Mission update 2/23/25

 We celebrated President's Day by doing interviews from our apartment instead of the office. So, Gary got to wear sweats with his white shirt and tie and I was barefoot of course. After interviews (which end when it starts getting too late in Europe and Africa, and is still too early to call Asia and the Pacific) we got caught up on a few things from the weekend. It was a halfway lazy day and quite lovely.

In contrast to that, Tuesday started out with a computer that decided to be slower than slow just to aggravate us. We depend on the stupid machines and have no idea who we're interviewing next without them. But, the day got better, the interviews got done and we came home to some cute Valentine's Day cards from two of our grandchildren so all ended well.

Wednesday and Thursday tend to be non stop and a bit exhausting but we got through and had some really great students to interview. I spoke with one student from the Dominican Republic who speaks French, Haitian Creole, Spanish and English. They always apologize for their poor English but I am always amazed at the languages they've learned while I just know English. 

Thursday we had snow all day which was quite lovely. We really appreciate all the crews around Temple Square who work constantly to keep the sidewalks safe! This year they've done more winter gardening than snow removal but they're ready for whatever comes.

Friday we wandered around the Tabernacle, mostly to check on when the Assembly Hall would be open for tours again (probably around conference). We got to talk with several of the Temple Square missionaries and that is always wonderful. We also got to see the progress on the temple from the west side which we don't see as often. And, we even got to see some flowers that were thriving right next to the Tabernacle.

If you look closely you can see the newest, rather temporary statue on Temple Square :)

Sheltered by the rock wall this bunch is doing great in February

Today we had Stake Conference and the choir was wonderful. They were from the French branch in our stake and so the hymns they sang were in French but oh so beautiful! Most of these French speakers are from African countries where French is spoken who have moved here to find better lives. There were several youth speakers who all did great and we were especially impressed with the 8 year old who didn't seem nervous at all. A teenage girl spoke and had to explain at the beginning that the reason she walked in with a baby in a car seat was that it was a robot baby for a class at school, just in case anyone was worried about her choices!

We so love our ward and stake here with so much diversity and so many different life experiences. It makes us so much more aware that we are in a world wide church.

Sunday evening we had our monthly Cache Valley Pack sibling gathering at a sister in law's home in Hyrum. We got to hear about the trips two of Gary's brothers took in the last little while. One to Africa to hike Kilimanjaro and one on a three week cruise around various Asian countries including Hong Kong. So many fun stories shared by these world travelers!  

Bunches of our Favorite People!

We continue to love our mission!

We love all of you!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 2/16/2025But

 Happy middle of February. We had a devotional with a church historian on Monday and it was really a fun one. Keith Erekson was asked to travel around holding question and answer sessions with mostly young adults. The goal was to go as long as was needed with each session to answer all the questions that were asked. He shared some of his experiences with that, and also shared some deep dark secrets--where the answers to many of the questions are hidden. Then he helped us find a couple of places on gospel library that answer so many of the questions (hidden in plain sight). One of those places in the church history section under Answers to Church History questions and another is the list of topics under Topics and Questions.  Here is a screenshot of a slide that he shared with us about some of the questions that are being asked:

Wednesday was a funny day with cold, snow flurries and lots of wind. Walking outside was an adventure! But, it was so fun to see actual snow this winter! Choir was fun that evening. One of our choir directors likes to end choir with all of us going out into the lobby of the Church Office Building, circling around the piano and singing some of the songs. The acoustics are wonderful out that and we go home feeling great.

We're really bad at remembering to take pictures but on Thursday we had dinner with the Morrises who are service missionaries in our zone. Elder Morris worked with Gary at EDS many, many years ago in Salt Lake so they had fun catching up. The Morrises get to work with the young service missionaries who help with tech stuff.

Friday we loaded up the suburban, picked up three sisters from our mission and headed north. Our first stop was the Pocatello Temple where we did a session along with the Smiths and Reeders from our mission.

Missionary Friends at the Pocatello Temple

More Pocatello Temple

Then we headed to Blackfoot where we stayed over night so we could go to the funeral for Elder Von Kunz the next day. The funeral was absolutely perfect with all of the children speaking and sharing such fun stories about their dad. Gary and I got to play prelude and postlude and all the missionaries (at least 20, probably more) sang the first verse of Called to Serve and then were joined by the congregation for the closing hymn. It was such a beautiful tribute for a man who devoted his life to serving the Lord and other people.

