Changes

[Email dated Saturday, 7/26/14]

With Elder Romero at the airport

Hey, just so you all know, I’m not being a "chambon" (or, for those of you who don’t know Spanish jungle slang, a disobedient person).  My P-day (personal day) has now changed and my emails may be a little more sporadic in the future.  Let me explain:

So as you all know by now, last week I had my interview with President and he asked me to extend.  What he really did was ask me if I was willing to extend and if there was anything essential that I would have to do in that time.  He asked me to think about it and said that he would also think about it.  So, I figured that there was something that he needed or wanted me to do with that extra time, but I figured that he would want to have me train another new missionary or he would want me to go to another zone as a Zone Leader and needed that extra change for timing. But, I must confess, I didn’t really think too much about it.  

On Monday, everything was going as normal, email in the morning and P-day in the afternoon, etc.  At about 6, we were in the clinic with a sister who had some weird health stuff going on and we were in the waiting room when we got a call from President Gomez.  I left the room for a second and he started out by asking me how my P-day was and then he asked me to be the new assistant [one of two missionaries that serve in the office with the Mission President and help him oversee the mission at large, often referred to as an “AP” or Assistant to the President].  He told me that I would be leaving the next day to go to Iquitos and that was about it for the call.

So yeah, now I'm here in Iquitos in the offices and I will basically always write you now on Saturdays, unless I’m travelling, which will be about half of the time.  So, I can’t really predict what days or what time I’ll always be able to write.  Just assume that it’ll be on Saturdays in the morningish....

I left on Tuesday.  I was leaving at 12ish, so I was in the district meeting for a little bit and when we left I just told everyone that I was going to go and do some marriage paper stuff in the municipality for the wedding that should be starting in about an hour.  I left instructions with my companion to just tell everyone this week that I am in Campo Verde with a member because I wasn’t supposed to really tell anyone out there that I was leaving.  I have called him since and supposedly everyone bought it, which is pretty funny.  One of the missionaries who is finishing their mission actually got to the mission offices yesterday and they didn’t know that I was here.  It was kinda funny.  

With my new companion, Elder Anderson, in the mission office

Since I got here I have been with President every day.  He's been doing interviews and I have been talking to a lot of missionaries and kinda getting to know them because I haven’t been in Iquitos for over a year.  I know like 10% of them, so its a big task because I have to get to know all of them.  So that’s my story.  I’m here in the offices and I will be here for the next 4.5 months until I end in December, which is why President asked me to extend.  My companion is Elder Anderson and I am replacing Elder Thompson, who I had also replaced in Nueva Cajamarca.  There are 3 Secretaries here: Elder Scott, Elder Medina and Elder Zamalloa.  I’m just glad that I wont really be in the offices for that long because I will usually be travelling or doing other things...lots of travelling actually.  After these 2 weeks, I should be travelling for the next 2 or 3 weeks depending on the planning that we will have a little later today. 

While I was here yesterday, Elder Villar and Elder Lee were both here so I got a picture with both of the missionaries that I trained.  I didn’t even know if i was going to get to see Elder Villar again, so that was good.

I love you guys and I won’t really get to see your emails for another week....that’s just what happens when I get an emergency change and my P-day gets changed.  Have a great week!!!

Elder Peacock

PS.  Take a note of the fine selection of ties Elder Peacock is sporting in each of the pictures above.  Each one a candidate in its own right for HAIR TIE.

Tacos!!!

[Email dated 7.14.14]

Hey everyone!

So this week was great.  Last week when we were in Iquitos, we went to Prez’s house because he lent us a machine to make tortillas.  I didn’t even know that you needed a machine to do it!  So we had that and we had planned an activity to make tacos with the ward and more or less teach them how to do it.  We tried to make a really big deal out of all of this so that people would attend because, really, the ward needs a lot of help because there isn’t much going on and it’s not in great shape.  We actually had a great turnout and it went really well and the tacos were really good!  And, now I know how to make tortillas which is something quite useful to know.  I was in charge of making the guacamole and flipping the tortillas.  I also ground the corn to make the masa which was all really interesting.  But, the best part of the activity was that we put on some talks from general authorities while we were doing some cooking stuff and the members reacted really well to it.  The Stake President (who is a really cool guy) asked us for the videos because they’re pretty awesome.  They’re actually the ones that Justin gave me before I left.  This Sunday we had the highest attendance of any Sunday since I’ve been here.  Also, the tacos tasted really good.  

Also, we finally got out to Campo Verde this week to be in their council and to go and visit a few people with them.  It was really interesting.  We talked to the ex branch president who is a really smart guy but doesn’t go to church and he just had an attitude of "I know everything" as we talked to him.  A little bit has to do with the fact that were just young kids, even if my comp is 27...but it’s kinda just sad to see that someone that "knows" so much and just doesn’t want to act for reason X and Y.  He even said that him not going to church is part of God’s plan for him so that later on he can testify that you can come back....that makes no sense to me at all.  God never wants us to distance ourselves from Him.  Once we're in the pathway, there is no leaving it. 

This week we’re going to take all of the missionaries out to Campo Verde for a few hours to help them prep for their conference.

Love you guys!!

Elder Peacock

[PS.  Somehow I think we got shorted on the pictures that he meant to send last week but forgot his camera….call me greedy, I like pictures]

Happy 4th of July

[Email dated 7/7/14]

I had a lot of pictures for this week to send you guys, but I forgot my camera in my room....whoops.

I had a pretty good food day on the 4th of July because I am an expert chef [who knew?].  For breakfast, I made french toast with real maple syrup on it.  At lunch, a member gave us a really good steak with this creamy sauce on it.  At night, I made western bacon cheeseburgers which were pretty delicious.  Turns out that cooking isn’t really all that hard [go figure!].  It may not be gourmet but it sure tasted good.  And we’re going to keep going with the good food because today we’re going to make some tacos with handmade tortillas and everything. [Tortillas are not very common in Peru.] And, if you all can believe it, I’m actually losing weight! haha 

So yeah, this week we went to Iquitos so we really didn’t have too much time here in Pucallpa and we didn’t actually get out to Campo Verde because we had a couple of things fall through.  This week we should be getting out there and it'll be interesting for sure.  While in Iquitos, we did a lot of stuff because usually we don’t have much of anything to do other than just follow around other missionaries.  This time we had to print off some maps of the areas and the wards which took a couple hours to be able to get all of the divisions done correctly. Then, the other day we were there, President asked me to take a missionary to the clinic which was another few hours and it was a lot busier than usual which was nice.  

So that’s about all that I have for you guys and I will have pictures for next week. I would say that I promise.....but really anything could happen....haha love you mom!!!

Elder Peacock

Green Field

[Email dated 6/30/14]

Hey everyone!!

So this week was good, Elder Romero and I are working really hard and things are going pretty well in our area.  The attendance in the ward is going up, which is good because it’s a really small ward and we really have to get it up quick.  We’re also working on some stuff to get better coordination between the wards and the missionaries, so we’re participating in high council meetings [High Councils are the leadership councils for an area] and bishop meetings [leadership for a congregation] and all kinds of meetings and getting some cool stuff set up for the wards in the future.  The idea is that we want a system that will be based on the members, ward [congregation] and stake [area] instead of on the missionaries.  It’s not all that complicated, it just takes some time to set it up, but we're really excited about it.  

Also, due to some visa problems, some missionaries have had to leave the mission and we had to close an area (Campo Verde, or in English Green Field)  in our zone for a couple of months.  As a result, Elder Romero and I had to head out to that branch and take out all of the stuff that they had in their room and bring it to our room.  So, in our room we now have 6 desks 2 fridges, and  lots of little things that are very useful.  [Gee, it’d be great to see a picture of that!  I have been requesting pictures of his living arrangements repeatedly—almost every other week for 18 months now…never happens] It was a lot of work with two trips out there, equating to a total of 9 hours of carrying stuff and sitting in a car.  But, by the end, we got it all out.  Now it’s probable that I will head out to that branch to work once a week to help out the members.  So, I basically just got an area that is way bigger than this one and we kind of have both of them...more or less. It’s kinda ours by default because we're the zone Leaders but it’ll be fun and a good way to mix it up. 

Also this week we had a training with President Gomez which was good.  In the afternoon during the training, I went with Sister Gomez and one of the assistants to do surprise room checks when the missionaries weren’t there.  We ended with my room and mom, I think you would be proud because of all of the rooms that we saw, my room was definitely the cleanest!! haha I was really surprised by that and I bet you are too!! [The other ones must have been REALLY bad.  Just sayin’]

Love you guys!!

Elder Peacock

P.S.  Since you asked directly, yes I will be coming home on October 21st. [He mentioned the date in an aside a few weeks ago and we’ve been trying to nail him down ever since.  He’s wiggly, that one!  We were so surprised because it was a full 6 weeks earlier than the first date he gave us—we’re so excited!] 

Tacos

(pictures:  Elder Limon send off)

After about 7.5 months with a white companion, I am finally with a Latin companion, as I told you all last week.  His name is Elder Romero and he is from Mexico from the city of Puebla, which is the same city as President Gomez.  Sadly, we have yet to make tacos but it is on our to-do list.  Authentic tacos with homemade everything.  Its gonna be nice, not gonna lie.  He has 16 months on the mission and he is 27 years old.  He’s a pretty old guy [it’s all relative in the mission world]but he's really smart and a really hard worker.  We're going to work really well together.

 

We are working really hard and things are going fairly well.  We had gone to the municipalidad to get maps made of the areas because the maps that we have don’t really work all that well right now and we’re doing some cool stuff with them.  Just thought that I would explain the picture.  

This week was really just full of lots of little adventures:  opening cocos while tracting, new missionaries in the zone and just lots of little things.  With the whole coco thing, someone gave us a couple of cocos.  So, then we were just walking around with cocos.  We decided that we were going to use that to get into houses to teach (not that it is all that difficult to do, but it just makes it a little more interesting).  I figured it would take a couple of houses at least to find someone with a machete that was willing to lend it to us for a minute.  But, the very first person that we asked was just like. “yeah! take it”!  So we did, cut open our coco, and then obviously talked to them about the gospel.  It was more interesting for sure.

Everything is going well and I’m happy to be here right now.  Not sure how much longer I will be here. but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts. 

Love you guys! Have a great week

Elder Peacock

Bye Bye Limon!

Elder Limon is done and should be sitting in the offices right now, having finished his interview.  I imagine he’s now just waiting to go to Lima, arriving at the airport in Arizona at 12:21 local time tomorrow....

At this moment I am without a companion, but he will get here tomorrow.  I just got the email from the assistants for the zone and, as I thought, I am staying for at least another change here as Zone Leader.  My new companion will be Elder Romero and he is from Mexico.  From what I know, he is a really cool guy and I think we’re going to get along really well.

This week went really well.  We just spent the week working as normal with more exciting lunches because it was his last week.   We were getting ready to go out to work on Saturday in the afternoon for his last day of proselyting (we have language study after lunch because it’s hot in the jungle) and we get a call:  sick missionary.  We have to take them to the clinic.  Well, that was an interesting last afternoon of missionary work!  We would have done divisions [where companionships split up and go out with other missionaries or members] with them but they were sisters so that wasn’t possible.  We did get to go out for a few hours that night so it wasn’t like he lost all of that time, so that was good.  But yeah, tomorrow he will probably be reading this because he has heard so much about this blog from all of the new missionaries....SHOUT OUT TO LIMECITO!!!! 

Sorry for the short letter but I have no time today.  I had to do all of the informes and I have the changes to worry about so I’ll be sure to have more for next week.  But, you can all just know that I'm good and mom don’t worry, I’ve never been to the clinic here for myself and I will never get any toenail amputated or anything because I’ll just do it myself… that’s why I have a pocketknife right? haha joke? Love you mom!!!

[The last paragraph is in response to another missionary in Peru who sent word to his family that his toe had been amputated in the clinic.  Fortunately for all, it turned out to be a toeNAIL.  Note to all missionaries:  jokes do not travel well through email.  Do not worry your mothers unnecessarily.  Just sayin’.  I still get heart palpitations thinking of the time my older son sent me THIS EMAIL.]

Elder Peacock

El Fin se Acerca y Hay Poco Tiempo

Hey everyone!

So, the title of my email has nothing to do with me, but with my companion.  He is ending this week and we are just trying to figure out if he’s leaving from Pucallpa on Saturday or on Sunday.  I don't know how we would be able to do that on Sunday because the flight is during Sacrament meeting...that could be awkward.  But yeah, this is his last week as a missionary and he's starting to get kinda trunky.  He's actually been really good about it though.

This week we went to Iquitos for the council and it turns out that even though I don’t know any of the missionaries that have started in the last year, a large majority of them already know who I am thanks to the blog.  Here's an example of a conversation that I had with a newer missionary:  "Hi, I'm Elder Peacock".  "I know. I read your blog".  It’s really weird.  So in case any of you reading this are coming to the mission, you’ll be thrown into this group of people as well.  Turns out there are some who were avid readers of my blog before and know all about the mission before even getting here.  I feel like my letters aren’t interesting enough for random people to just read them.  The pictures are pretty cool though.  Maybe that’s why you keep asking for pictures-- to make this stuff interesting enough to actually put on the internet!  Now i understand.  It's ok because I have some pretty cool pictures for this week.

When we were back here in Pucallpa, we had a baptism on Saturday of a 20 year old guy named J*.  He is a really cool guy.  Like, during his service, he was talking to his friends about when they are all going to leave on their missions.  They all want to leave a year from now at the same time.  It was kinda cool to get to hear him talking about that and just so ready even though he's only been going to church for about a month now.  But yeah, in the morning we went to go and fill up the font.  Well, last week the missionaries from another ward left the water in the font and it was absolutely filthy.  I mean just really disgusting and somewhat scary looking with bugs, animals, leaves and lots of dirt.  I don’t even know how all of that stuff even got in there.  Long story short, we couldn’t get the water to drain and we are somewhat convinced that it is because of something that got into the drain and died.  So we had to go and do the baptism in another church building.  It was really bad water.  All’s well that ends well right?

About the pictures, I don't remember the order that I put them in but just pay attention to my [my what?  was there another word supposed to be here?], they’re good ones.  In the baptism pictures, you might have to look really hard.  If you guys can’t figure it out, you can try putting it on the blog and see if other people can figure it out.  [um, a little help here people!  I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about] It's pretty cool but I might just have to show you guys when I get home.  Explaining just doesn’t do it justice and I don’t know if it can be seen really well in the picture.  Also, about the monkey, I had to make up with him because a little over a year ago I ate his father....haha hopefully these pictures make up for the lack of pictures in these past few weeks!

Have a great week!!!

Elder Peacock