Week 46 in the Field

Hi everybody!  Wow what a week. Eldorado is just flooding and I don't mean the rain—even though it was really bad the other day, but I mean flooding with miracles. God isn't kidding around when he says in Malachi to "...prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:10).

We have been extremely blessed to be able to work with some of these people. It's fantastic.

So enough talk, let's get going.

Not too many pictures this time. I'm doing a lot of stuff today with some elders, so that'll be fun.My favorite DQ blizzard is now officially back on the menu which is awesome.

Monday, Elder Stange and I went bowling. I creamed him the first game by 40 points, but then he beat me the next game by 3 points. We then were able to contact the investigator we set the baptismal date with the week before. He solidified it and firmly agreed that he would be able to be baptized. The one issue is that he works on Sundays, and it's hard for him to find work elsewhere due to health issues and the fact that he has to support two kids (the youngest of which is also getting baptized). But he was in relatively good spirits.

Tuesday was a bit disappointing. We went up to Norris City, which is about halfway to the top of our area and struck out with all the people we were trying to see. The same thing happened in Eldorado. But after we had dinner with a member and went out teaching with him; that's when we were able to contact people. It was nice getting to see some members who were coming back to church. Some cases were kind of sad though cause some less active members felt like they were too lost to come back. It was sad that they didn't recognize the grace of Jesus Christ is for everyone.  The Atonement is REAL.

Wednesday we had a fun district meeting on finding new people to teach. Elder Porter inspired a lot of us on new ways to find people. I will be going on exchanges today with his companion who is a trainee, and then later this week with a zone leader. Later that evening we went out teaching with the newly returned sister missionary. She was really helpful when we taught our law-of-chastity lady the Word of Wisdom. Turns out, the lady is trying to quit smoking and is actually a lot more interested in the Church than I thought. We got dropped by to see a couple of not so nice people after that, but we kept our spirits up.

Thursday we went over to the part member family we went hiking with recently. The husband is not a member but is super cool and welcoming. He showed us his work which is making Jason masks (from the movie “Friday the 13^th”). The masks are awesome and pretty legit. We also talked about where he is with the church. He is still figuring that out, but the family is doing great things by holding weekly family home evenings and nightly scripture study—a great family for sure. We also tracted into a kinda crazy girl who felt like she was called of God after experimenting with a Ouija (I think that's how you spell it) board (it's a board that supposedly interacts the users with spirits from beyond. Not sure how legit it is but I don't really want to find out). So yeah, interesting people all around.

Friday we went and celebrated the birthday of an elderly member at an all-you-can-eat buffet.  The member was the kind old lady we visited with last week. She was happy to see us. Later on we had another fun visit with the Long John Silver returning member. He was excited to see us. We talked about how he deals with anti-Mormons and talked about steps he can take to come back to church. It's another case where he wants to, but he works on Sundays.

Saturday Elder Stange felt sick around 8:30am and promptly went to the bathroom. About 45 minutes later he was in bed moaning. At first we thought it was food poisoning, but it turns out it was just a bug. He slept for about 6-7 hours after calling the mission nurse.

Puzzle I finished while Elder Stange was sick. (1000 pieces in about 4 days of off and on completing)

 Meanwhile, I finished a puzzle I had gotten as well as cleaned the house a little bit. I got bored around 2-3 hours later and just watched church movies while he slept. He eventually got better the next day.

Sunday the law-of-chastity lady came to church and was picked up by the returned sister missionary. She enjoyed church a lot and talked with the branch president on what she needed to do to be baptized. We are seeing her again on Tuesday. We ended up with 5 investigators total at church which was also great. I was pulled into Primary by the primary president to give a talk on why I came out on my mission. After I spoke they began to have singing time. I noticed they did not have a pianist so I volunteered for both junior and senior primary.

The teachers and leaders were very appreciative and will be using me a lot more. Unfortunately the priesthood had to deal with me not being there. I will have to be rotated around I suppose.

Later that afternoon we went up to Norris City again and saw our friend who was struggling with some issues. Turns out he is going to get medical help and will be quitting smoking. We are super stoked for him and he said he will try to call us while in the clinic if he has any questions. In the evening we were rather rudely rejected by a non-member husband to a less active member. I was a bit surprised by his actions but I suppose we are here to invite not to force. We also went to visit the lady we are working with on stopping smoking and she hasn't smoked in a week, which is awesome.

It was a pretty good week overall with many things that humbled us. We are very excited for the upcoming events-- especially since my birthday is only about two weeks away. 

BIRTHDAY WISH REMINDER:
To remind everyone what I would like for my birthday, please just send me a specific story or event of you telling me a story about how you helped out someone, or were kind to somebody else, or when you saw the hand of God in your life. You can send more than one --that would be great! I will be looking for these from now till May 3rd which is my birthday. I'm interested to see how this will play out.

Here is my contact information -- you can write me OR email me, whichever is easiest for YOU.  I am really hoping to hear from YOU!

Elder Andrew Peery

Tennessee Nashville Mission

105 Westpark Drive, Suite 190

Brentwood, TN 37027

Email: Andrew.peery@myldsmail.net

It's hard to believe that tomorrow will mark 11 months on my mission. Can't wait for more adventures. Talk to ya'll next week!

Elder Peery

Betcha didn't know that people use lawn mowers as vehicles here? We were behind this dude for about a minute or two.