I've been a sweetie all year

Hola yall!

I won't pull you away from your Christmas presents too long.

There's a giant chess set right by our apartment in the Market Common. I started playing chess for the first time in a while and I'm a bona fide murderer

We got a bunch of gift cards from people, so that's basically the best gift I could ask for. We're going to Chick-fil-a for lunch today.

The work is about the same as it was last week, we couldn't really visit anyone this last week because I guess missionaries and Christmas can't coexist in a person's household

But don't worry, we are going to change that this week! Unless people use New Years as the same excuse to get out of feeling the spirit, idk

But remember to make New Years resolutions all the time, if you just do it at the beginning of the year, you will give up and not try again for a year. That's dumb

Quote from a spiritual person: "Stop it." — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

See you all in 2017!

🎆👔🍓

I'm sorry ma'am, I'm afraid that's a huckleberry over my persimmon

Hola y'all!

Next time I see you it will be past Christmas. So this is my last chance to beg people to send me things. Please send all packages and mail to

Elder Noah Berry
South Carolina Columbia Mission
110 Oak Park Dr. Suite B
Irmo, SC
29063

But enough about me, let's talk about Jesus

Please remember Jesus was born, that he was crucified, resurrected, and glorified just for you! We refer to the payment Jesus made with his sacrifice as The Atonement, and sometimes we talk about the enabling power that the Atonement gives us. My challenge for everyone is to study and pray and discover what you can do to take fuller advantage of that power, or even how to access it at all. Once you've done that, make sure you share with someone your experience so they can have one too.

I love Christmas and it's weird being here in Sodom and Gomorrah (I mean Myrtle Beach) for the holiday. But I mean I think it's really cool, this place is so weird. I'll be sad when I leave this area, I
love the whole grand strand and the people in it.

I won't write too much this week since I guess I wrote too much last week, but I hope everyone has a merry Christmas. Also I learned Hanukkah starts on Dec. 24th this year and goes until Jan. 1st. Trying to take over, I see.

Happy holidays, go see Star Wars for me!

Ps here's a picture of us eating Cook Out on the beach with like 10 degree wind chill. I don't know where my companion is, I guess pretend he's in the hotel back there

🌴👔🎅🏿

'Twas the Transfer before Christmas

Hola y'all!

Transfer calls came in today (a little later than usual 😾) and even though we are done with training and starting to find success in our area, President decided to keep Elder Edwards and I together anyway.

But here's the bad part: Elder Staker, my companion when I was in Surfside and my District Leader when I went next door to Myrtle Beach, is being transferred! This has been a long time coming: he's been here since February. But it's still very sad, this better not be he last time I see him

"You being an idiot?"  — Elder Staker, talking to me when I was being an idiot
Who's going to ask me that now? Luckily I didn't get called as DL so someone else is coming in

But this means I am spending Christmas at the beach! That's cool, right? Seriously let me know if you want me to send you something from the beach for Christmas, who knows how much longer I'll be here. Speaking of which, we played football on the beach today, it's great because no one is there on a Monday afternoon at the end of November. Last time we really did that was the end of June I think and we almost died, the weather was much better today. We're gonna have to vacuum our corolla for sand again but that's ok

Here's a poem a member likes to tell:

'Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
The fans were all blowing
Cause we live in the South

Don't worry about us, we're doing fine. We hope you all had a great thanksgiving and even better leftovers. Life is good here and I'm grateful for the chance I have to serve, let's hope it never ends

"It seems like blessings keep falling in my lap."  — Chance the Rapper

I have no pictures this week so here's one of Dead Man Staker driving down Ocean Blvd

Pay no attention to the beach behind the curtain 🌊🌊🌊

Hola y'all!

Sorry the frequency of weekly emails has gone down! I will try to be better.

Christmas time at the beach is tougher than you think! It's getting really cold here. Which I mean is good because I can wear sweaters like all the time.

We're still working with our investigator Jimbo. I think he got anti-ed by this Methodist lady who lives in the trailer across from him. And I guess she used to be a stripper so Satan is using that I guess. I've met her because I parked too close to her driveway once. It's a good thing she used to be a stripper because I don't think she'd be able to make rent with where she's at right now. Is that rude? I've met a lot of strippers on my mission. And a couple prostitutes. They're usually nice and I'm happy to share with them a greater way of life, but sin is sin. I don't know where I'm going with this but the message of the day is "keep your clothes on".

The true message here is that no stripper or hooker or trollop is more powerful than the Restored gospel, a testimony of the Bible and Book of Mormon, or Jesus Christ. So don't worry about Jimbo, we've got a not at all secret weapon on our side: the truth.

It's getting really cold here! I didn't expect the beach to be so cold here. And some weekends it's raining which sucks for the old folk who choose this time of year to drive cross country and stay for the weekend.

Here's a funny story: we have two separate Tanger Outlets here in MB, they rock. I think there's one in Park City back in Utah. They have Forever 21 there and I said "guys they have men's clothes in  here I swear" and we went in and we couldn't find it so we ran out. But I know there's a men's section in Forever 21, at least at the one in City Creek. I'm wearing a cardigan from F21 right now. But if  there was a men's section in that outlet, we did not find it and I doubt the other elders would be willing to go in there and check again

Sorry all my stories are about shopping but that's all we do on P-day, we shop probably more than any sister in the mission. I don't spend money like ever so I guess I just walk into stores and feel things and then walk out

But thanksgiving is coming! Let's celebrate when the people of the Bible and the people of the Book of Mormon put aside their differences and had a big dinner. At least I think that's what happened

Well I never send pictures so here's some of Ocean Boulevard which runs right next to the beach, one of our favorite places to drive

🏌Fore! (-ty eight days till Christmas) 🎄

Hola y'all!

Do you hear what I hear? Is that the Christmas music that's been building up on my missionary flash drive, free at last to be blasted in our apartment and our Corolla? Yes. I managed to fight off the Christmas spirit until Halloween this year, I usually get struck around September. It's not a choice, I was born this way. But Elder Green, who took my place in Surfside, is enough of a Scrooge pre-Thanksgiving that he managed to keep me in check. But now I can't hold it in. Jesus was born and I'm going to let all of Myrtle Beach know!!!

Sorry to leave you in suspense, but our baptism ended up not happening. We're still trying to figure it out but everything happens for a reason. People will make the dive when they're ready!

On the good side of things, we found two new investigators this week! That's a big deal for us, because those are the only two investigators we've gotten our whole time in the South Myrtle Beach area. We've been here 9 weeks in case you haven't been counting like I do. And we got both within two days of each other, completely unrelated! Don't know what we're doing right all of a sudden but I hope it doesn't stop. Now only two in over two months, that sounds like our mission is pretty hard. Not necessarily, other areas in the mission pull in better numbers than that. What do they have that we don't? They don't have me as the senior companion! They have someone good making all the decisions.

But obviously I am learning how to be a missionary because we've been doing things lately! So don't feel bad for me, the Lord qualifies those he calls. Moses had a speech impediment, but he was still able to say L-L-L-Let my p-p-people go!

We're doing pretty good over here at the Grand Strand (that's what they call the string of cities from North Myrtle Beach to Murrells Inlet), there's so many putt putt places here that we decided we had to try one. For p-day today we went to the highest rated putt putt golf place in Myrtle Beach: Mount Atlanticus Minotaur Goff. It's incredible, it looks really cool even from the outside, it's in my area so I've driven past it probably hundreds of times. But we decided to go today. It turns out they give discounts to church groups! Good thing we announced ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ, otherwise they might have made us pay full price! It's awesome there's two 18-hole courses and there's no one there in November. We had a gr8 time, if I get transferred at the end of November we're probably going again.

We carved pumpkins at a member's house last Sunday but I'm pretty embarrassed by how mine turned out so here's a picture of the seeds getting toasted instead

 

Just because it has flowers on it doesn't mean it's good

Hola y'all!

One of the best ways to start out your week as a missionary is to have your scripture knowledge tested by a member of the Seventy. This last Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference, and we got to hear from Elder Eduardo Gavarret of the Seventy at all 3 sessions (leadership, adult, and general). And the best part by far was when, during the leadership session he was talking about teaching and learning by the Spirit. He stepped down from the pulpit and was addressing us from the front of the pews. I was sitting on the end of the front row.

He started down between the pews and stood right next to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder pretty firmly while he was talking. I figured the trial was over but no. He asked where in the Doctrine and Covenants it talks about being edified. It took me a second before I realized he was asking me specifically. I knew exactly what verses he was referring to, it's one of my favorite scriptures. But I did not know the name of the section! He gave me a second and I clearly couldn't figure it out. He said it was section 50 and he asked me if that's what I was going to say and I said yes sir. I will for sure not forget that section from now on. He was a cool guy, we got to take a picture with him as a zone.

Money is such a struggle as a missionary. I have to resist the urge every week to not buy a bunch of nice ties. My floral tie collection has grown a lot on my mission but mostly by luck, I haven't really spent much on them. But yeah sometimes I see some sweet Tommy Hil or Calvin Klein and I want them but I always get sense talked into me. By far the greatest advice of any kind received on my  mission is, "just because there's flowers on it doesn't mean it's good". True poetry 🤑🤑🌺🌸🌼

We've got our investigator, Jimbo preparing for baptism. This will be Elder Edwards's first baptism and actually mine too haha  Hopefully next week we will have pictures from the baptism! Everyone
pray he makes it!!!

Ok well that's all I can think of writing about, see ya next week on Spooky-ween! Missionaries are on lockdown for the evening, I guess people think we're in costumes or something

Oh yeah something cool happened today, our cashier at Walmart had the last name of Bible! She's catholic but we were all Mormon before we came here and we will all be Mormon when we leave 😉

"I feel like I'm too busy making history to read it."  — Kanye West

 💙👔🍓

 

 

Keep your lives long and your emails short

Hola y'all!

Transfers  are here once again, which means that Elder Edwards is halfway done training me. I think after that I will finally be able to train him. Transfers are on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, I think because there might be limited flights coming in to the east coast for the incoming missionaries, because of the hurricane. But I'm not sure

Not much has happened since last week, we've mostly been doing service for people. The main part of the damage from the hurricane is downed trees. We're not allowed to use chainsaws but we sure are allowed to move branches across someone's yard! I've been eating a lot of peanut butter, hopefully some of this tree dragging turns into cold hard muscle 💪

Here's a spiritual thought: read the talk Why The Church by Elder Christofferson and go to church if you're not already. If you are already attending church, turn to ch. 8 in Preach My Gospel and ask  yourself what you can do to continue to have a spiritual experience at church. If you have a boo boo, you go to the hospital, and we've each got a lot of spiritual boo boos, like it or not.

Fall here is awful, it's just a weird combination of sand and leaves and it's gross

Motivational quote of the week: "I'm a star, how can I not shine?"  —
Kanye West on album Graduation

K love you all bye

💚👔🍓

That's my wagon bo

Hola y'all!

I'm sure you all have been terribly worried about us out here on the beach, what with all the souls in spiritual peril, the question must be: Did you have a productive week bringing souls to Christ?

The answer is No. The reason is Hurricane Matthew.

So the hurricane (more like Him-icane) has struck the east coast, beginning with Haiti and the  Bahamas, scraping up 90% of Florida, and finally gouging the Carolinas before heading back out to the Atlantic to take a well-deserved nap.

On Tuesday we got a call from Pres and we started to pack up and we headed to Florence. We had a 5 day slumber party with the Florence elders! On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we broke into two 3-packs and proselyted hardcore. Saturday was when Matthew arrived and we didn't leave the apartment. Just the six of us hanging out in the Florence apartment from 6:30a to like 9:15p. By that time, the rains came down and the floods came up. Not much flooding, I mean, enough to make small lakes on some roads, so you would have to drive around them, but not too many buildings seemed flooded. So not much damage, I would say the biggest thing is South Carolina is loaded with trees. We saw hundreds of trees broken and uprooted and flipped over and laying on people's houses.

DON'T PLANT TREES NEXT TO YOUR HOUSES AND DON'T MOVE INTO HOUSES WITH TREES AT ALL NEAR THEM IT IS A DUMB IDEA

But yeah we went out Saturday night and there was no power. There was seriously no light at all anywhere except for our car lights and the few other cars on the road with us. I almost hit a cop because he didn't have his lights on and he was just sitting around the corner.
Nice try buddy 👍

We went into proper Florence and there was a little power. The McDonald's had power and there was a quarter mile line for the drive thru. We needed food because we couldn't open our fridge without losing precious cold air, so we got in line for McDonald's. We waited twenty minutes or so and then we got to the menu. I tried to order but no one was answering. After a couple minutes we pulled forward and realized there was no one going to the window. THERE WAS NO ONE WORKING THE MCDONALDS. All these cars were lined up and they had no idea that it wasn't open. It was hilarious, I would say they're all stupid but hey we fell for it too. The line got longer after we left 😄😄😄

But yeah everything here at Myrtle Beach is ok. Some members need help with their yards and stuff, but there's really not much damage. Just debris everywhere. Leaves and branches and buildup just like everywhere. So we won't have crazy cool service opportunities like the demolishing of houses back in the Columbia floods last October. But we will help where we can.

Haha on I think Thursday we went and helped with this charity fundraiser. It's put on by a bunch of different ministers and preachers, it's sweet. It's a chicken bog fundraiser. For you heathens who don't know what chicken bog is, I'll explain. It's rice, chicken and sausage. That's it. I mean they cook it in chicken broth and add salt and pepper, but that's it. It's great because they cook it in these huge pots like three feet across. They've got like twenty of these going at any given time. It's funny because all these pastors are just like grumpy old senior citizens and while cooking chicken bog may sound simple, they all have their own way of doing things, so the best part about the whole event is watching these guys bicker with each other about chicken, sausage and rice. Disagreements among
ministers, gotta love the great apostasy!

Let's turn this into a teaching moment. Chicken bog is like the Bible. Everybody loves it and it's easy to see why. The principles taught are simple, and it's a gift from God to help guide us. But just like chicken bog, preachers and pastors, fellow Christians, all have different ways of doing the same thing, aka living the gospel. But which one is right? Well luckily they had worthy Priesthood holders
and representatives of the Savior present to make sure everything was within God's will and not man's. I was one of those representatives and the chicken bog was most certainly a part of God's will for his children.

Our job as youthful volunteers is to do anything these fogies ask us to. Like lifting pots, pulling around carts carrying buckets of chicken broth, or dumping chicken or sausage into the pot. The bog is then packaged up and people come and buy chicken bog plates, all the money goes to a family in need. They do this every six weeks, it's awesome. Plus they make bank, a plate is like $7 and thousands of people come.

The best part is: we got to take some home! Chicken bog is one of my favorite things ever, man.

Florence was great but I was there so long I started talking like the people there. They say things like "what color it is?" Or "that's my wagon, bo. We use it to catch chickens."

Ok love you all stay safe, who knows, the hurricane may be underground and heading for the west coast 👻👻👻👻👻☠️👽☠️

💛👔🍓

 

 

 

    

It's starting to get cold here kinda

Hola y'all!

There's nothing to talk about except General Conference.

I imagine Uchtdorf's comment about the anonymous diet soda sparked some controversy. Let me know if people leave the church because of it. Just kidding that's rude

We got to hear Pres. Monson speak! I thought it was really interesting that he chose to speak on the Word of Wisdom at Priesthood Session and the physical, mental, and spiritual blessings it brings. Clearly he's not able to speak for very long, so whatever he does speak about should be of immense importance to each of us. He's God's mouthpiece for this time in history. So what he says is what we need. So when he says very little, MAKE SURE YOU'RE FOCUSING ON THOSE THINGS. I know that he is a prophet and if we heed the counsel of him, his apostles, the other general authorities, etc. then we are on the right path.

Things never change in this church. People think they do, like when the church has a policy change or whatever. But it's not God changing, it's his people. The church is made for us, so naturally as the world around us gets worse, the church has to build more fortifications just to stay in the same place, to keep the same standards. The church is a place of safety and guidance for each of us. A common theme this conference session is how important it is not to lose your faith. People losing their faith isn't a sign that the church isn't true, it's a sign of the last days and that we need to work harder than ever to be firmly planted next to the Church and Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can't afford to lose our faith because our conversion isn't only for ourselves, others need to hold onto it too, from time to time. The church is all about self reliance, the welfare program of the church has been a model for governments and societies everywhere as a great way to get people on their feet and self-sustaining. Similarly, it's each of our responsibilities to be spiritually firm, so we can help other people become spiritually self reliant.

I hope each of you will go back and read or watch or listen to the talks from conference. A lot of times people say you can just read one for now, but I care about y'all too much to deny you the blessings that come from reliving this divine intervention we receive every six months. READ THEM ALL

The beach is doing fine, don't worry. Elder Edwards and I are a third of the way through training, so I'm a third of the way to being stress-free, and Elder Edwards is a third of the way to being able to have a competent missionary as his companion. But for now he's stuck with me 😸😸😸😸

Have a good week and to quote Chance the Rapper: "Everybody's somebody's everything, nobody's nothing." Love each other!

Attached is a picture of us yesterday in our everyday best, just a couple fathers and their sons

💙👔🍓

Jesus saves

Hola y'all!

The end of training Week 3 is upon me. That is 25% of the way and no one's been emergency transferred. That's success. Elder Edwards is doing great as always, usually better than me. But we are making it here at the beach! Sometimes I tell people I'm from St. George and they give me a weird look because St. George is a gay bar here in MB. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🍻🍻🍻

We have hit kind of a slump, and by hit I mean we had a slump and then we beat the crap out of it. We're not going down that easy! Probably our biggest struggle right now is where do you get those huge maps that missionaries always have hanging up in their apartment? We have one, but our area boundaries have changed so we need one that we can actually see all our area on. Like a third of it is just ocean. I would proselyte to sharks and and surfer girls if I could, believe me

What happened this week that was interesting? Nothing really, I'm trying my best to eat a lot of calories but most ways of doing that cost too much. So I eat a lot of peanut butter. I buy the big 4 pound tins that they sell, I'm on my third one.

I usually don't know what to talk about in these emails or can't remember. If you have any questions or anything, email me and I will try to reply today!

Have a good week and "don't ever sell your saddle." — Randy Travis

❤️👔🍓
 

Find the Lord before you need Him

Hola y'all!

I don't have much time to write which is too bad because a lot has happened of course. But yeah my trainee and I are whitewashing Myrtle Beach South! His name is Elder Edwards and he's awesome. He's from Provo and he's a beaming ball of positivity and potential. It's too bad he's been put into my shaky, inexperienced hands.

We've been spending a lot of time inside, which is terrible, but there's so much stuff to do between training and whitewashing. We tried to meet a lot of the ward yesterday and it was tough because it was Ward Conference. It's ok though, we will get to know people over time. The old MB elders left behind two solid investigators on date for baptism, which means Elder Edwards's first baptism will be mine too. We're still getting to know them but I have no doubt that they will continue to progress!

It has been raining a lot here, you just gotta love it or you'll go crazy. I thought things would slow down here for sure but traffic and whatnot is still crazy. Maybe it's just always like this.

We went mountain biking today and it was fun, I guess! I crashed once or twice but that's ok. Scars heal.

But that's all the time I have folks sorry

Be safe

❤️👔🍓

We're pregnant! 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦

Hola y'all!

A lot of things are going on, but first I'll give a hurricane update. Hermine hit us this last weekend. We had a Zone Meeting in Florence on Friday, and we were told to pack extra clothes because President wanted us to spend the night there with the Zone Leaders so we could be safe. Well first of all, dumb. Second of all, stupid.

So we go to their apartment, it was raining from when we left the beach at like 8am and still going hard. Us (Surfside), the Myrtle Beach South elders, and one of the Elders from Cheraw. The elder from Cheraw was there because the Zone Lords had already planned having exchanges with Cheraw. So there were 6 of us and only one person actually knew the area. What's better than that is we split up into two 3-packs, meaning 3 of us didn't know the area at all. Elder Holt, the remaining ZL, told us to go knocking down two streets in the rain. We're not gonna be disobedient, is it crazy to assume our leaders are righteous enough to be inspired of God? So we went in the pouring rain and we knocked those two streets. Few people answered and the ones that did all asked us "what the devil are you doing don't you know there's a tornado warning out?" We did find one potential investigator, so as long as he becomes a stake president someday it will all be worth it. I hate knocking with a fiery passion, so I figured I would hate it even more in the rain. But it was by far the most fun I've had knocking ever! But then the rain got real bad so we headed back and stayed for the rest of the night. The worst part is the hurricane ended up hitting Florence harder, so wow ok

It was fun though, the hurricane didn't do any damage, structurally or emotionally! 🌊🌊🤗

Transfers are coming up, and the Saturday before, phone calls go out to everyone who gets told they're whitewashing, getting whitewashed, called/released as district leader/zone leader/assistant to the president. And also training. Well I think I said in an earlier email that my biggest hope would be that Elder Staker and I would 3-pack train. Well that dream is.............not coming true. But we did both get phone calls! From president himself so you know it's important 😬😬😬

First things first, Elder Olmstead and Elder Lamping, the Myrtle Beach elders are both leaving. Elder Olmstead (our DL) is going home on Wednesday and Elder Lamping has been here too long. They're
whitewashing their area. So we needed a new District Leader! Elder Staker has been here 7 months but I guess that's not long enough because he's done been made the new DL. AND he's gonna train! But wait, if he's staying, and he's training, and not 3-pack training, what's gonna happen to you, Elder Berry?

