July 22, 2013 Allen, TX

Howdy!  How are y'all doing this week?

Good news is that our investigator Ben came to church again this Sunday. He had a much better time than the previous week.  Sacrament meeting was wonderful! The first 2 talks were about faith. Sister Judd and I performed the special musical number "Lead Kindly Light". The last talk was from a member that is leaving on a mission in a few weeks. His talk was about obedience.  Many people greeted Ben after church.  Gospel principles was about Tithing, and the teacher did a fantastic job teaching about the idea of "offering" and "sacrificing" for the Lord. Ben participated in the lesson and asked many questions. He did the same thing in Priesthood Quorum. Overall, Ben seemed to have a spiritually uplifting time at church this Sunday.

We also had a great lesson with Ben on Saturday. We met at the church and showed him where his classes would be. Then we had a lesson in the chapel and talked on the sacrament. The bishop was present as well as a recently returned missionary. Ben even commented on how he felt the spirit in the chapel that day.  It went very well.

Over the last two weeks I have been on exchanges with Sister Erickson (serving in Wylie), Sister Simpson (Carrollton), and Sister Otto (Allen 7th).  All of the exchanges went very well and I appreciated learning from each of these great sister missionaries.  I feel bad for Sister Judd because we have spent a lot of time away from each other lately.  I am also grateful for Sister Judd because she is willing to do what is asked of her and always learn from her experiences.  She is a great missionary. I love that Sister Judd is not ashamed to do anything. She talks to everyone and is really striving to get to know everyone that we talk to.  She has great charity for others.  Sister Judd is also very dedicated to serving the Lord and giving her all as a missionary. I greatly appreciate her diligence and obedience. She has always taken ownership of the Allen 5th ward and the work we are doing here. Sister Judd is going to be great and do great things after I leave.

One of my favorite service projects that we do every week is painting fire hydrants.  Every Friday morning all of the Allen missionaries gather in bright orange "paint the town" shirts and go to work painting fire hydrants.  It is so much fun! The strange thing is that there are no red fire hydrants here in Texas.  All of the first hydrants are silver. Silver with different colored tops to indicate the size of the water line. So all of the fire hydrants that we have been painting are silver and blue. The paint is pretty durable, so I usually have splatters of paint all over for the few days after painting. A few weeks ago, Sister Judd got the tips of her long blonde hair in the blue paint. The tips of her hair are still blue! I love doing service and being able to talk to people when we are around the town covered in paint. Serving and "doing good" as Christ did brings so many more opportunities to share the gospel.

I love it here! Allen is a really great place.  It has everything that you need nearby, but there is still enough of the country around.  We have a giant cornfield in the middle of our area, which is always fun to see.  The members are great here and the people are generally very nice.  Just as all Texans, the people of Allen love their high school football. They spent 61 million dollars building a football stadium. The thing is huge! It is bigger and better than most junior college stadiums. To top that, the marching band at Allen High has 800 members. Pretty crazy! I love Texans! When they enjoy something, they put everything into it. Allen is a really great place.

This week I was studying in Jacob 5- the allegory of the olive tree.  I was particularly stuck by verses 70-75. The final time that the Lord gathers his vineyard, he calls for his servants to help him. This represents our time right now. I am one of the servants that the Lord has called to help gather souls to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In verse 72 it states that the servants labored with their mights. They also obeyed all of the commandments of the Lord. They were exactly obedient! Because of their service and diligence, the Lord labored along with his servants.  I have seen this in my mission. As I am obedient and diligent, the Lord really helps us with the work. He really does direct us to souls that are prepared to hear the message and accept the gospel.  I love verse 75 when the Lord checks the vineyard for the final time. The fruit is again good and the Lord is happy. He then declares, "And blessed art thou: for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments... behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard." I have felt this from the Lord. The joy of bringing souls to Christ is indescribable. The blessings and happiness of bringing souls to Christ is much more than all of the disappointments and rejection that you encounter as a missionary.  

I am so grateful to be a missionary in the hands of the Lord!  I love serving in the Texas Dallas Heaven! I feel so blessed and so full of joy. I am grateful for the lives that I have seen changed as a missionary. I am grateful for my own change of heart. I am grateful for the Atonement of my Savior Jesus Christ. I love Jesus Christ and I plan to give my all as a missionary until the very last day. I love being a missionary!!   I love y'all so much. Thanks for your continual love, support, and prayers.

Love always- Sister Peck