Tea, The Police, And Kolob

Hiya, everyone! Yes, I am two weeks behind, and some crazy things have happened these past two weeks. This is gonna be good.

One of my best friends, Gabriela King, seems to have received a one-semester scholarship to study at the University of Swansea Wales, which is within my mission boundaries. So, I was able to see her last week! What a cool opportunity!

Of course, we went to an English classic: Toby's - "The Home of The Roast."

Our server was training to be the head chef, and he was really funny, making all sorts of jokes. But it was so good to catch up on life back home. It was also fun to hear about their adventures and just how hard jetlag had hit them. Most of our conversations were about driving because they had rented a car and were driving around.

I also got Gabby a chav jacket. A Gregg's one. For those that don't know, "Greggs" is the name of a sandwich/coffee shop that is everywhere in the UK. Troublesome youth tend to hang out at the place, so Greggs has decided to launch a clothing brand, and it has taken off. So, I figured Gabby could join the club, haha. I also received some birthday gifts from my parents back at home. I got a bottle of ranch, and I can't bring myself to open it because it is just too beautiful.

As well, Toby's is a buffet, so I ate a ton. Gotta get value for my money, yeah? Well, less than two hours after our meal together, I had ANOTHER meal with a member family. Oh my gosh, they gave me the biggest piece of lasagna, and I was struggling. I felt like someone had placed a huge stone in my stomach. I was so full. I almost finished but came a few bites short. Somehow I managed to keep everything down that night.

We were tracting in a village, and I got a call from a lady I had messaged on Facebook. She was from Poland, and I had messaged her earlier that day. She was in her 40s and spoke great English. She said that she was really interested in learning more. I said we should meet up and that we could meet that evening! Woah! How cool, right? And that gave us 30 minutes to get back from the village and to the park where we were gonna meet. We called up our trusty friend John to join us for safety, and he was able to join us. Ok, but get this, as soon as we got into Evesham, the THICKEST fog ever came out of nowhere. You couldn't see more than 30 feet in front of you. As well, it was completely dark. These were signs. My companion kept expressing that this was a bit dodgy, but my dumb self went through anyway. We get to the park, and it is looking really spooky, but we manage to find John, and I am calling, trying to find this lady as well. Nothing. We walk all around looking for her and then decide that yeah, the lesson probably wasn't gonna happen.

Then I get a call...

This time a man answers very angrily. He says that I am a creep calling his 14-year-old daughter and trying to meet her at the park. I explained that she called me first and that she was not 14; she was 40 and married and everything else. He wasn't having it and asked why I had others with me at the park because he had just SEEN me apparently. I said, "So I can be safe." He was like, "Oh really? So YOU can be safe, eh? How about you and your friends talk to the police? I am calling them right now!" So we end up having to call the president and explain everything, and he just says to get on with my work. The police never come. I was set up. Or at the very least, the Lord's time was wasted.

We met with the South African family and encouraged them to keep the Word of Wisdom, and they agreed!! In fact, they said that they would really struggle to give up tea, but the tea was just herbal!! So no biggie!

And then get this.

OK, so last week we met a guy in the park named Daniel, and we agreed to meet next Thursday at a particular restaurant at 5. I grabbed his number, and we parted ways. Well, then I could never get a hold of him. His number wouldn't go through. So now it is Thursday, and I have no faith that we are gonna meet this guy again, and that we had gotten blocked. But Elder Black kept insisting that we go to the restaurant anyway because "What if he is there?" I am pushing back against this, calling it a waste of time and that no one would turn up at an exact time from over a week ago with no contact. But I do it grudgingly anyway. We get to the restaurant, walk inside, and Daniel is RIGHT THERE. I had to excuse myself and leave the restaurant to plead for forgiveness. Lesson learned.

So then we started to teach Daniel. My goodness, this guy's intellect is way higher than people I usually teach. He is a part of a global truth-seeking society. He knows a 33rd-degree Freemason (whatever that means), and he has explored all types of religions. It is like he can explain how Jesus scientifically performed miracles through science (frequencies and energy and atomic structure, for example), but struggles to recognize that Jesus was able to do these because He was the Son of God. He has looked past the mark. But it helps, at least because he understands the scriptures as we read them because he is so smart. You don't have to read and explain passages; he just reads it like someone who is experienced with reading the scriptures and how they sound. It takes practice. Well, anyway, we got to talking about premortal life, and I got really excited, and we turned to Abraham 3 in the Pearl of Great Price and just started to read. We could've just read the end of it, but I have always wanted to teach Kolob to someone on my mission just because it is a funny achievement. So we did. And guess what? He was alright with it. We had a good lesson, and he agreed to come to church that Sunday.

The next day we spent a good deal of time helping our newly called Branch Mission leader to clean up the tree limbs he had been cutting down on his property. We hauled them all to the tree shredder and put them in. That thing could kill you in 2 seconds. It ground logs a foot wide into pellets in 4 seconds. Crazy. That was a fun service project.

That gets us to Sunday! (My birthday as well) Daniel came to church and was dressed up in a really nice suit. Everyone thought he was a member, haha. As well, all of our other friends came. It was an awesome service, and we learned about spiritual promptings and sharing the Book of Mormon. Afterwards, at the church building, we had lunch with a member because their house was outside of our boundaries. That was so nice. It was a good stew with dumplings.

Later that evening, I got an awesome birthday present. A Messianic JEW had reached out to learn more, and so we had a call with him, and oh my goodness, that was really stretching my brain cells, but we managed to have a lesson. He spoke in lots of Hebrew and used all sorts of terms I didn't know much about and was quoting a ton of scriptures from Torah. But as always, I can find common ground because this church contains the truths of every other. Good thing we studied the Old Testament last year.

-------That was LAST week ^^^^^---------------

This past week, we started off by going to a place called Broadway Tower and overlooking everything while the sunset. That was actually so fun. It was kind of just us and some guy flying a drone. Nice and relaxing. And cold.

Tuesday was the day that killed my brain. We felt inspired to go see our Jewish friend, and then we had a long lesson with him. I heard all of his stuff, and then we read the Book of Mormon, where it teaches that Jesus will do away with the Law of Moses and replace it with the higher law of His gospel because He is Yeshua and gave the law in the first place. He flipped out. Like, I have never seen someone get so upset over a scripture before. It took like 5 minutes for him to calm down. We agreed to meet again, and I would do more research to help him understand, and he would keep reading the Book of Mormon, which is "Written for the Jews and Gentiles..." I just have never taught the former and had to figure out how to do that.

After that headache of a lesson, we came back into Evesham and met with Daniel again and had another super deep lesson where we explained the necessity and superiority of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Thank goodness the Book of Mormon does that because he finally agreed that that made sense. But it was just rigorous mentally to keep up with the guy.

The next day, we went to teach the South African family, and we cooked with them (because the husband is a chef). We made a seafood dish that was so good. Only him and I had it though because everyone else was either allergic or didn't like seafood. So as well, he made a really good chicken dish. It was so fun. I cooked mussels for the first time. They are tasty.

We also met with our new friend Babs, whose son had been taught by missionaries over 12 years ago. She is keen. She took us round to a really nice church she looks after and let us have a tour of it. It really is a pretty church built in a posh village. It is a private road to the church. We are excited to teach her more.

The week kind of ended in an explosion though as we went to teach our Jewish friend, and things just got so heated, and there was no desire for him to learn, so we just left. Kind of sad. I learned a lot teaching him about the Jewish faith and how the Book of Mormon makes it really clear how the Jews will be persuaded to believe in Christ through its pages.

As well, I have a new kick: tea. Herbal tea, of course, but I can see why the Brits are hooked on this stuff. All you have to do is add some milk after brewing. Game changer. They call it milk tea. It cools the cup slightly after brewing, makes the tea smoother, and adds a little flavor. Perfect.

But yes, let me just keep going to make this the longest email on record. This week will be really good as we are going to Bristol on Wednesday for interviews with President, and then we are having back-to-back exchanges Thursday and Friday.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, everyone!!

-Onwards and Upwards

-Elder Berry

Pics on a separate email!

*Gabby and I with Ranch and Greggs Jacket

*That MASSIVE piece of lasagna

*Worcester Cathedral early in the morning

*The state of my brain after intense lessons

*Daniel and us at the restruant!

*20 Billion Dollar Zimbabwe note

*Broadway tower ×3

*Knowledge and I cheffing it up