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

April 23, 2018

Dear Everyone,

Hope all is going well with y’all! This week was a blast! We had a general authority come to the mission. His name is Elder Patrick Kearon. It was really cool to be able to talk with him and to learn from him. One thing that he taught was “If you do what you have always done. You will always get what you always got! You have to continually be reinventing yourself so that you can be the most effective as possible.” It was really cool because he talked a lot about the importance of being the best we can be, but continually looking to be authentic while we continue to be the best that we can be. 

Also, he taught us was about how people tend not like to work for the things they are work while. He used a quote from President Oaks “Others want the results of the doctrine, not the doctrine.” This show the importance of choosing better not easier. Anything that is worth while is going to take hard work and sacrifice. It’s amazing to be able to be taught by the lord’s general authorities. They are all men called of god. 

This week I was also able to go on exchanges with Elder Yazzie. We had a great Exchange. We were on full bikes and bikes quite a bit of miles. But we were able to find people who were interested in meeting with us. One person that we talked with Elder field and I had a lesson with and she excepted conditional baptism. It was super exciting. 

We have been working with an investigator named James. She passed her Baptismal interview and will be getting baptized this Saturday. It’s super exciting and I can’t wait for her to be able to make that covenant. 

Life is good for me! Hope you have the best week of your life! Keep choosing the right. 

Love Elder Berry

Sincerely,
Elder Berry

April 16, 2018

Dear Family & Friends,

This week has been one to write down in the books. I will start from the beginning. If it doesn’t make sense just know that I at least makes sense in my head. It started off with exchanges. I went with Elder Dobson. We went trying to talk with everyone and find someone to teach in seeing how we didn’t have any lessons that day. We went and talked to this man in his garage named Dale. Dale is an older man 70+, we got talking to him and he said that he was baptized when he was a little but shortly after getting baptized stopped coming to church. He felt that it just wasn’t for him. But he told us that he did have a relationship with Jesus Christ and he could not deny that he died for us so that we can live again. As we talked about the restored gospel his wife recently passing away came up. She had passed away a month ago. It was still a very tender spot in his heart. We shared Alma 40:11 with him. He seemed to be really touched. We asked if we could come back and share a message with him but he declined. We left him a card with Jesus on it and our number on the back asking him to call us if he ever needs anything. We went and knocked on the door a few houses down the road. No one answered the door. As we were walking back to the car he called us back over to his house. With tears in his eyes he showed us where he put the card with our number on it. He put it next to his father name plate commemorating his fathers life. Truly humbling to have seen that. 

Then we had a lesson with an investigator named James. She has accepted to be baptized on April 28th. She has met with missionaries for almost 2 years and never has gotten baptized because she doesn’t feel like she knows enough. As we have been working with her for about a month she finally said that she is ready for baptism. She said she had the thought that she will never know enough and it’s finally time to get baptized and receive the blessings that come with being baptized. I am really excited for her to be able to enter the waters of baptism. 

Some other investigators named Maka & Filisi will be working towards baptism on May 19th. They are some Tongans that like to eat. Every time that we go over to their home they always have food for us. It truly is the Tongan culture to always do things with food. The lessons that we have with them are so fun! I always leave with a smile on my face. 

This week we will be having a mission tour by Elder Patrick Kearon of the presidency of the 70. I am excited for that. It will be way fun to see some old missionaries, but more importantly to be able to receive guidance and counsel from a General Authority. He is a convert from England. I am kind of excited to be able to listen to his cool accent.

Another man was working on his car. His name is Hugo. He called us over because he was curious on what we were doing. As we talked with him he had a lot of questions about how there are so many church’s. That happened to be the message that we were sending that week. So he was in luck. We didn’t have much time to talk but he took a Book of Mormon and said that we could come back sometime. It has been crazy that people have been calling us over recently. 

We were also able to give a blessing to a young boy named Colten. He has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. It was super humbling to see a 4 or 5 year boy having to go through the struggles of life. Makes you truly think about what matters in life. Hope that he is able to over come the things that will be thrown his way. 

We went and met with a member who moved from Utah. We talked about what he learned from Conference. One thing that stood out to him was how the church is going to be more spiritual and not so much to fulfill the requirement. It was cool especially with the change to ministering. Really cool to think with Conference that they want us to work extra hard to have the spirit in our life. 

To finish up I want to share another story about a woman named Silvia. We were walking and she saw us coming so she dipped into her apartment. So we could talk with her. As we finished seeing the people that we needed to see we were headed back and she saw us coming. She tried to hide again but her dog went barking at us so she couldn’t hide. As we talked with her she really to have her heart softened as we talked about it. When we offered her a Book of Mormon. She got a big smile on her face and she said yes. It was really cool to se ether excitement to receive the word of god. I won’t be able to teach her because she is not YSA aged. But she will be a good person for the other elders to teach. 

Hope you have the best week ever! Let me know if I can do anything for you.

Sincerely,

Elder Berry

April 9, 2018

Hello Everyone!

This week has been a roller coaster! It started with 2 trips to the E.R. Everyone is fine. Not trip was for me. It all started when 20 something Missionaries went to Coloma. Out of those 20 missionaries 14 of them got food poisoning. I was the lucky one who got the worst of it and had to go get an I.V. To stay hydrated. The other person who went to the E.R. Is fine as well. We had to give the missionary a blessing to help them get feeling better. 

On Tuesday we had MLC. It was pretty cool. We focused a lot on the prophet and how president Nelson is a prophet. It has been cool to receive the witness that president Nelson is a prophet of god. We were also informed that later in April we will be having a mission tour with Elder Kearon who is in the presidency of 70 or something. I am really excited for when he comes. It has been a long time since there has been a General Authority has come to my mission. The last that one has come was Elder rendlund back a couple January’s ago. 

If you haven’t had a chance to watch Conference I would say to watch it because it was super cool and inspiring! 

To finish up I was able to go on a team up with Elder Barton. He has been out for a little while now. About 6 months ago. Being with him I think back to when I was 6 Months Out. I realized that was a long time ago. 

There is not much else to write about besides trying to try and get better from being sick. 

Oh I almost forgot the picture of my hand with the redline is where my companion accidentally rolled up my hand in the window. It hurt but it was an accident so it wasn’t a problem. 

Hope you have 5e best week of your life!!

Elder Berry

April 2, 2018

Hey so this is going to be a short email. I got to go to Coloma today with Elder Anderson. It was fun. Got to learn a few good things. Sorry so short. No enough time. Stay tuned for next week.

Sincerely,

Elder Berry

March 26, 2018

Hello,

This week has been full of miracles! I want to review the week but I am going to start with Saturday and go backwards. Arianne got Baptized! It was a really cool experience all the way around for Elder Ravsten and myself. She has only been meeting with us for about a month and just took to the gospel. It is is a witness to the truthfulness of the church when someone changes their life to follow Jesus Christ. We had a font side confirmation because she is in Utah right now getting ready to go to General Conference. It so cool for her the 1st she will listen to the voice of a prophet it will be in person. 

Then I was able to attend a baptism of two girls who were found by my trainer and myself 20-ish plus months ago. Lucy and Selina have come a long way since I first met them. But again the power of the Atonement is real and they have changed much like Arianne. It is such a blessing to be apart of this work!

This week I was able to go on exchanges with an Elder Buckley. He is from Nampa, Idaho. It was a crazy small world. We went to go and see one of their members. He asked the normal questions what’s your name, where you from. When I said Rexburg he said his mom lives out there. We were both like no way. But I graduated with his sister. Crazy to think the path Heavenly Father has us on. The people that we come across. I thought coming out to Sacramento that there would be no one who would know me or my family. But I was wrong.

Transfers have come. I will be staying in the River City YSA Ward. My new companion is Elder Field. He is from Utah some place. I think he is Brigham City, but I could be wrong so don’t quote me on that. I am excited. He is a big time runner (cross country & track.) so hopefully he won’t want to run very much. 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you tons!!

Love,

Elder Berry

March 19, 2018

Hey,

Today was an exciting then boring Pday. We started off by going to a joint zone Pday activity with President and Sister Hymas. Is was really fun. We got to play telePictionary and reverse charades. It was fun. So fun I get giddy just thinking about all the fun it was. We had some really good chili cheese dogs.

After that I got to do some real world stuff. I spend 1 hour on the phone trying to figure out my college stuff. I spent about 80% of the time on hold while the people tried to figure out what to do with me. I was finally able to get it figured out to where I can get start on the college stuff.

This has been a really busy week, it has been full of blessings. To start with exchanges, Elder Steel and I were able to contact a lady named Silvia. he didn't have much time to talk because she said she was moving. We offered our help and she said that she would give us a call in a few days. I have had a lot of people say that they would give us a call but they never do. Slivia called and asked if we could help her. We were able to go and help her pack up a u haul truck. We then were able to call and get some missionaries to help her on the other side. It was cool to see how here heart was softened. we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and testify of the blessings that come from the gospel. I love to do service for people. They have such a change in their countenance to makes them so much more open to the gospel. Elder Steel is a really good missionary. He has really been hitting the scriptures to gain a solid scriptural knowledge based on christ. I was amazed to see the amount of scriptures that he was able to use as we were able to talk and teach people. He is growing and changing to be like our savior. The growth that people can have through our saviors atonement is exceedingly estonishing.

Another miracle we had this week was when a member pulled us out of sacrament meeting and told us there was a non member asking if he could have a Book of Mormon. We were able to talk with Frank and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and a Restoration Pamphlet. After we had finished testifing a member came up and did the same thing to help them feel welcome. He wasn't able to stay for church, but he did say that he would give us a call if he had any questions. It was a really cool experience to see that there are people who are searching out the word of god.

My compaion was just called to be an assitant to the president. I have to tell you that I am a little sad to see Elder Ravsten go. I am going to miss him being my companion. He has been a great influence for me. He is going to do some really great things. Transfers are next week so the next time i email home i will be telling you all the juicy deatails of what next transfer will intell.

This coming weekend we have a baptism of someone that we have been working with for about 3 weeks. Her name is Arianne. She will be getting baptized then head down to Utah to watch a General Conference with some of her fellowshippers. It is so fun to be able to see people chang and enter the waters of baptism.

On Sunday I was able to interview two young girls who my trainer and I found alomost 2 years ago. They both past their interview and will be gettiing baptized this weekend as well. I can not always understand the lords timing but I can testify that it is perfect. when i interviewed them I knew that this was their time to get baptized. Their names are Lucy and Selina. They are so sxcited to get baptized! I am really excited for them as well.

I was also able to catch my companion falling a sleep on the job! Missionaries have a hard time sometimes staying awake. Those early mornings can really get you some times.

Hope that you have the best week of your life!! Continue to work hard at this thing we call life!

Love Elder Berry