December 13, 2016

Hello everyone,

There has been a lot that has happened this last week. First of all I did end up getting transferred. I am now in a different ward and stake. It was sad saying goodbye to the the last ward I served in but I am excited for this new ward. My new companion is Elder Young Yen. He is from New Zealand. He is way cool and I am way excited for this transfer.

The new area that I am in is hilly area. So I will be a lot of up hill biking. I almost got hit by a car so to miss the car I went into a fence and got air. But I didn't even get any bruises. I did start to bleed because of the tuck and roll thing that I did. But I am really okay.

Things are great here in Sacramento. The weather is nice during the day but it get kinda chilly at night. Like 50 degrees.

On Saturday I will be able to go back for David's baptism. I am way excited for that. I will be able to the old ward and see the old ward again. 

Then on Saturday I was able to go to a live nativity. It was super good and I wish I could have gotten to go more. We were able to take a nonmember and give them a temple tour.

Anyways I hope things are going well for you and you are enjoying your Christmas Season.

Love, Elder Berry

December 5, 2016

Hello everyone,

This has been a really good but cold week. We are getting ready for David's baptism on the 17 and its a lot of work making sure everything will run smoothly. But we are excited for David's choice to enter into the waters of baptism.

Then we had a zone training on joy on Friday. It was really good. It really helped us get ready for Christmas in the right spirit. Christmas is such a great time of the year and I am way excited for it. Transfer calls will be this Saturday so I don't know if i will be in the same ward for Christmas. I hope that I am and I am looking forward for whatever the Lord has in store for me.

The picture with me and the other 3 missionaries with the same ties has a cool story behind it. There is a missionary from Cambodia and his parents don't have a lot of money so his mom hand makes ties and sells them support him on his mission. So all the elders in my apartment put some money together and bought matching ties to help support him.

It is getting so cold here in Sacramento. It gets down to like 50 degrees.Then it does get a little windy which makes your face cold when you are biking. But all in all it is good to be doing missionary work.

Then we went and did some service this week for this less active member who is really old but takes a lot of pride in her yard. So we helped trim her trees so she could take a little more pride in her yard.

I hope you are all lighting the world with service and enjoying the Christmas season.

Love, Elder Berry

November 28, 2016

Hello everyone!!!!

This week has been full of fun things that have happened. To start off the week we started with exchanges. I went with a new missionary in my area and it was good. He is still learning the ways of the missionary but he has really learned a lot. That was Elder Perry. He is from Brighton, Utah. It was really fun being with him but like all things the exchange came to an end.

Then we had some member give us some steaks. So we cooked those up on Wednesday. I had a chuck style steak and it was really good. It was a fun night though. 

Christmas is going to be really fun this year. When we are biking around there are a lot of cool christmas light up all ready and its fun to be able to see them all.

We had a really good Thanksgiving. We got a lot of left overs that we have been giving to all of the other missionaries. We had a member that instead of feeding us they spent like $150 on groceries for us. It was way cool of him to do that.

Then I don't know if you heard about the church Christmas push but I am way excited for it. It really helps us remember the true meaning of Christmas. It really helps us to turn out and if you don't know about it I would go to mormon.org and check it out. It is really cool.

Then Elder Duncan went to a baptism on Saturday. So I had to go with like 3 different members until he got back. It was really hard to make three different schedules work, but it all worked out in the end.

Then our investigator named David is going to be getting baptized on December 17 and we are super excited for that. He truly is prepared.

Then I got a Christmas tree from home all set up for a missionary's Christmas. It is a Charlie brown tree for sure.

Love, Elder Berry

November 21, 2016

Hello everyone,

This week has been super full of great miracles. It rained 2 days this week so for the most part it was fun to bike in except when there was so much rain. I went through a puddle and hydroplaned and wrecked. I am alright and my bike is alright too. Only a few scrapes. But it's just a part of being a missionary.

Then we got a new investigator named David. We taught him the restoration and we invited him to be baptized. Instead of saying yes or no, he asked "What do I have to do?". That was a super cool lesson and he is on track to get baptized on December 17. We are going to play in the ward turkey bowl with David to help him get to know the ward better.

 Then another one of our investigators will be getting baptized on January 14. So there are a lot of great things going on in the ward.

Then my companion, Elder Rowland, is right out of the MTC. He has a lot to learn.

Sometimes I just want to take away other people agency so they can be saved.

We will be having dinner at the Mullens for thanksgiving. They always cook super good for so I am looking forward to that.

Hope you all have a great week and don't get hurt plying in the turkey bowl family.

Love, Elder Berry

November 14, 2016

Hello everyone,

This week has really flown by. Since we didn't have a car in the beginning of the week we bike like 50 miles in 2 days. But by Wednesday afternoon we got a car that we could drive around in to make it
possible to get places easier. It is not full car but a convenience car. But it will shorten the 15 mile ride to the top of our area. We are blessed to have a car to make the work more efficient.

Then we had quite a few lessons with an investigator named Linda. She is getting so close to baptism but she just want more time to make sure that this is the true church. It's really cool to see her growth
but I wish I could do more to help her realize that she is so close.

This week has been crazy. We are always busy doing stuff with with the ward. Bishop is stressed out because of the ward boundary change. He has to do a lot but there is not enough time. We try to help
but there is only so much that we can do.

