Monday, June 22, 2015

Week 55 in the Field: Feet are Healing and More Adventures in Tearing Down Barns



We found an old phone booth in Equality and had some fun.
Hi Everybody!
Hope you are doing well.  I'm really, really tired after today's journey, but you will hear about that next week. For now, here is this week's entry.

Monday I still couldn't do too much because of my feet. So we just chilled at the church and hung around there for a bit. It kinda stunk not being able to do anything, but such is life after surgery. I have gotten many emails from you guys since then--THANK YOU!!!-- and since the procedure happened about 10 days ago or so I'd like to say that everything is going better. I can walk a little better than I could before. I just don't want to overdo it.  Thanks again so much for your kindness.

Tuesday we went to go help out the Baptists again. This time was a trip down to Ozark, IL very near the place I went last time I was down there. He barn was slightly larger than the last one and a little more dangerous. Black Widows roam free on the inside so I chose to work on the outside. It was very, very hot that day and I almost suffered from heat stroke. I probably drank over 9 water bottles that day. Elder Steed and another kid almost accidentally pulled down the roof a little earlier than planned, but it didn't collapse. Later in the evening our Elders Quorum President gave us a call saying one of his non-member friends bought a mirror at an antique shop and since then her kids have been having nightmares and seeing stuff. It freaked Elder Steed out but I said we would be happy to go and give each member of the family a blessing like he suggested. But the family cancelled so we didn't have to go. Just some advice, be careful what you get your hands on ‘cause stuff like that is crazy.

Wednesday we had our district meeting in Eldorado. The only new missionary in the district is a guy named Elder Orr from Idaho. He replaced Elder Spiker. Elder Parkinson is the new district leader so it is possible that I may get to visit the last area in Illinois I haven't been to on exchanges. In the evening we went down to Carrier Mills to see some people and then came back to go out with our BML (Branch Mission Leader) to go see the former member and her son for an FHE. It was loads of fun playing games with them. The son hadn't seemed too interested, but he had a blast from the looks of it. Elder Steed and I then split up and I went with the BML to go see the investigator who was recovering from a coma. We had a good lesson with him and he knows that he's still here on the earth for a reason.


Thursday we went and helped the Baptists again this time at the Equality barn. It has changed a lot from the work we've done on it. It came down the next day when we weren't there. I also decided that my all-time favorite restaurant in this area is the Red Onion. We go there with the Baptists every time we work with them. It's awesome. Second favorite would probably be Ponderosa though which is kind of like a Golden Corral--fun stuff all around.

Firefighters two doors down putting out a random fire

Friday we saw the investigator with the baby and this time we didn't really read with her. I could tell she just wasn't understanding this stuff so I asked her how she learns best. She said visually so we will be bringing by more visual stuff to teach her. It's awesome to know that we can finally make some progress there. Later on we saw our Galatia investigator and taught him the Plan of Salvation, which was admittedly rough but he understood it.

Back of the Equality barn

Saturday was really rough. We had been planning this picnic in Carmi for months and then we had to cancel for some reason. It was really annoying but we decided to go try and find other things to do. We contacted a referral in Equality who was really nice and polite and let us into his home. He wasn't interested but was very friendly about it. He also had an adorable pug that shed a lot haha. We toured Equality a bit since we don't go there too much. Found out more about Southern Illinois history in general--very fascinating stuff but it's just sad how much has been forgotten. First settlements turn into ghost towns. I certainly have a stronger respect for the people here, that's for sure.


Sunday we had a good showing at church, though it didn't appear to be at first. The only downside was that afterwards I got pretty sick, and we had to go back home. In the evening I was well enough to go out and give a shut in the sacrament. She thanked us for that and was also grateful we answered her questions on the plan of salvation.

Other than that the week has been kind of slow but we hope it will pick up. We've got some fun stuff planned for the rest of this week, so we will be looking forward to it.

Have a great week!

Elder Peery

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