July 14th

Family,

I am doing well. One cool thing that happened this past week was that this past Wednesday, I was able to do some service by cooking a dinner for the D____ family! This family is not (yet) part of our Group here in Lowell since they are already members that attend a Spanish Ward in Lawrence, MA that is just 10 miles outside our Ward boundaries (even our mission boundaries).

[This is one of the biggest trials we face starting up this little Spanish Group in Lowell- that a lot of the Hispanic Member Families in this area would preferably travel a little farther to attend a well-established Hispanic Ward, just a 15 min drive for them. It makes since that they prefer this, but it is also going against the regulation of having their records be in a Ward that is outside of their area or location of residency. It's kind of confusing I know, but our Bishopric and Group Leader are taking care of a lot of this. This whole situation sort of stinks and may unfortunately even cause some drama (like most of the Hispanic culture has- Jazz probably knows), but we'll just have to see and have faith that it will all work out...]

Anyways, back to what I was getting at. I was able to make some homemade Abuelita-styled tortillas with avocado, beans, and rice along side with some pasta of course for this family! It was pretty good too, edible to say the least haha. I don't think I've ever mentioned this but one of the things I discovered to do on my mission is to enjoy and learn how to cook various types of food, of different cultures! I started back in Providence making tortillas with Abuelita along with getting some other recipes from different members I've met on the mission. I'm blessed to enjoy even the simple things as far as cooking, I know that Karen would probably be proud about this:)        

This week was kind of slow as far as the work is concerned... (again, we are still waiting on some action items to be taken care of from our Bishopric/Group leader). So we have not had too much progress with our less actives or any of our investigators. We also had a total of 26 that showed up to our Group yesterday for our sacrament meeting. It was one of those weeks, not too thrilling whatsoever. But I know that as long as we are giving it our best, that is what really matters to the Lord. 

It sounds like everyone is doing well! Dad- Thank you for the letter! I'll be looking forward to the letters from you guys this week! I appreciate all your love and support every week. Siguen adelante con el trabajo de cualquir forma. Se que la importancia de mantaner positivo es essencial durante los tiempos dificiles que pasan en la mision. Gracias a ustds. Les quiero mucho! 

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong