Monday, October 17, 2016

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 πŸ’ͺ

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

πŸ’šπŸ‘”πŸ“

Monday, October 10, 2016

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 πŸ‘

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 πŸ˜„πŸ˜„πŸ˜„

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 πŸ‘»πŸ‘»πŸ‘»πŸ‘»πŸ‘»☠️πŸ‘½☠️

πŸ’›πŸ‘”πŸ“
    

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

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

πŸ’™πŸ‘”πŸ“

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

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

❤️πŸ‘”πŸ“
 

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

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

❤️πŸ‘”πŸ“

Monday, September 5, 2016

We're pregnant! πŸ‘¨‍πŸ‘¨‍πŸ‘¦‍πŸ‘¦

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! πŸŒŠπŸŒŠπŸ€—

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

❤️πŸ‘”πŸ“


Monday, August 29, 2016

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 πŸ€‘

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

❤️πŸ‘”πŸ“