Berry, Benjamin T

This week was pretty awesome. We have been finding and teaching with the youth almost every day for the past two weeks. Most of them have their mission calls and are getting some really awesome spiritual experiences with us. We were finding in these apts with Landon and knocked on one door and got kicked out :( BUT that's not the end of the story... As soon as we got kicked out, we saw this lady walking her dogs (which attempted to bite me... it's normal), and we talked to her. Her name was Ariel and she was SUPER receptive, and we started teaching her. Anyways, we find out she's best friends with a less active recent convert, and they both came to church and now Ariel is going to get baptized. We had zone conference and it was awesome. Our president is awesome. He's so good at putting a smile on anyone's face—something I admire a lot. It's really easy to feel the Spirit when there is joy all over your face. Surround yourself with people who help you feel the Sp...

This week was good. Not going to lie, it's sometimes hard to remember everything... so everything becomes nothing. Right now the work has been good but with lots of rejection. I think the heat really gets to people (including me). The APs said me and Elder Stone can't wear our fat ties anymore, so it's a little harder to start fun convos with people. Fun fact: we had these fat ties that were called the "belly warmers" and are as wide as a Book of Mormon. A miracle we had is we spent all day praying to find a part-member family as we decided to do like 20 really well-planned stop-bys, and we were unsuccessful (in the part-member aspect), but found 3 less-actives who want to come back. Anyways, it's 8:45 p.m. at night and we're about to head home and a young couple walks past us, and I say hi and try to share a message and they said "maybe later." I stood there and I'm like, "I won't be here later :(". They kept walking... then p...

Hey, it's been a minute. K, I got transfer news. I'm staying another in the YSA and Van Ness here in Fresno. We had a very surprising baptism. This guy, his name is Preston, and we found him while walking the streets. I knew he was a funny fella when he read my name tag and called me Dingle Berry the first time he met me lol. He was interesting to teach because he kept all commitments but showed little fruits of repentance until towards the end. He got fellowshipped really well by a few members of the ward too. I'm excited to stay another one, it'll be my longest area since Madera. Madera was the glory days. By the way, my old comp/trainer (Elder Lovejoy) graduated basic and I'm so proud of him. This week was mentally hard for me, which is always hard to admit because no one likes admitting they struggled in some sort of mental way. The work was really good, but I kept finding myself comparing myself with others or being self-conscious. I was frustrated because from...

So this week has been quick. We had a good week with TONS of success. I'm starting to really like this Elder Stone. He's a bit intense and likes to ram things with his head, but other than that, he's a pretty normal missionary. We had tons of friends at church, and it's so fun to talk to people there! Church as a missionary can be stressful, but I've learned to soak up that short 7 minutes of the sacrament. Most peaceful time of the week for me. Even when I sleep at night, I'm teaching people in my dreams. Sunday, we have this "new and returning member class," and it's taught by the older people in the ward. And boy, they just go way out into left field on simple gospel doctrine. Next thing we know, our Ward Mission Leader is telling how he put consecrated oil on his truck and blessed it, and his truck started. Or another dude would chime in that he had something similar happen. The class is supposed to be on "simple" gospel doctrine, but...

Hey, okay, brief one today. So transfers happened and I'm still in Fresno YSA and Van Ness. This area is goated btw. My new comp is Elder Stone from Midway, Utah. He's a funny dude and a great missionary. We're doing great and accomplishing great things right now, with the help of the Lord. Anyways, we've seen lots of miracles in the work lately. We met a super awesome referral who is progressing well named Deborah. Also, the other day this guy was going like 30 mph on a scooter and kept running red lights and was INCHES away from getting smacked. He definitely stole something. Either that, or he's got a girl he's going to see. She's not that petty to risk your life for, man. Wrestling a 6ft 10 AP is fun too. You just go for the legs. He did get me in a good chokehold the other day. Campus is shutting down so YSA is slowing down a bit, but we're finding lots of people through members. We steal the food from the activities too. They weren't too happy ...

Hey everyone! I'm glad to be here! It's been a long little while. These 2 weeks have flown by. Sorry I've been less consistent with writing these! My comp, Elder Bennett, got his flight itinerary and it turns out he's going out May 7th instead of May 19th! So that's a little surprising. I've never sent an Elder home, but keeping the trunk out of them is a challenging task. Luckily, it hasn't been too bad for him. We've had some great things pick up again since school is back from spring break, though we lost most of our friends throughout the break. Anyways, family work has been popping off and we put our friend Malcom on bap date! He is super kind and prepared. He started tearing up about being baptized and learning the fullness of the gospel! We have a lesson with him later today too! We got a lot of online referrals this week and bruh, like they're so weird sometimes. We'll call them and their name will be "Rachael" and a Mexican man...