Level Up!

April 24, 2017

Hey!  So I guess I need to redeem myself from last week because my letter (to quote papa packer) “sucked”. lol, so yep yep still alive and doing well!

First, I will tell you about my new companion. Her name is Sister Graff or as cute little Liam Garder calls her-  Sister GIRAFFE!  She is a California babe and I love her!

Sister Hunt and Sister Graff

One “unforgettable” moment came from a 3 year old child riding past us on a tricycle.  He rode past us while we were parking.  He looked back, gave us a glare and then proceeded to give us the finger…THREE TIMES! Aaaahhhh?!  So not funny, but we found it… funny!

 The past few weeks we have really been hammering out active member lessons and trying to help our members in the Pantano ward share the gospel.  Something I love that my ward mission leader ALWAYS says is: “there are two levels to missionary work.  Level one; you are sharing by example and living the gospel.  Level two; you are inviting others to join you.” 

That’s been on my mind A LOT!  When the risen Savior chose his disciples in Galilee, he didn’t just walk down the beach in hopes they would follow His example- he CALLED to them and said- “Follow me”.  He extended the invitation to them!  Those men NEVER would have been more than fisherman if they hadn’t received an invitation to change. And it is important for us as missionaries to extend that invitation but it is even more important that every single member of the church who has taken the name of Christ at baptism to extend His invitation.  There are probably more levels to missionary work than two.  Even outside of missionary work there are so many ways to improve and the Savior doesn’t ask us to jump to the top level.  We don’t go from 0 to 60 in 3.5, but we can always level up! 

Something I have definitely learned in this area is that we can find.  We are in a city and so yes, we can find lots of people.  We contacted so many people this week!  We invited people to baptism after only talking to them for two minutes!  But the people we find 9 out of 10 times do not progress to make covenants with the Lord.  The people who have been invited by ward members 9 out of 10 times DO progress in the gospel.  In an effort to help our ward members here we decided to do a “40 day-like fast” like we did out in Sierra Vista.  I’m excited and the Pantano ward seems really excited to exercise their faith in the Lord.

One thing that really made my week was Cairn Stratton at church yesterday.  She is 8 or 9 years old and we did a lesson with her family about two weeks ago.  She ran up to me yelling, “SISTER PACKER, SISTER PACKER!” and told me how she invited her friend to stake activity days, AND her friend came, AND her friend felt happy at the activity.  She was SO proud.  I am proud of her too and I told her to share that with every one today at church to inspire them!  If an 8 year old can do it why can’t all the rest of us, right?

There are lots of miracles happening here.  We have had to drop a lot of investigators lately but I know that we are showing the Lord our faith.  We do believe and have hope that we can find the people who want to truly change and become converted to the Lord. And we have been praying and fasting and he always answers prayers so I will keep you posted on how it goes. 

Another awesome experience we had this week happened our first night together.  I asked Sister Graff if she didn’t mind taking a bit of a detour and we pulled a crazy quick turn and ran off to Stephen’s house. Stephen is someone who I have seen in the area book before but never met and we met him Tuesday night!  He told us how scared he was to come to church and how he stopped meeting with missionaries because of it and he just really wanted a place to belong.  We had the opportunity to testify that through Christ he could overcome his fears and he would find a place to belong in the Lord’s kingdom.  We have not been able to see Stephen since, so PRAY FOR HIM!  He definitely needs those prayers to overcome his fears. 

Alrighty that’s it for the week.  I love hearing from you all!  Thanks for everything!!

Love, Sister Packer