Hello Y'all!

This week has been a new experience for me as a missionary. My new companion, Sister Brown, and I moved to our new area Plano 6th Ward on Tuesday. We are living with the Moon Family. The dad is the bishop of the Plano 8th Ward, so they don't live in our area but it is very sweet of them to allow us to live there. Their home is very nice and they have a piano! Life is good.

All week we have been walking, and walking, and walking... The mission office had said they had bikes that we could use, but the bikes turned out to be made for boys, which kind of doesn't work when you are wearing a skirt all of the time. So we have been walking. We found that it takes us 35 minutes to walk to our church building. And it takes us 45 minutes to walk to our proselyting area (since we don't live in our area). It is a little bit of a bummer because we don't get as much time to work in our area to find and visit people, but walking does give us the chance to talk to a few more people on the streets. We have walked over 50 miles this last week! My feet and legs aren't very happy with me, and blisters don't really feel good, but I am still happy to be a missionary and to be serving in Plano 6th. I can't complain either because I have been blessed to have a car for the rest of my mission. I am trying hard to have the attitude of Alma in Alma 31. In the last verse he speaks of their afflictions being swallowed up in the joy of Christ. I am happy to serve my Savior, and if I have to walk all day and get blisters to find someone that is prepared to have the gospel, then I am more than willing to suffer that affliction.

This area is very residential (so it will be safe if we ever get bikes) and it is a pretty old area, so most- if not all- or it has been tracted multiple times. That is alright because the Lord will lead us to those who are prepared to be baptized. Sister Brown and I are trying to come up with lots of cool new ideas to find people that we can teach. We are hoping to build up our teaching pool quickly. Right now our one investigator is named Sister Garcia. She has been investigating the church for over 6 years... Sister Garcia knows that the church is true, but she is afraid of having to make a covenant that will last forever. Luckily she is very open with us, so Sister Brown and I hope to be able to overcome her concerns.

The Plano 6th ward is really excited to be getting Sister Missionaries in their area. It has been over 12 years since anyone can remember having sisters around here. The ward is worried at this point though because they have never had their own set of missionaries and they are used to working with Elders. The leaders in the ward also don't want us to be out walking or riding, so they are trying to set it up that we will always have a member with us every night. This is a little more difficult with sister missionaries because we need to take the women in the ward and many of them have kids and activities, but I know that the ward will be blessed for their extra effort to help us. I hope the members like tracting!!

On Tuesday night, Bishop Shill invited to come meet with him. It was also mutual night, so he wanted us to meet some of the youth and their leaders. They had us introduce ourselves and I told them, "We are pleased to be working with all y'all in the Plano 6th ward". It was pretty funny because all of them then said that I was a true Texan because I used "all y'all". I often say y'all in the singular, but rarely use all y'all. I try to be more professional when talking in large groups, but the Texan just kinda slipped right on out. It is still the talk of all of the YW leaders there about how cute I sounded with my little "all y'all". I think I finally might be almost fluent in my mission language :)

I want to thank my mom and the Brandons for my little surprise this week. I think I was in shock for the rest of the night. Thanks Aunt Karen for the easter baskets- my companion really enjoyed hers too.

I hope that y'all have a blessed week! I love all y'all and hope that everyone is well and happy.

If my mom hasn't already told y'all, my new address is: 7913 Cap Rock Drive, Plano, TX 75025

Love Always- Sister Peck