Mission Update 4/28/2024

 This has been a week. Thursday evening, after several months of being on hospice and a week of going downhill rather quickly, my father, Norman Davis, passed away.  So, we spent Friday and Saturday in Logan preparing for a funeral, cleaning out his apartment and so on. We'll spend more days this coming week up there with the funeral being on Friday. We are so happy that he is back with my mom who he missed ever since she passed away two years ago. 

From Gary: Family is everything!  Norman and Kris had two amazing daughters and now have 11 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren!  They were lifelong active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and served in many calling along the way.  They loved the outdoors and passed that to their posterity.  We are eternally grateful for the knowledge we have of the great plan of salvation that helps us know Norman and Kris are together forever, and that we will see them again!

Earlier in the week we managed to get some missionary work done with several interviews, meetings and so on. A new semester has started with Pathway so we are getting those cream of the crop students who are proactive in getting their endorsements done. It makes for easy and wonderful interviews. 

We went to the Ogden Temple this week again and we always feel so at home there. We loved the flower gardens, so amazing!

Early Thursday morning we picked up our daughter in law Jane (Adam) and grandson Calvin up at the airport. Jane came out for her sister's BYU graduation. They spent the day with us and we wandered through the gardens on Temple Square and went to the Church History Museum before we took them down to Provo to meet Jane's family. 

Friday morning we woke up at our hotel in Logan after a completely exhausting day on Thursday to this beautiful view. What a great reminder of why the funeral this next week will be a celebration, not a time of inconsolable sorrow.

Logan Temple From our Hotel Room

We knew when we came on our mission that Norman would likely not live long enough to see us come home.  We are grateful to have been called to a mission close enough to be able to visit him multiple times each month and share our mission stories with him.  He sometimes seemed to miss having us right up the street, but he always cheered us on in our missionary work and really appreciated our visits.  There is nothing that brings us closer to God than the passing of a loved one.  We feel the veil is very close and have feelings of being watched over by those who have passed on before us.  Until we meet again dear Norman.

Mission update 4/21/2024

Hello Spring here in Salt Lake City!  The trees are blossoming, the tulips are in full bloom, so many flowers are growing and blooming everywhere.  We try to walk through the portion of Temple Square that is open and look at how many things are different each day.  It is a beautiful time of year! 

The gardens continue to amaze us

This week's temple was Jordan River and we did sealings. Sealing families together is the best part of the Temple, so beautiful! We followed it up with lunch at Archibald's in Gardner Village. We have loved that place since we lived in West Jordan many years ago. Great restaurant and fun shops!

View East of the Jordan River Temple

There were lots of silly signs in the shop next to the restaurant

After the temple we went for a walk up in the Avenues and loved all the unique houses and fun gardens. We met a lady who moved there in 2001 and said their house was a non stop party during the 2002 Olympics and they loved it. We have lots more exploring to do in the Avenues.

Fun house in the Avenues

We had good interviews this week and lots of frantic students trying to get everything done by the time classes start tomorrow. Some made it, some will have to wait till next semester. We feel bad for those who don't get done in time but can't just go hold their hand through the process. Sometimes you just have to learn to take the initiative and figure things out. Other times, the lack of internet, leaders who don't quite understand or family emergencies just take over. Life is hard!

This week was training week for a group of service missionaries and on day one, one woman fell and broke her hip. Not a great start to the week. Falling is the number one worry for pretty much our whole mission. Three of the missionaries will be assigned to our zone so we got to meet them and get to know a little about them.

One of our service missionaries has the best shoes!

Saturday we spent time in Logan with my Dad and helping Richard fix some things at the house.  We see clearly on trips to the North, that the Spring is a couple of weeks behind in Cache Valley. Things are coming, but are behind for sure.  We got home in time to have dinner with a friend and then head to West Jordan to play for a stake conference adult session where we did a musical number. The session was wonderful and the talks were so good. We felt blessed to be there. 

Today we got to teach the 4 and 5 year olds in Primary and it was a fun adventure. We talked about prayer and how to pray. We gave the example of thanking Heavenly Father for mothers and fathers and got to hear probably more than we needed about parents who aren't perfect :)  Typical day in Primary. 

We love being missionaries and working with so many other missionaries each day!  Being around those who love to serve is a great blessing in our lives!

Mission update 4/13/2024

 We loved Conference Weekend!  We went to the Saturday morning session in the Conference Center, then drove to Logan and spent time with Grandpa Davis and had dinner with Richard and Blaine and their families before enjoying the Saturday evening session.  We spent Conference Sunday at home, being lazy, loving the conference sessions and celebrating Gary's birthday. It was nice to be less busy and just enjoy the day. The highlight was President Nelson's talk where it felt like he was having a personal chat with us from his living room. We've watched it twice so far and it is just so good and needed! 

