Elder Terry and I have been out one year coming up Nov. 14th. this
is our 3rd mission as a couple. the first was in East Africa for Two
years (Tanzania as CES missionaries). the second was in South Africa
(Cape Town) as office couple for two years. This one is for 18 months
and we love being in the bush. This is what my husband has always
dreamed about. We live among 5 little branches and my husband serves
in the district presidency. It is a struggling district, but
wonderful people who are so good to us and we have come to love them
very much. We are born and bred in Las Vegas Nevada. Five of our
seven children live inour ward at home along with my parents..
Elder Berry and Elder Boateng, are probably the most isolated
missionaries in the whole mission. Our zone is very spread out. the
two zone leaders work in the same 5 branches we do and they have no
other missionaries, but us, but that is better than none. The Zone
leaders with us are part of the district with Elder Berry, but they
are so far away they don't have district meetings. Our elders do
travel to do interviews up in Konongo. We will proabably see them
abour every other week.
It is fun to share and glad to be of help. I remember when our first
son served.
Love
Sister Terry
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Email from Sister Terry
Sister Berry,
I am Sister Terry a couple missionary living about two hours from
where Elder Berry is presently living. We are in the same mission
zone and I will see him about every two or three weeks. Yesterday we
met them in Nkawkaw for an interview. We also dropped him off there 2
weeks ago. He has a nice Ghana buzz, but is still a very handsome and
wonderful missionary. We contacted the office and one package and
several letters had arrived. He will get them on the 4th of November
when the Assistants come out to a meeting. He will let you know what
arrived.
I told him I would write and share with you. We have found that if
you mail things in Priority Mail envelopes ($12.75) to mail whatever
you can get in it, and then tape the edges so they don't break open,
he has no charge on this end. Bigger things they look through and
charge a duty or custom... If you have any other questions, please
feel free to ask. Thank you for sharing him with the Ghana Accra
Mission.
Sister Terry
I am Sister Terry a couple missionary living about two hours from
where Elder Berry is presently living. We are in the same mission
zone and I will see him about every two or three weeks. Yesterday we
met them in Nkawkaw for an interview. We also dropped him off there 2
weeks ago. He has a nice Ghana buzz, but is still a very handsome and
wonderful missionary. We contacted the office and one package and
several letters had arrived. He will get them on the 4th of November
when the Assistants come out to a meeting. He will let you know what
arrived.
I told him I would write and share with you. We have found that if
you mail things in Priority Mail envelopes ($12.75) to mail whatever
you can get in it, and then tape the edges so they don't break open,
he has no charge on this end. Bigger things they look through and
charge a duty or custom... If you have any other questions, please
feel free to ask. Thank you for sharing him with the Ghana Accra
Mission.
Sister Terry
Monday, October 25, 2010
October 25, 2010
wow it is so good to hear from so many of you! sounds like everything is going great back home. except one thing and that would be the weather. i would hate you be all you in utah hahaha snow couldnt sound worse to me! i love the weather here, nothing wrong with sun shine everyday with a chance of rain.
Things i forgot to put in last weeks letter:
i really wish i woulda took H.T more seriously, what a blessing that was to go on that! So many good things came from that! i love telling people that i have been to where Joseph smith saw heavenly father and Jesus. Here when the wind starts to blow, you run for cover because you only have about 30 seconds till its starts to dump. The rain is amazing though, and the lightning storms are unreal! On my way out to my area (as i just left the MTC) we were in traffic and i watch a guy bump into the back of anther car.. guys from other cars got out and pulled this man out of his car and started to beat him.... normally in the united states you just ask for their information.. but here you just punch him till your car gets fixed. That got me really excited to leave the mtc.. ha not. Driving on the free way is the funniest thing ever.. you see people (not just guys but girls) on the side of the road just peeing. its completely normal here. Ever once and a while the lights will go out, and it is the best time to look at the stars, the sky here at night is unreal. there are so many starts and the moon is always huge. we are all under the same moon still, it just looks better from here:) haha
So i have learned how to wash my cloths in a bucket, well i tried. i dont think that my white shirts will ever be as white as they were. i cooked for the fist time on monday, and it was horrid. i thought i new how to cook. but really i dont, and i dont have much to work with in the kitchen. i have been craving french toast and scones. I am the only white man for miles, probably till the next missionary which is 3 hours drive away. my average day consist of mountain biking, teaching lessons, and playing soccer with the little kids while my comp is getting mad at me.. haha he is always way to serious and i cant help that the kids just love me.. haha they always want to play and make fun of me. this week i pounded fufu, holy what a work out that is. it takes about two hours from start to finish, and about 30 mins of pounding. people here have nothing, this is a third world country but every one has cell phones.. haha so its not just americans that cant live with out them anymore.. its the world. this is the best place on earth to see shooting starts, when we are out at night i cant focus cause i am always watching the sky. i have learned how to speak some twi and i am going to give my testimony in twi next month. wish me luck!
