11-17-08

Hey Y’all,

This last week has been pretty sweet. We’ve been working hard finding and teaching and our investigator pool is looking pretty good. We have been talking to a guy named Mike for the whole time we’ve been out. He was tracted into probably a year ago and hadn’t shown much interest since then. He just let the missionaries in since they didn’t try to push beliefs on him or condemn him for not immediately accepting the message. He had never let any Jehovah’s Witnesses or any of the local church people in, but he liked the elders so they would come over and talk with him, not even religiously most of the time. He’s got a mullet, he has been to prison, he likes the Raiders, and he’s awesome. The prison was self-defense in a 1-on-6 situation dealing with a gang. Since we’ve met him, we’ve been over to his house a few times and he hadn’t shown a whole lot of interest. Last time we were there, we talked a little and I gave him a Book of Mormon and since he had an issue with faith, I gave him Alma 32 to read. We saw him a couple days ago and started doing his first lesson. He cleared off his table and said how the chapter really hit him and how he was excited to learn more. He told us halfway through how he felt a tingly feeling and how he felt a load lifted from him. We taught him the first discussion and it couldn’t have gone any better. He had been so perfectly prepared that I was almost in disbelief. He was excited to learn about each principle in the first lesson. Very cool because he was never able to be taught before because of a lack of interest. He told us how he wanted to get the kids baptized and how he didn’t want them baptized Catholic like his wife, and so naturally I said we could help him with that. He’s pretty much on date and we’ll teach the whole family next time, which was his idea. He’s all, “Do you think you guys could come over a couple times a week and teach my family?”

Things are falling into place when last transfer they weren’t. Today we put a guy on date and found a new investigator all in about 20 minutes. Last transfer we didn’t put anybody on date. Same area, better results, and it’s because we’re more focused and obedient.

Things are going well up here. Brian has been reading the Doctrine & Covenants and has fallen in love with it. He called us at 7:15 one morning to tell us. He’s not comfortable with the idea of a single true church, but he’s still coming along pretty well. He’s running out of money so he might go back into the forest, but we’ll dunk him before that happens, probably in the river.

I had my first baptism, because of the Spirit too. Mallory got baptized on Sunday. Perfect timing. The grandparents get into town, next afternoon we show up..they’re home (they’re never home), the inactive dad is gone, whoopee! We teach her, the grandparents back us up. Then…wait for it…the dad walks in and he agrees to the baptism. It was a big week teaching her all 3 lessons and planning for the baptism. Since she’s already been to church 3x, which is the mission rule, and today (Tuesday) the grandparents left to go back to Utah. And the grandpa confirmed her, and he told us Sunday that he has had prostate cancer and won’t be around for much longer and that this whole thing was an answer to their prayers. Crazy. Hopefully it will get her dad, Lance, back in action with the ward. I think it will.

The ward’s alright. Not a whole bunch of referrals, but cool people who are good at fellowshipping.

Washington is great. Lower class mostly with middleclass here and there, but VERY different from what I’m used to. Houses cost an average of about $250K out here. There’s farmers, the guy we live with works at WalMart. The people are cool though, down to earth and willing to do whatever to help with the work. It’s good.

It’s gorgeous up here too. The lake, the farmlands, the hills and montains that are covered in huge evergreens. It’s nice. And yes, it’s getting cold. Today we were freezing and it was only 50 degrees. It gets down to 30 and with the humidity up here, it goes through you.

Things are good and I’m learning a lot. I understand why people say missions are hard—it’s not fun seeing people reject something they can use.

Thanks for everything. More letters are on their way after this one.

Love, Nate

11-9-08

Hey everybody,

I had my first transfer last week. Sunday night I found out that I'd be staying and Jones was leaving. I can't complain, I love this area. So on Tuesday, I got my new comp: Elder Martineau. He's from S. Jordan and he's been out for 3 months. So cumulatively, we've been out 4 1/2 months and are in one of the highest baptizing areas in the mission. It's pretty sweet. That greeny/transfer atmosphere is gone so it's a regular companionship where we both pull about half, and it's a lot better that way. We've got a lot more energy and we're more driven and we're just going for it. We can't answer every question but what we don't have as far as knowledge and experience, we tend to make for with synergy.

We're still working with Brian. He has been reading chunks of the Book of Mormon and now he's almost through 1st Nephi going from cover to cover. He's awesome. His wife divorced him a few years ago for no major reason and he refuses to sign the papers because he's 100% by-the-book and in the Bible it says only under fornication is that ok, so he left her and took his gun, his bow, some tools, a knife, a tent, seeds, and a sleeping bag and went out in the forest and lived there for a year off animals and a garden. He got custody of his son, Jonah, too while out there and would have him out there with him after school and on the weekends. Jesus tended to retreat into the forest so Brian thought it would be a good idea. I found out he went to OCC for a year and lived at the river jetties when he was younger. Weird. (Maybe I should live in the forest for a year...)

We have been starting to make our rounds to all the part-member families with unbaptized kids and got about 10 referrals from SLC in the last week. So with all of that and our pool of investigators, we have a lot of work to do.

The ward here is solid. There's a good mix of older couples and younger families. There aren't a whole bunch of them, but for the most part, they're very strong in the Gospel. We get dinners pretty much every night and they're excellent. When I got here and Sister Showalter told me the average missionary gains 25 pounds in the first 6 months, I was skeptical, but I am a believer now. I've been able to keep the gains to single digits, but it's definitely an uphill battle given the goodness of the food and the car we drive.

The rain has arrived. It rained all day Thursday, Friday, and part of Sunday, then the sun came out and it went from 55 degrees to 75 degrees in 10 minutes while we were teaching a lesson on a doorstep. It was weird seeing the sun. I forgot it was above the clouds. It was kind of like that time I was little and asked what it was when it finally came out in Issaquah.

We're in a finding mode so we do a lot of tracting. We ran into two of the weirdest people yesterday. Without the weird ones, our tracting wouldn't be half as fun. The first one was my door. I knock, she opens and I say "how are you doing today" to this older lady with curlers in her hair, but you know she never leaves the house. Anyway, she stares at me and doesn't answer and then yells, "what do you want?!" in the voice of Ebeneezer Scrooge, I'm pretty sure. I've never heard him talk, but I'm sure it would sound like this lady. I told her we weren't salesmen but that we had a message about the restoration and she slammed the door. Martineau had to walk away from the door when she yelled because he couldn't hold it in. It was good. So I say, "why do I always get the crazy ones?" and tell him he's going to get somebody worse than that. Sure enough. Probably 3 doors later a guy answers that looked related to the first lady and gives Martineau the same evil stare instead of responding and then cuts him off mid-sentence as he's asking him how he's doing and says, "better than you, because I'm not out bothering people looking like the bleep, bleep, bleep police." Then he mumbled some words to us and slammed his door. I lost it. It was a high point for the day. I try not to laugh most times, but this one was too great. The best part is we we took a priest along with us to get some member-present lessons. He wasn't expecting this crazy people so much, but he was still glad he went.

Today was a good day. After Stake Conference we went around to see all the part-member families with unbaptized kids in our area. We had been trying to see this family for weeks and they had never been home. So we went out that way and halfway there, Martineau was asking why we were driving out so far when we didn't have any miles to spare. He was leaning towards turning around but I kept on saying how today was perfect and how it needed to happen. We show up, knock the door, no answer. Then we knock another door even though we were pretty sure nobody was there because there were no cars outside. An older guy opens the door and invites us in. He was the grandpa to this 9-year-old girl, Mallory, that we were trying to see. He and the grandma were both there and asked us if we were teaching Mallory. We said "no" so they started talking about baptism and we taught her about it. Then the dad walks in and here's the missionaries and his parents talking with his daughter about baptism. He was pretty unfriendly and is extremely inactive. He agreed to let us teach her and she wanted to be baptized. He probably wouldn't have talked to us if his parents weren't there, and they got in the night before. The timing couldn't have possibly been better. We're going over tomorrow to start teaching through the lessons and we're going to try to have the Grandpa or Dad baptize her before the grandparents leave on the 18th of this month. Things fall into place perfectly sometimes. It's amazing.

After this, we hung out with a guy named Mike who was tracted into about 5 missionary sets ago and hasn't gone anywhere. We got him started with the Book of Mormon and he and his daughter, Monique, are going to read and we'll teach the whole family hopefully next time.

It's interesting, Elder Martineau and I have less than 5 months in the field combined and we've done more in a week than Elder Jones and I did in 3 weeks last transfer. It just goes to show that knowledge is not as important as energy and determination. It's gonna be a good transfer. I learned a lot last time and it's a lot more natural now. Things are good in Mount Vernon.

Those pictures of the Prop 8 effort are great. Jeff, I liked the "force" recreation too. I'm glad that everything worked out with Jose, that's great. Michael, thanks for the letter. That's good stuff and I'm working on the same things right now. Thanks everybody for the letters and the support.

Love, Elder Packer

10-30-08

Hi all,

Things are going well up here. We are finding new investigators almost every day now, and are getting a few people out to church just about every week. We have been working pretty hard. Elder Jones's last companion went home for health reasons and they weren't able to get much done before I got here, but we've built some good momentum in the last 5 weeks. I have my first transfer Nov. 4th. I can't believe I've been in the field that long already. Time flies.

A cool thing happened this last week with Brian. He's the guy whose crazy brother tried to strangle him in his sleep. He had neck problems before that. He had even had a surgery to fix whatever was wrong with it. Before that he had been out of work for the last year due to his neck. So he was in bad shape afterwards. We were talking with him and he told us he hadn't slept for 2 nights because it was so painful and that his pain meds didn't do anything. We offered to give him a blessing and he accepted without any hesitation. We were out on his driveway so we asked him if he wanted to go inside. He's all, "I was baptized in the river, let's do it right here." So we gave him a blessing in the middle of his driveway. Right after we finished, he told us how he had been given countless blessings for his neck and other things and how for the first time he felt something. He felt the pain lessen in the middle of he blessing and we felt him relax as we gave it. He wa amazed by our blessing and the next day he told us he slept normally for the first time since the attack and that he wasn't in as much pain. It was a pretty sweet experience. That was the highlight of my week. (Brian actually used to live by the river jetties on the peninsula for a few years before he moved up here.)

Everything else is going well. As for the Axethelms, I know them. (Brian and Lareen, thanks for keeping me in your prayers, and thanks Emma). The first time I went over to their house, they asked me if I was any relation to Brian Packer from Idaho (my uncle). It was pretty funny. And their daughter was a best friend with Logan, I guess. I think we're going over there tonight to help the paint the house they're building. Bro Axethelm is the ward clerk and we've been working with Sis Axethelm to fellowship a potential investigator. Small world.

The work is good, the church is true.

Much love,

Elder Packer

10-9-08

What's up everybody?

I'm an official missionary; it's pretty sweet. People stare at me a lot with my name tag and suit and tie and all that stuff. Some people are afraid of us and it gets really awkward trying to talk to them, those are pretty entertaining.

I'm in Mt. Vernon for the first 6 weeks at least, so until Nov. 6. Then there is another transfer which happens every 6 weeks and I will stay or be moved to anywhere else in the mission (I could be here for 6 weeks to 6 months).

It's pretty nice here. I'm about 10 miles from the Puget Sound and about an hour and a half south of British Columbia. There are farms out here surrounded by forests of huge evergreen trees. I live about 10 minutes from downtown Mt. Vernon to the east in a more woodsy area next to a lake in the basement of a family's house who are members of the church. My companion for this transfer is Elder Jones. He's from Utah, believe it or not. He's chill. He'll jam on the guitar and is into college football big time, so he's pretty stoked since his team is BYU.

Basically, I wake up at 6:30 every day and I have an hour to eat breakfast and work out if I want to before "personal study" where I study the Bible or Book of Mormon for an hour. Then at 8:30, Jones and I get together and study for the questions or concerns the people we are working with are having. Then from 10 am to 9 pm we are working, which is a mixture of tracting (knocking doors), street contacting (walking around downtown talking with people), or going to the teaching appointments we've set up. We have a Corolla we drive around, pretty sweet. Basically we find people to teach, and teach people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it can help them, then ultimately baptize people. It's hard work but it's rewarding. It's nice to just be focused on helping people out.

