WEEK 71: December in the South

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well, and having a great time preparing for Christmas. The Christmas prep here in Georgia has been going great, with the exception of one thing - the lack of snow. It has gotten quite colder here, and I've heard that it snows very rarely, but this Christmas is reminding me a lot of Brazil! 

We had some great lessons and appointments this week. We witnessed one miracle through our Facebook efforts. A couple of weeks ago, we hosted a random live Facebook event wherein we made a popular Brazilian dessert. We messaged everyone that commented, and met someone named Ayla. She is awesome, and is actually from Fortaleza, where I was serving in Brazil! She invited us to her home, and said she was looking for truths regarding Jesus Christ in her life. We gave her the Book of Mormon and taught her the restoration. We have seen some serious miracles from the new work that we have been doing here. 

We had a wonderful church service on Sunday. We got to hear some great music from some talented members, and even a couple of numbers by the primary. The branch is really young, from what I have noticed. Made of lots of young families with children. They are all wonderful. I feel very privileged to have served here, and to see the growth that is taking place. 

And, with the exception of a few people standing on the side of the street with posters, we haven't heard or felt too much regarding local politics. We actually don't know too much about what is happening, but it is cool to be here during such an interesting time. 

As we approach Christmas, Elder Galvão and myself worked on a video to share with members centralized around this main scripture found in Isaiah 9:6 -

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace

As Christmas approaches, take time to think about the role that Christ plays personally in your life. His life and his sacrifice were done very personally for each and every one of us. His love extends forever, and his arms are always outstretched. Love you all, have a wonderful Christmas! 

Love,
Elder Perry

WEEKS 69 & 70: Lots of Service and Getting Ready for Christmas

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing fantastic! We have had a really busy couple of weeks here in Georgia. 

Last week was the last week of the transfer. We were able to see and meet with some awesome people. I found out that I will be staying another transfer here in the Clear Springs Branch! Yes, I will be staying for my 5th transfer here! It has been a little while. We had lots of changes to our district, but I will be staying here in this area with Elder Galvão! We were supposed to have another companion arrive directly from Brazil to begin his mission, but he did not get his visa yet, so he may be coming later in the transfer. It is sad to see everyone go and see all the changes, but I am excited to see the work that takes place here over the next 6 weeks. 

We have been meeting new people quite a bit over Facebook! Elder Galvão and I have been trying and experimenting with new ways of contacting people, which has been awesome. And, as always, we have continued to work on making more videos. We have a solid group of people we teach on a regular basis, though all the Brazilians in the area work so much! So it's hard to keep close contact, or to have them come to church on Sunday. But, we are still working hard! We had the privilege of assisting in the baptismal service of Bruno. He just turned eight years old and is the child of a family in the branch. I gave a talk and also played the piano. We are excited to see the branch continue to grow!

We have also been anxiously engaged in some very rewarding service opportunities! We have been helping our good friend Mama T quite a bit lately. She is a single mother who basically takes care of the whole state of Georgia. We have been helping her new foster child, Jose, to be prepared for school and working on his homework. We also had the chance to help move large amounts of wood chips for some members of the English ward and we're planning more yard work activities this coming week. Thanks to the warm Georgia weather, the yard work never has to stop! Serving others has become such a reward to me and seeing the lives of others change is a feeling that cannot be beat.

The Christmas preparations here are also great! It gets slightly cold in the mornings and at night, but the winter temperature here is actually really nice. Could definitely get used to this warm humid weather all year long. 

Anyway, that's about all there is to know about the work here in Georgia! I hope you all have a wonderful December, and remember the significance of the life of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him, all things are possible. 

Love
Elder Perry

Working at the Church

Helping Mama T decorate her Christmas Tree

A Thank-You-for-Service-Dinner on a Neighbor's Back Porch 

WEEK 68: Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving week out here in Marietta. I hope you all had a wonderful week as well and gave lots of thanks. 

But yes, we had a traditional American dinner on Thanksgiving. Some of the larger families of the branch have been here in the states for a while, so they have definitely 'Americanized' a bit or they are families with a Brazilian mother or father married to an American. We ate turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and a huge amount of pie. We ate so much, it was amazing. It was also a great opportunity to share our thoughts on gratitude with the members of the branch. I have felt my heart fill with gratitude, not just now but over the course of my missionary experience, for all of the wonderful people who cross my path. The mission will do that to you. 

We have occasional English class lessons with people and our soccer night has been as successful as ever. We have been cranking out some videos lately on gratitude and life being like a soccer game and a live video of us making a Brazilian dessert. Not always easy to create content that the Brazilians love, but we are working on it. 

We went to church at the Branch on Sunday. Attendance has been very strong -- about 50 people every week which is really great. The meetings are entirely in Portuguese and one member sits in the front and translates into small headphones that the English speaking members use. We are just doing sacrament meetings for now, but we do have other Sunday meetings over Zoom.

Gratitude, I have found, is one of the most consistent and most powerful forms of self satisfaction. One can rest satisfied counting their blessings, but you can never be content when you're counting your problems. I am grateful for each one of you, for Georgia, for great food, for this beautiful world, and all of the amazing people I have met. Continue finding that light and magnifying it in your heart.


Love, 
Elder Perry

WEEK 67: The True Southern Experience

Hey everyone! I hope you all had an excellent week! We had a great week out here in the great state of Georgia. As the days have gotten (slightly) colder and shorter, we have picked up our efforts, and have continued to find success. 

Our huge breakthrough this week was that we were able to help our good friend, Maria, accept a baptismal date. We are so happy about that steps she is taking in her life, and the desire she has to change. We set her date for the first of January. We are excited to help her prepare to make these necessary changes at the turn of the new year. We were able to meet with a lot of our other investigator friends this week and have been enjoying every moment with them. 

Now, for the true southern experience of this week. On Saturday, we were raking leaves at a member's house. He and his wife are both members of the local English ward. It was all going very smoothly - until we heard some shouting and noises down in the backyard. The member's friend had shot a deer with a crossbow, and it had started running away. We found the deer not too far off, and watched the cleaning and preparation process. I won't go into the details, but it was a very southern experience. And the meat tasted great. 

Another strange event happened when we were doing service for a Brazilian neighbor who messaged us on Facebook. We were raking large amounts of leaves and putting them in bags. About halfway through raking the yard, we uncovered a footlong snake. It was pretty small, but really aggressive - and kept striking out at the rakes. We dispatched him and were able to identify him as a brown snake. With the little information we found, we decided it was quite possible that one bite from it would put one of us in the hospital, so we were forced to postpone picking up the rest of the leaves. 

Not a lot more to report this week! We are still working hard through Facebook finding and doing service for people. I love being a missionary. Love you all!

Elder Perry

A Different Kind of MTC

WEEK 66: Film Production

Hey everyone! I hope you all had an amazing week! We were able to do some good hard work out here in Georgia this week, and we have been seeing the miracles of this wonderful work. 

As the title of this weekend's entry entails, we were hard in the "studio" (chapel's clerk office) making some videos. We've found that creating these small videos has been really effective in reaching out touching a large amount of people. We were able to make 3 different ones this week and we are beginning to see the fruits of these labors. I have found that the more you try to spread goodness, the more God will bless your efforts, and allow your light to shine bright. 

We were able to do quite a bit of service and teach lots of lessons this week, which was super fun. That definitely helps us to feel productive and makes time out here pass very quickly. We had one miracle in the form of a new family we will start teaching! We have an investigator named Luciene who we hadn't talked to in a really long time, and she reached out to us on WhatsApp and invited us to a Brazilian BBQ at her house. We got to meet her family and a couple of her Brazilian friends. We left them with a Book of Mormon, and are hoping to return to teach them more sometime. The blessings are real! 

We had several responses to our Facebook post advertising free service. We helped move some furniture for a nice Brazilian neighbor and we helped a member of the Paper Mill Ward move his greenhouse. We also had soccer night again at the park. A bunch of new people came this week but we were rained out at the end. We've had a lot of interest in the Facebook ad that we created and posted for our English classes. Those will begin again this week!

We also had stake conference this weekend! It was really cool to listen to everyone speak, and see how the stakes out here in Georgia work. My companion, Elder Galvão actually helped to translate the session on Saturday night. So that was a pretty fun event. 

Other than that, we are just still grinding, and trying to have fun where we can. I have loved my time here in Georgia. Love you all!

Elder Perry

WEEK 65: Week 65 and Also Week 1

Elder Galvão and Elder Perry

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing amazing! To those of you reading this in Utah, I must say that the perpetual heat and humidity here in Georgia makes me miss the snow. 

This concludes week 65 of my mission, as well as the first week of Elder Galvão's mission. We were able to get a lot done this week, and I hope he is already learning the important skills necessary for the rest of his mission. Both of us got some flu-like symptoms halfway through the week, but a COVID test confirmed to us that it was just a cold. So after a couple of days quarantined, we are happy to get back to work as usual.

We had lots of success finding people on Facebook this week! That is actually the first time I've actually seen it working. We posted service ads into many local Brazilian groups, and received many responses. There were several responses from people who needed service, which was great, but also a large amount simply congratulating us on our willingness to serve. Either way, we have been able to see the importance of planting seeds and letting our lights shine forth. We have been working hard with many investigators, members, and on some more videos for Facebook.

And a spiritual thought as well: In Sunday school we discussed the value of the Book of Mormon. As we discussed the value of the truths, and personal meaning of the Book of Mormon, this scripture in Doctrine and Covenants was also brought up, and made me reflect a little more on the true cost of the Book of Mormon - D&C 135:6....

Hyrum Smith was forty-four years old in February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was thirty-eight in December, 1843; and henceforward their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world; and that if the fire can scathe a green tree for the glory of God, how easy it will burn up the dry trees to purify the vineyard of corruption. They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified.

The Book of Mormon cost the best blood of the nineteenth century, as Joseph and Hyrum Smith died doing what they knew to be right. Always remember what this book means to you, and what its true value is. 

Love,

Elder Perry

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WEEK 64: Hurricane Zeta and Training a New Companion

Wow! We have had a lot of things happen here this last week! The craziness of the mission out here in Georgia never seems to disappoint.

Tropical storm Zeta passed through last Tuesday, taking out a ton of trees and power lines, along with all electricity in our house for 24 hours. It didn't affect us too much other than the power outage, but we used the storm as an opportunity to go help and pick up debris in front of people's houses. Most all of the power lines are up and functional once again, so you could say we're back in business. 

Another crazy thing is that Elder Stearman got an emergency transfer! He is off to be a zone leader out in Calhoun and I will be here training Elder Galvão! He is a brand new missionary who just finished up at the home MTC. He was born and raised in Manaus, Brazil, but moved to Rexburg Idaho 2 years ago, making him fluent in both Portuguese and English. I feel so blessed to have him as my new companion, and look forward to the life lessons he will teach me. And, we're here in the best district in the United States. "A district full of giant slayers" one might say ;) 

And other than those two major events we have continued working hard and getting things done in this area. I have grown a very deep love for the people here in Georgia. A love that motivates me every day to get up and do my best, no matter the circumstances. 

I love you all, I love this work, and I love my savior Jesus Christ. Have a fantastic week! 

Love,
Elder Perry 

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