Hi there, its Elder Peck calling in from Texas, the state that refuses to acknowledge that winter exists. It has been a pleasant seventy degrees and the trees are only just starting to turn yellow. My plants are none the wiser to the season. This week was transfers, so we stayed up till late last night waiting for the list. It came, and Elder Leatherwood and I are still together. Elder Bodily is going to Hirst though, so we will have a new guy in the apartment. I still don't know his name or anything about him but I guess we'll see how that goes. We went to a meat place for lunch, to celebrate transfers. I love pepper and cheddar Italian sausage.
This last week I had exchanges with Elder Schoonover, who was a really cool, easy going missionary. We made a couple of cool videos to send to members about faith and seeds, and then I let him keep the plant we had planted as an example. He then helped me to make cookies to drop of to the "M" family, who we have had trouble contacting. I had fun doing stuff with him. I also made him a monkey fist toy. I have only just met up with my list of requests for those things, and at pickleball this morning I handed out three. Then the next day we helped with an event at Nash farms. They had a ropes theme for the day and Elders Bodily and Youngstrom got to make rope all day while Elder Leatherwood and I did string games. Stuff like "cats cradle" and "witches broom." Kids would just come up and we would give them a string and teach them how to do the games. They are pretty fun and I can see why people can do them a lot, but my hands got tired. That evening we didn't have anyone signed up for dinner so Sister Ganschow dropped off pizzas for us. This ward is amazing. Two days later I was back at Nash farms again teaching leatherworking. Miss Prack learned that I had taught it at scout camp and was putting me to work using my skills.
No joke, I would have random people come up to me and I was simply recalling the lessons I had given as a scout camp teacher, to tell them about where leather came from and how it was used. It was a lot of fun though, and continues to remind me just what a big part of my life that was, and weirdly, how it was still affecting me here. So I would help little kids stamp their names into leather just like I used to, and Elder Leatherwood helped shaping tin into cookie cutters. After the event, we got to tour the nearby historical museums. One was a printing press, one had a cotton gin, one was a schoolhouse.
There was a building that was closed that we were told was a sister city museum. Apparently, Grapevine had sister cities in Scotland and Russia. Weird. The printing press was really cool, and we had a very nice gentleman named Mr. Smart who guided us around and told us about all the stuff in there. Mr. Smart is always at the farm and is is a very kind and soft spoken man who we work with a lot. He knows everything about history from his schooling, and has a wife and two kids who I met at one of the events.
Anyways, we saw pictures of the DFW airport being built and some of the tools they used to measure the circles that make it up.
We also got to see a lot of neat old police equipment like a radio and lie detector.
That night, we had dinner with the Olsen's, a family that I was happy to learn, is moving to Liberty, UT, right next to the Avon pass, in a year or two. The house is being built now. They had chicken and rice covered in the most delicious homemade teriyaki sauce. Brother Olson had an old video game machine that I noticed and asked about, and he told me he loved the old Metroid games. Now, this was great because those were some of my favorites back home too. So we talked about that. They were also avid readers so we talked for a while about books too. This week I had a lovely message sent to me by the mission president, President Chapman. He reminded me to read D & C chapter six. its basically the field is ready to harvest again but with some other stuff. The scripture really moved me, and I encourage all you guys to read it too. On Sunday, I was lucky again to attend sacrament meeting. Even the other members in the ward realize we are pretty lucky to get to go to church every week. The speakers spoke about becoming immersed in the Book of Mormon. To be completely honest, I spent a while without even opening it because of my studies in the Bible right now. Because of the "Come Follow Me" overlap in my seminary year I never got the Old Testament studies, so all these stories are new and interesting to me, but I had spent too long without reading from the Book of Mormon. The speaker invited us to reread Moroni chapters nine and ten. I did and was once again moved by the message. I loved Moroni's commentary on gifts of the Lord, something that actually ties into D & C six very well. I was reminded that daily scripture study is necessary, yet fulfilling. A needed input for the soul to see clearly. A polishing for the soul maybe. I hope we all remember it and give it the credit it deserves in allowing us to see the world clearly, knowing with the Spirit what is good, and what is bad. I hope more people will allow it and us into their lives, as we continue to search for them. I am grateful for the prayers that have been offered on my behalf, and I pray for all you guys at home as well. Good luck,
from Elder Peck
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