Last 100 Days

Hello family and friends,

Here is a picture from Semana Santa where men are carrying crosses in reenactments of Christ’s crucifixion.

Nice to hear from you. Sounds like things are going good back home. Can´t believe Patrick goes home in less than a month!!! Yes, there have been more earthquakes...seems like they are happening every week now. They are very small here though, because we are just feeling the aftershock. But a lot of the people here are started to get all panicky if you even mention the word earthquake...I´m not too worried though. However, I´m a little worried about the Lakers haha. Looks like they´re gonna have their work cut out for them this year in the playoffs. We´ll see what happens.

So, this past week went pretty well. We had 4 baptisms. One was a member reference and his name is Michel. He is 22 years old and is a really nice guy, he was really excited to get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost in his life. The other 3 were one family. Claudia, Mireya (Claudia’s daughter) and Adamary  (Miyeya’s daughter). Mireya was not married, so we read the Proclamation to the World to Mireya and her husband Miguel and we helped them understand the importance of marriage.  On Saturday, we took them down to get married. They drove us in their car down to the marriage office where we always send the people to get married and on Saturday they were married.  The original plan was for Miguel to get baptized with his wife as well, but he got cold feet about the baptism. So we are going to keep working with him this week so that the whole family can be united. They are a really great family though. We´re really excited for the progress that they are making to become an eternal family someday.

In the marriage office I saw just how blessed I am to be serving in the mission I am in. President Villarreal has helped us all understand a little bit better how to represent Jesus Christ in the way that we should. Dressing the right way, speaking respectfully, and just having a good image for everyone else to see...the apostle hairstyle and all. There in the marriage office we saw some Elders from other missions...with spiked hair, chewing gum, sleeves rolled up, and they just threw off a different vibe than the missionaries that I am used to seeing. It was kind of a shock to my system. I´m glad to say that I am in the West mission and I´m glad for the changes that President Villarreal has done in the mission, even if I do have to comb my hair to the side haha.

This week I started to read Jesus the Christ and the New Testament during my personal study for the 2nd time...hoping to come to know my Savior Jesus Christ and the many things he did for me even more. I know that He is our Savior and he desires that we can be like him (3 Nephi 27:27), and as we repent daily and do the things that He taught us, eventually we will be perfected in Him (Moroni 10:32).

I love you and miss you all

And this is my joy

Elder Peacock

NYT Article on Missionaries

This is an excellent article on missionaries recently published in the New York Times.  Read it HERE. 

Semana Santa

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the emails. The time is going so fast!! Patrick goes home in a month! I can´t believe it. Haven´t really thought about Mother´s Day too much because to be honest I didn´t even realize it was soo close. I imagine I will be in a different area (probably my last area) at that time so I can´t give you any specifics yet. The changes are on the 30th. But I will keep you updated.

Sorry, I didn’t really take any pictures this last week, but in the next email I will try to include some.

This week went pretty well. We worked really hard, but it was a little more difficult this week than normal because of the Semana Santa (Holy Week). But yeah, I don´t know if you remember from last year but it´s pretty crazy. They reenact the death and resurrection of Jesus, like literally. People train and volunteer themselves to be Jesus, and they actually have him carry a cross and they hang him up on the cross and everything. I´ve heard that in some places in Mexico they even actually nail them to the cross.  They do it as a demonstration of their faith, though it seems sacrilegious to me.  And apart from that, almost EVERYONE goes out of town. They go visit all of their family members and stuff like that, so it was a week with some struggles. However, Elder Jensen and I worked hard and we were able to get 6 people to church for their first time, and we should have a lot of people to work with this coming week. Two of them need to get married, and we invited them last night but they were going to talk about it so we´ll see what happens.

The weeks are going faster and faster now. It´s crazy. 15 left. I´ve got to start running because the finish line is in sight.

I know that I love being a missionary and I love being in the service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Love you and miss you all.

And this is my joy,
Elder Peacock

El Apartamento de Puerta Grande

Justin sent pictures of his current apartment.  Have I mentioned that Mexicans are BOLD when it comes to color?

y, el baño…

Happy April

[Email Dated April 2, 2012]

Hello everyone,

It was another good week here in Puerta Grande. Sorry to hear about your problems with the gardener, Mom. You´re probably just gonna have to tell him to cut it out. I´m sure he´ll get the idea even if he doesn´t understand English that well.  Because, that´s just ridiculous. Now, while they do greet with the kiss here, just tell him that he´s in the United States and that you don´t do that here. He´ll understand. If not, just have Bryce take him out.

Also, I am super jealous that you all got to go to conference!! As normal, I just watched the Sunday sessions (missed Elder Holland again!! Dangit). We took people to the conference of Saturday, but we just had to drop them off at the church and then keep working. It´s like cruel and unusual punishment for a missionary to not let them watch conference. I did enjoy the Sunday sessions though. Lot of really good talks. I got to watch them in English as well which is always way better. The translators just don´t do it for me, although as a fun fact Elder Scott and Elder Christofferson do their own Spanish translations so everyone does get to hear their voices in Spanish. My favorite talk was by Elder Christofferson, followed closely by President Monson and President Uchtdorf. The afternoon session had a TON of focus on the family. I always think it´s cool when they all talk about the same thing, when you consider the fact that they all pray and fast to decide on a topic and they don´t discuss previously with anyone else what they are going to talk about. That´s called revelation.

Congrats as well to Luke [Tyler’s roommate just received his mission call to Argentina-Mendoza.  Luke is the younger brother of Justin’s BYU roommate, Patrick, who is currently serving in Argentina-Salta]. Luke and Pat will both be talking with their Argentinian accents and drinking their Mate (this weird grass drink) and taking siestas. That´ll be funny. And just so Uncle Dave knows, Mexican Spanish is better [Uncle Dave served his mission in Spain]. We don´t talk with a lisp (c and z) haha.

So, the biggest thing that happened this week was that my streak was broken. Until Sunday I had gone my ENTIRE mission waking up on time EVERY SINGLE DAY. NEVER, did I wake up later than 630. President Villarreal was aware of this and he told me I had the record. I thought I was going to go my whole mission and then....Sunday happened. We had the time change here in Mexico on Saturday night. I always use my cell phone as my alarm. And I assumed that the time would change on the cell phone as I slept. Wrong. I woke up at 630 according to my cell phone, only to soon find out that the time did not change on the phone so I had really awakened at 730. I felt pretty bummed. I really wanted to go my whole mission waking up on time. The time change got me. President told me that he wanted me to call him the day the streak got broken...so I called him, he didn’t answer, so I sent him a message. He informed me that he wouldn´t send me home...and that now I have the opportunity to start a new streak. So that was a bummer...but it´s all good.

Sunday, we had 2 baptisms. Paulina and her son Luis Enrique. They were prepared by the Lord big time....they were the miracle I talked about in my last letter. Paulina told us that she was completely convinced that what we taught was the truth after meeting us for the 1st time 3 days earlier!! She would also say "Es que Somos bien faciles para convencer" or we are very easy to convince. I told her that means she has a lot of faith in the Lord and that she is meek and humble as a little child, willing to submit herself to the will of her Father (see Mosiah 3:19). They are really great people and I know that they will continue to grow and progress in the Church of Jesus Christ.

 

Well, I only have 16 weeks left. The time is getting short. I love you and miss you all. Thanks for all of your love and support. Hope you enjoy the pictures!! The one with all the people is a lot of the members of the ward in between the conference sessions, everyone brought food and it was a big Lunch. Lots of fun.

And this is my joy

Elder Peacock