Last email

Well Howdy Everyone. 

I figured I best send of one last email, while I still can as an elder :) 

This mission  has been absolutely fantastic. I really don't think I could have realized just how much I much I would have learned and experienced. 

Basically, I know that this was exactly where God needed me to be. It truly was here that I

have been able to not only help others the most, but also grow the most myself.

Going to Missoula was great. It really was wonderful to be able to see elder Burch and elder Tucker one last time. Funny thing though, elder Burch is now replacing elder Tucker as a zone leader! So he Will be driving me to Helena:) and elder Tucker is the new assistant so he will accompany me all the way to Billings, join us in the testimony meeting, temple, and drive us literally to the airport. I get to spend my last 2 days with Elder Tucker. It's going to be great :) 

Anyways, Holy cow. I get to see you this Saturday. That is so crazy! I really can't quite believe it, and yet I can. Super nervous though, not going to lie. Funny enough its all of the social things that are stressful. And funny enough the talk. Not giving it, just writing it.... good thing I have a week. :)

If I had to sum it up, I would say that on my mission, I have truly come to know better God the Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Obviously, I'm not perfect. I know that in this life I will never be perfect, but I know that they are there to help us return to live with them again. 

I know that as the prophet Lehi says "Men are that they might have joy". I know that through Christ, we can find so much peace in this life, and eternal life in the life to come. 

I know that we have been given scripture, such as the Bible and the Book of Mormon, to guide us in this crazy life and bring us closer to Christ. 

I am so thankful for a Savior, who also knows that I will never be perfect here, but who loves me and died for me. I know that as we keep on striving we WILL live with them again. 

Thank you all for all you have done for me. Thank you for your love and support, and know that I thank you with all my heart. 

Keep on smiling and God bless :)

P.S. here's a picture of a weeping angel 

Never Give up, Never Surrender!
-Elder Berrett

Only in Montana

Voice Recording - August 14

Well good morning! And it actually is morning. It is in fact, 8:34 am. It is a beautiful and bright sunny day here in Stevensville.  We have no smoke here, we have a blue sky, that we can actually see for the first time in weeks, and personally I’d say it’s the start of a wonderful day.  Today is Monday, we have some great plans for today.  We’re going to Missoula to start off to pack up our car, my car. (Companion – the one you broke) What? (Laughter.)  The one I broke.  I only broke the front, I just broke the front frame casing around a light.  It’s plastic.  But, get that figured out.   

Also, I have come to the conclusion that it’s not Stevensville that is the version of Pine Hollow (He means Stars Hollow from the show Gilmore Girls), it’s Hamilton.   Hamilton is Pine Hollow.   I think when I heard it earlier, it is the Stevensville Zone in particular, but Hamilton especially.  After serving there for the last couple of weeks I can testify.  It’s perfect.  From the super rich people with golf courses, to everything else, it’s a great place. 

Let me think, had stuff I was going to say, Oh yeah!  And then we are meeting up in Hamilton after we get all that stuff done in Missoula, say good bye to Elder Burch and Elder Tucker, we’re going to head back down to Hamilton, meet up as a zone and have a big nerf war.   There’s a member here who is a former marine, and deals with all his problems with nerf guns and nerf wars with his family.   Him and his wife were both in the military, and apparently it gets pretty intense.   We’re pretty excited.  Set up all the tables and chairs, and have a fun last preparation day.    We were just planning on spending the day in Missoula, but Sister Jacobi chastised us for leaving them last night at mission prep.  (Companion – it’s not like they even like us.)  It’s not like they even like us, they were just like “You’re freaking leaving us on the last preparation day Elder Berrett?!?”  I’m like “aaaahhh…”  So, that was that.  We’re gonna have fun there, and then we have family home evening at the church tonight, with that same member and hopefully some less actives and investigators.   I forget what we have at like 8 o’clock tonight? (Companion – ward correlation with Coach.)  I get to see Coach tonight?!? I thought that was on Tuesdays?  (Companion- Our Tuesdays are packed, remember?)  No.  (discussion about what they have scheduled)  Covering three wards with these elders has been a blast. 

So yeah, we have our correlation meeting with Coach, he’s a stud.  Him and Mama J have been amazing.  Amazing people to work with.  They have a son out on a mission, who was from what I understand, inactive for awhile,  and then just kinda pulled an Elder Basham did with me, and was like, “You know, I’m going on a mission.”  Got everything ready, and he, when did his family find out?  Was it after he got his call? (Companion – Uhhh, he had turned his papers in) So, can you imagine me going inactive for a couple of years, and then just deciding to go on a mission, get everything ready, don’t tell anybody, oh yeah, it was everything but their final signature.  (Companion – And of course he was going to a different church, a born again Christian church)  He has Born Again for awhile there so… I mean, just this complete turn around.  Knocked the socks off his parents.  He was supposed to come home in a week, but is extending his mission by three weeks at his mission presidents request.  So, that’s that adventure.   I love Coach, I love Mama J.  Just amazing, amazing people that have really impacted my life the last couple of weeks here.

My last Sunday at church was really impactful here.   I got to sing in the choir one last time.  Love those people.  The choir conductor made sure I friend her on facebook, and promise that I would call her and keep in touch.   I got to teach Gospel Principles, cause Brother Wilton our ward mission leader is gone, but I got pictures with him. 

Oh yeah, so the missionaries, right now we still live in our old apartment here, which is in Stevensville Second ward, the ward that we had to give away to the sisters, so we live outside of our area by like 15 minutes, it’s a ways out, and that’s just to the border of our area, and so we’ve been looking, it’s a lot of miles, cause it’s not like 15 minutes in Gilbert, it’s 15 minutes on dirt roads and highways, so we go a bit a ways.  And we’re looking for another place, and one of the places we might move into is with the freaking Wiltons, our awesome Ward mission leader in First ward.  The missionaries here are going to be really set up.  We’re finding all these great new investigators and everything.

