Letter from the Mission

We received an email from Sister Palmer, Ethan's mission president's wife, about the state of the mission right now.  There were some interesting things I thought I would share.

1. As of today, and as far as they know, there hasn't been one mission contract COVID in their mission.  Some have been exposed but no one has been sick.  Modify church meetings have resumed.  Ethan has Church at the actual Church building every 3 weeks.  The other weeks they either do Church in their apartment or, if the sisters need the sacrament, they will get together as a District.

2. The Fort Collins Temple is going into Phase 2 on August 31st.  They have a lot of missionaries in the mission who need to take out their endowments.  In the next 3-4 weeks, the mission president will notify the parents and missionary as to the plans for them to attend the temple.  We are excited about this one and so is Ethan.

3. They have 225 missionaries in their mission with another 33 arriving in September!  That is a lot of missionaries!  It's exploded with all the reassigned missionaries.  Not all of the missionaries (obviously) are reassigned but they do have quite a few.  And as countries open up, they will be losing those missionaries when they are actually sent where they were originally called.  But this will probably take time.

4. If you see a social media post by the missionaries, please don't just comment on how that is your missionary.  The purpose of social media posts is to engage people in learning more about the Gospel.  So it is helpful to share your testimony or help people feel the spirit of the message they are trying to share.

That's about all.  It is always good to hear how things are going on in Ethan's mission.  

When we talked to him today, I asked what is something he is working on.  He said he is trying to focus more on teaching by the Spirit and he has seen a difference since he has been focusing on that principal.  I thought that was cool.

Last week the tried to go skateboarding with a kid in the ward but he didn't show.  This week they are going to play volleyball as a District.  Sounds like they have a lot of fun.

If you ever want to write directly to Ethan, his email is: ethan.pack@missionary.org.