Mission update 4/27/2025

 It has been a beautiful week around Salt Lake with blossoms still on the trees, the tulips hitting their peak and lots of other flowers looking wonderful. We are big fans of all the gardeners and all the hours they put in. We love stopping to talk to them to see what their current project is.  The number of places they go and the number of plants they manage is amazing to watch!

One of our favorites gardeners! We run into him at least once a week

These flowers below the country flags have really showed off this week

"Christmas" cactus in the office that decided to bloom at Easter

Monday morning we had our mission devotional and for this one, we had a discussion about the Book of Mormon challenge that finished up on Easter Sunday. It was fun to hear from other missionaries what they learned as they focused on The Doctrine of Christ while reading through the Book of Mormon. For us, we got through the whole book and are now really looking forward to a slower pace!

Monday evening we had dinner with the Lunds, who used to be our zone leaders until they returned home last winter. They came out for a family event and it was fun to catch up with them. So fun that we neglected to get a picture.

We have been trying to fit in as many interviews in as we can each day along with all the research and recording from our interviews as well as our part time help missionaries. The new term starts in a week and we still have so many students who need interviews! We're getting lots of messages every day from students wanting our help with lots of things we can't help them with. We'd love to solve all their problems but all we do is direct them to the student help. 

Sister Pack talking to a student in Africa during our lunch outing

Friday evening we went to a concert at the Tabernacle where the Temple Square Chorale and the Orchestra at Temple Square performed Robert Cundick's Redeemer oratorio. It was wonderful! A couple of the people we worked with for conference choirs were in the choir and we know several orchestra members as well so that was fun. 

Fun at the Tabernacle

Saturday was the Salt Lake Marathon (which we did not run in, shockingly) so instead of doing our usual morning shopping, we went for a walk in the avenues and then left later when we could actually get our of our parking garage. The marathon goes up our street so there was no leaving until the runners had passed. We found out today that a 13 year old in our ward ran the half marathon so that was pretty cool.

A few weeks ago our primary was 30 kids and today it was 8. You just never know what to expect! But, the kids were great as always and singing time is the best. 

We love anytime we see progress on Temple Square and this week we found out there was a new statue by the Tabernacle:

Joseph getting the Plates from Moroni

We are constantly reminded of how much our Heavenly Father loves his children all over the world as we do these BYU Pathway interviews.  We hear them tell us how much this program has changed there life in every meaningful way.  We see the hand of God changing the world one person at a time when they choose to learn more about Him.  We are truly blessed to be missionaries!

Have a wonderful week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 4/20/2025

 Happy Easter!

We have had a beautiful Easter week. We started off with our choir Easter program and a message from Daniel Rona for our Monday devotional. The choir songs went quite well, the messages were great and the slide show that Elder Baldwin put together was so good! Elder Rona talked about Easter and Passover from his perspective of being a Jewish member of our church. It was fascinating and he is a very engaging speaker. We found out in church today that the youth in our stake got to hear from him this week as well, I'm sure he gets very busy this time of year.

On Wednesday we got to sing again for the Service Mission Devotional for services missionaries worldwide. Then that evening we sang again for a zone Easter dinner for one of the Church History Library zones. That along with two musical numbers in two different wards today plus singing with the primary made Easter feel very much like Christmas--very busy! It was all wonderful and we are quite exhausted.

Friday we got to the Ogden Temple with the Smiths and it was lovely. There is nothing better than the peace of the temple to help get yourself calmed down and charged up again. We had some great Italian food after and it was so good to spend time with Elder and Sister Smith where we weren't in the middle of zone, choir or Pathway issues. 

The background at the Ogden Temple is amazing!

We ran into our neighbor from North Logan who saw us from across the street and came over

Temple Square is showing off as usual for spring and we are loving it. 

Our Easter Sunday was wonderful and we got to enjoy two ward's programs. In our ward we got to sing with the Primary kids (mostly teachers with only about half a dozen kids there) and play a duet. Then, in a retirement branch in our stake, we got to play a duet. The highlight of that meeting was a man in his 80s or older who sang "Were You There?". It was just amazing to feel the spirit in that song. We had Easter dinner and Maria and Gordon's and it was fun and tasty. We got to take a tour of all the things blooming in their yard. They're loving being surprised by all the bulbs and flower that come up in the spring.

Amazing Blossoms in Hooper!

In between all that we fit in as many interviews as we could but we are starting to get just a bit overwhelmed as the new semester starts in a couple weeks. Good thing this week is less busy!

From Gary:  Our mission has done a challenge over the past few weeks to read the entire Book of Mormon by Easter and mark all of the passages that refer to the "Doctrine of Christ."  It was a great journey to read the whole book quickly and focus on how much this one subject is talked about.  We were looking for any instance of the words Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Keeping the Commandments, and Enduring to the End.  There were very few chapters in the whole book that did not mention any of those ideas!  It was very enlightening!  

We have loved the added focus on Easter each year.  We have felt more direction to increase our knowledge and celebrate more the purpose of Easter and the Atonement of Christ.  We have felt the power of this message and feel great joy when we declare He is Risen!

Have a marvelous week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 4/13/2025

 We started off this week celebrating Gary's 65th birthday by going out for lunch at Ruby River and making sure his Medicare stuff was all correct (getting old is so exciting!). 

