Hard Work Brings Success

 

Hello Family and Friends,

Thanks for all the emails and love and support. A minor change. I Will be going home the 26th OF JULY, not the 25th. President changed it so we would have one day to go to these really cool pyramids that are outside the mission, which will be way fun...so plan on THURSDAY the 26th (5 months from yesterday). 

La Cazadora

As for the week. Another really good week FULL of hard work. Elder Long and I are really focused and we work really well together...we are both coming close to the end of our missions, so we know that our time is limited, and I think that is partly what is motivating us this change. We taught 37 lessons, found 20 new investigators and were blessed with another 2 baptisms. The Lord is really blessing us for our hard work. Every Sunday night, we get home absolutely BEAT. But it is the best feeling in the world knowing that you gave it all during the week. This week we have another 4 investigators with baptismal date so we are hoping to have another successful week. Really, I am loving the work right now.

Today we`re going to go down to the Mixcoac church and play sports with the zone, and afterwards we are going to go down to Costco to eat, print some pictures and shop a little. Being in the city is a little bit different than the state. It is a lot like Chamapa where I was before...but we use the subway a lot more here to go from area to area when we do interviews. Also, there are just a lot more people here...there are people EVERYWHERE. I don`t think we will ever come close to talking to them all.

El Angel

I am loving the work...we are getting lost in it. My time is limited and I want to make the most of the time I have while I am here. I love the Lord and His work, and I am grateful for all of your love and support. Hope you all have a good week and enjoy the pictures.

And this is my joy,

Elder Peacock

 

 

Translation:  peeing prohibited

Miracles

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the emails and all of the support. It made me sad to hear that Grandma Virginia passed away this past week, and my prayers go out to all of her family. She will be missed, she was one of the most hardcore Lakers fans I knew!!!

It makes me very happy to know that there is more after this life and that we all have the opportunity to live together forever in God´s presence through his Gospel. To anyone that feels pain after losing a love one, I promise you that Jesus Christ can heal your wounds. He suffered so much so that he would know how to relieve us of our pains (Alma 7:11-12). Pray often, come closer to Him and I know that you will find the comfort that you are looking for, because I have seen it countless times on my short time here in Mexico with many of the people that I teach.

But thanks for all of the other updates, excited to see pics of Bryce doing shotput. I bet he´s getting really strong. Also, glad to hear that the Lakers are doing a little bit better. And I know...19 months tomorrow!! can you believe that? The time is flying. It just goes faster and faster as the mission goes on. And yes, the Carl’s Jr. food tastes exactly the same, I´m pretty sure they import it all. The double western combo with crisscut fries and medium coke with the oreo shake cost me 150 pesos. So it´s probably a little more expensive than in the states. Also, it’s REALLY expensive for food here--you can buy lunch at a little food place for like 35 pesos. But its nothing like good old Carl’s Jr.

This week was a miracle filled week for sure in our area, and a little bit stressful at the same time. We had a really sure baptismal date this week, her name was Janet. She was super excited for her baptism...then all of a sudden...we can´t find her for 3 days in a row and her daughter in law tells us that she got really sick and went to stay at her brother`s house and wasn’t going to be back for at least a week.... After getting the news, Elder Long and I for some reason both had the same thought pop into our heads (THE SPIRIT), that we should pass by and visit a guy named Juan Antonio. He had gone to church two weeks ago and was going to get baptized but we couldn´t find him at all since he went to church, so we had kind of given up with him. It was late and Juan lived far away from where we were...but we went to find him. We found him, and he accepted baptismal date for Sunday!!! He was baptized on Sunday...definitely a miracle.

Next miracle. We got a referral from our ward mission leader on Thursday for a girlfriend of a member that has been to church 4 or 5 times. We went on Friday to teach her. If she wasn´t prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel, I don´t know who is! She accepted to get baptized the very next day!! She was baptized on Saturday, but after a stress filled morning. Our ward mission leader went in the morning to start filling up the font...but there was no water!! apparently someone had stolen the pipes and the valves to the water (Why would they even want that?). So we had to think fast, we called the missionaries of the church closest to us, in Mixcoac (about a half an hour away) and asked them to fill up the font but they didn’t have keys to the church. They got someone from their ward to open the building for them and when they went to the office to get the keys to the baptismal font...they weren’t there either!! Someone from another ward had taken them. As Elder Long and I left the house we said a prayer just asking that everything would go well with the baptism. Right after we said the prayer and left the house, the missionaries from Mixcoac called us and said that someone just showed up to the church with the keys. They filled up the font and everything went as planned. All of Cristian´s (the girl that got baptized) family went to the baptism and they aren´t members of the church, so it was also a great introduction to the church for all of them.  It was a really great baptism.

