Epiphany

Something I have come to realize is that when people are investigating
the church. Or even members struggling with it, I think that it really
has nothing to do with being a "Mormon". I think people are caught up
in the expectations of Mormons, but it's not the people's church, like
other churches are. But it's The Lord's church. Don't worry about the
name, it's not about being a Mormon, but following the commandments
that God has given us. The name "the church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints" is just what we call the group of people following the
commandments.
   When we go door to door and tell people who we are with, or what
church we are from, once they know, they don't want anything to do
with us. But if they just understood that God has called a prophet
that guides us today, and that the same gospel Jesus set up when he
was here has been restored, I think those who follow Christ already
would be more than willing to listen to us.
    Same with those scared to be baptized again, they need to
understand that the right authority to do so is on the earth again.
The same that Christ was baptized with, the same that He gave to his
apostles. Everyone asks if their baptism wasn't valid. And that's a
sensitive subject, because we don't want to offend them. Especially
when they strongly believe they are already saved through their
church. Which they are, but in order to go to the celestial kingdom,
they need to be baptized into this church. But it's not the church, as
was aforementioned, but the disciples hat follow Christ.
    We have been given more commandments that Christ wants us to
follow in order for us to return to Him and The Father, in the
greatest kingdom of Heaven. Where we may live for eternity with our
families and friends. We will be in the presence of the Godhead, and
that is only possible in that sphere.
   Those great people in the world who lived righteously but had not
the opportunity to hear the gospel will have a second chance to learn
about it. In the spirit world, all who have died in the history of the
earth are waiting, being taught by missionary spirits about the same
exact thing we are teaching on earth. It is great to know this,
because there were tons of people who would join the ranks if they
knew about it.
   I love this Gospel, it just makes sense. I wish other people could
open their hearts and give us a listen. So many people we talk to are
non religious, lots of Jews, who I learned yesterday believe that they
don't need to go through Christ to talk to God. I would think He would
be slow to answer them for what they did to His Son.  But they were
ignorant.
   Please keep us on your prayers, pray for the people here to be
receptive to the gospel and the spirit, pray that we get a new
investigator this week.

   This is my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of
Salvation. I love being here in New York. The people are great,
especially the members. My fellow missionaries as well.

ttfn!    -Elder Peck.

Monday, March 24

Sometimes I regret the scripture I have on my missionary plaque.
Because I never read the Book of Mormon, I just looked for a verse
that sounded good. It means nothing to me. Compared to some other ones
now. Now that I have read the Book of Mormon, I have found other
verses I like, and understand.
    But I guess that doesn't really matter what's on it. In the long run.

 

We were quite busy. 

I played a lot of sports. We were moving around a lot, i didn't have a ton of down time. 

I forget to write sometimes.

Nothing really happens. Just the same thing every day. No investigators, just knocking all day pretty much. 

  He weather is Turning bad today. It was nice a while ago, but now it's getting cold again. It's supposed to snow soon. It's super windy out now. 

  I'll think of something worth writing.

There is no other way in this weather. It's too cold for people to be outside. We have ideas, but we have to wait. But I hate it because we knock during the day when mostly everyone is out working. So we knock on empty houses all day. But it's all we can do. For now. 

  Ya that whole box was supposed to be thrown out forever ago. But you know how well that works around here. Or there. 

   We need to use our time wisely, but it's hard when we have nothing to do in the middle of the day, and knocking has been deemed useless, but we have absolutely nothing to do other than to knock around. 

  But sometimes we'll knock into wives who stay at home, but because there is no male In the house, we can't teach them at that time. So we have to get a member and go back.   

 And almost %100 of them are Spanish speaking. White people don't listen, and it's hard to teach Spanish cuz I don't know it. But now more than ever do I have a good reason to learn.  They are more open and nice. White people are mean and ignorant and don't like us. They usually won't listen to us. Even though we are trying to build up the English speaking pool, it's tough. Also that this area is mostly Spanish. There are a lot of whites, but it's hard to find good ones. 

  We have some service ideas, but of course that'll have to wait till later. It seems lots of things are going down next week, or month. 

   It's hard, but there's not much else to do out here.

I wrote the first one yesterday and now I'm writing this one for reals
on Monday.
   Some time during the week we went to the Mansuetto's for dinner. We
had corned beef and cabbage, it was really good. As always. And I
really love that cabbage. But apparently those two foods make you
really gassy, so they even gave us gasX pills. But I was still super
gassy. I had only been to their house once before, and I wanted to
check out the basement, because they seems wealthy, so I thought their
basement would be really nice. It was small and the ceiling was short,
and it was pretty plain. It was used mostly as a game room for the
chillins. They have their daughter and her three young boys living
with them, so it's perfect for them. The kids were playing with pool
noodles that had black and white tape on one end to look like a light
saber handle, and the noodle color was light blue, it was way cool. I
was playing with the kids with them, and they were fun, cuz when I
slashed a kid, he fell over dead. Haha then he picked up a pillow, as
a shield I guess, but I grabbed one and pushed him over with it,
hahaha! Then I told him to push against me too, and I got on my knees
so I was about the same height as him, and we pushed each other around
a bit. Then his older brother came in with one of the noodle sabers,
and the younger one grabbed his, and them I grabbed him. So I was
holding this kid as he was holding the saber. And I was using him as a
human shield and swinging him around to fight against his brother.
Haha it was funny.
  Then we went upstairs to give the lesson, and bro Mansuetto had one
of those things that carbonates your water for ya. And I asked about
it, and so he let me make some. It was cool, pretty good too.
  Then yesterday after church we went to another family, the Avila's
they are both from Peru, and they have two, I mean three kids. One is
a small baby, so she wasn't part of the group. But we had really good
food, it started out as this spicy cheese stuff on top of potato
slices and there was a slice of hard boiled egg too. Then the other
plate was rice and a chicken leg. The rice was good, it had other
stuff in it, but I don't know what it was. It was real good, then I
put some of the spicy cheese in it and it was better! Then for dessert
we had ice cream, and they brought out a ton of toppings, even fruit!
I've never had fruit with ice cream till I came here. Fruit like
peaches and pears. I guess I have had bananas..
  Then later we went to the bishops house and had traditional meat and
potatoes then rice crispy squares. They have four kids, three are
triplets, and one other. There is two boys and two girls, the boys are
part of the trio, and we got talking about guns, and they know more
about them than anyone one I've ever talked to, and they're only 11!
They were listing off names and numbers and other things I didn't
know. I just told them I don't know anything about guns except they're
fun to shoot.

 Oh also on Friday we went to another family, the collier's. They seem
to be loaded, because their house is super nice and large, and in the
back they have a pretty large pool and a multi-sport court. They had
two hoops we played around on. Like dunking contests mostly, cuz we
lowered it so it was slightly easier. And the other one was down to
like 7 feet, so it was super easy. It was freezing so I just stood
around watching, cuz that's good too. For dinner we had fajitas with
corn bread, and later we had ice cream with caramel topping. Usually
when families have ice cream, they bring out like three flavors, and
they had chocolate, vanilla, and peanut butter chocolate. It wasn't a
hard decision for me. Haha.
  One of the kids was talking about in his class, they are learning
about Greek mythology and some of the missionaries would ask him about
certain creatures, and he'd correct them. Actually it was only Jensen,
it was funny. Then bro collier brought out a box of books for this
kid, that I guess he ordered the other day. It was a collection of
Harry potter books, like the three in the movies: quidditch through
the ages, fantastic beasts and where to find them, and tales of beetle
the bard. (Like we have). And the other book was about doctor who.
Who-ology. The kid was flippin out. He was super excited.
 Then sister collier taught about family history. We had other people
there, a recent convert, another kind of active member, and his
fiancé. They are all Spanish.

So that's about all I can remember about what we did. Other than that
it's just been knocking. Which i still don't like. I kinda like
interacting with people, but I don't like knocking. Kind of a dilemma.
But I can't get away from knocking in my situation.

  We are going to the mall today so I can find some big and tall
clothes. Hopefully i get some good ones. I'm thinking that getting
shirts and pants are better than getting one suit. Mum- I'll check my
shirts, I'm pretty sure I don't fit in them anymore. I've grown a lot
since I got those. I've grown up and out. My girth is larger.
  Anyway, I'm glad the puppies aren't dead. I see so many dogs out
here. Especially that the weather is picking up, more and more are
outside. Pit bulls are popular, and I really like them. They look
scary sometimes, but they are super friendly. For the most part.
Depends. Rottweilers are scary too. And of course bull mastiffs.
  I'm glad I'm out here. Sometimes it's not about the mission but
about life in New York. The people, the way of living here is way
different than at home. Just being out here in this part of the state
is cool. It reminds me of Washington. Hills and trees. The only thing
missing are the mountains. But I still love it without them.
  Super crazy Brian is almost done, same with chan! He did just leave!
It has not been two years for him. It can't be. ... And I've got 10ish
months left. I won't worry about it. The transfers are flying.
  I'll probably write again later after things happen.
 See ya!

* That's the most I've written in a long time. ;)

St. Paddy's Day

This was a pretty good week, in the last few days that I can remember.
I wrote down my day from yesterday, which was good.

   Possibly the best day in Huntington so far.
In the morning we went to the plainveiw chapel to play bball. Then we
did bishops store house. Then we went to chipotle and I had a lot to
eat. And zl Jensen got triple guac! Which was a huge deal because one
guac is 2.00 extra. And the lady was like, are you sure?  Haha it was
funny.
  Then we had a street sweep in the village and it was st Patricks day
parties and there were tons of people outside and we were talking to a
lot and pretty much everyone wearing green was wasted. It was super
funny. A little while into it, a group of older women in green asked
me if they could get a picture with me, if it was alright. I said yes
and they stood next to me. It was cool and fun and funny. I was
standing by our table which had a tiny easel with a poster on it and I
was holding it so it wouldn't fly away so most of me is covered by it
in the pic. Well I didn't see the pic, and I probably never will. But
it was cool that those possibly drink people wanted a picture with the
Mormons.
 Then we went knocking and found this really nice lady who is a
Quaker, and we talked a little bit and she said she would like to
listen to us. As long as it's a conversational setting. She doesn't
want to listen to us if we are citing memorized things. Her name is
Lynn and she's super nice. So hopefully we can enlighten her. She said
she's probably not going to convert. But she'll listen to what we have
to say.
   Then we went to a Methodist church for a dinner party. It was super
cool. We had corned beef and cabbage, and they had horse radish there,
and martinez has never had it before, so Jensen said he'll give him
$10 if he eats a whole spoonbill of the stuff. And he actually does
it! I was laughing so hard cuz he was trying to keep his composure but
it was so strong he was tearing up and gagging and was almost throwing
up. It was so strong I was coughing after just smelling it!
  Then we had a raffle and I was so close, but Jensen won twice! And
ashjian got the train whistle I wanted. But I ended up with it anyway.
And then they had karaoke! The majority of the group was super old
people. And a few old people went up to sing some songs. It was funny.
One old guy sang "somewhere over the rainbow" and another lady sang
that song from titanic. Then the former trio went up and sang a song
from backstreet boys. It was cool. The oldies loved them.
   And that's about it. It was a good day, indeed. Oh, we got pupusas
from a member.

123

Hello today is pretty good. So far we went to the store. Where I
bought a jackfruit. It is tasty. It's from the Philippines or
something like that. Normally they are ginormous but I got a tiny
chunk cut out. They have tons of massive seeds inside. And the meat is
kind of like mangoes. But also like bananas. And has the consistency
of cooked chicken. Sometimes you can use it as a meat substitute. It
smells like pineapple. It can also cure cancer. I mean prevent it.

I'm Out

 We are about to leave to go shopping for pretty much one person,
elder bey is out. And he needs things, so all 6 of us are going for
some reason.
 Oh and I am out too. I don't know why. I've only been here 6 months.
But it was a last minute change. They didn't let me know till after
church. Rather than Saturday night like everyone else. But it's ok.
I'm sure I'll be ok.  I just have accumulated a bunch of crap from all
over. I'll be sending home some things. My journal. It's full now, and
if might send home the little blue ones too, it's good that I have
this ipad and I can write journal entries here.

  I still have a few things to pack, and I have my sweet sound system
I hope gets there and to my new place safely. I have to put it in a
crate.
  Haha I brought my nerf guns to the church and the Huntington elders
are killing each other. I was playing with them and I was last alive
with Jensen, who is really good, but I can't believe I survived that
long. I even dove behind some chairs and got some rug burn, haha. But
it's good that I can help them have fun.

 Anyway, I gotta go, I'll try to be back to write more.



And because I'm out, I'd like to write later, once I find out who I'm
with. I hope he's a district leader too. I've been with a dl for most
of my mission. Only 4 transfers without a dl comp.

 But if not, I don't know. I HAVE NO IDEA!!!
  That's the point. That's the deal. You don't know until they say
your name and where you are going and with who.

But it's 6 now and we are in a hurry to get things done. We were gonna
make the cookies, but we went shopping instead, and now we gotta go
get changed then go to sister molinas to eat yummy foods!


BACK IN HUNTINGTON!

 So apparently I was a quick change from an already decided idea. I guess.
 I forgot what it's called. A football reference I think.
Anyway. I was there for three weeks before I went to plainview. And
now I'm going back and opening an English pool! My comp is elder
martinez and he's been in Huntington for a while. He was in a trio and
instead of moving one of three, they added one and kept the rest. So
what we have to do in a new pool is to act like we don't know
anything. Because we don't. No previous investigators or anyone.

   Huntington has been Spanish and small and sister-less. Oh flip I
was just told there will be sisters next transfer. Ok that's cool. So
when I was there, it was just 2 companionships and a branch. Now there
are 3 comps and it's a ward! There are a lot of people, but no chapel
building, they meet on top of a library.  But now there is a bishop
and stuff. And we get a new pad! Apparently it's really nice, but no
one has seen it. I have to talk to the senior elder about it.