Week 8 - Dec 22, 2014 - "His Grace is sufficient"

My second week in Reynosa (Rio Bravo) consisted of seeing a man on a bike get hit by a car, dead cats in the streets, ice cold showers (still) and a lot of tortillas.

How is everyone doing? I'm having a total blast out here! Everything that I'm doing is just fun! I don't know if I want to come home ever.. Although we aren't having much success with people listening to us because they are die hard catholics, I love fulfilling my purpose as a missionary. To me, the best time of the day is personal study. I love learning more, i love reading and listening to talks. A talk that me and my companion listened to this week was by Brad Wilcox called, "His Grace is sufficient" Whoa, probably one of the best talks I've ever heard. I'm gonna send it to you through email but as i was listening to him, a thought popped into my head. "I am very grateful for all that you have done for me mom and dad!" Looking back, I wish I Could change my attitude about so many things. Because I couldn't see the outcome of  taking piano lessons, guitar lessons, giving it all my effort in school, etc. But you could and I wish i could have just trusted what it could have done for me. Because I sure do now!! One thing that I really really wish i could go back to is heritage tours. I wish I could go back and change my attitude before and during that trip. Mom, thank you so much for all that you went through to get me on that trip. I can see now what it has done for me. Bronson, I cant wait for you to go on it. It really is going to be one of the greatest and funnest things you do. I hope Bob is still doing it in the next couple years because I heard a rumor he wasn't. I am going to write him a letter this week. Anyways, that's the thought that came to my mind during that talk. It doesn't really have anything to do with grace, its just when he used an example, that's what came to mind. You´ll have to listen to it to understand what I'm talking about. Another thing I really liked from that talk was how he described judgement day. Jesus isn´t going to be standing there with a clip board and saying "oh no, you missed my kingdom by two points" No, he will be pleading with us to use his atonement. It will be us saying "get me outta here" because of how uncomfortable it would be if we hadn´t lived our lives the way were supposed to. We, on earth, are not trying to earn heaven, we are practicing for heaven. we are trying to live in a way that would make us comfortable in his presence. Anyways, that talk is awesome, you should all listen to it.

So being here in Mexico has made me really grateful for some many things that i have been given! The water is getting even colder because the weather is getting colder so now every time i get in the shower in the morning, its like doing a polar bear plunge at scout camp... I wake up and work out real hard and get my body warm before though so it doesn't feel as bad. I'm getting used to it though. This week we had our Christmas party and i got to see all the LP guys here. We took a picture together. Anyways, I hope you all of a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thanks for all the Birthday wishes!! Cant wait to talk to you in a couple days!

Love elder berry