"Hay un hogar eterno."

Dear friends and family,

It's very hard for me to believe that my time here in Spain has suddenly come to an end.  So I would just like to share a couple of thoughts in this last letter.

About 18 months ago, I came on the airplane to Madrid and directly started working and studying in the fabulous MTC.  I was scared to death with the whole new "life/ culture shock," but thanks to my incredible companion, Hermana Hansen, I learned how to face challenges and rely on the Lord for help.  There I I learned how to rely on the gift of tongues where we had to practice teaching the gospel in a whole new language. Scary right? My MTC experience was unforgettable.

My first area I went to is called Alcorcón, a cute little pueblo right outside of Madrid.  I was very fortunate to be "born" to great trainers.  Hermana Marsh and Hermana Finch treated me well and taught me how you can truly enjoy the mission.  After Hermana Finch's last transfer with me, I was greenie broken by Hermana Whiting.  These two transfers I had to learn how to be confident in now leading "my area." I love these sweet people of the Alcorcón branch.

My second area I was shipped back to Pavones where I got to serve in the wonderful 8th ward.  Hermana Spencer and I really enjoyed working together especially still being pretty new in the mission.  After she left I was with Hermana Birnbaumer for two more transfers there.  I was blessed to be with a native to really help me with Spanish.  I learned a lot with her. B8 has mi corazón!!


My third area I whitewashed/trained in B5.  Hermana Modugno was quite the blessing for me those next three transfers together.  I was scared OUT OF MY MIND to train and white wash.  But oh did I  sure see the hand of the Lord strengthen me there.  B5 edified me spiritually. Some of my favorite  memories is serving with my favorite Italian in the center of Madrid.

Last but not least, B2!! Heavenly Father truly blessed me to be with Hermana McEntire my last two transfers and to serve the other sisters in my zone as a sister training leader.  I learned more than I thought I could in only 2 transfers and I fell in love with this ward. Two transfers was not nearly enough to be in this area.

Yesterday in church, we sang a song called, "Hay un hogar eterno." Which means, "There is an eternal home."  Yesterday during church as I looked around at all of the amazing members in B2, I thought about what this song said.  It was interesting because tomorrow I'm going to my earthly "home." But one thing that I have learned in my mission is that great thanks to the gospel, we may all live together in a heavenly home with our Heavenly Parents one day.

There's a scripture I shared a couple of weeks ago- in Alma, talking about how by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass.  Or something along those lines.  Anyway, the last few days, as I have been pondering about my experiences the last few months, I have realized that I have only been doing little small and simple things. And Heavenly Father is in charge of doing the rest.  We are not perfect, no one is, but it is incredible to me that as we do our part, HE will help us make life look like a masterpiece work of art.

 There are so many more things I could say but I just want to say how much I have learned about God's love for us.  He loves us so much that he sent his only begotten son.  How cool is that? We don't have to be sad.  We can be FELIZ!!!! I am so grateful for every struggle/weakness/difficulty I was faced these last 18 months. Because I was shown the strength of Christ as he strengthened such an imperfect child like me, into something that only they knew I could accomplish.  I have learned the power of PRAYER! I have learned that because Heavenly Father loves us so much, he has restored the truthfulness of his gospel once again in the earth.  I have learned to love the people here more than I could even imagined.  I have learned the importance of forgetting yourself and serving others!! Thank to you all for your love and support and prayers that I know I wouldn't have been able to do without. I love you all and can't wait to come home!!

Hasta que las ranas críen pelo. 🤗🇪🇸

Con MUCHO AMOR,
Hermana Sydney Berry
🍓🇪🇸


 
 
 
 
   

Baptisms and Birthdays

Happy 4th of July everyone!!

Today we celebrated Independence day of America in Retiro Park playing with water guns and eating Spanish Tortilla.  Mission life is great haha.

Okay now down to business.  I can't believe that we are already to my last week.  I have no words because my brain still hasn't exactly processed it all.  I will hopefully be able to express my last thoughts next week so let me tell you what happned this week then.

Well.. Dakota got baptized!!!  It all went great and I even had to give a talk about the holy ghost.  In her testimony she thanked the us, the missionaries for sharing our testimonies about the scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love those little tender moments of the mission!!

Yesterday I turned 21!!! As much as I wanted to have my Birthday back at home, I felt so proud and grateful to have had my 21st Birthday in Spain, as a missionary, serving the Lord.  What a privilege it is to be a missionary.  I can't even begin to explain how full my heart is of gratitude for everything that I have learned.

On Friday, we had intercambios and I learned a great lesson about prayer and service.  Because we are the sister training leaders, the 2 other Hermanas come to our area and have to work here with us.  Well there were a couple of hours that we were not able to set up any appointments.  So I just prayed that we would  be able to find something to worth doing.  Well we had a feeling to call this one member.. and it turned out that she needed a lot of help to move out of her stuff out of her piso and into her new place.  So all 4 of us went and helped her and she was so happy! I love prayers and Service. :)

This week has been a little hard trying to focus on the work but be prepared to leave.  But as I have been trying hard to enjoy every moment.. I have been very blessed to be reminded of all of the many blessings I have received in my mission.  Heavenly Father has helped me so much and I feel so lucky to have served him these short 18 months.  I know that we can feel joy just by simply praying, keeping the commandments, and reading our scriptures.

Thank you to all for all of the incredible support I have felt while I have been here in Madrid.  I know this church is true and The Jesus Christ IS the head of it.  He lives, and he loves us.

con Amor,

Hermana Berry

  
 
 
   

Los últimos Dias.

Hola Everyone!

I'm writing in a bus on our way back to Madrid from Segovia.  It was my first time there and I finally got to see the 2,000 year old Acuaduct!! Cute old Spanish pueblos like that are one of the things that will make it hard to leave this enchanted country.  But I'm so grateful that I get to see my friends and family soon.  BUT. In the mean time we are staying focused here and working hard because I still have two weeks! Even when it's hard to work hard.  But we are continuing to see mini miracles everyday and remember why we are the luckiest girls in the world to be serving the Lord as missionaries.

The gospel of Jesus Christ saves lives.  So does the Young Women's program.  Let me tell you a miracle that we witnessed this week.  Last Sunday, two members from the young women's presidency invited us to go with them to visit a less active mother and her 12 year old daughter.  The mom had been very very worried for her daughter who has gone through a rebellious stage in her life right now.  So the members wanted us to come visit them too to maybe help out.  It was definitely a very delicate situation because the daughter was a bit angry at the mom and the mom was upset because her daughter had been making poor choices.  We left there feeling a little overwhelmed wondering what we could do to help them.

Anyway, fast forward to Saturday and Sunday.. On Saturday there was a baptism and the mom and the daughter came!! They looked so happy and it seemed that the Young Women leaders really helped! Then they came to church on Sunday and they said that things were going a lot better.  There was truly a drastic change I saw in their relationship.  I'm so grateful for all of the mini miracles including this one that I have witnessed in my mission.  They may be small things but I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ really can cure the soul.

The other day something really nice happened to me. . So throughout my whole mission, I've been very blessed to build up the courage to try new foods especially when it comes to CARNE.  Well as much as I hate eating meat, it's just been something I've dealt with for the last 17 months.  (Because you just got to eat what's on your plate, and I'm always afraid to tell a member that I didn't like eating meat.) Anyway, every week we eat with the Bishop and last week he caught me eating the meat very slowly so he figured out my secret haha! So guess what he did? He made me a special plate with No carne!! And that was the first time in my mission that someone did that for me because they cared about my personal interest. I know that this sounds way silly but I just was so touched that The bishop having so many people to worry about, wanted to make sure that I enjoyed what we ate for lunch.  I sure love that Columbian man!

