Category: James

So I know that i used that joke in my first letter home, but it just worked for this week. In case you don’t know, there have been a ton of fires up here. All over the valley where I’m in, and because of the weather patterns all the smoke just gets trapped in.I’m gonna get lung cancer.Well, life changing diseases aside, let’s talk about top 10s!

10: I have had a bit of experience with bible bashing, but we met this one investigator who wanted to TORAH  bash. He has self taught Hebrew, and doesn’t accept anything else besides the original Hebrew texts. Why was he investigating the Book of Mormon? Probably to prove it is fake. Interesting guy. His brother is the same way too, but he had printed out this power point presentation with all sorts of wack stuff about the Mormons. Somehow Donald Trump had something to do with it. Weird. 

9: We are helping this one family move, but the house they were going to move into had some major water damage going on. So we’ve been helping them to take down sheet rock, and set up trusses and everything. It kinda makes me feel like I’m home, doing some crazy project because someone didn’t look deep enough into it. It’s great tho, the couple are older so they can’t do everything and helping out is fun.

8: The smoke here is so bad, you can look at the sun directly. If it’s a good day, you can’t look at it very long, but on a bad day the smoke obstructs the sun so much it won’t even hurt your eyes. Been wearing a painters mask when going tracting so we can stay out for longer than an hour. 

7: there is a missionary who came back this week from Tempe AZ! We were at his homecoming dinner/party, and it went well! He said that “it still hasn’t set in yet.” It probably will when he’s sitting alone,  and do a double take cause he can be alone now. 

6: We visited the famous “Crater Lake” (see pics below) and tho it was a bit Smokey, it was nice! Didn’t have much time to do much bc we still have stuff to do on our p-day. We got a nice less active couple to drive us up and spend the day. 

5: We had zone conference on Thursday, and it was great! All the missionaries in the central point zone gather up and get some lessons and ‘classes’ on how to be better missionaries. We were told to focus primarily on preach my gospel. So I’ll be doing that some more in my personal studies. 

4: Bree is a champ! When we were teaching a lesson on plan of Salvation, she just kinda asked “what do I need to do too get baptized?” She wanted us to drop everything on her so she could get baptized as soon as she can! So we dropped everything that you gotta do to get baptized on her. Legit the only thing that she had a problem with is coffee and modesty, which she’s down with, she just needs a new wardrobe. 

3: We found a pot farm! Elder Willits and I were heading out to contact a less active couple, and Google maps told us to head down this very long driveway. Google maps is a liar. It wasn’t a driveway, but a giant pot farm. We stopped and asked some guys working there about where the members were and they pointed us in the right direction. But yeah. Big pot farm. 

2: We taught someone about the book of Mormon while at a pizza place! He was standing next to us in line, and asked us why we were dressed nice. We explained that we were Mormon missionaries, and after we got our pizzas we asked if we could sit with him. He was cool. We gave him a BoM, and told him about it. Super cool experience. 

1: How much the Lord loves us. And how much he wants us to learn and find. All we have to do is go out and find it. Read the scriptures, tell someone about the gospel. Pray every time you run into something that you don’t think you can deal with. Pray in the morning and at night. 

I love all of you. 

Wow. Another week gone by. It has been so busy that I have no clue what to even say! Well, um. How about just starting into the list!

10: After having a great dinner at this nice Mexican place. (the one with the “gringos” menu) The sister who brought us there had plenty of life stories and we just talked about a lot. I also got to try a chalupa! Afterwards we asked if there was anything that we could do, and she asked for a priesthood blessing! So we left the loud Mexican restaurant, headed over to her house, and gave her a wonderful blessing. It was really great, and we could feel the spirit very strongly.

9: IT FINALLY RAINED HERE! After a whole month of perfectly blue skies, we finally got a bit of rain right before church! Sunday was a good day because of that.  

8: it has been HOT here. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around, because whenever I would think about Oregon, I always thought that it was really cold and rainy all the time. But no! Its constantly been over 100° up here! Which is another reason I was super excited for the rain. 

7: I met another crack head. On Sunday as we were walking over to our ward mission leader’s office, there was this older guy in a leather jacket asking us about the “Mark of the beast” somehow it was Nazis. It’s always the Nazis. He was nice, his name was Tim. 

6: Exchanges were this week! We met up with Elders Law and Ross, who are in the city just south of us. It was great, Elder Law and I went out tracting and met; an atheist who doesn’t believe in the word of man, a kid who’s cat had just died, a lady who wasn’t super interested but still wanted a BoM, and a girl who was uncomfortable with talking about her Faith, but had a ton of Crucifixes all over. Then Elder Law and I went to dinner with our investigator Bree, and that dinner went 2 hours too long. Oops.

5: The next day I got to hang out with Elder Ross, we went out to try and contact some former investigators. Nothing really interesting happened then. But it was good to talk with someone else for a while. They’re both great Men. Hope we can go on exchanges with them sometime soon.

4: We had interviews with the Mission President. That day was weird, because we didn’t know when we were going to be heading into interviews, so we didn’t schedule anything for that day. But it was a great chance to read the scriptures some more that day. Then all the other missionaries showed up at the church. And we just talked for a long time. It was nice.

3: The majority of our lessons this week have been just reading the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with Bree where she said that she didn’t have any time to read, so Elder Willits and I said “well, let’s read it then!” It was great, she had plenty of questions and we elaborates on some of the odd wording and structure of the Book of Mormon. We then did the exact same thing with another guy named Dominic! They both came to church yesterday, so I guess we’re doing something right! 

2: On Saturday we were at this little food truck (that’s been cemented into the ground) and as we were waiting for our food, we started talking with another couple about the book of Mormon, and handed one to them, but right after that the wife of the owner told us that “we can share the word of God, but not the book of Mormon.” I wanted to respond with ‘what if it was?’ But we didn’t want to start something, because we don’t want them to mess with our food. It’s good food. 

1: The only food that seems to be around here is either Mexican food, or pizza. Every time members take us out for dinner it’s always Mexican food or pizza. I love Mexican food, but please let’s go get Chinese or something! Oh well, we’re getting fed, so we shouldn’t complain too much. 
This is the first week that I’ve felt like a real missionary! I’m looking forward to teaching people about the gospel, and am not just trying to get through another day. All of a sudden 2 years commitment isn’t that big a deal. I love you all so much!! But more importantly Jesus Loves you!

Ya boi 

Elder Berky

Hello! It is a Monday! Which means I’ve got to come up with a dumb title for my weekly! If you can figure out what it’s making fun of…. Good for you.

10: Murica day was Wack. We can’t shoot off fireworks, so that was weird, and Elder Willits said that holidays are the best days to go find people. Well, they kinda are. We met a lot of people but no one wanted to talk. I don’t really blame them tho. After we were kinda done for the day, we had a zone activity where we all hung out at a members house and just played some sports and had a fire, with a spiritual message about sacrifice. That kinda made up for no explosions. Kinda.

9: I met my first weird Oregonian! We were tracting around our house, and this lady told us that we shouldn’t be handing out the book of Mormon, and the church wasn’t true. We were thinking “oh, is it because Joeseph Smith wrote the BoM, or are we brainwashed into following the devil, or something like that?” But she said that we shouldn’t be handing out the book of Mormon because it’s bad for the environment. Wat. Apparently the church isn’t true because you can’t totally recycle the BoM. That was weird. Even Elder Willits said that was a new one, and he’s been working with these people for 2 years!

