Visit to the ER

Nick's p-day ends at 5:00 and at 4:50 this was the only email I received -

Sorry I haven't said too much. At hospital and can't talk. More to follow

Seriously.  That was it. I wanted to reach into the computer and shake him.  So I immediately responded - "ARE YOU OKAY???" 

Fortunately he responded back after a few minutes -

Yes. My poor companion broke something on his leg/ankle and I had to rush him over here. Sorry I meant to say that I was ok. :) love you! 

I thought that was going to be all I got for the week, at least I knew he was okay, (I had visions of him sliding out of control in his car and being seriously hurt, but obviously not hurt bad enough to be able to email me a one line message) but thankfully found this in my inbox this morning- 

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't said too much today, I've been at the ER with Elder Guthrie and just got some time now. Poor guy :/ he broke something playing pod-ball, we aren't sure what yet but it was a loud crack that we all heard so there's that. :/

So update: I'm now writing this at around 7:30 tonight. We just got off the phone with president and we came up with a game plan of where to proceed from here. Elder Guthrie apparently tore some ligaments, enough that the doctor said he will probably be referred to an orthopedic surgeon. Poor guy :/ at least he's got a loving companion with him :) We are on bed rest for a couple of days but I'll find ways to entertain him :)

This week has been quite the crazy adventure. Let's start at the beginning I guess :) (also please forgive, I don't have my journal on me now.)

So this week started out with my first District meeting! It was absolutely Fantastic! The spirit was so strong! It was on goal setting and how to keep ourselves accountable to them. It rocked!

After district meeting I had the amazing opportunity to go on an exchange in deer lodge, which is amazing! Not only do they get free food at this awesome BBQ place but I got to put a whole family on date for baptism! They have to get married first and are getting married on the 20th. Of Feb. and instead of waiting 3-4 months like they were thinking we invited them to be Baptized on  their wedding dat (only since its at the church already and the bishop is marrying them :)) So that was awesome! They really liked that idea and wondered why they had not thought of that earlier! Their love for the Gospel is amazing and I am so excited to interview them in a few weeks!

This week was a little slow lesson wise, we had a ton cancel on us, but hey, that's missionary work! We did have a couple of little fun things happen though! We met one man named Lloyd (yes seriously, I was dying! Spelled exactly like Lloyd the auditorium Ghost back home) who is married to a less active member. We have only taught them really once, but the whole lesson was amazing! The best part was that at the end, he asked us if he could be baptized! I was so thankful! It's wonderful moments like that that really make up for the other times.  Like the fact that our wonderful old lady Jean totally dropped us this week. She said that she knew that the gospel was true, she was just too old to change. I understand that everyone has their agency, it's just still sad. :/

One funny thing happened though! While my companion and I were contacting some less-active people in Silver Bow homes (A lower income housing area) one (Extremely) drunk guy came running up to us and started practically confessing his sins to us! It was crazy! My companion and I were so shocked we weren't really sure how to proceed at first but we finally were able to explain to him that we really aren't the people that he should be talking to about that. We asked if he would want us to come by sometime and talk to him some more about the repentance process and about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but he said he was good. He did leave us with some great parting advice to "Try to not get crucified" though! I felt bad but it was definitely a much needed laugh. :)

Sorry for the late email, but it's been crazy with the ER and prescriptions and being on the phone with President and Sister Wadsworth forever. Thankfully president gave us permission to quickly write these. :) also, as a bright side, I'll have a bit more time to write letters these next few days! Also I'm trying to finish the New Testament again so perhaps I can get that done too!

I love you all and am so thankful for the work!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

More Extras

I got another random text from someone in Nick's mission- 

The exchange went something like this - 

"Having the gang over for dinner and a lesson.  I made carne asada home made so the boys would feel like home."

"Thank you for taking care of my boy!! Mexican food is his favorite! And thank you for texting me! PS I laughed when I saw the hot sauce in front of Elder Berrett's plate.  Some things never change.:)"

"He says he loves his hot sauce."

Christopher and Maddie both got letters this week. (And I realized I never included a letter that Zach received back in December, so if you want to scroll down to December 12 and check that one out...)

Hi Christopher!

How are you doing today?  Do you enjoy your xbox?  Corrine is so awesome!

Christopher, I just saw a video of you sledding down a hill! That's so cool! Yesterday Elder Guthrie and I did that too!  We were silly, we accidentally went sledding inside our car! It was very silly :)

I saw the train by our house the other day!  It was really long!  It was blue and yellow, and green.

What did you learn about at school this week?  Did you have music or PE?

I love you Christopher!  Have fun!

-Elder Berrett


Madison!!

How are you doing?  I'm doing pretty awesome today :) It's Sunday morning, I just got a little extra long shower and I made pancakes :) Great morning.

Oh dang, I just finished getting ready and now I have 3 minutes before personal study.  Sorry, I'll finish this letter tonight, I won't have a lunch today because we have too many lessons :) Love you! Oh, and real quick, if you haven't seen the church's New Year video yet, look it up.  It's called Look Not Behind Thee.  It's freaking hilarious.

Hey!  So a lesson cancelled and now we have a 30 minute lunch! Today has been crazy! While we only had one investigator show up at church, she told us she wants to get baptized!  We have our FIRST lesson with her on Thursday so I'll tell you how that goes later.

Also at church today I found out that my love for people has been holding the work back. There are a few less actives and an that we have that I have just wanted to help for months.  They all let us in and are very nice, but just aren't changing. ;/ I asked the ward council today what to do with them, ie how do I help them progress, and they all said the same thing, "drop them."  Bishop said that if they aren't ready, they aren't ready.  Nothing I do right now will help them, and then our efforts as missionaries can be better spent elsewhere :/  So ya, that happened.

Other than that however I have been Fantastic!  Oh we do have a lesson to get to now, TTYL, Bye!

Hey again!  We just had the most insane day!  We just taught our first lesson to Elder Guthrie's cousin (who lives in our ward and isn't a member) and she loved it!  We taught the restoration and her dad (a member) was testifying the whole time, and it was amazing! He will be inviting her to be baptized next lesson, and we totally think she will say yes :)

Oh, I finally finished training calls with the sisters and they are doing amazing!  Sister Nichols (from Gilbert) is finishing up her training and is doing amazing!  I swear, if elders were as good missionaries as sisters, then all of Montana would be baptized by now.

Well I should probably get heading to bed now.  It's 10:00 and I'm pretty exhausted.  We did a ton of work this week, it was amazing!  I'll tell you guys all about it in my email tomorrow.  You rock!  The Force is strong in you!

Never Give up, Never surrender!!
- Elder Berrett

excerpts from some personal letters

It is so hilarious how much I have gotten used to the cold, I remember one time a week or two ago I remarked to my ward mission leader how warm it was outside... He told me it was 12 degrees F.  12 degrees!!  Granted we had just had a week of around -20 but still! It's crazy, I love it! One day it's -15 the next it's 38 and I'm dying of heat stroke :) How do I feel about the snow? I'm not the biggest fan of driving in it, however we have gotten to meet tons of nice people who help to push/dig us out all the time :) that's just life here :) I do love the snow though. At first, I'll admit, I thought it just looked like a giant awful frozen wasteland. But I have totally come to love it, while I know it's going to be awful to drive in, I'm still totally giddy every time it snows. :)

I can't believe that Elder Holland is in Gilbert right now!! (I'm writing this on Saturday) I can't wait to hear all about it!

Also sorry about the late response, but yes I got them both and they are amazing! Thank you so much!!! I have already added the recipes that you have given me to a little mission cookbook that I have.  I get really good recipes from members all the time here :)  (Mom here- I can't tell you how proud of my kid for collecting recipes. I didn't even tell him to. I can seriously picture him eating dinner at someone's house "This is seriously amazing!  Can I get the recipe?"  Of course I hear he eats a lot of elk...)

I love you all so much! I was reading in Helaman 3:32 and I love this: "And it came to pass that there was Peace and Exceedingly Great Joy in the remainder of the forty and ninth year..." I truly love this because it is so true.  This is what the Gospel brings.  It won't be easy, but it's totally worth it, in this life, and in the next.  This is my testimony and I know that this is true.

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!
-Elder Berrett

HELLOOOOO!

Hello everyone! 

This week was absolutely insane, Fantastic, miraculous, and superb!

So to start off, WE HAVE 4 NEW INVESTIGATORS! I am seriously jumping for joy right now, we are so excited! Their names are Bob, Dan, Ian, and Elder Guthrie's cousin Rachel. It is truly an amazing miracle. One of the coolest parts is that both Ian and Rachel have expressed desires to be Baptized! It is truly an amazing miracle and a testament of what you said last week that "The Lord does micro-manage our areas". I truly believe this, it is just our responsibility to let the lord and put ourselves in a place where the lord can work through us. Sorry for that short comment, that's just something that I have truly learned this week. As we truly strive to be consecrated, and let The Lord work through us, we WILL see miracles. 

So one of the coolest experiences I got to have this week, was attending and being apart of Rachel's (elder Guthrie's cousin) lesson. It was amazing! The spirit was so strong and I absolutely loved being there! One of my favourite parts was when the whole family testified of the temple and how amazing it is that they are almost all sealed there and what that means to them. We were all almost in tears (not counting the baby) and it was truly Fantastic!

Another amazing part of this week was that this week, we also ran into an amazing man, Jeremy, who has been less-active for the better part of his life, well long story short, he ended up running up to us on the street and told us that he misses the church terribly and wants to get back in it. I am so excited! This has been one of the greatest weeks of my life! I am so thankful that the lord has trusted us with this great responsibility! I love this work and this, Jesus Christ's church, terribly. I love you all!

Received this random surprise text this week.
"Elders over for dinner.  Wanted me to send this to you. Greetings from Butte." 

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

Same area, new companion, new responsibilities

Helllooo everyone!

This week I got to have the truly awesome opportunity to be Companions with Elder Guthrie! Let me tell you a bit about him. He is from Blythe, California and loves the work! While we don't really have too much in common, we both love The Lord :).  It's actually pretty funny, Elder Guthrie is totally quiet and doesn't really say much, unless Josh Groban starts playing then he starts Belting it! I was so shocked when I first heard him, I hadn't really heard his voice too much and then this, it was awesome! We now rock out to Josh Groban all of the time and have fun with that :)

Our investigators in Butte are doing really awesome too! This last week we had another awesome lesson with our investigator, Andrea! I'm not sure if I've told you guys about her yet but she is so awesome! We taught her the Plan of salvation this last time and she loves it! The coolest thing is that most of the stuff that we taught she already believed and knew to be true, like how we lived with Heavenly Father before this time and that thanks to Christ we can live with him again!  It's really fun to teach her because apparently her sister is a recent convert in Ohio and has really impacted her sister (that we are teaching) :). I'm really excited about her too because we have another lesson lined up with her for this Wednesday and we have both the Relief Society president and the Primary president coming with us to fellowship her :). She rocks!

This week was also my first week being District Leader and it's definitely less stressful that I thought it would be :)  While planning District Meetings can still be a little stressful, I love getting the opportunity to truly know each of he missionaries in my district and help minister to them :).  It has been amazing as I have met with each of them, set goals with them, and help them continue to come closer to Christ :). One of my favorite things so far has been talking with them about their investigators and less actives and truly seeing the love that they all have for the people that they are working with :). Amazing!

I'm sorry that I don't have too much time for a spiritual thought today, but I will bear my testimony:). I know that this church is true.  I have had people yell at me, throw things at me, and tell me that I cannot know that and that I am a liar. But I have felt the spirit testify too powerfully to deny that I know that this church is true. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. And I know that he continues to guide us, just like he did in times of old with Prophets and Apostles. I am so thankful for our savior Jesus Christ, who died for all of us, so that we can live with Heavenly Father again. :) I love this gospel and love all of you!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

House pictures

Nick sent me a bunch of pictures of the inside of his apartment.  Apparently most of them came with captions, but they somehow didn't make it through.  Most of the pictures are pretty self-explanatory.  There was only one I asked for some clarification. 

Living room :) Usually the place where Companionship study/Nightly planning happens.

Upon noticing that the only thing on his bed was the blanket I sent him a couple months ago, and the red reindeer antlers that appeared in another picture (added to a Christmas post below) I flipped out a little- "Do you not have any sheets?!?!?  And no pillow?!?! Go to Wal-Mart!! And then make your bed!"

"I was washing them, just like I promised at Christmas :) Are you not getting any of these emails? I have sheets, a pillow, a great blanket :) I'm good :)"

Week # (I lost track after week 3 so) 42

Good Afternoon everyone!

This week was crazy! To start off, we now have 3 progressing Investigators! I feel a little bad, but I honestly didn't think that this could happen to our area in one Transfer. We had such a small teaching pool and a few other investigators but now it's awesome.  Clearly this is the Lord extremely humbling me and really teaching me that all things are truly possible in his work :)

Another cool thing that happened this week was that we found out that Sis. Morris (Our new convert) apparently knows really well one of our Other Investigators who is struggling and is fellowshipping her now!

It's so cool! I am so thankful for members who get active in the work and are truly able to help bring their friends closer to Jesus Christ.

Also this week Elder Wessendorf and I somehow miraculously met out goal of 20 lessons! While it's not a lot, it's been a ton for our area, I can't wait to see what we can do next transfer!

This week we also got Transfer news! Elder Wessendorf is leaving me :(  but I get Elder Guthrie who is supposedly a really freakin' awesome elder! So I can't wait! Fortunately, Elder Wessendorf  will still be thankfully in the same zone so we will still see each other at least twice next transfer. :)  I will be staying here in Butte as District Leader and get to have that experience!  Me! Little 3 transfers under my belt me. While I know that it's revelation from the lord, I'm still a little stressed out. I am literally responsible for the Administering/Ministering of my District. That and I also plan/conduct district meeting every week, which in presidents words should be "The most spiritual and uplifting meeting of the week next to Sacrament meeting." I do get to conduct Baptismal interviews though so that's kind of cool. But ya. Sorry for that rant. I know that I can do it, just a little stressed out. It was kind of cool when president told me about this and my new companion though, he told me that while this is new to me, he knows that I will be amazing at it because of my loving nature. :) so that was nice. :) I hope that I can live up to Presidents expectations! 

Oh also apparently District leader is always Senior Companion so apparently I'm driving now. :/ I'll let you know how that goes :) 

I hope that you all have a most Fantastic week! I love you all!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett