It reads, in part:
"Your son, Elder Perazzo, has been very instrumental in helping in the baptism of a friend that has been 'in the works' for about a year. I wanted to write to you and thank you for raising such a fine son and missionary [in my reply, which I emailed, I told her I take no credit...he came that way]. He has been a blessing ever since arriving in Dubuque several weeks ago."
Sister Holt then goes on to talk about her friend Carole, who is 65, and that she became interested in the gospel when Sister Holt's son left on his mission and Carole went to his farewell talk in church. Elder Holt is currently serving in the Las Vegas Mission...we live in the Las Vegas West mission, so we won't get to meet him.
Andrew, due to leadership training in Des Moines, was actually not at Carole's baptism, which was a bit sad, but he really loved his 4 day training meeting.
Sister Holt then goes on:
"They [Andrew and his companion Elder Dummer] have had tremendous patience and shown great love to Carole. I can't help but be fond of them for their charity."
Sister Holt then talks of how she is so fond of Andrew for another reason, too--he reminds her of her missionary son. They both walk slightly stooped, they both love BYU and BYU football, and they have very similar hand gestures.
Anyway, she printed 2 photos of Andrew onto her letter paper. Here is one of them:
Elder Dummer, Carole, and Elder Perazzo
It was a fun surprise to get that letter. Andrew has only sent home photos twice...and it's been a very long time since the second batch. I'm just glad he emails every week like he's supposed to.
This was transfer week, therefore, his email came today instead of on Monday. His companion had taken the phone call from the mission office on Saturday and then told Andrew that they were staying together as companions, but Andrew was being demoted and was not going to be the District Leader any more. Turns out he was just pulling Andrew's leg.
Andrew is staying in Dubuque, but he is getting a new companion tomorrow (Thursday Oct 21st). His district is increasing by 2 elders fresh from the MTC, though Andrew's is not one of the new ones. So now it will have 6 elders--(including Andrew and his companion) and 2 sisters.
Andrew says, "Hey, that means that next transfer will be my:
Eighth transfer in a row as District Leader, and my Tenth transfer in a row of having Sister Missionaries in my District. Which means that 2/3 of my mission will be as a District Leader, and 5/6 of my mission will be with Sister Missionaries in my District. It doesn't get any weirder than that."
I'm not sure why that's weird, although once Andrew said something about his district having sisters in it and he guessed that means the Mission President trusted him (or something like that). There are a lot more Elders than sisters, so not all districts have sisters in them.
He currently has 3 investigators with baptismal dates set. So, he's keeping busy and loving it.
He ended the email this week with:
"I love you all, and I give you my support in whatever righteous undertaking you are trying to accomplish, whether it be getting a driver's license or a driver's permit or any other such worthy goals, the best of luck to them. And speaking of worthy goals, did Eric ever defeat the Metriod Prime?
Love, Elder Andrew Perazzo"
Yes, he's a missionary...and a 20 year old. He thinks defeating Metroid Prime is a worthy goal. Hmm.
So, I can't wait to hear who Andrew's new companion is and where he's from. It's really fun being a missionary's mom.
PS Eric says he has not defeated Metroid Prime due to a glitch on the game. We'll let Andrew know next week.
I love reading your "Andrew updates." It sounds like he is a fantastic missionary. And even if beating Metroid Prime isn't a "worthy goal" at least he recognizes that it is something important to his brother!
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