Monday, April 25, 2016

"What Do You Really Want?" - April 18, 2016


WHAT'S UP FAM!!!

- May or may not have wrote in the lyrics to a Katy Perry song at the last 3 verses of 2 Nephi 15. 

- we were chattin with Coach about some of his adventures and all I gotta say is I will never look at a fork lift the same way again... I'll leave it at that haha. In return I told them about some of our adventures but then I remembered we are taught to gain the trust of the ward so I held back after stories of the #ULegacy time lapses. Coach is #Goals haha, I love that family. 
 
- we stopped by to see Brother Warner and he told us he wants to travel the world for the sole purpose of trying different types of chocolate milk... And while at church he told us he and his wife spent 10 hours the night before playing zombies and that his daughters first word was "Ombies". I told them they are tremendous parents. He is also #goals. 

- did the hour drive to Missoula... Alone. Elder Metcalf was in the truck in front of me but it was weird being in a car alone!!! Didn't activate the lead foot so #AchievementUnlocked 

- So we go back to the home that has the parrot or whatever it is... And I was talking with her for a good 10 minutes. Not gonna lie, I flirted more with that dang parrot than all of highschool combined #NoRegrets #SorryMom. Well I leave and go sit down on the couch and she didn't like that one bit so she flew over and was chilling on my shoulder. Went to take a pic and the thing bit my ear! It got me laughing so that's why the pic is blurry. Then took my pen out of my pocket and that pen... #ItDone. It was awesome, we are tight. I got to feel like a cool South America missionary for a couple minutes. 

- Saw a sky blue Ferrari. Someone tell Guido and Luigi for me. 

- went to KFC with Sister Leighter, super fun, she's a total crack up. Oh man I just love the old ladies up here! I decided Sister Scown from #TheRad is my Montana Grandma Mary and Sister Leighter from #HamTown is my Montana Grandma Pett. 

- Elder Metcalf is telling me how he wants to teach his kids to be quiet and respectful... I said "ya just stick a shock collar on em..." ... After a long 3 seconds of awkward silence I explained I was kidding, pretty sure he thinks I'm a psychopath haha. 

- went to see Brother Pederson and he's got a sweet garden that I gotta show @pettbryan one day. He also has a old jeep he's fixing up, gonna paint it army green and put a white star on the front #SargeStatus and is gonna drive around town in his full military gear. He said he'll take me for a spin after the mission, he's awesome. We got spiritual before we left and brought up enduring to the end which got him going off on all his guns and military equipment... His wife explained enduring to the end doesn't mean killing zombies but I'm down! 

- Brother Holomquist has John deer tractor suspenders from the 60's. #goals

- walking around some apartments and find a family moving some furniture so we go help them out and start talking. Well their 10 year old wanted to race so we got racing. Couple other kids come out and next thing I know one whips out a home made taser and the other had a pocket knife. #ThatEscalatedQuickly... Started having flashbacks to the bunker when Jared would step out of the shadows wearing a bucket hat and with a home made taser in his hand. Anyway, I was going half speed to start but the second the weaponized 10 year olds showed up I was legit running. Good thing I was wearing my limited edition Moroni 9's. 

- walk into church on Sunday and the Bishop called us sexy. Kinda caught me off guard, freakin love Bishop Hawkes. Church was awesome. I love this ward, especially the old ladies that sit on the back row in sacrament meeting, they make us feel like rock stars. Coach brought up Steph Curry and Brother Meuchal brought up Peyton Manning in gospel principles so Sunday school was straight up fire. Sister Della Silva told us she needs to find a way to get her kids not to date and I told her to get them to like the Utes and the mouse... It worked for me! #SorryMom. I just love church haha. Before I started getting serious about this whole mission stuff I'd rather have taken a steel toed boot to the nuggets than go to church but now I love it! 

- Sunday dinner at the Della Silvas where we had elk... Again... It was beautiful. 

Pretty good week overall. Wednesday was the Austin Powers world defense council thing in Helena with the zone leaders and STL's... I had a little better idea what was going on but I'm a rookie compared to some of these other missionaries there so I don't know what input to give. So I'm kinda zoning out... Then President Wadsworth gets up and says "I have a sports trivia question..."

 *this caught my attention, I sit up a little bit... 

"Does anyone know who John Wooden is?"

