I have a new companion!

Today is another short one because we had changes in the mission and because of this I spent a good long freaking time in a bus sitting waiting for a new companion. Yeah no more Hermana Espíritu. I am gonna miss her tons. But I have a new companion and I can already tell that I am going to love love her! So that is super exciting. Her name is Hermana Camacho. She is from Columbia and she speaks pretty quick, but I think I can keep up hahahaha. Anyway I love you tons and I am still in Cuenca and I am enjoying the beautiful weather. I have a million pictures to send but don´t have my camera to send them. SO.... next week I promise. I love you all and I am so extremely grateful to have gotten to see all of you and speak to you. I pray for you all every day. You mean the world to me. Remember in any moment of time we have an amazing Father in heaven who answers our prayers. He loves you all more than you will ever imagine. 

Miss you all dearly,

Emily

Merry Christmas from Cuenca!

Feliz Navidad!

 

 

 
 

Merry Christmas to us! Our presents for Christmas!

 

We dressed up like the people of Cuenca Ecuador to celebrate Navidad!
And had our Christmas dinner with rice of course! Haven´t gotten your box yet!

Sorry I am not going to write a huge email for everyone this week. Just don't have time with so many emails to send for Christmas.

I have learned that especially latino elders love love love new ties and clothing.

But I can promise you that they are some of the most hard working and humble boys I have ever met. Serving a mission sure has opened my eyes to what some 19 or 20 year old boys are capable of.

Mom and Dad you mean the world to me and I hope with all of my heart that I will be able to Skype you on Christmas. Tell everyone I love them and that I miss them like crazy. I just want to wish you all a Happy Christmas!
Love your hard working missionary,
Emily
aka Hermana Pack



I was CRAVING American food.......

Soooooo I want to start off and apologize. I literally have three minutes to write everyone. We had to buy gifts for our zone today and it took all of our free time!! Ugh. We exchanged names for Navidad and we both got two Elders in our zone and they are gonna look pretty dang good in the new cardigans that we bought them. It amazes me how the starting price of things are somewhat high here and we can usually bring them down a good 10 dollars. It is great. My companion is amazing.

 

 I have one more P day and then I get to talk to you all :) So excited! AAAAANNNNDD the other really great news is my Mission President is amazing and has given us one hour to call! Other missions only get thirty minutes. So that is cool.

 

 Anyway if you see that I charged my account today it is because I was CRAVING American food and I found a restaurant and drug my companion to it. Let me tell you it was pure heaven! Fettuccine alfredo and shrimp and asparagus. Holy crap so good. Happy Christmas to me! haha!

 

We had two baptisms this week. Two children of a mother who was inactive. I love them so much. Such a great Christmas present. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Eat lots of yummy treats and remember what this holiday is really about. The birth of our dear Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Merry Christmas!  A little early:)

 

Emily

God be with you until we meet again!

HI!

I miss you all dearly!  I can´t believe you guys have snow. I was freezing yesterday and it was probably 70 degrees haha! It still rains a lot though.





I made brownies in our toaster oven because I was craving something from home! hahaha They were amazing! :)

 




Mom, I am sorry for taking so much money out. We ran out super quick because I had to buy medicine for my companion and she also needed new shoes. Her parents were supposed to send her money but it hasn't arrived yet so I pitched in until it gets here. Sorry.

Hermana Espíritu and her favorite drink. Pony malta. So nasty.
 It is literally like drinking molasses. But she loves it.

Also speaking of money I sure hope the box you send didn´t weigh more than 9 pounds. Because if it is more they said they won´t deliver it to Cuenca from the mission home...... Yikes. So I sure hope it wasn´t too much.

 

 

This dog followed us for like 10 blocks hahahaha
She was so cute! There are a ton of dogs here. It is crazy.

Anyway I want to tell you a little about this week. We were supposed to have a baptism this past Saturday but he freaked out and hopped on a bus to Guayaquil. I don´t think I could have been any more sad. We both walked out from talking with his Uncle and cried. Nothing is more devastating than those who don´t accept the gospel after we teach everything. SO heartbreaking. But this week we have 2 baptisms of two kids whose mom is a member but has been inactive for the past 4 years. I am so excited. I love them so much!!

