January 12, 2021

Hi everyone!

Sorry for not writing last week, it has been pretty crazy. Both Elder Blackham and I got transferred up to Riverton Wyoming together! It has been a new experience, especially after having been in the same area for 6 months. I thought I was going to stay another transfer, but I guess not haha. Up here, it's pretty cold right now, but not as windy as Wyoming can be. We also had to say goodbye to the Tacoma we were driving. 

We have had a good week though. We swept the area, Mountain View 1, so it's been a lot of contacting members and people we are teaching. I definitely have had some cool spiritual experiences and some great lessons. I have definitely seen a lot of blessings, in both my life and in the lives of others. We had an especially awesome lesson with a family last night, and the spirit was especially strong.

Anyway, I finally have some pictures. One is Elder Blackham and me in front of an abandoned building on the rez. One is my old district and the one that looks like a sunset is something I painted with leftover painting supplies from our new apartment.

Thanks for all of your support! You're all awesome. 

See ya!

Elder Pack

This is the Wellington District on their last p-day before transfers at the Institute Building of CSU.

This is what the trees look like in Wyoming.  That's ice on the branches that make them white.

The elders that were transferred probably got art supplies for Christmas and left them so Ethan decided to play with them.

Some things Ethan told us in his phone call after transfers were:

They rode a Colorado State University bus up to their area which was the furthest one.  So they were on the bus for quite a while.  But Ethan mentioned that the bus was on schedule the entire time, so the missionaries must have hustled to get on and off.

They have a radiator that heats their apartment (they think) so the thermostat is set to 72 degrees but sometimes it is 78 degrees inside and sometimes it is 70 degrees.  He said they have pipe things near the floor that the heat comes out of. They haven't figure out how the thermostat works but they aren't cold when they are inside.

Wyoming has a very different feel to it than Colorado does, from what Ethan said.  It seems more laid back and not as restrictive.  The missionaries can go inside houses with masks on.  They can meet with members and non-members but they need an appointment.  And the members take their masks off once they get inside the Church building.  Missionaries still keep theirs on but the members take theirs off.

Ethan said directions are really hard because people use landmarks a lot and they say "go up the road about 1/2 mile and turn left after the pond." He said they have been getting lost a lot but it is a great opportunity to ask random people for directions.   They were trying to find a house and knocked on a door for directions.  The man who answered ended up being a man they had been chatting with through Facebook who had asked them to come and do service for him.  So that was a tender mercy that they were able to help him and show up even though they were lost.

Ethan is still wearing shorts on p-day and when they are doing service work and he said people have commented on it.  He claims that his legs don't get cold but the rest of him does.  We think that if he wore pants then the rest of him would be warm.  But he just laughs.  It is a good way to strike up a conversation with people.

Ethan is still training his companion.  They both went up to WY together.  That isn't very common but there is something they need to learn so they will still be together for at least another transfer.