We hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July. It's so fun to live in Utah where we start and end July with parties and fireworks.
Monday started off with an early devotional where Sister Andros and I did a violin and cello duet of The Lord is my Shepherd. The change from our first run through to Monday was rather amazing and it ended up sounding quite lovely. The first time through we kind of had our doubts...
Yet Another Musical Number!
The week was jam packed with interviews and recording interviews again and by the time we got to Thursday afternoon we were just burned out. But, the interviews themselves are always wonderful and we so love these students who are working to make a difference in their lives. I talked to a couple of students who are really hoping to come over to the US to attend their graduation in person when they're done. That would take a few miracles but hopefully they can figure it out.
Thursday morning we had a wonderful zone devotional for Independence Day but technology was just not cooperating. So, we got the part of the devotional that wasn't the slide show and the video. Then we got to enjoy the pictures and video later when they were emailed to us. I felt bad for the presenters but really loved all the work they put in. After that, I had a devotional to do and I was really hoping that it wasn't one of those days where technology just doesn't work anywhere. Fortunately my power point went quite smoothly and I may have even made some sense in the presentation. With all the devotionals we do we're pretty much set talks for the rest of our lives--just tweak the presentations into a talk and there we go.
Friday and Saturday we stayed off of our computers and spent time out of the city. It was lovely! We didn't go to any parades or fireworks shows but just enjoyed time together and got a little work done in Logan. Very boring but so good and so needed!
Decor at Big J Burgers in Preston, Happy 4th!
With a little work these onion rings could become Olympic rings
Bald Mountain, which we did not climb because one of us was wearing sandals
Our Fast and Testimony Meeting today was very interesting. There were a few "normal" testimonies and then there were three from members who have come the the US from countries they needed to get away from. One from Czechoslovakia is celebrating his 53 year anniversary of escaping communism this week. Another from Iran celebrates living in a land of peace and is learning to forgive those who want to hurt people in his country. Another escaped about 20 years ago from Sierra Leone and celebrates being a citizen. Our country may not be perfect but it was so wonderful to hear those messages of gratitude for the freedoms we have.
From Gary: It was a great reminder this weekend of the amazing country that we live in and the freedoms that we have that are not available anywhere else. Robert Santholzer from our Ward here in SLC spoke about his 53 year freedom from the communists and socialists where he literally lost friends and family members to those regimes. He plead with us to pray that our eyes would be open to the falsehood of these ideas. Then the refugee from African wars who was able to escape and eventually come to America and gain citizenship here spoke of his love for America. And then from an Iranian member of the Church who bore testimony of Jesus Christ's first and second commandments and asked us to pray for the people of Iran.
Along with that, our weekly Zone devotional was put together by a couple who asked for pictures of our family members that had served in the military, then put together a slide show including a picture of my father William Donald Pack, who fought the front lines in Germany in World War II. All of these events made me think more deeply of my love for this country and my love of the Lord who declared this country to be the Promised Land! I know this to be true! No other place in the world could the Gospel be restored! No other place in the world can have the land where Jesus will return and reign as King of King and Lord of Lords! No matter what turmoil we witness here, we know that the Lord is in charge and that nothing can stop His work from moving forward exactly how He needs it to move forward! We know who wins in the end! And we choose this day to follow Him: Jesus Christ!
We also had another amazing week here with our missionary work! One of the young adults I talked to last week sent me a picture of her baptism that happened on Sunday:
Maria From Argentina on Her Baptism Day
These BYU Pathway students are finding the gospel more deeply in their lives and falling in love with the Church!
Have a marvelous and blessed week!
We love you all!
Elder and Sister Pack
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