August 27, 2012

Are you calling me fat? Can't say I've heard that one before. Wait, yes I have. The ants have migrated to the bathroom. So taking a shower is more of a slaughter than anything. I bought some ant bait that I guess is pretty successful...haven't noticed any changes yet. I like to pretend I'm the bad guy when I kill ants. I use my knuckles or fingernails to smash them. Mwahahaha! Sometimes, they are hard to get! As soon as they know someone is trying to rip their bodies into pieces, they start running like mad! But they are small, and I am big, and I always win with the ants. I can imagine clearly, Maggie eating a giant spider off the door frame. It makes me puke a little, but I can imagine it. 

Nursery leaders?? hahahaha good luck with that one! You get rid of two big babies and now you have to deal with the whole ward's! I hope it's not as messy as my mind makes it out to be. The blessings will come. You just have to notice them. Keep sending stories about the kids from work. That was something I liked to hear on a daily basis. 

I have been kind of sick for the last three days. My throat is sore and I have a leaky nostril, I'm tired and my back is in constant need of popping. I don't know if that is part of the sickness but it's happening. So, just now, in the library, at this computer, a spiritual sister approached me and said "I didn't realize ma brothuh was death" and pointed to my companion. I looked at Elder Mercy and he asked what she was saying. I told him that she didn't know he was deaf. Then she went on and on about how Joseph Smith was a bad man and that the book of mormon can't be the word of God. She asked me "can you tell me (in the bible) where it says it's okay to baptize the dead?" I said..."um...I can look it up."..so I went to lds.org and searched in the bible for baptisms for the dead. 

There were three scriptures in the new testament about baptism and how it resembles death...which wasn't the answer. But I remember seeing something about it at home. So she gave me her number and her name (Keshia) I told her I would call her when I found a scripture. So ...this will be exciting. She said she does a lot of research on how religions got started. She read a biography of Joseph Smith that talked about his plural marriages and she didn't like that at all. She said something about secret handshakes...? Anybody know anything about Joseph Smith and his secret handshakes?? She said that the mormon church is all about Joseph Smith and not about Jesus, even though the official name of the church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" Anything I would try to say to defend the church or the truth, was dismissed abruptly. She just wanted to get her two cents' worth. So I just kept nodding and saying "Mmhmm" People are silly.  

As far as missionary work goes, this week was less than great. We talked to 40 people. That's pretty bad. But we were really busy and drove a lot. By the end of the month, we will have driven over 2500 miles. For the past 5 days, we have been over 100 miles, each day. When you add up all the time it takes to drive everywhere, we don't have as much time as the other missionaries to do the work. The ward in Indio might be setting up some kind of webcam projector thing so that we wont have to drive there every week. That will be nice. It's too hot there anyway. It was 20 degrees hotter than Riverside on saturday. I need stamps. 

I checked out Chucks blog. That's cool that Elder Beaulieu found him and said hi or whatever. I want to know more about what went on between them. A lot of people said that Elder Beaulieu and I are twins. We don't look alike, but I guess we act similarly. That's a weird word. Similarly. Say it again. Similarly. Anyway, I'll talk to you next week. Thanks for the prayers. 

 

Elder Peck (CA-RIV) 

August 20, 2012

This week was good. I'm excited for Charlie to get to the "empty sea". Don't feel bad that you don't have a miracle to share with me. Things like that are rare. That's why we like them so much. But I expect to get something like that every couple months or so! jk. Maggie likes fruit. That's weird. Rowdy never ate the bananas I gave him. I'm excited to use my sign language when I get home. I don't know if I will interpret at all. It's not really my favorite thing to do. If I have to in order to stay alive, then sure, I will. 

About your temple signing story, when I meet spanish speaking people and I'm trying to communicate with them, I'll find myself signing to them to help them understand what I'm saying. I know how to say more things in Spanish now. It's hard though. Especially when they say something back to me. I feel almost comfortable with sign language now. There are still some people I just can't understand. They are too fast. If they could speak as fast as they sign, nobody could understand that either. You would have to record it and slow it down. And some people use signs I have never seen before, or they sign something different from what I learned...It's weird to watch people. 

We have had a pretty bad ant problem in our house. It started when I woke up with tinglies all over my legs. I turned on the light and to my surprise there were ants on me. :( then, I was studying on my desk when I noticed an ant zig-zagging around my scriptures. "Oh no you don't!" I said. I flicked him and killed him dead. Then I saw another one, and another and another. I killed 30 ants on my desk before following a trail of them up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall, and into a giant bag of soda cans. (To be recycled) They were swarming like mad all over the cans in a sugar-crazed rush. I told Elder Mercy "hey uh...we got a little ant problem" He said "I know. It's because you left your sunflower seeds on the ground" I thought (hmmm, does he know about the soda cans?... ants are too small to lift seeds anyway)

I checked the bag I left in laziness and it was ant-free. I told him "big bag. many." He said "where?" I showed him the recycling bag. then he said "oh! my bad, I don't blame you, my bad!" Dang straight. anyway, he took the bag outside and all the other recycling bags...so now are house looks a little better on the inside. Anyway, the next day, we woke up and I found ants all over the shelves trying to get into the honey. "You stupid little..." I took the honey and chucked it. I sprayed the shelves and killed many ants. They were all over the kitchen floor too! all four (square) feet of it! I killed them dead next. 

The next day was quiet. Not a lot of ants. But the next day, we just got home from the desert and church and visiting all day, and started writing in our journals. I noticed a few ants on the desk but didn't think much of it. It's not an unusual sight anymore. Then Elder Mercy jumped back in his chair and stood up suddenly. I turned around and followed his eyes to the floor. There were a gazillion ants swarming the floor! There wasn't any food or anything so it was weird. I followed a little trail to the wall where a wire stuck out near the floor. The wire was cut but at the base was a hole big enough for ants to fit through. We didn't have any poison or anything, so I got some dish soap and put a few drops down the hole. I was looking for vinegar to put down there (maybe that would kill them??) but we didn't have any. I put a drop or two of hand sanitizer down the hole this morning. 

We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not really worried about the ants, or scared of them taking over or anything, it's just bothersome having to deal with it all the time. I think I am going to buy something to kill em good. At least it's not spiders. I would probably be dead if it were spiders. ugh I can't even think about it.

I finally bought a loaf of bread! But we are never home for lunch or dinner and our toaster doesn't work so I never get to eat my bread. I have had two sandwiches from that loaf since I bought it last week. It's going to get old and gross very soon. It was only 2 dollars so whatevs. We have a lot of food in the fridge that will go bad very soon. But we are never home to eat it. And if we are home, it's not meal time. I guess I could eat while I study...just to get rid of the food. To get my moneys worth. It's only natural. 

We taught a little deaf girl named Debora. I think it's her grandma who's a member. But she does have some family who are members. So I think she would have been baptized even if we never got around to teaching her. But she did say she wants to be baptized. I don't think she likes hearing people very much. Anyway, that's some good news right? Oh I guess this email is getting pretty long. I can save whatever else I was going to say for next week! okay thanks bye!

 

L-Dur Peck

August 13, 2012

Even if we never get around to baptizing anyone, we will have planted the seeds and some future missionary will find them again and they will have been prepared by that time, through us. I don't rate my mission success on seeds planted anymore, or baptisms, or anything really. It's not my success anyway, it's the Lord's. These two years are my life's tithing. All of it goes to Him. Sure, it feels good to know that you contributed to someones salvation, but it's still not my success. That's how I feel anyway. It's just something to keep my expectations low. We really can't compare our work to the work of the other missionaries here. It's a whole 'nother program. Nothing we do is the same. The language is not where it's different. 

Maggie needs to be on a leash if she is outside. I'm not there to enforce anything but it must happen. We don't want another JJ story.

Passing out chalk and making copies is what old people do for their church calling. Congrats!

I have been emailing Kyle. He is having a good time in the MTC. It's good to hear from him. Reading my blog is funny. I'm weird.

Thanks for the addresses. I'm sure if you still have my phone and my contacts, you can just text the others for their addresses. I should have thought of it sooner but oh well.

If I thought real hard and pondered, I could come up with a story from this week. But my mind tends to move on and forget whatever happened during the day to avoid feeling bad about it. 

I do remember a funny story from a long time ago though. A certain man (homosexual) asked me if I was bold. I thought the question kinda made sense because I am obviously shy most of the time. But I told him "sometimes..." he looked kind of confused and we didn't continue the conversation. After thinking about it, I realized that he wasn't asking if I was "bold". He was in fact asking me if I was "straight" They are the same sign in ASL. So a gay guy asked if I was straight and I told him "sometimes" -how embarrassing. Oh well, it's far enough in the past that I'm not worried anymore. 

Yes, I went to the temple. It was enjoyable enough. I guess I'm lucky that I get to go every 3 months. Thanks for the support and stuff. We still aren't teaching anyone. 

August 6, 2012

Sam's story sounds like fun. I want to do that hike now. I will probably slip and hurt myself too. Thanks for the package, I sound pretty good on the piano...I thought it would be terrible. some parts are bad, but generally, it's okay. I know how to improve now! Thanks for the snacks I will eat them all!!! I don't know if I have any stories this week, if I told you any, it would sound like Im' just complaining, so I wont say anything! 

OH! we have 4 dinner appointments this week! that's a new world record for us! I'm pretty sure I have broken the law many times. But anytime I say anything about it to Elder Mercy, he just says, oh...the cops will understand, I'm deaf so it's okay. Really? that's a terrible excuse for trespassing. I have over 300 dollars on my mission money card. So I can buy lots of stuff if I want to. I have always been a saver. I get 125 every month. I learned how to do a door approach in spanish if we happen to run into some...there's not a good chance anyone speaks spanish around here though...not this close to mexico...no way...just kidding. everyone speaks spanish here. So I am learning! HOLA! 

Well, Sorry I don't have more to say...oh, my left arm is more tan than my right arm because I sometimes stick my arm out the window when we drive around all day, and my right arm never sees that much sun. I haven't really taken any pictures with the other memory card, but i can send it back anyway. Just more cars...sorry. Oh yeah, chuck will like this one maybe. We were driving in Palm Springs (the rich area) and a black ferrari 458 italia drove by!! with a porsche following but i didn't care because there was a 458!! it had yellow brake pads too. I liked it. I have written many of my friends letters...like 11 of them. And I have only got 1 back so far. It's been a couple weeks so I'm pretty sure they don't recognize my name on the envelope and just toss it. 

Oh, here's a funny story...We were in a city called Yucaipa at a CTR book store. We were just looking around for stuff then Elder Mercy had a question for the employee. He said "do you have a brigham young doctrine book?" or something like that. The woman working there said...uh not that I know of...then she had to go mess around with some books on the shelf to make it look like she was trying to help, and then Elder Mercy in all seriousness said "would you happen to have the sealed portion?" I interpreted for him and I think the woman was offended because she didn't answer. I mean...obviously they don't have the sealed portion. 

It won't be revealed until the Lord says so. Which is probably the 2nd coming or something. Some people think the sealed portion is the book of lehi. The sealed portion is the Lord's conversation with the Brother of Jared whom was commanded to seal it up in a different language and with it's own urim and thumim sealed up too. The book of lehi is what martin harris lost with the manuscript, and Joseph Smith was commanded to not re-translate that part, because now, part of the book of mormon was in the hands of the enemy somewhere, and it wouldn't look good to have the same book as a false religion ya know? 

At least that's what I understand...If you know I'm wrong, and you know how the story really goes, please tell me. Anyway, it was funny because Elder Mercy asked for the sealed portion at the book store. I don't think he understands all the way... I have been writing things in my study time that some day I will edit, and compile, and publish as a missionary journal. Maybe. We'll see. 

Thanks for everything.