Author: admin

Usually we wear our suits once a week, at church. But this week we wore them a total of three times (3)! That’s almost more times than I can count! Let’s talk about that.

5: Zone Conference Was very good this week, we had it in Roseburg, and all the talks were good. Elder Ward got  V E R Y excited over some fruit, our sisters had a great segment about personal study. Personal study is nice, because it just makes the day go by so much better. The days where I don’t have a personal study just seem, darker for lack of a better term. So do yourself some personal studies and see how much better the day goes.

4: I can sing a song (so can 4 others in our zone) I totally forgot, we had a musical part in zone conference! We sang “Saviour Redeemer of my Soul” and it went down great! I’ll have to see if we can do it again so it can get recorded lol. I was singing the harmony and it was pretty difficult because I haven’t done any actual singing for a hot minute, but I got it after a little practice. (And audio recordings of the piano)

3: This one’s also about zone conference It was just an eventful day okay? The first event that we started off with was getting up early. Like 5:00 early, because Roseburg is 3 hours inland, and we wanted to be there early to practice our piece. We got a ride with Port Orford, and as soon as we got in the car, Elder Clark and I fell asleep. Or as asleep as you can be in a little Corolla. After a couple hours I woke up, and said “Oh hai ocean” But Roseburg is inland remember? WE HAD BEEN GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION FOR TWO HOURS Cowabunga time. Elder Ream flipped the car over. Around, he flipped it around and floored it. You know how we have those little government wiretaps in our cars? To track our speed and make sure we don’t do anything too crazy? Well, the Lord understood that we REALLY didn’t need it just then and the little Orwellian-nightmare box stayed off for the majority of our way back. We definitely topped out around 85-95 on our way back. We changed our arrival time from 10:30am to 9:15am. That right there is a miracle. Another one? We didn’t see a single cop. 

2: Interviews took all day Our interviews were at 1:00, but the Coquille elders were at 9:00. We did not plan on going to interviews with them. But the Coquille elders did! So we came to interviews with them. And were there all day. It was good though, President Orton and I talked about training, which I’ll probably do in next transfer, or the one after that. So I’m excited. It’ll be a great experience. (That was the other time we had to wear a suit)

1: Dodgeball is a very good thing A kid that we’re working with, Mason has come to dodgeball quite a few times, but this time was evidently the best. We had plenty of people there, and it was just fun. I need to get some pictures, it’s a good time.

Bonus: Stake Conference/Sunday was fantastic! Unfortunately we didn’t have anyone we are teaching come, but it was a spiritual experience nonetheless. Elder Acosta of the seventy came, and shared his re-activation story, it was wonderful. Then his wife shared a story of her family in Mexico, who she didn’t know if they stayed active or not, but was able to find out through family history. Moral of the story? Do your family history.

After stake conference we had lunch, and went to go talk to a lady named Linda, who was out working on her slug bug. I know jack squat about cars, but Elder Clark does! He helped her put the headlights in, and I kept the dog busy. It was a good way to go. We set up a lesson with her this Thursday, and it will be fantastic. She’s ready to learn, and has some real promise! 

After putting her car back together took longer than expected we had to book it to make it to the F- (everyone say Hi!) who had us and the other elders over for a dinner/lesson. Dinner was curry (very good) and the lesson was on the commandments (even better) the Spirit was testifying so strongly of the message of the commandments. They aren’t here to hold us down, but to lift us up. All of the commandments bring blessings, ones we see with our eyes, and those we don’t see. We have to feel them out, seek them out. 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today, and in case I don’t see you tomorrow,

Good Morning,
Good evening,
and Good night!

(That’s what he says on the Truman Show, right?)

Ya boi,
Elder James Berky

6:We biked to the other end of the world and back. Twice. First off, my bike’s fixed. I kinda wish it wasn’t, cause we have been biking absolutely EVERYWHERE

There are just parts of our area that we just don’t visit because it’s so far out. But with bikes we can get out there! We got to talk with a really nice lady named Linda who was working on her lawnmower. We talked with Linda for about an hour and a half. When we went back to talk with her we saw her talking with her neighbor! So we talked to the both of them about the gospel for a good long while.

5: Scones are easy to make if you don’t actually make the scones.  Pillsbury biscuits, when split into pieces make very good scones. They puff up and are very good. But more importantly they are cheap! Gonna be making those more often.

4: Don’t trust Google!  We were going to go on a hike at Golden and Silver Falls, but No one knew how to get there. So we plugged the name into Google maps and headed out on our 45 minute journey. Well, after arriving at our destination we were told by Google that it was a u-turn, and we had to head back 10 minutes in the other direction.We eventually did get to water falls, they were cool. Here, have some pictures!

3:  I kinda fixed my glasses. Kinda So after waaay too long of wearing my square glasses I decided to fix my circles. Well, I don’t have any glue, or tape, or flex seal, so what do I do? What do i have? Thread. I have thread. So I wrapped the leg with thread and tied it to the frames. But as you can expect it didn’t work out all that well. Guess I’ll just have to take it into an actual shop or something. 

2: We talked to another Linda! She s talked to missionaries in the past, and liked it a lot! So We stopped by and saw her working on her VW beetle, good thing elder Clark is a car guy so we helped her out. Or he helped her out. She might be coming to church next week!

1: Giving a blessing on the side of the road is Very spiritual. As we were taking a (much needed) rest on the side of the road after biking to east side a car pulled up. A lady leaned out the window and asked if we were okay, I lied and said I was fine, and then we got to talking. She’s a homeless member of the North bend road, and wanted a blessing. It was loud but spiritual, and if that were the only reason we rode over there, it would’ve been worth the whole ride. 

☠-us round! Anti-mormon zombies! The lady Gail wasn’t actually a zombie but her anti might as well be. What I’ve learned about all anti is that it has been shot down, blown up, and disproven so many times, but it just keeps coming back. Like zombies. Get it? Any ways, we knocked into a lady named Gail who left the church when she was 19, and has been an enemy of it ever since. We tried to resolve her concerns but once people have been like that for 50+ yrs they just don’t want to. As we were leaving she asked us to pray and the Lord will reveal the truth to us. So I took her up on it that night, and (shocker) the Lord re-affirmed what I already knew. It’s always good to keep praying about the gospel, and keep growing your testimony.

Love yall 

Ya boi

Elder James Berky 

Transfers were last week, and Elder Robinson headed off to Medford, and replacing him is Elder Clark! He’s from Belen New Mexico, and has been out for ~20 months. I believe it is last time.

1: Bikes are temperamental if you leave them in a box for 6 months That’s right, to solve our transportation woes, we have pulled out our bikes! After getting a tune-up courtesy of Brother G-, we were ready to head out on Thursday! As we were heading up the first hill, my derailer was acting up. Elder Clark hopped on to see what was up, and it snapped in half! A call to the zone leaders and $50 later my bike was back up and running.

2: You know who hasn’t been running? Me. Because it’s been about a year since I’ve ridden a bike, the Coos Bay hills were brutal. I had to walk up the majority of the hills here. It’s bad, but its bound to get better if I keep at it. By the end of this transfer I’ll have legs of steel! 

3: Accidental renaissance  While looking through my pictures, I found this guy. Then I edited it.

4: Going to a ward BBQ  It’ll be fun, if not a bit rainy. I hope I can fly my kite!

5: Wait, you’re the family history consultant aren’t you?  We had recent convert lessons with the F- family, and we had planned on talking to them about the temple. Cause we were under the impression that he hadn’t been to the temple. But he’s the family history consultant, and has done plenty of baptisms in the Medford temple. Just like that our whole lesson plan went out the window. Awkward – lol.

6: Check your pockets I accidentally washed my white handbook, but luckily I have a spare one. I’ll need a new plastic cover tho.
Well I’m going to get some Myrtle wood missionary tags.

Love ya!

Ya boi 

Elder James Berky