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