And I gasped... Like, a loud gasp too. I don't know why haha, I think I was just so excited to have someone say something I can actually talk about! He points to me and I go off on how he used to coach UCLA and won LOTS of championships, and then he and I talked about John Wooden's coaching tactics  - Scoreboard doesn't matter, it's whether or not you gave it your all. 

So president ties this into the gospel and mission leadership cause President Wadsworth is the GOAT and I'm pretty sure the other 27 missionaries there think I'm a total nerd. #NoRegrets. You know in Avengers when someone makes a Wizard of Oz reference and Cap says "I got that reference!" --- how I felt. Good MLC overall. Pretty sure I'm the only one there that can claim they have a lightsaber and Darth Vader footie pajamas while on their mission so that's an #AchievementUnlocked. Met up with Hendricks and Sister Freeman from the MTC district during lunch and we had a good time talking about our days in Provo. 

Other spiritual highlights... GOT TO DO A BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW! It was awesome! 11 year old boy named Carson and he's a stud. We talked about Legos and Star Wars and sports and all that fun stuff for the beginning then got down to business and talked about his baptism... Kind of reminded me of my pre-mission interviews with the bishopric and stake president, pretty sure the majority of those questions were about the Utes haha. 

"now McKay... One last question for you and the most important question I will ask."
*heart starts beating a little faster as Don Hudson gazes into my soul
"... How far are the Utes gonna make it in the tournament?" 

I'll never forget that haha. Good times. Anyway, back to Carson. Just an awesome experience and one I'm grateful to be a part of. Converts have a very strong spirit about them even though their testimony is just getting started. Neat experience having the Holy Ghost tell you "he's ready." I brought up a mission with him at the end and you could tell he was hesitant. So I told him to relax, and that I didn't truly decide till I was 18 so he has time to think about it! We had a good chat and by the end he asked if I will come visit him "before he leaves", HECK YA! Tiger Woods spiritual fist pumps! Love that kid, we'll see what happens in 8 years! His baptism is on Saturday and he asked me to speak so I have all week to ponder about a Star Wars - Holy Ghost comparison... If Uchtdorf can do it during priesthood session than I can do it at a baptism. 

Had a pretty neat experience at Naps. A less active and her husband took us and oh man I love these 2 people. Same couple that fed us ribs and we gave a blessing to her a few weeks back before a exam she had for school. Well we get talking to her about the exam and things didn't go quite as planned, but she told us the blessing is what has carried her through the past few weeks. The Holy Ghost prompted me to say something about the Lords timing and it stuck with her. I love these 2, it takes a strong spirit to get me emotional while downing a 12oz'er with bacon and pepper jack cheese but it happened that night. Priesthood is so cool, I love giving blessings, love that family. Regardless if she comes back to church or he gets baptized, thats one family I'll be seeing a lot. The husband told me to bring my wife up and we will hike St. Mary's one summer (apparently it's a sweet overnight hike). Wanted to ask if I can bring @teambetaalpha instead. 

Then the highlight of the week!!! 2 GROWN DUDES DRESSED IN CHURCH CLOTHES DOIN A LEMONADE STAND ON THE CORNER OF MAIN STREET!!! Nothing too miraculous happened but we met some cool people and had a good time. Like I said last week, it was pretty amazing how we got this idea, so I know something good came from it. Never know what seed could've been planted. So I was keeping a pretty open mind about what good came from this. For me personally, it happened as we were cleaning up. 

I'm throwing some stuff in the truck and a car pulls up to Metcalf with the window down. I'm thinking "oh boy we gotta hostile, here we go... #BuckleUp" as I walk over and get closer to the car I hear the guy in the passenger seat say "Pett, how ya been???". It was Bro Drashinksi from #TheRad!!! He's in town running an auction and saw me on the street handing out lemonade so he flipped around and came back. We get talking about Conrad and then I remembered we had a dinner with Sister Leighter that night who lived in Conrad about 4 years ago. So I tell Zane to come surprise her at KFC. We show up at KFC and get eating and sure enough Zane comes walking in and goes and stands right next to Sister Leighter. She looks up with a "who are you and why are you standing so close to me?" Look, then you see it click in her eyes who it was. And those eyes start to get some tears... As did mine #pettbryanStatus. I thought it would be a fun little reunion, but it was a lot more than that. Zane isn't her son, they aren't close relatives, but they're ward family, #TheRad family, which up here is close enough. 

I don't know what good came from 2 dudes doin a lemonade stand but it led to Zane seeing us, which led to that experience at KFC, which led to me having my eyes opened how lucky I am to serve here. It's a family up here and I'm grateful that I can be a part of these families for a short time. 

To cap it off, I'll leave ya with the question I gave the zone at the end of zone training. I ask it to a lot of people so you may have heard it, but it's
 
"what do you really want?" 

Well, I gotta practice what I preach so I have been thinking about that question a lot this week. "What do I really want?". There's a lot of things I want, same goes for everyone, but what do I REALLY want. Got me thinking what that REALLY is... 

A naps burger... Nah

Isaac Asiata and the o-block lining up with a @dahlelama headdress helmet... Nah

NCAA football hitting the shelves again... Nah

Playing basketball in Disneyland at the top of the Matterhorn... Nah 

Making videos? Listening to normal people music? Being able to go poop without having to tell anyone??? 

Ya, I want those things. But dang it McKay what do you REALLY want??? 

Then a scripture popped into my mind and it has been stuck on my mind ever since. Alma 36:22, where Alma is talking about his experience of seeing God on his throne and what does Alma say??? 

"My soul did long to be there"

That's it. I have found what I really want. It's what we all want, to return back to God. Problem is a lot of people let the worldly influences be that "really" want. The last 9 months have put into perspective what's important to me. I still want the most BA uniforms in college football and to go see the mouse and go on Kenney Chesney jam sesh's in the Panther and all that, but now I know what I REALLY want, make it back to Him. 

God's teaching me a lot right now and I have A LOT to learn, and I'm so grateful for the testimony I have gained for the first principle we teach people - "God is our loving Heavenly Father". That drive to Missoula I was praying the entire time, it was sweet! Obviously kept my eyes open cause lead foot + closed eyes = Bad Idea but I prayed, eh, more like talked, to God the entire time and it was awesome. Talked about what I have learned and what I gotta work on these next 15, We talked about everything, the Robison's, the family, the grandparents, the nieces and nephews(!!!!!), Mann's coming home soon, life after mission, all that, and I started to realize how strong that connection is getting with my Father in Heaven. And the more I think about Alma 36:22, that's my "REALLY" want. 

So that's my new perspective on this whole mission/life stuff. What do I really want, and is what I'm doing helping me get there. Is what I'm doing helping me get back to God? I want to be with my family and life and my job and all that fun stuff, but for RIGHT NOW, this is where God wants me. For some reason He wants me running around with 10 year olds armed with tasers and running a lemonade stand in Hamilton Montana while my family is at Disneyland. I don't fully understand all of it, but I look at how much he blessed and taught me before my mission, and how much he's blessing and teaching me out here, and I know it's for a reason. 

My soul longs to be with Him. My soul longs to be with my family forever. Heck, I admit I honestly just sometimes want to be sitting in the cave playing Xbox, then hearing little foot steps come down the stairs, and next thing I know Z is out cold and drooling on my shoulder while I carefully switch out Tarzan for NCAA Football while making sure he doesn't wake up... I want that, but what I want more is to be with my family forever. And for that, this is where I need to be. Regardless how hard, slow, boring, or straight up freakin awkward this work may be, I know it's where I need to be. 2 verses later in verse 24 Alma says once he realized this is what he "REALLY" wants he labored unceasingly to help others feel the joy he had felt. Sounds pretty similar to the reason why I decided to serve. 

Don't get me wrong, This work if fun too! I freakin love being a missionary haha. That's just my new perspective on the days where all plans go to crap and you just wanna say "son of a mother duck." (Go watch the first 10 seconds of "coach Hines - play) 

Church is true fam. We all have that same "REALLY" want that Alma had. We wouldn't have followed Christ and His plan if we didn't want to return back to God! Challenge ya to think about what you're doing and if it's getting you there. 

Love ya

- Elder K

Pics 

1. The taser

2. The race 
 

3. The parrot
 

4. The garden
 
5. exchange with Elder Angle. He's a stud, super nice and hard working elder. We hit up a ice cream parlor for huckleberry ice cream to celebrate Baylee's 1st birthday. #ILoveHuckleBerry 

 
 

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