Elder.Connely.Packard

Henry? Nope. This week was really busy. On Tuesday, we had district meeting with the old district one last time. It was an awesome district meeting as always. Elder Stanger is really good at moivation everybody to work harder and do better. He is a perfectly dedicated district leader. After district meeting, we all went over to the Murtons (canadian guy) for waffles. He is super funny. He was in the English army for a long time and served in Iraq and never has a shortage of crazy stories. He makes knives and stuff, but has not been to church in a while because of a bad shoulder and he has also been really sick recently. He made a tone of waffles, and I went for the record and broke it for the house that the Murtons live in now at 18 waffles. Apparently at their old house, there was an Elder that ate 21 and then 4 potatoes or something, but I am not sure about that. Besides, the Murtons moves from that house at least 8 years ago.  Belgium waffles with custard We h...

            From Connely's editor: This week I go a haircut from Connely's high school swim coach, Barb Schmuki. She told me she received a letter from him last week through the post. The letter was tender and thanked her for teaching him how to do hard things. She was a key factor in teaching Elder Packard that an average boy can do great things and that hard work wins over talent ten times over.  I have thought about this fact for the last several years. Learning to do things that are hard and gaining the skills to do that is the single most important skill a boy or girl has to obtain in order to be successful as a missionary.  Some say that these future missionaries  just need a strong testimony and a suit.  This just makes me crazy.  I have been a missionary and  teacher in the MTC. I have taught kids in church and schools for years.  Probably no one cares about that, but for me it has been more than two decade...

This week was very fast and it is hard to remember exactly what happened. It rained a lot and we did a lot of biking.  I went on exchanges to Tilburg, which has an international university. It is a very neat little city and it would be super cool to go to school there. The apartment is also super nice. While we were there we had a dinner appointment at a 70´s house. I think his name is Hans De Boom or something, and he reminds me a ton of Brother Campbell. They could have been brothers. The next day was pretty normal. However, found out hat I was going back to Brussels again to get my long term residency card.  Trips to Belgium are always fun. They say it is hard to live there because you have to get all transportation reimbursed instead of using the transportation card, and it is more expensive. However, it is beautiful . Belgium is weird because half the buildings are modern, and the other half really old architecture. The problem though is that on the backs of the bu...

February 29 Breda, Netherlands This week was pretty interesting. On Tuesday, I was on exchange with Elder Ocamp (from Tilburg) here in Breda. We decided to walk up and down this one street near the centrum and contact, and it was a very successful method because these people were on their free time, it was not directly in the centrum so there was not as much distraction from the business, and there were always plenty of people to talk to. In just an hour and a half, we almost gave a complete RAD (Restoration And Doop (baptism invitation)) on the street, gave away several pamphlets, many cards, and found 3 potentials, and a former investigator from Amsterdam.  We also met two kids going to school, and were surprised to find out that they were American, and one of them was actually a less active member. His father is from Sandy, Utah. He did not seem to have ever been active, but we invtited him to participate in some possible future YSA activities. Also, that morning, ...