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