Black Forest Cherry cupcakes for the birthday boy

The messages of Conference really touched us!  Please read Elder Kearon's message God's Intent To Bring You Home.  I loved this quote: "My friends, my fellow disciples on the road of mortal life, our Father’s beautiful plan, even His “fabulous” plan,¹ is designed to bring you home, not to keep you out.² No one has built a roadblock and stationed someone there to turn you around and send you away. In fact, it is the exact opposite. God is in relentless pursuit of you. He “wants all of His children to choose to return to Him,”³ and He employs every possible measure to bring you back."  God loves His children!  :)

We have had a very strange week with Pathway. The number of students requesting interviews has dropped to fewer than we have ever seen since starting this mission assignment. So, we've worked on problems, gone through and cleared out duplicates and worked on a presentation for a meeting in a couple weeks. Fortunately on Friday we got a new batch of students who need interviews so there is hope for a better week ahead.

Tuesday we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and enjoyed the beautiful view from the front of the temple toward the east. 

Pathway Missionaries at Oquirrh Mountain

That evening we had dinner with Gary's brother David and his wife Sandy at the apartment of Elder and Sister Ng. David was companions with Elder Ng in Hong Kong many years ago.  Both David and Gary knew Elder Ng's father who was the Stake Patriarch in Hong Kong.  Sister Ng also served in Hong Kong for her mission. We had a beautiful dinner and fun conversation.  Elder Ng is an amazing cook!  Sister Ng helped of course.  The Ngs met briefly in Hong Kong when they were both missionaries, then met again in England when they were both in school there. They spent most of their lives in Holland, and plan to go back there after their mission here in Salt Lake City.

Hong Kong Connection

We are trying to meet other missionaries in our Zone since we are now called to be Assistant Zone Leaders.  On Thursday we met a few of them who serve in Military Relations. It was fun to see what other missionaries in our Zone do. They work on the 24th floor of the Church Office Building which has a great view over the city. We were maybe just a little jealous of their view.

The cherry trees at the Utah State Capitol are in bloom so we walked up there this week (at a very slow uphill pace) and were amazed at all the people. But, even with all the people, it was so beautiful and a fun walk.

At the Capital While Blooming

Friday night we had some excitement in our apartment building. The fire alarm went off at around 10:00 pm and we got to have an impromptu neighborhood party. More than ten fire trucks showed up and we all waited around while the fire department investigated and then were able to go back inside about half an hour later. Fortunately the weather was beautiful and there were lots of fun people to talk to. We always love seeing and spending a few minutes with the Sister Missionaries from all over the world who live in our apartment complex and serve on Temple Square.  We met one from Taiwan who was here for her first day in Salt Lake and was glad to speak a little Mandarin with Gary while we waited for the excitement to die down a little bit.

Fire Alarm Fun

Have a wonderful week and remember how much we love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission Update 4/6/2024

 We have had an exciting week! We started off with Easter of course and it was beautiful. Our ward here was wonderful with great speakers and of course adorable Primary children singing. We also got to do a musical number which is always fun. Following that, we took Easter dinner up to Logan to eat with my Dad and had a good time with him. 

Monday morning we headed over to the North Office Building (NOB) which is the mission office and also the place where several of the mission zones work. We now have office space there and will work at least part of the day outside of our apartment. It's very exciting to actually work around other missionaries now! It's fun to see more of the work that goes on in our mission. 

Monday evening we had a mission fireside with Carl Anderson who is "Mr. Kirtland" and we loved learning more about all the marvelous events that happened in the Kirtland Temple. I think when we find out how many times God has actually spoken to man on earth we will be so amazed. What Brother Anderson taught us was really fascinating, in that he reminded us of how the Church organization was really restored in Kirtland!  The keys of the Priesthood were restored by the ancient prophets, and the Quorum of the Twelve was organized along with the Quorum of Seventy!  Many other things transpired in Kirtland, including the largest portion of the D&C!  What an exciting time in the history of the church to see this historic building purchased by the Church!

Tuesday we got up really early and left for Manti with the other Pathway missionaries to go to the Manti Temple open house. We got there just before 9:00 am and were able to walk right in. The temple is so beautifully restored and was just amazing. It was definitely worth getting up early for. By the time we left Manti, the line to get in was circling the temple.  We love this temple!

While we were in Manti, back home in Salt Lake the angel Moroni was flying back to the Salt Lake Temple. Such an exciting day! 

Not a great picture but we can see him from a window in our office at the NOB

The rest of the week was interviews with students, helping other students get past hurdles and learning more about our zone as we try to help the Zone Leaders with the huge zone.  We have over 130 Senior Missionaries in our Zone! Our first job as Assistant Zone Leaders is a zone game night so we're trying to get in party planning mode and being reminded that we are not great at it. But, we can do it!

Yesterday (Saturday) we got to the conference center for the opening session of conference and it was so good. We loved that Elder Gong and his wife came over to say hi to our section of missionaries. It is also just so great to be there in person and watch all that goes on to make conference happen. 

We left for Logan right after the morning session to watch the afternoon session with my Dad and then the evening session with our Logan kids. Busy day but oh so good.  The weather was funny all day, with snow in the morning that covered the flowers at Temple Square:

The poor flowers before the morning session of Conference!

By the time we got out of the morning session it had warmed up enough to melt the snow off of the flowers, so they were starting to like life a little bit better!

We love our mission, and we especially love the support we get from all of you!  We are so blessed to be able to preach the gospel every day all over the world!  We love you all!