We saw horses!

Good Morning Morning Everyone!

This week was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!! Seriously!

I just got back from an awesome Campfire Picnic/ Hike with the District. We saw horses! 

My knee is totally doing a ton better! I was even able to go on a multiple mile mountainous hike, yes with minimal jumping off of rocks :) but I totally did it without any trouble!  Some pictures will follow but most will be coming next week when I get the photos from sister Granados.   When spring hit I was so freakin happy :) Granted, it's still Montana so it still snows randomly, however it's so wonderful to see green :). Thankfully lately all we've been getting is rain, but it's been known to snow on the 4th of July here.

Also! Quick thought that elder Hendricks said, when was the last time someone could say that they had both of their trainers in one picture? :) 

So this week we found ANOTHER solid new investigator! His name is Britt and he is seriously one of the coolest guys ever. Brit was a referral from an active member actually in the other ward who called us and told us that he was interested in learning about the church, when we heard this we were stoked! Something that made it even cooler was that on Wednesday (our lesson was on Friday) we got a text from her saying that instead of at his house he wanted to have it at the church! For those of you who don't know, having a lesson at the church is amazing! The only thing that's better is having a lesson at a members home. The spirit is just so strong! Anyways, Friday FINALLY came around and so did our lesson. It rocked! We were able to teach him the full restoration lesson then commit him to baptism! It has been so long since I have been able to commit someone to baptism it felt so wonderful! At the end of the lesson we asked him "Brit, when you get your answer from God that the Book of Mormon is true, will you be baptized by the proper priesthood authority of God" and he totally said YES!! The best part is that he even kept his commitment and came to church today! He even stayed all three hours, asked tons of great questions and is super excited for our lesson this Tuesday! :) :) :)

Other than that awesome thing, I honestly haven't done too much work in my area this week. I've been on two different exchanges, Deer Lodge Monday-Wednesday and The Zone Leaders Saturday. It's been really busy :).

The exchange with Deer Lodge went really well! I had the opportunity to meet several of their investigators, their now recent converts the Meagers, and on Wednesday, I had the amazing privilege of interviewing another one of their Investigators for baptism. That is seriously one of my favorite parts about being a District leader, I get to interview people and see all of the wonderful changes that they have made in their lives! It's so amazing! One cool miracle that happened was that literally right as we were walking out of this lady's home after the interview, her caretaker walked up to us and just told us that he is going to be baptized before the years over. Sooo ya! The Deer Lodge elders just got an amazing investigator just like that. Insane!

On Thursday I had another Physical Therapy appointment followed by weekly planning. Thankfully we had splits with ward council at the end of the day, so I can still feel productive :) oh! By the way, physical therapy is going great! While I still have completely random muscle pains, it's nothing that a few ibuprofen can't fix. I'm finally off of the extra strength Tylenol :) I'm fairly certain my district was about to have an intervention, I was popping those things like candy :) Anyways it's going great! My physical therapist keeps calling me weak :) but I'm coming along!

Friday was a bit of a killer, we had a youth that we were working with call us. He specifically asked for me, when I answered he asked if I'd be mad. After I assured him that I would not be mad at him, he basically said that he wanted to take a sabbatical from church attendance. :/ The poor kid has been going through a lot, if you could please keep Evan in your prayers that would be great!

Saturday was awesome though! I was on exchange with ELDER DABOMB HENDRICKS! He is seriously the best missionary of all time. I love that guy! On the exchange I got to meet several of their investigators, and also do a ton of different finding activities! We tried tracting, Family History tracting, and street contacting! All three were great and got them some boss new people to teach so can't wait to see where that goes!

Sunday was also boss, (This was just an amazing week, seriously 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄) we had THREE investigators and a new less-active come to church yesterday! At one point right after Sacrament meeting Sister Granados (The one who has challenged me to a marathon in a few years :)) even asked me why I was smiling so much 🙃🙃🙃 I still can't get over it, it's just FANTASTICALLY GLORIOUS!

Anyway, that's my week :) love you all! You rock!

Also sorry but I forgot Zone training pictures last week. Here they are-

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett 

"Thank goodness there won't be any Spongebob in heaven"

Good Morning Everyone!

So, first things first, this week was amazing. Seriously, absolutely, amazing. We found a new investigator, which is a serious answer to our prayers. His name is Jonathan and he is awesome! He's about YSA age and really wants to get involved with other members of the Ward! Also he wants us over all the time to study the scriptures!  Things are actually starting to pick up! Just these last few days we have gotten two SOLID Investigators! I am so excited! We actually have people to teach! It's amazing!

