Vivaceta #10

9.20.11

 

The Standard of Excellence part 2

 

That makes two weeks in a row achieving the SOE.  We are pretty much dominating this sector right now and loving every second of it.  Its all miracles too.  This last weekend was basically the biggest weekend in all of Chile and a lot of our investigators were out of town.  Somehow 5 people still showed up to church and we were able to once again achieve.  Like Andy Samberg says in the great movie Hot Rod, ¨You must believe to achieve.¨  We have been putting all of our faith in the Lord when we need a miracle and He always comes through.  We will be having a baptism the 1st of October.  Im actually shocked that she is going to be baptized.  Her name is Camila.  She is the sister of Victoria who we baptized not too long ago and she has never wanted to go to church.  She would always sit in on the lessons and go to all the activities but never went to church.  She has gone 2 times now and is ready for her baptism.  Her dad Marcelo actually told us what happened this sunday morning.  Basically the mom of the family is very very anti mormon and Camila always follows her mom.  Every sunday the mom would somehow convince Camila to stay home with her and go do something else more fun but this sunday Camila finally said no to the mom.  Marcelo told us that everybody in the house was just speechless when they heard that.  Marcelo said in Priesthood sunday that we are his favorite missionaries that have ever entered his house.  Lots of missionaries have gone by but we were the first to get his kids to go to church and they are getting baptized.  That family is a very special family for me.  The kids love us and are always wanting us to come over and play with them or do something fun.  We usually teach a little lesson then go outside to play some soccer in the street or some ping pong. 

 

Things are ok in the companionship.  Its still really hard to get along with this guy.  He has mood swings all the time so its taking a huge toll on my mental health haha.  Im trying to help him out but Im guessing there is not much I can too.

 

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

Love Elder Peck

Vivaceta #9

9.12.11

The Standard of excellence!!

I have good news and bad news..... WE GOT THE STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE!!  That means that we dominated this last week.  It means AT LEAST 7 new investigators, 12 lessons with a member, 5 people in church and 7 people with a baptismal date.  We had 9 new investigators, 12 lessons with member, 8 people in church AND 7 with a date.  I literally have no idea how it happened but the whole week was just a miracle.  The bad news is...I have less than a year left to keep dominating haha.

SO, to start off I´ll describe a little bit of GREAT news.  We are teaching Katy who is dating a less active member.  They are living together and they decided to start going to church.  We went over there a few weeks ago and started teaching her and then last week we showed up and got a huuuuge present from them.  They asked us when our changes are and they are the 9th of october.  They said well thats good because we are getting married the 8th of october so you guys can come to the wedding!  We also talked about her getting baptized the 9th but she wants her husband to baptize her but he still have to work a few things out since he´s been living with her for a while now.  She´s doing really good too.  She comes to church, shes making a lot of friends in the ward and she wants to start giving us lunch on the weekends haha.  We actually went to their house thursday to celebrate my one year mark with hot dogs and some other members.  

NEXT, I am learning spanish sign language!  We ran into a less active family in the street and they told us to come over.  We got there and they have an 8 year old son who is deaf.  They want us to teach him so that he can get baptized and so that they can return to the church.  They are actually a really rich family too.  The dad was telling me how he works in some software business and he was in charge of making some new software.  He made it and it is sooo good that there are people from Brazil,Colombia, England, Spain , Germany and some other countries begging him to let them use it.  He said that he was in a web chat and he told them ¨Yeah of course you can all use it but....lets talk money¨.  He will be making some HUUUGE money from this.  They might move to France in a couple years if everything works out.  The little kid, Jean Lucas, is incredibly super active and so is his brother.  It was hard keeping them quite in sacrament meeting but its fun.  

Update on Marcelo.  Hes still going strong.  Hes pretty much a member already.  His daughter Victoria who we baptized a month back is doing really good too.  His other daughter finally went to church for the first time!  Shes getting ready to get baptized in a couple weeks and we promised her a pizza party if she does haha.  We had to promisse her a cookie party this week so maybe somebody can send me a recipe?  

My comp. and I are doing better.  I pretty much have to just sit him down everyday and work out the little things that bugged him that day. I think thats why we had so much success this week.  I pretty much just forgot about all the ¨mission drama¨ and really just worked hard to help people progress.  The week went by really fast and our investigators are doing great.  

I think thats it for me this week!  Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Peck

Vivaceta #8

9.5.11

ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!

This week was a great week for us!!  We did really well in terms of getting people to church, finding new people, and getting the members involved.  We have a lot of people that are really promising for baptisms soon so we are hoping to send some baptismal pictures soon.

My health has been a little bit better.  Ive been trying really hard to just ignore the pain and to also work out more to see if that helps.  Ive had some really good studies this week also.  Ive been trying to read the BOM all the way through in spanish at least once.  I sometimes get lost in the 2 Nephi chapters about Isaiah or Jacob 5 haha but Im doing pretty good so far.  My scriptures are all colorful from markings and the pages are nice and shredded haha.  Ive been learning a lot about just putting all of my efforts into the investigators.  Everything I do is for them.  If Im not 110% focused on them, then Im not working as hard as I should.  There are days when its hard when I just want to think about home or other things but Ive found that as I remind myself contantly about the people that the work is so much easier.  

Ive been having problems with the guy Im with.  We have been arguing over stupid little things but mostly because he will get mad over something little and get really angry and sarcastic with me.  Ive been trying really hard to stay patient with him and teach him how to be a good missionary but he usually doesnt respect me too much.  I finally just told him if he can get over the little thigns that I do or the things that bug him then he will never had a good companionship.  I dont think he fully understands that concept yet but Im sure it will take a few more hard companionships for him to realize that he was in the wrong.  Im hoping the best for him and Im trying to teach him well but we will see.

Ive been happy and Ive been working hard and Im going to continue working hard for the next year.  Im completing a year this thursday and it seems like just a few weeks that Ive been here.  The other day in a lesson I was teaching and I stopped and thought how amazing it was that I understood every word the person had just said to me and how I was ablo to respond right away.  I really have been blessed in being able to speak the language.  I may have an american accent just like all the other american missionaries but its just amazing how Im able to be a missionary in another country.  

Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Ty Peck