January 31, 2011

Dont hope for a MIRACLE, MAKE ONE! dream big!!!!
Mom I love you thanks for everything that you have sent me, the calendar was sweet! I am going to hang it up and write things that I did each day on that day!
So a couple of months ago in one of my letters I talk about how I hoped to serve in a area where not much success, so that I would have the chance to turn the area around. Well I spoke to soon then, I am in that area that has not had that much success in a long time. Since I have been here we have worked hard, and now things are starting to go our way!!!! On sunday we got four people to church!!!! so for next month we are hoping for 3 baptisms. If everything goes our way with this family we are teaching we could get 7.
Right now we are teaching Prince, who is our BOY. He is the tightest man in ghana, really smart, and believes everything we tell him, becuase he has a strong testimony of the Prophet Joesph Smith. Prince will be one of our three next month, he loves the church, he cant wait to go to the temple. Enoc is not the smartest person in the world, but he wants to change his life, and he knows that the church is true. He came to church this week, but fell asleep. Angela is a sweet sweet ladie, when we first contacted her, we knew that she was prepared for us to teach her. She straight up told us that her baptism was BS, because she didnt even choose for herself cause she was a baby, so we just gave her a date that day. and now we are working on teaching her everything and getting her to come to church!
This week was really fun! we got invited to a birthday party(I wish fb was workin so you could see the pics, but next week for sure) at the birthday party they feed us nice rice, and gave us so much food, and cake:) the cake was so sweet, I forgot what cake was like. They also gave us this soup, that was the hottest thing that has ever touched my lips, It was like melting the plastic bowl it was in. But I ate it all! This week we also found this place that makes BURGERS haha so we went and had a couple this week, they are not that much and we get fries with them to, it is not the same as the ones in the states tho, that is for sure. but it is nice to pretend like I am an american.
So I sent my card home so that you can see all the pictures that I have taken( not many) but they should be there this week on wednsday or thurday! so I hope that you all enjoy a little bit of Africa. Everything is going well, thanks for all the letters and packages that I keep getting, it means a lot!
So lately we have been eating bread and gravy.. it has saved our lifes this week, we have been eating alot of boncu(spelling?) rice, and candy! we dont ride bikes, we are on foot all day, and we walk and walk and walk all day. I am serving in a ward now, with about 150 as the average attendace(well what they say). thanks for everything I love you all, this is the best work ever, nothing is better, I love my family, go cougs, go PITT, go Barcelona! love you all so much love Elder Berry

January, 24, 2011

This week has just flow right by! I dont even know where time is going any more! but this week was a good one! we had a mission tour on thursday, and Elder Sitati from the 70 came to our mission. President asked every one to prepare a talk, and he was going to choose some missionarys to give there talks at the begining of the meeting with Elder Sitati. Pres Smith just called on some people to give the talks that they prepared on teaching and baptising people. He call on one of the sisters, and then some of the older missionaries and then he called on me to speak last... so I gave my talk on Alma how he taught the people who would listen to him, and told them in mosiah 18 if they want to inheirit the kingdom of god they need to be baptised. I talked for about 5 mins and my legs were just shaking like I was back at my farwell talk. I was pretty scared to be talkin in front of our mission Pres and Elder Sitati and his wife. I think that I did a pretty good job, some of the elders told me that I did the best. I dont really know how good I did but now that it is over it was a great experiece to do. Elder sitati talked to us for a really long time, it was really good, I took alot of notes on everything he said! I am trying to learn as much as I can about everything, we get in to deep doctrine talks like every night and it makes me want to just read everything that has ever been written about jesus christ and his chuch. This week I am starting the book of mormon over and reading the institute guide with each chapter of the book of mormom. It was great to see every one! I got to see Elder Henderson, and the new elders. I am making a lot of friends with good people that are going to be living in utah and going to school, half of my zone is from utah and the one that is not from utah is going to byu.
We have been working hard this week but things are just not going our way... we cant get any one to come to church, so we cant baptise anyone. but we are still going out everyday to serve our lord. we have been working with lots of people, but most are not seriouse and it is really hard to teach them. My comp has been teaching this family(esters family) for a long time but they all know the church is true and will come to church but we are just waiting on the father to come and see for him self so they all can be part of the church. Ester is really good, she is vary correct. she has become my new mother in nungua, she is so sweet! we have been working alot with the man named Prince! he is probably the smartest man I have ever meet in my life, we go in to way deep stuff with him, because he always has these hard questions for us.
Sounds like lone peak is tarring it up!! that is way tight, I got the news paper from grandma, kinda made me home sick to read all that but it was nice to catch up a little. I hope everything is going well back home, I am really enjoying my mission, it is going by way to fast though.
Not much is going on in Nungua, it is not the bush that is for sure. me and my comp are gettting fat so we are starting to run to the beach, and we found a college to play bball! so hopefully i dont get much fatter then I am now. I am loving my comp, we have so much in common, we talk about home all the time:) I hope to stay with him for at least one more transfer, since this one is half way over now.
Good luck scotty!! every one keep praying for me I love you all

Jan 17, 2011

so this week was tuff! no one came to church... so we dropped most of our people and this week we are going to spend alot of time finding new people. we are going to be contacting people like crazy tomorrow and for the rest of the week! we have a lot of work to do to turn this area around, and it probably wont be the easiest thing to do either. we wont baptise any one this month, because people have to come to church 3 times before they can join the church. we have been working with this family. the mothers name is ester. she knows the church is tue and she wants to be aprat but she wants her husband to join her, but he wont give us the chance to teach he, we have finally taught him and he said that he would think about things. we plan to see him this week and hopefully let us basptise his wife and kids. we played soccer today with some of the guys in our ward, man i have lost alot but i still got some, i score 6 goals and lead me and my comp to victory. we played with some small boys and they were pretty good, but not good enough.
me and my comp are going to work this week! hopefully everything is going in a better dircetion by next week! it is frustrating but we can work around this and change nungua to a high bapstiing area! sorry this email is really short the internet has not been working that good! but thanks to every one that has sent me letters and packages it means a lot to me! and me and my comp enjoy eating all the goodies:) till next week time is flying love elder berrry

January 10, 2011

so most every one knows by now that i have been transfered! i am in Accra in a place called nugunua! i think is is spelled like that i am not sure! but it is way sweet, we are pretty much on the ocean. i am pretty close to the mission home and the temple, just like 20 min drive. I am in the Tema zone, which is were the mtc is, and my mtc teacher is in my new ward now. i am pretty home sick, and last week i wanted to go home. Konongo will always be my african home now, we had 8 people to be baptised up there this month, and now in my new area we dont really have anything.... i have been transfered to an area where not much work was being down befoer i got here. we only had on progressing person. so we have been going to work, we have alot to do here. we probably wont get a baptism this month.
My comp is tight! elder Farnes is his name. he went to davis high, and he played football and soccer, and basketball. so the kid is a stud, we have everything in common, and we have been working really good together. we should be able to do lot to get this area going! Our zone is most americans from utah, or are going to Byu so when we all get home it is going to be a party. today we played american football, we didnt play on any grass or anything like that, it was dirt and sand but it was so fun! i am way out of shape though! i need to start running. we plan on playin every monday together! i am now in an apartment with 2 other elders. one from utah and one from kenya(spelling) and that man can cook! his food that he cooks from his home town in amazing, i wish they ate like that here! i would be fat. there is never a boring moment in our apratment! we are always talking about something or cooking something. things are so much more fun having more people in our apartment! and with a comp taht i can relate to!
I hope to go back to Nkawkaw some day! i didnt climb the mountian there, so i need to go back and do that before i leave! now that i have a camera again, i can take pictures. i havent taken vary many yet, but some time soon hopefully next week i will send my card home to my mom, so taht every one can see all the pictures i have been taking. ghana is way sweet! i am pretty sure that i am not an american any more, i think taht i lost my american heritage.. probably around the time i ate snail, dog, cow skinn, pig feet, chicken bones, male parts of goats, the in sides of animals, or what ever else i have eaten here. i am so thankfull for all the packages people keep sending me.. hopefully some day i will get them:) i love hearing about home sounds like lone peak is for real! hope that every one is doin well, elder berry is, he is still alive, and working his heart out! hopefully i can make you all proud! i love and miss you all love elder berry

Elder Berry got transferred

I wanted you to know what a fine son you have. He was transferred
from his training area and is now serving in Accra. When we took him
in he gave us a very nice note thanking us for the help and goodies.
You should be very proud of him.

Interesting he was replaced by Elder Henderson, who will not be
trained by the same trainer in the same remote area of our mission.
Elder Berry has blossomed and seems to have great confidence in the
work.
Love
Sister Terry

Elder Alan Henderson is from Alpine who left on December 16.

Jan 3, 2011

I dont remember the last time that i wrote one of these letters, that
is not a good sign. i will try to do better but i guess a robot
submarine blew up off the cost of Portugal and messed up the internet
in Konongo... ya i dont know i was as confused as you are when the man
at the cafe told me that. so everything has been going good, but this
week i will be transferred. i dont know where to yet, the zone leaders
will call us on tomorrow.
Ryno i hope that everything is going good! man your a stud i wish you
the best! dont freeze!! haha
I can not believe that i am already in my third transfer! one more and
i will be at my 6th month mark! i have been the youngest missionary in
our mission since i got here, and most of the elders like to make that
clear, so it will be nice when we get new missionarys this week that
are younger then i am.
A couple of weeks ago well it has probably been a month now, i said
that one morning when it was freezing it was probably in the 60s..
well i lied i bought a little temperature thingy, and this morning was
bitter cold, and it was only 25.. haha i think that is around 75F. I
am probably going to die in september 2012.
Last week we had to go down to Accra, and the Terry's (our district
couple) didnt go. so we had to take a trotro all the way to Accra. Man
we suffered in stop and go traffic, with no AC. i was sweating
bullets. But it was all worth it in the end. The night we go there sis
smith made us really mash potatoes with gravy, turkey, and stuffing.
So i had my Christmas dinner, it was just a little late. In the
morning she made us pancakes, ahhh they were unreal! but what made the
whole trip worth it was i smuggled all my dirty cloths down there to
the washing machine and dryer:) There is nothing in this world that is
better then Dryer dried socks!! This trip to Accra was like a vaction
for me! We went out on splits, i went with elder Anderson from
Australia (tightest kid ever) and elder rich (who is the office elder
and has lived in the mission home since he got here.. lucky) took us
and dropped us off to do some tracking for a couple of house before i
had to head back to konongo. lucky for me and elder anderson, we got
drop off at Frankies! haha which is where you can buy cheese burgers!
so i got my first african cheese burger. it wasnt bad, but i will
probably never get another. i felt like i should have been cutting it
up with my fingers and rolling it in to balls and swallowing
it..(thats how we eat fufu)
Christmas was so nice! i got to talk to my wonderful family! best
christmas ever! one fone call down! i got some help with my tesimony
in twi, i killed it on christmas, but next time will be better, maybe!
haha dont let any one listen to the recording! haha
On new years we had my first single baptism. we only baptised one
person which was Gloria Osie (24) this was one of the tight baptism i
have ever had... why? well because our front was broken so we went
down to the local 5 star hotel (something like the red roof inn) and i
baptised her in the swimming pool!!!! haha it was so tight, but i was
way way temped to just dive in and swim. i cant wait to go swimming!!
but it was a good experience. its amazing what people will do for
whites here. i had to sweet talk the manager of the hotel to allow us
to do it, of course he let me. but at first he said no to our branch
president! so i worked the magic, and gave him a nice book to read!
called the Book of Mormon! ha it was sweet!
well i miss you all, i am working my heart out, living every day with
NO regrets! i am MAD!! ha
till next week love elder berry