Transferencias han llegado otra vez

Good day to all!

Tomorrow is transfers, but I'm not too worried about it, I'm fairly certain I'm going to stay. My comp however...different story haha. We're both pretty sure he's leaving, he wants to go to Laredo, but I guess we'll see what happens later today.

This past week has been really good, a little sad and weird, but great overall. We had zone conference this Wednesday, and that was fantastic, we learned a lot about the Sabbath Day and covenants and increasing faith. I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was phenomenal. I got the package my parents had sent, thanks for sending all the food you know I like hahaha.

Sad event of this week: we were teaching a lady sitting on her front porch outside her house, and it was already kind of a struggling lesson because her little kids kept interrupting, and then the lesson just completely got wrecked (fair warning, children and my sister might not want to read the rest of this paragraph) because this puppy who was just joyfully bouncing around got hit by a car. It didn't kill him, just broke it's leg and layed there yelping for a little bit....my comp and I had no idea what to do, we just looked at each other and at the dog and all three of us just sat there for a bit....soooo awkward and sooo sad!! I was almost in tears, it was terrible. It couldn't get up, and then almost got run over like four or five more times because the cars would just barely move over in time because they were going so fast. Eventually after a few minutes it stopped trying to roll around and just died in the middle of the road...Mathis, Texas is not the place to be.

Anywho, aside from that tragedy, the rest of this week has been really really good! I got letters from the Golightlys and that was really fun, thank you guys so much! And along with that we had a baptism in our district yesterday!! A girl named Bailey Cantu got baptized yesterday, the sisters found her just a couple weeks ago and she wanted to get baptized because she'd been coming to church with her grandma for a while. So the sisters taught her and my comp baptized her yesterday!! It was funny though, he forgot to bring a change of Gs and a different shirt, so he got back into his suit with soaking wet Gs and a damp shirt hahaha. La lucha es real. But it was a really good service, and she (being a 10 year old girl) made her own cake for the baptism that was multi-layered, multi-colored, and when you cut it open it was full of M&Ms!! It was super cool, I was impressed.

That's about it for this week, these pictures are of the Baptism and of me and Elder Jones in front of the Swinney Switch Cafe, a really good country-style food place haha. I love you all!! Have a great week!

Elder Packer

8 months...today

Hey everyone! How are you all doing?

It's been a really great week this week! Lots of things were really good, but one experience in particular was great. Elder Jones and I were walking down a random street in George West, and the thought popped into my head that we should knock this one door of this family we had already talked to. I pushed it away because we had already talked to them and they didn't really seem too interested, but then I got the feeling that we really needed to knock the door, and then the thought of the negative consequences for ignoring spiritual promptings. 

So we knocked the door, and rather than the family answer, it was the brother of one of our less active members who was house-sitting for his nephew. He's not been baptized and he's been having a really hard time in life the past few years. He told us all about how he wouldn't have listened to us when he was younger, but he had been humbled and was now willing to listen to the word of God, and we shared how over time people are prepared to receive the Gospel and be baptized. 

We had one of the most spiritual lessons I've had so far on my mission, and he accepted an invitation to be baptized. Both Elder Jones and I felt such a great love for him, we really just want to help him because he deserves it. He's a really great guy, please keep him in your prayers, his name is Rey. 

Anywho, other than that I just wanted to invite everyone to read the talk "See Others as They May Become." It's a really good talk, great about missionary work, and then for those of you preparing to go on missions or already on your missions, I suggest you read "the 4th missionary" by Elder Corbridge. It's an amazing talk, so so good.

That's really about all I have for this week. I love you all, have a fantastic day! 

Elder Packer

Semana 5 de Transferencia 5

Buenas a todas!

Hey everyone, this week has been pretty good:) We took our car in to the shop because the transfer before I got here they had hit a coyote and cracked the front bumper, and we finally got that fixed, but we were without a car for 2 1/2 days...so we mainly worked in Beeville those days because we had meetings there and the sisters needed some help anyways haha:)

 District Meeting this week was really cool. In our mission we have five "pillars" that are things our president wants us to work on, and Elder Jones had all of us give a training on one of them, and then he did one after. In order, the pillars are Love, Obedience, Hard work, Good attitude, and Animo (I don't know the english translation for that one, sorry...it's kinda like excitement and just being pumped I guess haha). So after we all gave our trainings, we were kinda on a spiritual high, and then Elder Jones gave a super awesome training about fe and the importance of it, and what we can do with it. It was really good, and then afterwards, all four of the sisters wanted blessings, but one companionship at a time requested them, and we had a comp study with one of the companionships about having the faith to find and showing that faith through our works. It was really cool, super spiritual and just a plain good day. And afterwards we ended up helping the sisters find a super cool family, it was a great miracle.

