Renca 1 #11

5.23.11

A week of Success!

We had a great week this last week.  We have this Standard of Excellence in the mission and we are very closing to achieving it.  The Standard is like this.. 12 lessons with members, 5 investigators in church, 7 new investigators, and 7 investigators with a date for baptism.  We were really closing in completing in all those categories. 
Something very sad that happened to us this last week.  I think I mentioned last week that the family we found (Fam. Diaz Maldonado) were having some problems.  They called us tuesday and had us come over to their house.  We brought our ward misison leader to help us out with the lesson.  We go in and I was so happy to see the 6 year old daughter Jennifer reading the Book of Mormon by herself at the dinner table.  Then the 11 year old José came over and said he had been reading too.  We sat down on their couches and realized that the mom Andrea and the grandma Delisia were crying.  They told us that we couldnt come back.  As soon as they said that I was shocked.  They explained that they really really really want to be apart of the church but the grandpa has been acting weird lately.  They said that before our first visit with them he had started drinking heavily.  They said he transforms and isnt the same person when he drinks.  They were all getting ready for church last sunday when he told them that they couldnt go to church and they werent allowed to talk with us anymore.  They called us over when he wasnt home so that they could tell us face to face so it wasnt just a random thing.  I was very sad but I said in a prayer in my heart and asked what we should say.  I felt prompted to read 3 Nephi 18 where it talks about prayer in the family.  We read the scripture and we said a prayer together as a family asking if God would soften his heart to let us come back.  We are going to try calling them today to see how everything is going but it might be awhile before we see them again.  I was so frustrated after the lesson.  I thought why could this happen to me?  I finally found a golden family after all my hard work and dilligence and now they get taken away from me.  I was very frustrated and hardly had any motivation to keep working.  When we got home, I calmed down and prayed for the family.  I feel like they will get baptized someday but maybe I wont be here.  I should be happy that they are so willing to accept the gospel.  After I calmed down and tried to be more patient we started having even more success finding people.  We didnt have much to do friday and we decided to knock some houses in some little neighborhood.  The first door we knocked the guy let us in and said he had been searching for the true church for a very long time.  We invited him to be baptized the 12th of june.  The next door we knocked the guy let us in there also.  He said that they had never really been religious because there are so many churches today its hard to believe that they are true.  We went back and talked to the first guy last night and, to our amazement, he had been reading in the BOM.  He was about 13 chapters in 1 Nephi and was learning a lot.  He is going to have an operation today on his back because he has a swollen disc or something I think. 
We have been having lots of success in finding good investigators but its just hard to keep them around sometimes.  Something always seems to happen but I know they are just tests of my patience and faith.  We are going to keep moving forward. 
We will be having a baptism this week on the 29th of may.  We are very excited for him (Florencio).  We found him a while back knocking doors and hes been going to church for a few weeks now.  I guess that would be a great present for dad on his birthday. 
Anyways, that was my week.  I challenge you all to read Mormon 9 this week and write down every question in that chapter and to think about how you would answer each question. 
Love Elder Ty Peck

Renca 1 #10

5.16.11

So first off I want to say that Im pretty jealous that my whole family is going to disneyworld this fall.  Thats pretty lame.  Anyways this last week was kind of a tough week for us.  We had a lot of appointments fall through and we didnt have much success finding people during the week.  We hadnt been able to get ahold of the family we found a couple weeks ago for a while but we finally found them saturday and they were all excited to go to church and to start getting ready for baptism.  They said that they had a few family problems before with the grandpa with drinking and stuff.  He had never drank before and they said right before we showed up he started getting really bad into alcohol.  While we were getting ready for church yesterday morning, we got a call from Jose the 11 year old and he said they wouldnt be able to go to ¨mass¨ with us.  We asked why and he said just some family problems and so we figured the grandpa was probably holding them back.  We are going to go visit them tomorrow though with our ward mission leader to figure out whats going on.  We finally had an investigator in church this week.  We have been teaching him for about a month now.  He´s a great guy and has a testimony of the church already its just that hes hard to teach because hes loves to talk about everything.  He always talks about how much he hates his job and how bad the world is these days and about his dog, his cat, rich people in the world, etc.  We also had a ward activity where we watched the Restoration with everybody to try and get everybody excited and there we met a wife of the young mens president who isnt a member.  We set up an appointment with them for today.  Saturday night we went to visit an inactive sister who has a daughter who isnt baptized and she is really flaky.  She always says shes going to come to church and then never shows up.  There is also another sister that lives next door with the same situation but her husband, son and daughter arent baptized.  The dad came over to us as we were walking out and said he wants his kids to get baptized and asked how soon it could be done.  We went there yesterday to teach the restoration and set a baptismal date for the 5th of june.  It seems like whenever Ive had a hard week in the mission that the Lord always finds a way to bless us with new investigators or some type of miracle to end the week.  We are seeing a lot of success in finding people but we are still trying to get them in the water.  I havent baptized since I was in Los Conquistadores and I hate not being in the water.  That hate is motivating me to baptize everybody haha.  Anyways, thats about it for me this week.  I challenge you all to invite a friend or family member to church this week who isnt a member. 

Love Elder Peck

 

He also sent an email to my mom saying he LIKES TOMATOES...that is so unacceptable! haha Nobody in our family will touch tomatoes, he says they prepare them different down there...pisha!

Renca 1 #9

5.9.11
Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Happy mothers day to all the mothers out there.  I had a good mothers day.  We got to skype the families and talk for about an hour which was a lot of fun.  It was good having a few friends who went over to my house to say hi also.  This last week was an ok week.  We found 8 new investigators but nobody showed up at church.  We were hoping to have at least 6 because we have that family but they had a family member sick and werent able to go.  We actually did have one guy show up to church about an hour late and was kinda drunk.  We had stopped passing by for him a while back because hes kinda crazy first of all and second of all he drinks way too much.  It was hard yesterday also erasing names from our board of investigators because of problems like that in their lives.  When people dont progress or dont do the things they need to do we cant really help them.  Its especially hard because we see some of these people everyday just passing in the street.  Also, or investigator Roxanna told us that she doesnt want us to come  by anymore to teach her because its just too hard for her to believe in Christ.  She still thinks its just a fairy tale and its too hard for her to change the beliefs shes had her whole life.  It was a sad day for us but we are still working hard.  We have been finding a lot of people through a program we have here called Permanaced.  Its basically like we go around with a list of all the inactive members in our area and visit with them.  Usually they dont let us in but sometimes they do and sometimes we find out they have kids or other family members who arent baptized.  We are working on reactivating a few families right now so their kids can be baptized.  There are a LOT of inactive members in Chile.  Some people hardly even remember their baptisms or arent even sure if they got baptized or not.  Its sad to see that they didnt have a spiritual experience in the church.  A lot of the time too they went inactive becuase they got offended by some member saying something stupid.  We are going to try working harder with the members though so that our investigators will be able to stay in the church easier.  When they know the members, they will stay in the church and always have a support system around them. 

Thats about it for me this week but I would like to challenge you all (because my mom likes my challenges) to give at least one reference to the missionaries this week.  If we just think about it for a second....if every member gave one reference and that reference got baptized, the membership would double.  Dont we want our brothers and sisters in the true church?  Again, happy mothers day everybody and have a great week.

Love Elder Peck

We got to talk to Ty on Sunday via Skype. It was fun to see him and talk to him. It was neat to hear him speak Spanish so well too. We were able to talk for about an hour then it was time to go. A few close friends of his came over as well to say hi, I think he liked seeing them more than the family ;) He's doing well and really enjoys serving the people of Chile!

Renca 1 #8

5.2.11

WE FOUND A FAMILY!!!!!!!!!

I think I mentioned that last week but we had such a great lesson with them yesterday.  We showed up to verify their reading and prayers and they told us a wonderful story.  They said that the day when Elder Memmott and I originally contacted them they were having a few family problems.  They all of a sudden we show up and knock the door and start talking about families and the Gospel.  The mom said she was so happy to hear that message and when we came back and shared the restoration that she felt something change in their house.  The whole family basically committed themselves for baptism the 29th of may!!!  They all told us that there has been such a change in the atomsphere in the house since we arrived at their door and they are very excited to learn more about the gospel.  We have 8 people right now with a baptismal date (4 from that family soon to be 5).  BUT we are thinking we might have to drop a couple of those investigators because they arent progressing at all and arent doing what they need to do. 

We also found a couple other small families in some apartments that are excited to start charing with us too.  Elder Heath and I are having a lot of fun and we are both very excited to be baptizing in this sector (yes Tim it´s sector).  The members have been helping us a little bit more too which is great because now our investigators know the church better.  We had a lesson with Roxanna yesterday too which was short.  We talked about prayer again because she still doesnt feel like she is receiving an answer to her prayers.  She also told us that since she doesnt have any faith in Christ its hard for her to pray in His name.  We have been trying really hard to help her with that faith but it´s come to the point where we can´t do much else to help her build that faith.  We told her to just keep on praying and reading everyday and eventually she will receive an answer. 

Thats about it for me this week.  We are very excited to be working in our SECTOR and we are having lots of success.  Thank you for all your support and love. 

 

Love Elder Peck

 

Also, this Sunday is mother's day which means we get to talk to Ty!!