November post

English class continues to grow, and especially the soccer game afterward. We used to just barely have 8 people to play 4 on 4, but now we have 6 or 7 teams of 4. IT is awesome, it is a really good finding activity.

My spanish is getting alot better. A few members have commented that I can speak alot better, so that is good. Im excited hopefully I continue to speak better. At church, one of the less actives we have been working with was walking out of the chapel and I was smiling at her because this week, she has been to church enough time to be considered an active member, and she asked me something like "estas sonreindo a mi?", and I thought that she said are you smiling at me? so I said yes!. But I guess when they say "a mi" they really mean, are you mocking me? and I said yes.

I have been studying a lot out of Jacob chapter 5 this week. Its really interesting that throughout the chapter, the lord of the vineyard says to burn the bad trees and bad fruit, but the the Servant of the vineyard (the prophet) asks the Lord of the vineyard (God) for more time to continue pruning the olive trees so that they produce good fruit. And the very last time that they discuss working more on the olive trees, the servant rather than asking for more time, asks for more servants.

 I guess this week I really have grown in my testimony that these are the last days. I feel that the Lord's work is progressing super fast, and super effectively, but Satan's work is just the same.

Changes!

Well this week was crazy! A lot of changes happened!

Elder Banderas from Ecuador

 So this week there was a transfer and Elder Barclay was was transfered to Witchita and  I got a new companion, Elder Gomez. He is from Guatamala! He knew no English before he came on his mission, but he's been out a year, and speaks alright. So we are going to switch everyday from Spanish to English  so we can both learn. I am super excited!!! My Spanish has already gotten a ton better. 

Elder Gomez is from Ciche Guatemala  and has 4 siblings, and is the second youngest. He has a sister right now serving in temple square.  So if you are in Utah in the next year, look for sister Gomez, from Guatemala.  He is the first missionary in his family, and his sister is the second. They opened their calls the same day in their small branch in Guatemala  So this is a huge opportunity for me to learn Spanish.

Elder Banderas and Gomez (my new companion)

  The other cool thing is that Elder Gomez already served here in Garden City, three months ago. So we both have a completely different knowledge of the area, and combined, we have a ton of work to do. A lot of good stuff is going to happen! And all the Spanish members trust and like Elder Gomez a lot.

Another  cool thing is that president assigned me to be District Leader! So I have four companionships in my district. They are the Garden City Sisters, Garden City Spanish(us), Garden City English (Zone leaders) and the Scott City elders. It is all pretty exciting. I have to conduct an hour training every week, and just support, and motivate all the other elders and sisters.

I'm writing on Tuesday, because yesterday we had Zone Conference in Doge City. So it was us and the Doge City Zone. And it was all headed by Elder Nash, of the seventy. It was an awesome experience. We all got to know him, because we had the conference for 6 hours together. It was super spiritual, and very specific as to what we need to be doing better here in our zone.

Because of the conference i got to see all my friends, in the two zones, yes including Elder (Mark) McKellar. IT was really fun to see him, and just to spend the day with him. So since Mark is in the zone next to me I never get to see him, but our two zones make up the Garden City Stake, and since there was stake conference, Mark came down, all Saturday, and until after church on Sunday! He even slept at our house s\Saturday night, and on Saturday afternoon, us four, his companion and mine, went on splits. Me and mark got to go knock on some doors, and do some street contacting, in some trailer parks, for a few hours! It was a lot of fun to see him!

President is so funny, you ask him any question and he just can't deny you the answer. So Elder McKellar asked President where he would be next transfer, and President just told him he would be training a native Spanish speaker! He will stay in Liberal Kansas.

One of my best friends here in Garden City, Elder Neeley was transferred out though. its too bad, we were really tight. Transfers aren't even for another week, but Elder Neeley is the new AP, so he goes in a week early.

On Halloween we aren't allowed to proselyte unless we have an appointment, and us and the zone leaders had an appointment that canceled, so we were in by 7:30. So we went back to the apartment and just had ourselves a little party. 

Thanks for sending the ipod, i cant wait till it gets here. Im tired of listening to gay EFY music.

Missionary work is getting to be really fun, I'm really enjoying it!