The rest of the week seemed super long, but it really just flew by at the same time. This is the start of the fifth week of my fifth transfer out of 16...I still feel like I barely got here! I don't understand it really, time can feel so long, but then you start realizing that so much is gone by, and you didn't even realize it...idk haha it's a weird feeling, I don't know how to describe it haha. Either way, I've still got plenty of time on my mission, but I know it won't feel like that when I get near the end...

Anyways, that's about it for this week. I also got a really awesome letter from my cousin Ryan this week, thank you so much!! You rock dude. I hope you all have a wonderful week, until next week!

Elder Packer

1. Ryan's Letter

2. My new Spanish Scriptures

Todavia hay esperanza!!

Hey yall, how've ya been??

This week was really really good. We worked on the Scott's house again this week and it's still taking forever but it's a fun project haha. Then on Thursday we had an exchange with the ZLs and one of the APs, but we stuck with Elder Solis, one of our ZLs for most of the day. It was really fun and really cool, we met a lot of awesome people and learned a lot about how he works and how to improve some of the things we need in our area. Let me tell you, George West is not your average area for the TMM.

Anyways, a lot of this week was helping people out with emotional/spiritual needs. We met a bunch of people that were in distress and were looking for a way to find comfort, and what better way than through Jesus Christ?

Then this Sunday we had two investigators show up to church, one of whom (Hunter) had given the other (Simon) a ride. Hunter is 32 and lives alone and is so so so so so so so so so prepared! We had a lesson with him earlier this week with a goal to include the WOW because the baptism requirements changed, and it was the easiest lesson I've ever taught. The Spirit basically told Hunter everything, and he then said it all himself, my comp and I were just there as catalysts to kinda poke at and start the changes he wants to make. He's so prepared, his BD is for June 28th, so if yall could keep him in your prayers that'd be awesome.

Simon was the other one that came to church, and he is really awesome. He's 16 years old and just genuinely wants to become a better person. He's made some mistakes, but he loved church and he wants to keep coming, and he was actually the one that asked if he could be baptized before we had extended him the invitation on our first lesson. He's a really great kid, so keep him in your prayers as well.

That's all I can think of for this week, I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love you all! And sorry, my camera is being dumb so no pics this week...

Elder Packer

Carne!

Hello to everybody!

How is everyone doing? It's been a pretty interesting week for the George West Elders of Beeville District. This week Michelle was baptized!!! We didn't know until the night before if she was for sure going to be baptized this Sunday, but everything worked out and she was baptized by her husband Kyle!! They're awesome, I'm so happy for them:)

This week was mainly a lot of blitzing and driving and trying to conserve miles because it was the end of the month and finding people for the month of June. By the way, the zone and the mission both hit their baptismal goals!! As a zone we baptized 7 wonderful people this month, and the mission baptized 74/68!! The power of prayer and fasting really works. And the numbers are nice and all, but think of them all as a brother or sister who has now found their way in coming closer to Christ. That's what really makes it special.

Speaking of people coming to Christ, we are teaching an awesome guy named Hunter. He's 32, lives alone in Mathis, works as an x-ray tech for welders and things like that and he's seriously super prepared. He says he's been looking for a church to go to in this area because he moves around a lot, and he wants to learn how Christ can help him with his family unity issues and other things of that nature. He keeps in pretty good contact with us, and he's super down to come to all church activities, including the FHE we're having tonight with the ward! He's amazing, we still have a long way to go with him though, so please keep him in your prayers!!

Interesting things that happened this week were that we got an AK-47 pointed at us when we knocked a random door in Beeville, (the weirdest things happen to us in Beeville), we bought a watermelon from a fruit stand and just ate it with a spoon, and we did some serious work on the Scotts' house this Saturday. I manned the circular saw to cut boards to brace the walls, and we got pretty far for only 8 people working for an hour and a half. The thing is that it's soooo hoottt and humid in Texas!!! Everyone was dripping by the end, especially a certain redhead that was running around to grab boards and had decide he wanted to wear jeans...but it's only gonna get hotter, so I guess I better get used to it haha.

Anyways, that's about it for this week, I love you all, hope you have a great week!

Elder Packer

1. Sandia!!!!!!

2.House-building

3-4. Kyle and Michelle at Michelle's baptism!!!

5-6. Random flavors of big red that I've never heard or seen before (just for you mom).