Well let me tell you. I'm training too. Yeah. Even worse, since I'm not training in Surfside, I'm whitewashing into my area. I would be terrified but president told me something: I'm not going very far. Remember how I said Myrtle Beach elders are getting whitewashed? THEYRE GETTING WHITEWASHED BY ME BOOYAH

It's a weird situation and I'm sad I'm leaving Surfside as minimally as possible, but on the bright side I don't have to pack up my stuff and take it to Columbia. I just have to move everything to the
apartment upstairs!

So yes, Elder Staker and I only spent 3 sweet months together in Surfside, but we're going to help each other as we raise our children together. Only 48 hours until we pick our boys up

Also shout out to my papa Robison who's dying this transfer, thanks for everything and I hope to make you proud as I carry on our posterity!

Alright see y'all later and I think I have a picture of us with a bunch of $3,000 toy poodles a member is breeding.

See everyone next week and pray for us please

❤️👔🍓

Respect your elders! (And sisters!)

Hola y'all!

This area is great, because every once in a while, a member likes us enough and for a long enough period of time that they want to take us to dinner. We went with a member to Miyabi Japanese Grill. It's one of those fancy hibachi grill places where they cook the food right in front of you and they mess with you and they throw stuff in their chef hats. And they make the volcano with the onion. Oh man it's sweet. They put alcohol in it and light it, and then they through seasoning in it and it looks like hot ashes. Then they put some kind of sauce in it and it heats up and overflows man it's the coolest thing ever. And the food is so good. Very expensive, I will probably never go there without my tag on. The opportunities you can only experience as a missionary 🤑

We've got some solid stuff lined up right now, we should be having some awesome stuff happening in the next couple weeks. The Lord prepares people! I just don't have anything specific to say about it
right now

From what I understand, this area will die after Labor Day weekend. Exciting! Sad! I have no idea what the 1000 beach stores are going to do, and everywhere else is going to lose a lot of business. I'm not sure but I guess we'll see.

I'm never sure what else to talk about in my weekly emails, I always think of things but the Spirit must be confounding me and keeping me from saying them, so they must not be important

Ok have a good week and if you want to talk to me, feel free to email me just about any time today, and if you don't want to talk to me, try working on Christlike Love for a while

Included in this email is a picture of a sweet serving paper we got at Chipotle

❤️👔🍓

The (bi)Cycle of Life

Hola y'all!

I wish I could tell you something interesting happened this week! Who knew the work of salvation would become kind of boring to talk about? I'M JUST KIDDING CALM DOWN

Things are slowing down here at the beach. I'm sure it will get crazy for Labor Day, and then die down for the rest of the year. Everybody get ready, Christmas is almost here 🎅🏿🎅🏿🎄

We biked a lot this week. In the last two weeks we've probably biked about 150 miles. But there is hope, because the Myrtle Beach elders are probably going to be whitewashed! Why hello, new Myrtle Beach elders, welcome to your new bike area! Then we will have the car all to ourselves. It's so simple.

Biking's not even that bad, but cars are better.

The work is going good here, we've got a few prospects that we're still in the middle of getting together, but I will definitely say when something awesome happens!

Spiritual thought this week is James 1:27: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the  world.

Do your best to help those around you, they're around you for a reason

Ok that's all I got and I'm not sure I have any pictures but you never know there might be something at the bottom of this email

Peace out and don't go chasing waterfalls

❤️👔🍓

Chipootle Weekend

Hola y'all!

Nothing too major has happened this week, we had interviews with President, and that was fun! We've had to go to Florence twice this month so far, so that's 300 miles down the drain. Just kidding it was worth it

We helped this young couple move and they bought us Chipotle! It was good, the only other time I've had it was in the ATL airport on the way over here and it wasn't that good of an experience. But this time it was. And they gave us coupons to go there again, so that's what we're doing for P-day!

The work is going alright here, we put someone on date for baptism which I think is the second time I've done that. We're still working with her so I'll give updates as she progresses.

But here is a spiritual thought: because Jesus was perfect, he never did anything wrong, and everything he did do is not bad! Well remember the time he got angry and flipped the tables of merchandise and made a whip in the temple? That means there's such a thing as righteous anger! Don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in!!!!

Ok I only have one picture from this week and it's a funny picture from a BBQ place in our area

❤️👔🍓

A Storm on Mount Olympics

Hola y'all!

Wow I never realized I loved the Olympics until it was a sin to watch them. We go to members' houses and it's ALWAYS on. I didn't think there would be anything out here that was bigger on tv than Nascar, but this part of the country is no different than anywhere else. It's cool to see in this day and time an event that unites the whole world for a while. Rio's economy might tank when everything's over but whatever not my problem

I had a good birthday, I decided to fast because I've been struggling with a lot of different things. The other elders decided we should go somewhere for lunch and I didn't remember I was fasting until we got there. So they enjoyed a nice birthday lunch for me, and I just watched 🙃

But it's not a big deal! I've never not been blessed when fasting before, so I'm sure the blessings will be coming by at any minute

What else happened this week?  I can't remember honestly. Nothing too interesting, the tourist wave of the summer seems to be dying down, soon it will just be locals and us missionaries. Then they'll have nowhere to hide hahahahahahaha

I'll miss the summer craze but it'll be interesting to see this place in the slow season. And I could very well be here until Christmas, it's only been a transfer and a half, and no missionary has ever served in Surfside for less than six.

It's been actually kind of mild here this week, it's been raining a lot, which is always welcome, even if I'm biking.

Spiritually speaking, remember that we're not given any obstacle that we can't or won't overcome and that won't be for our benefit. So how do we change our perspective from whether or not we can do something, to what our reward or growth will be when we do over come it, that's the question. I don't have the answer so who knows man

But anyway I know I forgot to talk about something, but there's always next week for me to forget about it again. Bye!!

❤️👔🍓

"Apply Sonscreen to prevent Sinburn" — Socastee Baptist Church

Hola y'all!

This week's been tough, but that's ok! I think the heat officially singed my nerve endings, because I think I've gotten used to it. I've taken 13 showers in the last week. I never thought I would measure the success of a day based on whether or not I had to change my clothes because of sweat. There was only one day this last week where that happened (yesterday), every other day I had to change.

I don't really know what else to say, the elephant from last week was so interesting we're going back to that neighborhood tonight to see if we can see it again.

This area makes you really miss the world sometimes. Like why aren't I allowed to go to Calabash Seafood Buffet and see the live mermaids? But usually this area just makes you glad you're not a part of the world, like when you hear about all the murders and human trafficking going on right under your sunburned nose. I'm learning to really appreciate the spiritual environment that can only be found in missionary service. It'll be gone before I know it. Sometimes you can literally feel the Hand of God placing you somewhere you need to be. Other times you have to lift 3 couches up the stairs to a second floor apartment and you feel like crap. Disneyworld may be almost 9 hours away but every day as a missionary is a roller coaster ride.

Thursday is my birthday, and Friday is my companion's year mark. So we're going to party hard! We have a zone meeting on Friday so we'll probably go somewhere cool for lunch. Maybe Hard Rock Cafe. It's expensive but we've gotta go at least once! It's going to be demolished soon. Apparently it's literally sinking into the ground. That's what happens when you don't build your foundation on Christ. So much sin everywhere

Well ok my spiritual thought for this week is 2 Nephi 2:11. We need obstacles in life, how can we succeed if we have nothing to overcome?
K peace and enjoy my birthday without me 🎂🎂🎂

❤️👔🍓

ASAP: A Surprisingly Agile Pachyderm

Well my first transfer here in Surfside Beach has come and gone and I'm still here! My arms aren't quite burnt to a crisp from biking so I guess President has more trials for me yet. One of the sisters in our little Myrtle Beach district is getting transferred, which is sad but we're getting a brand new sister in her place! For once I will not be the youngest missionary in my district. About time.

My official prediction for next transfers (in Septiembre) is Elder Staker is getting transferred and I take over the area. Not only that, but I'll become district leader and get a trainee of my own! Although my speculation may be a wee bit crooked after comparing the transfer call to my speculation board. Oh well.

As a missionary, you have to get used to people staring at you. When we went to the aquarium, it felt like we were one of the exhibits. We were more popular than the live mermaids! People couldn't stop looking! And just in general, I think it's just funny how shocked people look when they see missionaries. It's not bad, really all it does is inflate my ego. I had no idea I was so captivating 

I'd like to tell a story about something that happened just a few hours ago. First of all, we biked today so I asked Elder Stake Center to pick a tie for me. One that I can wear while biking without being concerned about it being destroyed by neck sweat  So he picked one of my lovely Goodwill ties, one with lil elephants on it. Well then Elder Stake sauce and I biked to this neighborhood on the Intracoastal Waterway. Meaning they're super nice houses who have docks and speedboats for a backyard. We were walking through the area trying to find a member and we saw something amazing. We saw a legit elephant. Like there was a dude just riding an elephant down the street of this secluded neighborhood. There were old people driving by in golf carts and man I don't even know what happened. I would assume I hallucinated but I have photographic evidence.

PLUS the scariest thing is Elder Stake knife picked my elephant tie to wear!!!! It was a prophecy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah I really don't understand

Spiritual thought this week is 1 Cor. ch 13, Charity is better than everything!!!!!!

Here are some pictures also of our district btw

K see yall later

     
 
  
 
 
 
    

Surfyside Up

Hola y'all!

Greetings from icky sticky Myrtle/Surfside Beach. Humidity is unreal and everyone's so sick of even talking about it that I'm rolling my eyes as I write this. When it's not humid, it's raining. And a lot of the times you can't tell which is which. It's cool though because it's still hot even when it rains so after a while, you just see this steamy mist coming up from the ground. Spooky, it's like we're watching Twilight

I've actually managed to catch a cold in this weather as well. We come home after biking and we're just completely wet. That's not an exaggeration, our clothes are dripping. And apparently if you go inside to a nice air conditioned apartment while covered in water from all sorts of places, you catch a cold. I'm fine but that's just weird that that would happen.

Today for P-day we went to Ripley's Aquarium! It's not often we go and do the typical Myrtle Beach attractions. There's simply no room on our MSF cards for that. BUT the Myrtle Beach ward baptized someone last week and she works there and she got us in for free! It was packed but it was so cool. We went in one of those shark tunnels like you see on commercials. Ooh wee how fun 🌊🌊🐠🐟 I don't have any pictures but I might be able to get some next week to send.

The work this week has been really good, we teach a lot of cool members and we're working on finding investigators, an effort which I am sure we will be rewarded soon 🙏🏿🙏🏿😇 Remember that each of us has divine potential! We don't have to be a prophet to be foreordained to do something great. Figure out what it is you and only you can offer the world in this life and find a way to unite that with the will of our Father in Heaven. It will probably take your whole life, so get to it!

Transfers are coming up and the gossip here is so juicy. A lot of missionaries have gone home, which is too bad but sometimes it's the right decision. There's a video on Mormon Channel of Holland giving his thoughts on the topic, plus a guy who was called to this mission (SCCM!) and went home early and his story. Well anyway it just means a lot of changes will be going about across the mission. So we here in Surfside set up a way to stay ahead of the game, the Speculation begins NOW! I have a picture of the speculation for our district the next two transfers and we're working on the whole Florence zone (possibly, we may give up before we turn into psychos). But here's a picture!

Anyway stay fresh yall and I don't know if it's raining wherever you are, but if it is, drive safe.

❤️👔🍓

Independenz Day

Hola y'all!

The Fourth of July is so great here! It's the only day of the year in SC where you will see more American flags than Confederate ones. But traffic is terrible and we can't watch fireworks because that's after our bedtime. They do them all up and down the beach all the way to Charleston! But President doesn't understand.

Last Tuesday I had a surprisingly fun experience. It was raining hardcore and we couldn't go out because every time we thought it was over, it would start pouring again. Finally it all cleared up, and we hopped on our bikes and headed out. We biked like 3 miles to someone's house, we had a fun visit with them, and then we headed back. And the rains came tumbling down. We were about 2 miles from home and we were basically under water. It ended up being really fun to bike in the rain, and it's the closest to swimming I'll ever get on my mission.

The rest of this week has been ok. We've taught a lot of less actives and given like 4 blessings. So I  guess that's actually cool. But our one investigator has been giving us a real hard time, he's ready to be baptized, but he wants to have like a perfect knowledge. He sent us an email with 49 questions and doctrinal concerns. We addressed all of them and most things weren't even true, I don't know where he's getting this stuff. The missionaries before must have sucked at teaching! Haha jk

But that's all I can really think about talking about right now. I'll send the rest of the pictures of the gardens last week. Oh and I took a picture of my socks because they're the closest thing to red white
and blue that I own. K peace

❤️👔🍓

 
 
 
 
 
 
      

Murder Beach

Hola y'all!

Today's been fun! A member took us to this place called the Brookgreen Gardens and it was SWEET. Sweeter than sweet tea with extra sugar in a Shirley Temple movie. There's all these cool plants and flowers and trees but there's also like super old statues. It's really cool and they have kind of a zoo and right now there's this event going on where they have all these huge Lego sculptures of animals. It was awesome! I'll try to send some pictures of me and Elder Staker, and the S. Myrtle Beach elders. I don't know how many I can send in one email.

The rest of the week was good too! I'm getting used to biking, which we do every other day, but we're smart and we always make appointments and we bring a member with us. Lessons with members present are the 🔑 to success anyway, but it helps being air conditioned as we travel too.

Elder Staker said it best this week, Myrtle Beach is just like Sodom and Gomorrah! There is for real very sketchy things going on out here. To my knowledge there are at least 4 crackhouses in our area. There's this highway we bike down sometimes (actually every time) and I guess there was a murder there a couple weeks ago! But don't worry mom, we're always protected by the Lord, and if I do get knifed going down 707, I bet I'll go straight to the Celestial Kingdom.

I guess the last 5 or 6 elders that served here were here at least 9+ months, Elder Staker is on his way towards that milestone as well. Which means I may be here until Christmas! How fun! So we'll see what happens but this curse on Surfside beach seems to be very real and it's not the kind of thing you can cast out like a Poltergeist or the Gremlins

Ok we'll have fun this week yall and have fun oh shoot I just said that twice

❤️👔🍓


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     

From Ghetto to Palmetto

Surf's up y'all!

Hahahahaha I've been transferred to the most bodacious Surfside Beach, which is really just the south-er part of Myrtle Beach. What is Myrtle Beach like? Well, imagine Las Vegas, on the beach, and barely in South Carolina. There's this street called Ocean Boulevard and it's basically The Strip. Except instead of casinos there's seafood restaurants and a huge gift shop called the Gay Dolphin which I think is like the biggest in North America.

My new companion is Elder Staker and he's a cool guy. He looks like Ralph Macchio from Karate Kid (or so a member tells me). I don't think he's nearly as well trained though.

We're in a car share which means we have a Chevy Cruze Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. The other days we're on bikes and the people here are so friendly! When cars drive by us, they honk real loud. There's also this secret sign language symbol I've found that people in Myrtle Beach only use when they're driving by missionaries. I feel like we're in a secret club together! I found an emoji that looks like it 🖕🖕🖕 People are gr8.

I moved from one end of the state to the other, basically as far as I could have gone across the mission. Apart from the Myrtle beach elders and sisters, we are the farthest missionaries from the mission office/home. President can't touch us out here!

There's a lot of rich people and there's a lot of regular people and there's a bunch of fancy expensive restaurants and there's regular sketchy restaurants. There's a wax museum with King Kong on it!

I forgot a lot of what else I was going to email because it's late and I'm sleepy so see ya

❤️👔🍓

 

Cransfers

Hola y'all!

What a week! I can't remember what happened but I know it was good. We had interviews with President T on Friday and I must have said something wrong because I found out this morning I'm getting transferred. haha jk but really pres why?

Yeah so next week I will be somewhere else in this sweet sweet mission! my guess is charleston on bike in the dead of summer because trials never stop. but next week I will let yall know for shore 🌊🌊

We got this new investigator who is so cool! He was a Bible referral but apparently he meant to order a Book of Mormon. that's never happened, usually we're begging bible referrals to open their minds to the idea that the Bible has been chopped up and possibly mistranslated but that's like telling someone you don't like the confederate flag. they will close the door/threaten you

But his name is Ethan and he is no doubt being prepared to meet with missionaries at this point in time. He recently quit smoking, drinking (alcohol and soda), he's cleaned up his foul language, he's getting his tattoos removed, he's asking us how to fast properly, like dang he's more prepared for baptism than I was. I would say I'm excited to help him in his conversion but I will probably never see him again now, so hopefully Elder Robison gets his act together and baptizes that dude. He's soooo ready he doesn't even know it. Well actually we told him so I guess now he knows it

BUT I don't really know what else to say this week! What does the future hold???????? we will see. It's refreshing not having to make a grocery list this week but I guess I'll just have to do it wednesday in my new area instead. I hope my msf survives

ok yall I don't have much more time so I will just say find someone to serve this week, whether it's your friend or your enemy or your mother I don't really care

Hopefully there will be some pictures attached to this email, maybe one that we took of the ol district yesterday back when we thought just el. Creamer was getting transferred.  ok peace

❤👔🍓
 

No contact sports, just Bible bashing

Hola y'all!

This week was loaded with exchanges. We had one with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday, which meant I was captain of the Jetta for the day. Speaking of which, that thing is a chick magnet. Literally, we have to clean bird poop off of it nearly every day 

I almost hit a deer that day so it's just an all-around great car if you like nature. We've hit I think 2 or 3 snakes with it while driving in the country. We've started calling the car Mama Nature, turn on the engine and it gathers animals just like Snow White

We've been going on exchanges with the bike elders like twice a week because elder Creamer is such an asset with his Spanish. We've actually given a couple of our near-er Spanish investigators to them so we don't have to exchange so often and disrupt their work. I might have to re-install Duolingo and crack open one of our thousands of unused Libros de Mormon and pull my weight around here. We have tons of active Spanish speakers in the ward too. The Spanish sunday school class is one of the biggest, by a lot. I guess there used to be a Spanish branch, and it was dissolved into our ward. So now we have more Spanish speaking members and less actives and investigators than the Spanish elders in Greenville do.

Where do all these people come from? We have a bunch of ward missionaries and almost all of them are Spanish speaking, which is probably the most needed trait for missionary work in this area. I think we have 7 ward missionaries (including our Ward Mission Leader and our Assistant Ward Mission leader) who speak spanish.

Speaking of callings in our ward, we got a new bishopric! As I said in an email like 2 months ago, our dear sweet bishop is moving away for work so we've been floundering for some time waiting for the big change. When we came into the church building yesterday morning and were greeted by the entire Stake presidency, we knew what was about to go down. No surprise, Brother Jones the first counselor was called as bishop, and Brother Walkenhorst was promoted from second counselor to first, and then Brother Wakefield my favorite member got called as the second counselor! Heck yeah. He had to shave his sweet handlebar mustache which was pretty disappointing but the church is probably still true. We're excited to see how we can help this new bishopric the best. Not much has changed but it's pretty different at the same time.

Oh deer () we did a lot of service this week. We helped I think 3 different families either move out of their house, move them into their new house, or move all their stuff into storage. And we did more too! Service is fun sometimes which is why we do so much. Or that's why I do so much. You have to make it fun but sometimes it's already fun, like picking up sticks on the ground in the middle of the forest on a member's great and spacious property 

Did yall see the new children's Bible videos????? If not either go on lds.org or download them on Gospel Library, they are well worth your time. They don't just meet missionaries' low standard for entertainment, they are legitimately awesome. The blonde kid with the big glasses and the missing front tooth is my absolute favorite and if you watch the videos he's in like all of them and he will steal your heart

Transfers are coming up and I've never felt so vulnerable! I've got another week and a half guaranteed here in S-ville, then who knows, I could train, go Zone Leader, go AP, really anything is possible, we've got interviews this week so I will do my best to convince Pres to promote me. I guess when I email next week I will know. I just hope I don't go to a bike area. Oh great, God heard me write that, now who knows what will happen. Me and my mouth

Well everyone I'm pretty sure that's all I have to say right now, I'm going to attach a picture of my favorite graffiti ever, we drive by it in our area all the time. Sometimes a truck will park in front of it and sell Confederate flags. I might buy one someday, they are pretty rare after all. Also haha I took a picture of the lady that lives in the apartment across from us who has a hanging basket but nothing to hang it on so she just put it on a table hahahahahaha

Challenge this week is write down a miracle you see every single day for a week and then try and complain about your life. You won't be able to do it guaranteed