"sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven"

Hi everyone,

Well it sounds like everything is busier than ever back home with school and football well underway as well as the missionary work in Ghana.  It is going forever strong as usual. Because our area is so big we spend a lot of time riding our bikes up one side of a hill and down the other, or we spend a lot of time in traffic on a trotro trying to get home from far across the city.

On Saturday I was trying to think of ways that we could be more affective and waste less time in transportation. I felt that we had been wasting a lot of time and that we weren’t getting as much done as we could. I was a little down because I felt like we had nothing to show for all our hard work but the only solution I could think of was a helicopter then we could just fly and land next to every appointment and not have to work about hills and traffic. Unfortunately that is a little out of our league, so we just got to stick to effective planning and ride our bikes a little faster. Ha-ha! 

On Sunday I was a little down since we only had 3 investigators that came to church, so I took some time to just slow down and sit and think about some of the things that we had accomplished. The past few weeks I have been going full speed trying to get this area back on top and I really haven't slowed down enough to see the good things that we have accomplished.  I was trying to feel sorry for myself but it didn’t take long to realize how blessed I have been through out my life and how blessed I have been here in Ghana. So I started to go through my planner to see how many people were supposed to come to church and to see how many people we could count on next month for baptism so we could reach our goal for September. As I was going through my planner I realized that we have 10 people who have been to church twice or more and 5 others who have been at least once.  I realize that those are not for sure baptisms next month or even at all (this is Ghana anything can and will happen in Ghana) but we have been so blessed with people to teach and that are willing to come to church.  I just feel that as hard as we are working that we should have double that number.  So anyway after some prayer we decided to set our goal at 7 but we are going to do everything we can to get them all!   

I am amazed at how you can read scriptures, talks or even sing hymns over and over again but the spirit can still teach you more, even when you think you know it all. I had this experience this week with the hymn number 27 “Praise to the Man”. I don’t know how many times I have sang that hymn, but this week when I sang it the spirit brought something different to my mind. Something that is pretty obvious but never really stood out to me till now. It’s in the forth verse first line. "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven". I have been thinking about that line a lot this week and how true it really is.

It seems like in every scripture story there is someone who gets put in jail, or almost gets kill, or rejected by people but then the blessings always seem come. In our day Joseph sacrificed his life for what he knew to be true, and look at the blessings that we are getting because of him. For us, in most cases we don’t have to sacrifice our lives, but we can sacrifice our life for two years and serve a mission. We can sacrifice family, friends, school, work and what ever else to serve a mission.  We can also sacrifice 10 percent of our earnings to pay tithing. But even though we might think we are sacrificing a lot at the time the Lord is always there with a blessing.

After I thought about this "sacrifice brings forth the blessing of heaven" I put together this little scripture chain and I would like to share it with you. So first I went to Mosiah 2:24

And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever.

Then Mosiah  2:41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual

In these scriptures from Mosiah 2 that the lord has given us commandments, like paying our honest tithes, and if we do this he will bless us temporally and spiritual.

Helaman 12:1
Yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.

Then from Helaman 12:1 we can learn not only do we need to keep the commandments we need to put our trust in him. Trust that he has power to do all. Trust that he will bless you as you faithfully keep the commandments.

Doctrine and covenants 1:28
 And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time.

From DC 1:28 we can learn that we also need to be humble, that we may be blessed from on high.

Doctrine and covenants 58:4
For after much tribulation come the blessings.

As we keep the commandments, we have trust in him, we are humble, we will still have tribulation but after much tribulation come the blessings.

Doctrine and covenants 130:20
 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—

Doctrine and covenants 82:10
I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.

I hope all of you can learn as much as I did from this little chain of scriptures. I could keep going on on but time is small. But I know these things to be true. I know that if we keep the commandments, we are humble, we trust in god, we endure tribulation He WILL bless us. He is bound when we do what he says. Sacrifice brings forth the blessing of heaven. Let us all pay our tithing and fast offerings because it is a commandment not because we want the blessing, but as we humbly do that with faith and trust in him, I know that he will bless you.

Well that’s all I got for today.

Love Brady 

President Judd told us that we shouldn’t drop any of our contacts without first giving them a Book of Mormon

Hey what’s up family?  