Anyway, then at 9ish when we get home, we plan out the next day, what we'll do, where we'll go, who we'll see. Study some more or write letters and do it all again. Thursdays are P-days (preparatio days) where we get all the local missionaries together and play soccer, v-ball, tennis, take ferries out to the islands or whatever. We run errands, buy groceries and stuff too. There are a lot of thrift stores here since it's kinda ghetto so we can get old-school 3-piece suits for 30 bucks or so and really gangster 70's ties.

We all went to this rope swing last week that was one of the most intense things I've ever done. It sounded pretty weak, but when we got there, I wasn't even sure I was going to try it. This tree was about 100 feet tall and the rope probably went that far up it too where it ties to this branch. (I have no idea how they got it up there.) Behind the tree was this big hill and on the hillside of whoever's house this was we were at, built this 3-level step-looking platform that went up the hill away from the tree that the rope was attached to. So you could go from the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level of this thing and then jump off and swing by the tree and out. It was gnarly. I went from the top and when I swung past the tree, I was going really fast and then when I swung out away from the tree, I was about 30 feet in the air. It was sick. Jones' feet slid out from the foot-circle thing where you put your feet, because it was raining, and he was holding on with his hands when he was swinging. It was pretty sketchy. He's been banished from it.

It's pretty here. Big evergreen trees everywhere, blackberry bushes grow wild and are really good. It's usually some form of cloudy or drizzling; rains a lot. I like it. Nice windy, foresty roads. A big river goes through downtown. It's really scenic. When you look to the east it's big hills covered in evergreens to the Cascade Mountains which are big and jagged, then behind them is Mt. Baker. It's this huge extinct volcano that is snow-capped year round.

Anywhoo, I wanna know what's going on with everybody. Hit me up. It's old school here, we don't do emails, just letters. So send me one. The address won't change, my mail all goes to the same place and then gets sent out to me wherever I will be in the mish. And no, they don't read them. So send me those love notes/poems you've been cookin up for the last month…Get those feather-quill pens out and write me a letter!

Nate

10-1-08

Dear Family,

Today was a great day. We met a guy whose name is Brian. He has a good friend named Mike who is always at his house hanging out with him. He was a pastor for 6 years a while back and living next to a member. So she tipped us that he had shown an interest in the church so we went over a few days ago. We only talked with Mike the first time on Brian's lawn for about 5 minutes. I don't even remember what about. This was either my 2nd or 3rd day on my mission, and yesterday when we went and talked with Brian and saw Mike again, Brian told us how our talk with Mike really helped him out and how they appreciated our efforts. I had no idea. I was nervous and it was one of my first actual missionary interactions, and I was stoked to hear that.

Anyway, today was great because I'm getting door approaches/street contact down so I'm not nervous anymore. Elder Jones and I gave a sweet tag-team door approach/two-principle lesson/conference invite to a girl in downtown Mt. Vernon. We flowed really well and I felt like a legit missionary, not a greeny, for the first time.

But, about 2 hours ago at 8 pm after a good dinner appointment, we went over to Brian's house and as usual, he called us in. He got attacked by his brother 2 nights ago while sleeping. He jumped on him and started strangling him after walking in the front door about 2 am. Brian's adopted son called 911 and he bailed, but Brian has been a little torn up physically and emotionally since then. We've been over with him once before tonight and he has enjoyed it. He knows his Bible well and Mike gets in on our "study sessions" we have. They aren't lessons because we are just breaking ground right now. We're working on the Apostasy right now, and we already set up the Book of Mormon with him and I gave him my original quad to study from since I got a new unmarked one in the MTC, and he looked like a kid in cand land when he saw how my Book of Mormon was connected to the Bible with cross-references and all that good stuff. We talk about our beliefs and the agreement is if we say something he and the Bible don't agree with, we'll talk about it. And if he talks about things we see differently, we will prove our position. We've been showing him some solid scriptures and he really enjoys it. He made sure we realized how big of a help we were with him and was he was going through. He was amazed at how we rang the doorbell about 3 seconds after he thought to himself if we were coming by tonight. He's a really good guy, so is Mike. It is an awesome feeling to know we are helping them out. When he hears our whole spiel and knows it's true, he's really going to love us.

