Week 5

Hola amigos y familia!!!!!  I hope you are all doing well!! I am doing just fine here in Madrid, Spain!!  Although it is FREEZING, everyone´s warm hearts keep me warm.  Just kidding, that was really cheesy, haha.  So this is my 5th week here in the CCM which means I have one more week until we go out in the real world, into the field!!!!  Aaaahhh I can´t believe it!! I feel ready to leave, but at the same time its going to be SO hard to say bye to everyone.  My companion and I were saying how it will be tough not be allowed to hug all of the Elders that we deeply care about.  So a very firm, sincere hand shake will have to do I guess.

 So I have mentioned some things about a park I go to every Saturday.  Go look up Retiro Park in Madrid and you will see how massive it is.  It is so beautiful.  Last Saturday I had an amazing time contacting people.  It was a wonderful way to spend my Valentine´s day, but sharing how much God loves everyone.  We get paired with a different companion every Saturday and after we walk around contacting for about an hr and half, we meet back at the fountain and sing Spanish himnos for people to come listen to us.  It is so fun!!!!  Everyday I can see myself growing and I know it won´t stop here!  The last few weeks at the park I have met several people that are from the Canary islands and i just get this weird feeling that I might go there!!! yay!!

 Food isn´t that great at the CCM but the gorgeous sunrises make up for that, because they are absolutely breath taking and I see them every single morning in my classroom, so be jealous.  I love being in an MTC that only has one transfer group because it we are able to get to know mostly everyone!!  I have a personal relationship with The President which I'm so grateful for.  There are about only 45 or 50 missionaries, so we all bonded very quickly.  Something really cool about this religion is that we believe that we have the restored truth, and you are able to recognize in history the bits of truth that were there.  I got the really cool opportunity last week to visit an archaeology museum which had all sorts of christian artifacts.  This week we went to the Prado museum (a very very famous art museum, look it up so you can feel cool as well).  It was so amazing to see all of the Christian artifacts, paintings, sculptures, etc. that showed the past Christian´s faith.  In the Egyptian mummy section at the archaeology museum we noticed some things that the Egyptians practiced that we do as well.  It was super interesting to notice these things.  I´ve enjoyed these last 2 weeks focusing on the apostasy and restoration because that is what our religion is all about!!! I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, and I am beyond grateful for his sacrifices he and his family endured just so we today can know of the truth.  I love being here on a mission, and I am so happy that these hard things are going to shape me into a better person.  I encourage you all to read the scriptures every day because there is always something you can get out of them!!! When you pray with a sincere heart, I promise you will receive an answer, it is so awesome!! I have seen a lot more of Madrid so yes I can now say it is very beautiful!!!  I love all of you!!! 

Love, Hermana Berry