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

  

 
 

"Everyone I know who drank water is dead"

Hola y'all!

I don't have much to say this week but I'll say what I can.

First up: we got a new car! Ayyyyy

But, it's not new. We went from a 2013 Ford Fusion to a 2013 Jetta. That's right, we're driving a chick car now. Even the door handles are smaller, they're made for girls. My hands fit perfectly but that is not the point. We changed the keyring to pink cord so we could go full hot girl and idk maybe some dudes will pull up and whistle at us and we'll give them a pass along card or something. But we lost our old car because it had a ton of miles on it (for a mission car). But the flipping Jetta only has 3000 miles less! Meaning in 2 or so months we're going to have to get a new car again! But whatever. Also it has no USB so we can't listen to music because we gave all our CDs away or maybe they're lost idk

Otherwise this week has been awesome. I'm trying to take the lead way more often which isn't always good because I rock at Bible bashing. That's not a good trait but hey at least the Baptist people I meet understand that John Smith didn't write the Book of Maroney, it's the word of God. Or at least I hope they understood that.

We've got this guy we just met named George and he is from Mexico. He's lived here for 9 months and speaks ok English. He doesn't have a car and bikes like 20 miles a day. I tried teaching the Restoration to him but I guess the English he's picked up so far is more landscaping-related since that's his job. I guess they don't talk about Joseph Smith or how the gospel can bless families while they trim hedges. I don't know what else there is to talk about but hey

The subject of this email is my favorite thing someone has ever said to me on my mission, it was said by Brother Wakefield, who is this member who is like 65 but he's really healthy. He's also like the coolest dude in the world. Like I want to be friends with him and hang out. He's cooler than most people on earth so that's awesome. But he never drinks water. He drinks like a ton of Pepsi which is his one flaw and we asked why he didn't drink water and that quote was his reply.

Yesterday I saw a guy pouring a beer can into his gas tank, and I said a prayer that it would work. There's a missionary fable in this mission that apparently two sisters ran out of gas and they were stuck in the middle of nowhere so they put water in the gas tank and said a prayer that they would be able to get home. Obviously it didn't work, faith doesn't work that well when you're disobedient and you don't fill up with gas when you're supposed to. I guess the car was ruined. I don't think it's true though, I think it's just a myth told by elders who are in bike areas and blame sisters for taking their car? Idk

I bought a couple ties at Goodwill today, and I counted and I have a total of 45! And I've probably  spent $20 on all of them, most were free or gifts. I will keep collecting until I have a prime selection of 32 that I can cycle through and they're all high quality ties.

Well the spiritual thought this week is talk to someone you don't want to and say something to them that you're afraid to say. I bet you 10 South Carolina dollars (same as US dollars) that it will actually be something they need to hear. Look at that, you'll be a savior for them! 🙆🏻

Alright yall peace and remember to look both ways when you watch a tennis match (haha someone said that to me a couple days ago hahahaha)

❤️👔🍓

"Follow the Savior? Why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?" -Elder Weasley

Hola y'all!

An update on my quest to gain weight just in case someone hasn't lost interest: I was doing really good, I was eating double the amount of food my companion was on any given day. I got back to my regular weight from before I was sick. And then one day I had a little less calories. Like an average regular person amount of calories. And then the next morning I swear I lost like 6 pounds no kidding. It's like I'm shrinking all the time and all I can do to fight it is eating more meals than a Hobbit. It's so tiring. And I don't think it's possible to lose that much weight in 24 hours???????? I guess it was mostly water weight 🌊🌊

Sometimes the young women in the ward will give us treats or food they made. I don't know if they made food and they're just giving some, or if they're making it for us. We're not starving, but I don't know if they know that. Yesterday after sacrament they came up to us and gave us chocolate pretzels which was cool I guess but uhhhhhh sorry ladies my heart belongs to the Lord!😉😎

P-days here in Simpsonville are boring. There is nothing to do. Greenville is like 10 minutes away but what is there to do in Greenville? Nothing. They have a suspension bridge but if you've seen one bridge you've seen them all. I get emails from missionaries in other missions and they're doing all this cool stuff! The coolest thing you can do here is accidentally pull up to train tracks right when a train comes and just sit and wait and watch the 10 minute graffiti art exhibit. Supposedly South Carolina is loaded with history and fun facts about the Civil War. The only fun fact I can think of is if you climbed on top of any Bojangles in South Carolina, you would be able to see at least 5 more Bojangles in any direction. Guaranteed

But this week was great! We got a lot of bible referrals which is exciting because we can actually deliver them now. If yall don't know, the church is actually running out of bibles. We tried to order 6 bibles like 3 months ago (because we had that many referrals) and we didn't get them until last Friday. But bible referrals are awesome because you can knock on someone's door and say "Hi, we're missionaries and we saw that you ordered a copy of greatest selling book of all time" (the bible) "would you like to read the sequel?" (the book of mormon). Ok we haven't actually done that yet but I'm so sick of the way we usually contact referrals that I'm dying to change it up. Hopefully I will have tried that by next week.

But spiritually speaking I think the biggest thing I learned about is the different ways you can pray. In the Adjusting to Missionary Life booklet we have, one of the things it tells you to do to deal with stress is think "All I need to do right now is _____" and just focus on one thing at a time so you don't get overwhelmed. It's a great and fine suggestion, but this week I decided to apply it to prayer. I used to measure my "successful" prayers based on how long they were and how many different things I talked about. But this week I shortened my prayers a ton. I decided that every time I pray I need to have a purpose or focus, and that's what the prayer should be about. "All I need to pray about right now is ______" It's been really interesting to see the difference. I actually pray about something I want to know or need to do, sometimes my prayers are just to express gratitude after miracle happens. we're instructed to always keep a prayer in our heart so it makes sense to me not to just be repeating the same things all the time. I don't know if this is absolute truth about prayer but I'll loosen my tie and take off my nametag and say this is the gospel according to Brother Berry. I've made each of my prayers on different topics, essentially whatever is on my mind at the time. If you have to think of something to pray, then maybe you shouldn't be praying in that moment, or maybe you shouldn't be praying about that specific thing because you don't really mean it. If you did, it would have been what's right on your mind right then. But please don't just believe that this is true. It is making a difference for me but maybe for each of you, communication with your Father in Heaven is different.

Sometimes it's hard to maintain a desire to share the gospel with others. Especially when everyone around you is a stubborn baptist who has everything figured it out and the moment you mention Jesus they go off and preach at you literally until you tell them you have to go. But it's ok, I'm learning how to get along with them.

That's all for now! This week's challenge is pay for someone else's food at a restaurant! I really wish someone would do that for me, but this ain't no Utah mission 😉

Oh and hey shout out to my siblings Allie and Jared! Enjoi your birthdays 🎂🎂🎂

❤👔🍓

Vomit-free since '16

Hola y'all!

This week has gone by pretty fast. I started measuring time in terms of calories instead of hours or days. When I got sick a while back, I lost my appetite for a couple days and by the time I wasn't sick anymore, I had lost a few pounds. Which I can't really afford to do. So I've been pushing the calories hard, a couple days ago I actually broke 4000 calories. Everything was going peachy, I was approaching my weight from before I was sick (which is still lower than I'd like) and then last night for some reason I felt nauseous and threw up. It came out of nowhere at like 9:30 last night, and within a few minutes I was hurling yellow-orange stomach acid into the toilet. There wasn't even any food in there, so it wasn't like my body threw up because I was overeating. But really I'm just upset that my streak has been broken. I haven't thrown up in probably almost 10 years and now the counter has reset. It makes me think of Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother. He was "Vomit-free since '93" and then he threw up in one episode and then he was "Vomit-free since '06" or something less catchy like that. This morning I weighed less than I have in the last couple days, so I guess it's back to square uno 

Here's an update that's even more sad: our golden investigator, Al, who had that crazy story about wanting to kill himself and then a member of our ward just stopped by and pretty much saved his life. Well, he's struggled with alcoholism his whole life, and even though he's come to church the last couple weeks, his life hasn't gotten easier. Maybe even harder. God never really takes our trials away, we just get different, tougher ones because we've become stronger. But it's hard to tell someone that when they're going through such a hard time. So through a series of events that I won't really go into specifics on out of respect and privacy to him, he decided to stop pursuing everything right now. He texted us and pretty much dropped us which was a complete shock to us. We talked to him on the phone and he told us how hard things were right now, and how he felt he was a burden to everyone. We tried to show him otherwise, but he seems to have made up his mind for now. He said he still likes us and appreciates all we've helped him with, but he basically wants some space right now. We said that was fine and that we would call him in a few weeks to check up on him. He said that would be fine so I guess we'll see where that goes. Keep him in your prayers!

Sorry this email wasn't very uplifting, I want to think of a good story. Hmm. Well we helped these members in our ward, the Wakefields, who are the coolest people in the world. They're in their 60s but they're cooler than most "hip" kids today. They're building a house inside of this barn of sorts which is the coolest thing ever, it sounds weird but it is so cool inside. I want to take some pictures when it's done. But anyway we just went there and helped put some insulation in. That was pretty fun. It's not as exciting as I thought it was going to be back when I started typing about it. Oh well I had a really good time and I'm excited to keep helping them 

It's heating up here in SC but the Lord loves us so he's given a bit of a cool spell these last couple days and in the next few days to come. Low 70s until the end of the week. Then we're on our way to 90s 100s, and 80-90% humidity. Hooray for being in a car area, and let's hope I don't get transferred until at least August, the upstate is the best place in the summer.

ok yall stay fresh and tell someone you love them this week (even if you don't. because you should. you should love everyone ) Don't drink and drive!