Awesome Investigators but Alone at Church (Week 42)

Hello everyone,

Beautiful Sky

Lovely Rainbow

One of the most disappointing parts of the week is just as sacrament meeting begins you realize the investigators and less-actives, who promised to be there didn't show up.  You keep checking the cell phone to see if they call or text you.  Hoping and praying with all your might that they are just running a bit late and will walk in soon.  You kept glancing at the doors behind you, but to no avail, nobody walks in.  You start to loose hope and even worry that the super solid investigator got in a car accident and is in the hospital.

Alfred (the miracle from last week) didn't come to church. :(  The above paragraph is a combination of what happened yesterday when Alfred didn't show up and also when previous investigators didn't show up.  It really is disappointing.

However, Alfred is still super awesome.  We meet with him Saturday morning.  He had read from the start of the Book of Mormon to 2 Nephi 28.  We showed him the Mormon Message: Origin.  Afterwards, he said it made him think of a verse, so he flips through the Book of Mormon to 1 Nephi 2 and reads a verse about prayer.  (Sorry, I don't remember which verse.)  He has really good comprehension and good questions.  He said he feels more peace in his life as he reads the Book of Mormon.  He also told us what if he feels he is ready for baptism, but we don't.  We explained there were things we need to teach him and things he needs to live by to be baptized, but if he wants to be baptized sooner, we would help him.  He can only meet with us on Saturday and Sunday, so we are going to meet with him twice both of those days, morning and night.  He also reads what we give him, so we don't have to cover it all -- but rather start with what he doesn't understand.  His questions make it clear that he is reading.  We met him on Saturday evening.  He really wanted to know everything that he has to do to be baptized, so we told him about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity.  He seemed a little bummed but was willing to live them.  We told him we would cover them in more detail later.  He told us Saturday night that his neighbor offered him some beer, and he said no.  Way to go, Alfred!

Our only communication with him is email, since he doesn't have a phone.  We wanted to check our email when he didn't show up to church, but the wifi at the church has been down for a few weeks.  He was so solid, so that is why we were worried something terrible happened.  Either he was in the hospital, or he was "anti-"ed really bad.  It turns out, when we connected to wifi later in the day, that he emailed us before church apologizing that he forgot he had something else he had to do.  He said he would come next week.  Alfred is so cool.  I am glad I get to work with him.

There was a rainstorm this week that lasted a long time, with tons of lighting.  We got stuck inside, since we are not supposed to be finding with lighting.  We watched the storm.  The picture is of the golf course we see from our back window.  It was fun to watch.  There was so much lighting.  The power went out for a hour or so.

Rainstorm

That night frogs came out, because of the puddles.  They woke us up in the middle of the night.  I couldn't get back to sleep.  I kept praying that God would have the frogs go away, or he would let me fall asleep.  He answered my prayer, but not in the way I was expecting.  He told Sister Johnston "take up thy bed and walk."  So we grabbed our mattresses and took them to the study.  We had really good sleep that night.  We also discovered that the mattresses don't make noise; but our boxsprings do.  So we have taken the mattresses off the boxsprings every night now.  We have only taken them to the study once more when it also rained a lot. That way we skipped being woken up by the frogs.

Sleeping in the Study

Sister Johnston's tire went flat while we were biking to Essix.  It is all fixed now, but she ended up carrying her bike for two miles.  She was really sore afterwards.  She carried it, because she didn't want the tire and rim to be ruined.

Sister Johnston carrying her bike

Sister Johnston

We have discovered that, with Drugar, he doesn't like lessons, but he loves it when we come over.  We now read stories and play games with him.  All of it, of course, teaches him.  Yesterday, we had a game about tithing and fast offerings.  We gave each of them Mormon money (Mormon.org cards with numbers written on them) as their paychecks.  We them explained tithing, and they had to figure out how much tithing to pay.  We them gave them a tithing slip and helped them full it out.  They got to choose how much money to give for fast offerings.  They then gave the envelopes to Edmund, who was the bishop in the game, since he didn't join in with the lesson.  They had a lot of fun, and we gave them a jar to keep their tithing in.

