Elder.Connely.Packard

nice hat Sorry I did not get to email yesterday. We were so busy, we had 2 appointments on our pday. I still barely have any time to email today. Elder Ocampo says hi. He is in my district. Also Elder Van Fleet, who was in our district was one of the ones who talked to Aunt Emily on the plane. He is also super cool.  We put in 30 hours of proselyting this week, but our goal these finishing weeks of the transfer is to get 40 hours. The normal mission weekly goal is 23 hours, so we are going to be extremely tired.  This week was super rainy. Elder Stanger always tells me that the more you bike in the rain, the more beautiful your wife will be, but sometimes I think I could settle for an ugly wife. We have to wear helmets, but the only people that wear helmets here are the people doing cross country trips, so we get a lot of wierd looks.  This week we got 3 investigators to come to church, which is super awesome. It was really cool to see their commitment. ...

The funny thing about this picture is the angle. Packard is a good 8 inches taller than his com.  Everything is a little less exciting now that it is the second week, but it is still good. I have started to get a little homesick now that I can not really speak to anybody comfortable but my companion, but I will get over it. Our investigators are doing well. Efrem worried us a little bit this week. He is going to school so that he can get into politics and help fight fro freedom in his home country. He is nervous about getting baptized because he doesn't want to have to make a commitment to God and then lie in politics. He was forced into the militia there at age 16 and was shot 3 times. He is awesome though. He has a good testimony and everything. He is also worried that the gangsters that his country have in Holland are going to hunt him down and kill him. I think he will be all right. This is a city I dis exchanges in. It was "reclaimed" so ...

The classic map photo  Elder Davis in the cafeteria with a lovely pose      O ur first arrival. outside of the airport there are the letters that say "I Amsterdam" P day is still monday. I am in Breda. It is a decent sized city, but not that big compared to most American cities. Elder Stanger and I cover all the way from Bergen op Zoom to the western third of Tilburg. There is a lot of area between us two. We are the only missionaries in the whole city. Apparently, Breda is doing really well right now, and it is. We have 8 progressing investigators right now, and we are doing our best to get them all baptized. We have to schedule every day to be in a different town or part of Breda because it is such a big area. Some areas take an hour bus ride to get to, so we really have to manage ourselves well. As expected, my Dutch is much worse that it seemed in the MTC. I will contact somebody on the street  and then have no idea what to sya to them...

Me and my companion did not tell anybody at first, but now the other elders know, so we are just going to let the sisters find out when I get on the plane. Best haircut I have ever had This week we had a world wide missionary conference that was broadcasted from Salt Lake. Elder Anderson, Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks and some others spoke it was very good and informative. Elder Bednar made a very good explanation that if we can ask good questions that will drive the investigators to learn about the nature of God and the Gospel by themselves, and if we can make them realize that they are feeling the Holy Ghost of themselves, then we will be much more effective teachers. We channel the Hold Ghost to them and by our leading, they are able to learn from it. It was an interesting concept.  It is cold here, nothing has changed. All of our friends that we have been with since we got here hare now gone, so we are all eager to get out. We had Infield Orientation today, and Elder D...

I am getting sent to Long beach.    I wish they had given me some sort of notice earlier. Luckily, all of the other visas for Belgium/Netherlands went through. I got the packages today. Aunt Juleen sent me a camera, and I got the contacts. George sent me a kimono from Japan, it is super cool. I am leaving on Tuesday, so I will be without companions or a schedule here for a day. Maybe I will just go to the Temple and do sessions as long as I can. I am worried about losing the little grasp I have on the language. I will not have language study in the morning, and I will be separated from other speakers and any sort of exposure to Dutch for as long as I will be learning it.   I got a notice in my mailbox today saying that my visa did not come through . am the only one who did not get the Visa in time.  I think it was the apostille. Elder Gemmell actually got his call in November of 2014, but it took so long that he started serving 3 months in New Zealand be...