Bonney Lake Transfer 2 Week 3

hola!

 

its been pretty hot up here this week, it was in the low 90's and i thought we were going to die! thats alot hotter than our usual 70. i have never been so excited to see the clouds come back to cool it off!

 

this last week we found a family of 3 and had a great lesson with them and put them on date! but then we woke up the next morning with a voicemail from them and they dropped us, which was really sad but we are still working on getting back in contact with them to help them progress again. we have also been trying to teach a man who came to church 2 weeks a go and brought his two nephews with him. we went over last night and put them all on date for aug 25th! they are great im excited to work with them.

 

this last week elder smith and i realized some pretty cool things. in preach my gospel there is a line that says " we need to be Christlike missionaries, not just do missionary things" (or something really close to that) and it got us thinking about our desires as missionaries. in life if we desire something we thing about it, if we think about it it will happen.  so if you desire baptizing you will think about baptizing and then you will baptize.  this really goes for anything in our life, if we desire to do it we will begin to think about it and then those thoughts will turn to action.  it made us realize that we need to direct our thoughts more toward baptizing and our purpose as missionaries.  this is  something that i realized will help me no matter what stage of life i am in, because if we direct our thoughts toward christ like things we will all begin to be more christ like.  this is just something that we have been thinking about this last week and i thought you all might like to hear about it because i know that it really made me think about what my thoughts, and were i am directing them to where they need to be.

 

well i hope you all have a great week!

love you 

elder berry 

Bonney Lake Week 6

hola!

 

hope all is well down there! things here have been going pretty good. we are teaching great people and still trying to find some more, nothing terribly new with life! but its only rained once this week! miracle!

 

this last week we had zone conference which was great! it learned about receiving revelation and the things that we can do in our lives to receive more and how that will help us in the work. it was such a nice reminder because often times we can take it for granite and not appreciate all that god does for is in this work.

 

also this week we had a pretty neat experience with revelation, i love watching the spirit work on investigators and teach them things that they need to know or need to do. we are currently teaching a family and they are great! its a family of 4 and they are loving the gospel, they have come to church 2 weeks in a for and their daughter went to girls camp this last week! they are great. but last night we were teaching them the last half of the plan of salvation and we had just taught the spirit world and we were in a hurry so we didnt teach to much about it and left out that it was a place of learning and a place that we can accept the gospel there too, we then moved on and taught the rest of the plan. after that the mom sat there and you could tell that she was really thinking about something and that the spirit was working on her. she then asked if in the spirit world we could teach the people who didnt accept the gospel in this life and if thats why missionary work was so important! we were amazed at what the spirit had taught her. the spirit truly does testify of truth and its amazing what we can learn if we listen to it! seeing the spirit teach people is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary! because of experiences like this i know that this church is true!

 

i hope you all have a great week!

love you

elder berry

Bonney Lake Week 5

hola!

 

so for the first time in the last year and a half i used sunscreen this week... the sun finally decided to come out for a few days! the only problem with that is when you havent really seen it in the past 9 or so months is you get sunburned really bad! it was great though i have never been so excited to get sun burnt in my life!

 

its been a great week here we have found a bunch of great people to teach, some of which are avoiding us at the moment but we are teaching an awesome family right now! its a family of 4.  we found taught them my first week here and then this last week we were able to put them on date and get them to church! they are doing great! one of the daughters is planning on going to girls camp this week! we are excited for that because if girls camp is as spiritual as they say it is she will get baptized for sure! they are a great family and im grateful i can work with them.

 

this last week i have been thinking alot about nephi and his example that he set. his example was to just go and do, its amazing what we can accomplish with the lords help when we just go and do.  i love nephi's attitude and his confidence in the lord.  it is pretty amazing what miracles can be seen as we accomplish what the lord asks of us. 

 

i hope you all have an amazing week and enjoy the summer!

 

love you

elder berry

Bonney Lake Week 4

hello!

 

its been a good week up here in washington, i actually saw the sun long enough to ge sun burned!! it was pretty awesome!

things here in the area are going alot better im alot more comfortable now im starting to understand where im going all the time haha its weird learning a new area after so long but its great im grateful for a GPS, they are a great invention.

 

so this last week i realized something pretty cool because often times our leaders tell us something that we need to do in our callings or in our lives, but often times we try it and it doesnt quite work or we think its to ahrd and wont work, but it is important that no matter what we just go and make it happen.  in the book of mormon nephi didnt question what his father told him he just went and did, so its important for us to be like him to follow our leaders and make their vision our vision and just go and accomplish all that the lord asks of us. when we do that god will help us out and bless us with all that we need to accomplish his will, and we will be blessed for our obedience to our leaders and the vision that they set in their work.  that is somehting that i have been thinking about this week that we just need to go and do all that the lord asks of us.

i hope you all have a good week sorry its short i have been making forms and stuff haha

 

 but love you

elder berry

 

Bonney Lake Week 2

hola!

this last week has been a great week! its still so weird being in an area where is still cant really find my way around! but its great i love the bonney lake ward its a great ward with alot of really good people here!

this last week has been great i really like serving in puyallop its alot different than issaquah but its great! we had a pretty neat miracle yesterday at church, we walked in and we say someone that was in regualar clothes which is a great sight to see for a missionary cause that ususally means there is someone there to teach! but before we could get over and talk to him he came up to us and introduced him self! he is awesome his active grandma just moved in with him so he decided to take the church for a "test run" and see how he liked it, and needless to say he is now on date for baptism for july 7th! he is awesome he is 15 and is a great kid. 

this week we had a zone meeting and we gave a training on being a desciple of christ, for the first time i think i really started to understand why that is so important, especially for missionary work too.  it was neat because i think often times we forget that the most important thing to do is strengthen our relationship with god and make sure we are clean and pure, we can get distracted by so many other things that a good things but take our attention away form that.  when we are striving to be a desciple of christ we can keep him as our focus of all we do so we dont have those distractions and keeping our selves pure is probably the greatest thing that we can do for our selves and for others, because when we are clean we are receptive to the spirit and we can be used to help others or know what god ouw have us to to further his work. that is just something i have been thinking about a bit this past week i hope that you can take something from that.

i hope you all have a great week

love you

elder berry

Bonney Lake Week 1

hello!

 

so after 14 and a half months i finally got transfered from my area!  its been an interesting past couple days trying to get everything wraped up and move from some place that i had been so long. it was kind of funny it felt like i was leaving home all over again. it was sad though im going to miss issaquah so bad but im excited to be in y new area! i got transfered to the bonney lake area in the puyallop stake.  

 

this last week was great here in issaquah! we had some neat miracles and found a bunch of really neat people!  we started teaching one our recent converts neighbors she brought to church last week this week! it was awesome we had a great lesson with her and taught her the gospel of jesus chist andput her on date for baptism, then our recent convert moved her date up! she is awesome so she is on date for the 23rd of this month! it was funny elder riddle and i just laughed and went along with it. our recent convert will probably single handedly get this lady baptized! she is awesome!  

 

it was a good week i have learned alot this last week i think for the first time i finally realized how much i love the people here that i serve.  it was kind of hard leaving issaquah because i have spent the last year of my life laboring for them there but im so excited to be able to serve the peole here in my new area too!

i hope you all have had a great week!

love you

elder berry.  

Issaquah 1st / Tiger Mtn Transfer 10 Week 6

Hola!
hope you all have had a great week! its been a pretty good week here in the washington seattle mission!
this last week was an interesting week i definately learned alot though and was reminded of the importance of the basics of the gosple,  so this week we have had trouble finding people to teach andwe have been working as hard as we could and still at the end of the week we didnt really have anyone we were teaching and we didnt know who we wold be able to take to church this sunday and we tried to get jsut about everyone we knew there and nothing had worked out.  during this time we had been praying for people that we could take to chruch or people to come to church on their own.  sunday morning was kind of dissapointing whenw e didnt have anyone to bring to church with us but once we got to church all of that changed! there was 2 nonmember frinds that were brought by some realy missionary minded families and then one of our recent converts walked in with 4 of her friends she had been trying to get to church! it was a miracle! they all loved church and are all excited to come back next week.  it was just so neat to see our prayers be answered. it was just a huge reminder that God is actually the one in control and he can accomplish all that we need in this life if we just rely on him and put our faith and trust in him he will help us out! the great thing though is all of those people really liked church and want to come again next week and hopefully we are going to start teaching them all this week!
i love this work and i love being able to see gods hand in all that we do here!
i hope you all have a great week!
love you
elder berry

Issaquah 1st / Tiger Mtn Transfer 10 Week 5

hello!

its been a good week here in washington!  we had a bunch of meetings and stuff this week so im excited to be able to spend more time out working this next week!

its been a great week though we went back and taught one of our former investigators that we hadn't taught in a month or so and during the lesson she told us that she hadn't smoked in 2 weeks! she is awesome and is excited for baptism now, now the only thing holding her back is coming to church and that is our ficus now is to get her to church! we are excited for her!  also this week one of my recent converts elder aiken and i baptized our first transfer together went through the temple this last friday! it was so exciting! i wasnt able to attend the session but its just so neat to see people let the gospel change them and continue to grow and progress in the gospel.

president and sister larkin shared something that was really neat with us this last week.  they were talking about the way that we talk with people and the relationships that we create when we talk with them and then they linked that to pray and how we really need to talk with the lord. in the scriptures it most always says they talked with the lord when its referring to prayers and its a neat way to think about it because when you talk with people you have a relationship with them and when you talk at them those relationships arent formed and often times its really easy to talk at people or talk at god when we say our prayers when we are in a hurry or dont really want to do it. it was just neat to see it from that perspective that we need to talk with the lord in all that we do and help build that personal relationship with him to where he can lead us and guide us in all that we do!

 i have to get going but i love you and have a great week!

elder berry

Issaquah 1st / Tiger Mtn Transfer 10 Week 4

hello!

it has been a great week here it was sunny for most of the week but the rain is back which is alright... 

i had a really neat experience in the temple today. i was pondering about what i can do better as a missionary to help those i serve, needless to say i had probably the most clear and unmistakable revelation and now im just excited to go to work. i think i now know exactly what i need to focus on in my life to help the work get going how it needs to be. i'm just grateful for the temple today it has made such an impact in my life. i love the spirit that is felt there, it truly is the house of the lord.

after i got out of the temple today i got a great phone call, one of my recent converts is going though the temple this friday! im just so excited for her she is great. she was baptized last may , my first transfer here in this area. im just grateful for the gospel and all that it can do to peoples lives.  it has been amazing watching her change and grow into this gospel.  watching others has probably strengthened my testimony more than anything seeing how the gospel can change peoples lives if we let it.
well sorry its super short but i have to get going.
love you!
elder berry

Issaquah 1st / Tiger Mtn Transfer 10 Week 1

hello! 

 

so transfers came again and im still in issaquah! its my 10th transfer here! its pretty crazy but im really excited. i have a new companion who is elder riddle from san diego. he is awesome he is six feet and seven inches tall so he makes me look tiny! he has almost a full foot on me!! im really excited for change and fow whats going on here.  

 

this last week was a good week we did a lot of finding and just trying to build back up our teaching pool. we taught many great people this week. we taught a man this week who is a member of the church of christ and we has an amazing lesson with him and he is on date for baptism, but the reasons of why he wanted to meet with us were so neat. he was at his church this last sunday and the pastor said that even though it is a hard time in the economy they need to dig deeper and pay more money to the church.  he didnt think that was right at all, he is also looking for a church that doesnt believe in marijuana, drugs or premarital sex. elder aiken and i were floored! its amazing to see that the standards of the church arent just for us and that they are commandments of God that everyone knows that they should be living in this life.  it was really neat to see it was also pretty cool because he is a cardiologist here at the hospital so he is a really great man.

 

 also this week i learned alot about relying upon the lord.  our zone had a goal of baptizing 7 souls this month and we had already baptized 5 of them so this week we were striving to find 2 more people who needed the gospel.  we ran all over all week trying to find people who qualified for baptism, about part way through the week we needed to be humbled and we quicly learned that it wasnt up to us and on our own we couldn't accomplish any of this,   often times it is so easy to get in those modes of thinking that we can do it on our own and we end up cutting Gods role our of it, we think that it is all up to us and what we do but in reality it isnt up to us or anything that we do. we just need to qualify ourself for the blessings and be diligent and preserver and god will bless us how he sees fit. its been a great week i have learned alot i hope you all have a great week!

 

love you

elder berry

Issaquah Transfer 7 week 5

hello!

this last week has been interesting, i found out what freezing rain is and how ice/snow/giant trees aren't the best combo. "snowpocalips" or "snowmagedon" as our bishop liked to call it came and went this last week, it was pretty crazy, it snowed probably about a foot and had freezing rain and then more snow. all of that made issaquah lose power for about 2 days and look like world war 3 just happened. trees were falling everywhere and the town didnt even look the same. it was fun though!

our apartment didnt have power so we went and slept with the kenyon family out in the tiger mountain ward, they had a generator to power their house so we stayed out there with another companionship. it was really fun but weird when we stoped by our apartment a day or so later we were inside and the temperature was 53 inside our apartment! its was a pretty crazy week, but i have never been so gratefull for power and for things to finally get back to normal. elder aiken and i decided we would have made terrible pioneers after this last week.

this sunday we had the castro family at church, they are a family of 5 that we have been working with and they are all on date for feb 11th! the dad figure wasnt able to come because he had to make up work but other than that we had 4 members of the family there and they loved it! we had such a neat miracle with them on friday when the power was out. we were not even sure if we were going to teach them or not because of the snow and no power, their fellowship was out of town but we decided to stop by anyway to see of we could teach them. somehow the power came on like an hour before we decided to go teach them. we had planned to watch the restoration dvd with them, but that wasnt going to work because they didnt have power a few hours before, but somehow the power was on for just long enough for us to go over watch the dvd with them put sandras boyfriend on date and then leave. right after we left the power to all of issaquah shut off again! it was a miracle that we were able to teach them and help them progress in the gospel that night.

vickie who is on date for feb 4th is still doing pretty well. she is currently "mad" at us because no one from the congregation checked up on her during the storm, which people tried. but it will all get worked out, as far as we know she is still doing great with the word of wisdom and she may have gotten anti-ed by her family but i know god wants this sister baptized so i know none of this will matter.

its been a good week though i have learned so much! i cant wait for the snow to leave and for life to get back to normal. bit i hope you all have a great week!

love you
elder berry

Issaquah Transfer 7 Week 4

hello!

its snowing here and its coming down pretty good, issaquah has been shut down all day which has been great! whats even better too is on the news this morning they told everyone to stay home from work!!! its going to be the greatest day ever, everyone is at home!

this last week has been great! we have seen so many miracles and we are teaching a bunch of awesome people who are amazing! we are teaching a lady vickie, i think i told you about her last week but she is awesome! she is a miracle. she is one of our former investigators and we dropped her cause she refused to live the work of wisdom, but god has softened her heart and now she is on day number 2 with out smoking and drinking coffee! we went over last week to take away her coffee and she even gave us her whole coffee pot! we were just expecting to steal her coffee and stuff but no she unplugged the whole coffee pot off her counter and gave it all to us. she is excited to get baptized and for this change in her life!

we have the castro family on date for dec11th!!! it is a family of four, it is a single mom with three kids and they are amazing! she has been looking for a church for along time. she especially wanted one that would have programs for her kids and that wasnt to big of a church. she told us that that would be her deal breaker, but thankfully the true church of christ has youth programs and is like a familiy! they are awesome but they are in the early stages of the teaching process so there is a long way to go but god will provide a way for this amazing family to enter into his fold!

well i hope you have a great week!

love you
elder berry

Issaquah Transfer 7 Week 3

hola!

this last week has been a great week here! things are finally back to normal after the holidays and its awesome. we have still been looking and working to try to find people to teach and baptize this week. it was a good week though we found alot of great people so there will be some great things coming in the next few weeks.

last night we had a really neat miracle, we stopped by one of our former investigators, we dropped her a while back because she couldnt give up smoking and coffee. we felt prompted to stop by yesterday and we set up a lesson with her and right before we left she said" by the way i think im ready to give up smoking and coffee" we just about died we were so excited! we had been having a rough week and we haven't been teaching any progressing investigators and just hearing her say that was so exciting. she truely needs the gospel in her life, her husband just died a few months ago and she needs the gospel in her life. god truly has been preparing her.

also we had another really neat experience this week too. we were on our way home from another area in the zone and we were driving into town when elder aiken pulled in to a parking lot of this shopping center in downtown issaquah. he remembered a guy we had taught a few months back. this man lives in a little apartment on top of a bar. to get to it you have to walk around the bar up a dirty set of stairs to his door. we went up there and he answered the door. he smiled and let us in, we talked with him for a second and then he said he had some people we needed to pray for. he took us back into his smoke filled apartment to a room and parted the curtain that was used as a door. there was a bunch of homeless people there, but they weren't to excited to see us. so we went back out and taught our investigator. when we said the closing prayer one of the kids that was in the other room ran over and sat down for the prayer. he said he had been listening to our lesson the whole time and wants us to come back and teach him! it was so neat to see a lost soul searching for god and do anything to find him.

i was a great week i have learned so much in my time as a missionary and i know god loves his children and wants them to return to live with him again.

i hope you all have a great week!

love you
elder berry