Christmas!

Hiya everyone! Merry Christmas. 

 


We had a really good week. Maybe the best I have ever had. This email might be kinda long fyi. Anyway, let's go.


 

I got a fresh cut on P-day and we cleaned the car real good because the next day we went to Bristol for our big Missionary Christmas Conference and they were installing "Dap" into our cars. Basically little boxes that track if we are driving safely and yell at us if we are not. They aren't too bad, but I don't think they can handle the big roundabouts accurately lol.


 

But the Christmas conference was really great. Some highlights were that we had a game where we tossed skittles into a cup one of us was holding. So we each had a cup of like 100 skittles and we had 3 minutes. After a few moments we found that one at a time was not gonna cut it, so we just started throwing tons of skittles all at once. There were so many skittles on the ground. 

Another cool thing was I was able to win the scripture challenge and as a prize I got a custom "England Bristol Mission" Welsh copy of the Book of Mormon. I am excited about that.


 

The next day we went on exchanges and I went down to Yate. Yate is a great area to live, the only problem is that everyone is well off and they don't want to talk about Jesus Christ and you can definitely tell. So we had a pretty rejection-filled day, but were able to teach a lesson over zoom that went well. So that is great!

Then that evening we came back up to my area in Worcester and had a Christmas- Birthday-End-of-Mission-Party Council. One of the sisters is an incredible cook and she made 6 individual chocolate layered ice cream cakes. They were good. And yeah we just had a pizza dinner together and a good little celebration for one of the sisters in the District.


 

The next day we had a Lunch with the most crazy family ever. Reminds me of home. The 2 kids were crying for literally no valid reason. But I definitely appreciate this family having us over. It was a good Christmas roast we had. 


 

Afterwards we taught a friend who is definitely very committed and has just a hurdle or two stopping him. 

Then we drove out an hour to Hereford and watched a live nativity hosted by the congregation out there. The thing I took away was that the Birth of Christ was so simple, so mild, and so peaceful. There wasn't anything chaotic or loud about it. It happened and if you weren't paying attention, you would've missed it. Isn't that still true today of our living Saviour? If you don't look you will miss him.


 

The next day we went out to Honeybourne again where we were gonna teach our miracle from last week. Well that didn't happen unfortunately, but we decided to tract and ON THE VERY FIRST DOOR a guy invited us in and we shared a message. That is a miracle once again.


 

That evening we had a really good pizza at a place called Flavors with our Texas/British legend John Wayne Griffith. 


 

All of this brings us into Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve was the best. We made a bunch of cookies and went out to deliver them and at every delivery we were able to teach a lesson. My favorite was that we got to teach our Ukrainian friend Zoya again! Oh she is seriously the best. She makes me want to cry just because of how much she cares about others and how she just has had a not easy life but STILL chooses to believe in God. She gave us some Ukrainian Jam and it is GOOD. It is Strawberry and Cracked black pepper flavor. The flavor works!


 

After all of our cookie delivery we then joined a really great less-active member who is working their way back for dinner and games. We had a really good pasta bake and salad for dinner and then we played Settlers of Catan. Gosh dang, I love that game. Been way too long since I played it. Our spiritual thought was inspired and on the spot. I felt like the Lord led it.


 

Then it was Christmas!!


 

We had our church service for only 20 mins. All we did was have the sacrament and sing 2 songs. It was special. What an awesome way to celebrate and remember Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. Ultimately, that is all you really need for a church service. I also felt so blessed by the members who gave us gifts. Tons of Chocolate and even some Nerf guns?!


 

We went to the Wharrad family for Christmas and had one of the BEST roasts I have ever had. Seriously, the roast is good over here. They nailed it. We even got to open up gifts from them and then we listened to King Charles give out his Christmas message to the UK and Commonwealth. 

Then we went back to the members house from Christmas eve and played games AGAIN! We played this game called "Snakesss" which is basically a trivia game in which a few of the players are "snakes" and try to convince the group to pick the wrong answer. Well I was the snake EVERY SINGLE ROUND and I tricked people every time haha. Then we played a game like Uno, but you had to get rid of some cards only by cheating. So that was hilarious and we were all hiding and dropping cards. It is so much easier than you think to cheat in a card game haha.


 

As the night came to a close we hopped on our mission wide zoom call and had a spiritual thought about Jesus Christ.


 

But yeah, today I have done nothing but clean up and communicate at home and write this email. I am almost ready to get back to grinding!


 

So grateful for the opportunity to be here and celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ. Love you all! Jesus Christ came, died, and lives again!!


 

Congrats for making it to the end.

 


-Onwards and Upwards 

-Elder Berry

















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