Batting practice!
We had a
lot of cool stuff happen this week.
Monday we biked to the baseball field and
Elder Barrus and I spent some time in the batting cages. I hadn't played
baseball in many years, but I still was pretty good. I also spent some time
pitching to him and
occasionally got him on a few good pitches. However he's a seriously talented
kid for sure. He's teaching me how to throw a curveball which is fun. We didn't
do too much after that other than contacting a referral.
Getting back into
pitching!
Tuesday we went to try this solid lady we
knocked into the week before whose name is Hilda. She was very much pleased by
the idea of the spirit world and wants her family to get to know Christ better.
She works on
a barge up in Paducah, Kentucky for four weeks (so four weeks working, four
weeks home) so we won't see her for awhile, but she said she'd read the Book of
Mormon because we gained her trust.
We also
went out teaching with a member during the afternoon and saw some less actives with
him. In the evening we went out teaching with another one, but struck out, so
we went to do some of his home teaching. One of the active members in the ward
we went to see was actually born and raised in Asheville, NC! Of course that
was like 70 years ago so it was very different from when I lived there. But he
remembered all kinds of stuff that is still there like Sweeten Creek Road.
Still cool.
Wednesday for district meeting, Elder Cox
gave his first training, and he did a really good job. Elder McClain also
trained on key indicators and such, which was good too. After that we went
tracting but no luck. We then went out with another member and saw a less
active and one of our investigators, Mike. Mike had a lot of good questions,
but it sounded like he was going from us, to his Church of Christ preacher, and
then back to us in a confused state. We kept telling him to pray about it and
the member did a great job fellowshipping as well. Then the member took us out
to a Chinese buffet which was awesome! In the evening we went over to the
Majors and had a good talk with them about the temple. They understand it a lot
more now which is great. After that we came home and after planning, Elder
Beckett noticed a little thing crawling on Elder Barrus's shoulder....
Bedbugs.
Yep. Nasty little critters.
We
basically ransacked the place (neatly) looking for any other sources of bed
bugs. Unfortunately, my bed was the only place we found any more. We only found
about 4 total (one on Elder Barrus and three on my
bed) but that was enough to basically deep clean the apartment. We called
President that evening and he was shocked, because in the past two to three
years, our apartment has had bedbugs over 6 times. You'd think they'd get the
hint.
Cleaning all our
stuff at the laundromat!
Anyways,
so Thursday we spent most of the day
deep cleaning. At 7:00am we drove to Walmart to get laundry detergent,
quarters, and (for me) brand new pillows since I had to chuck the other ones.
We then went to the cheapest laundromat we could find and washed everything we
had in hot water, while we bombed our apartment. We finished everything by about
4. The entire ordeal practically bankrupted all three of us. Luckily the
mission was able to cover some of it. But now everything appears to be back to
normal, I hope. In the evening, after everything we went through that day, we
went to the Mathis's and got to see them. We then walked back home to our
(hopefully) bed bug free apartment.
Bedroom
post-bedbugs (Elder Beckett can't leave his bed on the
ground anymore and my
bed is no longer against the wall).
Friday we spent a lot of time planning and
after that, we went to go try a few people down south. We tracted into a semi
crazy dude who lived in Utah for a bit. We then had dinner with a member and
got to meet an
investigator we had been trying for many months. Turns out she is a student in
Cookeville, TN, so she is only home on weekends.
Saturday we tried this lady for what we
thought would be the last time since she hasn't answered the door ever. Turns out
she was home! And she was interested! She lives in this really big house near
the center of town and she is basically on the board of the city of
McMinnville, so pretty high up there. She asked if we could help her by volunteering
for a few things, but unfortunately the date she set, was the
Saturday of General Conference, but we volunteered to do a few other things.
Turns out she had been to the Independence and Liberty Jail visitors centers
and was very touched by it! She was grateful for the Book of Mormon and said
she'd read it.
The other
cool thing that happened that day was Mike called and asked to meet up at our
church. We took him on a tour and then had a lesson with him. He was still
confused by his pastor on the spirit world. I essentially spirit bombed him by
bearing testimony especially when he asked "If this church is true, then
why do people persecute it? Why doesn't everyone just join it?"
I said
something along the lines of, "Well, why did people reject the Savior of
the World? Why did they forget
about the miracles, the teachings, the prophesies, and kill the only perfect
man on this earth? Why did the church that Jesus Christ Himself establish, fall
into corruption? And why today, do good people condemn young
men and women who proclaim the name of Jesus Christ to every corner of the
earth? It's because salvation is not a cheap experience. It was never easy for
Him, so we should never think it will be
easy for us. And when people mock us, yell at us, condemn us, or even hurt us,
it shows us that we share in a minuscule part the pain and suffering he
felt..."
Mike
decided to pray right then to see if this was true. We were very curious to see
if this is what path he wanted to
pursue. We got out answer Sunday night when he called saying he was sorry that
he missed church, wanted us to pray for his sick wife, and said he wants to
meet with us again soon. Sweet!
Sunday was a rather almost relaxing day
for us. I didn't have to teach anything or take care of anything, so I just
enjoyed the classes. After church we went over to the Caten's for a really good
lunch. They fed us a Café
Rio recipe which I don't think I've had before. After showing them the new
Easter video, I had to dart out to go with Bro.Burt on an exchange.
The small town of
Viola,Tennessee
We went
to the very southern part of the area near this town called Viola. We contacted
a less active down there who didn't really want to be contacted, but was nice
about it. We then went up to about halfway up our area and contacted a less
active there after getting lost. It started raining pretty heavily and then got
super bright creating… Yep a rainbow! Even better, a double rainbow!
Double Rainbow!
(The second one is faint above the first one)
We also
saw Debra and she is slowly getting there. She's been having a rough week with
anger issues. March is apparently one of her hard months too. In the evening,
we did some more planning and that was about it.
So yeah,
minus the bedbugs from which I'm still recovering (I've got a lot of bites on
my back haha), this was a great week. We hope to see more of it! In other news
for those of you who are counting down, this week
marks the last of the double digits since I now have about ten weeks left. It's
crazy to think how close it is, but I'm doing my best to stay focused.
This week
we have interviews with our mission president on Tuesday, and then we get to
meet Elder Bednar on Saturday. I'm really excited about it! Be sure to check
out next week's email!
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
Blog:
Elderpeery.blogspot.com
(I am not on Facebook at this time.)
No comments:
Post a Comment