Elder McKay Philip Pett: Get Up, It's Conference

What's up FAM!?!?!

I SURVIVED TRANSFERS AND HAVE 6 MORE WEEKS IN HAMILTON WITH ELDER METCALF.

Super relieved. Most of our zone is sticking together too. One companionship got doubled out so we get to drive to Helena on Wednesday to welcome 2 new elders to the zone. Kind of weird being on this side of end of transfer interviews and all that responsible stuff but it's been fun being a zone leader! I love my zone! The Elders and Sisters here have taught me A LOT. Especially Elder Metcalf, grateful I have 6 more weeks to learn from him.

Weekly highlights -

- tracting out a trailer park one day, met this cool old guy named Dave. He fully acknowledged he was intoxicated and said to come back when he wasn't drunk but super funny and nice guy!!! Cool dude. We went back and he had absolutely no recollection of talking with us 3 nights prior but hey more teaching practice for us!

- District meeting was interesting. Instead of having set discussions and role plays we just had practically an open vent sesh and wrote all the things we struggle with as missionary's on the board. We were on the topic of "sight and sound 24/7" and Elder Brimley (DL) said... "Ya if you run out to the car while your comp is in the church they could get hit by a car and die..."

*goes all quiet*

*contemplates if Anchorman is appropriate for district meeting
"Boy... that escalated quickly."
*I couldn't pass it up, it was too golden of an opportunity

This led to a solid 5 minutes of the district talking about everything that could go wrong while walking out to your truck while your comp stays in the church. Meanwhile I'm just sitting there quoting the entire dialogue from that scene in Anchorman by myself...

Metcalf - "a baby could fall out of the sky and fall in your hands" (we aren't allowed to touch kids at all)

"... I saw that! Brick killed guy!"

*crickets*

... Little bummed no one knew what the heck I was talking about, it was kind of like seminary senior year when I'd be quoting Ron Burgundy and @teambetalpha wasn't there to quote it with me. Really good district meeting though in all honesty. Missionary work isn't always easy and honestly you just gotta let it out sometimes. This work is great and all but you just gotta vent sometimes. Good district meeting.

- We were talking to this guy who said a llama talked to him. I was impressed!!!! #AchievementUnlocked ... It was after we left and I made a reference to Kuzco and Emperors New Groove that Elder Metcalf explained the "llama" he was talking about was a title for a person. I'm blonde. This is why we have companions.

- had a sweet gospel discussion with this guy at a McDonald's at 9:00 at night. Definitely has some interesting perspectives and some of it strangely enough ties into our gospel pretty well. Some of it straight up blew my mind haha, cool guy. HE HAD A JONNY CASH TATOO!!! #RingOfFire

- went and spent an afternoon doing service for this guy in his backyard. Moving around bunny cages, carrying troughs, putting up wiring for a chicken fence, just an awesome afternoon. The chickens were idiots (one went full kamikaze and got mangled in the wire seconds after we put it up #NaturalSelection) but his 3 dogs were awesome. A golden retriever and 2 black labs, we had a lot of fun playing fetch. It felt sooooo good getting dirty and wearing normal people clothes. Exactly what I imagined serving a mission in Montana would be like haha, love it here.

- doing some street contacting on Main St one day, decided to go say hi to the guy who runs the barber shop. BIG PAC 12 fan. Had banners for the Oregon and Washington schools hanging on the wall... Asked if I got him a Utes one if he would hang it up. He said absolutely! Could you get on that mom, thanks ;) #BackThePac

- Girl Scouts were selling cookies and I caved into temptation and bought a box. Looked to Elder Metcalf and said "take the thinmints and run back inside... That's our food for the week". He wasn't too familiar with Benchwarmers so I had to explain myself on that one. #GusBus.

- Teaching a lesson on faith and prayer and I told them about the time three 18 year old boys got stranded on a Moab jeep trail in the middle of nowhere (one of many times Jared nearly got us killed) and we decided to pray for help. Couple hours later someone came and we got out. We weren't exactly the most stalwart seminary students at Murray but when it came down to it we knew what we needed to do! I left out the part where @teambetaalpha and I found the matrix of the primes to revive Huby's spark #AutoBotsRollOut but still a good lesson. I don't know if we ever told the moms about this but now that we are on missions I think we're good. #SorryMom.

- Brother Warner showed me his nerf guns... I want to be like Brother Warner when I grow up haha. He's the one that plays C.O.D. with his wife when they get the kids to sleep, such a stud, reminds me of Jared. He invited me up for the ward nerf wars after the mission, #HamTown goes all out.

- Was taping up conference and Ron Swanson quotes on my personal study wall... Asked Elder Metcalf "where's that bonding strip?". And he gave me that typical look of "what the freak are you talking about now?", so I explained the infamous line from Buzz, that's still one of my favorite Toy Story lines.

- found one of those 2 piece Starbursts packs... Opened it up and I got 2 reds!!! #TenderMercies

- We are over at a family's house and we are talking to the 4 year old about the parrot... He says "on its second birthday, it turns 2!" I look at over at Metcalf and do the silent "mind blown" hand gesture. Those kids were awesome. We played Simon Says and it got heated.

- walking the streets and we say hi to this one lady. She responds with her middle finger... And I completely lost it I was laughing so hard. Told her to have a nice day and we went on our way. Not exactly the response she was expecting, I don't think she knew that's an expression of love in my family.

- was looking for some Mormon Messages we could share with Josh and found one filmed at Murray!!!! Caught me super off guard but heck ya! #GoSprtnas

- Bro Shepherd and Bro Walker took us to Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet... They told us to be sure and eat a lot because it's a buffet... All those times at PPC with the guys trained me for this moment. Super fun, love those guys.

Good week. Big highlight being the weekend obviously. Conference man... Woke up Saturday feeling hyped! You know those Saturday's in the fall when you wake up knowing it's a day slated with college football and how good that feeling is??? You throw on some ball shorts and a sweatshirt and are singing the College Gameday theme song as you are running down the stairs to join up with @pettbryan in the man cave for 3 hours of college gameday and a day of nothing but college football bliss and you got that feeling of oh man life is just good...

THATS HOW I FELT GETTIN UP FOR CONFERENCE. #GetUpItsGameday #GetUpItsGenConf.

Unfortunately I still had to wear church clothes and Lee Corso wasn't a speaker but it was still awesome. Took a ton of notes and the one question I had been praying about was answered several times. I'll give a little summary of some of my highlights:

- Losing the keys talk made me think of the time we were driving to Vegas for Utah-UNLV and @pettbryan forgot the tickets. I doubt he used the same language as my dad but still.

- 99% sure I saw Noah Thackeray in the choir during priesthood session.

- The guy talking about social media platforms that need to be set aside during family councils never mentioned Twitter... 🐸☕️

- Steven E. Snow's talk hit me pretty good. If the last 9 months have taught me anything it's that "I need thee every second" not every hour. That hymn has taken on a new meaning for me.

- loved the talk on family councils. Our family councils were the best even though they usually escalated quickly... Ex: @pettbryan walking Brady by the ear around the house demanding the Mrs. Fields cookie.

- Priesthood session was straight up fire. Loved the talk on the best leaders are the best followers.

- President Uchtdorf's #ShotsFired at guys looking for perfect woman was awesome. The Chewbacca reference gave me a tear of joy. And just when I thought I couldn't love the German anymore he slips in the "what legacy do you want to leave on your posterity". #ULegacy

- Loved hearing President Eyring talk about mission stories of families being sealed. Kinda hit me I already have my story and the next chapter is in November when Elder Christensen and I will be wearing our avengers socks at the Robison's sealing. So excited!!!!

- the #ShotsFired from Elder Hales about the guys that dream about girls so they think they have to marry them was pure gold. That got me laughin. I imagine there were some pretty awkward YSA meeting houses in Provo when he said that.

- Refugee talk was one I wasn't expecting, biggest thought that came to my mind is any pain we can take from someone, we take that pain from the Savior too. Loved that talk.

- Elder Holland's talk was pure excellence. That's all I have to say.

- and so much more. I took like 6 pages of notes.

My favorite part of all wasn't even a talk, but it really got to me. Book of Mormon calls it "piercing of the soul", myself and Coach Hines call it "plucking of the heart strings" and that's the best way to describe the closing hymn of the Saturday AM session. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Chills man, CHILLS. I'm all about those chills, goal in every video I ever made was somewhere you are gonna get chills, and the MoTab Choir gave them to me. I got an overwhelming feeling of how much God loves all of us.

Then Elder Holland's talk was the perfect way to close it. I'll fully admit there's days I'm dreading tomorrow. It's a little gut wrenching at times out here knowing you aren't seeing your family for A LONG time. The last 9 months have beaten the crap out of me, but the last 9 months have also taught me how much God loves me. How do I know he loves me??? Because He gave me that family I miss so much out here. I know I say it every week and I'll continue to say it, but I'm so grateful for my family. That hymn hit me hard, because my family is the greatest blessing God has given me.

"Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above."

Eternal families. That's what it's all about people!!! So grateful for my family, I couldn't ask for better grandparents, for better cousins, for better aunts and uncles, for better siblings, for better friends, for better nieces and Nephew'S(!!!!!!!!), and I especially couldn't ask for a better mom and dad. Bottom line is we are one tight family. So grateful that joy is eternal cause it's what I live for.

Gotta give it all the Lord. Go that inch for those around you and give your heart to the Lord, and He'll take care of ya. I'm a perfect example cause I was a complete and total emotional train wreck thinking about leaving my family (just ask them) yet somehow I have made it 9 months! That right there shows me God is looking out for all of us if we try and give our heart to Him.

Church is true, fam. I love ya.

- Elder K

- big sky