Feliz Natal e próspero ano novo!

Feliz Natal e próspero ano novo!

This week was great! It was fantastic to talk to everyone about Jesus Christ and help others this Christmas season. We visited a lot of less actives and recent converts this week, but also found some new people to teach. It was a great week! 

The only thing was all the rain. So this time of year, the days are all the same. Scorching hot in the morning, and pouring rain in the afternoon. It's incredible. Many times this week we got caught in the rain and got just a little soaked. I could not believe how what i got even tho I have a giant umbrella. My umbrella broke a bit in one of the storms, so that made things even better. The good thing is that I love rain and my comp and I had a great time soaking it all up and running up the hills to the nearest house of someone we know. 

This week was amazing because I had the opportunity to see the pure love of Christ in action. I have met so many people here on the mission that give everything to the Lord and to others. I want to be that person. I want to be someone who thinks nothing about themselves and only how they can help others. I am definitely not to that point yet, but I am working on it, and with God's help i will get there someday. At church yesterday a member told a stroy that really touched my heart. He said how he will never forget one lady who he met on his mission, who didnt have hardly anything to give, but wanted to give what she had to the missionaries. The lady was a little older, lived all alone and had no family to help her, but was full of charity. The member just cried as he tried to tell us how he could feel the pure love of Christ through that lady as she gave the little that she had to servants of the Lord. 

The love of Christ can change the world. People do not forget the service that others offer. I certainly cannot forget. I am so grateful for the love of God that I can feel every single day. God loves us! Christ lived and died for us! He rose from the dead and He still lives! I know that to be true, and I know that He is our Savior. So remember to help someone this Christmas. "It may be small, but if its your all, its enough."

It was also amazing to talk to my family! Even though it was a little hard to speak just English! I love them! 

Love,

Sister Berry

Aloha!

Aloha!

My comp lived in Hawaii so I think I can say aloha. Plus, I'm just happy. I am getting so excited during this Christmas season. I absolutely love talking about Jesus Christ to anyone and everyone that we see! Have we not reason to rejoice?!

This week was our Christmas conference with half the mission, and it was awesome! I love being a missionary. We got to sing the 12 days of Christmas with the whole mission, which was super hilarious. Brazil doesn,t have this song so we taught it to everyone and made it into a cool activity. We also had a talent show that was great. A lot of good singing and some funny parodies of the mission. The best part was the testimony meeting. President chose 3 missionaries who are going home this week to go first but then left it open to everyone. President chose Elder Correia as one of the first, and it was amazing. He was my Zone Leader in Boa Vista and he is already going home. I think I have said before that my favorite part of zone conferences are the testimonies of the missionaries going home, because they have such a strong spirit. They have learned to love the work with their whole souls, and they give me the strength to keep working hard until the end. I don't want to have any regrets. I cannot believe how fast time flies!

The work has been going good. We have been visiting a lot of less actives, and still trying to find new people to teach. We actually found a family who already met with the missionaries in Bahia (state in Brazil), but moved here and lost contact with the church. They are super nice and are super excited to talk with us. It is amazing how God puts people who are prepared in our path, we just have to have the courage to open our mouths and preach the gospel! I pray for that courage every day.

I have been just loving this gospel this week. I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I love even more being a missionary of this church. This scripture has been in my mind all week: 2 Nephi 33:6 "I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell." So I have been 'glorying' in truth and in my Jesus this week. This gospel is amazing, and this Christmas we have more reason than ever to thank God for our blessings and be happy. Lets be happy!!

Some things that I remember about this week: 

• -lots and lots of açaí, Sister Allred also discovered Paçoca, which is kinda like dried peanut butter and really good with açaí. Delicious!!
• -Juice! finally we have been drinking lots more natural juice, which is the best thing in the whole wide world. we tried orange juice with banana this week, good stuff. 
• -Ward christmas party! a little bit of christmas music to brighten the season . I love this ward so much!! the people here are amazing and i love them all!

Until next week, and have a merry, merry Christmas!!

Com todo o meu amor e carinho, 
Sister Berry

Feliz Natal!

It's Beginning to Feel Like Christmas

Meus queridos,

 

So many things happened this week. This week went by so fast. Its true when they say that the day goes by super slow, the weeks fast, and the months even faster. I think yesterday was our last p-day. Crazy how time flies. Especially because this week I finally realized that its almost Christmas!! Say what?! Its hard to be excited about Christmas here because it is so different from home, but now I can say that I am happy for Christmas. The reason that I am happy about Christmas is because my comp and I have been watching a bunch of Christmas videos and messages on lds.org. They are amazing and absolutely beautiful! One of my favorites is from last year: He is the Gift. Really, the Savior, Jesus Christ is the reason that we have Christmas. He gives us peace and joy. Thinking and pondering on Christ's birth and His life, I can find peace, and I can find happiness. It is amazing! 

Some exciting things about this week was our French Toast Friday! My comp is great and decided that we need more french toast in our lives. And she also brought maple flavoring with her from home (so smart!) so we ate delicious french toast with maple syrup. More delicous things that we ate this week was churros at a house of a less active. He made them himself and it was awesome! I am going to buy a churro machine when I get home haha.

Its been a little hard these past few weeks finding new people to teach. Sister Allred is still a little aprehensive about talking to people that she doesn't know, but we are both working about getting better at this. She is really amazing and helps me so much. Its amazing the Spirit that every one can feel when she teaches and bears testimony. She doesn't talk perfectly, so she has to rely on the Spirit to testify to those we are teaching, and we can all feel it. I have forgotten a bit about that. I have been relying more on what I say than how I say it. So that is something that I am working on.

I also wanted to say that it is super important to visit people in the church. People need so much help and want friends in the church. Show people how much you love them! 

Tchau!

Sister Berry

Fastest Week Ever

Hello :)

This week went by sooo fast! I just cannot believe it. Time goes by super fast, it's not even fair. But this week went by super fast because it was a really good week. We walked a lot but actually taught some people and were able to make a little progress. It was great :)

We found some great people to teach too, just that they are living with their boyfriends, kids and all but arent married. Why?? Satan has centered his attack on the family in these last days. He will do everything that he can to destroy families. We have to be strong and remember that we were put here on earth to have joy. I know that the only way that we can have true joy is living the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The cherry on top of the week was the baptism of Dayana! She is absolutely amazing and I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to teach her. She has known the church for years but never had the desire to get baptized, until now. Her family are all members, but have been less active and are slowly coming back. It is amazing to see the light in her eyes and her desire to change and serve the Lord! I love their little family! ( Litterally little because they are all 'fun size' haha i love it!) 

My comp is still loving Brazil and Açaí. We eat açaí all the time now because she loves it, and I dont complain :) Oh my comp and I also made 'Rice crispy treats' on Thanksgiving because it was the only thing we could think of. But Brazil doesnt have rice crispies and the marshmallows had a strong vanilla taste, but it turned out good. And today for P-day me and Sister L. Freitas made mini pizzas! yup, I was the one who made the dough. I can cook! It was delicious :)

Even though life is hard I am loving life! I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He can stregthen you and lift you up. His hands are outstretched and waiting, we just have to reach up. :)

Love you all, 

Sister Berry

God Freely Gives

e aí, Beleza? ;)

Well, things have been a little crazy this week. Something exciting always happens, and thats what makes missions so fun! I love it here.

We have been walking a lot this week and my companion is still getting used to mission life, but like I said, she is amazing. Things are going really well with her and I know that she is going to be a super succesful missionary. She is super shy but she really wants to change. We are both working on ways that we can change for the better. 

Speaking of change, I have changed a lot more than I realized. Being with a newbie has reminded me what I was like when I got here. I didn't know the language, I didnt know how to teach the gospel, I didnt know how to be a missionary yet, and I still hadnt learned a lot about Jesus Christ and His gospel. I don't know how my first companion stood being around me all the time. Sister Beazer is amazing! Seriously I have learned so much, and I want to learn so much more.

We had a zone conference this week with our mission President which was amazing. A sister in the zone gave an amazing training that made me think a lot. She talked about gratitude. Gratitude is something that we all have to have no matter the circumstances that we are in. So she asked each one of us what we are grateful for. The first thing I thought of was the love from my family and my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for His love!! I don't know what I would do without it. Love is something that we all want to feel and something that God freely gives. I want to help people feel the love of God. I want people to see that I love them too. I want to have the love of Christ in my life.

Other news, today we helped out with a Mormon Helping Hands activity in the stake of loading water onto trucks to send to another state in Brazil that suffered a natural disaster. I love helping people. Show your love for someone this week! Its the little things that make all the difference.

Love Sister Berry :)

A North America Companion!

Well this has been kind of a crazy week! But things are going great! I love my new companion! She is an absolute sweetheart and is excited to be a missionary. So her name is Sister Allred, she is from Indiana (North American!), and came straight from the Brazil MTC. Of course this week was a little hard for her with all the walking and with the language but she is moving forward and willing to do everything that needs to be done. She is a super shy person but is willing to talk portuguese to learn. She is speaking the language really well and I know that she will be fluent in no time. I let her leave little scripture messages most of the time and she talks great, she just gets a little scared sometimes. I am so grateful for this opportunity and I pray that we can learn what we need to learn together. I am ready to work hard and see miracles. I know that I can do hard things with the strength of the Lord!

And there isn't really much more that I can say about this week. We walked a lot, and talked to a lot of people. I am feeling a little overwhelmed with this new responsiblility but I am also super excited. I love being a missionary and I know that I am learning exactly what I need to learn.

So the last day with Sister C. Lima we ate TACOS at a members house and it was amazing! I miss mexican food! The member also knows how to make burritos so hopefully we eat that this week. Yummm!

And I love this ward so much! They help us so much and always bring friends to church and show us people to teach. That is the best and easiest way to make a missionary happy. Share the gospel with the people that you love. Its also an easy way to make our Heavenly Father happy. Our Heavenly Father loves each of us and wants us all to come back to His presence. I am so happy because I know that my Savior loves me! and He loves you too. Dont forget it. Never forget that you are a child of Heavenly Father, who loves you! So many people in the world dont know that, and it is our responsibility to tell everyone.

Thanks for reading! And maybe send me an email or letter sometime ;)

love, Sister Berry

Sao Paulo east mission
Rua Caa- Acu 229 belenzinho

03171-020 Sao paulo SP

Brazil

I Love Being a Missionary

Olá,

Things are going great here and I cannot believe how fast time flies. Life goes by so fast! So I guess we have to make to most of it while we can. We have to be happy now. I reread an awesome talk by Uchtdorf from General Conference about being grateful in any circumstance. Its really good stuff and super true. So Im going to be happy no matter what. Rain or shine I will have a smile on my face, loving life :D, because that is what life is all about: being happy. 

 Also something super exciting about this week is transfers! Exciting because I am all about new things, and things are going to change a little bit around here. My companion, Sister C. Lima is being transfered, and I'm going to stay here with another companion who is new on the mission! So its super sad that Sister C. Lima is leaving but I know that other people need her too. And I don't know who I will be with yet, only tomorrow at the transfer meeting. I am super excited and a little anxious to see how all this goes. 

So also some exciting things happened this week. Have I already told you how much I love being a missionary? Well, some good things and sad things happened. First something sad-- we were teaching Igor this week. Igor is 17, already went to church and was reading the Book of Mormon. Since the beginning he always said "Sister, i wont get baptized." We stayed with him a bit because he is super good and likes our lessons. But this last lesson was sad because he said he knows it's true but doesnt want to follow it. We bore our testimonies, and told him that we know that the Church is true and that it can bless his life. Sister C. Lima told him that we are here because we want to help people. Finally he agreed to come to church again, but when we passed by Sunday he didn't answer. So that was sad. 

BUT, we found this other great young man on the same street who we taught and came to church on Sunday! Its amazing how sometimes "doors close, but somewhere God opens a window." 

And Antonio got baptized on Sunday! I cant remember if I talked about him or not, sorry that I don't explain much about our investigators. Anyway, Antonio is amazing and was definitely prepared by God to hear about the gospel. A member in the ward gave him a For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, he read it, came to church and got baptized a little over a month later. He is so happy to have the gospel and wants to share it with others by serving a mission too! You can change peoples lives just by sharing a little bit of what we have. We have the truth. We have the key to happiness. You can do hard things! 

love you all! tchau!

Sister Berry