Week 44 in the Field! Happy Easter!

It's the Bible Belt. You have to get a chocolate Jesus fish to celebrate Easter!!!

Wow. So remember how I said last Monday I went hiking?  Well, we went hiking with a part member family at this beautiful place called Bell Smith Springs. Most of my pictures this week will be from there.

Picture from Bell Smith Springs near the entry area

Another picture from Bell Smith Springs about halfway to the canyon

Bell Smith Springs canyon entrance (we climbed up to the ledge on the right)

From the canyon area looking back (it's about 7-10 feet from the water high)

The end of the canyon slide

Me sitting at the top of the canyon area (I was not in the water.

The water was a few feet down from me).

The place has been around forever and the water used to be a lot higher than it is now. The family we were with chose to walk off the trail and right next to the water so I got to take a lot of fantastic pictures. 

It was such a beautiful hike. We also got to do some rock climbing as at one point we had to get back up to the trail for a little bit. It was slightly challenging since the rocks were mostly wet, but it was so much fun. Totally would do it again.

I feel terrible cause these pictures don't even justify how gorgeous this place was.

Afterwards we had dinner with the family and hopefully we will get to hang out with them again sometime.

Every missionary in Paducah Stake tags  (some are seen twice)

Tuesday we went down to Paducah, KY again for a zone meeting where we received more trainings on iPads and other stuff as well. 

Paducah Zone (#borntowin) 

Front row left to right: Sister Gates, Sister Curtis, Sister Hess, Sister Ellis, Sister Tangataolakepa,"Sister T.", Sister Trask, Sister Peterson, and Sister Phillips.

Middle row left to right: Elder Blazzard, Elder Peery, Elder Dalton, Elder Danelson, Elder Hernandez, Elder Fore, Elder Berryhill, Elder Nez, and Elder Sykes. 

Top row left to right: Elder Rasmussen, Elder Hunsaker, Elder Senatore, Elder Porter, Elder Nimmer, Elder Stange,and Elder Van Valkenburg.)

Fun Paducah Zone picture (see above for who's who)

After that, we went over to the Burrito Shack where there is a "Shack Attack Challenge" of eating three giant burritos in thirty minutes. When you get a bunch of dudes together, you know that it's going down.

Two missionaries attempted it and both barely made it at the end. It was super, super funny. Later that day we tried to visit a bunch of the people we usually see and most were out of town or in the hospital. We did have a good lesson with one of our less-actives in the hospital. She is elderly and was going through some major issues. We had found out she had been hospitalized by some neighbors and went right away to check on her. She was so happy to see us and loved us visiting. It was great.

Wednesday we did some more less active hunting and didn't have too much success. However we did get to see another one of our usuals which was good. They had been struggling with strep throat which isn't that good but were happy for the visit.

Thursday we had another meeting this time in Eldorado, IL. I gave a training on listening through distractions. My role play got really crazy, but there were still a lot of spiritual experiences. I basically had all kinds of distractions for missionaries to deal with. The district leader was a fun distraction for the sisters when he acted like a little kid wanting attention. It was super hilarious. It was great ‘cause the district leader trained on asking inspired questions which followed up mine really well.

Friday was kind of depressing, and not just cause it was Good Friday. We barely had any doors open up to us and we also got put under tornado watch. The weather was really, really terrible then and we were grateful that we got to spend time with a recent convert and his family. We went back later the next day to give their baby a blessing.

Saturday was pretty hectic. It seemed like almost none of the members near us were watching General Conference due to work. But we finally figured out how to set up conference at the church and watched it there. We ended up missing half of Saturday afternoon but still got to see Priesthood. I was super excited to see Elder Renlund of the Seventy speak. I got to shake his hand personally when he came to the mission last December. It was also awesome to hear about President Clark being named a member of the first quorum of the seventy. We got to see the afternoon session at our branch president's house after his family left. I will be catching up on what I missed later this week.

Giant chocolate bunny that I paid with loose change collected over the course of about a month.

Sunday we saw General Conference at another recent convert's home in Harrisburg, IL. They had a giant projection screen which was great as well as a fantastic lunch. We did some Easter egg hunting with their kids (we hid the eggs), and it was entertaining watching them go. My favorite conference talk was a tie between Elder Holland and President Uchtdorf's talk Sunday morning. Grace was something I've studied a lot on lately so I was excited to hear someone else talk about it.

Elder Holland is one of my favorite speakers. I also enjoyed President Monson's talk in priesthood session. It was meaningful and hilarious.  He is amazing.

I also finished the Book of Mormon again for the second time on my mission. This time I made a genealogy and plates transition chart similar to what I did with the bible. It was lots of fun. Basically I started by marking out genealogies. It gets complicated when it starts to say "and so and so was a descendant of Nephi.." Since that person wasn't immediately from Nephi, I would make arrows connecting him back to Nephi and so on. I starred who the plates were given to and in the Book of Ether's case put a circle. When the plates of Ether combined with Nephi's I put the circle around the star. If you follow the arrows it makes relative sense. The names that are boxed are important names to remember or important people.

Book of Mormon genealogy and plates transition.

(It took me about two-three months to read and copy down names and transitions).

Things have been going well -- minus the weather. The area is still pretty slow but I still really enjoy it. I am looking forward to the day this place will explode with miracles just like Hendersonville did. It's only a matter of time.  Please pray for us and pray for the people in our area. 

I hope everyone had an awesome Easter. It's a fantastic time to remember the Savior, His atoning sacrifice for us, and His Resurrection.  Have a great week.

Elder Peery

Week 43 in the Field! Happy Early Easter!

Elder Stange entertaining a bunch of kids.

Happy early Easter everyone!

Monday we didn't do all that much cause we are starting to run low on the amount of miles we can drive per month. It was a very slow evening missionary work wise. We were finally able to see Laura, one of our investigators who is trying to stop smoking. We shared a few scriptures with her and developed a game plan to help her stop smoking. She told us that in order to get a needed kidney transplant she would have to stop. But she was kind of nervous about getting one. I can understand how creepy it can feel to know that a part of someone else is inside of you, but it is also a gift of life, too.

Tuesday we went over and saw an elderly man who is the husband of a less active. He kind of bashed us a bit which wasn't too fun. It's hard not to be prideful in those situations. We also went over to see another elderly less active lady and read some of Isaiah with her and helped her understand what he was talking about. Again, we didn't have too much success knocking doors. A lot of people are away for spring break, but some just don't like us that much -- haha.

Wednesday we had a meeting down in Paducah, KY and got to meet a new missionary named Elder Senatore who is from Florida but originally from Venezuela. He is being trained by Elder Porter who is the district leader. It was hilarious because everyone didn't believe he knew English due to Elder Porter constantly having to translate for him. At the end of the meeting when Elder Senatore gave the closing prayer, he did the entire thing in English and had everyone fooled. It was a good prank.

Later on we had dinner with our branch mission leader and then went out to Dairy Queen with them to celebrate their daughter being inducted into the honor society. It was fun blending in with a bunch of other kids wearing white shirts and ties. Work wise we ended up getting dropped by like three different families, but we are staying positive.  This just shortens our teaching pool and narrows down the solid people.

Thursday we went to go see our less active member who was in jail. It was interesting having another phone call conversation through the window. He was happy to see us, however it was kind of awkward listening to all the stuff he's done. After that, we went over to see one of our elderly potentials. She was going through a really rough time and was happy that we had stopped by.  Her husband just had a stroke, and she just found out that she had cancer and had to go through radiation and chemo. She was in tears but maintained her testimony of Christ which was great to see.

We went over to our Branch President's house and I got to talk to his wife more about the internship program at Disneyworld. There are very few things I know that I want to do when I get home, but doing that is one of the big ones. She encouraged me to try out for a character, but said that even doing small stuff is still fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Friday we had lunch with one of the former branch presidents at this great place here in Harrisburg, IL. It's called the Burg and it had some fantastic catfish. Later on we went over to Eldorado and were dropped by a few other people sadly. But then we had an awesome dinner of burritos at a recent convert's home. For dessert they fed us deep-fried ice cream. Now that was an experience. I can't remember how you make it, but it's a process that involves lots of freezing. It was pretty good, except for the coconut.

Four words: Deep Fried Ice Cream. How is it done? Absolutely no clue. What's it taste like? Imagine if KFC made ice cream. It's crunchy on the outside, cold and creamy on the inside. You have to eat it quickly once it's out of the fryer. I probably lost about a year of my life eating it, but it was really good. A member kindly made it for us. It was REALLY good! In the south they deep-fry literally everything. Deep fried Oreos are legendary apparently.

Saturday not too much happened. It was overall a pretty boring day of not getting to teach anyone.  People just weren’t home.

Sunday we had a great fast and testimony meeting. The Russell's daughter, who got home from her mission about a week ago, spoke about how she has been a missionary even after her mission. She also referenced a really tough decision she had to make recently. We found out from her dad that she broke up with her boyfriend after he waited for her for 18 months. I felt bad for the guy but she was a completely different person than 18 months ago. I've noticed a definite change in myself as well. I'm certainly not the same guy I was 10 and a quarter months ago. I'm more confident and even more loving than I was before. It's been awesome to see the change.

We also went up to one of our investigators who lives in Carmi but meets us in Norris City. He had gotten into some legal issues, but didn't really open up. After hearing testimony and connecting with him, he looked me dead in the face and suddenly unfolded all this stuff that has happened to him. I was shocked that he trusted me that much but he saw that I did care. And he felt the Spirit big time. We had a recent convert with us and he testified about the spirit that he felt when he was baptized. It was powerful. The dude just has to figure out his legal standing as well as the word of wisdom stuff first.

Not really sure why I took the picture other than it looks awesome, very inspirational.  

This is in Galatia, IL.

Sunday's miracles weren't over though. Later that evening with another member, we went over to Laura's house again. She was still struggling with the whole kidney deal. We had a pretty fun conversation, and then I realized it was late so I whipped out the Book of Mormon and flipped to a random page. The first scripture I chose was Ether 12:6, but I felt prompted that there was a better scripture for the situation. Asking for some more time, I slowly flipped to Alma 7. I read the verse 12 which says:

"12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

I illustrated that Christ not only sacrificed Himself for our sins, but He also took upon Himself our infirmities, our problems, our worries, our fears, our heartaches, our pain, so that He could know how best to help us. He literally walked a mile in our shoes from the Garden to the Cross. I testified that He knows exactly how to help her and if that means getting a transplant, then that's what she needed to do. She made the connection and instantly agreed and was more confident now that this was something she needed to do. It was so awesome. The spirit was really strong and everyone felt it.

It's moments like those that make me glad I'm a missionary. They literally make all the difference when you see that you personally, were able to bring a point across to someone who was struggling, and helped them see how Christ can help them. It's amazing being an actual instrument in the Lord's hands and I never really connected with that until this week.

Elder Peery

(Please write me at:  Andrew.peery@myldsmail.net; I am not on Facebook at this time.)

Week 42 in the Field: Wonderful Week

The Paducah Spanish District.

Back row from left to right: Elder Porter, Elder Stange, Elder Dobson,

Elder Van Valkenburg, Elder Peery, and Elder Nez.

Front row from left to right: Sister Curtis, Sister Gates,

the district mascot Harry Porker, Sister Ellis, and Sister Hess

Okay! This was a fun week and very fitting for the last week of the transfer.

Fun little nightmare of ALMOST running out of gas in the middle of nowhere.

This is a screenshot from a video I made for last week's email. If you didn't get it, let me know.

So Monday was very eventful. I sent a video all about it in last week’s blog, but I'll  re-tell this story. So we were heading down to this national park called Garden of the Gods. It's a unique rock formation in the hills  of Southern Illinois. One of these days we will go back and get some  pictures. Anywho, so as we were heading down, my GPS took us on a wrong turn and tried to tell us to get on this certain road that  didn't exist. We probably spent a good 15 minutes looking for this thing until we finally decided to get back to the main road and continue south. Right about that time I looked down and saw that we  didn't have too much fuel left. But we were close, so in my head I thought we could make it.

As we neared the actual entrance, I decided to pray in my head about it and felt that we needed to find a gas  station first. The answer was confirmed by the low fuel indicator light coming on right as I made my decision. Praying and doing my best to remain calm, I drove about 12-15 miles to a place called Equality, IL where a gas station supposedly existed. Once more, my GPS fooled  me. Continuing on course with an especial need for prayer, we finally reached Eldorado about 12-15 minutes later and were able to fill up there. Our GPS would get us lost again as we headed to dinner later on Tuesday.

Downtown Carmi, IL

Tuesday we headed up to Carmi, IL with a member who lived near there. We visited some of the people we saw the last time. Like I mentioned last week, the main reason they don't come down to church is the distance. It's sad but understandable.

A cool looking building in Carmi, IL.

This was on some sort of historic street,

but I have no idea what the significance of this building is.

We literally went to the very top of the area, driving along side the border, and tried to see a member who lived on the top line. He wasn't up there but it was cool to almost be in the neighboring mission.

Whole lotta fields. Currently all that stuff is dead crop. There should be some wheat growing within the next few months. What you are looking at is the mission that is north of my mission. The pole towers shown off in the distance are in the neighboring county just outside the border of the Tennessee Nashville Mission, but we have a member who actually lives just before the poles.

