September 25, 2017

Hello everyone,

This week has been a great week!

As a zone we are trying to invite 200 people to be baptized in about 20 days. As we have set a goal that is going to stretch us it has been so cool to see the miracles that Heavenly Father has been working in the people that we get to teach. It crazy on how many miracles there has been as a zone.

To start I was able to go on a team up with a Elder named Elder Edgington. We were able to hit the bikes and talk to a lot of people. We invited a few people. There were not a whole lot of people that really wanted to know more or talk to us about the Book of Mormon. So towards the end of the team up and decided to knock a random door. When we went and knocked that door a kid came out and started to talked with us. As we talked with him he told us how he has been to a Mormon church before with his friend before he had moved into his current house. We then talked about baptisms and the need for it. We then invited him to be baptized and he said yes. We were able to get his phone number and I look forward to see how he is able to progress towards baptism. 

Then I got to go on an exchange with Elder Tillack. He is a new missionary who has been out from the MTC for about a month. He has had a lot of growth. We were really able to focus on talking with everyone and tried to have a powerful exchange. The whole day there was not a lot of people that would really talk with us very much. But that ok. We continued to work and when it was time to go home we were biking home and Elder Tillack saw someone that I didn't and he went and talked to him. I was grateful that he had saw him. Nothing really came from the contact but it was cool to see how much Elder Tillack had grown over that exchange.

We had a Investigator who was on date to get baptized. But he went on a trip to L.A. Those trips will really get you. He went on the trip and decided that he wants to live there so he is not coming back. I was like what! But that's ok he said that he wants to meet with missionaries down there. So that was good to hear that he is still wanting to get baptized. 

We have been trying to find more people to teach so we decided to go to the local university and just with the young adults on the campus. It was pretty fun. We met this person named Joey and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He is trying to learn Spanish so he asked if we could get him one in Spanish. So hopefully we will be able to get that to him this week. 

Then I had a weird experience last night. We were walking around an apartment complex looking for a member of our ward to see where he lives. We didn't have any luck there. But we stopped and talked with this guy who was not very interested and didn't give us the time of day. But right after that the lord blessed us with this guy named Martin who came out and invited us into him home. He is a 7 Day Adventist. But really cool.  He talked about how he use to do that and he prayed for us and wish us the best in our endeavors. He wasn't really interested in learning about what we believe but it was cool to see that the spirit work in many different people's lives. 

I hope you all have a great week

Elder Berry

Faith, Hope, Charity

This week has been full of different kind of studies, but the thing that stood out to me most this week was Faith, Hope, Charity. As i was studying i read Moroni 7:46 which says "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail." Charity is the greatest according to the word of god. As i was studying i always heard and read that we need to have Faith, Hope, Charity. If Charity is so important and so great then why is Charity not first in the order? 

I started to study faith first because that is the first thing that i have always heard. So i learned that we all need to have faith as we do have faith it is always followed by action. Weather it be someone wanting to get to know Christ better so they will read scriptures about Christ so they can know him better. Or for instance someone wants o be the best at a sport they are going to practice a lot more then the other people so that they are better. Then last but not least if we want to grow our testimony we are going to read the scriptures, pray, follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit and so on. That is what i learned about faith. There is always an action that follows faith. Other wise as the Apostle Paul teaches the faith will die.

I followed studying faith by studying hope. Hope is a great thing. Hope is having the confidence that miracles will happen in your life. Weather you need help trying to work on a project. Heavenly Father will help you as you have the faith or the works and the hope to figure out how to finish the project. I have come to decide that hope is merely the attitude that we have as we have faith in something or are working to wards something. Hope has been and will always be intermingled with faith. If not we are doing something wrong.

Then last but not least charity. What is so important about charity i ask myself? Well charity is the pure love of christ. Charity will always hope for things which are not seen. Charity prays that your peers will succeed. Charity is giving to someone who is in need. I think charity is a means to an end. Not a end to a means. Charity is a  way for us to have hope in our lives as we grow our faith. I don't think you can have the 1 with out the other 2. It is so important that we have faith or works but we also have a good attitude/hope witch will lead us to have real intent. And as charity is the pure love of christ we will always do as christ does if we strive to be life him everyday. All the other things will be taken care of if we focus on the little things.