Butterfingers! (SP)

Ha the title of this email is Butterfingers because the Relief Society president in our ward went to the US last week and brought back the missionaries Butterfingers!  I have never ever liked them.  Until yesterday.....  Haha maybe I´m losing country pride but the food here is REALLY.  good.  I don´t miss much.  Except home cooking and Crowley tacos!  Oh!  Gpa Crowley, our RS president also bought a bunch of food from Smiths and brought it back to feed us Amercan tacos yesterday haha!  She had bought that green salsa you use for tacos!  I was SO EXCITED!

This week we had such a cool experience!  We had a companion exchange again with a couple sisters and it was my first time navigating by myself here in München!  So crazy!  But I LOVED it.  I love München SO MUCH.  People are so so so nice.  And hilarious.  The coolest people ride the buses and their German backgrounds are so similar to us.  Missionary service sometimes means stalking.  During our exchange, Sister Christiensen and I were riding a bus on our way home.  I had seen a guy before we got on and had the desire to share a thought with him.  I positioned us sneakily close by him on the bus so we could talk to him.  But he moved and sat further up.  Under my breath I said, ´´What the?  Where´s he going?´´  His stop came and although it wasn´t ours, I said to my exchange companion Sister Christiensen, ´´We need to follow him!´´  She got up and we got off the bus.  We went up to him and started a conversation about... I don´t even remember, something random like restaurants or something.  I asked him kinda awkardly if he wanted to feel peace in this life.  The subject changed to finding his address for work.  We asked him where he was going and walked with him.  We got our fake need for directions from him, said thanks, and then parted ways.  He started walking down the street.  One of the weird things is that he´d come to work two hours early.  WHO does that?  I was determined.  So I say to my companion, I want to give him a Book of Mormon and readdressed the opportunity that he had two free hours.  So we pull out a card and run after him.  We yell after him and get talking again.  I was a little hesitant at first until he just said, ´´What?  You want to say what?´´  I puffed up my chest and just started talking about the Book of Mormon.  We really wanted to share it with him.  I promised him that his German would improve if he read it (He was from Bosnia and wanted to improve his German) and that I didn´t know exactly how, but every day he would read, it would just go better.  He asked me, ´´Ya?´´  I said ´´Ya.´´  He was open to it and said sincerely that he really would read.  AHhh so cool!  I know the Lord put it in my heart to be courageous and stalk that guy because I don´t do that every day haha.  But The Lord loves His children and desires their happiness so He´ll provide a way!

One more thing that I´m excited about.
I AM FLUENT IN GERMAN!!!!!!!!

Every conversation is fun because I definitely don´t know every accent or word, but I don´t know all of them in English either.  It´s ever more hilarious and fun when you have to act out what you mean :).  It´s cool to think my communcation and ability to serve God´s children just went up millions of people!  I love it!  Not dreaming in German yet, but its close!

Alles Gut!  Pray, read, ASK ask ask!!

Sister Packer

"I´m getting in touch with my inner German." (SP)

Family!!

First off.  I feel I need to thank everyone SO bad for all the letters I´ve received.  

Jessie, I LOVED your letters.  They were truly comfort in times of need and gave me a sense of love and peace that family has.  I love your humor and I´m scared stiff for all the guys comin your way!!  SO WEIRD that you and Lydia are totally in the middle of dating or gettin there.  Don´t worry.  I have my dating stories from here too ;).  Some investigators or potential investigators are dropped because they want to date rather than....progress in the gospel.  They´ll find someone someday :).  

Lydia, I never told you, but your chalk drawings in the one letter were AWESOME!!  I loved it so so much!  My smile just kept getting bigger and bigger as I saw them all.  AND your picture in that last email really was so beautiful.  You are stunningly beautiful inside and out.  Ah! Cool story I´ll tell you in a minute!  It´s all in the eyes though.  Your example is crucial for those around you.  When you do something, people look and notice when people do things confidently.  Yours and Jessie´s confidence is contagious and people will notice and change because you do what you should with a smile.  So cool!  It´s almost as cool as getting tons of looks because you wear a black name tag with name as long as the Nile River.  Almost ;).

Bre and Danielle!  I LOVED YOUR LETTERS.  So so so much :D.  It was perfect!  I hope all the fish are doing ok and that the tamagotchies are alive and well with their babies if they´re having some.  I heard its been super hot there!  Crazy!  Hey!  Your know those little waffles they eat on the Best Two Years from the Netherlands?  Ate one this morning.  It was so. dang. good.  Mensch (man in German).  Hope you´re still saying your prayers before you do your hair!

Jake.  Jake the Snake from....Idaho lake... Man, you´re there :).  How´d you feel about your farewell talk?  I heard it was really good from Gpa Crowley.  And that you also got your Eagle!  Mensch you´re just rollin along!  Jake, I´ve never had so much fun in my life.  I promise you´ll have hard times.  It´s a rough transition.  And I KNOW you´ve heard all the advice you could ever not want, but I promise, no matter how hard it seems, it gets better.  You get to know your companion, you get to know your area, you taste really good food, you meet awesome members and have the FUNNIEST experiences.  Your companions will have so much fun with you.  I love the elders.  They don´t feel younger than me at all.  They are my example every day.  I look up to them and admire their hard work.  Go get em.  And if you feel all this information is to be logged away and not what you need to hear, that´s great too :).  Heavenly Father knows ya and you´ll have all your own experiences and your OWN mission.  Remember that.  Its YOUR mission and no one else´s.  So cool!  Hey, thank you for your letters in the MTC too.  I never got a chance to really thank you but it gave me so much hope.  Hey!  We´ll be able to write letters!  So cool!  

Not sure how the English are, but Germans are super blunt.  It´s HILarious.  I´m getting in touch with my inner German.  I´m still sensitive to people´s feelings, but I say what I think and say it with confidence, not to offend, but to be clear about who I am and what I truly feel.  Germans are so smart and if you play wishy washy they think you´re dumb.  Hahaha I love it.  I´m so not used to that from every person that I find something to laugh at every day with the people.  The Lord has a sense of humor :).

It´s crazy how different I feel after every week.  When you set goals and pray, and read, and study, and pray, and talk to people you don´t know, and pray.... a lot of progress in a million areas happens :).  One thing I learned this week was during my first austausch!  (exchange).  Sister Smith and I are the Sister Training Leaders for our zone so we get to do exchanges with all the other sister companionships.  It was awesome!  My first one was with Sister Eve Smith (my companion is Sister Becca Smith).  Sister Eve Smith was SO funny.  Lydia, she reminded me SO much of you it was hilarious.  She says everything she wants and her mind works so fast.  We exchanged our companions in the afternoon of last wednesday and that night in her area, we saw so many miracles!  

The Lord uses every part of us to do the work.  We were running to find a street to visit a less active and could NOT find it.  We asked kids, neighbors, everyone.  We went down a street still looking and saw another guy and asked him for directions right as he was walking out of his house.  Turns out he´s from Georgia, USA!  At the beginning of our conversation he knew who we were but wasn´t interested in coming to church.  But after talking about normal American things we missed like oreos and corn pops, we got to be friendly and we gave him a card and a desire from him to come to church!  What the?!  It was so perfectly timed.  We were lost when we found him.  So fun to be directed by the Lord when you´re lost!  From that encounter, I learned moer about being totally real and talking about stupid things in order to be a lot more natural and normal.  Applying it to extending invitations to the gospel is so fun.  Its like when guys want to ask a girl out and just think of something random and stupid to get a conversation going.  NOW I know where all those things come from haha.  Its a fun game :).  I learned from Sister Eve Smith to be excited about people in the work.  We are excited about what they tell us about.  THAT´s how people find interest and want to learn more is if they see we´re really interested in them and get excited about who they are.  

Then, after the Georgia guy, both of us had to pee SO bad.  Sister Smith especially and we couldn´t wait.  We walked down the street and saw a guy outside his house.  We ran up to him and asked if we could use his bathroom.  He´s like, ´´Really´´ With sheepish grins we say, ´´Ya.´´  We went in and met this family: a mom, a dad, and the cutest German baby named Gretchin.  Gave em a card, an invitation to church, and left.  Planting those seeds!  So cool!  Ok another cool story.  Saw my first baptism here on Saturday!  It was for a girl named Marja, 27, Finnish, and the sweetest sweetest cup of honey.  She was just glowing.  The change in people´s eyes after they´re baptized is totally real!  It´s so cool!  That was truly a neat experience.  The Spirit bore such a powerful witness to me of the truthfulness of this gospel.  Our ward is small, but the members are living with almost zero support in this giant city they live in and still make time for each other.  There were so many people there including investigators.  THAT´s cool.  INVITE NONMEMBERS TO BAPTISMS.  Something I´ve learned is how much we need the members.  Investigators who attach to their missionaries are the ones who go inactive.  They need member friends!  BE that friend!  People´s salvation depends on you as ward members!  Don´t watch people slip out because they weren´t fellowshipped.  I want to share a neat scripture I read with my companion this morning if you, whoever is reading this, has a second.

1 Corinthians 12:14-30

Go get your scriptures and open up there.  I´ll wait :).

EVERY person in the ward is important.  The seemingly less, are the MOST important.  They hold what you and I need to learn.  It´s through them that we will find the greatest joy and the fulfillment in our ward.  Ask the bishop who you could visit, who you could invite over for dinner, who you could befriend.  The happiest ward members are the ones who help us teach, serve, and visit new members, less actives, and investigators.  I know we cannot be happy or find eternal salvation without serving them and each other.  Without them, there is no Zion.

So a cool story about last night!  One of our investigators who´s been through a million churches, very very strict in living frugal and humbly has slooooooowwwwwllleeeeyyyy been changing.  It´s unreal.  But miracles happen all the time.  If you want to live in a world of miracles, set goals that require miracles to be met.  100% true.  So she calls us last night and says, ´´So I wanted to tell you something I noticed yesterday.  I was looking at people and I just can´t explain it, but I can just see in the people´s eyes....something different.  Maybe that´s super weird... but there was just...not a sparkle, but...I don´t know.  If I were to just go and look at people, I´d be able to tell which ones belonged to your church because of their eyes.´´  AAHHHHH So sweet!!  We were silently punching the air and making rockstar faces as she was telling us this.  Woooohoooo!!    

This work is real.  I LOVE it.  Cool thought from my companion today.  True gospel principles understood, change you.  We all know that quote from Pres Packer.  But I really thought about it and it means that if we haven´t changed, we don´t understand it!  

I hope whoever reads these isn´t bored to tears.  It´s a lot more fun to have these, than to read about em.  But I appreciate all the support prayers, for me, my companion, and all the other missionaries.  When we´re obedient, we gain access to those blessings being said all over the world by millions of our members.  All those blessings are great!  But as a missionary they mean nothing if I don´t do everything I know I should.  The Lord is definitely evident in the bluntness of these Germans!  he doesn´t enable us :).  He likes us to learn.  

Viel Glaube and good work to the members!

With Faith and Hope,

Sister Nicole Packer

Arm in the door (SP)

August 12, 2013

Family and Friends!

Last week was crazy!  We met that lady and she´s investigating further!!  Woot woot!  I´m so glad we met with her.  I don´t know exactly what she needed, but it was so filling to speak with her and hear her just tell us ALL these wonderful things I couldn´t understand.  People are amazingly the same everywhere you go.  She was so sweet and although I couldn´t understand it all, she was just a gem.  The saying, "It´s the thought that counts," is so applicable haha.  Most of the time, I just sit there and smile with all the warmth my cheeks can muster and somehow the eye-communication I developed as a girl translates and I think they know I care.  What a blessing there´s so many people we can practice on!  Haha, some of them, poor awkward moments... But good times to laugh about :).  

Speaking of awkward hilarious moments.  Friday was my first taste of European rain.  It was actually a little cold but so beautiful.  That day we´d worked hard.  We´d set goals, we´d talked with people, done our best to invite (and understand the language).  We were on our way to a members house, the Arnolds, for an eating appointment and were riding the S-bahn (S-bahns and U-bahns are fast suberb trains we use for transportation).  We were about to board when we passed a guy who was smiling so huge at us.  Ahem, smiling does not always mean warm and friendly in my book of experience and when people smile at us first, I always have my creeper alert on.  People, men in particular, don´t always smile first unless there´s other intentions behind it.  You know.  So I always keep my creep alert on.  I categorized him as creepy and boarded a door down.  But my dear Sister Smith thought it would be a nice idea to go sit NEXT to him to strike up conversation.  Um HELLO, were my thoughts.  But we sit down with him and... turns out he was a really cool guy!  Hehehe...  Ahem.. ANYway...  He had tons of interest in what we were doing here as missionaries!  Um WHAT?!  We told him about the church and invited him.  He said he´d love to come.  I´m handing him a card and our stop comes.  Sister Smith is on her way out while I´m handing him a card and shaking his hand.  She exits and I go for the door, but it´s closing!  I run.  But I clearly see I won´t make it out.  There´s a moment of panic between us poor sisters that aren´t allowed to separate and would be scared to anyway.  Sister Smith being so obedient and loyal does the only thing she can to stay with me.  She keeps her arm in the door.  CLAMP (not to be confused with ´´snap.´´  No bones were broken).  I scramble to the door, and can hear her say Ow.  Ow.  Worried about my companion I use my muscles to pry the doors apart, which don´t move.  Now I´m really panicking.  The guy we met comes up behind me and pries open the door.  Sister Smith relieves her arm and I squeeze out.  If you´ve ever seen Horton Hears a Who, when the Mayor gets his arm shot with a numbing shot, THAT was the depiction here.  SO FUNNY.  I could NOT stop laughing.  The people I´m sure wrote all their friends on facebook about it.  I hope that guy comes to church.

The work is real.  On a more serious note, I´m so grateful for these moments.  Life is meant to be happy.  Til next week!

Faithfully Sister Packer

Duty calls! (SP)

Family and Friends!!

I love being a missionary!!  I feel like it finally clicked for me this week!  Ok I have like zero time.  But two cool analogies:

1.  Revelation is like a colander.  Its available in every meeting to pour down and give you loads.  But if you dont organize your thoughts, or record them, it all comes in, feels good for a minute and leaves.  Organizing and writing it down plugs up the holes!  

Ha!  Wish I could write more, but um just got a call from our Zone Leaders and we have an emergency meeting with a potential investigator!  If she doesn't meet missionaries in the next 8 minutes at the train she gets off, she's leaving.  So fun!  Love you all!  Duty calls!

Fatihfully,

Sister Nicole Packer

Hello from München Deutchland!

Hello from München Deutchland!

OH MY GOODNESS IM HERE! 

      First, I owe my companion the right to be mentioned first.  She is a straight miracle and tender mercy from Father.  Her name is Sister Rebecca Smith and comes from Logan.  She's 22 and has been here 12 weeks before me. She was a fast track missionary!  I've never been so loved by a stranger before.  Whoever my future husband and kids will be even more blessed by how much I'm changing with her!
     Second, I'm in Europe.  It is UNreal here.  The moment I came off the plane, It all turned into a dream.  We landed safely in Amsterdam, Netherlands, all I heard was Dutch.  I just had the biggest grin on my face.  Couldn't understand a thing, but it was real!  People do live in languages other than English!  Haha, but seriously.  Seriously.  It's so incredibly, indescribably, breathtakingly, insurmountably BEAUTIFUL.  Everything is older than all of America combined and it has this grand Disneyland, but older, kind of beauty that cannot be described.  Ya, mom it feels just like a place with so much history and personality.  Everywhere we go, I'm in awe at what I see.  Ok, Jessie.  I'm pretty sure if I'm dying to take pictures of every leaf and fence here, you'd be dead.  

     I am assigned to work in the München 3rd Ward!  Uncle Scott, you will be the first to hear if I go to Österreich later!  I spoke in church yesterday WOOT!  I was shaking like a leaf haha but I spoke on patience which has been the theme of my life these past 7 weeks.  I love speaking!  In German its a little different but just as beautiful.  Haha guess what?  I guess it's been record breaking temperatures here this past week (about 35 degrees C, 95-100 degrees F) which may not seem that hot, but with humidity, we melt :).  Everywhere we go.  Our skin is great!  And ha fun fact!  AC does not exist.  And neither does ice.  Both are unhealthy :).  So I'm apparently in better health than you all.  Even right now sitting in a puddle of sweat in this lovely internet cafe.  Haha, but hey, fans exist!  I don't bathe by bucket or have bugs crawling in and out of my hammock :).  I'm very grateful!  I actually said again to myself last night with Sister Smith, "Oh, man, I'm actually a missionary.  I've only seen videos of missionaries walking up streets like us.  But we're actually here doing it."  

Miracles this week:

     My first day here, Sister Smith and I are rolling my suitcases to the apartment in the blazing heat and we meet a black man and an Italian woman.  They came up to us and asked if we could help the woman who had severe depression.  We said we'd love to try!  We promised to meet them back at their apartment in 15.  We get there and teach a lesson while she's having a really hard time sitting and focussing.  They were Stanly and Valentina.  The lesson was great!  We talked about the Book of Mormon and that if she read it, she'd get help.  We told her we'd come back the next day and give her an Italian one.  We're trying to get a hold of Stanly, but he doesn't seem to have as much interest.  We've visited with Valentina 3 times and made progress!  She is very bright.  I am familiar with ADD or ADHD and we just played the game you play with some kids where you keep em interested!  I'm so grateful for the examples in my life who have gone through depression.  It doesn't make people ANY less capable of understanding faith, prayer, and trusting in God.  She totally gets it and was right there with us.  So exciting!!  First, I asked myself, what are her needs?  She was scared to find a job and not be liked in Italy.  I pulled out the story when Lehi and the family left Jerusalem.  We got right to her level and talked about it.  We read 1 Nephi 2:15-20.  It was hard for Nephi too to leave it all behind.  Same emotions as his brothers.  The difference was that he asked for the Lord to show him why it was important and to understand.  The Lord answered and told him he would be promised a choice land and prosperity.  We taught Valenina about prayer and doing what's right and how it brings prosperity.  She sat and listened and got it!  1+1=2 :).  If people are open, you find out what they need, link that to the gospel and it makes sense.  Not always that fast, but it was neat to see that.  She went back to Italy yesterday and we don't know what she'll do with the church, but she's got a Book of Mormon, knows about lds.org and mormon.org, knows how to pray, wrote down what she learned with us, and knows a little bit about Nephi and Lehi :).  We're plantin' those seeds! 
     SO many other miracles.  This work is marvelous and there's no place I'd rather be, no language I'd rather learn, no people I'd rather talk with every day :).  That's another thing I learned.  People are people wherever you are.  It's not so scary when you put it that way :).  

     Loves to you all!  Bis nächste woche!

                    Sister Packer

p.s. THANK you so much mom and fam.  I know I ask and sometimes communication is not always clear.  But Im doing perfect.  The Lord is with us.  Ive never felt so safe.  It was so so good to talk with you last week.  Im praying for you all! 

p.s.s. I uploaded some pics on drob box finally!    

On her way to Germany! (SP)

Nicole called the family on Tuesday, July 23, from the Detroit airport.  She is doing great and will be writing as soon as she gets settled in Germany.  She sounded great, her language skills are amazing, and she gave away 2 Book of Mormons before landing in Detroit!  She is definitely on fire!  Until we find out her new apartment address, send letters to the mission home address listed on the right under her picture.  We will update the addresses as we get them.  We're not sure what the mission rules are for her email yet (if friends can utilize it as well as family), so until then, sending letters via post office will be the best option. Thanks for all of your support!  It means the world to Nicole (Sis. Packer : )).

Um, WE LEAVE IN 5 DAYS!! (SP)

Oh, mensch!

Um, WE LEAVE IN 5 DAYS!!

Mom and Dad:

     Flight Plans:  We're flying Delta all the way.  **I will be calling to check in while in Detroit.  If our flights are on time, I'll be calling sometime that day.  I could call in Salt Lake, but we're not positive if we'll have time so Detroit was our best bet we were thinking.  I'll have to go through security in Amsterdam which will take more time.  I wish I knew exactly when would be the best so you wouldn't have to have a foggy few hours of waiting.  SOME time for SURE I'll call.  If Salt Lake works out and I call, I'll send angels to help it get through :).  Woot!        

     Family!  Thank you so much for all your prayers and letters!  They've brought me so much comfort and blessings.  Dad.  I LOVED your analogy with the horses.  It really put a lot of things into perspective for me.  Jessie, you remind me so much of myself sometimes ha ha!  And I was going to tell you, I prayed the other day for you because I was feeling the telepathy... maybe I already mentioned it.  But it's still intact!  Hope you're doing well!     

     This week teaching our investigators was wrought with power.  I'm learning how it works.  I'm SO EXCITED to use all these tools when I get home!!  Yes I'm so happy to be here.  Yes I'll be super sad when I leave.  But it's not done after the mission and I've wanted so many of these tools and truths for so long.  Now I'm learning them!!  It's incredible.  I'm so humbled.  Yay for the work of mommies!  You're all doing an incredible job.       

     So many sisters here are unreal.  I know that compared to how many children Father has, we few chose to be here during THIS time.  The work is moving forward and it's because of our mothers.  And stalwart Fathers.  And the work of the Military, Air Force, Army, Navy, and all forms of defense for our country.  

     I know God lives and that Christ is our advocate.  In His name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

              Sister Nicole Packer

This is our district!!  We're divided into two rooms for class but they are the BEST! 

(order from left to right in group pic)  Elder Stout & Elder Bruneel going to Berlin, GE; Sister Kirvinen, Sister Lewis, Sister Packer going to Alpine German-Speaking; Elder Rogers & Elder Bulkley going to Frankfurt, GE.

Elder Rogers is a wiz at Lord of the Rings and knows how to write in Elvish; so genuine and bright.  Elder Bulkley is a ROCK and doesn't say much but is solid in the gospel.  Elder Bulkley and Elder Rogers are in our classroom with us and it is THE FUNNEST.  Brothers :).

"I love a challenge :)" (SP)

Guten Tag family!

     First of all, I want to thank you for your prayers.  I can feel them every day and it's incredible.  I think part of the "time-unrealistically-flying" feeling in the MTC is that there's so much support under you that you really do feel like you're spiritually flying.  And sometimes physically.  I don't hesitate to use that term literally.  The blessings are paramount here and indescribable.  Your prayers are channeling in miraculous ways. 

      I know that obedience opens up that channel to receive those blessings.  I feel that people are probably praying for us all the time but sometimes blessings aren't accessed because we're not obedient.  We know when there's something we know we should be doing, let go of, fix, resolve...etc. and as long as we feel that, something else is withheld from us.  Working as a missionary is like peeling back a layer of the veil one layer short to actually seeing human figures good and bad working with or against us as God's children.  It is so literal the action and consequence as a missionary.  We are on the front lines of the battle field taking perhaps some of the hardest blows because of the work we're doing.  It's of course not just full-time missionaries.  For me, this is the place where I've seen it more literally than at any other time in my life.

     I've learned about Questions this week.  I've known a ton about them, but putting them into direct use for the Lord has been an incredible experience.  We did an activity in class where we were with an investigator and had to teach a certain principle using only questions.  I love a challenge :).  If you want anyone to hear something you want to share that is for their benefit and there's love behind it, ask questions.  ONLY questions.  It was powerful to see what, like in working with people before the mission, what power questions have for people to feel loved and listened to.  Doesn't the Lord answer people's questions with more questions?  I'm going to try that.  Only answer questions with more questions.  A powerful and unselfish way to help someone by empowering them to think and discover it.  

     I also learned about Faith.  I've known and learned about Faith 1 (Action) and Faith 2 (God's Power).  I learned a Faith 3.  It's (Say in your head that you can and you will do it).  When you're in line with the Lord's Will, doing only what you know He'd want you to do.  Haha funny enough, the first thing I practiced this principle on was singing.  I sang in our room and in the community bathroom (where accustics are awesome) and I could just feel Heavenly Father laughing.  I knew that He just WAITS for us to ask.  He very often answers in another question causing us to think.  If we're not willing to, faith stops and more powerful, self-discovery answers are missed. 

Love you all so much!  Bis Spater!

Sister Packer