Record Breaking Week

[Email dated Sept. 26, 2011]

Hello family and friends,

I´d just like to start off with the letter that was in my email from President Villarreal when I signed in:

Mis Estimados Elderes y Hermanas,

Es con mucho gozo que les aviso que esta semana pasada tuvimos 98 bautismos y este mes terminamos con 303 bautismos (y en un mes con 4 semanas) y aproximadamente 285 confirmaciones.  Ustedes hicieron una gran obra!!   La Hermana y yo estamos muy complacidos con ustedes por el gran trabajo que están haciendo.   Sigan firme.  Les amamos y oramos por ustedes y su éxito siempre.  Presidente Villarreal

So, I guess I didn`t remember that it was in Spanish when I copied it over. [This is funny to me that he doesn’t realize it’s in Spanish!!]   BUT, it says that we had 98 baptisms in the mission yesterday (the most we have ever had in a week... previous record 89) and that we baptized 303 people in September (which only had 4 weeks to baptize instead of 5) and confirmed 285. So yeah, needless to say, we are all pretty stoked...it only makes us think what we can do next month (5 weekends!).

I just wanted to start off with that and let you all know how much the Lord truly is blessing us down here in Mexico and that there are tons of people ready and waiting to receive the Gospel.

This past week was OK. We worked hard and found a lot of new people. Unfortunately, we were not able to have any baptisms last weekend though...the people that we were hoping to baptize all fell off date for one reason or another. BUT, on the bright side, we do have 2 people with a baptismal date for this weekend, which is General Conference weekend!

Elder Mora has been sick for about 4 days now. [TMI ALERT! ] He has a bunch of phlegm in his throat and he is always spitting phlegm into tissue paper throughout the day.  It’s kinda weird to me, I`ll be honest.   I`ve never seen anybody with that problem before but he says it has happened to him before. He has also been gagging with all of the flem and has even thrown up a few times.  So hopefully that will go away soon. [um, some of the finer details have been redacted.  Nobody needs to know that.]

On Thursday, we had a training for the District Leaders at the office which was pretty fun. We learned a lot of stuff to help us have more success as a mission. After the training, we ate tacos and cake and then went back to work. It`s fun to see all the guys from the other zones that I don`t get to see very much. Elder Juker and Elder Duffin from the MTC were there so it was cool to get to catch up a little bit with them.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. Just working hard in the work of the Lord. Nothing`s better.

I know that this gospel is true and I am so excited for this coming weekend and the opportunity to listen to our modern day prophet and apostles. I know that they truly are inspired leaders that receive revelation from our Heavenly Father. What they say is important and if we listen with an open heart...they will say something that will touch our hearts and give us the direction that we need in our lives. So, lets listen attentively to their words this weekend.  [To hear or view General Conference session, click HERE].

Crazy to think that a year ago I was there in person for General Conference. I don`t even get to go to ANY of the Saturday session this weekend...we will be working like any other Saturday. So I will definitely take advantage of the 2 sessions I get to watch on Sunday. 

Next Monday we have changes...so it is very possible that I will be writing you from a new area in a week....its actually pretty probable. So I will be sure to fill you all in on that in a week.

Love you and miss you all.
And this is my joy
Elder Peacock

Pizza, Remember the Titans, and Baptisms

[Email dated September 19, 2011]

Hey,

So I know we just talked like 3 days ago...but it was a REALLY good couple of days. Probably about the exact opposite of the BYU football game.  As you can tell from the headline...pizza, remember the titans , and baptisms...does that sound like a good weekend or what? haha.

As for the cooking, [I had asked him if he cooks and is he learning to cook his favorite Mexican dishes?] yeah I cook all the time. Cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, grilled cheese, quesadillas, and occasionally some scrambled eggs. I´m thinking about trying out for that Hell´s Kitchen show when I get back . Hahaha Maybe I should learn how to cook Mexican Food in the last 10 months of my mission.  Changes are 2 weeks from today...on the 3rd of October. 

As for the last 3 days. It was great. After I wrote you on Thursday, we met in the chapel, ate some Costco pizzas and then we watched Remember the Titans as a zone. We had a projector, speakers and everything. It was so great. Afterwards, we had some fun taking some pictures (see post below)... and then we were in our houses by 9. Throughout the night you could hear fireworks being set off constantly, accompanied by drunk people yelling and singing. And apparently a lot of people shoot their guns in the air, but I think that I fell asleep before that started to happen. 

Friday, we had P-day. We played some soccer (I´m getting better), and did some shopping at Wal Mart. Pretty normal P-day, nothing too eventful happened. 

Saturday, we had the baptismal service of Rafael. He is a super nice guy that went to church on his own and we started teaching him this past week. He even gave us some old school soccer jerseys which is pretty sweet. He said something during the week that really touched me. He was talking about when Jesus said to his apostles that by this they shall know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34-35)...and then he told us that he knew that what we said was true because he could feel that love that we have for him....that was something that was really special to me and I hope that I can continue to develop love for the people that I teach so that they can all feel that way.

On Sunday, we had the baptismal service of Juan Antonio, who is the brother of Araceli (baptized July 3), Erika (baptized July 10), Veronica (baptized July 23), and Elias (August 21). Haha one by one, we keep working with the family and they are really a special family and I hope that we can help the rest of the family receive the gospel in their lives...there are only like 3 more I think. 

And today, we went to downtown for a little. Didn´t find anything too exciting. Bought a couple 10 peso ties...one of them being a crazy ugly hair tie. It even feels ugly. Maybe I´ll get a picture with it this week...I think its uglier than the one that I sent Jordan...but oh well. 

Anyways...that was the great couple of days I had down here in Mexico. Love you all so much and pray for you each and every day. I know that Christ lives and that He is my Savior and Redeemer, and I feel blessed to share that message with the Mexican people. I hope you all have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon.

And this is my joy (alma 29:9)

Elder Peacock 

El Bigote ha Regresado

Justin sent these pictures from their Mexican Independence Day celebration…

Ahhh…how Justin enjoys fake mustaches (bigotes)…

It’s spreading…

And then, like a wildfire…

Remember this picture from Salt Lake (2010)?:

And from BYU days (2009):

Gee…common denominator here…?

We always want what we cannot have (or grow).

Happy Mexican Independence Day!

[Email Dated September 15, 2011]

Hey,

Good to hear that things are going good back home, and for Elder Peacock in the MTC. Tell him not to worry about Spanish...it WILL come. talk it as much as you can because that’s how you start to remember things, like words and phrases.  

This week we had an amazing experience. On Friday and Saturday, everything was falling through....EVERYTHING. People that were really starting to progress told us they didn’t want anything and that they were ok with what they had. I was feeling down. Almost like all the work we had been doing in the whole area for the whole change just kind of collapsed in a few short days. I studied patience and hope a lot at night because I really did feel pretty low.  Our area was looking weak. On Saturday I started a fast...just asking the Lord to bless us with something good in the area. On Sunday, my prayers were answered. We had 7 people go to church...4 of them for the first time. Which is a really good number when you consider that we live 30 minutes away from the church and that it starts at 9 in the morning.

But the Lord blessed us with even more than that.

After sacrament meeting, one of our investigators, Mauricio, approached us and asked if we could talk. Earlier in the week he had told us that he wanted to wait to get baptized. He then told us that he was thinking about it and he decided that he wanted to get baptized. Our jaws dropped. It was almost like a dream. We went with him real quick to get his clothes and we had his baptismal service after church. So amazing. Our area changed in just one day to everything falling through, to tons of people progressing and a baptism. And it was because we worked with diligence and patience and put our trust in the Lord. 

I love you all, my time is up, but I will write more on Monday.

