July 30, 2012

This last weekend, my companion and I had a little...misunderstanding. We were spending the night in Indio so's I could interpret for Eddy in the Indio ward. Indio is not close to Riverside. But it's still in the mission. Anyway, we parked across the street from the apartment at the church and walked over to get ready for bed. Elder Mercy looked at me and asked if I had the cell phone. (I never have the phone) I courteously checked my pockets and said nope. Then he said to ask the Elders we were staying with, for a code. I only translated what he signed. I asked the Elder "Do you know a code?" The Elder's natural reply: "For what?" I turned to Elder Mercy and said "For what?" Elder Mercy said "Phone" So I told the Elder: "A code for a phone" The Elder looked confused. He said "like...for a security code?" I asked Elder Mercy if that's what he meant and he said 'No" Then I said "what do you mean then?" Then he gave me this terribly nasty Jamaican glare and fingerspelled 'C-O-D-E' Then I made sure he was still talking about a code for a phone so I said "For a phone?" then he said "The number so I can get into the church and look for the phone because I think I left it in there." As soon as I saw church, I understood perfectly what he meant all along. So I asked the Elder: "What is the code to get into the church?" He gave it to us. We looked, no phone. It was in the car. That's the extent of drama while on a mission. So far. I hope it doesn't get worse than another glare.

We haven't had the GPS in the car for about a week because the sisters we borrowed it from wanted it back for a while. I found my way all over the mission without it. and without help from Elder Mercy. I felt pretty good about it. But we have it again and we are going in entirely new areas. We tracted in Redlands for some reason...It was funny actually. I knocked on the door and waited. A woman's voice was heard through the door that said "Who is it?" - "It's the missionaries!" I said in a jovial, spirited tone. Her reply, "Who is it?" (beginning to sound impatient. (much less 'jovial' this time) "It's the missionaries..." She said "I can't hear you" I could only think of one way to help her poor hearing so I told her "Answer the door!" I guess she heard me that time because she said "If I don't know who it is, I'm not going to open the door." I think she knew exactly who we were, and she was afraid of us and didn't want to talk to us. So we left, but it was funny to think about as we drove away. We were also with Elder Beaulieu (boyer) who is not really a missionary yet but he has been with us a few times now.

The muddy buddies were good thank you! I accidentally brought them to Indio (the desert) and told the elders they could have some. There were only a few crumbs left when I got it back. I sent a letter via Postal Service. Today, Pday, we normally go to the church and meet other missionaries there and play basketball or something. But today, Elder Mercy wanted to stay home and do nothing. So that's what we did. I took the time to study and write some letters, but I wish we would have gone and exercised a little.

So I finally checked out my blog! It's so cute! I love the little musical note thingy. I have been listening to the Chopin Ballades for a loooong time. I think number 4 is my fav. number 1 comes close. I always thought I liked 3 the best...but 4 is so much better. :) We should have gone shopping today. I even made a list. here it is: 2% milk 1 gallon or 2, Peanut butter, Jelly, Oatmeal, Cereal, Shoes for service or gym shoes, Stamps, batteries for the smoke detectors, canned soup, stew, ramen noods. I was going to buy lots of bread but the other day, we were given all the bread we can eat and more. We ended up giving it all away. But I still have about a loaf. And then at church, sister bernard gave us a homemade loaf. I'm still in the process of eating it. I don't think Elder Mercy wants any. We get apples from Sister Pierce, We get cherry tomatoes from sister egbert, we get figs from brother garcia, and we can have all the oranges we want from the backyard. So I guess we really can't go hungry...Oh well. I feel out of shape. I am too lazy to work out and lose a little weight. I weighed myself last week........168. I'm sooooo dang fat!!!!!! Before I went to the MTC how much did I weigh?? like 145?? whew! Anyway, I think it's good that I'm getting huge. I would rather improve from being fat than from being skinny. Ya know?

Last night we taught 4 deaf people at the same time. One man, Robert is nearly impossible to understand. His fingerspelling almost started to smoke. and he can talk a lot. Sometimes I don't know if he is asked me a question or not so I really have to pay attention. We told them the Joseph Smith story, the Lehi and his family story, and the moroni promise. Then we gave them all copies of the book of mormon and a dvd for asl. Elder Mercy told a woman that "your church is not full, you are missing things. Our church has everything and nothing is missing." I thought that was really bold and kind of rude to say. But maybe it's the Deaf culture that accepts things like that...I can't get used to that part. I hope my email can bring some entertainment to your day and some insight into the modern missionaries life. Full of complaints but never giving up. Thanks for being my family. have a nice day.

L-der Peck

July 23, 2012

I saw a Fisker Kharma today.(silver) wow! I also saw a lamborghini gallardo spyder (yellow) and a ferrari 360 spyder. (red) Just imagine paying for one of those and I'm sure you'll feel better about paying for a mini van, mazda, and slug bug. Good luck with the money thing. I tried to save all I could but it was more important for me to get going than to sit and save. 

Send muddy buddies. now you have to. When we go to bed, there are two routines that happen most often. 1st, I'm writing in my journ journ and he goes to bed and when I finish I go to bed...we don't talk much. 2nd, He stays up chatting with people on the video phone, and I go to bed, then he goes to bed. I don't talk to myself that much but I'm pretty sure I was already mental. 

Last night we were visitin Luis Garcia. A return missionary who is less active now because he's got some beef with a guy in the deaf branch or something...I don't know. But we were at his house and the rest of his family is all mexican and catholic. They had this lady over doing some crazy "cast the devil out" thing. It was funny. She pushed peoples faces until they lay flat on their back. One girl, didn't feel anything but she recognized that it was evil! She's catholic I think...but after we left, Luis (her brother) called on the VP and said that she was curious about our church. So we went over today and taught her the first lesson. She said everything made sense. That's progress. She also said that she had a dream about the first vision before we explained it to her. She is hard of hearing so we were signing and I was talking. But I have a quiet voice so it was pointless anyway. 

And another cool story, we were tracting, and the first house we came to had these two old guys. I could tell by the way the fat one coughed that he was mean, so I wasn't going to say anything. Then Elder Mercy looked at me and gave me the look. So I said "hi. We're missionaries from the church........" The fat one put his hand to his ear and said "I can't hear you, you'll have to come through the gate." So we did. The fat one had a big beard and looked like santa. He was jewish! The other one was skinny and bald and just got out of prison after being in there for 6 years and had been taught the lessons by some other Elders a long time ago. So we had a little lesson on their porch and read some scriptures. It was all me of course...cuz mercy aint talkin. So we had a prayer and we were on our way out when the prisoner guy said "earlier this week, I was praying and asking for help to get back into the lessons and start going to church again, and here you guys are!" He also mentioned before that he is very busy. He works 60 hours a week and goes to school. We happened to catch him at the only time he's home. Miracle? I think so. Anyway, there have been other little miracle things like that. 

Like this really scary bust a cap mexican was waving down some car like they were doing a deal or something and I walked up to him and said "what's up?" then he said "hey man, I'm not a believer" I said "ok, do you know any deaf people?" he said "yeah there are two in those apartments" So I consider that a miracle. But that's just me...I guess. We went to find the deaf people and finally found their door but they weren't home. We can tell deaf people live there because there is a little light flasher button thing instead of a doorbell. So we'll go back and baptize them fo sho. 

Elder Peck   

July 17, 2012

Sounds like everything is better now that I'm gone. When you go shopping for more missionary stuff, tell Chuck to get an extra pair of shoes. I have wanted another pair since we started doing service and getting dirty...I have to wear the same shoes when we go play basketball or volleyball and I don't like it. 


We haven't had any success since I've been here. Everyone is rejecting the gospel. It's sad to see. But if I look at it as a seed being planted, then I feel better. I can't do anything more than invite them to read the book of mormon and pray about it because that's what this church is based on. If you believe in the book of mormon, then everything else falls into place. Everytime we go tracting, I am the one who has to talk. Elder Mercy doesn't know how to talk. So everyone is saying "NO" to me. Sure, he's my companion but everyone looks at me when they talk...naturally. 


People have suggested that I voice interpret for Elder Mercy when we go tracting so that he has a chance to say something. But could you imagine opening the door and seeing someone signing to you when you have no idea what they're saying, and then trying to listen to another person interpreting for them?? It just doesn't seem like it would go well at all. And of course my understanding and receptive skills are not good enough to voice for him. I can voice for many other people, but he just signs strangely for some reason... 


Last night I killed a giant spider in the laundry room. I was going to put my clothes into the dryer and noticed its long, wirey, legs slowly creeping up the wall. I took a broom and smacked it down and it darted across the tiled floor like a mouse. I watched it carefully as it went outside and hid in the rocks. I took the end of the broomstick and stabbed and poked until I saw his body shrivel and quake and his legs curl into a ball. It was dark at the time, but this morning, as I went to check on it, I found him still there, with a dried puddle of guts underneath his massive body. SUCCESS!!! I hate spiders. That was a big one. It's dead now! :) That's the only good story I have for this week...sorry. 


I'm breaking the rules by sharing negative experiences with my family but guess what? If I didn't, I wouldn't be sharing anything. And if I had a son on a mission, and he never wrote home, that would be sad. So I'm writing anyway even though this week sucked. 
k bye

Written Letter 7-8-2012

Sup Fam !?


I'm just chillin' here at the home share. Keeping busy that's fo sho.  I have another good story but I'll send it in an email.  It'll be easier.  When I send the sd card it will make more sense.  Maybe I'll just send it now... oh yeah I don't know how much postage I need. Um...yeah. 


I placed my first Book of Mormon and gave my first blessing in ASL !  The blessing was for an older woman named Kim Quartermus who broke her bum or something. I forgot to put my hands back on her head and I just kind of stood there for a second.  Then Elder Mercy looked at me like "What are you doing? Get over here"  He was standing with his hands on her head at that time.


The homeshare has an exercise room and laundry room in the lower part.  We cook and shower and sleep in the upper part.


I'm getting better at sign language.  Some hearing guy complimented me on my skills as a new missionary.  I said "thank-you" 


♥ / Elder Peck
 ( and a little Ewok sticker on the letter)

7-9-2012 part 2

okay so like, I have this story to tell? (talking like Sierra) okay so you can like, look it up on the map or whatevs but on the 4th of July, we drove to Big Bear Lake. The road was all woooo! woooo! and people are crazy drivers here...but we were there and it was totes raining and we were checkin out these sweet wood carvings. you know, the chainsaw kind. mostly like a bunch of bears and eagles and furniture. They are expensive. This one bear, had a saddle and it was $8,495.00 wow. and this other one, it was an elk. It looked way cool but it was sold and didn't have a price. I bet it was around 10,000.00. haha they could have just gone on a mission for that price! anyway, we were standing there, and I heard these cars take off from the light as though it were a race! So I turned and looked. i watched them accelerate down the road. Remember how I said it was raining? well the road was wet and this one car started sliding and fish-tailing and all that good stuff. Then the car hopped the curb and took out a 4 ft carving on its way. Then it kept going (somewhat towards me) and it slammed into this 10ft carving of a bear. which probably weighed at least 1/2 the cars weight. anyway, the bear carving fell onto the hood of the car and the car stopped suddenly. The driver and passenger both got out swearing as I predicted. 


They were quite young. I talked to the driver and he said he was almost 19. And he had just traded his truck for that car.  Also, I heard that he put 10,000 dollars into the engine. silly. but now the car is trash and I took lots of pictures and i'll sent them home when I can. I also took pictures of the car that i was in, when i crashed and a picture of my new car. also, we went to a car museum and I took some more pictures of cars. I got to sit in a Jaguar XJ220. yeah. that car probably costs over a million bucks now. back in the 90s it was around 600,000.00 i think. 


Anyway, I don't have any cool mission stories. . . yet. we played softball for p day this morning. I rocked their world of course. made a nice catch too. I had to jump maybe 8 feet in the air but that's no big deal.


Some people we talk to about the gospel, are very rude about it and don't want anything to do with us. Other people, are very nice and open to it even though they are happy with the church they are involved with. Some people seem terrified of us. Some people laugh at us. I'm serious. They laugh. We'll see who's laughing in the end. mwahhahahaha! >:) Some people let me give my whole shpeel before letting me know they don't speak english. I have been called FBI, JW, Security, and I was mistaken for an employee at the library. I have been offered beer multiple times, I have been asked for a cigarette, and I was offered vodka. My excuse is "I'm not 21" hahaha. one of the members invited us to go swimming with them in their nice new pool next week. Ugh. they should know better.


We have two dinners planned this week and maybe a lunch! that's a lot of food huh! Some days, we don't eat anything until we get to where we're going and look in the fridge or something. I'm used to not eating, but then the darn MTC changed all that and fed me like they were trying to kill me. 


By the way mom, there are no fires here that i know of. Although the freeway was on fire last week! I think i wrote about it in my letter. maybe. 


To Hannah, explain to your teacher that the do do do do do do do do song is not going to help you get better. Chose a song by kodalay and good luck with it. ;)

7-9-2012

We drive to palm springs every weekend so I can interperet for some deaf people. We drive around town looking for deaf people which we almost never find. If we do, I don't really know what goes on most of the time because I don't know sign language. but I catch a few things and it seems to be gospel related and we pray so I guess we teach them...?? anyway, that's cool that Jana and them are visiting. lucky!


I heard there are some fires in utah. good luck with that. today as I got in the car, I looked at the thermometer : 114 yeah. it's hot here. The mission office hasn't said anything about it. I guess the vehicle coordinator is in charge and he gets all the crap from people. Poor guy. I'm glad Charles is excited and stuff. It's definitely something to be excited about. New York sounds more dangerous than here. 


Everyone who signs, signs differently. It's like when people talk. But when people talk, I understand them. When people sign, if it's not the way I learned, I don't understand it. And Elder Mercy doesn't sign the way i learned. He signs "freeway" the same as i sign "Math" so we'll be driving and he says to "get on the math" and i get confused. ugh. anyway, I think i have that other email to reply to so I'll save the rest for that. 

7/2/2012 Story Time

I found out about Charles' mission call from Chan's mom...she sends me all kinds of stuff... UGH that's so much better than California. JEALOUS! Elder Mercy is from Brooklyn btw. Oh and when I'm done with my mission, I don't care if we come back and visit, there really isn't anything to see or do. It's just palm trees and smog. That's all California is. Elder Mercy says the smog in New York isn't as bad as it is here. 

I was thinking about New York the other day for some reason...not because I was trying to guess where Chucks going, or because Elder Mercy is from there, but I was just thinking about walking down the street and in my imagination, it started raining! I wish it rained here. It's just hot. Rain is exciting. That's why I'm moving to WA!!! maybe. 

We are not teaching anyone...as far as I know...Elder Mercy doesn't really tell me anything we just get in the car and drive all day. I don't play the organ in church because they have a video come up every time with someone signing correctly...and it has its own music. 

Anyway, I guess I have a couple stories I can share. First, Elder Mercy and I were at the church playing basketball waiting for other people to show up (which never happened) and some lady was knocking on the door outside...so I opened the door and she seemed very troubled. She said "Um, I was just wondering if someone could pray with me, I'm just having some problems." I replied "Yeah, we can. Come on in" So we were in the lobby and she said "I only have one arm, so lets put our hands like this" (Almost like we were going to do a cheer after a soccer game or something) I wasn't going to tell her "NO!" so we did. Then we just sat there and her eyes were closed and I could tell she wanted me to pray. So I started praying. I prayed that whatever problem she was having, would be resolved. And that she would have no bad feelings towards anything. And that she would be happy. And I said some other things. But we finished and she got up and left. As she walked away she said "That usually works right?" I said "Yes". 

