August 10, 2021

Hey everyone!

Hope your week has been good. Mine has been a bit stressful but good anyway. It's just how it be sometimes.

I got a new companion, Elder Elkins. He's pretty cool. He's from Hurricane, Utah, so pretty close to St. George.

Pday was fun today. We played a lot of sports and board games. 

Sorry for the short email. But I'm alive and doing well in Casper!

Thanks for all of your support! It means a lot.

Love, Elder Pack

PS: Ethan is training Elder Elkins.  This is the second time Ethan has trained and he said it is going a lot better than the first time.  "I have matured since the last time I trained."  It's hilarious that Elder Elkins is from Hurricane, so close to home.  But they are both enjoying the mild Wyoming weather.  Ethan said it has been beautiful and he talked to us as he sat on the balcony of his apartment (he has a really nice apartment).

Elder Elkins was able to go to the Provo MTC for part of his MTC experience.  It was interesting that Ethan said he didn't feel jealous at all of Elder Elkins because Ethan liked home MTC.  He was happy to stay home for an extra 3 weeks, eat the food he was used to (like Capriottis every few days), and have us to talk to.  I thought that was cool.  He definitely has had a unique mission experience and I'm grateful that he hasn't looked at it as things he has missed out on.

Ethan, with Bryan's help, is still able to tease Courtney from a few states away.  We have been teasing her about "hopefully" getting her driver's license this week.  It is driving her nuts.  Bryan let Ethan in on the joke and so during the conversation, Ethan kept dropping the word "hopefully" whenever he could.  She was dying!  I am so grateful their relationship is just as strong as ever even when Ethan is on his mission...thanks to teasing!

They saw a camel spider the other day at the Church (there are pictures in this email).  Ethan said they were in the clerk's office of the Church filling out paperwork for the baptism they had when they saw something scurry, really fast, across the floor.  They jumped back and saw a spider.  Ethan picked up a ruler and the spider climbed up it.  So he kept turning the ruler to keep the spider moving but not towards him.  Then he killed the spider.  Ethan explained that the camel spider actually has claws on the front and it grabs stuff.  That's why it looks like it has too many legs (2 of them are pinchers).  Anyway, it is big and he had to take a bunch of pictures of it...after it was dead.

The mission president's birthday was last week and all the missionaries were asked to send in a video message to wish him a happy birthday.  Ethan and his companion (Elder Wright) used Ethan's 19th birthday candles to make a cute video.  They actually reversed the candles so they said 91 and lit them then wished President Palmer a happy 91st birthday and said he looks great for his age.  They thought they were pretty funny!  (fast forward to about 38 seconds because Ethan sent us the unedited video)

We also found out that Ethan's previous companion was a lot shorter than he was.  We didn't realize that until he sent the picture last week.  He said there were a couple elders who came in this month who are really tall.  So he was teasing Elder Wright that Elder Wright would be training one of them, but it didn't happen.  

Other than that, Ethan didn't have much else to share.  He is doing well.  He had a funny experience with his companion transferring this week but Ethan knows how to adapt.  Thanks for all your support of him!