this week we got 8 people to commit to being baptized next month, and we are working really hard to get 3 more this week.
i miss you all and love hearing about home
love elder berry.
i ran our of time that's why this letter is short.
Things i forgot to put in last weeks letter:
i really wish i woulda took H.T more seriously, what a blessing that was to go on that! So many good things came from that! i love telling people that i have been to where Joseph smith saw heavenly father and Jesus. Here when the wind starts to blow, you run for cover because you only have about 30 seconds till its starts to dump. The rain is amazing though, and the lightning storms are unreal! On my way out to my area (as i just left the MTC) we were in traffic and i watch a guy bump into the back of anther car.. guys from other cars got out and pulled this man out of his car and started to beat him.... normally in the united states you just ask for their information.. but here you just punch him till your car gets fixed. That got me really excited to leave the mtc.. ha not. Driving on the free way is the funniest thing ever.. you see people (not just guys but girls) on the side of the road just peeing. its completely normal here. Ever once and a while the lights will go out, and it is the best time to look at the stars, the sky here at night is unreal. there are so many starts and the moon is always huge. we are all under the same moon still, it just looks better from here:) haha
So i have learned how to wash my cloths in a bucket, well i tried. i dont think that my white shirts will ever be as white as they were. i cooked for the fist time on monday, and it was horrid. i thought i new how to cook. but really i dont, and i dont have much to work with in the kitchen. i have been craving french toast and scones. I am the only white man for miles, probably till the next missionary which is 3 hours drive away. my average day consist of mountain biking, teaching lessons, and playing soccer with the little kids while my comp is getting mad at me.. haha he is always way to serious and i cant help that the kids just love me.. haha they always want to play and make fun of me. this week i pounded fufu, holy what a work out that is. it takes about two hours from start to finish, and about 30 mins of pounding. people here have nothing, this is a third world country but every one has cell phones.. haha so its not just americans that cant live with out them anymore.. its the world. this is the best place on earth to see shooting starts, when we are out at night i cant focus cause i am always watching the sky. i have learned how to speak some twi and i am going to give my testimony in twi next month. wish me luck!
this week we got 8 people to commit to being baptized next month, and we are working really hard to get 3 more this week.
i miss you all and love hearing about home
love elder berry.
i ran our of time that's why this letter is short.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
We Got "PICTURES"
 |
| President and Sister Byron L. Smith and Elder Brady on Oct 13, 2010 |
 |
| Elder Berry and His Companion Elder Ecleki on gym time, playing some bol. |
 |
| Elder Berry, Elder Ecleki, and Elder Avitey |
Monday, October 18, 2010
First Email From Ghana - First Area is Konongo "the Bush"
Hey Family! hope you have a good day! I am just at the cafe, but I for got all my notes and things I wanted to say in this email. Hope every thing is going well! I am doing good. Never been so humble in my life, ha but really is amazing here. I am gonna send another email, and try to remember every thing I wanted to say! I miss you all. and I cant remember my church email, so hopefully I dont get in trouble for using Gmail.
things to send if you love me.
candy*** star burst and thing sweet and American
Protein**
lead for that multi color pencil
pictures from HT, Friends, Temples, family, any thing i dont have.
live strong band
C.d with hymns.. Brody you know what to do with that
face wash
*importance
I have so many things to write about but I forgot my note sheet with every thing on it. But the mission has been great so far. I love Africa, I would consider living here if you could find clean water and food every where, but you can't really trust anything. The MTC was great I learned a lot, probably more then I did in all 13 years of school I attended. (but that's not hard to beat) My companion was from Nigeria, and he woke up at 5 the first morning to iron my shirt for the day.. what a stud. He told me every day that he loved me and was going to miss me. We started going out and teaching people in the MTC, but the days that they gave us to go out we only had two hours, which is not enough time at all, we taught a lot of people and things were going great, but if we had one maybe two more days, me and my comp woulda had two maybe three baptisms in the MTC. We had to turn our investigators over to the missionaries that where assigned to that area, so hopefully they are still doing good. Boy do I miss moms cooking! I haven't had anything close to it this whole time. I did gain 15 pounds in the MTC, they feed us a lot and I worked out every day with elder Okeke.