I know I've already shared this before but this is one of my favorite scriptures.. "27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."  The other day we were talking about one day when we were both pretty sick.  Sometimes the weaknesses that he gives us come as being sick!! One day we both were just dying, both of us struggling to talk because we had lost our voices, yet we ended up having like 6 lessons that day. So it's just a nice reminder that when we recognize our weaknesses and are humble/willing for Christ to help us become stronger we can have 6 lessons even when we have lost our voices and hacking up a lung!! Haha

So this week as I've been trying to pray better with more faith, I've learned a very great lesson about TRUST.  I think something that Heavenly Father is wanting me to learn is after alllll of these things I've learned here in my mission, do I truly trust completely in the plan that he has for me?  I think that it is a question that we should all think about.  This morning during my personal study, I don't know why but I felt the spirit so strong!! I love this gospel sooo much and I'm so excited to give it all these last 2 weeks.  (Even if I have to turn 21. )

Oh and before I forget, this Saturday Dakota is getting baptized! We're so excited!

Love you all!!
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
      

The cold I had in the summer

Hola!

This week was... Well besides my deathly cough/sickness, great! I just got out of the temple this morning, and it's so weird to think it's my last time in the Madrid temple.  Oh how I love this temple.  The feeling of gratitude always gets bigger every time I leave that temple.  I'm so grateful for the love and peace that comes from doing work of the Lord for his children.  If there's one thing I have learned here in my mission is the special feeling that comes from Service!

This past week I have seen so many wonderful examples of what it means to truly serve.  On Sunday we had a lesson on service in gospel principles and then later in Relief Society, so I'm thinking I'm supposed to be learning something, haha.  Let me just throw some random examples of that. Mercedes is a recent convert that we visit that I dearly love!! She is a single mom from Peru with two little kids. And every single time we go to her house, no matter how busy life is she always make sure and makes us something to eat. She always puts us and her kids first before her own personal needs.  She is such a great example of Christ like love.  One of our investigators named Marilu, (who is progressing well) whipped up a meal from Nicaragua after we taught her.  And she did even while she was having take care of the baby she watches.  The other day on the bus, I was having like a bad cough attack and this kind old man handed me a little piece of candy to suck on.  Anyway, these are little tiny examples of acts of service, but it is how so many people have touched my heart out here.


The other day we found five euros in the street so we picked it up. But we didn't want to keep it so I held on to it and prayed that we could find someone to give it to that needed it a lot more than us and maybe that it could be an opportunity to share the gospel.  Well about a week later we were on the metro and there was a man begging for money.  Well this is very common for Madrid but I felt like  this was the guy I needed to give that money to.  So I gave it to him and when he realized that it was 5 euros, the surprised look on his face just melted my heart.  And then my companion was able to  give him a card with our number and he left very happy.  I know that my small little things we can really help people.  And I know that by praying Heavenly Father will help us find opportunities to serve others.

The days get a little tougher here as I'm approaching the mission. Especially being sick this week, I have felt humbled all over again. But as I lay in my bed everyday, I'm amazed of all a Of the many blessings I have received in my mission.  This actually comes from the trials I have had in my mission.  This week we had a few lessons with some people who want to get baptized!! So those  were of course special moments.  I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon and power that it has in our lives. I'm grateful for prayer and I know that HE listens.

I hope you all have a great week!!

Love,
Hermana Berry
Sorry the only picture I have is this.. Something I drew in the MTC.

Bendiciones del Liderazgo

Happy Summer everyone!!

First off, sorry my email was so short last week. I do blame the Elders that were writing at the church with us because they wouldn't stop talking. Haha but anyway I'll try to make up for it and share some cool experiences I had this week!

Well I'm sitting here enjoying the summer heat by eating gazpacho with my bread. Who knows I'll turn Spaniard before I come home. Ha. Well this week was a great one!! The last few weeks have  been a bit challenging just with the end of my mission approaching it happens. But this week I have been so uplifted so spiritually by several leadership meetings we got to participate in.

To start off, on Tuesday we went to our mission leadership meeting that we go to as sister training leaders that is always held in the President's house.  This was my second time going and it is always such a delight to learn from them and be there with the other missionary leaders.  I'm so grateful for President and Sister Pack because they are just incredible people.  This meeting was focused on being more Diligent, obedient, and faithful missionaries.  President Pack had told us that as a mission we need to be contacting 25 people a day per missionary.  Well as a mission we needed to be a little better so he talked about this again and reinforced it.  We talked about how by being a little more diligent, obedient, and faithful that we would start to see many miracles in our areas. The next day we had zone conference which basically we talked about the same things but only now with a lot of the other missionaries.  My companion and I felt like we really needed to work better in this.  So that's what we did. We put our faith and trust in the Lord and got to work.  I realized that I felt so much more happy as we were tried talking to more people in the streets and in transportation.  Even though we run into many who don't believe or don't want to listen, my testimony is strengthened every time I bear it. So of course by sharing it more often, I am more happy! On Sunday we had a little neat  experience.  We talked to a guy that got on the metro and that was a nice little conversation we had. He leaves and then a girl comes up to us and asked who we are and what we do.  Well we are about to ask for her information and such but then another guy comes up to us and asks about English classes.  It was kind of a funny situation trying to talk to both of them (and we also have to hurry so we don't miss our metro stop,) but it was a sweet tender mercy to see that the Lord really does bless us when we do what we are told.  He will never leave us empty handed.  I know that President Pack is inspired and I'm so grateful for all that they do for the missionaries.

Anyway other thought about leadership.  I just wanted to mention how awesome our bishop in or ward is.  I've served with many ward leaders throughout my mission but this guy is incredible.  The last few weeks we have been working with him to help out by passing by for less active members.  He's so supportive with the missionary work and I'm grateful for his humble example of service.  This week I just have been uplifted with counsel about being a leader. On Sunday there was a stake meeting for all of the ward leaders about how to better our ward councils.  Well our bishop invited the missionaries to come because our ward had to do a practice in front of everyone! Pretty scary right? Haha it was actually cool because this ward is the most efficient ward council I've seen.  So it was cool that they got to be used as an example. I think one of the best parts of this meeting was because it was a Stake meeting, members of 3 of my past areas were there.  In other words as I was sitting in the stand it was a pretty neat feeling to look out in the congregation and recognize lots of people who are in leadership positions in the church in my past 3 areas that have influenced me and my mission so much.

Well anyway, I love being a missionary. I say that a lot don't I? But it really is such an incredible experience.  I'm so grateful for all of the example and dedicated work that I have been benefited from, thanks to so many leaders in my life and mission.  I'm so grateful for the leadership position that I am in because I get to learn so much from theses sweet Hermanas that are in our zone.  I know that prayers are answered.  So pray to get help to be a little more obedient or faithful this week, and then just wait for the blessings.

Que tengan una buena semana!
Hermana Berry 🍓😘
P.s. Go to lds.org newsroom to read the Article about when Elder
Bednar visited us.

1st pic: lead ship counsel
2nd: my favorite ad in the metro

 

By Small and Simple Things

Hello to all!!

The Summer in Madrid is crazy!! The Spanish sun has finally come out to scorch our souls. But everything is all good because all of the bull fights are finally over!! Which means it will be a little less hectic on our walk from the metro to the church.  Spanish culture is cool and all but it can be a little annoying as a missionary. Haha.

This week was good like always.  But also a little hard.  I'm not going to lie, the last transfer of your mission can be a little tough.  But last night we had a great lesson with a member family that actually ended helping me more than anyone.  There's a returned sister missionary whose parents are less active so we went and visited them.  We knew that she has been kind of struggling to be involved with things and all of that after her mission.  So we tried to think of something to share that could help her.  Well we shared a video that is called "The things that matter" and then shared this scripture in Alma 37:6, "but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass;".  It was a great reminder that really joy in life are when we stop and enjoy the little moments.  By the simple things we do like pray and reading, we can have God more in our life!

This week we had a lesson with a new investigator that went super well!! We also put a baptismal date with a little girl so that's exciting. We are trying work more with members and we are seeing that it is going really awesome!  Every day I see the blessings from being a missionary more and more.  I'm so grateful for all of these experiences!

Sorry this is so short!! More next time. But here is a photo of the old district.

Take care!!

Hermana Berry

 

 

Cuenca, lloa lloa, and Hitchcock!!

Hi everyone!!

We already have transfers again!! I feel like a broken record, didn't this just barely happen? Anyway, Hermana McEntire and I are very happy to be able to stay together once more! This week was super busy. Almost everyday I couldn't remember what we did the day before.  In other words, the work here is keeping us on our toes which is good.

To start off I will tell a funny story.  A funny, but TRUE story. Ready? Okay, so on Thursday we invite one of our investigators to a family home evening in a members house.  As we are waiting outside of the metro with him then the Elders arrive and come say hi to us.  One of the Elders says hi to him but calls him a different name and asks if he remembers meeting with them a couple of months ago. Our investigator looks very confused and tells him that he is very mistaken for someone else.  Anyway me and my comp are a little confused but we just start heading for the members house while the Elders waited for someone else at the metro.  So we get to the piso and start walking up the stairs (there are 4 flights) and when we're on the second flight, our investigator who always likes to make really weird jokes says, "I'm too lazy, I'm just going to wait right here." We thought he was just being weird so we kept walking up and then he never came up.  So we went down the stairs and he had DISAPPEARED!!! We looked everywhere but then I knew we were in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. 😳 The Elders were at the top of the piso now and yelled out the window for us to come up and they would explain what had happened. We compared phone numbers of our investigator with a number of angry person and it was the same person!! But it had notes saying that this guy would do this and to not waste your time with him!!  They were so mad that he would trick us. Anyway, although weird things happened this week it will not stop the work of the Lord!! Haha hope you were
able to imagine how weird this situation would be.

But don't worry, good things happened too!! We went to a little Spanish pueblo named Cuenca, and us and some other missionaries went and did a BLITZ there to help out with the missionary work.  It's basically just contacting for 4 hours straight in someone else's area. But guess what, at first I wasn't looking forward to it but at the end I had a lot of fun!! It's funny because you'd say what's so fun about being rejected by people in the street for 4 hours in a very Spanish pueblo? Well I'm just grateful that I got to go do it because it actually reminded me of the joy that comes from working diligently. Which is nice especially because I am approaching the end of my mission.  After we helped work in that area, we and some other Hermanas went to do a little hike to check out the old part of Cuenca which is so beautiful!!! I will show some pictures.

This week intercambio I got to do it with the wonderful Hermana Curtis!! This is her first transfer and she is just wonderful!! I loved being with her for the day because she taught me a lot.  It was fun because later we found some connections we had in our family. Anyway, at the end of this transfer I realized how very very special it has been to be a STL and help with These growing sisters who are a little newer in the mission.  It's cool because I have been able to recognize a lot of me in them. and it's been fun to kind of advise them and remind them about the little important things in the mission.

I love this gospel so much because it is just full of so many opportunities.  If I could think of one word when I think of God's love, it would be Opportunity.  If we let him he will help us grow and do things that we never thought we could.  I'm so grateful for everything I have learned so far in my mission and I'm very excited to continue he to work hard as a servant of the Lord these last 6 weeks. Thank you all for all of the support!

Thought/General Conference talk of the week: "He asks us to be his hands." I've been thinking a lot about love and service.  Go out and serve someone!

Love,
Hermana Berry

Sorry for the photo overload but here's a bit of my week!