April 13th

Family,

Wow! Yo realice que mi espanol no esta bien, por nada... jaja. Por los menos mi nuevo companero me ha ayudado muchismo con el idioma. Por que el es de Chile, el habla muy rapido y es muy dificil para entenderle, pero todavia estoy bendicido a tener un companero que esta dispuesto a ayudarme con esto. Ahora yo se lo que Jazzy hablaba cuando ella nos decia como dificil a entender los Chileanos por la primera parte de su mision.   

 

(I realize that my Spanish is not good for anything ... haha. At least my new companion has helped me a ton with the language. For that is Chile , speaking very fast and is very difficult to understand , but I'm still be blessing to have a partner who is willing to help me with this . Now I know what she was saying Jazzy when we spoke as difficult to understand Chileanos by the first part of his mission .)

The phrase "running towards the blasts" is certainly taking effect for me at this point on the mission... I have so much to do in so little time, its crazy. We are in charge of the Franklin 1 English Ward and the Spanish Group that was formed about a year ago. The Group is barely staying afloat with only 6-8 active members that actively attend weekly. The goal is to increase the attendance with active priesthood holders and families attending and to work with the members of the English Ward to get them involved in missionary work. We already have a ton of work to do with both. So we are pretty much working back and forth in two separate fields of the work. I definitely have experience in both English and Spanish wards, but the real challenge is finally here... I feel like everything I've worked towards and learned is being put to the test all at once for the last couple months of the mission.

My new companion is awesome! His name is Elder Villar del estado Vitacura en Santiago, Chile este! (the same mission as Jazzy). Jazz did you know anyone with the last name Villar-Barrios??? Anyways he is way cool. Of course he is a soccer player and he came right from high school to come out here to serve a mission. He is super nice and humble too. He also lived in Provo for a few years so he is pretty much fluent in English as well, but is still helping me with my Spanish.

Elder Villar found out a few days before coming out to the field that his dad was called as an area 70 of Chile during this past General Conference. I thought that was pretty amazing that he was able to find that out. Jazzy, you gotta let me know if you know him at all. Sounds like my companion would've lived in the same area of Santiago that you served in! 

I will definitely send some pictures soon. We are going to play soccer or something for our p-day, its his first one so we'll have a good time of course:)

......

 

Keep up the good work! Les quiero mucho!   

     

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong