Hi! for those of you who don't know me, my name is Elder
Berrett and I have been called to serve as a missionary in the Great Falls area
of Montana!
This week has been absolutely insane, in
an absolutely great way, but totally insane. Quick recap on what happened
before I arrived in great falls is as follows: really short plane ride,
"OHMYGOODNESSIMINMONTANA!!!!!!", "ISTHATMYPRESIDENT?" "Nope that's a disgruntled non-member." "WOW! THERE"S MY
PRESIDENT!" Big hugs from all of the AP's, great food, even more hugs, intense
testimony meetings, and LOTS of rule and safety classes for the next two days.
Actually though arriving was really amazing. All 30 of us new missionaries were
met with big open arms and tons of love. I wasn't kidding about the great food
and hugs though. Also there were hours upon hours of going over rules and car
/Ipad safety and how to "use that brain of ours and not be stupid teenage
boys" apparently none of the sisters needed any of that lecturing
;)
Thankfully after two days we got to spin the WHEEL OF TRANSFERS! to
"find out where we were heading" even though it was already decided.
:) after that we were put in a few vans and shipped off to a transfer point
where we would then get in more specific cars heading to different areas. we
would arrive there by 10 and then be in our areas within a time range of 11-3. That was the plan.
Unfortunately things to always happen that way. 20 min into the drive the back tire on the trailer that we were pulling with all of our gear decided that it didn't want to be round any more, or even resemble a tire.
Also apparently our rear fender covering the tire and holding our rear lights decided that it too wanted to secede and join the tire. Pictures containing that fun adventure will follow as soon as I actually remember to bring my camera to this church. Thankfully we were only stopped there for about an hour as we repaired the car and then continued on.
We would have then only been an hour late but apparently cars need something called gas. While we were able to make it, the car containing the sisters ran out about half way to the first stop. We had traveled about 40 miles before we even realized that they weren't there and that our driver had a ton of missed calls. Thankfully it wasn't hot outside but I still felt bad for those poor sisters and having to sit there for about an hour before anyone could help.
Unfortunately things to always happen that way. 20 min into the drive the back tire on the trailer that we were pulling with all of our gear decided that it didn't want to be round any more, or even resemble a tire.
Also apparently our rear fender covering the tire and holding our rear lights decided that it too wanted to secede and join the tire. Pictures containing that fun adventure will follow as soon as I actually remember to bring my camera to this church. Thankfully we were only stopped there for about an hour as we repaired the car and then continued on.
We would have then only been an hour late but apparently cars need something called gas. While we were able to make it, the car containing the sisters ran out about half way to the first stop. We had traveled about 40 miles before we even realized that they weren't there and that our driver had a ton of missed calls. Thankfully it wasn't hot outside but I still felt bad for those poor sisters and having to sit there for about an hour before anyone could help.
Thankfully however we managed to make
it to the transfer meeting without any further delays and were only 3 hours
late. I arrived in great Falls at about 1 where I met my trainer/companion
ELDER HENDRICKS!
Let me tell you a bit about Elder
Hendricks. He is the most amazing companion ever. It was funny while we were
getting to know each other over our weekly free dairy queen (yipee!!) We were
talking about what some of our hobbies were.
Elder Hendricks: "Well lets see, some of my hobbies. Well I
enjoy running, I love singing, making jokes, love theater, reading, and being a
dork. what about you?"
Me: "This is going to be a fantastic companionship"
He's unfortunately not that big into Doctor Who, but not
everyone's perfect.
Elder Hendricks is a fantastic missionary. Apparently he's
only been out six weeks and already training but he's doing a fantastic job. He
has personally helped to triple my testimony and in my love for the gospel. He
already seems like a pro at the whole missionary thing so lets hope that six
weeks will help get rid of some of my awkwardness too :)
This "week" out in the field
has been pretty hilariously hectic. Unfortunately within an hour of picking up
our car from the zone leaders the thing just shut off in the middle of an
intersection. then again on a bridge a few feet away. Then finally died in a
U-haul parking lot that we hurried and pulled into. Thankfully the meeting that
we were heading to with the rest of our district got canceled so we all pushed
the car into a bank parking lot so it wouldn't be towed then. After that we got
a ride from a member back to our place where we had bikes so we've just been
using them for now. We did eventually get our car working long enough to take
it into a shop thankfully where apparently they had repaired it a week earlier
after hitting a frikin' DEER. They think that might have something to do with
it. but hopefully our car should be fixed soon.
The weather here has been crazy. It was
both sunny and pouring my first day here, then it rotated between light rain,
pouring, HAIL, and pleasant sunshine. And that's all in three days. While the
hail wasn't too much fun everything else here has been.
Apparently I came into what we call a
"hot" area. While I wish that meant hot temperature I'm still happy
with what it really means. We currently have 6 baptisms lined up, 11
investigators, and a ton of member reactivation. Everyone here is so nice even
if they say no. While tracting (which we only do an hour a day because we
are so busy) we ran into one lady who said that she wasn't interested but
offered us some pop and told us that if we ever need anything to come talk to
her. Amazing. Also the members here are so incredibly nice, while a lot of them
are going through struggles or hard times, everyone is so willing to help the
work progress. It's funny just about the only days that we aren't being fed
dinner are Preparation days and that's because our schedule is so crazy those
days that we have to say sorry. I'm going to get so fat here. From free ice
cream to everyone offering food and treats. At least we have been biking a ton. Also
the land here isn't flat like Gilbert. Oh no. You want to ride your bike down
the block? It's going to be uphill. Both ways. Soon in the snow :)
Great Falls is amazing. All of the
members keep saying how sorry they are that this has to be my first experience
of Montana and how it isn't even green here. They call it the "armpit of
Montana" but wow. EVERYTHING IS GREEN. I don't understand. So beautiful.
Oh funny story, so both my companion and
I are really forgetful. He's basically a slightly more organized me. It's been
really interesting having to knock back on doors because one of us left keys,
watches, books. We even got locked out of the church once because we left our
keys inside and had to have the bishop come and unlock it.
Thank you all so much for emails. I love
reading them all and will reply soon, probably in the next hour or so. I
sincerely hope that you are all still doing well and that you all know that I
really care about you. Apparently I actually have to go because our ride is
here to take us to the store.
I will reply to more emails soon and send some pictures!
Never give up, Never surrender!
-Elder Berrett
--
LLAP
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