[Email dated 11.15.14]
Hey everyone!
So far during my time as the assistant, things have been fairly calm in that there haven't been serious problems with anyone—not many emergencies or surprises. Well, early on Monday morning, President and Hermana Gómez went to Colombia for a seminar for all of the Mission Presidents in the area and so we couldn't really contact him from Monday until yesterday afternoon when he got back here because of roaming charges in Colombia. So naturally, these were the 4 days when every emergency imaginable (and some that I never imagined) occurred. Probably more problems than I had even heard of in the entire rest of my mission combined.
For obvious reasons, there are some details that I cannot share just because of their nature. But, let’s just say we had to deal with missionaries getting an emergency transfer from another mission, a missionary’s mom deciding that her son was too sick to be in the mission so she just came out here and took him home with her to be treated there, problems in Pucallpa, a missionary wanting to go home, and last but not least: a tarantula in my room!! It was a pretty crazy week and most of this stuff had never happened before so there really was no protocol on it and we kinda had to make things up as we went on quite a few occasions. You guys know how it is that when you’re a leader, everyone just assumes that you automatically know everything. Sometimes you have to know when to say that you just don’t know and when you just have to go with your gut. It is pretty crazy sometimes. In normal circumstances we would have to deal with all of the same things but we just wouldn’t have to make the decisions because President would be doing it. However, we basically couldn’t communicate with him except sometimes at night when he could get some internet. For everything that happened this week, I think that we handled it fairly well. At least nobody died right?
So about the tarantula, it is a long story but to make it shorter, we were planning at night and I saw a gigantic black spot on the wall and it turns out that it was a tarantula. Our capture of it entailed 2 brooms, a large wooden stick, a trash can, a mirror, a booklet thing, a little box, and a freezer. You might be asking yourselves: why on earth would they need a mirror or a freezer to capture a tarantula and not just kill it with the broom? I, too, have asked myself those very questions and I have yet to be able to answer them. But I would like you all to just try and to think about what method we possibly could have used to include all of these items in the capture of a large 8 legged creature and I'll get to see what you post when I get home or when you send them to me. Haha and just to assure you *cough**cough**mom**cough**cough**Eva**cough* nobody was harmed in the capture of the creature. Also, some of you may note that in some of the pictures there is also a second spider, I would love to hear your ideas on that one too. How did we get a second spider? Just play along, next week might be the last time that I actually get to write, I'm not sure what my schedule is actually going to be like at this point but I’d love to hear some interesting renditions and the person that has the most interesting version will receive a special prize when I get home.
We also did service in the morning painting the walls of a Catholic elementary school that was in bad shape in my first area. We did it with the 3 stakes and all of the missionaries in the city. While painting, we figured out that we couldn’t get all the way to the top of the wall and there weren’t enough ladders for us to use one, so we just found a solution. I told Elder Overstreet to just get on up on my shoulders and paint from up there. Haha it was probably the best idea that we ever had. We formed a megaperson!! Haha It was a really fun service.
This week really was a cool one and kept me on my toes. I've been seeing some real miracles lately and I will be commenting more on those next week or the one after probably. Really, I have just felt so blessed, even with everything that is going on, in these past few weeks and especially days. I cannot believe that it is almost over, 2 weeks and a few days left. Off to Pucallpa this week and my last week will be spent giving trainings here in Iquitos, while my replacement is already going to be here....that'll be an interesting development, having my own replacement with us for almost a week. Love you guys and I will talk to you next week!
Elder Peacock
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