...6 weeks later.....

 Elder Packard's' new address:

2511 N. B Street # 4

Garden City Kansas 67846

You are totally right about conference. I thought it was super specific. Tithing. Women. Families. They were very bold talks. I enjoyed it. We watched 2 sessions with investigators in Spanish, which I surprisingly understood 

San Salvadorian papusa

 Saturday we went to the ward mission leaders house, Brother Benitez, for Papusa. Its a super good El Salvadorian thing. Like pancakes, with cheese and meat inside. I ate sooo many. We watched all the sessions at the church. General Conference was great. I think if there was a theme, it would be persevere. I don't know, it just seemed like there was a lot spoken about the atonement, and overcoming difficulties, and depression.

So this Tuesday because Elder Allen was leaving we borrowed some supplies from brother Estes in the ward, and bought a 11 pound pork shoulder and smoked it. We woke up early and cooked it for 7 hours, until lunch time. I've never had better meat!! we only had to check it every hour or so, so it didn't interfere with studies, and so it was our good bye lunch for elder Allen. We Elder Barclay went to grab the bone to pick up the meat, the bone just slipped out clean. It was super good.

Daniel's BIG CAR
  We have found a lot of people to teach this week, which was really good. Daniel just keeps on giving us names of his friends who are interested. Daniel owns the Tiendita and give Books of Mormon out generously. He is the greatest member missionary. 

Daniel's LITTLE TIENDA

They have us drivng a Ford Focus, and I don't like it much at all. It feels real cheap. But the 2013 ones are pretty nice. Super comfortable seats. But its just a giant car.

 I heard a couple of funny stories with sisters and cars this week. So a couple of weeks ago the sisters in Ulysses, Kansas traded us cars, because theirs  sometimes "wouldn't go over 20 miles an hour" They told us that when they pulled over to the side of the road, and parked it and then drove it again it worked fine. They even took it to the ford dealership twice and Ford couldn't find out what was wrong with it either. A couple of days after driving it, Elder Barclay accidentally put it into second gear, below drive, and it didn't go above 20MPH  We laughed for a while about that. Then Elder Stopper told me that in his last area there were two sisters who were nearly out of gas on a Sunday, and wanted to keep the Sabbath day holy, so they put water in the gas tank and prayed it would turn into gasoline.  Their car was totaled!

La Tiendita

 This Sunday church was in the gym because they are having the roof re done in the chapel. I was translating. And one of the stake presidency spoke, a weepy crying mom, and this guy that's got some type of speech impediment. So the translation was terrible! The Stake Presidency guy used a ton of quotes. It isn't that hard to translate normal talks anymore, but when people read scripture or quote General Authorities  it is nearly impossible  so you just spit out a few words. and it doesn't make any sense.

 Later this week we moved apartments. From Holcomb to Garden City is like 11 minutes, and it was just too far to be driving everyday. It wasn't worth staying in Holcomb. So now we are in this much smaller but better apartment, down the street from the church, and much nicer that the Holcomb House. Our new apartment has carpet, and the Holcomb House was just all wood hard floor. This apartment is much nicer.

Elder Packard and Elder Barclay and the beautiful view of....nothing.

I really miss mountains. Or just something to look at in the distance. To be honest, I really like Garden City, it pretty, none of the houses are the same. It just has a very practical, realistic feel to it. But there is nothing to look at in the distance. Just the next house.

So I've been teaching an English class 2/week since I got here, and its been going really well. We have at least ten people coming now, half members and half non members. Its a lot of fun and a good finding activity. We also have a soccer game once or 2 a week, that's really good for finding people as well.

This picture reminds me of Toy Story. Don't know why.

Elder Barclay

I've definitely felt all your prayers this week. A few weeks ago, I had been fasting, . But I didn't get any answers and i was really confused because nothing that the General Authority who spoke to us said stuck any chords at all. I just found that his talk was mediocre and I was not nearly spiritually full at all. 

Last week had a lesson with Enrique (who had a baptismal date) and we got to teach him the law of chastity, word of wisdom, and some of the other important laws. During the lesson he started throwing up. Crazy old man hadn't eaten anything in 3 days, and he is diabetic, and is taking medicine for his surgery that he had a month ago on his leg. Halfway through the lesson someone knocked on his door, and I got the door, and some small Latino guy, walked in, and came to Enrique's room, and handed him 2 dollars and left. he didn't say much, and Enrique didn't seem to know him. So then we finished our lesson and invited Enrique to pray. he prayed with both his hand over his head. but it was the best prayer I've heard. He asked for nothing, and just thanked God, for everything he had, and then began bawling during his prayer, because he had no money, and a man he doesn't even know came into his house and gave him 2 dollars. He is definitely is going to be baptized, its just a matter of getting him to church. He cant really walk very well, and he didn't make it yesterday because his legs are stiff in the morning, and he doesn't get around very well. It was funny how God answered my fast and prayers, not while a the President of the Quorum of the Seventy was speaking, but rather when I was standing, in this super hot dirty trailer, with a skinny small Mexican man, thanking God for 2 dollars.

Enrique on his baptism day with Elders Barclay, Packard, and Neeley

This week we had our first baptism, Enrique Rosas. He is from Mexico, and we had a baptismal service for him on Saturday and he was confirmed on Sunday. It was definitely cool to see all that happen! I kept on wishing that Sophia and mom were here to play some music at the service. No one in the ward does music!! But we are making the whole service in Spanish  so its pretty exciting. Not a lot of people came, but it didn't really matter because he is blind. 

(note from his mother: If you would have just listened to me and practiced the piano, there would be some music. Just sayin')