6 Months already!

On Wednesday I will already have 1/4 of my misison completed. It is very weird to think about and the time passes by super fast. We are already almost half way through one change and it feels like I just got to this area yesterday with my companion. For being one of the most dangerous zones of the mission, nothing has happened to us and I'm not really expecting that anything will. Everything is pretty calm during the hours that we are out proselyting and teaching. There is a ton of drunks and problems with drugs but nobody does anything to us...

This week we had companion exchanges and I went with Elder Lucero. The first time I saw him I was pretty weirded out because he looks like a Mexican version of my brother Isaac. He is literally just as skinny and seems to have an equal Mexican sense of humor as my brother. I am attaching photos of him from the night of companion changes. 

This week I am super excited to watch general conference. I have no idea where we will be watching it but it's going to be great. I think I appreciate general conference more than I ever have and don't think I'll take it for granted  again. I know that the leaders of our church have prepared messages to answer our questions and give us guidance in our every day lives. We are hoping that our investigators will come watch with us! 

The only other major event that happened this week is that we watched a duck attack, kill, and eat a mouse. That was a very disturbing/interesting experience. I don't think I will ever look at a duck the same way ever again. 

Espero que todos ustedes tengan una buena semana! 

Love,

Elder Berry

Moved to Elder Payne's zone!

Hey so this week I got moved to a new area. It is called Pradera and is in the Prdaos zone. It is the same zone as Elder Payne but we are not in the same district, which is a bummer. It is said that this is the most dangerous zone of the mission but nothing has happened so far... people just stare at me because I'm white and yell stuff at us like "Hey good looking" and that's about all that happens haha

My new companion is Elder Osuna and he is from a state in Mexico that is really close to the border of the US and Mexico. In his state and the other states that are close to the border, they speak a lot of Spanglish. For example some of their Spanglish verbs are Watchar and Pushar, which mean To Watch and To Push. It's really funny and all the people from more southern states make fun of the people from the border states because of their Spanglish. 

We also have a really cool investigator that we met this week. She is the daughter of current investigators and is about 22 years old and goes to college (which is why the other Elders never met her). She has asked us a ton of questions and told us of experiences in her life that have proven to us that she has been prepared to receive the gospel. For example, she asked us "Where did we come from?". And this is exactly a question that we answer with the Plan of Salvation. We are super excited to teach her.

 

I forgot my camera in the house this week but next week I will send you all photos of my house and my companion! I love you!

Love,

Elder Berry

The Gospel changes Lives

Hey!

So it's the first week of March already and I just feel like the time is flying by. This week was pretty slow in terms of teaching but we are keeping our excitement up. Our area has been a little hard to find people to teach but we are coming up with new ideas everyday to try and find people who might be interested. 

The one lesson that we did have this week was really great. The person we went to visit is named Salvador. He lives in an area that has a pretty big problem with drugs and alcohol. He is an alcoholic and we don't know for sure but, we suspect that's the reason why his wife and children moved to another state in Mexico. They are still married but just don't live together. In the first lesson we had with him we told us that he wants to change his life and quit drinking. At the end of our lesson he accepted a baptismal date. Yesterday (Sunday) we went to visit him and check to see if he had kept his commitments and had read the book of Mormon. He hadn't read because he was working really late this week; so we read the introduction again and some of the testimonies of 11 witnesses of the golden plates. He is more excited than ever to find the time to read the book of Mormon. He told us that when we read the introduction (completely) with him that it answered some of the doubts he had. Our plans for the next visit is to teach him the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation.
 

I am really surprised in how much he has changed in one week. The first time we saw him he was sloppily dressed, his hair wasn't combed, his eyes were super bloodshot and his face just seemed kind of sunk in and aged. Yesterday when we visited him he was well dressed, his hair was combed, his eyes weren't as red and his face seemed like it lost a few years of age. He is trying to change his life and it is showing. I hope he continues to progress. If he keeps his commitments and continues taking the lessons he will be baptized a few days after my birthday and that is the best present I could ever ask for. 

I'm sorry I didn't write last week! Time was strict and I had a lot of things to do. This is my little news update for this week. Thank you all for writing me and thinking about me. 

Love,

Elder Berry