Elder Von Kunz Funeral Program

Today in primary we watched the latest Friend to Friend broadcast, featuring members of our ward. The kids were very focused the whole time and loved seeing people they knew. 

So Fun to see the February Friend to Friend

With Members of our Whittier Ward!

Tomorrow is sort of a day off because of Presidents Day, but we're going to do interviews in the morning so we don't get too much further behind. We are planning to work from our apartment so we can get away with wearing warm fuzzy socks and just have to look "covid" official. 

From Gary:  We were very grateful for good enough weather this weekend to be able to safely make it to Elder Kunz's funeral.  We will be forever blessed to have worked with Elder and Sister Kunz.  She is hoping to return either as a Service Missionary from their home in Blackfoot Idaho or to actually come back to Salt Lake and continue to help us with these BYU Pathway Ecclesiastical Endorsement interviews!  What an amazing couple and a great example to all.  

I spoke to a man in Ghana this week who is 40 years old and finally able to get into a place where he can get an education through BYU Pathway.  He was referred to Pathway from a friend who is a member of the Church.  He has completely fallen in love with the Church through his Institute classes and the BYU Pathway gatherings!  He and his wife are now attending Church along with their small children and are planning to join the Church in the next few months!  We hear stories like his every week and see the hand of the Lord in moving His work forward around the world!

We are still loving our mission!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 2/9/2025

 We had a devotional with President Camille Johnson (Relief Society President for the church) on Monday and it was wonderful. She is quite amazing and spoke about being able to have both grief/stress/doubt etc and joy in our lives at the same time. Because of Jesus Christ, these can co exist in our lives and we can truly feel joy, no matter the circumstances in our lives. It is a bit freeing to know that!

She also shared what she has been doing with humanitarian work around the world but then said that "you are the bishop's storehouse." Meaning, we are the help that is needed where we live, in our neighborhoods and towns. 

Tuesday we had dinner with the Kershizneks who served in Hong Kong with Gary many years ago. We discussed plans for this year's Hong Kong mission reunion and had a great dinner and evening with them. It's fun that Gary is still in contact with so many of his fellow Hong Kong missionaries and their mission president.

Wednesday we found out that Elder Von Kunz passed away so we are making plans to go to that funeral this next week. He and his wife have been an inspiration to our whole mission, so many of us will be travelling up or watching the funeral on zoom. 

Packs and Kunzs - Together in the Work

We interviewed a couple of brothers this week and they were both very sharp but as we compared notes afterwards (we each interviewed one of them), we agreed that they were definitely cut out for computer programming, which they were both studying. Neither had much to say but you could tell they were very sharp and what they said was right to the point. It's so funny how we have some interviews like that and others where each question produces a long monologue. We had a good mix of both this week. 

Last night our MTC district got together for a dinner and had a great time. We always share experiences and it is so fun to see how much growth is happening and how many our really loving what they are doing and how they are serving. A couple of the sisters have recently gotten new assignments and are so happy with where they have ended up. One will be the new mission financial secretary and she is just giddy with joy. Not the reaction I would have to that news...

The Kopps finished their mission and went home to Switzerland but were back this week for our party. We love them!  And Swiss Chocolate makes everyone happy!

North side of the temple, construction of new sealing rooms

Beautiful clouds from our office window

From Gary:  The most impactful story from this week was the death of Elder Von Kunz.  He and his wife Sister Sheila Kunz are from Blackfoot Idaho.  He served as Stake President there.  In August of 2023 he was just getting released as Stake President when he was diagnosed with ALS.  When the General Authority released him, he was told to get his mission papers in and go on a mission as fast as possible.  They got their papers in and were called to our Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission.  They arrived about 10 months ago and started to serve in the Church History Library.  They felt they wanted to have more on their plate, so they asked for more to do.  We were able to get them called to help us part time with our BYU Pathway Worldwide Ecclesiastical Endorsements.  They have been helping us for several months.  About three weeks ago, they were sent home by Von's doctors to be put on hospice since his ALS had advanced quickly.  They were still doing interviews with us literally on the day Von passed away this week.  Talk about serving to the best of your ability until your last breath.  We love Von and Sheila and the example they have been to us and every other person who has known them.  We are so grateful for the plan of salvation that assures us that this friendship is eternal!

