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.