Powell week 1

Good afternoon everyone! 

So real quick before I forget, my new address is

607 Ave E. 

Powell, Wy 82435

Ok! So quick recap on this week. Sadly I had to say goodbye to elder Burch this week. :/ Also this week I got to help them move into their new apartment so no more Cheatham's in our lives :/. Well I left anyway. 

But ya! I got to say goodbye to some people and have some fantastic last lessons! We had a wonderful lesson with Vicki before I left, she is seriously progressing so much. It was awesome! 

Now on to Powell! 

Powell is a, well a college town. Much larger than basin or Greybull. I think we might have 3 stoplights. While we don't have a Walmart here, there is one only 30 min. away! Also we have a Subway and an Einsteins, so you could say I'm moving up in the world :). 

Being a zone leader is......interesting. Lots of administrative work. However I also get to drive to Billings tonight, then to Helena the day then we have awesome MLC then we drive back to Powell. So ya.   The best part of being a zone leader: I don't have to plan district meetings and we get to see tons of new places.  The worst: the administrative crap. 

Let's see, this week I got to go to institute for the first time. Think seminary but with comfy chairs and cuddling. Also I got to meet quite a lot of people at once! Still trying to learn names. I'm sure it will come. :) 

We also got to go to both Lovell and Burlington, the mission opened up two new area there so we got to go give them supplies. All of the driving happened this week.  

But ya. Oh! Let me tell you about Elder Hatch. He is amazing! He has quite possibly the deepest voice in the world. He is from West Valley Utah, so I can pretend to have something in common there. (Elder Berrett lived in West Valley City for the first 4 years of his life) He is also a FANTASTICALLY AMAZING pianist and organ player. He even has organ shoes. There have been several times where we have had free time and have just sang to our hearts content. It's absolutely wonderful! Oh, he also cooks potatoes really well. Like it's some of the best potatoes that I have ever had. And he can, and will drink half and half like milk. He loves the stuff. :) 

But ya! Sorry I think that's about it for now. :) 

Oh! Pictures!

1. The outskirts of Powell 

2. Elder Hatch and I

3. A really cool chapel we found in Burlington

4. Elder Hatch convincing me to take cool nature photos

5. Preparation day with a bunch of missionaries! We decided to play a super fun game called Bang! Look it up, tons of fun. If any of you back home know the coons family ask them, they have it. Just beware. I know that Hannah cheated. :) 

Every pizza can be a personal pizza if you believe in yourself and try hard enough

Wow, another transfer has already come and passed. 

We ended up getting our transfer news yesterday, Elder Burch will be staying here in Greybull basin, and I have been re-assigned as a zone Leader in Powell. At least I'm staying in the same zone! :) 

Ya, I actually got the call from President Wadsworth himself. He called me early in the morning and asked me if I would accept the assignment of a Zone Leader. I Leave Greybull either Tomorrow or Wednesday depending on how things work out. :/ The funny part is that I'm assigned to be a Zone leader in Powell Wyoming over the Wyoming West Zone. I am literally staying in the same Zone. I'm only going to be 45 min from bro. Cheathams house! Plus as a zone leader I get to go on exchanges with the district leaders. So I get to come back to Greybull potentially once a transfer. Soo ya! It's sad, plus this means that I need to focus on actually learning the other district's names and remembering all of the other stuff.  Ya, at least I get a truck :). I'm a little excited, but still nervous. I'm excited for some parts of it, basically all the parks, but nervous about the responsibility if that makes sense. And also I get to go to Mission Leadership Conference!!!! Plus I get to see elder Hendricks :). But ya, leaving Greybull and packing. Its been hard.   Ya. But I've said goodbye and had some pretty dang good lessons the last few days, and we committed someone to baptism that we've been teaching for a while :). 

My knees are doing alright. I think I'm going to go back to my brace for a week because I lost my tape for a little bit and I didn't get my brace out of my suitcase because I just assumed that I would find it, ya I'm an idiot. but other than, its going good! Training a new missionary has actually gotten me back into a habit of exercising every morning so yay! Physical therapy!

It is starting to get a little cold, but I'm actually doing fine with clothes, thankfully I haven't really grown :). I was going to ask for some sweats but Bro. freakin' Cheatham surprised us both the other day with old Air Force pants. They were too small for him so basically brand new.  I don't know what kind of stuff they are made out of, but basically they manage to keep you both warm and cool at the same time. Plus tons of pockets! I'll send a picture!  We have been working out in them and it's awesome! 

Anyways this week was, just absolutely crazy! At one point this week we got to really help out one of our investigators who is struggling. He's been taught by missionaries for quite a while, but wasn't able to be baptized for a couple of reasons. However because all of those have passed, we are working with him to be baptized. Anyways, he does a bunch of service in the community by taking care of lawns. However due to a back injury he wasn't able to do his normal rounds so we helped him on Wednesday. Miracles happen when you serve others! Not only were we able to help out a few families, we were able to really get to know him better and commit him to come to church! 

This week we were finally able to get in contact with the Lancaster's again! It was really great to see that all was going well with them and that they still wanted to meet with us! They've been spending a ton of time in a different city, well....... town and unfortunately literally haven't had any cell service while up there. Hyattville is crazy! 

We were also able to have a great lesson with Vicki this week! She is really starting to progress! We have been able to find a ton of fellow shippers for her! It's been so amazing to see her continue to come back to church and help her friend come as well! 

But ya! It's been a load of crazy this week! This week we also we have gotten to see a ton of progression in another less active that we have been working with, the Riddler family. I believe I've talked about them before. We had an amazing lesson with them last night and, basically bore our testimonies of prayer and how much the lord loves us. It was great to see them all truly talking about their love for the Lord. :) 

But ya! Love you all! 

I'll talk to you all in Powell! 

Also the subject line is a quote from bro. Cheatham :) 

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett 

It was a stormy day....

 Good afternoon everyone!

Things are looking pretty good here in Wyoming. It's been dumping on us all day today. Just a steady consistent heavy rain. It's been great! I absolutely love the rain! Not so much loving waking up to 38 degrees, but at least the snow ain't here yet!

Guess freakin what! We put Bertie on date this week! She has been progressing like crazy! Literally all she wants is the gospel in her life. I it's times like this where I can't help but reflect back to Elder Hendricks and him teaching Josh back in butte. She just loves the gospel!

This week we finally got to meet with the frame kids again! They are still doing great, hopefully things might change and they can be baptized soon. They have so much desire! It's always a blast to teach them!

Oh ya! Earlier this week I got to go on an exchange to Thermopolis! It was actually my first time over there! I got to do a Baptismal interview, funnily enough for someone that I've actually interview before, he just hasn't been baptized yet. He's got a set date this time though so fingers crossed! Thermopolis and Elder Bredsguard were great! I got to meet quite a few of the people that they were teaching and it was fun to have that experience! We did have a bit of a bump with one of their investigators who had searched out a bunch of anti stuff. Thankfully she was able to see right through most of it. It's always so sad when Satan is able to harden others hearts through that crap.

Oh! So after the exchange, we had quite an adventure here. We didn't end up having the car for a couple of days, the office asked that we get it repainted. So we decided to bike. However due to some popped tires and a lack of tubes around here we ended up walking and actually found a new Spanish family! It was absolutely amazing to hear my boss companion testify to them in Spanish and on occasion add some of the few words and phrases that I know. Thankfully I had actually remembered to download some Spanish videos and we showed them "He lives" in Spanish. They absolutely loved it and said that we could come back! Miracles happen when we walk! I can testify of that!

Good afternoon everyone!

Things are looking pretty good here in Wyoming. It's been dumping on us all day today. Just a steady consistent heavy rain. It's been great! I absolutely love the rain! Not so much loving waking up to 38 degrees, but at least the snow ain't here yet!

Guess freakin what! We put Bertie on date this week! She has been progressing like crazy! Literally all she wants is the gospel in her life. I it's times like this where I can't help but reflect back to Elder Hendricks and him teaching Josh back in butte. She just loves the gospel!

This week we finally got to meet with the frame kids again! They are still doing great, hopefully things might change and they can be baptized soon. They have so much desire! It's always a blast to teach them!

Oh ya! Earlier this week I got to go on an exchange to Thermopolis! It was actually my first time over there! I got to do a Baptismal interview, funnily enough for someone that I've actually interview before, he just hasn't been baptized yet. He's got a set date this time though so fingers crossed! Thermopolis and Elder Bredsguard were great! I got to meet quite a few of the people that they were teaching and it was fun to have that experience! We did have a bit of a bump with one of their investigators who had searched out a bunch of anti stuff. Thankfully she was able to see right through most of it. It's always so sad when Satan is able to harden others hearts through that crap.

Oh! So after the exchange, we had quite an adventure here. We didn't end up having the car for a couple of days, the office asked that we get it repainted. So we decided to bike. However due to some popped tires and a lack of tubes around here we ended up walking and actually found a new Spanish family! It was absolutely amazing to hear my boss companion testify to them in Spanish and on occasion add some of the few words and phrases that I know. Thankfully I had actually remembered to download some Spanish videos and we showed them "He lives" in Spanish. They absolutely loved it and said that we could come back! Miracles happen when we walk! I can testify of that!

So a little off topic but I think I've kind of fallen in love with driving. It's just so wonderful. Granted after a couple of hours I'm kind of done, but just road trips the best. I've been really thankful for all of the beautiful drives that we have here. Especially on Rainy days like today :)

Anyways ya! Oh! I haven't had ice cream at home (not counting dinners which has also been rare) In a little over a week! I'm gaining self control over it! I'm evolving! 

And ya, We are leaving the Cheathams. :( We got a call the other day saying that our apartment was almost repaired and that we would be moving back in any day now :(   As far as shipping goes, You can ship to the Cheatham's house, I'm not sure of our new address, but I'm sure that if worse came to worst we could stop by and pick it up from bro. Cheatham. Besides it would be a nice excuse to see him :) He taught us how to make homemade hash browns the other day, we were trying and failing and thankfully he stepped in :) 

But ya! That's about it for this week! I love you all have an awesome day!

Also we went to a dinosaur museum today :) 

Selfie with a T-Rex 

Velociraptor! Way smaller in person

Random dinosaur 

Elder Burch, Beau, and I 

Apparently this little Beau wouldn't leave his side.
Still being an awesome big brother. 

.Something funny that Elder Basham sent me :)

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett 

I emailed him about the napalm comment from the handwritten letters from last week, (as a mom I was hoping "napalm" was what they called their favorite dessert).  Apparently not.  "Hahahaha ya, he totally taught us! It was just a random conversation that led to it, I thought that it was hard to make and he proved me wrong by making some and we had fun with it out in the back yard. :) :) ... "we had a fun time doing science experiments with bro Cheatham where we blew up various types of gun powder seeing how the react and made some napalm and tried to put it out in various unsuccessful ways. :)" 

Bonus : Handwritten letters

Christopher!!!

Hey Squish! How are you doing?  Mad told me that you are playing the cello this year!  That is so fantastic!

Thank you for that email you sent me the other day!

Are you enjoying your new house Christopher?  What is your new house like?  Are you and Zach still in a room together?

How long have you been playing the cello?  I hear that you are almost as tall as Mad!

Well Christopher, I need to get studying, Have a wonderful day!  I love you Christopher!

- Elder Berrett

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Zach! Broster! The Bro-man! Brosef Stalin! Mr. Dr. Prof. Bro!  Bro Master! Broter 2,000-inator!

How are you doing Zach?  Got any thoughts on Life?  Comments? Snide Remarks?

So I hear that you are doing Marching Band.  That is so cool!  Honestly, not too many people respect it enough.  You guys go out there, spend ∞ amounts of time in the heat, and sound awesome.  Go you for doing that!  What is it like?  Is it what you thought it would be like?

How is being a teacher?  How many people are in your quorum?  Get this, out of the 3 wards that I serve in, we have maybe 3 active teachers.  Do you have a home teaching route yet?  If so who is your companion?  What families do you teach?  I really wish that I got to do that back home.

Oh! Get this, we are teaching someone who is your age!  His name is Matthew and tonight is his very first night in awhile going to mutual.  We are pulling weeds as a service project, then have a giant campfire!

But ya, things here are going pretty good. We did just find out today that we are moving back into our old apartment in a few weeks :/  Also today I got to the doctor to get something checked out.  But ya!

Zach you are Freakin' Amazing!  I love you tons!

Never give up, Never surrender!
-Elder Berrett

PS - what is your address?

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Hey Mad!

Guess what!?!  I have Star Trek stamps!!!

Hey so real quick funny story.  My companion and I were driving somewhere the other day and he brought up the phrase "When life gives you lemons..." Well, long story short, I ended up reciting that whole exploding lemon thing from Portal.  Thank goodness he's a nerd and when I explained what it was from he laughed. :)

Annnny Waaaays, I got your email!  Thanks for responding!  I absolutely loved reading it!  Here are some of my random thoughts from it:
- I don't think I've ever really worn sweat pants.
- My companion and I have decided that rational thought is better than being a dinosaur,  However I said that if I could be a rational dinosaur, I would be a velociraptor.  He said he would be deinonychus.  And I want a microraptor as a pet.
- So quick thought- I think that we will both be at CGCC for a semester together before you head on a mission!
- Stay away from boys.
- Imagine Dragons is the best.  If they ever come out with a religious album, your job is to send that to me ASAP.
- I bought ice-cream stamps too :)
- Star Trek  ≥ Star Wars
- Architecture?  That's pretty dang awesome!
- We are on the same page as colleges go!  (NAU and BYUI)
- I thought that mom was reading Harry Potter to you?
- #plum is the best fruit
- How is mission prep? My best advice is to read the scriptures and Preach my Freakin Gospel.  That book is awesome!
- Zach is awesome!
- How is the cello?
- Also don't worry, I suck at writing too!

So my companion just made himself some salmon for lunch... I mean, good for him, but that stuff is nasty!  But ya, one of his only faults.  One of his favorite bands is also They Might Be Giants!  Especially the album Flood.  They are seriously the best!  But yeah, I'm running out of paper...:/ Love you!

Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
- Elder Berrett

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(To the family)
Hey Guys!

So apparently this shorter letter idea thing is working, yay!

Let's see, what to write about?  oh! Can you believe that transfers are almost here?  I still can't believe I've already been here 3 months!  You know, one of my favorite things about Greybull here has probably been the sunsets lately. There has been tons of smoke in the air from fires in Montana, and because of it, the sunsets here are looking just like the ones in Arizona after a dust storm.  So ya :) That's been awesome :).

Also Bro Cheatham is awesome!  Did I tell you guys that he taught us how to make napalm the other day?  Ya, that was tons of fun!  Oh! So remember how I was telling you about why you shouldn't mix hydrogen peroxide and bleach?  Well the other day I found out why you diluote diluot dillude dilute bleach and don't put it in it's prue pure form in a squirt bottle.  Ya, Elder DeMille and I (exchanges) found out that it's not the greatest thing to do :/ my lungs still hurt a little bit :)

Soooo that was 1 1/2 weeks ago.  I just got my new companion!  Elder Burch is such a Boss!  He is so excited to be on a mission, seriously one of the greatest missionaries that I have ever seen!  Today is the start of our first full day together.  I am so excited!

And now today is the start of our second day together!  My companion is pretty awesome :) So, I've been talking about how great he is, but I haven't told you why.  First of all, he is a ridiculously hard worker.  It's super amazing to see his pure enthusiasm for the work :) The next great thing, he's from Mesa!  He is seriously awesome!  Um, let's see, he's a little shorter than me, wears glasses, plays bass guitar.  Also he's a total math nerd, he just recited pi to the 100th decimal place.  :)  He speaks a little Spanish, already just tracting yesterday that was a huge help.  #spanish_families_everywhere! I just sorta awkwardly stand there, show a quick video about Jesus Christ and pull out a notecard with the Spanish Branch's information on it.  So it's great to be companions with someone who actually applied themselves in core classes.

Anyways, today was amazing! Actually a little slow at first, weekly planning, but after that it was great! Well we actually didn't have any lessons today, well we did give someone a blessing.  Not sure how interested, but she totally wanted a blessing!  Anyways, it was still a great day!  We got to finish it off at our high priest group leader's house.  It was great! He actually told us at the end of our lesson that there is a family of non-members on his mind lately.  Long story short, he told us that he was going to set up a dinner with them and invite us over to teach them the restoration!  It was so cool!  But yeah, that was our day.

Oh! we did do some service at the library and found some old tapes and vin vyn vinyl record that they let us keep.  :) Can't listen to them (they are in terrible condition) but they look cool :).

Ugh,  I've eaten so much this morning.  Bro Cheatham the other day made hundreds of these little flavored bread thingies.  I'll take pictures of them.  Long story short, they are ridiculously good, I've eaten 6 already this morning.  I am definitely eating my daily value of bread!  But ya, that's about all for now #paper_is_filled_up.  Love you!

Never give up, never surrender!
-Elder Berrett
#is_this_how_you_do_hashtags?

It's a brand new day!

Hello everyone!

This week was absolutely wonderful! Absolutely full of great miracles!

To start off, elder Burch is doing great! While he is starting to get a little tired of having to train every day, he is really loving the mission! It's been a wonderful opportunity to be with him :)

But ya! We have seen some amazing miracles this week! One of the biggest miracles that we had was Bertie. Bertie is someone that we met at church a week ago, she is best Friends with a member and asked to come to church and learn more about it. She is amazing! Elder Burch and I have been really trying to find someone that we could teach and behold she came right to us! We had a lesson with her this Friday and taught her the Restoration and she loved it! At the end of the lesson we committed her to be Baptized when she knew that it was true and she accepted! It was absolutely wonderful to feel that spirit and have that experience! I am so thankful for the lord and his constant help in our area.

Also we had a miracle with Greg this week! To all of you who have been praying for him thank you! He is finally starting to have some hope!  We were also able to teach him the Restoration as well this week! He is still struggling with depression but he's really looking to God! He comes to church every week and always makes sure to read his scriptures! It's truly wonderful!

Another miracle that we had this week was that a less active Vicky, came to church! While we didn't see her (because we were in Tensleep) several members, like sister Cheatham, saw her and reached out to her!  It was wonderful!

Finally this week we went out to Tensleep! It was, of course, wonderful! While we weren't able to visit too many people, we were able to find a family out there! He dad is less-active and so is his son, but he has a girl friend and another child I believe, who are interested! I am so excited! Finally we might be able to have some work going on out there!

So real quick funny story. We had interviews with president the other day, and before hand he had asked USA all to bring our IPads so that he could check them and then plug them in to something to see how we have been using them. (Side note. I think they are getting rid of the IPads, apparently the church is having some copyright issues with them and are trying to switch over to Samsung Galaxy tablets. They have really been pushing for everyone to buy their IPads by the end of August. That's just a rumor going around, however I know that in the last Area book update they did make mention in the notes about the update section that it fixed some bugs in the Samsung Galaxy Tablets. Ya. I don't know how I feel about that. However if I get one, I'm totally naming it GLaDOS. :) ) anyways, I Then FREAKIN lost my IPad literally the night before. Thankfully we found it as we stopped by a house that we had visited the night before on our way to the interview so ya. That was an adventure. 

OH! Speaking of stuff did I tell you that My companion and I found a bunch of old tapes and Vinyl Records in a storage shed that we get to keep!? So freakin cool! I'll have to send you a picture with me holding them :) so ya, that was kind of a crazy experience!

Wyoming here is absolutely amazing! We were in Tensleep yesterday and spent Saturday night there and we had the best thunderstorm! It was seriously A bunch of these giant flashes all over the sky. As if Ten Sleep weren't already beautiful enough. It is freakin gorgeous! I am seriously going to have to take you all on a tour of this area because I love it so much. I think I'm over the whole moving here thing. It's starting to get a little cold a nights, and also with no Walmart or real store for 2 hours. Also with no jobs here besides farming, Working at the Bentonite plant, or trucking. I might come down for a summer or two and do some summer jobs on ranches so that I can take bro. Cheatham up on his offer of learning how to fly and shoot guns all summer long but ya Arizona is the place for me :)

Well my driving has improved way considerably! In Tensleep most of the roads, especially if you go out to the farms and ranches, are all gravel or dirt. That Corolla is seriously impressing me. While it still breaks down far too easily for my taste, It's handling is pretty good! There were quite a few times where we were fish tailing from the rain storm or gravel and I was able to recover it quite easily! I think all of those races that I totally didn't have with other elders in Butte helped me a ton! Sadly the Corolla isn't a sports car, it only has 4 cylinders. My companion. Just made the comment that He doesn't think that I have quite figured out that It isn't a sports car yet :) I have a favourite spot coming out of Basin where you are immediately dumped on the freeway between cities where the speed limit is 70. While I'm not immature about it, I'll admit that I do have fun with it. Maybe this is why I've been driving a 2013 Corolla my whole mission. The lord knows that I would have way too much fun with anything else. I got to drive a Frontier once. That was fun, that thing can really get up and go, and you can just plow through snow with its 4 wheel drive. So the thought just came to mind that BJ is probably laughing his face off at me trying to talk about cars. Uhhh Cumins! Horse power! V8! Torque! Ya, That's about all I hear being out in Small town Greybull. If there is a truck, there is probably a 50 % chance that it will have a Cumins turbo charge sticker on it somewhere. 

I just want to testify real quick of the Atonement. I know that we can truly change and I am so thankful for Jesus Christ, who truly changes us.

I love you all this week!

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett