Voice recording highlights Dec 26 - part 2

Well, hi again mom! Uh,  So I’m actually going on an exchange to Greybull today, and apparently I need to pack a bag or something.   So I figured while I’m sitting here packing I would just leave you another voice memo, since this is actually really easy to just record and then send it off.  Too bad I am losing this tablet in like a week.   Maybe I will find a way to see if the ipad will do it.  No, I think I’ll just probably keep using the voice recorder that I got, and then figure out a way to actually find a way to remember to send them off to you.

Anyways, things here are again going good.  We just had the Cody elders come over randomly.  They want to head over to Lovell with us.  Oh, I swear those guys… They’re gonna be the death of me.  They’re the kind of people that are I guess just obedient enough.  Which, to be fair, is fine, I know we all have things we’re working on, and I respect that.  It’s just… it’s hard when you see people that just don’t want to get any better. If that makes any sense?

Let’s see… What tie do I want?  I really liked a lot of the ties I got yesterday.    I’m gonna admit that ties are starting to grow on me.  Like I think I’m most likely gonna go back to bow-ties with like the occasional tie, but… Let’s see, I’m thinking elder Hendricks and oooh, where’s my elder Hatch tie? Elder Hatch gave me this nice purple one.  Yup.  Elder Hendricks and Elder Hatch!  I’m wearing them!

But yeah, I’m trying to think if there’s any questions you asked that I didn’t get to answer.  Having a one way conversation is a lot harder than having like, a two way.

(Starts whistling Star Wars) Nope!  Can’t whistle that one.  Oh my goodness it was so bad we were playing some games with one of the families we were visiting for Christmas last night, the Lee’s.  Oh, I love the Lee’s so much. They’re just hoots.  They’ve got like four younger kids,  I think the oldest might be like 12.  Eleven or Twelve.  And oh, they crack me up.  Those kids I swear will do anything for laughs.  We were playing cards with them, and it was so bad, I was just whistling anything and everything.  

I need to run to the other basement to get some clothes.  Say hi Elder Tucker!  “Hello!”  That’s Elder Tucker.  I don’t think you got to see him.  You’ve seen pictures, but… To the other basement!  Our house is very long with like two basements.  The other basement is where we have the washer and dryer.  Got to love kneeling, right?   Uno shirt-o, because I can totally speak Spanish-o.  Two.  This is another bad habit I’ve gotten into, of like leaving clothes in the dryer, because no one uses it.  It’s bad.  Ugh.  One of the other missionaries coming here says he needs to do laundry, so that means I need to get everything cleaned up down here. 

Umm I probably want these, I theoretically want those, and there’s a slight probability I want some socks too.  Oh! No!  That’s right!  I have all those wonderful new pairs of socks to put on!

Let me think… I don’t know if I’ve told you much about Powell.  Powell is a small town.  We’ve got a, well, it’s bigger, we’ve got a McDonalds here.  

Sister Jeide’s house is so big.  It’s so big that I was convinced that it was a duplex, that they just kind of bought and tore down the wall and made it into one house.  But no, apparently it was legitimately built  this way,  like two basements, proportionately equal on both sides… like it totally looks like it would be a duplex.  You could almost see where the wall would be, but no, it was never a duplex. 

Ow! That’s a bed.

I’m gonna put my stuff in a bag, and then I’ll resume.

(singing parts of “Joy to the World”, “I hope they call me on a mission”)

Uhhhh. The only thing coming next is the rap lyrics from “Popcorn Popping”.  I don’t even know what that album is, I’m fairly certain it’s something from one of those movies like “The RM” or something.  It’s a bunch of primary songs all ‘popped up’.  It’s hilarious. 

Anyways, I think this recording is reaching it’s max. So I’m probably gonna send this off.  Sorry that it was kind of a lot of nothing.  I hope you got something out of it?  I don’t know.

Love you mom!  Bye!

Voice recording highlights Dec 26 - part 1

Hey mom, it’s me, Elder Berrett!  Just trying out this voice responder, I don’t even know if you’ll appreciate it.  You probably will hearing my voice but I don’t even think you can listen to it at work. But I’m going to send this off so I can be like, “Hey! You can hear my voice!  I love you!” 

Ummm…. (♪♫♪sings ‘Joy to the World’♪♫♪ )

Yeah, honestly this week has been really, really good.  We’ve gotten to see quite a lot of people.  I was actually surprised at the amount of lessons we were able to have this week. Because of Christmas and in small towns people leave to go visit their families elsewhere.  But it was really good, we not only had a wonderful Christmas, but we got to see a lot of Christmas miracles. And in all reality I think that was one of my favorite parts- seeing people make changes to their lives, or really the Lord forcing them like he does.  I don’t want to say “forcing” but like he…  there’s this one family we are teaching, but they didn’t want to get married because their disability checks would go down, they said a lot of loopholes in the government would close if they got married, but then like their 15 year old son ended up getting a girl pregnant and then they just moved in together into the girl’s mom’s house down in Southern Wyoming, ummm and there was a couple days where they didn’t have their other kids and it was just like, the Lord, I feel like really, getting them to see what he wants them to do, and they’ve been humbled. Really humbled, and now suddenly they’re willing to get married, they came to church, and we gave them a super powerful blessing.  So, it will be exciting to see how that goes from here.

