Howdy from Good ol Jackson Georgia!

So sorry it's been a couple seconds. So to update you in a bout a sentence I had to leave New Zealand it tore my heart out went home for about a month and a half got a job, got my reassignment to Georgia for a week later, quit my job, moved to Georgia! Anywho now that you're updated here's the good stuff 😂 sorry it's long but I swear it's worth the read..

 So my mission president, President Needs, is brand new. The previous mission president, President Clayton, was in the high risk zone so they sent them home. So president Needs was actually just serving a normal senior couple mission with his wife in the Congo. And then they just got a call one day like "hey you're getting transferred tomorrow to Georgia, also you're the mission president okay cool bye". So he's brand brand new and like never went to the mission president seminar mtc thing so he has 0 training. RIP to him, hes doing awesome so far tho! And then the week he arrived Salt Lake sent home all elders at 18 months or more and then everyone with any health issue which was like 90 something missionaries. So when I got here there was only 60 missionaries and they were like you are the first intake of 220 missionaries we are getting this transfer. So we were the lucky ones once they hit about 100 more they will run out of housing and cars and everyone will have to live in hotels and drive rental cars for who knows how long isn't that insane! 

So here's actually the good stuff.

So my area is this tiny town called Jackson. I don't know if you've ever watched Stranger Things but it was actually filmed here it had the exact same weird vibes you'd think that small town had. It's weird but it's also fetching hilarious. So like when you introduce your self and say were you are from, instead of saying the town you say the county, I don't know why but 🤷‍♀️ so no joke the name of my county is Butts County. And the main thing this town is known for is its giant donkey farm 😂. Also apparently Chick Fil A was invented here they are really proud of that. 

It's cool everyone here is totally obsessed with the Savior like they talk about him all the time but In like normal conversations. It's cool. They also fetching love missionaries and will always roll down their window and wave and give us free food but they aren't Interested in learning more because they already got Jesus in their heart apparently. But they will like cheer us on and thank us for what we do. But every person does that 😂 so the works super slow but its definitely entertaining.

 So we are still in quarantine here and our neighbors (we live in an apartment) are in this Christian rock band and are like playing till like 3 in the morning but honestly I don't mind their music is actually a bop and its church music, I might need to ask for a CD. But we are teaching them ... kind of... he feels bad that we are so young and uneducated apparently so he will let us come over and he'll ask us different questions he thinks people will ask missionaries and see what we say and then he will critique us with the correct information let me tell you hes got some interesting ideas about God and he also teaches us how to in his words"how to not teach awkwardly"  😂 hes sweet. 🤷‍♀️

ALSO the branch here is so cool. We don't have a building yet so they rent out a room at the bank . We have a decal in the window now so that's cool. We got it this week. But the branch is funny every single one of them is SUPER quirky and they are all related but honestly it's so entertaining they are literally hilarious they say things sometimes that really should never be said, if they had a filter but it's pretty funny. They will just talk for days and roast everyone also they all fill you in on the latest gossip weather or not you want to know. Some people will invite us over to do service for them but then will just park a chair next to where we are pulling their weeds and then just rant about their friend Janeya who was apparently flirting with the members brother. And that's about it. We cant leave the house unless its for service or to pick up dinner. But apparently Georgia  lifted the quarantine mandate today and everything is opening back up. So who knows maybe we will get to go proselyte soon. 

So my companions name is Sister Widing shes hilarious, we definitely are very different people but shes cool. Shes has some very extreme views on the world gets irritated really easily by random things and will start ranting and I think it's so funny. Like we will be just buying groceries and shell get mad at the how the vegetables are in the back of the store and how America doesn't care about healthy eating anymore and how the government is just waiting for us all to die off of diabetes so they can start fresh. And redo the whole justice system.... apparently. So shes keeps me entertained.

 And ya that's about it from me basically it's the weirdest small town in the us and I love it so much 😂 I should probably go we are about to go the the tractor store to look for overalls to wear when we go peach picking later 👌

Keep me updated on whats going on with yall !!! I love you and miss you! -sister berrett 

 Pictures:

This duck was just following me around and literally wouldn't stop following me till I picked it up

My comp

Our new branch decal

So the same guy who made mount Rushmore did one in georgia too and it's actually way bigger and cooler in person it just rained so it looks like it was scratched in the mountain but it's like this massive carving. my comp wanted to go see it because apparently it's a carving of Confederate soldier's so she wanted to go so she could know where to go when she comes back so she can protest. 😂 (honestly she gives me the biggest MJ from Spiderman vibes 😂💛)

Kia ora whanau

Im so sorry I've been so horrible at writing I can either call my mom, go for a hike, drive an hour to this mediocre taco stand or write my weekly email. So one transfer, 20 tacos and three water falls and weekly calls to my mom  later I still haven't written a weekly so I sincerely apologise. So I'll quickly catch you up to speed on what you missed last transfer and then tell you all about the big transfer 3 in red Hill. So transfer two where to start, I got fleas, ticks, and lice, love new Zealand, my companion hit me with a car but its okay it was funny, MAIA AND AMANAKI GOT BAPTIZED! I cried way too much, shocker. And Kura went to the temple I definitely cried she came back and showed me the 90 billion selfies she took in front if the temple and posing with her recommend. She's too cute. So as a new convert you can't go do certain work in the temple until after a year but you can do baptismal work for your ancestors, and so she flew all the way to Tonga (because the nz temple is under reconstruction) to be inside the Lords House. It was so cool. We invited Malia to be baptized she's adorable I'll attach a photo but she doesn't have a ride to church for reasons I'm not allowed to say so sadly we have had to put her baptism on pause. And that about summed up transfer two

  So Drum roll please.... 

TRANSFER 3!!!!! So sister Graham and I are staying in red Hill and have had the honour to be asked to be the STLs for the zone and TO TRAIN A SISTER FROM TONGA!! I'M A MOTHER! (missionary slang sorry) so this transfer I have the privilege of getting to train the adorable amazing sister Eliesa ❤️ I want to be her when I grow up :) and fun fact her sister is actually serving in the mission that I visa waited in the North Dakota Bismark mission!!! I never got to meet her sister sadly, could have been cool, but one day. But it's just amazing how the Lord works. But wow I forgot how much I love being in a trio it's awesome. We don't have third bed so we take turns sleeping on the floor but other then that it's been peachy keen. Sister Eliesa has been incredible she has helped increase the work immensely since sister Graham and I are two palanges (white girls) in a Tongan ward and all we can say in Tongan is I am missionary from Jesus Christ's restored Church would you like to hear a message about how you can be with your families for eternity and how you can find last happiness in a world of sorrow? So it's been a little difficult but then sister Eliesa came out of no where and now we have so many incredible miracles that came from her diligence and willingness to translate even though she doesn't speak much English. So so far this transfer had been really good. Two weeks ago though a good friend of mine an amazing missionary elder Rojas found out he has a very rare form of cancer and will be going home as soon as his chemo slows down enough for him to be able to travel. So if you could keep him in your prayers that would be very appreciated. But sorry again for the lack of emailing going on I have repented and I promise to be better. I really really love this work and I love you all.

So this past week we had the privilege of listening to the current prophet of God getting to speak to the church and it was Amazing!! President Russel m Nelson (the prophet) gave a beautiful talk on loving those around us :) if you didn't get the chance to I definitely recommend watching it. He invited all of us to read Doctrine and Covenants section 25, 84, & 107 :) 

Also if you haven't had the chance yet the church recently released book of Mormon videos and they are incredible go do your self a favor and go check them out!

Be good say your prayers go watch general conference and call your mom :) love you - sister pelletti (my Tongan name according to sister Eliesa which apparently translates to sister plate 😂🤷‍♀️)

1) family photo - in the middle is my trainer sister Graham and the rest of us are the sisters she's trained

2) I think name tag photos are cheesy and lame but my friend Latai said she stop being friends with me if I didn't keep this one she took

3) I really tried to not fall.. I fell three times.

4) had to have proof I actually try to ride the bikes

5) Maias baptism ❤️

6) the lovely sister Eliesa :) 

Random text messages with sister berrett, part 3

Mom the worst thing in the entire world just happened to me. (7:06 pm)
No joke. (7:06 pm)
Or ignore me. It's cool. (7:06 pm)

What??? (7:06 pm)
???  (7:09 pm)
So... worst thing in the entire world??? Leaving me hanging?? (7:14 pm)
An hour later.... still waiting for you tell me about the worst thing in the world,,, and you accused me of ignoring you. :/  (7:58 pm)

There I was hiking a waterfall like one does and then I was like wow I'm thirsty so I got to the store and instead of buying water, I buy a fried Twix obviously and then I forgot to buy water and then I basically died of dehydration and so I climb to the top of the waterfall and there it was, it was beautiful. This cute little shop at the top and so I crawled my way to the store, panting, basically dead, and I was like "Do you have any water?"  and he goes "ya" and I was like "I'm in love with you" and so he hands me a water bottle, I buy it, cry from joy, open it up, and that's when it happened. 
IT WAS SPARKLING WATER.
Isn't that horrible.
I don't know how I'll recover. (8:20 pm)

That is indeed the most horrible thing ever and totally worth the wait.
You got to hike to a waterfall???
Pictures?

If you can't tell I'm throwing up the waterfall.
You're welcome.

random fb messenger texts and pictures from Sister Berrett, part 2

Sister Berrett's side of the conversation is italicized, mine is normal.

Mom, Sister Graham hit me with the car

What???

I mean, technically I ran into the car, but I decided it's her fault.  I'm fine I promise.

Ok, Nick....

So basically I was backing like one does
And then she just looked at me and kept driving and was like "Get in",
so there I was, 
I opened the door about to jump in and it turns out she was joking and was planning on stopping and so she slammed on her brakes when she saw the look in my eye that I was about to dive and so long story short I didn't know she was going to stop so I start running and then she slams on the brakes and I body slam and ricochet off the car.
It was a party.

Doesn't she know you???

Yes she does, thats why she's like "oh no"
Anyway, I think I bruised my rib.
But I don't think it's broken.
So we just aren't going to tell President.

~~~~~~~~

Sister Graham painted my uke.

There is this tradition here were all the missionaries make this journal page for each other full of pictures and like notes and other crap.  Usually people spend like at least 2 hours on each and you see I was like so instead of confessing your love to me can you just paint my uke and she's like sure.

~~~~~~~~

Like literally the best thing ever just happened while we were texting.
Like Right Now.
So this random lady in the Tongan ward was like "Hello sista me I am sista Tui'vi I have friend for you to baptized she is waiting can you teach tomorrow?"
And we were like, "Let me check my schedule, UM YES."

Fleas, tears, and lice oh my!

That is correct you did read that... I love the islands they are the closest thing to paradise in my opinion, other than Netflix and tacos, but man if we get fleas or lice one more time I'm gonna start a petition to have them all burned. (The fleas not the islands.) But wow its been an interesting couple weeks sorry I might just need to summarize and make this a shorter email sorry mom. But wow where do I start?

 So basically all our good ol' pals we've been teaching her have dropped us but we love them anyway and we know that there are other people out there waiting to hear the gospel. But that was kinda the theme of the story. What else happened... Wow I should really keep a journal. 

Oh ya so fun story our dear president, president Erekson announced the finding fast... I really hope I talked about that in my last email because I don't really want to take the time to write it all out but basically the whole mission cancelled all our appointments and fasted all day and did nothing but try to find new people. It was rad. It's cool how much Heavenly Father really is just waiting to bless us when we turn to Him. Cause wow did he bless us the first couple hours were slow nothing happened just alot of slammed doors, or people looking through the window, and then not answering, and then we decided to pray and ask what to do differently, and I'm not really sure what happened differently but it was so cool, time just flew by and we got one new person and four less active families and three part member families to start working with. But ya that's about the gist. 

Maia and Amanaki are getting baptized this week and we had to flea bomb our house for the billionth time but other then that not anything out of the ordinary. Sorry this email was kind of short as. 

But next week just you wait it's gonna be a party. Kia kaha- sister berrett

Lighthouse hike pictures

Weekly 🤙

Also fun fact real quick 🤙 this doesn't mean hang loose that's just an American apparently according to all my new Poly friends it's called shacka and I don't thing it means anything its just what all the cool kids do so 🤷‍♀️ anyway good morning whanau how are you!? Sorry I didn't send a weekly last week. But these past couple weeks have been really good a little crazy actually. 

So to start Sangeta got baptized wow that was amazing I love her so much she has such a strong desire to draw nearer to her Savior and is really excited to continue down the covenant path she's great. Well her fiance's cousin came to the baptism and he must have felt the spirit very strong because he cried though the whole thing and told his uncle he wants to learn more so we started to teach him! He's so so cool and just really wants to be happy and feel that peace he felt at her baptism again. The only problem is that he only speaks Tongan and well in case you didn't realize I only speak English so we had to have a translator, but it's okay because I'm just grateful he's so patient with us and still wants to continue to take the lessons. 

Last week sister Graham got attacked by a dog but she's good now. Moving on transfer news came both me and sister Graham stayed in Red Hill yay! But one of our bffs elder Demille ditched us to be the the assistant to the president. Rude. But really though I'm so excited for him that just shows how awesome of an elder is. He gave us literally so many referrals... Definitely going to miss him. But it's good we got to keep his companion Elder Moucatel who's super cool he's only on his fourth transfer and he's already been zone leader twice so basically he's gonna be an apostle one day. Love them anyway so BREAKING NEWS....... We got elders in red Hill... That's right you read that right they are making us share Red Hill and its rude. Nah but really Elder Strate and elder Berry are super cool. Elder Berry is fresh out if the mtc and is Canadian so I just want to make fun of him so bad but I'm a missionary and have to be nice but wow some seriously self restraint has been experienced. 

Anyway it's been really good okay actually so story time first time I met them I no joke thought they were about to mug us 😂. So picture this two young cool sister missionaries walking down the sketchy streets of Hunua NZ it was like 8. So the sun was down and out of the corner of my eyes I see two guys following us (so in the white handbook it says to always keep a small amount of cash on you in case you get mugged but I had definitely just spent my mugging money on cool temporary tattoos (for post mish obviously) like three days before so I started panicking) so there I was trying to save my companion from the creepy guys following so so I turn around and start shouting.  I was, I kid you not this is what I said... So embarrassing, "Okay so look I'm a missionary, I really don't have any money but like I have this watch if you want it, but I've definitely broken it twice already but if you duck tape the battery in place it's as good As...Oh..." so they were kind of far away, close enough you can tell there is someone following you but far enough away and dark enough that you couldn't tell who they are so I was like really out trying to bribe these potential muggers with my cheap watch and turns out it was our new elders they laughed really hard it was rude anyway that's how I met my double covers and I just looked at the time and my pday is over so much love be good - sister berrett