Renca 1 #18

7.11.11

How We Win

I think this last week we just had was even harder for us.  We walked even more and had even less success.  We didn´t enter a single house until saturday night.  I went on ¨intercambios ¨ for the day on friday to the sector that is in our district.  I went to this very very rich sector that reminded me a lot of home.  We sat down with a member family at night to talk to them how things were going with the friends they were working with.  I started talking with the mom who is a RM who also served in this same mission.  I told her how I was having a really hard time in my sector and Im just kind of waiting it out so I can get out of here.  She told me how she was in a dead sector with a companion she hated for 6 months and in that time she learned the most she ever did on her mission.  She told me not to get down and to keep going forward because if it wasnt for a couple missionaries who came to her door when she was young she never would have been a missionary and she never would have helped others come to the gospel.  She also talked about how Elder Tialavea (one of the assistants right now) was in that sector when he had about a year in the mission and he was having a really hard time too.  She said that he would talk to them sometimes and say how hes not having any success even though it was always easy before.  The family helped him out a lot and now hes assistant in the mission and is baptizing like crazy.  I learned a lot from that conversation that even though we go through these trials its becuse God is preparing us for an even greater calling down the road. 

We decided to help our ward out instead of getting mad at them and blaming them for all the bad thigns that are going on here.  We set up a powerpoint and we are going to do a presentation about mission work and how they can all help us out.  In my studies preparing for this presentation I came across several scriptures and quotes in Preach My Gospel that made strong impressions on me.  We also had a conference a couple weeks back and our zone leader, who is leaving, gave a very powerful testimony about how he learned how to win.  He said before he was always on the losing sports team and how they worked so hard but never won.  On the mission, he learned literally how to win.  That is something I am trying very hard to work on.  I havent seen much success in my mission yet and there arent any secrets other than diligence.  There is a scripture in D&C 10 that says Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.¨¨

Ive been reading a lot in my Patriarchal blessing and it says a lot about how in my mission I will see lots of trials and hard times but as I put my trust in the Lord and work as hard as I can, I will be able to overcome my trials and bring people to the truth.  It also says that I have been given all the talents and gifts that I need to complete my task and that God expects a lot from me.  There is one sentence that has always stuck out to me and always runs through my mind everyday.  It says ¨Don´t let Him down¨.  As I think about that, it makes me work even harder and it makes me want to knock even more doors because I know thats what He expects of me.  Everytime I think about giving up or wasting time with some members that sentence runs through my head and helps me a lot.  The mission has been such a great blessing for me and Ive been learning and growing a lot in the gospel.  One last thing that my Patriarchal blessing tells me is that as I work hard, study the scriptures, and pray daily that I will become the more complete man that I desire to be.  The mission has really been helping me with all the things that I desire in life.  Ive been blessed with so many gifts and talents that I didn´t realize I had before and Im learning how to use these gifts better everyday. 

Have a great week everybody!  I challenge you all to win this week!

Love Elder Peck

HAPPY BDAY AMANDA AND SAM!

Que cumplen aun mas en sus vidas!!

Renca 1 #17

7.4.11

So....this last week was probably the hardest week for me in the mission so far.  To start off, we walked the whole week.  We didn't enter a single house.  It was a very unmotivating week for us.

We started the week off very weel with a couple good lessons with investigators. Starting wednesday EVERYTHING went downhill.  We sat down for lunch with our ward mission leader and he basically told us that we dont have empathy for our investigators because we are OBLIGATING them to be baptized.  We tried to explain to him that the 1st Presidency has taught us to extend the baptismal INVITATION in the first or second lesson with investigators.  For some reason he couldn't understand that the Prophet is telling us to work that way.  We also tried explaining to him that we dont obligate people we invite people.  He didn't really understand anything we were telling him so we asked if we could have a meeting with all the leadership in the ward.  We sat down in the meeting and basically told the bishop how we have been feeling the last few weeks.  The ward hasnt been supporting us at all and everybody avoids the obligation of going out with us to work. There were also members who had been talking garbage behind our backs saying we are lazy.  We expressed all this to the bishop in a very formal and professional way and he excused everybody from his office.  He told us basically that the ward doesn't like us because we are too serious.  But then he goes on to get mad at us because one time I was playing with a football in a house and he didn't think I was taking my calling seriously.  He continued saying all these things about us and basically said we suck.  We left his office very angry and frustrated.  He has always been pretty stubborn and not interested in us but he finally lost all of our support and trust. 
So basically thats how the ward sees us.  We talked to other missionaries who were here before and they all said the same things that nobody appreciated the missionaries and nobody helps.  There are a few families that are really cool and helpful but the majority of the ward doesn't want anything to do with us.  After that meeting we basically walked all day everyday knocking doors because we have no investigators.  DUring the week we didnt enter a single house.  If anything I would say the people we talked to this week were some of the hardest people I have ever talked to here.  We got doors slammed in our faces, people getting mad at us for all the garbage in the streets (not sure why), and people literally running away from us.  The week was definately a trial of my patience, diligence, and charity.  Its one thing when people dont want to help but when they start assuming things about us or critcize us is when I get the most mad.  I know before the mission that was the thing that always mad me the most mad.  When I worked at Wendys and people told me I didnt do a good enough job I usually got pretty frustrated and angry.  Now as a missionary, the members should be concerned about our success and want to help us but they are telling me Im lazy and that Im not good enough.  Im trying to take all this in with as much patience as I can but its extremly hard.  This has probably been one of the hardest trials in my mission so far but we are trying to take it and make the situation better.

Anyways,.so our new mission president got here this week!  His name is Pres. Essig and we had a conference with him saturday.  He said his vision for the mission is to help all of us become more and more like Christ.  In my studies, I have been trying to learn more about Christ and what I can do to be more like Him. 

Well have a great week everybody!  I challenge you all to be nice to the missionaries!!!
Love Elder Peck

Renca 1 #16

6.27.11

So I just remembered that I forgot to write this blog email haha.  I only have about ten minutes so hopefully I can get everything. 

This last week was very very hard for us.  A lot of walking and  not a lot of lessons.  Nobody went to church again so we dropped all our investigators and we are starting from scratch.  We have a few promising investigators already but we will see if they go to church.  We had a conference with Pres. May because he leaves tomorrow.  We get our new president tomorrow also and we meet him saturday.  Pres May talking a lot about his personal life and how growing up he had a terrible family situatin.  He used basketball as his escape and ended up going to BYU where he met his wife.  He then servd his mission because she told him that she wouldnt marry anybody unless they are an RM.  He then served the mission but for the wrong reasonsut he learned quickly in the field why he was a missionary and why he was there.  Ive seen that in my mission also.  To be honest, up until the day before I entered the MTC I had no idea how I was going to survive this.  But as soon as I entered the MTC I had Clark and Larsen as my comps and they really helped me out.  I realized quickly here in the field that I am here for a reason and I need to stop thinking about myself and how much I miss home and just get to work.  I love the work and time is flying.  Have a great week evreybody!

Love Elder peck


Questions

1.       How does the milk taste there?
 The milk is great.  Tastes a little different but not much
2.        Do you want me to send peanut butter, or can you get good stuff there?
 Yeah send some JIF crunchy haha
3.       Do you need gloves?  Hat (for around the apartment)?
 I got gloves and my american eagle beanie that Amanda bought me a long time ago
4.       What has been your favorite thing you’ve gotten in a package?
 My favorite thing....probably tapes from the band haha but probably pictures and snacks.
5.       Do you get letters from anyone other than family?  How about packages?
 I only get emails and I get enough to keep me occupied for an hour and a half
6.        What is the most frustrating thing about your mission right now?
 Most frustrating thing is that NONE of our investigators go to church because its too cold as they say
7.       What is the most gratifying thing about your mission right now?
 Just preaching the Gospel with people in the street.  Its really satisfying knowing that people are getting something out of a 30 second conversation
8.       Have you met your new mission president yet?
 He comes in tomorrow but we meet him saturday
10.   What have you read in your scriptures lately that had a big impact on you?
 I read them everyday haha and right now Im in second Nephi.  Nothing too big lately other than things in my Patriarchal Blessing
11.   Are you still writing in your journal?

Yes I try to everyday

12.   Do you work a lot with some of the couple missionaries (like Jeanie and Joe)?  Are any of them fun?
 No we dont work with them haha they are out on Easter Island or in the office
13.   What are some things we’ve sent in packages that you wouldn’t want us to send again?
 Those weird dried apple things...They are like styrofoam
14.   Would you like me to send more medicine of any kind?
 For right now no
15.   What is your favorite thing about your mission so far?
 Favorite thing...I think just enjoying time with the people we meet.  I love just sitting down and talking about something over a nice hot cup of coffee! (its not real coffee but still good)
16.   Would you like us to send hand written letters once in awhile? 
 If you want...I dont really care because I hear the same thing in my emails
17.   Is there anything we, as your family, can do more to support you? 
 Just keep sending the occasional package haha

Renca 1 #15

June 20, 2011

This last week was a great week for us in terms of finding.  We found 10 new investigators!  A lot of them arent the most promising but we will still be working with them. 

So yesterday we had a very spiritual day for us.  We were walking down the street towards another street to knock and decided to just knock the street we were already on.  We started knocking doors and didnt have much success until an old lady came out crying.  She said that her husband had just died that morning and was very sad.  She didnt want to talk to us at first but after asking if we could offer a prayer to help her she let us in.  We went in and sat at her table and began talking about what had happened.  We shared a little bit about the plan of salvation but she was crying to hard to listen.  We offered a prayer and then she didnt want us to leave.  She kept telling us to help her so that she wouldnt be sad or feel pain anymore.  We tried everything we could be she kept crying.  At one point she almost passed out (which was pretty scary). 

I really have been learning a lot about my purpose here lately.  Ive seen people that needed help that relied on me for that help.  We have one family we are teaching with 3 kids.  The mom is a member but hasnt gone to church in years so we are trying to help her kids and husband get baptized.  There are two boys Michael and Jose.  Michael is 6 and Jose 9.  Everytime we sit down on their couch, the boys come running over to me and share my scriptures.  Ive seen that these kids really recognize that we are here to help them out in their lives. 

Thats about it for me this week.  Im pushing forward and trying as hard as I can to bring people back for the presence of our Father.  We havent had anybody in church for a long time because our investigators are lazy but we are going to tell them why they need to go to church.  Have a great week everybody.

Love Elder Peck

Renca 1 #14

6.13.11

In terms of taste there is nothing written.

We were able to find 7 new investigators this last week!  We found 3 last night from knocking doors and not everybody was home so we will be teaching this family.  We also received about 10 references from members!  We have really been gaining their confidence and working hard with them.  Its amazing how the work really takes off when the members get involved especially when they bring their own loved ones to the gospel.  We decided that we had to drop Florencio because he really wasnt progressing at all.  He didnt go to church and its hard to teach lessons with him because he talks wayy too much.  Our focus for these coming weeks is to serve the members and really gain their confidence.  People have told us that the bishop here has never really had a lot of confidence in the missionaries and we also heard other members saying that we are lazy.  I heard those things about us and decided to show them really how hard I am working.  I decided to put even more of an effot than I was already doing.  In the last couple of changes we hadnt been seeing a great relationship with the members but I decided to be more myself around them and now look, we are receiving references left and right.  Ive been reading a lot in 1st Nephi and also in Jesus the Christ.  Ive been learning so much more about my relationship with Our Savior and what He really means for us.  I am grateful for the blessing I have to be here in Chile serving Him and helping my brothers and sisters come to know Him.  I challenge you all to do everything you can for the missionaries so that they have success.  They only have 2 years in their missions and as members we should be concerned for their success.  Have a great week everyody!

Love Elder Peck

Renca 1 #13

6.6.11

This last week was another slow week for us.  We had cambios today but Heath and I are still together here.  We will be getting our new mission president in a few weeks so that should be pretty exciting.  Our week started off really good.  We found 4 new people right off the bat but then we couldnt find them at all for the rest of the week.  We decided that we probably wont baptize Florencio just because his lack of understanding.  He knows all the things we teach him but he doesnt really understand it.  He didnt go to church yesterday either so we might go talk with him then decide what we want to do.  We are back into the search for investigators.  Its pretty pretty hard for us this last week just because we walked around a lot after tuesday.  We didnt see much success but we are trying to stay motivated.  We are having fun here and we are starting to work harder with the members.  As we have been visiting with members they have been telling us about people that they are going to invite to church or a family night soon.  We are going to be working hard to be able to baptize this cambio.  Have a great week everybody.

Love Elder Peck

In another email I asked him about the Volcano that erupted on Saturday night in Southern Chile and he said he felt trembles in the earth but nothing major and that the air is really gross from some of the ash that made it up his way. But it didn't effect them in any bad way, so that's good. He also said it's getting colder and colder and has rained a little bit- which helped the ash.

Renca 1 #12

5.30.11

Most boring week of my life.

Great title for this email.  So basically my companion had to get surgery on two ingrown toenails and so he couldnt walk at all for most of the week.  We weren´t able to have our baptism yesterday mostly because we weren´t able to leave the house to go and see Florencio.  We also decided that he could use a few more weeks to be more ready for his baptism.  So pretty much we didn´t do much this week except sit in the house and study or talk.  I did start reading in the Old Testament though!  I finished Genesis and most of Exodus in a day haha.  I also finished my personal project of writing down every question in the Book of Mormon.  I finished reading it the other day too.  I decided to start over again but this time in spanish.  My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much here in the mission field.  I don´t even like carrying my Bible around with me anymore because it just feels like an extra weight in my backpack.  Every morning I wake up so excited for my personal study because I know Im going to learn something new from the BOM.  We ended up losing a couplle investigators through the course of the week because one family got seperated so the dad took two of the kids with him out of our area.  We are still teaching the 10 year old daughter and she will most likely get baptized this month of june.  I cant believe its already june!  Time really has been flying by here in the field. 

Well thats about it for me this week.  I invite you all to read the Book of Mornon, then read it again.  After the second time, read it again.  Joseph Smith promised that every time we read the BOM we will learn something new.

Love Elder Peck

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