And this is my joy 

Elder Peacock

The REAL Mexican Independence Day

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the emails and letters. I really do enjoy hearing how everything is going back at home and hearing about all the new stuff that is happening. Good to hear that Tyler is loving college...even if I am way jealous cuz his room is WAY cooler than ours (Big screen TV, XBox, nicer couch, higher beds etc) [Clarification:  Tyler’s BIG screen, aka the one his roommate brought, is 22”, just for the record]. Also good to hear that Bryce is tearing it up as a tackle...and I am praying that Saugus is not the first Foothill team to be beaten by GV...how embarrassing would that be

Ok so I`ll start off with some kinda cool news. Next week is Mexican Independence Day.   Despite popular belief, it is not May 5th (just some day when they won a battle or something), but it is September 15th. This past week, people starting selling Mexican flags on the street and it seems like everyone is buying one...they are on houses, cars, stores etc....we even saw some red white and green lightbulbs on a house. I`ll probably end up buying myself a huge flag to put up in the apt at BYU when I get back since this will be my best opportunity to buy one before I go.  I`m thinking that this day is going to be pretty crazy. Due to the holiday, we will have a different work schedule next week. Monday will not be P-day...So I WILL NOT BE WRITING ON MONDAY (just so you don’t worry, mom). We will work until Thursday. Thursday (the 15th) from 4-9 we will be together as a zone in one of the chapels. And we get to watch a movie!! Not just any movie, Remember the Titans!!!! It’s gonna be great. Normally that wouldn’t be that exciting.  I think you would have to be a missionary to truly understand just how exciting that is haha. So that’s what well do on Thursday and on Friday (the 16th) we will have our P-day like normal. SO I WILL NOT BE WRITING AGAIN UNTIL THE 16TH OF SEPTEMBER (just so you don’t go calling the President ).  [As IF.  OK, OK, I got it the first time he wrote it!!]

As for the week, it went pretty well.  It was a little bit frustrating though. We had a lady that was planning on getting baptized on Sunday, but due to health problems, she left town and went to live with her daughter far away. So she didn`t get baptized. We actually found another person during the week that was also going to get baptized, but that fell through as well. Kind of rough, but with that being said, I was very happy with the work we did this past week. We taught 33 lessons, found 9 new people to teach, and also had 5 people in church with us. Bringing people to church is really the hardest part of this area that I am in due to the fact that church starts at 9 in the morning and the chapel is half hour away in convey (14 seater van that we all cram ourselves in to get around...works like a bus....you get in and pay as you get out, and every convey has a route). Usually we have 1 or 2 people in church with us...so I think with 5, we should have a lot of people to work with in the coming weeks. People usually love the church too. They go and really do feel the Spirit and it really gives them the desire to continue keeping commitments with us. So I am excited for the weeks that lie ahead...especially this next week. 

The weather has still been the same. Rainy/sunny. It actually poured yesterday and I got pretty wet....but whatever. I`m a man. 

I love being a missionary and I am super excited to continue working here in Mexico. The people here are so prepared to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In August the mission finished with 260 baptisms....and it`s exciting how much the work is moving along. On Wednesday...I will be thinking of the newest Elder Peacock, and I know that I will feel extremely happy to know that the Peacock family will have TWO missionaries in the world. I`m excited for you Jordan, take advantage of your time in the MTC because it will lay a foundation for the rest of your mission, and I promise you that as you work hard, you will receive the most satisfaction from your mission. Always do things to show the Lord your diligence and your willingness to work, even if its something not that fun to do (like knock doors in the pouring rain when your appointments fall through). As you show your diligence, patience, and obedience, The Lord will lead and guide you and to do things that didn`t seem possible. Love you cuz....Enjoy every moment of it...it goes fast. 

Thanks for everything and talk to you in 11 days!! Love you and miss you!!

And this is my joy

Elder Peacock

PS  I got a wedding invitation from Elder Coulston today (my first companion in Salt lake, AKA my daddy) and he’ll be getting married on the 16th...so congrats to him as well!!