Sunday, June 21, 2015

Week 54 in the Field: Blessings at Wendy's and Foot Surgery

Monday, June 15, 2015


1 and 2. The district meeting in Foxcroft (from left to right): Sister Curtis, Sister Sumbot, Elder Spiker, Elder Steed, Elder Smith, Elder Senatore, Elder Parkinson, Elder Nez, Elder Rumsey, and Elder Peery


Hi!

So this week has been kind of interesting on a number of reasons -- namely the fact that I had surgery on my feet. More of that to come.

Here's the week.

On Monday we went bowling since we had a coupon that let us get one free game in. Elder Steed beat me by one the first game but then crushed me the second one. The guy at the bowling alley had some questions so we got to talk to him a little bit which was cool. It's funny how much nicer people are to you sometimes when you aren't wearing white shirts and ties..

Tuesday we went to go help out the Baptists again and this time it was only a crew of 4 including us. We worked mainly on the far back wall of the barn. It was hard work,  but we are making a lot of progress.

Unfortunately we will have to stop for a few weeks due to my feet, which we will get to later. We also had a really delicious dinner at a recent convert's home in Eldorado. They made us some excellent meatloaf and some great mac n cheese which I have discovered is one of my favorite foods on my mission.

Wednesday we had our last district meeting in Foxcroft which was kind of sad based on the upcoming transfer calls. After transfer meeting we decided to go have lunch at the local Wendy's in Marion. Elder Steed and I wanted to go to the Steak N Shake instead since we had just received gift cards from home but we went along anyways. Right about as we were finishing, a mom who is a member of the Church from Missouri comes over to our table and basically says "Hi, this might sound crazy, but my son is currently going through a rough time and we were on our way back from camp to get him some help. We were going to find one of our members back home to give him a blessing, but I felt that we needed to get that done sooner. And I do not find it a coincidence that we ran into four missionaries in the middle of Southern Illinois. Will you help us?"

We were more than happy to. Elder Parkinson started the blessing and I finished it. It was a rather unusual sight for the Wendy's drive thru to witness four guys in white shirts blessing some random kid. But it was still a very spiritual event. The mom thanked us and resumed their trip to Missouri. It was a pleasure to be a part of a sweet miracle.

Thursday was the day of my foot doctor appointment. I was really nervous about it, but the people at the Harrisburg hospital were wonderful despite the rumors. The nurse who escorted me had cousins that were Mormon, and she even used to work as a flight attendant for American Airlines--based in Chicago O'Hare International Airport just like my mom was for many years.  It’s a small world. She was very nice and supportive and gave me and my companion some water bottles.

Dr. Cook was my doctor and he gave me a few choices on what had to happen to my toes. He illustrated that they would have to totally remove the index toenail on my left foot to prevent infection and partially remove another toenail. It was a tough decision but I decided to go through with it for the next day after some more thought and prayer.

Friday morning I went back and had the same nurse thankfully. Dr. Cook had a good sense of humor about it which made the whole ordeal much more relaxing. Unfortunately when he did the procedure he did not have anything to block my view of what was going on. I spent most of my time looking up at the ceiling for good reasons. After it was over I thanked him for what he did and jokingly asked if I could keep the nail. Surprisingly he said yes and so now I have a neat souvenir from Southern Illinois hospitals. It's not as gross as you may think. I spent the remainder of the day with my feet propped up.


An hour post surgery. This was my setup for the day.

Saturday was a lot of the same. Except the branch president asked if we could go be a priesthood presence at the Relief Society social. It was a good thing we went cause one of the sisters had been accidentally locked out.  We stayed out there at the church for a bit with my feet propped up, and the sisters were very kind and fed us some of their stuff.

Then we went over to see the investigator with the baby's house and had an interesting lesson with her again. Since she doesn't read the Book of Mormon on her own, we read it with her when we go over there now. It's hard getting her to trust us but we are working hard. We ended the night after having dinner with the branch president.

In the evening on Saturday we finally received transfer calls. Though the entire zone got shaken up, Elder Steed and I are remaining with each other in Eldorado, which means I will have served here for a grand total of 6 months at the end of this next transfer--slightly longer than my time in Hendersonville. It was very surprising, but at the same time I kind of expected it. I love the members here. I just need to keep trying to love everyone else. It's hard when there's a lot of people ridiculing you and not wanting to listen. I am looking forward to another six weeks. The longest I've heard any missionary staying here was like 9 and a half months or something like that. Who knows what will happen.

Sunday we had branch council, to which we were late due to my feet. It hurts a lot to walk right now. I taught gospel principles on the second coming of Jesus Christ. It's a difficult concept since no man can pin point exactly when it will happen, so I just focused on being prepared for when it does happen. It was a tough lesson but I think it worked out okay. We had potluck afterwards which was fun.

It's kind of been a slow week otherwise. We are working more on finding new people but we are also trying to get those we have to progress. It's really hard but worth it in the end. Hopefully my feet won't be too big of a hindrance this week. 

Thanks so much for all the support. I hope you all are doing well.

Elder Peery

You can write me here:

Elder Andrew Peery
Tennessee Nashville Mission
105 Westpark Drive, Suite 190
Brentwood, TN 37027


You can send email to me here:  Andrew.peery@myldsmail.net

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