Officially one year!

Well I have officially hit the 1 year mark of my mission. With the celebration of 1 year in the mission, my sister turned 23 years old!! Happy birthday Lexi!! I hope Addie's and your birthdays were great. I will be back for your next one! :P

This week has been good. I think what I enjoyed most was being able to watch general conference.  I just feel like I received some personal guidance and I was able to reaffirm my testimony that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each and every one of us. The simple testimonies of the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ always hit my heart harder than anything else. 

Besides being on a spiritual high this weekend, I also had the privilege of going to the pyramids of Teotihuacán. I hope that all of you can have the opportunity to one day be able to learn more about the history and early culture of Mexico and its ancestors. I know that I was completely blown away at just the magnitude of the city, pyramids, and intelligence of those people. I'll be sure to attach some pictures at the end of my email. 

To finish my email this week, I just want to invite all of you to think of a problem or a difficult decision that you have in your life and to search for the answer from your Heavenly Father through prayer and also the words of his prophets here on the earth. I promise you that he will respond to you in a way that you will recognize. 

I hope you all have a great week, I love you! 

Love,

Elder Berry

11 months!

Hey everyone!

This week Elder Payne and I complete 11 months BUT it is also the half way mark of our mission. Because of our visas,  foreigners return about 20 days or so early from the mission. I have calculated it according to when we have changes and we will be coming back September 14th, 2016. It's really weird to think that I have less than a year here in the mission. I feel like I'm just starting to get the hang of things.

This week we went to the temple's open doors with some investigators, less actives, and recent converts. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, the temple is always the most beautiful and peaceful place you can be. At the end of the tour, they let us stay in the Celestial Room for a few minutes and ponder and feel the peace. I felt the spirit and I could see our investigators felt it too. I can't wait until it opens!! It has been almost a year since I have been to the temple! It was so wonderful to finally be able to go inside.

I'm so very thankful for the opportunity that I have to be able to be a missionary.  I'm so excited that my brother Tyler has chosen to do the same thing. There is no other experience I've had in life where I have learned so much, in such a short amount of time. 

Thank you all for remembering me and I hope to hear from you next week!! 

Love,

Elder Berry 

Some pictures from the week! 

I played volleyball today with Elder Payne!! 

 Elder Berry with his companion

Penúltimo día de Junio

Hola!
 

Well today is the second to last day of June!

 

 

 

June has flown by super fast and it is crazy to think that in 3 months I'll be completing one year of  my mission! The time is flying by so fast. It's crazy.

This week has been pretty calm and not very much to report. But we did have a baptism this past Sunday. I say we had a baptism but the investigator wasn't ours. It was the investigator of the sisters in our ward. We just had the privilege of being able to baptize him. Woo hoo for having the priesthood. ;P 

After the baptism we had on Sunday, we went and ate dinner with a family from the ward. They were really funny and very kind. At the end of our visit with them, they gave each of us a pair of dress shoes! My companion is pretty jealous about the shoes I got. He wanted them but they don't fit him :) Next week I'll be sure to send a picture of them, I forgot my camera in the house this week. 

Other than that not much else has happened- other than raining a ton. But I hope that all of you have been good and have seen the hand of God in your lives. Thanks for writing me and thinking about me.

Love,

Elder Berry

Here's some pictures we took at the member's house! He lent us some boots and hats. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey!

This week has been one of the most exhausting weeks of my mission. On Saturday I just didn't have any strength at the end of the day. Having the second biggest area in the mission means that we have to do a lot of walking... and it's all hills. With that said, after we had finished planning Saturday night, I went to bed ( 10 is the earliest we can go to bed). 

My companion is definitely working me hard in this area. He only has like 4 weeks left in the mission and he is teaching me a ton. He is also whooping me into shape! He walks the hills so fast that when I try to keep up my calf and shin muscles start to burn ha ha this guy is a hill speed walker! It's alright though because I'm going have some killer legs at the end of my mission!! 

Nothing eventful has happened this week but I am looking forward to the weekend! I am so excited to be able to Skype my family and celebrate Mother's Day. I don't think I really realized how much I have been blessed with a great Mom until I got to the mission field. I love you Mom! And I also want to wish all Moms a Happy Mother's Day! 

Take care and I love you all!

Love,

Elder Berry 

Families are Forever

Buena Tardes a todos,

This week we went to the visitor's center instead of on Friday. It was my first visit (after 6 months in the mission) and it was pretty awesome! We rented a 15 passenger van, which cost us about $50 US dollars (700 pesos) and filled that baby up with people. We went with the other pair of missionaries in our ward and in total we had about 16 people in the van, plus the driver. 

The visitor center was really cool and the tour focused a lot on the family and how we can be with our family's for eternity. I was thinking a lot about my family during the tour and was so glad to know that I can be with them for eternity thanks to Jesus Christ and the covenants we make within the temple. 

I am so happy to be here on my mission in México. The people here are ready to be taught the gospel and learn how they can be eternal families. It has been a little hard at times but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I am also so grateful for the love Jesus Christ has for us. Thanks to his  sacrifice we can be with our families forever and have eternal happiness. It is something I will never be able to payback to Him and will be eternally grateful for.

I thank all of you for checking up on me and for keeping me in your prayers. I hope you all stay safe and enjoy your week. 

Love,

Elder Berry

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