Driving back, we stopped in this town called Norris City, where we saw a referral. This kid was 23 years old and was looking for direction in his life. He had been to church once and was very, very interested. Everything we taught made sense and connected with him. The only downside? He lives in Carmi. But he was willing to drive to Norris City to meet us there. We would've seen him yesterday but he was in jail. I can understand that he's looking for a sense of direction. He reminds me a lot of my younger self.

Contacting less actives who live in the middle of nowhere.

This building used to be a school a while ago. Now it's kind of in ruin.

Fun Photo of The Paducah Spanish District.

Back row from left to right: Elder Porter, Elder Stange, Elder Dobson, Elder Van Valkenburg,Elder Peery, and Elder Nez.

Front row from left to right: Sister Curtis, Sister Gates, the district mascot Harry Porker,

Sister Ellis, and Sister Hess

Wednesday we went down to Paducah for district meeting. It was the last district meeting of the transfer. Elder Stange trained on commitments and extending them. It was Elder Porter's birthday on Thursday, so we surprised him by singing Happy Birthday for the closing hymn. He was very surprised by the apple pie we gave him. 

It was Elder Porter's 23^rd birthday Thursday, so at district meeting on

Wednesday, we sang Happy Birthday, threw a surprise birthday party,

and gave him an apple pie.

Later on, we visited a member who was in the hospital and had a great conversation with them. Their son had gotten baptized about a month or two ago and he was there as well.

Thursday we essentially met with a bunch of random people. We dropped a few people who were no longer interested and also had a fun talk on charity with an elderly lady. We met with our favorite law of chastity lady again this week as well. Bright side is she is actually doing really well and understands the gospel a lot better. She agreed to come to church if we could get her a ride.

This is the bridge over the Ohio River.  It connects Illinois to Kentucky.

We cross this whenever we are heading to Paducah, KY.

Later that evening we drove down to Paris, TN, since we had to get a ride to the temple the next day. The elders we were supposed to go with in Calvert City bailed on us, which was why we had to drive so far.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, TN. This one is about 2-3 stories high.

We stopped by here when we were on our way back from

the temple with the Paris Elders.

When we went to the Nashville temple on Friday I had a good experience. I got to see President and Sister Andersen there, which was great, and overall had a wonderful time. I definitely want to make the temple a priority when I get back. Serving in an area that is 3-and-a-half hours away from the nearest temple right now makes me grateful to live in a home that is just 30 minutes from the Washington DC temple--or in Rexburg's case only 5 minutes away.

Saturday was another interesting day. We were asked to go visit a member who was currently in jail and drop off a Book of Mormon and a Bible for him. When we asked if we could talk to him, the guard asked if we were preachers or pastors. When we explained that we were missionaries, he wanted to see some credentials. Instantly I thought of the ministerial card every missionary is given when they go to the MTC. On the card it basically says, "This is to certify that the person whose name is above is a qualified representative of the church. We invite all to hear his message." The card is signed by the President of our Church. I showed that card to the guard, who was surprised to see I actually had credentials for being so young, and he let us enter.

We had a good conversation with the member. It was very interesting giving a lesson over the phone looking through a window. He was grateful for the visit.  Later that evening, the Branch mission leader's daughter had a missionary homecoming party. She had just returned from the Utah Provo mission and a lot of her non-member friends and family were there. We had a fun time talking with her friends and former companions who had made the trip. Makes me wonder if any of my mission buddies will be able to see me at my homecoming.

Sunday I gave a talk following her homecoming talk. I spoke on the question, "How can I find out what the Lord's plan is for me?" It was a very personal talk and if any of you are interested, I will be more than happy to send you my talk since I wrote the whole thing down.  Just email me at:  andrew.peery@myldsmail.net.

After church we went over to a less active's home. He wasn't too big a fan of missionaries forcing him to come to church, so because we didn't even address the topic, he warmed up to us a lot. He even allowed us to help him out in a few weeks with his yard. He said "I hope ya'll feel special, cause I rarely let anyone help me." My mind was recalled to a verse in the Book of Mormon: "...I will show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants...that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to believe in my words." (Alma 17:29). He's a great guy and I hope he comes back to church.

Everything is going pretty well out here. As for transfer news we are both staying in Eldorado. I am excited for another six weeks here that will hopefully be even more eventful, and much less cold.

I appreciate any and all letters that are sent to me. The few that I do receive I am grateful for. 

Thanks so much for your prayers,

Elder Peery

So recently there was a gigantic flood. What you are seeing is not a river; it's actually supposed to be a giant field. You can see an oil reserve through the trees. Many fields have been covered with water.