 

Anyway  I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Sorry for all the typos I have to type quick for time.
Love you more than anything and God be with you until we meet again!
 

Hermana Pack

15 Ways to Survive a Mission to Ecuador

15 Ways to Survive a Mission to Ecuador

1.       Prayer, because there are definitely days that I feel like I don’t understand anyone speaking Spanish. But what is awesome is God speaks all languages!

2.       Study time, every morning I have 1 hour of personal study, 1 hour of companionship study and 1 hour of language study. These 3 hours are precious to me. I learn so much in this time every day!

3.       No fear! I am always afraid of saying the wrong words, but honestly, the only way to survive is by having no fear with the language, but often I don’t make any sense to people.

4.       LOVE rice. I eat more rice here than I have in my entire life, but I have grown to absolutely love it! They don’t have soy sauce so I have to eat it plain!

5.       Don’t ask! I have learned it is a ton easier to eat food if you don’t know what you are eating. This week I ate the stomach of a cow and if no one had told me what it was I probably would have enjoyed it more. If you’re wondering what it tasted like, it is like chicken skin. Haha!

6.       Hold on! Buses here are crazy! If you don’t hold onto something you may end up on the floor or smashed into another person. Haha! It may have happened to me once or twice.

7.       Get used to staring. Believe me, you will be stared at. Something about having light colored hair and white skin makes everyone and their dog stare.

8.       Learn how to wash your clothes. You wash everything by hand. Believe me washing your clothes in ice water is not enjoyable…But you will learn to wash them quick!

9.       Learn to laugh at yourself. I laugh at myself more than ever and it is necessary. I would be crazy in my head if I didn’t laugh. Life in general is just crazy here.

10.   Pretend. All I can say is smile and nod because a good 85% of the time I have NO idea what is going on or what we are doing or why we are doing it! Fake it till you make it!

11.   Ketchup and Mayo. I’ve never in my life had a desire to put ketchup or mayonnaise on anything but I’ve had to eat it on so many things I am actually starting to like it.

12.   Carry your own toilet paper. I use a ton of public restrooms, but I can promise you that none of them have toilet paper. Hence the reason I carry it with me at all times!

13.   Nobody can sing. And when I say nobody, I really mean NOBODY! It breaks my heart. You know how much I love music. Sometimes all I can do is laugh.

14.   Don’t worry about time. This has probably been one of the most frustrating things. I can’t stand to be late but the culture here is to be late to EVERYTHING!!

15.   Charity. Charity is the pure love of Christ and Christ loved everyone and everything. When you have divine love for others, everything else just seems to fall into place. It really is amazing to me that the more we try to be like Christ, the more blessings we receive.

 

Hope

Hola everyone!

First off I am so jealous that all of you got to have Thanksgiving! I love you all and I hope you had a great holiday! I honestly had forgotten it was Thanksgiving. We had a district meeting and another gringo girl came up to me and shouted Happy Thanksgiving! And I realized I had no idea it was even Thanksgiving. haha sad.

Wow. Anyway this week has been great. I have really felt the Lord's love this week. If there is one word to describe this week it is hope. I think I have really realized the meaning of hope. Hope comes with faith. You can say that you have faith in something, but do you also have the hope that the Lord will make it happen. I have realized this is so important in our lives. God has given us His gospel. We have a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. First, is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, repentance of all of our sins. Third, is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. With the proper authority. Fourth, is receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and the fifth is enduring to the end. Enduring to the end is where hope comes in. While we follow every commandment of God we have to have hope in the Lord that we may one day be able to return to him and live in his glory. How amazing this is to me. I am so grateful for the Lord. I know that I have hope and faith in every one of my investigators and that if I didn´t have this hope they wouldn´t progress. God is so good and I am so grateful to be a part of this church. I know without a doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the only true church of God and we cannot return to him without following the teachings of His gospel.

