The diary of a geeky Missionary

Dear diary, this week was definitely interesting. So remember how we ended up dropping all of our investigators this last week? Well, because we have been on bikes all this week, we totally found 2 solid potential investigators! One of the coolest parts is that there is no way we would have ran into them if we hadn't been on bikes. They are both these amazing older ladies, and while for the life of me I can't remember their names, I have them written down in the Area Book, I am so pumped for our lessons with them. We are stopping by one today so I'll give an update on how that goes next week. Apparently biking all week hasn't been to good on my knees. Hopefully we will get our car back today. They tried to fire it up again on Friday, but a brace on the timing belt apparently broke and flew out nearly nailing somebody so they are taking it apart to see what else is wrong with it. Thank goodness for warranty. I'd hate to have the church pay for all of this. And all because I took it in to see why the dummy light has been on. :) (he found out later in the day his car will be in the shop for another week.) 

Other than that, not too much has happened this week. Oh! I did get my MRI finally. :) While I won't know anything on it until tomorrow, it's finally nice to know that I am on track to getting this knee thing solved. My companion said he could just cut off my legs, but I think I'll keep them, after all, how can I run that marathon with Sister Granados in a few years if I don't have legs :) I'm a little nervous that I'll end up going home, but at the same time excited to just find out what is going on. I seriously just want this pain to stop. Its super annoying, I practically collapsed last night at the church (the other elders drove us all there since WIFI at Great Harvest sucked) and wasn't able to really walk. It freakin' took me what felt like 10 min just to walk up the stairs to our house :/. Thankfully I'm around great people who helped carry my bike up and helped me a lot of the night. #ELDERHASKINS #ELDERHENDRICKS #ELDERMILLS

Oh! This week I also went on an exchange with the Zone leaders! Of course I went with Elder Hendricks, What a boss, and had a blast with him! Those two solid potentials hat I was talking about, I found them with him. :) Seriously, I don't know what it is about exchanges, but miracles always happen when we do them. :)

We totally were caught in a freak storm, so we took shelter behind a dumpster and of course the only thing that my companion and I were wearing were sweaters :) Idjits :) Thankfully it hit at the end of the day so the Zone leaders pulled up by Great Harvest (Where we all go at the end of the day) right before we were about to make a little Hobo Hut with some cardboard in the Dumpster. Have I explained why we go to Great Harvest? I promise no disobedience. Free-Wifi. We go there at the end of the day to report lessons/ Update our area-book. 

I totally had an amazing Easter Weekend! Originally we didn't have a dinner but Bro. Guthrie in the other ward fed us, and the other Elders dinner :) It was a great! The funny part was that as we were driving off, we some how ended up in a discussion on who we would marry if we had to pick someone from the mission. It was a glorious laugh :) Holidays are honestly a little weird on a mission, for a little bit it doesn't really feel like a Holiday, but then in Christmas' and Easter's case, all I can focus on is the Savior and All that he did for me, it truly makes them a little more magical. I totally forgot about eggs and everything until just right now reading your email. 

Well I need to go off to go eat dinner at our house. Talk to you later!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

Apparently they were all in matching gray sweaters, but Elder Mills (in red below) really hates matching, so they had to make a pit stop on the way to the church so he could change. 

So while I'm being driven home, I'm going to email a little but and then let my IPad send this off when I get to WIFI. #STILLCONSECRATED

So I just got told by my Zone Leaders that I'm not allowed to bike anymore until I get my results from my doctor. Sooo we are grabbing some food real quick then they are going to leave us at the church in the Family History center to call and try to get some work done that way. Soooo expect a few posts on Facebook tonight. :)

Let me see what else.... Honestly, I just want you to know that I love you guys so much. I can't tell you how often I find myself doing or remembering something that you guys taught me, even if it's something that I haven't necessarily acted on yet. While I totally still have a lot of growing up to do, I'd like to think I'm making progress :)

Oh! I got your package today. It's GLORIOUS! I love these ties so much! And the books! And the caramels (I gave them out to the other elders and my companion) and the Picture of Christ! We now have a picture of Christ that we can put in our apartment! I'm so pumped!

Oh. Thanks for the Rolos :)

Love you!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

Hellooooooooo!

Hello everyone!

This week was, honestly, interesting :) I'm not sure where exactly to start soooo the beginning!

Tuesday: ZONE CONFERENCE!! This was a wonderful and amazing conference, while Christmas is still hands down my favorite, this was amazing! One of my favorite parts, was getting to perform the Gentle Healer, a 4 part a Capella song, it was amazing! I got to perform it in front of about 1/3 of the mission and the Mission President and his wife! Stressful, but awesome! Elder Hendricks is such a boss! He sang the melody and was absolutely Glorious, like we're talking Flo Glorious!

After that the missionaries from Deer Lodge stayed the night with us then we all drove up to Deer Lodge the next day for baptismal interviews! Unfortunately what was supposed to be 4 different interviews turned into 1. Which I had to defer to president. I just felt so bad. I mean I just got word from the Deer Lodge elders that she passed the interview today, but it was still sad. At that point, because of the interview time we had to stay in Deer Lodge that night, however we got to eat at Broken Arrow, possibly one of the greatest burger places of all time :). The best part is that one of the most gracious members there paid for it all :) amazing :).

A jacket that I found in Deer Lodge :) unfortunately it's another elder's, however he gave me a nice pair of leather gloves :).  Apparently steering wheels get cold, so I use them to drive with.

The next day (Thursday) was St. Patrick's day. And, as anyone who's served in/been to Butte knows, that's the day that you lock your door, load the shotgun, and pray that you're left alone. Thankfully, because our house is too far in uptown to be safe, we got to spend the day at the church watching 17 Miracles, then eat at the Zone leaders house.  It was a nice needed rest. Granted I was freakin' worried about all of our people in uptown, but thankfully the worst that happened was a less active that we are working with got insanely beat up and ended up in the hospital for a few days. But no gun shot wounds! Yay!

So my knee.....it's interesting. I'm not really sure where to start. I've seen several doctors about it so far. This week I just got in with an orthopedic surgeon, . He took a look at my knee and immediately recommend that we post pone physical therapy until after I get an MRI, they called insurance and got it approved last I heard so, yay :) The sucky part is that that the doctor who looked at me pretty much asked if I wanted the surgery to be in Butte or home. He said he isn't 100% sure that I'm going to have a surgery, but judging that this has been a constant pain for the last 7 months, that my knee shouldn't really pop like that, and the various random pain, he thinks he'll be recommending me for surgery when we go over the MRI results on the 29th. My zone leaders and I think that it I'm confirmed for surgery by Salt Lake then I'll go home at the transfer on April 6th. I don't think I'll go home personally, but that's just all that I've been told. I know it's a lot of blegh, but I'm choosing to think positively until I meet with the doctor on the 29th. But ya. That's where I'm at :) I totally want to stay, hope I'll stay, everyone in my district thinks I'm leaving but I'm ready to prove some people wrong. :) 

Other than all of that this week was fairly slow, also we ended up dropping everyone. Seriously. It just slowly happened over the entire week.  Sorry I have to go. I love you all! I know that the atonement is amazingly real! And I know that the Lord definitely has people prepared who are ready to accept the gospel. I love you all!

 

Nick and his new companion Elder Haskins

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

Additional excerpts from an email shared with me between Nick and a friend- and btw

(I asked if he’d heard about a friend passing away)

No. I, haven't heard that at all. Wow. That's so weird to think about. I'll be keeping her family in my prayers. That's terrible. It is true though. We have a less active that we are working with who has been fighting, and sadly really losing, a battle with cancer. At our last lesson he asked us to pray that he will die. Because we aren't family, we are just praying that he will receive comfort, however that will be. Wow. Thanks for letting me know. 

Yes I do have a crock pot, :) it is glorious, absolutely glorious. I absolutely love crock pot recipes, especially since I have discovered crock pot liners which means literally no clean up :) as a missionary there are a few times like the lunch hour or maybe if you forgot something or really have to use the bathroom and it's the only place you trust because ghetto, but other than that, we pretty much stay out. Unless we are in training, or training a new missionary, we leave the house by 10 and, apart from lunch and dinner (unless we are eating with a member) we don't get back till 9.

Ok. Driving is really weird after not driving for a while. The other day, Well 2 transfers ago, when I became district leader and started driving, it was weird. Also I was terrible. Thankfully no cops saw but I totally ran 2 lights and 3 stop signs. :/ Since then I've been great though, thankfully. :) 

So I just watched 27 or 17 (I can't remember) Miracles for the first time this St. Patrick's day (Since we aren't allowed to go outside here, too many drunk people, apparently 18 people died last year) and while it is totally the most amazing movie ever, I'm pretty sure that my heart just got completely shredded. Especially when that little midget on the crutches died. And I can't even remember his name! All I remember is that he was English and was always saying "superb!" But ya.

Happy Pi Day!!

Good afternoon everyone and Happy Pi Day!

This week was quite the week, honestly. It's not every week that you loose a companion to surgery and then get a new one returning from a surgery :)

Concerning my knee, I do finally have a doctor appointment for this Wednesday, so more to follow there. :) 

This week I got to meet the wonderful Elder Haskins. Let me tell you about Elder Haskins. What. A. Guy. You know that you are going to have an awesome companion when your first morning with him, you get out of the shower to find that he made you both a giant egg and bacon breakfast. But seriously, this elder is THE BOMB!  He has the most amazing enthusiasm for the work, it practically radiates off of him.  :) He is so excited to be out of the MTC and in the field (he was in the MTC for 6 months serving in the Referral department. Poor guy. All of that MTC food. He said he gained 80 pounds there. Poor guy.) Also he's from Florida, and we totally get along :) as far as outside Interests, I'm honestly not sure. Oh. WAIT. How could I forget. HE'S A WHOVIAN!! He has a giant blanket of the TARDIS Exploding and it's the greatest thing ever. He's pretty fantastic :) 

Unfortunately I didn't get to go to Billings. :/ Literally the morning of, there was a freak blizzard and my Zone Leaders called asking if I was sure that I wanted to drive. It was actually a little funny, apparently there are these three awful dangerous passes that you have to go through to get to Billings. I say it's funny, because as they are telling me about the road conditions I had to stop them and ask them what a pass was. Apparently that just about decided it for them that I probably shouldn't make the drive. :) I did end up praying about it though and felt like I really shouldn't either so we let elder Mills drive down. Good thing too, apparently they almost died a few times thanks to pass's and Ice. At one point a semi nearly collided into them because it was sliding. Ya. 

Other than getting a new companion though, it has been a slow week.  Also we have to go turn in our car for even more repairs. Apparently our engine "Broke" or something. Man I wish I knew a little more about cars. Something about oil burning and stuff.

 

Due to our bishops counsel, he's had us either drop most of our investigators or give them over to the sisters. Thankfully though, we have been getting some referrals indulging a self referral from someone at the Pre-release here who wants to turn his life around :) I love teaching there, you get to meet so many repentant souls and honest people, all of our most solid less-actives have all come from there, amazing place :)

Our investigator is doing alright. We are pretty much just teaching Lloyd now. Technically we are still teaching Randa, but I think bishop wants us to drop her too (but since the spirit told us not to we will just teach her in secret :) ) But ya. Lloyd, as we found out this week, is still struggling. We found out that he picked back up smoking, we caught him, but he hurry and hid it from us so, we aren't sure how to bring that up to him at the moment but hopefully he'll come out and tell us so we can help him. :)

