, just kidding, I’m not fat!

Mom, about the money, that should be great. Thank you so much!

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

¡Hola mi querida familia! [Hello my dear family!]

It has been a nutty week. My new companion is Elder Miguel David Fernandez Perez, He’s from Chetumal, Quintana Roo. It’s super far from here! [in the Yucatán Peninsula] This week was a bit of a trial at first since my companion is a greeny, but he is really humble and not afraid of working + he has learned really fast. The Lord couldn’t have blessed me with a greater companion! Funny story: I talked him into waxing his unibrow today… tell you all about it later. Oh, yea another funny story last week with Elder Padget: we were sharing the [story of the] first vision, when all four of the legs of the chair our investigator was sitting on flew out from under her. It’s been said that all sorts of distractions will always come up in the first vision, but this was a funny first.

I was reviewing my notes on General Conference again and noticing how a big part of the theme was doing our duty to God.

This week we had a family of 9, 6 in baptismal age who were going to get baptized, however the father decided that he doesn’t want to get married so that was a hard blow! However we had an interesting fast and testimony meeting… because we share the ward with the assistants and it was General Conference last week we had 12 confirmations, then 2 baby blessings, one of which was the child of one of the families that was confirmed. So in the end there were only 4 or 5 very brief testimonies shared before the service ended. Plus there are a few other pending confirmations and if they would have come like planned, I’m sure that it would have only been a confirmations and baby blessings meeting. I hope our investigators who came for the first time don’t get weirded out by their first experience!

Well, I’ve got to run!

I love you all so much! Take care and make the best decisions this week!

-Elder Packer

P.S. ¡¡¡¡Attached is the new mission photo!!!!

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

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

It was great to be able to talk with all of you! It was an experience that has enlarged my joy and renewed my determination to do my best. I truly feel blessed to have such an amazing family!

This has been an unforgettable week! I have had several special experiences that have helped me to remember all of the great blessings that have come because the Savior and the decisions I have made to follow Him. One of them was being able to spend the evening with President Bulloch and his family; another, which I feel is the greatest, was being able to share the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with many willing hearts that have been softened to His good word. This week we worked hard and were blessed to find and teach many who have been prepared to receive the Lord into their lives. It has helped me to remember how the Lord has snatched me from my lost and suffering state and lead me to the still waters, and how we have the power to do the same for others. Could I have received greater joy from any other gift? No! I love the Lord and being part of His glorious work!

May the Lord bless us all with more determination and success is my desire and my prayer. I love every one of you so much!

~Elder Packer