So we were very blessed this week--on Thursday at 8 at night we didn´t have anyone with baptismal date.  By Friday at 12 we had 2 people to be baptized that we never would have even guessed. The Lord works in mysterious ways...but always blesses us when we work hard and have faith that we can accomplish our goals. Elder Long and I have a goal to baptize 2 people every week this change.  We failed the 1st week, but we know that as we keep working the Lord will provide a way for us to accomplish our goals, just like he did this week.

After all that, we are EXHAUSTED!! haha so today will be kind of a lazy Pday, not anything too exciting, but I´m sure in the coming weeks we will do more cool stuff downtown.

Love you and miss you all.

And this is my joy,

Elder Peacock

Double Bacon Cheeseburger and a Milkshake

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the emails and all of the news.

Some pics of the part of our area where we live (all those houses below where the pic is taken is named el queso or the cheese).

As for the week, it was fun. It`s always fun your first week in a new area because it`s all just kind of a new experience. Puerta Grande reminds me a lot of Chamapa. Even though Chamapa isn’t in DF technically, they are very similar. Hills and hills of ugly grey concrete houses--People everywhere!!

As you can see from the map, we are a pretty close to Palmas (where the mission office is) and Downtown Mexico City. It`s fun being in DF.

We worked SUPER hard this week and it was a blast. Taught 30 lessons, had a baptism, 3 confirmations, 10 new investigators and 200 contacts. We were running everywhere and it was a lot of fun. We travel using the subway a lot too which is a change.

 

 

Today, P-day, was really fun too. We went down to this huge market in the city and there are TONS of cool handmade Mexican stuff...bought the family wrestling masks, one for everyone. [Gosh, can’t tell you how excited I am for that!!!] I`m probably gonna buy a ton of stuff there before I leave....handmade chess and backgammon sets with Aztec/Mayan designs, toys, knit sweaters and ponchos, knickknacks, etc. It was great. I feel like Grandma Nancy would have LOVED it.

We also went and got some Carls Jr. I haven’t had it in 15 months and never did a legit milkshake, crisscut fries and a double western burger taste so good.

Well I`m out of time, spent a lot of the time sending the pics....hope you have a good week, love you and miss you all

And this is my Joy

Elder Peacock

Also...a tree RIGHT in the middle of the road, which I thought was hilarious.

Leaving Metepec

These are from the last week in Metepec—I didn’t send them last week.

The buckle on this belt is made out of an actual ALLIGATOR head...cost like 1000 pesos.  I didnt buy it.

Pictures of the zone and some of the missionaries on the day of transfers.

Elder Holm and Elder Decker [on the left above] right before they went to the offices of the mission right before they went home. Two great missionaries.

[Right picture:  Elder Green & Elder Peacock, companions]

Elder Peacock

DF…finally there.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the letters...Yes, we did get trashbags haha, and cleaned all that up.

Can´t believe how fast the time is going.

Ok, so, another transfer came and flew by. Elder Green and I had a blast together. We got along great...a lot in common. But, we didn´t have a ton of success. We struggled a little bit and didn´t have the type of success that we wanted to have. We worked hard, but sometimes that´s just how it happens.  We didn´t like it though. Saturday night I received the news that I would be changing areas. I am now in Puerta Grande (Big Door in English) in the zone/stake of Tacubaya. I will still be serving as a zone leader, and my new companion is named Elder Long. He is from Sandy, Utah and has the same amount of time in the mission as Elder Green and Elder Rowley (my last 2 companions). He seems cool and we should have a fun change together. The zone of Tacubaya is all in DF. Zocalo (the downtown of DF where I have those pictures, with the huge Catholic church) is in our zone. There are a couple of rich areas...but most of them are pretty poor, mine being one of them (at least from what I can tell right now). It reminds me a little bit of Chamapa, where I was before. A lot of people have said that Puerta Grande is the best area in all of the mission and that Tacubaya is the best zone. It has a lot of fun stuff to do and it usually baptizes a lot of people.  So, I am super excited to finally be in DF and be in an area where we can see a ton of success. It should be a great change.

Just yesterday, I said goodbye to a few missionaries that are going home on Wednesday. They looked a little bit in shock, and its weird to think that they are going home. Both of them are some of my old zone leaders and one of them was the AP for a while. It´s crazy how fast the time goes. I was forced to ask myself, will I be ready to go home?   I don’t think that I will be. It will be hard and everything goes by just so fast. I only have 4 transfers left...I will probably only have one more area after this one. I just want to lose myself in the work for this little time I have left and ¨leave it all on the field¨ so I go home with no regrets.

I love being a missionary, and this is my joy.

I miss you and love you all.

I´ll send pics next week!

Love, Elder Peacock