Mission update 12/1/2024

 We had a wonderful week of Thanksgiving. We started off the week with our mission choir Christmas Program which we had to fit in before the current choir director leaves for home. It went quite wonderfully with the usual miraculous help from above. One of the missionaries in our mission has written a bunch of poems about Christmas--from the perspective of the wise men, shepherds, Mary etc. and those were scattered in between the songs as well as a beautiful slide show with pictures of the Nativity. 

We had interviews most mornings along with pulling the new students off the endorsement requests and finding all their information so we could contact them. One day the computer and I were getting along worse than usual so there were several "walk abouts" around the office, visiting other missionaries so I could calm down and not punch the computer. 

In one of my interviews I asked the student if he was staying away from coffee, alcohol etc. He said, "oh I know about that, it's the Word of Wisdom, the missionaries taught me all about that last week." He then explained it all to me and said that of course he lives it. He's planning to be baptized this month. 

We spent Thanksgiving with Tyler and family and had a wonderful day with great food and fun games. Gary even won one of the games which is very unusual for him. He always says he never wins but he can't say that any more :)

Cutest Turkey on Thanksgiving Day

Friday and Saturday we did a bit of work finding student information and getting ready to get interviews set up for this week but we also had time to do some window shopping, relaxing and watch a few Christmas movies. 

Fun stained glass on the west side of the train station which is now a hotel

This evening we went over to see all the lights at Temple Square and got into the Tabernacle for part of a concert from a combined institute choir that was beautiful. We loved seeing more lights and decorations than last year, so pretty!

Tomorrow we'll have interviews, lots more students to track down and hopefully be able to hear more music at one of several locations that groups perform at throughout the day. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

From Gary:  We have spent some time this week thinking about what we are grateful for!  We are so grateful for family!  We love each of our children and their amazing spouses!  We love all of our grandchildren!  We love our siblings and their wonderful families!  Our most important life experiences seem to start and continue with family at the very center of everything that matters the most!

We feel so blessed to be missionaries at this time!  We are having great experiences every day that remind us of the great plan of happiness that has been laid out by our Father in Heaven for His children!  We know firsthand how with Christ's help we can do so much more and be so much more than we can ever do or be on our own!  We love the scriptures and the words of living Prophets!  We love the temples and what we can gain there as we serve there!  We love the Ward here in Salt Lake where we get to serve and the friends we have gained!  We love the music we have been able to be part of while we have served here!

We could literally write chapters on each of the statements above and still not be able to express all of our appreciation and gratitude for the blessings we have seen in our lives!  And there are so many more subjects that we could add to the above list and write chapters on them too!

During this coming Christmas season, we plan to look for more ways to be grateful and more ways to serve our Father in Heaven's children with love and kindness!  

Have a wonderful week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack