Well Mike is still the closest one to baptism, but we postponed his baptism another week cuz he needs to be more assimilated into the ward. H works a lot and on Saturdays doesn't get off till 4 or 6am. So then he needs to sleep, and usually he doesn't wake up till after church. Last night we met with him cuz elder Izatt is leaving, and Mike said that it kinda sucks having to choose between sleep or church. 

 

   But his prayers are getting better and he knows he needs this in his life. He understands the gospel pretty well, he just needs to read more. He actually read like a handful of chapters in mosiah. And some verses made him think about what happens to sinners. But he needn't worry if he repents. So we explained that when he feels bad about doing things, he needs to pray and repent, and come to church to complete that process. Cuz a few weeks ago he didn't come to church because he had gotten into a fight with his dad, and felt sad and down about it, and that he didn't think he should go to church with those feelings. But we told him that's probably the best place to go when you need restitution. 

    

  We taught two other guys.. David and Anthony, David is from Trinidad, and Anthony is a vet and a boxer, or he used to box and teach it in Germany, but now he's a personal trainer. He's in super good shape, and he's maybe..around 50. We met him at the park, walking around with his kids. And David we found knocking in a black/Spanish area. Yes, all three of them are black. But not all the same country of origin. So David and Anthony are our new investigators as well. David lives in a house that looks really nice, even though it's over 100 years old. He's been restoring it and keeping it nice for a while. He's trying to sell it so he can downgrade. It looks small from the outside, but he says it's huge. But then again, he lives by himself.  He knows a member of the church who used to live next to him, and he even met with the missionaries like 10 years ago or so. He fed them Caribbean food and he's just super nice and friendly. Most people shut the door in our face before we say anything, but he asked us to come inside before we said anything! It was cool. And I needed to go no. 1 real bad but we couldn't go home, so after our talk I went to the bathroom at his house.  And I was thinking this opportunity would never come again. When do you just knock on someone's door, and they let you use their bathroom? Only if you're a missionary teaching The Lord's word.  #missionarylife 

      We've been using hashtags a lot lately. At first I don't know what they were or how they are used, but now it's cool. Like you can find every post that mentions that tag. And especially the church ones or the mission ones, if you click on that hashtag, you can see tons of missionaries posts about Mother's Day, Easter.. We recently did the #ipraywhen and took pics of people in the park. So I don't know if it's just the mission, but it think it's pretty cool that Facebook does them now. I think they started with twitter. 

      I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but maybe that just means people here. But elder Izatt is going to be assistant to the president! And he will finish his mission In that position. Only two more transfers.  

    So I'll be getting my 12th companion in my 13th transfer. I don't know how many companions is a normal number. Cuz a lot of people only have like 6 or so their whole mission. Cuz pres likes to keep people together for a while. But I guess I'm that exception. Except for hunter...I don't know what happened there. 

   But because he knows everything about transfers, he's telling me I should pack everything up, and I'm assuming (even though I don't like to) that I'm moving pads. But I don't think I will, or should, and the zone leaders didn't tell me to, but Izatt is telling me that they forgot to tell me. So I'm kinda torn apart now. The next AP is telling me to pack, and my zone leaders didn't say anything. But then again... Mistakes have happened in the past. 

    

  One time, forever ago, elder Kingsley was told he'll be staying in south shore. But then a few days later during transfer meeting, they said he's going to be in a different area. So he had to go back to south shore, which is like a two hour tour from the office. Then move to the new area. He didn't pack or anything because they didn't tell him to. 

   And also, when I was in plainview and I thought I'd be there for another transfer, they said I was staying when they called Saturday night. But then Sunday afternoon they called back and said I was out. But they haven't called back yet.  

    When they called they said only who's leaving the zone. They said One elder in Bayshore is packing but not leaving. And if Izatt is telling me to pack, I may not be leaving the zone again. But even if I do need to leave, I can pack later.  Agh it's so confusing! I don't think I'm moving, even within the same district, if so...I can move things around later, like that's what martinez did, just moved things here.    I don't know what to do!!!     I'm running out of time to pack, and I have a lot of stuff, like extra stuff. 

  But we will be leaving soon to go to the office and drop off Izatt for the stuff he has to do now: pick up new missionaries, do that stuff. 

       One thing I was thinking about is not packing, but if when in transfer meeting, they say I'm moving, I'll look at Izatt and go "oh, looks like you were right!" 

I gotta stop fretting about packing. If I do, and not move, I'll just know I can pack well.  If I do pack and I do move, then it won't be that bad. 

  But I don't know how much time we have today, we were invited to a BBQ at 11, and I don't know what the other elders have planned. Maybe Martinez still needs to pack.   

Uuuuuggghhhhhhhhh!     Maybe I'll just deal with the problem when it presents itself. 

Okay.... So......     We had gyros last Monday, they were the best I've ever had. And I've had a few from different places. And I also got sweet potato fries, which were good, but not as good as Guru's. Their sauce seals the deal. 

    We're having Elder S. Gifford Neilson come to our mission next month. He's the one that gave the talk "hastening the lords game plan" in October 2013 I think. The "exclamation point!" talk. 

     There's a frozen yogurt place out here that offers a cup that is only 4.88. No matter how much you fill it. So naturally the other elders had contests of how high they could stack it. Elder Izatt got like a foot on his. (12") and the guy at the counter is like 

"...I've never seen anyone fill it that much"

     So you can get like a gallon of froyo for $5!  Frozen yogurt is a big deal out here. There are so many places. We've been to a few and this "all you can fill" place is the best.   

     I'm done now. Have fun till next week. 

-elder peck NY. 

You guys have no idea how good New York bagels are -

Maybe dad does.
But they are so dang good. We eat them all the time. I just did,
that's why I mention them.  The everything bagel is the best. It's got
sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and large chunks of sea salt on it. And the
bread is so soft and it's all amazing.

Last night I weighed in at _85! So I lost 5 lbs recently!
  Hopefully I can keep it off and keep losing some.
I'll go shopping today and I hope I can get some fruits and things.

I don't know exactly what's going on today. But it'll probably end up
like every other pday. Oh well. As long as I get my fruits, I'll be
okay.

Mike has been progressing very well, but we think that he needs more
fellowship from the ward, so we pushed his baptism back a week. But
now it's after transfers, and i have no idea what'll happen next. I
could stay here a long time, and Izatt could only be here for this
one. At the beginning he was saying that we could stay together
longer. But now he's thinking we won't be together again. And I have
to lead this pool and get mike baptized, and also keep teaching the
other people we got this transfer.
 It's been good, cuz last transfer, we didn't get pretty much
anything. But now for some reason, we have a lot of people. Or a few
investigators and a few potentials.


Those pics of us at the Avila's again, that was their first time
making root beer floats. I can't remember how it came up, probably me.
But they wanted to try it, and so they got the stuff and when we got
there, we showed them how to do it. I said they have to experiment on
the ratio to get it how they like it.
  The kids don't really like it, cuz it tastes like medicine. I've
heard that in other countries, their medicine tastes like that, so no
one likes root beer.  And same with USA, our medicine is cherry, so we
don't like cherry soda. But we love our root beer!
   Home made root beer and maybe even home made ice cream would be a
great treat. It's never too cold for ice cream!

Oh cool! We just got our first referral! We've been here for three
months, and this the first one for our pool!


So.... I've lost my train of thought when that came in...

I've been doing okay. Could always be better.

We looked this guy up, and it wasn't the address, but we tried it
anyway, and it was this old Korean guy who yelled at us for coming to
his house and asking for someone who doesn't live there. Then we left,
but we were still on the road his house is on, just a little ways off,
and after a few minutes- (We were taking and figuring where to go,
that's why we didn't leave) - he comes up to the car and yells at us
again for coming late, at 7:30, almost 8, and that we shouldn't come
back uninvited again!   It was so funny.

One thing I don't like is when people lie to us saying they don't know
who so and so is, when they most likely do, or that they say they're
not Mormon anymore. And every one of those people have not taken the
right steps to be removed from the records. They just stop doing
Mormon things and stop coming to church. So because they aren't
active, they consider themselves "not Mormon".  Even though they are.
It's a way of life, not a state of mind.
  Like those people who believe all they need to do to be saved is say
"Jesus Christ is my savior" and they're good for life.
They can probably go do whatever they want, good or bad. Then right
before they die, they say that and they're saved.

We found an awesome family last week, their name is Krywak. German I
think. But its a mom and dad with two young sons. We taught them last
night and it was a good lesson. The dad, Dave, said that he had a
couple strokes in the past, and that nothing really bad came of them.
He lost sight in one eye for a while, but he just needs glasses now.
And he said that if we had knocked on his door 4 years ago, he would
not even listen for a second. But because of what he's gone through,
he will listen to anything about Jesus.  That's cool I guess. But it's
a good family. Hopefully we can keep teaching them and they will love
this gospel.


Last Monday after I emailed we went on an adventure with the
Mansuetto's daughter, Eliza. We all went to the beach in kings park,
and hiked through the forest and went down to the beach and the other
three elders saw a large rock in the middle of one of the river
things, so they decided to get on top of it. Even though the river was
like 20 yards across, and there was really no way to stay out of the
water.   So they got large rocks and tried to make a bridge across to
a little spot of something out there next to the rock. But the water
was deep so there wasn't really a way to cross dry. And someone
slipped in a bit, so they all just walked in the water to the dryer
spot next to the rock. And stood there looking at it, trying to get to
it. Hart went first and he waded in knee high until he got right next
to the rock, and he fell in waist deep! Hahaha it was so funny! I'm
standing on the shore watching everything. And the sisters were
watching it too.   So eventually they all got on the rock even though
they all got half or more wet.
Everyone's shorts were wet, and most of hart was wet. It was funny.

Email from May 5, 2014

(This is Elder Peck's email from last week, sorry.)

May the Fourth be with you -

There's a sister here in my district by the name of seely. And last
night we were at a members house for a family history lesson and

their son is in vocal point. And sister seely was like I have a
picture with him and a signed cd. And I said he's my distant cousin.
And then she said the same thing! I asked how, cuz she's from
Virginia. And Robert seely is from Canada. She said that the seely
family all has these maroon family photo albums. That a great great
grandma made them all and put them in the same color book, then passed
them out to her children.
  So she's related that way. I said his distant cousin married my
distant cousin. So that's how I'm related to Robert seely. Or the
seely family in my home ward.

    Then Sunday morning I traced my family tree back to the first
seeley (the spelling has changed a few times) and it's Elizabeth
seeley (1807-1900),  and her uncle is William Stewart seely
(1812-1896). William is sister seely's great-something grandfather.

  Thorit Peck's (1826-1858) mother is Elizabeth Seeley.

And that's the story of how I found out that the sister in my district
is my 4th generation cousin.

-elder peck



Cinco de Mayo

Mom - Her name is Mallory ann seely. I'll try to get her dads name if
that's helpful.  It's Daniel Clair Seely

Everyone -
Mike is doing well. He came to church yesterday, only for the last two
hours, though. Because he got off work at 6am. There was a show at the
theater that night. It was some girl comedian. Bill Cosby is coming in
October.  And dream theater some other time. And I think Dennis de
young another time. Sounds way cool. The theater is called the
paramount.
   Anyways, he's reading and praying well, and he liked church.
Hopefully he can keep coming.

Zone activity today, and it wasn't too bad. We played a game I don't
like, but the ZLs made it Star Wars themed. Other game is called
"werewolf" or "mafia" but they made all the characters from Star Wars
and it was more fun. Before that we had a BBQ and lots of other
things. I brought my jdawgs sauce and it went by fast. Like half of it
was used. It was already half gone. What's weird is that everyone from
Utah that I talked to had never had it. I guess it's only a Utah
county thing.

  We went to costco for shopping. There's a member who goes every week
and she lives like a block away so she was kind enough to take us
along. We got lots of stuff. Hopefully it'll last us forever. Or a few
weeks.

It's super nice day today. It's like 64 now and little to no clouds.
When it rained all day, a few days ago, it was dumping buckets.
We have been doing some service lately. You guys saw the pics on FB.
We were there a few weeks ago laying sod way in the back. And that day
it was mostly sod in the front. It looked bad at first, but now it
looks great. It was mostly missionaries/members. Because one member
works there, and one other member is the public affairs lady In the
ward and she knows people.
  Tonight we're going over to another members house... Well maybe not
HIS house, but someone's house and he's in charge. But we'll be
digging a hole, I think. He works for vivint out here. Solar is what
they do. There's a lot of people out here doing it. We were knocking
the other day and a guy who was doing the same stopped and talked to
us about the deal and how we should look into it when we're done. I
want to, because you make average 1200 a deal. But you also have to go
door to door asking if you can help people save money.
 But like Brian did, with cutco, you start with your family, then
friends, then referrals. Like this one guy, dusty, he's the manager
and he said all his work now is referrals. He spent a few years doing
security, but solar is blowing up, everyone loves it. Every day I'll
see a few houses with solar panels on top.

Uhhhhh.... That's cool Brian got a job real quick. I hop I get a job
that quick. And money. I like money.
Is the "green monster" that thing I drove for a few days when I was
working? Like, it rattles when you accelerate and when it goes faster
than 50?  If so, that really is scary.   But good to get a car of his
own. I want to get a tiny car. And modify it just for me to fit in.
Driving and parking here makes me want a small car, but out there it's
more open spaces, so i don't need a tiny car. Oh well, I'll worry
about that later.

  Now that I have the first lower lights cd, I want the second one,
but I want it on my thumb drive. I wonder if I can download it
directly to it?

We just don't have enough time in a pday to get things done. It's
usually in a hurry that not everything is done.

We went to the park for a "street sweep" and we drew with chalk on the
ground by a playground, and this crazy lady who drives the ice cream
truck was wondering if we had a permit to set up here. But because we
weren't selling anything, we were fine. But she's crazy.
  So at our usual spot, there this guy who plays the guitar and
harmonica, and he plays really old music that sounds bad.  But this
time there was this trio of guys who set up next to us and one guy had
a violin, one had a drum and tambourine, and  one had a guitar. And
they played more current music, they started with hotel California
though. But they played some other stuff, like... Lorde, daft punk
(newer stuff), uh I forgot, but it was really good. I was going to
suggest maybe "Saturday in the park" because it really was Saturday in
the park. But they left because a storm was coming. But it was cool
anyway. While it lasted.

  We're gonna have a party on the tenth at the Mansuetto's again. Like
he's gonna get a whole pig and roast it. We are going to invite some
investigators so it's okay for all missionaries to be there. There are
some rules we have to keep about dinner appointments.

We are about to leave, so I'll send this and get back to y'all later. See ya.
Oh, Mother's Day...  I'll think of something. I haven't heard of what
we can do yet.

-Elder peck-

May 12, 2014

After we talked with mum, we went up to the richer area of Huntington,
and there were some GINORMOUS houses. Like no longer houses but
mansions and "estates". Like they had very large fields as yards. And
there was so many of these houses in this area. It was a hidden road,
kinda.  And just earlier we were in Oregon or Utah mountain forests.
It looks just like Utah forests. But there's a ton of 'uge houses up
there. But the house we went to to look someone up was really small
compared to the rest. But it was still nice.
   Then we drove through a nice city called oyster bay. It was another
rich area. Then we kept going north and there was so many nice houses.
We actually felt like we were in Louisiana because at one point we
were driving on gravel roads right next to the water. And we got eaten
by Mosquitos. And then we passed this little area where you can sit on
benches and look out into the bay.  And I was throwing rocks into the
water. It was so cool. I left my ipad at home to charge, but I wish I
had brought it to take pics, cuz it was a amazing up there. We
actually had to drove over a bridge to get to bayville.  The people
are rich up there.
    I felt a little inadequate looking at all these mansions. And the
water and stuff.  Like where I'm at now is nothing compared to what
these people have.
   And elder Izatt was saying that this is probably the most diverse
mission. Like he was just in the ghetto projects and then he came out
to the island that looks like Utah, and then we travel north and it
looks like Washington, then more north on the water and it has
mansions on the beaches and there were swamps and it smelled and felt
like the south. From the city to the island is super different.  Elder
hunter felt the same way too. He was freaking out about the massive
change between no trees in the city and millions of people on the
streets. To millions of trees and no people on the streets.  Izatt
freaks out every day that we have a hard time finding people. And the
good people.  It's tough.
  But something's happening here soon.
I'll write more later maybe, talking to each other kinda makes it so I
don't have to write much the next day.

 So ... See ya- elder peck NY.