One year with Budge and a broken bike

Un ano juntos!

The past two weeks has been awesome. We are having another baptism here in Guymon on Saturday for this Mexican guy named Jesus Luna. He was super prepared. We were supposed to have it last Saturday but he couldn’t make it to church.

Things are awesome here in Guymon, 3 weeks ago Elder Garnett went home, which left his companion Elder Budge without a companion for two weeks before transfers, so elder budge was our solo zone leader, and he just traveled the zone from companionship to companionship for like two weeks. We got him for 3 days! Finally got to be companions with him, he is easily one of my very best friends in the mission.

 We had tons of fun, me him and my trainee on bikes in Guymon for three days. We got some sweet pictures. 

Observe the sweet pictures

So usually we go to the gym at 5:30 in the morning but one fo the days with elder Budge we didn't feel like it and just woke up at the normal time (6:30) and went and kicked the soccer ball in our apartments outside. Well we live in the "African" apartments because there are so many Sudanese people that live here, and apparently the bus stop is right across the street from the little basketball court where we were kicking the soccer ball. 

So at about 7:00 we already had about a 10 on 10 game going with a ton of African elementary scholars that hardly speak any English! I thought it was crazy that you could find something like that here in Oklahoma. But now all the kids in all the apartments know us, and we have gone back a couple of times to play soccer with them. Labor Day was fun, we played a tone of soccer with the Guymon high school team, pretty much gotten to know them all and so when we play we just send out a text to a whole ton of people, and they all show up at 8 in the morning it is super sweet.

I crashed my bike for the first time, it wasn't bad at all, but I dented the rim of my back tire real good. But the bike still works great. 

Elder Acosta thinking....

Did I tell you that I got a letter in the mail here from the government law place and they said they would repair any damages to the stolen bike? The lady doing our case is awesome, and called us into her office when we were with Elder Budge, and after I told her about all what they had done to the bike, she said it would be was easier to get a new one, so she is going to recompense $, that will come in payments apparently as the people who stole it pay up. She is going to send the checks to y’all in Phoenix. The people in Guymon are so nice. We are just a stone’s throw away from Texas. And where grandma Jackie is living right now, in Raton New México is about a 3 hour drive. A lot of people know exactly where it is.

 So, tomorrow is transfers, and I’ve been sent back to Liberal, Kansas. I’m super sad to leave Guymon, I really loved the missionaries and people down here. But I’ve been called to be the Zone Leader of the Liberal Zone, so I will get to be back down here on exchanges..My companion is Elder Clark. It will be cool to go back to Liberal though. Get to see everyone again. It will be the same ward, just now it a different companionship, so different apartment.

I've spent all of my mission except just two transfers in Hutchinson here in the Garden City Stake. I don't know if that is weird or not to serve all the time in one stake, but I love it. It is awesome!! I've spent almost all my mission our here in western Kansas, it is like the spot of the mission everyone wants to be in because there are so many Hispanics.

The time has gone so quick, im now 14 months in, which means I only have 7 transfers left.

Urgency in the Work

 

Hi!

So, Jack (Elder Kauffman)  sent me a picture of him in Argentina. It looks really cold. I hate the cold. I remember one day in Hutchinson it was -30 wind chill, and me and Elder Banderas (from Ecuador) were both so cold we just sat behind McDonalds away from the wind, for like an hour, because we couldn’t move.

 

YEs I got the ties! Thanks a ton that Superman tie is a winner for sure. I have really got this tie trading thing down now. I have 110 ties. And 30 Wembleys. And as a missionary it is like currency. I got this sweet baby blue three- piece suit that fits like a champ, completely paid for with ties the other day. I will send you a picture. It is such a sweet suit.

 

This week was alright. I had a lot of little problems with the bike. Really annoying ones that could be fixed for less than a dollar, but there is just no bike store here. There isn't even a bike store in our zone. The closest one is 2 hours away in Garden City. But we got it to work for the time being.

We were teaching this really cool family of 6 that was preparing to be baptized at the end of this month but they went out of town to Mexico for a week, and came back and decided they were Catholic, haven't been to church in 5 years. I don't understand it. But we still have 5 people preparing to be baptized here in the next couple of weeks. But there are only 2 left in the transfer, hopefully they keep me here. I’m tired of only staying 3 months in an area. I just want to be left alone for 6 months or so. Guymon is sweet! I really love it here. The town is so good to missionaries. Everyone is so nice. We are constantly waved at and honked at by people on the street, and we have no Idea who they are.

