Mission update 6/30/2024

 This week started with our new mission presidency introductions at our Monday morning devotional. We had President and Sister Craven and the second counselor and his wife there in person. Meanwhile, the first counselor and his wife are still awaiting their VISAs in Australia so they introduced themselves over video. Hopefully they'll get here in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the former first counselor and wife are serving until they arrive.

2/3 of our new presidency

On Tuesday we had dinner at Maddox with the Johnsons (and the rest of our Pathway team) before the Johnsons left for home on Wednesday. They'll still be serving as service missionaries but we're going to miss them! 

Choir on Wednesday was a bit of an adventure. Our choir director and husband had to go home for a few weeks since they are from Spencer Iowa where some major flooding occurred last week. They had a foot or two at least in their basement. So, the choir gets to prepare for a patriotic program at the end of July with substitutes. It's going to be something.

The rest of our week was interviewing students as fast as we could and we made some great progress. But, there are still so many waiting for their interviews! We wake up every morning to messages and emails asking for help. 

It's fun when we get to talk to students who we interviewed a few months ago. It's great to see what they are learning and hear about their progress. One guy I talked to was telling me how fun it is when he writes a computer program and it works! He is a very happy geek in training.

We made it to another concert in the park on Friday and it was a youth acapella group. They were very good but we did notice that their songs all seemed to have a similar theme of teen angst. The crowd, most of whom were on the far side of fifty probably hoped for a few more upbeat, familiar songs. But it was great to be outside and see kids doing great things.

Today we were supposed to help in the nursery but there was only one child and his mom decided to just take him to class. So, that was easy. We'll see what happens next week.

This next week we'll work hard Monday and Tuesday and then have a family reunion with our kids the rest of the week. We're pretty excited about that!  We are headed to a Church Camp called the Snydermill Recreation Camp.  With any luck, all of our children and grandchildren will be there!

Happy July 4th Holiday to all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 6/23/2024

 This week started off with a very emotional fireside where President and Sister Holmes spoke for the last time for our mission since we get a new Presidency next week. It was beautiful and ended with the choir (joined by everyone else of course) singing God Be With You Till We Meet Again. So much crying! The choir also sang an arrangement of Sweet Hour of Prayer done by our mission secretary that was just beautiful.  She wrote in a whole verse of Viola playing with the piano and then both Violin and Viola playing with the choir on another verse, so we got to play for that number.

 

Mission Presidency except for President Faerber who spent a couple days in the hospital this week

Tuesday we had a meeting at the MTC with the General Conference music committee. We are on the committee because our choir, an MTC choir and sisters from the Temple Square mission will be singing in October conference. We are rather excited about this! It was fun to be in the meeting with the people who have done this many times before and see how organized they are. We are the representatives from our mission so we get to coordinate communication and make sure everyone knows what's going on.  We are also planning on singing in the choir for Conference for the Saturday evening session!  :) 

We are continuing to cram in as many interviews as we can each day and yet trying not to get completely overwhelmed. It's a bit of a balance and we usually end up at least a little overwhelmed all the time. Juneteenth was more or less a mission holiday but we still did interviews, just from home instead of the office. 

Gary's Juneteenth interview outfit

Today we spoke in our ward and it's always fun to sit up in front and see the whole ward. My talk was based on Elder Kearon's conference talk about God working relentlessly to bring us home and Gary talked about all that we have and take for granted in the gospel. Then we attempted to teach 4 and 5 year olds in primary about Alma, Amulek and Zeezrom. That may have not quite gone as well but the kids continue to be adorable so it's good.

We found a fun place to walk through on a hot day in the Gallivan Center, it was very refreshing! We have also appreciated that the City Creek mall is covered and air conditioned on hot days so we have a comfortable place to walk.

Beautiful and refreshing

Tomorrow we have a devotional with our new President and Sister Craven and also get a few minutes with them in their presidency meeting to explain all the choir stuff. It will be fun to see how things go with new mission leaders!  Gary gets to sing a duet in the devotional that he is not so sure about.  He would rather play his viola for sure!