There has been a lot that has gone on but just boring stuff so I won't bother you with all of that.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Love, 

Elder Berry

November 8, 2016

Hello everyone,

Transfers just happened and my new companion is Elder Duncan from Syracuse, Utah. He has been out 6 weeks less than me so we are still pretty young in our mission. This is exciting because we both really want to get to work and see some miracles happen in the ward.

This last week was kind of hard saying goodbye to Elder Jeffs. We spent the last few days saying goodbye to members and it was extremely hard not to think post mission plans and what I am going to do after my mission. But with elder Duncan it is already better because we both know that we have a while before we go home so we have refocused ourselves.

In 1 month is when I will have been out for 6 months. That is so crazy to think how fast time has gone and I don't know where it all went. But I would not trade the last 5 months for anything. It is really a great blessing to not do things for myself but fully devote my time to serving other people.

With Elder Jeffs going home so does the car. And with the ward boundary change we have a 70 minute bike ride from where we live to the top of our area. In all we will be biking around 50 miles a day. So we are going to really have to become pros at planning to handle our big area.

Elder Anderson is in my zone so I will be getting to see him a lot over the next few months!!

This is going to be a great transfer and I know that there will be a lot of miracles happening here in the California Sacramento Mission.

Never forget who suffered for us all so that we can have great joy!!!

Elder Payton Berry

October 31, 2016

Hello everyone,

This week has been crazy. We have been super busy with the ward boundary change. We have been going and seeing a lot of the less active people that came into our ward. And we have been getting a lot of promise in referrals from them that I am way excited about. I am super excited for November and December because the ward will be doing really well with the work. We went to this one older ladies named Sister Fedje house to introduce our selfs and tell her what time
church starts and all of the good details. Then she told us that she lives with her ex-son-in-law named David and her granddaughter. The reason that David lives with his ex-mother-in-law is because Sister
Fedje wants to live with her grandchild. Any way Sister Fedje said that David said that he wants to be more officially apart of the LDS church. He has gone to church every Sunday and he said he thinks it would be good to have the missionaries over for dinner. So I am way excited for that.

Then it has rained quit a bit the last week. But since we got a way bigger area now we get a car. So we have been able to miss the rain storms by a lot. But I think it is way fun to bike in the rain after
you totally get soaked all the way through.

Then it was Elder Jeffs' birthday yesterday. So there has been a lot of people that have been feeding us lunches and dinners because it was his birthday. It has been super crazy on all of the good food that we have been getting. But it was super fun to get to see him celebrate his 3rd birthday as a missionary.

Then there has been a lot of people things back home and this saddens me because life is so precision. And I know that some people have not been privlieged to have the knowledge of what happens after this life. I was able to go to a funeral on Saturday of a woman who did not
have the knowledge of what will happen after this life. And during the whole funeral and hearing of the news of the fatalities back home made me think of Alma 40:11 wich says "11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection--Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life." I know that we will return to our Eternal Heavenly Father. And I know that many people do not know this truth. And I would beckon you to share the knowledge that you have with someone who does not have that

knowledge. So that you can bring peace to their heart. And hopefully help them know that we will return to live will our Eternal Heavenly Father!!

I love you all and hope this letter finds you well and gives you more hope for the future knowing that death is not the end of life.

Love, Elder Berry

October 24, 2016

Hello everyone,

Its good to be able to email home once again. This transfer has gone by to fast. There is one more Sunday then this transfer will be over and I will have a new companion. Elder Jeffs is ready to go home but he is still staying focused while we are working.

Last night I ate at a Tongan house. There was some pretty interesting food from chop sue, to fried bananas. They set up a big old buffet and there was so much food. We felt like we had to eat a lot of
everything because they cooked a lot of food. That was a long dinner because they kept offering us servings of food. I had alot of servings.

Yesterday we attended a ward boundary change for the stake. Our area grew from 6 miles long to 13 miles long. So hopefully we will get to keep the car after elder Jeffs leaves because that is a lot of biking if we dont have a car. The ward got a lot of new embers but didn't loose any so that was good. I am going to be looking forward to getting to meet the new members this week.

On sunday a girl who is leavening for her mission on Wednesday gave her farewell talk. It was kinda hard for Elder Jeffs because he will be giving his home coming talk in the middle of November. It's crazy to thing that I will have been out 4 1/2 months in a couple of weeks. It does not even feel like it has been that long.

I hope you all have a great week this week and this email finds you well.

Love Elder Berry

October 17, 2016

Hello everyone,

There has been a lot of rain over the weekend. And I got to bike the whole time it was raining. But it was super fun biking in the rain. I mean once you get all of the way soaked it pretty fun. Every time that I went into a house I left water footprints as my shoes would release all of the water as I put pressure on them. Then it would only soak in part of the water as i was taking the weight off my shoe as I was walking.

I was on exchanges this week and was with Elder Toki the whole time it rained. He came from a full car area so he was not very happy about having to bike in the rain. But it was way fun to be on an exchange with him. We ran in to this Chinese man who really hates Obama and Hillary clinton. He ranted about how they are blind and how they are not catholics. Then we told him that we are not catholics and than he started calling us blind. He didn't speak very good english so it was really hard to understand him. He reminded me of Yoda. Hunched over in his back hopping around and really was not happy at all.

We had stake conference this last Sunday. It's weird being in this new area because I really don't know the members that well. In the 4 weeks I have only been to normal church one time because of general conference and stake conference. Then during stake conference I found out that the ward that the I hardly know is now getting bigger because they switched the ward boundaries. So there will be even more people at church that I don't know. So hopefully i learn the people of the ward fast.

