Week 12 in the Field: ALREADY!

The district (bottom row:  Elder Moeller, Elder Peery, Elder Leavitt, Elder Threet, Elder Harris

Top row:  Sister Johnson, Sister Daines, Sister Cook, Sister Cotton, Elder Bryner)

Hello!  
So first off my new companion who will be replacing Elder Leavitt as District Leader is...

...

...

Elder Moeller! The very same Elder Moeller who I've been on exchanges with twice in the past two transfers. I am super excited to welcome him back to Smith Springs. His companion, Elder Threet, will be receiving one of my buddies from the MTC Elder Tsosie. I am super excited about that and will be so happy to see them in District Meeting. This also means that I will be staying for another six weeks in Smith Springs, for which I am also grateful. I love the people here and will be happy to bring in more people to Christ. 

The district itself got really shaken up. Both sets of sisters (Cotton and Cook, and Daines and Johnson) got whitewashed -- which means that both are replaced by other missionaries. In the case of Sister Daines she will be going home anyways but their area will be replaced with Elders, which is great cause they've had a rough time with creepy people over there. Sisters Cotton and Cook will be opening a new area in Nolensville area which is just 7 miles away so they'll still be in our zone. Elders Harris and Bryner are staying but receiving a third zone leader so that will be interesting.

So update on my bible study, I am currently about halfway through Job. People say Isaiah was rough, but Numbers and Chronicles have done a number on me so far. Numbers goes full in depth about all the laws and order of sacrificing the Jews were commanded to do. But for the most part when it hits 2nd Kings all that is forgotten. Chronicles restates EVERYTHING that happened thus far.  But I decided to have some fun with it. Chronicles and Genesis list a gigantic genealogy chart. During personal study one day I just started making a large family history chart. What started as a modest experiment turned out to be seven pages of names and families. 

Pictures of my study journal on the lineages of Adam, Jacob, and others. 

I was able to go in and trace Joseph, Mary's husband, all the way back to Adam. I attached some pictures of this conquest and it looks like a lot of work but I did most of it in the space of an hour. Definitely helped me get through Chronicles. I plan on doing one for Ether when I re-read the Book of Mormon. The only downside is that the names will start not linking up and so random names that say "a descendant of..." Are more difficult to track and I will sometimes just give up. 

Elder Leavitt had me write a song for the district last Wednesday. He came up with some lyrics which were pretty cheesy, so I decided to take it and made it my goal to make it even more cheesy. What resulted was putting the song to the Pokemon theme song--most epic decision ever. However only a couple people actually got where it was from. They didn't understand my amazement when I exclaimed, "What kind of person in our generation doesn't  know the greatest and cheesiest theme song of all time?!" I almost flipped a table. If I did I would just blame Elder Leavitt cause that's his “go to” action when something crazy happens.

Playing the district song

This week was pretty slow due to the fact that the majority of the time was spent helping Elder Leavitt pack or riding a bus to get to an area since we didn't have his bike anymore. 

Elder Leavitt holding the district's title of Liberty

What was pretty cool though was that I got to go back to Massman Manor Apartments and knock my own door. Though I didn't see the pool that my mother stated was a landmark, I did find the exact apartment door, and a lot of what she described was around it. If she or any of my family wish to go around that area, they should probably learn some Arabic.  It's pretty crazy because never before had I met an Egyptian until I came to Nashville.

But we also did help move a new family in which was pretty awesome. They said they wanted us to come over to have dinner with them sometime soon and talk about what we believe. They have a little 2-year-old miracle daughter who is super cute and loves Elder Bryner.

The wall of letters -- thank you so much for writing me!(some not shown)

Last thing I can think of is our album is finished. There are some incorrect parts and it's definitely not perfect. I will attempt to send a copy home. I am not sure how to get the music out so people can hear it, but a lot of the members here love it. 

I will close this weekly update with one of my new favorite scriptures from Job: "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." (Job 5:17).  It is so much like Elder Hugh B. Brown's story of the currant bush:  We need to be grateful when things don't go our way. He is the gardener here and He knows what He wants us to be.  Whether or not we see the benefit of following His commandments immediately, we can always know that by doing so we grow closer to Christ. As he corrects us, let us be grateful.

And as my friend, Adam, who is serving his mission in Honduras says: “Hurrah for Israel!”

Elder Peery

Ready to perform the National Anthem at the Nashville Sounds baseball game, but it was rained out.  See the rainbow?  Awesome sight!  Brighter days ahead!

Genealogy of Jacob.

The last one shows Joseph the husband of Mary, the mother of

Christ.