This next story is shorter but it's kinda funny to me. So Elder Mercy and I were in the desert (Palm Springs area, which is over an hour from riverside) contacting some Deaf people. Most of the people we contact live in apartments. This specific area looked like trash. I half expected to see a body on the side of the road. But we knock on the door...even though he's deaf...and we wait. Maybe 30 seconds pass and we knock again. and we wait. No answer. As we took a step away from the door, I heard someone knocking on a window. I looked and beheld a hand, sticking through the blinds signing "wait". I thought it was funny. 

um...OH I almost forgot I have a pretty good story...Elder Mercy and I were going somewhere and realized we were almost out of gas. So, we were on our way to a gas station in our 2010 silver chevy malibu. I was just about to make a left turn. So (as any simple minded person would) I put my left blinker on. *blink blink blink* then I slowed down (which is usually the next step in a turn) then I looked in my side view mirror. I saw a car moving towards us that did not seem to be slowing down. I thought "Oh heck, here we go." The next thing I know, our car is going sideways and then jerks to a hault. I look around (not registering what had just happened) then I looked at the car that hit us. It was a silver 2010 Saturn Vue, with a suprised looking older mexican woman in the driver seat. 

My next thought was "What an idiot" (talking about the woman) Then I hear some very discouraged moans coming from Elder Mercy. He was pounding the dashboard and rubbing his forehead in agony. We were both ok, but he was just upset that someone had hit our car. This was now the third wreck he had been in since he came to California. I guess he is bad luck. 

Then the mexican woman exits her car and walks towards me. I open the door of my car and before I can say anything, she gets up in my grill and starts pointing at me and shouting in understandable spanglish "It was YOUR fault" again and again. Not once did she say "are you okay" I said "We'll see what the cops have to say about it" feeling quite confident. She said "Ok, go ahead call the cops" I said "I don't have a phone" (Elder Mercy had it hahaha) 

Then some boy (maybe around 15 or 16) walks up and says "yeah! I seen the whole thing!" Ah, at last! A witness to the horrendous occasion! he continues: "he was parked over there and swerved out in front of you!" I was shocked! What kind of sick, twisted...ugh!! were my next thoughts. At that point, it was time for my special quality: keeping quiet. I'm sure if I said anything it would only turn into a nasty argumental fight. Then a few other neighbor kids came over claiming they "seen" the very same thing that the first boy had said. It was like a nightmare. Two weeks into my mission and I've already wrecked the car. 

The police finally showed up and he happened to be a mormon. But it didn't matter. Me (all alone - because elder mercy can't stick up for me) against a 60 year old mexican woman and her army of white trash neighbor kids. The cop was convinced that the whole thing was my fault. He also said he's not allowed to decide whose fault it was at the scene of the "crime" So I jokingly said "we could go over there" pointing to a random location. He decided to tell me anyway. He said "yeeeaaaahhhh......looks like your were the one at fault. It is what it is" By that point I didn't care anymore. I was done. So we called some other elders and they came and helped us put a spare tire on because the wreck flattened the good one...

We went back to the mission office and they gave us a new car just like that. Now I'm driving a 2011 red toyota corolla. These California drivers are going to kill me. I've gone over and over the accident in my head trying to see how it could have been my fault. Either that mormon cop was on drugs or I'm the one losing it. I don't know anything else about the wreck...we'll see what happens. so that's my story for the week. Just wait until next weeks story. just kidding. well there might be something good I don't know yet. Okay well, I don't know if I answered all your questions but tell chuck congrats on the call! he's lucky to go somewhere interesting.