Hello Family and Friends!
We are down to one month left on our mission and it is very weird! We are excited for some things about being done (traveling to see out of state kids, having a yard, house projects) but very sad about leaving things here like our ward which we love so much, the missionaries we work with, and all the people we run into every day.
Our biggest news this week is the birth of our 23rd grandchild out in Minnesota (our first post mission trip!). Lucy was born earlier than expected and is technically a preemie but doing well and mom and baby are home and getting lots of love from three older siblings.
Beautiful New Little One! Straight From Heaven!
We spent the week training Elder and Sister Tilley, new missionaries from Santaquin, Utah who will be replacing us when we leave. They are full of enthusiasm and working to learn fast. It's fun to get to know them and they were able to do a few interviews this week as well as start to learn some of the processes we use. We will try to remember to get a picture with them next week.
We also were able to get all the choir music stuff organized in the room behind the organ in the newly-reopened Joseph Smith Memorial building chapel. The chapel itself has had a bit of an adventure this week with water leaking in from the stained glass roof above the mezzanine because of some much-needed rain. It looks slightly less beautiful at the moment.
The scaffolding and plastic sheeting is not part of the decor :)
The elevators in the Joseph Smith Memorial building take some getting used to. You use a screen on the wall outside the elevators to choose your floor and then scan your badge to show you are authorized to go to that floor. Then it sends you an elevator. When you get in there are no buttons to push, you just trust the thing to take you where you need to go. We're getting used to it but I still worry about it being in control of my life.
That's all we get for buttons!
We made a fun connection with a Sister in our mission this week. Sister Dawson is in the Mission Office Zone and works near us doing missionary training with most of her focus on family history. We knew she was absolutely delightful but didn't know a whole lot more about her. But, now our desks are close and we found out that she served with her first husband, Elder Kay, in the Chicago North mission and they knew our son Kendall when he served there. So fun to make that connection :)
The absolutely delightful Sister Judith Kay Dawson
Despite the fact that we don't leave until September 30th, we were invited to the Appreciation Luncheon on Thursday last week. This is where they feed all the departing missionaries a nice lunch and tell them how much they appreciate what they've done. Then everybody cries.
The food was great, we love the people but it was very strange to be at this point.
I had a bit of a miracle with a student this week. Dayo had his interview and we found out that he had joined the church in the past year. So, we sent him the information to get his membership record number attached, making it possible for him to be sent through the member interview track instead of the non-member track. He worked on that but by Friday was still not getting the help he needed. He has a part time job working for Pathway that is contingent on him being a student and classes start this week so he was pretty stressed. I contacted the office but hadn't heard anything by the time we left in the early afternoon. But, shortly after we left the office I got an email from our favorite Pathway employee telling us she had seen his information come up on her computer and was able to get it straightened out. I let Dayo know and shortly after that he sent me a screen shot showing that he was all set for an interview with his Bishop, going through as a member. This seems like a kind of small miracle but one of the biggest issues we face is trying to help these students who have joined the church get their records corrected so it was a huge thing! It was a great way to end the week.
From Gary: We see miracles every day in our family and in our mission assignment! This has been a week of MANY miracles! A new granddaughter! Pathway students preparing for, and even some getting baptized! Family miracles galore!
I think all of us need to be better at writing down where we see the hand of the Lord in our lives every day. I know I need to be better at that. I am so glad that Sylvia shared the above little miracle with us all! We have 30 more days here in SLC as fulltime missionaries. I will write down 30 miracles for the next 30 days. Does anyone want to join me in this quest?
Have a wonderful week!
We love you all!
Elder and Sister Pack
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