Mission update 5/25/25

 Hello All!

The interviews continued to come in faster than we could get them done this week but we have some new missionaries starting who will be helping with the interviews part time so we keep making slow progress. The priority registration deadline is May 28th so lots of worried students. We get many messages every day and try to fit in as many as we can. It's always such a nice relief when it gets to mid afternoon and all the African countries are asleep!

I asked a student this week about the best thing she had learned so far in her religion classes. She said that she was very excited to learn about "eternal." She had no idea that there was more after this life and was just so thrilled to know that there is so much more. I love that so much!

We picked up a minor bug this week so spent one day working from our apartment. We'd already scheduled all the interviews for the day so we made ourselves look presentable and got through them. It worked out fine. 

Today we heard about a woman who just passed away in her nineties. She was a service missionary in our mission until right before she died. She also got a degree through BYU Pathway when she was 90. That pretty  much wipes out anyone's excuse for not getting a degree!

The weekend was lovely with a trip to the zoo on Saturday and family gatherings on Sunday evening with Gary's family and Monday with Blaine and Richard's families. Our grandson Elliot turned 4 on Monday so there was a birthday celebration thrown in there as well. It was such a fun, relaxing weekend! 

Mantua cemetery

Logan cemetery - Piles of Packs!

The Happy Birthday Boy

From Gary:  Memorial Day has always been a wonderful time to gather together at our family's gravesites and do some remembering and gratitude!  Where my Dad fought in World War II on the front lines in Germany, we have always had so much to be grateful for that he lived through that terrible experience and came home to bear more children and raise his family.  He was in a Company of 106 men that were slotted to be in Washington DC to be in Army Intelligence. When they were about 48 hours from shipping out from Basic Training, they were told that they needed every available man at the front, so this Company of 106 men were sent to land at the Battle of the Bulge instead.  There were just six of these 106 men that came home alive after the war.  We are so grateful our Dad, William Donald Pack, was one of those six.

Happy Memorial Day!

We still love to visit cemeteries!  We have our parents now in Logan and Mantua.  I have grandparents in Franklin, Idaho and Snowville Utah while Sylvia has grandparents in Cedar City Utah and Mesa Arizona.  We are who we are because of the legacy of faith that came from every one of our beloved ancestors.

The work we do with these BYU Pathway Worldwide students, who often join the Church as pioneers in their families, helps us to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is going to change them and their families for generations to come, and then for eternity!  It makes us more grateful for our parents and grandparents for sure!

We are still loving our mission, and we love all of you!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 5/18/2025

Hello All!

We started off the week with a beautiful devotional with Brad Wilcox. He spoke on the Doctrine of Christ and one of things he shared was that the Beatitudes (New Testament and 3rd Nephi) are an autobiography of Christ and who He is. I love when I see more in the scripture than I have before because of what others share. 

We didn't get a picture with Brother Wilcox but I did manage a lovely photo bomb

In one interview this week, I spoke to a man who is Catholic but is dating a woman who is a member of the church. They are planning to get married and have talked about how they want to raise children in a church they both belong to. So, he said they were planning to get in the temple. I mentioned that he might want to join the church first and he said he is already taking the lessons. We talked about how what he is learning is just adding to what he knows as a Catholic. He is such a good man, working to do the right things.

We did sealings in the Bountiful Temple with Elder and Sister Smith on Friday and were able to seal several groups of siblings in the same family. It is such a beautiful thing to seal families together!

In construction news (because there is construction everywhere!), the Garden Restaurant which will be on the first floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building is nearing completion and the sealing addition on the north of the temple has arched openings for what we assume will be windows. Also, across the street from out apartment they are disassembling the huge crane where an old office building is being remodeled into apartments so that seems to be progress. 

The crane that takes apart the other crane with tons and tons of weights to hold it steady

Our son Kendall graduated from Law School at Arizona State University this week!  We are so happy he did this!  We are so proud of all of our children!  They keep us laughing with the adventures they are now having raising their children!  It is the greatest joy of parenting to watch your kids grow up and raise their own children!

Kendall and his family (borrowed from his wife's facebook post)

We are still loving our mission and all of the wonderful people we have met and the experiences we get to have with these Pathway students all over the world! We are also treading water as fast as we can to keep our heads above water!

Have a week that is full of adventure!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 5/11/2025

 Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a good Mother's Day here. We got to sing with the Primary kids, do a musical number again, and the youth speakers were very good. Then, the stake president and his family brought treats in for all the women so we got really spoiled. After that, on the way out of the church, the youth were lined up to give all the women a rose and a bag of chocolates. Definitely went over the top this year! 

Tyler and family came over for a bit this afternoon and we got to learn a new game (they have more games than anyone I've ever seen). Yesterday we got to see a the kids up in Logan as well and then of course there have been calls and Marco Polo messages. It's a fun weekend.

We got further behind with interviews this week but not by much. However, there was a day when I could swear that our whatsapp number was on bathroom walls in Uganda. We had so many messages directly from students asking for their interviews! One of the other couple had the same issue but with Nigeria. Everyone is urgently needing their interview of course so we just do the best we can and press forward.

Sometimes we interview people who just need to join the church. They'll bear testimony of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, eternal families etc. but they just haven't figured out if they're supposed to join or not. I'm glad they're wanting to make sure but at some point the dithering needs to stop :)

On Friday we went to a session at the Manti Temple and met our friends Brad and Dantzelle Allen there. It is such a beautiful, historic temple and I loved that I was able to be doing temple work in a place that the pioneers did temple work. So cool! We also got to see the Ephraim temple which is looking great, with landscaping going in and a lot of the scaffolding down. 

We had a great lunch and temple session with the Allens

Ephraim Temple (just a few minutes away from the Manti Temple)

The flowers at Temple Square continue to be absolutely beautiful. I loved this tree this week:

The most amazing thing is that all the spring flowers are finishing up, so the grounds crew rips them all out and completely plants new beds for summer. One day we see tulips and pansies and the next day they're out and we see gardenias and many other flowers that thrive in the summer. 

From Gary:  Another week with amazing experiences with students around the world along with the Senior Missionaries that we work with here at Church Headquarters!  We have seen miracles every day in our work here!

We were excited to get our journal edition of the Conference talks from April Conference this week.  We love being able to write personal notes and thoughts as we review what we heard from our General Authorities a few weeks ago.  Many years ago we had a Regional Conference about a month after General Conference where Elder Holland presided.  The question he asked us then was "What have you done with the information you received in Conference?  What are you doing differently because of what the Spirit taught you in Conference?"  He then stated something to the effect of: If you have not done anything differently than before, what did you really learn from Conference?  I now try to remember to ask myself that question as I review Conference talks for the next many months and years!  So what are YOU doing that is different and better since our last Conference?

I was speaking to a student of BYU Pathway this week who has now joined the Church in Uganda.  She was referred to the Pathway program and to the Church by a friend who was a Member.  She started to attend Church and Pathway Connect at about the same time. I asked her what it was that got her to join the Church.  She told me that she just felt LOVE every time she went to Church and every time she met with other Pathway students.  That LOVE was so wonderful that she know she wanted it more in her life, so she sought for the truth of the Book of Mormon and received spiritual confirmation that it was true!  She loves the Church and all the LOVE it has brought into her life!

I decided after that conversation that I need to work harder to see and feel that love in my life and witness it in the lives of all those around me!  I think that is a great idea for all of us to look for, experience, and share with everyone around us!  Especially our own families!

We are still loving our mission!

And we still love all of you!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder and Sister Pack

Mission update 5/4/2025

 Monday morning's devotional was given by the Family History Projects zone--they do a variety of things that help people get found in family search and make is so their work can be done once their family members get connected to them. They all work in the same area as we do in the North Office building so we know most of them. Elder Hope (who is the zone leader with his wife) spoke at the end and talked about pondering on what it means to wait upon the Lord. He started thinking about what a waiter or waitress does at a restaurant and compared that to us serving the Lord. So, instead of just sitting and waiting for our prayers to be answered, we go and serve. I love that! Answers to prayers come so much better when we are busily doing what we can with the knowledge we already have. 

Monday evening we had a fire drill practice for the senior missionaries in our apartment building. It was terribly exciting of course but fun to all gather together so we could see who else is in our building. It changes often enough that we forget.

Counting heads

Tuesday and Wednesday we worked non stop all day, getting lots of students interviewed. But, there are still so many to go that it's easy to get a bit discouraged. It sure is wonderful that so many people are discovering Pathway. 

The big news in our family for Wednesday was that our oldest grandson, who has been on a service mission since the end of last summer, started a two month trial of being a teaching missionary. His parents dropped him off with all his luggage at the mission home and we'll find out where he ended up when he has his P day this week. He was so excited (and nervous) to go.

Elder Pack getting a goodbye hug from his Dad

Thursday morning in our zone devotional we were taught that we are enough. We do the Lord's work, we are His hands and we are enough in the work we do. So good to hear on a crazy, busy week!

In our training to learn to do oral personal history interviews for the Church History library, we got to sit in on an interview this week and it was with Taysom Hill, BYU quarterback who now plays for the NFL. We loved getting to sit in and get to know what an amazing man he is. 

Taysom Hill with Packs!

We've had a couple of students to interview this weekend, got to see a couple granddaughters in a musical production and had some lovely walks. Now we set up interviews for the week ahead and get ready to dive back in.

Salt Lake City has some fun murals, this one is brand new and still being worked on

From Gary:  We have grandchildren who love to make ice cream shakes like this one, so we decided to buy one:

Dirt Cup with Worms Shake

The interview with Taysom Hill was a lot of fun!  He is from Pocatello and has made a great name for himself at BYU and in the NFL playing for New Orleans.  He is currently injured again, and the latest prognosis is to maybe be healed by November this year.  He has always stayed close to the Church and has a great testimony that he shared with us!

We both spoke to students this week who were barely qualified for us to do their Ecclesiastical Endorsements, since we can only interview non-members of the Church.  Sylvia spoke with one woman who was baptized on Sunday, but had not been confirmed yet, so she was able to do the interview!  I then talked to another woman on Wednesday who was planning on being baptized on Friday!  She sent me a picture of her baptism:

Pathway students with their Missionaries!

We continue to have amazing experiences every week as we watch the Kingdom of God roll forward to all the world!

Have a great week!

We love you all!

Elder and Sister Pack