Por Tantas Bendiciones

Another Monday!

The weeks keep going by faster haha. Anywho, this past week was really good, we got a lot of things done in the area, met a lot of new people, cleaned up some records, and are still loving it in Portland. The people here really remind me of my ward back home, it's the closest one I've been to that has been really fully functioning in the way it should be haha. 

I don't have too much to say this week, I just wanted to comment on Mother's Day prep. Kids, have fun showing your mom how much you love her this week. Husbands, love your wives. Do what you can to help them out, not just on Sunday but every day, especially this week. Set a goal to do one nice thing for your wife every day this week that you don't normally do. And wives, be grateful for whatever the men do, we aren't perfect but we try haha. 

Now to make my mom cry a bit I'm going to share how grateful I am for everything she's done for me. I wouldn't be out here if it weren't for the faithfulness of my mother. Every day she would hound us to do scripture study, even when I was literally walking out the door. She made sure that we knew that she knew that was something important. And if it hadn't been for that example, I don't really know where I would be right now haha. That, and I'm thankful for all the times you've done my laundry....really, really grateful hahah:) love you!!

I hope yall enjoy this week and have a wonderful Mothers Day! 

Elder Packer 

1-2. Harker and I this morning

3. A picture my dad sent me that makes me laugh every time hahaha

El Espirit

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

Sorry I didnt write yesterday, but us in the Texas McAllen Mission were blessed with the oportunity to listen to Elder Robins of the Seventy and Elder Holland yesterday in McAllen!! It took all day for us in Corpus, but it was well worth it. 

My week before that was really kinda dull. We did the usual thing, but we weren't seeing much success. But one thing Elder Holland said yesterday was that he was glad of how great of a job we were doing here in McAllen, even though we haven't been seeing the success we normally do. He complimented us on how well we were doing and how obedient and trusting to the Lord we were, and then he explained a bunch of things about teaching with the Spirit. It was super awesome. 

Everything we do as members and missionaries is so that we can have the companionship of the Spirit. One thing I loved that Elder Holland said was that when we have the companionship of the Spirit, we have the companionship of a God. Who doesn't want that all the time? He read 3 Nephi 19, and how the apostles had gathered everyone together to see Jesus come again, but when he didn't show up, they started teaching those who weren't there the day before all the same things He had taught them, and then they prayed that if Christ couldn't be there, that having the Spirit was the next best thing. All of us have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost, which entitles us to have the Spirit with us all the time as long as we're living worthy of it. Super cool stuff. 

Then Elder Holland also went into 3 Nephi 17 verses 6-9 where he heals the multitude. The cool thing he mentioned was in verse 9, it says he heals the sick, blind, lame, etc, and anyone who was afflicted in any manner. He pointed out that we all have afflictions, no matter who we are, we are all afflicted either physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. But Christ healed the Nephite people of ALL of their afflictions, not just the physical ones, and He can heal us from ours if we let Him. 

That was the majority of my week haha I hope you guys learn something and have a great week! Keep the Spirit with you, and I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Packer

StillWaitingOnTransfers

Hello Everyone!!

So this week was really good, we had a lot of fun. We have transfers tomorrow, and so we went to visit some people that we'd wanna say goodbye to in case we leave....and we literally just found out that both of us are staying!! YES!! A third transfer with the same comp...that's a new one, but I'm glad it's Elder Harker:) so as long as we don't get another call tonight saying differently, we should stay the same, still here in good old Portland:) I love the Portland ward, it's a beautiful place. Anywho, now that that anxiety is over with, we have a lot of work to do!

Right now the main focus of my mission is the "why." And the why is the thing that changes not only a missionary's life and attitude toward the work, but any member's life and attitude. When asked why they come out, a lot of missionaries say "It was my duty," "My parents wanted me to," or similar things. When asked why they stay, the usual response is "Because I love the Lord." We do a lot of things as missionaries, everything from waking up exactly on time and working out, to doing studies effectively, to getting back to the apartment on time, and in between that we work as hard as we can all day to teach, receive and contact referrals, and fellowship investigators with members so they have less of a fear and more of a motivation to come to church, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and eventually go to the temple to receive the ordinances required for exaltation. And we do all of that to an exact tee, repenting if we are even a minute late. Missionary life isn't easy. But the why behind what we do can change everything. 

From my experience so far as a missionary, the most effective "why" is because you love the people you serve. Truly, honestly love and care about them and their eternal progression. In John 15, the Savior says "Greater love hath no manthan this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." When you love the people here, you gladly sacrifice your time, your talents, your energy; you fast for them, pray for them, and you don't think about what it does to you. You don't matter, they do. When you reach that level of "why" is when you work your most effectively, see the most success, and get the most out of your mission. You change and get better more than if you were to focus on trying to change yourself and get better for yourself. 

It takes a lot of patience and humility, but it is worth it. I'm still working on it, but that is my why. Anywho, I love you guys! That's my testimony of why I'm on my mission. You can go out for any reason, but the reason you stay is what is most important. I hope you all have a great week!! 

Elder Packer

1-3. Model Plane a member gave me:)

4. My After Picture from WeightWatchers;)

Party In Portland

Hello everyone! I hope that you have had a great week, ours down here in Portland was great.

Last Monday we went to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus and it was awesome!! There was a lot of really cool stuff there, and a lot of pictures taken hahaha. It was great, then we went to the 2-Story Whataburger on the Bay. Super cool stuff haha, gotta love Whataburger. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Maluenda, and it could possibly be the last interview I ever have with him because he leaves June 30th. I've really loved President and his family, they've taught me a lot and been such great examples. After interviews I went on an exchange with Elder Russell in Rockport, and then Wednesday we came back down and did some service for the Muhammud's. Thursday we had a really good zone meeting in Corpus, then Fridaywas weekly planning and we did some really good plans inspired by some of the things the APs taught us during interviews. Super good. And then Saturday we helped the Muhammud's with some more service. 

One cool thing that happened was that on Tuesday they talked about the shower of blessings that Heavenly Father gives us, and then I got a fortune that said something similar haha. Then they also talked a lot about love, which tied in to the Gospel Principles lesson yesterday which was on Charity for us. It was really good, a big love-filled week. 

Anywho, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all!! Until next Monday!

Elder Packer 

1. My Fortune

2. The District at the Aquarium

3. Harker and I under a Blacklight in our Apartment

4-5. Spaghetti and Chopsticks;)

Conference:)

Buenas mornings to all of you!:)

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The peak of this week for me was definitely conference. But before that we had a good exchange with Elder Sanchez up in Rockport where we played ukelele together at a potluck at a trailer park. It was super fun. After that Elder Harker and I got to help out some members down here with some service and we drew the plan of salvation at a park hahaha it was super fun. 

Now, conference. Conference was such a great experience. The first session Elder Harker and I were alone at the church because everyone else watched it at home, but the rest there were a few people there. There were a lot of good talks that I loved, one of which was Elder Eyring's introductory talk about listening to the testimonies and praying for the speakers and the choir. I found it super powerful at the closing song of the first session, first because I love the song "Come Thou Fount" and I loved the sight of the one man that had tears in his eyes as he sang. 

Another one of my favorite talks was Elder Nelson's at Priesthood session. Really inspiring to know that we not only can but should ask Heavenly Father to teach us about the Priesthood. I have a testimony that as we pray with our whole heart, Heavenly Father will give us every needful thing. The trick is to make sure that your heart is in it, not just your head. Like Sister Oscarson's talk, we need to make sure that the Gospel is in our heart, not just our head. We need to believe it, not just know it. 

I wanted to extend the invitation to you all this week to PRAYERFULLY study one talk from conference. Pick one that you think will teach you something that you need at this point in your life, and I promise that as you do that you will receive an answer to a prayer you have been waiting on, whether it be about children, family matters, councils, school, work, spiritual responsibilities or any type of worry or concern you have. If you do, I would love you to write me and let me know how your experience went. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Packer 

1. Plan of Salvation in Chalk 

2. Elder Sanchez y el Perrito del Cuchillo

3. Mi amor

4. Zone homies

La Pascua

Querridos brothers and sisters!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! Our week in Portland was very hard, but awesome.

Elder Harker and I were both sick for the first two or three days, and could hardly get out of bed. But, missionary life...we kept working haha. And it paid off a lot. We decided that the reason that we were sick was that Satan was working his hand in the Portland area and didn't want something to happen. So that gave us extra motivation and we had a lot of miracles with people found and at church. 

The best part of the week by far was Easter Sunday. The Sacrament meeting was awesome! Sister Muhammud spoke on The Atonement, and her talk was very well given and the message well received. Then the Primary sang Gethsemane, and Bro Flint gave his talk on Justice and Mercy. It was AWESOME. He truly spoke like he was an apostle, it was great. And the things he said were very...deep but simple, it was super cool. Very spiritual meeting. After that we had Gospel Principle taught by Bro Muhammud, and it was on Service. That created an awesome discussion, and we had a couple of visitors, one from Provo the other from Houston, and they gave us little Easter Baskets to top off the whole time. It was great hahaha super good day in the Portland Ward. 

Anywho, as Easter is about the atonement, and the Atonement is about change, and we have General Conference this week, I wanted to extend the invitation for you guys to pray about something you could do to change this week. Ask "What lack I yet?" and then listen for an answer in conference. Also think of a question you might have, and look for the answer in general conference. Conference is the best time to receive revelation and counsel from God because everything we are listening to comes from Him; by His voice or the voice of His servants, it is the same. 

I love you all and hope that you have a fantastic week! Until next monday!

Elder Packer

1. Gutierrez Family

2-3. Olive Garden:)

El Amanecer

Hello yall,

I hope you are all having a great day/week! My week last week was pretty awesome. 

I was on exchanges for the first 3 days with Elder Torres, and it happened to be the hottest day of the week, on bikes...it was awesome haha we helped a guy pick 6 dozen oranges from his tree and were both just sweaty messes by the end of the day. Gotta love Texas. Anywho, we saw a lot of miracles in the Portland ward this week. Members have been doing a lot of missionary work on their own, and it's been a lot of fun to see them get excited about it. Our ward mission leader has a son out on a mission in Argentina, and he just found out he comes home May 10th. He's been pretty pumped about missionary work the whole time I think, he's awesome.

Thank you guys for all the help you have given, I really do appreciate it. Remember the church is true and that all of you can have eternal life:) 

I hope you guys all have a wonderful week this week. Love yall!

Elder Packer