Mission update 7/28/2024

We have had a fun, busy week. Monday was our 42nd wedding anniversary so we snuck in some Italian food for a late lunch to celebrate. And then we remembered why we don't go out for Italian food very often. So full!

At our mission devotional on Monday we got to hear from both mission presidency counselors and their wives. It was a great meeting and we look forward to hearing more from them over the next few months. Gary got to lead the music and we sang the Handcart Song so he had to do some quick review from Primary days for that one.

Tuesday we went to the Draper Temple with just the two of us and had a lovely time. We had choir practice that evening and it went fairly well but there are a couple of songs we're supposed to have ready for tomorrow that just weren't close yet. Hopefully we'll have miracles occurring for our Patriotic/Pioneer program tomorrow!

Wednesday we got up, got ready and then stepped our the front door of our apartment building to watch the Days of 47 Parade. It was a great place to watch, right at the start of the route as they turned down 2nd East. We watched the whole parade and then went back into air conditioning. It was so hot! We loved the parade though and were excited to see it live. The last time we came to this parade was in 1997. 

Thursday we got a few interviews done but spent a big part of the day going with the Lunds (zone leaders) to take President and Sister Howes (counselor from Australia) on a tour of part of our zone. We started off in the Church Administration building where one of the sisters in our zone works doing research for the general authorities. She took us on a tour and it was so cool. We got to be in the room where the First Presidency and Apostles meet so of course we all took selfies.

Then we went to the woodshop in the basement of the Church Office Building and got to see some of the furniture being built for Elder Kearon.

We also visited the other offices that our zone has missionaries in and it was just so fun to see all that our zone does. We also got cupcakes in one office because they were celebrating someone's birthday and had extra. Life is hard but we suffered through.

Fun quilt in the Missionary Travel Department

Love this so much!!

By Friday afternoon we looked at our totals and were pretty impressed with how many students we got interviewed between us and the Smiths. We have known for a while that we only have the Smiths until next Wednesday but Friday we were able to find out why. They are moving over to the Service missionary department in the Church Office Building and will be our new zone leaders (replacing the Lunds). We are so excited for them, they will be fantastic. As far as we know we will still be the assistants so we will continue to work with them in that capacity. 

Friday evening we made it to another concert in the park and this one was all Broadway tunes. We loved it but realized we are not staying very current on musicals since we only recognized a few of the songs. 

Today we went to our ward and then up to the U of U hospital and Huntsman Cancer center to do musical numbers in both the branches up there. It was great and there are so many good people serving up there. 

From Gary:  If you are wondering where growth is happening in the Church, you just need to look at Africa!  A friend of mine from High School, Scott Wyatt, is now serving with is wife as Mission Leaders in Sierra Leone.  They just started this month.  He put the following picture on Facebook for us to see:

He then explained that they had just gone to a baptism for 64 people at three different services.  The thirty or so shown in this picture were all taught by two sets of Sister Missionaries and baptized last week!  They are having to limit the number of baptisms in many areas of Africa while they work to build up the Wards and Branches strong enough to handle so many new members!

 

We are still having amazing experiences every day as we speak to students all over the world who are using BYU Pathway Worldwide to get their education.  They continue to teach us much about how much our Heavenly Father loves us and all of His children!

It was also wonderful to be reminded of the great heritage we have received from all of our ancestral lines who joined the Church in the 1800s and eventually came to Utah.  We are so blessed to have had these pioneers in every one of our family lines!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 7/21/2024

 This week we finally have all of our new mission presidency here. The Howes got here on Thursday from Australia after waiting and waiting for their VISAs to come through. They will speak at our morning devotional tomorrow along with the other counselor and his wife so we'll get to know them better. 

Our mission choir director has been home in Iowa for a few weeks getting her house cleaned up after flooding in her area. They had a couple feet of water in their basement so it was a lot of work. We're all hoping they get back this week because the choir is supposed to do a patriotic/pioneer program in a week. We're sort of getting ready for that...

After church today we went up to the University of Utah Hospital to practice a musical number we're doing next week for the branches there and at the Huntsman cancer center. Apparently we'll do the opening hymn for one group and then run over to the other building and do the closing hymn there. As long as we have a guide to get us back and forth we might make it. 

Yesterday we had lunch with Bill, who has been renting the basement apartment in our North Logan home for many years. He is moving to Oregon to be with his sisters and we're going to miss having a steady, quiet, pay on time renter. 

Gary, Bill and Billie and Jody Reese (Jody is Gary's cousin and his wife Billie worked with Bill for years)

Students are getting more frantic for their interviews the closer we get to September. We wake up every morning to a dozen or more messages. Some of those students we can interview, some need other help. But, once they find a person who will respond they are just happy to get any help they can. 

I talked with a Russian man this week who is working on a software degree. He's been a surgeon in Russia but wants to leave and will have to get more education to do anything outside of Russia. So, he's making a rather big career change. Another student told me she was really excited because she learned to put together a resume in her Pathway Connect class and then that resume got her a job to help her as she finishes her classes. 

Tuesday we were driving home from the temple and noticed about a dozen Temple Square sisters all in various shades and styles of yellow dresses. Then we looked across the street and saw 4 or 5 all in red. The next day we ran into two sisters in orange and asked about the whole color matching thing. They told us that on zone meeting day, the various zones all try to dress in their zone's color. Fun!

We didn't get the whole yellow group but here are a few

Our grandson, Thomas, gave his mission "farewell" talk today and also played in a quartet with his Dad (Jeremy) and two of his brothers. We got to catch at least part of it thanks to video broadcast and he did wonderfully. It will be so fun to watch him serve and grow over the next two years. 

We got to "be there" for the setting apart

From Gary:  We always have amazing conversations with these BYU Pathway Worldwide students all over the world!  They love to share how much Pathway has changed their life in a positive way!  This week I had two students send us pictures from their baptisms when they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!  I talked with one a couple of weeks ago, and one just last Tuesday when they mentioned they were going to be baptized soon!  He got baptized today!  The timing is great because we can finish their Ecclesiastical Endorsement as a non-member before they become a member of the Church!  

Here are the pictures:

We are loving our mission!  And we are especially excited that our first grandchild is now a set-apart missionary at the same time as us!  What a wonderful time to serve God's children!

Love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 7/14/2024

 The first half of the week felt a little bit hopeless as we continued to plug away at interviews but didn't see much drop in the total number left. But, by the end of the week, we could actually see some progress and survival is likely. 

We just laugh when people ask us what day our P day is and how many hours we work a day. Most of the missionaries have a pretty set schedule, especially those in the Family Search library. They work 4 full and 1 half day each week and have the same time off every week. We end up probably working about the same amount but it's scattered throughout the day and the week so on the downside, it feels like we're working all the time but on the upside, we can schedule open time when we need it. It works pretty well for us and we don't envy those set schedule people at all.

Our temple trip this week was Taylorsville and it was lovely. We followed it up with Hawaiian food and quite enjoyed our afternoon.

Taylorsville Temple

I interviewed a single mom with four children who lives in Eswatini, far away from a branch of the church. The missionaries come to her home weekly to teach and she loves the Book of Mormon and the church but is just hoping and praying that some day there will be a branch close enough for her to become a member. She was inspiring, working hard, studying hard and trying her very best to raise good children. 

I got to give a zone devotional this week and it was one of those times when nothing came together until right before and then, even when I had a plan, I ended up wandering off topic for a bit of it. But, after the zone meeting, as sister came up to me and told me that the message, especially where I'd gone a bit off topic was exactly what she needed to hear that day. So, apparently the spirit knew what I needed to say a whole lot more than I did. As usual.

We had new missionaries doing their training this week and one couple came with their autistic son. He does not speak but is capable of doing work and understands well. He also loves to "sing" with all his heart and it is so fun to watch him just singing way with no sound coming out. They got an assignment in our mission and the son will be working at Welfare Square. It's so great that they can all serve at the same time. 

Yesterday we got to go to granddaughter Thalia's (Tyler and Marie) baptism. It was beautiful and Thalia is quite wonderful. Here is the photo from the front of the program. Great timing on those teeth!

Beautiful!

Post baptism lunch

From Gary:  I got some fun pictures from these students that we interview this week!  The first one is from a young man I spoke to about a week previously that told me he was getting baptized!  Good thing I was able to interview him as a non-member before he joined the Church!

This next one is from a young woman that told me she was married a few days ago!  I asked her to send me pictures of her wedding:

That is so much fun!  

We are working hard and having amazing experiences every day!  We are working with many of our missionaries as they are submitting their auditions for the October General Conference Choir that will be joining missionaries from the MTC and around Utah.  We are really looking forward to this amazing opportunity to sing in the Saturday Evening session!  

Love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 7/7/2024

 July is here and it has been a wonderful week. We spent Monday and Tuesday fitting in as many interviews as we could in between devotionals, meetings and the Layton Temple. Every day we get more and more messages from students in a panic about getting their endorsement interviews done. It feels like we're digging a well with a teaspoon but progress is happening. 

For lunch on Monday, we went to Maddox with the Johnsons and Smiths and met two of the people we work with in Pathway for a "farewell" lunch for the Johnsons. They then left on Wednesday for their home in Las Vegas where they will continue as service missionaries. 

Patsi, John, Gary, Sylvia, Trevor, David, Ann, and Kyle

At our Monday devotional, President and Sister Craven spoke and it was beautiful. They encouraged us to have a copy of Preach My Gospel right on the shelf next to our scriptures and to read from its pages every day.  It was so good to feel of their spirit and love for the missionaries. Our closing song was "I will Walk with Jesus" from the new church music and it is such a beautiful song. It's been playing in my head all week. 

Tuesday we went to the Layton Temple in between our interviews and loved spending time there. We also spent time on Tuesday getting lots of student information to the Smiths so they could continue with interviews while we were gone the rest of the week. 

At the Layton Temple

Wednesday through Saturday we had our family reunion with all of our children and grandchildren at The Snydermill Recreation Camp near Park City. It's a church camp and our kids reserved the lodge and surrounding areas for all 36 of us. It was a perfect place with bunk rooms for each family, a huge kitchen, large gathering area and plenty of things to do inside and out. Gary and I loved having everyone there and there was never a shortage of entertainment with all those grandchildren running around. It was rather hard to leave and have all our kids go back to their lives again. 

The whole Gary and Sylvia Pack family!

It was wonderful to be reminded about how all-important our family is to us.  Of all the things that come with this life and into eternity, nothing can even touch the love we have for each other!  We loved to see our children and their spouses just enjoying each other's company!  And we really get a kick out of seeing all of our grandchildren playing with their cousins and having so much fun together!

Our oldest grandson Thomas got his mission call and he will start his mission, the San Jose California Mission, in just a couple of weeks. He is excited to get going on it and we are impressed by all the things they already have lined up for him to do. We're so excited to watch him grow and serve!

Today in nursery we had one little boy and he has some autism issues so we just spent the whole time following him around as he wandered the church. We discovered that he loved to tear up paper so he took care of the coloring pages we had prepared quite happily. It was fun to get to explore our church building and find the back stairs that go from the basement right up onto the stage and another set of stairs that leads to pretty much nowhere. 

Now we dive right back in, trying to get all these students cleared to progress in their education. It will be a great week!

Just a few pictures from the reunion: