Mon 1/12/2015 11:12 AM

Wow!  Where on earth to begin!  We have seen so many miracles here in Central Falls!  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be a part of this wonderful work.  We now have 14 investigators and most of which are ones the Lord led us to the past couple weeks!  These past few weeks I have been doing all in my power to leave this area with exactly what it needs to just propel forward after I leave and it has been a great thing to witness. Along with updated records, making a finding pool, and translating all of it into Spanish for out Branch Mission Leader, the part I am more excited about is the Branch Mission Plan we had the opportunity to be a part of.  That same day before we met with the Branch Presidency I felt we needed to start planning it out and seeking revelation from the Lord.  It just started flowing.  That night we went to meet with the Branch Presidency and our Mission Leader to see what they had prepared as well and seek inspiration together. Turns out we were the only ones with something prepared.  As we formed this plan, as we then explained it to the Presidency, it just seemed to me that EVERYTHING we have been learning since I came into the field finally clicked.... The plan we had was the same as before, for the most part, but the only difference was that we had specific action items on how to accomplish each part of the goal. Those action items were ideas that are found in the "Power of Everyday Missionaries" by Clayton M. Christensen.  I am going to get off the topic because otherwise I am going to spend all my time on this one thing.  Needless to say it is something I am very grateful to have been a part of as an instrument in the Lord's hands. Now the only thing left is for the other leaders to catch the vision by praying about it and making some tweaks to it that they think are necessary.  To me there is not a better gift the Lord could have helped me leave this area than that. 

These are my last few days before going home and I am going to miss it so much.  This last week we had a Emergency Zone Conference with the mission which was awesome.  There are some HUGE things coming and happening.  I really do not want to leave so that l can stay and be a part of it!  One of the huge things I feel is on the brink of happening is right here in Central Falls.  After everyone has put so much into this branch, I feel that it is time and that some big things are going to happen here. 

 

Sunday was a pretty hard day for me, but a very rewarding one.  I love the people here so much and do not want to leave them.  I don't know how to even come close to try to express myself right now.  I am sad and yet so excited.  I do not want to leave, but feel that it is time.  There is so much I want to do and learn when I get home and so I am excited to hit the ground running as the "training wheels come off" in a sense.  I am so grateful for the mission, and that the Lord has called me, an imperfect man with many faults and weaknesses to serve him and help build up His kingdom here on earth.  It is something truly beautiful when you think about it.  That God, who is perfect, who has all power, wisdom and love, trusts us to help him in His work.  I am so grateful for that.  The mission has changed me so much because of all the things I have learned and experienced. 

 

I know now even more than I did before that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He lives and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is his church on the earth today.  His gospel truly does change lives and He has called ALL of us to come and participate in this His work because it is exactly what will bring us happiness and change us to become like He is.

 

As I go home I may have to take off my Missionary tag, but I am so grateful that because of my mission it has allowed Christ's name, His church's name and my name to be more deeply engraved upon my heart.  An engraving that has changed me forever and is something that no one can ever take away from me.  I feel that in the last days as He comes to judge us of our works, one of the things He will pay close attention to is not only if we allowed His name to be engraved upon our hearts, but rather to see if we kept that engraving burning brightly, as we allowed His hand to continually keep the heat of conversion and change pressed firmly upon our hearts.  It is my prayer that all of us will strive to find ways to allow His hand to continually engrave his name more fully, more deeply within our hearts so that we can become that which He would have us become......Perfect!  I leave these things with you all, along with my love, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Mon 12/29/2014 10:53 AM

President Packard

Dear Elders and Sisters,

When the angel appeared unto the shepherds, he announced that he brought “good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. For unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord.” (Luke 2: 10-11). The central message of Christmas is the good news that Jesus, the promised Messiah, was born to fulfill the merciful plan which had been laid from the foundation of the world. The word “gospel” is Greek for “good news.” Jesus, His life, His teachings, and His atonement are the good news for all of us. We are not trapped by death or our past mistakes. We can be transformed by Christ and receive redemption, peace and eternal life. For lost and fallen individuals and a lost and fallen world, this is good news indeed!

It is interesting to note that the word “gospel” was already being used by the Romans before that first Christmas in Bethlehem. After Julius Caesar was assassinated, his son Octavius took the name Augustus and became Emperor of Rome in approximately 31 BC. Augustus proclaimed that Julius Caesar was a god and that he was the "son of God." Thus, the Romans told their conquered people the good news (the “gospel”) that their benevolent and deified emperor, Augustus, would bring peace and wealth to the people and would heal the land. Roman officials carved engravings, still in existence today, that described Caesar Augustus as the good news, as a Savior, as God manifest, and divine. For example, an inscription dated 9 BC reads: “… since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance … since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good news for the world that came by reason of him…” (See, Stanley Porter, Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament, p 93).

To the early Christians, who despised the oppression and brutality of Rome, all this talk about Augustus being the good news and even a god was blasphemy, and to help make their point, these early Christians took the words the Romans were using to describe Caesar Augustus, especially the word “gospel,” and applied them to Christ. They boldly proclaimed that the real gospel, or good news, was not in Caesar Augustus but in Jesus Christ. God truly did have a son, and his name was Jesus Christ. Only Jesus, whose kingdom was not of this world, could bring lasting peace and eternal life.

We echo the testimony of these early Christians. Jesus’ birth is the good news—good tidings of great joy! It is our great privilege to share the good news to all people, and in so doing, help bring peace on earth and good will towards all men.

Love,
President and Sister Packard

Mon 12/29/2014 10:23 AM

Wow! Where to begin!  This past week has been pretty amazing!!!!  Before I get into all that, I have to apologize because it has been a few weeks since I have written my blog.  I had a great Christmas and especially the opportunity to see my wonderful family over skype and get to talk with them. There is nothing that compares to sharing what matters most with those who matter most.  This past Saturday we had the goal to get all 100 Recent Converts to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead, for their own family names, and we had a great turnout.  We accomplished 96 of the 100 and so just need 4 more in before the beginning of January to accomplish it.  We have Recent Converts going today and tomorrow to get it done.  We had a bit of a problem getting everything figured out for Jose Rosas because we weren't able to log into his account on Familysearch.org because his Birthday info., we later found out, got input wrong.  All is well now.  For those of you who don't know what Familysearch is, it is a website we can go to in order to trace back our genealogy and see who we are related to.  It is pretty cool.  We got Jose's parents names printed out and he was able to be baptized and confirmed for his father.  Jose's good friend, Hna Paez, was baptized and confirmed for his mother.  He told me right before I baptized him for his father that he felt the Spirit overwhelm him and he got teary eyed.  He had a great experience and it sure was something to see so many recent converts there!

This last week we have had some great success in the work.  We picked up Orlando, Hernan, Ariselia and Luis as new investigators and got a return appointment with this lady named Michelle.  The stories behind these people are as follows.

 

Michelle:  We had gotten a referral for someone named Christian and so we went to the address and rang the bell.  A man poked his head out the window and asked us who we were and want we wanted. We told him who we were looking for and he told us that person didn't live there.  We then asked if he would be interested in hearing our message and he said no.  After that I looked at the door on the left and for some reason just felt good about knocking on it and so I went and knocked.  This kid answered the door, he then got his mother who was a very friendly lady.  She is a born again Christian and had the Light of Christ beaming from her eyes.  It was amazing!  We had a great conversation and a return appointment to get to know her more and to hear her story.  It was really cool to see how it all worked out via the promptings of the Spirit putting words in my mouth in the very moment I needed them.

 

Ariselia & Luis:  Ariselia was a referral from the Portuguese Elders that we have tried to contact for over 8 weeks and have had no luck.  We got in touch with her yesterday before church and came back later that night.  She had a friend over named Luis and so we got to know them and shared a message. She told us how out of all the religions there is just "something peaceful and different about us as Mormons" and so we helped them see our purpose and promised them they can find out what we have for themselves.  They were intrigued and loved it all.  Luis is a really cool guy and actually is blind and has fake eyes that they put in!  They look so real!  He is a mechanic and is very talented as well to where a lot of people would rather have him work on their car than any others.  He loved the message as well and so we got his info and will go back and meet with him.

 

Orlando:   He is a new investigator we got while we were at Camila and Marta's house Christmas Eve cooking for them.  He had some great questions and so we started to talk to him a little bit more and he is very interested in meeting with us again.  We have to pass him off to the Providence missionaries though since he is not in our area.  He is awesome!

 

Hernana:  He is a former investigator that a member referred to us.  He is from Columbia and is a really cool guy.  He has a ton of questions about the Book of Mormon and let us know that before he wanted to get baptized.  He has some habits he doesn't want to give up just yet, but that is ok because in time we are hoping he will have a greater desire to follow the Savior and then those things will become history.

 

We have been seeing miracles lately here in Central Falls.  The amazing thing is that after I talked about sacrificing things to show the Savior how much we love him, I had this great desire to leave this area with as many new investigators as possible and getting the members more involved in the work.  These two things were what I told Him I wanted to make happen, but that I would need His help to do it, since so far the investigators we had weren't really progressing.  As I have sought ways to continually put my will at the altar and offer it up to the Savior, daily, I have started to see even more miracles and feel the wonderful guidance of the Holy Ghost even more, for which I am so grateful.

 

I know that the Lord has been preparing his children to receive this wonderful gospel message & that  no matter where we are we can find those individuals as we show Him that He can trust us and that we truly do care to find them.  As we pour our hearts out to him in prayer, pleading for our spiritual eyes to be opened, to see the opportunities in our paths daily, He will guide us to where we need to go.

 

I am so grateful for the wonderful lessons He has taught me while on my mission.  I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the World, that He lives and is guiding His work in these days.  I know that as we seek to rely on Him for ALL things, we can be the means of doing much good in this generation.  It is my prayer that all reading this will seek to do just these things because I know and can promise you that whatever it is you stand in need of most, the Lord will bless you.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.