Merry Christmas! ...and new years

Hello!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, I personally loved mine! It was great to talk to my family, and hang out with the members down here, and of course to remember the Savior. 

I had a lot of fun this week with Christmas and Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve we had to be in by 6, but we got permission to go to our DL's apartments where we had a fire and played games for a couple of hours. It was great. Christmas Day we started off with a mini zone meeting and then went over to the McMillans' where we spent a few hours waiting for people skyping, eating dinner and playing with new presents haha. Thanks to mom and dad for providing a drum set so my comp and I could jam out for a bit. It was super fun. 

This next week is a little weird because it's New Years. It's going to be 2016, which means it's the year I come home...weird. I had no idea it actually went this fast! But, I'm not gonna let that get me too distracted, I've still got plenty of time. I want you guys to know I love you all and hope you have a great New Year!!

Elder Packer

Merry Christmas!!

Feliz Navidad muchachos!

This last week was crazy and had a really fun surprise at the end. We did a lot of prepping for Christmas this week, helping out members and such. I ended up staying in Harlingen for those that don't know, and we got some cool people in the zone. Elder Taylor, the greenie from my last apartment in Hidalgo came to the district as Elder Cannell's comp, and Sister Guzmán is in the zone in Chambo's district. There's a lot of real fun people in the zone, perfect for Christmastime. 

I went on an exchange with Elder Cannell on Thursday, it was pretty fun, we taught a really cool word of wisdom lesson, and the lady is progressing super well, and came to church all happy on Sunday. Friday we planned a lot and ended up having another meeting after that, and we went and visited Carlos and Eliza and taught their seven year-old daughter the law of Chastity dance. It was pretty fun, Elder Prieto got super into it. Then on Saturday we had the mini missionaries from Brownsville come up. We weren't blessed with one, but to my much pleasure, I got to reunite with some of my homies from Brownsville 3! It was really cool to see them during our Saturday Zone meeting, I was super happy to spend a little time with them. I miss Brownsville a lot. Nothing will ever be so great:) 

But that's about how my week was. I'm really excited for this next week, tomorrow we have Christmas Conference with the whole mission, which is a rarity because the only other time the entire mission has gotten together in the 2 and a half years that President Maluenda has been mission president was when Elder Oaks was in McAllen. It's gonna be super fun, I can't wait to see my son again and all my other mission homies:) Then we've got Christmas Eve and Christmas, and that pretty much covers all of this week! I'm excited:) 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, don't forget whose birthday we're celebrating on Friday (other than Kamry's). I love you all!! Have a great week and a Happy Christmas!!

Elder Packer

Transferencias

Good morning and merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone is having a great day and great Christmas Season. It's been a fun week getting ready for Christmas and for transfers and everything. I don't think me or my companion will be transferred, but who knows haha I thought the same thing last time. 

This week has been really good, we've been teaching some really cool people, meeting some really cool people and we've been focusing on spreading the message of The Reason of the Season. Christmastime on the mission is like nothing else. A lot of people down here get caught up in gifts and decorations and movies and parties and things like that, but as a missionary you are really only concerned about the one thing that really matters on Christmas, and that is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Back home we always talk about Him and that He is the real reason for Christmas, but you never really get to focus all of your time on that. 

Christmas was always one of my favorite holidays because of time spent with family and the presents and food hahaha. But now as a missionary, I've come to love Christmas for an entirely different reason. The greatest gift that was ever given was our Savior, "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." That gift gave us the opportunity to repent, to change, to become better, to love deeper, to grow stronger, to get over guilt and sadness, to be calmed from anxieties and depressions, and most importantly to return to live with our Heavenly Father and become like Him. So this day that has always been a day for family fun and parties and presents is really a celebration of Him who allowed us to have eternal family fun and parties and presents. I'm truly grateful for that this year:)

Outside of that, I'm glad to be on my mission:) I love the mission, I love my companions, I love the members and all the people I've gotten to meet, it's been great. That's really all i had to say this week, I hope you all have a wonderful week!:) We'll see what happens with transfers, hopefully I stay, but lo que pasa pasa. Love you all!!:)

Elder Packer

Can you Dig it?

Hooowwwdy yall!

This week was really fun, really crazy, and really interesting! We had some time spent in McAllen for a couple of us, we found some really cool people that we're still working with, we got to see the devotional, we found about about a lot of missionary meetings this month....it's gonna be a great month!:) 

Anywho, we had a lot of fun this week, we had a Ward Christmas party where we performed a skit as missionaries (I can't send a video, but you can probably look it up on my mom's FB page, I bet she liked it or shared it or something hahah) and then we have been helping a lot of members prepare for Christmas. 

Because it's Christmas time and everyone is sharing messages about sharing, I just wanted to talk about what the missionaries have been sharing...:) we have some pass along cards that are specifically for this time of year, this year. It's got a website (christmas.mormon.org) for a video you can watch that's about Christmas, and what the true meaning is, and there's a lot of really cool things on there. For those of you that need something to do for FHE, this would be a really great idea. 

That's basically all for this week. I'm getting pumped for Christmas, as I hope you guys all are too! I love you all!

Elder Packer

1. Christmas Party exchange with Elder Acosta

2. Catholic Santa

3. Tie Digging!

Tis the Season

Feliz Navidad mis gueritos!!

The Christmas season is starting!!:) Christmas music, lights, candy, food, tamales, presents, enchiladas, tamales, Santa, decorations...Christmas has just thrown up all over south Texas. 

