13.

Hi everyone!

And so begins my 13th transfer.

Sometimes I feel like my emails are so scattered because I just write everything coming to my mind, without any organization. Apologies in advance.

So! This week has been great. Monday night we had our YSA Talent Night. It was a lot of fun and we had some pretty cool talents -- a fantastic cellist, one guy did archery, another did magic tricks, and Sis Montgomery and I sang a song and played guitar. We had a good turnout too, about double the size of most FHEs.

Tuesday was transfer meeting so we headed off, car loaded with Sister Montgomery's stuff! I couldn't believe it really was the end of our transfer together. It definitely flew by too fast. We got to transfer meeting  & I had the thought the night before at who my companion could be. I was right! Her name is Sister Kapisi. She is from Hawaii. I don't think I've ever talked to her before though! She served in Bermuda for six months so we've never served in the same area. This is her first transfer as STL. We're going to be singing a song together soon! She has a strong testimony and I'm excited to see some miracles with her this transfer!

We taught a few lessons this week and made contact [finally] with some less actives, which was great! Our mission leader had given us some people to contact and Saturday night, we got ahold of one girl. She said she was really excited to have us over and would love to start coming back to church! Hoorah! We are meeting her tonight and then going to FHE with her. Then, a set of sisters in a nearby area have been teaching a YSA potential. They told her about YSA and she was interested so they are going to "pass her off" for us to teach. She came to church yesterday (and brought a friend) and has a baptism date. We will start teaching her this week. See, miracles?

We also got to go to the temple on Saturday with the branch. That was super fun and always great to feel the Spirit inside the middle of Manhattan. After the trip, we ate lunch in Central Park and our branch president bought tickets for us all to ride the carousel ... quite the adventure in a pencil skirt. #neveragain.

Yesterday, two new girls showed up to church. They are nannies and are here for a year! What a blessing. We need to grow this branch! I'm so grateful they're here and can help the branch. I thought I would leave you all with some thoughts lately from my studies of the Book of Mormon.

One thing I learned while reading in Alma this week was the importance of DESIRE (Which I've written about many times, I know). It's something that has stood out to me many times on my mission so it's probably something I need to really learn AND APPLY. But, in Alma 41 it mentions people being raised to happiness because of their desires to be righteous/do good, etc. Or we can desire evil and receive unhappiness. Our desires really do determine our character and who we become in life (and after this life). Desires and motivation have fascinated me on my mission though. I didn't pay much attention to WHY I did things before. Sure, I'll be obedient. But I didn't ever think ..."Am I doing this because I love God?" President Calderwood mentioned in transfer meeting this week that when we are obedient for the RIGHT reasons, we gain the attributes of Christ. Isn't that why we are here on Earth? Whew. I feel like I can spend all day talking about this. So I will stop here. But it's something I want to learn more and understand better.

What is something you learned from your scripture study this week? <-- an="" br="" invite="" see="" share="" that="" to="">
Anyway, this upcoming week will be fun -- two exchanges and MLC are on the agenda. Remember how I did that "Transfer by numbers" a few months ago? Let's try it out again. We have:
11 exchanges, 3 zone training meetings, 1 mission leadership council, 1 mega zone conference
2 temple trips, 1 departing interview, 6+ leaders' meetings, *1 baptism (HOPEFULLY!), and about 24 YSA activities. So, just combine that with finding, teaching, and studying and you have a pretty crazy transfer!

I love you! Thanks for the support and love.
xoxo,
Sister Peacock
I said goodbye to two of my best companions! Sister Montgomery and
Sister Lewis.

3. I saw a member from Little Neck at the temple on Saturday. Hermana Bermudez -- I love her!

4. Our sweet little temple group after doing baptisms.

1. Our pday last week on the beach

2. District breakfast at the senior
couple's home before transfer meeting. We made yummy pumpkin pancakes
and buttermilk syrup. They were a hit!

3. My ticket for the carousel in Central Park.

4. My beautiful new companion, Sister Kapis


{ny south|forever changed}

I'm getting transferred??

Just kidding. I'm staying in Plainview YSA for my final transfer! Woo!

But it's that time yet again -- transfers! We find out tomorrow who my

new companion will be & Sis M leaves Wednesday :'( SO sad to say

goodbye to her! But, we will be forever friends! Yay for mission

blessings of all sorts. Anyway, it's been a crazy week, getting things

ready for her to go home & her departing temple trip, etc.

On Tuesday, I had an exchange with my dear Sister Acosta because her

comp is also going home so her comp and mine went to the temple trip

together. It was so fun to be with Sister Acosta in her new area and

to see how much she has spiritually grown in the past YEAR since I

trained her (Sidenote: I can't believe it's been a year. What the

heck?). But, she is an amazing missionary and I"m so excited for her

because she is going to be training! Woo! In mission terms, I will

have a "grandchild." :) We taught a few lessons together and enjoyed

the chance to work together for a day.

We had a lesson planned Wednesday with a less active. We had invited a

guy who was in town for a week to be the member present. Well, God had

a different plan and as it turned out, we were supposed to teach the

guy we invited to teach with us. So, the less active couldn't show up

to the church until later, so we thought ..."Ok, let's just teach T

instead." And then a member from the YSA branch who was coming to

volleyball just walked into the room, sat down, and started teaching

with us .. it was a miracle! Super cool. T started crying during the

lesson as we talked about repentance and forgiveness. Man, I just felt

super strongly during that lesson that God loved him and wanted him to

receive forgiveness and move on with his life and not hang on the past

mistakes. That's what he wants for each one of us -- receive that

immediate forgiveness, and forgive ourselves, and let the healing

power of the Atonement help us. It was such a strong lesson. And it

was cool because T flew back to Utah that night so it all worked out

perfectly that we had the prompting to ask him to come with us. God

works in a lot of ways to bring about his purposes, right?

We also had a lesson with Kevin again, who we haven't been able to see

for a few weeks because of his crazy work schedule. He is our

investigator who told us he was going to a different church that is

closer to his house ... and has a rock band. But, we read 3 Nephi 27

with him and he stopped us and said, "Wait, so if it's in the name of

Moses, it's Moses' church? So if it's in the name of man, it's his

church?" And we were able to teach why it's important that it's the

Church of Jesus Christ and that it is built on HIS gospel. Kevin is

awesome.

It's been a crazy week -- I can hardly believe a new transfer starts

today. Tonight we have a talent show for FHE and Sis Montgomery and I

arranged a primary song to sing (it's on FB) which should be a lot of

fun. I just want you all to know that I know this church is true. I am

definitely seeing the blessings of being on a mission -- it is hard,

but it is so worth it. My testimony has gotten so much stronger and I

am grateful to share it with others.

I love you!

As always, some photos from the week!

I am not sure if the captions ever work so  I will put them all here

so you can read them for sure!

1. New York is known for bagels so we decided to go try it out for

ourselves at a local bagel place. I had a french toast bagel with

cinnamon raisin cream cheese. DELICIOUS! :)

2. A girl in the YSA is getting married so Sister Owens asked us to

help decorate cupcakes for her bridal shower... as you can imagine, I

was so down! I had a lot of fun frosting them and writing the labels.

3 & 4. The last two are with Zach ,our amazing branch mission leader.

He helps us out so much! Sis M and I bought matching shirts last week.

It's been funny to see the reactions.

green smoothies, poison ivy & M came to church!

Helllooo!

What a great week it has been. I am amazed at the opportunities we
have to be instruments in God's hands everyday to help people or to
comfort people or to laugh with people. What a privilege it is that he
trusts us!

So, this week ... whew. We had two exchanges. We were supposed to have
three, but one of the sisters is having kidney stone problems so she
actually went to the hospital. We ended up just visiting with the two
of them for an hour or so. But, it's been a good week. Back-to-back
exchanges are fun but exhausting. It sure was nice to be back with Sis
M on Thursday! Friday we had leaders' meeting in RIVERHEAD. I
seriously get so giddy every time we drive out there. After the
meeting, we stopped and visited a family I had worked with there & it
was nice to see them (even if the Spanish part was a little struggle
after so much English!). I really love, love, love the people I have
met on my mission.

Wednesday night, we taught a family we had found while looking for a
former investigator. Roslin and Kahim have two kids. Roslin used to go
to church growing up and you could see her heart softening as we
taught. She said she knew she needed to go back and she knew the
blessings had come when she was going. She told us she would go before
the end of the month. And said, "I like you sisters. You are nice. You
can come back again." :) Yay! We'll have to pass them off to the
Plainview Ward sisters since they aren't YSA ... but a family! That's
exciting. It felt so good to teach them and to testify!

Saturday morning we did service for this natural reserve park. We were
pulling "non-native invasive" plants ... unfortunately there is also
poison ivy in the same area. One of the elders got it last week pretty
bad after doing service. I don't seem to have any problems yet, but
Sis M is feeling kind of itchy ... So, we'll see. Oh, and as we were
standing in the field, an elder says, "Wow, that's a big spider!" (in
a really CALM voice). I looked to where he was pointing ... ON MY
FOOT. And, I was wearing like slip-on shoes, so this giant spider was
ON MY SKIN. I kind of panicked and kicked my leg around and then the
lady in charge came over to take a picture...this thing was HUGE. It
was bigger than a quarter. It was massive. BUT, it was a lot of fun to
be out, doing service. The missionaries have been helping this
organization since April and they really seem to appreciate the
service. After the service, we had a branch bbq in honor of the bug
boys who will be leaving this week (as in 50% of our branch). It was
pretty fun because for the first half of the bbq, Sis M and I were the
ONLY girls there...two others came at the end. But, we had a lot of
chuckles at the situation. Oh, and it was a pool party. #awkward
#ysalife

Sunday was awesome! M made it to church! She was answering all sorts
of questions in Relief Society and seemed to enjoy herself. She likes
church. She likes the people. She just doesn't know if it's true. But
she will one day! After church, Sis M and I taught Lizzie about
baptism on Facetime. It was such a cool experience to teach Lizzie! We
were amazed at how smart and prepared she was! She knew what a
covenant was, why we are baptized, what repentance means ... she
basically taught us :) But I was so grateful that we could share our
testimonies about baptism and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it is
the only way to happiness.

We were headed to a lesson with the senior couple but it fell through,
so Elder Owens drove us by the house where the Amityville murder took
place in the 1970s, which was right around the block from our lesson.
He was a prosecuting attorney and worked on the OJ Simpson trial. So,
he was pretty excited to drive us by the house. Anyway, the Owens are
AWESOME.

On a funny note, we decided to call everyone in our phone because
there are so many contacts we don't know, especially because we were
blinded in. Well, I called one "Lisa" and started explaining who we
are and what we do and asked if she had ever met with missionaries
before. She says, "Yes, my husband and I just moved from New York. He
was an area seventy for that area." Oh, my life.

Anyway, it's been a super great week. I can't believe it's week six.
Sis M and I only have one more week together! It's going to be GREAT
though. This work is true. I am so grateful to be a part of it!

Love,
Sister P

school supplies?

Well,

It's August. I couldn't believe when we went grocery shopping at
Target today that all the school supplies are back! Sister Montgomery
and I both said how we love them. But, how can it be turning that time
already? As I've said with other months, July just flew!

This week, we had two exchanges, a joint MLC with the north mission
leaders, and a BOMB lesson with M, our investigator. She's lovely :)
But, starting at the top of the list .. our two exchanges. Sister
Pieper, who is now serving in Hampton Bays, came to Plainview with me
:) We had a great time and I always learn so much from her. We were in
the same zone for 4 transfers, and I remember when she started her
mission. She said I remind her of her older sister, so she was excited
to go on the exchange. She said it felt like visiting "home." :) We
were able to stop by an investigator Sister Hale and I began teaching
last summer who lives in Hampton Bays. It was such a blessing to see
Laura! She is receiving lessons again and has started reading the Book
of Mormon, which she struggled with last summer. It was amazing to
feel that immediate love come flooding back the moment I saw her.

On Friday, we had a joint MLC. So, the mission leaders from the north
mission joined us on our side. I felt like I learned so much and
received personal revelation, and also felt the Spirit telling me what
i Needed to improve and change to be a better, more obedient
missionary. It was also interesting to be with President & Sister
Morgan (from the north mission). I learned from them also, but I
definitely have a testimony that we are called to a mission for our
mission president. One of the things I learned at MLC was about the
gospel of Jesus Christ, which we always talk about.

See, we can define the gospel of Jesus Christ  (faith, repentance,
baptism, etc.) but HOW is the Gospel of Jesus Christ defining us? How
is it changing us? We need to let others see it defining us. What can
others see as they are around me? Do I follow promptings? Do I testify
frequently about realtime repentance? Am I different because of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ? We talk often about what is known as #realtime
in our mission ... #realtime conversations and communication (meaning
we use our ipads to talk with our leaders and be accountable),
#realtime planning (planning throughout the day), and #realtime
repentance. I have a testimony of realtime repentance that is getting
deeper roots everyday. I know when we repent #realtime, we receive
immediate blessings, immediate peace, and immediate forgiveness. This
is one thing I've definitely come to to know here. We don't have to
wait and wait to repent. Do it the instant you know you've done wrong.
And you receive forgiveness.

So, the MLC was great and I ran into an old friend from SUU who is a
zone leader in the north mission. I also sat next to an STL there that
was serving in a YSA ward at Christmastime and guess who her bishop
was? Kyle Poll. She said she loved spending Christmas at Emily and
Kyle's house :)

We also had a bomb lesson with our investigator. Every time we meet, I
am more and more convinced that she is not atheist. She prays every
time we are there, and is praying on her own now. In the last lesson,
she prayed and said, "Thank you for being there." Her heart is
softening. We are praying that she will have the desire to be
baptized. We love her!

Other than that, we've been doing the usual ... trying to find new
people to teach, going to leaders' meetings, and waking up feeling
like we never even slept (I heard about this at the beginning of my
mission from older missionaries ... it's true! You get exhausted and
you FEEL the exhaustion!). But, life is great. I am so happy. I have
never been happier. Even with the exhaustion and the struggles, I have
never been happy as I have been as a missionary. So grateful I still
have two months to do all I can for the people in New York and for my
Heavenly Father!

I love you all!
Oh, and I hope mom had a happy birthday yesterday and HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to Jen today!
Love,
Sister Peacock