an instrument to the Lord

I cannot even believe it is already Christmas week. The Christmas season has flown by this year, but I have truly loved every second of it! And I cannot wait for all the fun things planned this week. We will be well taken care of here in Pampa:) We have 2 dinners Christmas eve and also breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Christmas day with so many of my favorite people! Plus, this is probably my favorite part of the entire thing...our investigator asked us to come over on Christmas and share a message with her entire family that she hasn't really talked to in 5 years! She came to church on Sunday and felt like she needed to work on her family relationships and felt like we should come and help with it! Christmas miracles are real. This gospel does so many wonderful things, but one of the best parts is it's ability to heal families through the Atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And we get to take a part of that on the day we celebrate His coming into the world! It is truly magical and I am so excited.

This week was so amazing too. We taught like 10 times the amount of lessons we were teaching at the beginning of the transfer. And we are finding such amazing people to teach! Including this one man named Scott. He was a former investigator that we met while out knocking. He is so excited to learn more, he ended up setting a baptismal date! That itself was a HUGE miracle...one of our sisters was asking questions about inviting people to be baptized, and it was exactly what we needed to study to really prepare Scott to accept the invitation. Tricia is still doing well. She is really progressing and is determined to get her answer! Just pray that she comes to church!! Also, our investigator that got out of jail and we found miraculously is now off the grid again, so that's sad, but our ward mission leader saw him yesterday still in Pampa, so I have faith that we will find him again! I seriously just love Pampa so much. We are so blessed, I am learning so much, and I am growing through the challenge of teaching these very faithful people. I love being an instrument to the Lord in bringing all His children to the fulness of the gospel and to the most happiness we can ever imagine! 

Yesterday, we were able to go to our mission Christmas party, which was so much fun! The entire party was wonderful! We had a talent show of funny stuff to start and I loved hanging out with so many of the missionaries that I love! After was a lunch and then we had a more spiritual talent show. Our mission is seriously so talented!! I loved it. And I decided that I really need to develop some perform-able talents. But that wasn't even the best part. At the end, we watched this old movie called It's A Wonderful Life. It felt really weird to watch a real movie...but President had such a wonderful purpose in showing that one. Basically, the movie is all about this man discovering how important and wonderful his life really is.  I loved what President Heap shared, so I wanted to share it with y'all! Our lives are truly wonderful. We so often think that what we are doing means nothing, but according to the world's view, the life of Jesus Christ wasn't much. Yet, His life influenced the life all of us individually and eternally. I cannot even imagine life without Him. And it is the same for all of us! Our lives are worth so much. And I know that life would be so much less wonderful without each of you!

I love you all and hope you have a very merry Christmas! Have a marvelous week and I am so pumped to talk with all the family this Friday!

Love y'all!

Hermana Peck

Happy days all the Christmas time days

First off, thank you for the fun packages to mom and dad. My companions, the sisters I go on exchanges with, and I are all really enjoying the entertainment and fun they provide. It makes Christmas so much more fun than it already is! Sister Wilkins and I had a ball making the ginger bread house..it was much uglier than the picture on the box...And before I forget, next p-day will be on Tuesday because of our mission Christmas party! We have a place to skype but no set time. I'll let you know next week what we planned. Are there any times that work best for y'all? It will most likely be morning or early afternoon.

Okay, so this week was amazing. I was just in constant awe about how wonderful every single day was. We asked for miracles and we got them! Monday night, we taught as many lessons as we had all last week! Tuesday Sister Carter and I were with Sister Lorrigan from Childress on exchanges in Pampa. We got to teach some new people and use the Christmas message from the church! Which is so fun to use. It truly opens so many hearts. The next day we had zone training in Amarillo and I actually instructed on the "A Savior is Born" initiative. Which, is you haven't watched it yet, watch it!! It teaches so much truth in such a short amount of time.

christmas.mormon.org

I had so much fun talking about it with the zone. I talked about the star that appeared when Christ was born and how it lead those who were seeking Him directly to Him. And then I went on to compare how this initiative is a star that God has given us to lead those who seek Christ to Him. It is truly so amazing to me!

After zone training I headed to Canyon with Sisters Jackson, Carter, and Perez! We had so much fun. They are in a trio too, so we did a weird 3 way exchange. Wednesday night I was with Sister Jackson. That was a weird night...we street contacted an old man and he kept almost falling over so he was using my shoulder as a way to keep from falling, but he was uncomfortably rubbing my back at the same time. And then, a less active girl from their ysa branch ran up and hugged me and kissed my neck when she met me. I felt a little weird by the end of that night...but hey, it makes for funny memories! We also got to eat at this delicious Texas bbq place called fat boys. And that's basically how I felt by the end of that meal. Thursday morning I was with baby Perez! It was so much fun to be with her again. And because I trained her to try anything that the spirit prompts her to, we decided to knock a sorority house right off of WTAMU campus. It wasn't a sorority house....it was a FRATERNITY HOUSE We were both not trying to bust up laughing the entire time. But it actually turned out really well!! We had them watch A Savior is Born and they loved it. The spirit was so strong as we talked about it. Only with Sister Perez would something like that happen...

As soon as Sister Carter and I got back from Canyon, we jumped right into a night of splits. I was so hectic and I was exhausted, but I was able to teach 2 lessons in Spanish with a few members of our ward that can speak Spanish. And I got homemade Mexican food out of it, which I am never opposed to. 

Also, 2 huge miracles of the week--2 of our former investigators got out of jail this week and now REALLY want to fix their lives. It's totally safe, so don't even worry. It was 100% led by the spirit how we ended up finding both of them this week and I am so excited about it! One of them even came to church yesterday! It just truly shows me how Heavenly Father will never stop trying to help us get back to Him. If you are ready, He will lead you back to Him!

Now finally, for the best part of the entire week! We had our ward temple day on Saturday and ti could have not been more perfect. We got there for the 9 am session and I learned so much. The temple is seriously one of the greatest blessings we have. There is so much we can receive and learn and feel there. I love it! Plus the sisters who are now serving in Carlsbad were there and I got to hear all about the work there and even see some of the members from Carlsbad. We went out for a bit before out ward baptism session and I ran into the Borger ward! I was able to see some of my favorite people and a ton of missionaries. It was like everyone was at the temple that day. Even President and Sister Heap were there! Then, we went to do baptisms with the ward. Megan was able to come! And a woman named Pam who we have been helping a ton to come back to church. It was both of their first times! Another man in our ward who had been less active for about 30 years just went back to the temple as well that day and came to do baptisms also to do the work for his mom, dad and grandpa. I was able to stand in place of his mom, and we were all in tears. The entire group had brought family names to do, and we were all in tears. I have never felt the spirit so strongly in the temple doing baptisms. And it grew my testimony of the power of family history and the blessing that come from it. This gospel is so amazing! And so true!

We are back to snow here in Pampa, I am hoping for a white Christmas!!! Have a wonderful week and an even more wonderful Christmas season! I can't wait to talk with all the family on Christmas day:) 

Hermana Peck

I get an extra week on my mission

This week was a really fun one!

First off, some news...so the MTC has made it so that missionaries who will serve in their native language will now spend 3 weeks in the MTC instead of 2 weeks like it has been done recently. Which means, missionaries will be coming into the field a week later than planned. This will effect our mission in the month of March, so my last transfer is now going to be 7 weeks instead of 6. So basically, I get an extra week on my mission. I AM PUMPED. I was so excited when Sister Heap and the Assistants let me know. So my new return date is March 30th, I'm pretty sure about that. I'm not too sure how that is all going to line up with Lindsey having a baby on April 2nd, but I'm sure we'll make it work! 

Annnyway, we had a much better week! We were seriously all over the place. Tuesday we had Zone Training in Borger, which is always the best! I think I did alright in my instruction. It kinda came out really harsh, whoops! Who knew ditsy me could throw down the hammer. But I ended it with love, so hopefully it was alright! Then I went straight from there up to Dalhart with Sister Moore for exchanges! That was such a fun exchange! I met sister Moore exactly a year ago when we were serving in neighboring towns in New Mexico. And it was so amazing to see how both of us had changed so much. We also got to go knocking on a bunch of mansions! That was intimidating, but we actually met some really cool people. Who knew there were millionaires in little Dalhart, TX of about 10,000 people...

When I got back to Pampa, we had plans to stop by really quick by an elderly woman who we do service for from our ward before going to an appointment. We walked up and she said, "hey sisters! I'm going visiting teaching, y'all comin'?" So, my lovely companions decided to send me with her on splits to do some visiting teaching while they went to the lesson. I was a little worried about it, with her being so old, but man that was one of the funnest hours of my mission! We went to visit a woman in the ward who is 92. I laughed the entire way through. They have the funniest and most amazing stories. And I learned so much. By the time my companions came back to get me, they were so jealous they had missed out!

I am loving celebrating the Christmas season here in Pampa. The lights are slowly being put up, and we even have a little (like really little) tree now! We were able to watch the Christmas devotional last night at our bishop's home with some recent converts and investigators. It was such a successful night! Elder Bednar's talk about the light at Christmas time was amazing. Christ truly is our light and our life. If you didn't get a chance to hear it, go look it up! It will change the way you look at Christmas! And speaking of, we have spent lots of time using the new Christmas initiative. It is such a wonderful and easy way to do missionary work. You can look it up at christmas.mormon.org.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week and wonderful Christmas season!

Love,

Hermana Peck