It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

So basically all that I've seen here is a few Christmas trees and one Nativity Scene.  Really, people here don't get quite as amped up for Christmas. It's more of just a one day thing here, instead of like a  month long [++] thing in the States.  It's very different.  But we all still know that it's Christmas coming up.  Not really sure what we're going to do here yet.

This week was awesome for us though.  Elder Lee and I are working really well together and I'm just afraid that I will only get this one change with him.  We've really just been getting a lot of people started and the area right now has exploded.  Last year, it was basically the dead area in the mission and now it's just exploded.  The Lord is obviously doing it--just throwing prepared people in our path.  It's really miraculous how the Lord works, prepares his children and just places them in our path.  Last week I told you all about that one family that the Lord had prepared and it seems like he just keeps on doing it and we keep getting guided to them.  It's really amazing how the Lord is accelerating His work.

In all honesty, I hadn't really focused all that much on the Christmas spirit, just because it's way different here so you don't get the same feelings and the same stuff to remind you that it's Christmas.  But, really that is the same spirit that I'm always focused on as a missionary. It's really just the fact that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  He gave us the greatest gift that anyone ever has, ever will, or ever could give us.  He gave us all and really He doesn't ask that much and we can never say that he asks too much of us.  He just wants us to serve Him.  That has quite a few meanings and I'll let you guys figure that one out, but really we just have to serve Him with all that we have and then we will really be able to enjoy the gift that He has freely given us.  Everyone just remember Him in this season.  All that you do, do it for Him.  That's all there is to it.

[See HERE for many many more video resources to help get you into the Christmas spirit]

Love you guys and hope all is well.

Elder Peacock

PS can't believe that Justin and Tori are this close to the wedding....good thing I'll be there to see it in spirit and in cardboard

PPS Weekly Planning with mustaches is much more interesting if you ask me.... and we did sing that song from the Spongebob movie "Now That We're Men."

 

The Hand of the Lord

[Email dated 12.9.13]

Hey everyone!!

So this week was good.  Shout out to Eva for the weirdest package I have ever gotten in my life. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with animal food, what am I even supposed to do with that?  But yeah, anyways, looks like Christmas is coming up pretty fast so everyone get ready! (still no word on what is going to happen for the call though) [missionaries get to call home on Mother’s Day and Christmas]. 

This week we did some service helping out this family who is building a house, but I don't think they really thought it through very well.   First of all, they knocked down their old house before even having the stuff ready to be able to put the new one up.  Then, they had moved a pile of bricks into their backyard and decided that they had to move it like 20 feet in another direction.  Let's just say that it is a lot of work to move a gigantic pile of bricks 20 feet....a lot of work that really would have been a lot easier to have just done the first time.  But yeah, luckily we're 4 missionaries now so we got a lot done but that is really going to be a project for them, since we can only help them with for a limited amount of time a week.  So, the moral of the story is that when you tear down your old house, make sure you have a new one all ready to go.  They've been without a house for like a week now....

The area I’m in now has been a much slower area.  It's just been a little bit harder to get people to progress.  I think it may relate to the fact that there are a lot of people that only make money on Sundays and the town itself was founded by the Adventist church, so there is a very strong base of Adventists.  We are always finding people but usually they just can't, or don't want to progress.  It makes it a little tough.  But then this week, all of a sudden we've got a couple of families that really look like they're going to progress. 

One afternoon, we were looking for a guy that we had talked to in the street the other day and when we got to the house, it turns out that he is only actually there really late at night, and the people who were there didn't really have much desire to talk to us.  We did, however, ask them if they knew anyone who was passing through a tough time. They told us right away, “Yeah! There's a family over there.”  So we went to go and find them.  We met just the dad that day, but he was awesome.  Then we met the wife the next time and after that the kids, and all of them are awesome and it can just be seen that they are really a prepared family. 

The Lord really guided us to be able to find him and just looking back at how we actually got to find them, the Lord had to have had it all planned out…let’s just say it involved a power outage and a thought that just happened to come to the mind of some random person in the street.  It's really a long story, but the Lord has a plan for everyone and he really has his hand in our lives in every moment.  He knows exactly what we need and exactly when we need it.  He will never leave us alone.  I know that this is his work and that I am really lucky to just be a part of it.

