It's cool that the last day of the transfer is also the last day of
the month. It makes things nicer to keep track of. Because quarter 4
starts in October as well. And then it's easier to keep track of time,
like I'll have Oct, Nov, and part of Dec. left.

    I had a weird dream where everyone was saying it was super cold,
and it was really 275 out. And I'm like, this isn't cold, 50 is cold.
People were wearing coats and complaining.

   It's also weird that the world is changing and lots of things are
going on, and we kinda see it, but I don't look into it, so some
things just fly over me. And when I get back, it's going to be really
different. Maybe because I'll want to know what's going on in the
world when it comes to this equality thing. A lot of my friends post
about it, and all I can think is that our church has done this since
1830. Even though the world is quickly killing itself, it's good to
know that some people care Enough to try and make it better.

I'm trying to think of who could be my comp, or rather who I'd like to
be my companion. And I don't even know who's in the mission anymore!
The longer I'm in the mission, the fewer people I know. And the more
people i don't really care about knowing. Unless they're in my
district. I've said that before. I only care about who's in my
district, no reason to worry about who's in another zone.

I have a weird neck pain that doesn't really hurt all the time, just
sometimes. I'll stretch it, but nothing happens.

Oh, I've been making a few time lapse videos. I need to post them on
FB. I can make it like that album, only who I want to see it will see
it. we went to a members house in long beach, they live on the 6th
floor, so it was a good angle to film. I recorded for 5 minutes and
the time lapse shortened it to 40 seconds, but it's cool.

Not much happened this week, as always, hopefully it'll be different
next week. Well, we are helping this less active come back to church,
and he's come two weeks in a row! But he's still considered LA until
he goes to the temple for anything.

We are going to five guys today for the last day with this district.
I heard they are making a five guys in Spanish fork over by Costco.
I've never even heard of it until I got here. But people in salt lake
valley go all the time, but then again, no one knows about j-dawgs
outside of utah county.

I'm glad I don't have to worry about movies right now, but just wait..
When get home, I'll need a month to myself of catching up.

I'm also glad I don't serve in Manhattan, that would be just crazy.
But so is Brooklyn. People say it's worse. But more people live in
queens than those two boroughs.

I can't wait to get home so I can shave my head again.
I guess I could do it here, but it's just not .... Appropriate.

   So the final week of transfers is crazy - you have Wednesday is
training calls: president will call you and ask you to train. Then
Thursday is leadership calls: the zone leaders will call you and tell
you that you've been called as a leader. (Asking and telling- you
still have a choice to accept or not) then Friday is leadership
meeting: where you meet with president about your leadership calling
and gives you a packet containing important info. And Saturday night
is when zone leaders call and we have a conference call with everyone
in the Zone and we find out if we are staying or leaving. What they
usually say is elder peck...is in. Elder blackham.....is out.
Elder.... Blah blah. So it's just going through everyone in the zone
and saying in or out. And sometimes they'll say things like
'unfortunately we are not getting a new zone leader because elder
hunter is staying with us' but make it seem like he is leaving. It's
stressful.

Then Sunday you say your goodbyes. Monday you pack. Tuesday you drive
to queens and then the craziest meeting ever happens.

     You have what feels like the whole mission in one very small
chapel. It's probably like 190-210 missionaries. I think we have about
270 in total. It's been a while since i asked. We lost 24 last
transfer, and we'll lose 13 this time. But idk how much we're getting.
We have the new missionaries introduce themselves, then our president
and his wife speak to us, we have the departing missionaries sing a
song. Then we have transfer calls where the zone leaders get up to the
podium and read who's in their zone. That is super crazy and everyone
freaks out and cheers and other things, because of who goes with who
and where... It's great. Then afterwards is leaders meeting and
'anti-leaders meeting' where the comps of leaders are supposed to go
do something. *i never have- haha in all 15 transfer meetings I've
been to, I've never gone and done what everyone else does* I just
chill and talk with the office couples. They're awesome. We got new
ones to be in charge of the cars. That's three different couples in my
time here. First was the Gulbransen's. Then the Bottomfield's. And now
it's the Prince's.   SO....... If you dont have a leader comp, you
grab the new guy's luggage and go home. Unless your car is trapped,
then it's a crazy hassle to find you and move your car. But there are
key copies to every car, so if the leader has the Keys, it don't
matter.     And that's about it. It lasts like a good 6 hours or more.
And the traffic getting there is pretty bad, but coming home at 5 or 6
is worse. If there's a foot of snow, it takes 4 hours to get home.
(true story).

Sorry that was a lot of info, but it's all fun and I almost want to
record it all and show people how crazy but great it is. There was a
video on Facebook that showed a transfer meeting in Taiwan. It was
pretty similar to ours. Except how the trainees get placed with their
trainers is way different. We have the new guys meet downstairs before
the meeting and get paired up with your new comp/trainer and then go
upstairs to the chapel. What Taiwan did was have the pairing off
during the meeting, and have each companions face up on the screen. It
was cool, but it seems to add a whole level of stress and craziness.
This transfer ends right before thanksgiving.
I'll have my third but real second Halloween here. The first one was
cancelled because of sandy.

It's weird that everyone who was here for the storm is gone, or will
go home tomorrow. I'm the only one left who was on the mission during
the storm. Lots of people came after, but it's not the same. They
don't know what it was like staying inside for a whole week, with no
power. And it sounded like the world was ending.

I say weird a lot. I like that word.
Well, I'll send this off, maybe write more later... Gotta go.

LYB- elder Peck.

This morning we were going to do laundry early. But we both slept in.
I mean I didn't want to wake up early, so I don't care. But we have no
plans today. We need to take the car in to get it fixed. The
maintenance light has been on for too long.
  The other elders are going into the city, for elder wrights old comp
is dying this transfer I guess.  It's Crazy how transfers is already
next week. I guess I'm staying. But I don't want to, really. Or if I
do, I don't want to stay with blackham. I hope I keep doing my usual,
'one and done's.  One comp per transfer. One thrice have I had one
comp for two transfers. I didn't like the first two, and the third was
bearable.
  I guess I don't really become friends with my comps to make the time
worth it. 6 weeks is not long enough to get to know someone and be
friends with them. Well... I guess it depends. I think it happens with
a lot of people, but I'm picky.


   The new iOS 8 is pretty cool. I really like the time lapse camera.
I have been drawing really slow and recording it. Then the play back
is like super fast. Hannah showed me some that were halarious. At
first I didn't get it, because if I want to record things, they are
going fast, and I'd rather have a slo mo camera. But then it's the
opposite. You record something that takes a long time and it speeds it
up. I put a Lego set together in like 5 or so minutes. And the
playback was 40 seconds. It's cool.


My body has been sore and hurting lately. Dunno why. Maybe the way I
sleep. My feet will occasionally hurt where the break was. But that's
kinda normal now.  And I also move my shoulder in ways that shouldn't
happen. It hurts but it's hard to stop. My neck is really sore too.


Last week for zone activity we played ultimate frisbee. It was more
fun to watch than to play, so I just walked back and forth not really
playing, but secretly hoping I'd get a chance to catch or throw it.
There's always some really competitive people and they forget things.
Like mission sport rules. Or just to tone it down a bit. They're
playing as if their life depended on it. Then there's those like me
who don't care too much and play for fun. But because of that, the
sporty people only pass to other sporty people, ignoring the ones who
don't move much.   But like I said, it was more fun to watch.

My ipad is dumb sometimes. Other sound won't work out of either the
speakers or the headphones.  It didn't work all day yesterday, then
last night and this morning it did. Now it's gone back to not working.
I've tried restarting the iPad both ways I know. And that doesn't do
anything. Oh well.

I'm pretty proud of myself at this time of the month. I still have
like 30 dollars on my card, and it's like the third week of the month.
I usually go crazy and buy lots of stuff or just a few big things, or
even just eating out a lot. Then I have no money by this time. But
it's also good that elder Mortensen paid to our lunch at a Thai place.
So that's another 10 bucks for me to use.  Unless I lose it to the
slots.


I think I'll get more pizza today, there's a really good place down
here. That's where I got my spinach pizza. That was super good. For
having no meat on it.