This Tuesday I was in Liberal on exchanges with the Zone Bums. It was great to be in Liberal again for a day. I spent the whole day with Elder Budge. We finally were companions for a day. It was good. He was called to be a zone lord last transfer there in Liberal. First time we have been in the same zone.

We have met some really cool people this week. The big pig plant here, Seaboard, recruits people from all over the place. They have representatives go out to Mexico all the way to Mexico City trying to get people to come to Guymon and work. So there were a hand full of new people that moved in. We are teaching this really cool guy, Claudio from Mexicali. Only been here for a couple of weeks. The people from México are super nice, I hope I never serve with and English missionary or in another English area again. Hutchinson was cool. But I felt out of place. I can say everything I want to, and understand completely now in Spanish. I gave a ten minute talk in sacrament in Spanish yesterday. Serving in a branch is fun. Much different that a ward. We are kinda expected to do a lot! I'm the Young Men’s President too.

 

I really enjoy missionary work. It really is a lot of fun. We meet so many cool people every day. And work with incredible people. My testimony has definitely grown incredibly. And I feel it continue to grow. So many principles that I really didn't understand before that now make 100% sense to me. It's awesome. I really search to have spiritual experiences. And I found that if we search we find them. I feel sick to think that we are heading out of summer here. I only have 6 transfers left. It seems like so little time. I feel like there are so many things I still have to do. Too many things to do in 10 and a half months. I really wish I would have understood the clock earlier in my mission. But just like sports there is always that 3 and 4th quarter push, President Bell was telling us about it the other day.

 



Barely a year ago, Budge and I were different people

It is weird seeing a lot of my good friends go home. Elder Garnett finishes his mission this Wednesday. He is already done. I’m going to miss him a ton. He was my companion in Arkansas City. But he is done. It was cool to talk to Elder Budge after so much time. I feel that we have pretty much came to the same place spiritually.


We both talked about what the mission clock feels like. And although we have almost our whole mission been on opposite sides, we kind of progressed in the same direction it seems.

Love Elder Packard

1301 E. Highway 1

Guymon, OK
73942

In case you was wonderin'.

English classes for whom?

McKellar, me, and Budge (Shane Hatch's nephew)

Yep the past year went by super fast. I cant imagine how fast this next one will go. I have loved it so far! On Friday we had a conference in Garden City all day long. So that was my fourth of July. But it was good. Got to spend it with Elder MCkellar

 

This week was pretty good, on Friday I was on exchanges in Hugoton Kansas. Its a super small town. But then I got sick on Saturday morning really bad. I got really cold, and shivery and had a huge headache, so I pretty much slept all Saturday and Sunday. Couldn't even go to church yesterday. And my whole body broke out into some sort of rash. I'm not sure what im sick from. But I still don't feel so good.
 
 But anyways a guy from Sudan called us and asked us to come over, so we went to his house, and we set up an English class for the Africans here in town too. So now we teach Arabic to Spanish to all these people from Africa. It is tons of fun. And an awesome way to introduce people to the gospel, because the people that come to a class like that are generally more humble people than you would find otherwise.  So now we are teaching five English classes a week. Tuesday and Thursday at 1PM And 7PM at the church. And then Thursday at 12PM at the fire station to all the firefighters. But the miracle of it all was that on Tuesday we set up the African English class, and on Wednesday we were walking down the street, and a black guy was yelling from behind us "my brothas". So it turns out he is a member that just barely moved here from Iowa. He has all these tribal scars on his face. Pretty cool guy. But if we can get him to the class and everything, we could be potentially teaching Africans the gospel. You would have never thought in Guymon Oklahoma.

The Seaboard -Guymon pork processing plant, located in the Oklahoma Panhandle, opened in 1995 and processes about 20,000 head of market hogs a day.

But apparently there are 28 different countries represented in the workers at the pig plant here(seaboard). And tons of different languages. Our apartments are mostly full of people from Africa.



Campo Chino-where the Chinese play soccer. feels like a third world country.

On July 5 we were in this town name Hooker Oklahoma, north of Guymon visiting a part member family. And it was funny, they celebrate the 4th on the 5th because there is only one guy certified to do the fireworks in the area, so on the fourth he is Guymon, and so IN hooker the day is completely changed to the 5th. Funny small towns.

 

 

I have really had to learn to understand Cubans here! don't know if you've ever spoken with one, but they are pretty difficult to understand, when I got here I didn't understand a word they said. But now I can understand them pretty good. There are a ton of Cubans here. And we teach some of them too. You can always tell they are home if their door is open. If it isn't they aren't home. And when you knock on a door, and the guy who answers it is shirtless then he is definitely Cuban. For some reason they just do not wear shirts. Not even kidding.  There is a less active member here who is Cuban as well.

Other than that everything is great! Pray that I Heal soon, my whole body aces. I feel pretty terrible

Beehiving and Dumpster Diving

Elder B. Keeper


This week was pretty good! I was on exchanges with my good friend Elder Garnett in Liberal for a day on Thursday. Cool to see some old people







What they do in the Midwest on Saturday afternoons




 

I found that I really like Mexican food much more that I do like any other food now. When i came on my mission I didn't really like the Mexican candies, but now I love them. The pulparindo candies with the chile powder on top.  I really don't like watermelon without polvo de chile on top. And all the lollypops have chile powder in them too. And my most favorite snack in the world is pepinos and limon. It just like cold cucumbers cut really thin , and then lime juice squeezed all over the top, and a little bit of salt. they are super good.

 

Yesterday after church we had a little potluck after church. And all the Mexican seesters cooked good food, arroz con leche, gorditas, enchiladas, and chicharrones. We had a lot of people at church, 20 more than normal so that was sweet.

 

Trailer park fun

But we had some cool miracles this week. We put up flyers all over the town in every Mexican store, for our English class. And we get several calls a day about the class, it has been really successful.

The Panhandle is super cool! Really hilly. Not at all like all my other areas.

Wow, that is hilly!
 

 Its pretty windy and hot right now. The people here are pretty much the same. Super good people. I think I realized how different the people are here when we were helping out with some service this week, we were helping with the grand opening of the fire station and the service opened with a prayer. I don't think that happens in Arizona? But it is really wierd to find someone that doesn't believe in God here. And its crazy how many churches are here. Not kidding on main street within half a mile there are 6 different churches, right next to each other Methodist, catholic, Lutheran, Nazarene, and a couple other Christian denominations.. You don't stand anywhere without seeing a church.

The view from our apartment on Highway 3

 

But we did some cool stuff this week. Like I said we helped out with the Fire station grand opening, that was pretty cool. The Fire chief here isn't a member, but he is like the best friend with the missionaries. He is always inviting us over for food and stuff.

 

 We are in tornado season, we get some huuuuge storms.

 

Tornado weather

We also got a check from "the community" for 100$ to fix our bikes (since they were robbed and then returned to us paitntd up and missing cranks)  That's the one thing about Guymon, everyone respects the missionaries a ton here. Some one gave us 20$ gift cards to Sonic the other day, just because. And whenever we go places seems like everyone is waving or honking at us, and we have no idea who they are. There are a lot of good people here.



Eveything is awosme. I really do love it out here. Its crazy my year mark has already come. On Friday Elder Garnett gave his dying testimony to the zone, he goes home in a couple of weeks. I realized how short this all really is. Too bad

OK is OK!

Here we are, the Liberal boys. Ibarra, Garnett, Malo, and myself

 

So I was expecting to be here in Liberal for at least 6 months. But I guess they changed their minds. I'm leaving Wednesday for Guymon, Oklahoma. the only area in Oklahoma. MY area is the entire panhandle.

 

Oklahoma panhandle is in a serious drought. The Grapes of Wrath, anyone?

 

 

 

 So it's pretty exciting. Its a really small branch that has some history.

 

The Branch President has been in his position for something like 30 years Because there is no one to take his position. It is pretty dysfunctional. Not at all like Liberal. Still a lot of Spanish.

But anyways one of the best missionaries in this mission, Elder De Leon served as assistant for like 6 transfers like 9 months. And For his last 4 transfers they put him down as training district Leader. So They sent him to Guymon, to see if he could help the struggling branch. for his last 4 transfers. He had been there for 2 and they decided to pull him and put him in an almost shut down Spanish branch in Wichita. So they are sending me out there. I'm pretty excited but really nervous. It is a huge responsibility. Still district leader.

 

 

 

I'm with Elder Blaylock, my first Utah companion. He's white too. But my Spanish is pretty good, I'm not worried anymore.

 

But I need a lot of prayers so that I can find out how to work with the people in Guymon. I find that every missionary has their niche or way of working, I really feel that in Guymon I will find mine. but I need a lot of strength from de Lord.

