Elder Pack

Hey everyone! Thanks for the emails, packages, and letters for Ethan's birthday last week.  He said he was spoiled and appreciated being thought of. The last transfer in Ethan's mission (minus the one home) happened this week!  He stays in Windsor, CO, continuing with Elder Nichols, and continuing as a Zone Leader.  There are quite a lot of changes in their Zone but Ethan said that change is really good and he is looking forward to a shake-up of things. They had some success last week finding people to teach.  Ethan and Elder Nichols have been driving to parts of their area and then walking around.  They don't knock on doors, they just walk around and talk to whoever is outside.  They were blessed to find people to teach on Sunday and Monday just walking around.  One of them let him borrow an umbrella because it was starting to sprinkle.  When Ethan protested, the man told them that he would get it back from them at Church on Sunday.  They ar...

Hi everyone! It's a day early but we got to talk to Ethan for just a little bit today.  Ethan is going to Martin's Cove tomorrow.  The entire mission gets to go.  They will do some service projects and walk around.  Ethan had a great time doing this last year so he is excited.  They will leave their apartment around 5:15 am to drive up.  They asked the APs a couple of weeks ago if they could use the transfer van.  The APs forgot to ask the mission president so when Ethan reminded them, they told him to text the mission president and ask.  By that time, the transfer van wasn't available.  So they are all driving their own vehicles.  It will be a long day but it will be good. Since they won't be in their areas tomorrow, they had time today to call home, do laundry, go grocery shopping, and do whatever else necessary to prepare for the upcoming week.  They ran out of money so they have been eating cereal and chicken for the past week....

  Everyone! Ethan didn't write this week, not that we are surprised (haha).  But he is doing really well.  It is transfers week and he is staying put for another 6 weeks. Elder Howard is being transferred which is sad.  They got along really well and will actually be roommates when they go to BYU in the Fall. Elder Howard goes home after Ethan so he will get home just in time for school to start.  Ethan is really excited that they will be roommates.  Watch out BYU!  Ethan is, however, excited for his new companion, Elder Nichols.  Ethan was his district leader previously so he knows who he is and said that Elder Nichols is a good guy.  Ethan may or may not finish his mission in this area.  There is only one more transfer of Ethan's mission.  Ethan's release date is June 30th, which is 2 weeks earlier than we thought.  His mission president finishes on July 1 st  so the missionaries are going home with their mission preside...

  Hi everyone!  I hope your week has been going good. I found out I'll be leaving Loveland and heading over to Windsor! I'm excited but I'm gonna miss Loveland.  It was a really fun week. I really enjoy being a missionary. Breanna is going to be baptized this Saturday and I'm super excited for her! She has the strongest testimony of Jesus Christ that I've ever seen. Pday today was fun. Just a lot of basketball and chair soccer, as well as this game called peach ball that we play like ultimate Frisbee, but with a foam football and the goal is to get it into the hoop.  Well, I appreciate all of your love and support! Being a missionary is awesome. I've learned so much about Jesus Christ and have grown a lot myself. From, Elder Pack PS: These are things we talked about in our phone call but first, the videos he sent made me laugh. They have a wheel that you can spin so they put their names on it and whoever's name it landed on had to do something weird, like ge...

Since Ethan didn't write a letter, I figured I would just put what we talked about on the blog.  Those who are subscribed to the blog will be able to see what we chatted about. It's still Christmas break so we had to wake Courtney up to talk to Ethan and she was cold.  It was hilarious because they were matched - both in hoodies - so Ethan took a couple of screenshots and sent them to me.  These two are hilarious when they talk on Tuesdays.  Ethan teases Courtney just like he did before he left and Courtney likes to tease back.  They love each other and it's fun to see. It's been getting colder in Loveland so Ethan said he was chilled and had his hoodie on. (I got a message that night from Elder Bateman's mom asking if I knew that the elders didn't have heat in their apartment and didn't have hot water.  Ethan didn't tell us anything.  Hopefully, they got it all taken care of or stayed with other elders until it was.) We had just talked to Ethan on Sat...

Everyone! Ethan said he was going to take time today to write an email to everyone but...he got busy and didn't get a chance.  He did send pics and an email to Grandpa Oman so I hijacked it.  That's where I got these pictures from. ;)  Here are some things Ethan shared with us on our phone call today. If anyone is wondering, it is warmer in Loveland, CO, than it is in Ivins!  Ethan has been enjoying great weather and we have been pretty cold.  I told him that he needs to tell the people wherever he serves in the winter that they will be having mild weather while he is there.  It seems that he has been missing all the cold stuff.  That will probably change but right now it's in the mid-60s and Ivins has been in the low-50s. Ethan was so excited to tell us about a family that they started teaching this week.  The father is an inactive member of the Church who reached out to the missionaries to ask to be taught.  His wife and 2 sons (ages 10 and...

Hey everyone! Things are going good here. Thanksgiving was good. We got to play ultimate frisbee (there was only 1 torn ACL) and eat dinner with some members. It was pretty great.  Other than that, it has been business as usual. We were able to teach a lot of members and a few nonmembers. Also, the weather has been super warm recently, which is weird because it's almost December. But I'm not complaining.  Well, that's honestly about it. Things are going good though.  Thanks  for all your support! From, Elder Pack PS.  It wasn't Ethan who tore his ACL.  They were playing Ultimate Frisbee and an elder was a bit too aggressive at trying to chase Ethan down.  Ethan was looking up for the frisbee and the elder ran up on him.  Their legs tangled up and they went down.  That's how the other elder tore his ACL.   Ethan got to ride a bike again.  He went on a mini exchange with the other elder in their district.  Ethan was able to ...

He messaged me Thanksgiving morning to tell me that they were allowed to call home so he would call us after they had eaten Thanksgiving dinner.  I was excited.  Bryan's birthday was on the 24th and they can call home for those too.  So if Ethan would have wanted to, he could have called on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. 😉 They had a good Thanksgiving.  They got together as a Zone and played ultimate frisbee.  Those are the pictures that I have attached to the email.  In the first picture, they are trying to look mean, then they smile, and then they just take pictures looking into the sun. 😉  They played 2 games and Ethan was on the winning team both times.  He said it wasn't because of skill, it was just the advantage of being tall.  He can reach the frisbee before the others.  They almost made it through the entire game without injury until close to the end when an elder (who was being aggressive) was chasing after Ethan...

  Hey everyone! It's been a minute since I've written an email but things have been going great here.  Michael, who I was teaching in Casper, got baptized! I, unfortunately, didn't get to see it because I got transferred down to Loveland, Colorado.  Colorado is pretty cool. If I'm being honest, I prefer Wyoming but that isn't to say Colorado isn't great too. Also, my last district was  awesome  so it's been an adjustment.  I'm training again too. His name is Elder Bateman. He's pretty cool. Here in Loveland things are kind of slow teaching wise but it's picking up. We've been working hard and have seen success because of it.  Some notable things: we talked to a flat earther. We had an  awesome  new missionary orientation meeting (President Palmer is  awesome ). The weather has been great. Taught a guy named Eli a first lesson on his porch. He really appreciated being given the Book of Mormon. Got to go through the temple last week and cl...

Hey everyone! This week was good as normal. We had some great lessons with Michael. He is almost ready to get baptized on the 30th. It is so cool. I might not be here to see it because transfers are on the 27th. It is still great though. I'll attach a bunch of pictures. There are some good ones this week. Thanks everyone for your support. It means a lot. Have a good week! From, Elder Pack PS:  Here is the information about the pictures.  I'm not sure what order they are in so I will try to make it easy to understand. There were 3 young men from the ward Ethan is serving in who have just left on their own missions.  Ethan took a picture with his companion and one of the future elders after the future elder's farewell.  Missionaries are looking younger and younger to me! They were sharing a message with a family and the dog didn't want Ethan to leave.  He went over and stood on Ethan's foot.  Ethan said it was pretty funny.   There was a house they ...

Hey everyone! This week was pretty good. We got some snow today. People were saying we were gonna get a lot but we only got about 3 or 4 inches.  We also started teaching a guy named Justin. We're gonna meet with him again today and we'll see how interested he actually is but our first lesson went pretty well.  I also had one of the best meals so far this week. A big ol delicious steak, salad, and French fries. The member who made it is super good at cooking. The picture I took of it doesn't do it justice.  Ethan's steak dinner I also got to go to zone conference. The focus was on teaching skills like setting expectations. It was pretty great. President Palmer playing video games Also, I got to hold a sword. A member we were meeting with has a ton of swords and stuff. It is pretty sweet. Holding a cool sword Anyway,  thanks  for reading everyone! You are all great. Have a great week! From, Elder Pack PS: We had a fun chat with Ethan today.  He showed us the...