Book of Mormon
collection (left to right: present day, 50's or 60's?, Nauvoo-era replica)
This week
was f-f-fun, but c-c-cold.
On
Tuesday we had another busy but not quite as stressful day at the storehouse.
They are starting to break down who does what more into lists, but I'm still
pretty much all over the place doing random tasks. We started at about 7:00am
and got done around 1:00pm or so. We then started walking over to an area we
were planning to work in until it started getting a little cold. A little cold
turned into freezing, and after
a few lessons we walked up to a McDonalds and an awesome member was able to
take us home. It only got better from there.
Wednesday
was crazy brutal. As we started out, the temperature dropped to the single
digits. With wind chill combined with humidity, it nearly destroyed our faces.
It didn't help that most of the people we tried to see
were unavailable/didn't want to answer the door due to the cold. After walking
about 4 miles or so in the cold we decided to stop at a member's home to get
warm.
Funny
enough, the nearest member’s home belonged to a kind man who was Santa Claus
for over 35 years. We talked for awhile about his conversion story to the
gospel, which was a really neat story, and at the end, he said "Y'know, I
have a Christmas present for you Elders." He gestured to his collection of
copies of the Book of Mormon and said "Pick two." He explained that
he was old and he felt that his family who were not members might not keep them
sacred or treat them as well as we would when he passed on.
He also
said how he knew they would be in good hands. His collection was amazing. He had
Book of Mormon editions from the 1920's as well as some other materials. It was
awesome. I picked out a 1960's (but maybe it's a 1950's version?) version and a
replica of a Nauvoo era (1839-1847) edition (wasn't an original it was just
made to look like it did back then). We thanked him a lot and then left into
the cold.
That day
I realized that I had promised to bake cookies for a a part-member family the
next time that we would teach them. We were going to see them that night, and
so I quickly started looking for supplies. I realized
that we didn't have any butter, and so we set out on a trek to Kroger's. If you
thought all the factors in the previous paragraph were rough, try adding
walking alongside the main road in Hendersonville where the wind was blowing
intensely due to the traffic. A nice member from Gallatin pulled over and gave
us a lift when we were 3/4ths of the way there.
On the way back we were stopped by a lady
from the Church of Christ when we were halfway home and she said "Ain't no
way you are walking in this! Get in!" We thanked her as well. The trip for
the cookies was a success in many ways. Not only did we get to see some nice
strangers, but they softened the heart of the non-members that I made them for.
It was awesome.
Thursday
we got the car back from the Elders we share it with, and from that point on we
were doing better. Of course, that's when it started to warm up. One thing I
noticed as we were driving over the bridge in Hendersonville, was that the lake
that led into the Cumberland River, was frozen solid. It takes a lot to freeze
an entire lake so I was pretty impressed.
Frozen lake thawing
On Friday
we ran into a lot of random people. While we were walking we were stopped by
one of Gary Allan's (major country artist) daughters who gave us a lift to
where we were headed that day. It was fun talking
to her and it was cool chatting about when they used to come to our church
about a decade ago. She was about my age, too, and so we talked about college
and stuff. It was pretty fun.
Saturday
we went to a funeral for a member who had passed away about a week ago. She was
94 years old, and unfortunately I never personally got to meet her, but I did
get to go to her nursing home once. Her daughter was one of the first members I
had met when I first came to the area, so I wanted to make sure we supported
that family. It was a really neat ceremony and was my first Mormon funeral. All
the hymns were church hymns save a musical number which was "In the
Garden". I guess what also made the whole thing different from other
funerals was the fact that instead of people being depressed, it was a joyous occasion—a
celebration of life. I'm not saying they were jumping off the walls, but people
were generally happy that she was in a better place due to her knowledge of the
Plan of Salvation. It showed that death is not the ultimate end and that there
IS life after this.
Sunday
was great ‘cause in the evening I got to Skype the Peery side of my family
after miscommunication on Christmas. It was a lot of fun and it was great to
talk to them. I was amazed at how tall my sister had gotten as well as how
everyone else had changed.
Skyping the Peerys
Other
than that not too much happened this week but it was great after it started
warming up. Odds are that when we give the car back it will be terrible again,
but that is just our luck. Hope ya'll are staying warm with
the cold weather and that you are doing well.
Elder
Peery
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