Have a wonderful week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 6/15/2024

Another week just trying to get a little bit ahead of the students requesting interviews. At the first of the week we were ending each day farther behind than the day before but by the end, the numbers were down a little bit. We also got another couple who will be helping us for a few weeks. The Smiths (who show up in our temple pictures) have had another assignment in Pathway but have extra time right now so they'll help out with the interviews, thank goodness! 

With the Smiths (Draper Temple)

I got the nicest email from a woman in South Africa who I interviewed several months ago. She let me know that after I challenged her to be more regular in her scripture reading, she has worked hard to read her Bible every day and has felt God's help so much more in her life. I love that!

We had a meeting with the Ensign College Institute director who also is in charge of doing all the in person student, non member Ecclesiastical Endorsement interviews for Ensign. He was feeling very overwhelmed because all he was seeing was over 100 students waiting for interviews and he had no idea which were his and which were Pathway. After we met with him, we went through the list and sent him the 8 names that were his. The other 90 something are ours of course. I'm sure he is feeling much calmer now. Us, not so much :)

Friday night we went to another summer concert in the park, this one actually in the Brigham Young Historic Park. It was a fun night of jazz and the weather was beautiful. 

Phoenix Jazz and Swing Band with the Sugar Sisters

Saturday we made a quick trip to Logan so Gary could help Richard with some weed whacking and I could play with grandkids. Then last night we had a dinner with all 200 or so full time missionaries in our mission at the Mission President's home (yard). It was great, beautiful evening, great food and so many good people. 

So many fun missionaries to talk with and they have such fun stories.

We start this next week off with our monthly two hour all teams Pathway meeting. It's usually a mix of things that actually have something to do with what we do and things that we have nothing to do with. So, we'll see how that goes. Then, tomorrow night we have a devotional where President and Sister Holmes will be giving their "farewell" talks. They'll talk, the choir will sing and everyone will cry. We're looking forward to it!

From Gary: Today is Fathers Day!  We were asked by the Bishop to play O My Father in Sacrament meeting.  We have found many piano accompanied violin and viola duets that we love to play.  Music is a great way to find the Spirit of God and become inspired to be better and do better.

As I reflect on my father, William Donald Pack, I am so grateful for him in my life!  He was so kind and gentle  and taught me so many things about working hard, loving the outdoors, and loving God and our neighbors.  We spent many hours fishing together and talking about the beauty of the earth.  I love him!  I have always loved him and wished I were more like him.  I still find myself longing to speak to him.  I miss him so much. 

As I reflect on my chance to be a father, I am so humbled that Sylvia and I have been able to have our seven amazing children!  We love our six sons and one favorite daughter!  We love the families they have formed and the amazing things they are doing in the world.  We thank our Father in Heaven every day for our family!  Happy Fathers Day to all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 6/9/2024

 We started the week with a quick trip to Logan for brunch with a former Hong Kong missionary who served with both Gary and his brother, David. We squeezed that in in between a meeting which we did in a church parking lot (for decent wifi) in Logan and interviews here in Salt Lake after we got back. Then, that evening for our mission devotional, the two mission presidency counselors and their wives spoke. It was a beautiful evening and oh we're going to miss both those couples! 

Gary with his brother on one side and Dean Hare on the other

Tuesday we went to the Orem Temple again after a morning of non stop interviews with anxious students, it was lovely to feel peace and quiet in the temple. It gave us a much needed break before we came home and did the research and message sending for the next day's interviews.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we did more interviews each day than we've done before and it was great to get so many students through but oh so exhausting mentally! Most of these students are doing well and are really feeing the help of God as they work through their classes. Some, however, seem to be just in it for the education and aren't letting God into their lives as much. It's still great they get their education but it could be so much better! 

Friday evening was the first of the Concerts in the Park series for the summer. There was a chance of rain so it ended up being in the Tabernacle but was a great concert with Kenneth Cope and Tyler Castleton. We've looking forward to concerts every week again. We got so spoiled back in December with so much music every week. 