I still can't believe it's already been 13 months....

Love you guys, have a great week.  Hopefully next week I'll know about the call....

Elder Peacock

PS: I will absolutely be at the wedding!! I got the invitation....just don't ask me to say anything....I'll be a little shy..... [His older brother is getting married at the end of the month.  “Flat Tyler” will be making an appearance…more to follow]

A Peruvian Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!!

This week was good.  On Thursday, we did have a Thanksgiving lunch with a full turkey on the table, real mashed potatoes and some sweet potatoes.  I couldn't really explain how to make gravy so she [the pensionista, AND I’m not sure Tyler knows HOW to make gravy, so I’m sure explaining it was probably difficult] gave us just straight up turkey grease...I chose not to try that....but it was good for a Peruvian Thanksgiving.  Oh and they gave me a giant hunting knife to carve the turkey [Bryce would LOVE that!]  I really just cut it into chunks, not really slices...

Then this weekend we had a baptism!! His name is J* and the guy is really cool.  He’s 100% changed from when we met him and everyone has been saying it too.  When we went to go to his baptism, the spot we usually go to was just full of people all swimming because it was really hot.  That's the downside of baptizing in a river.  So we had to drive up the road in the Motokars for about 10 minutes until we found another spot that was suitable for baptisms and wasn't full of people swimming.  We actually found a really cool spot that was secluded and I think it's prettier than the first one, so we might just keep going back there.

But yeah, this week was really hot.  Normally it's hot for a few hours and gets cooled of by a nice rain, but not this week.  I’m sure it didn't rain because it was just saving up for Saturday night.  It was the hardest storm I think I've ever seen, mostly because of the wind... we now live on the 4th floor because the new companionship in N C is where we were.  The wind is a lot stronger that high up.  The wind tore off one of our windows, which fell into the street.  That was followed by the panic to keep the curtains from getting ripped off and our beds from getting soaked--good thing I had my handy dandy duct tape! thanks Eva! That was a very exhilarating 10 minutes....let's see  what we do now...

Love you guys!

Elder Peacock

New Kid!

So about 3 months I told you that I have a son and that he was Peruvian...well that son got shipped off to Iquitos last week and now I have a second son [new missionaries in their first area].  I think I'm actually the first  American missionary in the mission Iquitos to be training another American missionary. It's so weird to be with another American.  When I got here, there were no 2 American missionaries together...now, I'm training one.  His name is Elder Lee and he is from Idaho and we went to the gym this week and he made me feel like a little girl.  When he goes home, he's going to play safety [football position for the uninitiated] at Boise State.  He already speaks Spanish really well and he's just really cool.  He got hit with the first week sickness like every other American who gets here but that was just one day and now he's fine.  So yeah, he's American, cool and loves football...I think you can say I'm excited about this companionship!  I don't have a picture for you yet...I forgot the cord to send pictures....next week...

This week we taught this less active kid who's 19.  But it's interesting.  His dad is the branch [congregation] mission leader, his brother is a returned missionary and the 2nd counselor in the branch and his uncle is the branch president. With all of that support, he still went inactive [fell away from the Church]-- not because he's not a good kid, but just because he had some bad friends.  I feel like having that kind of family should help him to stay active or to help him go back to church but really I don't think any of them ever said anything to him.  We finally got to talk to him, I'd never been able to find him before when he was just in the house for a minute.  We read with him in Alma 7 about the Atonement and really he kinda just broke down and asked us if we could keep teaching him and help him go back to church.  What I can't believe is that with all of those family members, NONE of them ever invited him with love to go back to church.  Maybe they told him he should do it but didn't really help them to be able to understand why.  If you love someone and you know they're going down a path that won't bring them happiness, don't just let them do it! help them to do what they should. Don't just say that it's their life and they can choose what they want to do.  If you really love them, you want the best for them. If you think it's not your responsibility, you're wrong.  It's yours.  Especially with your own family.  You're the only one who can do it.  There is no one else.  I just feel like he lost time and a part of his life just because everyone thought that he just had to choose for himself.  It's true but they have to help him.  Love those around you.  Invite them to come unto Christ if it's for the first time or if they had already started the path before.  Invite them back.  I've heard about a thousand times from the area presidency and from President Gomez this scripture 3 Nephi 18:32:

Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your ^asynagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall ^bheal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.

I love you guys and have a great week.

Elder Peacock

PS I'm gonna have a Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday.  Should be just like what grandma and grandpa used to make!! Maybe not quite as good though.....here in Perù you don`t have to buy a turkey you just kill it. much easier!

House Hunting

Hey everybody!

So this week was another good one.   This week I had to look for a room to put another companionship, find furniture and get everything set up.  It was actually really interesting,  Not that I don't absolutely love missionary work, but it was just really exciting to get to do something a little different for a change.   Looking for rooms here was interesting and there was one that I just have to tell you about.  So we were looking for about anything we could find because there isn't much out here but we would basically just ask if there were rooms available and then just go in to see if it would work before really asking about details. So we saw this one that looked cool from outside and as we were going upstairs, the landlord says "you'll have to be careful here, there are quite a few young single girls here"..... at that point it was just like....well why are we even here?  That’s an automatic dealbreaker for sure.  In the end we found a sweet room that is on a 4th floor and has the sickest view ever.  Let's just say I hope I stay here for another change cause it would be so cool to live there.  On that note, there are changes today but I do think I'll be here for one more change to coordinate the division and take care of my district that has doubled in size in the past 2 changes.

We had a training with Presidente Gomez this week and it's always cool when he comes with his wife and the assistants.  It's really cool to just have so much contact with a man as special as a mission president.  You can say it's just another calling all you want but really a Mission President is so much more than that.  He is really inspired of God and it is another evidence that this is the work of the Lord and that He is ever-present in this work.  God lives and talks to us here and now by the spirit.  It is very apparent that He really is here and really does talk.  There is no other way to explain the things that happen and no other way to explain the leaders of the Church.

Love you guys!

Elder Peacock

PS we ate the rooster and Elder Villar was not all that thrilled about it....we talked about it for weeks and I don't think he believed the family until they actually served it....it was funny!

PPS [extracted from another email] I keep trying to go on a "diet" but my pensionista keeps forgetting.  Basically my diet means that I just eat fruit for dinner and that she never gives me rice.  So i don't know if I’d call it a diet but I like fruit and I'm sick of rice.

Uno Ano!

So now I actually have a year, everyone just needs to calm down.  [I don’t know what he’s talking about.  I’m couldn’t be more calm!]

So Elder Belnap (My MTC comp) is now my Zone Leader and so he did a work visit on Thursday so that we could burn our shirt together.  For the record, we did work really hard and we didn't do it to mess around. [Like I ever have to worry about Tyler not working hard!]  But at one point, we walked by this school that was just getting out and there was a bunch of 7 and 8 year old Peruvians...next to the 6'9" giant (for those of you who remember Elder Belnap [see MTC picture below]).   We stopped for a second and we were instantly swarmed by hundreds of these little Peruvian kids all staring up at Elder Belnap and the circle was just following us around when we started moving again.  The police actually had to come over and disperse the kids because they were taking up the entire road...haha it was so funny and really he is VERY tall so it was understandable for the Peruvians who think that the 6 foot tall guy [Tyler] is really tall.  They were in a huge surprise when they saw him for sure.  People are still asking me about him.  

[Nov, 2012:  I don’t think I need to clarify which one Elder Belnap is…]

But yes, we did burn the shirt and let's just say that shirts burn a whole lot easier than ties. it went up real fast and with just one match too...

So I know it was a short letter but I've gotta go. Till next week

Elder Peacock

P.S.  sooo about my year mark....Because of the mission changes in July, Elder Belnap (aka the “great white giant”) and I were looking at it and I’ll probably go home around October 17th or December 1st [missionaries have “transfer dates” every 6 weeks, so that would be the 6 week marks].   I can't tell you for sure, just thought I'd let you know that I think my halfway mark was actually a little bit different than my year mark so maybe you were all right...

It’s Hump Day!

Elder Peacock entered the Missionary Training Center a year ago today.  Here’s a little retrospective of his year (and then some…)

 

It all begins with a letter.

Imagining life in Peru.

Talk in church day…with the family.

And his other family.

Sorting and packing. 

(Bryce has since unsorted and unpacked.  Shhh! Don’t tell Tyler)

All a missionary really needs.

Setting apart with President Carlson.

It’s time!  Last meal at Tucano’s.  Missionaries entering the MTC eat free.  (The rest of us don’t!)    Hugging Grammy Joyce.  This picture brought me to tears.

First package!

Finding friends in the MTC. (shout out to Elder Lawson!!)

MTC hijinks.

And THIS picture.  Of course.

Peru!

What it’s all about--this is the moment right here!  Making covenants to follow Christ.

Iquitos

Local Cuisine

Don’t look too closely…

Making friends.

Too cute for words.

Sometimes it rains.

The future is as bright as your faith.

Thumbs up! (the quintessential missionary pose)

With President & Sister Blunck (President of Lima North Mission).  Iquitos becomes its own mission July 2013.

Nueva Cajamarca

Old school baptism.

Eating giant guinea pig.

That your burden might be light.

It’s been a year of discovery, a year of faith, a year of service, a year of love.

Matthew 10:39 

He that findeth his life shall lose it:  and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Everyone Just Calm Down

Hey everyone,

So it's not my year mark yet so you can't even say that yet.  Everyone just hold your horses, I'm still in the first half of my mission. [Nov. 7 marks one year since he entered the MTC.  Forgive us for being excited!]

This week was a good one, like pretty much every other week.  Every week is different but I just love it in a different way.  We decided we’re going to eat the rooster and for the record it is in the house of a member (fattening it up), not in our house...we can't actually keep a rooster with us, nor do I want to.  I'll be sure to send you all a picture when I do really eat it.

This week I became a baker.  We went to go help a less active member in their bakery for our service this week and it was pretty cool.  We just made some cookies and some cookie type things that I'm pretty sure don't even exist in America.  We always have service activities on Wednesday in the morning and that time is always awesome.  Really, serving people is all that we're doing here.  It’s nice to have the opportunity to serve people physically and the rest of the time we're more focused on serving them spiritually.  Really, that is the only real help that we can give to people.  I can help them bake bread, make chairs, take bags of sand up a mountain, etc.  But really the best help that we can give these people is Christ.  That's really all that we have to give as missionaries.  Everything else that we do is just to help them come unto Christ.  Come unto Christ and the rest will follow.  There are a lot of people that just don't want to leave things behind because they think it'll make them happy but really if Christ is telling us to leave it behind, why wouldn't we do it? Doesn't He know better?

Also, this week there were some real problems in a companionship in my district and we became marriage counselors for a couple of families and what I've found in all of those problems is that everyone just needs to calm down, take a step back, and breathe.  Most of the problems that people have in relationships (marriage, friendships, etc.) is because someone overreacts and someone gets offended and then everything gets blown out of proportion.  Also, how in the world am I giving marriage advice?  Everyone just love everyone and understand that nobody is perfect.  Don't wait for perfection from someone else because you're going to be waiting a long time and just going to end up very disappointed....so everyone just be happy and calm down.  Everything is going to be alright. 

[Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:  “Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we.”]

I love you all, good to hear from you 

(**cough**cough**  Bryce "Big Willy" Peacock **cough**cough**)

Elder Peacock

[P.S. In Big Willy’s defense, he did send a long letter in the package (why that was easier than emailing, I don’t know) that apparently…wait for it…is in the hands of the Iquitos zone leaders!!!]

Don’t Ask For It if You Don’t Want It

Hey everyone!

On Saturday morning we went with a member of the Church to go and meet a family that lives really far away so that we could teach them.  The family was really cool but to get there we had to go in a bus and then in a motokar.  At the end of the lesson, Elder Villar started talking about the rooster that they had that was right there.  Now for those of you in the states, it is very normal to have multiple roosters in your house here so that wasn’t weird at all.  But he just started talking about how much he likes roosters and that someday he wants to raise them.  So the dad gets up, unties the rooster, and gives it to Elder Villar.  He tells him that he wants him to have it.  Elder Villar kinda tried to say no, but I think he really wanted it.  I was just sitting there shaking my head trying to figure out what in the world was going on. So, I kinda just let it go because it would have been rude to have just straight up said no to the guy at that point...so there we are, 30 minutes from where we live, with a rooster on the side of the road....I literally never would have pictured myself in that situation....but there we were.  

Then we were on the bus on the way back, Elder Villar with a rooster n his lap and really what are we supposed to do with a rooster? It's not like we can put it in our room and it's not like there is much of anything else we could do with it.  So, after the bus ride, we went to take it to a member’s house to leave it there.  Not sure where we go from here.  My suggestion was that we just eat it.  but I guess that won't work...so everyone, I'd like you all to send me some interesting solutions to to this problem!  I'm sure that someone can think of something cool that I can do with it.  

What did we learn? If you don't really want something, don't ask for it because you just might get it.  Like a rooster.  If you talk about how cool a rooster is, his owner might just give it to you.  Such a strange situation.  

Oh, and I gave you all a picture of ziggy zappa.  They’re these giant ants that people eat here.  They’re usually cooked in butter and salt so really, at the end, you don't really taste the ant so much and it's more butter and salt.  It's really like popcorn and it's pretty good, with the coolest name ever.

Love you guys and have a good week

Elder Peacock

PS HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!

Well That Was Stressful

So this week was awesome...kinda.  There were just some really stressful days.

One of the missionaries in my district got sick on Tuesday night and we thought it wasn't anything serious, with just a headache.  But on Wednesday night, he had to go to the hospital because the pain was just getting worse and he really couldn't do anything.  Thursday morning I went out to visit him (20 min drive) to see what was really going on and he was really just in terrible shape.  He couldn’t even open his eyes because he was really sensitive to light and the pain just kept getting worse.  I took him back to the clinic because things were just getting worse.  It was a really long morning and after all of that, He was a little better and finally able to sleep and I left.  The next day, they had kept him for observation and all was good but Friday night he got worse all over again and the doctors had no idea what was wrong.  So, on Saturday morning he got sent to Tarapoto where they have better doctors to see what was going on.  I'm still not 100% sure what's happening with him but that was pretty stressful.  On top of that, he had to leave his companion who has like 2 weeks as a missionary with the other 2 missionaries in that city.  Uh, welcome to the mission? It was really just hard on everyone here especially because that missionary is the only one that actually knows the areas out there because the other 3 are new there... Really hoping he'll be able to come back...

On Saturday we had a baptism.  His name is M* and he's awesome. He had been taught by the missionaries for 16 years (on and off) and all of the members know him.  The rest of his family are already members of the church.  He just always told us he thought we were lying to him (with a hint of sarcasm) and when we asked about his prayers he always said that it was so-so.  But we kept helping him keep going with it and just one day we got there and asked about his prayers and he said it went well. I wasn't really prepared for that so I was just like just asking a little bit about it and he said yeah, I just felt happy and I think it's finally time for me to get baptized...haha well ok if you say so!  But I really just think that even though sometimes it takes a while, the Lord will always answer our prayers.  The Lord had really changed him and from what I know, really had to soften his heart to let him be able to finally feel the desire to join the church.  We always call each other Paisano because he's trying to convince me that he's really from New York...haha I have a hard time believing that but it was awesome.  Also we had the baptism at 7 AM because it was the only time he could do it on Saturday.  Let's just say that river water is really cold at 7 in the morning... but so cool to get to have the baptisms in the river.

Love you guys and hope you all have a great week!

Elder Peacock 

It’s My Birthday!

Hey everyone,

So in case you didn't know, today is my birthday which in the mission doesn't really mean much of anything in all honesty...haha but I'm sure it'll be a great day.

So this week we had interviews with President Gomez.  Sister Gomez went to our room to check it out.  She told me that she found the blog and loves it, especially the part where I talked about cleaning...haha. Apparently Mom thinks I didn't clean before the mission [oops, caught!  I didn’t think he’d read those parts until he got back].  Anyone who knows me well knows that I have always been a very clean person and that I would never allow any part of my life have any dust....ever.....ok, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration.  But Mom, she wanted to give you props for the blog, and she gave me props for the cleanliness of my room!  And then she backhanded it by telling me that my wife will need me to be better about cleaning...why is there even any conversation about me having a wife?  That is very premature!  

They invited us to go and eat with them so I thought that was pretty cool to just get to kinda hang out with them in a little bit less formal of a setting.  In all honesty, they reminded me a lot of Grandpa George and Grandma Nancy.  It was kinda weird, Sister Gomez getting on the serving staff because they took forever, and stopping the car to go and get a banana filled with cheese and peanuts because it looked good...it was funny.  And Prez is a little bit more laid back but always just seems to know what’s going on and what everyone needs. They're really awesome.

Still just working hard here with Elder Villar and things are going well.  My district grew and it's just a lot more stressful having more people to take care of especially with one sick and one area with 0 investigators...

I love you guys and I've gotta go.  Everyone eat some cake for me today!!

Elder Peacock

Deathbed Repentance

by Lisa/Tyler’s Mom

I swore I was over it.  No more packages.  But it’s my baby’s birthday tomorrow and I can’t not send a package.  He’ll spend the whole of his 20th year in another hemisphere.

So here I am putting together a package of junk that he doesn’t need and he’ll probably never see.

Oh how I envy mothers of domestic missionaries.

*Sigh*

Sometimes It’s Bigger Than It Looks

Hey everyone,

So this time I think I actually got the pictures to send.  On Wednesdays, we always have service activities in the morning and this week this couple in the branch asked us to "subir" [English: to lift up] some things for them.  We were in their apartment with them and we thought that meant like some furniture up to the 3rd floor where they live...turns out that meant to carry some sand bags up a mountain for them...Haha.  Afterwards they told me that they were vague on purpose because they thought we wouldn't do it.  So yeah, 50 pounds of sand up a mountain. I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got to the top.  And the bar is one of those steel rods that you use to just make holes.  Looking up at the mountain from the bottom It looks pretty tall.  It feels a lot taller when you're carrying 50 pounds of sand up it and a steel rod.  I really loved it because it kinda took me back to summer workouts for football with the hill and weights and everything.  It was pretty cool, but it killed.

Conference was the best but a really stressful experience as well.  [General Conference occurs twice a year.  The leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak on inspired topics to a world wide membership via satellite.  We just exceeded 15 million members!  I can remember when we hit 10 million!  You can listen or view the talks HERE].

We were told that we were going to watch it in Nueva on Sunday all week so we went around telling everyone that and that it would start at 11.   So come Sunday morning, the signal wasn't working so we had to change it to go to Moyobamba (we could have stayed much closer 30 min v. 1hr but nobody wanted to listen to me)  but we had to run around like crazy people that morning to try to tell everyone that we were changing it and everyone was just mad at us (like I could control that) and then all the members that were already there just wanted to know why the missionaries were taking so long instead of helping us. 

It was just a very stressful morning but, the Sunday morning session may have been the best full session of conference that I've ever seen.  I really loved all of those talks.  My take away from conference is that a lot of times we see the Gospel as a way to not have problems in our lives but really that's not even what it is.  It really is just the power and the ability to be able to overcome the problems that are going to come in life.  So when we're doing what we're supposed to, we don't have to be surprised when problems come, we just have to keep doing what we're supposed to be doing.  That's really the only way that we'll be able to overcome those things.  When trials come, get closer to God, don't get further away.

I love being a missionary and love being here.

Love you guys,

Elder Peacock

PS I’ve been a missionary for 11 months today

PPS Transfers today

PPPS 1 week until my Birthday....how am I supposed to be a 20 year old?