 

 

 visiting the Oklahoma temple

 

I'm still in the same zone, just 40 minutes south of Liberal not far at all. So I will still participate and work in the soccer tournament in July, and will come up to referee. Bishop here might be kinda mad. He didn't want anyone transferred because he needs us here for the tournament. But I guess I'm not that far.

 

Mark McKellar got transferred to Garden City, as a ZL. MY ZL's are still Garnett and Ibarra. I like them a lot ,Garnett is my really good friend from SC remember?, and he served in Guymon for 9 months of his mission, so that's good to have someone experienced.

April 28

April 28

 

This week was really good. I was thinking that there were probably some tornadoes somewhere in Kansas. It was super super windy yesterday, and very, very dusty. Too much for me to handle on foot. We got dust all in our mouths. But it was okay, most everyone let us in. Yea maybe I will see one soon. It makes sense that there would be a lot of tornadoes here. The weather changes every single day. If the wind is going north it is a warm day. If it is going south it is a cold day. And it changes at least once or twice a week. I guess when the two winds meet in a low pressure system that's where tornados happen.

 

We had dinner with the Bishop last night. And we were talking about the next big ward/missionary activity. And I thought of the idea of a soccer tournament. So in June we will be holding the S.U.D Liberal Cup. Or LDS Liberal cup in English. There will be 68 teams of 3. there will just be 3v3 tournaments! its going to be awesome. You should see how big soccer is out here. Every field has soccer goals all over the place. Its much bigger than any of the other sports. The population is like 80% Hispanic so that only makes sense. But its going to be a sweet activity! I really think that were going to have more people there than we know what to do with. We are going to charge 20 bucks a team, and then Bishop is going to use his monster grill, and we are going to cook food for everyone that comes.

 

 

Transfers were today. Me and Elder Malo are staying! The only one sister in my district is changing so that's good. Bu there were some big mission changes. I remember my friends Elder Neeley and Stopper? Elder stopper was in a trio companionship with me and Elder Gomez in Garden City when Elder Neeley got called to be Assistant. But anyways, Elder Stopper is now the Assistant, And Elder Neeley is a District leader in my zone. So that's really cool.

I'm in the back, next to my Chilanglo companion
 

 

 

Our Zone only has three districts, and two of the three district leaders are previous Assistants. Makes me feel like a little guy being on conference calls with those guys. But the zone leaders are in my district, and Elder Garnett just got transferred out to be in my district! He was the good friend of mine, that was my companion in Arkansas city when I was there for two weeks during Christmas time. So that's super cool to be serving in the same ward with him again, before he goes home at the end of July.

 

 And Elder Budge got sent to Garden City. So we're neighbors! There were no Spanish elders coming into the mission this transfer. So I was expecting to train again but no one even came. But I like Elder Malo a lot so I'm glad to be here with him!

 

 

 

I know its been 3 months since my last baptism. Its time to have another. I'm positive we will have a couple this transfer. Our investigator Carlos is doing super good. He will get baptized pretty soon here in a few weeks I'm sure. And he will be an awesome addition to the ward. He is really smart, and everyone knows him. And he was a Catholic priest for a long time here. So It will have a lot of merit when he is baptized. He came to another baptismal service we had on Saturday. The zone leaders baptized a lady named Maria Isabel. And he really liked the service.

 

We got a free tour through the Masonic lodge here in liberal.

 

We have a super cool investigator named Jimmy Johnson. He is pretty high up in masonry. But anyways the first 13 presidents and first 6 prophets of this dispensation were masons. It is a Fraternity.  I learned a lot from getting into the lodge. Their ordinances are almost the same as what we do in the temple. The masons were the people that built all of the old temples in the old testament, and so they know all the ordinances of the ancient temples. And so when the great apostasy came, those ordinances were kept on the earth through the free masons.  Its pretty cool.

  

 

Me and Elder Malo have been reading the new testament in Spanish for language study, and we just got through Luke. So I think we will be able to finish it this transfer and start the book of Mormon.

 

We started teaching this guy from Cuba and I hardly understand what he says. They speak so fast and so slurred. I'm sure that's how Brother Rojas speaks his Spanish. But he's a cool guy.

 

but this week went really well. This transfer is going to be a lot of fun with Elder Garnett around. His companion is from Spain, Elder Ibarra. And is super good at soccer. So we are going to have tons of fun. West Kansas has got to be one of the ugliest places in the mission. But one of the most fun, and best to serve in.