Love you all,
Ethan

...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')

Harvesting corn and souls

Dear family,

Wow California sounds like a lot of fun! I wish I could have been there! Being with all that family sounds really nice.  I wish I could have been there for uncle Carlisle's talk, it sounds super interesting! I hope that I can dig as deep as he does into the gospel.

l already miss the mountains, and something to look at. Its Harvesting season so the air is pretty dirty here. The corn is harvested and now I have a better view of the nothing there is to look at. (click here for more)

Add caption

Look....nothing....

This week was pretty crazy. It went by super fast. On Saturday, I had my first interview with President Bell, and it went really well. It still Surprises me what a loving person he is! after our interview, we knelt and prayed, and after the prayer he kissed me on the cheek, and from what I hear, I should expect this more often. He just loves everyone so much, and he is always telling it to you, and how grateful he is for you. He can't keep any secrets. I went on splits with elder Allen, the zone leader that live right next to us, to pick up the president at the hotel, and he gets in the car and just starts telling us who and where all the missionaries will be transferred that next transfer. He is hilarious. And then he spoke yesterday in sacrament and I got to translate for him. At stake conference in two weeks, and member of the Seventy is coming to speak, and I think I will be translating that as well! I need to practice!

We are having a hard time getting all the Mexican people we teach to believe anything more that just the fact that God and Jesus exist. They keep on saying "Que Mas?" what we ask them what they believe in. They just think that they exist, and that if they read the bible once in a while and are nice to their neighbors they will be fine. They don't want to make any commitments.

This lady was riding a lawn mower across the  crosswalk in an intersection!

So your first question. My companion, Elder Barclay,  looks Mexican, and that is what everyone thinks. But hes not, so the next guess is that hes a Poly, because hes like 6 feet, but really strong. And that's not true either. He is half Taiwanese, at least he claims, but he is just to big to be Asian. We get along super well. He like to work out a lot, so I work out with him every morning, and I've been sore everyday for the past three weeks. But he played football for South Carolina, and apparently he is really good, because some guy stopped us on the street the other day and knew who he was. Apparently he got a really bad concussion the first season, so he didn't play for more than a year. He has 20 months here so he is going home soon.

 To be honest, the training, greenie thing doesn't really really exist. I mean of course it does, but in our companionship, we do a really good job of supporting each other in everything we do. I have extended all the baptism invitations so far. Missionary work is a lot different now I think. We invite people to be baptized at the end of the first lesson. We already have one guy on date. His name is Enrique, but he just had a serious surgery, so we have to wait till all the stitches are out of his leg before we baptize him.

The creeeeeeeeepy basement

Here are the stairs to the creepy basement, and that is the foundation of our house that is totally about to cave in.

Yes we eat in members homes. Half the time they are the English members, because there aren't that many Spanish members. But we eat pretty normal food. and its all really good. The Mexicans always serve tortillas rice, and some kind of "Carne". They never specify. 

But the weird thing is that they almost never eat with us. They prepare the meal and then sit with us and watch us eat. then we share a message and leave. I enjoy it a lot. Last night, we visited these people, and they had eight kids in this tiny house. The kids were all over the place, but their mother kept them disciplined a lot better that some of the families I've seen. She kept on yelling at them telling them she was going to get out the "belt" .

I got to play soccer in the MTC with David Warren for 5 weeks

I am in the zone right next to Mark McKellar, unfortunately. Everyone in my zone is new to me, no one from Mexico, and no one that I already know, but I enjoy meeting all the new people.

Thanks for you constant letters. Sometimes my companion does not get a letter for six weeks at a time, and I know its hard for him.

I am definitely praying all the time! don't feel bad for asking God for too many things, He wants to bless us and will as long as we remember Him!

Adios, Mexico, Hello Kansas!

 So I've left Mexico! Then I got off the plane the first thing President Bell does is gives me a huge hug! He is super loving. A lot more than I expected. I thought he would be a military man, having served in the forces for so long, but he is the kindest person I've met.

 We got to the mission home and ate a big dinner, and went to bed. The next morning we went back to the church and were packing our stuff onto the buses to go to our various areas, and I hear,
 "Hey grease ball!" and sure enough Elder McKeller was standing behind me!