Does that sound like a 20 year old or what?  I can’t believe it was my birthday again already.  It just seems like it was yesterday when we were at Craig’s house swimming and having a good ole time for my 19^th birthday.  Man this year has gone by fast but for sure my 20^th birthday was the best ever.  I will talk more about my birthday in a small time. This week was great. I am so happy to be here in Ghana serving and living amongst the Ghanaian people.

On Wednesday we had our first interviews with President Judd and it was way sweet! The Judd’s are really great and they have taught us a lot about the gospel.  President Judd focused on the Book of Mormon and he talked about how we can use it more. President Judd told us that we shouldn’t drop any of our contacts without first giving them a Book of Mormon. Then he had me tell about one of the experiences I had with the Book of Mormon that changed the heart of one of my investigators.  In my previous area my companion and I had contacted a man (who I can’t remember his name right now) but he told us that he didn’t want us to come back because he was already set in his church and that his church was true and there is nothing that was going to make him change his mind. Seeing we weren’t going to get anywhere with this man we dashed him a Book of Mormon and gave him a few places to read.  We promised him that we wouldn’t come back and bother him any more on his request.

Anyway, I just found out that after I was transferred a few weeks later he called the missionaries and wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon that we had given him.  Turns out he was baptized and is now a member of the real TRUE church. Why? Because he read the most correct book of any book on the earth and he felt the spirit teach him that the things that he read came from God are true and the book will bless him and his whole family.

Lately I have been pondering that day that I last taught him. I think to myself “what if I wasn’t doing my studies or what if I was doing something wrong and I didn’t have the spirit with me and what if when he told me not to come back that I just said O.K and left.” It’s been kind of haunting me to think about.  It’s kept me on my knees that’s for sure. When I gave that man the Book of Mormon I also gave him a simple promise that if he read the book with an open heart his life would be changed forever.  I know it was the spirit that told me to testify to him and leave the book, because I usually get mad and upset when I get rejected like that.  I am so grateful for that day now and how happy it makes me to know that he followed the promise and read the Book of Mormon and was baptized.

Funny thing happened before interviews.  Sister Judd was talking to me and Elder Nielson and she was going on and on about how sorry she was for the way we (missionaries) live and the food that we eat.  Ha-ha! If she only knew what we really eat every day she would really freak out!

So on Friday we went down to this place called Krokrobite to see some members who have stopped coming to church because they live too far away and they want there own branch (that’s a story for another time).  Krokrobite is down by the ocean so while we were there we decided to go check out the beach. This place was way sweet! There was fishing boats and tons of way sweet people!  While we were walking down the beach something caught our attention so we decided to go over and see it.  On the way over to see it (what ever it was. I can’t even remember now) this lady yells at us and tells us to come over to her place which was some beach house thing.  Once we got over there we noticed a white man (shocker to see white people) that started asking us all kinds of questions.  His name was Roger and he was from Sweden. Then the next thing I know we are teaching this man about the Book of Mormon. Ha-ha! Teaching this guy was way tight.  It was so much different than teaching Ghanaian s because in Ghana everyone believes in God.  We had no idea whether this guy believed in God or not so we were being a little selective with our words but still tried to be bold. After teaching him about the Book of Mormon we challenged him to accept a copy as a gift from us and we challenged him to read it.  To our surprise he accepted the book and the challenge and he said he would have plenty of questions for us to answer the next time we came. Man this was a sweet experience.  Even though this guy was willing to listen to us I still feel bad for the missionaries in Europe because this guy was smoking right in my face and asking all these really deep questions about the gold plates and where they are now. But the most exciting thing was we were able to teach white man!!!! Ha-ha and we also gave him a Book of Mormon so we will just have to wait and see how this turns out.

O.K. after our interviews with President Judd I got all my birthday packages. I really am spoiled!  Ha-ha but I didn’t wait for my birthday to open them because I ran out of memory on my camera so I had to bust them open to find the memory card.  But thanks so much for everything that you sent to me, Elder Nielson and I have been enjoying all of it.  It really was the best 20th birthday I could ever have. My family back home showed me tons of love and then my family in Ghana showed me tons of love. After church we went to Sister Abena's for dinner.  She actually had a barbecue.  How sweet is that?  We grilled up some chicken and it was so good.   Thanks so much for everything that everyone has done to get me to 20!

