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

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My new companion Elder Epperson