Voice Recording May 22 part 2

Well good morning again!  I thought of some stuff.  I just finished putting away my clothes, bed is made, there’s still some stuff on the floor I’ve got to take care of, I’ve got to get a new pillow.   This one doesn’t have a pillowcase and is really, really disgusting.  Like, I’m fairly certain that’s a blood stain and that’s not from me on the pillow.  I probably shouldn’t have said that, but I just kinda turn the pillow over and don’t use that side.  I’ve been forgetting, somehow, every time we go to the store, I really, really need one.  I’ve been kind of just using a sheet as well, I use a sheet and wrap around it as a case. But, I’m just going to buy a new pillow.  And they usually come with cases, so… ( no they don’t….) So that’s just what I’m going to do.  We’re going to Missoula today, so Wal-Mart!  Yay! No more Super-1.  This week.

Let me think, oh yeah.  I discovered a bunch of German chocolate left behind by some previous missionaries.  I don’t know how it slipped through the cracks.  And its fantastic. I’m just like, “what is this?!? How has no one eaten this before?” So there’s like these German chocolate Ritter Sport.  I don’t know.  I’m probably butchering these words.   I have like four of these square things.  This one is like  ‘kokosraspeln’ (I googled it) , there’s definitely coconut in it that I can tell.  So I’m guessing coconut chocolate, and looking on the back it says “vollmilchshokolade”. (I googled it again)  So I’m guessing milch is milk if I remember right, and schokolade, well that’s chocolate, I know that word. (laughs)  Heck, I remember the song (something unintelligible in German) But I’m totally probably butchering these words.  I would have been cringing at myself 2-3 years ago.  This is new…. So this one is Weisse zint crisp.  On the back it says (reads ingredients in German) so, I think that’s white chocolate?  I’m also guessing maybe cinnamon? From the picture on front? 2 of those and 2 coconut ones.  I ate one immediately that I thought it said caramel on it, but no, it was a crunchy something.  Really good still.  Then I got a bunch of these like, I can’t even pronounce that – d-o-u-c-e-u-r?  Basically it’s a chocolate egg.  With a bit of a creamy inside. Or a nougat.  Super good as well and I got 4 of those.  I’ve been rationing them out.  They’re wonderful.

So yeah, that’s my spiel on food.  I also had eggs for breakfast with extra chopped up onions and crushed red pepper as usual.  I didn’t get creative with any green onions this time.  I didn’t have a… no well I did that for a lunch this week.  I made some mac and cheese and decided I’d get creative and instead of putting chili or anything in it, I went “ green chiles are on sale…”  So I put a bunch of those in, I was sad, they said “hot” but they were totally mild.  I’ve been so disappointed in the lack of Mexican food here.  I found some good stuff in Wyoming, but that’s because there’s lots of Mexicans there, and its still not as good as the stuff in Arizona.  Probably just because they can’t Get the good stuff.  They try to grow it themselves, but they don’t put that stuff in the restaurants.  They keep that for themselves.  I had one feed me.  It was amazing.  So yeah, I put green chilies in with my mac and cheese and it was awful.  I can never again.  It wasn’t terrible, disgusting.  I ate it. It was okay, but definitely not something I’d do again.  Now maybe like chili with some green chilies in it I could do, I just felt like I was kinda eating…  it was just two flavors that did not mix.  They are two separate things.  I tasted both mac and cheese separately and green chilies, it was kinda like I was just eating green chilies.  It was not too pleasant. 

Kinda like what I did with that family down in Wyoming.  The Lee’s.  I love them to death.  I told you about that right?  I think I did.  I don’t even remember the stories I’ve had.  I’m gonna be like this old guy when I get home, I’m gonna be like (old man voice) “Yeah, I remember I had this one experience”  And you’re like “Elder Berrett, you’ve told us this one like 7 times in the last hour.” The Lees, they have this long standing tradition with all the missionaries, where so if there is a say, oh for instance the experience I had, I had been there before so it had been done to me, and it was my turn to do it to my new companion, so I told them that transfers happened and they signed up to feed us, and it was like four or five days in, so my companion is kinda thinking he’s getting to know me, and what I’m like, and I’m not really that picky of an eater. Even if we had seafood, like, I’d eat it.  I would never make it for myself, and probably wouldn’t eat too much of it, but I’ll still eat it.  And so we’re sitting there at dinner, and she made this fantastic chicken pot pie with shredded chicken, cream of chicken, with rolls almost, super, super good.  Like I remember taking the first bit and going “Oh this is going to be so hard.”  Basically as a missionary you have to pretend to hate it.  Loathe it. And be absolutely rude and disgusting.  Elder Hatch who is totally a germophobe, they convinced him to spit it out into his napkin a couple times and just like… Me I was just like, I pretended to look like I wasn’t even excited to try it.  I’m like “ohhh, okaaayyy….” Like I’m really just trying to be polite.  I take a bite and I just start gagging.  I can’t even put it down.  I barely did.  And I’m like “So, what all is in here?” And she tells me, and she’s like “It’s our favorite family recipe!”  And she goes on, and on, and I just look at her and go “Well, this is disgusting. I’m sorry, but this is awful.”  And she’s like “Oh we can make you other stuff.” And I’m like “well maybe I can try it again.” They’re trying to convince me to try it again.  “Well maybe it was just a bad bite.”  And I do and the same thing… I mean, oh the theatrics! Oh my goodness I thought Elder Tucker was going to kill me from his reactions. And I remember they were like “we can make you something else.” They tell you a bit about what other elders have done to give you ideas. One elder just requested, he’s like “No.  I want a pb&j, I’m not eating this whatever you’re making.”  And so they are like “We can make you something else…” And I’m like “No, I’ll just have this, and grab the can of green chilies and just start eating them.” (laughs) I only got one or two small spoonfulls in by the time Sister Lee just broke down laughing. She couldn’t take it anymore.  And we had so much more planned. Like she was going to run out of the room supposedly just upset.  Brother Lee was going to chastise us, it was going to be great.  And apparently if both the missionaries are new, then the kids do it to the parents, which I honestly don’t think it’s that much more fun, but it’s fun for the kids.   As a missionary you’re just like “Ok this is weird. These are some bratty kids.  Really, really picky kids.” For all you know that could be normal at their house.  But yeah, just tons of fun.

It’s kinda like there’s a family in Shell, which is close to Graybull, with a long standing tradition which we never did, probably for the best, was to get a bunch of Budlight cans and poke a hole and drain them, and kind of re-solder the bottom. Rinse them out, and solder them up so you can’t see. And they fill them up with rootbeer, before they solder them up of course, and stick them in the fridge and everything, and the missionaries come over and they pretend like they are a bunch of hicks and he’s really a doctor.  He’s like one of our mission medical doctors. And he ends up, when the missionaries come over, and he’ll turn to the missionary who’s been there the longest, and he’ll be like “Honey, pass me a Bud, the elders are here.” And she’ll give him one of the Bud Lights out of the fridge. And he’ll offer one to the missionaries, and the one who’s been there the longest will take one, and drink it with him. So probably for the best, and you’ve probably heard that story, I think I’ve told you that.

We have some wonderful families here as well. Definitely been enjoying the company of lots of these guys.  Brother Wilton, our ward mission leader is the best. We went out on a lesson with him and he just loved it. He loved the teaching, being able to bear his testimony… He definitely felt the spirit and the power of missionary work.  He’s like “We need to do this all the time!” So now we go out with him every Thursday or Friday.

(coughing)  I have this cough randomly.  It’s been with me the last couple of days.  Nothing bad, just a cough.  Oh yeah, did a bunch of service for the Graysons in our ward.  This older couple whose health is not really good.  But they got a bunch of hay for their animals and asked us to come help them bale it and put it away.  It was already pre-rolled and everything so it was just like these 100-115 pound things of hay that we had to lift up and go stack and everything, and oh my goodness.  So my job, we backed the trailer up to the storage place, and my job was to pick it up and throw it up and over a fence, to my companion, throw it on the ground, and he’d pick it up and go stack it.  We did it that way to keep all the animals out.  Like as I’m throwing it, they are totally trying to eat from the trailer, they had a bunch of goats and alpacas.  But anyways, I didn’t get the memo that we’re supposed to have long sleeve shirts, and my arms are just so scratched up. At one point my hands were getting tired from lifting, from the strings or whatever they are, the bailing twine, throwing it over, that I tried to like put my arms under and lift it up that way, and just kind of toss it, and oh my goodness, like I did it, but it hurt.  Oh my goodness.  It was… He’s like “No don’t do that!”  It was like close to pure alfalfa hay and it apparently makes you really really itchy and hurt a lot.  Yeah.  However, I can honestly say that 1) you use every muscle in your body and I definitely felt it.  I lost a bit of weight. (laughs) It was good it was a really really good two hour workout.  And then also a shower after that is one of the greatest things known to man. Oh my goodness it was so great.

Everything is green here.  It’s summertime, grass, trees, everything.  There’s still snow on the mountains. Oh!  Speaking of freaking snow, so Wednesday we drive to Helena, there’s a pass we go over.  I woke up at 3:30, my companion woke up at, I don’t know.  So we had to be in Missoula by 5:30, and it’s about a 30-40 minute drive, so we got up early to get ready and everything, and as we’re pulling out of our house at 4:45, it’s SNOWING.  Dumping.  It’s all kind of melting over here, but I’m like “Oh this can’t be good.”  And of course I’m driving because we’re carpooling with a bunch of other missionaries, so we get to the church in Missoula, they load up in our truck, and we take off.  And it’s not too bad, just basically big clumps of wet rain hitting our car so it’s nothing too bad, and then we get to the pass, er, as we, not even to the pass, like within 20 minutes of leaving Missoula it’s just whitewash everywhere.  Snow is sticking to everything, icy roads… I’m like, “This is freaking MAY!” And I feel like I’m in the middle of winter.  I mean it’s just dumping snow, clinging to everything, roads are icy and slick and snowy and cold and you can’t see anything because it’s a blizzard… Oh my goodness. It was an adventure.  So we drove there and got to Helena by 8:45, had a wonderful mission tour, and then braved that coming back again, same experience.  It was great.

Umm… laundry is almost done.  We’re planning on leaving here to head to Missoula at about 12:00 today so I’m really excited about that.  Like I’m super pumped.  Ummmm….. sorry for all the “Ummm’s”.  How long has this been going on? 15 minutes.  I think I’m probably just going to stop here.  Try to make sure I can’t think of anything else right now, I don’t want to just waste a bunch of time on a recording.  I know you love hearing from me, but at the same time I don’t just want to say “Ummm”, and maybe tell the occasional mission story that comes to mind.  So I’m going to end here.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  May the Lord bless you and keep you.  Just listen to “Entreat Me Not To Leave You” again.  Amazing, amazing song.  Ummm, yeah.  Love you to death.  And remind me, because I don’t know if I sent them off last week, basically like I have taken lots of pictures, I have some, probably including all the nature ones I’ve been taking, probably 25 pictures to send.  I just need to actually sit down and go through them and send them and do that, so. Yeah. I’ll probably try to sit down and do that now.  

Love you to death!  Hope you have a great day!  Bye! 

Voice Recording May 22 pt 1

♪♫I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts♫♪  Good morning!  How are you doing?  I’m doing pretty good out here. Let me think, the sun is shining, it’s a beautiful day, the tank is clean… I think I’ve made that joke before on this (?) (laughs)  Actually I need to do some cleaning up a little bit.  We have some dirty dishes that we need to do.  On my bed I have clothes half put away… All my clothes-clothes are folded, but they’re still on my bed.  And then I just have a basket full of socks that I need to put together and fold up or roll up or whatever and put in my drawer.  Yeah.  Then as soon as I do that, I’ll make my bed.  That’s my excuse for not making my bed yet.

Let me think, we had some really good days.  Man, I had stuff I was gonna talk about, but I don’t remember anything.  We have some really, really fun preparation day plans today.  We were planning on going to the stake center and I think just doing another “Zone Prep day” yay.  Every week.  But instead, us, the zone leaders and the Corvalis elders, which actually live with the zone leaders right now since their apartment flooded with raw sewage, where have you heard that one before?  They’ll be coming with us.  So last night, some members offered to drive us and some other members up to Missoula to go play laser tag and eat lunch.  I think it’s because they will really miss Elder Johnson, they heard he’s leaving.  But they are really really great members, and I’m really excited.  I haven’t been laser tagging in ages.  I’m going to have to take some ibuprofen first, but that’s what pain meds are for.  So you can do fun stuff.  I’m just kidding.  I know that’s not what pain meds are for.

So awesome.  So Mission Tour was amazing. Elder Dyches of the Seventy was just so great. He was a mission president I want to say twice, but I’m thinking more once.  We just had a really really great experience with him.  At one point he even had President and Sister Wadsworth leave the room and on a white board he listed one by one, first he started with sister Wadsworth and then president Wadsworth, all the great qualities we could think about them.  For Sister Wadsworth it was all “She loves us, she cares about us, she’s motherly, she cares about our health…”  All these great things, and then someone shouted out “Opinionated” (laughs) which is fair, she definitely has her opinions and she’ll stick to them and make sure that you do them.  And he laughed, and said “just for that one, I’m putting it on the board.”  For President Wadsworth it was like “hilarious, loving, has a great testimony and shares it.  Great knowledge of the scriptures. Cares about us and our lives back home.  Wants the best for us.” You know, all these great things.  I took a picture of them, but I can’t remember.  And so then he invited them back in and that was just tons of fun to see their reactions.  Love them to death.  Love President and Sister Wadsworth.  They really are your parents away from home. The longer and longer I’ve been on a mission, the longer and longer I’m really like feeling that.  Yeah, he was amazing, gave us some great advice.  Talked to us a lot.  We were promised that as we prepared for it, we would get a lot out of it.  Kind of like Sacrament meeting.  You know, how big of a cup are you going to bring today to be filled up type of deal.  Where we prepare ourselves to be spiritually uplifted, and it was just amazing.  I really tried to pray and read the scriptures.  At one point, while we were waiting for him to come, because they were having some car problems and were late a bit, the assistants were going around, and they were promising us that if we were reverent we would get more and oh my goodness, I got so much out of it. It was great.  I’m not trying to brag, I hope you know that, but it was just like, I was really spiritually uplifted. I loved it!  He gave us a lot of promises about obedience.  Made a lot of comments I love like “Companionship study is the LIFEBLOOD of a companionship. If you are having a wonderful companionship study every day, you don’t need to have companionship inventories.”  I’m like, “Awesome!” And we’ve already seen that.  We’ve had a couple of great companionship studies, and its just like the spirit that is felt is amazing.

Things here are going great.  Also, I got to see Elder Burch and Elder Hendricks.  That was amazing.  I love those two guys so much.  We got to see Elder Tucker. I got my journal back.  Well, my journal 2.0.  I told you that, right?  That like after I left Powell, the journal that I’ve had that long on my mission, it went poof!  I had the Elders there looking for it,  I was really looking for it, and I was just like, “ I don’t know where it went, so I guess I don’t have that journal anymore.  I’m hoping it really turns up.  I have my contact information in there so.   Granted, I wasn’t the most diligent, but there’s still good stuff in there.  This journal, actually I think it was a bit of a wakeup call for me too, it turned out at least for me better because with this new journal I’ve gotten I’ve been… I still miss days and weeks, well, I missed weeks this time because it was with Elder Tucker.  I gave it to him at transfers, I’m like, “okay.”  He’s like, “ Can I have just a little bit more time to write a note for you in it.”  And I’m like “Sure! Go for it!” And he’s a zone leader, so he’s like “I’ll give it to your zone leaders at MLC.” He says he had an “Elder Berrett moment” and forgot.  So I got it at mission tour now.  So I have my journal and its been great writing in that every night again.

Anyways, Elder Hendricks and I exchanged name tags.  So now I have one of his and he has one of mine. We don’t obviously wear them, but, yeah.  Ooh, speaking of which, yeah I can do that today.  I’ve got to call the office and order a bunch of name tags, since you can’t order any your last transfer.  They said that if you want to wear home any shiny extra new name tags on the plane ride home, order them basically now.  I’m like “Oh, ok.”  You can order a max of four per month, I found that out awhile back and so I’m thinking that if I order some like now, and then order some in like a month before my last transfer, that will be like 6-7 nametags that I will have that I can give out to my kids when they go on a mission, or something like that, you know?  I feel like it’s good to have extra nametags.  The church may not like me doing it, but to be fair, I do pay for them, its like 2 bucks a nametag. 2-3 bucks that they just kinda take out of my allotment for the next month.

(Whistling the Nutcracker Suite)  Again, I love that new book you sent me.  I just recently went through them all again.  They’re great.   Just finished laundry.  It’s been a pretty good Monday so far. ( yawns)  I’m tired.  I’ve been less tired recently, so that’s been good. Been getting some good sleep.

Oh yeah, another thing Elder Dyches kinda like, he didn’t quite chas… he never really chastised us, there was kinda one point where he was like, “We’re in the chapel where you take the sacrament.  Be more reverent.” He talked about the sacrament and the importance of it, and we’re like, “You’re right, we’re sorry.”  It was during President Wadsworths when we were shouting out things and getting all rowdy, and he’s like “Guys, this is still a very sacred place we’re in.”  Anyways, I don’t even remember what I was going to talk about.  It was just a great experience with Elder Dyches.  Mission tours are the best thing ever.  I’m a little sad I missed Elder Christofferson, a couple months ago because I was in Wyoming, but hey, he gave some blessings to the mission, like an Apostolic Blessing that I DEFINITELY felt.  It was really cool.  I wasn’t even there.  I didn’t even hear about it, until like from President and sister Wadsworth a couple weeks later, and I still felt it. It was amazing.  Those are definitely real.

Umm. Yeah, I really don’t have too much to report.  Laundry’s going good. (laughs)

Just wrote Christopher a birthday letter.  Bless that wonderful kid. Love him to death.

Um, yeah, I’m going to pause this recording, how long has it been going on?  12 minutes.  Yeah, I’m going to pause this recording, gather my thoughts, and probably going to make another one in a little bit.  Love ya to death and hope you have a wonderful day.  Bye! 

Voice recording May 15 part 2

♪♫ Making pancakes, making, making pancakes ♪♫  That came into my mind as I wrote the little memo or title of the top of my last voice recording. (subject line in the email) .  I taught a less active Steve, I love him so much! In Helena.  One of his ring tones, he had lots of different ring tones for people that were all nerdy, was, uh…  Wow! How can I not remember that? Well, it has been two years.  Ummm, the space cowboys…. Ummm, only had one season…. Firefly! I think of Castle, the term ‘Space Cowboys’ but it’s… yeah Firefly.  It was that ring tone, so that was really cool.  He was in a tough situation trying to get his life back in order, get back to church, still looking for a job.  He finally found one, and prayers were all answered.

Oh yeah, this thing is so empty, I don’t know if you can hear that. (Shaking can of Pam) Let’s hope that something actually comes out. Well, sorta. Enough that I can cook pancakes with.  I’ll take it.  This is a really touchy gas stove.  If I try to go to low, the flame just extinguishes itself, but the gas is still coming out.  You’re a little moody today, but it’s normally alright.

Let me think, Oh yeah!  I went on exchanges to Hamilton yesterday, that was awesome.  Ate at a place called Naps.  I’m not sure where they got that name, but for me, after you eat at Naps, you want to go take a nap.  The burgers are the size of your face.  It’s pretty much like a Slater’s burger.  Except minus all the glorious bacon.  But they have this thing called the Naps Deal, which is this giant patty, I think it’s a 12 oz, yeah, it’s a 12 ounce patty, with bacon and cheese, and then you dress it yourself with sauces and condiments and everything.  Super, super good meat.  Really good.  I asked for mine medium and they definitely did that well. It wasn’t… It was cooked amazingly. It was, dare I say, a perfect medium.  Laundry’s done.  But they are known for their Nap’s Deal, the Bitterroot Challenge.  Which it costs $35, but if you do it, it’s free.  It’s one of those Man vs. Food challenges, basically.  So you have a burger, with three 12-ounce patties.  Three of these giant patties on it.  One is already as big as your face.  With that you have a giant milkshake, I’m trying to remember how big it is, looking at it, I’m thinking it was like an Iceberg mini.  So that would be 32 ounce?  And then a pound of fries.  And you have 25 minutes to eat all of this.  And I remember someone on my mission was telling me this, and I’m sitting here thinking “Holy cow! That’s disgusting!” And he looks at me, and he goes, “Yeah, it’s breaking the word of wisdom.”  Which it is.  There is a missionary here who tried it twice, couldn’t do it, but if I remember right, I can’t remember if it was the first or the second time, both times he went home and threw up according to one of the missionaries that’s still there.  But either the first or the second time he was quoted with saying "The spirit is not with me. I broke the word of wisdom. This is how it feels, I’m never doing that again.”  I think it was the second time because he said he was never going to do that again.  But yeah, we have the word of wisdom for a reason.  It’s not healthy to try to do stuff like that.

Griddle should be just about heated up.  Really excited for this week.  We have a lesson with a new investigator this week, a progressing investigator, hopefully a part member family.  (bang!)  That’s closed.  Good. Oh, it is nice having a washer and dryer. I was a little surprised that we had an apartment with a, well, we’ve always had an apartment with a washer and a dryer.  I’ve just been really, really fortunate because there are definitely missionary apartments that do not have washers and dryers,  I’ve been on exchanges and it kind of sucks. 

MMMM. It smells ready.  How long has it been?  Six minutes!  Oh yeah, it’s pancake time! (Whistling Star Wars)  This is gonna be some good pancakes, I think.  Plate, spatula ready.  Clean up as I go…(more whistling) key change! Oh wait did I sing that in a different key?  Gosh darnit I’m gonna need, I guess that could be another key change, but no.

Um, Oh! Madison! Mom if you could pass this along, or I don’t know if she gets these, cause I think I sent it to her email too.  If you could take a picture for me, of the… There’s those two signs in Flo’s room, of the, you know, to find “Do”, Or Do is always the last sharp, or the last flat or something like that.  If you could take a picture of those, because I’ve forgotten that, and that’s really bugged me, when I try to sing hymns, or I’m sight reading something and I’m like “I don’t freaking know solfedge (sp?) for this.  I can’t remember.”  I remember Do is always what key you’re in, but I can’t remember how to figure out what key I’m in.  It’s just bad music theory all around.  I suppose if I really sat and thought about it, I could at least remember how to find key.  So, uh… Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battles.  Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’ Father.  That’s the order of sharps and flats.  Crap!  But I don’t remember how that helps me!  Long story short, this is why you practice and know theory so that when you go on a mission, you don’t forget everything.

Pancakes turned a little well… I think it’s a little thick. I don’t know if it’s cooking in the middle. A little worried about that.  I might add just a little more water to the mix yeah, it definitely looks a little thick.  Oh! Way too much water! Crap, crap, crap, crap crap….  Well now they’re going to be really really thin, which means I need to add a little more mix, which means my companion might, if he wants, be getting some pancakes. (sounds of stirring) That definitely comes out a lot easier. Mmmmm.  Smells good.  Not as good as Alton Brown, but… good.  Nothing beats Alton Brown.  Alton Brown is great.   Brother Cheatham comes close, but he also gets most of his tips from Alton Brown I found out.

Oh!  There’s a family I worked with in Greybull, the Tolmans. Love them to death, so much. They’re the family that we had all our lessons with a recently baptized member, Marcy.  Anyways, they’ve been unable to have kids and they’ve been married for awhile, and they want, want kids and the Lord has finally put them in a position where they’ve just adopted their first little baby girl.  She was just born, she’s officially theirs.  They sent me some pictures, and ohhhhh.  They look so happy.  Of course my favorite to top it all off is a picture of Brother Tolman, asleep in a recliner, rocking this baby, and just the look on his face, is just like pure exhaustion.  And I’m like “Yep.  From what I know, that’s what comes with babies.”  But, also from what I’ve heard, it’s worth it.  I mean, I’m here from that, so… yeah.

Life is good.  It’s hard.  But it’s good. I feel so bad for all the crap I’ve put you through.  I’m sitting here, just like, “Everyone freaking has their own agency.  Is this how my mother felt when she taught me and struggled with me?”  And I’m just like, “Awesome.” And I know this is only a fraction in comparison and parenting is gonna be fun.   Thankfully my patriarchal blessing tells me I am going to find lots of joy.  “I’ll find joy as I raise my kids in righteousness”, is what it says.  Which is also a bit of another concern, because it says “YOU will have joy as YOU raise these children in righteousness.” And I’m like, “What about my wife??”   So, there’s that.  I really hope it’s one of those cases where it’s just, you know, “Oh this is just a particular blessing about you.” So, I hope I’m not a single dad.

The mountains are just beautiful.  I love living next to the mountains. I think I’d love to visit here a lot during the summer, but I just don’t really want to deal with snow anymore. I’ve had enough of it to know that it’s not something I want to live in.  Like, I could do it, totally, and I’d probably learn to just deal with it, but winters in Arizona are just so much better.  I do like the ideas of summers where you can just like kick us out. “Hey!  It’s nice outside!  Go play!” Kind of like in Utah.  But yeah, that’s about that.

How long has this been going on?  I’m on my third pancake.  First one was too thick, second one was super, super small, and the third one is coming up now…. Nice. I think I turned it down a little too much.  I turned it down a bit ago. It was cooking a little too fast, but I think I turned it down too much.

I’ve been really tired lately.  There’s that. Granted, like I get a full 8 hours of sleep and I’m exhausted.  I can only imagine what college or parenthood is like. (yawns)  oh, man.  A member gave me more of that horse ligament gel.  That stuff is really awesome.  It’s like extreme icy hot, and she bought some for me and her mom who has arthritis and bad knees and everything.  Apparently her mother is like “Oh this stuff is amazing! Thank you so much!”  She’s like 80 or 90 and so at least its helping! Like it just gives me relief.  I don’t know if it necessarily helps, but it just gives relief.  It’s good.  Supposedly it helps circulate more blood flow and allows for the regrowth of muscles and ligaments and everything, you give it to a horse with a sprained leg or something.  I don’t know.  I just know it feels amazing.  I also know not to get it in your eyes or anywhere that’s sensitive because it hurts.

Umm, yeah, that’s about it. I’m gonna finish this recording here, Love you a ton, it was really great to see you yesterday.   I’m excited for the rest of the week and all that’s going to happen.  I can’t wait to hear your email later today.  I’m sure as you can’t wait to read mine.  I’m a, wow, really tired. (yawning) Have a wonderful day, I love you a ton mom.  May the Lord bless you and keep you.  Bye!   

Pictures -

Lunch of Champions

Freaking Awesome Sunsets

Gospel Truth

Planning for District Meeting

Voice Recording May 15 - part 1

Well good morning!  It’s me, your son. Your first, your eldest son.  Elder Berrett here.  Are you having a good day?  I’m having a pretty good day.  The sun is shining, the sky is a beautiful, beautiful blue.  There’s clouds off in the distance near the mountains.  The mountains are still white with snow.  Or at least the caps of them.  The grass is green… the brown bushes are slowly gaining back life.  Most of the trees are green now.  I am halfway through, or I was, my companion got in the shower, so now I’m like, “okay, sweet, I’ll record something since…” Yeah.  So I was halfway through finishing a letter to elder Burch, don’t worry it’s only 4 months late.   He sent me a really, really awesome letter like 4 months ago that I’ve been procrastinating writing a response to.  It’s been bad.  I’ve talked to him since then.  I’ve loved him, and emailed him, but I have this letter that I need to write and I was going to do it a couple weeks ago, but I’m like “Oh mother’s day.”  And every Monday I keep just putting it off.  And I’m like “No, today I’m writing this freaking letter.”  I love him to death and in his last letter he was pretty much “I’m so sorry for how I was as a companion” or as a trainee basically.  And I’m like, “What are you sorry about?!?  I didn’t even train you, you trained yourself.  I was just there for moral support.  It was great.”

So yeah.  I really hope I get to train again. I have that desire.  Like I really, really want to.  Even in my prayers last night I was like, “Heavenly Father, If it be thy will, please allow me to train again.  I understand… I have the but-if-not faith.  I know that whatever companion you put me with, it’s for a reason, and that we’re going to do good together. But, I would love to train again.” So, that’s where I am right now. 

And right now I’m also planning on, since I was looking, and I’m like, Well, since I don’t have any eggs, I have tortillas though, but I’m not going to do anything with those.  I don’t have any bread, so I can’t make toast, and you can’t toast a tortilla, I guess I could fry it up, but nah.  I don’t even think Nutella would go good on that.  Maybe.  Probably the best thing for that would be like honey and sugar.  But I’m not going to do that today.  Because I opened up the pantry, and I saw a giant thing of Krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix.  Oh… and it’s pretty dang empty.  So I might be trying that whole tortilla thing unless there’s… Okay!  I found some Great Value Complete Pancake and Waffle Mix. Buttermilk even!  So I’ll be trying that.

It’s a beautiful day, the sun is high, the birds are singing and I’m not gonna die today.  Yeah, I’m really enjoying myself today.   Talking to you guys yesterday was amazing.  Having the Anderson’s there- Total Bonus.  I love you all so much.  I hope you enjoyed the call as much as I did.  I kinda got off and I thought I should have prepared way more for that, I was so like more just excited for the fact that I’m like “I’m going to Skype them and it’s going to be great!” And then it happened and I’m like “What do I say?”  But I was just really thankful just to see you guys smiling, and I’m just really thankful for you guys and the Andersons who take care of and love you guys.  That’s awesome.  

Let me think, Today in my studies I had a really, really wonderful study session.  I read Mosiah chapter 9 and 10.   And in there it was all,  it’s a story of Zeniff and his people.  They go to reclaim the land of Nephi from the Lamanites, they basically go up there and see if they can reclaim this land that they used to live in.  And, on the way there the first time, in all essence had this giant civil war, some of them just wanted to go in and slaughter all the Lamanites in the area and Zeniff is all “No, I saw some goodness in these people we don’t need to do that, that’s wrong.”  And the leader of their group is like, “well…” He said that he’s a blood thirsty person.  Zeniff is quoted saying so.  They have a big battle and only 50 of them are left alive and so they go back to Zarahemla, at which point they are like “Hey, so this happened, we’re sorry.” But then Zeniff says, He being overzealous to obtain this land that he saw again,  goes and basically tells everyone, he’s like “hey, anyone who wants to come, I’m trying to gather as many people as I can, we’re going back up there.” So he tries it a second time with a bunch of people.  And they are able to successfully persuade the king. He says through “their wisdom”  and the king just basically gives it up.  And he’s like “Yeah!  In fact, I’ll have all my people leave!”  And all these things and based on the actions of the Lamanites, I myself would be a little curious why. And I’m fairly certain, it doesn’t come out and say, but I’m fairly certain, it doesn’t come out and say, the spirit of the Lord was trying to work on them, it was like “Hey guys, this is obviously a trap. Don’t go there a second time. Don’t accept his offer.  Don’t move in. Oh. They did all those things.”   And they lived there for 11 years.  And they were prospering and it was great.  And they were basically putting their trust in themselves.  And after that the king obviously came and ambushed them out of the blue.  After 11 or 12 years.  And slaughtered a bunch.  However, as they are being slaughtered, they prayed unto the Lord mightily, and gained his strength immediately and were able to push them back, However they lost a lot of men, and they were humbled and turned to the Lord and as I’m kinda reading about this and it happened again like 22 years later, they were humbled, and they were prepared for the Lamanites to come, but the fact that they were still in this area and they made the initial decision to kinda, in my mind, I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain it was against what the Lord wanted them to do.  Because they were in that bondage of captivity, the Lord wouldn’t, well as far as my knowledge of the scriptures has lead me to believe, the Lord would not allow his people to fall into captivity. Except they became a faithless people.  I know it says that in the scriptures, so I think I’ve proven this to myself.  But it was kind of an interesting lesson a bit on, you know again, the Lord is going to warn us, and help us, and if we don’t heed the promptings of the spirit, even if they don’t make sense, like he was in a situation where he really , REALLY wanted this land. They had a temple there. You know, all these things, and he’s like “We need this land again.  This land of our fathers.”  He saw how great it was and his desire to have this land overrode for him what the spirit was saying, and he went against it and did what he wanted.  When we do that, we’re pretty much going to get ourselves into trouble. It was kind of a cool promise.  As we listen to the spirit, we’re going to have that strength, that peace, and we’re going to stay out of those situations or put into captivity. Also I do like that even though they did make that mistake, in the instant that they prayed to Him for help and strength, He was there.  Did he deliver them out of captivity?  No.  They were there for quite awhile, several generations if I remember right, but he gave them strength to overcome it, or to endure it.  I did love that. I really did love that.

