What’s happening with you all? Well, I hope things are going
great and I would love to hear from you guys! Just remember that I am always
here waiting :) I am soooo grateful for my amazing family! I love them so much!
Alright let’s get down to business and explain what happened this week.
(I hope Sister Berry doesn't get mad—but I included the following paragraph from an email she sent me so
that her letter to everyone else makes a bit more sense.)
First let me tell you that this week was rough. No one wanted to listen to us. We talked to literally everyone on the streets but no one wanted to talk to us or learn more. EVERY person we talked to was from some other church and most of them didn’t even accept a little passalong card. AND all our investigators dropped us. One girl didn’t even let us in her house she just told us that it was too hard to wake up early for church and she didn’t want us to visit anymore. One day was super hard and it was raining and no one wanted to talk to us and I just cried after every rejection. Oh it was so hard. It’s still hard. A day or two after that we visited a recent convert who told us that she was losing her faith and she didn’t want to go to church anymore. I lost it. I just cried and cried about her and about the whole week. How am I supposed to help people gain their faith when mine is being beaten down? Really these past weeks have tested my faith. Almost more than I think I can bear. I am learning so much, and I know I will be stronger because of it. Things will get better. But if not, I will continue to work hard and build my faith.
This week was not the most fun, but I definitely learned a
lot. I learned a lot about faith. I read a talk this week (that I can’t
remember the name of right now, I think it was Holland’s “Bitter Cup and the
Bloody Baptism” but I’m not sure) that talked about faith. It said that you
really don’t know how strong your faith really is until it’s tested, until you
have to hang on to it to stay alive. Well, my test was this week. I really
REALLY had to think about what I believe and why I am here. I had to think
about what I had been called here to
do. I know that faith is things HOPED for,
and that we can’t always see the end result. We can’t always see God’s plan for
us. But the thing is, I know that God DOES has a plan for each one of us. He
can and will help us to become the best that we can be. I’m excited to change
for the better and to use this next week to continue working hard. I love my
Savior!! I know that He loves us! I am so grateful to be here and to be
learning so much, even though it’s hard.
On the brighter side of things, we had an exchange with
another set of missionaries, where you switch companions for a day. I was with
Sister Sautter who has been in Brazil for only 3 months but is super happy and
awesome. She's from AZ too! From Flagstaff and Buckeye. It was so great to be
with her and to learn new things from her. I just love missionaries :)
And Pday today was awesome :) We climbed the mountain again
but with the whole zone. I also slid down the mountain side on a bike trail. I didn’t
do it last time so that was fun, but I got mud everywhere. I am so grateful for
the beautiful earth that God made for us. Like I always say, "Heavenly
Father did a good job."
I love you!
Sister Berry
