Mission update 12/22/2024

 Almost Christmas and we had a beautiful Sacrament meeting program today with scriptures from Luke and 3rd Nephi along with lots of music. We got to sing with the Primary kids and play for a couple of musical numbers. There was also a guitar duet and an organ solo. We felt like we were having a mini Tabernacle Choir Christmas program in our own ward minus an actual choir since our ward hasn't managed to put one together yet.

In other news from our ward, we found this on Instagram (these men are in our ward here): 

In a Pathway team meeting on Monday, I heard some great advice that got me through several chaotic moments this week. When facing more than you can handle, take a deep breath, deal with one problem, then another deep breath, another problem and so on. Very simple but it sure helped when dealing with all the student issues.

On Tuesday we took orange rolls to the NOB in the morning and they were quickly gone within an hour. They also made our apartment smell like Christmas which was so fun! Now it really feels like the holidays.

Interviews went well this week and we think more problems are getting solved than are coming in. With school starting in a couple of weeks the student support team is working like crazy to help the students get through. We really like when students send us messages telling us they've been able to get registered for the semester.

Sometimes we don't quite make it back to the office in time for interviews so a convenient seat comes in handy.

Thursday was a big day for our zone. In our morning zone meeting, the mission presidency announced a zone split so half our zone will now be in a new zone. The current name of the new zone is the West Zone because it includes the missionaries working in the west most buildings in the mission. Several of the districts work out of the Triad Center (Ensign College and the KSL and Deseret News buildings) but no one seems to think the "Triad Zone" is a good name :)

Thursday evening we had our zone party (for the both zones) and we had a great evening of food, music and time together. There were about 150 people there and everything went beautifully and smoothly.

 

Musical entertainment from a local choir

Friday we got to go to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert and it was so good! We loved the music, the stories and then beautiful visuals. It was definitely a night to remember!

Yesterday we went shopping with Gordon and Maria for Christmas Eve lunch with 5 of our 7 children at their new home in Hooper. We had a great time shopping for the ingredients for Chinese Hot Pot. That was followed by a birthday party for Blaine and Deanna's youngest. It was a fun day!

Birthday cake is so good!

This week we'll do some work but also take a couple of days off for Christmas Eve and Day. We are especially excited to spend time with our family!  What a wonderful time of year!

Merry Christmas one and all!

We love you!

Elder and Sister Pack