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

April 30, 2018

Hello,

This week has been fun, but it has been really crazy. I had the opportunity to have some elk burgers. It has been a year since I have had an elk burger. The last time was when I was serving up in Eldorado. Crazy to think how fast the time has gone. The elk burger was pretty good. 

I was able to go on exchanges with one of my old companions Elder Nelson. It was such a blast. We spend the whole day just laughing and things. It makes me wish that I could go back and enjoy those times with him. While we were on the exchange we were able to play some beat ya, teach ya. Which basically means if we beat you in basketball then we get to talk with you about the gospel. There was only one guy there so we only were able to play horse. I figured out that I don’t have the best shot. I should really work on that. But lucky for me Elder Nelson is a really good basketball player and he was able to win in the game of horse. We taught him a little bit but he wasn’t all that interested. 

We also got a referral from some missionaries for this person named Jacob. He has been taught 2 lessons and wants to get baptized. They thought that he was YSA age but he is only 16 years old. We went and contacted him and had to refer him off. The missionaries that he will be working with are good missionaries and will help him get ready for baptism. 

Then James Van Duden got baptized over the weekend. It has been so cool to see her progression. She has been meeting with missionaries for about 2 years and has finally over come trials that had stopped her from getting baptized in the pasted. Luckily she finally was able to get baptized. I had the privilege to confirm her a member of the church. That was a really cool experience for me. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel and it shows as she has changed her life in order to follow the savior. 

Then most of all day Saturday we were at a park with a booth. This event was for little kids to help them be able to get out and enjoy the sunshine. There were a lot of people there. It was cool because there were projected to be about 7500 people there. So we were able to get the church’s name out there more and gave people a place to ask questions. 

Hope you all have a great week. Let me know if I can do anything for you.

Sincerely,
Elder Berry