Also this week, Elder Haskins and I deep cleaned our apartment, set a ton of mouse traps, and installed a fire alarm and a CO2 Alarm :) hopefully should be up to code now :) its been quite the adventure honestly, Oh! we found out why our oven kept catching on fire, apparently there was a ton of stuff underneath the stove top left from the former occoupants, we cleaned all of that up so hopefully it should be good now. The less I have to use a fire extinguisher, the better :) After we deep cleaned it we texted sister Wadsworth, who LOST it on us at interviews when she found out about our apartment, but she told us that she was proud. :)

You know, mission presidents and their wives are so wonderful, They truly are basically your parents away from home. :) I truly feel like I have a relationship with both my mission president and sister Wadsworth and its wonderful! They have both helped me so much, wether it be advice, counsel, or even just love. I'm fairly certain that mission presidents and their wives are basically perfect, and the only reason they haven't been translated is because we all have to learn from them. :)

Other than that, like I said, not too much has happened this week. I'm really pumped for next week though, not only do I have 4 Baptismal interviews that I get to do next week followed by 4 baptisms. But it's St. Patrick's day! The day where missionaries who serve in Butte don't get to leave their house, or wherever they are at that day because it's too dangerous outside. Apparently we don't even get to stay in our house because it's too far uptown and too many people get shot/stabbed/mugged. We pretty much just get to party all day in the church safe in the other side of town.

Well we need to get to dinner. Love you all!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

No email this week

While it's true he didn't actually send out an "official email", I did get a bit of a back and forth exchange in the morning, and he sent me a few random pictures, and I found a picture of him on facebook, so I'm including that. As usual, my part is italicized.  

Elder Berrett-

How are you this fine Monday Morning?

So, we still haven’t gotten your promised letter from a couple weeks ago, and it just occurred to me that I never heard the story behind using the fire extinguisher for the second time. 

Speaking of stuff I’m anxiously waiting for, have any pictures for me? I stole that fish one off your fb page, but the quality isn’t as good as if you were to email it to me. 

Good morning mom! This week has been interesting to say the least. 

Sorry about that letter. I've been writing, and editing, and adding more. I really should send it off but more stuff keeps coming up that I want to include. It's already like 4 pages front and back. 

Things are alright. So remember how my companion did something to his ankle? Well we got an urgent call from the medical coordinator the other day telling us that he needs more X-Rays ASAP. Apparently he REALLY did something to his ankle. They are sending him home for surgery and recovery. Poor guy :/. I am driving his down to Billings tomorrow. Spending the night. Then driving up with my new companion on Wednesday who is actually returning, funny enough, from an ankle surgery. Ya. I'm going to practice a song right now with elder Hendricks, more to follow on that in my letter. Love you!

How are things?  How is Butte treating you?  Do you have your car back?

Let me think, Butte is treating us pretty good. We have been on bikes all week. Thankfully we get to borrow someone else's car tomorrow for the drive, then get our car back on Wednesday! So tonight is our last night on bikes! (Which is really nice since my knee gave out last night and I wasn't really able to move with it at all. :/. )

Have you been able to go to physical therapy, and if so, how’s that going?

Physical therapy, I have not been able to get in with the doctor yet. They are still waiting on my X-Rays from the MTC. I think it might need a little more than Physical therapy. Hopefully not, but I could have sworn I felt stuff moving around in my knee before it gave out. I'll find out what's going on soon hopefully. :) 

How are your investigators?  In particular Elder Guthrie’s cousin, and Joshua, and Lloyd?  I think those are the only ones you’ve mentioned in the past few weeks?  Any others you want to share?

Our investigators are doing alright, let's see in order, Rachel (Elder Guthries cousin) is doing alright. She said that she would come to church, she didn't, but she still wants to be baptized, so we will see where that goes. Joshua is alright, we referred him over to the other elders since he apparently lives right on the border, unfortunately in the wrong side, so he's actually in second Ward. Lloyd is doing pretty good though, he finally found a job at Walmart! He is so excited! It's amazing to see him slowly turn his life around :) honestly we don't have too much others. We have a few others that we are teaching but will probably be dropping soon. :/ 

Maddie did the lights for “Campo Idol” this weekend.  She got “A special thanks”  and a huge applause (cause most of the audience was choir and drama kids.)

 Wow. Go Mad! She seriously is Berrett2.0. Definitely better :). Also can I just point out the irony in her doing lights then getting applauded. :P  (lights are her least favorite part of tech theatre)

(I think the following was his way of telling me there wouldn't be his regular email this week)

I love you! Sorry the other elders have been running us around like crazy, I guess I'll be sending you like a 10 page letter. I promise I WILL send it off by Wednesday. That way you will hopefully get it by Saturday. Oh! I just found out I'm going to the temple tomorrow!! Bye!

Never give up, Never Surrender!
-Elder Berrett

Week (Insert some number here)

Good afternoon everyone!

Sorry again for the late email, it's been an awesome day!

My knee is doing pretty good! I have sorta received some word. Apparently some time today, I am going to receive a call telling me when I get to go to physical therapy :). It's going to be a little tough this week since we just turned in our car for repairs and we don't get it back till Friday or Saturday. But than that it's been Great! I did just buy some new ibuprofen thanks to my companion pointing out that my giant thing of ibuprofen was 6 years expired. :) 

So this week was absolutely astounding! Get this! We got an amazing investigator named Joshua! He is actually the nephew of our investigator on date, his parents are both less actives (and not too

interested) but he absolutely loves the gospel! Unfortunately, because with people like this there always seems to be an unfortunately, we found out that he doesn't live in our area :/. He lives in an apartment complex that we thought was in our area, but were informed by the sisters that that is indeed in their area. Oh well! At least he is continuing to progress :). That's all that matters :)

Also this week I had the most amazing opportunity to go on an exchange in Deer Lodge! Let me tell you, those elders are absolutely rocking it! I had the pleasure of meeting most of their progressing investigators on date (Yes multiple) and then had the next great opportunity to set up baptismal interviews with each of them :) they work is definitely hastening in Deer Lodge!

In Deer lodge I also had the opportunity to get to serve in a senior center kitchen :). It was quite the experience! It truly reminded me not only how important it is to serve, but how rewarded you feel after serving! My companion and I this week will definitely be hunting down some great service opportunities :) Oh! Also in Deer Lodge we ran into probably one of the most hilarious people that I have ever met. I can't remember his name for the life of me (and can't put it in this email anyways). To start off I want you to know that he is one of the whitest people that I have ever met, myself included, and when we met him one of the first words that came out of his mouth was that he was part of the Mexican gang in secret and that we should be scared. He then invited us in and showed us all of his stuff, Including a 1970 edition of the triple combination that he gave me!!! I had some funny pictures but I forgot to get them from Elder Patterson so I'll have to wait till next week to send them :/

Other than that, not too much happened this week. We did have the unfortunate experience of being dropped by one of our investigator couples, apparently they didn't actually like us coming over and never wanted to tell us, until they snapped and cursed us out. Oh well. It happens.

Oh! But get this, I just found out that I have an interview with president this week! I am so excited! President Wadsworth is literally one of the most caring men on the planet, I always learn so much from him. :) it's going to be amazing!

I hope that you all have a most truly FANTASTIC week and hope that all is going well! I love you all!

Yes that cake WAS a good as it looked. Amazing in fact :) I loved it :) 

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

P.S. For a truly amazing spiritual experience, go watch the addiction recovery videos on LDS.org I've been watching those (each one Is a video of one of the 12 steps and someone's personal experience going through them.) they are so touching and have truly brought me to examine my life and think about how I can better apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ in my life. There has seriously not been a single one that has brought me close to tears. I love them all so much. Elder Hendricks and I joked that we might have to start to program to get off the addiction  of watching them :)

Anyways we need to go to dinner :) I love you all!

-Elder Berrett