8: After we found out that we didn’t have a dinner for Thursday, we decided to make one of the frozen pizzas that the relief society President gave us. We looked around for a baking sheet and found that we didn’t have one! (It was okay, the pizza turned out fine) But while we were at a members house for dinner, they asked if there’s anything we need. And we said “a baking sheet would be good, but if you don’t that’s fine” and the member had just bought a new set of baking sheets! So she gave us one of her old ones! #theLordprovides

7: We were going out to talk to someone who hadn’t been contacted in a while, but as we were heading over to her trailer, we met a family sitting on their porch who had some questions about the weird Mormons walking around. She was nice, and chatted for an hour about religion. We gave her a book of Mormon and she said that she’d read it, and have lots of questions for us! Looking forward to that.

6: I am learning the book of Mormon really well! When we were talking with someone, I knew the right scripture that they needed! Who knew that reading every morning and listening to the spirit would actually work? 

5: it is going to be way too hot later. Upwards of 105° I am going to make sure that all we do is visit members and go straight from car to house. Yaaaay.

4: I got the cool protein breakfast shakes, and am feeling great! You feel kinda hungry for the first couple days, but now I’m used to it! Gonna be HAWT pretty soon. That’s how ill bring people to the gospel. 

3: We met our first tweaker today, he was talking about how the mayor and the sheriff were going to burn everything he’s worked for down, and pointed at a port-a-potty. Then he tried to hand us a broken phone, and some other stuff. We told him where he could go to call a good sheriff. It was weird. 

2: Sunday is great. I love being able to take the morning to read and focus more on the Lord. Or accidentally fall asleep. But I didn’t fall asleep in sacrament. Elder Willits did tho. Even though he says he didn’t. Church is so nice, because I don’t have to focus on teaching. Carlos and crystal came, along with another guy that we had taught the previous night! 

1: Carlos and Crystal have committed to baptism and marriage! Wooo! They were do excited about it,  and are going to start keeping up on commitments. Nice. I’m pumped!

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1: Brother Vitus is the MAN! He’s our ward mission leader, and on Saturday he took us out for lunch to a local pizza place, and got the deluxe version of everything. We have so many leftovers. Then he took us out for dinner to this very nice Mexican restaurant. Of which we also got so many leftovers! He easily dropped $100 on us. This man is going to be a sooo blessed.

2: We went on splits with the zone leaders (which means we switched companions) and Elder Clem and I went out tracting. We met this nice man who was working on a ’73 chevelle. Very nice man, and car. Talked with an older lady who spent the whole conversation telling us what we believe. Then we got a couple Gatorades from a nice Catholic couple who wished us luck in the area cause everyone was either Catholic, Jehovah’s witness, or seventh day Adventist. It was a good time. 

3: Elder Willits and I were going out to talk to this one investigator, who didnt happen to be home at the time, but right as we were starting to leave, a car pulled up, and we started talking with this young mother named Bree. She was very interested in our message, and scheduled a lesson later. We had the lesson at a members house, which was a Victoria era looking house. Very nice. Bree was very touched by the restoration, and said the first vision story was beaitiful. That lesson went for 2 hours,  but no one minded. I am so thankful for the Brown’s for letting us in their home! 

4: In the desk that i use, I found some Pokemon cards from mcdonalds! 

5: The ward had a fantastic bbq at which we got to see some members that have been less active,  and got to talk with them and hopefully get a lesson set up. 

6: I got to talk to elder Clem all about comics and the story of Jawbreakers. He thought the characters are cool and the production story was interesting too! 

7: On Sunday we had dinner with a less active couple, and it wasn’t Mexican food for once! The lesson we talked about was baptism and the sacrament, they were really touched by it, and commited to coming to church next week. Nice. 

8: I’m going to start a protein breakfast and lunch shake thing so i can be stroncc and not thicc. 

9: It’s the 4th of July this week and I’m kinda bummed because I can’t shoot off fireworks,  and we can’t go tracting to watch them go off. 🙁 That’s fine, I’ll just stay up late and sit on our little balcony and watch them. 

10: Speaking of fireworks,  we met this lady on our last door of the night, and she has been in the fireworks business and told us some super neat tips with fireworks. You’ll have to wait till I get back home to tell you. Or take me someplace with nice fireworks and I’ll tell you. Anyways, we chatted about religion for a while and she said she would read over the book of Mormon that her friend gave her, and set up a return appointments.