On Saturday we had the all African service project, so we went out to Kasoa to do some work! The place was dirty but we were able to get everything cleaned up just to be dirtied again by careless people. I put up a lot of pictures of things that happened this week so feel free to check them out.  The pictures tell a better story than what I can tell.

So this week was really good! Everything was just perfect! I really can’t express to you all how grateful I am for the things I received for my birthday and for all of you who are helping to support me back home.  Thanks so much!  I love you all!

Love Elder Berry / bbear nana

How many of us use the Book of Mormon AS MUCH as we should?

Hi Everyone!

I got a sweet letter from Braxton this week; it sounds like he is doing very well and that he has had a very fun and exciting summer.  Mom I got a letter/ card from you too so thank you both for your hand letters this week.

What another great week we had. I can’t believe it has been over a year since we met with the Rich's, Lindsey's and Cospers for family night with Emmanuel.  I heard that Emmanuel was in town a few weeks ago.  Elder Lindsey said he got to see him a while back.

This week we had a mission tour with the New Area president, Elder Dickson. The mission tour was really short, but Elder Dickson talked about the Book of Mormon. He started off his talk with the question " by the show of hands how many of us use the Book of Mormon AS MUCH as we should?"  Some hands started to go up but after they thought about it for a minute their hands started to go back down. His question got me thinking about how much more I need to use the Book of Mormon. The prophet Joseph Smith said that it is the most correct book of any books on earth and that it is the KEY stone of our religion. I remember getting that lesson a lot in church and seminary (the few times that I went.)  (Remember Brody and Braxton make sure you GO.  It’s a new school year starting up so make sure you represent the family well.)  The seminary teacher would draw a picture of an arch on the board that would show where the key stone sits and how if you take out the key stone then the arch would collapse. They would also draw the same picture only change the key stone to the Book of Mormon.  When the Book of Mormon is taken out the church collapses. 

Elder Dickson talked about how he has a list of the great chapters in the Book of Mormon and with his list he writes down certain things that he needed to learn.  He also pointed out that his list may be different from his wife’s or from President Judd’s list.  My goal is to use the Book of Mormon as much as I can in my study, contacting, teaching, learning, and everything else that I do. I just want to share my love for the Book of Mormon with everyone that I meet, and let them know that it is true and that the prophets that wrote it saw our and wrote things that would help us get back to Heavenly Father and help us avoid the foolishness of wrong doings.  I encourage all of you to find those great chapters in the Book of Mormon for yourselves and to read and study them often.  Some of my Great chapters are Alma 17, Mosiah 18, Ether 12, and Alma 34.  I could go on and on because my list is growing every day.

So this week we had a baptism for Sister Comfort and her two girls. (See pictures) Sister Comfort has been coming to church since I was in Odorkor and even longer. But she was unable to be baptized due to her husband who has moved to South Africa for work. Her husband is a Muslim, and we needed permission from him to be able to baptize her. Well, this week President Judd ask us to bring her in, so we did and he called her husband and resolved the problem so she was finally cleared to be baptized. So last Sunday we planned with our ward to have a baptism on Saturday. Well long story but our Bishop is in Utah, and the first counselor is who knows where, so we planned the baptism with the second counselor instead to have the baptism at 10. Well later in the week the Second Counselor was invited to an “Engagement” (this is where the man pays his bride price for his wife to be) so he decided not to show up to the baptism. So on Saturday we had a huge problem because we didn’t have anyone to preside at the baptism.  We called the Stake President but he was in a meeting with President Judd. It seemed like there was more than just the husband that didn’t want his family baptized. Anyway, it was a very stressful day and after 3 hours of waiting, we finally got the go ahead to just do it ourselves, so the baptism went on and the family was baptized.

One day we were walking back to our apartment for lunch and I ran into one of my recent converts from Nkawkaw from my first area.  Wow! It was so good to see her and she is still going to church.  We must have done something right.

Well my teenage years are coming to a close.  By this time next week I will be 20.  It’s been a fun ride but now its time for the twenties. Ha-ha! I’m getting up there!