I can promise you that what I am doing right now is far better than any other thing I could be doing with my life. It is also the most challenging. Emotionally it is so much to handle. Nobody told me about all of the heart break in the mission field. My heart breaks on average once a week. I had no idea how real Satan is. I also know that there is no such thing as coincidence. Everything is inspired by our Heavenly Father. I know that I am here with Hermana Espiritu in Cuenca in the Guayaquil South Mission by inspiration. Wow! what a great God we have.

 

 Anyway I gotta go now, but I love you more than anything and I sure hope you have a great week! I pray for you guys every day and I miss you tons and wish you an amazing week!! 

 

Con mucho amor!
Hermana Pack

90 Days without peanut butter!!

Hola! (November 18)

After today I am officially done with my second transfer! What the heck? Where is all the time going? Seriously goes by so quick. We don`t know if either of us are getting transferred. But we assume that Hermana Espìritu is getting transferred because she has been here for 5 months already. I sure hope it isn´t me because I want to have Christmas here!! But I don`t know!

Speaking of Christmas, I have no idea what I want. Peanut butter. The peanut butter is so expensive here and if you have cheap stuff, it isn't any good. Anything else I am not really sure.... Uh colored pens?? Hahaha I don`t really need anything. I have pretty much everything. If I think of something I will let you know. But if you want it to get here by Christmas you should send it sometime soon haha.

Continued.... (November 25)

Hola again!

Last weeks baptism of Alexis Vaca

Today was crazy we had to help the other girls pack up their stuff this morning because they are headed off to Guayaquil for a special musical number. The new sister, Hermana Murry, brought her violin and is playing it for something this Navidad.

Me, Hermana Espiritu,Hermana Murry, and Hermana Campbell



Anyway because of this I have a total of 20 minutes to write. I am so sorry that the rest of my last email didn´t send. It actually makes me so mad that not all of it sent. Because I spent nearly all of my time typing it. But I will hand write it next week and send it. We had a baptism this week of my most favorite person in the world Xavier.

Xavier's baptism day

He had three boys and lives with his wife brother and nephew. He is the most inspirational person. I am sorry I can´t write more. But I would love to say that I am doing well. I still have Hermana Espiritu and I am working super hard. Mom it is crazy to me that I have been out 90 days!! But I miss you all terribly and I wish you all the best week.

 

LOTS OF LOVE,

Hermana Pack

Go, and do thou likewise.

Hola!

 

Can I just say I have the best looking siblings in the world. Seriously! All of those pictures you sent me are awesome!! You all look so good!! OH! and mom I absolutely love love love my mission plaque.

Emily's mission plaque hanging on the wall at church

I cannot wait to see it in person haha. I cannot believe you all watched the district!! I had to watch that before my mission as a requirement! I also watch a lot of the district videos for my 12 weeks of training in the mission!

Birthday party for our Zone leader

OH and I got your package!!!! I LOVED IT!!! Finally! haha. Best Halloween gift ever. My district was so jealous. I shared all of the licorice with them. I found out that the average Latino does not like licorice haha. But snickers. Man I had to fight everyone off for them haha. I loved all of your letters. I am sure you don´t even remember writing them because it was over a month ago but I loved them.

Yeah! My package and Halloween candy!!

This week has been crazy... Mom I got my very first Ecuadorian sunburn. and let me just tell you it hurt. I haven´t needed sunscreen until this week. It has been so rainy but the rainy season is finally over!! And there is plenty of sun to go around. I hadn´t realized how burned I was until I lifted up my sleeve and holy crap it is was bad. I could only shower in cold water at the beginning but today I took my first warm one in three days haha. But don´t worry I am wearing sunscreen now. The members that we run into during the day remind me all day haha. But overall it hasn´t been terrible.

