March 4, 2013

The town of Far Rockaway invited the Mormon Helping Hands to be in their Saint Patrick's Day Parade this last Saturday. So everyone in the mission plus a few extra all went down there in our pross, and put the yellow vest over that, and walked what seemed like forever, because it was cold, my feet hurt, and we stood around forever just waiting for it to start. But it was so awesome when we started moving, cuz there were so many people on the sides of the road just cheering and crying and saying thank you and yelling out "Utah!" and "Joseph Smith!" Funny drunk people. But seeing those people tear up with joy and other things got me crying a bit. It was so cool to see how welcomed we were, and loved and stuff. I could see ahead of us that there was the rest of the parade and no one was really cheering or clapping until we walked up and they went crazy! There was even a group of young Jewish kids who a lot of missionaries took their pictures with. They were just standing there and some of us went over and stood with them and it was fun. It was the best day yet.

Then afterward we were walking back and there was a guy who invited us into his house for food. and the house was kinda packed with older people, like your age group.. hehe.. But in the back they had a bunch of great food. He said he had some corned beef and that's when I didn't hear anything else cuz I went straight for that. I grabbed some bread and like 6 slices of beef. Oh man it was super duper tasty. And there was beer at that party, of course, so I wondered how much of that food was prepared with it. But there's nothing wrong with cooking with alcohol. But it was amazing anyway.

I took a ton of pictures, but when I find out how to send them to you,,, you'll get a ton of stuff. What I should do is just send the card home. and you can copy all the pictures, cuz I like having them on there still. Or maybe if it'll work at cvs I could print out some pics. then I could just send them. and not a memory card... idk .. I'll think about it.

Anyway, I have so much fun here. Everyday is an adventure. New York is awesome. We went to Target the other day and there was a van that was parked in the middle of the aisle , not even close to a stall. ahah. Oh and we went to Red Lobster the other day as a district and I got those coconut fried shrimp, oh man that was good. Thanks mom for showing me them.

The people here are awesome. Just super unique and funny. I thought I wouldn't like the people cuz of their hard shell, but that's only a facade, once you get past that, they are awesome. Like this girl, a LA who doesn't trust people very well, Valerie, she's super cool, funny and nice. And she makes custom light sabers for fun! And she speaks like 7 different languages and can sing a song in at least 20. I asked her why, and she said cuz she has no life. haha she's fun to talk with and I opened up to her better than anyone so far that I've met. cuz she's just that awesome! She loves how weird and awkward I am.

Oh and guess what.... we had 9, yes 9. count them.. NINE investigators at church yesterday!!!! 9!! I didn't know most of them but Campbell does. That's why I'm grateful he's here, to find the people who Jean Baptiste never talked to cuz they weren't Haitian or that he didn't already know. . So I'm glad he's gone and we are talking to so many more people! Like with him we only had like 3 people. Did you hear how many we have now? 9! I love that difference.. Campbell is a great guy. love him tons. makes life fun.

Anyway. there ya go. Love ya'll. The more I serve the more I realize how much I do love people, even though it might not look like it. but yeah. I do. sometimes.. haha. I'll have to find some more time to read Brian's blog. He's got more to say than you guys do, no offense. Haha

Till next week - Elder Peck NY

P.S. Ok, I think I'll use a card reader for my pictures, and I did get the money back, and we're going thrifting today, so I can waste it all on awesome random finds. I got a handful of awesome ties so far. If I can send pics, I'll send one of them. I'm wearing one now. The texture is so cool. I have an awesome story to tell, so I'll send it in one email to both of you in a sec.

Oh, also, some lady that idk if I told you about. She was supposed to die like last month, but got some blessings and stayed a veggie for a while. Well we went to the hospital and I gave her a blessing that she wouldn't be in pain soon. So I pretty much told her to die... again. Again, like I already gave her a blessing and said the same thing. So she finally really died on Saturday night. Elder Campbell said he'd never seen someone so close to death before. Ya, she looked dead. The machines were keeping her alive.. barely.

Oh, more thing. Haitian food is amazing! Imma gonna hafta learn it, so I can make it back home.

Wow, that's cool! crazy how people from our ward are going to the same missions!

There's a kid here that came in last transfer who I went to school with. Also another kid who's been here for a while who I also went to school with. And some other kids from Spanish Fork. And of course a ton from Utah. The last transfer was pretty much all from Utah.