Hi Mom, Family, Everyone, Its Elder Peck. My previous prediction about spicy foods was fairly accurate. I took something hotter this week, and I will probably die this next one. But before that, I had exchanges. I exchanged with one of our zone leaders, Elder Spencer, who trained Elder Bodily.
He was pretty quiet, and worked diligently, but I will tell you now that if you respect various life and limb you had better not be distracted while backing him up. Elder Leatherwood had a great time with Elder Summers. Elder Leatherwood's back is doing a lot better, though I don't know if I can attribute that to the stretches or not as he was skeptical and a little noncommittal about doing them. Brother Ganshaw has done his best with his chiropractering to help him out and it seems to be working. Anyway, while on exchanges with Elder Spencer, he showed me a contact we hadn't seen in our area book. A man they had met with several times before. He smoked and drank, but wanted to learn about the Atonement. Despite curiosity, he usually blocked the missionaries numbers after a little while. Elder Spencer was excited to see my phone because it was a new number. Sure enough, we got through and he reluctantly agreed to meet us at seven on Wednesday at the church. He does have a history of not meeting appointments but we will see what comes. Driving home from dinner that night we made two stops. The first being a Lego shop we had passed several times and agreed we needed to see.
That was pretty cool, and I found several sets I think Chris had as a kid, and we stayed there a while longer than we should have. Then, as we continued our drive home, Elder Youngstrom spotted a Lamborghini in a parking lot off the side of the highway. We peeled off to check it out, only breaking a few laws while doing it (see "taking a right turn at sixty miles an hour) and (Texas dive) but we made it over and got some pictures.
We found out it was actually a car show that had just ended, and we had missed some crazy rides. It was still pretty great to get my picture next to a half million dollar car though. A few days later we were eating dinner at the Ganshaw's again. (Those guys are saints and fill in the empty days on our schedule.) By the way, someone asked me what my favorite part of missionary work so far was, and I answered "dinner with the members." It's great to see all of the families and their crazy kids, or teens in the online MTC, to talk about their work, (I have been able to discuss Command and Conquer and Retropie with three dads already!) and their hobbies. It makes every day pretty great and a good thing to look forward to. Funnily enough, and many of you guys may not know this, but my goal is actually to gain weight on my mission as I want to be able to enjoy the food. Just like every other missionary, my companions are on a strict (aka nonexistent) diet. As we have weighed ourselves every week, a saddening result is given. Since the start of this transfer, my companions have gained a few pounds and were annoyed. Imagine my dismay to find that I had lost four pounds since arriving in the mission. Now many would attribute this to my choices of foods, namely my dislike for many kinds before my mission, but I have been eating voraciously since my arrival, and have come to enjoy many kinds of meats and unique dishes. I am particularly fond of spicy Italian sausage at this point. I have been eating plenty, but I need to eat more apparently. I told my companions that we simply needed to switch goals and we'd be set, but they don't agree. Anyway, we were eating at Brother Ganshaw's when he brought out Insane Dave's something or other hot sauce. I politely declined, and the other Elders had some on a toothpick. They noted its spiciness, and I was convinced to try a taste. It was much hotter than anything I had tried before, and it took a while for us to recover. Then, as a joke, Elder Youngstrom said, " Elder Peck, if you eat a spoonful of that hot sauce, I'll buy you lunch anywhere you want." I can, at this moment, see my mom shaking her head, laughing, or putting her hand to her mouth in horror, probably all three. We all laughed a minute and continued eating our chili. I started thinking how I would love some ice cream from Braums again. So while the others were chatting, I grabbed the bottle, and poured out a spoonful. Only their son, Andrew, saw me, and I couldn't quite tell you if it was shock, horror, or excitement on his face. As I lifted the spoon, the others saw me and all yelled out "NO!" in unison. I had a moment of clarity. I put the spoon down and laughed it off and reached for my chili. Then Elder Leatherwood joked that we didn't have enough miles to drive to the hospital that night. I thought a second, grabbed a piece of bread, dipped and soaked it in the hot sauce, stuffed it into my mouth, then licked the spoon. Brother Ganshaw got out his camera. I knew better than to keep the sauce in my mouth so swallowed quickly and braced for impact. They all just watched. It turns out, maybe I shouldn't have swallowed. My mouth was nothing compared to the pain that burned in my stomach. I couldn't drink milk because I knew I was going to throw up. I had no time to pay attention to the permanent damage I had done to my mouth, my entire focus was not throwing up as I paced and cried over Brother Ganshaw's floor. I somehow lived through the eternity that I couldn't see through my tears, and Sister Ganshaw was kind enough to fetch some ice cream for me to suck on. My stomach was off kilter this whole week. But someday soon, I am going to get a double scoop ice cream cone, and maybe an order of fries, at Braums. In any case, going by this pattern, my next letter may come in the form of a death certificate from some hospital in Texas. I am missing all of you guys, and hope your weeks are going well. -Elder Peck
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