The first night of being out of the MTC I went to some members home, and they made me fufu. wow probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to eat in my life. haha I wasn't even chewing just swallowing and I still almost threw it up. I miss In & Out. My companion is from Ghana, which is both good and bad. Good because he knows the area and how to talk to people who don't speak English. Bad because he likes to eat from the street vendors, and Americans cant eat out there or they get sick. Oh and I am out in what we call the BUSH. I am 5 hours out side of the city in a village. My area is two main villages about an hour apart, so ever other day we take a troho to the other village. Most missionary's don't ever serve in the bush, but me, I get to for my first area. I get remind about home about every day, every one listens to Akon, Eminem, shaggy etc. I got the most home sick when we were in a troho, and the driver was bumping American country. Two of my all time favorite songs were played, something like that, and sold.... haha all the good memories came rushing back from those songs.
Saturday we had a baptism, we baptized 3 converts. I cant take much credit for those ones even though I did teach them all lessons. But we have 5 investigators with dates and i can take credit for those. We found and started teaching them on Thursday. Hopefully they all will go threw and not pull out. But I have faith in them, they are all really excited about our church, just don't want to leave theirs, so we are working on that. My apartment.... imagine the worst motel, college apartment that you have ever seen, times that by 3 and then put it in a third world country. Its like a motel I have to go outside to get to another room, but we have the whole second level to ourselves. I will have to send picture so you can witness all the spiders, and bugs that live with me. I have seen monkeys almost every time we go out in to the mountains, and lizards are every where, most could eat a small cat and some could eat shatner.
There is a song in the green hymn book that I would like every one that is reading this, to read or sing.. Because I have been given much. I wish I could go back one year and just start counting all the blessings in my life that I took for granted. We live in a great country, we have homes that have clean water, power that will turn on every time that we flip the switch, stores were we can buy food that is clean and wont make us sick. Mom you sent me with 25 NICE white shirts. That's more shirts then people over here have in their live time all together. We have been blessed so much we often dont realize what our Lord has done for us. Kids will go to school, until they get low on money and then they will stop going till the have enough to continue, and they will pick up right were they left off. I have met 20 year olds that haven't finished high school yet. I wish I woulda taking school more seriously, and wanted to learn every thing I can. Knowledge is power. I cant wait to go to college and want to learn every thing that I can. It is so hard to teach people that have no education, most of them cant speak English, and none of them can read.
Its amazing how much I have changed already. In the MTC the mission president asked me "how have you changed" I simply said I am not the same, every thing about me is different. Before I left home EVERY thing was about I was always thinking about my self and what I wanted. when I met these kids from Africa, most came with on bag ( a bag I would put my ball cloths in) and that's all they had.. I came with 2 suit cases weighing 50 pounds each and my carry on. I have been given so much, so I two must give.
I had so much to say but I forgot my notes
Hopefully this makes sense my grammar is getting really bad, talking with an African every day
miss you all. Love Elder Berry
k thanks. I cant get letters out where I am, and I still haven't heard from any family. I have only got two letters, one from the bishop
things to send if you love me.
candy*** star burst and thing sweet and American
Protein**
lead for that multi color pencil
pictures from HT, Friends, Temples, family, any thing i dont have.
live strong band
C.d with hymns.. Brody you know what to do with that
face wash
*importance
I have so many things to write about but I forgot my note sheet with every thing on it. But the mission has been great so far. I love Africa, I would consider living here if you could find clean water and food every where, but you can't really trust anything. The MTC was great I learned a lot, probably more then I did in all 13 years of school I attended. (but that's not hard to beat) My companion was from Nigeria, and he woke up at 5 the first morning to iron my shirt for the day.. what a stud. He told me every day that he loved me and was going to miss me. We started going out and teaching people in the MTC, but the days that they gave us to go out we only had two hours, which is not enough time at all, we taught a lot of people and things were going great, but if we had one maybe two more days, me and my comp woulda had two maybe three baptisms in the MTC. We had to turn our investigators over to the missionaries that where assigned to that area, so hopefully they are still doing good. Boy do I miss moms cooking! I haven't had anything close to it this whole time. I did gain 15 pounds in the MTC, they feed us a lot and I worked out every day with elder Okeke.
The first night of being out of the MTC I went to some members home, and they made me fufu. wow probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to eat in my life. haha I wasn't even chewing just swallowing and I still almost threw it up. I miss In & Out. My companion is from Ghana, which is both good and bad. Good because he knows the area and how to talk to people who don't speak English. Bad because he likes to eat from the street vendors, and Americans cant eat out there or they get sick. Oh and I am out in what we call the BUSH. I am 5 hours out side of the city in a village. My area is two main villages about an hour apart, so ever other day we take a troho to the other village. Most missionary's don't ever serve in the bush, but me, I get to for my first area. I get remind about home about every day, every one listens to Akon, Eminem, shaggy etc. I got the most home sick when we were in a troho, and the driver was bumping American country. Two of my all time favorite songs were played, something like that, and sold.... haha all the good memories came rushing back from those songs.
Saturday we had a baptism, we baptized 3 converts. I cant take much credit for those ones even though I did teach them all lessons. But we have 5 investigators with dates and i can take credit for those. We found and started teaching them on Thursday. Hopefully they all will go threw and not pull out. But I have faith in them, they are all really excited about our church, just don't want to leave theirs, so we are working on that. My apartment.... imagine the worst motel, college apartment that you have ever seen, times that by 3 and then put it in a third world country. Its like a motel I have to go outside to get to another room, but we have the whole second level to ourselves. I will have to send picture so you can witness all the spiders, and bugs that live with me. I have seen monkeys almost every time we go out in to the mountains, and lizards are every where, most could eat a small cat and some could eat shatner.
There is a song in the green hymn book that I would like every one that is reading this, to read or sing.. Because I have been given much. I wish I could go back one year and just start counting all the blessings in my life that I took for granted. We live in a great country, we have homes that have clean water, power that will turn on every time that we flip the switch, stores were we can buy food that is clean and wont make us sick. Mom you sent me with 25 NICE white shirts. That's more shirts then people over here have in their live time all together. We have been blessed so much we often dont realize what our Lord has done for us. Kids will go to school, until they get low on money and then they will stop going till the have enough to continue, and they will pick up right were they left off. I have met 20 year olds that haven't finished high school yet. I wish I woulda taking school more seriously, and wanted to learn every thing I can. Knowledge is power. I cant wait to go to college and want to learn every thing that I can. It is so hard to teach people that have no education, most of them cant speak English, and none of them can read.
Its amazing how much I have changed already. In the MTC the mission president asked me "how have you changed" I simply said I am not the same, every thing about me is different. Before I left home EVERY thing was about I was always thinking about my self and what I wanted. when I met these kids from Africa, most came with on bag ( a bag I would put my ball cloths in) and that's all they had.. I came with 2 suit cases weighing 50 pounds each and my carry on. I have been given so much, so I two must give.
I had so much to say but I forgot my notes
Hopefully this makes sense my grammar is getting really bad, talking with an African every day
miss you all. Love Elder Berry
k thanks. I cant get letters out where I am, and I still haven't heard from any family. I have only got two letters, one from the bishop
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
LETTERS, WE ALL GOT LETTERS
Braxton, Bronson, Britton, and Girls,
I miss you guys! Keep working hard in school. Do your homework everyday so you can be smart! Thanks for all your prayers, they are helping so much and I can feel them. Boys keep helping mom keep the house clean, and be sure to keep the peace in the home. Girls keep your room picked up so mom doesn't have to get upset. Be sure to do your best always and remember who you are. Hollie and Miriah please remember me! Will keep you guys updated on every thing. Braxton, Bronson and Brit, we do hard things so keep it up. Don't let any one hear you complain ever. Love you all, Love Elder Berry
Mom and Dad
By the time you get this I will probably have emailed you maybe a couple of times. But the MTC is starting to drag, I have learned a lot and the spirit is great but we sit way to much. I am ready to get out and start teaching the people. And the food here...well I am surprised I an still alive. I can't wait to cook my own food. We got to watch conference live yesterday and tonight, it was really good. I got a lot our of it. It probably has something to do with being in the MTC, or maybe actually watching it with no ipod or cell phone and not falling asleep. We went to the temple this week, I finally felt at home 8000 miles from home. The temple is really pretty and one of the smaller ones.. I think I took living where we do for granted, we have been so blessed with temples so close. Everything is going good. I will keep you more updated when I can email. Writing letters takes to long. So can you send me some stuff! Anything American candy, and some protein bars, pictures and I need you to send some cash with the other kid from Alpine when he comes. Thanks so much for everything. I love you and miss you! Love Elder Berry
I miss you guys! Keep working hard in school. Do your homework everyday so you can be smart! Thanks for all your prayers, they are helping so much and I can feel them. Boys keep helping mom keep the house clean, and be sure to keep the peace in the home. Girls keep your room picked up so mom doesn't have to get upset. Be sure to do your best always and remember who you are. Hollie and Miriah please remember me! Will keep you guys updated on every thing. Braxton, Bronson and Brit, we do hard things so keep it up. Don't let any one hear you complain ever. Love you all, Love Elder Berry
Mom and Dad
By the time you get this I will probably have emailed you maybe a couple of times. But the MTC is starting to drag, I have learned a lot and the spirit is great but we sit way to much. I am ready to get out and start teaching the people. And the food here...well I am surprised I an still alive. I can't wait to cook my own food. We got to watch conference live yesterday and tonight, it was really good. I got a lot our of it. It probably has something to do with being in the MTC, or maybe actually watching it with no ipod or cell phone and not falling asleep. We went to the temple this week, I finally felt at home 8000 miles from home. The temple is really pretty and one of the smaller ones.. I think I took living where we do for granted, we have been so blessed with temples so close. Everything is going good. I will keep you more updated when I can email. Writing letters takes to long. So can you send me some stuff! Anything American candy, and some protein bars, pictures and I need you to send some cash with the other kid from Alpine when he comes. Thanks so much for everything. I love you and miss you! Love Elder Berry
Thursday, October 7, 2010
First Letter Home - 14 days
Family
Things are going good, today is September 26, so it will probably be October before you get this. My companions name is Elder Nkoro, He's from Nigeria along with half the MTC. There is just me and the other two white Elders. The Africans are very hard to understand, they speak with some kind of slang that I don't get the first time, but it goes both ways everyone is always repeating themselves. My companion tells me he loves me everyday and hes going to miss me. He only has one pair of pants, one long sleeve and one short sleeve shirt. He is the most humble kid I know, well not kid. I'm the youngest person here, most of the Africans are older than 21. It's rained everyday, and we play soccer in the mud yesterday. If the food I'm eating doesn't kill me, fast Sunday will, they are making us fast for a full 24 hours. The food is bad, yesterday we had some African oatmeal (Nothing close to oatmeal) and a Hot dog for breakfast. The first day they taught us how to eat the bones, ya I'm not planning on eating them. I am already having a hard time swallowing water. I feel like my throat is swollen, but that just might be because of the change in foods. It's been hard to adjust to the time over here I can sleep at night but then I struggle staying up during class. Best wishes for everything, I love you all!
Love, Elder Berry
Things are going good, today is September 26, so it will probably be October before you get this. My companions name is Elder Nkoro, He's from Nigeria along with half the MTC. There is just me and the other two white Elders. The Africans are very hard to understand, they speak with some kind of slang that I don't get the first time, but it goes both ways everyone is always repeating themselves. My companion tells me he loves me everyday and hes going to miss me. He only has one pair of pants, one long sleeve and one short sleeve shirt. He is the most humble kid I know, well not kid. I'm the youngest person here, most of the Africans are older than 21. It's rained everyday, and we play soccer in the mud yesterday. If the food I'm eating doesn't kill me, fast Sunday will, they are making us fast for a full 24 hours. The food is bad, yesterday we had some African oatmeal (Nothing close to oatmeal) and a Hot dog for breakfast. The first day they taught us how to eat the bones, ya I'm not planning on eating them. I am already having a hard time swallowing water. I feel like my throat is swollen, but that just might be because of the change in foods. It's been hard to adjust to the time over here I can sleep at night but then I struggle staying up during class. Best wishes for everything, I love you all!
Love, Elder Berry
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