I got a cool solar powered robot toy thing that I had to put together
like a model. I just made it. It took a long time, but it was fun.
   Welp, I don't have much else to say.  We went to Walmart and that's
it. Kinda a chill day. So Ya...

See Ya
-elder peck.

I got my flu shot Saturday. My arm still hurts a bit. Weird.
We went to long beach again to a members house to help her non member
husband to clean out the garage. It was crazy.
Took a while, we had to be there at 7:30, which meant we had to leave
at 7, because it's really half an hour to get there. It's weird
driving for half an hour and still being in our small area.
It wasn't weird in my last area which you could drive from one end to
the other and take an hour, depending on the road and the time. Oh, so
we go down to the beach while we are waiting, and it was kinda cool,
as far as beaches go. Sand, lots of sand. There were some people and
their dogs. Then there was a couple that came from behind us as we
were leaving and they had a cute Dalmatian! He wasn't concerned with
us, but I told the guy he has a good lookin dog. He said: do you want
him? And I'm like: ....uhhh..  He sounded like he wasn't joking. But
it would be hard to do given our current situation. As well as it
being against the rules of missionaries. But it was a really beautiful
dog, the white was very white, and the fur was short.
   So we go back and talk with Ralph. We eat bagels. Then we get to
business. He is a motorcycle dude. He has an old rare Harley. He also
likes cars. He has two old cars. Ones a corvette and ones a big Chevy,
1955 I think. It's like a car, a big lumpy car, he recently had it
painted black with some sweet red/white pin stripes. It was red and
with a black top last year. I guess he races them or just takes them
to car shows and displays them.
His garage was cluttered and full of clothes.
   So we pulled everything out, including the bike, and organized it
from three tables of junk, to one. Oh, he has a dog, too. A bull
terrier. She's cool, all white except for a dark spot on her right
eye. Like the dog from toy story. And he has a cat, a crazy cat. A
rescue, and they're always crazy. The two get along well. Ralph's
wife, the [less active] member, she's the one who gives us hair cuts.
Sis Barone. She works out of our area, but it's close enough that we
can go. <every day our downstairs neighbors smoke some marijuana, and
now I'm smelling it as I write this at my desk, masked with some weird
cigarette smell> So we get the garage cleaned and elder Mortensen
finds a security jacket that he wants to wear, because Ralph was a
cop, as well as a guard for some prince from the Middle East. So he's
posing with a staple gun, and it's pretty funny. But then Ralph finds
a BB gun and has Mortensen use that to pose. And he says we wouldn't
believe how many pictures of missionaries he has posing with the gun,
or the car, or both. So we go over to the hot rod and Mortensen poses
with wright as of he was arresting him. It was funny. Then the sisters
got a turn. I didn't really think the car was that special, so I
didn't get a picture with it.
   We left and got ready then the elders wanted us to go eat with
them, so we were going to go all the way back for Thai food. But the
lunch price wasn't on Saturday. So we tried to pick a new place to
eat, I wanted gyros, but it was out of our area, and Mortensen didn't
feel like we should, so we went and got pizza at a place I've wanted
to for a while. It was super good, I got a spinach with mozzarella
slice, and a chicken Marsala roll, which was like an Italian chicken
pot pie, super good. (Something good about New York, if you don't want
a whole pie, you don't have to, you can get a slice or two, rather
like Utah, or maybe other western places, you kinda have to get a
whole pie of that flavor. I love the pizza here.) and I got some
snapple. On of the workers asked us who we were, what we were selling,
and wright said salvation, then the guy was like, I don't need it. But
he was nice, mortensen talked with him more about what we believe. The
guy was born in Italy, but moved here shortly after, so he considers
himself all American. I'm totally going back there. (Also the slices
are massive, none of this hand sized slices. I thought people thought
they were being cool by folding their slices. But then I got a hold of
one, and realized that you have no choice but to fold it, if you want
to eat it without it falling over)

    I think that I'm not saying enough of what happened but rather a
lot of a few things. Like I'm going into extreme detail about things
that might get to be too much. And not just going over what happened
throughout the week. Making a super long letter about cleaning and
eating, to a shorter one about a few things that happened every day.


    Monday: gave sis Maddox some music. Played foot ball on the beach
and played in the sand, made a sand temple. Found the top of a
jellyfish. It's firmer than I thought.

    Tuesday: mega zone conference, then the ZLs came to our area to
help us. Hart went with me and we did less active look ups. Talked to
a crazy man, and a nicer member who wants to go to the temple again.

    Wednesday: went to the dentist in queens for blackham. (I'm glad I
write things on the calendar, or I wouldn't remember anything.)

    Thursday: went to a buffet with a member. Ate a lot of different
things. The coconut shrimp was super good. The sushi was pretty good.
Baked scallops were good. Baked salmon was good. For some reason I
like seafood again.
          <they're smoking again>
    Friday: district meeting and a new thing- district inventory. It
was cool, everyone wrote on post it's about each other, nice things.
What they are good at and stuff.
  Makes me feel good about myself when I read them.

    Saturday: service and lunch and I don't know what else. Oh, we got
flu shots.

     Sunday: church. Nap. Now I'm here. There's a member who moved
from south shore to here, and he's supposed to call us so we can go
over. But he just moved in. So I guess we can go over another day.
   He has a French name, and I talked to him and told him I thought he
was Haitian, and that I love Haitian food. He said his wife's Haitian!
And that maybe she can make us some food! Woohoo!

     Monday: zone activity. And possibly we'll take our car into pep
boys before it dies.

Okay, I'm done. I'm tired and hungry. I wish I knew how to make good
food. Other than the easy microwave stuff. Like using the stove or
oven or actually cooking.

 See ya.   — Elder Peck

Another bad week.

   Our car was kinda broken into, but there was no struggle to get in,
so it makes me think I left the doors unlocked. But I never do that.
So either that or they had a tool of sorts. The night before we found
out, I had this thought to check on my iPod in the car. But it wasn't
that big of a deal or a big enough thought to do something about it,
plus it was late. So we go down to the car and I get in to the drivers
side, and I see that there is napkins all over the seats and the CDs
are out of the pocket and onto the passenger seat, and the middle
console thing isn't shut right. So I get in and put things back, not
realizing completely why these things are all over, then I check the
top glove compartment and everything's in there. Then I check the
bottom one, and one thing is gone. The iPod. I was glad it was just a
dumb iPod and nothing more. The gas card was still there, and that
would be more troublesome, but just a call away and I can freeze it.
But that card is pretty much unlimited. And it's super easy to use it.
I was also glad that it wasn't worse. Then a minute later I went to
turn on the stereo and found that the knob was loose, not even
connected. So the thief tried to take the stereo as well, but failed.
I also have two thumb drives in there that I'm surprised he didn't
take. But then again.. They're just thumb drives. But I have a ton of
good music on those, and I would have been sad/mad if they were gone.
I guess I should feel bad for having the iPod gone, but the good
outweighs the bad in this situation.

   Then this morning to go do laundry, I remembered there's a bottle
of quarters in the car.... Wait... Maybe.  That was stolen too... So
they got away with an iPod and $3 in quarters.

   I really want to go to comic con now. So many other friends went as
well. One friend went as Leia and her husband went as Han.  I would
like to dress up too, but make sure it won't get annoying to wear for
a long time. One friend got a pic of Stan Lee. Not with him, just him
signing stuff.
 I love Hannah's pic with the Stig, that's so cool!  That part would
be more fun for me, not worrying about the super famous actors and
people, but the super nerdy people who dress up super cool.

On Saturday we went to island park which is near long beach, and
volunteered at a nursing home deal. We wheeled old handicapped people
around a carnival. I was going to get this old lady who was slightly
hard to understand. But then she was stolen by someone who was in the
restroom I guess. So I went with this guy, Dave. Apparently he's a
member and he's the one who told us about this service. He's cool, he
can talk normal, it just seems like his only handicap is having tiny
legs so he's in a wheel chair.  We weren't out long, because a storm
was coming that wasn't supposed to come till later. But he has a
girlfriend who blackham was wheeling around, and she won a game and
let Dave pick the prize, and he picked a massive clown fish that was
bright orange. And had me carry it. It was the biggest prize won on
the street. I was luggin this thing around and everyone who saw me
thought I won it. I was like "no, it was..." Then I'd point to the
dude in the wheelchair and he'd say Gina (his gf) won it for him.  It
was cool.

 But it was kinda sad and freaky at the same time, some of those
people were deformed in a way that made it hard or rather impossible
to move. One guy was in a big electric wheelchair and could move only
his left arm to guide himself. His right arm was bent and twisted, and
it looked like it was stuck there for good. And of course he can't
feed himself. It was sad. He was older too, like 70's maybe. And I
thought that's what happens when you get old, but then looking at his
deformity, I think he was born that way. And survived this long.

We woke up at 5 to do our laundry, and I got up and got ready, and my
comp was still asleep so I turned the light on in the room, and his
alarm was still going. Then half an hour later I go in and wake him
up. I guess he's a really heavy sleeper cuz that alarm was right next
to his head and it was going off for 30 minutes. And the light didn't
bother him. He said he usually wakes up when the light is on his face.
But I guess he covers it.
So instead of 5, we go at 5:40 or something. And the rest of the
district is there. And they do email, cuz there's free wifi.  They do
that so they have more time to do pday things. But now we wait for
thing to open so we can go to the library or somewhere. We have more
time in the day, yes. But we also have more time to wait for things.
So waking up early is useless. So I'm using this extra time to write.
I might take a quick nap while I'm here.

  Later we are going to practice for the turkey bowl on the beach.
Elder Mortensen has never heard of the turkey bowl, so he's excited.
Me and sister Maddox are from Utah and we said that we've always known
about it, and we don't know if it's a western thing, or just a Utah
thing. Because Mortensen is from Arizona, so I guess it's not a
western thing. But he likes the idea.  Who doesn't, in this
football-driven country?  Me, I don't like football. That's why last
year sucked. We missed all our appointments with members because my
comp loves football too much. And we ended up going to a stupid
Chinese buffet and over paying because it was a holiday. Uhhhh

I've been cursed with a lot of comps who are super active and sporty.
And I just don't do that kind of thing.


Ok, I just took a nap. I was conscious enough that I don't feel muggy.
But it was like 2 hours i think.

So I think we'll go thrift shopping because last week everything was closed.

Nothing too exciting happened this week. Same old, same old nothing.

I got a chocolate frog for elder hart and myself. I got Gilderoy
Lockheart. He'd dumb. No one likes him.

Monday, September 1, 2014

(This was a letter I had to type up, so sorry it's late)

September 1, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I can't believe it's September already. There was a very loud firework that just went off next to our apartment. I guess people really love Labor Day around here. This week has been OK. Not much work going on, at least teaching. We've done a lot of yard work.

Tonight we were invited to go help give a blessing but, something came up and some members who we were going to help said not yet. So we went to the church and I went to institute taught by the senior sister. The young kids know as much as I do! I wish I had known that when I was 14. Not two years after I started my mission. But I'm glad I do know it. If I walk away with just one baptism, I'll have had at least two converts. I do know this church is true and God loves everyone, even the drunk black guy who said Jesus isn't white (he might not have been drunk).

I have to be slightly honest with you, I don't really like it here. My heart isn't in it. I'm in a Spanish area with a Spanish comp again. I wish I was in Plainview speaking English. But I know the Lord sent me here for a reason. I just have to find it.

One of the young men here had surgery on his feet, so he walks with a cane. I asked what kind of surgery. He said he has flat feet so he got metal bolts inserted into his feet! I'm excited because that's what I wanted to do when I get home! He said it was a great success and he recommends I do it. He and his mom said I need a pro to do it so they don't mess up. The guy he used trained with the inventor of this procedure, so he's good, real good. He's in Brooklyn. Maybe I could do it when I come back out later. No more orthotics!

We had some familiar faces visit church today. Two former missionaries who served in this area. Former Elder Waters and former Sister Bradfield – now Sister Waters! They served here about a year ago, got married last Wed, and are here today. It was kinda weird.

Last Sunday we went to the Bradfords (senior couple) for dinner, it was very good. Homemade bread, rice and chicken, cheese and broccoli, cookies and ice cream. I like my district, iffy on the ward/area. Four more weeks . . .

Elder Peck