February: Morton Salt and a silo

This is what a silo is!

This week was really good. We had our baptism this saturday, and the service went really well. It was a really good thing to have here, to gain some good old ward trust. The ward here is awsome. there are just some incredible families that are incredible examples to all.

This week, was definetally very uplifiting. Im not sure if Ican explain it but Hutchinson has an awsome feel to the whole place. It just feel spiritually alive. Ive felt myself more in tune with the spirit here than I ever have been. I dont know what it is about this town, but it feels spiritually alive. Both good and bad.

 

In Garden City with all the witchcraft that was going on, I found myself loosing faith because I felt scared. In our training with the member of the Seventy a few months ago, he taught that three things take away faith: dout, fear, and sin. I've found myself a very doubtful person by nature. Whenever we had an investigator that had problems, I found myself doubting their progression. But I've been trying to get rid of that, and have done a good job so far. I feel that my faith has grown a ton in just the past few weeks. And I've found that when I exercise it (doubt), the Lord actually can stop miracles from happening.

Finally getting Christmas package

Just on saturday, we were going to take a young man out with us to do some teaching, but we had no appointments, and I justt felt worried that if we took him out we would end up with not much to do, but we decided to go and pick him up anyways and we left for just an hour. The first person I felt like stopping by to visit was a guy that we tracted into the other day. His name is Mere, and he was just a nice young dude, 21 years old. But anyways we had tried finding hi a few times before but we never found him at home after his first doorstep visit, and we still hadn't even taught him anything. But we went with Max, and found him at home, and taught him one of the best first lessons I think I've been a part of. The spirit was strong. Mere said he would be baptized the 15 of Febuary. He is clearly prepared. And had some good questions.

A common sight: Mennonite parking. they don't drive cars.

Missionary man

Ive felt really good this past week. I think ive been doing a pretty good job out here. Some of the members had given us some really good compliments. One thing that is really cool about this area, is that since it is one ward with a companionship of sisters and elders, we have the opportunity to really work as a team with the ward. The sisters here are super good missonaries, and we have gotten to be effective with them. We have our own little Hutchinson correlation meeting once a week, and we're all  working together well. We find alot of good potential investigators every day. I've still been trying to really become a part of this ward. To involve them in misisonary work, and just become not just a missionary to the ward, but a strong asset to how the ward functions and works. I want to be inside the foundation. Any ideas? We taught Seminary again this morning. How can I become a member of the ward? What can a misisonary do to support the auxillaries?

I am also really trying to better express my love for all the members. I find that some missionaries can just express love with the words they say, and how that act, and I'm trying to master charity. Its hard.

But everyting is going well. I feel myselft growning now more than ever, i think im kinda getting the hang of how to do missionary work, and accustomed to the life of a missionary.

Love,

Elder Packard

Waiting for the car we share with the sisters and studying in the snow

 


Feb 18:
We blew our numbers out of the water! Not to brag or anything, but me and Elder Banderas taught more lessons this week between our companionship, that did 3 whole districts. The Zone leaders called this morning to see what happened. Remember Elder Stopper? We served next to eachother in Garden City for 2 transfers, and he got transferred out here to be zone leader here, so for the majority of my mission, all but one transfer, he has been my zone leader, and we are really tight.

But anyways, the weather here has just been ridiculous. On Tuesday it was in the 50s and Wednesday it didn’t get above 20, and then Thursday 50s again, until today, like 15 right now. Not snowing. Just cold. And with no weather channel, it’s crazy to watch it happen. every day before i get dressed and shower i have to walk outside and check to see if it has dropped or risen 30 degrees so i know if its long or short sleeve.


 So on Wednesday when it was super cold, and we are on bikes, we decided to thumb through the yellow book and call some of the Spanish names for an hour before we left the apartment after studies. Missionary Telemarketing. The second name we called, was Campuzano, which sounds Spanish, but an English lady answered and when we laid out the schpeal she said that she was already a member and had just moved here. We didn’t have her records, and it ends up that she is less active, hasn’t been to church in a while, and is about to get married to a non member. That was a miracle!

Then yesterday, we went out with a young man, who is exactly Connely’s age, and so he drives us around for like 3 hours on Sundays and we go with him to just visit everyone. It’s a ton of fun. But the elders in McPherson (30 minutes north of us) stopped on the highway to help some people on the way to Hutch, because their car broke down. And so the people told us to send the missionaries over to their house when they got back to hutch. So we went over with Max on Sunday afternoon, and it ends up that they are both black,and not just skin color, but everything they do is black. the way the talk. They don’t go a sentence without a "praise the lord" "halleluiah" or an "amen". Haha so we went into their house taught them the first lesson and they said they would, read, pray about the book of Mormon and be baptized at the end of February. We may have a couple of the highly desired "blacktisms". But one thing that I've learned how to do is speak peoples language out here. I teach, and talk differently with all different people. With the Hispanics, the old cowboys, the college students, and now the blacks. You have to speak their language, and I think its tons of fun.
We also found a super solid Spanish couple this Wednesday that are looking for the truth. They are young and have two kids, and recently converted to Christianity from Catholicism. So we are working with them to baptism.

We have stake conference here in a couple of weeks, and hopefully we will be getting a new bishop. I like him and he’s a really good guy, but he rules with an iron fist. And I don’t like that.
It’s hard getting people to church here for some reason. The church isn’t super far, but it is on the outskirts of town.
 A lot of really good members and prepare people. I’m learning a ton about how to do effective missionary work, how to work with the ward, and stake leaders. And how to get people involved as a whole. It’s a lot of fun, but also very stressful and hard.

All that soccer sounds like a lot of fun. I haven’t played any since I left Garden. Its too cold right now. I miss the AZ winters.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Feb 23

Tornado memory?
 

 Yes I want to see Charles play soccer. He sounds good. It would be cool if he got really good as he got older. Is he better at baseball or soccer? I was never good at baseball, but I really like playing it. I wish more people did. Is he much bigger now, since the time I left? I think that I’m still growing. I had been super hungry for about two weeks, and then I had growing pains all in my legs, and now I’m not eating as much. Maybe I will come home taller. 

worked over 400,000 hours without an accident?

You should definitely send some oranges. That sounds really good. And a grapefruit. Not much, if anything grows naturally here in Kansas. 

Hutchinson is great, I really like the area. I think its harder than most areas, just right now especially because the missionaries don’t have a ton of support. The bishop has been fixed to be released for about 8 months now. And everyone is kind of just waiting for it to happen. And he is kind of checked out as well. And I love our ward mission leader, Brother Williams, but he is a really busy guy. He works all the time. And we haven’t had a correlation meeting in a bout a month. He is an awesome guy though. He just bought me a 50 dollar Kansas Basketball sweatshirt. 

The sweatshirts! Thanks Brother Williams from Kansas!

But we have a lot of fun here. My companion is kind of a weird kid, but he is hilarious. He refuses to play sports because he thinks they are stupid, and at the beginning of the month when we receive our money for groceries, spends the whole thing on ice cream and Dr. Pepper.

One of these things is not like the others

 And then has like 9 cents in his account for the last two weeks of the month. Haha. But although I’m not in a pure Spanish area right now, my Spanish is coming along just fine. On the step thing you sent I would say I’m above 4 for sure. I can talk, and express myself almost perfectly. I just don’t know the words or vocabulary for special things. Like when we help one of our Spanish investigators in his body shop. I don’t know what all the machinery words are, or car words are. But I can say what i want to. My companion doesn’t like English, so we speak puro espanol en la casa. Hopefully my next area will be one of the two Spanish branches in Wichita. There are two, and they would be sweet to serve in. There is also one in Topeka. Brother Hansen sent me a letter about his mission the other day. In it he shared his experiences of how he learned Spanish in his mission. He read the whole missionary library in Spanish! So I’m going to do the same thing. I’ve already began true to the faith. And I’ve read both first and Second Nephi in Spanish as well. I’m going to finish the book of Mormon in Spanish. I look up all the words I don’t know as a go along and I don’t have to look up many words anymore. I’m trying to transfer all of my studies to pure Spanish. So now I’m also only reading out of predicad mi evangelio, and not preach my gospel. And Jesus the Christ is about 100x easier to read in Spanish rather than English. It is a hard book to read.

We have interviews this week. So that will be cool. They are always fun. And i love seeing president, he is just a super loving guy!

Yesterday was stake conference and Elder Snow from the First quorum of the 70 came down. He is also the church historian. So that is pretty cool. And here is some other cool news: Elder Bednar is coming for a day to our mission the second week of March! Less than a month. That’s pretty exciting.