Heavenly Father is Hugging Me

Letter from April 3, 2017

Dear Family,

General Conference seemed better than ever.  I ate all of it up.  All of my questions were answered and I know its because the leaders of our church are inspired.  And the things they say and tell us to do will work.  After watching the priesthood session of conference, Jimmy Gardner texted us and told us he was ready to start working on getting the Melchizedek priesthood.  He has been feeling overwhelmed and inadequate.  Then after Sunday he texted us again and said he felt something different when the prophet spoke. We asked him what it was and he said, “I think that is Heavenly Father hugging me.”  He said he knew that he was exactly where he needed to be and no matter how hard it might be, Heavenly Father was going to help him get there.  YAY JIMMY!!!

We also had Dotti come to almost every session of conference and she absolutely loved it. She is such a sweet woman who is trying so hard to be obedient and do what the Lord wants.  I love her! 

It’s been a learning and growing week.  I feel like I have so many things I want to try and do that I learned from conference.  My companion and I are going to try and act on the FIRST prompting, EVERY time.  It is really going to be a challenge but it should be fun! Another cool thing is that we had been talking with the other sisters in our zone (yes all 4 of us, lol) and had planned on starting a “40 day fast” this weekend.  This is not a fast from food but a fast from any behavior or habit that might be holding us back from whole heartedly serving the Lord.  One thing that was repeated multiple times in conference was how much our heart needs to be in the gospel.  It really doesn’t matter if we just go through the motions and follow a rule because someone told us too.  What matters is if we do it because the Lord asked us and we love Him.  One of my favorite things said was from Sister Joy D Jones who talked about integrity in our covenants.  She said we would keep them regardless of our situation.  I also really loved the simple yet powerful advice given from our prophet.  He said to read the Book of Mormon every day. Such a simple task, but it can be so powerful when we do!  LETS DO IT!!!

This week we met Yesenia, Sergio and their family and it was probably the best day of the week.  We taught them about the restoration and I have never had someone listen so intently!  Even the kids hung on every word!  It was crazy and Sister Hunt and I felt the spirit so strongly the whole lesson.  Yesenia and Sergio were so excited about having a prophet on the earth today and about learning about Christ and turning their lives around.  I think the Lord has really been preparing them!  That was Thursday night and since then, we haven’t been able to get back in contact with them.  I know the Lord prepares people, but people don’t always choose the path that he has prepared them for. We are desperately praying that this family will continue to meet with us and to read the Book of Mormon.  Pray for them!! 

Alright Fam, if you haven’t watched the new Easter video, watch it.  It’s great, so share it with literally everyone you meet and share the gospel! I love you.

Sister Packer

Tucson Walls

Alma 37:40

Letter from March 27, 2017

Dear Fam,

Is it working?  That’s the question I have asked myself a lot this week.  Is it working?  I have wondered if the different ideas we have been trying out are working, if we are seeing results and if we are doing exactly what Heavenly Father would like us to.  I can honestly say I don’t know the answer to my question, but I do know that whether or not OUR ideas are working- HIS ideas ARE WORKING.  We often don’t get the results in the way we thought we would or in the time we thought we would, and that is where faith really comes in.  It’s just so important to trust in him.  There really are miracles day by day but if we stop looking we will stop seeing them.  DONT EVER STOP LOOKING! 

Heavenly Father helped us this week to achieve another miracle.  We were able to get back in contact with Ted (if any of you remember him) and meet with he and his wife! TWICE! yahoooooo!   And later while on exchanges, we found two other young women to teach!  We had been praying and trying to go where we felt prompted and felt like we were getting absolutely no where. At one point we were at this apartment complex to teach a lesson to someone.  We had a few minutes before the scheduled appointment so we ran down to knock on the door where I knew a less-active woman lived and set up a return appointment with her for the next morning.  I didn’t know if it would work out with her.  She wasn’t feeling well and the next morning when we got there she was still in bed sick.    Her two non-member daughters were there though.  We got aquainted with them and they wanted to learn about the Book of Mormon!!  Wow, did not see that one coming.  We aren’t really sure right now if we will be able to teach them due to some issues with the father, but keep Haley and Autumn in your prayers people!!!

Now I want to tell you about the men we have been hanging around lately.  There are these two cranky old men that we just can’t seem to get rid of, hahaha.  We are teaching Ernest and met with Tim (if you remember him also) again this week.  Older people are stubborn and one second you feel like you wanna strangle them and the next, you just wanna give them a big hug.  They are very endearing.  Ernest hates wearing his hearing aids so when we teach him we are literally yelling.  You would think that would drive the spirit away but no.  When we testified about Joseph Smith and the restoration, the Spirit was most definitely present.  Ernest challenged us this week and said he would “allow us to try and convert him”.  Which means he would read the Book of Mormon.  Then he got teary-eyed and said it was because he just had to know if this would help him see his wife again one day.  It was a pretty powerful moment.

Hmm well other updates for the week:

– we had two elders try and sell us one of their three pressure cookers because everyone needs to eat more rice.

– we celebrated Elder Ballard’s birthday at Ihop because everyone needs free pancakes.

-Elder ans Sister Loe took us out for Korean food and I discovered I definitely have a passion for kKorean food AND my chopstick skills have gone through the roof- Mom you should be very proud.

Love from the dirty T,  Sister Packer

Leftovers for breakfast

Not-My-Best-Side Pic!  haha  Doing studies at the church and we ended up praying at the same time.  Sister Hunt thought it was a good time for a selfie.

Happy Birthday Elder Ballard

Ernest

Sister Loe

Korean Food Experience

Chocolate People Like Chocolate on the Inside

Letter from March 20, 2017

Hey Fam,

SO… this week we met a guy named Ben, who is generally homeless but has a storage shed.  He totally contacted us. He told us how he thinks some of his memory was stolen by the government, that he was born in the Garden of Eden and, oh, that there are certain truths about the universe he cannot reveal to us all quite yet.  So we still went ahead and had a lesson with him in the park and it went great!  Honestly, we will never see him again, but we still tried to share what we could with him.

Kevin, our recent convert came out to church and I was SO proud of him.  HE THREW DOWN.  His testimony is just bright and shiny and I’m proud of him.

We also met a guy named OKongo who is from Kenya.  The Nielsen’s invited him over to dinner and we bonded because I let him steal off my plate.  He also had me throw biscuits at him which he caught in his mouth.  He told us he had been in Tucson for 16  years and that’s why he was SO tan, hahaha.  He is pretty dope and travels all over the world spreading Christianity.   Sadly, he is not too interested in “the mormon book”.

We have just had a lot of weird lessons this week!  One day Nicolette texted us and told us to come to the park asap and teach her mom, so we went!  Everything has just been on the fly and its been weird, but a good weird.

Another miracle is that Sister Blackwell took us to Costco today.  She spoils us and even bought us a cookie for being good!  I love her so much. The other miracle is our weather. Spring has arrived and I think this is my favorite time of year!  It’s not too hot and not too cold.

On the spiritual side- I want you all to know how much I love this gospel.  It is crazy that we can say that we have ALL truth.  We have a way to receive answers to EVERY question.  That is so baffling to people and so many people don’t believe that it’s possible. We have such a great blessing, the Book of Mormon, to find these truths in!  And greater than that, we have prayer and the gift of the holy ghost through which we can receive all answers and knowledge.  I love the feeling of safety and security that comes from these truths.

Well Fam I love you!  Have a good week!  Sister Packer

District Picture

Book of Mormon Selfie

Entry for Quadruple Chin, Bad Selfie Contest

Power Behind a Promise

Letter from March 13, 2017

Dear Family,

I’m going to start by telling you about my new companion.  Her name is Sister Hunt.  She is from Washington.  We both like Julian Smith and brownies and she’s been out for 17 months!

It hasn’t been too bad of a week!  We found two new investigators and a pretty solid potential… one of them may have been more open due to the numbing effect of marijuana but… it’s all good.  We are really hoping to find more people who are ready to progress in the gospel.  A lot of people love God, and a lot of people love Christ, but many people are scared to change for them.

We also had zone meeting this week which was the day after transfers.  It was a little bit stressful.  I’ve gotten used to team teaching, having a companion to give training with.  But this time I was doing trainings all alone the day after Sister Squire went home!  Luckily, Sister Hunt is patient and let me practice on her so all is good in the hood.  Our March Swagness has kicked off to a great start and the zone is really getting into the bracket we have set up.  I’m sure you are all wondering if Sister Hunt and I won the first round and the answer is, duh – yes of course, we don’t lose.

So Heavenly Father is one sly guy and He really likes to send us the most subtle of promptings that honestly, I don’t usually recognize.  This week as we were leaving an appointment and about to flip a u-turn I thought of a few people we had planned as backups to go see earlier in the week.  We had never gone to see them!  So I quickly switched lanes, feeling we should go right then!  The first person wasn’t home and I kind of started to wonder if switching our plans like that had been a bad idea. Then we knocked on the second door and met Courtney!  Courtney is the marijuana loving friend I mentioned.  She is trying to re-align herself with God and Christ.  She said she just recently started going back to her church.  We knew she was the reason Heavenly Father changed our course that day. 

