Elder Nicholas Berrett is currently serving in the Billings Montana mission (serving most of Montana and a good portion of Wyoming) for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is excited to serve the Lord and the people of Montana and Wyoming for the next two years!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Voice Recording 3/13/17 pt 2

Good morning again! It’s me! Elder Berrett. Let’s see, what was I gonna, oh yes, so we were in Boulder this last week, and we ran into, we were out contacting a less active that we’ve been trying to contact for awhile.  This was like our third time trying and he hasn’t been home.   But, as we were knocking on his door, his next door neighbor was coming out of her car, and we were like, “perfect!”  So we went over, “Hi!  How are you doing?”  You know, just trying to be as friendly as we can. And she was really receptive, she started talking to us, and welcomed us into her home.  So we sit down and we begin to start sharing a message with her, and wow.  It was a bit of an adventure.  She was a… what’s the best way to put it?  The way she… She’s a “all in one”, kindof like a Buddhist-Christian ? God is more of a being.  Something that lives inside every single one of us, and connects us all.  We don’t really have… he controls us but we have to submit ourselves to his will to have inner peace and joy.  A lot of the stuff she was saying, actually I’m like, Well, yeah, that’s, you know we’re testifying of.  We’re like, you know Families are so important, or all these things.  We’re trying to latch.  She’s just kinda going on, almost trying to convert us.  And we’re like, “Absolutely yes, families are important!” Just latching on to these principles that she’s saying, and we’d been there quite awhile, and we just kinda got to the point where we gotta get going, so we quickly started to just testify and invite her to see if she could increase her knowledge of Jesus Christ, she definitely believes in Him, and so we invited her to read the Book of Mormon, to see if that will increase her faith.  And uh, at first she’s accepting it, and then she sees the Book of Mormon and is all “ Oh, no,no,no,no,no.. I’m not reading that.  And she kind of looks at us and it’s almost like realization kind of hit.  I guess she’s heard some stuff,  just maybe about what we believe, except it wasn’t really that bad. She’s just like “Well I know that some of you guys believe that your church is true…”  And I’m like, “Yeah?!?...”  She’s like, “You’ve just got to give in to the all-in-one God, and allow him to just control you.  Don’t believe in the church, just believe in the God.”  And I’m like, “Well yeah, we do!”  The reason I’m sharing all this was because the spirit was prompting me at that moment to just kinda share my testimony of the restoration. We did, and we left her with that and our testimonies, but as we were leaving, she looked at me, and she said, “Well, I don’t know why God has put you on this path, but he has for a reason and I’m glad that you found this, but when the spirit tells you otherwise, you should leave, and listen to the spirit and go where it tells you to go.”  And I said, “You know, yes, if the spirit, it never entered my mind, but if the spirit were to lead me elsewhere I would, but, I know that God does not lie. I know that He has told me that this church is true.”  So it was kind of a cool testimony experience for me. Yeah.

Let’s see, what else this week?  I’m on pancake number 5 by the way. There we go.  Last pancake here. (whistling Ode to Joy)  Most of the missionaries in the zone are doing good. Transfers are pretty good.  There’s one companionship that’s struggling. A pair of sisters. One of them is super, super quiet.  One of them is super, super happy and just wants to talk all the ti… Oh.  Gee, I wonder who that sounds like?  But she’s a bit more of an overpowering, a dominant personality and is trying to get the other one to really talk more, which makes the other one draw away even more.  The quiet one comes from like a farm.  Grew up with cattle, like a dairy farm… homeschooled…  She’s an awesome, awesome super powerful missionary, but is a little hesitant at times, she’s kinda struggling with her new companion.  They’re struggling.  So we’re keeping them in our prayers since there’s not much else we as Elders can do.  Sister Training Leaders are on it though.   They’re pretty awesome sisters. One of them is a brand new Sister Training Leader.  She’s definitely like, (laughs) oh she was really wide-eyed last night.  She’s just like “Oh my goodness, what is going on??” Day 5 of being a Sister Training Leader and she’s… Oh bless her heart.  They’ve got a hard, hard job.  They go on exchanges with every single sister in their area that they cover. Every transfer.  And these Sister Training Leaders cover 4 zones. 5, I think. 4 or 5 zones.  Which means they go on lots of exchanges. Lots of driving, and also, lots of drama.   Bless their hearts.  I am so thankful that I’m an elder.

