Feliz Navidad and a Happy New Year

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Sorry I couldn´t email yesterday. They changed our day to email this week, because they didn´t want us out prosilytizing today, because there are going to be a lot of parties, and a lot of people aren´t going to be home. 

My Christmas was great. I was so happy to skype my family. It was great to talk to you guys, and even eat dinner with you guys. What did you think of my prayer in Spanish... I thought it was pretty cool. Christmas is similiar here, but here in Peru they don´t wait for the morning to open presents, they open them at Midnight. I got new shoes, which I needed. I also got a new tie. And of course I got my Families package. Thanks for the Skittles and Peanut butter. Those where two things I missed. I also really like the Thomas S. Monson Book you sent. I read it before I go to bed! And of course thanks everyone for all the letters. I got a lot! 

Also I told my family all ready, but I had a small accident this week. I was walking and sprained my ankle, and then fell and hit my head on some metal bars of someones house... I got three stitches!!! But it is fine, and the stiches are all ready removed. My ankle hurts more. But I was lucky, and nothing is really bad. The Mission President told me I need to be more careful when walking. But sometimes it is hard when all you have are dirt roads, and the aren´t flat. Even when we are lucky to have sidewalk, it isn´t a perfect sidewalk. Anyways, I will try to be more careful. 

On a brighter side, we had a baptism this week. Antonio was baptised. He wasn´t married so we couldn´t baptise him before. But we Planned there wedding, and planned there baptism for the same day. I am sure it isn´t the first time Missionaries have planned a wedding, but it was my first. And I didn´t know you don´t plan a wedding the day before. Lucky the Relief Society President in our ward said she would take care of the Reception which would take place after the baptism. So we just had to worry about the Civil Marriage in the Big Library in Chiclayo Central. My Companion and I were the Witnesses for the marriage. The Civil Marriage was great and they had a lot of family present. The Civil Marriage was at 1pm. The baptism was at 6. It was an amazing experience, because it was more then just a baptism, or my first baptism. It is a family becoming and Eternal Family. In one year, they will be able to go to the Lima Temple and be sealed as a family, and in two years Antonio will be able to baptise his son Joshua. 

Tonight is New Years Eve. It is celebrated a little different here. They stay up till midnight and at midnight every house has a scarecrow in front of there house, and they light it on fire, and then everyone lights fireworks. Christmas had fireworks too. It is cool to see them going off all around you, because everyone in the city is setting them off. I heard there are even more for New Years.

Anyways I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and will Have a Happy New Year. I look forward to 2014, an entire year as a Missionary. I know it will be a great year. I attached a few photos also. I wish I could attach all my photos, but that would take me forever. But I hope you enjoy the ones I attached.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Peabody

Week #14 Feeling the Heat

Dear Family and Friends,

Good News! Antonios Baptism is set for the 28th of December, and his wedding is the 27th of December. Everything is payed for and we have no more problems as of now. My companion and I get to  be the wittnesses for there marriage. Also this week was the Primary program in my ward. It was fantastic. I just absolutly love seeing the primary kids share what they know about the Gospel. It was really cool to listen to them sing in spanish. I even understood just about everything they were saying. So I guess summer here is a popular time to repaint houses. We painted two last week, and I have two more planned for this week. 

So the other day I was talking with a Sister Missionary in my Zone. I saw she was from Nova Scotia Canada, because she got a post card from home that said Nova Scotia. So I told her about President Jacobsen, who was the Mission president of Nova Scotia. And she was like ¨Yeah, I met him once, and shook his hand¨ Pretty cool no! 

So this week I made it to my three months in Peru. There are a few things I want to share that I have learned in three months.

First. Something my Teacher in the CCM said was ¨Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet vocie at the end of the day, saying, I will try again tommorrow.¨I enjoy my mission everyday, but it isn´t always easy. I get dorrs slammed on me, Investigadors who decide they don´t want to be baptised or go to church anymore, and I have to tell myself all the time ´I will try again tomorrow´ It has helped so much to have a postitive attitude. 

Second. MY companion has taught me that a goal not written is simply a wish. As a missionary we have daily, weekly, and Monthly goals. Elder Muhun has me right them down and tape them to the mirror in our room. Looking at my goals especially for learning a new language, Castellano, really helps me stay focused. 

Third and last. My Penchinista is amazing. She is a Catholic woman and isn´t LDS, but absolutly loves the Missionaries. She has a quote on her wall that says, ¨Service is the very purpose of life, it is the rent we pay for being on this planet¨ My cook serves the missionarys every day. And she loves it. Service is so important, and I am so grateful for the oppurtunity to serve people every day.

I hope Everyone is having a good Holiday season!!!

Love

Elder Peabody

Week #12

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been an amazing week. Antonio finally commited to be baptized on the 14 of December! I am super excited. We are really going to push for that date, but we still need to get them married first. He has an interview with the Bishop this week about getting married. The Bishop is going to help pay for the marriage. I am just praying he agrees to get married really soon, or we will have to push back his baptism date. He is a golden investigador, he just needs to get married. Other then that we have a few other investigadors, but no baptism date. One Indida can´t have a baptism date because her husband doesn´t believe in marriage. Her mom Donitilla, says she needs more time. I think Donitilla will come around soon. She has been coming to church every week! We also met a new family. They are really nice, but I am not sure how interested they are in the Church. We are trying to get them to come to church atleast once! 

So tommorrow is our first cambio or change. And guess what!!! I get to keep my companion Elder Muhun!!! Everyone thought he was going to leave! I prayed so hard that he wouldn´t. He really is an amazing companion. I wouldn´t be able to lead the area without him. He has all ready been here for 4 and a half months. I guess we will make it 6 months for him.

So this week every light in Chiclayo went out. I don´t know how big Chiclayo is exactly but from my roof I can´t see the end of it. It is the 3rd largest city in Peru. Anyways my companion and I had just finished up and appointment and were late for another. So we took a small short cut. It was night time, and I knew the area we were going in was kinda dangerous, so I asked my companion if it was safe. He was like we will be fine, we will just go in and right out. Anyways we took like 5 more steps after that, and !!!!!!!! We couldn´t see our hands in front of us! My companion and I immediately turned around because we didn´t want to be in that kinda dangerous area especially without light. We made our way back to our apartment without being able to see. The Black out lasted for like 30 minutes. 

Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I can´t believe it´s all ready december. I heard for Christmas we eat a big Turkey, so I will celebrate Christmas and Thankgiving this year together. Thanks for all the prayers and support. And thanks for the emails and letters. Sorry if I didn´t have time to respond to personal emails today. I am always rushed for time. Anyways have a good week and enjoy the photos! 

Week #11 in Peru

Dear Family and Friends,

I had an amazing week. First off, our reunion con Elder Nelson was amazing. We got to hear from him and His wife. They had so many great things to say. They talked about Missionary work obviously. But they also talked about Family History. They talked about how the people we are teaching have family on the other side of the veil, who are really want us to teach there family, so there names can be found and entered into the temple so they can recieve their ordenations like baptism. It is wierd to think when we baptise a person or a family, it is possible we are also helping that person or familys ancestors recieve there ordeneses in the spirit world. Elder Nelson told us to think about who is praying and hoping for us all the time. First of all our family and friends, not to mention the other 15 million members. Missionaries are prayed for in the Temples everyday. He told us the Prophet and Apsostles pray for us everyday. He told us the Ancestors of the families we are teaching are right there with us hoping we can teach there family the Restored Gosple. Elder Nelson told us there was one more person who was hoping and praying for us. You probably guessed it. Our Heavenly Father!!!!!!! These people in Peru are also Children of our Heavenly father. In fact every human being is a child of God. And God loves them so much, every single one, the nice ones, the mean ones, the tall ones, the short ones, the ones in the Estados Unidos, the ones in Peru, He loves all of them. And it says in the Scriptures, that His work and His glory is to bring to pas the immortality and eternal life of man. Becasue Jesus Christ we are all promised Immortality. How amazing is that. We don´t even have to lift a figure, and we are promised that we will live forever!!!!!!!!! Tambien por medio Jesucristo Eternal life is made possible. God wants all of his children to have Eternal life, to live with him forever. And if God wants this for all of his children, well that that shows how important missionary work is! God is right there with all the Missionaries. He wants us to bring his children back to Him. And I know God is helping the missionaries because he wants all of his children to return to Him. Anyways that was one thing I learned from Elder Nelson and his wife. It was an awesome experience. I even got to shake his hand, and tell him my name and where I was from. He said hello, my name, and pleasure to meet you. I definatley know he is an Apostle of the Lord. I know Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet, and all of the Quorum of the Tweleve are Apostles.

Anthonio our Investigator is doing good. He didn´t go to church this week, but every now and then people miss church. I found out this week Antonio and Graciala are making plans with the Bishop to finally get married. Which means after they are married we can baptise Antonio! I also found out Graciala served a mission and then went inactive. I knew she went inactive but I didn´t know she served a mission!!!!!!! No wonder she knows everthing!

We did a giant zone change. So everyone got new companions for the day. I got to go with Elder sevela from southern Peru. His area is like 5 minute drive from mine. It is the area with the Giant Jesucristo statue, like the one in Rio de Janero, but smaller. I got to hike up to it but I didn´t have my camera. We actually weren´t allowed to have our cameras in that area, becasue it is super poor and well you don´t bring nice things to a poor area. It was really cool to see though. And I had a cool experience.

We were walking in the dirt road, trying to hurry somewhere... and a women calls for me. I look at her, and she says you are really tall! And I say yes I am. and then she asked if I could help her because I was tall. She needed a lightbulb changed. She went to get a chair for me, but I didn´t even need it. In fact I didn´t even need a new lightbulb, the lightbulb had just became unscrewed a little and needed to be tightened and it worked. The women acted like it was a miracle, but it wasnt. After I told her who we were, and what we were doing. She agreed to listen to our message. Two of her three sons also joined it. After she even agreed to let us come back. Unfornately I was only in that area for a day, so I won´t be returning, but other missionaries will. And I am so happy that we could bring her family the gospel.

We had 8 other new investigators. Two are contacts we knocked on there door, and 4 of them a member took us door to door to meet her friends. 4 of her friends agreed to take the lessons. We need more members willing to share the gospel!!!! I am so grateful for that Sister. The other two we met when we saw a bunch of youth members hanging out at a park with there friends. I was pretty nervous to go and talk to them, but we did, and two of them agreed to have us come over. And not only did we go over, but the lesson went really well. They accepted the Book of Mormon and said if what we said was true, they would get baptised.

Well I just want to say thanks so much. I feel all of your prays. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. Sorry no Pictures this week. The computer is being wierd. I just want to say I am so grateful for my family. I love them so much. I am also grateful for all of my friends. You guys have helped me so much. I am also so grateful for Missionary work. I have so many friends on missions or planning to serve missions, and I know it is the right thing. This is what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us all, Missionaries and Members to be engaged in the Work of Salvation. I know with the efforts of Members and Missionaries more of Gods children can be brought to the truth of his Gospel. I am so grateful for my Father in Heaven, and His Son my Savior and Redentor Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Peabody

Week #10 in Peru

Dear Family and Friends,

First off things are great, and I am enjoying the emails! I will check for letters on Thursday Gen, and let you know if I got your letter. 

So I am not sure where to start but this week I saw the biggest Avacodo I´ve every seen. I commented on how big it was and so Hermana Ingrid, a member in our ward, gave it to me haha. We had dinner at a members and the mom Hermana Rojas loved the color of my hair so much she wants me to give her some of my hair... haha. At another members we ate at, the daughter couldn´t stop laughing at me because my spanish isn´t that amazing. I didn´t mind since that is what I do is laugh at myself when I mess up spanish. On Thursday we went to the Young mens mutual at the Mission leaders house and taught about Missionary work. It was cool, and we got food after. It wasn´t food I really wanted at first. Yah it was Cow Heart... It was actually really good, and I ended up enjoying. I guess it is really expensive here in Peru and a lot of people really like it. While we were cooking it, neighbors kept coming out and asking if they were going to sell any. 

We have a new investigator! Stephanie, who is Daiseys Niece. Daisey is also an investigator, but I think Stephanie is more interested. Anyways we taught her the Restoration, and she listened really well and had a lot of questions. We had another lesson with Daisey and Stephanie, and we gave them a Book of Mormon and talked about praying and reading to know if it was true. They asked how will they know if it is true, and we taught them the Fruits of the spirit were peace, joy , calmness and other good feelings. And after Daisey said she felt ´´tranquilo´´  which I think means calm when she read the Book of Mormon with us. I felt the spirit really stong and I know the could feel it too.   Unfortunately they couldn´t go to church. But we did have three investigators come to church. Anthony who has been coming. And then for the first time Eric, who is a recent convert and is 14 yrs old, mom and Grandma came!!!! I was super happy. 

So another Elder in my apartment got really sick. We brought him to our Penchinista or Cook because it is cooler and she doesn´t mind taking care of Missionaries. After he still had to go to the Clinic, and since his companion didn´t know where it was, my companion had to take him. This left me with the Sick Elders companion. I had to lead. Lets just say we may have knocked on the wrong door. Anyways Elder Ramos found out he has an inflammed intestine. He will be fine, he just can´t eat certain food. 

This week we also had a Meeting for the Gringos or North Americans only. It was just about a new book about adjusting to missionary life since we have less time in the CCM or MTC. It was cool, ut even cooler was I got to see all my old district from the CCM or MTC. 

So people here dump water from there upstair windows to keep the dirt in front of there homes from flying away. And one night after dinner a women almost dumped the water on my companion and I. I could feel the water splashes! 

Well I know the Church is true. And even though Missionary work isn´t easy, it is great, and it is the Lords work. Sometimes I ask why isn´t this easy, or why hasn´t my area had a baptism in 4 months, and I think of Elder Hollands booming voice saying ´´Missionary work is not easy because Salvation is not a cheap experience. Why would we think it would be easy for us when it was never easy for Him´´ And then I am reminded of our Savior. It wasn´t easy for him. His path was the most difficult. As Missionaries, as Members of His church, we must all be willing to walk a small part of the path that He walked. Anyways that is my lesson for the week. If things are hard, remember the Savior and how much harder it was for Him. 

Love,

Elder Peabody

Week #9 in Peru

Dear Family and Friends,

So much to say... but not a lot of time. That is basically the story of my life on a mission. We are always busy and always have something that we need to be doing. Well I guess first off thanks for the emails. I really enjoy them. I guess I should just tell you guys now, but I am  getting fat in Peru.... Left the United States weighing I think 145lbs and well I now weight 163.14. It is because every meal we have like 3 courses... Breakfast we always get a hot drink usually this chocolate oatmeal drink or an apple cider type oatmeal drink. Then we always get a smoothy, a different fruit every day. Then we either get cereal and yogurt or bread with ham and cheese. Then for lunch we always get a soup and then the main course of rice, veggies and meat. Luckily at dinner she lets us pick how much we want, but even after eating all that food I seem to be hungry probably becasue all of the walking I do. 

This week was good. Remember Anthony. Well he isn´t sure if he want´s to continue going to church. I guess he said his little boys teacher found out that they are going to the Mormon church and started to be mean to there son. Since most people are catholic, if you aren´t catholic you can be bullied. And yes it isn´t illegal for the teacher to be mean to Anthony´s son at school. It isn´t right but we are in a different country. ANyways me and my companion decided to share a message about Joseph Smith and his trials. And we shared some scriptures on Trials. The Mom started to Cry. I didn´t know what to do, but my companion just continued on... We are working on getting them married so Anthony can be baptised.

Oh I have known for like 3 weeks and I keep forgetting to tell you, but Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the 12 is coming to Chiclayo on the 20th. We get to listen to him talk in the Mission home, and shake his hand!!!! I am super excited and have been trying to spiritually prepare to hear what he has to say to the Missionaries in Chiclayo. My cooks daughter works at the hotel the General authorities stay at, and she says Chiclayo has never had a member of the Quorum of the Twelve before so this is awesome. I had perfect timing.

And Daniel, congrats on your new Job. Thanks for emailing me. I am trying to send post cards from Chiclayo, so if you send me your address I can send you one! And I have been hearing about you from friends. Keep up the good work. There is something my Mission President said that I really liked. Have Faith in Christ, and Belive in His timing. Things will work out. Just give yourself some time and work really really hard. Thats what he told us when someone said they weren´t getting any baptisms... If you have anytime Daniel you should open up a scripture. They are so comforting. They have been super comforting to me. Read Pslams chapter 3 verses 5 and 6. I shared that with the investigator who was having a hard time. There are so many other scriptures that are just so awesome. And Prayer is really awesome to. As a missionary I find my self praying all the time. I have marks on my knees from praying on the hard dirty ground of my room... No matter how much I sweep it dirt just finds its way into every inch of my apartment. But anyways the scriptures and pray have been my best friend.

Hey Mom. If anyone trys adding me on facebook that you don´t know, go ahead and add them... 

Sorry no pitures again this week. I have no time to attach them. It took me like 20 minutes to load the computer

Love

Elder Peabody

Week #2 in Chiclayo

Dear Family and Friends, 

Thanks for all the emails this week. I enjoy hearing from everyone! Mom I finally got your letter you sent the day after I left, as well as the Dear Elders from Rachael, Gina, and you Mom. I enjoyed them so much. I also got Ashleys Post card from Las Vegas. I really enjoyed them.

This week has been great. I think I am getting used to the dust. I don´t cough as much. All 3 of our old investigators I mentioned last week, are doing great. They all have the same problem, they aren´t married but live with there boyfriend and girlfriend. They all have kids so they just need to get married. They all want to get married, they just keep saying oh maybe in Febuary. We got some new investigators. It is actually a pretty cools story.

We have this recent convert who husband has been a member for longer. He is the one that is in the wheelchair because he got shot like 4 times. Anyways we love teaching them more about the gospel, and doing any service we can. One day we were able to help her fix her roof. It was just a small service project, especially since I was so tall and could reach the roof and adjust it so there were no holes in it. But as we were leaving my companion and I decided to ask if she had any friends who might want to hear our message. She immediately went to one of her friends house and invited her to hear our message. She actually liked our message and we are going to go back and teach her more. She did the same thing a few days latter. She knocked on her neighbors door, told them these are missionaries from my church, and then left us!!!!!! Luckily the people were really nice and wanted to hear our message. It was a family of three, a mom, a dad, and a 19 year old son. We left the 19 year old son with the Plan of salvation pamplete to read. Usually investigators don´t read them, but we ran into him on the street and asked him about it, and Freddy totally read!!!!!!!! I am excited to go back. We also contacted some old investigators. One named Juan seemed to really like our message, and when my companion told me to invite him to be baptized I was terrofied. I invited him, and he mumbled something like yes. I was pretty excited after that, but then I found out he didn´t really understand me, so I said it again which was pretty emberrasing, but his answer was the same. He said yes he wants to be baptized. 

Anyways I have learned that Members can be our greates tool. Especially recent converts, and Investigadors because they tend to have many friends of different faiths. Members seem to know people who are ready to recieve the gosple. 

Hey mom tell Brother Lewis thanks for the Letter. I really enjoyed it, and I am going to use his story of Elder Woodruff in our Zone meeting tommorrow because I have to teach... in spanish.

Krista thanks for the Email. I am happy you enjoyed Europe. I would love to visit Europe one day, but for now I am happy with Peru. 

Zeithel also thanks for the email. I will definately add you to my email list. 

Bishop Draughon thanks for the forwarded emails from the missionaries in our ward. It was awesome. 

Mom you should email me some stuff you know about catholicism. I remember a few things you have said. Also if you got my letters, there is one for the Priest Quorum, if you could please give them it that would be awesome!

Alicia I hope you start to feel completely better, and good luck with picking classes. I won´t be doing that this year. 

And Tara thanks for the email. No sloths, in fact i don´t think they are in Chiclayo at all, but my Penchonista said maybe in Jaen. So if I ever go to Jaen I will keep a lookout. Or i will just have to come back to Peru after my mission and visit deeper in the Amazon Jungle. I want to come back anyways and go to Maccu Piccu. 

Stephanie sounds like you enjoyed Cross country. Sounds awesome. And it is your birthday soon so have a great Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Ashley, thanks for the Post card. I loved it. And congrats on your new job. I hope you enjoy it, and good luck with Esmae. And yes I would love to hear from anyone.

Sorry no pictures this week. 

Have I told you about the showers. There is no Warm watter so they run an eletrical wire from the outlet to the head of the shower and it heats up the water as it comes out. It sounds scary, but it works, and I have a warm shower. 

Oh and Happy Halloween. For Halloween this year I was a Missionary... I had fun thought. They don´t really celebrate it here in Chiclayo, but they know about it. Our stake had a dance festival, and I got to see a lot of different Peruvian dances. It was the coolest thing ever. Even cooler it was all the youth! They all seemed to be pro dancers. 

Well I got to go Preach the Gospel. We have an appointment with Freddy and his family, and I have to go get dressed since we were playing soccer today. We are going to teach Freddies Family the Plan of Salvation and hopefully commit them to baptism. 

Love,

Elder Peabody

I made it to Chiclayo!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry it has been awhile. This is my first p'day in the mission field. I do not even know where to start. Obviously I am in Chiclayo. We left super early and flew here. It was a nice trip, but it was hard to say goodbye to all the people I met in the CCM. Anyways we got to eat pizza hut pizza at the mission home. It was nice to have. After we found out who our new companions were and wehere we were going. My new companion is..... Elder Muhun!!!!!! And my new zone is Chiclayo Centrel and my ward is 9 de Octubre! If you look at the last picture I attached, that is my area. It doesn´t look like much but there are some great people!

The First day was crazy. We taught so many lessons, and I even taught. I had some sort of Idea that I wouldn´t teach my first day. We do have someone cook all three of our meals for us. It is wonderful and I am so greatful for that. She is very nice. She is not a member. She is Catholic and loves to serve the Missionaries. Her children are members. So I eat really good food. Someone does our laundry also. Church was cool. We have like 50 people attending. No one plays the piano, so we sing without it. We have two invedigators attenting. One is Anthony, and he told us at church he did not like the mormon church or Book of Mormon before but after going to chuch he does. His wife and son are baptized. The other Nellie wants to be baptized but she lives with her boyfriend, and he doesn´t want to get married. They have a son Gonzalo who is all ready baptized and is wonderful. We are teaching another family where the sons our baptized. Eric and his two brothers are members, but the mom can´t be baptized because she lives with her boyfriend. It is pretty tuff because you can´t just segust they find somewhere else to live because they hardly have anything. 

There are some nice areas. Like where my cook lives. We hang out there a lot. My apartment is not to bad. We just rented out a floor of another family. They are not members. Did I mention everything is dirt here. Yah so my shoes get pretty dirty. It is called Polvo in spanish. There is so much wind here that the Polvo gets everywhere. There is always a thin layer of Polvo (Dirt or Dust) everywhere. It makes me cough a lot but I am fine. My companion coughs worse, but he has been in this area for 3 months.

Oh yah so my companion Elder Muhun. He is awesome, and doesn´t speak English. He is from Guatamala! He is a really good trainer and I am learning alot. He has been on his mission for 15 months. Basically though I don´t get to speak English unless we have a district meeting. Elder Jarman my first companion from the CCM is in my Distict here. Our spanish is really increasing being here out in the field.

There are alot of parties on the weekends. They also had a Catholic saint holiday party thing this weekend. They pretty much party all night. I do not know much about Catholics but I am learning. 

Nellie our investigator has a question about why we have Angel Moroni on top of the Temples. I read in Moroni 10 and looked in a few chapters in the Doctrines and Covenants, but if anyone knows more let me know! Thanks! 

Genevieve I am glad you can cook! Thanks for the Pictures and the motivational speach. You stay strong haha! 

Brother Haws I attached a picture of me and your Nephew. 

Hope thanks for writing. Good luck with your wisdom teeth. And what are you studying in Utah... Phlebotomist... Good luck with that too. And thanks for emailing me.

Mom, and family I love you. I want you to know that I am doing perfect. Yes there are a lot of bugs, and things aren´t the cleanest I have seen (they are actually the dirtiest) but I am great. I had to kill like 10 Cockaroaches in the baptism font this week... but  I haven´t got sick, and I haven´t eaten anything that has made me sick. I am super safe. There are like a million locks on our door, and my companion knows the area. There is one area where we can´t go at night, and one area that we can´t go ever because of gangs or something. They call it something else, that just translates to bad boys. It gets a little cold at night but I have my Chompa. And yah my Pdays are on Monday just to let everyone konw. and I am only allowed to send 2 letters a month.... But I would love to recieve letters or emails, or anything. Now would be a good time, because I will definately be here for the next 3 months, and possible longer. Well I hope I didn´t forget anything! 

One more thing. If you want to send me something send it to the Mission Home. I live like 10 minutes away. I think I put the Mission home address on my facebook coverphoto and it should be on my blog. 

Love,

Elder Peabody

Week 5 in CCM

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry about that, I was having trouble with the Pictures, but anyways this is my last few days in the CCM. I do not know when the next time I get to email will be since I will be headed to Chiclayo on Tuesday, and then I may be going somewhere else.So if you are mailing me anything just send it to my Mission home address in Chiclayo until further notice! I am so excited to be leaving, but I am going to miss my District and the people I have met here.. Things are pretty exciting here in Peru. They are gettting ready to build a new building here in the CCM to start teaching Missionaries from Brazil Spanish. It is exciting to see how fast Missionary work is growing. We got to take Pictures this week with the CCM President. I sent that one in the last email! Anyways my Spanish is getting better. There is not much different then the past few weeks. We study and teach a lot. I love my roomates. They are both from Peru, Elder Siccha and Elder Alvarado. They are super funny, and really help me with my spanish. Sorry I do not have much more to say. I guess I am just getting used to here in Lima. I am super excited for Saturday because we get to go Prosalyting. I hope you enjoy the Pictures. I will just explain them.

The pictures with the wierd fruit is called a Grana Dia. They are wiered and foreign and just way different then any fruit. It kinda looks like an orange on the outside. And yes I opened it with my head. Once you open it you just slurp out the insides!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is actually really good.

The first two pictures are me and one of my new roomates. He is from texas and going to Trujillo. His name is Elder McClelland.

There is some pictures of me and my companion at our last temple trip, and some other friends.

I will send more Pictures later.

Love

Elder Peabody

Week #4 in CCM

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Wow! Thanks for all the emails this week. I am going to try responding individually to everyone if I have time, but we do not get much time and the computers are slow. This week was amazing. I loved General Conference so much. I do not know if being a Missionary gave me special insights but this was definately the best General Conference ever. I love hearing from the Prophets and Apostles.

 

Oh and mom it was great to hear from you!!!!! I do not need another pair of Pants, the Hermanas in my district helped me fix them and stuff. We have had a few other people fall also, so it isn´t just me. I have no idea what is wrong with my Lap Top back home Mom. Sorry... I am glad you are enjoying Bunko and stuff Mom. If you talk to Daniel again ask him if he is getting my emails... he hasn´t responded to me yet. I hope you enjoyed confence mom. I will let you know If I get one of your letters. I haven´t got any letters here yet except for one, and it was from my old Companions Mom. It was really nice of her. 

 

Another group of missionaries have left the CCM and now my group of Missionaries is the Advanced group in the CCM. Only two more weeks. When a group gets ready to leave we do this tradition of singing ´God Be with you Until we Meet Again´ upstairs through the walls with the Hermanas. This was my second time, but this time, President Cardon came upstairs and stopped us. Some of the Latinos and stuff were getting to worked up, so we are not allowed to do it anymore. Now if we want to do it we have to do it downstairs and in a reverent manner. I think it will be just as fun. So I found out in the Spanish Hymn book ´Called to serve´ has 4 verses!!!!!!!!!! I translated them to English and it was so cool. In the English Hymn it only has 2 verses. I am gettting better at soccer (Fútbol). I have the nickname Lead foot because when I kick the ball I tend to kick it too hard, but it works well when I am playing defense. We got two new roomates today!!!! They are both from Peru!!! and one is going to Chiclayo with me. They do not even speak English, but I have learned enough Spanish to talk to them. I think my spanish is really getting better. I am excited to finally get out into the field in a couple of weeks. I hope everyone is getting there letters. I heard Yours Genevieve was torn into... That is wierd, but I guess it makes sense. There is nothing in the letters except a letter. But I am Glad it made it to you. Stephanie, I did not have your address until two weeks ago, so you should get yours this monday! 

 

Interesting story. ´We are teaching this fake investigador And we get on the topic of commandments and he seems to understand all of them, but he said he had a problem with one. He said he did not understand the ´Thou Shall Not Kill´. I go to explain it to him, and he straight up tells us that he has killed before. I was shocked and did not know what to say. I probably had my mouth open. My companion started talking to him, but I had no idea about what. And then our Investigator Hermano Juan said that ´Yeah I have killed my cat before´ I was so releaved. I just wasn´t prepared for that. Haha. But I learned a good lesson. Always be prepared for anything.

 

Ashley Rawlins!!!!! Congratulations on your Mission Call!!! That is super exciting and I wish you the best!

 

One more cool thing. So in Spanish Jospeh Smith is José Smith. I was thinking about that and well my middle name is Joseph. So in Spanish my middle name is José!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I think that is all I have for this week. I hope everyone is doing well! I love hearing from you. It makes my Preperation day amazing.

 

Yo soy un misionero de la iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias. Yo soy un representante del Senor Jesucristo. Yo se que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial. Nosotros somos ninos de Dios. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y Redentor. Por medio La Expiacion nosotros podemos volver vivir con Dios. Yo se que familias es eterno. Yo se que la iglesia es verdadera. Yo se que El Libro De Mormón es las palabras de Dios. Yo se que José Smith fue un Propheta de Dios, y Thomas S. Monson es un Propheta de Dios. 

 

Love 

 

Elder Peabody 

Week #3 in CCM

Dear Familia y Amigos,

What an amazing third week. I am still loving Peru. I can not believe It has all ready been three weeks. I do not even know where to begin. Sorry about last week. i tried sending pictures but it was taking to long to send them, so I do not think it sent them. I am trying again this week. I am no longer the District Leader. They switch them here in the CCM. It was fun for awhile. I love being able to help in any way I can, and it was a good experience. We had fast Sunday becasue next weekend is General Conference. I am so excited for General Conference! We pretty much have a weekend of English! Plus I love hearing from our Prophet and Apostles and other Church Leaders. Anyways yeah we fasted. We had a powerful Testimony meeting and I bore my testimony in Spanish!!! Me and Companion Elder Epperson are reading the Book of Mormon (El Libro De Mórmon ) in Spanish together. I all ready finished it in English, here in the CCM!!! I did not think I couuld do it, but I did. I am now trying to finish the New Testament. So I got these cool cookies at the Market. They are called Casino Cookies. My favorite ones are the Strawberry (Fresa) cookies, but the Mint Chocolate ones are amazing. The Casino Cookies have Pop Rocks in them so they are a lot of fun to eat. One of the Elders in our Distict got sick, so we gave him a blessing. It was a powerful experience becasue he woke up the next day feeling great. We get an hour everyday to excercise, and before I go play soccer (Fútbol) my companion and I work out with the Hermanas. We switch off everyday doing legs, arms, and then abbs. So basically I am always sore somewhere. I memorized the First Vision in Spanish this week! It helps that I know it in English. Oh and Alicia, I hope you get your Internship. That would be so cool. And I am also missing the Rexburg Temple. One of our teachers makes us run at night in our missionary clothes to wake us up, and one time I totally tripped over a hose and ripped my pants at the seem. I sewed them, and they are fine now, but it was pretty funny. A group of  Youth and adults came to Lima this week from CHICLAYO!!! They took a 13 hour bus ride to got to the Temple! I am so happy they are getting a temple in Trujillo that is only 3 hours from Chiclayo. But it was awesome to have them come down to lima, because we got to teach them gospel lessons in Spanish, and talk to them. I am so excited to go to Chiclayo in three weeks! Anyways I hope you get my Pictures I am sending. Thanks for the emails everyone! Keep writing! I love emails, and letters. I hope everyone who I sent letters got them. I heard you did Alicia! Thanks for letting me know Alicia. It seems to take excatly two weeks to get to everyone. Anyways I hope everyone is having a good week. Peru is awesome. I love the people so much. I know the Church is true, and I know Missionary work is so important!

Love,

Elder Peabody

\

My new companion Elder Epperson

Week #2 in CCM Earthquake

Hey Family and Friends!

Things are great here in Peru! The weather has been nice, and I am finally getting into a schedule. We do just about the same thing everyday. We have lots of language classes, and Study time. My spanish is getting better, but still has a long way! The only thing that happened different this week, was we got to go Prosylting!!!! They took us on buses from La Molina which is where the CCM is (Its the nice part of Lima, and is part of the Lima East Mission) and they took us to Lima North Mission to a really poor area. The Streets were dirt, and there were stray dogs everywhere!!!!!! We had to hike up the sides of the mountain to get to some homes. We went on splits, and I got to got with three latinos who did not know a word of English! It was an interesting experience! We focused on less actives. i was able to bear my Testimony to one family about Families in Spanish. it was truely amazing and I know the Lord helped me, because my spanish still is not that good. After that appointment, the Father asked me to say the closing pray! Once again I was super nervous, but the Elders I went with said I did a great job. That was such an amazing day, and It was so humbling. Other then that everything is pretty good. I am feeling a lot better this week! Classes are good.  It seems to be a lot of the same stuff all the time. I got a new companion, because his companion went home. His name is Elder Eppereson. He is from Louisana. He was in our district so I all ready know him. And I am still District leader. I do not know if I am district leader for all 6 weeks or if they switch ever. I guess I will find out. There was an earthquake the other day. It was not big, but it lasted a long time. It was some peoples first earthquake. Okay well sorry this is a short email! Love everyone! Keep writing!

Love

Elder Peabody

Flags of the Missionaries countries

MTC

Week One in the CCM! Guess who is the District Leader?

Hey Family and Friends!

I do not even know where to start. Things have been pretty awesome. I will try sending pictures next week. We are only able to take picturs on Pday which is today, and it has to be outside only. I will start where I left off, on the last email. So as I said I am in a trio. My companions Elder Jarman and Elder Ruiz are both from California. Elder Jarman is really good at spanish, but Elder Ruiz has literaly speaks zero spanish, but he is learning just like me. My small background in spanish kinda helped. It is a constant effort to learn spanish.Oh yah I got called to be the District Leader! It was not something I was hoping for, but I am doing my best. It is a lot of extra tasks I have to do. I am basially in charge of our District, 9 Elders and 2 Hermanas (Sisters). I start classes, check the mail, make sure everyone is doing okay, and report back to President Cardon, the CCM (MTC) President. I think we have a good group and we are growing united as a district. Showers are crazy. I have to wake up at  so I do not have to wait in line. Also the showers are bipolar. You finally get them to the right temerature, and while you are standing in them, the either turn to freezing water, or burning hot water, and you have to jump out really quick. There are a lot of Latinos here from all over that do not really speak English. It is interesting sometimes to talk to them. Our roomates are not Latinos but they have been in the CCM for 5 weeks now and know more spanish. I think it would be interesting to have Latino Roomates once our roomates now leave. Most of our meetings as a whole CCM the North Americans get headphones and a translater. Sometimes the Translaters are really good, and sometimes I think they do not even know English.

I pray so much here in the CCM. We all just pray so much. I pray really hard for help in learning spanish. Food is not bad. Every now and then you get a suprise. Once I grabbed Lasagna and thought it was going to be great, but my first bite tasted like the ocean, so I looked outside and it had different sea foods inside including octupus. But the rule here in the CCM is you have to eat everything you take. I like these wierd fruits called Grana Dias (I do not think I spelt that right) but it is like an orange but when you open it it is filled with these seeds that are covered kinda like grapes, and kinda looks like alien eggs. They taste great though. We get ice cream every now and then which is great. We have the same thing for breakfast every day! Eggs, yougurt, cearal, and bread. Lunches seem to be the best. We eat rice for Lunch and Dinner every day!!! I love rice, but I do not know if I want it everyday for two years! Atleast the rice is good! I heard when the Latinos leave every two weeks, the North americans get an american night, and they make hamburgers and stuff. I am looking forward to that!

Thanks for everyone who sent me emails! It makes my day! Especially after a hard week. I am sending out some letters on monday, but it might take awhile for people to get them. I would love anyone to write me too! Only one Hermana has gotten mail so far. We have a couple homesick Elders in our District. One might be going home, and then my trio will not be a trio anymore. We get an hour of physical activity every day. I have played Soccer and Volleyball. Soccer is crazy especially when you play with the Latinos. I pretty much do my best not to get in the way, and make sure the ball goes to the other side of the field. I love volleyball a little better. It reminds me of the night volleyball we would do in the YSA. It is fun, and once we had Latinos join in! Hermana Mack one of the Sisters likes to lead us in Abe workouts. I actually feel a little sore after them. Even though I get 8 hours of sleep I still feel really tired, more tired then when I was in college and only got 4 hrs of sleep. I guess it is because we are just really busy. We never really have free time. We are constantly going to class, or studying. Sundays are great. I guess because they are different then all of the other days. It is a little bit more relaxed but we still have full schedules. On Sunday all of Peru actually had there Stake Conference. They got a broadcast from Salt Lake, and we got to watch it. We heard from Elder Bednar which was cool becasue he spoke in English. It was cool, I learned that the first Stake in Peru was established in Febuary of 1970, and this year in June the 100th stake was established. The Gospel is being spread here in Peru, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. We also heard form Elder Scott of the quorum of the 12 but is was wierd because he spoke Spanish! I got a little sick this week. I got a sore throat, and then the next day, a stuffy nose, and sinus problems, and today i have a runny nose. But it is not that bad, and I have not had to miss anything.

We got our first fake investigator. His name is Juan. He lives with his brother but his brother is always working. He seems pretty interested, but does not understand the difference between his church and ours. He has been to Catholic churces and others. He accepted a book of Mormon and said he would come to church on Sunday. I know it is not real but it still feels good. He tried offering us bear or coffee and I told him we do not drink those things. So our next lesson he wants to know more about that. But I think we really need to get him to feel the spirit. It is hard though because our lessons are mostly in Spanish. We speak very little English. Sometimes when we try talking english he tells us he does not understand. All of our teachers are Latino, mostly from Peru, and speak very little English, but enough for us to learn and ask questions. The Hermanas in our district and My companions and I got the chance to be taught by the Latinos. It was so hard. They knew zero English. But it was such a Testimony builder, because despite the fact that I had trouble talking to them, I could feel the spirit of there message. It just confirms to me that our message to the world is true, and even if I can not speak the language fully yet, they can still feal the spirit of the message just like I did. I get to to my first Prozeliting this Saturday. They pair us up with a Latino and then drop us off in a neighborhood, and we do that for a few hours. That will be exciting and give me the oppurnity to use some of the Spanish I have learned. I can talk to someone at their door, pray, and bear my Testimony.

 Well it is nice finally emailing. I have had a great Pday. The temple was amazing and yes in spanish. We got headphones, but we still had to do all the talking in spanish. We did not even leave the CCM until today, so it was nice to get out. I got a Peru Jersey. I have pictures but I forgot my cord in my room to add pictures. maybe next week. We went to the local market place, and that was cool. Peru is awesome. The Church is true!

Love,

Elder Peabody

My new companions: Elder Jarman Elder Ruiz both from California

Templo de Lima Peru 

Missionary Training Center

MTC Group

Ryley Made it to Peru!!!!

Whoo-Hoo!!! Today is September 12th and Ryley has made it to Peru. After a long flight he landed today : ) He said that he flew on the first leg of his flight with Jessica Hilton from the Butterfield Stage ward and on the second leg he made two "friends" who were travelling to Peru on business. He said that he arrived with 15 other missionaries and he is excited to make new friends!!! He said that Peru is beautiful and he can't wait to start his missionary work. I will post another update when I get one from him. ~ Ryley's Mom

Hola mi familia,

 

Okay so I have not started to learn any spanish yet, but that is all everyone speaks. So I made it to Peru! It was a long trip. I flew to Salt Lake with Jessica Hilton from the Butterfield Stage ward! After that I was alone until Atlanta Georga. I got plenty to eat. Rachael you were right! Atlanta Georga airport was HUGE! It took me 30 minutes to get to my next gate. But I was happy to make it just as all of the other Elders and Hermanas (Sisters) were boarding. There were probably 15 of us. We flew in a big plane. Most of the other Missionaries sat with at least one other Missionary, but I sat between a man from Spain, and another from Nevada. The guy form Nevada was going to Lima to visit his son, who was doing peace corp for a couple years. The guy from Spain was going to Peru for work. He knew about as much English as I knew Spanish. So we had an interesting time. We showed each other our families, and talked about what we were doing in Peru. He spent a year in Australia, and learned some English there. He laughed when he found out I was going to Lima Peru, and did not even know Spanish. It was a long flight so we did a lot of talking. We helped each other out a lot in understanding each other. But yah we got a lot of talking done, because it was such a long flight. There was some bad weather when we got near the bottom of Florida, but other then that it was a smooth ride.

 

Peru is amazing. It was scary going through customs. I told the guy I wanted to stay for 90 days but he told me 30 so I do not cause trouble. I do not know if that is going to be a problem because all of the other missionaries got 90 days. Anyways we finally left the airport around midnight. and got to the MTC around 1am. We helped the Hermanas with there lugage and then got sent to our rooms. My companions are both from California, Mission Viejo. They are cool, but new just like me. There were two other guys all ready sleeping in the room, and left a note on the door for us to be quiet. We tried our best. I still have not unpacked. The ride to Peru was amazing. It is crazy to see how so many people live. I love Peru all ready. Oh and mom sorry about that extra baggage fee, but the Church should be refunding me. I guess I should of paid for it. Any ways, we got to sleep in until 9am. Then breakfast was at 930am. We had cearal, kinda like cherios, but instead of milk, we used strawberry yougurt. I also got this orange drink, but it ended up tasting like salty mango stuff. It reminded me of throwup, so I will not be getting that tommorrow. I just got my name tag! Maybe I can send a picture next week! I exchanged some of my money for Peruvian money. Nuevo Sols. I have not had a chance to look at the money yet. It is crazy I can not belive I am a Missionary. Peru is bueatiful, and I can tell I am going to love it. I wish I had more to say. But I have not been here long. I guess they just wanted us to write to let you know I made it safe.

 

Elder Peabody

Temple

Today I flew my Mom to Rexburg for a special day at the Temple. 
Thanks to friends that also supported me!

Idaho Falls Temple

Rexburg Idaho Temple

San Diego California Temple

Lima Peru Temple