Jan. 30th, 2017

Heyy Everyone!,

What a week! We got transfer calls Saturday night and I am staying leading Kerman with Sister Anderson. Sister Maxwell is going to Ventura she has actually been there before so she is ready for that at least. Sister Anderson will be here Tuesday she has been out for awhile and I am really excited. I had actually just met her too about a week ago at a different mission conference. She is so sweet and we will be ready to make a difference in Kerman. 

Since Sister Maxwell is leaving we had a crazy week with members and less actives. Everyone assumed she would be leaving since she had been in Kerman almost a year. 

Anyways, Wednesday we participated in a Worldwide Mission Broadcast! There are great changes in the Missionary Schedule. We got to watch the Executive Missionary Committee talk about the changes. Mainly there is less study time and more working and finding. Looks like this now:

Daily Schedule:

• 6:30 to 7:55 - Arise, exercise (20 minutes of running, 10 of cardio, 2 planking), prepare for the day
• 7:55 - Mission Prayer
• 8:00 to 9:30 - Personal Study (60 minutes) and Planning (30 minutes)

• When best during the day based on revelation for your area:
• 30 minutes of Companion Study and Lesson Preparation
• 30 minutes of Language Study (if applicable)
• 30 minutes of 12 Weeks (if applicable)
• 30 minutes for lunch

President Nelson came to the mission! What an amazing experience! We took a group photo and I stood RIGHT BEHIND HIM! It was incredible. I know he was receiving revelation for the needs of our mission. He even said he could tell we were an obedient mission. That is what we strive to be! He made it a Q& A setting and he told us as missionaries we are spiritual physicians. We are there to give them the cure of the gospel. Also that we must never give up so easily. It was so awesome I left so pumped haha!

Another thing, I got into BYU Idaho and have always wanted to go there! That's in the future but it is ready to go!

Lots of Love,

Hermana Pachner

Jan. 23rd, 2017

Hello everyone!,

    I miss you all so much! We had such a crazy week filled with lots of service hours. It was definitely slow as far as teaching and finding though. We have a new method of finding though which we just started and have never had better success!We set some high goals for this next week to be better and to keep finding. We have been working on how to do different types of door approaches. We have been doing this and I want to share that it works! We go to the door and we ask if we can do a short activity with them. We share a message about the Book Of Mormon through the Restoration. We hold up the Book of Mormon and say I am going to flip through this book and we know that God speaks to us through his word. They then tell us when to stop and we choose whatever verse the Book opens too. We read that verse and then ask them what do you think God is trying to say to you? We make it a message they can help us with and we found a lot more doors listened to us then ever before. It has been going awesome but we just started so we hope this weeks numbers will be great! We are so excited and how great is our calling wahooo! 

  One time we opened to Doctrine & Covenants 125 and they said.. "I need to be better at keeping the commandments." We looked and said hey we all do! This gospel is a way of life and it is awesome!

  Potential last week in Kerman CA! OH MY! We get transfer calls this Saturday the 28th! AHH! Sister Maxwell and I are definitely getting split :(  She has been here for so long and she thinks it is her time to go. They might double us out though because they talked about putting English sisters in our current area. We teach Spanish but not that much and there isn't as many Spanish Sisters. We get to hear from President Nelson this weekend too! We also are going to the temple with some Recent Converts that I got to see baptized! Sooo excited. 

 One thing I do know is no matter how hard we think we have it someone always has it worse. We should be happy we have the best knowledge in this world. We have a message of hope and literally brings salvation. 

Another thing I encourage everyone to watch

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/principle-1-exercise-faith-in-jesus-christ?lang=eng

This talks about Faith in Jesus Christ and exercising it! Faith is an action word and it starts small. Never be afraid to share the teachings of christ with others!  Daredto be a mormon. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm and dare to make it known. Dare to share the gospel? Dare to be an example of the believers?

Love you all pictures next week for sure! -Hermana Pachner

Jan. 16th, 2017

Helloo Everyone,

   What a week it has been! This week felt super slow but I hope this week can be better. We went through a lot this week with finding and teaching. We taught a lot this week but nobody has been progressing. Everyone SAYS they will be at church and go and when Sunday comes around nobody is there. At times we call and even visit them before church only to find out they are either sleeping or not home. We keep pressing forward though so no worries just really noticed these are the last days. It is so scary to see what some of this world has become. 

    Something I realized a lot of though was to be grateful. No matter how bad you have it or even think you have it someone has it worse. There are people that don't even know the word Jesus.  Can you imagine living in a world without a savior?  I don't even want to think about it because it makes me feel terrible. Just a world of darkness and no hope.

   We had exchanges this week and I went to Merced again. Superr different compared to Kerman.  There is always some crazy stuff that goes on there! The people are so blunt and rude haha but you learn and grow. Lots of homeless there too which is super sad. We have President Nelson coming to our mission the 28th!! SO excited we are in the choir and we are practicing singing Precious Savior Dear Redeemer! 

  Anyways have a good week! Thanks for all the love sent my way! Love you all,

Hermana Pachner

Jan. 09th, 2017

Hey Everyone,

Hope everyone had a good week!  We had so much go on this week!  We had the opportunity to go to the temple and that helped me so much. I love the temple it brings me so much peace and strength when I go.  Sister Maxwell and I had a kind of crazy week. First of let me start off by saying we are okay! 

One of our investigators and his wife were talking about how their house was haunted and we were like no problem the Elders can come give a blessing on the house. They came and that night they said nothing had happened so good news! However, we got back to our place and the front porch lights were on and this fan was one that we never even use. We later call the Elders to come to our place too JUST IN CASE, they give a blessing and the next morning the maintenance man comes in to check our place. The security wires had been cut and 2 windows were apparently open. It was then protocol that they call the police. So then 5 police officers show up at our door within the next hour and we were like nothing happened and they said get your house door re -keyed. In the end all is good but we have a security system because of all the weird coincidences at once.

 We are finally finding people who are prepared. The faith to drop literally everyone we had is now proving to be correct! We are doing great and this is an amazing work. I love seeing people change and be happy through our message. Rosa is doing great ( the one who had just found out she lost a baby and loves the idea of eternal families!) Another thing to remember is the Light of Christs  Atonement will always be greater than the darkness within us. He will NEVER give up or abandon us rather it is us. He will always help us he chose us. We must choose him.

Lots of Love!

Hermana Pachner

Jan. 02nd, 2017

Hello and Happy New Years to all!!,

     hope everyone had an amazing past week and set goals to achieve even more this next year! We didn't get to do much on New Years which kind of stunk but that was okay we got to catch up on sleep! We weren't allowed to be out that night which really slows down the work but that just motivates us the next day to catch up.

      We were in a small Earthquake this past week due to the aftershocks of the one in Nevada. It was crazyyy because we were on exchanges. Sister Maxwell stayed in Kerman and I was in Echo, Fresno and it was scary. I didn't even feel it but the girl I was with Sister Bermudez did! She jumped up and was yelling, "Sister Pachner we have to go outside" I just jumped up and was like "What!?!?" so confused. I stood up and she was like there was an earthquake we can't be inside. Note that is was 1:18 AM and we have to wake up at 6:15 AM. I was like well "can we go back in now? haha'" Later I realized how scared she was and so we called her District Leaders they then called the Zone leaders to get permission to come over and give her a blessing. She later explained that in Columbia they are really bad and she was really scared. We finally went back to sleep and that whole day I was exhausted.  It was all good though!
   We had this really cool experience the other day. We were on a partial exchange while Sister Maxwell was in a training meeting and I was leading Kerman. We went up to this door we had felt inspired to be and we open it and this lady starts talking to us. We asked her if we could just say a prayer with her. We asked what we could pray for, for her in her life. Her eyes got all red and they started filling up with tears. We found out only 20 minutes earlier she had found out she was going to have a miscarriage. She had JUST got home from the doctors. She asked US to come back and her name is Rosa. We hope she is interested! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and Eternal Families. She loved it and I am so excited for Sister Maxwell to meet her!

   Sister Maxwell and I have been trying to figure out new ways to find people. We recently dropped everyone we had because they weren't progressing! We know the field is white and ready to harvest. Starting from nothing though has been the hardest thing yet. We will keep looking and pressing forward though!

Lots of Love,

Hermana Pachner

Dec. 26th, 2016

Hola!!!, 

How is everyone? I loved Christmas and am looking forward to the New Year.

My companion and I spent most of the day at the church and then we watched Zootopia. Watching her reactions to parts of the movie had me dying laughing. It was also her Birthday yesterday and so we had fun celebrating that a little bit too! We played so many games, ate like buffalos, and sang to Christmas songs! It was super fun! To finish the night off we had homemade tamales yumm!  We got to Skype home ( for 40 minutes)and that was by far the best day! I love my family and seeing them gave me the motivation to go and bring families and others to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This season brought forth so much of the true spirit of Christmas. Talking to family help give me that motivation to keep pushing in such a great work. Something I realized this week when talking to my family was that God made time for us and he gave us so much. Why would we not give him our all and make time to show him how much we appreciate him? It is through the small things we do even that we can show him we love him. I have been reading in the Believing Christ book and I love it! It has really opened my eyes to how the Atonement really works. A lot of people say how they let the mission go through them and that is what changed them. However I also want the Atonement of Jesus Christ to go through me. I want it to change me and I want it to become a part of who I am. There is no better place for me at this time in my life than here. I love this mission and at times I fall but I will always get back up. Jesus Christ never gave up on us no matter how hard or how much pain he had to go through. What an example of pure love. I love this church and how it changes us to make us better. I hope I can continue to grow in faith in Jesus Christ and invite others to come unto him. I am so excited to start a new year! 

The other day we were weekly planning and Sister Maxwell asks, "Who do we want to get baptized in January?"

I looked at her smiled and said, "No the question is HOW MANY DO WE WANT TO BE BAPTIZED IN JANUARY?"

We both stood up and were like YES! Let's plan it and then go out there and make it happen! I am so excited!

 Another thing I wanted to talk about was while I was reading in the book Believing Christ. It talks about the Atonement of Christ and how we believe IN Christ abut we don't believe Christ necessarily. If we understand the Atonement we know that we must give all we have and his grace will be sufficient. The word Atonement from a greek translation means "at-one" one means a perfect God and an imperfect mortal can be at one joint together through the Savior Jesus Christ. I love learning new things and remembering the words of Christ. In PMG, page 2 it states : "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase. You will feel as Lehi did, the "great...importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth." (2 Nephi 2:8).That through him all things are possible. I love this church I love everything about it, I know it is true and nobody could ever take that knowledge and gift away from me. I will live my purpose by finding our lost brothers and sisters out there and bring them back into the fold. Hope everyone has an amazing week! Love you all,

Hermana Pachner

This weeks pictures! haha

Dec. 19th, 2016

Hello Everyone!,

    I miss you all so much! I just want to start to off by saying Merry Christmas! This past week has been so crazy! My companion, Sister Maxwell was sick for two and a half days, which was sooo boring. I use to like resting and a relaxed day now I don't even know what that is. We studied a lot and watched soo many church movies. Our district leader is in our area and is like we all need to have a total of 20 new investigators this week (for our district). I was like there is no way we have barely been out this week to find. We pray everyday to find specific people like a tall man wearing jeans and a plaid shirt. What do you know we find one that day haha. It is so cool. Anyways we pray to meet our goal even though we know we don't have as much time as everyone else. 

However, we got a family of 7! We are not teaching a single dad with six kids! They are golden and we are really hoping they work our for baptism by January.

  Oh our tires, they are messed up. The tread is worn down a lot and we found out our car needs four new tires. Our maintenance light came on again and we were like you have got to be kidding! We were on our way to an appointment and we were like we don't have time for this, but it worked out we stopped by a member who does maintenance he told us our tires were terrible and so we are going to call the mission office and hopefully not worry about it again!

  We are both really excited for the Holidays and sharing messages about Christmas help me understand so much that He IS the Gift. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift we have, because it is through him we can return to our Heavenly Father. Another thing I learned was that in D&C four it says the Field is white and ready to harvest.. Not yellow! That means that there are people ready out there! A lot of times as missionaries we don't want to give up on people or we are like we can just keep teaching and on and on. However sometimes we just need to move on, because no time is worth wasting. As sister missionaries we have 12,000 some hours out here none of that is our time. It is all God's this is his work and his will must be ours in order for us to be successful. Our president had us read this story called the Riccardi Letter and it was about a trainer missionary who was soo bold! His saying was, " I FEAR NO MAN" he would walk up to a door ring the door bell and invite himself in. He would talk to EVERYONE AND ANYONE! He saw priests and ministers and would run up to them. He didn't waste time he went out there and go to work. That is my motivation. I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week! 

Lots of love,

Hermana  Pachner

P.S. The Primaryy gave us presents for christmas! So sweet! 

Dec. 12th, 2016

Hola Everyone!,

    hope everybody had an amazing week! I know I did. Guess what! I am in Kerman for another transfer yay! Sister Maxwell will continue to finish training me and we will be here for Christmas! I am so excited and she hits her one year here out on the mission. SO many things to look forward to with the Holidays coming up! 

       Real quick a story I forgot to tell. This happened like a week ago haha. So on the way back to Kerman from a district meeting my companion and I realized the engine light went on. It was like flashing red and we pulled over to find out our tires were so bad! We checked the pressure and they were at 14. Yeah we figured out that was so bad when we were reading the handbook for the car! Haha but we didn't really know what we were doing! Anyways we called the Elders and they told us to go to gas station. We did and we thought the one at the gas station was broken but turns out we didn't know what we were looking for haha. We went to a different gas station and realized it looked the same as the other. Anyways, we went into the store to ask the front desk about it and this man opens the door for us and is like, "Hey Sisters!" We were like "Hey!" we didn't know him but it turned out he was a member and a mechanic! Wow! He literally helped us with all our tires and then checked our oil. What a blessing! He then told us he had a feeling to stop by that gas station and wasn't sure why until he saw us walk in and thought to himself.. "OH that's why." Then we offered a prayer of thanks and it was awesome! God watches over us!!!

      We got to go to the Kerman Parade! It was so short but it was so cute! Mainly just cars with lights on them and the High School Band!  My companion and I were screaming when we saw Santa though! Haha he gave us candy canes! We also got to put up our tree it is huge! It is fake though and my companion is use to a real tree so we bought the scent "christmas tree" so she could feel more at home!  

      We are teaching a single man with 6 kids! It has been awesome but we are doing our best to find and teach! It is going alright but we are shooting for more. Also this man we are teaching is a Pentecostal minister and he has said yes to baptism! Hopefully next will be his congregation haaha!

On a sadder note, one of our Less Active Members is really sick in the hospital because he reacted bad to some chemo so we went and saw him at the Hospital! He was really sad nobody had been over to see him. No worries though we brought him some balloons and a teddy bear that said, "Hope this helps fix your booboo!" it was so cute and he was happy to see us! 

   Anyways, The work is hastening! I am loving life as missionary. It is not easy but I love that we can make a change in the world.  Our church started off ONE person and that is all it takes for change. We have to read the scriptures we have to  pray and ask! I know this church is true with everything in me and I am not ashamed. I will continue to defend and invite others to come unto Christ. I encourage you all to watch this video!

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages-for-youth/staying-spiritually-fit

It is called Staying Spiritually Fit and it is amazing! Changed my life! I want to go back to God and say I gave you all I had just like you gave me!

Lots of Love and here is some pictures!!!
Hermana Pachner

Dec. 05th, 2016

Hello Everyone,

I am soo excited for Christmas. Sharing a message about Christ has been so much easier lately it is awesome. We got to go to the Zoo today and it was awesome. Pictures will come soon! We had a blast though. We have had such a busy week this week I don't even know where the time went. I had to go back to Merced on Exchanges again and that was just another crazy experience. Just the people there and not that receptive to missionaries. I had really good Mexican food though that night from a member it was the biggest burrito I have ever seen. It was delicious though! 

   This week we also had Zone Conference. We had a lot of new rules placed on us from our President and apparently had another talk on Obedience for awhile. He then proceeded to make us all plank while we sang to the song "Called To Serve." I literally thought of home when we got in trouble we had to do push-ups or something haha. It brought back good memories. However, I know that Exact Obedience brings blessings and Forced Obedience brings no blessings. After that though we focused on the points of :

1.) Finding constantly

2.) Teaching Repentance

3.) Baptize Converts

President Clark (Mission President) said our numbers for the month of November were terrible. He is very blunt. Haha and he was like Is the Lord Well Pleased with our mission is he even Pleased? We then stated he is just pleased with our mission and not WELL pleased. He talked to us about how there is a huge difference. I felt like wow we need to work harder.  We all blamed the Holidays but we can't lose focus on our purpose and their is never excuses for our brothers and sisters salvation out there. My eyes were opened a lot more and I understood my purpose further. We are Called servants of the Lord. This is his children but this is our family out there. I know I would never want to feel lost or alone in this world and it is only through Christ we can become whole.

Anyways have an amazing week! LOVE YOU!

Oh and apparently my companion and I look like this Sister Missionaries action figures haha!

Hermana Pachner

Nov. 28th, 2016

Hola everybody!

It was such a crazy week! I don't even know where to begin. I went to Members homes for Thanksgiving and that was soo much fun! We actually had two Thanksgiving dinners and we were NOT allowed to proselyte. It felt weird because we were just suppose to stay with members and we weren't allowed to visit investigators or drive out anywhere. 

My companion and I participated in the Turkey Bowl though! That was hilarious because her and I were the only girls there. That meant we could only block each other. It might it a pretty competitive game since they couldn't tag us either it had to be my companion. It was really intense and we got super muddy but it was a blast! 

I had to go on exchanges this week and I went to the Merced Area. It is one of the sketchiest areas out here. We were biking all day and even into the night and there were so many times I thought we were gonna get hit or someone was gonna shoot us. I just felt super uncomfortable and there were lots of guys out in groups drinking and smoking. This one guy was yelling at us that God is not alive and that we were going to turn into dirt after this life. That was one I hadn't heard before and nobody opened the doors or would listen to us. Definitely not like the Kerman area.

However, Friday night my companion and I were in the car making a few phone calls and we saw these two kids being forced into a car!! We thought at first it was just their dad but they they started putting their hands up to the window... I know super scary! Then he sat there in the front seat on his phone and waited.. He didn't start the car and he just sat there. We then felt like we should call 911 and so we did and they came but we don't know what happened since we had to go to another appt. Super scary to us though it did not make for a good night. 

Anyways we are getting ready for Christmas and are so excited! We literally can't wait! The new #LightTheWorld video is super awesome and we love showing it to everybody we can. We haven't had a successful week as far as finding new people to teach and we had two people drop us who had dates for baptism. We have felt very discouraged as a companionship this week. We are trying to just keep going though and hoping for a better week this week. We love that we can listen to Christmas music thought it always makes us feel happy. It has rained here a lot! Plus it has been freezing! Here comes the SNOW! JK I wish.

Have a good week, love you all and hope all is well :)
Hermana Pachner

Nov. 21st, 2016

Hola everybody,

This week was filled with so many ups and downs. I am in the Kerman 1st ward which is Southwest of Fresno. There is a Spanish branch that we are over that meets at the same time as the English for sacrament meeting. So my companion and I have to switch off every week where we go. There are a lot of Spanish and I think my companion and I made it to 4 nights in a row of burritos or enchiladas with rice and beans. We had the weirdest concoction though the other night and it was this brown soup. It was super salty and the meat was rubbery... I didn't even want to know what that was but we somehow prayed to be able to finish eating it. My companion and I are good as ever definitely have a lot of fun singing to Christmas music and laughing a lot. 

We are looking at a few baptisms for December so far and we are really hoping they come through. We did have one person who was going strong and then a few nights ago .. he texts us after we had just had doors shut on us that he doesn't think Mormonism is for him. I felt so upset and I didn't know what to do. My companion and I just prayed for comfort and we kept moving on to the next appointment. We have found working through the members is truly awesome! They have helped us out so much and they serve us more than we serve them I feel like! We ARE NOT allowed to proselyte on Thursday though for Thanksgiving! We are with the members and we have two thanksgiving meals one in the morning at 11.. and one at night we are super excited and planned to workout more haha or we will be rolling out the next day. The language still continues to be hard but I am learning a lot and my companion speaks it very well. 

Can't even explain how many people we open the door and say, " we are catholic.." I look at my companion and say to them," We are mormons so anyways .. " it is quite funny. My companion also thought it would be hilarious if we have a word that we HAVE to use at the door when they open. Her last word she gave me was "sauce" I was like wow that's random. This lady opens the door and I was like " HI we are missionaries and so on.. and then was like so you ready for some turkey and cranberry sauce?" the lady just looked at me and was like yes of course. We went away laughing but she did accept our Restoration pamphlet haha. Very successful I must say. We have found more luck though at the park then knocking doors so we don't do it that often. 

Anyways!
Hope everyone has an amazing week! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


Lots of Love,
Hermana Pachner

Nov. 14th, 2016

Holaa everybody,

I am having a blast out here! Mondays are my new Preparation Days and there are a lot of new things and people to teach. People are soo receptive out here! My companion and trainer is Sister Maxwell and she is awesome and we get along so well!

Hermana Pachner & Hermana Maxwell at Mission Office!

She had a baptism set up this last Saturday! I was able to go and finish teaching this family right before they were baptized too! Their family has changed a lot apparently to get to where they are now. Their name is the Dominguez family and they have such powerful testimonies. We had to go setup so early that day but it was totally worth it because the baptism was awesome. 

Our mission president

President and Sister Clarke with Hermana Pachner!

 has a lot of rules for us that have been hard but definitely reasonable. Instead of just exercising for 30 minutes in the morning we have a scheduled workout. Let just say I have been so sore lately haha. We have to start every morning with a two minute plank! I somehow have been able to do it even though by the end I am literally wanting to cry. Then we sprint/ run for 20 minutes and follow with 10 different cardio workouts like burpees or jumping jacks for that consecutive time. Let me tell you it has been intense and I will probably come back with some abs. haha. He also doesn't allow us to abbreviate words or use slang. We can't say the words :
umm
P-day
Dude or guys
or Me and my companion
has to be My companion and I

haha it has been so hard but I am being more proper I guess now.
We have been teaching lots of people but only a few are progressing. We asked this one though to be baptized on Dec 4th and he said yes! We have another one that said yes but she is scared of how her family would react to her being a member. That made us sad but we assured her if she prayed she would know what to do. The ward here is small and the members have been struggling with attendance and following through on their callings.They never sign up to feed the missionaries either and the bishop has to push some of the them to do it. There is also a spanish branch in the same building but they meet at the same time so we are going to go to a different one each week. Most people just assume I speak Spanish still and I look at them and say.. "Lo siento mi espanol is muyy mal" and usually they laugh and continue to speak fast spanish haha. I am learning a lot though and my companion isn't a native speaker but she is really good at it! She helps me out so much. 

 Anyways here is my new address:

Hermana Pachner
1814 N Echo
Fresno CA 93704

THIS WILL BE MY ADDRESS FOR THE ENTIRE MISSION

Love you all,
Hermana Pachner

Pictures of AWESOME MEMBERS!!

Hermana Pachner & Maxwell at Brother & Sister Christopherson's home on Nov. 12th, 2016

Nov. 08th, 2016

I fly out tomorrow I leave for the travel office at 6:20 and I will
call once I get to the airport! Miss you soo all so much and here goes
the real deal to CA. Love you and thanks so much for the constant
support and I am so thankful for family and this gospel! Tell you more
when I find out when my P-day will be! 

ADIOS MTC! Fun while it lasted!
:)
Hermana Pachner

Nov. 2nd, 2016

Hola,
Such a good past week! To start off hope everyone has an amazing
Halloween! Some sisters in the dorms dressed up as ghosts and were
giving US candy. So awesome, and literally the next morning the Elders
were talking about how people were taking their candy. (The real
difference between Hermanas y Elderes haha ) Also, the night before
Halloween my room mates/ companion dressed up as vampires which was so
fun and handed out candy as well!

We finished up our last Skype Teaching and our Investigator
teaching. I was surprised how quickly I became attached to the people
I was teaching even when at times I barely knew them. I got my travel
planes and I leave November 9th! Sooo soon. My mission president
emailed me and sent me a welcome letter specifically to me and it made
me realize how close this is! I am suppose to report to the travel
office at 6am that morning but my companion leaves the 7th, sad :( I
might have to be a solo companion which they often do when that
happens or I will be with the other Hermanas in my district/ room
mates.

My district beat a record, well kind of. So our teacher makes us
recite the first vision which I can honestly say I know it all now.
We go around the room and everyone says one word of it and the next
person follows and we have to complete it as fast as we can thus
everyone has to know it! The record for my teacher that he has ever
taught was able to recite it all in 46 seconds. We are all soo
competitive so on the way to lunch in the shower we were reciting it!
haha finally we hit 40 seconds! But we started at 1:50 at the
beginning of the week and cut of ten seconds almost every day it was
so awesome we started screaming when we hit it! Then our teacher is
like okay hit 30 so that is this weeks goal. Here is the first vision:
"vi una columna de luz, mas brillante que el sol, directamente arriba
de mi cabeza; y esta luz gradulamente descendio hasta descansar sobre
mi.. Al reposar sobre me la luz, vi en el aire arriba de me a dos
personajes, cuyo fulgor y gloria no admiten descripcion. Uno de ellos
me hablo llamandome por my nombre y dijo, senalando al otro: Este es
me Hijo Amado: Escuchalo! "
It has changed my life just knowing that.

GUESS WHO CAME LAST NIGHT! Elder Russell M Neslon!! My companion and
I waited outside an hour early cause we heard it was going to be
another apostle! We were the first ones there and we got the best
seats but we were sooo cold by the time we go there. I was fangirling
again!! haha. SO worth it though he talked about so much and it really
hit me. Everytime I leave a devotional I am like " Wow, I need to be a
better person!" His wife shared the idea that we know so much and
purposed the question, " What do we know that the rest of the world
doesnt?" and said we can do hard things but that this is our job as
missionaries to hasten the work with the help of Gods hands. Elder
Russell M Nelson talked about how we are like an Epistle cause we are
formal disciples of Christ. He related us to the 2000 stripling
warriors and said even they were wounded but that we must endure. He
reminded us of the words of Christ, " As oft as they repent, I will
forgive them." No matter our mistakes in life we have his help he will
never pull away from us. He loves us so much and he knows our hearts
and desires personally. He has been looking over all of his people and
he will continue to do so. 

Love you all!,
Hermana Pachner

Oct 26th, 2016



Hola everybody!,
Another great week! So much to talk about. I get my flight plans this Friday and I am so excited! My departure from the MTC should be around November 7th. This week in honor of Halloween my district set up a bunch of Halloween decorations around the room and we have all brought together our candy everyday and been trick or treating amongst ourselves. All the other classes seemed to enjoy our cobwebs, spiders, and bats dangling around the room. I have noticed I am slowly becoming horrible at English haha. The other day one of the guys in my district was like " I wish we could teach lessons in English" My teacher then said come up here and teach me the first vision in English as he went up there he was scrambling to put words together and realized he knew the first vision better in Spanish. It was a really good eyeopener for me that even though I can't always find the words to express how I feel when teaching an investigator it really is all about how they feel.