Gary interviewed a guy this week who did great and then a couple days later was baptized so he sent Gary his baptismal picture. So fun!  From Gary: This is the picture from Oluwagbemi Yoloye.  We talked on Monday, and when I asked if he was a member of the Church, he said, not yet, but I am getting baptized on Friday!  I was glad to hear that he was not baptized yet, because I cannot interview them if they have already joined the Church!  We got his interview done, then as promised, he sent me a picture on Friday with him in his baptismal clothes!  We talk to so many every week who have listened to the message of the gospel and want to join the Church!  

Meanwhile, I interviewed a guy who makes fancy cakes and he sent me a picture of one he did for the celebration his Pathway group had at the end of the class. He decorated it in "Pathway gold". 

Not a great picture but it was so fun that he wanted to share it with us

On the way to church today, a family in our ward had a car accident on the street right in front of the church. Their van ended up upside down in the road with everyone hanging upside down from their seatbelts. Everyone got out okay but so scary! Of course the whole ward gathered by the windows after Sacrament meeting to watch the tow truck and clean up. Not the way you want a Sunday to go!

Today is our monthly One Heart Gathering and we are a little sad about this one because in the group of soon departing missionaries are the Johnsons who we have been in Pathway with. They head home in just a couple of weeks and we'll miss working with them, eating clam chowder at Market Street with them and going on temple excursions with them. It is a real problem with missions, this whole leaving thing!

Have a wonderful week!

Mission Update 6/1/2024

 We started off the week driving up to Logan after church where we celebrated grandson Elliot's (Richard and Daria) 3rd birthday. He had a great time eating cheetohs and cake--nutrition at it's finest. We stayed over night in Logan and visited our parent's graves on Memorial Day. My parents are in Mantua and Gary's in Logan. Both are beautiful, peaceful cemeteries and we love visiting. We finished up the day with a family potluck picnic in Logan and had a great weekend all around.

Mantua Cemetery

Logan Cemetery with Gary's parents and oldest brother

Our grandson, spiderman, made an appearance

Tuesday we got back to work with interviews and a trip to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Then Wednesday and Friday we really loaded up on interviews. The requests keep coming in and it was good to get in a couple of very packed days this week along with more reasonable ones. On Thursday we got to spend a couple of hours with the incoming 2nd counselor (mission presidency) and our zone leaders as we took the counselor and his wife around our zone so they could get an idea of all that goes on. It was great for us too to get to meet more of the missionaries. 

If you look closely you can see the duck enjoying the fountain in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

I talked with a student this week who is American but living in Cambodia teaching English. She grew up hearing all sorts of anti Mormon things and pretty much became non religious. She didn't even know Pathway was connected to the church until she was already taking classes but she has loved it. She has even loved the institute classes and is enjoying the Book of Mormon. At the moment she seems to mostly be enjoying the story and history but she says that she no longer hates the church because she has seen the good it does and has felt the change in her life. 

From Gary:  We have amazing interviews every week!  I spoke to a young man in Nigeria this week that has grown up as a Christian all of his life.  He was introduced to BYU Pathway by a friend who is a member of the Church.  He said he has been amazed by how much our church has to learn about Jesus Christ that he had never heard before!  He has loved it so much that he has a baptismal date for June 7th!  We are talking to many students of all ages that are seeing great light in the restoration of the gospel and the power of eternal families that only our Church provides!

We continue to ooh and aah over all the flowers around Temple square and in the surrounding neighborhoods. Fortunately the weather has been great for walking and we're hoping it stays that way for a bit before getting ridiculously hot.

Big flower "bowls" in front of the Church Office Building

We love walking in the Avenues, so many flowers!

Yesterday we got to go the Layton Temple open house and loved it so much! It is so good to have a temple in Layton where we spent so much of our lives. Blaine, Richard and families came as well as Blaine's in laws. It was a fun afternoon and we followed it up with dinner at Appleby's. 

Layton Utah Temple

Happy grandpa with his arms full of grandsons

Today we loved teaching the Primary kids about Alma the Younger and they were so fascinated with the story. They are such a fun group of 4 and 5 year olds. Best place to be on Sundays!