Uh, things have been going really well. We just finished shoveling the whole freaking house. (laughs) Apparently it’s a rule here that all your sidewalks have to be shoveled.  I’m pretty sure that’s a rule everywhere, but I don’t know. Like, I’ve always had to do that on my mission, I don’t know why I just said “here” but the postal service half-like threatened to not deliver our mail if we didn’t shovel the side door that we never use, but for some reason they are convinced that that’s our front door.  So we just shoveled everything today.

But yeah, that’s about it for me right now.   We were planning on having a big zone preparation in Greybull but a lot of the areas here got a foot last night, so we’re thinking of not doing that.  We’re thinking of just heading up to Lovell and meeting up with some elders there.  My companion really wants to play basketball with some of them.  So we’ll see how that goes!  Lovell has the world’s second biggest church building.  It’s huge.  Their gym is in a whole separate building.  It’s this complex.  It’s insane.  The parking lot is massive.  So we’re going there today.  Got a district meeting this Wednesday and zone conference next Wednesday, actually President Wadsworth is coming down for that.  Again that’s just our zone. (laughs)  Gotta love being isolated in Wyoming where it’s 2 hours to Billings and the other closest zone is on the other side of a big pass through the mountains which is covered up in snow, so it’s blocked off. 

Ooop! Ah! Umm.  Bat.  Almost broke a lamp.  It just flew out of my hand, at least it only hit the bed.

Love you guys so much! I hope again that you have a wonderful day.  Bye!

(mutters to self)  If I can figure out how to turn this off…

Christmas Letter from Nick

The Best and the only Berrett Family,

Real quick, sorry that this letter is totally going to be late, I am literally writing this letter Dec 21^st J  Love you guys!

Anyways, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I literally don’t know what to say!  I guess let’s consider this letter the rough draft for SundayJ

You know, I’ve been thinking about you guys a lot.  Definitely in a good way, not like I’m getting all sad, but you know, I definitely can’t wait to see you guys!  Dang, I literally get to see you guys in a couple of days!  I’m So Excited! Members have been asking if we are excited to skype home a lot lately.  Some have even been volunteering their homes.  However, I think I’ll settle for the Jeide’s house.  When else can I literally skype you guys from the comfort of my bed or a couch!  (Except he can’t sit still when talking and tends to pace around the house, there was no sitting for him at any time during the skype call, and even dropped and cracked the screen to his ipad during our call. ) You are going to be recording it however so I probably shouldn’t wear my pj’s……..:)  (We didn’t end up recording it after all.  I didn’t know how.)

So we just had a pretty cool experience about an hour ago.  We had about 20 min left before we need to be inside and I ended up feeling prompted to stop by a family’s house and sing them a Christmas song.  While my poor companion wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of singing, it was wonderful!  We sang them O Holy Night.  Turns out they will be having a pretty stressful day tomorrow.  The dad might lose his job.  Long story short, they needed it.

Being on a mission has been so wonderful!  I honestly can say that I truly feel I can recognize the spirit way easier!  I really do feel as if I’m constantly being led by the spirit (as long as I’m willing to listen) and it feels wonderful!  I’ve literally grown from someone afraid to give blessings to having no fear.  Remind me sometime when I’m home to tell you about an amazing blessing I gave back in Basin.  But it’s been insane how much the Lord has helped me to grow.  While I still, and probably always will, forget things left and right, I do feel as if I’ve grown. 

Random side note:  What are your favorite hymns?  Mine has definitely come to be either “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”  or “A Child’s Prayer.” I sing that last one all the time, especially when I’m having a bad day or something like that.

Have I ever told you that the Jeide’s love Star Wars?  Like LOVE it. It’s everywhere in the house from mugs to giant Darth Vaders and Yodas to their dog named Jedi to remote controlled BB-8 droids running around!  Sorry another random side note.

Back to the real reason I’m writing this letter, it’s the Christmas Season.  With Christmas just a few short days away, I wanted to let you guys truly know that I love you all! I think about you guys and pray for you every night!  And sorry, but I just saw the time … 10:17.  I don’t have too much time left, but I also want you all to know that I Do have a testimony of Jesus Christ.  As a set apart representative of his church, I really do not feel like I can bear testimony of him enough.  Madison, Zach, Christopher, Mom, Dad, I know that he Lives.  I know that he died for us.  I know that by serving him and by learning about him, I have really been able to come much closer to him.  I know that he loves us and knows us.  Before I came on my mission I used to think that every time I made a mistake, I added to his misery.  But upon coming out here and learning more about Him, I know it’s not like that.  I was thinking too literally.  To quote Matt Smith “It’s more like a big ball of wibbley wobbley timey wimey stuff”.  He already suffered for Everything.  And I know that he overcame it all!  I know that through him we will gain salvation and live together as a family literally as long as we keep trying!  And that I say in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you guys, Merry Christmas!

-Elder Nicholas Berrett

PS – so it’s now the morning and I actually do feel a little bad about quoting Doctor Who in the middle of my testimony.  While I do feel the thought explains it well J  At least in my head. 

Anyways, I love you All!

Never Give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

Christmas Eve / Nick's Birthday

A sweet lady in Nick's area reached out to me a month or so before Christmas wondering how she could serve Nick.   She suggested that I could ship any presents to her house, especially if they were free shipping, and then she would wrap them and give them to him for Christmas.  She also asked if there were any particular dishes he likes around Christmas, and she would be happy to make that.  I thought about it a bit and asked her to make him a birthday cake since his birthday is Christmas Eve.   Knowing that Christmas Eve is difficult for many, I asked that she give it to him sometime that week if it were possible.  She asked for a favorite recipe and I sent it to her.  I was beyond touched at her kindness and thoughtfulness.  Naturally he is missed all the more this time of year, but knowing he is being well taken care of and loved by others makes it so much easier for me.

Here's the letter and pictures I got back from them -

Hello,

We really enjoyed having your Elders at our home for Christmas Eve.  It was fun to have them here and think of our two daughters serving spending Christmas Eve with families. Thanks for sharing them with us. We have a family tradition of a Christmas recital. I think they enjoyed listening to our Christmas music. Elder Berrett was even willing to sing for us.  I think Elder Berrett was surprised we knew it was his birthday and he was grateful to have a cake from his mom's recipes.  Thanks for letting us help celebrate his birthday and Christmas with him.  We sent  them each home with a stocking to open on Christmas morning and cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Here are some pictures.  Love, Waite Family

Am I dreaming or is someone yelling "Powell Police!"?

So to start off, sorry I've really sucked at emails the last few weeks. The great Elder Hendricks chastised me so here's me trying to be better :)

This week was crazy! To start off transfers went great! We got to be with elder Earl and Bredsguard both for a couple of days so that was super fun. Honestly being in a trio can be a lot of fun, it can be a challenge at times, but it's super fun! 

Oh! At one point on Wednesday while my companion was in Lovell running transfers, I got to teach mutual! It was so awesome! It was a super spiritual experience getting to teach priests the restoration simply then watch as they role play it with me to their leaders. 

Other than that though it has been a really crazy week! We have been teaching this family for about 2 weeks now, the Quintana's. they have been definitely prepared to hear the gospel. While they are struggling to remember things like reading, they have been coming to church for a while now and are super pumped to learn the gospel! It's been really fun to teach them the gospel and hear their crazy stories about how they have come to know that the Lord is with them! 

Also we have been teaching this amazing YSA named Anthony, (by the way, serving in a YSA is the best thing ever, tons of spiritual experiences) who is super prepared! He comes to church and institute every week, reads the scriptures, and already knows it's true! At at one point we were teaching the plan of salvation and as we finished we asked if he had any questions, he responded with "no, I actually already learned all this. I read about it on Mormon.org! He's on date for December 31st so hope all goes well! 

But this has also been a super crazy week, due to some crazy weather, president closed down the mission for a couple of days, and that was around the same time that the heater in our basement went out! Thankfully we got it fixed by Saturday, but then that night, the wind blew a door open and our house alarm went off. The funny thing is being in the basement we couldn't hear it. So instead of waking up to an alarm we woke up to a bunch of police shining flashlights around yelling Powell police! Kind of a fun experience! 

Yes I did survive the cold, it was freezing, but I survived! And I only lost an ear! :) In fact it was actually so cold that both friday and saturday our mission president called the mission and told everyone to stay inside! Of course being the completely obedient missionaries we are we went and helped someone move into the ward friday morning during the blizzard. How we all survived I will never know. My favourite quote was after we had just finished unloading the trailer and they told us that they still had another storage unit, with a piano. :) It was good though. We all laughed about it and we all survived. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive though. I have no clue why the Lord has made me designated driver in both winters. He must be preparing me to live in someplace with snow. I hope not. I'm staying close by family in Gilbert. 

Oh my goodness I loved being in primary. My companion told me that he can't wait to hear from me when I get home and find out that after a couple of weeks I was called as a primary teacher. :) Not going to lie, it would be fun! We got to help out again this week and it was amazing! They just have a serious lack of teachers this time of year, and as long as we don't pick up any of the kids or let them sit on our laps we are totally allowed to! 

We do have some fun plans this Christmas! I get to talk to you guys! :) We also have a bunch of members that we are going to go see :) Oh and I just found out that we may or may not be moving apparently after Christmas. The stake wants other members to have the experience of housing missionaries and apparently the Jeide's have been housing missionaries the last year and a half. The high councilor over missionary work, the father of the family that found my Ipad, Is thinking of having us move in with the Akins. That's the family that we went over to on Thanksgiving and I got to play a viola! I am a little excited about that!

Anyways I just want to quickly finish off with my Savior of Jesus Christ. I was reading in Mosiah 3 this morning and wow. In that chapter a king named King Benjamin gathers all of the people in his nation so that he can speak his final words to them as he knows that he is going to die soon. And to me one of the most powerful parts of his speech is his testimony of Jesus Christ. He proclaims boldly that by no other name can we be saved. And that is something that, brothers and sisters, I know to be true. I know that our Savior lives, and that through Him all mankind may be saved. I love Him and I know that we can all come to know Him! I have truly seen His hand in my life more as I read about His ministry in the Bible and Book of Mormon. 

I love you all! 

Never give up, Never surrender! 

-Elder Berrett

Everything is wonderful :)

A Good Morning! 

I am feeling wonderful! Definitely back to fighting form!

We did have a big Christmas Zone conference! However due to some new rules from Salt Lake we could only have it as a zone. But president showed up and I got your Christmas letters! They were wonderful thank you so much!

Yes I did get my transfer news, I'm staying here with Elder Tucker for Christmas! It's going to be wonderful!

And thank you so much! I've slowly been giving out the package of caramels that you sent me. I just gave one to a family in our ward. They are the kids of the members that we live with and are always working to help us out. In fact they even found out that someone in Burlington found my iPad and have been working to get it back! While the kid is being a punk, the church's software with a little extra security boost from me is preventing him from resetting it. So yay! Christmas Miracle!

 I'm so excited to stay here! It's been wonderful! And honestly I really don't need anything else for Christmas.  Maybe some more socks, but that's really it.  Sorry I guess I'm turning into dad, :) I just can't really think of anything that I want! 

Never give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett

A sweet email I received the other day.  I was blown away by their thoughtfulness and generosity- 

Hello,

We had the opportunity to feed Elder Berrett and Elder Tucker on Dec. 3rd.  We enjoyed them and their message.  We are feeding them again on Christmas Eve.  I think you said that was Elder Berrett's birthday.  Anything he would enjoy for dinner?  What kind of cake or other dessert would he like?  We are still willing to shop and deliver for his birthday/Christmas. Thanks for raising a fine young man.  We appreciate his service in Powell.  Love, Neil and Sarah

Exchanges, more exchanges, and even more exchanges!

Good Morning!

Sorry for not sending out emails the last few weeks, it has been absolutely crazy!

I am actually feeling much better. I think it was just a really short relapse. I still have a cough but I'm totally feeling better! Emergen-C for the win!

We thankfully don't have anything out of the ordinary this week minus a quick drive to Billings to take some Elders home. One of which lives 30 min from us! #ElderGrissomforthewin

Sorry for the lack of emails. My tablet has been giving me some grief lately but I finally got it all sorted out. :) And I absolutely loved your emails this week. It actually inspired me to write letters a little more just because I was thinking, if I get this excited about a surprise email, how much would a letter make my mother's day?

Oh! and did I ever tell you that at Thanksgiving I got to play the viola? It was absolutely wonderful! Sister Akin had an extra one that I got to play! I am totally picking it back up when I get home.  It was absolutely wonderful! Did I tell you that I also got to sing in Sacrament meeting? That was fun!

One big highlight, however, was definitely the Christmas conference! Holy cow! My testimony of Christ was seriously bolstered there. Plus it was super cool because we watching it at a members house and right after it finished I got to show the Light The World video and then bear testimony of Christ. I am absolutely so thankful for that opportunity!

But ya! let's see, oh! We had a ton of exchanges these last few weeks. From the other Powell elders, to Greybull! And then all the way to Thermopolis, it was a busy Week! Plus we even got 2 new investigators this week! While I didn't get to back to Greybull sadly, I did get to go to Thermopolis! It was pretty cool to go see the other side of the zone, and also to see these investigators that they are always talking about.

Other than that though, not too much to report, I can say however that thankfully I'm no longer sick! I still have a bit of a cough, but at least we are up and working again! Also my Foosball game has improved significantly! One of these days I might actually beat my companion!

This upcoming week we have Christmas Zone Conference! Granted it's only going to be our zone, but I am still so excited for it! It's going to be absolutely fantastic!

I love you all! and if you haven't already please look up the Light the World video. I promise that it will truly strengthen your testimony of Christ!

Never give up, Never Surrender!
-Elder Berrett