PROSPERO AÑO NUEVO

Happy New Year!


This week was fantastic.  I had the chance to talk with my family and see their faces, which was the best.

Also, we found several new investigators. We are now teaching a family that wants us to help them overcome alcohol, and several new people who are interested in our message.  We are getting better and improving everyday and were working hard to find even more people to teach.

The other elders in our sector had a baptism this week.  We brought a couple of our investigators and the Spirit was really strong.

I gave a talk this Sunday about living by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  I'm not sure how that phrase works in English, but preparing the talk helped me grow my testimony of the living prophets.  What a blessing it is that we have a living prophet, apostles, and leaders who hold the priesthood! Its amazing.

Anyway, have a great New years!

Feliz Navidad!

Hey!

So after a 7 hour long bus ride from the north limit of the mission, I am now as far south as our mission goes.  My sector is beautiful, a small town surrounded by mountains and pines, with a good German influence and lots of countryside.  The town is really tranquil and the members of the local congregation are really great.  We attend church in a small chapel close to our house and we have lunch with members about half the time during the week.

My companion is Elder M from Idaho.  He is way cool and got quite a bit more time than me in the mission.  I'm way stoked to work with him.

We are currently teaching a woman from Colombia.  She is way cool, understands our message well, and is waiting for an answer.  We are just praying that her work allows her to come to church, or that she changes her schedule to be able to come.  We are also teaching a family of three, two of which are members.  I still haven't had the chance to teach the mother, but she is very receptive and comes to church every Sunday.

Some interesting things this week. I skinned a sheep for the first time!  We just passed by the house of an investigator and he asked us to help him kill and skin this sheep.  We watched him kill it and then he had us skin it haha.

Also, we had a great Christmas activity.  Santa came, we shared testimonies, sang carols, and watched several Church Christmas messages.

We also found a really cool family who let us in to show them the He is the Gift video.  We are excited about them and will see how it goes in the future.

God loves us and knows us personally.  As our actions show gratitude to Him and His Son, He quickly extends mercy to bless us.

Thank all of you so much for your support!  I got some cards and letters for Christmas and they made me so happy. Thanks for thinking of me and for sending them!  Thanks so much for those and for your prayers and emails.  Have a great Christmas!

Transfers

Hey,

So I'm getting transferred!  I'm heading way down south to be with an American companion and I'm way stoked.  I'm looking forward to it a lot, even though I'll miss this sector.

Also, I have 11 months in the mission today, which is cool!

Other than that, nothing much happened this week.  We had a ward family history activity which was cool and were able to talk to tons of people.  We worked hard, and are pleased with what we were able to accomplish.

The only spiritual thing that I can add today is that prayer and diligent scripture study are awesome and provide great strength.  Also, God answers prayers.  Never leave aside your prayers and study. Faith is manifest through actions, and often the action required is simply a diligent continuation. Often we feel like it requires us to do something new or different to manifest our faith. Just keep going.  Just continuing may be our act of faith. It may be simple, but by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Alma 37:6

Love y'all and hope all is well.

Elder Peck

Nother Week

Hey,

So this week went well.  Nothing too out of the usual.   We talked with tons of people and found several new investigators.

Sadly one of our investigators, R, had a rough week.  We went to teach him one day and his wife was leaving to take her friend home.  We met the friend as they were leaving.  We taught R the Plan of Salvation, specifically why we are here on earth.  The wife returned home after we left.  However we learned later that her friend had been hit by a train and died on her way home.  We are praying a lot for them and your prayers would also be appreciated.

We also had an investigator who had been progressing really well drop us this week.  It was out of the blue and we weren't sure why. It's sad but we still have hope that one day she'll accept.

Other than that the week went well. We are working better as a companionship and things are going well.

I learned and am still learning about the importance of prayer and study.  If we want to come closer to Christ, a great place to start is with faithful prayer and diligent scripture study.  Those two things, added with weekly Church attendance and Sabbath Day observance,  will help us find direction, peace, and many of the answers we are seeking. If you dont know where to start, start there.  Pray with more faith and improve your scripture study.

 God loves us and just wants us to come unto Christ. As a good Father, He know what we need and what will make us happy.  Thats why He gaves us His Son.  Go watch the video He is the Gift.  Its awesome.
http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Elder Peck

Another Week in Chile

So this week was good.  They don,t do Thanksgiving here, but we still had a good day.  Several good things happened this week.  We worked with the Assistants to the President and had a good day with them.  We worked hard and learned some new things to apply to our work. We played soccer and had a zone attack in another sector.  I played a guy in chess on the sidewalk and we went to a big birthday meal with an investigator.  All good stuff.

Also, we met with a couple of our investigators again.  We committed one new investigator to baptism and we are excited about that.  Her name is A and she seems like she will be able to progress really well.  Also, our investigator A is progressing well.  She really wants to get baptized and is taking steps towards it.  She just needs to come to church and we will be good to go.

The whole time I have been in this sector I have been learning more and more about faith.  Faith is a belief in something that is true but unseen, which causes us to act.  It comes from hope: hope for a "better world," hope that God will answer prayers or perhaps simply that good things will come.  This hope and faith become our motivation.  It helps people overcome their doubts, putting their confidence in Gods knowledge and wisdom instead of their own.  Things will make sense one day if they don't make sense now.  As our investigators do that, they really do see the results of thier faith, and quickly.  It is really amazing.

I know that this is the true church of God and that He lives.  God hears us and answers our prayers.

Elder Peck