I had an interesting week for sure. There were two days specifically that were just crazy. Because I was blind.
So, last Thursday we were getting everything ready to do our mail run (we take all the Zone mail to the respective district leaders so they can distribute it within their districts). Elder Nestripke and I were outside waiting for President Ross. He takes us in his car so we save miles. I don't know if I've ever explained that before, though I'm sure all returned missionaries reading this know what I mean. Missionaries have a certain amount of miles alloted to them each month, so we appreciate the ride from President Ross. As we were waiting outside some wind blew dust in my eye and then started a huge mess. I could not get it out of my eye. After several minutes of blinking and flushing out my eye, we kind of just assumed that my eye had gotten scratched. It was still hurting, but no one could see anything in my eye. So, to keep myself from opening that eye (because it really hurt to do so) I wore an eye patch. It wasn't a cool one or anything, but I wore an eye patch for a couple hours.
Later that night we had a lesson with Jon Ward again. I had taken off the eye patch and I got a blessing from President Ross and Elder Nestripke before going. My eye looked terrible, but I made it through the lesson. We talked about why we have the Book of Mormon. We explained that yes, a lot of the principles taught in the Book of Mormon can be found in the Bible (not all though), but, a huge reason for the Book of Mormon is that it is a keystone. If the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. If Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom on the Earth. Simple as that. Jon had read a little bit of it, but he said he hasn't gotten an answer yet. The problem I see is that he isn't willing to change. I don't think he wants to know it is true. Because of that, he will not receive an answer. We have to be willing to submit to God's will before he gives us answers to our questions. That's the way it has always worked. So if someone doesn't want to know, they won't.
After that lesson my head hurt very bad and I still couldn't see very well. I pretty much went to bed right when we got home, in hopes that sleep would help.
It didn't.
The next day we went to a doctor and after peeling my eyelid off (or at least that's what it felt like) he found a tiny grain of sand on the back of my eyelid. It was stuck, so he had to use a needle to dislodge it and then he flushed out my eye. My eye feels just fine now, but it was sore for a day or two after that. The whole thing was a weird experience .
Last night we had a huge bonfire. We had a pile of sticks, logs, boxes, etc. that had been growing all transfer. Last night I got to burn it! President Ross let me light it, which made me very happy. I haven't lit a fire in SO LONG. It was awesome, AND BIG. AH! I forgot how much I love fire...
So much!
Today is transfer day and Elder Nestripke is in a new area. My new companion, Elder Gale, will probably get here after lunch. I'm really excited, I've served around him several times and we've been wanting to be companions for a while. He is a very hardworking and obedient missionary, so I'm excited to work with him. We are the Zone Leaders for the Orange Zone. He was just a Zone Leader, so luckily he already knows what to do. It's gonna be great. I am going to miss Elder Nestripke though, he's a great friend that I'm totally going to hangout with after all this.
Anyway, I hope you're all doing well! Have a great week!
-Elder Peterson
Oh yeah, we stopped by the Gulf on the mail run and got a couple pictures. My eye really hurt in those pictures. You can totally tell how fake my smile is on the picture of just me
