Berry, Benjamin T

How's it going? This week was fun but hard. But that's expected, I guess. Training has been a lot of fun and probably more learning for me than my companion, Elder Bunker. He's been improving, which is good because he's a stud. One of the most righteous elders I've ever met. If I stay with Elder Bunker for two transfers, it's likely I'll stay in Madera for a quarter of my mission, which I'm fine with because it's great here. Plus, the members all know and love us. We went to the Mexican flea market, and I got myself some Crocs. Pretty sure they're fake, but I don't really care. We've had some great food this week from members and got lots of cantaloupe from this guy we met at the food bank. Undoubtedly the best cantaloupe I've ever had. Probably my favorite fruit? I don't know if it's a fruit or a vegetable. Doesn't matter—it's tasty. We were in the Family History Center at the church, and we heard these faint thumping...

This week has been long; it's been eight days since the last P-day. But anyway, let's get to it so I don't make y'all read a fluffy email. I had to say goodbye to Elder Lovejoy... truly heartbreaking. He's an amazing elder, and I'll definitely keep in contact with him throughout the mission. I'm going to miss working with him. Later, I went to Fresno with Elder Tingey while we waited on our new trainees! Elder Tingey is a literal angel and a stud. He's so easy to work with and keeps the spirit along the way. We did lots of finding at Woodward Park and got bashed a few times, but that's expected. One guy kept joking with us about the Book of Mormon musical, which was hilarious. But we had lots of success, and most people were really nice! Finally, I got my trainee, Elder Bunker! He's a stud and is trying his best to improve every day! He is very sensitive to the spirit and has a strong testimony of the gospel. He's from Cedar Falls, Iowa. I th...

No, no, I don't mean that literally, or else my butt would be home so quick. We’ve got transfer news for this upcoming transfer! Transfers are usually six weeks long, and I'm in my second transfer, fixing to go into my third transfer. My trainer, Elder Lovejoy, will sadly be leaving and going to the city of Fresno to be a Tech Elder! He’ll be taking care of all the technology, videos, and online training for missionaries, as well as regular missionary work too. I'm going to be training a brand-new missionary from the MTC (Missionary Training Center)! I'm quite terrified, considering I only have about 3 1/2 months of experience out in the field, but, hey, I’m also excited. I just got out of training too, haha. It's like graduating from kindergarten and becoming a kindergarten teacher. But nonetheless, all things are possible through Jesus Christ. And even though it's scary, I know He'll take care of me as I lean on Him. I'm super excited to find out who i...

Howdy everyone, I'm alive and well. This week was really hot. I'm not going to put that in every email, though, because that's going to be a trend in the Central Valley. Every day this week was over 110ºF. I'm just blessed we have a car and good people who give us water. There were times we'd be out and run out of water, and we'd pray to find someone nice to give us water. The Lord would ALWAYS answer our prayers, and not only that, we'd get cold water! This week was kind of hard; not many people wanted to talk to us, even on the Fourth of July. It was blazing hot that day. Luckily, we were blessed enough to talk to family that day, which saved the day for me. It was weird being the missionary on the phone at the family gathering, being passed around and saying hi to everyone. I loved it, though. We had a baptism this week as well! His name is Victor, and he's an absolute stud. He was definitely nervous before the baptism because of all the people there,...