Glimpses at Life in Nueva Cajamarca

Extracts from letters received from Elder Peacock this week:

“I guess I’ll tell you about the food here, it’s a lot of rice.  I know I’m thinking really far ahead, but when I get home, I don’t want to see rice for 2 weeks…at least.  So, for breakfast, I eat with my “pensionista” (aka the lady who makes us food).  She’ll make an egg thing or cereal with yogurt, bananas, fruit salad, pancakes and once she tried (unsuccessfully) to make french toast.  But she always gives us Ecco or Kimbo which is a cebada [English: barley] drink.  When I first saw it in Iquitos, I was 100% sure that it was coffee, but it isn’t.  At first I could not drink it [observant members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abstain from coffee].    Later I figured out if I put in 1/2 a spoon of cebada and 6 spoons of sugar, then it’s doable.  Still not a huge fan.  Lunch is with the members and it’s really about always the same:  rice and chicken.  Sometimes with a little bit of other stuff like potatoes or bananas or “salad”.  Salad is cucumbers and tomatoes with lime juice.  Then dinner we’re with our pensionista again and it’s basically the same as lunch, just smaller.  I’m usually not even hungry for dinner though.”

“It’s nice having a pensionista though, even if she is just trying to get me fat.”

Mother’s comments:  Top two least favorite vegetables on Tyler’s list:  tomatoes, cucumbers. Maybe he likes them now.  We have penionistas in America too.  They’re called “MOMs”.

“We have a cement floor right now which is basically impossible to keep clean.  I would sweep & mop and it would look just about the same as it did before I started.  It was very frustrating.  Apparently, the secret is to clean it with gasoline…who’da thought?  But then we found out that nobody had ever even sealed the floor, so that didn’t help.  I sealed it.  It was a project, but it looks much better now.  There really is just a lot of dust here though.  When I got here, this place was a sty.  There are 3 rooms (bedroom, study room, “kitchen”) and everything was all over the place, but I threw away mountains of stuff and organized just about everything.  You’d be so proud mom.”

Mother’s comments:  This paragraph is an absolute testament to how transforming a mission is for a young man.  Of my three sons, this one by far had no interest in tidiness or cleanliness or organization or, well, you get the idea.  That he has spent so much thought and effort on this floor and in organizing the apartment is absolutely contrary to everything I know about this person who is my son.  And, where did he come up with the idea to clean with gasoline and why did he have gasoline in the first place?  These are questions I will likely never know the answer to, I suspect.  There’s just so much wrong in this paragraph I hardly know where to begin.  My very foundation has been shaken.

“You may remember my watch situation?  Well, the watch I came here with broke and nobody could fix it, so I bought one.  Like a week later it broke.  Then Elder Bravo gave me one of those cheap digital watches, which is cool.  Well, not too long later, the band broke.  I took it to this guy in Iquitos and got a new band put on.  Well, fast forward  2 months(ish) and I’m in N.C. and, the band breaks again.  But here, I don’t know a watch guy to fix it.  So, I may have made one of the coolest things ever.  Cutting a hole in a part o fhte band, I put a think rope in it and tied it off.  On the other side I put my keys.  So now I have a pocket watchy keychain.  It’s awesome.  Best part?  I think I have found the best way to have a watch but not have a ridiculous tan line on my wrist.  Isn’t that cool?  I know you’re jealous/proud of that :)  And I know I could buy a new watch, but this one is cooler than anything I could buy and I’m 98% sure that it won’t break.  That % is not an approximation either.  That’s the exact percentage that it is.  I calculated it with some really complex equations.”

Mother’s comment:  OK, maybe not ENTIRELY transformed.

And, this piece of art:

“Don’t worry, I’ll carry a rock around with me for the dogs now :)”

which relates to THIS POST.

“I’ve decided that hard work is a mindset.  If you decide to focus on what’s at hand, you’ll do it and do it well.  If you focus on being somewhere else, you’ll never get anything done.  So really, if you want to be good at something, just focus on it and then your actions will follow.”

Elder Peacock, et. al.

Treasure Hunt

[Email dated 9.30.13]

So this week was pretty cool.  I heard my letters got home so that's good.   If you didn't get a letter and wanted one, well maybe you should write me!

Anyways, so this week we had a baptism of W*.  He's 16 and awesome.  He basically doesn't have much of a family and it's kinda sad but he just accepted everything and changed everything that he was supposed to and was just one of those really prepared investigators. 

However, him being 16, he doesn't have the greatest memory all of the time.  So we had his interview this week and because we’re out in the middle of nowhere, it's a bit of a time drain for the Zone Leaders to get out here to do an interview.  So, when we got out to his house to go with him to his interview, well, he wasn't there... We went everywhere that we thought he could be and asked everyone that knows him (which is a lot of people out by where he lives), but nobody knew.  So the Zone Leaders were already waiting for us so we kinda just had to find him because if not, they'd lose at least 2 hours and maybe not be able to do the interview this week.

By this time, we had looked everywhere he would logically be. Then the thought came to mind: he went to go and work in the workshop of this one member.  That really didn't make any sense because I didn’t think it was what he would be doing.  But we just went out that way and when we get out to the workshop/house, we don't even have to knock the door because W* was just outside walking back and we're like....what?  He had gone to the river to swim!  I was just like, “Cool man, let's go they're waiting for us”. 

In all honesty, if we hadn't gone to that exact place at that exact time we wouldn't have been able to find him. The Spirit didn't tell us that he was going to be walking back at that time. Nor did it tell us that he was swimming in the river.  But it told us what we needed to to be able to find him.  It put us in the right place at the right time.  It didn’t save us from running around with our heads cut off for like 20 minutes.  Sometimes we have to work and suffer before the Lord will just tell us where to go because sometimes we really just don't have the answer, nor could we have possibly had the answer.  The Lord will always just get us what we need and get us where we need to go.  It was cool and there was a similar experience on Saturday for his baptism but I don't think I'll have time to talk about that one too. 

So I guess the wards are all getting split and changed up [in his stake back home—we are organized geographically and sometimes it’s necessary to adjust boundaries.  We become comfortable in our ward/congregation families, so change is always difficult]. It's sad but also a good thing.  Change is good and just take it on the run.  That includes you Bryce.  The girls are gonna follow a good lookin’ guy like you even if you're in another stake so don't worry about them. Everything works out, there are no coincidences, God knows best.  I don't know that I can say too much more about that.  Even though right now it doesn't affect me all that much, it is weird to know that I won't be going back to the same ward I left from...

Anyways, Love you guys and hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Peacock

Hope

[Email dated 9.23.13]

hey everyone,

So things are the same ol’, same ol’ here in Nueva Cajamarca.  Still working hard here with Elder Villar and things are going relatively well.  

So once again, I feel like I have run out of things to say, but luckily, pictures are worth a thousand words and I've got one of those for you...reminds me of the turkey leg from Disneyland [November 2012- last hurrah with our Payne friends before Tyler left, see above], but this is much better.  It's the leg of majaz which is some jungle thing that looks like a giant guinea pig...haha  [See picture below courtesy of Google Images]

This week was a little tough but we did find this family from a referral who had listened to the missionaries before but did not progress.  But they've been through a lot of stuff in the past years that has really changed everything for them.  Now they see the importance and are much more willing to act than they were before.  Sometimes the Lord lets us fall, so that he can lift us up higher.

From what I keep hearing at home, there are some really tough things going on in the lives of a lot of people and I think it's always like that in any group of people, it just seems a little bit more prominent right now and it really is just a part of life.  There are always ups and there are always downs, so we can't be surprised when things are going good that something goes wrong.  The most important thing to really do is just to stay positive and have hope that things will get better.  They always do get better it's just that sometimes you have to wait a little bit.  Just remember that things will get better and then go to work and do what you're supposed to.  I've seen so many people that just don't have hope.  When things go bad, it's the end of the world and when things go good, they can't figure out why it's not always like that.  Also people need to remember that people can change.  Everyone really just needs to be a little more positive and understand that a lot of things are going to happen in life so just be happy about it.  That's really the only thing we can do, just be happy. If you think you can't control your happiness, you're very wrong.  Just choose to be happy and it'll happen.  One of my favorite scriptures (I have a lot of favorite scriptures right now) is Juan 14:26:  

“But the ^aComforter, which is the ^bHoly Ghost, whom the Father will send in my ^cname, he shall ^dteach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

What God gives us won't really make sense to the world but that's because he is not of this world.  

Things are really awesome down here and I really am happy and loving what I'm doing.  Send me some questions so I can have something a little more interesting to write you about next week.  Some of you should be getting some letters in the weeks that are coming, I just sent a bunch to mom so that should be coming.

Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Peacock