One month

 7/24/15

Hey everyone!  I can’t believe that I have been here for a month already.  It’s so crazy time is flying.  Everything is going good I guess.  Yesterday I had a slight mental breakdown in the morning because I just didn’t understand Spanish but during gym time I was running and praying and I felt better.  I felt Heavenly Father bless me with peace in my heart and then later still bless me when during class after lunch hermano Rockwood talked about his mission.  I realized I know enough Spanish to get my point across.  I’m not good at Spanish, but I can say enough to help someone.  I realized that I would be ok if I didn’t learn Spanish any better than I know it right now as long as I am able to help bring people closer to God and Jesus.  This realization brought a lot of peace to me as well.  I am still studying hard to learn Spanish though.  Conjugating the verbs is killing me.  Está bien.  This is Sapaque.  He is from Guatemala.  He helps me with my Spanish and I help him with English.

So I have a kind of cool story.  Elder grant and I decided that we would only email it to people and not tell it to people in the MTC because we didn’t want to sound like or end up bragging.  So we our had our last lesson with Marco yesterday.  We were both really sad because we both really like Marco.  We went in prepared to teach the 10 commandments but right after we prayed I got prompted to ask him what he wanted to learn about.  In my head I was like that will leave us high and dry because he will say anything other than the commandments.  But I asked anyway.  He said he wanted to learn about why we need to be clean from sin (our last lesson was on how we can be).  I thought of Alma 5 (but at the time I didn’t know where the chapter was just how I had shaded it) so I went looking for it really quick.  I couldn’t find it but came upon 3 Nephi 27.  We decided to read 13-22 with him and talk about it.  We both kept asking inspired questions and it was going really well.  It came to the point where the lesson was almost over and Marco was crying a little bit.  He told us that because of us he felt Gods love in his life more.  I felt prompted to ask him if he was a member of the church (the TRC investagatores are paid people so they don’t have to be members.)  I thought it would make the lesson seam really fake but I felt really strong that I should ask him.  So I did in the best possible way I could think of.  He smiled and said no but because he could tell Elder Grant and I tried so hard to learn Spanish to teach him and cared so much about him he actually became interested in what we had to say.  He said because of us he started taking the lessons outside of the MTC, and would compare what we said to what the other missionaries said to him.  He said our lesson last week and the week before helped him to see that god loves him and he talked about how he feels clean when he is with us.  He then started to cry and said he is being baptized on August 27th.  By this point all three of us had tears in our eyes and Marco thanked us for loving him and caring about him enough to try so hard to help him.  He said we were the reason he wanted to become closer to Jesus and our Heavenly Father.  After the lesson elder Grant and I found a quiet corner and thanked God that we had the opportunity to help Marco.  I felt the spirit so strong when we were praying that by the end both Elder Grant and I were crying again hahahaha.  It was so awesome!  I am so happy for Marco!  He truly is a child of God and I know that Heavenly Father loves him.  I have seen and felt it.  It was truly an amazing experience. 

 I am so thankful for everyone who helped push me to go on a mission.  And i am so thankful for the power of the atonement in my life so that I can return to live with my Father in Heaven once again.  This gospel is so amazing and through this experience I really see how we are not the teachers.  The Holy Spirit is the teacher and we are merely a tool for it to operate though.  I am so thankful for my opportunity to serve the Lord.  I love you all so much!  Thank you so much for the amazing examples you have been to me.  Each and every one of you have touched my life and helped me to be the person I am today.  For that I thank you.  

Elder Pachner III

left to right: Wadsworth, Frei, Grant, Pachner outside Provo Temple.

hola

HOLA

7/17/15

Hi everyone!!  

Things are going good here.  I’m doing a ton of studying and trying to not put on too much weight.  Which is easier said than done here.  The food taste pretty good but it is really heavy.  Like after every meal I am starting to feel sick hahaha.  But, Esta bien.  Spanish is hard.  We learned how to not sound like 2 year olds when we talk, which is really, really, really, hard.  But we said one sentence in grown up talk and we sounded amazing hahaha.  We sounded like actual Spanish speakers because we were using direct object pronouns and indirect object pronouns.  It is kind of hard to learn because I didn’t really understand it in English so switching it to Spanish was challenging hahaha.  But my teachers are amazing and I made some friends who are native Spanish speakers so I get help from them as well. 

 So our TRC investigator Marco wasn’t here yesterday so Elder Grant and I had to send him an email which was stinking hard because we know how to speak basic Spanish but writing it is much harder.  We probably missed putting at least 20 accent marks which makes a big, big, difference in words hahaha.  Oh well though.  At least we got to send him a video which hopefully will help him.

  

 I got to host senior couples again this week.  They were all super nice!  One couple said that this was their 5th mission together!  Talk about impressive!  But I guess it’s probably easier when you don’t have college to go to and already have your companion haha.  They definitely inspired me though

. 

So I think the boy who had the seizure is ok.  

 Today this boy from the new district came up to me and said stand up.  So I did.  Then he gave me a hug and said “That was from your sister Madison”.  Hahaha I was so shocked!  I was like how do you know her???  He had to go to the health clinic and Madison was one of the people who worked on him!  It was so cool hahaha!  Thank you so much Madison!! 

 So we still can’t figure out how to send pictures haha.  Maybe next week we will finally figure it out.

  So a cool thing this week is we were reading in Exodus, chapters 3 and 4 about Moses.  The part that really stood out to me was Exodus 4:10-12.  Moses has the same problem as me!  He can’t speak very well!  But the Lords response to him in 11 and 12 helped me a ton.  Because it’s not about what I say or how well I can say it, it’s about the feelings the Lord gives to me and to the investigators.  So I guess that’s it for this week.;

 I love you all so much!  

Elder Pachner III

7/10/15

 Hello Everyone! 

 How is everyone doing?  Can someone send me Ashley’s email so I can send these to her too?  Everything is going good here.  Except today they pretty much took our p day away.  We are going to Elder Packers funeral in the morning and after that we clean the temple for 4 hours.  So my p day consisted of when I woke up to 10:00 am hahaha.  It’s all good though.  We are just rushing to get everything done before 10. 

So yesterday there was a pretty cool but scary experience as well.  During lunch a boy had a seizure and my comp was standing right next to him and caught him, then helped the medics.  y after my comp was pretty shook up.  So we were walking and he started to cry a little so elder Frei and I put our arms around him and we started walking him back to the dorm.  When we got there we gave him a blessing of comfort and the spirit was so strong that I think all of us started crying a little bit.  But after the blessing my comp felt much better.  I know that Heavenly Father was looking out for us.  I know that he heard us and answered us. 

 So we got two new investigators.  Ones name is Johnathon and the others is Myrum.  They are actually our teachers but that’s ok because they are really good actors when we are in there.  So Johnathan doesn't believe in God because he felt like God abandoned him.  (We found this out yesterday when we taught him for the first time) and my comp and I just talked with him.  We talked with him a lot and the spirit was there.  During the lesson we asked him to pray with us right then y there to know God was there and that he loved him.  We knelt and prayed and he offered up his desire to know God.  It was a super good experience y I can’t wait to teach him again!!  Also with another one of our investigators, Marco, we were teaching him about how he can know the things that he believes to be true.  My companion and I were talking with him and two scriptures popped into our minds.  One was 3 Nephi 19:9-11 and the other is Moroni 10:3-5.  We had him read both with us and after Moroni's promise he was like wow.  That is one big promise.  Is it really true?  And we testified to him that it is true and that the promise does work.  We then asked him to pray with us ahora to know if el libro de mormon es verdad.  He did and after we asked him how he felt.  With tears in his eyes he said he felt really good and had a really powerful feeling inside him.  We testified that that was the spirit and that was Gods way of telling him the Book of Mormon is true.  He said he would read it and pray every day.  I think on Monday when we see him next we will invite him to be baptized and see how it goes.  I don’t know if he is a member or not.  We don’t know with our MTC investigators.  He could be a member he could not be.  Either way I am so happy for him because he was able to come closer to Heavenly father and Jesus Christ.  Marco is such an amazing person. 

 Spanish is coming along ok.  After the first week the massive growth in Spanish has started to plateau slightly because now we are learning a lot more of the grammar rules and the harder stuff.  But everyday I get better at Spanish.  My English suffers a little bit because of it.  Once or twice I have found myself saying something in English that isn’t grammatically correct for English but it would be for Spanish hahahaha.  Me encanta espanol mucho.  Espanol es muy deficil pero es mas importante por me entender.  Yo hablo en espanol todos los dias por que yo quiero hablar en espanol solomente quando yo voy a la mission field.  Haha that’s another word I need to look up.  That’s why it’s so important to speak in Spanish because I find words I need to learn.  I love you all so much!  And I Love the tie pin Jacob!!!  It looks so cool!!  Everyone thinks it’s pretty awesome!!  I’m about out of time.  I love you guys so much!  I miss you all!

Elder Pachner III 

1.5

7/3/15 

Hey everyone!!  I can’t believe it has been a week and a half!  It hasn't felt like that long.  But

 some days feel like they take forever!  This one day literally felt like it took a week.  But all in all

 time is flying. 

I’m becoming much better at Spanish.  Es muy deficil pero me encanto mucho mucho mucho.  It’s hard but I love it.  So last Friday we had our first lesson and it went so bad I thought about making a break for it as we went back to the dorm room.  It was so bad.  We couldn't understand a lick of what he was saying and we couldn't say anything to him.  He eventually pulled out his phone on us and was just like playing a game or something.  It was rough.  We felt so discouraged. But the next day our lesson with him went better, not great but better.  After teaching him for a week we invited him to be baptized and he accepted.  He only accepted our invitation and one other companionship invitation.  Then yesterday in the afternoon we were told we would have a new teacher and guess who it was.....It was our investigator.  We knew he was already a member but we didn't think he would be our teacher!  So yesterday he talked a lot about things we need to work on but also a lot about how thankful he was for us because he was basing the role of investigator off of his friend who he wasn't to share the gospel with.  He said we gave him some good ideas on what could actually help his friend.  He thanked us so much for the time we put in to learn the language so that we could help him.  He said it meant a lot and that to a real investigator it would mean a lot too.  He then taught us about our purpose as a missionary and it helped me a lot!!  As an investigator he was hard but it helped me to learn and grow. 

 We are also teaching another man named Marco.  He is from Peru and is awesome!!  I don’t know if he is a member or not but I really enjoy talking to him.  Yesterday we went into a lesson with him planning on teaching about the restoration but the spirit had other plans for the lesson.  It was hard but my companion and I listened to the spirit and asked the questions that he needed to think about.  We ended up extending an invitation to be baptized and he said that if he comes to know that this is true he will be.  We then asked him to read the intro, and witness of José Smith and to pray about our message to him.  I think our next lesson will be on el Libro de Mormon, but we will see where the spirit takes it.

  The food here is killing me haha.  They feed us so much and then we just sit.  We study for more time than we sleep at this point.  It’s hard to stay focused for so long.  We literally have blocks of 4 to 5 hours of nothing but classes and studying.  But we need the time to learn and grow.  I have already felt my testimony grow.  I always had a hard time recognizing the spirit before now but I’m becoming much more sensitive to its promptings.  It is still hard to recognize at times but it’s much easier now.  I’m trying to upload pictures but I’m having a hard time doing it at the current moment. 

It is so pretty here.  I can’t get over the view of the mountains!!  I want to go to school here!!!!!!  It just feels like the right place.  I have so much more to tell but the time flies.  I love you all so much!  I know that the Lord is my savior.  I know that with the Lords help this next two years won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.  

Elder Pachner III

Chase couldn't download a picture but Madison saw him again. Her is her picture of him.