We received an email last week from the Church Travel Office giving us details on Elder Peacock’s flight home on December 2nd. My favorite line: “This is a NON-REFUNDABLE TICKET”. Excellent! Now he has to come home!
Tyler had just enough time to respond to a couple of emailed questions, but not enough time to send a proper email this week, but with itinerary in hand, somehow I’m not feeling cheated!
[Email dated 9.20.14]
I think I forgot to mention something about the changes last week. You know how in elementary school you have those logic problems where you have corn, chicken and foxes and for some strange reason you have to get them all across the river and there are just some weird qualifiers for how you can do it? Well I think we all thought that that would never actually be a needed skill, or maybe that was just me, but as it turns out I had to do that the other day for the changes.
We had to make sure that everyone has a companion to be able to get to the airport and to get picked up and to do a few other things during the day. We also had to coordinate 4 zones of missionaries, with 3-6 changes apiece with the missionaries leaving and coming in at different times with the trainers having to be at a meeting at one time and the newbies at another time. There were just so many groups and nobody can ever be without a companion so it was just kind of crazy. It actually took about an hour and a half to coordinate all of it....haha. Who would have thought that that type of logic problem would actually be a useful skill? I definitely could not have guessed it.
We were in Pucallpa this whole week. As I mentioned last week, we’ve kinda changed how we're doing things and we had extended the trip a lot. Normally, we would have gotten there on Wednesday, had the training on Thursday and left on Friday. This time, we left on Monday and were there working with missionaries out there on Monday night, all day Tuesday and Wednesday, had the training on Thursday morning, worked with missionaries later that day and left Friday morning.
So the whole week was spent working with missionaries and just one morning of trainings. It was so much better and I feel like the trip was actually worth it this time. I got to go out with one companionship of zone leaders in my old area, 2 companionships that are training newbies and another one where they are both relatively young missionaries. With both of the companionships in training it was fun because the new missionaries were both American. Both of them thought that they were somewhat lost. The funny part is that both of them spoke better Spanish than I did at that point in my mission. A lot of these new missionaries, especially the ones from this group, get here really prepared and just need to have more confidence. I think that's the thing I probably saw this week. The Lord really prepares us to do what He calls us to do. Really, if we have faith in Him, we'll do it with confidence because we know that the Lord has already done the preparation for us.
This week we're headed out to Tarapoto and Moyobamba. We leave on Monday and we will get back early afternoon on Saturday. Right when we get back to Iquitos, we're going to take a car to Nauta, a little city with 4 missionaries. It’s about 1.5-2 hours from Iquitos by car. We won’t get back to Iquitos until next Monday. ( I have no idea when I will actually be able to write you again, I may or may not find time on saturday morning...).
Well, I love you guys and hope that you all have a great week! I would have pictures but really I haven’t had many opportunities to take pictures recently...maybe someday.... [someday? how many times will he be in Peru on a mission? aargh. Thanks Google for the pics to spice up this post.]
Elder Peacock
P.S. As far as the flights go, I have no real control over them. How they typically work is I’d leave here at 7ish to go to Lima and then during the early morning (1-4ish) the flight leaves to the US. They usually send the flights to Atlanta first and then from Atlanta to everywhere else. The flights are purchased in Salt Lake and the Personal Secretary has already made the request. The only other thing that might affect it is the possibility that I would stay an extra day in Lima to go through the temple with a family that I taught. They already have been members of the Church for more than a year [a requirement to enter the temple] and they’re awesome. It just depends on getting it scheduled. Absolutely nothing is for sure yet.
[email dated 9.13.14]
Hey everyone!
There were changes this week and we got a huge group of newbies (16). We picked them up in a giant bus that only exists here in the jungle. [wish we had a picture of the bus!] We took them to the mission home and ate lunch with them. They were a really happy group and didn’t seem as scared as the last one. It might have had to do with the fact 
Also, Elder Lee, the missionary that I got to train back in November/December is now training one of the newcomers, Elder Portocarrero. So, I have a Peruvian "grandson"! He obviously isn’t actually related to me, but it's still cool to see that the missionary that I trained is now training another one. The meeting with the new missionaries takes a lot longer when there are so many of them, it was basically an all day thing.
After the newbies got in, we had a few trainings right away here in Iquitos where I talked this time about the Book of Mormon. In the past, the missionaries had been really focused on "teaching well" in the way that everyone should gain a lot of knowledge about the doctrine and the details within the lessons. Well, I've never been a huge fan of that way and neither is President and he has really wanted us to be able to apply a principle taught be Elder Bednar to seek learning by faith and to be able to help others to be able to learn by faith focusing more on commitments and really teaching more simply. It really is a much better and also easier way to teach. As an application, I talked about the Book of Mormon and the way to use it to help people to learn by faith that the church was restored through Joseph Smith. It's one of my favorite trainings that I’ve done, actually. This week, we're going to be out in Pucallpa for almost the whole week to be there and visit with the missionaries and see how all is out there and give the same trainings.
Here is a quote from the Elder Bednar talk referenced by Tyler, which is really good and can be found in its entirety HERE:
Nephi teaches us, “When a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth [the message] unto the hearts of the children of men” (2 Nephi 33:1). Please notice how the power of the Spirit carries the message unto but not necessarily into the heart. A teacher can explain, demonstrate, persuade, and testify, and do so with great spiritual power and effectiveness. Ultimately, however, the content of a message and the witness of the Holy Ghost penetrate into the heart only if a receiver allows them to enter. Learning by faith opens the pathway into the heart.
In this mission, the assistants were basically always here in the offices doing things--little projects, and hardly ever getting out into the field. When they did get out into the field, they would just go to their area and work with what they could with the time that they had. However, we have encouraged the President to add a secretary and to allow the secretaries to get out and work too. This allows us to do what we were always supposed to be doing-- go out and work in the field with other missionaries. This whole week, we weren’t ever in the offices, except for a few hours for some things that we had to do, and the rest of the time we were picking up the newbies, in trainings or going to work with other missionaries to help them out. It is so much more fun and fulfilling to get to go out and work and to actually help other missionaries and their investigators. This also means that we have extended our trips to serve the missionaries in far away areas, so we won’t be in our own area very much. I’m just happy that we'll actually get to do something outside and be able to really help them with real things and not just try to do it all from here in the offices.
I hope that you all have a great week!! Talk to you next Saturday!! (maybe I'll have more pictures next time)...
Elder Peacock
P.S. According to what I know, I should be arriving home on the 2nd of December in the afternoon/night, more or less. I actually should have flight plans in a short amount of time. Nothing 100% yet but that's what I can tell you at this point.
Hey everyone! 
At this moment, there is a group of missionaries finishing their missions and having their last interviews with President Gomez. In mission terms, they’re all TRUNKY and its kinda funny. Trunky means they have their minds on putting their stuff in their suitcases (trunks) and taking them home... its really a dumb word. [Tyler says I’m trunky. He’s right.]
This week we had the monthly Mission Leaders Council where all of the zone leaders and the sister training leaders come to Iquitos for a day which, due to the flights, usually turns into 2 to 3 days. We talked about a bunch of things in that meeting that seem completely ridiculous to me. I won't go into much detail, but it has to do with people not understanding what a mission really is. With the age change, this being a new mission [July 2013] and everything still getting set up, there are quite a few missionaries that act like this is EFY [a retreat for youth], in that they’re here to have a nice, cute spiritual experience but have f
As for my trainings, last month I trained on daily planning and morning studies. We changed the planning from a lesson every hour to every half hour so that we could be more efficient and work more and focus our studies on our investigators. The other training that I was doing was a leadership training where I talked about the importance of the District Leaders to help them to take more control
We live in an apartment about 3 blocks away from the offices and we have a pensionista here in the offices that is a member of my first ward (Moronacocha) and they bring the food here. She is a really good cook, even though we still eat a lot of rice and chicken.
This week there are changes and a group of 16 newbies is showing up, which is always fun. I love the newbies and it’ll probably be a lot more fun having a bigger group so I’m excited for that. Right after the changes, we go straight back to training here in Iquitos and travelling. Our travelling will be even more extended. When we go, we will be staying out in the other cities for longer periods so that we can go out with more missionaries outside of Iquitos. So, basically, I will never be here. From now on I will only be in the offices to do reports and for planning. Otherwise, I will be out with other missionaries. Even though yesterday, I did a report for like 10 hours without stopping...that’s way too long to be looking at a computer screen....
Well, I love you guys and hope you have a great week!!
Elder Peacock
P.S. Also, mom, turns out that Sister Simonson’s dad found my blog and told her last week that he loved the picture of her throwing up...hahahaaha turns out my blog really is famous!
This week I was not attacked by any drunk people...
We went to Pucallpa this week to give the more of the same trainings...it is a really strange cycle. We've been doing 2 different trainings and I have given one of mine 3 times and the other one 5 times. The weirdest part of it is how much differently the trainings are received in each place. In some, the missionaries are really open and willing, especially because we're putting in a lot of new things in practice that had kinda been forgotten or done differently before. In the simplest way, President Gomez is really starting to make more changes in the mission. For about the first year, he had been letting the mission keep working the way it had before. He’d made a few small changes here and there, but it seems like now he's really making a lot more changes than before.
