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