Half way done, Half way to go

Hola queridos! 😊

It's starting to cool down a lot here and we are starting to experience coats, rain, and umbrellas all over again.  I really hate the weather in Spain, it's always extremes.  But I'd so rather have cold than the Spanish heat!  The nights are so pretty with the rain and the leaves everywhere.
This week I have seen that my Spanish is really improving.  The reason I say this is because in this exact moment that I am writing an email, I have to translate out of Spanish into English in my head, haha.  Who would have thought that would ever happen?? It's nice to see that hard moments with the language I had in my first transfer are starting to pay off!  It's so weird to be able to understand so much.

What's even weirder is that TOMORROW I HIT MY 9 MONTH MARK!!! 9 months ago today I went on airplane, leaving my family, friends, and my normal life at home.  The last nine months here in Spain, I've never had to do so many hard, scary things in my life.  But wow, oh the incredible love I have seen from the people here.  But most importantly I have seen and felt the love my Heavenly Father has for his children.  I have learned of the reality of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have seen what blessings of peace comes from living the commandments of God.  I am so grateful for my time here I have had so far and I look forward for the next 9 months. Just like Pres. Uchtdorf says.. I want to end the race with my torch still lit!

This week we have definitely seen many miracles.  This one day we met with an old investigator and she accepted the invitation to be baptized.  She seemed so sweet and was so willing to listen to our message.  She is a very young mother of 2 precious boys.  And actually her boyfriend is a less active member! She is great and I can't wait to meet with her again.  Later that day we met with another less
active man and taught his wife.  He actually stopped us one day in the street and told us he wanted to us to help bring him back to church and teach his wife.  This day was so incredible to see that we were able to help teach less actives things they already knew by teaching the women things that were new to them. On Sunday we saw another miracle.  Every time I've fasted on my mission, I've received a miracle.  So I wasn't too surprised when we received a miracle on Sunday!  Right after church, when we were fasting, a member introduced us to someone that wants to be baptized.
Well we were really confused because we thought this boy was already a member because he always comes to church.  But he isn't, and wants us to teach him! I have so much faith that there is power in fasting.

The other day in my studies, I was reading about Joseph Smith, Nephi, and Moroni.  Something very similar I noticed in all three of them was that they were all very honorable men, but only wanted the glory from God. All three of these men had so much faith and humility that Lord was so easily able to use them as his servants.  This is something I want for myself.  Am I trying to win the approval of others in the world, or from my Heavenly Father?  I want to become the person who only wants to serve God.  I'm so grateful for my experiences here and to have had my eyes opened of this  importance.  God is so simple.  He loves us so much.  And when we obey his commandments, he can bless us with the blessings that are in store for us.  I love this gospel so much and I know that is real.

D&C 82:10

I love you all! Thanks for you love and examples for me.

Hermana Sydney Berry🇪🇸🍓

First picture: MTC. Second: nine months later. 😱

"Don't worry, be happy now."

Happy October everyone! 🍁

I don't know about Utah right now, but the leaves here are gorgeous. How is it that we are already near the end of 2015?  So many things have happened to me this year.  I can't even begin to explain how I feel about hitting 9 months this month!! HOLIENE.  Any who, before I write about my week, I forgot to publicly announce my excitement for my little brother Noah!! Last week he received his mission call and is going to South Carolina.  He is leaving January 20th (just like me) and so it will be exactly THREE years until I see him.  Although I was sad not to be there, I am so excited for him to serve the Lord. Missions can be hard, but they are possibly the best, most sacred times in your life to learn things.  Love you little brother. 😘

Last week was hard.  This week was a little hard, but definitely a lot better!  Every hard moment I have, I remind myself that I just need to focus on the good and enjoy every moment before my time here is gone! My companion has been awesome with helping me with my Spanish and I've helped her a little with her English.  My companion, Hermana Brinbaumer is an awesome missionary, I learn from her every time she teaches.  She is from Bolivia, lives in Barcelona, and has a German last name. This week we did a lot of running around- from visiting pueblos then back to our usual area- back to the church.. Let's just say metros are second nature now.  Sometimes it's easy to forget how lucky I am to go to the church right by the temple.  But I really am so grateful to feel the peace just right outside of the temple several times a week.

