Elder.Connely.Packard

Hello This week was another week. The rain is really coming down today, and there is even a little bit of thunder and lightning, which is rare. We got transfer calls again this week and I am blessed to stay here in Breda again with Elder Knaupp. Good news.  Normally missionaries here stay 2-3 transfers in an area, but 4 is not too uncommon. Only 1 Elder is moving in our whole district though, so everything is pretty much the same.  On Tuesday, we had a district meeting, and we cooked lunch for the district. Normally a different companionship cooks every week, and we made chicken quesadillas. Some of the missionaries here have not had a quesadilla their whole mission. Everybody wanted the tortilla recipe from me since they are so cheap and easy to make. Pretty soon everybody is going to be eating only quesadillas.  We went on exchanges afterward, and I got to go to Vlissingen.  You can see the relationship of Vlissengen to Breda and Amster...

If you have these few ingredients, you can eat on only 1.50$  pretty well flour baking powder salt water oil Things here are pretty much the same. I got my hands on a tortilla recipe a couple weeks ago and ever since I have been eating tortillas non stop. They are dirt cheap to make and delicious. Also, they don't have perishable ingredients so we make a ton of dough, and then just leave it on the counter to roll out a tortilla anytime we like. the only thing is that uncovered, it dries out a little, and when covered, it gets oily. We ate almost 60 tortillas worth of dough this week for probably just a little over a euro. Also, you can put butter on them, sprinkle powdered sugar and then fold them over and seal them and cook them, and then dip them in honey. They are kind of like sopapillas this way and insanely good.  These past couple weeks we have had a referral who lives halfway between Breda and Oosterhout so we biked out there through the f...

MAY 2, 2106 Goodbye Elder Stanger (dad) Goodbye, son (Elder Packard) Transfers were this week and Elder Stanger is now in Amsterdam. I remain here in Breda luckily. And my new companion is Elder Knaupp from Portland Oregon. He is 6´8" so we are a huge companionship with almost 13" of length between both of us. I was not sure that I would ever have a comp that is taller than me here because most of the missionaries in our mission are pretty short. He has a fantastic taste of music and we get along really well. He is also enrolled at BYU and will start his freshman year when he gets back. He has been out about 9 months now.  On Wednesday, we had Konings Dag, which is a celebration fro the King. The Kings visited Zwolle this year, so those lucky missionaries may have gotten to see him. The weather was awful. It was about 10 Celsius and hailing. It hails here a lot. Usually it will switch from rain to hail to sunshine and start all over again. Today the weather was n...

April 25, 2016 This was another wild week. On P-day, we had a scheduled appointment that actually went through. Usually it never goes through on p day and we have to waste a bunch of time biking there, but this lady was there. We found here a few weeks ago knocking on the door and she said we could come back. Sometimes people say that, but they don"t answer the door the next time or actually have no interest, but this was our second appointment with her. It was awesome. We taught Het Heilsplan, or the Plan of Salvation. The spirit was strong and she really felt the driving love behind the principles of the plan.  One thing we like to emphasize is that the entire summary of het Heilsplan is that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. It is all about Jesus Christ. While there are many good points and appealing aspects and truths about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and Gospel lessons, it is all really just about...

APRIL 18, 2016 This week was exciting.  First, the bombings in Belgium, and the loss of the lives of 34 innocent people. Missionaries injured. You all probably know more than I do about that. The work rolls forward.  This week we wore our self-tailored pants. Elder Stanger is pretty smart and skillful and he showed me how to tailor my pants so that they don't look so american anymore. I am going to work through all of my pants eventually and make them skinnier. It would be a lot easier with a sewing machine though. I am surprised that our apartment does not have one, since it was a sister´s apartment. We do have a kitchen aid. We spent a lot of time knocking on doors. We need to increase our teaching pool so we have a lot of time to do finding. I have learned to like knocking doors. It is a good opportunity to get outside, and if people want to tell us no, they have to say it to our faces. Knocking constituted almost all of Tuesday. It was a good day. Our wa...