Elder McKay Philip Pett: LIVE

What's up everyone!!

- Monday through Wednesday was my exchange with Elder Landry who is one of our zone leaders from Great Falls. I'll get more into this later.

- Elder Asbury and I pray before we tract and then usually sing/rap a song we remixed to get us spiritually hyped... Ex. "All I do is tract, tract, tract no matter what."

- Finished up the Book of Alma this week. I shed a manly tear in verse 36 of chapter 62... Teancum dies after going #StealthOps to eliminate a Lamanite King. Is it Ok or not ok starting a #BoMDeathsIllNeverGetOver??? Anyway, good way to go out. Pretty sure Teancum was the director of field ops for Moroni back in the day so he and I have a strong connection. #TeamBetaAlpha

- Elder Asbury plays Quiditch during weekly planning. Took a bludger/basketball and threw it at him. Gotta love weekly planning. Nothing beats the Elder Christensen forts however.

- End of the week I went up to Cut Bank for an exchange with Elder Daniels. Fun exchange, I'll too get more into this further down.

- wind gusts were getting up near 75 mph, sooooo crazy! Check out the pics. Kinda freaked me out not gonna lie. That wind better be careful or else its driving privileges are gonna be #TheyDone. #ShotsFiredAtMyself

- saw a bald eagle perched on a fence on the side of the road. #WelcomeToMontana

- Elder Asbury got a guitar and ukulele, when the Cutbank elders stopped by Elder Masauo took over the ukulele and majestically played while looking out the window while singing in whatever sweet language he speaks. Freakin love Elder Masauo

- went out to see Sister Bishop and her husband Kel again. Same family that talked NBA with us last week. One of the many part member families in the ward. Their house is unreal, so pretty and far away from everyone. They are awesome, Kel is pretty much Ron Swanson and that may or may not play a role into how much I love him. I really feel like we are getting close with him. We are close to getting to teaching the discussions. Told me to come up and shoot gophers with him after the mission and I am so down. Gopher holes make it a hazard for the cows.... So he just sits back and pops em off. That can be a future wife requirement, if she's down to drive 10 hours north solely to shoot gophers with Ron Swanson. #WifeThatGirl

- church was awesome on Sunday. Made it a personal goal to be as big of a stud as Brother Weisgram is when I'm 80. We have dinner on Wednesday with them and we are hyped!!! Taco nights out at the Weisgrams are always rockin, #TDFW. Don't remember Grandpa Brown too much but Brother Weisgram reminds me so much of him, always smiling.

- Brother Barney was teaching EQ/ High Priests on Sunday. Average age is probably 60+ in there. Bro Barneys microphone started spazzing out and he yelled "decepticons!!!" Right there during the lesson. I think Elder Asbury and I were the only ones that got the reference. Reminded me of our high school days and whenever we heard the life flight chopper over at the hospital we'd yell decepticons and get under our desk.

- Brother Skinner (royal blue Kalani kool aid chugger) and I had another good talk on Sunday about NSD. He cut open his finger and was using a red band aid so I had to give him a little grief for that. He's awesome, we are doing home teaching splits this week so I'll be out with him. We may talk Utah/BYU football the whole time. I'll be sure to wear my Indian chief tie that Elder Christensen got me from the Belgrade thrift store. #UteProud

- Sunday dinner with the Beckers. Another fun time in their sweeeet new house. Henry is so stinkin cute. Their tv is in one of those cabinet things and the super bowl was on mute behind it. We joked that if we opened it it'd be like in Indiana Jones when they open the Arc and we'd turn into skeletons. While the Super Bowl was being played we were teaching about the gospel in the kitchen, you'd be proud mom.

- found a sweet El Camino this morning after personal exercise at the church, thought of you @TeamBetaAlpha.

Alright so I'll get into the exchanges now.

Exchange 1.

Great Falls with Elder Landry. It was a lot of fun. That first night we get into a guys home and his house was thickly covered in tobacco and/or "what the freak is that" smoke. I'm pretty used to homes like that by now but whatever it was made me and Elder Landry sick for a couple days. We have a good talk with him then as we are walking out Elder Landry mentions something about the smoke and how our clothes smelt pretty bad too.

*** now I have had elder Landry as my Zone Leader for nearly 2 transfers but this is my first exchange with him. I needed to figure out who this Elder Landry really is....***

So I respond with.... "It's quite pungent".... Some of you know where I'm going with this... ;)

*** he doesn't say anything. I'm thinking "alright times up lets do this Leroy Jenkins" let's see how well he knows my boy Elder Burgundy... So I say....

"It stings the nostrils."

Elder Landry just busts up laughing!!! I was so relieved. Even during the MTC days not much else brings me more joy than when I quote Anchorman, Grown Ups, Austin Powers, Benchwarmers or Taladega Nights, etc... And a missionary catches it. It's the simple things that make me happy. Told him the name of my car and how the Panther got that name, he was impressed.

So that kicked off a great couple days for Elder Landry and I. That next afternoon we go visit a less active mom who was home with her 4 year old kid, his name was Ayden. Elder Landry is having a solid discussion with the mom and I'm doing my best to follow along but my boy Ayden was bringing out my inner child. The kid had hot wheels and nerf guns and a talking Olaf and a Lightning McQueen race track!!! He and I are having a good time while the adults talked about more serious stuff, so it all worked out. I ask him how old he is... 4... He asks me how old I am... "19". He looks up at me with big eyes and a smile and yells

" holy s***!!!"