Speaking of temples, I love them so much.  This last week we went to the temple and like always, I tried to have a question in mind that I could pray about while I was there.  I had the thought that  sometimes my answer comes later that day.  Well sure enough my lovely mother who is so close to the spirit, had the strong impression one day to email me.  This letter was so touching to me and was  exactly what I needed in that moment.  I'm so grateful for temples where I can receive answers and for a mother who is so in tuned to the spirit.  Little experiences like that remind me how much  Heavenly Father loves his children!

Throughout this week, I've had several different thoughts about the importance of enjoying every moment.  This has been a struggle for me sometimes because it's hard to always not think about the past or future during difficult times.  But something from a talk we read this week by Pres. Uchtdorf- "Forget me nots," really stood out to me.  He gives the example of Charly and the Chocolate Factory- the golden tickets in the chocolate bar.  Sometimes people are just waiting around for their "golden ticket" in life and forget to enjoy the chocolate that is inside. Sometimes I think "Oh if only I did this
better, or of this happened, or I can't be happy until this happens.." Sometimes I forget to enjoy of all of the blessings that are around me.  This is something I really am trying to apply in my mission and I
believe can be really applied in life as well.  Decisions. I love the quote by Thomas S Monson: "Decisions determine destiny."  Every decision we make, makes us who we are.  We have been given our mortal agency, a God-given gift.  It is up to us how we react to challenges in life. This week we visited a less active member who had not come to church for a long time.  We had heard that she had some strong feelings about the wars so I was a bit hesitant to visit her, but we did.  That lesson with her I realized that their are people who are depriving themselves of the blessings of the gospel
because of the fear of other people.  I've seen this problem many times on my mission, when some members gossip and make it so others do want to come, to church anymore.  These situations are so hard because all we can say is the gospel is perfect but not the people.  But wow, how important it is, that we are humble and forgiving enough to not let others people deprive ourselves from the blessings of the gospel. This week me and my companion have set good goals to really work hard at asking members if they have friends who are interested in the gospel and also in our area book.  Good news is my Spanish is improving.  Bad news is, when me and Hermana Bingham (other hermana in our piso) try to talk to each other night, we both forget words in English. Haha. I wish you all a fantastic week!!!
1 Nephi 8

CON MUCHISMO AMOR,
Hermana Sydney Berry 🍓🇪🇸

God didn't design us to be sad, he created us to have joy!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!!

     What a wonderful conference weekend we have had! I hope all of you got the chance to listen to our Beloved Prophet, apostles, and other wonderful men speak to us.  I really enjoyed watching conference with a lot of the other missionaries and share the wonderful spirit we felt there.  What I love most about conference is that the talks are always so applicable to what's going around the world.  When I hear them speak with power and authority it always testifies to me that they are called of God.  It's funny because I remember when I was younger, I thought conference could sometimes be long and boring.  But that's the cool thing about being on a mission, it has opened my spiritual eyes so big that spiritual things are so much easier to understand.  Not only easier to understand,  but I crave listening to righteous things.  Living in the world but not of the world can be a glorious thing.  And you can learn how to feel clean and pure from listening to the talks from these apostles.

     I felt as if the over all feel to this conference was that:
A) Heavenly Father loves his children more than we can imagine.
B) The atonement of Jesus Christ is there for us to help us through trials and tribulations, and
C) Living the gospel is very simple and the peace we can feel from it is incomprehensible. 
I really enjoyed Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about the simplicity of the gospel.  I really is simple to live, and the blessings are incredible.  It was great to see the 3 new apostles.  These last almost 9 months of being here in Spain, teaching the restoration lesson over and over, has really strengthened my knowledge and testimony of Prophets.  I know that President Monson is called of God and has the authority to help Heavenly Father's children on earth learn more of this plan that God has for us.  I am so grateful to feel more of the love of my Savior. Even though it can be hard on my mission, I am so grateful for my experiences here and the things I have learned.

I love all of you guys so much!!! God and Jesus Christ live.  D&C 121

Hermana Sydney Berry

¡SO MUCH SPANISH!

Hola my loved ones!!

    I hope everyone is doing great and maybe enjoying the fall weather. Well today are transfers and I am staying here in Barrio 8!!!  I was really sad to say goodbye to Hermana Spencer, but she will do great things in A Coruña. (Very very north of Spain). She taught me so much and I just love her to death. So because this transfer we are getting like 45 new missionaries, mostly everyone was thinking that they might train, including me.  But surprisingly I am not.  That would be something hard but very good for me.  But don't worry, I have something else that will be hard but very good.... I have a NATIVE SPANISH SPEAKING COMP!!! Hence the subject title.  I already have a slight headache from so much Spanish but I'm really excited.  Her name is Hermana Birnbaumer and she is from Bolivia.  She seems great, I can't wait to work with her these next 6 weeks.

    So my dear mission mothers: Hermana Marsh and Hermana Finch, have returned to the great city of Madrid from the Islands.  I was trying to figure out when I could see them because I didn't think I would for a while.  Anyway, today when we went to the train station I was reunited with both of them!!! That made me so happy!! It brought back so many memories from my 1 transfer.  It is so crazy to think how much I've learned in these last 8 months!! Right now we are typing in the church by the temple and we got to see the huge group of CCM missionaries taking a picture.  It's so crazy how fast the time is flying.  I swear I was just barely there like yesterday.  But since then, I have learned great things, met incredible people and overcome hard trials.  I am so grateful for my experiences here.

    As for this week, it's been a little hard for me.  Last week I was sick and I still was sick the beginning of this week.  I really wanted to keep working hard, but it's hard to get back into the groove after being in the piso for a little bit everyday.  I really didn't want to but it was the only way I could get better.  I have realized that Heavenly Father sometimes gives us small and big trials so we will maybe rely on him more.  I know this last week I have been praying so hard to get better physically and spiritually.  My faith was definitely tested but strengthened as well.  I'm glad that he blessed me to finally be better for this next transfer.  When I was physically down, I felt like I was uplifted spiritually.  I'm reminded everyday how extremely grateful I am for this true gospel and what great blessing it is to share it with people.  He always always answers our prayers. 😊

   This last week my testimony has been strengthened of MEMBER LESSONS.  As missionaries we are very encouraged to get help from the members in our lessons.  I never really understood the  importance of this until this last week.  We got a new investigator who is from Columbia that actually contacted us on a train a couple of weeks ago named Simone.  We had the first lesson with him on Friday and one a member named Viktor who helped us with the lesson.  From the very beginning Viktor tried to be his friend and they seemed to get a long really great.  His testimony about the Book of Mormon was so good and our investigator was so attentive.  Viktor actually invited him to church before we even did.  Well on Sunday we kept waiting for Simone to show up for church but were worried because the meeting already started.  Before I knew it, Viktor had brought him in and even sat by him.  Simone ended up staying for the whole time and loved it!! We are so grateful for Viktor's help!  I'm excited to see how Simone progresses.  😃

    I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow from hard moments.  Although we had a slightly rough start to our week, we ended it pretty well.  I love this ward I'm in and the people are  great!! Thanks for all of your prayers!! I can't wait to see what's in store for me this transfer.

1 Nephi 3:7

Con mucho Amor,
Hermana Sydney Berry 😘🇪🇸

El Amor de Dios es Real

Hola mi familia y amigos!!

This week was interesting.  I can't exactly wrap my brain around the fact that this is the last week of the transfer.  Or the fact that yesterday I turned 8 months in the mission!!! Anyway, time is going by
and I'm continuing to learn things.  It's crazy to think that there hasn't been a day these last 8 months that hasn't been hard for me. But then again there hasn't been a week that I can't say that I am not
grateful for the things I experienced.  This stuff here is tough business, but Missions. Are. So. Worth. It.

So I ended up being sick for most of this week, but we were still able to have some great experiences and learn some different things.  Here are just a few things that I have been studying/learning/gaining my testimony about this week: Repentance/The Atonement, The reality of the restored gospel, the Priesthood/power from God, The Book of Mormon, serving others, prayer, and patience.

*We had a great zone meeting where we talked about repentance and the atonement of Christ. They had us study that day especially about repentance. We talked about how it's so interesting that a lot of
people think of repentance as a bad thing, BUT.. It truly is a gift that we have.  When we sin, we turn away from God and when we repent, we turn ourselves back towards him.  Repentance is truly Christ
opening his loving arms towards us.  It is the greatest act of love.

*My whole mission I feel like I have been developing better prayers. Something I have come to realize is that Heavenly Father will always answer our prayers.  But not necessarily in the exact time that we might want it.  With patience, he humbles us and then later we receive the answer.  For example, a couple of weeks ago, someone stole my companion's wallet on the train.  That day we said a prayer to be able to find it.  Well nothing happened, but since then we have been blessed by the other Hermanas in our Piso to help us out with money and other blessings as well.  Well anyway, as I am typing, my companion is on the phone with the police station because they caught the robber and they found one of her cards!!! So basically, sometimes God will answer our prayers in one day or  sometimes, 2 weeks. The point is, he is listening and he will always help us we have faith!

*This week we had a lesson with a new investigator, he is a man from Ecuador.  I LOVE giving lesson 1, about the restoration.  Every time I teach this lesson, the spirit always reconfirms to me the truthfulness of our message.  This gospel makes me so happy.  Also I continue to have such a strong testimony of the priesthood.  I've seen so many personal miracles thanks to the priesthood.  I am so grateful for these worthy young men I serve with who are able to give priesthood blessings.  I was so appreciative of the one I received this week because I was sick.  But he blessed me more for comfort than anything else.  I could really really feel Heavenly Fathers love for me in that moment.

Random things that happened this week..
*A lady's puppy ate my skirt and kept biting my hand!! Spain makes me hate dogs. 😡
*Mayo+Ketchup=fry sauce in Utah, but shrimp sauce in Spain.
*Hermana Spencer is a boss at the piano. She played "Consider the Lilies" for a musical number.
*I STILL AM OBSESSED WITH LIVING SO CLOSE BY THE SPAIN TEMPLE
*The Book of Mormon changes lives.  Nephi is the man.
*Guess what guys General Conference is right around the corner!
*MISSIONS ARE THE BEST.
Spiritual thought: look up the Mormon Message "LIFT." It is so good. Watch it!
Sorry if my email doesn't make sense, my brain hasn't been working properly the last few days.

Love you all!!! Enjoy the fall y'all.

Hermana Sydney Berry

El Libro do Mormon bendice a todos

Hello to all from Parque Retiro aqui en Madrid :)
Right now I am relaxing in the shade listening to European saxophone music and enjoying the almost Autumn weather. 😃. I love coming to this park because it reminds me all of my special experiences I had in the MTC.  This is where we first learned how to contact people about the gospel.  I was so scared to death then, and now it's cool to think about how far I've come along with my Spanish, missionary abilities, etc.! My favorite place in Spain is right here. :)

Well this week was a bit interesting.  I must admit, there were some days that were kind of difficult this week.  Sometimes it's easy to lose hope when walking in the streets surrounded by all of the sins and pride of the world.  It can get very discouraging.  This area here is a lot bigger than my last one and has a lot more people in the streets.  Well, I was reminded that the small spiritual experiences we have in lessons with people make it all worth it.  We had a lesson with one of our recent converts.  After talking about following the prophets we asked her if she had any questions. (She has only been a member for less than two months.) She said no like usual. But then she was like, "Yes, I do have a question!" We were like oh no.. What is she going to ask us?  "Why doesn't everyone understand that this is the true gospel, it just makes so much sense."  Yes.  I love her.  I wish everyone we taught had such a humbling heart like her. Because this gospel really is simple, and you can measure the truthfulness by the fruits of this church.  We continued to see mini miracles everyday when ever we put all our faith in the Lord to provide for the things we needed that day.

We went to Arganda (the cute little Spanish-like pueblo) to pass by for a less active woman that we usually visit.  All week they had been having celebrations for the Bull fights so in other words, this town was very festive feeling.  Even though we had no desire to watch a bull fight, we were hoping to at least see something cool as we were walking.  We walked by the plaza on our way to the ladie's house and the arena was completely closed so you couldn't see in.  But we did see one of the Matadors sitting on his horse waiting for his turn to enter.  I just wanted to see something cool like that, and so that was
good for me.  BUT THEN... about 10 minutes later as we were making our way up the hill...There was this huge shed that was open with people surrounding it.  We glanced over and there were 3 Toros MUERTE.  QUE TRISTE!!!! I was like really Spain?! Okay that's all for the sad thought of the week, haha.  Go Toros. 😁💃🏽🐂🇪🇸

We had a lesson with one of our investigators who is awesome, but let's just say lessons with him can be very stressful.  All he needs to do is read the Book of Mormon and pray to see if it's true and then he would know that Joseph Smith was really a prophet called by God and he wouldn't have such obscure and ridiculous questions.  Well we came to the conclusion that we could sit all day and argue if the book is true or not, but it won't get us anywhere unless we read it together. So that's exactly what we did.  This was our first tranquilo lesson we
had with him.  Because all we did was just read 1 Nefi 2 and we just focused on the principles that we can apply from the story.  He didn't have anything bad to say.  That testified to me of the power each individual story has.

Well speaking of El Libro de Mormón, this morning I finished reading it!! I started in the MTC, and since then I have learned so much. I had always read it growing up, but never have I had such a strong testimony of this book until my mission.  And I know the only way we can get a testimony of it is by reading it ourselves and diligent personal prayer. I am so so grateful that not only do we have the bible that strengthens our faith in Christ, but we have the Book of Mormon.  I really do feel like I have a better relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It also has helped me understand the importance of the roles that prophets have.  I can say that I know that it is the word of God and is "another testament of Christ."  It really is evidence that the true gospel of Jesus Christ was restored and that the heavens are still open.  I invite all of you to read the
very last chapter in it.. Moroni chapter 10.  There is a promise in there that says if we read and pray about it, the Holy Ghost will testify the truthfulness of it to us.

Well that's about it.  The gospel is true, and life is beautiful.
Enjoy your September. :)

Love,
Hermana Sydney Berry

Yo trato de ser como Cristo

Hola everyone! :)

Already done with the first week of September. Wow!  Time in the mission is super super weird.  Let's just not talk about how I will be half way done with my mission next month.  Wow!!  So this week was good! Lots of walking, talking, calling, teaching, eating, contacting, praying, fasting, running, metro-ing etc.  You name it!  We saw a lot of mini miracles in the moments of discouragement.  I'm starting to learn more vocab faster and I'm also starting to recognize places in my area. (Which is good because it is probable I am area/missionary training next transfer. ) 

Some of the tender mercies we saw this week were just some of the unexpected visits we had with people.  One of them is with a Father of one of our recent converts we visit.  He is from Ecuador and is about 65ish.  The recent convert wants more than anything for his dad to accept the gospel but his dad just didn't seem interested for the longest time.  Well we ended up having a lesson with him with the help of Stefany another recent convert! I could really feel the spirit there.  It was nice that she was there because since she grew up catholic too, she was able to share her experience of finding the true gospel and how it has blessed her life so far.  We will see how the next lesson goes with him. :)

Another day, we passed for a less active family and the two girls happened to be there and let us in.  They're about 18 and 13 years old and from Paraguay.  They are preciosas!! We talked with them and shared a short message.  They told us how happy that we came and how they really want to come back to church so they can feel that peace.  The scripture that we were inspired to share in that moment was (yes Ether 12, it has been quite the popular chapter lately)..

 Ether 12:4- Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might {with surety hope for a better world,} yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. The part that really stuck out to me was about having hope for a better world.  These girls mentioned that how for example, the street the live can seem kind of scary sometimes, with all of the things that go on around them.  We shared this verse with them because really the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can bring that hope in a crazy world like this.  It was really great to see how happy these girls were.

On Friday we had a "BEST 2 YEARS" MOMENT!  If you can remember the part where the missionaries go inside a bakery or something and then later one of them says, "Elder, if we hadn't gone in there in this moment, we wouldn't have met that person.." Or something like that.. Anyway, We were walking down the street and then I saw this bakery with delicious pastries.  My blood sugar was pretty low so it was a good excuse to go try something yummy.  Anyway we get talking about the gospel to the lady who works there and her daughter and law.  They are from Romania, and they were so sweet! They said they would love for us to come back and share more.  The lady told us that it is nice to see young girls like us to not drink or do drugs, leave our families and studies at home and come here to talk about God.  I love hearing these kinds of comments from people especially when we hear the complete opposite.  It definitely compensates. Hermana Spencer totally quoted that part of the that movie movie afterwards. It was pretty funny. 

Every Sunday in the CCM, we would sing hymns on the steps by the temple for people who walk by.  This was one of my highlights there.  One of the perks of being in Barrio 8 is we are right by the temple. On Sunday we took one of our investigators to listen to them singing.  It was great! I loved being reminded what it was like to have that MTC missionary spirit!  I love this gospel so much.  The message we share with people is incredible.  The central message is that Heavenly Father loves us so much and through his son Jesus Christ we may one day return and live with them again.  How joyful is that!? Make every moment last!

Con muchisimo Amor,

Hermana Sydney Berry

🇪🇸