Elder McKay Philip Pett: Lake Como and the Tick

WHAT'S UP FAM.

Alright if you're looking for some spiritual inspiration you're just gonna have to skip down a few paragraphs cause I first off gotta tell you what happened at the end of last Monday.

Alright so the hike last week was sweet. Freakin gorgeous, pics don't do it justice but I tried. Peterson and I took the back of the pack and were talking about the NBA and college football and Pokemon and all that stuff and even got a little spiritual talking about our missions. He may be a coug, but I love Elder Peterson, we're gonna be tight after the mission. He's a solid elder. We both told Elder Meinhardt he can't Dear John us cause we gotta be at his wedding.

Then came the events after the hike... Alright so I gave a much more detailed account of this to my parents and siblings but I'll keep it PG in this one for the grandmothers. So... We get back and put on our proselyting clothes and bike and preach and all that fun stuff. Get back 3 hours later, do our planning and get ready to call it a night. Well I've been hearing about all this hype of ticks and I had feeling I should probably go check if I have any before I climb into bed...

*it's no secret I had "0" outdoor experience before the mission with the exception of the wilderness explorer camp in Disneyland. Now I've been converted the last 9 months and everything, love the outdoors, but I don't know what a freakin tick is!

So ticks... I thought they were like a fly or something... So I take off my top and see one running across my chest (tick 1). Freakin gnarly lookin, like a flat spider. So I flick it off, no big deal. Then after finding tick 2 which I will explain more in a moment, I decide to shower and find tick 3 in my hair.

Had I only found tick 1 and 3, I probably wouldn't have cared too much... But now let's go back to tick 2 #TickFromHell... Now apparently ticks bite and then burrow themselves in the skin. Well let's just say I found tick 2 starting to burrow in probably the worst place possible, hence the name #TickFromHell.

So here I am. In the bathroom. Buck nude. My year streak of clean language on the line. Thinking "How the heck do South America missionaries do it... ". Do I tell my comp? Do I text President Wadsworth? IT'S STUCK TO ME! PREACH MY GOSPEL DOESN'T MENTION NOTHING OF THIS!!! I didn't know what to do but I did know if I told someone I'd probably have to answer the question of "where did it bite?" And I'd preferably not answer that question to any of them.

People, there are some things that just freak me out and that I don't do. Before the mission we pulled off some risky #StealthOps that got your blood pumpin and those were fine, I can handle that. But ask my family... haunted stuff, T-Rex hybrids, hospitals, and bugs or whatever you classify a tick as... Freak me out. I can't even handle the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show at Animal Kingdom! So you can imagine how I felt trying to flick this thing off only to realize that it ain't going anywhere. I mean, That sucka was latched on like @pettbryan and a Frontierland turkey leg in Disneyland.

I remained calm and thought to myself "what would Ron Swanson do?" Figured he'd probably just pull it out. So I grab some tweezers and tweez that sucka outta there, and I finally got it out. Throw him on the bathroom counter and now had to decide how I wanted to kill it. Missionary handbook made my first two options unavailable (not allowed to have guns or start fires). So I just threw it down the toilet. Crisis averted. All is well. Light the U.

It was the next day I was talking with Mama J and I told her what happened but that it is was my leg that got bit. She said tweezers are the worst thing you can do cause it usually only takes the body out but the head remains then it releases some venom stuff that gives you a fever and screws you up for a couple weeks... While giving you a rash where it bit (my eyes got REAL wide when she said that)... I'm hearing this thinking #ChurchIsTrue and I'm an idiot.

So that was that little incident. Considering where I found tick 2 and what it was doing freaked me out, not gonna lie. Little traumatized. You are all probably thinking "Pett you pansy" but no mission prep or MTC experience could have made me ready for Tick 2. Nice thing is they freak me out so much I'm now relieved when I find a spider cause it isn't a tick so I have overcome my fear of other crawlers and can probably handle watching "It's Tough to be a Bug" on our next Disney trip.

I could probably tie that into a gospel message but I'll just cap it off with a #SorryMom, that probably isn't making the blog. I had to tell you guys though haha.

Alright so that's the tick story. I'll now get into the rest of the random events that transpired during the week and hopefully salvage this email with a spiritual thought at the end. I feel bad because all the missionary's emails I get are super uplifting and here I am talking about the tick from hell and lightsabers... #SamIAm

Alright, here we go.

- New elder came into the zone. He's a visa waiter who is waiting to get cleared for the Netherlands. We drove to Missoula Tuesday and to Butte Wednesday to pick up him and his bike. We've been driving a ton, kinda sucked being gone from Hamilton and stuck in a car but still fun. Our windshield is covered in bugs... At one point Metcalf said "is that rain drops or bugs?" #WelcomeToMontana in the spring.

- new elder is Elder Mikkelson from Oregon. He's a stud. I asked if he's ever been to a game at Autzen... "Ya I went to the Utah game last year, they murdered the ducks." I kept it classy and said "oh, ya I think my dad told my about that one" but inside I was doing a Ron Swanson giggle.

- Basketball is still going strong with Brother Poulson and his son, cheese pizza. Cheese pizza and I are starting to get things figured out and won the weekly series for the first time last week #AchievementUnlocked and are up 1-0 this week after our comeback win this morning. Brother Poulson continues to light us up. One day, we are up 19-17 (1's and 2's to 21) and Bro Poulson has the ball, I didn't care if he blows past me and makes a layup and he easily could of. Just "no 3's and stay on Ellis" as @pettbryan would say. So I'm on him tight, "tight like unto a dish" tight, you couldn't fit a Mormon.org pass along card between us that's how close we are. But every cow and person in Hamilton knew he's gonna take the 3 to make it a one possession game, he's even telling me "I'm gonna bank this." I'm all "no you ain't".

*pumps *gets me in the air *double pumps under me and shoots *banks it in. As I take the dagger out of my heart I imagine Dick Vitale saying "unbelievable" . We hit a 3 to win it but what a shot by Brother Poulson!!! lot of fun playing with them and Elder Metcalf. If they ever come to Salt Lake they'll be stopping by for some 5:30 ball.

- wrote in giant caps "BRO WEISGRAM" off to the margins of Enos 1:21. #GOAT

- did some service where we just formed a pile of dirt. Never thought that would be so much fun but something about normal clothes and getting completely filthy is awesome!

- Kannenwisher's took us out for Mexican food. I love them, they are really nice people #Goals.

- We saw that lady that flipped us off that one time. Not sure what we did to her but she doesn't like us too much haha. I think of the scene at the beginning of the first Transformers every time we see her on the streets. "That's my mammy, hey mammy!" *the grandma flips him off*. This is the type of stuff that they need to show in the district videos.

- we bike past some ball courts and see this old shirtless dude balling hard. We jump off our bikes and shot around in our man purse and helmets. Metcalf was getting hot, that may be his new outfit for morning ball. The guy's name was Van, total stud. Lived in southern Germany for a couple years so we spoke some Deutsch. I wish I could tell you we converted him by using the Celestial language but we didn't, just little phrases. Pretty fun though. Cool guy.

- Had a cereal night with bishop. Purpose is to talk missionary work and we do but pretty much it is eating cereal and quoting Nacho Libre and Dumb and Dumber. Absolutely love Bishop Hawkes. Fully planning on coming up for more cereal nights and taking him up on his plane ride offer.

- This valley is borderline Switzerland status in the spring, soooo pretty. Biking has been awesome. We named the big hill we have to go up "Satan Summit" and I'm either extremely out of shape or my bike sucks. Probably yes.

- then we had dinner with the Equatores, whom I love. Dad, 3 Boys (21,17,15), and the mom. The poor mom just sits there shaking her head and face palming the entire time, it escalates quickly in there. Dad made us his homemade spaghetti and it was amazing. Told us to tell our wives we are taking them to Italy then just drive up for a spaghetti night at the Equatores, #ImDown. Love that family.

- Biking one day and a truck passes us with a young couple in the cab. Metcalf says "you know they love each other when there's only 2 of them and she takes the middle seat"... Didn't know how to tell him that that's what me and @TeamBetaAlpha do in the Dart on our way to Chili's for a 2 for 20 dinner followed by a movie. #MovieManDate

Ya. That was the week! Not a lot of success teaching but still a good week. 3 big spiritual highlights:

Church: I love church. Got to bless the Sacrament for the first time in forever with my boy Anthony Equatore. Testimony meeting was awesome. Coach taught another solid gospel principles. And in EQ we talked about experiences in the temple. As they were all talking about the temple I couldn't stop by thinking about that last session in SL with my mom and dad. Another Good Sunday.

Teaching experience - Mama J got a less active in her home with us there and we started teaching her. Just a sweet lady that has had it rough and is ready to have God back in her life. It was a great lesson, Mama J came in clutch on this one. They say 1 consecrated missionary is better than 100 non-consecrated missionaries. Well I take it one step further and claim 1 member who does missionary work is more effective than 100 consecrated missionaries and Mama J, the Della Silva's, the Rogers, all these families I have worked with, show that. All goes back to that water ballon launcher, you can't do this without members. I had no idea before my mission how much power members have in this work.

Awesome experience 2 also started from a member. Got a call from a lady in Richfield UT and she told us her friend was in the hospital in Hamilton who isn't a member and we should go see her. So we stop by, teach her the restoration and give her a blessing and now she's ready to meet with some elders in Stevensille when she gets released! We called the lady from Richfield back to report and I told her my referral to her is to go get a punch bag. She laughed and said she would. She also told us she talked to her friend in the hospital and she said that despite the health problems she is facing this is the happiest she has felt in 40 years. In the blessing we told her she would have joy. The Priesthood is amazing.

Fam, This work is special. It chews you up and spits you out on a daily basis but deep down I love it! I'll joke around with ya quite a but this really is sweet when you look at the grand scheme of things. It's bringing families together. The members we work with and the people we meet, it's an experience that I never want to forget. Even if most these people don't ever accept it in this life, it's fun getting to meet so many good people and the memories I have. Whether that memory is a tick from hell or a temple sealing coming up in Nov., it's a great day to be a missionary.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and especially to the wonderful moms in my life. My Riverview Ward moms, my Montana moms. My sisters who are incredible moms and have given me my best friends (1 of which I get to meet on Sunday!!!!!! ;) I see how you do this whole mom thing and that's why I have accepted the fact you can pick my wife. My amazing grandmas who I love so much and especially happy Mother's Day to my best friend. Love you so much mom. No point in denying I'm a mamas boy and I can fully admit being away from you has been the hardest. Chapter 6 in Preach my Gospel is my favorite chapter because it's the one that reminds me the most of you. I love you so much... When I read 1 Nephi 16: 32 I also thought of you...

"and now when they beheld that I had obtained food, how great was their joy!"

That's probably how you felt walking into the man cave with food on a college football Saturday and seeing how happy @pettbryan and I were to know we didn't even have to come upstairs to get our Cafe Rio. You really are the best mom out there. I love you so much.

Have a good week fam, watch for the ticks ;)

I GET TO MEET ELI ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!

- Elder K

Pics

- The zone!!!