Thanksgiving was really fun, we had a good time and we ate a LOT! We spent it with some of our favorite families, as well as some that we had just met the day  before hahaha (missionary perk: you can show up to anyone's house and they're down to feed you). 

This week had a tremendous ending though; Riley got baptized!!!:) Riley was a serious miracle, we had just found her not too long ago and she had been coming to church with her family who were recently returning less-actives, and she wanted to know when she could be baptized. So we went over, taught her, and she was baptized yesterday:) She's got some of the purest faith I've ever seen, in fact, I have not seen such great faith among all the Utahnites. ;) jk haha but she's got a really strong, pure faith, she just knows the Lord is there and that she made the right decision. 

Outside of that, this week was good, tough, exciting, and fun:) I really hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and look forward to Christmas!:) I love you guys a lot, have a great week!:)

Elder Packer

Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This week on Thursday is Thanksgiving as most people know, so I wanted to talk about some of the things I am grateful for this week. 

This week I am grateful for my companion and district members, they're super cool people, and they've made my mission more of an experience haha. As well I'm grateful for the members in this ward, and all the wards I've served in, the families that regularly feed us, the ones that want to feed us, the ones that help us out, the ones that sacrifice so much to come to church, the ones that are consistant in coming, really just all the members, they've been such a blessing in my mission.

Along with them I'm grateful for the wonderful support I've gotten from everyone, my wonderful parents and siblings, my aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, other extended family, ward family, friends, previous mission-homies, and everyone else that has contributed to what my mission has been like these past 13 months. 

More than anything, I want to give thanks to the Lord. Thanks for the opportunity to serve a mission, for all the wonderful people I've met, the relationships I've made, for the experiences I've had, for the opportunity to learn Spanish, for the food I've eaten and learned to make;) and especially for the Atonement, and the opportunity I have every day to repent and become better, so that one day I can have a family of my own and live with them forever. I'm thankful for the scriptures that allow us to learn and grow and receive revelation for ourselves and others we are helping, I'm grateful for prophets and apostles and their words of guidance and counsel which are modern day scriptures, I'm grateful for the trials He has given me to help me grow stronger, and I'm grateful that He loves me so much, and I hope to share that love with others. 

I could go on, but this letter is already looking pretty long hahaha so I'm going to leave it there. But this week I wanted the challenge to be to write down at least 15 things you are grateful for, and then to write a letter to one or 2 people that have been an influence in your life, and to thank them for that. Then at the end, write a letter to God, thanking Him for what He has done for you in your life specifically, and say a prayer to really solidify that. I know that as you do those things, the spirit of Thanksgiving will fill your heart, and this will be a Thanksgiving you won't easily forget. 

I love you all, and hope you can have a great Thanksgiving!! 

Elder Packer

1. Me and Elder Prieto 

2. A random house we found abandoned in the middle of absolutely nowhere

3. Texan Santa Hat:)

4. Paloma (dove) meat we ate last night

I laughed. I cried. I ate chile.

Buenas tardes a todos!

This last week was super fun and super cool, lots of random miracles. We had a really good district meeting thanks to our DL, Elder Cannell, and then we went out and put in work. We worked super hard this week, and saw a lot of positive results. For example. one kid we had one lesson with decided he wanted to come to church, and he brought his friend, so that was a fun miracle. He's an interesting guy, but I'm sure he'll progress.

Some of the fun things we did this week are rib night and the Mullowneys, as well we helped a new family, the Tipton family, move in and they took us to Cracker Barrel. I've never been to Cracker Barrel so that was a pretty fun experience. 

The subject of this email comes from the story of the week. We visited a member named sister Serrato, and she had some chiles growing on her front porch that I'd never seen. I asked her if they were spicy and she told me and Elder Prieto to give them a shot, find out for ourselves. Elder Prieto goes for it, and eventually breaks into sweat and tears because it was so hot. Hahaha fun stuff. But I decide I don't wanna put myself through that, so I open it up to see whats inside, and it's just pure seeds, the hottest part of any chile. So I scrape the seeds out and put some of the pepper in my mouth, but spit it out because it was still super hot. I totally wimped out. But I paid for it in the end, because when I opened up the pepper and scraped out the seeds, I got it all over my fingers, so when I went to wipe sweat from my eye after climbing a papaya tree, it started to slowly burn. After we left the Serratos we started driving to the next place, but I had to pull over because it got worse, so I got out and poured a whole bottle of water on my eye on the side of the road, and then ended up touching the other eye on accident while trying to get the first one better. In the end, I was laying in the back of the van with a wet towel on my face for about twenty minutes while my comp was just cracking up. Hahaha such is life. 

Anywho, as for a spiritual thought for the week, my focus for this week was mainly on faith and getting things done. While studying, I stumbled upon Alma 56, which is a great chapter for hitting goals. We set a lot of goals as missionaries, and sometimes we get discouraged when it doesn't look like we're going to hit them. But this chapter is perfect for that, especially if you read verses 10, 12, 16, 19, 27, 29, and 45-48. There's a lot of good stuff in there, but mainly it's about staying focused on your goal and being determined to hit it. And at the very end, it gives credit to their mothers, because their mothers taught them to rely on the Lord. Real strong humility right there. 

That's about it for this week, I hope you all have a wonderful week, and don't forget to pray! Love you all!

Elder Packer