No doubt the cutest profanity I have ever heard a 4 year old say. Instantly thought of @pettbryan and his influence on younger generations. He said it like it was no big deal and kept on playing with his cars, meanwhile I'm doing my best to not bust up laughing. So we get out of the house and I ask Elder Landry how he didn't start laughing, he said he and the mom never even heard it, #ChurchIsTrue. Also, while #Tracting🚜💨 that night we find a guy who was playing the new Call of Duty. Our tracting approach was asking how is kill/death ratio is... "Not that good, my fiancé has a higher K/D than me". Right on cue, Elder Landry and I both say "she's a keeper". Zone Leader/District Leader unity there.

We also had another missionary discussion with Brother Mickelson. This guy straight up spits fire when it comes to the gospel, we have awesome meetings with him as a zone. For this particular one we did a leadership test to see what type of leader you are. When you think about it, the way our church is established and the qualities and standards we are taught at such a young age, really all missionaries are a leader in some way. So after taking these tests it places you into 4 different categories each with different characteristics of a leader "Eagle, Parrot, Owl, Dove". All the other missionaries got a clear answer on their bird except me, so I decided I'm a hawk with laser vision.... Everyone thought I was high. #TwitterDreamTeam

Exchange 2.

Cut Bank/ Browning with Elder Daniels. Another fun exchange up on the Rez with Elder Daniels. It was a good time. Being on the Reservation is no doubt a humbling experience, we did find some cute puppies though!! For dinner a member fed us jalapeño and onion gravy on a Belgian waffle... Very interesting meal, sounds like something Jared and I would concoct in the bunker. Got to teach a less active family who was awesome. I'm not all that into baseball but the guy had 55,000 baseball cards!!!! I was impressed, cool family. Didn't even get a full day but still had a good time with Elder Daniels.

Yep, kind of a crazy week. Felt weird being away from Elder Asbury so much and being with other elders. With the exception of transfer 1 with my boy Elder Jaques, I have been training a new missionary so I'm not really used to being around missionaries who are almost done. Elder Landry has 5 months left and elder Daniels has a little over a month. I Never really think much about being done but being with them I thought about it A LOT. I fell into that trap of wishing I was almost done like them. My inner @pettbryan came out and I Had a minor break down eating at Cafe Rio on the exchange with Elder Landry. "A sky full of stars" started playing on the radio and I kinda lost it haha. It hit me that I Released the Disney World video a year ago this week, so crazy. Rush of memories flooded in but fortunately none of the dirty Disney. Then I looked at my steak salad and started missing the days of @pettbryan uncontrollably picking out all the steak while I'd look at him with the "you serious Clark" face. Looked at the chips and queso and was reminded of Kasey and I strategically placing it on our end of the table. You miss the strangest things out here. So ya, was in a rare home sick slump this week.

Church yesterday snapped me out of it. Seeing the GOAT of Conrad (Brother Weisgram), hearing the testimonies of the ward, seeing Austin and Kel Bishop at church. Bro Barney taught about FHE and I was reminded of our mission prep FHE from a year ago. Reminded how much I love my family. Holy Ghost sat me down and slapped me in the face a couple times. He got me out of it. What was I thinking!?!? I get super upset when I catch myself wishing I'd be almost done, cause deep down I know I don't. Not gonna lie it kind of sucks knowing you got 2 best friends who this summer will meet your nephew before you do, but time goes on. Every second that ticks by its running out. Warriors never quit.

Gotta live every day, Alma 37:27 - "Look to God and live."

Almost anything I see or do reminds me of home. Can either let that get ya down or inspire ya to be better. Made me wonder what reminds people back home of me, and what will remind people in Conrad of Elder Pett. All about leaving a legacy.

Last week of the transfer coming up. Got the 1970's man cave game night with the #DStaffs tonight, Home teaching holy war splits with Bro Skinner, Weisgrams taco night ft. Bro Drashinksi (just like Keeko from Murray), ball on Thursday, and a couple lessons with Austin. He's doing great, when we were planning our lessons this week the mom chimed in that we should come by Tuesday cause she'll be there... A matter of time before the family joins in. That's what it's all about, Families. So we are are pumped for that. Austin is reading the Book of Mormon, praying, coming to church, such a stud.

Busy end to the transfer, really praying elder Asbury and I get another one, but treating this week like its our last. We are so close to the work exploding here. I really love Conrad... A lot. I gotta stop loving these areas so much haha. As hard as it was leaving Murray, would have never met my family in Belgrade had I never left. Same thing goes for leaving Belgrade for #TheRad. I'll take whatever comes next. Just really hope I get one more here with Elder Asbury. If we do that means we got Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, CFB playoff, his birthday, Super Bowl, Cody Lightfoot Day (March 17 #SummonTheLeprechaun), my birthday, and Easter with each other in #TheRad!!!

Today marks 7 months of being out!!! Woke up this morning with the same reaction Ayden had when I told him I was 19. Just didn't say it cause that'd be Babylon. Still shocks me at times I'm actually doing this.

Seems like @TeamBetaAlpha was always my Valentine back home cause I was too socially awkward to talk to girls so...Happy Valentines dude. Nothing beats our Chilis 2 for 20 and movie man dates. <3

Prayer is real, the Atonement is real, God's love for us is real. We joke around a lot, but this work truly is marvelous. Salvation of souls is certainly important, but enjoying the work is too, gotta have fun.

Read Alma 60 & 61 this week. One of my fave chapters. Can't sit on our butts waiting for God to save us. Amazing how applicable that is to today's world.

Love you all, #ChurchIsTrue, look to God and live.

-Elder K

***Pics***

1 & 2 - our go to booth at A&W. Whenever we need it, we hit up our booth for some shakes and to talk. Lots of inside jokes about that clock.