And because of that detour to meet Courtney,  we pulled up to our originally scheduled investigator, Dotti’s apartment, right as she got home.  We would have missed her if we had gone thirty minutes before like we had planned!  It was just crazy.  Dotti told us she read from Mormon through Moroni and that it “bloomed in her mind”. 

We have been doing a lot of lessons with members this week, trying to help them with their missionary work.  At one house, we shared a message about missionary work, invited them to do some and then as usual, we promised blessings from the Lord for doing so.  The husband looked at us and said, “do you know the power behind that promise?”  He told us he takes every promise from a missionary very serious because we are representatives of Jesus Christ.  The only people authorized to make such promises are the apostles and missionaries.  It was such an awesome moment.  He and his wife both agreed missionary work was exactly what their family needed.  The Lord’s promises are powerful and they can motivate us to act!  When we extend those promises to those around us, we need to remember the power behind them! 

Well the last cool experience I want to share is about Steve Peterson.  He is less-active member and we have been working with him for awhile.  Last week he asked a question that I didn’t really know how to answer.  I tried to study for it but I didn’t feel like I had the right answer for him.  So we brought the resource we were studying from, the book Jesus The Christ, to the next appointment with him.  We read a couple passages that we liked from the book but he didn’t really feel satisfied.  So we took the book out and he is like, “wow, that sounds exactly like what I need- how did you know”?!  His questions have answers but he be blessed to find them himself as he studies.   He went out and got his copy of Jesus the Christ to read!! 

I love being a missionary and seeing how He takes care of each and every one of His children in His own way and time.  I know that we can all see His hand when we look for it and that is one of the coolest lessons I have learned so far!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!!:)   Sister Packer

Do You Even Know How to Reduce a Fraction?!

Letter from March 6, 2017

Dear Family,                             

The title today is from a sassy 10 year old who taught me what to say when people choose to call us stupid.

 Today I will start with the good news.  I got my replacement cards and tablet this week. The bad news is, I accidentally locked myself out of it for about three days, BUT that should be getting cleared up today, hahaha.. So our thievery dilemma is almost completely resolved and behind us now! 

 This week we spent time planning with the zone leaders for the March focus/activity and MLC (mission leader conference).  It is going to be pretty dope!  We are calling it March Swagness.  The focus is to help people progress to baptism.   A fun madness bracket has been set up and will track missionary activities that help us accomplish our goal!  Sister Squire and I spent FOREVER making the sickest posters!

One night this week we went to visit a less active family in the ward.  The kids attend church with their grandmother but their mom doesn’t come very often.  We had a good laugh because the mother did not want us to come in and teach her family to help BUT then she gave us two referrals!  One of those referrals was their neighbor across the street.  His name is Bryan and he played for the Broncos and the Falcons!!  Basically famous.  We made an appointment to go back next week to chat with them.  Guys, I might be teaching a big famous football player, ha how great?! 

Sunday night we didn’t schedule any time into the day for dinner and we were just going ham.  Someone had given us a loaf of bread around 4pm.  I just threw it in the back of the car for later and we kept going!  About two hours later we had an appointment fall through.  We did not know where to go and were feeling slightly frustrated so we prayed and still didn’t feel much direction to go anywhere.  I kept feeling like there was something bothering my companion. We kept trying to work but everything seemed to just come to a stop.  So I pulled out the bread from the back seat, cut us both a slice, and asked her if anything was bothering her and immediately after eating her slice she calmed down and expressed some fears she had about returning home.  We prayed again and immediately felt directed to go visit a specific person.  I have heard the analogy of “daily bread” so many times but it really hit home that night.  We need to get our physical as well as spiritual “bread” to even be able to function, but more importantly to be able to feel the promptings of the spirit.  In this case it was eating bread that helped us.  In many cases it is the spiritual food we lack.  When we are full spiritually and our bodies are physically taken care of, we can receive guidance and direction and immediately act on it. 

Tomorrow is transfer day.  I will miss Sister Squire!   My new companion is Sister Hunt and guess what?!  I’m going to get to kill her too!  So I will be in this area for another two transfers!  I am excited because I’m loving my time here in the dirty T.  I hope you all have a great week and eat lots of naked chicken chulapas from taco bell. 

Love, Sister Packer

Mesa temple from last week

MLC