How long has this been going on?  I’ve been talking about that for a bit.  Eleven minutes. I have the box out, I haven’t even looked at it yet.  “For pancakes, combine mix and water.”  Okay, so it’s just like Krusteaz. (whistling)  Do we have a measuring thing?  Like one of those like cup things that have like four or five cups or a quart or something?  (cabinets banging)  No, we do not. (Sighs) We have a mason jar.  That would work.  I’m not making that many pancakes.  Ok.  I should probably wash it out, I don’t know how long it’s been there. Is that a crack in the bottom?  (water running)  Nope!  I filled it up with water and it’s fine.  Well… yeah. Yeah, it’s fine.

Let’s see… for preparation today, the whole zone is coming here again. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that, but that’s a different story.  The President has been pushing, well suggesting, less zone activities because of all the Elder and Sister relationships that have been developing.  It’s bad.  And we’re a small enough zone and a couple of the sisters are pretty flirty.  So I’m just like.  “Ok. If that’s what you guys want to do…”  They’re all coming here, not much I can do about that.

Okay, got that all rinsed out and ready to go.  We’ll start off with a cup…. What’s that? I’m looking at this thing and it’s either three quarters of a cup or a cup, and I’m not seeing any markings on it.  It looks like there once was something, but it’s like rubbed off.  Oh, hey!  Here’s some newer ones.  I see a one cup, sweet.   (whistling various songs)

Uh, let’s see… what else has been going on lately?  Oh, hey flour, or pancake mix.  It’s a little more than just flour.  Oh yeah!  We have mission tour this week. As in like a general authority is coming to our mission. I’m really excited for that.  It’s a Seventy… Elder… I’ll have to look up his name in a moment here.  He is a, well, we’ve been told from President Wadsworth, he stressed this a lot apparently at MLC, and our Zone Leaders were telling us this a ZLC, (MLC is Mission Leadership Council, ZLC is Zone Leadership Council) They were telling us that this General Authority is known for rebuking missions.  So he’s like “PLEASE be on your best behavior, I literally have no control over what happens at all, I don’t know the program, I don’t know anything.  Behave yourselves.”  Even though the weekly email this week was “Please be prepared to arrive promptly at 8:45, Reverently, standing with your zones, and be prepared to take a zone picture with him, and then go sit down, reverently, in your seats in the chapel, together, studying the gospel, waiting for it to start.”  I’m like, “Will do!” I’m like that’s what we’re always asked to do, but does it always happen that way? No. And the General Authority also wants to shake all of our hands individually, kind of like what Richard G Scott did.  So that’s gonna be kind of cool.  I throw that around like, “Yeah, I met Richard G Scott. He was great.”

I was reading a talk the other day, I’m trying to remember who it was by, I almost want to say it was President Nelson, it was a devotional, I remember that.  But in it he says, “Yeah, so, I’ve KNOWN 10 of the last prophets we’ve had. And here’s the qualities I’ve seen among them and all these things.”  And I’m like “Holy Cow!  That’s legit.”  He knew 10 of the last prophets we’ve had personally.  Like I’ve MET an apostle.  And sadly he’s not living anymore, but, he has a great work to do on the other side of the veil.  He’s needed over there.  I love reading his talks.   Richard G Scott was awesome.  Um, so yeah!  I’m really excited for mission tour.  It’s different from a zone conference, at least this time because there’s only going to be two mission tours, instead of the normal like six zone conference schedule.  So normally for like a zone conference we would join up with, it would be our zone and Missoula.  And Wyoming was just us, and Wyoming East.  Billings it’s Billings and Billings East.  Helena was a little bigger, it was us, Bozeman, and Butte.  But for this one, there’s only two of them, and it will be us, crap, what is it? Missoula, what’s the place I was just at?  Helena, Butte,  Great Falls, Great Falls East, Kallispell, I fell like I’m forgetting some place.  Anyway, so it’s like half the mission in one, and half in the other.  It’s going to be huge.  They have told us however, “please do not make this like a ‘Oh, hey! Here’s all my old companions right here!’ That is not the purpose of this” and they pretty much said that we will get rebuked if that’s the way that you are going to treat it.  I did like the way that President Wadsworth put It though in the email that he sent out this week, I love the weekly email that they send to us, “He is coming prepared with the spirit to teach us all, we need to strive to be prepared to receive it.   In essence, How big of a cup are we bringing?  And I was like “Oooh, mic slam President! Drop the mic!” That was awesome.  

That’s cream cheese, not butter. I don’t think we have any butter. That’s awkward.  We might have a bit of Pam left. I guess I will be using Pam. Let’s hope that works…. Oh my goodness this has been over 20 minutes, I’m going to pause this and send it off. Love you, bye! 

Loving Stevensville

Hey everyone! 

Sorry for the lack of emails, I am alive and great! The last couple of weeks has been a bit of a struggle, not going to lie. But I have felt a ton of strength from the Lord recently. 

Stevensville has been absolutely wonderful! For those of you who have never been here, it's gorgeous. We are right  next to a huge mountain range and the whole Valley is green. I mean if it weren't for the fact that it still snows here, I would move here in a heartbeat. I might even love this place as much as Wyoming. 

Things here in Stevensville are going pretty good! We now have a progressing Investigator. Her name is Mary, I might have talked a bit about her before, shes pretty crazy, but has a great heart and is now coming to church. Our next goal with her is baptism. She already knows the church is true, so it will be interesting to see what's holding her back. 

I hope all is going well for you all! I know that life can get really rough and tough at times, but the amazing thing is that the Lord is ALWAYS by your side. I know that he already suffered for everything that we experience in this life, and he can give us the strength to overcome all.

I want you all to know that I love you all a ton. In different ways I have felt love and strength from you all and I am so thankful for that. I hope that you all have a wonderful day! 

Never Give up, Never Surrender! 

-Elder Berrett

Voice Recording, May 8

Well, good morning! I actually have some time today to make a quick voice recording.  Well, I guess I have time every week, but I feel a bit more comfortable doing it today.

How are you doing?  Oh! Keep your eye out this morning I’m sending out Mother’s day stuff.   This week has been really good.  The Lord has really lifted me up and taught me a lot this week.  I feel really great.  Also, let’s see… I haven’t had pancakes in weeks.  Really since I left Helena. Apart from I think breakfast at dinner once.  Most mornings I make myself this egg breakfast burrito.  With bits of chopped up onion and crushed red pepper. Really good.   Especially with all the red pepper because it gives you a bit of a kick in the mouth to kind of wake you up in the morning.  But it still tastes wonderful, you can still taste the eggs, it’s just really good. 

Speaking of that, we were doing service for a guy named Chris the other day and he made these awesome elk burgers.  Super good.  And mom, you’ve converted me, I love red meat. It’s not the best…. Thankfully I don’t really control my diet at dinner.  But yeah, totally medium-rare, it was great.  But anyways, he offered, he said “Hey I like my burgers a little spicy, Elder Berrett what about you?  And I’m like “Heck yeah!” So he put some serrano peppers on it, and oh my goodness, it was the perfect amount of kick to spicy to flavor, oh, it was great.  Amazing burger.  I loved it.  But other than that, yeah, I loved this week.  I guess not “other than that” that was a pretty good highlight of my week.  

I read quite a lot this week. This week I finished the Isaiah chapters in 2^nd Nephi.  I just finished Enos this morning.  I think I’ve told you, I’m doing the Doctrine of Christ read through, that I’ve started a bunch of times.  But I kept like giving the Book of Mormon out or… Well this time to make sure I don’t give it out, I’ve been marking with little colored tabs.  Like the big points – like there’s a lot of markings about Faith on this page so I’ll put a red tab there.  Or a lot about repentance so I put a little orange one.  Green for Enduring for the end, Blue for Baptism, and Yellow for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.   And then also coincidentally this transfer we are studying in My Purpose about becoming more Christlike, and our purpose is the Doctrine of Christ.   It is to invite others to come unto Christ through Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.  So it’s kinda like “aah!”  It’s fun!  I’m learning a lot.  It’s kinda funny doing this read through because everyone else in the mission, apart from those who just came in, have done it.  President Wadsworth challenged us all to do it, or to finish it by, last Christmas??? Yeah.  (laughs) It was last Christmas.  So that was kinda funny. I’d started it, but never finished. It’s Wonderful.  I’m loving it.  Let’s see, just today in Enos I was reading and something new stuck out to me where he’s saying, I don’t have a Book of Mormon up here with me, wait! Yeah, I do.  It’s on my tablet. Duh.  That’s why they give us these things.  So in Enos chapter one, well, there’s only one chapter, he makes the comment in… it’s near the end I could have sworn…  I might just have to walk downstairs and grab it. Oh no! Verse 17. “ And I Enos knew it would be according to the covenant which he had made, wherefore my soul did rest.”   And I was just like, “woah.”  There’s a great scripture that testifies of the peace that comes from covenants with the Lord.   Just for example there, like that’s a covenant that the Lord made with him, that the promise being that if they were faithful in creating the records, that God would preserve them.  “And he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time.”  So because of his faith, and the faith of all the other prophets who pretty much asked for this, and all the Nephites, unto preserving the brethren, the Lord covenanted with them.  And so I kinda like that.  Also there was something that stuck out to me the other day and I do have this up here, in one of my Preach My Gospels, actually the one that I found it in and marked it.  I was studying Chapter 1 – My Purpose, the other day, trying to prepare for district meeting, and I found this promise in here.  It says “When you are set apart by priesthood authority, you receive the right and privilege to represent the Lord.”   You received a ministerial certificate that verifies that authority to the world.  And then here’s the promise- “President Spencer W Kimball said, the setting apart may be taken literally.  It is the setting apart from sin, apart from the carnal, apart from everything which is crude, low, vicious, cheap, or vulgar. Set apart from the world to a higher plane of thought and activity.  And so that’s what we are promised. We are literally promised to be set apart from all this.  We’re promised to be set apart from sin.  I’m just like, “that’s awesome!”  And then what we have to do,  “the blessing is conditional upon faithful performance.”  And I was talking to my companion and I’m like “what do you think ‘Faithful Performance’ is?” And he showed me a couple of scriptures that kind of helped me to understand a little more. It’s being faithful and doing all you can do.  You know the Lord knows our thoughts and intents of our heart.  In there it says “Faithful Performance”, not “This blessing is conditional upon you receiving 5 baptisms.” Or you know, “you declaring repentance on the sinners!” It’s you performing and giving all you can unto the Lord, faithfully.  I was like, I love that! So, that was kind of like a cool insight I had today. I hope you enjoy that little thought.

Things here have been going good.  Let me think… Oh yeah!  I kind of get to use my technology skills to help out a bit. There’s a sister in the mission, in my district, Sister Wood.  She was in the last zone I was in, she broke her tablet, actually pretty much the same exact thing that I did, I mean except she dropped it.  Not only did the LED screen underneath everything crack, like mine did, but I mean the screen, the touchpad, everything just broke.  So at that point they decided it was way cheaper just to buy a new tablet and that’s what they ended up doing.  She has her new tablet, but she wants to be able to get all of her photos and everything off her old tablet.  And you know, that’s kind of understandable, it’s her mission. And like all her family history records and everything that she had on there.  Thankfully for me, I had it all saved.  Anything that I figured that I’d want to save in case my tablet broke or something like that, I backed it up to the little micro SD card that I bought and I can put in my tablet. And all my apps I have set to save all their information on there.  Any photos I take are immediately not stored on the device, but on the SD card.  The only thing I can’t figure out how to do that is Gospel Library.  All the videos I’ve downloaded are on here, but that’s no big problem.   You know, if something were to happen, I’d just re-download them.  But, everything is saved on this microchip, or micro SD card, and then I have it backed up to like a flash drive in case I were to lose it.  Which hopefully will not happen. Because I have freaking spent so much money.  This is ridiculous.  Anyways, on to what I was getting at. She was asking for some help. She was kind of telling me about this problem and the thought came to mind that I know how to help her there.  I can put my technology skills to a good use!  It was kinda cool.  I was taking a look at it and thinking how it could be done.  I am going to need a member to go on Amazon for me and snag a little adapter or see if anyone in the ward has one, so that I can basically connect this to a screen, but yeah, I’m like, “I can help!”  Yeah.  It was great.  It made me happy.  I’m like “that’s a talent that God gave me that I can use.”

Ummm, let’s see, enough of that though.  I had some ice-cream last night.  I’m still not recovering from it.  Man, coughing like crazy.  Also a little congested, so ice-cream and congestion don’t go too well, plus lactose intolerant.  Slightly.  I was like laying in bed going “Why did I do that to myself?”  It was kinda worth it though.  The Cookies & Cream was great.  It was an impulse buy at the store the other day.   I’m like “I have Lactaid, I’ll be fine…”  And then like, yeah.  It was great.

Let me think.  There was something I was going to say.  I love that Chatbook you sent the other day!  Oh my goodness I was going through it just, it’s amazing.  It does make me a little sad, seeing just how much my siblings have grown, but that sadness is completely overcome by the joy of not only what I’m doing here, but of seeing them grow as well.  And knowing that I get to see them soon. And knowing that the Lord has blessed you guys but continues to bless, and has blessed me so much.  I was thinking about that the other day, the promise in Preach my Gospel, that I was just telling you about.  I only have three more months left.  Three and a half.  Yes, I have three and a half more months left that I can use that promise to the fullest of my ability while I am set apart as a missionary. So, I was thinking about that the other day.  I GET three and a half more months. I can do this! 

Again, things are going well. Oh! The wonderful blue blanket that you sent me ages ago in Butte,  I’m still loving.  It’s a little rag tag, torn in some places, a little sewed up around the edges, but it is still by far the warmest thing and the greatest thing ever.   And the fact that I can just wash it, and travel with it, is amazing.  I mean, even when I go on exchanges, like I have that giant laundry bag of mine, like it’s a perfect day bag.  Just throw in all the clothes and everything I need and throw in any service clothes I might need and toiletries, and at the top, once that’s all down I throw in my blanket, kinda stuff it down like a sleeping bag, and put my pillow at the very top to hold it all in.   Cinch it up, and it looks like I’m carrying a military bag, but it’s even got like the back straps on it and everything.  It’s this perfect day bag.  Yeah.  It’s great. 

Sorry random thing, but thank you so much, you’ve helped me out a lot, you’re the best mom ever. Really.  With mother’s day coming up I’ve been thinking about that a lot.  You’re just freaking fantastic.  Fan-freaking-tastic. Oh my goodness.  (coughing fit)  Wow.  I’m coughing, if you didn’t know. 

I have a lot of ties.  Like I have this tie hanger? Tie rack thing? Yeah, that’s what it’s called. Oh, one moment…

Sorry, I had to quickly fill my companion in on what was going on this morning with the phone and other things.  Laundry is almost done.  Don’t have too much going on today.  We have the whole zone, it’s a really, really small zone, like in my district there’s just three companionships, and in the other district there’s just two.  The zone leaders and the district leader.  Their district meetings must be really, really interesting.  Especially considering they all live in the same house.  One of their apartments flooded with raw sewage, and I’m like “Oh! Kinda like Graybull!” And they moved in with the Zone leaders over there. They are really getting tired of all the beds taking up the whole floor. So they’re asking around and they figured out how to make their own bunk bed out of PVC pipe.  And all the members are telling them “That’s stupid, that’s not going to work!  It’s not strong enough.”  And there’s these two big guys sleeping on this PVC bunk bed.  (laughs)  And it’s held up for I think like, let’s see it was like three days before I got here that they made it. So it’s held up since then.  I’m just picturing it in the middle of the night, it’s just going to snap. And these boys are going to fall on each other, and it’s going to be kind of hilarious.  Personally, I wouldn’t do it.  And if I had to, I’d go for top.

Not much else is going on.  It’s beautiful out here. Just gorgeous.  We’re kinda in the middle of nowhere.  15 minutes outside of town.  The members are super nice.  Love our mission leaders in both of the wards.  Super loving, super great.  Ward councils are a little funny, but they’re all great people with lots of great intentions. 

That’s about all I have for right now.  Um, Love you, and I hope you have a wonderful day. May the Lord Bless you and Keep you… Oh yeah!  I was going to talk about my tie rack earlier.   I just have a lot of ties.  Like it’s overflowing.  That’s all I had to say about that. One just fell off.

Love you and have a wonderful day.  Bye! 

Howdy!

Well good morning! 

Sorry I don't have too much time on a computer today. I will have a wifi in about an hour or two though so ill be fine then. 

How Are you doing? I'm doing pretty good. I actually forgot to record anything this morning. I was kind of lazy. I didn't even really eat breakfast now that I think about it. I'm hungry. I should do that. I did do all of my laundry though! I did do some adult things, although I still have dishes to do. Sigh. 

This week was much better, I know the Lord is definitely here. my knees have been really sore the last couple of days. My companion set up a weekly basketball thing apparently every week, a while ago where we from 7 to the end of the day on Friday, play Basketball at the church as a finding activity. However it really isn't too effective. I think its more of a stress relief for him. We have some people come but its really only just members and kind of feels like just a regular church activity. Right now, I'm just going to make the best of it and try to invite EVERYONE to it. Unfortunately I cant play all 2 hours. I can hardly play 20 min, but it's good. I Know the lord has really been here helping his work to move forward. Just the other day we got a mormon.org referral! someone had gone online and requested a bible and Book of Mormon. We immediately went and visited her and delivered the copies and she was so excited to see us. It felt so great to be out there doing missionary work. I loved it. We also have quite a few investigators who are now progressing and are inviting their friends to church, So things are definitely happening. 

I had a great chat with president, and his main advice was to lovingly teach my companion and help him to come closer to Christ. I know as his companion a big job of mine is to uplift and teach, so that's what I'm focusing on right now. So far its been really great, we had a wonderful discussion the other day in companionship study about something he read while reading the Book of Mormon. 

I'm still loving it here in the mission :) I cant believe I only have 3 1/2 months left, but its been great and will continue to be great. 

I love all of the photos you sent! I have some to send as well, but the computer isn't liking me or my devices so ill have to wait for the wifi and get creative. :)

I love you a ton mom! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Never Give up, Never Surrender!

-Elder Berrett