Compania #7

1.30.12

This last week for us was a little bit slow.  Elder Whitmer is heading up to the family history center mission this wednesday and hes been a little down about it but we´ve been working hard on cheering him up a lot.  The work was a little slow because a lot of appointments fell through but we were still able to have miracles yesterday in church.  One member brought his 17 year old niece to church named Wendy (I hate that restaurant).  She really liked church and we have an appointment with them today to teach her.  Also a less active member named Eduardo showed up to church and that was very exciting for us.

Recently we have been working a lot with Eduardo.  Hes like 30 years old and a returned missionary.  He actually served in this same mission in the early 2000´s.  As we were talking with him one day he started telling us that he has lost all of his faith in God and in the plan of salvation because he has had so many deaths in his life and so many trials that he thinks its too much for somebody who served a mission and was supposed to be more blessed.  We just talked to him a little bit and it was kind of hard to get around his ¨doubts¨ because he already knew what we were trying to do.  It was a huge surprise for us on sunday when he showed up with a friend from the ward.  I went over to talk with him after Sacrament meeting and he just seemed a lot different after hearing a couple really good talks.  We are hoping that he is gaining his testimony back and that he will be able to stay active.  

Another quick story.  There is this young couple that was have helped re activate recently that has a baby.  As we have been visiting them they asked about presenting the baby and giving him a blessing.  We told them to talk with the bishop to get that set up but then the father (Emerson) told us that he doesnt have the Higher Priesthood yet because hes a recent convert technically and because hes been inactive for a few months.  We said that he would just have to work towards it and then he asked me to do the baby blessing instead.  I was pretty shocked when he asked me and Im pretty sure we arent allowed to as missionaries but it was a great honor to have them ask me.  

Thats it for me this week.  Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Peck

Compania #6

1.24.12

Great news.... WE ALMOST GOT THE STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE!!!

Ooops haha I accidently sent that last one before typing everything haha.  Chilaen computers arent the best in the world....

 

Anywyas, like I was saying we almost got the standard of excellence!!!  We were soooo close.  We just missed a couple people at church but we are wayy happy with all the people that are progrssing and getting ready for baptism. 

 

Jossely showed up to church with her boyfriend Jose (we just gotta get them married) and shes wayyy excited for her baptism.  She cant stop talking about it actually.  She was asking a bunch of members about it and the sister missionaries.  Another young man that we are teaching, Bastian, came to church with us and loved it.  Hes 14 and basically was the only young man at church haha but we went with him to his classes so he wouldnt be alone.  We talked about the Plan of Salvation with him and it was great.  Hes gonna be going to mutual this week and hopefully he can start making some good friends at church.  He was telling us the other day in a lesson that he wants his siters and his mom to get baptized also with him so we talked to one of his sisters who was there and she said that she wants to get baptized also BUT we went to wake her up sunday and shes not a morning person haha. 

 

We were able to receive a lot of blessigns this last week from our diligence.  I was on divisions with the assitant to the president on firday and we went and talked with Anthony about baptism and he accepted a date to get baptized BUT he didnt show up to church sunday so we arent really sure whats going on with him.  Hes been progressing very well in the lessons but alwyas falls through on sundays. 

 

This last week I had the pleasure of reading through Mosiah a little bit.  I read most of the story of Abinadi.  Its amazing how much power he had when he preached the gospel in the kings face!  He just stood there all chained up and told everybody all of their sins on the spot and nobody could touch him because of the people around him.  As missionaries, we have the same kind of authority and power.  There are lessons that are 150% guided by the Spirit,  A lot of times I dont even feel like Im the one talking and that Im like watching the lesson from outside my body.  Its actually a really weird feeling haha but its great.  I feel so blessed to know that we are being helped in our lessons and with our investigators to help them progress.

Well, thatsa about it for me this week!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Ty Peck

Compania #5

1.16.12

We had a fantastic week!  We were able to get quite a bit of work done here in the sector and grow a little closer to our ward.  We went and had a family night with this young couple in our ward and they had root beer floats and dr pepper waiting for us which was easily one of the biggest blessings this last week. 

 

So now I have a very...sad story I guess you could say.  So last sunday, a couple showed up to church.  The guy was a less active member and his girlfriend wanted to know more about the church.  In our sunday school class she was saying how her daughter had died a few months ago and that she is trying really hard to keep her faith alive.  We had a great sunday school class talking about eternal families and she really liked it a lot.  We went to their house saturday night to visit them and start the teaching process.  We got there and gave a blessing to the guy (Jose) who had hurt his nose really bad ¨running into a wall¨ (it looked like he got punched).  After the blessing we started getting to know them and then we started the message.  Then she told us the story of her daughter....  She told us that one day she was holding her daughter and a pitbull came up and attacked them.  Her daughter was only a year old and a couple months and the pitbull went straight for her daughter.  The pitbull literally took off half the head of the baby and killed it instantly.  Im not sure what happened to the pitbull but I can imagine it was killed.  She was telling us how she had been mad and depresed for the last few months and just thought that God was punishing her or wasnt there.  After the story we were all able to bear testimony of the plan of salvation and about where her daughter was.  She asked us why God would take her daughter in such a horrible way and we read 1 Nephi 3:7 and explained to her that God gives us commandments as well as trials because he knows we can complete.  I told her that God knew that she would be able to overcome such a hard trial in her life and that when she did overcome it that she would be blessed a lot.  At the end of the lesson she expressed that she would like to get baptized but she wants to learn more.  We have an appointment with them tonight so wish us luck!

 

That was probably the highlight of this week for me (other than the root beer and dr pepper).  I just wanna give a shout out to Brian Peck who got his mission call speaking hand language!!  Congrats to him! 

Love Elder Ty Peck

 

 

**Will be adding a few more photos to the photo page once I get the email

Compania #4

1.9.12

This last week was a week full of miracles...

 

So basically, sunday we found out that a kid that has been coming to church forever wants to get batpzed here.  He is actually from another mission but his family goes to this ward and the sister misisonaries talked to us sunday and informed us that we need to go teach him and get him batpzied!!!  It was pretty awesome news hearing that so we are going to talk with his family and the bishop and stuff tomorrow and get everything set up.  We were also able to talk about baptism wth another family we are teaching yesterday and the 11 year old Nicolas accept to be batpzied the 29 of january!!! 

 

I also had a great experience this last week doing contacts.... So saturday we decided to head up to the big plaza to do some contacts because all of our appointments fell through.  We went up there and started talking with some people and some Haitians came up to us and told us that they were members and wanted to come back to church.  We talked to them for a little bit and set up an apopintment to head out to their place.  As we continued talking with the people, a man came up to us and started talking with us.  We asked how he was doing and he said very bad.  We started talking about why he was feeling bad and what we could do to help.  Trying to hold back tears he told us that he was a member of the church but hadnt gone to church in about 7 years.  We could smell a little bit of alcohol on his breath as he continued telling us that he was a missionary also a long time ago.  He started crying and said that hes afraid to come back because hes afriad that God wont forgive him for what hes done.  We were to testify of the love God has for us as His children and that he just needs to take a step of faigh and get back on the right path.  It was a very special esperience for all of us and we all felt the Sprit very strongly. 

 

We found a lot of great investigators this last week.  Elder Larsen and I are working very well together and its a lot of fun being with him again.  We are always laughing and having a great time working hard. 

 

Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Ty Peck

Compania #3

1.2.12

I would like to wish everybody a late happy new year and I hope you all passed it chancho. 

Things are great here in Compañia....We had changed today and.....ELDER LARSEN AND I ARE COMPANIONS AGAIN!!!!!  For those of you who dont remember, he was my comp from the MTC.  We are still in a trio with Elder Whitmer but he is going to be heading out pretty soon to Salt lake but we arent sure when. 

Our new years eve was great.  We had a great view of the fireworks here in downtown Santiago.  They were shooting fireworks that made flowers and smiley faces in the sky.  Its crazy to think thats its already 2012...The world will be ending this year haha NOT.  Its crazy how fast the time has been flying here and the things Ive learned. 

This last week we were able to find quite a few new investigators.  Some of them are referrals from members and others just came from knocking the 20 houses that we have in our sector.  We found one kid named Bastian.  He´s 14 years old and has a lot of interest in the Book of Mormon.  We started off the contact getting to know him a little bit and then we talked about the BOM.  He said that he wanted one to read so we went inside and taught him about what it was and where it came from.  We left 3 Nephi 11 for him to read and the next day, to our surprise, he had read the chapter and understood it very well.  He told us of his desires to know the truth and that he definately feels something different with us.  A lot of our investigators werent able to go to church this week due to the holiday.  Marcelo came to church again out here and said that hes planning on moving out here so that he can get baptized.  We are working on finding him a place to live right now and hóopefully everything comes out alright. 

Thats about it for me this week...Have a great week eveyrbodyª

Love Elder PEck

Compania #2

12.26.11

Merry Christmas everybody!  Hopefully you all passed it ¨chancho¨ like we say here in Chile.  Our Christmas was pretty good.  We got to talk with our families and it was really good to see everybody and talk with them for a little bit.  We werent able to do much since a lot of the members were traveling but we did have a little peruvian dinner with an investigator family. 

 

Yesterday I was able to receive one of my greatest Christmas presents ever.  As we were singing the sacrament hymn...Marcelo and his whole family walked in the chapel!  They came to see me and to bring me a present.  It was great to see them all again and to catch up and take some pictures.  They told me that they are thinking about moving out here so they can be near me haha because they dont like the new missionary in Vivaceta.  I was actually able to talk with Elder Donohoo a few days again and he said that they are having tons of success in Vivaceta.  Most of the investigators that me and him found are going to be baptized in the next few weeks and I will be able to get permission to go see them all get baptized. 

 

Things in the sector are going prettty good.  We did some divisions last week and it was pretty hard for me.  I went with a missionary who arrived with me.  Hes training and is gonig to be a leader in the mission here pretty soon and so I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn from him and how he works.  We were in a trio that day so his trainee was there.  As we were talking to people in the street, I noticed something that...well I didnt like about his way of working.  He would talk to the person and get them to laugh which was great and then he would share a little message and even be a little persistent but not too much which is also great.  The one thing that bugged me was that after every person he would say something rude about that person.  If they didnt accept us he always had a rude comment to say about that.  I watched as his trainee took all of this in since it was the only companion he has had so far in the mission.  Im not trying to talk bad about this missionary but just the little things that we all do as people are picked up by the people that look up to us.  That new missionary now has the habit of mumbling rude things about people as he walks away and that makes the Spirit leave us in our contacts.  If we cant love the people enough to accept the rejection at almost every doorstep, then whats the point of trying to help them?  I mentioned something to him about how his companion is looking up to him a lot and he should try to not do that anymore so hopefully he will be able to learn from that.  I love the Chilaen people and I wouldnt want to serve in any other mission in the world.  I love this mission and every second that I have to learn. 

 

Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Ty Peck