11: That’s another thing I’ve noticed, everyone knows a Mormon. And everyone seems to have been handed a book of Mormon at one point or another. Which is good when the Mormon they know is good but we’ve run into one or two people who know some not-very-faithful-members let’s say. But that’s kinda rare. 

12: We found our P.O. box! If you want to send us the good stuff, ;)Don’t bother, this is Oregon, and it’s already legal. But if you want to send some printed memes or framed pictures of Guy Fieri go for it! (Its P.O #48, 375 2nd ave, Gold Hill, Oregon, 97525)

13: We had a lesson with a good guy named Dominic, who is a seventh day Adventist, but likes to keep an open mind. We talked to him about the restoration, and he really liked it and thought it made sense. We extended a baptismal invite when he comes to know that these things are true, and he said yes! As we were wrapping up his dad came in and we found out that he had been talking with the missionaries before they moved up here! He said that he might sit in on a lesson next time! Nice. 

14: I am so grateful for personal study and prayer. It’s a great time to just sit down with the Lord in mind and read his word, or just talk with him. The book of Mormon really brings a peace into the day that you never can get anywhere else. I just don’t understand why I didn’t take some time in the morning before I came out to read even a few verses. It’s not that hard, or even much of a commitment. Please do it. Even 5 minutes is fine.

15: Burger king foot lettuce. The last thing you’d want in your burger king burger is someone’s foot fungus, but as it turns out, that might be exactly what you get…

I love you all, and appreciate you tolerating my stupid humor just to read this. Going on a mission has been The best choice i could have possibly made.

Ya boi,

Elder Berky

Earth. Water. Fire.  Air. 

Long ago; the four nations lived in harmony but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. I was going to come up with something cute for that, and kinda parody it, but I’m lazy, and typing this up on my phone, so yeah.Without further ado, let’s get the list for this week going! (Don’t forget to like and subscribe)

10: I’m finally here! Ya boi’ s in Oregon! After a nice flight we came into a nice and humid airport. It had rained the past few days and then the temp. Spiked so everything was nice and awful. Hey, it instantly ironed my clothes, so that was nice.

9: Met my companion 2nd day, this guy named Elder Willits, He’s been out here longer than he cares to remember! Super great guy, can’t wait to learn everything I can from him.

8: Our apartment is very nice, it’s got all the necessities of life, fridge, dishwasher, clothes washer, dryer, food dryer (Microwave), and a cute little balcony! The apartment is big enough so that you don’t feel cramped, but not too big. 

7: The area that I’m serving in is called Gold Hill. It’s about 20 minutes away from everyone else, so it’s a little inconvenient getting from here to appointments in the regular city of Central point, but hey! It’s cool, we got a car! It’s a cute little town of about ~1.5k people, with some areas really nice, and some… not. But the ward is fantastic, we met (mostly) everyone at the BBQ they were having on the day we got here. (Coincidence? I think NOT!)

6: Because we were whitewashed in, which means both missionaries are new to the area, we get to pick up where the last missionaries left off. We have this couple named Carlos and Crystal, and they are SOOO ready to get baptized, they just need to get married and follow up with one or two commitments, but by my 3rd episode, we should have a baptism! They came to church, and paid tithing all on their own! Carlos even said that he’d pay more than 10% if “The lord is good to me, I’ll be good to the Lord”! I love these guys!

5: Tho nice, our apartment doesn’t have WI-FI, which is kinda weird, especially when we have skype appointments with some people, so we head over to a member’s office and sit outside to use theirs.

4: We have a temple in our area, but can only go twice a year, which is a bit of a bummer, but hey, I’m here to do invite others to come to the temple, so I guess that counts!

3: We have been fed dinner every night so far, our ward is so nice! We have dinner scheduled every night this week! If I don’t exercise enough I’m not going to be ya boi anymore, I’ll be YA BOI which we can’t have, so, plenty of sit-ups for me!

2:Personal study is sooo nice, I really wished that I had done this more at home, oh well, I will now! It’s such a good opportunity to just relax and read the words of God. Learn some interesting things to think about, like what the boat that Nephi built looked like, for it was not made after the manner of men, but the manner of the Lord.

1: After realizing I have never had Dairy Queen before, all the elders in our Zone demanded we go to Dairy Queen for Lunch. It was great. I got a cup with Chris Pratt on it, but threw it away because it was gross and made out of paper. I’ll cut him out next time, and frame him on the wall.

Love you all, Oregon has been great!

Ya Boi,

Elder Berky

What’s up everybody?

IT’S ya boi, xxxElder_Berky37xxx coming at you with another top 10, but first before we get started could ya hit that like button and dont forget to subscribe and hit that little bell to get notifications so you never miss another video (email) alright lets get riiiiiight into the list!!

10: We got to teach an investigator who asked us some really hard questions that we have had to do some real research into,  so learning and growing!!

9: I drank some nasty lemonade with all sorts of gross stuff in it, and earned $20! I used that hard-earned cash to buy me a sweet floral tie! Thanks Elder Cunningham! 

8: Got to take a quick nap before the devotional, so I got to stay awake for the whole thing! And I learned a lot, I would put a pic of my notes,  but yall probably can’t read my handwriting G.

7: We actually got good food! One day.  It was taco bell. Everybody just thought “outside food.  We are not the last ppl on Earth. We are alive!” They didn’t have any good sauce tho…

6: I got to host some new friends! He seemed like a cool dude,  but a little apprehensive. Holy crap, was that me last week? 

5: on Friday we watched a video and all got really emotional, so that was fun,  I’m just glad we had enough tissues in the classroom.  (Ok, sister Wadsworth didn’t get emotional) 

4: I drew a cool picture of Doctor Strange when I probably should have been paying attention in class. Yeah… 

3: I got to try out some freaking awesome drank from the vending machine!  Its also the only thing I like from BYU Creamery! Cookies and Cream milk is sooo good!! Dude,  that little guy is like a meal and a half! 

2: We went to the Temple this morning and it was great! The Provo temple is rather odd, and very small, but I like it!

1: I really miss music, like a lot. So does all the other elders, at night, before we all pass out, we talk about different songs that we miss. At least our mission president has said that Classical Music is okay! The song that’s keeping everybody sane is Book of Mormon Stories. That song is an absolute BANGER!

Well, that was a really crazy top 10’s list, Comment below what you’d like me to do a top 10’s list on next!! Maybe something like top 10 scriptures? number 7 will blow your mind!!

Seriously though, I love you all, and I’m having a great time, I can’t wait to get out into the field and start preaching the good news. Also the weather in Oregon is much nicer than here.

Love Elder Berky

P.S. I’m sorry I didn’t get some of your emails earlier, if you want me to send the 1st week just hit me up!

Well, I’m still alive.

This has been a very long and short week at the same time. We met up with our companions, and have had class all day, everyday.

My Comp is Elder Clinger from Holiday Utah, just south of SLC. He’s a cool guy, and I’m happy to be serving with him. The other elders in my room (District) are Elders Alford, and Meredith. From St. George and Boston. They’re also very cool.

And yeah, I have been reading your emails, I just can’t respond to them until Thursday. You know what else I love about Thursday? I can wear shorts! It’s soo nice! AND NAP!!

The days are so long, but so short at the same time. I’ll be gone sooner than I think. I’ve shared with Anthony the pictures that get backed up to my phone, so ask him if you want to see anything. 

Love ya, and I can respond to emails all day until 6pm

Elder Berky (Wow, Elder, how cool is that?)

Hey! Just got everything set up, got a nice room, and some scary companions! Just checking out my email to make sure it’s working!

Love you all!