Happy Late Valentine's Day!

Brazil doesn't have Valentine’s Day (only a day of boy/girlfriends in July or something), but my comp got a little into it and made a bunch of hearts and looked up a bunch of scriptures about love. It was really cute; you should look up the scriptures about love in the Bible and Book of Mormon sometime. Good stuff. :) Some I wrote down were 1 Corinthians 2:9, Deuteronomy 13:3, and Jeremiah 31:3. 

  Today was a really busy crazy week (as usual), and things are going great! We had a zone conference this week that was amazing. Its 3 or 4 districts so about 20 missionaries were there. Our Zone leader is absolutely awesome and told us some great stuff. Some notes I wrote down:

· The Spirit talks to us in different ways, we need to recognize how it talk to us, and then listen to it.

·  Don’t hesitate, just do it!

·  Am I doing everything possible to follow the Spirit?

·  We will have lots of difficulties because Satan wants us to fail and will do everything he can.

·  We need to follow the whisperings of the spirit and always choose the right.

·  Make goals with yourself to get better each day.

We met some great people this week and are teaching some great lessons! It’s really easy to find people to teach here, it’s just kind of hard to find people that aren’t breaking the law of chastity (sex before marriage) or have addictions such as coffee, cigarettes, or tea. The struggle is real. But we are helping the people we are teaching and things are really looking great.  We are teaching a great family right now too.  Rosangela is awesome; she is so humble and so willing to do the things the Lord wants her to do. She just has a little problem with smoking a pack a day right now, so we are helping her to quit so that she will be prepared for baptism. She is amazing, she’s reading the BoM and praying for strength.

I have really learned out here how bad these addictions are. Especially coffee. We were teaching this amazing family and they were reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church but when we told them they couldn't drink coffee-they changed. They love their coffee in the morning and they don’t want to stop because it is a tradition here in Brazil. We tried to tell them that coffee is addictive and bad for our bodies and our spirits (read Doctrine and Covenants 89). It’s just really sad to see that people won’t change just one aspect of their lives for the Lord. We’re going to visit them again this week so please pray for this family that they will be able understand and have the Spirit touch their hearts.

I know that this church is true. I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he hath commanded. I’m grateful that I was taught these things and that I don’t have any addictions and that I never will.
Remember that God loves you, and He wants you to return to live with Him again. And the only way that you can do that is through the gospel. This church contains the fullness of the living gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why I am here in Brazil.

I love Brazil btw :) Pictures: Me and the other sisters in our ward. Love em :) The view from one of the church buildings we were at, and Maracujá fanta (passion fruit). Why don’t we have this in America?? 

I love you all! You are always in my prayers!
Com Amor, Sister Berry

Falta de Agua

Oi!

So much stuff happened this week, as always. We are just so busy that it all blurs together! We also taught some amazing lessons this week, and had some crazy experiences with some contacts. Overall this week was great! It’s really hard, but it’s good. 

We have had some great lessons with Leonardo and Isabelly. Isabelly is 15, less active from the church, and is a rebel. She loves to party, smoke, and ´hang out´ with her boyfriend, Leonardo, who isn’t a member. They are both awesome and I love them! Isabelly has been trying for a long time to change and become better, and she really has a strong testimony, but is just caught in the trap of sin and addictions. Leonardo does all this bad stuff with her too so we are trying to help him so he can help her and vice versa. Anyway, we had a member come with us to teach Leonardo about the Restoration of the Gospel and to ask him to live the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. It was a great lesson. Leandro (the member) is a returned missionary and just took over the lesson but it went really well. He told this amazing story to Isabelly that reminded me of the kind of stories that Grandma tells about Francine the fish and stuff like that. Here’s the rough translation…without the beauty of the language…

So Satan is having a party in hell and he wants to honor the three people/things that brought the most souls down to him. So he calls out the third person- who’s big and strong and explains that this person told the people to fight and kill. Then he calls out the second person who explains that he told the people to lie, cheat, smoke, and drink. That was the one that brought the second most. Then Satan calls for the one that brought the most souls to hell, and out walks this tiny little person. Satan puts the little guy on his shoulder and explains that this person told the people to go to church, read the scriptures, say their prayers-- but to do it tomorrow. The thing is tomorrow never comes for those people. We need to decide now to do all the things we need to do to be saved- and do it now! There is no time to procrastinate the day of your repentance. Grandma I think you should take this story and make it your own because I think it would be perfect for you. Think about it.

Another thing I loved about this week was church because it was fast and testimony meeting. Every first Sunday of the month during sacrament meeting at church the meeting is left open for the members to go up and bear their testimonies. To say what they believe and what they know. I just love this ward. As soon as the counselor says that it is time to bear testimonies it seems like the whole congregation immediately gets up and goes to the front to wait in line. The testimonies of these people are so strong! I love them so much, and I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to be in Brazil and meet so many wonderful people. I have so much that I can learn from them.

A huge thing that everyone in Sao Paulo is talking about is the falta de agua (drought- literally translated to “lack of water” because they don’t have a word for drought in Portuguese). They just announced that people here are going to have only 2 days with water and 5 days without. It was already pretty bad- some people only have 30 minutes of water a day to do laundry, take a shower, wash the dishes, and flush the toilet. Yup, it is really bad. Pray for water in Sao Paulo. This has never happened in Sao Paulo before so people are really stressed out about it. 

I want you all to know that Heavenly Father loves you, and He hears and answers your prayers. Go to him with full purpose of heart and He will comfort you. I know this is true because I do it every day. Stay strong, pray always!

Love ya! Sister Berry

The "Hill of Death"...it goes straight up and is so difficult to walk up!