My favorite interview this week was with a Pastor from Africa (of course) who was so enthusiastic about how blessed he has been by Pathway and how amazing Jesus is in his life. He had no problem at all with the honor code questions and is just such a good man and a light to all around him. 

We had some fun activities this week with other missionaries. On Thursday we had another MTC district party before more of our group go home. After this group leaves we'll be small enough that we might just go out for dinner occasionally instead of doing pot lucks. It's so sad to send people home but eventually we'll all get there. 

                                                            We love these missionaries!

On Friday, our other zone (the one we don't belong to officially but do sort of) had a picnic up by the Capitol to enjoy the cherry blossoms. It was beautiful! Then we got back to the office and all pulled blossoms out of each other's hair.

Lunch among the blossoms

Saturday we had a Seder Dinner hosted by Elder and Sister Smith with about 20 missionaries. It was great and a beautiful way to kick of Easter Week. The Smiths made the food assignments with a reminder that this was a very loose interpretation of the Seder dinner, mostly a time to remember the stories that have all led to our current celebrations. 

Sharing Easter thoughts after a wonderful meal

Our Sacrament meeting today was so good. One of the speakers suffers from crippling anxiety and it affects him physically, making it hard for him to move. He struggled to get up to the pulpit and was dealing with all kind of random hand movements, legs that weren't cooperating and so on. But, once he got himself situated and began to speak, he gave a beautiful talk and spoke confidently. His testimony was so strong! Then, when he was done, he struggled to get back to his seat. I love how he was able to be blessed with the strength to share that message with us!

We have a women in our ward who is coming back to activity after leaving the church. Every Sunday she comes in, excited to share her latest epiphany. Today it was that we can not get to God on our own, we have to go through Jesus Christ. So powerful and so simple. 

Our Primary class was the 6 to 8 year olds today and they were wonderful. They pretty much gave the lesson by telling us the Easter stories (Mary at the tomb and Christ visiting the people in the Americas). They are a rambunctious bunch but so wise.

We have a few choir performances this week and are looking forward to Easter Sunday!

From Gary:  I guess 65 is officially old!  I do not feel old yet, but my body reminds me a few times each day that I'm not quite as young as I used to be! 

We spent the week still basking in the light of General Conference!  It is an amazing event to witness right where we live.  The number of people who fill downtown Salt Lake for the right reason is a wonderful sight to see!  And the things we learn bring so much light into our personal and family journeys if we will just review and find those things that are meant for us at this specific time in our lives.  

This is Holy Week!  We are excited to focus more intently upon Jesus Christ and his mission for us!

Have a blessed week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 4/6/2025

 We started off last week with a great Monday. I had lunch with three women from our North Logan ward. We served in the Young Women Presidency together and it was so great to catch up. Of course we didn't get any pictures but it was just lovely.

That evening we went to The Redeemer at Abravanel Hall. The music was so good and I loved the visuals that went with it as well. It was a beautiful way to begin the Easter Season.

Tuesday through Thursday we had our normal interviews until early afternoon with lots of research and filling out our spreadsheets in between and afterwards. We managed to fit our whole mission choir in a conference room in the North Office Building since the normal place we meet was being used for pre conference meetings. It worked out much better than we thought it would and we may actually be ready in time for our April 14 Easter Program. 

The big news on Temple Square this week was a new statue of the five wise virgins. We love it and noticed that it was referenced several times in conference. 

Friday we went to the Bountiful Temple which is always beautiful and calming. Then we got ready for the Hong Kong mission reunion which we were partially in charge of. The reunion was the best yet (in my opinion). We had 50-60 people there and lots of great food. Dale Jones (former Hong Kong missionary and currently working for the church PR) shared some of the more recent worldwide reports that they have put together. Then the mission president spoke and made everyone cry. He loves his missionaries! The whole things went almost four hours so we had a rather late night.

Trying to organize everyone for a group picture

Saturday we were at the conference center working with the youth choir for most of the day. We managed to get them all fed and to the choir loft and back without losing anyone so that was a big success. Also, the kids sang so well! My favorite was True to the Faith that was the closing hymn for the afternoon session.

Warm up in the Little Theater

Sunday we headed to Logan to play with grandkids and watch conference. So, between the grandkids and all the youth choir stuff, we have a few talks to catch up on!

From Gary:  I cannot say enough about how fantastic this week was!  We were able to do a lot of great missionary work with Pathway and had some great conversations with these students all over the world!  This program directly fulfills the need to preach the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people!  We love it!

Our Hong Kong Mission Reunion was a great event!  So many friends came and nobody wanted to leave!  Our Mission President, Garry Mitchell, gave a great talk about how his time with us in Hong Kong was the highlight of his life!  We could not agree more!  And Dale Jones shared some really fun videos that he has been producing for the Church's Public Relations department.  A glorious night for sure!

And the youth choir experience for Saturday Afternoon Conference was so uplifting and inspiring.  I have to admit that I cried every time I heard them sing "true to the faith that our parents have cherished."  I saw visions of my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents watching with joy as they see their faithful families still serving in the Church!

Have a wonderful week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack