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