With Change Comes Traveling

[Email dated 1.6.14]

Hey!
This week I finally got another change.  After almost 14 months, I am only in my 3rd area with my 6th companion.  There are some missionaries that have that in like 6 months.  I've loved my areas, so I'm cool with it.  I am now in Pucallpa in the Zone Yarinacocha and I'm a Zone Leader [areas are organized into districts, which are organized into zones, which are interested into missions.  Each level has leadership responsibilities culled from the missionary pool].  My companion is Elder Burleson who is actually from my group, meaning we started together and it's great.  We look fairly similar and we both are somewhat similar people, so it's actually really cool and it's going to be awesome being with him. 

On Monday we received the changes and I went around to say goodbye  to people in my area and converts and then the next day I traveled, a lot.  I had a total of 3 hours in a car and then 2 flights to get to Pucallpa (with a connection in Lima) and we got here at night really late just in time for the new year.  The next day we got to travel again to Iquitos for a Conference for Leaders of the Mission (ZLs and some Sister leaders) and then we were there all day on Thursday and back to Pucallpa on Friday.  It was basically 4 days of travelling—which is just a lot.  It was actually really cool to be in the conference.

So Pucallpa is hot.  Right now it's nice, everyone is just telling me that it's a fluke and it'll be getting hot again in a couple of days and then I'm just going to die.  It's also a lot bigger than Nueva Cajamarca.  I was used to this little place with one branch [small congregation] out in the middle of nowhere and now I'm in a city with a stake [a stake is a regional organization of wards, or congregations] and 2 zones...it's a much different atmosphere for sure.  It should be really cool and I'm excited to be here.

Love you guys!!!
Elder Peacock

PS So, your packages you sent are in Iquitos and I should get them in like 3 weeks when the assistants come out here to Pucallpa and at the latest I’ll get them at the beginning of next month when I go to Iquitos.  Since I'm a ZL now, we go to Iquitos for a council so I'll get to go there a lot more often now.  [Well, at least we know the CHRISTMAS packages arrived.  And just in time for Valentine’s Day…]

Weddings and Baptisms

[Email dated 12.30.13]

OK, so I don't have a lot of time especially for the jump of emails from the usual 4 to 6 up to 22....ok most are pictures but between you and Eva sending me pictures [from the wedding] and a few people remembering my existence, I basically have no time to write today but I will just tell all of you that it was great to be at 2 weddings in 2 days. One in Moyobamba and one in LA....ok maybe I was in one and a half weddings....or something like that...

We had a wedding of a family on Friday and I just thought that was a little convenient, having a wedding on the same weekend as Justin.  The family got married on Friday and baptized on Saturday.  We actually had a huge service on Saturday and I would send pictures but the internet is bad [but, fortunately for you, I am behind on posting, so here they are from the following week’s email!]. It was one of the coolest moments of my mission and I really had a great couple of days. The whole experience of being in this Branch [small congregation] has been just a huge testimony builder.  It now might be one of the best areas in the mission and it's just the greatest.  I love my area and I love the people here.  I don't think I'll be here for much longer but, this area has changed completely in my 6 months here and the Lord is really doing so much.  I have also been really changed and I have grown so much in this time.  I highly doubt that I will be here next week but hey you never know.  Just know that when the Lord gives you trials it is just that, a trial that you need to overcome.  When you get through it, you will be so much stronger and so much better.  When the Lord gives you trials, it's because He loves you and wants you to grow and to change. 

Congrats to Justori, or Torstin....look forward to getting to meet you together in a little over a year [over a year?  NO.  UNDER a year.  Definitely less than a year!] and I hope all is going well for you guys!!!

Love you all!
Elder Peacock

PS One of the guys who got baptized on Saturday said that every time he prayed and asked about what we were teaching was true, a storm started and I definitely was in those storms.  I kinda wanted him to stop asking at that point.  This is the only true church and God lives and talks to us today because He loves us!!

PPS have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  make and keep some resolutions!!!!

Elder Peacock’s Day at His Brother’s Wedding (sort of)

[December 28, 2013]

When love happens, sometimes it can’t wait for brothers who are on missions in remote parts.  So, Flat Elder Peacock (or Flat Tyler as we familiarly call him) had a busy day as proxy for his more 3-D counterpart.

Flat Tyler is very quiet, so sometimes we forget he’s there and we were afraid we might forget him, so we put a little reminder on the front door.

A sweet ride to the temple.

Here he is, always the missionary, welcoming visitors.

But I like this version where he has palm fronds sprouting out of his head…I think 3-D Tyler would appreciate the humor in that.

Oh look!  Here’s a visitor now!

Chad is almost as tall as Flat Tyler.  He likes that about him.

Take down! (ok, ya, we had a lot of time to kill while waiting for the bride and groom to emerge…)

Now on the temple side of the street.

With grandma and grandpa, and…

Aliza, and his brother’s roommates, and…

meeting Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Spiker (married for 7 days!), and…

Hanging with his cousins and brother.

Flat Tyler was very popular with the ladies:

His friend Jessie,

Kari, sister of the bride (I promised her he’s actually much taller in 3-D!),

He even found a flat Sister to hang out with! (who also, incidentally, happens to be serving in Peru!)  They’re cute together, don’t you think?

Finally, the bride and groom emerged and Flat Tyler was a champ, posing in all of the pictures!

Oh.  I don’t think 3-D Tyler’s going to be very happy that he ended up shorter than his brothers.  I think they might have been taking a bit of advantage of his inanimate nature.

There he is, photobombing…a favorite hobby of 3-D Tyler (see below, pre-mission).

At the wedding luncheon.  His last social obligation of the day before retiring to the garage (scaring us from the shadows when we forget he’s there) to await further duty…

Thanks for filling in, Flat Tyler!

Merry Christmas!

[Email dated December 23, 2013]

I know I said that I wasn't going to write today but sometimes there is just confusion and lack of communication so there isn't much that I could do about it.  [Like we were going to complain about getting an email…]

This week was awesome and the work here continues to explode.  We had 4 complete families of investigators in the church on Sunday, it was crazy!  The only sad part is that next week is changes and I'm really worried that they're going to take me out of here right when everything is happening.  But if that happens, then at least I can say that I left the area better than I found it and that is for sure.  

So you may all remember that we moved a pile of bricks a few weeks ago.  Well, we continue to move them.  Each week we move them like another 10 feet....it's kinda like they really just need to figure it out and put them where they want to so that we can just do it and be done with it, haha.  But we're just gonna keep doing it until these people finally get their house built.

So I don't think I'm going to say too much more because we're going to talk on Wednesday, but I did want to share that on Friday we have a family that is getting married which is going to be really weird because it's the day before Justin´s wedding....that’ll be interesting.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and that you all keep the real meaning of Christmas.  The family and Christ.  That really is what the center of Christmas needs to be.  The rest of it is cool and there are nice traditions but really we always have to keep the main thing the main thing.

Have a Merry Christmas, and I'll talk to you all before the New Year!

Love, Elder Peacock

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