2016.12.18 !MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄 ❄️ ⛄️ 🎂 🍭 🦃 🇯🇵 🍗

Hello everyone!

As I write this my companion is serenading me with an acoustic version
of Mary Did You Know. Beautiful.

I have been getting fat this past week from multiple Christmas
parties. Not good. Tastes good. But it's not good 😊

Yeah, we had a lot of parties this week. The sisters in our area have
an investigator who has a pretty big English class. Her husband is a
native English speaker so it was cool to have some good English
conversation with a native other than missionaries. We played games
like tree-decoration contests, loading presents in a sleigh and
pulling the sleigh around a tree and back again. Making party crackers
was pretty cool. The husband dressed up as Santa. He did a good job.
We did a gift exchange which was pretty good. They fed us lunch which
was way nice of them. They got a cake from Costco!!! It had been
soooooooo long. "Are all of your sentences like this, David? Yes, they
are." -quote by David

Then we had the church Christmas party which was pretty good. I would
say at least 2/3 of the ward came! There was a shadow play that they
did to explain the nativity story. One of the members narrated and it
sounded just like an anime. So awesome!!! The. We had a presentation
on the origins of Christmas terms like 'MERRY Christmas' and
'Christmas tree'. The member who did the presentation is a
professional researcher so it was an elaborate and packed
presentation. Then we are hot dogs and miso soup. It was way good!

Both of those were on the same day so we were partying from 8:30 until
8:00. It was a full day!

Wednesday we went to an area in the far left of the zone. A small
place called Akō. They had a big festival in honor of an ancient
samurai story. I'm not quite sure what the story is, but the jist is
that they followed their leader to the death. Pretty cool. There were
TONS of people there. I was literally turning left and right talking
to people, and so was my companion! That went from 9:00-3:30. After
that we went home and had a lesson with one of our investigators.

Speaking of investigators!! We had the lesson with the one I was just
talking about. He has a lot of interest in The Book of Mormon and he
committed to be baptized on the 28th of December. It will be a
Wednesday at night. And when we invited him he asked if his friend
could be baptized too!! Who even is this guy!? He is awesome! But,
yeah, we are looking forward to that.

Then we had another investigator that we met with in Thursday. He has
studied Christianity for 20+ years but was never able to be baptized
in that religion, even though he wanted to. We taught him the
Restoration and asked if he wanted to be baptized. In his own words he
said, "It looks to me that I would like to be baptized". That was
great! He was super involved in the conversation and loved meeting
with us. Miracles my peeps, miracles! He will probably be baptized in
January.

We went streeting with a member on Tuesday. We stuck around the
covered areas of the main station and new mall because it was raining
buckets. We talked to a lot of people and the member was a blast! We
even made onigiri with a professional that was touring Japan. So good,
I'll teach you guys when I get home 😉

If I'm right then I don't think there is anything else that happened
this week that was out of He ordinary. It was a good week!

I want to bear my testimony that Jesus is the Christ. This is the last
full week before Christmas Day. My companion and I have been telling
everyone about the wonderful gift of our Savior. The miracle of
forgiveness, and the grace of God. We have all been blessed wether you
believe it or not. This Christmas season is the perfect time to share
the wonderful message of or Savior's birth. And what resulted of the
birth was our salvation. Please never forget that. I hope all who read
this email will feel our Savior's love. And as a representative of
Christ the Lord I promise that He cares about you and that you will
feel so if you come into Him.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

From me to you,
Elder Peacock

2016.12.11 ❄️ 🎶 IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR 🎶 ❄️

Yoo-hoo, family!

I hope that everyone who reads this email is feeling the joy that
Christmas brings this time of year. There is a special glow, a warmth,
a magic, that I feel every year during the holiday season. It's my
favorite time of year! There is something that I want to share with
you all. In 1 Nephi 11 we read the account of Nephi's vision of the
tree of life. Just a few chapters previous, chapter 8, is Lehi's
vision of the tree of life. But there is something in chapter 11 that
isn't in chapter 8. In verses 12-23 the angel shows ,Nephi, Mary and
baby Jesus. Why does the angel show a Nephi thin in the vision? What
significance does it have and why did Nephi need to see it then? It
had been prophesied long before and Nephi knew the prophesies, as did
many (if not all) of the Jews. Sounds like a commitment invitation
opportunity to me! Everyone, please read 1 Nephi 8. Then read 1 Nephi
11. Then compare and contrast. Send an email to me telling me what you
learned. Can't wait to hear from you!

We had a couple of meetings this past week. On Thursday we had Trainer
Trainee Training. Then we had zone conference on Friday. The topics
ranged from balance (in responsibilities, in yourself, etc.), faith,
repentance, and sacrifice. The big takeaway for me was having patience
with myself. Yep, time to go over that again 😲

Also, I may or may not have eaten 20 McDonalds burgers in the space of
two days...needless to say I am starting a diet today.

Queiroz Chōrō is doing well. He has really been going hard on the
language. He is putting sentences together faster and is putting
himself out there more. It's been good to see, and the members are
seeing it too. My son is awesome!

Speaking of which: we decided to sing 'Mary Did You Know' for the
Christmas party that the missionaries will have. Queiroz Chōrō and I
will both be singing and playing acoustic guitar. We will be sing the
Jeremy Camp version. Look it up, its way good! It will be on the 22nd
so we still got a ways. I'll send you a video when it happens.

Speaking of guitar: my wonderful son repaired a guitar for our
next-door neighbor. The man is way nice and he has known the
missionaries for at lease a year (probably longer). He wants to start
playing guitar but he had to put new strings on and he doesn't know
how. I don't know why he didn't just take it to a music shop, but
Queiroz Chōrō fixed it up and made it shine real fast. Our neighbor
loved it and said he has another guitar he wants Queiroz Chōrō to fix
so we will do that one too.

We met a half Japanese, half British professional ballroom dancer who
was giving out flyers for his studio at the train station. He was way
tall and definitely saw son Benedict Cumberbatch in him (not even
kidding, his eyes and hair). Way nice, pretty good at English. Made me
remember my dance classes from BYU-Idaho. So fun!

We spent an hour with one of the young men in our ward. We went to the
city park next to the train station and for an hour we walked and
talked. He is mega shy so we were worried he wouldn't enjoy it. To be
honest I was surprised he came at all. But by the end he was talking
and testifying. So good! I asked him how it was and he said it was
really fun. Definitely hooking up with him again.

Yeah, this week flew by. One of the fastest yet!

The sister missionaries are boss and brought three people to church
yesterday. Oh, that reminds me! I gave a small talk in sacrament
meeting. The bishopric wanted it to only be three minutes so I only
shared the 1 Nephi 11 thing. It was good though. Church is way busy!

It has gotten colder the last few days! I'm waiting to see the snow
again *fingers crossed*

Today we studied for a bit, cleaned (I destroyed the fridge with my
cleaning power, made the grime run), after emailing we will go grocery
shopping, get a tree and lights, bike stuff, shopping stuff, and go
see the city clock tower and planetarium. Should be fun!

I hope you are all have a holly jolly Christmas. Keep the Savior in
your hearts! 😘

Sending you love from Japan,
孔雀長老

2016.11.27 🏈+👠+🦃+洲本

Heeeeeeeeere's Johnny!!!

I hope you guys all stuffed yourselves to the brim with turkey,
stuffing, rolls, and pie because I sure did! We were also able to have
a turkey bowl game before zone conference which was AMAZING! The
weather is getting colder and colder and yesterday was very rainy. We
actually kinda had three days of Thanksgiving celebration. One was
Wednesday with a couple of less-actives. We went with them to a buffet
and just spent some good time with them. Then we had zone conference
where President and Sister Welch prepared a classic American
Thanksgiving meal. Then we went to Sumoto of a blitz and stuffed
ourselves with homemade curry and rice. Good stuff. I think I gained
five kilos 😆

Wednesday afternoon was spent with a recent returned missionary. He
served his mission in Tokyo South, I actually first met him while I
was serving in Sumoto. We went to the train station close to where he
lives to try and tackle a large volume of people. It was the upscale
part of town and was set up on a hill. Picture City Creek mall from
Salt Lake City and put it in Japan...kinda. We met an older gentleman
because he spoke English to us, "where are you going?" We taught him
most of the restoration and exchanged contact info because he wants to
meet again. Yay! After that we went into the hospital right next to
where we were talking and the man at the front desk noticed our name
tags and asked what we were doing. He wasn't upset or anything like
that, just curious. But the kicker came from the man standing next to
him. He said "Jospeh Smith". No Nihonjin knows the name, Joseph Smith,
unless they have taken lessons from the missionaries. And even then a
lot of them forget. It REALLY took me by surprise! He isn't interested
right now but he was nice.

So, funny story of the week. I don't know if I told you just this, but
I forgot my running shoes when I transferred out of Nabari. Yeah, the
Brooks I love, left them in a previous area, like, five months ago. I
asked my previous companion in my area to get them sent my way via
missionaries traveling through the mission office. After Trainer
Trainee Training meeting I found one is the assistant's apartment.
Only the left shoe! So, I was like, "dang, now I have to buy a new
pair of shoes if I wanna go running." Then we got a text from our zone
leaders saying that there was going to be a turkey bowl football game
the morning of zone conference (Thanksgiving Day) for all who wanted
to come. And at that point I was like, "dang, now I HAVE to get new
shoes." So I tried to ask for the assistants help to look for my
Brooks in their apartment but they weren't helping. So, after working
with the member on Wednesday I bought a new pair of running shoes.
Yep... But, then, guess what happened. Oh, I KNEW this would happen.
After the turkey bowl game, I walk into the assistants apartment to
shower and, lo and behold, what is sitting in the entryway? Right in
front of my face! My beloved Brooks running shoe! The mate to my sad,
lost right foot. It was a happy reunion, even though my wallet took a
hit for no reason.

We got up at 4:30 on Thursday so we could play football at the mission
office and then 5:00 on Friday so we could get to Sumoto early for the
blitz. That, combined with all of the football-playing and biking and
you get four, very worn-out elders.

At zone conference President Welch talked about faith and repentance.
How and why they are closely tied. The preparation we did with
scripture reading talked about 'faith unto repentance'. I had noticed
that before in The Book of Mormon. But now we are to focus completely
on that while we study that wonderful blue book for the next
foreseeable future. I'm excited to see what I learn!

While we blitzed in Sumoto I was with my district leader. We went to
He southern end of a town called Tsuna. We found three good potential
investigators and one we got his phone number. One was actually very
led by the Spirit. The sun had set and it was getting cold. We saw a
young man siting down in the convenience store parking lot off to the
side. We both though it was a good idea to buy him some hot chocolate
because that's what we were there to do. He was noce and we started
talking. Then we all heard a whistle sound but couldn't see where it
came from so we just ignored it. Then we heard it again, except this
time I recognized where it came from. It was above us, and the sound
came from Fa'alute and Queiroz Chōrō. They quickly joined us. We all
together watched the new Christmas video, 'Light the World'. By the
time we were done he was way interested and wanted to learn more.
Looking back that was all the Holy Ghost. So good!

We traveled in safety and arrived home completely dead. But later on
that night we found a couple of good potential investigators so I am
pretty excited for that. We also met a young firefighter last night
who wants to meet so I am also stoked for that. Miracles all around 😉

Yeah, those were the highlights from the week. Thanksgiving was
awesome! But now Christmas is here, bring it on! Have you guys seen
the new Christmas video 'Light the World'? It's very good. Watch it,
share it, enjoy it. Serve others! Fight the good fight and never give
up! あいしてるわ!

Sincerely,
Elder Peacock

Sent from my iPad