What makes our Church Different? (Week 40)

An old picture of Fricke and Pack.  It's easy to get these two confused?!

Hey Everyone,

This week was awesome!  We had so many miracles.  We taught so much.  We also got a baptism date set for Essix!  Since she still has physical challenges to overcome, we set it for September 19th.  I am so excited for her!

We had exchanges, which was fun.  I will send a picture [next week].

During two days we took Tammy out with us.  We used so many miles in our car.  (We only get to drive 620 each month for Pleasant Hill South.)  But we saw so many miracles.  We got to meet with Trian and meet with some other people.

One scary thing happened with Tammy.  We knocked on a door, and we asked if Bane was home.  The lady who answered the door said he had moved.  We asked her if she wanted to learn.  She said no, which is fine, but then she started telling us she believes in Satan.  She told us, "Satan be with you."  Needless to say, we left.  We said a prayer and put on hymns in the car to get the spirit back.  Creepy devil lady.  I hope and pray she changes and turns to Christ.  I also hope she was just trying to creep us out and doesn't believe it, but, even if that is true, she doesn't know what she is messing with.

We had some awesome lessons with Drugar.  Since he is nine, we found ways to keep his attention for longer periods of time.  He really likes reading the scriptures especially if we have pictures to go with it.

My mom has sent me a few pictures from Big Horn.  If any of you read this, just know that I miss Big Horn and all of you.  Tanner, your face is so goofy.  Dillon, that is so awesome that you are SPL for Week 2.  I guess that is happening this week.  I wish you well.

Miracle: I don't think I can just pick one, but I will highlight the lesson with Roland.  The other things I wrote about today are also miracles in there own way (except the devil lady).  Weeks ago Sister Fricke and I taught Roland, but we have never been able to see him again.  He works a lot.  We were planning on just seeing what he remembered about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

He remembered that we like to start and end with a prayer, which was super awesome.  After the prayer, he asked us really good questions, like what makes our church different from all the other Christian churches.  The answer, of course, is that we have modern living prophets who lead and guide us.  If that isn't enough, we also have the priesthood and the Book of Mormon.  We explained a lot about the prophet, and we explained how a new one is called.

 

At the end of the lesson, he told us that when we last meet he said he was unshakable, but that he was still willing to meet with us.  However, now he said he might be shaken from his faith to another, as long as that faith believes in Christ.  He told us that Sunday evenings are usually a good time to find him home.  Also during his prayer, he called me Sister Fricke.  I will try to correct him next time.  I didn't want to say anything.
--

~Sister Aurora Pack

Sister Johnston finally connects! (Week 39)

Sister Johnston has arrived in the same area as Sister Pack... finally!

Hey everyone,

I heard Mom and Mirth are up at Big Horn.  That is so much fun.  I love Big Horn so much, so have a blast. :)

 

My new companion is Sister Johnston!  She was born (first area in the mission) in Winter Garden and her second area was New Smyrna just like me!  She was Sister Taylor's first companion in Florida.  Sister Brown replaced her at Winter Garden; then the next transfer I came and replaced Sister Brown.  When I left Winter Garden, I went to New Smyrna and replaced Sister Johnston.  She has served in every area that I have.  She has also served in two other areas.  She has been out 14 months.

 

We meet this person named Rega.  We were talking to her and then she answered her phone.  We then started talking to her granddaughters.  A little bit later Rega is off the phone, and we continue to talk to her.

Her daughter, who is inside, finds out that we are there.  She yells that she didn't want us to baptize her daughters and that there is only one God.  It was pretty clear that she didn't like us, but Rega told her daughter that she was being rude.  Rega told us to come back on Tuesday, so we are.  Hopefully, Rega will talk to us before believing anything her daughter tells her.

Miracle: We were trying to see some potential investigators.  We weren't having any luck, but we talked to a person across the street.  She didn't have time then, but she said to come back.  She said she recently moved here, and she used to have missionaries come by.  It was really cool.

Sorry this week's email is short.

✨Sister Aurora Pack

 

One more photo of my birthday cake!

 

Birthday Party and Lots of Visits (Week 38)



At Tammy's birthday party for me!



Hey everyone,

First off , you need to know transfer doctrine.  Sister Fricke is leaving me!  How rude.  She is abandoning me tomorrow.  Anyway, we have had so much fun together.  This last week was amazing.  Sister Fricke is awesome, and she will do great good in her new area.

 



Sister Fricke's birthday sign for me!



Sister Fricke made this sign for me.  She made it without me knowing and then put it up the night before my birthday.  I didn't see it until my birthday.  She is so awesome.

Sister Fricke befriends a lucky local cat!