So I have two really quick stories. The first is about an investigator named Patricio and his family. We found his wife and taught her a quick lesson about the Sabbath and how we are to keep it holy and attend church. Then her husband came out and I was scared. He did not look happy. In fact he wasn´t. He did not want to have our message. So we quickly finished and decided to come back at another time. Anyway, that night Hermana Espíritu felt that we should visit them again. I was scared to death. Someone let us into their apartment building and showed us their apartment door. I can honestly say I hadn´t prayed for my safety so hard in my entire life. And let me tell you God answered my prayer. He was an entirely different person. Almost as if he changed personalities. But we taught a quick lesson and he came to church with us on Sunday so that was awesome. God sure answered our prayers. He sure works in mysterious ways!

 

The second story is related to Luke 10:30-37. The story of the Good Samaritan. We were on our way to visit an inactive member of the ward and we passed a woman who was sitting in a tire off the side of the road. This was not unusual because people always do crazy stuff here haha. But She had her hand extended to me and said "ayudame" over and over again. Which means help me. We were in a hurry and had a lot of things to get to so we just kept on walking. But all of the sudden I felt completely overcome with the thought that Christ didn´t have an agenda and if I am truly a representative of Christ then I don´t have an agenda either. I stopped my companion and we went back to help the woman. She reeked of alcohol and she was soaking wet in her own urine. It was an adventure to find a taxi driver that was willing to drive her and us to her home. But we managed to make it happen with a good amount of money. There was a lot of time and effort spend but we got her home. This morning I read the story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible and verses 36 and 37 stuck out to me. "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him, Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." We all are asked to go and do likewise. Christ is the ultimate example. We can learn so much from him. I am so grateful to know that I have a Savior who suffered for me and who knows me personally. Wow, God is so good.

I love you all and I am so grateful for your support. I would love to give you all a big hug. But I am happy to be here in Ecuador serving.

Mucho mucho mucho amor,

Hermana Pack

 

 

Hola! Como esta?

 

Danielle and Ben (UHS Alice in Wonderland performance)

Hola!!

The play looked great!! I am so sad that I missed it! All of your costumes looked so so so great! Danielle your hair was SWEET! I wish I had gotten to wear a wig during one of the plays!

Ben I am sure you were a little rock star on the stage. Dad said that your part was funny I am sure you both were awesome!

Neil and Mike!! You guys had sweet costumes!! I am totally jealous that you got to celebrate Halloween. They celebrate Halloween here but don´t go trick or treating. I saw a total of one Halloween costume. It totally made me sad. You guys got lucky with all of that candy!!! Holy crap!! Jealous!! The chocolate here isn´t as good as the stuff at home. But the stuff they had in Mexico was heaven. In fact I have been pretty sick the this last month (mom don´t worry the mission president is a doctor and knows what he is doing.) But I am not allowed to eat anything with caffeine in it including chocolate wahhhh!!! I miss it haha.

Chocolate covered bananas! Yummy!

 

Dad, I don´t think the Towncar would make it to Ecuador. Too many hills to Cuenca. The brakes would probably catch fire hahaha!! But really I am up in the sky. Sometimes clouds will pass through the town. So basically I am in the sky and in the clouds. Oh and no we don´t observe daylight savings. So now we aren´t in the same time zone sad!!

Mom, I withdrew some cash from my account. We literally ran out of money today and had a total of 4 cents and needed 50 cents to get to the stake center for a meeting. It was a rough day. But it is great because God sure does know how to provide. We only had eggs for the week, but somehow people knew our need and we were given a ton. God is just so good. It reminded me of Matthew 6:25-34, God will provide for those who are righteous!! I can buy pretty much anything I need here. I am so lucky to have a Latino companion though because she knows when a person is cheating us out of our money and she calls them out on it. Especially taxis. It´s like they see a white girl and think oh okay charge her two dollars more than I would any other person. Yeah. uh no. But I can get anything I need. Also, if I don´t know what a food is, my companion makes the meals and is teaching me how to make food with things that I have no clue what they are. haha! But it is all good.

 

I wish I had a picture of my legs. I look like I broke out in hives because of the fleas that we have in our apartment. YUCK. But I think we are going to bomb our house with a flea bomb to get rid of them.

