Week 83 in the Field: Happy New Year! Let's Get to Work!

Performing "Me, My Suitcase, and a Red Chair" at the talent show.

Hey guys! 

I hope you all had a good New Years and I wish you all luck with your resolutions and what not. Things have been kinda slow once again this week but we are hoping that since the holidays are over that we will be able to go see some people now.

Alrighty then, let's start off with Monday! We once again did pretty much nothing except write people and watch church movies like "TheTestaments Of One Fold and One Shepherd."  

Here is a little information about the film, if you are not familiar with it:

The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd is a 67-minute film produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Testaments depicts the life of Jesus in Jerusalemwhile also depicting the events described in the Book of Mormon from approximately the same time period. The film's climax occurs after Christ's resurrection, when Jesus appears in the Americas.. This film is shown every day at the North Visitors' Center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, and at the visitors' centers of the church's Washington D.C., Mesa Arizona, and Idaho Falls Idaho temples. You can also order the DVD at store.lds.org.  It's great.

This is kind of a boring area when it comes to stuff to do, especially when it's starting to get colder.

Elder Harrison working under the house

Tuesday was fun! We went over to the Hennessee's to work on their house. This time, we had taken up all the sub floor and were working on stopping the moisture from further damaging the house. We also had to install some insulation to protect the heater so we used Elder Harrison's skinny figure to get that done. He wasn't thrilled about it, but that's one of the perks of being skinny. We tried a bunch of people after that but didn't see anyone.

Elder Harrison working under the house

Wednesday we had district meeting and Elder McClain trained on asking inspired questions, something I've really enjoyed working on. Elder Tracy also trained on recognizing the spirit which was good, too. It's been entertaining to be the oldest missionary in the district because people will ask for my opinion, as if I know more than anyone based on more experience. Not true, but it's fun to get all kinds of questions. We tried people after that but no luck.

Thursday we were notified that someone was moving, so we packed our gear up and headed over to what we assumed would be a two hour project. What was meant to be a two hour project turned into an entire day project. The lady we were moving had been living in Nashville, which is about an hour and a half away. When she came to the house she realized after we had loaded everything into the moving van and arrived at the storage unit in Manchester, that she had forgotten her storage unit key.

So, while she drove back to Nashville some members and I went to go have lunch at a buffet. While at the buffet, one of our part member families walked in so we were able to see them and have the members we were with fellowship them! It was great and also was our first lesson of the week sadly. But anyways, back to the storage unit, she opened the unit and it was completely packed. Mind you, we have an entire large U-haul filled with all her stuff. Patiently, we piled boxes on boxes on boxes of her things until there was literally a wall. And then we went to another storage unit to finish up. That was ridiculous, but at least the members we were with were awesome. Ironically the lady's mom was from the Smith Springs Ward (my last area), so I talked to her about that some.

In the evening on Thursday we rushed home to grab the guitar and then went to the Assembly Hall to be at the talent show. I performed the song Me, My Suitcase, and a Red Chair and it went really well. I got a lot of compliments afterwards. We had to bolt right after I played it though since it was already pretty late.

Friday (New Year’s Day) was Super Pday which in missionary terms is basically a day where it's an all day Pday with certain abilities. For instance you can watch certain approved-usually unapproved-movies on this day. It only happens once a year so usually you look forward to it. For us, it was kind of boring. But we did have fun at the church. We watched the movies, Inside Out, and the first two Harry Potter movies. That was a lot of fun.

Saturday we were back at the Hennessee's knocking out old insulation and dry wall in the walls of the kitchen. I was doing great at it, so he had me take out two and a half of the walls while Harrison cleaned up. There was so much debris in the air though that we got sick, even while wearing some protective gear. So yeah, that was fun.

Sunday I hadn't gotten much sleep so I was very tired during the day. Church was kind of the usual so not much to report there. After church we went to go contact some non-member folks and got chewed out by a few of them, which was entertaining. But we at least contacted a referral, which was good. Not interested though, haha.

So yeah, kind of a slow week overall. I'm hoping things will change with the transfer. I'm still kind of sad about what happened in Smith Springs but the only thing I can really do about it is move on.

I like the members here in McMinnville though. They are great people and want to serve big time. 

Hopefully we can make things happen. Talk to you later,

Elder Peery
Email:  andrew.peery@myldsmail.net