Dear Family,
Wow, that's a good lookin' baby! Way to go, let's keep him! I was a little concerned thursday night when as we, on our way home, were stopped by a member named Brian Degusman, who told us that the zone leaders had texted and that I was supposed to wait for a call. I was a little concerned because we had seen them along with the Puzeys earlier that afternoon at interviews, and I knew that anything not serious would just be a text. We were on our way home but they told us it was urgent, so after 15 minutes of loading the cell phone and a little waiting, the phone rang. It was Sister Puzey! All I heard was static for an entire minute as I said "Hello! Hello! Hello! . . . uh . . . Hello?" I was sure it was going to be about the new brother. After walking a little ways we got reception and I heard all the news. Sister Puzey said it was quick ( I know, Moms a pro!) and that the baby looked like me (lucky guy, join the guapo squad).
Interviews was great, and I happened to be the last one, and we had a little more time. We talked a little bit about the baby coming and he told me about some of his experiences here that we different. He'd visited an investigators home once where they found a tiny baby along with the family, and when he asked how old it was, the mom had said casually "oh, I had it last night." We had a good talk and it was a good day.
I'm so glad everything went well and I'm so happy we've got a new addition to the family. I'm not even going to throw around any name ideas, that's tricky territory.
It's been a week full of new learning experiences.
Last week I felt like we could have done a little more to help our investigators to church, and this week we really tried to throw together some support and help for them. They all had really great commitments, and our plans went well, but when it came down to it, we ended up getting two less actives to church and 1 investigator. Much less than we expected. That's alright, this week we'll try some new things. The coolest experience of the week happened on Thursday. We were walking on our way to our first appointment and I noticed as we walked by a member's home that their gate was open. I've been wanting to get to know this family better for quite some time, and as I looked into their home I saw Sister Galecia and thought I'd just poke my head inside to wish her a good afternoon. She greeted us and welcomed us into her front room, where brother Galecia was sitting. I'd seen him once before and knew that he had some serious illness that effected his body and his legs where swollen along with his waist. He looked like he was in serious pain and we were told he had just been released from the hospital a few days ago and that things were not looking well for him. He saw us and managed to whisper that he'd like a blessing, now. Elder Eyering's talk "Be Ready" came back to me as I realized that I had not yet moved my oil into my new small side-bag. I told Sister Galecia we'd be right back as we flagged down a trike and zipped back to the apartment. I grabbed the oil and we rode back. In a vain attempt to find a comfortable position, Brother Galecia asked us to help him lay down, and then in a moment, to sit again. As I moved his legs I noticed that they were heavy, stiff, and several times the normal size. He had little control over his body. Elder Maandig did the annointing, and I gave a blessing to him. After a moment I thought to give a blessing of healing, but I choked on the words. I felt the peace of the spirit come, and rest in my heart, and after that I felt I was guided as to what should be said and promised. I felt the spirit very strongly, and I was so grateful that we had been there at the right time. I know we stood where Christ would have, and that we used Heavenly Father's power in a way that pleased Him. The next day, after an interview in another area, I was asked for a blessing by another missionary who was sick, and then by the investigator about to be baptized. I thought about how the Lord had arranged everything -- because of the blessing on Friday, I'd had oil on Saturday, and I felt all three times the spirit confirming the blessings. I truly believe that giving blessings is an important part of the reason we're here, sometimes.
I love you all so much, family. I'll write a little after my report maybe about dad's question, let me think first. I'm so grateful that we're in this together, as a family. The family really is forever!
I love you! Love, Elder Loren Peck
Dear Family,
The best news this week is that I just bought 5.5 pounds of MANGO. 4.5 pounds unripe, at 10 cents a pound and .5 pounds free (inactive member), and 1 pound ripe -- 30 cents. The grand total: 70 cents well spent and more tropical fruit than I can eat! It's my last dry season and that means that I've only got about 3 more months to get absolutely fed up of mangoes.
The zone conference this week was one of the very best, and that's saying somethin'. Sister Puzey gave an amazing talk about the Book of Mormon. She quoted prophets and shared the result of 2 months of serious research about the book. She'd gathered statistics and read the whole thing twice. You can read on page 114 of Preach My Gospel about what she did. She and President Puzey challenged us to "Find Christ" in the Book of Mormon. They gave us a clean copy and I've already started. We're looking for references to Christ, words of Christ himself, and His attributes.What I've learned: 1st Nephi is not about Nephi! "The Lord" Jesus Christ is clearly the main character, and I'm guessing that this is true for the whole book. I'm amazed at how Nephi writes -- The Lord did this and gave us that and told us this. . . it's about what Christ is doing and saying. Nephi might be the main character on the large plates, but the smaller plates are definitely about Christ. I can't hardly go a verse without Him being mentioned. It's been enlightening.
I got really spoiled at zone conference. Sister Puzey made a poster with a message for the new baby brother, and I got to pose for a few pictures. She also had a frog (not alive) that she'll send to you, I sent a note with it. On my first day in the mission home sister Puzey shared a message about F.R.O.G. and how to stay happy in the mission. President Puzey was there and I mentioned to him that I was getting pretty spoiled and he just smiled and said that he knew all about that and he had it a lot better.
I met Casey Major's namesake -- Casey Puzey and his wife this Tuesday. They visited the Puzeys this week and toured Baler and got to hike Mount Pinatubo and all the stuff we missionaries dream about doing. They shared moving testimonies. Casey Puzey told us that when they were climbing Pinatubo, Casey wanted to climb an ancient looking tree to grab a picture, but as he got to the top, the whole tree came down and he came down with it. He got away with only a twisted ankle -- his only lament was that they hadn't gotten the picture. Reminds me of another Casey . . .
Other than that, President Puzey did something unusual -- He showed us graphs and our numbers, and what was happening in the mission. That's the first time I saw our numbers analyzed like that. But the point was, in the Angeles mission, on average, for every 41 new investigators, and every 15 investigators at church, there is one baptism. The message was not "go for a ton of new investigators", it was "why do we have to go through a whoppin' 41 to get 1 ready for baptism? The average in the whole Philippines is only 30 new investigators for 1 bapt., and in all of Asia it's only 24. So he addressed the need to take care of our investigators. Sometimes (this is true) when the going gets slow for one investigator or problems come up, it's easier just to find a new person and hope they're easier to baptize.
President Puzey's message came just after some big changes in the area. I took advantage of the changes to make a few tweaks (big ones) in our day to day doings. We started focusing on one area every day and some cool things happened. In the past 2-3 weeks we've found 8 investigators in 5 homes that we are really, really focusing on. We visit them every day, we read the Book of Mormon, answer questions, sometimes just drop by. They've gotten used to daily follow ups at a time they help us set every day. We've been able to establish a solid relationship with these 5 families -- Galutan, Capistrano, DeLeon, Marquez, and Bongato. They've all accepted the invitation to prepare for baptism and and taking time to investigate. They all promised to come to church yesterday but only the Capistrano family showed up. I don't feel like we did enough to help them because this will be their first time attending. This week we're starting to plan a chapel tour for them and setting up plans for them to be picked up. This is a critical time for them, they need to come to church right now -- sometimes investigators are like phosphorus matches, they light fast, but getting the fire from the phosphorus to the wood itself is a bit of a trick when Satan's trying to blow out their small flame. Those 5 families are literally our lives right now, our prayers, plans, roleplays, sometimes it seems like everything I think about is for them.
Piano lessons are moving along and there's one member that I think will be able to take over pretty well when I leave. It's a blast to teach!
Valentines day was great and the Primary passed out plastic flowers before sacrament meeting. I got 3. I've been promoted to chief cook. And chief dishwasher. Call me Chief. Sinigang, gourd with chicken, Milkfish surprise, adobo, canton, pacbit, sopas, monggo, we're getting quite a menu going. Get that wok ready back at home! And a years supply of rice!
I love Elder Maandig, and we're having a great time. The transfer is flying and we've got interviews this thursday. I can't believe the baby hasn't come!!! I thought for sure. . . I'm thinkin' of ya', mom (and ya'll as well, 'course)
Love,
Elder Loren Peck
Dear Family,
You've got the package sending down to an art! I got the package on my hump day and I'll tell you what -- every single one of those cookies was AWESOME cause I ate em all myself. Hope yall weighed the package, because that's how much weight I put on. That was A LOT of broken hearts. Every heart -- broken. Were you trying to give me a hint? Like. . . everybody's hearts broken without me there? Or, well, that's the only thing it could really mean. Okay, the truth was I had a lot of help and the last cookie disappeared just hours ago. Thanks so much! My favorite was all the letters, thanks for everyone that wrote -- even the uncles. I've got a plan to give the Mac & Cheese to a greenie in need. The package was great! Hump day was good too. We had a meeting in San Jose, and because of the special occasion, I got some halu-halo at Chow King. Halu-halo (in english: mix-mix) is 10 times as good as ice cream. Speaking of ice cream, I also got a little ice cream from bishop -- flavor: cheese (keso bueno!). I only went for that because the "bravo avacado" flavor was out. I'll tell you, I've never seen so many weird ice cream flavors in my life.
I was a little anxiety-attacked last week, I've learned since then that Elder Maandig's tagalog is better than I thought. He understands just about everything, but the speaking is still a little broken. He's talkative to me, but he's a little shy and doesn't talk hardly at all to other people. His native language, Viscayan, seems relatively close to tagalog -- the grammer and structure seems to be all the same, it's just the words that are different. The result is, sometimes in lessons or when he gets talking he'll go straight into Viscayan, or throw in words that sound tagalog but I've never heard before. We're studying and helping each other, but we don't have trouble communicating. Another thing I have to laugh at was the use of the word "kuwan" in the first week. I heard it every sentence for the first few days, but it's starting to go away now. The closest word in english is thing, or thingy -- it's a word thrown in when you've forgotten the real word. (I think it might be cual in spanish) Example: "Elder Peck, do we have any kuwan here that we could kuwan into our, you know, kuwan, I mean, food?
We've really hit it off and he's probably the most humble person I've ever met. He's so easy to get along with! We haven't had any trouble at all as a companionship. He doesn't blink an eye at our 7 hours of straight work in the afternoons.
I know for sure that companionships are inspired. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I'm being stretched every direction that I need to improve in in this companionship, because I have to control what I say and think and do. Christlike attributes come so slowly! Line upon line, but progress is made in the day to day struggles and small triumphs and changes. I'm going to be a much more kind and empathetic person now and in the future because of this -- that's an empowering belief, right?
I was really disappointed yesterday when most of our investigators didn't come to church. We ran into brother Capistrano as he was -- oops! -- working on sunday afternoon. I wanted to whine and say, "but you promised!" He was really embarrassed, though, their poverty is really a trial. Same story with the Sabado family, and everyone else had a problem as well. Funny how problems ALWAYS come on sunday mornings. We try our best to warn investigators -- the gift of prophecy, really. Sister Cabiles said it might not be the right time for her, Brother Angeles is still listening and we had a great lesson with him and his wife, living temporarily in Bulacan. The Galutans accepted a bapt. goal date on March 27. We've got a lot of great investigators! It's just getting them to church.
What about you all? Mom, I've been thinking about you a lot and praying that everything will be alright. Looks like everybody is happy. Happy as well on this end. Hump day didn't seem very wierd. Cool story, we've sung the same sacrament hymn 3 weeks in a row because that's the one the chorister really likes (175). Only problem is, the congregation cannot get the beat down on the last line of the hymn. Cannot should be italisized for emphasis. On the very last time, they seemed to get it and I felt like we just won the bowl game. We'll see how it turns out next week. Piano lessons are a blast for me, I don't know if anyone else is having fun!
Long letter, huh? There's one last treat for the avid readers that made it here. I just got over a case of the boils. The good news: There was only one boil. The bad news: One boil is plenty when its on your rear end. Imagine the walking. Try to imagine the hours of sitting. I'm still trying to forget. That was a painful experience that lasted 4 days, the worst day was on my one year mark. Memorable!
Love you all family, hope everyone has another great week!
Love, Elder Loren Peck
Dear Family,
There's been a lot to think about and do this week. I've had so much to think about and do. My new companion is Elder Maandig, from Cagayan De Oro and he's a great missionary. He's excited about the work and it's great when we're walking to hear him say that he loves the work and that this is the best area and mission. It really lifts my spirits. He is really upbeat. He's easy to talk with and work with. On Thursday we got home from Pampanga at about 7:30 P.M. The jeepney was so loud that we didn't get to talk much, so when we got off at the house, sore and stiff, I started asking about his family. He started talking about them rapidly and excitedly, and about the MTC, and after a minute I started to notice that I didn't understand about half of what he was saying. I didn't pay much attention to that, because every companion has a different vocabulary and phrases. I was grateful that I was going to have a lot of new vocabulary to learn from him. We taught one appointment and he bore a short testimony. He gave the prayer and I didn't understand a lot of that either. But I have to say that it was a good 12 hours after that when I discovered that my companion isn't a Tagalog speaker at all! He speaks Viscayan and only knows a little Tagalog. I was not expecting that at all. I thought my companions were all going to be Tagalog! I guess it's about time I got the language nailed down, because now I'm supposed to be the "fluent" one. Yeah, you should see the looks we get when the American is the one that speaks the national language, and not the Filipino. I'm excited, because I'm going to be fluent by the time the transfer ends. Or toast.
Our first full day was very hard. One of the hardest days of my mission. We struggled and I was thinking that this was not a good introduction for Elder Maandig. On the other hand, it might have been just the starter we needed -- every day is going to feel good after that. Our appointments weren't there, the RM couldn't work with us, our door to door was completely unproductive, and we were tired. I hit my knees pretty hard that evening. I don't know what happened during the night, but like mom always says, the world looked a lot brighter when I woke up. We worked hard that second day, and there must have been a whole legion of angels working alongside us, because miracles happened. Our investigators were at home and the lessons went great. We found some new families that were really ready to listen. Things came alive in the area, and on Sunday the same thing happened. We're making contact with almost all of our progressing investigators every day and the effect is great.
One couple, the Galutan family, were taught two years ago before moving and losing contact with the missionaries. Their father recently passed away, and he was a member. Brother Galutan comes home from the fields when he regularly wouldn't, just to be on time for the teaching appointments. They accepted a baptismal goal date this week.
A part-member sister, Sister Marquez, joined us while we taught to her family that were part members. We focused our teaching for her, and while we were teaching she told us about the changes she'd seen in her family because of the church, and shed some tears. Even though her and her husband are not members, she told us how her husbands rough attitude had changed. They have both told us that they will make time to come with their children to church.
Every investigator has a different story so teaching is really a personal and a tailored thing -- so much depends on the spirit. I'm excited to keep working, and even though every day is packed and I rarely have a moment to think -- I'm happy and loving the work. I love you all and it sounds like ya'll had a great week! I pray for you and I love you all.
Love, Elder Loren Peck
