Week 84 in the Field: Learning The Lord's Way

1-4 Northcutts Cove Chapel - The oldest standing LDS meetinghouse in the south. Built in 1909, some renovations on the inside (including lighting and heating) have been added

 to the original structure, but most of it is pretty original.

Okay lots to cover.

Monday we went down to the oldest standing LDS meetinghouse in the southeastern states. The Northcutts Cove Chapel was built on October 24, 1909. The door was open so we got to go inside and look around. It had a very peaceful feeling about it and you could feel the power of the spirit from behind the pulpit.

In the evening we had a great dinner with the stake president and his wife and we talked about the stake itself and how close it is to splitting into two stakes. Probably will happen in six months to a year. In the evening we went and saw Debra who is still struggling stopping smoking as well as getting up on weekends.

Tuesday we went to go work on the house again. I should make a note that although it may appear that's mostly what we do, the total time we usually spend on working on the house is about two hours every time. It's not a huge project really. After that we went on exchanges with the ward clerk and went to go see a few people. In the evening we went to try some more people and got into one house. He wasn't interested, but something Elder Harrison ate didn't agree with him so he had to use the dude's bathroom leaving me with an uninterested investigator for about 15 minutes. Here's how good I've gotten at talking to people. There was not one bit of awkward silence. Found out he was in the Navy during the Yugoslavian revolts as an electrician, something he's continued to do. I also found out he worked in Norfolk, VA which is decently close to home. It was cool talking with him, shame he wasn't interested.

The Manchester District (from left to right: Elder Tracy, Elder Partida (kneeling), Elder Harrison, Elder Catherall, Elder McClain (crouching), Elder Peery,

 Hermana James, Hermana Lutui)

Wednesday we had the last district meeting of the transfer and it was a lot of fun. Elder Harrison trained on using the Book of Mormon and Hermana Lutui trained on diligence. Kudos to her cause that's a difficult subject to train on. After that we went on exchanges with the district leader and I went down to Manchester with Elder Catherall. For the most part all we did was tract and walk. We walked about 12 miles which was fun. Catherall's kind of a quiet kid but he was cool to talk to.

Book of Mormon study group in Tullahoma

In the evening we had a Book of Mormon study class in Tullahoma which was fun.

Thursday we went back to McMinnville and did some more service on the house. All subfloor is down and we were starting to put the drywall up. We then struck out the rest of the day which was kind of sad.

Friday was the same story minus service. In the evening, President called, and among other things, he told us that Elder Harrison would be sent to Clarksville to be in a trio, and I would receive two missionaries here and be in a trio. The missionaries I will be serving with will be Elder Barrus and Elder Beckett. Elder Barrus replaced me in Thompson's Station and was greenie busted there by Elder Jensen and Elder Bedwell. Elder Beckett came out with Harrison so this will be fun. 

Playing a Les Paul Gibson

Saturday was spent mostly saying goodbye to people. We had dinner with the Pennington's and after dinner Bro. Pennington took us downstairs to his recording studio and had us jam on some of his instruments. I got to mess around on his Les Paul which was super fun, and I also got to play his bass and drums. Super fun time.

Sunday we taught Gospel Principles on the final judgment. So far the only area I haven't taught gospel principles in yet has been Hendersonville. It's been a lot of fun. Basically when it came to the lesson the point was that although we don't know everything about the final judgment, we need to be more worried about how our hearts will be at that time. President Dennis of the mission presidency sat in on the lesson, which was cool, too. After church we went over to the Caten's to go have lunch there and play games. After that we mostly just spent more time saying goodbye and packing.

If there's anything I've learned this transfer it could be summed up best in a quote by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

"The people around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, disappoint, and anger. In this mortal life it will always be that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such things. That is the Lord’s way. Remember, heaven is filled with those who have this in common: They are forgiven. And they forgive. Lay your burden at the Savior’s feet. Let go of judgment. Allow Christ’s Atonement to change and heal your heart. Love one another. Forgive one another. The merciful will obtain mercy." 

I know that certain judgments from people shouldn't offend others. But if we are ever offended we must forgive those who trespass us. A good quote is "Harboring anger is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." It doesn't work to just hold it in. You have to let it go. Here is the link to President Uchtdorf’s talk: 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-merciful-obtain-mercy?lang=eng

 But yeah that's basically what happened this week. I'm looking forward to transfers and a new start. Hopefully this will be a good one and hopefully I'll be able to cram three missionaries into an apartment built for one.

Thanks for your emails and letters. I really appreciate your support.

Elder Peery

Elder Andrew Peery

Tennessee Nashville Mission

1646 Sunset Road

Brentwood, TN 37027

Email: Andrew.peery@myldsmail.net

Blog:  Elderpeery.blogspot.com

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