Email received from Sister Mc on May 13, 2012:


Howdy Y'all!
   
This last tuesday was transfers, and I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Squarcia (s-kwa-r-CHA or something like that and kinda trill the R) from a little city near Rome, Italy. She is a few years older than me and has been out in the mission for right about a year. I love her so much! She has an awesome accent and everybody always likes to talk to her (except when we are tracting...)  She is very soft-spoken, humble, but very hard-working. Whenever we are going places her motto is "don't walk... run!" and she really takes it seriously to talk to everyone.  Being with her just this last week has really raised the potential for D4 (my area). I am super excited for this next transfer, and hopefully Sister Sqarcia and I are together for much longer than that.
   
Saturday we had some very interesting experiences tracting in one area. We went to contact one of our investigators but he was not home, so we decided to knock the doors around his home. We contacted a few people and just kept knocking on doors. We turned away from one home and there was a lady behind us. She asked us what we were selling. I replied that we weren't selling anything but that we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ. She then started very angrily yelling at us that they didn't want our message in their neighborhood. She said we had been brainwashed since we were young to believe in the crazy Joseph Smith. She said that we had no idea who Jesus is and that she knew him intimately from when she grew up in communist Russia. She just kept yelling at us and we apologized and just walked away.  A few doors later and another man came up behind us (possibly related to the lady) and he started yelling at us to get out of their neighborhood. He said none of his neighbors needed to hear our lies and he started accusing us of being part of Warren Jeffs (the fundamentalist LDS polygamist) and his cult. This guy was so, so upset and there were some very colorful words thrown at us. We tried to apologize and just keep tracting, but he basically chased us off of the street and had his phone out to call the cops. We hurried off the street as he chased us, but our car was parked back at the first of the street, so we had to sneak back around the other way and hurry to our car and leave. It was pretty crazy. I felt kinda bad because those 2 were so rude to us, but Sister Squarcia doesn't entirely understand how upset they were since she mostly just knows gospel terminology in English, not the swear words that we got.
   
We had another interesting tracting experience. Almost everyone in Texas has dogs and they all bark at us when we knock on the doors. We were just walking up to a home and they just has the glass door shut so we could see into the home. All of the sudden a HUGE scary looking dog started running at the door, barking at us. We just kept walking up to the door to knock on it. The dog ran up to the door and pushed it with his paw. The door opened! Luckily, the dog didn't come out of the house for whatever reason because I am pretty sure that he could have eaten us in just a few bites. Me and Sister Squarcia and were so scared that we just turned and walked hurriedly away from the house, hoping the dog didn't follow us. When we were a safe distance from the house, Sister Squarcia offered a prayer thanking the Lord that the dog hadn't eaten or chased after us. I was sure thankful too after having seen my life flash before my eyes. It was pretty crazy!
   
Our area is doing well right now and we are excited for the next week. We have a bunch of potenial appointments set up and Sister Squarcia has so many new ideas for our investigators. The work is increasing so much and it makes me so excited! I love being a missionary! Despite all the crazy and sometimes somewhat scary things (dogs are awful!) that happen to us, I know that we are protected by the Lord. He loves His missionaries and we love Him! The work is great and there are people prepared to hear our message. I love sharing the gospel.
   
Yesterday was Mother's Day and I was able to Skype with my parents and Libbie and Colton. I also got to talk to Connor a little bit because we called at the same time. I love my family so much! Even though I am not with them, missionary work is worth the sacrifice. I am happy to be without my family for a short time so that I can unite other people and their families for eternity. The gospel is such a blessing to families.
   
I love all of you that read my letters, and I also love all of you that don't. Thanks for all of the support and love you show me. Thank you for the letters and the packages! Hope y'all have a great and blessed week. 


Love -Sister Peck


P.S. - the picture below is (from left to right) my new companion, Sister Squarcia, me, my old companion Sister Walker, Sister Squarcia's old companions Sister Pierce and Sister Jensen. We were all in the same District this last transfer. Sister Sqaurcia's companions stayed together and are still in our District and Sister Walker is in a completely different area.