Well family I love you guys!

Love Brady

Sister Comfort, Marium, and Maud and Brother Duku

“Elder Berry I hear you have quite the reputation so I will be transferring you to McCarthy Hills.”

Hi Everyone,

It sounds like a lot is going on back home.  Everyone seems to be really busy as summer is counting down.  The seasons don’t really have an effect on us here in Ghana since it is either raining or hot or it is just hot.  Except for this past week it’s been like 75 degrees at night and I have had a hard time sleeping because I’m like freezing all night.  I have been debating on whether I should go buy a blanket.  I know you all think I’m crazy to be freezing when its 75 degrees but everything is crazy Africa.

Well this week has been a little rough on me.  Another week of ups and a lot of downs. On Monday President Judd gave me a call to let me know that I would be transferred on Wednesday. President Judd loves to talk.  Ha-ha!  He asked me like 15 questions which all the answers could have been given with just one simple question.  But it was fun to talk to him.  After all the questions he said “Elder Berry I hear you have quite the reputation so I will be transferring you to McCarthy Hills.”  I said okay and that was pretty much the end of our conversation. After I got off the phone I got thinking about it and McCarthy Hills has two areas for just one ward and President Judd didn’t tell me which area I would be going to.

So that night (Monday night) I couldn’t sleep.  I just laid there in my bed staring at the wall wondering why I was being transferred after finally getting my area going again.  Basically, I was questioning Heavenly Father and His decision to transfer me.  Why again? I have been moved just like this 3 times in a row. Why can’t I just stay here in Teshie for one more transfer so I could see the results of my hard work?  So anyway my murmuring kept going through my mind on and on until around 12:30 AM and then I heard my mom’s voice as if she was sitting right next to my bed.  In effect she said, "Brady He is the Gardner, and He knows what He wants you to be.” Mom I don’t know if you heard me that night but I heard you so thanks for that message.  It came at the right time. After that experience I had to get out of bed and on my knees and pretty much ask for forgiveness and I told Heavenly Father that I would go, and do what he wants me to do, so I can BECOME who He wants me to BE! I know that there is no better work in this world than doing the Lords work. I just got to remember that it is His work and not mine so I must do it His way.

So on Wednesday after I made it to my new area I found out that President Judd had taken the other set of missionaries out of the area and he wants my companion and me to cover one of the BIGGEST areas in the mission. By the way my companion is Elder Nielson who happens to be from Highland, Utah and is a former Lone Peak Knight.  (So the Knights for Life are going tear up Ghana.)  So in other words my companion and I have the work of four Elders to do in an area that has been dead.  Before I left Teshie we were tearing the place up and now I am back to rock bottom. Time to rebuild and get things going again.

So yesterday at church we attended the same building as my last area in Ordorkor, so I got to see all the people that I was working with and it was sweet to see that  they were still coming to church.  No greater happiness than seeing people you taught still attending church.  That was way sweet!

I got a letter from Grandma Parrish about President Xagabe (spelling) Ha-ha he was the strake president here in the McCarthy Hills Stake and yes I got to know him a little while I was in Ordorkor!

Sounds like a few people have to give talks in church this week; well I wish all of you good luck.  You will do fine!

Brody temptation is something that every one goes though, even Jesus Christ was temped. Our Father in Heaven allows for us to be temped so that we can grow big and be what we need to be. I don’t have much time left but I am sure you will do well with your talk!

Family I love you guys! You’re my heroes!

The Future Is As Bright As Your FAITH

What’s up guys!

 This week was nuts, really up and down. Down because we had like 30+ appointments that failed and up because everything else is just simply amazing. Things are going so well right now I just can’t believe it which only means I will probably be transferred this week.  Every time I go into an area and get things moving I get transferred so I will probably be transferred this week. The Lord has his way of keeping me humble. 

This week I gave instruction on how to be a successful missionary. That is always a good topic to go over every now and then because Preach My Gospel says that a successful missionary is based on how committed you are personally to helping people to come unto Christ, be baptized and endure to the end.  It doesn’t say that a successful missionary is measured by how many lessons are taught or how many people are baptized. In my mission I have been able to baptize quite a few people, so does that mean I am a good missionary? Maybe, maybe not because most of the things that make a good missionary go can’t be measured by numbers. Yes in my mission baptisms will come pretty easy no matter what happens because the Lord has prepared the people of Ghana to accept the gospel. At the end of the day if I am tired because I have worked as smart as I can and as hard as I can without teaching a single lesson then I consider that a good day.   Why? Be cause sweet is the work! Sweet is the Lords work!

This week was ruff because of all our failed appointments, but I was tired at the end of each day. Usually we teach so much that most of our time is sitting, but this week the Lord saw something that I didn’t. Instead of teaching we were all over the place contacting and meeting old investigators and teaching members about missionary work and giving referrals. I believe that the Lord was showing us who we need to focus on this upcoming month in order to help our investigators be baptized. Yesterday we had nine people come to church and more of Kwamie Martison’s family. (The man I contacted a while back.)

This transfer has flown by. The past six weeks we have come a long way and now we are pretty set for plenty of people to be baptized in August, which means I will probably get transferred. We should be getting transfers notices tomorrow so I guess we will see if I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor one more time in Teshie!

So this week when we were doing some contacting after our failed appointments, we met these kids that were coming to eat a cat!! Yes, a CAT! So my companion and I decided to wait small and watch them kill this cat and cook it over the fire. WARNING any one who loves cats stop reading and remember where I am now. Animals have no rights in Ghana. So these kids killed this cat by cutting its throat and then cooked it over an open fire.  This was probably one of the funniest and most horrible things that I have seen since coming here. But we got to do what we got to do to chop. I put some pictures of this on the web thing. So again view at your own risk. Just in case you were wondering, cat doesn’t taste as good as dog. Dog is really good it is probably my meat of choice now in Ghana!

In my Book of Mormon reading I have been all over the place studying things that will help resolve the concerns of my people. This week I was reading in Alma 13, verse 27.  This has been going through my head now for a while. This scripture describes how I feel as a missionary for my people that I am teaching.

Verse 27 says "and now my brethren I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto PAIN, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance”.
As a missionary it PAINS me when people just don’t care, or wont do anything about what they know to be true.

Verse 28 “but that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord and call on His holy name and watch and pray continually that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear and thus be led by the holy spirit becoming humble meek submissive patient full of love and all long suffering”.

So the part that has been in my mind a lot lately is the part where it says that we need to pray continually that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear. So for us it is possible that we can be tempted above that which we can bear; however, our Heavenly Father will always provide away for us to escape temptation to a point, but it is when we get so far into sin and doing wrong things that we are tempted above our ability to which we can bare. So it is import for us to pray and make good choices so the small, small things don’t lead into BIG things that we can’t bear.

Verse 29 says “Having faith on the lord; have a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of god always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.

Faith is something that is hoped for but is not seen. We can’t see the kingdom of God but we can HOPE for it, and that hope will drive us to do what is right. Faith is the first principle of the gospel because we first have to develop faith or hope of those wonderful things to come.  What’s the point to follow something if it is not there?  For me I know that it is there. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, and I know that this is the only true church on the face of the earth.
One might ask how you know. Well I know because I have prayed and I have re-prayed and I am still praying and every time the answer is the same and it comes though the Holy Ghost. There is no doubt in my mind.

This weekend I have been kind of down on my self because I just have this feeling that I am probably leaving and as you can tell I don’t really want to leave. I love it here. This morning I was reading the talk by Elder Nelson and he quotes President Monson and this quote helped me out. "Brothers and sisters fear not, be of good cheer, the future is as Bright as your FAITH.” Its time that I face what is coming next with faith so that my future can be as bright as I am willing to let it be!

Joseph smith went in to the grove with faith that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were real and he came out with that perfect knowledge that they are living! Until I have that perfect knowledge I guess I will just keep doing what I need to do since it will probably take me the rest of my life to gain that perfect knowledge. It sure would make the world a better place if everyone had a little more faith.

Well sorry to ramble on. This letter probably doesn’t even make any sense. Ha-ha Sorry for that but anyway have a good week. I love you guys you are all the best.

Thanks for EVERYTING!

Love Bbear