 

 This week was crazy hard to be a missionary in Cuenca because it was the weekend of the fiestas of Cuenca and let me tell you the crazies were out. Holy cow. I saw so many people passed out on the ground. Crazy Crazy Crazy. But it sure was hard being a missionary in my area because everyone was only there for the fiesta and definitely not interested in going to church with us this Sunday. In fact it was hard getting some of the recent converts to come. Ugh. But we did have three baptisms. Luis and his twins. They are so great! Now we just have to work on his wife.:)

 

Anyway, I love you all and GOD IS SO SO SO GOOD. The people are amazing here and I am beyond happy.

 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Pack

VIVA Ecuador!!!

Hola!!



A whole pig and two guinea pigs for sale

 


A beautiful rainbow just before a huge rainstorm



 

Wow sounds like you all had a super crazy week!! I know that I sure did as well. I feel like this week just flew by! Mom I absolutely loved all of the pictures!! You sent so many! I loved it! I also loved the videos! Neil you are a rock star on the piano! I showed my companion the video of you playing the piano and she was amazed!! In Ecuador and Peru, where Hermana Espíritu is from piano's are way too expensive and too big for the houses here. The Zhizhpon family that I have been teaching while being here is Cuenca doesn't have a room in their house that could fit a piano. One room has one bunk bed in it and can't fit anything else. You can't even close the door to their room. They just took the door right off the hinges. It is crazy. So be grateful that you have the opportunity to play the piano! In fact we don't even have a piano in our church building. They sing their hymns for sacrament meeting along to a CD of a flute playing the hymn. haha crazy! But this Sunday I lead the music for sacrament, it reminded me of my time leading the music in the 3rd ward.

I am so jealous that you all got to carve pumpkins! It doesn't even feel like October here. I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by here! I don't believe it is almost November. It is going to be weird not celebrating Thanksgiving. You better feed those missionaries good for me! The other day I was having lunch at the Stake president's home and his wife asked me to describe what "viernes negro" was like and it took me forever to realize what she was talking about haha! But she was talking about Black Friday and all I could do was laugh because to the people here it must seem insane. But I love watching people's expressions when I explain things that happen in the United States. haha!

Danielle, you looked so so so so pretty for homecoming! I wish I could have been there. Your dress was so pretty! Purple is a good color for you! I hope Sam was a good date! Mom also told me about All State! I am so proud that you got called back! That is a huge accomplishment in itself. Wow! I really hated All State auditions. But you learn a ton and I am sure you have improved a ton! Just remember it is just one judges opinion and it means nothing.

This week has been so crazy busy! Holy cow I can't even begin to explain how busy I have been. Pretty much everyone has been not following through on their commitments. It just breaks my heart. I hadn't realized one of the hardest parts of being a missionary was the heart ache for those whom you come to love and teach and they choose not to follow Christ in their lives. It just kills me. I know last week I mentioned Darío and Claudia were getting baptized this week well Darío decided that he wasn't ready. He just can't get past the idea that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. He refuses to pray and gain a testimony for himself of it. It just breaks my heart! But Claudia was baptized this Saturday and it was so amazing. Man I just love her so much. It is only her and her sister Luz in the gospel and she is just going to be an amazing member.

 

We have been teaching the Zhizhpon family for the past couple weeks and the two oldest boys in the family moved their baptism up to this past Saturday with Claudia as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Adrés is 14 and Luis Eduado is 11. They are just too great. I love their family. Their Dad is Luis and their mom is Rossío. They have twin boys Juan Pablo and Paul and one little sister Monica. Teaching at their house is crazy. The twins are bouncing off the wall the entire time haha! But they are all so sweet. Rossío refuses to attend church because she has her own religion and it just kills me. I think with time she will warm up to it. Luis and the twins are getting baptized this next Saturday. The twins are both 8. I am so excited for them all to be baptized. Luis is the must kind and humble person I have ever met. They own a little bread shop in their house and it is just so cute. That is how we found them. We bought bread and milk from them late one night.

 

 

The only way you can prepare to serve a mission is to know the word of God! I have a chapter in the Book of Mormon for you to use! In fact I have used this a lot with Claudia this week. 2 Nephi 32. Especially in verse three it says that angels speak by the power of the holy ghost and speak the words of Christ. The only way that the Holy Ghost can guide you to know what to say is if you know the words of Christ first.

I have so much more I want to say but this week I want you all to read page 120 in Preach my Gospel about Humility. This pretty much sums up my week. Christ was the ultimate example of Humility and we are so lucky to have him. Read Matthew 26:39 and use this example in your own life. I love you all more than anything in the world and I sure hope you are all doing well. Oh and Happy Halloween!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Pack

Yikes! This week I ate Cuy. aka guinea pig.

View of Cuenca

Hola,

I cannot even begin to explain how good it feels to email you all. I miss you all so dearly and I cannot wait to see you again.
Spanish is beyond hard. Holy cow this week has been crazy hard and I feel like I should be further along in Spanish than I am but I am not. It is hard not to get caught up in the struggle of myself and remember that I can do anything through the strength of Jesus Christ. Wow are we lucky to have a God and Savior who understands all.

This week I ate Cuy. aka guinea pig hahahaha

wow what a good time. I´ll send pictures. They literally take the animal and shove a huge pole through it and roast it hahaha

Yummy Cuy!

 

Too great! it was good but it still had some hair on it and teeth and everything. Wow yikes. But it was good, actually.

This week we have two baptisms. I love both of them so dearly wow they really are such great people. 

This past week I spoke in church on the talk called "Catch the Wave" and you can find in on www.lds.org . It was actually a pretty good talk. I advise you all to read it! It is really important and powerful. But man was I nervous to speak. My ward is kinda small but we had a lot of investigators there. I was nervous but I did well and I had the spirit on my side.

If there is one thing I have learned on my mission it is that member missionary work is crucial! Nothing counts unless a member is there and it is so hard to get a member there! UGH. All of you, help your missionaries out!!!

Anyway God is so good and I love all your emails. I have hot water in my shower now. Well actually it is luke warm haha but it is a million times better than ice cold and I thank God for it every day! I hope you all are grateful for you warm showers haha.

I don´t have many pictures this time, but I will send some. I love my family so much and your influence in my life has changed me for the better thank you!!

MUCHO AMOR!!
Hermana Pack

 

HOLA FROM ECUADOR!!

HOLA FROM ECUADOR!! 

The view out our front window

This place is amazing and overwhelming all at the same time. I love my companion more than the world. She has more humility than I have ever had in my entire body. She is also soooo persistent with the investigators sometimes I cannot help but laugh. She kills me. 





My companion and I



We eat rice and beans every day for lunch. EVERY DAY. Just in case you were wondering haha. But I can make a pretty mean omelet in the morning too. In the house we live in there are two other sisters and we literally live with the law of consecration. We share absolutely everything. It actually is really nice. Luckily one of the other sisters is from the US and speaks English. She has been able to show me how to get everything to work.

My favorite food is grown here
in Ecuador, bananas!

 

But I would like you all to thank God right now that you have warm water in your homes. I am dying because we have no hot water. I hate showering. It is the coldest experience of my life. The first time I didn't even wash all the soap out because I didn't want to get my back wet. SO COLD. You also may be wondering about how my laundry gets done, well I wash it by hand of course haha. It is a great time. Life here is so good. I just love it. I thank Heavenly Father every day for the companion I received. She is so amazing! Wow just so inspiring.
 



Our laundry room

Dad I almost forgot HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! YAY!!!! I hope it was the best!! Sorry I missed it! Your cake looked delicious!
 

I am in Cuenca the coldest place in the entire mission. Good thing I didn't bring a single coat and only two cardigans. Yay. I have never ever ever been so cold in my life!