So yeah, church was great, I taught gospel principles, got to say goodbye to a lot of fun people there, didn’t have the freaking Smith’s come to church again!  I know that they have a bunch of family in town though and they’re super busy, but that’s three weeks in a row.  Satan’s been hitting at them hard.  They’ve been sick the last two weeks.  Like Saturday night one of them will start puking.  Either one of the kids, or I think it was the dad one of the weeks.  This week they have a bunch of family and friends in town.  They’re doing so good, we have a lesson set up with them Wednesday night, and so it’s going to be good and powerful.  We got this.  That’s that.

And then as far as work here goes, Wednesday again, we have a lot planned.  Wednesday at 8:00 we have a lesson with the Bowmans, with the Sisters. So that’s going to go really good.  I’m excited for that.  They’re the recent convert family we have here in Stevensville.  Love them to death.  And have district meeting… There’s a horse outside my window.  Elder Crockett, there’s a horse out the window.  (Elder Crockett – I hate horses)  You hate horses? I love living out in the country.   Granted it’s on our neighbor’s side of the fence, but it’s just like there’s this horse that’s super close.  It’s just right there.  I should probably put on a shirt, so I don’t just go walking outside in my garments.  I mean, I have pants on…  Oh yeah, that’s going to be a thing I thought about last night. “Gosh darnit, I have to actually start wearing a shirt when I go back home at the end of the day.”  You get home, you’re hot, you’re tired, you take off your shirt… go to bed like that.  I wear my garments obviously, but yeah.

(Sounds of Nick walking outside, grass crunching, birds chirping…) We’re out here with the horse, Elder Crockett is holding some grass, the horse is coming.  Did you just pick that up from right here, just any old grass?  Oh hey there!  There’s a couple different horses.  I’m going to try this…. I just got to feed a horse and pet a horse.   That was super legit.   So yeah, Montana and Wyoming are amazing places.   Like, yeah, I can go see horses in Gilbert, unless it’s really changed as much as you say it has, but it will be interesting.  Like I hope that there are still horses that you can find around town.  Still places that you can get out and think to yourself.  I keep trying to convince Elder Crockett here that I’m from a town.  He still consistently laughs at that because he’s from a place as small as Stevensville, if not smaller.  (Elder Crockett – Stevensville is bigger than Spring City.)  Spring City, Utah.  If you haven’t heard of that, it’s by Manti?  (Elder Crockett- 20 minutes north.  It’s like the difference between here and Darby.)  So yeah, we just got to go pet a horse, you heard that.  How long has this recording been going? Just to double check, 13 minutes, I’m still good.

We did all our laundry last night.  Maybe stretched the rules a little bit with that.  So what we did was we needed to get going early this morning to head to Missoula, you know our preparation day starts at 8:00 now, so we can technically leave after 8:00. But we have laundry and all these things to do so starting at like 10:00 last night we started the first load, and made Elder Crockett go to bed since he’s the driver.   (Elder Crockett- I was going to make them go to bed) He was going to be really nice, and he offered to do it all himself while we slept, but we’re like, “No.  We love you, we thank you, but you’re the driver tomorrow. Go to bed.”  So we did laundry, I took the first shift, finished Elder Crockett’s, did mine, wasn’t sure where Elder Davis’ was, so I woke him up and then went to bed and he finished the laundry.  During my shift last night, I backed up my tablet to a flash drive I got here. Cause I have a cool little cable that lets me plug flash drives into my tablet.  Cause Samsung does that.  So yeah, backed up that, and that alone took like two hours to get all the information, all the pictures, all the videos, all the files, I backed up everything. 

So yeah, it’s been 18 ½ minutes, I should probably send this off so it will actually send.  I love you a ton mom.  Oh man, I was going to respond to your email and such in this, I think you got the email from bishop, I just got the talk and everything, it was like Tuesday or Wednesday.  So yeah, hope you have a wonderful day,  God bless, talk to you soon, bye! 

Two weeks left!

Good Morning everyone! 

My two great companions, elder Crockett and Davis have convinced me to finally write a weekly. 

So quick recap. 

Right now I'm serving with Elder Davis and Crockett. Due to my last companion getting injured and going home, we combined our areas and so now we cover Darby, Hamilton, and Stevensville 1st ward. 

Being with these elders has been a blast. We definitely have our differences, but having 3 of us seems to balance it out nicely. 

Things here are going pretty good. There are about 3 huge fires going on in the valley here. It's just FULL of smoke. Like, it looks like the valley just has a ton of FOG. We can't really see the mountains, depending on what time of day we cant at all. Needless to say, president asked us at zone conference to limit our time out side. :)

I gave my departing testimony on Friday at zone conference, that was weird. 

This past week however was a blast! On Monday, we were going to hike st. Mary's peak and head to the look out tower, however due to all the smoke, that didn't really happen. Instead we all met in Corvallis at a basketball gym/bowling alley a member owns over there.:) 

Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges with the Corvallis elders. We had one of the elders, elder Zeller with us. It was a little interesting being in Hamilton with both elder Davis and I new to the area and not knowing anything. Needless to say, some funny moments ensued. :) 

On Wednesday we did get to go work in Stevi, we were able to have a wonderful lesson with the Smith family :) we presented the family with a children's copy of the book of Mormon and read the first chapter with their family. While the children read the spirit flooded the room and touched our hearts. Definitely one of those moments that i am super thankful to have as a missionary :) it was so great to see not only the children loving the scriptures, but watching the parents as their kids read, learned, and then testified to their parents about what they read. It wasn't super grand, but the spirit was definitely there, and they felt it :)

This Friday we got to have some conference! While there I got to see some old friends and learn a ton! While a lot of it was mainly focused on cars (we got a little black box in our car now. Basically big brother, but it's chill) there were some power house moments. One of the biggest things I took away from it was that there IS STILL tons of people to find and teach. The assistants taught us that the field IS white ready to harvest and as we exercise Faith and set goals we CAN and WILL find those who are ready. :) 

I'm super excited about these next 2 weeks, I know the Lord has a ton in store for me. 

I love you all, I hope you all have a wonderful day! And keep on smiling! 

Never Give up, Never Surrender!
-Elder Berrett

Saying goodbye to bro Wilton, an amazing ward mission leader and friend.

Brother and Sister Wilton

Elder Hendricks and his family!

Elder Hendricks and I

A cool sign. 

Voice Recording July 31

Howdy, mom! Back at our apartment now, and making dinner. And since you asked me questions and I sent you a really weak email, I’m making this voice recording.  So I’m eating half a burger that I still have from Napps today.  Napps is a place that makes really big burgers. So big that even I can only eat half.  (Elder?  – It’s like, really big.  We’re talking like slightly less than a pound of beef on a burger.)  So think of like Slaters 50/50, take out all the bacon, but the burgers are still just as big.  That’s Napps. (Elder? – Ten dollars and twenty five cents.)  About the same price too, so, yeah.   Actually I don’t remember how much Slaters was because that’s in Cali.  But that’s what we’re doing right now.  We’ve got a little bit left of dinner, and I thought I’d quickly send this off while that’s still legal.

In response to like, you called me out on my bull crap and actually asked HOW my week was, we had an amazing week.  Because of the three areas we cover, Darby, Hamilton, and Stevensville, we split it up by days so on Wednesdays we are in Stevensville.  So those are the days that I get to go work there.  They took away one of my wards, I think I already told you that, and I think I ranted to you about that last week. (Elder ? – You gave it away.)  I’m still a little salty about it. (Elder ?- We asked your permission) So it was kind of like a, my zone leaders, the people I’m with now, glorious Elders Crockett and Davis, love em to death, but they came up to me and were like, “Elder Berrett, so here’s all the reasons why you need to give up an area.  In fact, we’re going to do this, but we’d like your permission either way.  Even if you don’t give it, your area is still going bye-bye, but, yeah.”  So I’m like, “I don’t like this, but fine!” “Duly noted.  It’s still happening.” Is the kind of situation it was.  It went well though, and the sisters there are actually doing it a lot of justice and good.  Anyways, we went there Wednesday, we didn’t have too much time because we had to drive my car up to Missoula, coming out of my carport, I think I told you this, I sorta scraped out one of the lights.  And ruined part of the front bumper, just backing out! And hit the shelf. It’s all good, funny enough, I still have driving privileges, don’t ask me how that one works.  Elder Crockett says I only have six weeks left, so yeah…  So we drove to Missoula and got that sorta taken care of, it’s sitting there at the church now.  (Elder? – It’s a lot of money) Yeah, I think the estimate was a 2500 dollar repair.  It’s the kinda thing where I’m like, “You know what? That sucks.”  So that’s getting taken care of.  Let’s see… Oh yeah!  So we went back to Stevensville, we didn’t have too much time, with the little time we did have, we’re like, “let’s go finding!” Elder Davis, being the stud he is, said “Hey Elders, we need to pray. And we need to strive to find investigators. Let’s set a goal.  We set a goal at 2:00, and prayed about it, and then went out to work, and within an hour had a lesson with someone, not interested, but it was just still a good lesson.  And then we went to Victor.  On our way, as we were leaving Stevensville, Victor is a town that I cover as well, On the way to Hamilton, we stopped by and contacted an old referral. The referral’s not there, but his sister and mom are there, and they were totally interested and wanted to hear our message.  So we’re going back this Wednesday to talk to them.  So that was super exciting.

We’ve been doing some work over at the job corps here, which I had never heard of it until I came on a mission so... You’ve probably heard of them, it’s a place where kids go, it’s a school where you go to learn a trade.  But it’s like a full time, like you live there.  A lot of times kids who have like drug problems or other such things go there, but not all the time.  And the kids there are really, really great. So we’ve been doing work there, and we found a new investigator, his name is Jesus.  We play basketball with him on Thursdays.  And since I obviously can’t play, cause I’ve been really perfect in not playing and doing all that my whole mission, right Elder Crockett?  Yeah, no.  This week I tried to do good, and didn’t play, and anyways because I wasn’t playing I was able to talk to a kid who is brand new there, and is definitely looking for things in life and answers.  I was able to talk to him for a bit and he committed to come to church.  He didn’t come this week, so we’re going to follow up on Thursday and see what happened.  It was kinda one of those things where I was really excited I got to talk to him and help him out.  

We’ve had some great lessons here in Hamilton.  As far as our teaching pool goes, we have a couple people we’re working with, that may not be ready immediately but I think they’ll be ready.  We’re doing good here.  I’m actually teaching.  It’s wonderful.  So that’s a quick report.

I’m with Elder Crockett and Elder Davis, you heard Elder Crockett a bit.  Say hi Elder Crockett.  (Elder Crockett – Buenos Dias) And this is Elder Davis, (Elder Davis – Hello!)  He’s Mexican.  (Elder Davis – No I’m not. ) He likes to think he is though.   We were able to do a lot of service this week.  I should probably go through and make sure exactly what we did. (Elder ? – On Saturday that service was awesome.  Family History? )  Yeah.  Wait, What? (Elder ? – When we did the graves.)  Oh! Yeah!  So the lady that sent you a message Saturday.  That was super fun.  I was in Darby, the other ward we cover, we spend Thursdays and Saturdays there.  That’s also where the Job Corps is.  This lady gave us a call earlier in the week, ask for our help, she was a little vague, said she might help us, and Friday night said “Yeah, I need your help Saturday morning.”  And we’re like, “Sweet!  We’ll be there.”  And we were able to in essence, uh they have five ancestors total, who lived there, who two or three of which did not have graves, and the other two or three had graves, but didn’t have markers.  But they were made a year earlier and they were made out of cement, and were already fading, and were not readable.  So they went and got these really nice headstones made, and we helped dig holes, pour cement, and lay these headstones. And that was really cool.  A great experience.  Something that really, really touched the lives of these women and it was just one of those feel good service projects.  And the two grand daughters were non members, and I’d like to think we had a positive impact on them.

This week we got to do some stuff.  Oh duh! I saw Elder Hendricks this week!  He’s right at the point of his mission where he’s touring the mission with his family, and his sister who’s also finishing her mission.  We were one of the last stops he made before they flew out.  They came all the way down to Stevensville just to say hi to me.  (Elder ? – I’m pretty sure Elder Berrett emailed her on the mission) I emailed his sister once, she emailed me first, I responded. Went shopping today, I got bananas.  I can pretend to be healthy.  We got tons of raspberries this week, so many raspberries.  It’s been great.  Oh, yeah! Duh! Can you please send me, I know it like 95%, but I already sent my cookbook home, could you please send me your recipe for raspberry pie? So I can make a raspberry pie this upcoming week. I would really appreciate it if you could do that.  And thank you so much for all you’ve been doing lately.  I hope you have a wonderful day mom.  I’m fairly certain I’m forgetting a crap ton of stuff.

A cat crawled on Elder Crockett’s shoulder this week when he talked to one of the recent convert families.  Saw some beautiful sunsets, went on a hike to Lake Como last week and took pictures on top of a dam… (Elder Crockett – best dam pictures we’ve ever taken.)  Definitely, those were the best dam pictures we’ve ever taken.  What’s that a picture of?  Oh yeah, we saw a beautiful rainbow.   That was pretty legit.  I went kite fishing,  that was like two weeks ago though.  Our current ward mission leader here in Hamilton, brother Jessop, he’s the one that gave the awesome speech on the polygamist colony here, which I got to go to for the first time this week, we went and visited him a couple of weeks back, back when Elder Hand was here, and he just had a kite tied to a fishing pole, and that’s how they flew their kites, and so we went kite fishing with him for a couple minutes and took pictures.  I really need to send you these pictures, you’re probably going to kill me.  You probably are killing me.  Elder Crockett stole my soul this week, he’s a ginger, and he stole my soul. (Elder Crockett – I gave it back)  He gave it back. (Elder Crockett – He kind of needed it) I did.  Those are kind of important. (Elder Crockett- I’m pretty sure most gingers don’t know how to do it through. )  But he did it, and then gave it back.  I hung up all my shirts today.  After I got them back from the washers and dryers.  Now the rest of my clothes… I folded up most of my garments and put them away.  I think I have a couple of shirts left.  But then all of my colors are still on my bed.  So, they’re not quite all on my floor…

And yeah, that’s about it.  I hope you have a wonderful day mom.  God bless, keep on smiling, and tell Madison congratulations on getting her license!  Holy cow, I saw that!  That is freaking amazing.   Have a great day, love you.  Bye.

Voice Recording July 24

Well, howdy mom, this is Elder Berrett.  Making a voice recording now, we didn’t have too much time today.  This morning we got up at 6:30, and went and, there’s this really awesome hike called Lake Como, over by… It’s pretty close to our house. It was only maybe a 10-15 minute drive away.  So we got up early to do that, and we pretty much went straight from there to where we are now doing laundry, and I totally could have made a voice recording then when it was nice and quiet, but I was thrown off and realized that I haven’t made one yet. And I was going to do it on our drive to dinner, but I saw that’s only like ten minutes, so here I am.

So let’s start, so Monday I had a great time up until Elder Hand’s news obviously.  We were both a little crushed by that.  But, we had a good time.  It was good. We’re honestly both glad we just got it out of the way, peeled off the bandaid, didn’t wait until Wednesday when they could fit it us in.  He’s home now.  Left Thursday morning, that was an adventure and a half.  We got to stay with the zone leaders, Elder Tucker was one of them, so of course we probably stayed up until one, just all talking and laughing, at which point we then went to bed for 2 ½ to 3 hours, woke up at like 3:30, got ready, drove him to the airport, dropped him off, took pictures, drove back, and then slept.  Slept another couple of hours, got up, made crepes for breakfast, thanks to Elder Tucker, I forgot how great he is at making crepes.  And then went on with our day.  That was an adventure and a half there.

Right now we’re in the Searle’s gym, so you can probably hear all the background basketball noises, probably have been for awhile.  After the bike ride, a really awesome running swing set (??) and a bit of basketball earlier, my knees are pretty well done for today.  And especially since we are planning on hiking, doing an awesome hike next week called St. Mary’s,  I’m thinking I really should not do anything the rest of the week.  Obviously do like missionary work, but not like go play basketball or do things that are going to hurt my knees.  

The hike today was normally a walking one, but we decided to bike it. So, that was a bit of an adventure.  Some of the trail definitely wasn’t made for biking, but we made it work, and it was great.  There were no rules against it, we made sure we were legal, and we had tons of fun.  It wasn’t anything dangerous, there was no like slick rock or anything like that.  I mean, it was really flat.  Just it got skinny, and there were a couple creeks that went through…  There was one point where we’re like, riding along a really gravelly road, and it’s a sheer drop off of jut rocks on my left side.  “Okay!  Don’t think about that.  Keep moving forward.”  But hey, it all went well, It was fun.  So that was Monday.

Tuesday was packing.  That was an adventure and a half.  While Elder Hand packed, I also packed up one of my suitcases with everything I had.  I mean, we loaded this suitcase up to the brim.  I think at the end we weighed it, and it was about 115 lbs.  And you know, there’s a 50 lb weight limit at the airport, so I put basically everything that’s not essential into this suitcase and brought it over to the wonderful glorious family, The Olsons.   Which, they should be in Arizona by now.  Have you guys met them yet?  I get that you drove to Utah, you’ve been working, you’ve been busy. I’m not going to hold that against you, I was just curious.  I don’t need any of that stuff, so…  yeah, that’s been that. 

That was Tuesday, we packed, and also went out.  We were able to teach a couple of lessons, not too many though.  We kept trying, but people just weren’t home.  We were able to have a lesson with the Smith family, I think I’ve told you about them.  Returning less actives, found them just by tracting, it was a miracle.  What was also a miracle is that she has an active brother, and her parents are both active in their same ward.  And they’ve been nothing but loving to them this whole time, and they were so ready to come back.  They just needed that little push. And so, it’s been really fun to teach them.  Their kids are great.  I don’t remember the boy’s name, but the girl, she got really sad the second time we went over there and I couldn’t remember her name.  And I’m like, “Okay, I’m so sorry.  What is your name again?” And she said, “Tallulah” and I went “Oh crap, I’m never going to remember that…” and then I went, “Oh, it’s just like ‘Cholula”.  So that’s how I remember her name now.  Now I’ve got to find something to remember the boy’s name.  Thankfully she’s usually yelling at him, cause, I don’t know.  They’re little kids.  That’s what they do.  So I’m like, “Oh, that’s right!  That’s your name!”  We had a great lesson with them.  They weren’t able to come to church because they had a family reunion to go to, but they’ve been coming pretty consistently, so that’s been a blessing.

Someone we haven’t been working with, because he was already active when we got here, he’s recently returned to activity, and I didn’t even know he was less active for a while there.  And to be completely honest, I don’t remember his name, and I feel so terrible about this.  I’m going to find a way to see if I can learn it this Sunday.  Oh, no, I know how to look it up. He apparently has now been active for a year, is clean from everything and just got the Melchizedek priesthood.  I had to go teach a class, and so I didn’t know, but supposedly he wanted me to be in the circle.  And I didn’t know.  And I’m like, “Oh my goodness.” He’s just an amazing guy.  And I feel terrible about this.  All I did was say hi to him and chat with him every week.  I can’t even remember his name.  But, that’s that.  Clearly I’ve improved a lot in that area. 

Church was weird this week with Elder Hand being gone and such.  I had a member come and pick me up in Hamilton and take me to church, and he was my companion, but I was the Lone Ranger at church this week.  With everyone asking, “Oh where’s Elder Hand?” “Oh, he’s home.”  Some of the people are like, “Oh, okay.”  And there’s a couple of the ladies that were like, “Oh, so he’ll be back in what, like 3 weeks?” “No, he’ll be back in six months.”  He’s having a cadaver ACL put in, and 1) they want to make sure his body accepts it, and 2) that he’ll be okay and he recovers fully so, six month recovery there.  He is planning on coming back out though.  He left a suitcase here.  He said it’s being held hostage so that’s great.

Wednesday all that happened, and we were able to do a little bit of work in the morning.  We had district meeting, ZLC, service, dinner…  Service we do at the Clothes Closet over in Stevensville, which I guess we don’t any more. That’s sad.  I think I’ve planned to go do some service there this Wednesday however.  Wednesdays are the day we’re going to be in Stevensville.  So service, tried a couple of people, went to dinner, and from there went to a fireside. 

Ok.  I gotta tell you about this fireside. It was amazing. So there’s this member Brother Jessop, he’s actually now my ward mission leader here in Hamilton.  He is from Pinesdale.  Pinesdale is the big polygamous colony here in town, which apparently I now cover part of.  I worked with a couple of people, but not too much.  Like our ward mission leader’s wife in Stevensville first ward, which I still cover, is from Pinesdale and she has a cool, cool story of how she was able to get out of that.  They had to sneak her out and other stuff.  But Brother Jessop here, that’s a big, big name around here, he basically went through the entire history of polygamy and how all these colonies started, and all these branches that have come off of the church, and he went through this whole history lesson with us for a fireside, and told his story, and that was cool.  There’s a lot of prejudice, between us apparently and the Pinesdale group when they first came down.  It got to the point where High Priests from both churches, cause their church is organized the same way, would sit up on a hill near a bridge, and they would watch for people driving, and they would take notes for who was driving to basically see if any of their members needed to be excommunicated.  “Oh are they going to the other ward?  Okay, excommunicated!” I’m like, “Holy Cow.”  He said that when he first realized that all this was wrong, he showed up at the Corvalis church, and the Bishop greeted them, “Hi!  What’s your last name?” He said “I’m brother Jessop.”  And they looked at him and said “You’re not welcome here.” It was just this, ‘We don’t need to cause all this contention’ and you know there’s just a lot, a lot of anger.  He said he even had the Stake President come up and tell him that, but he kept showing up.  It got to the point that even when he married his wife, the stake President pulled aside his wife and he said, “Hey listen, this guy, he may be a member now, but he’s not going to stick with it, he’s probably going to go back to the colony, you really should find someone else.”  But, since then however, a couple years back, the man who… they don’t call him… I want to say he’s basically their prophet, was found guilty of child molestation and is in prison right now, and that really, really for obvious reasons, splintered, I mean not splintered, but I mean like earthquaked everything that was going on there.  And since then, it’s basically woken everyone up there, and people from Pinesdale are flooding to the church.  For the longest time, the Corvalis ward was the highest baptizing ward in the mission, in this whole region because of all these families that were coming over.  The Corvalis elders have a bunch of families that are being taught, they have to call up President every other week for an interview from him, and they have to get a General Authority to come down and interview.  But it’s amazing.  So that was a really cool fireside. It did go a little long.  I think the fireside ended at…  I don’t know, what time did Brother Jessop’s fireside end at, Elder Davis?  Like 9:30, 9:45? It was something like that.  It was late, and we’re like, “We still really need to drive to Missoula.” That was an adventure and a half.  So yeah, had a ton of fun there.

