February 23, 2021

Hey everyone!

It has been a pretty uneventful week. Shawn is still progressing really well. Keep praying for him! It's been cool to see how much he wants to learn. 

Gotta be honest, I'm having trouble thinking of things to write. It really has been a pretty uneventful week. But prayer does work! I wanted to emphasize that. And if you're having trouble in life or something, just pray. It only takes a few seconds and God wants to hear from you because he loves you, I promise.

Thanks everyone! You are all awesome.

From, Elder Pack

The Mountain View District: (Ethan is in the back with a black mask on.

They do service at a man's home and have now started teaching him.  He will give them a task to do (like taking out a light switch and its wiring or hanging dry wall) and then go to another group without really watching them. Ethan is gaining a whole new skill set by helping this man remodel his basement.  I just hope he doesn't get electrocuted.

Some notes from our conversation with Ethan today (Ethan may not be able to think of things to write but I can, haha):

He is REALLY grateful for the packages that have been sent to him.  He got one this week and it made his day and was very timely.  He needed the extra boost! Thank you to everyone who takes a minute to think of Ethan.

Wyoming has really loose restrictions for Covid.  Their official word is that they can't have groups of more than 25 people congregate together...except...and then they list 15 exceptions such as rodeos, stock sales, weddings, funerals, church, etc.  So things are pretty loose.  They have the full 2 hours of church with regular Sunday School classes, all in-person.  Ethan said they have been told that all the restrictions may be lifted soon so they can go back to meetings as usual for everything.  Last Sunday they had an investigator and his family at Church and it was really exciting for them.

Ethan really loves his area and Wyoming.  They have been able to find quite a few people to teach and have been able to meet with them in-person, which makes a huge difference.  They are still doing Facebook finding and actually found a new investigator last week using Facebook.

The weather isn't as cold as it usually is so Ethan has been lucky.  He said Monday was a beautiful day with great weather in the 50s (I think).  It has been below freezing a lot of days but the wind hasn't been too bad and they haven't had too much snow.  They also have a crazy furnace in their apartment so they have been sleeping with the window open because it gets too hot.  They aren't sure how to turn the heat down and it fluctuates so they aren't sure what is going on.  Hopefully, they will figure it out before summer otherwise they will be in serious trouble.  Or maybe Ethan will feel right at home.  We told them to let the mission housing office know but he didn't seem too concerned.

They have been getting mixed messages about going over their mileage with their car.  When he first got to the mission he was told that they could go over miles as long as they were going to teach an investigator.  They were then told that if they went over their mileage they would have to ground their car for a week.  The next thing they heard was back to the thought that it was okay to go over miles as long as you were going over to get to a lesson.  But the last he heard, if you go over miles then you have to not drive the next week.  They went over last month but they were doing it to go and see an investigator so they had to fill out a paper explaining why they went over and give their reasoning why it was okay.  They turned that in and the APs were supposed to go over it and let them know, but they haven't heard anything so they think they are fine.

One of the Zone Leaders was having pain in his stomach and went to the hospital.  It was found that he has some kind of growth (they aren't sure if it's a tumor or not) in his stomach so he has gone home for medical treatment.  He has been in the mission 1 transfer less than Ethan so he is still new.  The other Zone Leader is now in a trio with the District Leaders.  But they have an elder who was told he was going back to his original assignment in Africa in a couple weeks.  Ethan thinks there is another trio in the Riverton area and that the Zone Leader and one from the other trio will then be companions.  He thought it was cool how things like that work out.

One of the sister missionaries was sledding on p-day and got hurt.  She was in the hospital but Ethan hasn't heard how she is doing.  He said that p-days are kind of dangerous in the winter because of all the winter stuff they do to have fun.

Ethan and his companion taught early morning seminary one day.  He said it isn't bad and the kids are cool.  But he doesn't like waking up earlier than they have to just to get there on time.  It also messes up their day because they are out a lot earlier than usual.  But they are going to sub for the seminary teacher all next week so they will have to get used to being up early.  The seminary class is for their Stake but he said there weren't too many kids.  They have to be at the Church by 6:30 am for a prayer meeting with the other teachers and then they teach the class at 7 am.  I always thought early morning seminary was at 6 am but he said the one in Wyoming is at 7 am.  So next Tuesday he is going to have us say hello to the class because he usually calls us at 7 am.  That will be fun!

We have put Ethan's mailing address on his blog and we will keep it up-to-date. 

I think that's all he had to share.  He is doing well.