 

 

But we have a ton of people to teach. They are all just so amazing. Yesterday we taught 5 adults and 4 children in a room about the size of 2/3 of my bathroom. Yep it was nice and tight and cozy haha. But let me tell  you I have never felt the spirit so strongly. The little girl named Genesis said the closing prayer and I just cried. It was so powerful. I didn't get to contribute much due to my Spanish but I was able to testify of the love of our Father in Heaven and it was amazing. Spanish will come with time. I am doing a great job of understanding. I just can't speak. The first couple days were rough but it has gotten much better. I cannot wait till I am able to communicate better. A lot of the people cannot believe the things I have experienced. Everything is so cheap here too. We rode in a taxi for about 30 minutes and only had to pay 3 dollars. WOW. So cheap.

 

I am finally used to people staring. They constantly stare at me and some of its a little creepy, like I am a foreign object it is kinda comical really. 

Anyway I love you all and I hope all is well! Mom and Dad I am so grateful for both of you! You mean the world to me and I am so grateful for the examples you have set for me in the gospel. God is just so good!

 

Mucho amor!

Hermana Pack

 

Where the spirit presides with the people the Lord God is among them

Goodbye Mexico! Hello Ecuador!

 

Luckily they have given me an opportunity to write you all today. I know this is probably throwing you all off because it is Monday haha :) Holy Cow! I was so homesick this week. I cannot imagine what my life would be without you guys.

Dad sorry to hear about the problems with the Government! That is crazy. So many people received emails about it and were totally freaking out. I feel like I know nothing about the world or the United States any more. Weird. and it has only been one month! Wow time sure has blown by here.

I found out that the Guayaquil temple is not in my district of my mission so I may not be able to attend for the next 17 months. So you better believe that I will want to go when I get back! So many things have been taught to me here. I love the CCM more than I ever thought possible.

I leave the CCM in approximately one hour for Ecuador! Holy CRAP! I am so so so so so scared. I could throw up. I haven't eaten anything today because I feel like I am gonna be sick just thinking about it. Today I said goodbye to the two most inspirational guys I have ever met and I lost it. Elder Fisher and Crotzer are the most inspiring Elders/young men I have ever met. They showed me how to be a righteous servant of the Lord. So amazing.

I am so sorry that I am not able to call, but if you guys get this in time I sure hope you keep me in your prayers. I am so nervous for this flight. Spanish is going to get me good haha. 

Hermana Dillman, Elder Henrie, Crotzer, Fisher, and I

But I want to share my most spiritual experience of the week. After talking with Elder Fisher about my worries for my mission and hearing all of his after conference, he asked if I would like a blessing and I decided I would like one for comfort. Elder Crotzer said the blessing for me and I truly felt as though it was God speaking to me. We all are so close with the spirit and I love it. I don´t ever want these feelings to leave me. I don´t think I had ever felt the love of the Lord as much as I had in that room. Where the spirit presides with the people the Lord God is among them. I know this to be true. God is just so good.

Another really amazing spiritual experience of the week is a testament that God listens to our prayers and answers them through the words of the prophets in the words of scripture. This week I have been really worried about my new change and I got down on my knees and prayed to the Lord for an answer to the concern in my heart and what it is that I need to focus on in my life. I felt inspired that day to turn to the 16th chapter of Matthew and I read about the faith of the apostles of Christ and felt prompted that I needed to strengthen my faith, but then my next question was HOW? so I looked in the Bible dictionary. It states "Miracles do not produce faith, but strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ; in other words faith comes by righteousness." Once again God is too good and provides an answer. The words of Christ are so powerful and I have been reading the new testament this week and it has strengthened me in many ways. At the beginning of my time in the CCM I chose to make a goal of starting and finishing the book of Mormon in my stay here and I just finished two days ago and the spirit was so strong the last verses of Moroni. I know with all of my heart and soul that the Book Of Mormon is true. If any of you want to know this for yourselves I challenge you to read it for yourself. I know that it is another testament of Jesus Christ and it is true! I hope that you can come closer to Christ as I am.

 

I love you all so much,

 

Hermana Pack