admin – Page 74 – David & LaReita Berky

[S7E6] Birthdays and conference!!

I’m going to be honest, I thought that conference was going to have some cooler announcements(18 months for elders?? Iced Coffee is kosh?? There’s a 13th tribe that has been hidden on the moon??) But as they said, announcements shouldn’t take up too much of church time. Reflecting that they didn’t announce much in conference anyways.

1: Happy (mildly disappointing) Birthday to me!! We had a lot of lessons set up on Thursday (my birthday) and we needed the car. So we tried to get the car, and it took a long time, as 5th ward was with the ZLs on the opposite end of the zone, and blah blah… We ended up waiting on a street corner for an hour, to get the car that we didn’t even really need. We pretty much just stayed on one street, but Elder Randall and I didn’t tell anyone that. Anyways, the majority of our lessons weren’t there. These things combined to a very unhappy me. Until I got back to our apartment and opened the birthday package. That really made my day better. That and a small cupcake/candle really made the day feel special. It ended up being a good day. Thanks for all the gift cards everyone!! <3 <3 <3

2: Don’t give 5th ward your car Come Sunday, after conference, we got a referral for someone at the opposite end of our area. 5th ward had the car so they could say ‘goodbye’ to some of the people in the area. It was raining, and we didn’t want to walk. So we called 5th ward, asking for a ride. They didn’t pick up. We called them again, they didn’t pick up. SO being the good missionaries we are we decided to walk an hour and a half in pouring rain. The person we wanted to talk to wasn’t there. I was angry, and wet. Bad way to end the day.

3: Oh yeah, transfers! So I am going to be leaving Sring-a-ding, and will be going to Coos Bay, For the SUMMER!!! I’m excited, I’ll be in a ward share with Elder Hyer, from our very own Oakridge!

4: Hey Bri! Let’s get some over-hyped burgers! So Bri came up from Roseburg to chat, and I heard that this one place called “Fins” was good. So we met there and had a pretty long chat. The burgers were… okay. Definitely over-hyped, but that’s okay I got to chat with a friend.

5: I like Frogs Frogs are pretty cool animals, and as a result of my appreciation for frogs I have drawn many of them. For no reason. So there.
Yeah, that pretty much sums up the week, kinda weird week, but still fun nonetheless.

Ya Boi

Elder Berky

Family Walk to Dog Park

Anthony and Ben toss a football back and forth across the street. Ammon riding his trike with Ruxpin in tow.

Ben shares a meatball sandwich with Ammon

Trip to the Zoo

Dad, Grandma Grace, Ammon, Anthony, Sam, Kai, Julles

Family trip to Hoggle Zoo in SLC

Anthony, Ammon, Ben, Katelyn, Hailey (Ben’s friend and her sister), Sam, Grandma Grace, Jacob, LaReita

Anthony, Sam, Grandma Grace, LaReita, Ammon, Kai, Julles

Julles, Kai, David, LaReita, Grandma Grace

Ammon and Anthony in line for the merry-go-round

Short family videos

A few short family videos LaReita took recently:

Sam and Jacob swimming

Ben’s track meet – 3rd place in the 100

Ammon “cooking”

[S7E4] This was a short but Long week

So the distance between p-days was short, but the days have seemed very long. Don’t know why, we have been pretty busy.

3: The Temple!! After being up here for 10 months I got to see the Portland temple in person! It was great, after our session we came outside to take pictures, and we saw Wendell, a guy from LA who just walked in, wanting to learn about the temple. Guess what we do all the time?? Learn people about the gospel!

2: Chatted with a comic store owner for an hour His name was Nick, and had a sweet SHAZAM! Tattoo. I asked him about it and we just spiraled into a big old conversation about marvel comic events, funko pop toys, the Captain Marvel movie, and anything under the nerdy sun. He wasn’t down to hear the gospel, but after a day of nothing, it was good to just have a nice conversation.

1: Could give a talk on missionary work in my sleep.I wasn’t asleep, but I did give a talk about missionary work Sunday. It went well, only a couple of minutes, and here are my notes;

Missionaries kind of have it easy when bringing up the gospel. We stand out, people expect us to tall about it, but you members are just regular people, to bring up the gospel can be awkward.

Don’t see it as an awkward thing, see it as offering your friend a glass of orange juice.

Us missionaries have pretty high standards, raising standards, elder Russel M Ballard said: But as we raise the level of expectation for the performance of our missionaries, we must also raise the level of expectation for the performance of all of the members of the Church in fulfilling our missionary duties. We need your help, brothers and sisters, to support and assist our missionaries in finding and baptizing many more of our Heavenly Father’s children. We need you to watch over, protect, and inspire the missionaries, who are servants of the Lord. If the standard is to be raised, it is raised for all of us. We must be more faithful. We must be more spiritually in tune. We must prepare ourselves to assist the missionaries in finding those of our Heavenly Father’s children who will embrace the message of the Restoration. Remember, brothers and sisters, we’re not marketing a product. We’re not selling anything. We’re not trying to impress anyone with our numbers or our growth. We are members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, empowered and sent forth by the Lord Himself to find, nourish, and bring safely into His Church those who are seeking to know the truth. Viewed from that eternal perspective, what we are to do seems so simple and clear, but I know that member missionary work can be challenging and sometimes frightening. Mosiah 17- story of Abinidi, he didn’t know Alma listened. Planted a seed however.

I’m sorry if it doesn’t make all that much sense , it did when I gave it, ýou know, stringing it all together and such.

Love you all, here’s our photo shoot that we had at the Portland temple.

Caymon Get-away

Dave went with his sisters, June and Julles, to the Grand Caymon island for a week get-away. June and Julles went SCUBA diving while Dave, true to nature, stayed in the room and sat on the balcony and read or worked on his computer. Though he did do mostly family-related things on his computer, such as updating this website and making some videos out of pictures from prior family vacations.

The siblings spent the non-diving time, playing board games, relaxing in the hot tub, taking walks, gossiping about childhood friends, preparing food and eating together, more talking, and watching Survivor.

Some pictures:

Doc for snorkeling and diving boats – view from our balcony

David, Julles and June ending our almost 5 mile walk to the grocery store

[S7E4] The longest week ever!

Sorry for not getting to ya on Monday this week, but P-day was moved to Thursday today, on account of a temple trip. I’m really looking forward to the Portland temple! Anyways, let’s get into it!!

7: But can yours do THIIIISS??? As we left a good lesson with Todd, we saw a nice gaming chair sitting out in someone’s yard. We went up to the house and asked if it was abandoned, it was so we took it. We were kinda far away from our apartment, so just wheeling it back wasn’t the best idea. But we were close to a member, and shared a spiritual message about the plan of Salvation. Then we asked for a favor. Now we have a chair that is in need of repair, some screws, duct tape and the removal of the arms.

6: Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven Sacrificing a few minutes of dinner led to a good night. We talked with a former Atheist, and then with a cashier who got kicked out of the marines for medical reasons and worked with missionaries to help lift his spirits!

5: No hãblo Éspanõl We went on exchanges with the Spanish elders and I got a taste of Spanish work! It’s a lot of racial profiling, and me being confused. You know, one semester of me not paying attention in Spanish class didn’t really help, but I picked up a few things. There was this one guy who saw a red devil dog, a lady who had 3 children (Wednesday worked best for her) and a woman gardening who really liked the First Vision.

4: Burn Pile! We helped out the Birdsalls again this week, more gathering branches, tossing them into a pile, then Molotov’d it. Afterwards they fed us a light lunch and talked with us about poetry. Brother Birdsall wrote a little book of his poems and gave one to each of us! (I’ll have to use those when I get home

)
3: Call us up DC! We got bored one night, and started to plan out a DC movie universe. Wrote an outline, and started scripting a Clark Kent: Superman movie. It’s not fantastic, but it’s fun.

2: Exchanges with the zone leaders! Always fun, especially when one of them is your previous companion. We tracted a good amount, and met some interesting people. A nice lady who didn’t need help moving, a guy named Bill, a very humble and rich man named Jarrett (super solid), and a man who thought we were Jehovah’s witnesses for a good 20+ minutes.

1: I need to learn more about cars We have talked about cars to sooo many people, this couple of guys who were working on their Ford Focus who were interested in the temple. We taught them about the book of Mormon, and compared it to their ford focus that they were working on.

I love you all, and want you to know that Christ loves you as well.