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