1-22-09

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                                   

Sorry for not getting a letter out last week. The last two weeks have been busy. Zirker and I have probably driven 1200 miles around the zone and down to Everett and Mill Creek for meetings since we got transferred. I didn’t realize so much driving was involved in this position. I’ve been able to get to know the Zone better and all the missionaries so I’ve enjoyed it for the most part. I didn’t realize how good of an area Mt. Vernon was until I left it. With about half as much time in our area to work as before we’re able to get as much done as just about anybody in our zone. It’s great. Elder Zirker lives to tract which is good because aside from our on-daters, we are in a big-time finding mode. He likes to work so things are going well. He’s been out for 18 months so I’m learning a lot from him, and he’s hilarious so we have a good time.

We’ve got two baptisms coming up this Saturday with some good guys—Tony and Jessie. They’ve turned their lives around from being in the homeless lifestyle and it’s exciting seeing them taking the right steps.

I’m still meeting with Brian but it’s been hard getting him out to church, so he isn’t progressing a whole lot. Last week I gave his son, Jonah, some lemon juice because I heard if you dipped cigarettes in it and smoked them, it’s nasty. So Jonah was all over it. We made a secret handoff and a couple hours later I got a call from Brian all upset saying he wants to invite us over to dinner so he can feed us a bunch of food full of laxatives that we can wash down with lemonade. At first I thought he was really mad and that I’d screwed up, but he was joking. I guess it worked, he said it was really bad and he couldn’t figure out what it was, but then Jonah started laughing at him and threw us under the bus. Good times.

So since Zirker and I have both put on some mission weight, we’ve gone healthy. So we got a bunch of produce from the market and made this shake to kick the whole thing off. We put some spinach, lettuce and a carrot in the blender and made up the swampiest concoction. It looked like chunky swamp water full of algae, but we put it down and we’re never gonna do it again. My stomach was moaning all day and it wasn’t pleasant. I’d like to think it added a few years to my lifespan, but even then it wasn’t worth it. We make fruit shakes now with a lot of blackberries—it’s great.

Deception Pass is in the zone so I drive over it a couple times a week and I’ve got some photos I’ll send soon.

Thanks for the letters—everybody who’s written me—thank you. I’m not the best at remembering to get back, but I’ll try.

All’s well. I’m being blessed.

Love,

Elder Packer

 

 

1-9-09

Hey Everybody,                                                                

 This week takes the cake for crazy ones.  After P-day on Thursday night at 11 while I’m sleeping, I get a call from Elder Martineau and the first thing he says is, “This is not a joke.” Then he tells me I’m getting sent to Mt. Vernon 1^st Ward with another missionary to replace the ones up there. So as of Friday afternoon, I’m back in Mt. Vernon—same ward, same apartment, 3 weeks later. I’m stoked. I didn’t sleep much Thursday night because I was thinking about all the people I was teaching I’d see again. Elder Merrell and I had gotten a lot going, but it’s awesome being back. I got released as a District Leader and now my new comp, Elder Zirker, is training me as a Zone Leader. It’s fun. It’s just like having a bigger district than before. We do a lot for the zone so we don’t get as much time with our area, but the time we get is effective.

 I’ve seen Brian and Mike and with the 3-week transition, they’ve both lost steam, so I’m gonna see what we can to do getting them progressing.

 Zirker’s the man! I’m learning more than ever with him. And with less time in our area than before, I think we’ll get more accomplished than before. The elders that were here and then left transformed the apartment. It’s spotless and it’s got a bench press and weight set. It’s great. They cut down the 5-foot-tall blackberry bushes in the backyard too so now we can see Big Lake. They had 3 feet of snow so they just cleaned up everything since they were stuck.

 Things are good. Zirker is from Dubuque, Iowa. He’s hilarious and loves tracting. We haven’t had the chance to do any yet, but when we do, we’re gonna tear it up.

 Thanks for the letters. All’s well.

 

Love,

Elder Packer

WA Everett Mission

16124-35^th Ave. SE

PO Box 13390

Mill Creek, WA  98082-1390

 

1-2-09

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                        

 It dawned on me a few days ago that I’ll be a missionary for all of 2009. I thought that was pretty cool. Things are going well in Marysville. We’ve built up some good momentum here and have many people to see now which is nice.

 The snow’s finally gone so we can drive the van around—that’s been huge. When it first started snowing I thought it was awesome. It looked really nice and white outside, but I got over it fast, since we couldn’t drive for about a week. Church was even cancelled for two weeks. So the snow’s gone for now and we’re all doing a pretty good job at making up for lost time.

 We had a zone P-day yesterday with about 20 missionaries. We played the most intense basketball of my life. I had heard the legends of how crazy missionaries got at basketball and yesterday I lived it. You would think there were NBA scouts watching the way it was going. It was a lot of fun. We only had three minor injuries, so it was relatively clean.

 I wish I had some good stories about my investigators, but so far they’ve all been pretty normal. This transfer, so far, has been really good. We’ve had two struggling companionships in the district and they’ve both been able to get things going so that we’re all pulling hard. I like my new leadership calling a lot. I like the whole team mentality of it, the pressure and responsibility are definitely there, but the opportunity definitely outweighs them. It’s fun.

 This is what’s called “money week.” Since somebody has to come to church three times before they can be baptized, this is the last week we can still find, baptize, and confirm in the transfer, and today (Friday) is the most important day of the week since it has the biggest influence of how the Sunday turnout goes. So today’s gonna be a busy one.

Last Sunday we did pretty bad at getting people out to church mainly because of the snow, so this week needs to be a big one. I’m learning a lot this transfer so far. 

Thanks for all of the letters. To answer your question Camille, no Mallory unfortunately isn’t active since her dad isn’t, and things like that make me want to be back in Mt. Vernon to help fix. It’s hard leaving all the people you’ve taught and recent converts for two new missionaries. They are good missionaries though and I trust that President Showalter put them there for a reason.

 Thanks, again, everybody.

 Love, Nate