Elder Ihler and I playing music with Brother Mortensen.
Loads of stuff happened
this week.
The outside of the
Country Music Hall of Fame it's cool how it resembles
a piano and from above
it resembles a bass clef.
So Monday we went with Providencia elders to the Country Music Hall of
Fame. Now I'm not a huge fan of country music, but I respect it as a music
genre. It's also been growing on me. The coolest thing was that it wasn't about
all the musicians, it was kind of like the story of country music and how
certain artists adapted, altered, and changed it to where it is today.
Elvis Presley's
"solid gold" Cadillac
of my favorites,
Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues at Folsom Prison" on my left.
It started out focusing on
the roots of country and showed some old time artists from the early 1900's and
referenced some older ones, too, and it went all the way up to modern country
with people like Luke Bryan,
Jason Aldean, and actually had a lot of Taylor Swift in there. It was awesome. There
were several exhibits that were only temporary there. One of them was highlighting
the record studio where rock was essentially born with musicians such as Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and
Johnny Cash making it big there. Another one was highlighting a collaboration
of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, which was cool.
There was also a Luke Bryan section. We had a lot of fun all over the
place.
In the evening we went
with a member back to downtown and went to the Hard Rock Cafe. This one didn't
have as many things as the one in New York or Chicago, but it was still pretty
cool. We went and explored some places downtown which was also fun.
Nashville at night (on the roof of the Hard Rock Cafe) with Elder Ihler and Brother Sanchez
Tuesday we spent a lot of time
cleaning and walking. In the evening we went out with the elders quorum president
Bro. Drake and went to see a few people. We saw a part member family where the husband is still
thinking about joining, we saw a member with PTSD from his tours in Iraq, and we also saw
Melvin and invited him to church again.
Wednesday
after district meeting, we had correlation with the new ward mission leader,
Bro. Naylor. We went out teaching with him and contacted a lady who's been
looking for a church. She later sadly texted that she wasn't interested after
she read the pamphlet we left with them. We then proceeded to tract the whole
street but no success.
In the evening we went
with Bro. Naylor to go see a ton of people. We saw Ashley and told her she can
be baptized soon, a less-active who is trying to get to the temple, a less-active
couple who offered to feed us Saturday, and Melvin again to follow up on some things.
Thursday
we tried to contact a bunch of people but struck out a couple times. We got to
meet an elderly member who is in a nursing home. She was really happy to see us
as was her neighbor. She was grateful for us praying with her. In the evening
we went to a Book of Mormon study class at the church that
the sisters normally teach. We ended up taking over for a bit. We were reading
Alma 17 and Alma 21. I liked those chapters cause it's entirely focused on
missionary work and conversion. The missionary in those chapters has two goals
"that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants," and
"that I may lead them to believe in my words." It's a pretty epic
chapter. We also had dinner with David that night, too.
Friday we
made a quick stop over to Bro. Mortensen's to fix his guitar. I now have about
6-7 songs that are decent for recording possibly. I will try to get that going
to finish it before Christmas (if everything
works out okay). Elder Ihler doesn't exactly have the vocal range Elder Leavitt
had, so most of it will be Bro. Mortensen and I recording unless we get someone
else. We are stoked though. After weekly planning we didn't really have
anything else going on that day.
Saturday we
went to a baptism. An 8 year old was getting baptized, and she was one of the
most spiritual kids I've ever met. She had everyone in tears when she sang her
testimony. It was awesome. Her grandparents from both sides came and one of
them was the twin sister of Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, the Primary general
president of the Church. I got to talk with her and told her about the DC South
area a bit where Sister Wixom served as the mission president's wife.
Later on we had lunch with
David and then went to go help out the elderly member who had the flea problem. We were
hesitant at first, but it was good to see that most of the problem was gone...
For now...
We hoisted a couch up to the
top floor and also moved an entertainment system into the bottom floor. After that we went
tracting in the area and had a good time all around. In the evening a member
dropped off Subway which was good stuff. We didn't do too much after that.
Sunday we
were happily surprised when Melvin came with us to church. From what I could
tell he enjoyed it. I ended up teaching Gospel Principles again which was a
blast this time. We had a lot more participation, because I split people up
into groups and they had group discussions on the topics I gave them. The
lesson was focused on why prayer matters. It was cool to hear different
opinions. We also had some good questions as well.
After church we went and
tried Ashley since they hadn't come to church. We set a soft date with her to
be baptized on the 21st, which just so happens to be my 18 month mark. It'll be
awesome if it all works out. It just depends on the husband's worthiness to be
able to baptize her, and if they can make it to church this Sunday. After that we
had dinner with the Alcantar's and then went with David to visit a Pentecostal
church.
There are two kinds of
Pentecostals I've observed--the chill and the crazy. This church was a decently
chill church. The prayers were interesting cause it wasn't just one person
praying. While one person was speaking,
everyone was saying something different like "Thank you, Jesus",
"Hallelujah!", or just "Praise Him!" And it was hard to
make out what was being prayed for. But it was pretty cool. Everyone was very
friendly and we didn't get yelled at or asked to remove our name tags. So that's
awesome.
Today we have plans to
hang out with President Andersen again which is exciting! After that I'm not sure. I'm excited to be in the
holiday season. Next year I'll be home for a lot of these holidays. Time is going fast. Well, I'll talk to you guys later.
Elder Peery
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