Just so you all know, Sister Johnston had "adopted" Sister Taylor, since she was her first companion in the Florida Orlando Mission, so she counts as my "adoptive grandma." :)

Miracle:  We decided to go find one former investigator.  Pons was last taught about a year ago.  We got there, and we learned that he has read the Book of Mormon about three times a week this whole time.  Cool.  He said he was expecting the sisters to come back, but they never did.  He said he thinks they got transferred and, with his work schedule, it made it hard for them to catch him home.  It also turns out that the Spanish Elders were over there the night before us to visit Barnabas (Pons' dad).  We found out that it was Barnabas' niece, who lives in another Ward, who referred him to the missionaries.  Cool.  God is really working on this family at this time.  When we came back yesterday, we also started teaching Grundle (Pons' sister-in-law).  Some of her sons can only speak English.  Grundle wants to find a church for her children.  She said she plans on coming to church and bringing those she can.

✨Sister Aurora Pack

Alfred: YSW, Muslim, Christian, or something else? (Week 41)

Alake poses with her family at her baptism!

Hello,

This week was amazing.  We hit all of our goals, except when it came to referrals.  I honestly don't know how we did it, other than with God's help and blowing all our miles.  (We will have to bike a lot this week to make up for it.)

On an exchange with Sister Horrocks!

First off, I want to make it clear that I didn't send the pictures on Wednesday.  I sent them on Monday, but the internet connection was bad, so they didn't send.  I didn't think much of it until I saw that they sent when we connected with WiFi. 😱  I wasn't trying to be disobedient.  But all is good, God knows the intention of my heart. 😀

So, after district meeting, we were really bummed out.  (*Check note at the bottom of email.)  We didn't feel like doing anything, but we did anyway.  We had the option of going to a less-active home where we know they will let us in or going out and finding people to teach.

Tammy and Horrocks!

Sister Johnston asked me what the best possible outcome for the night was.  I told her I really wanted to find a family to teach.  We went finding.  We thought we should try this teenager, I meet awhile ago, Zifnab.  We didn't know how her parents would react.  When we get there, the parents were outside.  At first it was a little awkward, but we taught them and picked them up as new investigators.  It turns out they were taught by missionaries awhile ago.  We prayed to find a family, and God gave us what we asked for.  Hugh - father; Sinistrad - mother; Dynast - 18 (not living at home right now); Sabia - 16; Zifnab - 15; Devon - 14 or 13; and Balthazar - 12.  I love this whole family already.

We meet this really awesome person.  He is really knowledgable about the scriptures.  He said some things that I feel are true.  A lot of it was symbolism in the scriptures.  He said the first 10 prophets in the Bible from Adam to Noah have a special meaning if one knows the interpretation of each name. He said to google "Adam to Noah code."  Obviously, everything one finds might not be true, but I think there is a lot of truth in it.

An Avatar Egg

He also had some interesting views on the Book of Revelation.  He was discussing politics intertwined with religion.  He said one group already feels that the Book of Revelation has happened.  The website is raptureless.com.  He said it all happened with Nero, and he told us one event that would suggest that this theory is true.  When he was explaining this, I was at first thinking he is crazy, but as he explained I think, "Okay.  Maybe it happened before, but it doesn't stop it from happening again."  He thinks the same thing; he said, "God works in patterns."  After all, the scriptures have many meanings.  He said John was trying to warn the Christians of the day.  I can see that as true, but he was also warning us.

The whole time he was trying to share with us what he believes, which I am okay with even if I don't agree with everything.  Some of the things he said, I don't believe.  Other people I have meet on my mission just try to destroy my belief.  When I talk with people, I don't want to tell them what they believe is wrong, but I'd rather share with them the truth I have to offer.

Before we left, he said a prayer.  In it he asked God to help us know truth and that we would continue bring people unto him.  He also prayed that we would find good husbands when the time came.

Miracle: As the title suggests we met someone named Alfred.  He is so awesome.  We were deterimed to get a high number of contacts* this week, so we set out to do it.  We talked to 40 people on Tuesday; our Mission President has a goal of 12 each day.  Alfred was number 37 or something like that.  He was really close to 40, which just goes to show that talking with everyone really does work.

We were biking, and we asked if we could share a webaddress.  He said yes, and he got really confused, since he had never heard of Mormons before.  We tried to explain, but he only got more confused.  He asked us the difference between Mormon and Mohammad.  We gave him the pamphlet, and he said he would go home to read it right then.  We also set up a time to meet him on Saturday.

Sister Johnston thought he was a Muslim, which is fine; we would just have to get him interviewed before we really started teaching him.  The reason is because it is dangerous for a Muslim to convert to Christianity.  I thought he was a Christian, who looked up Islam and didn't quite know who Mohammad was.  We made sure to ask him on Saturday.  It turned out I was right, but something we weren't expecting was that he grew up as a Jehovah's Witness.  I have never taught one, so this will be interesting.  He was also asking how he can become a Mormon, so we set a baptismal date with him for August 22.

We told him church was at 10, but to come at 9:30, so we could show him around the building.  He was really excited to come, so on Sunday we kept looking for him, but he didn't show up.  The Sacrament was passed, and we both were really tired -- staying awake was a problem.

After the Sacrament was done, Alfred walked in!  He sat on the other side, so we were thinking, "oh great, how is this going to work out?"  We wanted to sit next to him, but there wasn't room.

Thankfully, a member noticed and talked to him and pointed at us, so he came to join us.  It turned out he was looking for us at 10:30, so we think he confused the times.  During Sacrament meeting, he was writing down questions he had.  He is so awesome.  The ward also loved him.  The Elders told us, at the end of Priesthood meeting, he asked how he can become a missionary.

Also, we thought he might be YSA (Young Single Adult).  If he was, we needed to pass him off to the YSA Elders.  It turns out Alfred is 31!  Wahoo!  We get to teach him. 😊

*Side note on the contacts: We reached 48 on the first two days, which is pretty good for a week, but we were going to do better.  Then, at district meeting, it was announced that we aren't counting contacts anymore. This way the district leader doesn't have to call us on Sunday night to get numbers -- he just looks online, since we have iPads.  It was a huge bummer, but oh well.

✨Sister Aurora Pack

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.

Book of Mormon Miracles (Week 36)

Tennis as exercise!

Hey Everyone,

Last Monday we bought some tennis balls.  We found three tennis rackets in the apartment.  There is a tennis court next to our apartment.  We decided to play tennis in the mornings as our exercise program.

It has been a lot of fun.  We both are not very good, so our goal is to become half-way decent.

Cole is getting baptized this Saturday.  We are really excited; he is too.  He was so worried he wouldn't pass the interview.  We tried to reassure him he would be fine, and, of course, he was.

Thanks Dad and Grandpa for the scriptural references regarding my resurrection question.

We went to find a potential investigator, but they weren't home, so we knocked a few doors in that area.  A boy, named Eric, answered the door.  He said his parents weren't home, so we gave him a card to give to his parents.  Later, we said a prayer with another potential investigator, and had a brief lesson, and it turned out Eric was friends with her son!  They live somewhat close, but not right next to each other.  What are the chances that the boy we talked to earlier would come by later?  We don't think it was a coincidence.

Elder Norton drew the district as Greek Gods (good thing no one takes this pantheon seriously any more so we can just enjoy the stories as mythology)

Essix is doing really good.  She still needs to heal to make it to church.  She loves the Book of Mormon.  We leave her with one assigned chapter, and she will read more.  Right before we come she re-reads the chapter we gave her.  She said whenever she reads, she just wants to read more.

 

The Elders come to the end of Preparation Day (not looking too much like the cartoon)

Sister Sebastion gave herself a date to start doing the things she needs to get back to the temple.  I am so happy for her.  I know she can do it.

 

Sister Aurora sports her short hair!

Miracle:  I got a haircut last Monday.  I wanted my hair longer than it already was.  I just wanted a trim [to help it grow].  I have decided to only get a haircut from someone who speaks english fluently or, if I ever learn a language, we can go with that one.  She spoke English, but there was still a language barrier.  She cut too much of my hair off.  It still looks okay, but I had a hard time with it being a lot shorter.  At first I told myself it was fine, but one night I just broke down in tears.  I went and filled up my water bottle in the fridge.  As I walked back, I felt like I should pull out my iPad and read from the Book of Mormon.

I picked a place randomly and started reading.  It calmed me down.

Afterwards, I felt peace.  I still want my hair longer, but I was no longer upset about it.  I love the Book of Mormon.  It always can bring the Spirit who brings peace.

✨Sister Aurora Pack

P.S. Here is something I made with my iPad.  Elder Hunt showed me the basics, then I messed around with it until I made what I wanted.  Sister Fricke suggested that I turn the bottom upside down to make the mirror.

The Detroit Temple meets Sister Pack's iPad