Month: January 2020

It is finally that time, Transfers! Elder Horne and I have had a good run, but now it’s time for him to turn the area over to me. I will be getting Elder Schmidt, I’ve been around him before and He’s great! 

3: I really didn’t want to lose this challenge As a district we wanted to spice things up for the last week, so we decided to focus on our purpose. For each part of our purpose we taught, we got a point. Whoever got the most points won a neat little knick-knack, and all those who lost, had to put condiments on their companion’s face, along with Taki’s (super spicy chips) and then wipe it off, and eat this face-sandwich-abomination. Unfortunately we lost because the sister’s fear drove them to get 70 points, so I had to get BBQ sauce poured all over my face, then Elder Horne had to eat a sandwich off me. He almost puked. I had to eat a sandwich off my Zone Leader’s face, and it wasn’t that bad, just wrong. Oh well, guess I’ll have to grind harder next week.

2:Sarah the skull crusher There are some members who are so kind as to let us do the laundry at their place who have the greatest dog ever! She is so sweet, playful and knows when you have to go, it’s okay. One day when we went up to do a load of laundry we saw her playing with a new toy, and so we asked for it so we could throw it. When Sarah happily trotted up, we saw that it was a deer skull! Neat, so we threw it around, and went inside to do our laundry. When we came out, she was sitting in the grass, just tearing this skull apart, absolutely going to town. Kinda surreal honestly.

1:Banana car Speaking of surreal things, we saw a banana car driving to McDonalds. I took some pictures because I knew I’d never see it again. Wack.

Sorry for not putting in anything super spiritual, this has kinda been a weird week. All the people we have been teaching have dropped us, all in weird ways too. But oh well, stuff like that happens, gotta keep working hard and find new better people to teach!

Ya Boi 

Elder James Berky

Not too much to talk about I’m afraid, its been very slow, so let me think of what I can say. I’m just gonna look at the pics I took and talk about what I see.

3: Exchanges!  We had exchanges with the zone leaders and it went well, nothing much to report except for a nice lesson with a lady named Gina. Couldn’t teach her for too long cause it was cold and she had to go inside.

2: Drawing bread people For our D&D games I came up with some original ideas for enemies and NPCs. Bread and banana people; one is civilized and the other tribalistic. So to show the others what I was thinking I drew them! I thought they turned out pretty well all things considered. 

1: Ward mission leaders dogs When we went to our ward mission leader for dinner he had two big dogs that were the best!

That’s kinda all I have, sorry I’ll try to get more interesting experiences to tell yall about this upcoming week!

We sure had a busy week, now that I think about it. Zone conference on Wednesday, interviews on Saturday, and all sorts of stuff that happen in between. 

6: Sweater weather!  This whole week has been very rainy and cold. As I was looking through my pictures, I noticed that every single one of them was raining and Elder Horne and I were wearing sweaters. Kinda funny, just noticed it. The kicker will be later in this week when we are supposed to get snow all up through Thursday! Pray for our little Corolla and that it will be able to stay on the road. I miss my Tacoma.

5: Super discount! When Elder Horne and I were looking for service, we saw there was a Salvation Army near our place! We went over there, and to make sure that they could use our help we looked through their store a little bit. Walking past the board games we noticed a familiar green box. Betrayal at House on the Hill! The price tag said $   200 so we weren’t sure if it was two hundred dollars, twenty dollars, or just two dollars. So I took it up to the front desk ready to pay for $20. It was used, and I wasn’t sure all the pieces were there, so that was an appropriate price. But when I asked, the cashier said “Yeah, that’s $2.00” I even asked if it should have been twenty dollars, but they insisted on Two dollars. So I bought it with the Christmas money Grandma and Grandpa Berky sent me (Thanks!!) With the exception of  some loose slider pieces, everything in the game is there!

4: 

3: Zone Conference  Was great, talked a lot about the new handbook, and how the Bretheren know that we are out here to be converted and to convert, not be be baby-sat. It was also really good to see some old mission friends! 

2: Interviews Also went well, I went in wanting to tell President Orton that North Umpqua needs to be white-washed (taking both elders out, and bringing in two different elders) but as I was saying the opening prayer, the Spirit whispered to me that that was the coward’s way out, and that I needed to work hard to bring this area back to life. So I told President that, and he was rather impressed that I was so willing to listen to the Spirit and accept the path the Lord has set up and prepared. I also got to call my son (Elder Stringham) and ask if he’s seen my flash drive with all my mission pictures. That was nice. 

1: A Sunday of ups and downs! After Church we went back to our apartment and had lunch, while we were eating, we called one of the people we had been working with, Lena. She told us that she didn’t want to meet with us anymore. We were devastated. She was coming along so well! So  we told the members that she was being friends with to keep being friends with her. Instead of being really sad, we decided to go out and work even though it was raining. We didn’t really find anyone except a snake. (Pic included) Then I used the wonderful technology that God has given us to teach a lesson to my friend back home. When your day is going the wrong way, work and do all that is right in the sight of the Lord.

Ya Boi,

Elder James Berky

Or not according to some Elders in the Zone “The decade starts at 2021!” Eh, that’s alright if I’m wrong, wouldn’t be the first time, so there’s no need to keep a streak going. At any rate, what has my week looked like?

3: New Year’s drawing games! For New Years we gathered together as a zone and played some games, some like Lightning (the basketball game) and other weird, back of the closet games that only 4 people on the face of the planet have played. But as we learned them they were fun! My favorite game actually didn’t include any box or anything, we just got strips of paper, and someone wrote something on the top, and handed it down. The next person would have to draw what was written, they would hand it down, new person would look at the drawing, guess what it was, and hand that down for another person to draw. It’s telephone, but with stick figures! Lots of fun. Here’s a picture I took of one game and it’s progression.

2: Wow, what a neat waterfall! This morning we got up early so that we could head to a waterfall in our area. It was a nice drive, leisurely walk, and a beautiful waterfall! After just admiring the gift that God has given us, we took some pictures! We took a lot of pictures too, I felt like any basic Instagram chick. But I got over that quickly, and just appreciated the wonderful place that we get to serve in.

1: Speaking of service, we helped someone move!  Sometimes I feel like we should just open a moving company we do so much of it! It was good though, we had a really cool conversation with Brother Fellows, super interesting guy, was part of several gangs before he joined the church so he sure had some stories to tell! But unfortunately I had to leave half-way through with Elder Boley (Exchanges) to go teach a lesson. What impressed me is that even though the lesson wasn’t for sure going to go through, members of the Harvard ward still came to get familiar with the people who could be joining them in sacrament! Unfortunately the person wasn’t home, but it still left an impact on me. Even if something doesn’t have a 100% chance of happening, we should still push through, not give up hope and act as if it will! Be that making any preperations for an event that may be cancelled, the important thing is that you showed forth your faith and effort. You will be rewarded for that in the last day.

Love you all, and wish that we can all strive to come closer to Christ and by extension, become closer to each other.

Ya Boi,

Elder James Berky