Oh crap.  Last pancake and I mess it up. I was going to go to flip it and I kinda like, I don’t know, apparently didn’t get the last part up, and I went to flip it and it just kinda curled up on itself. (sigh) We can’t all be perfect.  That’s why the atonement’s real.  (whistling Ode to Joy)

Let’s see, what else? Oh, all the snow is finally melting.  We just got another huge snow storm a couple days ago, it had pretty much just all melted, and then it dumps on us!  That’s Montana winters for ya. So I never got to make a snowman.  Last Monday it was just way too powdery.  It wasn’t wet enough.  Which is alright.  It’s something I can do with my kids at some point, or even next time it snows.  At this point I’ve just kinda given up hope that it’s going to be the last one. It’s just like, yeah, it’s gonna happen.  Just accept it for what it is. And call it good. 

And that’s all the pancake mix.  Six pancakes. Perfect. Enough for Elder Shumway and I.  Turn the stove off.  I’m hungry, I’m not going to wait for Elder Shumway, I’m just going to say the blessing and start eating.  How long has this recording been going? This recording has been paused. So… Maybe it was going? So I really hope it’s going. Because last I checked it said four minutes and now it says nine so I think it’s been going? But it says paused.  But the thing is blinking and the counter is still going so I’m just going to ignore that, call it a glitch and keep on going.

This week coming up we have MLC on Tuesday, we just finished setting up for it.  Oh, that’s right, after our mission prep fireside that we just had, all the youth from the stake, juniors and seniors, were invited to this mission prep/temple prep/life prep fireside. Super good.  Us and the sister training leaders were asked to lead a discussion on the importance of building your testimony and increasing your knowledge.  And that was really fun.  Really fun role play.  Elder Shumway got up and he drew this example of a football play on the white board.  You know, all these X’s and O’s.  And then he said “I need someone who doesn’t know anything about football. Actually Camie volunteered.  And he’s like “Perfect.  Now Camie, I want you, in 30 seconds, tell me a…”  It was like a… there was the number 3 in it…It was like a 3 person defense, 3 region? No, “3 something defense. Go!” Clearly I don’t know what I’m talking about too. And at which point she kinda looked at it and went , “What do the X’s mean?”  She did a wonderful job, bless her heart.  But, you know, we thanked her, and sat her down, and then pretty much said that we need to learn the gospel.  At some point or other someone is going to ask if we believe it, and if we have, they are going to ask us again.  We’re going to reach points in our life, where we have to know these things.  And if you don’t know it now, you’re going to end up stammering and stuck and not knowing what to do.  And apparently that actually connected with a lot of the youth.  So It was cool, and then right after that we had a Preach My Gospel lesson, shared a bunch of scriptures, D&C 11:21, a lot of Second Nephi…  That’s a lot of good looking pancakes.  And overall, it was really awesome.  We had treats because all the missionaries were there.  Oh yeah, so all the juniors and seniors were invited, and I think maybe we had 6 people come.  No, maybe it was like 8 or 10 youth, but WAY less than everyone thought was going to come.  There was a whole ward that was like, “No, we’re just not going to come.”  The Townsend ward. Oh, the stake presidency was not too happy there.  Especially since some of the youth from that ward were on the program.


But, let’s see… syrup, Oh, there’s already a plate there.  I only needed to grab one plate. I need to grab another fork though. Grab another fark, as apparently they say in American Fark. Ok there we go.  And I’m gonna say a prayer and send this off. Love you mom! Bye! 

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