Manchester District (back
row left to right: Elder Barrus, Elder Partida, Elder Tracy, Elder Peery,
Elder Beckett, Elder
Cox, and Elder McClain. Front row:
Hermana Lutui and Hermana James).
Hi everyone! Lots to
cover this week, which is really good.
Monday the only interesting thing we did
for Pday was go to the market down the street for groceries. Turns out
myldsmail.net decided it didn't want to send any of my emails so I was
wondering why no one was replying to me. It was really boring. In the evening
we were going on an exchange with the stake patriarch but two of our set
lessons fell through. So we went over to see the Mathis's. Their developmentally challenged son, Willy, broke free from his room so Elder Beckett
and I were busy trying to corral him while Elder Barrus taught them and the
patriarch looked there kind of shocked. After that he took us out to eat at a
local restaurant and I got catfish, which was really good.
Tuesday we were supposed to go to a temple
class with the Mathis's and the Major's and as we were walking up the road we
decided to stop at Subway for lunch and try to wait out the rain. Some random
member from Murfreesboro area named Mike showed up and offered us a lift. When
we got to the church, he said he needed a blessing so we gave him one. He appreciated
it a lot and mentioned it was good he ran into us. The class ended up getting
cancelled so we walked all the way back to the southern part of the city to go
try one of our investigators named Charlotte. Turns out she wasn't having a
good day because she was tested for cancer. She had gotten it at least three
times already in her life so this wasn't great news. We felt we needed to go
into the plan of salvation and that really reasoned with her.
She
unfolded how she had lost three children prematurely and wanted to know if she would
see them again. We all testified that she would and showed her where in the
Book of Mormon it says that. She was very happy which was great. In the evening
we went out with Bishop to go see the Majors, and we had a good talk with them
about getting the priesthood so that they could go to the temple. They are very
excited about that, which is great!
Wednesday we had district meeting and I
trained on using ward members focusing on using the bishop as well as helping
members gain the desire to find people to teach and Elder McClain trained on
the Book of Mormon and how we should use it more in our teaching. After that we
went and had lunch at this place that had been highly recommended by a few
members. Turns out it gave me food poisoning. Yay! But I persevered a bit and
we were able to see a few people even with me feeling very sick.
Manchester District (back row left to right: Elder Barrus, Elder Partida, Elder Tracy, Elder Peery,
Elder Beckett, Elder Cox, and Elder McClain. Front row: Hermana Lutui and Hermana James).
Thursday we had the temple class but only
the Mathis's were able to show up. Bro. Wade went into really good detail about
the plan of salvation and what it means for us today as well as applying
several parts to
the temple itself. After that we walked over to a flea market to contact one of
our investigators there, followed by walking farther and contacted an atheist
guy. He's probably one of the nicest atheists I've met out here. He's very open
minded but prefers to look at things from a historical concept vs. the spiritual
concept. We will be working with him later on this week. In the evening we went
to try some less active's and actually got picked up by one of Bro. Caten's brothers
who gave us a lift. Turns out the house was deserted so he took us for dessert
at DQ (nice little play on words there eh?).
Friday we had weekly planning after
hoisting some couches from Bro. Wade's to the Mathis's. After that we went out
to see Debra and had a really good conversation with her about a lot of things.
After a bit, we decided
to bring up baptism. She wants to be baptized, she just has to quit smoking.
After a bit of talking, she opened a drawer and gave us one of her fresh packs
to get rid of so she could start quitting which
surprised us since we didn't ask for it. We later took the pack and smashed it
with a baseball bat for fun.
Blasting a packet of
cigarettes with the bat.
On Saturday, Elder Beckett went with Bro.
Shoemaker to go see some people while Elder Barrus and I went to go help
someone move. The move itself was pretty
dang strenuous because the lady had a lot of heavy
furniture. Whenever I buy a house I'm going to make sure everything weighs
under forty pounds haha.
Transfer Update:
After that we met back up and waited anxiously for transfer calls. But
they didn't come till about six o'clock when we were driving back from those
New Jersey people. Turns out we are all staying together for seven weeks. Still
doesn't mean I will finish my mission here yet though. We will find that out in
seven weeks. At this point I hope I do.
Sunday morning at church I gave a talk in
sacrament meeting. I had to essentially use about 25 minutes of time for a talk
I had prepared about twelve hours before. We had been planning to have whoever
was getting
transferred give it, but since no one left, I, being the most senior companion
in the area, volunteered. I spoke on Elder Renlund's latest conference talk on
seeing people "Through God's Eyes".
Here is
the link to Elder Renlund’s full address from the October 2015 General
Conference:
Apparently
my talk was really well received and I got a boatload of comments. I had about
eighteen minutes written and had to fill about 10 more, so the rest of it was
bearing testimony. Which I'm starting to call "spirit bombing" when
you do it over five minutes. Since I included a lot of personal stuff, if you'd
like it, just email me.
Later
during church, Elder Barrus and Elder Beckett were struggling to watch Willy,
so I took him so that the Mathis's could attend the temple prep class and their
various meetings. Willy and I walked all through the church, around the church,
outside the church, and basically everywhere for about an hour and a half. He
eventually got tired and plopped down in the hallway. We happened to be near
the primary wing and one of the members of the Primary Presidency recommended
singing time. Turns out he liked it a lot so that was good to sit down after
walking for an hour and a half straight.
After
that we had lunch with a Samoan family so I ate a lot. I've noticed I've gained
weight back in this area since we aren't biking. Hopefully Elder Barrus will
get his bike that the AP's promised to get two months ago. In the evening we
went tracting but didn't have too much success, except for contacting a nice
less active lady.
I'm
excited for my second to last transfer. Yesterday was my 21-month mark. I'm now
at the point Elder Leavitt and Moeller were when they got me, which is
essentially the final stretch. We are working hard on our goals
and trying to be good examples to members. Hopefully the area will turn around.
I'm seeing it already, though, which is great.
An Apostle
will be coming to this mission in March accompanied by a Seventy from the Church.
No idea what's going on but this will probably mean I get to shake hands with
an apostle. And yes, I'm stoked.
Have a
great week! Talk to you later,
Elder Peery
I’d love to
hear from you! Please contact me at:
Elder Andrew
Peery
Tennessee Nashville Mission
1646 Sunset Road
Brentwood, TN 37027
Email: Andrew.peery@myldsmail.net
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