Mission Update 3/16/2025

 This has been a week that ended much better than it was in the middle! 

We started off with our Monday morning devotional and Gary got to sing in a quartet, God's Gracious Love, from the new hymns. It was beautiful and the devotional was great as well. It makes for an early start to the day but it's worth it.

Tuesday started off with the discovery that our master spreadsheet which we all share as Chaplains had been deleted because the employee who put it together no longer works for Pathway. So, that was a mess. Then the endorsement request system crashed which is where we pull the names of students needing their interviews and clear them when they're done. Then, the Pathway search program crashed which is where we look up the information on the students. So, it was just a special day all around. 

It took until Thursday to get the endorsement system fully working again and then we started to rebuild our spreadsheet. By Friday we were more or less feeling on top of things, kind of. We've lost a bunch of information but we can survive without it. 

But, other things were great this week. We went to a concert at the Cathedral of the Madeleine on Tuesday with some choirs and an orchestra from Utah county. The music was absolutely beautiful and the Cathedral is a wonderful place for acoustics. We loved the whole evening!

Wednesday we had a lunch meeting over at the Pathway building so we got to catch up with some of the Pathway people we work with but don't see much in person. We also got some great Argentinian food which was fun.

Obligatory picture in the Pathway building

The students we interviewed continued to be delightful and so happy to live the standards required. I talked to one girl who is from Nigeria but has lived in the UK for the past few years. She was all bundled up in a sweater and says she still hasn't gotten used to the cold yet. It was funny to see a student in a sweater since most of the ones we talk to are in places where it's just hot all year. 

Saturday we went up to Logan for Gary's brother Kevin's 70th birthday party. It was great and fun to see nieces and nephews we don't see very often. 

Primary was a zoo today with almost double the kids in the two younger classes. We helped manage the 3 and 4 year olds and they were a handful but delightful as always. One boy just wanted to keep telling everyone about his Dad's new truck. Apparently, before we got there he'd also been talking about his Dad's new girlfriend. There are not secrets in primary!

Another early day tomorrow and another busy week but life is quite good and we love what we're doing.

The mission secretary has this on her desk and we love seeing the progress each day.

Spring is coming!

Maybe....

From Gary:  I had another sweet experience this week to share.  I interviewed a gal from Ghana a couple of weeks ago and she told me she was close to being baptized into the Church.  I asked her to send me a picture when she was baptized.  She sent her baptism picture to me on Saturday!  This is always a great treat to see what getting closer to their Heavenly Father and finding Christ in their life more fully because of the BYU Pathway Worldwide program!  They fall in love with the Church and decide to join!  We see this quite often!  The last numbers we heard was that 44 percent of the non-members who come to Pathway join the Church in the first year of their Pathway education! Wow.

It was wonderful to go to my brother Kevin's 70th birthday celebration on Saturday night!  We got to see so many friends and family there!  Family and friends are everything!  

We are excited about the upcoming General Conference!  We are assisting the Music Committee with some simple ushering duties for a couple of choirs that are rehearsing performing on Saturday April 5th.  It is so fun to be involved with this again even if we do not get to sing this time!  :)

Have a marvelous week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack