June 18, 2018

Dear family and friends,

Another week down, sad to say this was the last week! Crazy all that has happened this week. I will keep it short because I will be able to tell you if everything that happened in a few days! To sum op the week I got to go on one last Exchange with Elder Anderson! That was a blast. We only got in a little bit of trouble. We also got to get a really amazing view of Folsom lake right before dusk. It was absolutely amazing!

That I all feel like writing. Sorry it’s so short. There are plenty of pictures you can look at. Just know that the church is true! And so is the Book!

See you all Wednesday!!

Love,

Elder Berry

June 11, 2018

Hello,

This week is already over! To crazy to think how fast time has truly gone by. The last little bit I have been reflecting all of the things that I have seen, been apart, and went through. It is a lot, but I would trade a single minute of it. It truly has been a blessing for me to be able to come to know Jesus Christ as my savior! He is the source that we find all peace! What a blessing it is to have someone suffered and died for each and everyone of us! I know that Jospeh Smith is a prophet, he restored the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that we have a prophet named President Russell M. Nelson. He leads and guides this church under the direction of Jesus Christ. I have come to a great sense that all things are possible here in Sacramento. With that apart of my heart will always be here. Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support during my mission! I will see you all soon!

Sincerely,

Elder Berry

June 4, 2018

Dear Family & Friends,

This week has been a "heart-jerker." It all starts with an investigator that sounds almost too good to be true. Her name is Marisa. She was a self-referral from talking with missionaries online. We go and talk to her once we get the referral. She seemed super open to what we had to say. We got a return appointment for in a few days. It was a really good set up. We had some members there, it was in her home, the Spirit could be felt. It was a true ideal situation for a lesson to be taught. She already went and downloaded the Book of Mormon onto her Tablet and started to read it.We taught the Restoration and she accepted to get baptized on June 16th. It was a really good lesson. We come back for the next lesson with members there a again, another great setting for a lesson. She had some questions for us. They were, “What are the steps to baptized?” and “Can I come to church before I get baptized?” Great questions. I have never ha d such great questions like that from an investigator before at such an early point. The third time we go by she didn’t really have any questions but she was telling us about how she had read to Jacob in the course of about a week. I was really excited about that. She was headed out of town for vacation to celebrate her anniversary. So we talked to her about going to a temple tour if she got back. We texted her on Wednesday to see if we are good for the temple tour and she said she was excited to go and learn about the temple more. The next day she texted us back saying she does not want to meet anymore and a long list of reason why. I am not going to lie, that hurt pretty bad. I was super excited for her to get baptized. 

I was at a low point of what to do next. I was wondering, "what I did wrong?" Could I have done something better? But you know those were not good thoughts to be having. I know through the Holy Ghost that I gave her the best chance to accept the gospel. It doesn’t change the fact that it does hurt awfully bad when someone chooses to not accept the gospel., especially when I had such high hopes for them. Just goes to show that no matter how badly we want something, it is up to each person's choice to choose whether or not to accept or reject the gospel.

I also had some really good experiences his week. I don't want this whole thing to be negative. We had the opportunity to do some service for some part-member families. I love being able to serve people. They have such a change of heart when you go and serve them. That one of the things that I love about the church is that it is built off of service. As you know when you are in the service of others you are in the service of 

God. I love this great work!! I love my Savior. I love President Neilson. I love being a missionary!!

Right now, I am in a trio with Elder Zachary Glenn Anderson this very moment as I am writing you all! My companion is currently doing an activity for missionaries that are about to go home. So I was blessed to have him as a companion for a few hours. 

Have the best week ever!!

Love,

Elder Berry

May 29, 2018

Dear Family & Friends

I hope all is well with all of your endeavors. I have to apologize for not telling you last week that would be emailing on Tuesday of this week. Because yesterday was a holiday, more people would be home. So we mover Pday to today to be able to catch more people home. 

This last week flew by faster than I can even imagine. I look back to pick a few stories and experiences that happened and there are so many. I will talk about a few that stand out to me in the hope that it can help you in some way. First I got to spend some time with Elder Anderson. We were able to work together for a couple of hours. The bishop of my ward asked us to go and see a family that isn’t struggling on an extreme level or anything, he felt that it would be good for us to stop by. When we got there they welcomed us in and greeted us very warmly. Going up to the door I did not know them and neither did Elder Anderson, so we were actually had no idea what to expect. The one thing that we had on our side was the spirit. We shared a message about the importance of remembering our convents that we have made with Heavenly Father. As we remember those covenants they will give us vision and guidance on what we should say and do. It was amazing that taking the time to follow the spirit and ACT on the promptings the great impact that happens in peoples lives. When we were leaving the husband told us that his wife really needed to hear the message that we shared. He said our visit was very timely and spiritual. That made me feel very good knowing that God is directing his work, and as I listen he will show me where to go.

The other big thing that happened this week I was able to go on an exchange with an Elder from Louisiana. He is a fun Elder. Most of the day we were on bikes. We were able to talk with so many people. It was so fun. The fantastic part was that when people were not interested they kindly said no. The whole day filled with pleasant rejection. You don’t get those days too often, but I am not complaining. I will gladly take those days any time. 

Then the picture of the lizard is from a service that we were doing that we found in the leaves. My companion is really scared of snakes and he thought it was a rattlesnake. Kinda of funny that it was just a little old lizard. 

Hope you all have the best week ever!!

Sincerely,

Elder Berry

May 21, 2018

Hello, Hello,

Crazy how fast time goes. I will try to write really fast so I can tell you of all of the adventures that I have went on this week. To start we are teaching this lady named Marisa. She is a self referral, she is legit. We go by and set up a time that we can meet with her. When we came back she told us that she downloaded the Book of Mormon on to her kindle and has already read the 1st 8 chapters with out us even asking her to read those verses. It was a really cool lesson as we taught the restoration. She accepted conditional baptism. We will teach her tonight and extend a day to her for early June. We will see what happens. 

Then this week we went and taught a Chinese family some English. Every time we go there that feed us some pretty authentic food from China. The 1st time that I went there I saw pigs feet hanging up in the window. So I was a little scared that I might be having pigs feet for dinner. But god showed a great abundance of love to me and they didn’t make us pigs feet. The food that we did have was really good. They make some good food. Lucky for me since my dad served his mission in japan he taught me how to use chopsticks. So I felt like a local eating with chopsticks with not to much trouble. You all would be proud for how good I have gotten with chopsticks. 

Well that’s all that I can remember from this week. I will do better to remember next week so I can have more stuff to write about. 

Have the best week ever!!

Sincerely,

Elder Berry

May 14th, 2018

Hello,

I will keep this week fairly short because there is not much time today email today. Again I want to say happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers out there. It was such a blast to talk to my family yesterday.  They all seem to be really happy with where they are headed I life. 

A exciting story this week  we were able to go and find a part member family this week that has not been on the church records for years because they did not know where they were at. We have taught them the restoration and plan on teaching the plan of salvation to them tonight. We will be extending them a Baptismal Date as well. Wish us luck.

Hope you all have a great week. Look forward for more next week. 

Sincerely,

Elder Berry

May 7th, 2018

Hello,

To start I want to wish my mother, grandma, & aunts a extra happy Mother’s Day next week! I know that I am no where close but I hope that you have a great Mother’s Day!!

Also transfers have come again. I will be getting transferred. I will be spending my last 6 weeks in the Folsom stake. I have never served there before so it should be filled with lots of new adventures. My new companion is Elder Chen! I am excited for the last couple of weeks so I can go out with a bang!

This week was a pretty exciting week!! I put two explanations to put some extra emphasis. Anyways this week started off pretty good. We were teaching a new member lesson to a recent convert named James. It has been so cool to see her journey as she has come into the church. We talked a lot about agency & trials. It was cool to see her understanding change and grow. She said the closing prayer and said “thank you god for the hard things.” When she said that it made me have to take a look back. All of the hard things that we go through are for our good. To help us become better people for our future. I thought it was amazing to see the insight that a new member had. 

We went and met with a YSA who is going to a family ward. We went and invited him out to the YSA Ward. He said that he has come before but the 1st time no one really talked to him. So he didn’t have the most enjoyable experience. As we talked we were able to get him to give it another chance which was cool. He did end up coming and seemed to have a more enjoyable experience. It’s amazing to see the difference it makes to have a friend at church. 

With Maka & Filisi the two Tongan boys working to May 19 had a lesson just focused on president Nelson. We shared some experiences to help them get to know him better that they might be able to have a stronger witness of president Nelson. It was cool even for me that as I studied and prepared to teach them that I was able to have a strengthened witness of president Nelson. I love president Nelson and know that he is a prophet in the latter days. 

The other day we were walking out of our apartment and we saw our neighbor and said hi. She was being polite and said hi back. We asked what her name was to be nice and get to know her. When she saw that my name was Elder Berry she lost it. She went on to tell us that she is wikan. From what she told us is like a witch with poisons and things. Apparently elderberry is a very powerful berry. So the Sacramento needs to watch out for me for at least the next 6 weeks. I don’t think she is an actual witch. And I am getting transferred so I should be safe. 

I had a humbling experience as well this week. I was asked to be apart of giving a baby blessing to a 3 day old baby that was fighting for its life. I couldn’t even describe what I felt. So much empathy for the single mom. There was not a whole low that I could do beside to give the blessing. I hope that it was enough. But to see the family all come together for the single mother really made me know that you can truly call on family when you are In Times of need.

To finish up we were out finding on Saturday. Most of the day people were not home or really did not want to talk to us. About 70% of the way through our plans of really not seeing any luck we came across a former investigator named Krystal. She was not really interested in meeting with missionaries before. But she has had a few things shake her relationship with god that made her want to reconnect. It was cool as we followed the spirit god took us to the people he is preparing for baptism.

I hope you have the best week ever! And to all the mothers have a great Mother’s Day!

Love,

Elder Berry