August 24, 2021

Hey everyone!

I don't have much time but I'm doing good. I'm gonna be in a trio, covering 3 wards for the next few weeks, so that's exciting. Other than that, things are good.

Thanks for all your support everyone! You're all awesome!

From, Elder Pack

PS: Here are details we talked about when Ethan called...

For P-day, Ethan's district was going to some caves to explore. He said there are some caves somewhere on Casper Mountain.  He is in a district full of elders so there aren't any sisters to make sure they don't do anything dumb. 😉 Ethan promised that he wouldn't do anything stupid and that he would try to make sure his district stayed safe.  It seems like they all made it through okay, although Ethan didn't send pictures of the cave so they may not have found it.  It looks like they had a fun hike though.

One of the elders in Ethan's district is going to his original assigned mission.  That means there is an elder without a companion.  That elder has only been in the mission for 1 transfer.  In order to make things easier, the mission president decided to put the remaining missionary with Ethan and his greenie.  So now Ethan has 2 greenies he is training, one that is brand new and one that has one transfer in the mission.  The last time Ethan was in a trio, he was the junior companion so he just went along with whatever they wanted to do.  Now, he has to be in charge so he is a bit nervous.  But he has enjoyed training this time so I'm sure he will be fine. 

This is going to be a crazy p-day for him.  In addition to playing with his district, they are supposed to move the elder's stuff to their apartment, have a dinner appointment, and teach 2 lessons. They now have 3 wards to work in too.  They are going to have to arrange 3 meal calendars, cancel some of the dinners that overlap between 2 of the wards, and make sure everyone knows they will be feeding 3 of them now.  I told Ethan to just switch them from dinner appointments to lunch ones, then they would eat well all day long!  He said that is a possibility. Ethan said it's going to be a crazy day!  But the next transfers are in 3 weeks so they won't have to work the 3 wards for too long.

Zone Conference is on Friday and Ethan is excited about it.  He really likes his mission president and looks forward to seeing him and being taught by him. The relief society takes care of feeding the missionaries who are at the conference.  Ethan isn't sure which building in their zone they will be meeting in.  One building is near them and the other is across town near where the new temple will be built.  He likes getting together with all the other missionaries.

The mission president has been taking zones to the temple lately but Ethan said you have to be within 1 hour of Fort Collins in order to be able to attend.  Ethan is too far out.  He is hoping he stays in Wyoming because he really likes it there.  He thinks he may get a transfer the next transfer, just because of the length of time he has been in Casper, but you never know. The mission president takes the missionaries going home to the temple so Ethan figures he will just wait until then.  

The weather has been good.  They had rain last week.  Ethan said they have been told that there is a "First Winter" that comes soon and will bring snow.  Then the weather will get warm again but bugs will go away so "it will be really nice."  Then it real winter will hit and they will get snow and it will get cold.  Ethan said the mosquitos are horrible and he is always getting eaten alive.  He said it isn't bad when he remembers to use bug spray, but usually he forgets to apply it.  He said after the first winter that the bugs are killed so it makes it really nice.

I think that's all he talked about.  It's always fun to chat with him and see how well he is doing. He is happy and working hard.