We're Joyfully, Joyfully Marching to Our Home...

Hey Family!

Well, it's finished.  I've got one last night of proselyting and then I begin the process that leads me to the land of never-ending Preparation Days.  This week, being as true to form as the mission can be, was filled with appointments falling through.  It actually feels great having this week with no farewells, no ado, just work it until it's done.  I tried to just slip away into the background and I was glad that it wasn't announced in sacrament meeting.  It was a wonderfully uplifting and inspiring meeting.  The speakers spoke on choice and accountability, forgiveness, and repentance with the meeting being finished with a powerful testimony of the Atonement given by the last speaker.

We had interviews with President and Sister Bernhisel this week, and everyone in our district found out their transfer news almost a week early because of it.  Every companionship (except the zone leaders of course) will be training.  The new district leader will be one of the Leland Elders.  It was an interesting district meeting that day because it didn't have that somber feeling that the last district meeting of the transfer usually has.  Maybe because rather than going with the traditional "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" I decided that we should sing "We Are All Enlisted" as our closing hymn.  It kept an energetic spirit in the meeting.  We'll have most of the district at transfer meeting, which will be quite fun.

In one of our lessons this week, we were teaching a brother who hadn't been to church in a while.  He spent a lot of the lesson telling us how much he loved the church and how Joseph Smith was his hero. You could imagine our surprise when we finished the lesson and to close his prayer he said "Thank You Sir" and then started getting up.  It caught all of us off guard.  That was surely a first for me.

I love North Carolina so much.  There is nothing better than the experiences I've had with the people down here and I will forever have a love for the South and especially all of the wonderful Southerners.  There has been nothing better, however, than coming to know in a very real way that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world.  I cannot express enough my gratitude for my mission in helping me to gain that knowledge.  I hope I can continue to build on the things that I've learned out here because I know that I'm not perfect yet (or even anywhere close).  My mission has taught me how I can work on that and especially how I can pattern my life on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The South will rise again.

Love,

Elder Perryman

Little Mexico

Hey Family!

I got to have an interesting experience this week: going on exchange with the Spanish-speaking Elders. The weirdest part was that I was still in Wilmington the entire time. The Spanish work is pretty different than the way we do our work. I spent most of my time with Elder Salinas tracting in trailer parks. They've been using the approach to ask for "Juan" when the go to a door, just as a way to start talking to people, since a lot of Hispanics are wary of two strangers in suits knocking on their door. Apart from that I had the odd experience of being able to understand what was being said (since French and Spanish are so close), but being unable to say anything.

Other then that, we've just been seeing the ward, as usual, changing every week. It's always interesting seeing who will come in a vacation ward. Elder Packard and I had a little adventure baking cookies during weekly planning and then delivering them to random members in the ward, just a nice thing to do.

Well, I'm about out of time. Talk to y'all next week!

Love,

Elder Perryman

Meeting My Grandson

Hey Family!

This week hit something like a bag of pianos.  As I've entered into my last month of my mission, the other missionaries in the zone have been quick to remind me of my own mortality as a missionary. This week, we had our Zone Leader Training Meeting.  We have something of a tradition in this mission where the departing missionaries are asked to bear their testimonies in their last zone meeting.  Even though I had plenty of advance warning, when the moment came that I was asked to bear my testimony it still came as a shock.  I had a bit of trouble speaking at the beginning.  It's heart-wrenching to have to admit that all of this has an end.  As a missionary you get into this feeling like you've been doing it forever, and you will continue to do it forever.  The realization of course is that when I get transferred this one final time, my rules will change, and I'll have to hang up the badge, but my purpose will remain the same.  I can still do this forever, but the way I'll do it will change.

At Zone Leader Training Meeting I was able to meet the missionary that Elder Dewey is training (my grandson).  Attached are some pictures of the family.  It was the first and probably last time I'll see him, which was a weird thought.  I've been able to see a significant improvement in my public speaking abilities ever since being called as a district leader. It feels so natural now to get up and do instructions in those meetings.  A lot of the missionaries in the zone had no idea that this is my last transfer and I got a lot of people coming up to me afterwards and telling me that they never would have guessed, which is pretty good.  At least I don't carry the appearance of someone who's slacking off at the end.

Well, we're running out of time, but I look forward to hearing from y'all next week, especially from James.

Love,

Elder Perryman

August Rush

Hey Family!

This is my first email as a 21-year-old!  As with every holiday on your mission, there wasn't much ado.  The highlight was going to the DMV for an hour and a half to get a NC driver's license since my Ohio one expired.

The exchanges gauntlet is starting.  From this past week until I'm done I have a companion exchange every week.  This past week I had one of the freshest of missionaries with me.  He's one of the 18-year-olds and he still has that new missionary smell.  His area has been struggling for a while and they're only teaching one person right now, so he got thrown in the deep end with our three lessons that we had scheduled.

We had a stake priesthood meeting this week to discuss the 'Hastening The Work' broadcast.  There's a young man named Hunter from the Southport Branch who's going to the Peru Chiclayo Mission, where James is.

Talk to y'all next week!

Love,

Elder Perryman

Bienvenidos!

Hey Family!

The transfer is underway and things are looking up for Wilmington. We just got our new Spanish elders, Elders Mora and Salinas (both from Mexico). It's got to be petty tough for them. They have to share meal calenders with three other companionships and our ward still has yet to feed them. Hopefully when members get to know them, things will pick up for the Spanish elders. With the extra set of elders it makes the administrative work that I have to do an even bigger headache. I feel glued to the phone answering questions, preparing meetings, and doing accounting sessions with the members of the district. Also, apart from the zone leaders, everyone in the district has been out for 7 months or less (two are being trained currently) so I feel like the District Father being so old.

Our ward had two children get baptized this week and while we were helping out with those one of the members came up to us and asked if we could teach her 9-year-old son so he could get baptized too.

Serving here in the summer time makes church interesting. Every week we seem to have a different congregation as people move into the ward and others just come to visit while on vacation. There's a family from the Greenville 1st ward that just moved down here this past week. We had the opportunity to sing "Come, Come, Ye Saints" as a part of a men's quartet and almost everyone was in tears. I think it's been a while since there's been any musical performances in the ward and Elder Packard and I have been trying to use our talents to bless the ward, so it was wonderful to see everything come to fruition on Sunday.

Well, I'm about out of time, talk to y'all next week!

Love,

Elder Perryman 1.0

Last Transfer... Finish Strong!

Hey Family!

This week was absolutely incredible. A LOT happened so I'll try and remember everything.

We started the week off with Zone Conference, where we got a thorough whipping from our leaders (The best kinds of meetings). I love finding ways to improve and there's nothing like getting paddled by President to get the Zone fired up. I found out that Elder Dewey is going to be training! To use our crazy missionary lingo, I'm going to be a grandfather! From there I went on exchange to Leland with Elder Hook. I was in Leland to give a baptismal interview to one of their investigators. He passed and I was also able to give some counsel to Elder Hook who has recently been called to train as well.

The ward has been catching fire ever since the "Hastening the Work" broadcast. We've found four new investigators this week and all of them came from the members. Three of them are a family where the daughter was dating one of the members of the ward and had been coming to church with him. Our first lesson with them was in those members' home and the accepted a baptismal date right there. They're already through the first two lessons! We found the other one on Sunday while going on a home teaching visit with one of the bishop's counselors. He said that in the past couple of years no missionaries had thought it worth their time to go on this visit with him. That was such a prepared family and the husband also accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson. We have a goal of five baptisms in August and so far we have four people preparing for the 24th.

Our new ward mission leader took us to the beach this morning for breakfast at Britt's donuts (seriously the best glazed doughnut that I've ever eaten). Elder Winger goes home on Wednesday so we decided to bring him along and make some 'sand temples.'

I am looking forward to this next transfer. I can't wait to hear from y'all again!

Love,

Elder Perryman

Happy America Day!

Hey Family!

We had a pretty hot week here. It's also been one of the weeks that Elder Packard and I have biked the most and done the most service.

So this past week has really seen an increase in missionary-mindedness in the ward. We've found a couple of families and have members inviting even more to be taught. We're seeing a wonderful shift in the work here. Rather than teaching individuals, we're starting to teach families. Instead of simple sharing a spiritual thought at meals we're ministering to their needs, building their faith, and inviting them to act. We're constantly seeking to help the ward council and offer service to members.

It's weird to see that this is Elder Winger's last week on his mission. We've got an exchange with them after Zone Conference this week because I have to go and do a baptismal interview for them. It was really weird to see my itinerary... It still doesn't feel real, or like it's happening at all. Elder Packard and I are trying to work as hard and as smart as we know how so that it will be a surprise for me when that time comes.

Well, that's about it for this week, it was great hearing from James. Talk to y'all next week!

Love,

Elder Perryman