Pre- mission grease balls

 He was only half way thorough his training and he was getting transferred because his companion is now with Elder Jones (from my MTC district). So we got to sit on the bus for  five hours together. He got transferred to Liberal Kansas. My first area is called Garden City/ Holcomb, and they are both very small towns in west Kansas, an hour and a Half outside of Dodge City. 

Look down and left to find Garden City
Liberal is on the Oklahoma line

Garden City and Holcomb, have a lot of Spanish speakers! We have already eaten with some Spanish members. Kansas is super flat, and the whole town smells like cow. 

My Companion is Elder Barclay. We get along super well! he is a lot older than I am, and he is from California. He is really strong, he played college football for a couple of years in Virginia or something, but I think that he was really good.  He is teaching me how  to work out, and eat healthy. He is the district leader and is a very good missionary.

 We just got moved into our house in Holcomb. It is really old, and has got all old wood floors, and a super dark scary basement and attic.


We live right next to the Zone leaders, so we get to see them around, and they are awesome. Both are really fun guys, Elder Neely from San Diego, and Elder Allen from southern Utah. For the ward we have here in Garden City/ Holcomb, there are us two companionships of elders, and one pair of sisters, but elder Barclay and I are the only Spanish speakers. I thought my Spanish was good until we got to church, and had to translate for sacrament and relief society. Sacrament from English to Spanish, and relief society, from Spanish to English. It was super hard, and I'm sure those listening in on the headphones have no idea what we are saying. 

Within 6 weeks of this photos these "West siders" were already on missions
Elder McKellar left 2 days after this photo was taken.

We basically have nothing to start from because the elders before us did not record anything in the area book like they are supposed to, so we have a hard time knowing where to start. But we have already gotten three or four new investigators who are interested just be looking around. One of the guys, I knocked on the door the first day I was here, and just gave him a book of Mormon and a pamphlet. And then ME and Elder Barclay went back too see him again two days ago, and he told us that the first time we knocked, he at that moment had been praying to know if god actually loved him. The Lord is definitely preparing people for us! 

Only a Week to Go

All Kansas-bound
Elders Crook, Budge, Packard, Daines, Jones, Carlson

This week went super fast. It is weird to think that in only a week I will be in Kansas. This morning we got to go to the temple, and was awesome again, and I understood a ton more than I did the first week.

A beautiful day at the Mexico City temple

This week we got a lot of rain, and it hailed twice! pretty cool. The Argentina  and Peru MTC's are full so we are now getting a bunch of the over-spill that they cant take. 

Some things never change!

 I'm still having a blast here. we are playing some serious U.S.A. vs MEXICO soccer games outside on the bog field, that are a lot of fun. The two guys staying in our apartment now are really good, and I have become good friends with all the Mexicans that got in a week ago. Yea, I've thought a lot about how easily I make friends with the Mexicans this week as well. I just really like the Mexican people. I like how simply they seem to live, and how humble they seem to be. And it is pretty easy for me to make friends with them here.

If you look carefully, there is a monkey hiding in the tree.

 I don't have my travel plans yet, so I don't know exactly when i will leave but it will definitely be early  Tuesday morning. I saw the World report and I did not make it on. However, the two sisters at the end of the video are in my district (they were better looking than the elders).

The story of the New MTC

Elder Packard and others wearing the Benemerito de las Americas school  soccer jerseys.
Some of these missionaries wore these jerseys when they were enrolled the BDLA school as high school students only a few months ago
and played on the BDLA soccer team.
The same young men returned to the newly converted MTC building as new missionaries only weeks after graduating from BDLA

Click below!

The story of the new MTC

Elder Salazar

 So, this week went really fast! This week all the Mexicans we had in our group left, which was kind of sad. I became really good friends with some of them, especially, Elder Garcia, Salazar, and Elder Gallegos, but we call him Elder Mono because he is so hairy.



















 Just before Elder Salazar left he gave me his "sacred" soccer jersey, that he has not washed since the day he bought it, four years ago. He kept on telling me to keep it sacred. They are all a ton of fun, and they gave me a list of new Mexican elders coming in on Wednesday  that they know, and that they want me to say hi to.

Elders ?, Packard, Vargas, Carlson

 All these elders went to the school here and just graduated here just in may before it became the MTC, so they knew the whole place pretty well, and helped me find the hidden stash of good soccer balls.

Elder Garcia

Adios amigos!