Elder Zeller just finished playing some awesome b-ball. Cause he’s a stud.  Right, Elder Zeller? Sure.  That was that.  It was super spiritual and super uplifting, and I’m really excited to work with this guy.  He’s the one that gave us the personality test awhile back at that zone activity.  Found out, you know there’s the four personality types or whatever that is…  The driver, the expressive, the amiable, and the basically intellectual, but I can’t remember what the word that was used for it. I’m amiable. Like, apparently hard core, and I’m like “Okay, I’ll take it. Whatever.”  He is super fun.  Let’s see how long has this been going? 14 minutes. Okay, I’m good.

Anyways, that was Wednesday.  Thursday – weekly planning, no… Thursday, we’re back to our area, back to my house, packed up everything, I want to say did some work, went to dinner, I don’t remember what we did Thursday evening.  To be honest, Thursday and Friday was a bit of a blur.  Friday we did some weekly planning.  We went to Logging Days. No, that was Saturday.  Getting used to this whole new area has been crazy.  We had Logging Days at one point, which is a big thing over in Darby, another town we cover apparently.  Another whole ward over there.  I told you already that because of us covering two wards over here, they gave away second ward to the Lolo sisters.  They’re really happy about that, because now they actually have more work to do.  And I’m like, “That was ALL my work in Stevensville.” Sadly there’s just not really anything in First ward other than the Smith family.  Really, though. So, that’s that.  It’s really good though, because there’s a sister that’s training there.  And to be honest, covering the two wards was pretty hard for us.  But they also cover Lolo, and that’s a whole other ward there.  Their area is now huge, so it will be fun to see how that works out.

Logging days, that was cool.  It was a big community thing. We were going to it, saw that it cost money, we were like, “Oh, never mind.” We were about to leave and a lady is like, “Oh, Elders!  I know the missionaries! I’ll pay for them.”  And 15 bucks each, she just paid for us to all go in.  And we’re like, “We’re only going to be here an hour.” And she’s like, “That’s fine.” Super sweet of her, not interested, but super sweet.  In there, there really wasn’t much we could do, we stayed around and tried to talk to people for an hour, but everyone was drinking beer and just was not interested in talking to us about spiritual things.  So, I was offered more beer than probably a standard week in Butte.  It was pretty crazy.  No drugs though, so that was the upside.

I’m trying to think, I’m so sorry about this. You even told me to write down a list.  Last night we had some fun.  Ambushed Elder Crockett.  I have pictures of that.  Elder Davis has his shirt wrapped around his head, and I’m up there with an Iron Man mask, and I’m holding a semi-automatic Nerf rifle.  With a 10 round banana clip. And a standard Nerf pistol.  Apparently Elder Crockett and Elder Davis have lots of Nerf guns and have Nerf wars. I’m like, “okay!  That’s chill.” I would get some, but 1) I don’t have money for that and 2) I’m going home in 3 ½ weeks.  There’s no way I’m packing home Nerf guns.  That’s actually helped me a lot.  I’m like, “I don’t really need that. I’m kind of going home.”  I’m literally just spending all my money on food.  It’s good.  I do already spend my missionary allotment pretty wisely, but I don’t go out to eat as much because especially this next month, I’m going to have a limited allotment, because I’m only going to be there 19 days.  Take this month for instance, Elder Hand was going home so he wanted to eat out at our favorite restaurant Romeos like every day or every other day.  Which it’s great, and we get half off there, but 5-6 dollars every lunch really wears down your allotment.

I’m trying to think of what else… Honestly it was just a crazy, awesome, hectic, great week.  I need to get a haircut.  A neighbor reminded me about that.  Tomorrow, I think we have plans to call a lady about it.  I had one lined up in Stevensville, but I had to cancel it.  Because I’m now in Hamilton.  I live here in Hamilton full time.  The apartment here is nice.  Don’t have a washer and dryer, but we have members here who will let us use theirs in the guest house they have.  The same members that own this giant gym.  They are crazy awesome. 

This has been 19 minutes.  I should probably pause this, gather my thoughts, and maybe make another one as we are riding up to dinner.  I love you a ton mom. Thank you for all you’ve done for me.  Your encouraging words really did help.  You know, it’s kinda crazy to think that I’ll see you guys soon, but I really need to continue to live worthy of the Priesthood and strive to become more Christlike is the thoughts that have been going through my mind.  It’s just one of those reminders that I am going to be the only Melchezidek priesthood holder in the house right now.  I really have to strive for that, and I’m like, “Got it.”  So, ending this up, have a wonderful day, God Bless, and keep on smiling.  Bye! 

changes...

Howdy mom! 

Things are... interesting. Still good. Still sorta familiar. 

So as you heard, elder hand went home early Thursday morning. Monday we found out the news. That was probably the hardest day. Tuesday was packing/saying goodbye to families and people we work with. And Wednesday was finishing up packing, doing work, district meeting, had a fireside, then drove to Missoula. We spent the night and then drove him to the airport so he could fly out by 5 am. 

Right now I am staying with the zone leaders in Hamilton. We will be in a trio for the next 4 weeks till I come home. We still cover PART of Stevi. They took away 2nd ward and gave it to the Lolo sisters. They can take care of it better since we can only go on Wednesdays. 

Thankfully I love both of the elders I'm with. Trios can always be hard, but it can also be super fun. Like last night elder Crockett was out with a kid about to go on his mission while elder Davis and I did some work in Stevi (we had a set meeting). Elder Crockett was a little late coming back to the apartment so we ambushed them when they walked in with nerf guns :) we took a selfie I'll have to send. 

I will admit, its been super hard this last week not to get trunky. I mean, I've packed up all my stuff, sent most of it home, i have 4 weeks left, doing "My Plan" is freaking trunk steroids. But thankfully I'm with 2 super great elders who keep me going strong. 

Ok! I would love to do that! 

Personally I thought elder Hand was and will continue to be a great and wonderful missionary. He has one of the strongest work ethics I know. Always has to be doing something, which was also a great help to me. While he isn't perfect (who is?) He is certainly moving, and helping others move, in the right direction. 

Dang. I believe it. Yesterday it got up to 99 supposedly over here. Definitely hot. We were out in it picking raspberries so at least now I get to eat fresh raspberries! 

Love you a ton! 

Also here's a funny photo we took today on a dam after our morning hike/bike ride.

#bestdamphotoshootever 

#IFinnalyfiguredouthashtags

#best2years 

Drive to the doctor's office

Well, Howdy mom! Today’s been pretty busy.  So I didn’t have too much time this morning to make a voicemail, we had to be in Hamilton by 12:00.  Which means we left the house at about 10:00 to get everything done.  That’s normally when I make breakfast and make a voice recording, so right now it’s 3:48.  I’m currently driving to the Hamilton hospital, with my companion Elder Hand.  Say hi, Elder Hand.

Elder Hand - Hi, Elder Hand.

 (laughs) And, uh, we’re going to go get his news so that joke helped out a bit.  You’re going to make a really good dad some day with all those dad jokes you’ve been using.

E.H. – I know, it’s going to be the best.

My shirt is getting really tight.  I had to undo the top button.

E.H. – It’s because you’re getting fat.

True.  Being lactose intolerant was the greatest thing that ever happened for me.  And then finding out that Lactaid makes it all better is one of the worst things that ever happened to me.  So yeah, we’re heading to the hospital right now to find out whether or not Elder Hand needs surgery.  It’s been crazy this last week thinking about it because I was in his position just about almost exactly a year and a half ago.  I almost want to say it was February.

E.H. - So pretty much your six month mark?

Yeah, it was like February of 2016, yeah, just about my six month mark.  I tell you, you’re turning into me.

E.H. - No.  I will never enjoy Doctor Who or Harry Potter.

It’s alright. I said “turning”.  You’ll get there.

E.H. - Never.

So yeah, we just came from a member here in it’s like the outskirts of Hamilton and Darby…

E.H. - No, it’s like Hamilton and Corvalis.  Darby is the other direction.

So Hamilton and Corvalis.   So we used to go to this giant gym out here, the Searle’s gym, and they’re really awesome and great, but then someone found this other gym.  The members here are just rich.  Oh, there’s a cop up there.  Good thing I’m going slow.

E.H. – It looks like someone got in a wreck.

Oh… yeah.

E.H. - Oh well.

Bless their heart.

E.H. - That’s a derogatory term.

No it’s not.  Not the way I use it. It’s like saying “Hey, there’s a bloody body on the side of the road.”  In England, you’d be using some pretty strong language there.  However, if there was a bloody body on the side of the road, I wouldn’t be cursing.

E.H. - You make no sense.  We’re in Montana, nothing happens in Montana.

Farm accidents happen all the time.  Ho! Oh, that’s just a cow.  I thought it was a bull.  Or not a bull, a buffalo.

E.H. - No, that’s just a cow.

Right on the side of the road there.  Wave hi to the cop… it’s a sheriff… drive by…

E.H. - Don’t hit the back of this truck.

Hit the back of the truck… And speed off. Hit and run.  I like it.  Oh that’s not an officer, that’s just a guy talking to another guy in a truck.

E.H.- It’s a girl.

Oh.  Oh!  This week has been really good.

E.H. - Eh.

Talked to the Olson’s.  They’re the ones heading down to Gilbert.  Gave them my suitcase, packed up most of my stuff.  That was really really weird and surreal.

E.H. - He had a hundred pound suitcase by the time it was all done.

Oh, at least.  We didn’t actually weigh it, we just picked it up and “Ugh.  That thing’s heavy.”

E.H.- We couldn’t pick it up.

So, that’s coming your way.  I packed up everything heavy so that I’ll most definitely be at the 50 lb mark.

E.H. - Or below.

Oh yeah, way below. I packed up just about everything, minus white shirts, a couple slacks, one suit, my shoes obviously, garments…

E.H. - All the essentials he needs pretty much.

Basically.  I even sent my blanket home. I kept the Doctor Who blanket because that’s small and it will be my pillow on the plane, it won’t even count as a carry on so… plus it’s super light so it’s not like it would matter too much.

E.H. - Plus it will be IN your carry-on.

That’s a good point.  I’ll probably even just go like… No, I’m a missionary, I can’t do that.  I was gonna say “put my head in the little pocket thing and wear it like a cape.”

E.H. - No.

But, I’m a missionary.  So anyways there’s this gym over here that we spent preparation day at as a zone.

E.H. - You’re a goldfish man, a goldfish.

Woah! This is a brand new bowl!  This gym, it’s huge, there’s a bowling alley in there, a swimming pool, a rock wall…

E.H. - It’s like a small bowling alley.

Yeah, it’s a one lane small bowling alley, rock wall, inflatable like…

E.H. - Obstacle course

Obstacle course.  Kinda like those bouncy sets or things that you’d go on when you were six.

E.H. - A pool.

I think I said pool.  Maybe not.

E.H.- A movie theater.

There’s a movie theater… Granted half that stuff we can’t use as missionaries.

E.H. - We can’t really use the rock wall and the swimming pool.

Punk rock’s not a phase mom.

E.H. - It’s a llama, it’s not an alpaca.

Alpacas we’ve determined are punk rock.  We sheared alpacas and gave it this ridiculous haircut.  Well, not a haircut, but just the way their hair grew, like we looked at it, and were like “Oh my goodness, they are freaking punk rock.”  ANYWAYS, I’m a freaking goldfish right now. This gym was legit, we had a lot of fun there as a zone.  Got more tight.  Elder Wright and I were going to plan district meeting, but you know me, and imagine like trying to sit down and plan something with all those distractions.

E.H. - Imagine a dog…

She knows me, I tried to do homework back home.   Ooh, that’s nice and warm.  You could brand someone with that.  He has this cane with a little metal head on top, a…

E.H. - Eagle.

An eagle. Freedom!

E.H. - It’s my freedom stick.

It’s the stick of freedom.  We also have a stick of Judah, and a stick of Joseph, and that’s the stick of freedom.  So, that’s that.  We had a lot of fun today.  How long has this recording been going?  Only 7 minutes.  We’re fine.  If it reaches more than 20 minutes I can’t send it off by email.

E.H. - Are you going to send your mom that video of me making fun of your sister?

So Elder Hand wasn’t quite making fun, so he went through… Inside lane! 

E.H. – Sister Berrett, if I die, I want you to know it’s your son’s fault.

I have gotten much better at driving, I want to let you know that.

E.H. - No.

I no longer drag race on the mission.  I haven’t done that since Butte, and that was only after district meetings with the other missionaries.  And no, I wasn’t drag racing. I was kidding.  Um. Let me think.  I don’t know what are some fun things…

E.H. – you were talking about your sister thing.

Oh! He was going through my picture book and you know that picture of Madison at prom holding the balloon? And you posted a picture of her having crazy eyes apparently.  And on the other page is a picture of her normally, and that was your compromise.   Well, we thought it was… Oh! We’re in Hamilton, I know where to go.  I don’t need the GPS right now.  So, I took a video of him flipping from one page to the next, and he’s just like, I don’t know, what were you doing?

E.H. – I was just like, “I don’t see the same person!” The video makes more sense.

It’s so funny.  So we’re sending that.  Thankfully there’s wifi at the doctors office.  Elder Hand doesn’t want me to go in with him.

E.H. - Cause I’m stubborn.

Stubborn like a mule.

E.H. - That’s right! My mind is set.  No one can change it.

Man, I am really, really thirsty.  There better be a water fountain at the doctor’s office.  

E.H. - I think there is.  If not, you can ask where the hose is.

I’ll do it.  I almost did that the other day, but then I realized that we still had some clean cups.  Yeah…  Dishes are getting hard to do.  I used to be really good at them.

E.H. - Eh.  I’ve been lucky in each of my areas to have a dishwasher.

Same. Or no. I had one twice.  I had a dishwasher twice.

E.H. - Me too. I’ve been in two other areas.

That’s right, cause it’s your six months.

E.H. - Seven!  At the end of the month.

We have been doing really good this last week.  It has been stressful cause Elder Hand got his MRI this week, and we’ve just been awaiting the news.  His appointment was going to be Wednesday, but we called and basically begged to come in today.

E.H. - We didn’t beg.  We just asked. “Is there an opening?”  She’s like, “hang on.”

No, but the doctor is Mormon, and he’ll fit you in.

E.H. – (whispering something unintelligible) Metallica!

Oh, that’s that screamo band.

E.H. –  Go straight…. Metallica’s not screamo!

Well, I’m already committed.  I’m halfway turned.  The system’s a grid.  The town is a grid system.  The system’s a grid.

E.H.- Welcome to the 80’s.

Oh, ummm…

E.H. – User.

What’s that?

E.H. – Tron.

Oh.

E.H. – Welcome to the grid.

I saw the newer Tron movie like once.

E.H. – Your son is very uncultured.

I was kinda like, “That’s stupid.  I’m good.”

E.H. - It’s such a good movie!  The old one is slow…

I just watched the new one.

E.H. -The old one you’re just like, “Hmmmm.  I see what they’re doing here. It kinda sucks.”

Eh.  I have a lot of better movies I need to catch up on.

E.H. - They’re supposed to be making a second Tron.

Yeah, and they’re also supposed to be making a ‘Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog’ but clearly that hasn’t happened yet.

E.H. - That will never happen.  It’s just like the second Princess Bride book.  That’ll never happen.

Ouch.  That’s low.  So, uh…

E.H. - Easy there Speed Racer.   

Dude.  I was going like ten miles an hour.

E.H. - You still spun tires.

On the dirt.

E.H. - Yeah.

As I turned.

E.H. - Yeah.

Ok.

E.H. - Calm down.

So we’ve been nervous all week, we’re heading to it now, so that’s what’s been on our minds.   Honestly not too much to report this week, sadly

E.H. - I haven’t killed your son yet.

He hasn’t killed me yet.  So that’s been good. We haven’t had too many lessons and I haven’t been able to meet with too many people this week.  It’s been a bit of a slow week to be honest.

E.H. - Eh.  I’ve had slower. It’s been a Tuesday week.  (?)

Yeah, Tuesdays are slow. We were able to do quite a bit of service this week and that was always good.  Elder Hand can’t do too much.  We helped a guy build part of his house,

E.H. - I sat there and directed people.

Did service at the Clothes Closet.

E.H. - I sat there and directed people.

The guy said I was a really good worker when we were building his house, he had me taping off things, and helping with caulking.  I don’t know, sorry that’s about it.  Oh yeah, Duh!  Your email.  Let’s see, Madison has a C.O.W?? Um, Excuse me? I had C.O.W’s too.  I can’t really judge too much.

E.H. - I have a lot of cows.  I have 35 of them back home.

He raised cattle.  He does not have 35 girlfriends.  Um, let’s see.  There’s the office there.  Ok. We’re here.  Mom, I will type a reply when we’re in the Doctor’s office.  Love you a ton.

E.H. - Love you too!

Hope you have a great day, Elder Hand loves you too, and God Bless. Bye.