My companion and I have been struggling with this specific investigator who has soo many doubts about everything we teach her. Finally after what felt like an interrogation of her questioning our religion I said Diana, "doubt your doubts and just have faith." She then paused and started to tear up and after the third lesson finally accepted our offer to pray sincerely about the book of Mormon and to come to church. Her questions were so difficult for me and I had to think so carefully and find the words to share with her. She still has doubts and I know that but I just think of how we don't know everything and that is alright!

Yesterday was our first Skype teaching session, sometimes we teach members and other times it is an investigator. They are often native speakers and our girl was from Ecuador. She was so nice and luckily a member but we were challenged to say the word Christ at least 5 times not including in the prayers. My companion and I crushed that and we knew she felt the Spirit testify to her as well. We have been having a word of the day and we study our language for at least two hours in the morning and then during class we have drill after drill. It feels so tiring after class and usually once we get back to the dorms we all just wanna crash.


Temple walks have been so fun! Every Sunday we go and every Wednesday we go to sessions and I just absolutely love going. I instantly feel happy and for those moments I am at peace. I have come to realize so much while here. Finally got the first vision memorized hardest thing ever! I will share next time. For now I have to get to class! Love everybody! Hope all is well,
Hermana Pachner

Oct 19th, 2016

Hola Hola,

How is everybody??Thanks for all the emails and notes of love sorry if I can't respond to them all I do my best!

I am officially halfway done with my time here at the Missionary Training Center. I am just now starting to feel comfortable with my spanish and can actually understand what my investigators say and feel. Even though some of them talk faster than I knew was humanly possible! Luckily I had a head start with Spanish because of High School it has been a struggle trying to help out my companion. I have truly learned to be patient and willing to lead most of the lessons mainly because she looks at me for help whenever the investigator asks her a question. I sometimes feel more like a translator which has been rough at points but we work and study every night to learn at least 10 new words. I love her though and she is awesome so in the end it all works out and the Holy Spirit helps me out so much to be able to understand though cause once I am in class I am confused again it seems like!

Haha anyways mainly just lots of class and teaching the investigators. However this week we taught member lessons like a Home teaching lesson and it was about the Attributes of Christ in chapter 6 in Preach my Gospel or Predicad Mi Evangelio. It was crazy because we taught that lesson yesterday and then that night we had a devotional from Lynn Robbins ( presidency of the seventy) and he taught that very same idea straight out of Preach my Gospel. My companion and I were like whoaa this crazy that and we were in the front row again! Feels just so good and I pay attention so well now haha. He talked about that in our Missionary agendas it says TO DO LIST: when it should say that and a TO BE LIST: because there are so many attributes of Christ that we must continually work on.

It is definitely way more cold then what I am use to out here. This morning my companion and I decided to go to the 7:00 session and we literally had frozen hair on the walk over and it felt like we were the pioneers for a hot second or cold second and taking showers before was not our best idea. Definitely worth it though it always feel good to have a break day and feel the peace of the temples.

Love you all so much! Miss home but there is no better place to be than in the service of the Lord.

ADIOS!,

Hermana Pachner

Oct 12th, 2016

Hola hola,
Everything is going amazing! So much has happened in this past week and I am truly grateful for the experiences so far! First off we found out the MTC is having bat problems and they are infesting the ceiling. One girl thought that the bats were going to come down and suck her blood.. We are reassured her they were not vampires. That made for some interesting past few days. 

 
Don't forget about DearElder.com my mailbox number was #36 and it is really easy to use but I would love to hear about how all of you are doing as well!

Lets see this morning we went to the temple and we did some sessions there and it was really fun and Sunday we also had our temple walk and the Provo temple is beautiful!
We had a few scary nights as far as medical problems.. So my roommate who has peanut allergies started having a really bad reaction because apparently she is airborne to it.. which we didn't even know and she said it normally doesn't happen when she is around it but anyways we had to get the medics because she was having a hard time breathing in the end it was all good though. Literally the next night a girl passes out on our floor in the bathroom and hits her head pretty bad to where there is just blood on the floor... that was insane and scary. Lots of prayers for her. 

My district is amazing though! The guys helped us move buildings today and they are just the kindest goofiest people ever. Gotta love that combination! My companion continues to serve me and help me out on my low days but definitely better days than anything!
This past fast Sunday as a district we prayed for one of our Elders specifically who has been struggling and also has some mental issues. We found out last night he is getting sent home and that literally broke my heart. However I know that the Lord has a plan for us all. And I know our purpose as missionaries!
Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio restaurado mediante la fe en Jesu Cristo y Su Expacion, al arrepentimiento, el bautizmo, la recepcion del don de Espiritu Santo y preservar hasta el fin.
Our goal is to help them come unto christ. I tought 4 investigators this past week and it was amazing! My companion and I are teaching Relief Society Sunday wahooo!! Here we go to another good week. Thanks for all the support and love.
Pienso el Evangelio is verdad. El Padre Celestial es El Salvador. Mi familia is muy importante para me y pienso El Espiritu Santo es el testigo de Cristo. En el nombre de Jesu Cristo Amen.
Hermana Pachner

Oct 5th, 2017

Hola hola,
Wednesdays are my P-days! They are amazing so far and they are soo much less stress. This past week has felt like the longest week of my life.. however the further along I get the faster it seems to go by. Conference was amazing!! I saw all of Saturday and Sunday of course and I was able to actually stay awake and write notes. The spirit here is always present especially when we sing Called to Serve and Armies of Helaman. We have also had many devotionals which have been inspired and directed for us missionaries to go forth and hasten the work. The spirit was so different now that I am a set apart missionary. My whole life has changed and I have felt the gift of tongues tremendously. My district is sooo awesome we have all become the best of friends and class with them has been hilarious. I went in there with previous Spanish knowledge most of them only took 1-2 years and have lost like all of it.. they turn to me for all their questions! However half the time I am just as lost as they are!


My teacher is named Brother Powell and is very nice and seems to like me because I am often the only one that understands his Spanish. Every P-day we go to the temple and today we went early just because we heard that the temple breakfast was good! We went to a 7:20 session and did an endowment session and I am slowly starting to understand it more which made it a lot more comfortable. After the session as a district ( 6 elders and 4 hermanas ) we went to breakfast and had a blast then we went back to our dorm to clean, do laundry, run errands at the book store, and workout. It is pretty awesome.I have had to buy a lot of books from the bookstore.. like mission travel sizes because our class provides the big copies.. I also had to buy a hymn book and note papers from the store as well. I have mainly been using the cash but used the debit card for the first time a few days ago.


Lets see a normal day for me and my companion is wake at 6:30 often earlier because our breakfast has been at like 7:10 and immediately following we have to go to Spanish class with our district. However we go to eat then class , then usually lunch, then class, then devotional , then class. haha it is a lot of hours of class mainly. We have like 4 hours of class at a time. Usually though it will involve designated time for the personal study, companion study, then language study. I have learned so much in the past week then I feel like I ever have in my life. I have learned to get along with my companion because she has been struggling a lot in Spanish and it has made teaching our investigator really hard for me. We do have an investigator.. his name is Alejandro and he is great and interested however, I know and understand him but my vocab to respond isn't always there and some questions I have a hard time answering in English! Like why do we need an atonement if we just forgive those we have wronged and ask for him to forgive us? And what is the difference between a pastor and a prophet? He claims they both receive revelation.. Which we then went down the Priesthood power road.. which just raised more questions. I was able to come back with a response though at the next lesson and he took our Book of Mormon.


Renlunds talk I believe about the firecrackers was an amazing story! So true about the atonement even the small things we can make it right and there is nothing he won't forgive us for. I know that as me and my companion have the same desired to be Christlike we can teach through the holy ghost to go straight to the heart. I am excited to serve the Lord and honor him and his Son Jesus Christ for the opportunities and endless love they have shown. Love you all and know all is well!


And my address is:
2005 900 E,
Provo, UT 84604
Unit # 36
Don't need anything specific but just cause I know Madison asked!
Have an amazing week! Talk next wednesday and stay tuned it might be in Spanish!! Haha
Lovee you and miss you :)
Hermana Pachner

Sept 30th, 2017:

Hermana Pachner's first email home!

Heyyy! We just got to email homes today! I am doing alright it has been so stressful and different but I love my companion. I only have a few minutes but my P Day is Wednesday and I will have plenty of time to talk about this past week. I miss you like crazy !! Family is so important to me and I realize that now more than ever. I love you all so much and know all is well and I am learning and growing so much already. Spanish is coming easier! yayy! love you all talk soon!


Hermana Pachner

Sept 28th, 2017:

Hermana Ashley Samantha Pachner has been preparing for this day for almost her entire life and yet there is a little trepidation as she hugs mom one last time. The next 18 months will be challenging and help from mom and dad will be limited to weekly emails and bi-annual skype sessions but nevertheless, she will go forward with faith knowing that she is fulfilling a Heavenly Mission. This blog will chronicle the adventures of Hermana Pachner throughout her mission!

Sept 28th, 2016, 4:32 AM at Reagan National Airport