Elder Pack

 Today is the day! Ethan spent this morning in the temple with the other missionaries who were going home.  They did a temple session and then were able to do sealings with President and Sister Palmer.  Ethan thought that was pretty cool.  They took pictures and Sister Palmer posted about it on Facebook. They went to lunch and then it was off to the airport.  Ethan sent us a pic once he got to his gate.  It was getting real!    When we got to the airport we knew which baggage carousel he would go to but we weren't sure which escalator he would go down.  We waited by baggage claim for a long time while we waited for his plane to land.  When it finally did land, we weren't sure what to do.  Bryan went to one escalator, I stayed at baggage claim, and Courtney was in the middle.  While we were watching, I saw Courtney suddenly take off running. He had come down the far escalator by where Bryan was waiting.  Bryan motioned for ...

Hello everyone! Ethan didn't get a chance to write because he was able to go to the Fort Collins Temple!  He is on the left-hand side in the picture.  He sent us a message Monday night saying that he wouldn't be able to call first thing the next morning because he was going to the temple.  They thought they would be going later in the morning because the Greeley Zone and the Windsor Zone were both going the same day.  But, since the restrictions have been lifted, both zones could fit in the same endowment session!  They had to be at the temple by 8 am to get in the 8:30 am session.  Ethan said it was really great to be in the temple again.   He called us in the late afternoon because they also went to lunch, did their shopping, and did laundry.  But he is doing really well and is happy.   They will have a baptism this weekend and they are super excited about it.  The woman has been working hard to quit smoking and has seen...

Hello everyone! I am in fact alive!  Things are going well here. Breanna is still set to be baptized on the 22nd. And Esty and her family are wanting to get baptized too! So please be praying for all them. Nothing else really crazy going on here. Things are just going good. Sorry I'm not good at writing emails. I promise stuff happens haha.  Anyway, it snowed here and I'll attach some pictures.  Thanks  for all your support everyone! From, Elder Pack  PS.  It has been pretty cold in Loveland and the first picture is on the temperature where is says "-6" degrees.  That is so cold!  Last week Ethan and his companion lost heat and hot water in their apartment.  Ethan thought, because it was the end of the month, that the Church had cut off their utilities because he had been taking long, hot showers.  He thought maybe they got a certain allotment of money for utilities and they had gone over so they didn't have hot water or heat until it re...

Everyone!  Once again, I'm just going to share what Ethan told us when he talked to us on the phone.  I'm really only doing this for family history's sake.  Ethan is still serving in Loveland, CO.  They just had transfers and all the District had changes.  In fact, the District boundaries changed and they are all car areas now, which Ethan is glad of.  He is still with Elder Bateman and training is going well. Many of the other missionaries in the District are also training. Last week, Elder Bateman found a really cool YSA guy through Facebook finding.  They had a great lesson with him and found out that he is in a different area.  They had a "pass off lesson" with him and the other elders only to find out that he isn't in those elder's area either so they didn't really pass him off.  Ethan and Elder Bateman are still teaching the man and are going to pass him off later.  But the man is already talking about baptism so that is great....

  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...

  Everyone! Ethan has had a busy day and so I thought I would pass along what we talked about today with him. First, Ethan got to go to the Temple!!  The first time he went through the temple was November 3, 2020, and the second time he went through was November 2, 2021.  Every couple of weeks, his mission president takes a couple of zones (who are within 100 miles) to the temple.  Ethan hasn't been close enough until now.  He was excited and had a great time.  Hopefully, he will get to go more now that he is closer.   Ethan is on the left: Ethan is on the left: Ethan is in Loveland in the Boyd Lake Area.  He hasn't met too many people in his ward because a lot of them have been out of town this week, but they went to the ward chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat.  They were able to meet people there, although Ethan said he doesn't remember all their names. They live in a nice apartment, one of the nicest in the mission.  It has 2 bedr...

 Here are a couple of Facebook posts Ethan made in the past week. Ethan and his companions are responsible for posting to the Church of Jesus Christ in Greeley Facebook page each Saturday.

  Hey everyone! This week was a pretty good one. Right now we're struggling to get in contact with everyone we're teaching, but it's coming slowly. We'll see what we're going to do about all that. Some cool things that happened this week: I ate authentic ramen that a member made us along with Philly cheesesteaks, looked at some murals downtown, went to zone conference in Fort Collins and got to see the temple, move a few tons of gravel, and spent some time in the apartment that I stayed my first night in 9 months ago. So it has been a pretty good week. And on Friday, Elder Soares is going to visit the mission virtually so I've been studying a bunch of his talks. It's going to be great.  Thanks  for all of your support! Hope things are going good for you all. I think you're all great. See ya! Elder Pack PS:  Ethan said that Colorado is quite different from Wyoming.  They only have half the ward attending Sacrament meeting each week (they rotate) and the o...

 I wanted to record Ethan's grateful posts for the #GiveThanks challenge given to us by President Nelson.  Enjoy!