Back during the storm all the sisters were at the mission home, and our sisters said that Pres prayed for the whole mission and said things like our future families will be blessed for what we do. We've been helping this lady- the sister's real estate agent- and we've gone to her house for the last 3 weekends, and last night she invited us to go to her church, which she said was Catholic. But turns out to be some other Christian church. So there was a live band, with bass guitar, drums, acustic guitar.. singers. cool stuff. Then the main pastor dude talked about waiting. The theme was Christmas, and how we have to wait for it. And waiting for other things. He was funny too. The place was pretty big and full of people. Oh, the songs we sang were pretty good too. Like I want a CD of it. It's all good worship songs.

Could you check my debit card balance? I got a hair cut and paid with it ( I'm out with my church card) and I didn't put my number in, so I don't know what happened there. But if you could give me a balance of it every week, that'd be awesome. I have to go shopping again today for a hoodie, or jacket, or something warm. It does look nice outside, but it's so freezing cold!! I had hand warmers in my gloves yesterday. But I'm more worried about my fingers, they get cold easier and faster. It's fun to see what people have in their houses that they probably didn't know they had. Like that old lady last week had never gone into her crawlspace in more than 50 years, so of course she didn't know what was down there. But there was some really old magazines, like just normal ones, girly mags. but the ads were cool. If I could open the page without ripping it in half.

Yesterday was probably the last day of service, but yesterday there was supposed to be a bus load of people to come help, who never showed. So we still have a stack of work orders. So this week probably isn't normal proselyting. We won't know till later today maybe.

With the freezing cold, it's not fun to get my hands wet. Then they're cold and miserable. Even if I put latex gloves under my work gloves, it's still cold. I love how no matter the day, we always get free food. When we're in the Rockaways at least. But there's always a truck giving out free food. Usually it's the Red Cross. But yesterday it was some pizza truck. We got a little Italian bread with tortilla pizza. It wasn't as much as Red Cross gives out, but it's still good.

On Thanksgiving morning I woke up at 4 to go to Montauk. Kinda like last time I went to see the sunrise, but on the southern side of the island. And there was a lighthouse, and cool gynormous rocks to walk on right by the ocean. And there's this massive thing people call the toilet. http://www.montauklighthouse.com/pictures.htm This site has good pics of the end of the island. But it's hard to see the toilet thing. I'll send some pics.

Waking up that early is not fun. But the turkeybowl afterwards was. I played a little game of soccer, and then a full game that never actually finished. We just took a really long break- of ultimate frisbee.

When we are at member's houses for Thanksgiving, I realize that it's so cool to be this a part of these families so much to be invited to their houses. We went to two houses on Thursday, then one on Saturday. The Sat dinner was amazing. It was at the Danner's again. He made deep fried turkey, but I actually didn't get any, even though everyone was saying how amazing it was. I got stuck on the pork. It was seasoned just right. And they had sweet potato pie with a pecan topping that was amazing. I gained 10 lbs on the first day. I didn't eat much on Sat, cuz before we got there, we stopped by the other Spanish elders apartment for a visit and Elder Mccombs gave me three slices of pumpkin pie and a cup of hot chocolate. Oh- they don't have Dunkin Doughnuts in Utah, but they are EVERYWHERE here. And we go sometimes for hot chocolate, or, of course, doughnuts. I actually see more DD than Starbucks. But SB is everywhere too. In Target, the mall, but at the mall they have their own massive kiosk in the middle of the place. It's not really a kiosk if it's that massive. The one thing I don't really like about email is that I can't draw out a picture of something for ya.

Ok- so with the pictures I try to take a lot. Or of things that aren't in Utah. Like different churches, or things, idk. I'm bringing my camera more places now, but actually using it is still hard.

It's good to hear from someone every week, even if it's just one. Oh, I got a letter from Mitch Howell! So thanks for whatever you did. Oh and I found out that a kid I went to school with is coming to this mission next year, speaking Spanish. I heard cuz there is a kid already here that I went to school with, Seth Webber. He's in my district. I mean zone. Nothing really exciting has happened but I'll let you know if something does.

ummmm- love ya bye- Elder ny Peck

Still Helping Clean Up

Ya we're in our apartment now. Have been for a while. Only went to the other one for 3 days. We had to clean out the fridge cuz it was rank. and so was the pea green soup. It had a layer of mold on it. gross. We do have some days scattered in the week for prosilyitng.. dunno how to spell.. But this week is only like Wed. and Fri. We are going to the mission office tomorrow for a Thanksgiving lunch. Then on Thursday we are going to a few places for the read deal. Sis. Scheonbeck posted a sweet video on my fb wall for y'all to see. Elder Monestine talks in it for a while. Says "unflood" haha. but I wasn't there that day. That was last Sunday. We were on the island then.

We meet so many cool people. The other day we were at some Italian's house tearing up the walls and stuff, one guy found a super awesome fuzzy hat from like Russia or someplace, it was awesome. uawesome. I love the NY accent now. At first I hated it, but it's so cool. After that house we met two ladies, a mom and daughter. The mom is a dean at some school and talks with some general authorities sometimes, so she had us write our names and where we're from, so she can tell them about us personally. That would be awesome to get a letter from Dallin H. Oaks.

 And yesterday we were cleaning out some lady's crawl space and she and I would talked a lot because I was hauling the cans of soaking insulation out and she didn't want to feel useless so I let her help. And we'd talk a bit. She just wanted to help cuz we were. Then other stuff. But we haven't been to a normal 3 hr church service in 4 weeks! The first was Stake Conference, then South Shore, then an hour for sacrament and testimonies last week, then yesterday we didn't even go, but we had the sacrament in our pad. Before I left on my mission, I thought "pad" was a weird word, but it's not so weird when everyone uses it.

I'm not even worried about Thanksgiving or Christmas. It'll happen. That's all I know. I gotta take more pics for y'all. I keep thinking that I know what this all looks like, but you don't. So I gotta have my camera at all times. That's one thing about a missionary I've heard. cuz you never know...

Thanks for writing me every week. love ya bye. _ _--- Elder Peck NY

I'm Alive!

To Dad: We were totally fine in Bay Shore, except for the power outage for a week. I'll copy what I wrote to Brian- We had no power for a full week, but we moved out east to another pad who had power, and we've been helping out people remove trees and leaves from yards and such. Then the last two days we were in Farockaway which is right across from Manhattan cleaning out basements. All the basements were flooded and the carpets, padding, EVERYTHING down there was destroyed, and the cars outside as well. All of them have been drowned. Like the water rose 12 feet. and these are the houses right next to the water. I can see the towers in Manhattan from where I am. It's cool. Then I turn around and see heaps of housing and random garbage from people's houses.

Also- the whole Long Island was and kinda still is out of gas. It's crazy. People waiting in lines to get gas. My comp and another waited in line for 2+ hours. woke up at 5. but it didn't open till 7, and they were 50th in line.

This is the 3rd week in the tranfer, and the new missionaries that came in are put straight to harder work than just walking around. I wonder what the news has about it all. Like over head pictures and such.

Dad: We've seen quite a lot of devastation on the news. Especially Zone 1 - Staten Island is horrible and Zone 7 is pretty bad too.

Charles: Ya Rockaway is in zone 7. We were there the past two days, and we're not done. But a member here in Amytiville got flooded and what stinks (literally) is that a kerosene bucket leaked into the water, and into the whole house. So everything in there stinks and so do we now. :( but that's what happens. This one lady in the city had a bucket of tar leak. and that was weird smelling.

Dad: Are you getting some pictures ? Because, we want to see and you'll want to remember when you get home.

Charles: Ya it's not just me taking pics. everyone that lost stuff are taking pics for insurance. and the guy from church headquarters was there taking pics. so look for us on the church news!

I got some, but not a lot. I wasn't too worried about them till things quited down a bit. I didn't get any from our area though. but it's all gone now. One tree fell over and covered half the road and took a power line down on our street. But that happened all over. I'll try to get more, but it's not the same a few days later.

To Mom: We had a hurricane for halloween. haha. As you can tell from my other emails, I'm fine. The only bad thing is that we lost power for a week, and the island is out of gas.. Oh and when Elder King was helping throw things into the garbage truck, he stepped on a nail and it poked his foot. and it bled a lot and now it's all swollen and he got another tetanus shot, and crutches today.

The storm wasn't too bad where we were. just a little windy. well a lot windy. The tree next door almost fell over, it's a giant pine tree that was coming up. but then the owners got out and tied it down.

We moved out to South Shore for a few days, with Elders Kingsley and Sefcik. Their pad is bigger and has 2 bathrooms! and the area was really cool looking. Also we went and helped in Huntington which had tons of trees. We went to some old couples house that had 100's of trees on the lot, but only like 5 fell over. I got pictures there, cuz I forgot my camera the other places. and crazy thing is, is that the lady, Penny-something- goes to the same dentist I do!! Dr. Davis on Canyon! It's crazy that she goes way out there for it. But she said her daughter goes to BYU there, so that's why she goes that far. but still. and I guess she can cuz they're loaded. There's a cool tree in their yard that one of the branches drops and grows along the ground for a while. like a good long time, maybe 10 years, by the looks of it. I got pics of that as well.

Thanks for praying for me and all that stuff. I gotta check out what KSL has on the storm.

Aslo, look on the church news for me! I'm wearing an orange beanie. After the first day we went to Wally World and bought new pants, shirt, and then to payless for boots. I gotta get bigger ones, those were too small on my toes.

love ya'll - elder peck