On Saturday Elder L. Tom Perry, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, passed away.  He was one of Sister Fricke's favorite apostles.  She named her stuffed unicorn Perry after him.  It is sad to see him go, but I know it is his time.  The Lord has a plan, which is perfect.  I bet Elder Perry is needed on the other side.

 

We met Haplo, who is super awesome.  He has heard about the church in New York with all the advertising, but has never meet a member until us.  He wants to learn more, but is going back to New York tomorrow. 

 

He is getting everything ready, so he can move down here to stay to be with his family.  When we told him about Joseph Smith, it really touched him that it was in Palmyra, New York.  I would never have thought that that part of the story would matter to anyone.

Haplo cared because he was in Palmyra when he found God.

My birthday party!

Thank you all for your birthday wishes.  I had a wonderful day.  Now I am officially 20.  We had a really great day.  Tammy invited us over for dinner.  She also invited over Sister Xar.  She wanted us to invite someone, so we asked Trian to come.  She came and loved it.  We were able to teach the first lesson to her.

All the attendees at the party (except cameraman Fricke)

The first part of it went terrible!  Trian was so distracted.  She went into the bathroom to fix her makeup.  We both said a silent prayer asking for the spirit to come.  After she came back, we taught her about Joseph Smith and the first vision.  The spirit was so strong.  Trian asked us not to make her cry, because then she would have to fix her makeup again.  She said she knew what we said was true.  We explained that she was feeling the spirit.  It was awesome.

Grandma Tammy and Sister Fricke

The spirit changes everything in the lesson.  Also, after the spirit was there, Trian was calm, which is weird for her.

Samah and her family

These two transfers with Sister Fricke have been amazing.  We ended it with a fantastic week.  I think this has been one of my best.

Dalton and me

Miracle: At the end of church, we ate lunch and then went to fill up our water bottles, near the bishop's office.  Brother Vasu (second counselor in bishopric) was talking with someone.  He called us over, and we started talking with Limbeck.  He had a lot of good questions.

Essix is still confined to bed, but she's happy -- and we're happy to be with her!

We were able to answer them and teach him the first lesson.  He wants to learn more, but didn't set up a time to meet.  He said he would come to church next Sunday.  He and his wife moved to Florida three weeks ago.  He said his wife is a member, and he wanted to come check it out.

✨Sister Aurora Pack



My last district meeting with Sister Fricke

P.S. There was an Elder who found a picture of Elder Ashworth, who is one of our Zone Leaders.  He convinced all the other Elders to set the picture as their background.  At the end of district meeting they showed Elder Ashworth.  They told him if only they could be as good as him.

The Ashcroft Phone incident

Climbing Fourteeners & Silver Linings (Week 37)

Conquering the highest peak in Florida -- their only 14'er.
That is, 14 feet above sea level!

 Hello,

Cole was baptized on Saturday!  When he came up from the water he had a huge smile.  It was so awesome.  He also had a great smile when he was confirmed on Sunday.

Brother Ramos baptized him.  He and his wife are his primary teachers.  Sister Ramos wasn't able to come, which was too bad.  However, Marit Wyatt was able to come.  She rides the same bus to school as Cole.  When she heard he was getting baptized, she really wanted to come.  Because Sister Ramos wasn't able to come and give the talk, we asked Marit to give her testimony on baptism.  We also shared a few thoughts.  It was good, since Sister Wyatt also came, because Marit was speaking.  Also Sister Hiatt and her family came.  She was the missionary that first started helping Mira and Cole.  She is home now, and she just happened to be in Florida with her family.

When we went to the Bishop's house for dinner, their six-year-old son heard rockamole instead of guacamole.  He then sang "Icecream, icecream, rockamole."  He then asked if I knew that song.  He kept singing it.  It was so funny.

Essix is doing great.  She still needs to recover.  I am not sure what to do other than pray.  I keep praying.  I know she will recover in the Lord's time.

One day this week, I prayed during the whole time of personal study.  Elder Clarke suggested it.  It was great.  We can always pray.

Thanks everyone who is emailing me.  I really appreciate it.  It is nice to know what is going on in your lives.

Miracle: We knocked on a door to find a former investigator.  She no longer lived there, but Nate and Conor did.  They are super awesome.

We talked with them about families and did a quick restoration overview.  They said we could come back tonight.  The day we found them our appointments canceled on us.  Miracles always seem to happen when our appointments cancel. I think God knows someone else needs us then, so he causes things to come up in the other people's lives.

That is how we found Essix.  Someone canceled, so we went to go see Abeke, which led to Essix.

✨Sister Aurora Pack

Exhausted after reaching the summit!

P.S. We decided that this is the tallest hill in Florida (not really, but we like to pretend, since Florida is so flat).  The first picture is me exhausted from climbing it. ;) The second picture is me standing triumphant since I conquered the hill.  It was fun to pretend that it took a lot of effort.