We are still loving our mission and the adventures that bring us closer to God every day!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 2/2/2025

 Happy Groundhog Day! It's 53 degrees and windy here today so who knows what season it is.

We started off the week feeling overwhelmed by all the things floating around and needing to get done. Once we got them all written down it became much more manageable and the week ended better than it started. It's not that we have too much to do, just that there are several different things we're in charge of, and trying to corral them all is tough. But, after spending one morning this week doing nothing but going through the to do list, things feel much more under control.  

We had a bit of a miracle day on Wednesday. We had 10 interviews scheduled with most of them being two students at the same time so we could each interview one. Then, Gary woke up sick and I ended up needing to do all but one of the interviews. Miraculously, everything worked out with some students being ready early, some needing later times and all the connections working. I even found that I had some of the best discussions I've ever had with students even though I was really feeling rushed to get through each interview. I love when we are blessed with time stretching to fit what we need to get done!

Friday we went with the Smiths to the Deseret Peak Temple in Tooele. It was a great drive out past the Great Salt Lake. The temple is beautiful and it was so good to be out in a more open area. 

Deseret Peak Temple with Elder and Sister Smith

On our way home we noticed that the south side of the Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City was open. It has been closed for over a year so it was very exciting to see it opened back up. We went for a walk later in the day and loved seeing all the progress and changes. 

Priesthood restoration statues on the south side of the Tabernacle

Still lots of landscaping to do but progress!

The fences will be much more open from outside Temple Square instead of solid walls

We enjoyed watching them get this rather cumbersome load ready for the crane

And off it goes

If you look closely you can see the Christus statue in the visitor's center

It's so fun to have these times when all of a sudden you see lots of progress. Then we go back to lots of weeks where it seems nothing is getting done. But, it's getting there!

In our ward today we had a man who is incarcerated bear his testimony. He got permission to get out for two hours to come to church and he was so happy. He talked about how much joy he is finding in his life as he is making the changes he needs to align himself with the church. 

We just got back from our monthly Break the Fast with all the missionaries from our apartment building. It's so fun to sit by different people each month and get to know a bit of their stories. We sat by a couple from LeGrand Oregon today. The wife is from Singapore and they met when the husband was on a business trip there. She is the only member in her family and talked about how she is working to track down the family members who are from China. It sounded a bit like our lines when we run into issues connecting to the British ancestors. Family history is fascinating!

From Gary:  In case you were wondering, I just had a 24-hour tummy bug that cleared up quickly, so that was good.  We still got a lot of good work done this week.  We are still loving our assignment with BYU Pathway Worldwide!

It has always been fun to be at Church Headquarters and get to hear a lot of things that most do not get to hear.  This week we heard that President Nelson still goes to work almost every day and fully is planning on being here for the completion of the work on the Salt Lake Temple!  We love and sustain him!  

It really is eye-opening to talk to the other missionaries in our mission and hear about their assignments and the experiences they are having as they build the Kingdom in their areas.  The work that happens here and around the world is so awe-inspiring and amazing that it expands our view constantly!

We are loving our Come Follow Me studies about the early restoration activities.  I get pretty excited to meet some of my ancestors who were involved early in this work and get their stories in a much more complete version!  I would love to see what Joseph Smith is doing today in the continuing process of the restoration and would also love to know more about what his role will be as the second coming arrives!  Aren't you curious?  We truly are involved in a "marvelous work and a wonder!"

We did a "Relatives Around Me" in the Family Tree app activity with those missionaries that live in our apartment complex and found out that one of the new missionaries is my third cousin!  He comes down through Lorenzo Hill Hatch just like I do!  He has never been to the museum in Franklin Idaho and see the house of Lorenzo there, so we are going to do that together when the weather gets warmer!  I have found many fun cousins here on a mission with us! 

Also, we are now in the middle of Chinese New Year if you missed the memo!  We celebrated by getting some Dim Sum at a fun restaurant here in SLC!  And yes, Sylvia always lets me eat the chicken feet without help from her!  And I got to speak Chinese with some of the workers there who found it quite entertaining to hear me speaking their language!

We love this work!

Have a marvelous week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack