October 26, 2015 - There is literally a podium for preaching in downtown Childress

Hello again dear friends and family! This week was WILD. We were all over west Texas! Tuesday, we spent the day in Amarillo at a Zone Conference, which as always was AMAZING. I just wish you all could hear my mission leaders instruct. It is so enlightening, spiritually filling, and personal revelation inviting. It is exactly what I needed! I am so grateful to be led by such inspired people!

From Zone Conference, I headed off to Childress with Sister Olsen. Sisters Wilkins and Carter went back to Pampa with Sister Starr for exchanges. That was a crazy day. And dad, you'll be proud to hear this...I ATE CATFISH. We stopped in Clarendon on our way to Childress to visit a less active family and they invited us to eat with them. I was pumped when she said fried okra (yes, I am a Texan who loves okra now), but I think I died a little inside when she said catfish. BUT I survived! And I didn't hate it. I didn't necessarily like it, but hey...improvement:) You should be proud of me, pops! Anyway, Childress is the cutest place ever. The people are so nice! And my favorite part is that there is literally a podium for preaching in downtown Childress. Oh West Texas and their love for religion, it is amazing. The people are so good here! Also, sad story of that day, we finally got back to Pampa, and I realized I had taken the sisters phone..oopsies! It took forever to get a hold of them, but somehow, the Lord sorted it all out for us...yay for a day when we still see miracles! 

Also, we got all moved in this week! I love our new place and we are so blessed to be there. And much safer, but those details don't matter:)

So, onto the work! So, last night we met the cutest couple. We were 100% led to them and it was too perfect. One thing I know to be true is that even when we're not paying attention, the Lord will lead us in our lives to where we need to be. And when we get there, hopefully we make the right decision. And if not, we will be led again to another point and be given try after try to be better. This couple was so sweet and so prepared! They both are looking for more faith and they are expecting a new baby! They let us in to share a message after talking for less than a minute. I literally couldn't believe how perfect it all went. That doesn't happen too often, so we we're especially grateful last night for having met them!

Our investigator Megan is still so pumped for her baptism! We are so excited for her and I just can't wait until she is going to the temple and helping spread the gospel. She will be an amazing missionary to so many people!

And Tricia is doing well! She is progressing like crazy. She is seeing a lot of opposition in her life. It's so lame how Satan does that to us when we are so close to receiving all that Father has for us! But I know that God's power will always overcome any power that Satan tries to have over us. We are fasting for her this weekend and I know that will bring so many needed blessings! Please just keep praying for her!

We are seriously so blessed with so many miracles and I love this work forever. Even though it was the hardest decision I ever had to make in my life, it was the best! There is nothing sweeter than the work of bringing others closer to Christ, and in turn coming closer to Christ myself! I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Hermana Peck

Adventures in Panhandle, TX 

while waiting for the sisters to meet us there 

for Zone Conference

October 19, 2015 - The Field is White Already to Harvest

THE FIELD IS WHITE, ALREADY TO HARVEST
I love Texas!

First off, before I forget...We are moving this week! I am so pumped to get out of the house we're living in and move into our gorgeous apartment:) Not too pumped about the actual packing and moving part, but that's why we serve in Texas where everyone has a truck and can help us! Our new address is:

1312 N. Russell

Pampa, TX 79065

So write me and send stuff there!

Anyway, this week was too much fun! I am seriously amazed every single day by how many miracles we see, how much we are blessed, all the things we learn, and how much fun we have. Missionary work is the best thing anyone could ever do in this life. It is seriously a part every day, even when it is super hard. But the hard times are what make the good times so sweet! And they help us truly focus on what is most important.

Our investigator Megan is baptism ready! It will be on the 14th! I am so pumped for her. She is making invites for all her non-member friends and family, and she is already set to go to the temple on the 12th of December. Literally, she is so ready. I didn't even so anything, she has been so prepared by so many amazing sisters over this past year, and now I just get to be a part of the super special day where she opens the gate to a celestial life through baptism by proper authority. It is just too cool to see the way the gospel has changed her this past year!

