Category: James

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 

1: Silly pants are cheap and silly While we were at Walmart getting some dinner supplies for the night (tsziki, tzikki, tseziki, sauce for gyros.) And I spotted some silly shorts that are ridiculously comfortable, silly and most importantly, cheap. I also got some nice tan dress pants for $7 so I wasn’t being totally irresponsible….

2: When was the last time this bathroom was cleaned?? When Elder Hyer and I were at his apartment, he decided to clean the bathroom, because his companion would pitch a fit every time Elder Hyer tried to clean. No idea why, but it was very gross, and I’ll spare details because some of you might be eating. Had to take a shower afterwards it was that bad.

3: Oh yeah, Transfers! Luckily Hyer wont have to worry about his problems with his companion because both Elder Kerbs and Elder Robinson are leaving. I will be getting Elder Chris Clark, fresh out of Zone Leadership, and Elder Hyer will be getting Elder Mooney, who is fairly new. Due to the weirdness where the coast is positioned we have to arrange member rides. Always fun.

4: Blessings Galore! Sometimes, you’ll go 6 months without doing a single blessing, and sometimes you’ll do 3 in the span of 12 hours. The first was for a member who might have cancer, and wanted a blessing of comfort before she went in and got the testing done. The second was for a guy we’ve been teaching who tore his ACL. We went over to his place to have a lesson and M- told us that tonight wasn’t a good night because he was recovering from his torn ACL. When we asked if there was anything we could do, he said “Make my leg heal faster” HA YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD M-!!

We told him about priesthood blessings, and he accepted. Nice. Right after that we met a member of our elder’s quorum, and visited a sister who was having a rough week, and was worried her prescriptions weren’t working. We gave her a blessing, but also let her know that this isn’t a replacement for her meds. 

5: I saw many dogs.  But I have no photographic proof, because I am a fool. You’ll just have to take my word.

6: Exchanges/splits with Coquille The coquille elders came in for a couple days because they had to get some maintenance done on their car. So we decided to do exchanges. Well, we also had splits with the youth set up. So we did both. Unfortunately we didn’t find anybody, but we did meet T-, who said we could come back at 2am cause that’s when he knew for certain wrestling wouldn’t be on. Funny guy.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Also we’re heading down to a hike and I don’t do too well when typing in a car. Carsickness sucks.

I love you all, Ya Boi – Elder James Berky

Yeah, I got sick again, not enough veggies and staying up too late playing board games will do that to ya.

1: Before I got sick we had a good gospel talk with D- D- is a pastor for the local – – church and we help him out with pickups and stuff. As we were driving out to some Boonie area to pick up a couch we started talking about the gospel. It was a really good conversation, we talked about how the gospel will bless us in our lives as we let it in. God isn’t passive in his love for us and we shouldn’t be passive in our worship of him. 

2: Yee Haw Hyer Just watch the attached video for this one lol

3: Safety Zone marathon!! A couple of months ago, the church put out some safety videos for the missionaries. You can watch them on gospel library (Go to Missionary>Missionary Training>Safety Zone have fun cringing yourself into a singularity) We had to watch them (duh) to make sure we stay safe and all. However, you must watch them through the missionary portal, and check off when you’ve finished watching them. I had watched all if them before, but on someone else’s account, or on gospel library. Which led to Saturday, when we got a call from the mission office telling us we had to both watch them. Oh joy. So we made our way to the church, sat down in the family history center and spent the rest of the day there. The sisters dropped by for a few minutes, and we talked while the videos played in the background but that wasn’t enough. Those videos are cringy as a trench-coat wearing middle schooler whose favorite character is Shadow the Hedgehog.But that time dis allow me to recuperate from my sickness without just sleeping the whole day long.

4: What kind of sickness? Cold+Flu+some kinda Local thing I was starting to feel it on Tuesday, and it hit me hard Wednesday after service. I was out of it Thu and Fri. Was feeling well enough Sat and was pretty much fine for church. CHEST VAPOR RUB FTW!!

5: The Feng Shui just isn’t right in this room. So while I was incapacitated on the couch in the Empire elders apartment, they decided to re-arrange the furniture after they got back from service. I wasn’t much help, but I was a pair of eyes and a steadying hand. Moving desks to a new study room, changing where the couch is, and throwing a fake fireplace in a spot where it really won’t be used but dang does it look good, makes an apartment feel much better! Bigger too!

6: My second Phone Call home! Is what I’d be saying If the change a few months ago didn’t happen. Regardless I tried calling home anyways. Huh, the Wi-Fi at the Empire elders apartment is a little weird. Huh, maybe it’ll fix itself in a minute. Nope. Well, let’s text the member they live with. No response. Okay, how about we go knock on their door? Nothing. Okay, I’ll just wait until elder Kerbs is done talking with his family, then I’ll call the old fashioned way. That’s how what lead up to the mother’s day call. Pretty silly but whatever, it was still good. 

7: I wish to burn this puzzle While I was waiting for the phone to be free, I decided to do a 500 piece puzzle with the end result being a nice dock scene.  IT TOOK ME 4+ HOURS!! The whole time i was muttering like a madman, listening to classical music, and occasionally yelling nonsense.  It must’ve looked like quite a scene. Then I called mom, had a nice chat, and I finished the puzzle. Except for 1 missing piece. I’m fine with that though. Honestly. 
Well, for today’s pday we’re going to the beach, so I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures! (As you do at the beach)

Love ya

Ya boi

Elder Berky 

1: Phase 2 So what phase 2 is, is the second part of mission efficiency improvement, the main thing being member involvement. Members will be involved with the people we are teaching within 48 hours of us “finding them” which is fine.

2. Sand boarding will bruise your freaking tailbone.  Yeah, we went sand boarding. Which is a lot like snowboarding, but for stuff that’s coarse, rough, and gets everywhere. I’ve never played with any type of board before so I was 100% new to this. It was a lot of fun, and I’ve totally bruised my tailbone. Oof ouch owie, my bones.

3. Elder Bangader Is an area seventy who came to our mission to help roll out this new phase 2 program. It was really cool, he talked about how it got approved by the quorum of the twelve! I thought that was really cool, cause I like learning about the internal logistics of how stuff works. What I learned is that it not only passed a logical perspective, but they sought the approval of the Lord as well.

4. Seeing other missionaries!  Because an area seventy was coming we gathered the mission into 2 big zone conferences. The northern half, and the southern half. Getting to see some of the missionaries who are up north was great! Especially since i might not get to see them again! We will be losing a lot of missionaries coming up soon, so our mission will be getting pretty young. But it was great to see them!

5. I am a boat-man! Helped out a jew named Doc on his boat. 

6. Fat ole Borger from Vinnys Yeah, look at that guy, I had the food sweats something awful that night. #worthit

Love y’all I’m going to go ice myself. Oof. Ya boi

Elder James Berky

So this week was fairly uneventful so far, so I’ll struggle to figure out something to write. Hmmmmmmm…. Time to think

1: A crazy lady named J–.  So Edler Hyer and I were looking for something to do, and were told to go visit a lady named Joann. So we did, and she talked about her whole life story for 2 hours! We tried to talk, but she would just keep on going. Eventually we were getting tired, and so we asked if she would like to be baptized on May 25th! She off-handedly said yeah, and kept talking about her life. We told her that we had to get going, and talk with somebody else, and dipped lol. The next day we got a call from the mission office saying that she didn’t want to talk to missionaries anymore. Oh well, we would;ve just wasted time there anyways. 

2: The babysitting ended!! We finally split up with the other coos bay elders, cause Elder Kerbs was finally well enough to not nap all the time. So we went out and did some regular work in our area for once. 

3: No we’re not joking, come be a missionary.  Right now. We had dinner at the G-/S- (These interesting Ciabata sandwiches with ham, caramelized onion, peppers, avocados, etc. It was really good) And they have a 14 year old son, A-. We were joking about how he could come out and do missionary work with us since he wasn’t going to do anything else for the Sunday night. It was joking at first. Then we went out to go contact a guy who’s talked with missionaries in the past! Giving A- a taste of what really being a missionary is, the guy didn’t answer. So now we had to find something to do, visit less-actives! Well, nobody answered. So we all agreed it would be best if he just went home. Yup, a day in the life of a missionary. Yee Haw A-, there’s so much too look forward too.

4: Gordon Ramsey showed up for our district council! If you don’t know who he is, go look him up, he’s real funny and angry. But it wasn’t actually him, it was Elder Kerbs pretending to be him. Our task was to make him a 3 course meal in under 45 minutes. Playing as the role of the angry britbong chef, he yelled at us as we prepped him lunch. (He paid for all the ingredients. The don’t call him Kash Money Kerbs for no reason!)

5: Cheap audio equipment?? Yes Please!!! As we were doing service for Salvation Army I noticed a mic stand for $5!! It was brand new, too, in the box and everything! Then to top that off, I found a pop-filter for $8!! “I don’t have a use for that now” I thought “But I can send it home and use that in my computer setup!”Unfortunately I didn’t have my wallet, and by the time I came back both were gone! So sad, it was some nice stuff! 

Anyways, I’m getting hungry and I’ve got a subway gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Love you all, and so does the Lord. It’s important to remember that, as you go through life you’re not alone. Oh that I had the voice of an angel, that is the message that I would share with everybody. 

Ya boi

Elder James Berky

1: So, about that root canal Elder Kerbs had some bad dental work done before he got out here, and so his teeth have been killing him. Dude has been taking so many painkillers the CIA is asking who his dealer is. As a result of his drug habits Kash “money” Kerbs has been a sleepy boy. We’ve been on babysitting duty all week long, just bouncing back and forth between apartments. 

2: Scrap metal is a terrible business plan We were doing service for a guy named D-, where we would go pick stuff up for the salvation army. We saw a lot of scrap metal, usually from boat-related things. An anchor, some chains, parts of a buoy, etc.

3: Crackhead named D–  Nothing too much to say about that, but its worth a mention. 

4: Beach time! We went to the beach this morning, it was real nice, the water was cold, and the sand was course, rough and it gets everywhere. 

5: My dang glasses broke!! After just trying to out them on in a normal way, the weld that holds the leg to the frame snapped!! What!? It’ll be an easy fix, I just need a souldering iron, and a member who has one.

6: Easter Egg roll! (Not an Asian egg roll) so we had Easter dinner with the Baughs (pronounced ‘Baws’) and their kids. We got to participate in one of their Easter traditions, an egg roll down their steep driveway! I won the farthest distance, but Seth (13) won the least amount of cracks.
That’s really all I’ve got for this email, this week wasn’t really eventful due to babysitting elder Kerbs. Hopefully next week will be a better email.

Ya boi

Elder Berky 

So, I did it, I got to the coast during the summer! I’m excited. But you know what I’m not excited for? 2 hours of commuting each day. 

1: Complaining time So, our apartment is out of our area, which is okay, the springfeild apartment is out of it’s area. It happens, you just have to do the best you can when it comes to the apartment situation in OR. But our apartment is 40 minutes out of our area, one way. It takes F O R E V E R for us to get anywhere. The reason?? We have no car, and the hills are alive with the sound of my complaining. The Coos Bay area is so dang hilly we loose 2-3 hours a day just walking.

2: Complimenting time My companion; Elder Robinson is pretty cool, he’s from St. George and is a hard worker for only having 3 months left. We are in a ward share with another set of elders, and they’re pretty cool. We’ve got Elder Kash “Money” Kerbs and Elder Zach “Served with me in Spring-a-ding” Hyer. They cover one half of Coos Bay, and Robinson and I the other. We hang out pretty often (Is this what college feels like?) Last night we stayed up till 1 playing Trivial pursuit (Jesus version) The people here are pretty cool, I haven’t really been able to get out tracting, but the people we have talked to are pretty cool. The food around here is nice, there’s this one REEEAAALLLLYY good place called Vinny’s. The whole place just has that Guy Fieri aesthetic to it. 

