I'M SO EXCITED!!!

There is a hurricane named sandy coming to L.I. and it might be huge and bad and stuff. I'M SO EXCITED!!!  zone 9 which is out on the end is coming to us, we're safe i guess where we are. and all the sisters are going to the mission home.  so i'll let you know if i'm alive after everything. we'll be staying inside for a few days. Pres says that once everything's done we gotta go out and get to work! sounds fun.  i'll let you know what's what in a few days. LOVE Y'ALL - bye -Elder Peck

and another one

now that it's monday we are able to leave and do stuff. but everything is closed. and we went down to the docks and the water has risen like a few feet so that it's on the street and we couldn't get that close to the real dock. like they were about 100 feet away. and we were in water.  i heard it's gonna raise 12 feet!  like we drove by and saw that the water was level with the ground. when normally it's down a few feet. it's cool i think.
   the bad part should hit pretty soon. around 3. we stayed in all last night, it was kinda really boring. we have another companionship from south shore with us, so it's not too bad. it might be a full day that we're stuck inside.  ya anyway. talk to ya later.

Hurricane Sandy !

From the New York, New York South Mission:

Dear Parents,

Hurricane Sandy is heading toward the boundaries of the New York New York South Mission.  The mission has an emergency plan in place and we have been planning and preparing for this specific hurricane for many days.  I am writing to update you on those plan.

Our plan is called Safe and Serve - Be Safe first and then go and Serve.

SAFE:  As of Sunday night, we have moved all 27 Sister missionaries into the mission home with our family. We have food and water a plenty and beds for everyone.  We also have access to a generator if needed.  Our 2 daughters are loving this.  The sleepover of a lifetime.

The subway and mass transit system closed down on Sunday night.  Prior to its closing, we moved all Staten Island Elders into high elevation apartments in Brooklyn or Queens.  We moved all other Elders living in low elevation apartments inland into high elevation apartments.  Everyone is moved as of last night and we will all be in doors and safe to wait out the storm.  Each missionary was instructed to purchase water and prepared foods for the apartments in case we lose power.  In addition all apartments have first aid kits, emergency radios and cell phones.  All cell phones will be charged continuously to prepare for a possible power outage.

We have a cell phone tree using text messaging set up through our District and Zone Leaders.  All companionships report in via the "tree".  We will have near real time updates on each missionary.  My Assistants are bunking in the Mission Office where we have land lines and other supplies.  The Mission Home and the Mission Office are set up as Command Centers.  In addition, the local Priesthood leaders have set up an emergency hotline linked to google maps so we will know the location of anyone in need.

SERVE: We all have our work clothes and  we will move out into the community after the storm to help with the clean up.  This will give us a chance to work side by side with the local New Yorkers. Our missionaries know how to work and this service will be a great opportunity to represent the Savior and give back to our fellowman.  We are here to save souls either physically or spiritually.

Most importantly, we know the the Lord loves our missionaries.  We love them so much as well.  He will keep them in the hollow of His hand and provide ways for us to serve.  Sister Calderwood and I are honored to being serving along side some of the best missionaries to ever serve.  Thank you for sending your sons and daughters to serve here.

Kindest Regards,

President and Sister Calderwood

New York New York South Mission

Letter dated Oct. 17, 2012

Family,

We're teaching a few people now, which is awesome!  But because transfer meeting is next week, there's no chance we'll get any baptisms this transfer.  But the other elders have one this Sunday.  A Creole lady named Noventa. "Lady" makes her sound old . . she's 18.

One lady we talked to today, Elizabeth, she gives us tons of fruit, and today she gave us hot chocolate with biscotti.  And she does ceramics.  Makes them, paints them, sells them.  She sold a 4' Virgin Mary statue for $1,000 a while ago, which is great because she's done selling and making those.  But she had it left over and some lady came by and bought it, right when Elizabeth needed the money.  It's a sweet story.  She's way cool. Now we just got to get her baptized before she moves to Costa Rica.

Lets see.. I was at the Schoenbecks last night, and I added myself through her facebook.   Her name is Jesika. and then I think Toni Mercado is going to add me. she asked me about it today.

An RM is visiting NY, so he's with King today, so I'm not with him again. I'm with Monestine, as always. also cuz he's leaving tomorrow! transfers ain't good to me so far.

ok so tell mom my house address is 1401 Saxon Ave, First Floor, Bay Shore, New York, 11706.  I don't really think the first floor matters when it has my name on it. but ok. but they tell us to send big stuff to the office so someone will always be there to hold onto it. where as if it's a bigun sent home, it could get stolen.

Theres' a Bacon Lane a few streets west of my house, I wanna get a pic of it. and there's a Peck Road in Islip. and there's a Peckham.. but also there's a Ferndale Ct. we drive by that sometimes. The Peck Road isn't in our area. there's also another one in the city. so it's good there's a closer one.

No one knows what's going to happen to our pool. with so many people leaving, and if they're gonna blend the districts like they had before I came. the Spanish and English together.

For christmas, idk where I'll be, but I'll probably be at a members' house and we can skype.. but I'll let you know more later.  I kinda wanna know how the basement looks like. like the storage room. and my room. and the bathroom, I guess mom finally finished that.

Sweet! more money! I think I forgot my pin number. I'll get it eventually. also, I did get my blanket. King is huge into crochet and stuff so he obsessed over it for a sec. when he finds things like that he freaks out about them. I want to ask for my army belt. the digi camo one. these jeans are falling a bit. and I only have my church belt. we're going to a thrift store today so I can look for some ugly ties, and maybe (if you can't find my belt) a new belt. I think I put it in a bag with my other belts. and idk where that bag is. I guess you'll have to go spelunking for it. Lok in those big boxes. oh and I'd like my blue n black beanie. the fuzzy one. It's getting cold and I can wear it while tracting.

Today is the last day before transfer meeting. It totally sucks! because we lost 6 people! there's Elders Johnson, Monestine, and Black. and Sisters Pagan, Reid, and Spalvena. It's quite sad. but that's how missions work. you get friends then once you are all good, THEY LEAVE!!!

Oh, so I was glad to get my sd card back, but I was sad it was empty... I should have thought to say something... but as long as you put some up on my blog, that would be cool. Thanks for all those cds. we liked one song on the sampler. and I forgot how good the Ink soundtrack is.

Thanks for the pic of Geoff and I. I need to write him, can you get his mission office address for me? look on his facebook. please.. I don't want to have to send it to the MTC and have them send it to him. that's what a friend did, and it got here 20 days later!

Remember to log me out of amazon.com when you or Hannah or someone gets on. I went on the other day and saw some new things in my cart.

I dont' have much to say.. so love ya bye-elder peck

ok ya I need some stuff. like money. it's getting cold now and i don't have ANYTHING warm. besides my blanket and pjs. but i'd like a jacket or coat to go over my suit. because it's suit season now. and we wear our suits all day. (except when driving) i guess i'm running out of money faster this month than before, because i started out this month with more than 200 dollars. so now i think i'm closer to 100. but it's good to have it, save it. keep it secret, keep it safe.

I'm at a church in Riverhead now. it's in zone 9 which is on the far east end of the island. we went to the beach to watch the sunrise. at 6 in the morning. that means we had to wake up at 3!!! and drive for 2 hours, then wait a while. but it was fun and good. i've seen better, but i guess the better part was because it was over the water, where everywhere else it's over mountains or trees..

ok so, funny thing.. well its' not that funny, but now it is.. a few days later.  we , i mean elder king, cuz he was driving, ran into a guy on his bike. because he was mexican, so dark skin, and he was wearing a black coat, and this was like at 7pm, so it was late and dark, and he was dark, and all that equals... we bumped into him, enough to keep him alive, but he had a limp, and his front tire was bent out of shape.

so we took him home and king gave him $80 for a new bike. so brian got in an accident and we hit a guy. haha  we think he was illegal cuz he didn't want the cops or anyone involved.

I'm with elders meza and black, with their spanish sisters, and some guys from here, in riverhead. we think meza and monestine will leave this transfer. cuz they've been here a while. meza for 4 and monestine for 3 transfers.

when did you send that care package? I wonder if I should go to transfer meeting to get it if it's there. I could call, or have someone bring it back. idk..

anyways, it's good to hear from yall. i'll try to take pics. I rarely take them. I need some of the district and my comp. 

on the way home from zone 9 i saw a ferrari 575, it was silver, i've seen a blue one in utah. also, i've seen a few of the newest wrx sti's subaru, like steven hardings, but not a hatchback. i realized a few days ago that i should've saved a copy of my mtc pics, but then i realized as well that i couldn't really do that then. oh well. i have a 4 gb thumb drive i got from bro schoenbeck. he just has a ton lying around. so i got it to copy pics over. i covered it in gorilla tape then put an avenger sticker on it. haha i gave some out already, like to a few in the mtc as well has here (the avenger stickers)

I can't wait for Halloween.  We have to be inside by 6 but I can't wait for the chili cook off on the 26th, because we are the judges. I know I already said this, but I love chili.  Hopefully there's corn bread too. I love free food.  That's the best part about the mission so far.  All the free food.  I need to buy more cheap nutella, ever since Gramma Judy said to mix it with peanut butter, that's all I've been doing.  I make toast and on one slice, I have just plain nutella, and on the other slice I have peanutella.  I called it that, haha.

The beach was cool this morning.  Not too cold, as I thought it would be.  Some said the water was warm too, but I didn't want to touch it.  I'll do that later when I'm wearing different clothes, and it's not almost winter.  If I ever get a chance next year.  There was a "Welcome to New York" sign and I took pics of it, but not of me with it.  Oh and the other elders we were with there, on the way like a few yards down the road from where we were, they hit and killed a bunny on the road, so they went back and took pics of it, ha.  There were also tons of dead deer on the side of the road that leads to the end of the island.  I heard that Montauk is like the furthest east you can go in the US. Ok nevermind, I just looked it up, but it's close. oh , k, if you look at the very end of the island, Orient Point is the northern part of the split, and Montauk is the south part.  We sat by the Cross Sound Ferry.  If I turned around I probably could've seen Connecticut.(?) So we drove all the way to the end, the other road, Point Rd, is private, so ya. pretty cool.  I hope I go to Montauk.  Everyone said it's cooler, like with the light house and all.

I just looked up how far away I am from Utah, it's like 2,300 miles. wow. and 3,000 miles between me and Brian. crazy.  Anyway, to say again, I need more money. idk how much though. but I gotta go do the rest of my pday things. I woke up at 3 and it's 1. ok LYB- elder C Peck.

(i'd say number one, but Brian left before me, so it's different now)

Ok sorry I didn't email yesterday, the internet was down at church. ya you can send everything to the mission office. it's better that way. then from there they forward it to our house. i don't know the address really, just that it's somewhere on Saxon Ave, first floor. but you don't have to worry about that. it's getting colder here but now that it's suit season I can wear them. but on pday I want normal clothes so I don't look weird wearing my gym shorts and running shoes. and yes, the money does transfer over. I was just freaking out cuz I didn't know what was really happening. so I just forgot everything I was gonna say. sooo...

Yesterday for the zone activity we all played dart wars which was super fun, we had tables set up on their sides in the gym and we all had pvc pipes to shoot the darts and it was way cool and fun. but I hurt my leg, like I guess I ripped the muscle so now it's pretty dead. it hurts to do anything with it.. and on the way home we passed by the ferrari place as always and the 458 italia was out side, yellow and AWESOME!!!! I freaked out a bit. but not as much as I would have at home cuz I've seen so many nice cars here that i'm dulled almost. but not so much that I didn't care about it. holy cow it was sweet!!

Today is deep cleaning and I drew from a hat bathroom. which is okay cuz that's all I did at home anyways. the only problem I think would be the rust ring from Elder King's shaving cream can. oh! we got a new investigator yesterday, well she was a referral from a friend. basically she is interested in the way her daughter is being raised. she put her daughter up for adoption idk how many years ago, so she's now in utah being raised mormon and she wants to know more. so we talked with her. she's cool, but she was a crazy druggie I think. she said she's trying to quit smoking and drinking. but we could tell that's not ALL she's done. so she's been through some rough patches, but wants to turn around. which is awesome!

So far being out on the island has made it so I can't eat real New York things, but a member in our ward owns a pizza place, I might have already said this, but they make some good NY style pizza! and I add Italian seasoning to it and it's good. it's thin crust and wide. so I have to fold it. but it's good. I want more now. haha

Oh ya conference was great. being out as a missionary I know now how to listen and pay attention. so my notes had more than usual. but I still had some drawings in there. I loved that kid's face after Pres. Monson said 18 years is the new age. I'm super glad that they lowered the girls' time by 2 years! That's awesome! hopefully I'll be able to meet some of these "new age" kids. I wish I had more to say, but I gotta check the other emails.

I hope you check your email today cuz you got nothing yesterday.  Oh ya and now because I don't use my real first name, it's like my first name is elder. it's weird hearing Charles. anyway.

Ok, ya we all went to the church and hung out all day saturday. We were going to go to Plainview for priesthood, but we could stay in Bay Shore. On Sunday there was a baptism in the Spanish ward, we split the building. and during then I and Elder Johnson went to the Mercados for food. We had spaghetti and meat sauce which was way good. with fresh motzerella cheese and meat empanadas. real good. then back to the church for ice cream and some spanish drink. It was milk and orange juice. really good too.

Oh bummer, I just got a call from one of our potential investigators saying he has to cancel cuz his wife is probably gonna pop a baby out soon. but he's a cool guy who wants to know more about our church. idk if he's gonna change from his church. but he's cool anyway. Well, I'll have to remember more to tell next time and maybe go on a computer where I don't have a time limit. .. well see ya

love- elder peck

Wow I can't believe it's already October when I left in August. There are a lot of things I forget to tell yall, but then it's too late to write. You know I love to try new food, so I tried a few things, stuffed mushrooms-they weren't too bad, the stuffing was spicy and good. I had a star fruit-it was weird, I don't know if I like it or not, but it was okay. Last night at a member's house-the Fuentes- the mom made real hot chocolate, which had no sugar in it, and it was kinda weird from what I'm used to. But the dad loved it. There are two families here that I totally love, the Scheonbecks (she might try to friend me or dad on fb - Jesika is her name) and the Mercados. Both families have two kids, Sierrah and Allen S. and Luis and Mareena M. Allen and Sierrah are younger, like Sierrah is 7 or something. Then Luis and Mareena are older. Both over 16 I think. The Mercado parents are great. Like Toni the mom, she's harsh but if she's mean it means she likes you, she reminds me of Pam's family. And the Scheonbecks are all around great. The kids love the missionaries. We have FHE at their house every Monday.

OH! there were 4 baptisms yesterday that Elders Johnson and Monestine did. A whole family, well just the kids, three girls and one boy. And I got to give a talk on the Holy Ghost, which went well. They haven't made me give a talk in sacrament meeting, but they did ask me to give the closing prayer. which I've NEVER done before, but it was okay. Then also last night I helped out with another blessing to Sister Fuentes.

Kind of a bummer is that because I'm in New York, I thought I'd see or eat things that I never did before. But out on the island, it's just like home. The food is normal, the cars are normal. Just a bit nicer. Well a lot nicer. But nice like Mercedes and Caddys. I keep seeing Ferraris when I want to see Lamborghinis. I saw a lime green Ferrari today on a truck and I was dissapointed cuz it wasn't a Lambo, which why was it green? Idk which kind of jacket I want. and I don't have a lot of money. I thought I should have over $200 on my lds card, but I got an email saying I only have $127...? so I guess it doesn't add on to what I had before. Poop.

I get to go on exchanges with Elder Monestine this week, Friday, so I go over the night before and stay with him for 24 hours, going with him to everything he has planned. But he speaks Creole, so that'll be fun. Well he was called to the English speaking mission, but learned Creole for where he serves.

Also the landscape stuff looks all the same as Washington, without the mountains. I miss the mountains. But there's a ton of trees, like I see some neighborhoods that could be in Grammas area. I've seen some houses that look like hers as well. There are some good Forrest Gump houses here too. I call them that cuz of the movies, where the porch wraps around and they're white and old lookin. The houses in the neighborhood of the mission home were really good, I probably already said something about those. I need to go aroung taking pictures of the area so you know what it looks like. Also, when do I get my other memory card back? I've only taken like two pictures on this one so far. Only of the world fair towers.

Oh a while ago we were driving around and I saw a toilet on the side of the road. So we took a picture of me sitting on it. It's funny. It was late at night too, after it had rained. But I lifted the seat so my pants didn't get wet. Hahah

We taught a primary class last week, well Elder King did. I just sat there, cuz that's what I do best. Today for zone activity we're carving pumpkins, idk why so early, maybe they have other things planned the rest of the month. Oh also with the food- we go to this Chineese buffet after we clean the church on Thursdays. And there was baked crab, that instead of out of a glass bowl, it was out of the crab body. Without the legs. So I'm like... I'm here to try new things. So I grabbed it. The worst part was that the eyes were still on there and he was looking at me as I ate him. ahahahaha. what else... hmmm... haha I'm listening to a remixed dance-like version of Popcorn Popping ahah it's good.

Alright, I gotta go. I'll write down what happens so I don't spend so long here. We gotta go to Plainview which is like 20 or so minutes away. Then back to Rego Park for something at the mission office. I want to see more of the city. Cuz we only see the same things when we go in. Cuz it's just to go to the office and back. Pretty much. I still like seeing those towers though. MIB towers. haha.

I  saw a green gallardo like a few minutes after i left yesterday, it was awesome.

love ya- bye- elder peck