As we all fill our life with the goodness of the gospel, we no longer have any disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. And every time we do good, we kick Satan down and stop him from winning. He puts up a fight, but we truly can put up a better one. Christ has overcome the world and with His help, we can truly become the people we have wanted to become for eternity!

Tuesday, we were able to go on exchanges with the sisters in the Canyon ward. I stayed in Pampa with sister Brunt and sister Carter. It was so fun! Sister Brunt trained sister Perez the rest of the way after I left Carlsbad, so the whole time, we just go to talk about how much we love her and the people in Carlsbad. We were able to teach so many people and see a TON of miracles! I love being able to go on exchanges so many times a transfer, because exchanges seriously bring miracles that we could never expect. Even when people sadly reject the message, it just strengthens my personal testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel!

The next day we had exchanges with the sisters in the Canyon YSA branch. I went to Canyon with Sister Nichols. Let me just say, serving in a YSA would be crazy. They do a lot of finding on the campus at WTAMU. That is wild. Everyone is so rushed, and somehow, they are able to discern which of all the people passing by are ready to hear the message. It was amazing to watch how it works, and I learned so much from them! 

Friday was MLC, and it was amazing! I am so blessed to have leaders in my mission that are SO inspired. President Heap talked about improving personal prayer. Which is something I really need to do! I loved growing in my understanding of what we really are doing as we pray and how much every word matters.

I wanted to keep going, but time is basically up. I love you all. Have a great week!

Hermana Peck

The Sisters at MLC 

October 12, 2015

Hello again! Another week has flown by. I cannot believe how quick Mondays come around these days. Time is flying by too quickly! But it is such a blessing, because it means we are working hard and seeing miracles! This week was such a good one. I LOVE BEING IN A TRIO. Sister Carter was the perfect addition to mine and Sister Wilkins's companionship. She is so sweet too! She has been out for about 8 months now and is from Chicago. And she needed to be ere in Pampa. We needed her and all the people we work with needed her. It is seriously the best thing ever. And this week, everything exploded (in a good way) here in Pampaland North! Tuesday we picked up Sister Carter in Amarillo and headed off straight to a lesson. And we've been so blessed ever since.

Megan, our investigator, finally has a date set! She will be baptized on the 14th of November. She is so ready, so excited, and so prepared. She literally amazes me with all the knowledge she has! And even after studying for over a year, she is just as excited to be baptized today and she was when she first learned about the gospel. And even more excited to be sealed to her new husband!

Tim is doing well. He accepted an invitation to be baptized on The 13th of November. But he is really struggling to fight off temptation. We meet with him every day, trying to help him. The Lord even blessed us to meet someone who needed a younger guy to do some work, and Tim really needed a job! Huge blessing! So please pray for him!

Andrew is a new investigator. We weren't sure how solid he was. But randomly this week, he called us and told us he needed us to come over. We had no idea why, but we went over, and he shared an experience about how God told him that it is time to change. And he preceded to ask to be baptized! So exciting! He is reading, working on the word of wisdom, and came to church! He may be moving to Waco in a week, so sad, but he plans to study with missionaries there too!

Finally, Tricia. Our lesson the first night in Pampa with Sister Carter was with her Tricia. I can't remember if I have mentioned her yet, but she is amazing. She is the wife of a recent convert names Miah. He is seriously so converted and so solid. She is very involved in her current church, but she knows that this church is Christ's restored church on the earth. Like, she KNOWS that it is true. Sh is just really scared of what will happen if she converts, because her church preaches a lot of anti Mormon material. Anyway, to make a really long story short...all transfer long, as I would read my scriptures, phrases similar to "thousands were converted unto the Lord" kept standing out to me. I couldn't figure out why, until I mentioned it to Sister Wilkins, and she started recognizing it too. It would come up every day. We were searching and praying to know, and finally one day, the spirit taught us what it meant! Reading over the chapters of Alma 17-24, you find the story of the sons of Mosiah and their missions. The first son goes to teach King Lamoni (Miah). Ammon serves him and eventually gets to teach him the gospel. Lamoni is converted and baptized. Later, King Lamoni's wife (Tricia) comes into the story. She sees what has happened, and with time, becomes converted as well. Once she decided to take that step, her entire household and their city become converted. THOUSANDS converted unto the Lord, because of the faith of 2 people. Later, Ammon goes with King Lamoni to help his brother get out of prison. On the way, they meet King Lamoni's father (Miah's dad), who is sooo against the conversion of his son (true in Miah's story too). But, after time, Aaron, Ammon's brother is able to teach King Lamoni's father. He then becomes converted. Then his wife. Then their households. And then all the 7 cities and towns that he reigns over. THOUSANDS. This was a spiritual smack in the face. Tricia is literally the key to bringing thousands unto Christ. AMAZING. So if that story makes no sense to you, sorry, I'm typing quickly. But I could not believe it. Then, to make the story even cooler, we went and shared this learning experience we had with Tricia. She was amazed. Miah was amazed. They proceeded to tell us that when Miah was first baptized and Tricia came to church with him, the bishop mentioned to her that she could bring thousands with her if she came to choose what she knew to be true. AND, when Miah and Tricia were setup, the woman told them that she didn't know why she felt prompted to set them up, but that the Lord told her they had an important job t do together. Seriously, the spirit was so strong in that lesson. Things were unfolded unto us that none of us knew were part of the story. But the more we taught, the more we saw that the Lord is working so much here in Pampa. I am so excited to see where this goes! Tricia even came to church this week. She left her church in the middle of it to come to ours. It took so much courage, but she did it! Please pray for her. There is so much pressure on her, and the devil knows all that she has the potential to do. He's fighting hard, but we will fight harder! Miracles, conversion, and truth is happening here in Pampa--I love it!

This church is so true and the Lord is leading our lives so much more than we know! Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Peck

p.s. There were so many frogs here this summer that got hit by cars Literally, when we ride around on bikes, there are dead frogs everywhere. Whoever invented the game of frogger must have lived in Pampa.

October 5, 2015

Hello dear friends and family! I sure do miss you lots! Conference always does that to me. Thinking about how we are all watching it at the same time, makes me realize how close you really are! On that note, wasn't conference AMAZING. I loved it. I had so many needed questions answered and I can just feel the spiritual strength it gave me. Sister Wilkins and I are staring our Ponderizing goals now, I wanted to know how I could start being better at scripture use and that was a perfect answer! I loved the promise that ponderizing a scripture a week will give us a deeper knowledge of gospel truths. I want that blessing, so I'll be sure to do it! This weeks is Alma 34:14--I can't wait to see what I'll learn!

As for transfer news this week. I GET TO STAY IN PAMPA. I am so pumped! And the best part about it...I actually get to stay with my companion!! And the cherry on top, we're becoming a TRIO! Sister Carter is coming up to join us! I've never been in a trio, so we'll see how it goes, but I am sure that I'll love it! Even more of a party every day:) She will be companion #10. I can't believe it!

This week was so good! As I mentioned last week, we were on bikes most of the week. It was so great though! I felt so energized and we met so many cool people. So many more members came out to help us, and we saw so many miracles. One of the biggest was that my ankle did great and I didn't even have pain as we biked all around town. Another one of the biggest ones was that the cold weather held off until the day after we got our car back! HUGE BLESSING. Part of me wished I was actually in a bike area, but I think I like the car too much now that it is COLD. Speaking of that, I have no idea where it came from, but it's winter now! Well, more like a chilly fall. But we are in scarfs and sweaters. It was a quick change from the 90 to 50 degree weather in just a couple days--that's the panhandle for you!

This week I got to speak lots of Spanish! I think we had about 5 Spanish lessons which was fun for me! I always feel bad, because my companion can't really talk during them, but she is learning! She can say prayers and the first vision:)

We are seeing lots of progression with our investigators. I don't have much time, so I'll give a quick overview: Megan is still planning on being baptized. For sure within the transfer! She was texting us all weekend about conference--she loved it! Yay! Our investigator Pat will be baptized on Halloween. She wants it to be a secret...her husband is a member and she wants him to baptize her but not know that she chose to be baptized until the second they walk into the water together...not sure how that'll work. But we're going to try! A less active couple that we're working with, Pam and Tracy are doing SO well. They read and pray together every night and watch ALL of conference and LOVED IT. The spirit is working miracles in their hearts:) And also, Tim came to conference!!! We tried SO MANY times to get him there, and he kept canceling. But after banging on every window of his house Sunday morning, we woke him up and got him there!...Hey, sometimes you got to give them a bug push haha. 

Things are so great here! I love it and I love all of you. I hope you all were able to feel the power in this last conference. I know that everyone who spoke, spoke the words of the Lord, and as we listen closely, we can hear His voice peaking directly to each of us.

Have a great week!

Hermana Peck

September 21, 2015

Classic bike day photo

Hello family! I don't know how spiritually filling this email will be, because oh my goodness this week has just been packed with moments that I just can't stop laughing at. But I'll just share a few...

Anyway, story #1

So, Saturday was MLC in Lubbock with Elder Palmer of the seventy and Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the presidency of the seventy. It was so amazing! And exactly what all of us at MLC needed to hear. But that's not the story, that was just super cool. We drove to Amarillo after on our way back to Pampa to go to our investigator's wedding. I hadn't met her yet, because she's been so busy getting her wedding ready while going to school. We are both without a GPS, so we got lost for a solid hour around Amarillo looking for the wedding. When we finally got there, we had completely missed the actually ceremony and showed up just in time to stuff our faces with wedding food and all the classic evening festivities, like the bouquet toss and and the dance party. Let's just say, when they start blasting single ladies, and you're a missionary, and your investigator (that you don't even know) keeps yelling at you to come up and catch the bouquet, and your bishop is just looking at you like "I wonder what they're going to do...?", there is no other more uncomfortable moment in the whole world. Sister Wilkins and I just sat there, so uncomfortable, and refused to get up. The entire wedding was looking right at us, don't worry, being set apart is a REAL THING. Haha, I started to feel a little normal that night, but after that, I was reminded 100% that I am a missionary. And I am so happy for that reminder!

Story #2

Wednesday, we went up to Dalhart with the sisters there to take them on exchanges. They cover 2 areas, so all Wednesday, I was in Dalhart, and Sister Wilkins went to Tucumcari. But we all spent the night in Dalhart, which was a total party. The entire thing was going great. We had a successful exchanges, and we had plans to wake up on Thursday and all go outside to play some soccer in the street for our workout. Can I just say how pumped I was for this! We got outside, and we were walking over to where the street light was at so we could see the ball, but I decided it would be fun to run over there and get everyone else as pumped as I was. BAD IDEA. I was running backwards, cheering them to run with me, and then BOOM, on the ground, in so.much.pain. My foot hit a dip in the road where it turned from a normal road, to a cobble stone road. My ankle (being as lovely as it is) rolled so perfectly, snapped so loud, and knocked me over. I went straight into complete shock. Nausea, dizzyness, super hot then freezing in 2 seconds, mood swings (crying in crazy pain on second and laughing my head of the next). It was crazy. We were all convinced it was broken because of the shock I went into. I LOOKED LIKE A CRAZY PERSON. I had to crawl down the street to the car and was driven to the emergency room in Dalhart, TX to be treated for shock and a possible broken ankle. Luckily, it is just sprained. I am back to normal, just a little limp and a brace. I just keep playing the moment over and over again in my head. It was so me, I've just been waiting for the day that I get this type of injury on my mission...we all knew it would happen eventually. Oopsies!

Story #3

Our house has vivint (the security system), and our front door lock has been struggling recently. We were trying to leave this morning to go email, and we somehow set off the alarm to our house! Within like 2 minutes, 2 cops were at our house, questioning us to make sure we weren't trying to break in. It was a mess...But I am glad to know that they'll show up that quickly if something does happen. 

Anyway, things are going great here in Pampa! I am having so much fun and the time is FLYING by. I gave a talk in Sacrament yesterday. So, I've been studying all about the fall and the atonement and how it relates to Christ's love recently and how to gain the kind of love He has. How to really love as Christ loves One big thing I learned is that, just like all the other attributes of charity that we read in Moroni 7, we have to learn how to love. It's not something we just fall into by accident, and it's not something we just fall out of. It takes work! I am truly so blessed to be on a mission and learn all about the love that our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ have for us. It is truly so amazing what they do because they love us!

One last thing, pray for our investigator Tim, please!! He is trying so hard to change, but has some crazy stuff happening in his life. Yesterday, he was praying to know how to fix his situation, and he thought to call us, but then he didn't. But we still showed up anyway (I love the spirit!). We had 0 idea what to say to help him, so we all said a prayer, and he opened up the Book of Mormon, and the VERY FIRST VERSE had his answer. It was amazing! A huge testimony builder for all of us. And he really wants to move forward, so just pray for him! I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Love you all!! And have a wonderful week!

Hermana Peck

My wonderful view all the way to Lubbock...
got to love injured ankles and chilling in the backseat
#doctorsorders

My ankle brace has become a part of me.
This was with the Childress sisters. Like 10 minutes away from Oklahoma!

Hello family and so many people that I love dearly! This week was fabulous! Just as an update, my ankle is doing MUCH better. I can walk enough to do the work. And I've been taking it easy, because today we have to turn in our car to get it worked on for about a week. Which means biking everywhere with my hurt ankle! Pray for me. But I think I should be fine, because I've been taking really good care of it this week. My companion kinda forced me too, because we wanted to make sure we could still get out and work this week!

Anyway, our week was AMAZING! We had so much fun, and saw so many blessings. Plus, with the transfer coming to an end, we finished up with exchanges and we now have a full week and a half without having to leave our area. I am pumped to get good work done!

Speaking of exchanges, they were great this past week. We went to Childress, about 100 miles away from our area for a day with the sisters there! It was great. That place is golden for missionary work and the people are amazing. I don't think I have ever been hugged by so many strangers in my entire life! And they needed help with contacting all their Spanish people, so basically that's what I did. Talked a whole lot of Spanish! I'm not sure how much I was able to teach the sister I was with, but it was fun.  The sisters there are amazing. One of them knows Chrystal! She wasn't her student, but she would hang out in her class all the time. That was fun to find out!

So, teaching this week was great. Our investigator Megan, the one who was married last week, is ready now to be baptized! She is so excited about it too. I've only been able to teach her like once, because she has been so busy with school and her wedding, but now we are getting back into teaching and getting her ready! I had a super amazing experience at her wedding that I didn't share last week. But I was able to share that with her as we taught her this week, and it was truly wonderful. We were both in tears, and the spirit was strong. I am excited for her to now be baptized and get ready to be sealed a year from that day!

Also, I taught my oldest investigator ever this week! A 90 year old man named Zane! It was so fun! He is the cutest, and cried the whole way through. I loved teaching him, and I know he has been given this time for a purpose. It's time for him to accept the gospel!

Our investigator Tim is doing great too! He didn't come to church:( Which totally broke our hearts! But he is still doing really well besides that. So pray for him to wake up and make it to church! This week, we taught him almost everyday. He is changing so much, and even noticing how he is changing. He is making talking with us a priority, he prays in lessons now, and he has been reading what we ask him to read between lessons. This gospel truly changes people, and I love being able to watch it. We had a super cool experience last night. We brought one of the recent converts to the lesson, and it was PERFECT. Tim has a friend, Omar, who always is there when we show up, but he sneaks out before the lesson. But last night, he decided to stay, but didn't really say anything. Before the lesson, we had decided to teach the plan of salvation, but had no idea why. It was for Omar! As we taught about Christ's Atonement, he started responding really well. He started asking questions about if he could really change and how he could do it. He asked about our personal experiences, and all three of us were able to testify of how the gospel has personally changed us. Even Tim, our investigator began to tell him about how it has changed his life since we have met him! It was seriously amazing! Omar then told us a story about how one time, sister missionaries talked to him and his friends while they were drinking. He ignored them and crumpled up the picture of Christ they gave him. That night, he got in a huge head on collision and just about died. The first thing he saw after was that picture of Christ as it fell out of His pocket. He paused for just a bit, and then said that he hopes God will give him this second chance to fix his life. And I know with all my heart that He will! This gospel is about second, third, and forever more chances. We can always change!

I love this gospel, I love being a missionary, and I love you all so much! And I hope this week is great for you!

Hermana Peck

Kids have influence on their family

Exchanges with Sister Jackson--
I felt so short all day!

I cannot believe I have already been out here for a year! That time seriously flew by. And it become more and more real every day of how little time I have left to have this wonderful blessing of being a missionary! And of course we had to celebrate! I can't pass up a reason to have fun. Sister Wilkins and I went out to a classy (well, as classy as Pampa, TX can be) Texas BBQ Steak House and enjoyed delicious Texas food. 

Also, I'm not even sure if I have talked about Cayden yet in my emails, because there is always like no time, but he is this adorable 8 year old kid that we have been teaching. His entire family, besides his grandpa is less active, and he decided that he wanted to be baptized and start coming to church, even if his family doesn't go. Seriously, he is the smartest kid ever! And so desirous to do good. He will be the reason his family comes back! He is like the Nephi of his family--I love it. But anyway, HE WAS BAPTIZED THIS WEEK. It was such a powerful baptism. And his great grandma got up at the end and bore her testimony. Everyone in the room was in tears.  It was amazing!

Also, funny story about the baptism. Our font here only runs hot water, so it was about 125 degrees in the font. We had no idea how to cool it down, so we had to get real inventive...we took a mop bucket, put in a clear trash bag, and would fill it with cold water in the maintenance closet. Then we would run it over to the font and dump it in. After about 15 minutes of looking like the hugest fools, we realized how to turn down the water heater....it was so ridiculous, but a good memory for sure!

This week we also went on exchanges with the sisters in Canyon, TX. Sister Wilkins and I had planned to have me go to Canyon, because I had only been in Pampa 2 weeks, and don't know the area well enough (or at all) to lead out in it. BUT after a whole lot of prayer, we decided that The Lord wanted me to stay in Pampa for the day. So I took the lead in an area I have been in for like 2.5 weeks with a sister who has been on her mission for 2.5 weeks. And somehow-we survived! We seriously saw so many miracles. I did not want to do it, but the Lord blessed us immensely for being willing to follow His will. We found a family to teach, lots of potential investigators, 2 less active members that no one knew about, and we taught some amazing lessons--and had a ton of fun, and somehow didn't get lost the entire time. It was too perfect!

We also got to do a ton of service this week! I was cutting down trees and felt like a macho woman. That is seriously so much harder than it looks! And we were helping an 84 year old woman who normally cuts her trees herself--so cool! She is way intense. 

Also, quick update on Erma, the girl we found last week.  We got to teach her this week and she wants to be baptized!! I am so pumped! Hopefully this gets her uncle reactivated and her entire family interested. It amazes me how much influence kids can have on their family. It is no surprise that the Lord tells us to become as little children! They are truly so humble and close to the spirit. 

I love you all and I love being a missionary. I want you all to know how much I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. And if you want to know why I love Him so much, read this talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/where-justice-love-and-mercy-meet?lang=eng

Our Savior made it possible for us all to be lifted up from our fallen state. Without Him, there would be no hope, but with Him, there is eternal happiness!

Love you!

Hermana Peck

Exchanges with Sister Jackson--I felt so short all day!

Cooling the font water
for Cayden's baptism