3: It is very rainy. (Who’d’ve thunk??) So yeah, first day as we were walking to somebody’s place it started raining lightly. Because I am a silly boy, I thought that all I would need was a sweater.

I got soaked. That light rain starts to get heavier as you’re walking through it for 40 minutes. Lesson learned, take rain jacket. Maybe even invest in an umbrella?

This should be a good transfer, I’m going to work hard despite my challenges (These dang heck’n gay Hills) and prove to President that I should train. He’s going to need some trainers in the upcoming months. We have a group of 30 missionaries finishing up in a few months, and we’re going to get a group to replace them. Gotta let president know that he can trust me. 

Love ya lots, here’s some basic white girl pictures that we took on the beach! <3

I’m going to be honest, I thought that conference was going to have some cooler announcements(18 months for elders?? Iced Coffee is kosh?? There’s a 13th tribe that has been hidden on the moon??) But as they said, announcements shouldn’t take up too much of church time. Reflecting that they didn’t announce much in conference anyways. 

1: Happy (mildly disappointing) Birthday to me!! We had a lot of lessons set up on Thursday (my birthday) and we needed the car. So we tried to get the car, and it took a long time, as 5th ward was with the ZLs on the opposite end of the zone, and blah blah… We ended up waiting on a street corner for an hour, to get the car that we didn’t even really need. We pretty much just stayed on one street, but Elder Randall and I didn’t tell anyone that. Anyways, the majority of our lessons weren’t there. These things combined to a very unhappy me. Until I got back to our apartment and opened the birthday package. That really made my day better. That and a small cupcake/candle really made the day feel special. It ended up being a good day. Thanks for all the gift cards everyone!! <3 <3 <3

2: Don’t give 5th ward your car Come Sunday, after conference, we got a referral for someone at the opposite end of our area. 5th ward had the car so they could say ‘goodbye’ to some of the people in the area. It was raining, and we didn’t want to walk. So we called 5th ward, asking for a ride. They didn’t pick up. We called them again, they didn’t pick up. SO being the good missionaries we are we decided to walk an hour and a half in pouring rain. The person we wanted to talk to wasn’t there. I was angry, and wet. Bad way to end the day.

3: Oh yeah, transfers! So I am going to be leaving Sring-a-ding, and will be going to Coos Bay, For the SUMMER!!! I’m excited, I’ll be in a ward share with Elder Hyer, from our very own Oakridge!

4: Hey Bri! Let’s get some over-hyped burgers! So Bri came up from Roseburg to chat, and I heard that this one place called “Fins” was good. So we met there and had a pretty long chat. The burgers were… okay. Definitely over-hyped, but that’s okay I got to chat with a friend.

5: I like Frogs Frogs are pretty cool animals, and as a result of my appreciation for frogs I have drawn many of them. For no reason. So there.
Yeah, that pretty much sums up the week, kinda weird week, but still fun nonetheless.

Ya Boi

Elder Berky

So the distance between p-days was short, but the days have seemed very long. Don’t know why, we have been pretty busy.

3: The Temple!! After being up here for 10 months I got to see the Portland temple in person! It was great, after our session we came outside to take pictures, and we saw Wendell, a guy from LA who just walked in, wanting to learn about the temple. Guess what we do all the time?? Learn people about the gospel! 

2: Chatted with a comic store owner for an hour  His name was Nick, and had a sweet SHAZAM! Tattoo. I asked him about it and we just spiraled into a big old conversation about marvel comic events, funko pop toys, the Captain Marvel movie, and anything under the nerdy sun. He wasn’t down to hear the gospel, but after a day of nothing, it was good to just have a nice conversation. 

1: Could give a talk on missionary work in my sleep.I wasn’t asleep, but I did give a talk about missionary work Sunday. It went well, only a couple of minutes, and here are my notes;

Missionaries kind of have it easy when bringing up the gospel. We stand out, people expect us to tall about it, but you members are just regular people, to bring up the gospel can be awkward.

Don’t see it as an awkward thing, see it as offering your friend a glass of orange juice. 

Us missionaries have pretty high standards, raising standards, elder Russel M Ballard said: But as we raise the level of expectation for the performance of our missionaries, we must also raise the level of expectation for the performance of all of the members of the Church in fulfilling our missionary duties. We need your help, brothers and sisters, to support and assist our missionaries in finding and baptizing many more of our Heavenly Father’s children. We need you to watch over, protect, and inspire the missionaries, who are servants of the Lord. If the standard is to be raised, it is raised for all of us. We must be more faithful. We must be more spiritually in tune. We must prepare ourselves to assist the missionaries in finding those of our Heavenly Father’s children who will embrace the message of the Restoration. Remember, brothers and sisters, we’re not marketing a product. We’re not selling anything. We’re not trying to impress anyone with our numbers or our growth. We are members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, empowered and sent forth by the Lord Himself to find, nourish, and bring safely into His Church those who are seeking to know the truth. Viewed from that eternal perspective, what we are to do seems so simple and clear, but I know that member missionary work can be challenging and sometimes frightening. Mosiah 17- story of Abinidi, he didn’t know Alma listened. Planted a seed however.

I’m sorry if it doesn’t make all that much sense , it did when I gave it, ýou know, stringing it all together and such. 

Love you all, here’s our photo shoot that we had at the Portland temple. 

Sorry for not getting to ya on Monday this week, but P-day was moved to Thursday today, on account of a temple trip. I’m really looking forward to the Portland temple! Anyways, let’s get into it!!

7: But can yours do THIIIISS??? As we left a good lesson with Todd, we saw a nice gaming chair sitting out in someone’s yard. We went up to the house and asked if it was abandoned, it was so we took it. We were kinda far away from our apartment, so just wheeling it back wasn’t the best idea. But we were close to a member, and shared a spiritual message about the plan of Salvation. Then we asked for a favor. Now we have a chair that is in need of repair, some screws, duct tape and the removal of the arms. 

6: Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven Sacrificing a few minutes of dinner led to a good night. We talked with a former Atheist, and then with a cashier who got kicked out of the marines for medical reasons and worked with missionaries to help lift his spirits!  

5: No hãblo Éspanõl We went on exchanges with the Spanish elders and I got a taste of Spanish work! It’s a lot of racial profiling, and me being confused. You know, one semester of me not paying attention in Spanish class didn’t really help, but I picked up a few things. There was this one guy who saw a red devil dog, a lady who had 3 children (Wednesday worked best for her) and a woman gardening who really liked the First Vision. 

4: Burn Pile! We helped out the Birdsalls again this week, more gathering branches, tossing them into a pile, then Molotov’d it. Afterwards they fed us a light lunch and talked with us about poetry. Brother Birdsall wrote a little book of his poems and gave one to each of us! (I’ll have to use those when I get home

)
3: Call us up DC! We got bored one night, and started to plan out a DC movie universe. Wrote an outline, and started scripting a Clark Kent: Superman movie. It’s not fantastic, but it’s fun. 

2: Exchanges with the zone leaders! Always fun, especially when one of them is your previous companion. We tracted a good amount, and met some interesting people. A nice lady who didn’t need help moving, a guy named Bill, a very humble and rich man named Jarrett (super solid), and a man who thought we were Jehovah’s witnesses for a good 20+ minutes. 

1: I need to learn more about cars We have talked about cars to sooo many people, this couple of guys who were working on their Ford Focus who were interested in the temple. We taught them about the book of Mormon, and compared it to their ford focus that they were working on.

I love you all, and want you to know that Christ loves you as well.