Then my companion goes home on November 5. And he had his departing interview already. Its crazy to thing i have almost been in my new area for almost 4 weeks. I am surprised on how he is not getting distracted by going home. But the day is coming fast where I will be getting a new companion.

Besides the rain and the exchange and not having many progressing investigators, life is good in the this ward in the stake in Sacramento California!!!

I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love, Elder Berry

October 10, 2016

Well it's another glorious week in California. The weather has been absolutely amazing. It's not that hot and there is a really nice cool breeze that comes in from the delta. Super nice.

We went to an Octoberfest that our Ward was doing and one of the older woman in the Ward slipped and fell. It was bad. They had to call the ambulance because she thought she had broken her hip and she did. So the fire department brought a fire truck and an ambulance. So that why we took a picture in front of the fire truck. She had the worst luck with her health. She just finish fighting cancer for the 3rd time and she broke her hip super sad.

Then we have been working with this investigator. Super cool lady. She said that she would go to a baptism. To make sure she went there we made sure we were working in that area so we could go by her house to remind her about the baptism. We did remind her and she had made other plans that night so she did not go. It's pretty frustrating but it must not be her time to get baptized any time soon.

Other than that it it has been a pretty good week. We really had a good week in the work. This area has a lot better retention than my last area so it's super good.

October 3, 2016

Hello everyone,

My new area is really nice. it has been raining the past few days witch is totally different than I am use to because it has always been really hot. I am am now cold in the 60 degree temp. I think that I am adjusted to the weather now.

Anyways, it's way different being in car. Car is fun but it's hard to go and talk to people because we are not biking. So you have really in tune with the spirit because if feel that you need to go to house you should not hesitate that prompting.

Then we have this one investigator and it's hard to fine time to sit down and meet with her. Other than that she is super fun to teach. Those lessons are always super interesting. She loves Jesus and that is all she likes talking about. But hopefully we can get into the waters of baptism soon.

Conference was amazing. My favorite was probably Elder Robbins. He really hit home on how he talked and delivered his message. All the people who spoke are truly called of God. I also loved Elder Holland's. He is always so very direct and doesn't beat around the bush.

Love you all hope you have a great week!


Love, Elder Berry

September 27, 2016

Hello everyone,

Sorry about last week something went wrong with sending the email but I did send one. I am sorry that it did not get there.

But any ways transfers did come and I did get transferred. I am now in a different area. My companion went to Hillcrest High School. So it was cool to get to know him and talk about good old Idaho. Anyways my new area is a lot nicer than my old one. There is not near as many homeless people or sketchy areas. The few members that I have met I have really like and think I am going to like this area.

Right now I am in a car area because Elder Jeffs recently broke his arm so we have it till his arm gets all healed up. After this transfer Elder Jeffs goes home back to Idaho. He is pretty excited to be going home.

It's was pretty hard saying goodbye to all of the members in the last ward I was assigned to. There's some really good people there and I am going to miss them. This transfer we have interviews with President Jardine and I am way excited for that because he always gives me such profound advice.

Then, in last weeks email, I sent a picture of some turkeys that roam the streets of Sacramento. Those birds are all over the place. I don't know if they would taste good because of all of the gross things that they eat because they are in the city.

Then one of the last nights that Elder Carroll and I were biking home 3 raccoons came out of nowhere and really scared Elder Carroll. But they stopped because he was yelling because he was pretty scared of them.

September 12, 2016

Hello,

This week has been a great week. A lot of things have happened. First to start I would like to talk about how much biking was done this week. I think this week we did between 70-80 miles. It wasn't hard by any means but I never really calculated how much I really bike in a week. That's a lot of biking. But any ways it is fun to bike because I get to talk to more people and you have to be more effective when your planning so you aren't biking more than you have to.

We had zone conference this week. That was way fun. The spirit was so strong and I got to see my old MTC comp and roommate. It's always fun to see other missionaries. I got to put a lot of names to faces because everyone talks about certain missionaries but I don't know who they are talking about until now. When we were singing a song to open up we were sing a primary song and we all knew the first verse. But for the second and third we did not, except for the chorus. So a lot of times everyone would be humming because no one knew the words to the song so that was funny.

Then in church we were singing some really slow paced songs and this lady that I was sitting next to thought it should be sung faster so see stated to see really loud and faster than everyone else. It really
threw me off. I was unable to make out if I was singing with her tempo or with everyone else. I think I was some where in between. Just bouncing back and forth.

Other than that we have been doing the same old. No really exciting stories that I can tell. Sorry about that I hope this letter brings you joy!!!

Oh yeah our mission will be the front page of the ensign in December of this year just to give everyone a heads up. Heave a great week!!

Love Elder Berry

September 5, 2016

Hello everyone,

It's crazy to think that I will be at 3 months on the 15th. Time has gone by too fast. This week has been full of crazy experience and unexpected miracles.

On Tuesday we were really busy. We did a lot of biking and the weather has not been that bad. It is either starting to cool down or I am starting to get adjusted to the weather. Either way I like it. I am super excited that I won't have a winter that will be in the negatives but instead will be around the 50's. 

I was able to go to a baptism on Saturday and the spirit was super strong. I am also happy to hear that Sam, my cousin, got baptized as well. That is very exciting and I bet the spirit was abundantly strong through out his meeting.

