TSTAT (Thomson's Station) District.
(From left to right: Elder Loveless, Elder Powell,
Elder Bedwell, Sister
Halbeisen, Sister Kohler, Elder Porter, and Elder Peery)
Well there were a lot of
surprising things that happened this week. So I might as well start at the top.
Monday: I can't really remember all what happened
during p-day, but for the most part we did the usual stuff: basketball, dodge ball,
piano stuff, all with the Spring Hill missionaries. After that we went on
splits with a youth from TS1 who went with Elder Powell. While they went
tracting, Elder Bedwell and I went over to see a TS1 family who was pretty
cool. They were singers so that was awesome.
Cleaning old
records at the archive building in Columbia
Tuesday we
went with a lady down to the Columbia Archive building, where we spent a few hours
cleaning papers that were from the mid 1800's. The earliest one I received was an 1832
execution order. Now when I say execution, you probably thought a death
sentence. But actually it turns out that vocab was different back then. What
these things really were, were orders of payment from the court. Kind of like
getting a ticket--so not all that cool, but still awesome to handle documents
from the 1800's.
What most of my old
records looked like.
After that we went
tracting in order to have a shot at the finding challenge I had going since the
beginning of the transfer. We found two families, one of which was actually
pretty interested. But after that, not so much happened. We went on a split
with a member and then ended the night having correlation for TS1.
Wednesday
we had a great district meeting. Elder Porter trained on “finding,” and I
concluded by also training on finding. The results of the tournament were the
zone leaders won, we came in second, and the sisters came in last. The zone
leaders received pizza, we took the title belt and a batman mask, and the
sisters took candy bars. After that we went back to the WML (Ward Mission
Leader’s home for Thompson’s Station 1st Ward) TS1 family and put
the shutters back on their house which was fun. I was on roof duty again so
that was great. We then went exploring around the social areas and tried
contacting people.
Thursday
we went to the Well and had a semi busy day there. Mostly just stocking the
shelves. After that we went finding for a bit but had a lot of cancelled
appointments. Thankfully, one of our appointments was solid
and we got to see them. Also, he was a baseball fan, so I had some fun talking
about the Cubs. In the evening we had a Bible Study at the church. It was our
first attempt and went about as far as most attempts do that start off on a bad
week. We had one person show up. She was an
investigator from TS1 which was great. But no members showed up which was sad. We
had a good study though and learned more on what her religion believes and how
ours is similar. We answered a lot of her questions on the Creation which was
cool.
Friday we
had a planning session. We were all under the impression that Elder Bedwell was
leaving so we mostly just told him good luck. After that we contacted a former
investigator who is doing well and set up a return appointment. We saw our
recent convert, which was cool. We also helped out at a less active's home,
planting trees. It was entertaining.
Saturday
was a little stressful since it was transfer call day. We started out our day
helping out at a TS1 member's home with their yard. It was fun destroying a
table and cleaning up, but we then had to go help someone move from Spring Hill
Ward to TS2. We stayed with Spring Hill missionaries most of
the time which was cool. At the end, we received notice that we would be
getting transfer calls in the evening. But that was far too late for us ‘cause
we were anxious and wanted to know at that time. So the zone leaders gave us
the information, and we were completely shocked.
Elder Powell and I will be
leaving Thompson's Station and Elder Bedwell will be receiving two new
companions. Completely the opposite of what President told us he was planning
to do. At first we thought it was a joke, but then we found out it was true
later on. The sisters will be staying the same and Elder Porter will be leaving.
In the evening we had stake conference, but we were still shocked.
Sunday we
went to stake conference still shocked at the call. There were a ton of talks
about gaining testimonies and missionary work. It was great. After that, we mostly spent time packing up
but were able to have dinner at the TS2 family's home (the one that took us to
the Loveless Cafe). After that we went to
try a few families to say goodbye. We then went over to the church where we joined
in on a mission prep class. We were talking about the apostasy and then the
restoration of the gospel. The teacher was emphasizing to the pre-missionaries
on how they must teach the apostasy -- and stress it before they teach about
the restoration, because it is important for people to know that at the time of
Joseph Smith, there was no church on the earth that had the fullness of the
gospel.
Many were close, but they
didn't have the full understanding yet. We then watched the Restoration movie,
which was, as usual, very spiritual. It is comforting to me to know that when
transfers come this Tuesday, I have a testimony that I know I am going to a place
where I am needed, just a little sooner than I expected.
Today we are mostly packed
and ready to go. It's very sad to leave this place after such a
short time. We are
expecting Bedwell to step it up. Hopefully things will improve from here on
out. Can't wait to see where I'm going tomorrow.
Thank you for your prayers
and your support. I really appreciate
it. Have a good week!
Elder Peery
Below are 3 more pictures of the TSTAT District (Thompson’s
Station District) with Batman and mustaches (Missionaries having a
little fun!)
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