Week 18 in the Field: General Conference and More!

Elder Moeller making a burrito with a lot of cool ingredients including some of his 

delicious homemade salsa.

So things have been relatively interesting this week, but first off let me announce the results of transfers: Elder Moeller and I are staying together which means that I will be "killing him off" making him the second of two companions I've had that I've killed. I'm excited, but at the same time it's kind of hard to be fresh out and have people be excited to go home. I know a couple missionaries that have gotten really homesick and actually left the mission due to "trunky" companions. I'm staying strong out here though.

Animals, especially cats, love our bags. It's very hilarious to have one jump up on our laps just to lie on the bags like this cat, who belongs to one of our investigators.

On Monday we made contact with this investigator who was taught way back by Sister Cotton. He has since become involved with Jehovah Witnesses and therefore has been very into he bible and less into the Book of Mormon even though when he was taught by Sister Cotton and the other sisters, had a baptismal date and had gone to church for many months consecutively as well as payed tithing. At some point he was dropped and we are still trying to figure out why. Our only guess is the fact that he didn't believe in the Book of Mormon even though that is one of the things the church was restored with. Why he came to church and paid tithing we have no clue. We are continuing to work with him and the ward has encouraged us to be bold with him.

We saw the lady we did a church tour with. She had watched the General Women's Meeting last Saturday and loved President Uchtdorf's talk. She is really excited about learning more, and we are continually excited to teach her. The only downside is the fact her job requires her to work a lot so we are working with the ward employment specialists to figure out how to help her with a better job.

Not much else happened except for General Conference. We spent the first sessions on Saturday at our ward building in Gallatin, Tennessee. We joined two other sets of Elders, Gallatin English and Gallatin Spanish, and had a lot of fun going to a local fair in downtown Gallatin in between sessions. We got a lot of looks as usual but it was fun to see all the exhibits they had set up. When we returned for Priesthood Session that's when some elders and high priests started showing up--nice turnout for sure.

Sunday we went over to a member's house and watched both sessions there among several other families from the ward. It was a lot of fun, and between sessions we played pool on their nice pool table. We also ate amazing food!  It was a blast.

My favorite conference talks included Elder Lynn G. Robbins's who talked about "Which way do we face?" He talked about how we aren't to fear the reproach of men and persecution. He also used one of my favorite quotes by C. S. Lewis who said "Courage is the form of every virtue at the testing point."

One of my favorite quotes from conference.

 There were many other good talks on staying strong during persecution, which I enjoyed mainly since a lot of the time we as missionaries come under persecution. Just a few days prior to Conference we got yelled at by people on the street—and called terrible things I won’t share with you.  Persecution is real for sure. Always the most charming people yell at us. We're just doing what Christ commanded His disciples to do, and we will keep on serving the Lord, sharing His Gospel with others, and caring for our brothers and sisters.

As always, things are pretty much the same so no real complaints. I cannot wait to start off a new transfer. I only have 19 and a half months left! There is much work to do as we labor in the Lord’s vineyard.  See you next week!

Elder Peery

Photos of the apartment part one (kitchen, missionary sign board, and hallway to the bathroom and study area. My signature is in the bottom of the painting in the blue area).

Pictures of the apartment part two. The study area. We had to move a lot of stuff around cause the space isn't too big. A chess board is on the center table with a few other board games behind on the long desk. The large cabinet on the left holds most of our supplies. Elder Moeller is also pictured on the right. The large binder is the old area book which I go through every now and then.

Pictures of the apartment part three. The front door showing the map of the area as well as a bunch of quotes on the wall. Two training wheels hang above the door and usually will be above the desk of a trainee to be a symbol of training. A picture of the Nashville Temple is on the right.