Fantastic Week

Hey!

This week was super awesome.  Our mission president came to our house to do interviews and we had a great conversation with him and his wife.  We worked hard and saw several miracles. 

Heavenly Father answers prayers.  We truly can follow the counsel, ask and ye shall receive.  God wants to answer our prayers and give us want we righteously and faithfully ask for. It works! Try it.  Ask in faith and trust in God and His will. He will answer your prayers.

Elder Peck

¡bautismo!

Hey!

So this week J was baptized! It was a great experience.  He was a little nervous before, even tho 100% committed to following Christ, but he had a huge smile on his face when he came out of the water, and almost shouted when he told me how great he felt.  The next day in sacrament meeting he was confirmed and he cried after the blessing.

Its been a great experience to teach him and to discover that God really does prepare people to come unto Him.  All of us can do it, however there are several people who are ready and waiting to accept it now.

It was a great week too.  We went on exchanges with the whole zone and I worked with my zone leader in his sector.  It went well and I learned a lot.  This week also the lights went out in our apartment so we broke out the candles and did our nightly numbers by candlelight.  The next day when the lights came back out, we turned them off and lit the candles again because it was so cool haha.

This week I learned a bit more about relationships.  We all work with people everyday and strive to have a good relationship with them, good communication, and mutual respect.  One thing that I have learned is that when you hold your standard of behavior and the way you treat people at the level that God has set it, you are able to work with others better.  But you have to be true to that standard.  Others will know that your standard is the Lords.  They will respect that and understand more why you do things, why you make certain decisions, and why you are the way you are.

Also, when working directly with people, it helps to have the same focus or goal. If that goal or focus is serving God, those who have that focus will get along great and will understand their differences.  They end up serving each other and treat others with tolerance and charity.

When talking with people on the street, teaching them in their homes, or working with my companion, Ive noticed that if one focuses too much in pleasing or not offending the other person, its hard.  But if you are committed and loyal to God and they know that you are there to serve Him and them as well, the communication is more natural and things go better.  I'm not sure if that made any sense, I hope so.  Moral of the story is that if you want to work better with people. devote yourself to your Heavenly Father and His commandments.

Have a great week! Hasta luego

Elder Peck

February

Fishing like a Chilean

District

Fishing

Temuco

Zone

Hey!

So this week went really well.  We are more than excited for one of our investigators, J, who is preparing to get baptized in two weeks.  He is really excited and we are doing all we can to help him get there! It really has been a blessing from our Heavenly Father to be able to find and work with J.  We are blessed and doing our best to thank Him for the chance to teach J.

Anyway, this week went well.  We've had some ups and downs: one of our investigators dropped us, but J is progressing great.  But as always things are moving forward.

I've recently been reading two great books: Our Search for Happiness and Jesus the Christ.  The first one I recommend to all who are not members of the Church.  Its really short and really great about explaining our beliefs and establishing understanding between religions.

In Jesus the Christ I read a quote that about how service to God is as much of an honor as it is a duty.  We should treasure the opportunity we have to serve God while we recognize it as our duty.  I have learned much more about my Savior and his life and sacrifice in my study, and I am very grateful to Him for all He has done for us.  Jesus is the best example for us to follow.  The way He lived His life is the way we should try to live ours: standing up for righteousness, loving and serving others, working hard and doing good.  Let's be more like Christ, live how He lived, as well as thank Him for what He did.

Thanks for everything!

Elder Peck

Lift Where You Stand

Hey!

So this week went really well.  We are really excited here because we have several great investigators, one of whom is planning on getting baptized soon.  We will be working hard with him and praying so that he is prepared and ready to do so.  The others are progressing great, coming to church, and we are finding new investigators weekly.  We are really grateful to the Lord for His blessings.

We recently read a talk as a mission about Lifting where you stand, as I believe it's called in English.  It's about serving God in whatever position He puts you in.  Often we are put in positions that we feel like are lower than what we are qualified or capable of, and often the Lord puts us in places in which we do not feel qualified or prepared.  We are to serve Him the best we can wherever we are.  The writer gave an example of a pen he would use.  He said that the pen would never complain about how it was used, whether it was used for important documents or for daily to do lists and unimportant tasks.  It wouldn't complain about when or where or why or how it was used.  It would work faithfully every time.  In this we we should serve God without complaint in whatever situation we are placed in.  In this way God accomplishes His work He has for His children and how He strengthens us individually.

Love you all and thanks for the birthday wishes! Have a great week!

Year 2 begins

Hey!

So I hit the year mark and I'm super pumped for year 2.  That day we had a great zone conference about 2 hours away from my sector with a couple other zones and President Bluth.  It was really great and they made some fairly significant changes for 2015.  As missionaries we report several numbers to our leaders to help them know what we are doing well and what we need help on.  We also do it help ourselves focus on the most important aspects of the work.  Before we would report more than 10 "Key Indicators" weekly and 5 daily.  Now we report 5 weekly and 2 daily.  Now we only report the number of people baptized and confirmed, the number of investigators who have a baptismal date and those who came to church, and the total attendance at sacrament meeting.  Its a different focus that the Area is doing, but I'm looking forward to using it.

Also big news.  We had a sweet mission activity this week! I got to see everyone in the mission, including all my past comps and lots of elders and sisters from my past zones and districts.  It was basically a big EFY.  We went to a summer campish place and played kickball, frisbee, volleyball, dodge-ball and other games, zones against zones. We had a big barbecue and we got to watch the movie Meet the Mormons! It was way cool.  They have it in Spanish now.  I also saw Hermana Treanor from my stake in McKinney, who is now serving in this mission which was way cool.  We traveled a ton that day and got home super late, but it was a great experience overall.

Elder Peck and Hermana Treanor

Other than this week this week has been pretty normal.  The gypsies tried to rob us, heard some crazy gospel dreams from people we contacted, and we went fishing (last Pday).

Trust is Christ, He will never fail us!

Thanks and have a great week!

Elder Peck

Almost a year

Coronel

Killing a sheep

Chapel in Coronel

Chapel in Loncoche

Coronel district

Hey!

So this week I get a year in the mission!

Anyway, so this week we found several new investigators that we are excited about.  We saw the hand of the Lord often this week and we are very grateful for it.

One of our investigators told us her parents' house burned down this week, so we told her we would help build a new one.  The next day we went way out into the countryside to the farm where their parents and grandparents live.  They gave us some breakfast and we started building the house.  My comp and I dug the holes for the tree trunk foundations they later put in and basically dug around the site all day, making room for the house itself. They gave us lunch, a bunch of chicken and sausage cooked on a huge metal disc.  It was fun.

So that was about it for this week.  My comp and I are working hard to find people to teach and to help those we currently teach to increase there faith.  Its going well and I'm learning more and more everyday.

Elder Peck

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!