December 1st - TRANSFERS

Family,

Its a great time for us here in the Mass. Boston Mission! We not only accomplished our goal of 70 baptisms but we were able to exceed that goal by 30 baptisms; which gave us the all time record for the number of baptisms in the mission for month. We were able to hit 100 baptisms exact yesterday, one of them which included Q___X___ (S_____)!

It was so cool to see his progress, from the first time we met with him- about 3 months ago- to yesterday, it really was incredible to see his transformation. I remember the first lesson we had when we taught Steve that God was our loving Heavenly Father. Trying to even explain the concept of God to a person that absolutely had no idea of Him was like explaining the concept of eternity to a 3 year old... The concept is so deep but yet he was able to understand, learn, and trust in both us and the Lord that what we were teaching him was true. That is the spirit. There is no doubt in my mind that all of us have the ability to learn truth through the light of Christ which leads us to feel of the Spirit, which confirms all things unto us. It really was an incredible experience and opportunity I had to work with him. Not only will he be blessed, but the rest of his family, F____, T____ and T____ X__ are also planning to follow to be baptized as well. They have baptism dates for next month and are actually taking the lessons all in Chinese. We were able to teach them the lessons via Skype just the other day. We have missionaries in Boston who are from Vietnam and were able to Skype the family to allow them to hear the discussions in their native tongue. We are very blessed to be a part of something remarkable, which is to allow Steve to baptize his family once he receives the Aaronic Priesthood. Again, a huge blessing I had during the time I've spent here in Connecticut for me to be a blessing to this family!

And that is where I will leave off as far as serving in this area in New Haven, CT. I received transfers the other day. The Lord has once again called me to serve in Nashua, NH... but this time as a Zone Leader in that area! I think it will be way cool to see the people whom I've already served around again, plus many others! Although I will continue to be in an English ward, I will also have opportunity to be around both Nashua and Lowell, two places that I know pretty well from serving there last year. The geographic region for the Zone includes Southern NH, Northern Mass. and even a small area in Vermont. I think it's pretty neat. Hopefully one time I can make it out to VT, never thought I'd go there before. My new companion's name is Elder Smith (typical lol). I heard he is cool and is also from Glendale, AZ. I've never met him before so he must be from another stake out there in AZ. 

Dad/Karen- My address will be the same haha. 1 Clocktower Pl. Nashua, NH 03060. Thanks for sending me those packages! I think I am all set when it comes to preparing for the winter though. Its actually 60 degrees again today, which probably hints that we will have a brutal winter here in New England later on... Its all good though. Glad to know that you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving! I also had the chance to play in our Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving and it was a blast! We were playing in the snow and everything. Later that day we ate at a member's house. We had the normal turkey and potatoes dinner that evening.

I really was blessed to have been around great members of our ward. Some of which I'll continue to contact for sure. A lot of which are students here at Yale and plan to only live in this area of CT temporarily. They plan to move either out to Utah or Arizona for their careers. But hopefully one day I can make it back out here to New Haven to see people like the X____ and others. 

Dad- I will have the chance to serve in Boston. There is no way the Lord had planned this to where I would never have the chance to be serve in a place that I grew up to love. But as I know, it is not my decision to make that call. I'll find out what He has in store for me during the "4th quarter" of my mission. 

Jazzy- Love you J, keep up the work. Great blessings are in store for you for sure!

I'm blessed as well to know how much we are loved by our friends and family back in Illinois. I could not stop smiling from looking at those pics with Nathan and Nikki. They're all grown... crazy. And Nate is already preparing to serve a mission himself! Tell Rex Bale congrats too! 

Have a great week. Keep working hard. Les Quiro Mucho!   

P.S. pics are kinda funky... They were taken from E. Lee's GoPro camera lol

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong