New at Minecraft, Nether Reactor?

Okay so me and my friend are new at mine craft and we have been digging like crazy to make the Nether Reactor FINALLY (we made it In the house, that was not fun!) We got there and we where so confused because all we got was obsidion and lots of nether stone and all the stuff that we did have in our house was every where we had 2 boxes left and we kept as much as we could any ways besides that problem the thing we hated the most where that the "pigmen" where not there and we got no gold what so ever (luckly we have extra gold only 8 pieces though) so the point is, The pigmen did not show up we got no gold and we have to dig like crazy again, does any one know what happened or why?

The most probable reason that the pigmen did not show up is because you turned down your difficulty to "peaceful". Try turning it up to hard, and build the reactor again. The pigmen will show up this time, probably.