On Sunday we taught the gospel doctrine class witch was really fun. I love being able to share the gospel with people and being able see the light of Christ in there eyes light up. It was crazy I have been around a few children and they always stop and stare at us because of the spirit that with being a missionary. Its crazy to see how abounding the blessings our in my life and I am sure that all of you see them as well. It is always a miracle to see the blessings and be able to express gratitude for all the thanks that we can.

So we have a big area and it can be hard to get to appointments so everyone in a while we have to call for help from brother Winchester. He is a very consecrated man who does anything he can for the missionaries. So we were riding with him and this car cut him off and he slammed on the brakes and we about hit another car. There was about six inches from us hitting the other car so that was a blessing that we stopped before we hit them.

I hope things are going well at home and you all are able to feel the spirit of the Holy Ghost!


Love, Elder Berry

August 29, 2016

Hello everyone,

This week has been crazy busy with getting Facebook. We spent probably 20 hrs just getting trained on it. I would ask that if you see me on Facebook to not contact me please. All that will do is distract me from doing the work of the Lord. But I would highly encourage you to comment on anything that I post bearing your testimony. I know that as you do this it will bless the people who read it because of the strength of your testimony.

I got to drive a car for the first time while I am on my mission. It was way fun I got to drive a Ford Fusion 2014. It was way fun driving again. I hope that some day that I will be able to get put into a car area and be able to drive a car because you can be such a more effective missionary if you can drive instead of biking every where.

Last night we had dinner at a members house and he had a friend who was not a member and we taught them like the first 3 discussions because she had so many questions. It was a really cool experience. The spirit was so strong.

We got to do a an other service at a 5K run. That was pretty fun we got to help support a child who is really struggling with a medical condition. Everyone there was so happy to be helping people out. It is so cool to be able to see the charity people have when they come together for a good cause.

Anyways I love you and hope you have a great day.

Love Elder Berry

August 22, 2016

 Hello everyone,

I am still here in the same place that I started. The only difference is now I am in a district with only sisters. We are referred to as the relief society. So that is different but fun. My address is still the same as before. It will not change for my whole mission because that is the mission office. Then they forward the letter or package to where I am living.

I have become know as mr fix it in my zone. Any time some missionaries are having trouble with there bike they call me to come and fix it. This last week I have spent like 3-4 hours on fixing other people bikes.

We had district meeting this week and there was a surprise visitor. President Jardine showed up to make sure that we are all on purpose and doing what we were suppose to do. I have to give like a 10 minute training on safe guards witch was kinda scary because I did not want to get in trouble for any reason. But he didn't say anything so I must have done a okay job.

So we as a Sacramento mission have been blessed with getting Facebook in our mission. We will be 1 of 15 missions who get to have Facebook in the mission out of the 428 total missions. There will be a lot of people watching to make sure that we use it correctly and see if it will be effective. I am way excited for Facebook. This opens up a lot more ways to contact people.

Other than that this will be my last transfer, then I will be done training and will be a normal missionary. I hope that I will be an effective missionary.

We had dinner with a very interesting member the other night. He was telling us his story and he told us how he spent 20 years in jail and how he did not do very good things when he was young. But know he turned his life around and is living the gospel.

I hope you all are having a great day.

Love Elder Berry

August 16, 2016

Zone Training

Hello everyone,


Sorry I didn't email yesterday. It was transfer weeks and on transfer weeks p-day is moved to Tuesday. But any ways 1 transfer down and 17 more to go!!!! But who is counting. I am staying in the same ward for this transfer.

This week has been really good. One of the coolest things have happened on my mission happened on Saturday. We were working on a part member family list that my bishop gave and we went to this house right as this lady was walking out. We met her at the exact time and started to talk to her. Her name is Brenda. She has recently moved to Sacramento and lost her husband like 3 months ago. She was praying and asking for help from Heavenly Father and she said that we were the angels sent to her. We challenged her to go to church, to read the the Book of Mormon, and the plan of salvation pamphlet. She did all of that and stayed for all 3 hours of church. So I am super excited because she is the first person that I have met to where her heart was prepared by the Lord. The was a super cool experience.

Zachary Anderson got in the mission yesterday. He being trained by a couple of zone leaders. I have not been able to see him yet but hopefully I will at zone conference. In his zone there are 6 new missionaries that are being trained at the same time. That is super crazy because that is almost half of our zone. After the next transfer almost all of the leadership will go home and we will have a super young mission with our leadership and all missionaries in general.

Time just goes by too fast. I hit my 2 month mark yesterday. I can't believe that I have been on my mission for 2 months. With the end of the next two transfers I will have been out for 6 months. It's crazy to think about how fast time is going and I am almost done with a quarter of my mission.

We also have two youth that want to get baptized from a part member family. There names are Lucy and Selina. We are going to put them and Brenda on date for the 17 of September. I am super excited because the ward is now really making missionary work a priority and I can see the blessings that are coming from it.

Anyways I hope you all are having a great day


Love, Elder Berry

August 8, 2016

Zone Conference

Hello everyone,

Man this has been an interesting week. I went to a few dinners at some members house. At one members house they were talking and ask were I was from. So I said Southeast Idaho. And they were like oh I am sorry. They did not say that but I could see it on there face. Then my companion says he is from Hawaii and they light up and act super interested and they talk about Hawaii for like 20 minutes. Then there like what's Idaho like and say really cool. I tell them a few things than high schools came up and how I went to a mostly white school. Then asked me if coming to Sacramento was a shock because there are so many international marriages. I said no but was think that they must think that I must be a super racist from being from Idaho. I was blown away that people think that people from Idaho are so closed minded.

Then what worse is a few night later I went to an other dinner and I again said I was from Idaho and the member said oh you must have grown up on a farm. I said no and told her what my parents did for a living. Than later that night she mentioned that I must be really good at farming because I grew up on a farm. So I just went with it because it is not worth fighting what people think I have done in my life.

I finally got my bike tire back from getting fixed from a member. I am glad to have my bike back. I have been using a members bike and it is way to small but I had no other option but to ride it. I am so happy to have my bike back.

I finally memorized the First Vision. I have been working on it for like a week and that's all I really do in my free time. But know when we are in lessons that I can saying it with out messing up. So I get to give it in front of the whole district at our next district meeting on Thursday. Hopefully I will be able to say with out messing up. I am now working on memorizing 3 Nephi 5 13. Hopefully I will learn that fairly quickly.

I got to go on a team up with the assistants this last week. That was fun. We went on the most dangerous part of our area so they could experience my area to the fullest. It was fun I was able to learn a lot from Elder Gammel. He taught me so many things about how to do a street contact and to help people soften there hearts and make them more willing to talk to us.

On Friday we got to talk to a guy who spoke with really big words and knew a lot of big words. I feel that he spent most of the time explaining what he was saying so that we could understand him. He was a really nice guy. I learned words like magnanimous and edifice or something like that. That was very interesting and expounding my thinking on how I can talk to people.

Oh one more thing I was talking to this guy at church. He is a real older guy and knows a lot and he told me several stories about how he followed promptings and said he stopped a guy from killing him self. So my challenge to you ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR PROMPTINGS. I know that if you do this than you be blessed beyond measure.


Love Elder Berry

Senior missionaries in my district

August 1, 2016

Dear Everyone,

Monday
On Monday we went shopping and bought some food to hold us over until August, when we get some more money. After that we went back to the apartment and took a nap. Then we went to the church so we could email.

I played basketball for about a hour and a half which was fun. We had dinner with the Adairs. Brother Adair was a former bishop of ward. For dinner we had chicken, which was really good. We also had pluots. Those are a mix of apricot a and plums. They are so good. I would recommend if you have a chance to taste some.

Tuesday
Today was probably the most unproductive day yet in my mission. It was super hot today. It was 107 or something. And it was like that the whole day. We tried to bike to the bottom area of our zone but we didn't make it because we had a couple close calls with semi trucks and it was super hot and we got exhausted before we could get down there.

We had kinda of a missionary stalker kind of situation. This guy really wanted to meet with one of the elders in my zone and he was texting every trilingual to set up an appointment but we would not set one up with him. So when we finally stopped replying to his texts he blew up our phone will phone calls and messages that were kinda of scary. I hope he does not know where we live.

We ate dinner at this local restaurant called Stennerals or something. It was really good. We also got to drive past the capital building. It is was big and super nice. I hope that I will be able to go inside and tour it on my mission. We also got to drive past the Sac. Kings new arena. That is a really nice building and hopefully I will get to go to a game here this winter when it is done being built.

Wednesday
Today after study we went to do service at the local bishops store house. When we showed up they were cleaning up and we showed up too late. So they appreciated us coming but we just came on the wrong day so we will go and see if we can of tomorrow and do some service there.

After that we had lunch. I have had the same thing to eat all mission long. Chicken and eggs. I am surprised that I have not gotten sick of it yet. If any ones has good ideas to make a quick lunches that does not take that much time to make will you please let me know so I can vary my diet a little.

Then we went to the church to do some family history work. I was going back down the family tree to see if I could find anyone who had not had their work done. I spent like 40 minutes going back. I did find a lot of people whose work was not done but had already been requested.
So I kept on going. I went so far back that I found my way back to Adam and Eve. That was the first time that I had ever been able to find Adam and Eve. It was pretty cool to be able to go back all that
way.

After we had finished that we rode our bike in 109 degrees to go talk to some people and set up some appointments. It was really hot to ride in that weather. But I was excited because right after dinner we had an appointment with some new investigators that I was pretty excited about.

They ended up cancelling and reschedulugin. So we went to dinner. The members took us out to eat at Carl's Jr. Eating there was so good. I have not eaten at a place like that my whole mission. It was so good. I think that it was inspired that we went there and because our appointment cancelled because we ran into this less active member named Kim. We have been working with him my whole time here. We were able to talk to him and set up an appointment for this Saturday. I was so excited that we went there if we had been like 5 minutes later then we would have missed him.

To finish up the night, we were riding around seeing people that we felt that needed a message. We went to a member’s house and they invited us in. We talked to them and shared a message. The spirit
was so strong and I got remotivated to make sure that I am doing everything possible to help people.

One thing that has really motivated me was a saying from Preach My Gospel. It is "If you don't talk to them then this could be there last chance to receive eternal life." This has really hit me hard to make sure that I am talking with everyone.

Thursday
On Thursday we had district council. It was so good because Elder Carroll my companion is the district leader and he did a lot of thought provoking questions that really made me grow closer to the
Savior.

After that we went back and had lunch. After lunch we went to see some people but we went really slow because it was super hot. It was 117 degrees today. I think that I drank like eight water bottles.

Probably the coolest thing that happened was a few nights ago we had dinner with the Adairs. And they referred us to a member who is having some medical issues. So today we were in his area and ran out of people to go and see so we were going to just stop by and see how he
was doing to see if we could anything for him.

When he got to his house the first thing he said is that he had been praying that we would come by and see him. He said he really wanted a priesthood blessing and we were answers to his prayer by stopping in and giving him a blessing for the healing of the sick. The heat and all of the afflictions that come with being a missionary are all worth it when you have times like this when you are able to answer somebodies prayers. I love being able to see the Lord’s hand in people’s lives.

Friday
Today was pretty chill. We did not get out to preach the word until like 2 because we had do our weekly planning and 12 week training for new missionaries. So after we got done we got to go on a blitz with other Elders. We spent like 3 or 4 hours helping them going through potential investigators.

It was kinda hot a lot of biking. We were picked up by the zone leasers and they were running late to a temple tour. So they dropped us off like 10 miles from our apartment. So we biking for a long time and we were extremely hungry when we got back. But we had no food at the apartment
because it's the end of the month and we don't have any money to get any more food until Monday.

Other than that not much happened today.

Saturday
To day we woke up and went to a 5k to help tell people where to go and which direction to run. So that was a pretty laid back morning. We got T-shirts out of the deal. We were not able to preach the word because we were serving. But if people came to us then we could talk to them about the Gospel.

I got to watch a baptism. It was super spiritual. This old lady named Mika. She bore her testimony and she was so sincere and so meaningful. The spirit was so strong and so special.

Sunday
Today we went to a baptismal interview. The zone leaders came and got us from church and we went to another church building. A sister named Chelsea is getting baptized next Saturday.

We saw an old lady who can't go to church because she is really sickly. We just talked to her and shared a message. She was so happy that we came and saw her. It is so amazing how the spirit is everywhere we go and bring the light of Christ into people’s lives.

Life has been great here. I hope you all are having as much fun as I am!!!!


Love Elder Berry

Surprise Visit to the Capital Building

We received a surprise email from a family in Payton's area the other day. Payton is having a wonderful time serving the Lord.

Hello,

My husband and I had the pleasure of taking your son and his companion to dinner.  He is going to be great Elder (he bore his testimony on Sunday)and we are so lucky to have he and his companion in our ward.

After dinner we stopped by the capital for a photo op.

Enjoy!

July 25, 2016

Hello everyone, 

Another week has come and gone and it has gone too fast.

So many people do not believe that I was hit by a car. I promise that I was and I am sorry that I did not tell the story so I will tell you the story now. I was riding my bike on kinda of a busy street. There is a lot of side streets on this busy street so I would try to slow down before I would cross the the side street. So on this one street it kinda has a blind corner so I kept slowing down but I saw this lady driving and she was going really fast. I knew that she was not going to stop so I slammed on brakes and when I stopped my tire was in like the rain gutter. She was going to run the stop sign and she was looking to make sure that there was no traffic coming and she was not looking toward my way. By this time I knew that I was going to get hit and I was able to brace myself and get both feet on the ground. So the front of her car hit my front tire. And I used my athletic ability to side step so as my bike went to the ground that I did not. I was so blessed that the lady stopped when she did because if she had kept going then I would have more than likely got drum with my bike. So right now I am using a loner bike until this handy man in my mission can try to fix my tire. If he can't fix my tire than it will just have to by a new bike tire. The rest of my bike is fine just the tire got bend from the initial hit by the car. I was so blessed because I did not even hit the ground. I know that the Lord is looking out for me and has been where I have had a few close calls. But I won't get into those because I don't want to scare you guys. It's not as bad as it sounds.

The corner that I got hit at

Sunday
Last Sunday I was asked to give a 20 minute talk by bishop. My topic was retain a remission of your sins by Elder Bednar. That is a super great talk. I would like to recommend you all to go and read it. Other than that Sunday was nice because I got to partake of the sacrament.

Monday
Monday we got to go shopping we do all of our shopping at Walmart. The 1st week I spent all of my money so I have had to make sure that I really plan out how much food that I can eat so I have enough at the end of he month. So I basically go to Walmart as a fun experience because I can't buy anything. Brother Winchester gives us rides when ever we need them he just sits around his house waiting for us to call him.one time we called him and he did not answer and he did not get back to us because he was helping this homeless man move down the state a few hours because he is a consecrated man.

Tuesday
On Tuesday we met a man by David. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would like to talk to us latter so we set up a return appoint meet with him a few days latter he seemed like a really good man we just didn't know if he is one of the elect people who are ready to be baptized.

We also had the new missionary meeting where I got to see all of my old MTC buddies. It was so fund to see them and to see president Jardine. We learned about the trust box witch is basically the lord trusting us with iPads and we should use them for missionary work and make sure that we don't get distracted by them.

Wednesday
On Wednesday we had a chance o do personal interviews with president. So far to that point I felt that I really did not know president that well but when I started to talk to him it was like he was my best friend. He know of my concerns and of my goals. I did not realize how much he knows about me.

Then at the end of the day we were riding our bikes home and we stopped at this old investigators house that was dropped because he was not keeping commitments and we started to talk to him and he seems super said and said that he wants to meet with us again and he said he would read the Book of Mormon. Super good things about Michael.

Thursday
On Thursday we went back to see David. He is this really nice guy who we gave a Book of Mormon to. When we talked to him he had read it that night that we had given it to him. He told us that the book was true and that he believes that our church is true and he wants to meet with us again.

We also met with this referral from the Spanish elders. His name is Donell. After the 1st lesson he said e would not smoke any more and he has not since we had last met with him. He will probably get baptized in the middle of August. He is probably the closest to getting baptized. I am so excited for him.

Friday
Friday was pretty long. We got to go on a long ride with Bro W. He drove us around because we had a lot of referrals that we had to go and see so we did not get to see many of the because they were not home. I think we spent about 2 hrs in the car with him.

I have really come to love listening to MO TAB. I love it so much it invites the spirit to be with us stronger as we get ready and study for the day.

Saturday
On Saturday we worked on a lot of referrals in the furthest part of our area. So we did a lot of biking. It was really hot. I think the avg temp 104. It is suppose to be hotter next week in like the 110 range. I am not looking forward to that but I hope that I can make it through it.

There was also a picnic for Pioneer Day. That was fun I got to meet a lot of the Ward out side of church but it was fun.

Sunday
So today was finally the day that I got to give my 20min talk. But I guess I lucked out or something because there was a seminary teacher that spoke before me and she spoke for 45 minutes and I only had time to bear my testimony. I think she likes the sound of her own voice because she would not stop talking. It was good to partake of the Sacrament again and renew my convents.

My favorite quote so far in this mission

July 18th, 2016

Well hello everyone

I got hit by a car on Wednesday. I am ok but my bike is not. You can see a picture below.

I learn so much here and I can't tell everyone all that I am learning. The Spirit is so strong here. I have loved it here. In my first 2 weeks here I love being able to see and talk to people. Time flies super fast here. I can barley remember what happens earlier in the morning.

The hours in the mission was pretty easy to get use to. My days are filled with studying, then lunch, then we try to be out seeing people by 1. After we teach or do anything that the Lord wants us to do.

I have been on 2 exchanges. They were both really fun. One of them was with one of the zone leaders. I learned a lot from him.

A blitz is where like 6 missionaries go into an area and try to find some new investigators for the missionaries struggling in that area.

My companion is super good. I do all of the cooking because he is busy working out because he is a body builder.

July 11, 2016

Hello everyone,

California is not that hot. It has been right around the 100's. The members are really great here. I got my 1st flat tire on day 3. In my area there is a lot of glass every where. So we could not go everywhere we wanted to go because it takes about an hour to bike across our area and if we had to walk than it would like take 4 hrs.

There is not a lot of youth in our ward. People move out a lot because they want to live in a safer area. So it's hard to have support from the members because it's hard for them to get support. But the people that are here really try to help us any way they can. There is this one man named Bro W. He is retired and he just sits around all day waiting for the missionaries to call him so we can get a ride from him. He loves giving us a ride but we try not to get one from him to often because we don't want to take advantage of him.

We went on a blitz to help out some elders in our zone and we were preaching by the way to all of the houses that they wanted us to go to and we stopped and talked to this man smoking weed. He went by D. He was a really to cool guy but he didn't believe in religion because he feels that religion was invented to oppress the black people in America. That was an experience.

I have come to learn the law of compensation. It is so cool to see the Lord working in our days and guiding us to people that want to listen to the message that we have to share. I love going on blitzes they are so cool. We get to just ride bikes and try to bring the light of Christ into the lives of the people that we see.

Last week we had 3 people on date but we had to drop 2 of there dates because they were struggling with the word of wisdom. But we still have one person on date. His date is set for the 23 and we think that he will be able to make it.

My companion is super cool. He keeps me busy with everything that we try to do and never have enough time to do anything but it is all good.

Love you all hope things are going great. Until next week.

Love,
Elder Berry

July 5, 2016

Hello everyone,

I made it to Sacramento alright. Things are really good here. The fruit and veggies are super fresh here and taste so much better over here.

It is so weird not seeing a bunch of young men in white shirts and ties and sisters in skirts. My area is a full biking mission. I am super excited about biking every where. To bike across my area it takes about an hour. I bike about 10-15 miles a day. 

My companion is Elder Carroll. He is from Hawaii. He is a super cool dude. I think we are going to have a lot of fun together. My area is the most ghetto and dangerous in the mission. After we woke up today we went out to buy some things at Walmart and in out parking lot there was a place maybe 5 hr old of people just doing drugs. There are a lot of homeless people near my apartment. Our whole apartment complex has a fence around it so that will help keep the crazy people out. Also my mission in notorious for having bikes getting stolen.

We had a zone conference last night. It was to help keep us inside during the 4 of July so we stayed out of trouble. It was amazing!!!! They brought in an investigator and because I was new they asked me and my companion to teach him. The lesson went really well. It was like we had taught together for a long time and the investigator turned out to be a local mission leader and he said that he had never seen such a good lesson for a companionship that has been together for less then 12 hrs. It was so spiritual last night. I loved it.

Not much has happened in the field today being p day and all. we do have a lesson with a guy who is on track to get baptized. We have 3 people who are on track to get baptized this month and 3 more next month.

June 29, 2016

Hello everyone,


It has been so crazy here. Time flies so fast. During the Mission President training I was walking past the main building and Elder Oaks comes out. I could not believe it and how short he was. He was so funny he walked past like 12 missionaries just waving both hands. I was so dumb founded that he almost walked into me until I stepped to the side. I have learned so much while being here and can't wait to get out of here. Tomorrow I start in field orientation and that really has not hit me how close I am from being in sacramento. Today we get an other district that will put our zone even bigger I think we will have about 60 missionaries in our zone. We have to go to a lot of extra meetings to make sure all of everything is running smoothly for when the presidency gets here. I get to give the priesthood lesson again on sunday so that will be fun.


During last week we had the coolest investigator. I know that he taught us more than we taught him. He is this really old guy in his late 70's and come and has been an investigator for years. I wish that we could have kept teaching him.

Last night we had a devotional from Elder Mervyn Arnold of the 70. He and his wife gave such good talks. He talked about how we are surrounded by angles and if we do our part then we will be blessed 100 times more than we can count. Sorry this email is so short but today I have to write a talk then prepare a lesson then get ready for the new district to get here and get a hair cut in the middle of all to that today.

Payton's Mailing Address

Letters and packages:

8267 Deseret Ave
Fair Oaks CA 95628
United States

June 22nd, 2016- MTC

Hello everyone,

I love the MTC so much I have learned so much that I can hardly recall what we were taught in the morning. Everything moves so quickly here. They do not worry about you getting use to being in the MTC. The spirit is so strong here I feel it every day. So far I have been to two devo's and they were bother super good. The one from yesterday was really cool because we had an area 70 come and talked to us about how to measure the success of a missionary. The speaker was Brent Nielson. He taught that you can not look at the 2 years of success you need to look at the eternity to see all of the blessings that you were able to bless the lives of people by just being an example and planting a seed.

I hope things are just going super great at home like they are going for me here. Sorry if I dont reply to your emails as quick as I would like. There is just not a lot of time in the day to learn everything and do everything I want. I find that being a Zone leader is a lot of duty and I find most of my free time goes to prepping lessons for sunday or dealing with the other districts. Tonight we will be getting 44 more elders and sisters in our zone so that just about triples the amount of missionaries that I need to make sure are doing ok.

My schedule is insane but people told me that I would never be able to take a nap but if you work out really hard for 30 mins than you get an extra 30 mins for a nap plus the 30 mins to get ready after gym time. If there is a will there is a way. I feel that I am not able to get any stronger because they do not have any free weights here. They only have machines and ALL of the machines get maxed out before I start to work up a sweet. So I have to do a lot of high rep low weight work outs.

I have the best district. There is a lot of laughing and everyone feels super comfortable in there. We have a lot of roast that get thrown around but its all in good nature.

If you want to right me a letter and don't want to send it through the mail then you can go to dearelder.com and send me a letter. If you have any questions about using that site than ask my dad or Stockton because they have both sent me letters from there. Then if you need my MTC address my dad has it. Then at the bottom is my mission home address. DO NOT use those until I leave the MTC or I will not get what ever is sent until I am in the field. I hope that I have answered all of your questions. Its not the quickest way to get a letter to me is dearelder.com.


I love you all. I know this church is true and I am where I need to be. I had to hurry and write this because I have to go to the temple really quickly and I don't want to miss that.

June 17th, 2016 -First E-mail

Hey everyone,

I absolutely love the MTC. I love my companion as well. My companion is from Texas. He played football and track. The food in not all you can eat because I came in with 400 missionaries and they just run our really fast. Next week we will get 700 more missionaries. Last night me and my companion were call to be zone leaders over about 4 districts. That is about 40 missionaries. Dinner is probably the time to get food because it taste the best and that is the only time that we get protein. The rest of the time we are eating mostly carbohydrates.

Everything is super great i love my district and my pdays are on Wednesday. Can't really send much but just letting you know that I am ok and loving it here.

June 15th, 2016 -Reporting to the MTC

Payton flew out of the Idaho Falls airport at 7:40am to go to the MTC in Provo, Utah.

 His brother Stockton picked him up at the Salt Lake airport and then dropped him off at the MTC.

Payton was able to email us the same day!

Hey everyone,

I made it here safe. I will be here for 3 weeks. I will leave on June 4. the MTC is super awesome. I have the best Teacher. I have not met my companion yet but cant wait. If you need my MTC address my dad has it

Love you all.

The Call Has Arrived!

Since Payton completed all of his paperwork to serve an LDS mission, his family and friends have anxiously anticipated his call. Customary of waiting for a mission call we chose places where we thought Payton might go.

A few days later while still waiting for Payton's call to come, the map was filling up with locations of potential spots of where Payton could possibly serve.

Payton's actual mission call.

After weeks and days of waiting for Payton's mission call, it finally came. But before opening the call Payton decided to fake open it without anyone else around (My family wanted to kill him). Payton, Stockton, and Grandma Mary decided to make a fake mission call to the same mission that Stockton went to (Baltimore, Maryland). Payton sent out a group text with a picture of him and his fake call. Luckily Payton only let this go on for about an hour before letting everyone know about his prank.

Payton and his fake mission call to Baltimore, Maryland.

With much anticipation, family and friends waited eagerly for Payton to open his mission call...

Payton was able to open his call on March 21, 2016

"Dear Elder Berry you have been called to serve and labor in the California Sacramento Mission. You will report to the Provo MTC on June 15, 2016."

Panoramic view of downtown Sacramento from West Sacramento

For the next two years, Payton will serve the Lord by serving the people of Sacramento, California.