It's nice to talk with people who don't judge off the bat, and are open-minded to our message. Many people here belong to the myriad of churches in town and won't hear our message. The one lady who has belonged to another church and has allowed us to share was embarrassed since she had been told so many falsehoods about our faith from her minister. But still she decided the Bible was enough and wouldn't even experiment on the Book of Mormon. It's sad so many people don't know what they're missing since they have been told opinions as facts. When you think of the big picture with every religion of Christianity steming off a dead religion (Catholicism) and how there are countless numbers of these congregations with different interpretations of scripture, it is boggling how they can believe they are in the right place. The Trinity and how it came about through creeds also boggles me. If they had any idea the way we view the Kingdom vs. Heaven/Hell, things like that, there is no doubt they would all be interested to some degree. It is sad to see someone pass up something they need. Agency is a doozey!

Anywhoo. I am in Mt. Vernon. It's pretty nice here. Big evergreen trees everywhere, blackberry bushes grow wild and are really good. It's usually some form of cloudy or drizzling; rains a lot. I'm about 10 miles from the Puget Sound and about an hour and a half south of British Columbia. I like it. Nice windy, foresty roads. A big river goes through downtown. It's really scenic. When you look to the east it's big hills covered in evergreens to the Cascade Mountains which are big and jagged, then behind them is Mt. Baker. It's this huge extinct volcano that is snow-capped year round. There are farms out here surrounded by forests of huge evergreen trees. I live about 10 minutes from downtown Mt. Vernon to the east in a more woodsy area next to a big lake, in the basement of a family's house who are members of the church. Behind the lake is a huge hill covered in evergreens, like everything here, and behind that hill is the town of Mt. Vernon (30,000 pop.). There is a little downtown with a nice little Main Street. It's kinda ghetto. It's got a shady area, a few trailer parks, a Mexican section, a train-tracks ultra shady area, farming area, nice homes on the hills to the east of downtown, a river that flows through town, and a big lake which is over the hills out back to the east, which is were we live. Basically, the place is gorgeous. It has been sunny for the last 4 or 5 days too, and hot, about 80. Amazing. I really like it here: the area, my comp, what I'm doing.

My comp is Elder Jones. He's from Layton, Utah. He played football, wrestled. He's cool, plays guitar, good sense of humor, obedient, diligent, just a good all-around missionary.

Our Mission Pres is cool, Pres. Showalter. He's a mellow x-banker from Salt Lake, relaxed but very much in control and runs a tight operation with high standards.

Our district is cool. We had a good p-day last week. We played v-ball and it didn't last that long after I started jump-serving and making people feel bad with my uber-dominance. I didn't mean to shutthem down, it just kind of happened. So we played soccer. But a sweet rendition where if you mess up a certain number of times, you line up about 30 feet away facing away and people kick the ball at you. If you miss, you line up next to them. If you hit them, you're safe. So you want to get to the end of the line so there are like 10 people lined up and you can't miss. We have some cool ward members.

After that, we went to do a rope swing. It was raining and I was thinking it would be really lame. Oh my gosh, the thing was gnarly. Looking at it, I wasn't even sure if I would try it. It's up there with big waves and jumps as far as a first-time adrenaline boost. There was a tree about 100 feet high with the rope going up about 80 feet and tied to a limb that poked out perfectly away from the trunk. Then behind the tree was a hill and on this hill was a 3-level platform to take off from. It was awesome. You're on the platform and the tree is huge and the rope goes up forever and you jump off the platform and swing by the tree and get really big off the ground. It's totally safe, don't worry. (mother's note: yah right!)

Anyway, I love you all very much. I appreciate your prayers and letters. The picture of Creighton is hilarious and he will get a roundhouse for it. Thanks for keeping me up to date Mom. Dad, I hope your hard work is paying off. Katie, I hope you get that job. Sam and Connie, I hope the twins sleep better now. Camille and Jeff, I hope you guys are doing well with your tests/books. Jeff McLellan, I didn't forget about you. Surf it up for me. Mom, thanks for all you do.

Much love, Nate