It's cool to be a part of the whole planning and training thing, to get to look at how the whole mission is doing and get to look at how the different cities need different things and yet find a way to make it one system for everyone. Really, things are starting to get way simpler than they were before and its interesting.
We didn’t really have any crazy stories from this week which is why I’m saying more of the same...not really sure what to tell you about at this point-- just more training going out with missionaries in their areas, meetings, planning, etc. I haven't even gotten to work in my own area yet this week...sometimes that’s the tough part--that I don’t really get to work in my own area. Sometimes, there really just is not any time. I hope you guys have a great week and hopefully I have some more cool experiences this week that I can share with you next week.
Love you guys!!
Elder Peacock
As a few of you may have commented, I did not write anyone last week. I didn’t forget, I just didn’t actually have a chance to write last week because we were in Moyobamba and Tarapoto. It was really weird to have to report our key indicators on Sunday because we only were in our area for 2 hours last week. It was a nice change from being in the offices all the time.
Last Tuesday we left to go to Tarapoto and Moyobamba for a couple of trainings and a District Conference in Moyobamba on Sunday. We were in Tarapoto, working with the Zone Leaders, when we had a very interesting encounter. We were going by motokar to a place that none of us knew so the motokarista pulled over to ask someone for directions. Two seconds later he pops back over to the moto being held up by his collar by another man. The other guy was just yelling at him and I really don’t know a lot of bad words in Spanish, but I knew that that guy was using a lot of them and after about 3 seconds it was readily apparent that the guy had been drinking fairly heavily....
So, we were just sitting there not really having anything to do when all of a sudden, the drunk guy looks over at us and yells "hermanos!!" He continues to tell us that he was Mormon (all of the drunk people tell us that) and starts talking to us when out of nowhere he grabs the motokarista and starts yelling at him again. During this whole thing, the other missionary companionship is in another motokar just watching this all happen--just kinda weirded out and confused, but laughing at the same time. Our motokarista got back onto his moto, backed it up and started to go, but the drunk guy was just holding on. Motokars don’t really have powerful engines, so we couldn’t keep going. I took the guy’s hand off of the motokar and we took off. The drunk guy took off at a full sprint, caught up to the moto and jumped on the back of it just yelling again. I thought he was about to hit me for pulling his hand off.
Both of the motos stopped and we all got off to try to just calm things down, but the drunk guy thought that we wanted to fight him. He started to take his shirt off but it got stuck and we were just there watching the guy struggling with his shirt stuck over his head. So we just got back on the moto and took off, but he caught the other moto before they could leave, after giving up on taking his shirt off. Then he commenced to yell at them, asking to talk to us. At that moment, we had turned around and went flying by. He chased us, but wasn’t able to catch us, thereby freeing the other companionship to be able to take off.
We all came away unscathed and, just so you know mom, I was never in any danger. My comp and I are approximately 95% larger than any of the Peruvians. Also, one of the missionaries in the other moto was a sniper on a SWAT team before his mission, so I don’t think there was ever much danger....we were just laughing the whole time....so yeah, then we were in Tarapoto for 2 more days working.
When we got out to Moyo, we did more training and went out working with missionaries in their areas and it was pretty cool. On Saturday, we went to this place with natural pools with President and Hermana Gomez in the morning. We had District Conference the rest of the time through Sunday morning. I got to see a lot of the members from Nueva Cajamarca and a lot of my converts out there as well. It was actually really cool to get to see all of them and they’re really close to being able to get the chapel built out there too if they just keep going where they’re at right now.
In the afternoon, I got to go out to Nueva Cajamarca again. I was with President, Hermana Gomez and Hermana Simonson, so Hermana Gomez had 1.5 companions and I only had half. [I read this sentence several times and still don’t think I quite understand the math.]
We went out to Nueva Cajamarca to eat lunch with a family that was baptized about 2 weeks before I got there the first time [a year ago], and they are one of the coolest families ever. I also got to go out and work in my old area for a few hours. It was a really cool afternoon and I loved it. Got to see some really cool people and I got to show the missionaries there what I had learned because it is a really different area and you have to work differently. It was a great week out there. We got back on Monday, a full week outside of the city.
This week had more training and visits with missionaries. It’s a good experience, but a little weird to give the same training every time, even though it is always a little different. Things are going really well and I’m having a great time out here. Love you guys!! This week I'm heading back out to Pucallpa, it should be good.
Elder Peacock
[Mom/Editor note: The Spanish syntax is getting deep, even when he’s writing in English! And, he has forgotten how to capitalize. Took me forever to “translate” this email.]