Also this week, The things I have learned in studies has sky-rocketed!  I swear I'm learning new things all the time! It's amazing because I can truly feel the influence of the spirit and the lord helping me.  One of the really spiritual experiences that we had this week was Zone Training! I was asked to give a discussion on how to be a successful missionary, focusing on our love of God and his love for us. It was absolutely crazy! I prepared a discussion but what I gave was almost nothing what I had prepared, by the end tons of us were in tears, especially me, and I'm fairly certain that we all felt Gods love for us.

Things are getting better, my companion and I are still 2 TOTALLY different people, but the work definitely keeps things going. Thankfully we haven't really argued or anything, we don't fight and we get along but at the same time it's just awkward at times. Thankfully we both try so there's that :) My knee is so much better :) I hardly have any pain now, so long as I wear the brace and watch my feet, it's really nice :) 

My district is doing really good as well! I have been doing a lot better on my weekly calls with them and this week I set goals with everyone on how to improve our personal conversion to the gospel. It's been amazing! Another thing that we are trying to do is increase all of our finding efforts. I was taking to the sisters the other night and we had the greatest idea of involving the ward members in our personal finding activities and also asking them for advice on finding. We also just got a referral from a member in the other ward, we won't have a lesson with the guy until Friday, I am so pumped!

While we don't know too much about this guy, this is just going to be an amazing week!

This week I also got to go to a baptism in Deer Lodge! This is the family that has been taking the lessons from the missionaries for about 8 months! The Meagers are seriously one of the coolest families ever! I've gotten to teach them a few times while on an exchange and it's awesome!

Speaking of exchanges I'm also about to go on another exchange in deer Lodge because I get to go do another baptismal interview! This is someone who they have been teaching in Anaconda, I don't know much about her other than the fact that she is extremely excited to be baptized, and has been SINCE THEY MET HER! I'm so pumped!

Also today, before we leave we are going to actually do something in Butte! The entire District is going on a mine tour here, it's about 1 1/2 hours long and is supposed to be amazing! I'll try to send of some pictures on the way to Deer Lodge! Sorry for the short email this week but we need to get going to the tour, I'll also try to send off some replies to emails then too. You probably won't get them till my IPad gets in wifi tonight, but they'll be coming, I promise.

Also to explain the subject heading, that's something that my favorite less-active, well now re-activated! She is amazing! She feeds us at least twice a month and is always doing anything she can to help further the work! Today we went over to give her a blessing and, while glancing at the TV her grandson left on said that. Totally had us all laughing. :) Bless her.

Love you all!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

Tuesday March 1st- March 30th

Handwritten letter from Nick - 

Hello Mom!  (and friends/other family)
Sooo I know that you were probably expecting this letter last week...heh heh ya.... moving on!

So real quick before I forget again,  I GOT PICKED FOR AN A CAPELLA QUARTET PERFORMING AT ZONE CONFERENCE!!! I AM SO PUMPED! Thankfully I'm only performing in front of 1/2 the mission, yay.  But ya! We are singing this super boss song called the Gentle Healer (hmmmm, I wonder who the Gentle Healer is...?) And I get to sing as a Baritone! I've never done that before so this should be interesting.  Actually looking over the email again I'm the lowest (voice wise) singer in the group (with Elder Hendricks being the highest) So this should be even more interesting.  Sorry for the spastic handwriting, I'm a little excited.

Oh! funny story but the other day I ate this whole bag of candy that Elder Wessendorf left only to find out that it wasn't candy.  It was a bag of essential oil cough drops.  (I wondered why it had the word Breathe all over it) Ya :) I won't be getting sick for awhile.

Anyways sorry I need to head off to a lesson, dinner break just finished, bye!

So just got back, it was awesome!  We just put Rachel (Elder Guthrie's cousin) on date for April 16th! She is so excited to be sealed to her family!  It's amazing to see!

Let's see so quick update on investigators.  Andrea got transferred over to the sisters at our bishop's request.  I am a little sad because I won't get to teach her anymore, but at least she is progressing :)

Oh! So get this, today during lunch I did a little bit of organizing on my ipad and now I have all of the PDF's in my adobe acrobat app all nice and neat in folders.  We'll see how long it will last.  But for now it looks nice.  And I can actually find stuff.  But outside of technology I also organized our kitchen/food cupboards/pantry and also our supplies closet.  It all looks so nice (for now).

Of course, here I am going on and on about things that I have organized and yet, have I touched my day bag?  No.  Have I even fathomed cleaning out the fridge/freezer?  Heck No.  So there is still Definitely Room for Improvement. Maybe someday I'll work up the courage to brave the Fridge/Freezer.  I think the biggest problem is that last time I spent a few hours cleaning it (after I had thrown old stuff away) because of all the blood that was in it. Elder Wessendorf had left some beef in there to thaw out for 3 weeks, and thaw it did.  All over the fridge.  So I cleaned that while he trained.  I can't even imagine that garage freezer you cleaned (a couple summers ago).  You poor soul.  You will be blessed for that, I know it.

Well time to makes some calls, I'll continue in a few, bye!  Oh, nevermind.  Deer Lodge is still planning, they said to give them 5.  Ok!

So I just thought of an awesome benefit for not having a car this week,  We don't have to pay any money to clean it!  Apparently after they repair the car, they detail it too :).  Also, I heard that Elder Baird (our vehicle coordinator) should be mailing us a gas card soon so hopefully I'll only have to pay for gas 1/2 of this month too!  Thankfully I will get reimbursed for this month :)

Oh! Here's Deer Lodge calling now :)

Well that took a little longer than expected.  Great call though.  Deer Lodge is doing great!  They still have 4 baptismal interviews for me to do in a few weeks, I am so stoked!

So being with Elder Hendricks has been a blast!  I know it's a little wrong but I can't wait for our exchange next week.  I'm not trying to be rude, but it'll be nice to be with a companion who I don't feel like I'm dragging around.  Don't get me wrong, I love Elder Wessendorf, and I'm finding a love for Elder Guthrie, but it's hard and it'll be nice for a quick breather :).  Besides it'll be good for Elder Guthrie.  I'm honestly not sure how much he likes me.  The other day he told me that the only thing that he has learned from being with me is patience.    So it is hard for him.  I'm trying to show him as much love as I can, try to laugh with him, I just don't know how receptive he is :/.  Don't get me wrong, we don't argue, fight, get contentious, I've had worse, he's dealing with me okay but that's just it.  I feel like he's just dealing with me.  Oh well.  I'll just keep on smothering him with love :).

Other than that though, I really am doing Fantastic!  I probably should quickly get ready for bed.  Goodnight!  Sleep tight!  I'll most likely kill Wesley in the morning!

Good Morning!  It snowed last night.  Wow.  Thankfully it wasn't too much.  Just enough to make everything look white again.  I never thought that I would miss green grass so much.  It's interesting.

Wow.  So today is my first District meeting with Elder Hendricks.  I honestly hope that it goes alright.  I know it will since the spirit's there, but still.  Sorry, just a random little thought.

Can you believe that Elder Basham is the District Leader over a district?  I was laughing so hard when I found out, that's so perfect :).

Sorry, I'm basically just rambling right now.  Well, I'm off to a District Meeting!  Love You!

So this day was pretty good.  Honestly not too much to report.  Oh I did get into an argument with my companion today.  :/ Granted it wasn't a Big argument, but he wouldn't believe me that there is a better chocolate out there than m&m's and Hershey's.  Seriously, he grimaced at some Ghiradelli hot cocoa I was making and told me straight up that their chocolate sucks and the only good chocolate is Hershey's.  Naturally a heated debate ensued.  It ended with an agree to disagree.  I honestly just feel bad for the guy.

Tomorrow is going to be awesome though!  I'm so pumped! We have a lesson in the morning with a self-referral couple who are very interested in the gospel, it's going to be amazing!

Mom, you are truly the best, I am so thankful for all that you do! God Bless!
-Never Give up, Never Surrender!
-Elder Berrett

PS - A less active had Space Balls playing the other day and now Elder Guthrie and I find ourselves quoting it. :) It's bad.

Sorry, That last page looked like an ending, haha.  Well I guess I'm not done yet.  Sorry it's taken me so long to get around to this, it's been mostly me just being busy and procrastinating, but also not knowing how to talk about Elder Guthrie...

So I can't remember if it was a day or 2 days after I finished that last part that I had an interview with President Wadsworth.  A lot of things had happened that morning, we had tried to start weekly planning but with every missionary and their dog in the zone all gathered at our stake center for interviews, it was a little distracting.  So after an hour of Extremely unproductive weekly planning we went off to the hospital for Elder Guthrie's Dr appointment. It was then that we found out that my poor companion was going to need surgery.  So we went back to the church, told President and Sister Wadsworth, then both had our interviews.  What happened in mine blew off my socks.  I went inside the room and sat down.  Instead of starting off with the usual questions, he started asking me about my experience with Elder Guthrie.  After a few remarks, he told me that he was so proud of how I had treated my companion the last 2 months.  After that we both discussed how much he has grown and while he is still Elder Guthrie, he has definitely grown, and now actually has self worth and confidence.

I'm not writing this to brag or anything, I just feel like I complained about him a little too much and just thought that you should hear about that side of him.  Anyway, I really should just send this letter off.  Thank you for all that you do!  While I am admittedly a little sad that I won't be seeing you all in a week and a half, I am completely overjoyed that I get to stay and continue to further the work of the Lord :)

Love you Lots!
Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
-Elder Berrett

PS Sorry it's not 10 pages :P

Special people, doing special things, YAY!

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Yes I have finally gotten physical therapy! While I haven't gotten any exercises, I was told to ice several times a day and where this new knee brace they gave me that pushed my knee cap where it's supposed to be. :) Also I promise to do all the exercises. I have 30 min every morning do exercise anyway :).  And knee exercises are honestly better than push ups. :) Although if I'm being completely honest, it's so hard to exercise in the mornings. Especially when I have an open spot, right next to the heater, and a cup of hot chocolate with a nice bagel. Ya. I totally need to work out. What's happened to me?! Heaters have made me lazy, of course if it's the heater's fault, it's also the spoon's fault for making me eat all of that caramel cookies and cream ice cream that we got ;). Ya. I really need to work out. Thankfully it hasn't gotten too bad and every thing still fits :) 

This week was amazing! We have our car back! I am so excited! While we did lose it for a day this week because our brakes died :/. But it got fixed, yay!

Aside from that though..........

This week was intense!

One of my favorite parts about this week was  probably going service tracting! While we unfortunately we're not able to actually do service for anyone, it was one of the few times that we were able to get out and actually do finding activities. My companion hasn't been to willing to let me go tracting or anything because of my knee. (Understandable).

Other than that, this week was still pretty great! Well, at least interesting. Most of everyone has dropped us unfortunately, however I believe it to be a blessing. Because almost everyone has dropped us, we are going to do a lot more finding activities! Think of all of the people that we will be able to find! I honestly don't know why I'm so pumped but it just excites me! This week is going to be absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

Sorry , uh, dinner. Food. Bishop, love you all!

Bye!

Sorry I don't have to much to report. You rock!

-Elder Berrett

Hey everyone!

Hey! just wanted to let you all know that I'm alive! Sorry, I promise that I have pictures, but, uhh, I sorta might have left my Ipad at home. Right now I'm emailing off of a computer that sounds like it's dying a slow painful death :) Oh! transfer news! so as it turns out I'm

You're what?  Staying, moving?  Aaaargh!!! Leaving me hanging again!

Ok literally, no joke the computer just died right then and there. we can't even get it to start back up, I'm emailing off of a way better computer that Elder Hendricks just finished using :)

Ok Transfer news. I'M STAYING IN BUTTE! WITH ELDER HASKINS!

Elder Mills, The Zone Lord, and Sister Nichols are leaving :/. On the Interesting side, Elder Wessendorf is returning and Joining Elder Hendricks as a Zone leader for his last transfer in the mission. so, it should be interesting. The entire Zone has all had REALLY mixed reactions. It really is interesting. love you!

Wow!  That is going to be one Awesome area you have.  We expect lots of good work 😄.   How is physical therapy going?  Is your knee doing any better?

I haven't started yet :/ Its going to take about three weeks for the doctor to fit me in. I found out that Mission Medical approved three sessions so that's awesome :) Its doing ok, still in tons of pain, but hopefully we will get our car back today :) The funny thing is, The Whitehall Elders (the District leader in the other District) just had his check engine light come on and is taking it into the dealership today :) and last I heard the mechanic was just cursing our car. :)

Well we need to go to Lunch! bye!

Sorry, we've been down at the dealership a lot of the day. WE JUST GOT OUR CAR BACK!! I am so pumped! So, ya, I'll be writing a letter home. Oh funny story, so I thought I sent that last letter of ages ago and apparently it's been sitting in my suit jacket. Ya. It got put in the mailbox today. I am so sorry. On the bright side, you'll get two letters this week!

Um quick update anyway, while this week was a little slow, we just got two solid Referrals! It's absolutely amazing! One of them is a solid investigator from the sisters that they feel they need to give to us, and the other is a referral from a member who is a recent convert in our ward! Ya, so excited! We are going to contact them in a few minutes after we head home and change.

I made a pie :) it disappeared VERY quickly. It was for a Ward Pie Buffet after Priesthood session.

Other than that not much seriously has been going on. Sorry I have to go, love you all, bye!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett