Week 31 in the Field: A Great New Year in Hendersonville!

Shopping at Rivergate Mall

Hi everybody!  

Below is 2014 in review.  It has been amazing! -- Hope you enjoy the slide show.

Hope your new year is going well so far.  So this was a very fun week.

On Monday we went over to the Hansen's (no known relation to Elder Hansen) and had a great time. Their kids (most of them older than 12) were big Lord of the Rings fans and recited a ton of quotes from it. They would also recite comedy routines from comedians such as Bill Cosby and others for us and even the oldest who was a returned sister missionary would join in too. It was hilarious!

On Tuesday at the bishop's storehouse, it was a pretty chill day, which was good cause that's when transfers were going on. Since I was spared the chop, I will be staying in Hendersonville for 6 more weeks which will (at the end) mark 6 months in Hendersonville which is 1/4th of my mission.

I know the majority of the area by heart so I'm guessing after this six weeks I will be gone which will be hard since I've gotten to know the members very well. We also tracted into a bunch of people and after following up with them later in the week, only one was actually interested. We also said goodbye to one of our favorite investigators who is now living in the Goodlettsville boundaries due to a re-alignment of the boundaries. But we will make sure to stop by if we are ever in the area.

On Wednesday, Elder Hansen had his first district meeting as a district leader which was fun. He did a good job. Afterwards we went over to a part-member's home and had a good lesson with them.  Hopefully we will see them at church in the next few weeks. We then walked back to our apartment which took a while. We had to go in at 6:00 p.m. due to crazy drivers but our mission president let us watch a Church movie so we borrowed Ephraim's Rescue from the Horlachers (members of the ward) which was really fun.

When I went to bed, I remembered that I was just 3 chapters away from finishing the Doctrine and Covenants.  As tired as I was, I finished reading the rest of it and accomplished my goal of reading and studying the whole thing in a month. After starting the Pearl of Great Price on Thursday, I ended up finishing reading and studying it today (January 5th).

Thursday, New Year’s Day, was what we call "Super P-Day" because that is the one day of the entire year where we get to spend the day off due to people suffering hangovers or late sleepers as well as crazy drivers on the road. Every elder in the stake boundaries gathered at Gallatin for basketball, Pakistani (an intense game of dodgeball), football, and more.  President allowed us to watch a few non- church related movies as well (as long as they were G or PG) so we ended up seeing The Lego Movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and of course Frozen.

2. Basketball

All were really fun and it was funny watching the elders who had been out for awhile watch Frozen for the first time. Next year we will probably get Big Hero 6 or something. My favorite of the three was probably How to Train Your Dragon 2,  but I also really really liked The Lego Movie.  Elder Hansen thought they were too childish so he only watched the first one. I think he's just trying to suppress his inner child--haha.

3. Watching movies with the elders

Friday we didn't get much done due to people not being interested, but we had an awesome lunch with Bro. Horlacher at Waffle House which was my first trip to one that I know of. It was really awesome but the Horlachers and my companion are still making fun of me for putting sugar on my eggs instead of salt. Honestly, it looked like salt to me but I didn't know why it was in such a big container. For those who are curious it still tasted pretty good.

Saturday we went to a baptism of one of the bishopric's kids whose name was Beck. It was really cool 'cause it was the first baptism in the Hendersonville ward in about 6-7 months. Beck was very happy to see all his family show up and was also happy to see us there. Later in the day we had a visit from my companion's member friends from Pikeville. They took us out to eat at McDonalds which was hilarious because one of the sisters they had with them was Sister McDonald (whom they had nicknamed "Happy Meal"). As their kids played in the play place, I grinned as the sisters and the members grilled my companion with the amount of stories about him. It was awesome. We didn't get too much done that day also due to rain which really stinks when it is combined with humidity, wind, and 30 degree weather. It is not as cold outside as Rexburg, Idaho--but it still hurts.

Sunday was interesting cause we had a bunch of people come to church even with the boundary change in effect. It was great to see the ward so positive. 

After church we went walking towards some people we were going to go see and it was just looking terrible outside.  Sure enough, a spontaneous Tennessee rainstorm occurred and combined with freezing winds, it burned it was so cold. We were not prepared for the random storm and were only wearing sweaters (I was wearing thermals though, which really helped).

Thankfully, a kind, random stranger who went to one of the mega churches pulled over and very generously gave us a ride to where we were going. Ironically he was the oral surgeon to one of our member families.

After the ride and a half hour later, a second storm hit and at that point we gave up and stopped at a member's home to wait out the storm. After dinner with a member and a young family, we called it a night and hung up our sweaters to dry out.

Everything else has been going well. Due to the holidays we haven't been able to see as many people but members are helpful to us as we serve, which is great.

My new goal is to read the book, Jesus The Christ, by the end of 2015 since this year marks the 100th anniversary of its publication. The members are trusting us a lot more for sure, and hopefully we will start seeing some more miracles! Thanks for your prayers for us and our investigators.  We really appreciate it. 

Hope ya'll have a great week! 

Elder Peery