Final Transfers, April 6th

Family,

I received my final transfers earlier this week. The Lord has called me to serve in Franklin, MA Spanish-Speaking for my final months on the mission!! It is 45 min South of Boston, right next to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, and 30 min North of my first area in Providence. It is perfect. I will also be a District Leader and Training my new companion who is a native speaker from... CHILE!! I am so excited!!! This is the way the Lord wanted me to end the mission:) Although I did not have a chance to actually serve in the city of Boston, this opportunity is much better. I'm blessed to train a new missionary, which will allow me to apply all the things I've been able to learn as a missionary throughout the past two years. The geographic area doesn't matter either, it's all about the people I will be able to bless. This is definitely the way to end it!

I hope you all took the time to reflect upon our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ during this past Easter weekend while also watching General Conference:) I love General Conference and it helped strengthened my testimony on what I can do to improve in my own personal life to draw me closer to my Savior. He lives and he loves us. I also can't believe the time that has gone by knowing that this was the final time I would be able to watch conference as a full time missionary. The time is going by each day...

I believe that the Packards are hosting a video chat with all the parents next Sunday on April 12th, which sounds pretty exciting. I will also let you know more details next week about my new area and how everything goes with my new companion from Chile. Again, I am way excited for what's about to take place!

Thank you for all your love and support. Les Quiero Mucho!   

PS. I did not go to New York City, we went into the New York within the mission boundries:)

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

 

 

March 30th

Family,

Sorry for the short letter this week... I am about to head off to New York with the missionaries from our Zone for my P-Day (first and probably only opportunity to do so during the mission). I'll make sure to take some pics by the NY sign and send them to you guys.

Just another week of hard work. Not too much has happened this week. We are preparing ourselves for General Conference during this Easter weekend. So right now, I thought I'd share my testimony real quick that I know that my Savior lives. He died and rose again so that we may all have the power to be perfected, just like he is. I am a living representative of Him at this point in my life and I will continue to be one, even after my release of being a missionary.

Thank you for the easter package by the way!! The cookies are delicious, just like home:) And to answer your question Karen, I will just go ahead and fly home back to Phoenix on June 29th. I look forward to taking a trip back out here in August!! I will have to go ahead and contact the secretary of the mission to let her know my flight plans.

Too bad I am out of the runnings for March Madness, oh well lol. Best of luck to Dad. Can't believe I am writing this still being an Illini fan, but ON WISCONSIN!! I'm pulling for you haha. 

Thanks again for all your love and support. Les Quiero Mucho!!

December 8th

Family,

Glad to know everyone is doing well and that you guys enjoyed your trip to San Diego! It sure does bring back a lot of good memories going to watch the Chargers and of course visiting Old Town. I received all of your packages, letters, etc. by the way, so no worries on that. Thank you for those! Its definitely a blessing to know how much you guys are thinking of us (Jazz and I- esp Jazzy at this point I'm sure;) We will all be back to go to San Diego as a family for sure around this time next year!

I am doing well. I felt very welcomed from many of the members and people that I've worked with before- both from Lowell and Nashua. There were also a lot of hugs and greetings from the Spanish folk yesterday when I was able to make an appearance in the Nashua Spanish group at church. The C______, L_____ and M____ family are absolutely a blessing! That was the highlight of my week, being able to see these families and also to see the growth of the Spanish Group since the last time I saw it last spring. I'm also blessed to know that I was able to make a positive impact on a few people from the time I served here before. Right now though, the work in the English ward is not as great as what I had back in New Haven... in fact, I went from the point of almost baptizing an entire family to working with zero investigators. Its kind of frustrating, but maybe this is why I was called to be back in this area. I know that the Lord has plans for me and a work for me to do no matter where I'm assigned to serve. 

I don't really have too much else to say... I am working well with Elder Smith, he is pretty chill. It turns out that we only live about 15 minutes away from one another. He lives south of Thunderbird. Good guy to work with.

Dad- That's awesome that you know a few people that can hook us up to go watch the Chargers play next fall. It's all about the connections:) Be sure to let Ron know that I am looking forward to his offer to go to a few games. Can't wait for that!

Karen- Thanks for the pics. Glad to know that you were able to reunite with your friend. You're right, we are very blessed to have great friends and to know that we can reach out to them. And yes, can't wait for Christmas too! :)

Jazzy- Sigue andelante hermana!! Sola tres semanas mas... que vas a hacer?!?!?! Leave it all in Chile:) Love you J!

Enjoy the rest of your week, I know that the Lord is continually blessing us. Be sure to always remember Him and do what you need to do in order to be touched by the Spirit in your lives. Whether its by scripture study, prayer or continual service for others, I know that the Spirit may be present with us if we are striving to come closer to the Savior.

Les Quiero mucho! GO CHARGERS!!!

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

May 19th

Thank you for all your letters. So like I've said, right now I am in Lowell, Mass. The Spanish Group in this area was just announced yesterday so everything is a go! The differences between this one and the Group that we started in Nashua is that we are working completely from scratch... and I mean completely. We do have two investigators right now though, but our primary focus is reactivation and inviting ALL to come unto Christ. With that being said, there are a total of 58 people in the ward who speak Spanish but are no where to be found in the area. That is where we come in, to find and invite. And there are also 27 people who are Brazileros in the ward... This means that our other assignment is to reach out to all the Portugese speaking members in the area as well and to also invite them to the Spanish Group, where they can understand the majority of what is being said. 

 

Lowell is filled with a ton of Brazilians and Cambodians, its pretty crazy! When we spoke with our Bishop yesterday, he discussed some of the issues that this ward has and one of the biggest problems was the amount of less-actives that don't speak English; hence one of the reasons we are starting this group. So yeah, he has also asked us to reach out to all people, no matter their race or language they speak. Elder Johnston and I are now learning Portugese and a little Cambodian... its pretty wild! Portugese is basically a totally different language! I'm excited to be learning different languages and cultures. I never thought I'd ever have to speak those languages. The Lord is definitely making my mission pretty interesting for sure!

 

One of the things I am grateful for is the great relationships I am making with some of the members here in the Lowell Ward. There is this family (the G_____ family) who are our only Spanish active members and are doing all that they can to help us in the work. They are super nice and want to do everything to help. This family consists of an older couple and a son who is our Group Leader (R__ G___). This guy is awesome! He hooked Elder Johnston and I up at a really nice gym for a 30 free pass and is just all around way cool. I'm excited to be working with him to say the least!  

 

Dad and K- That is awesome you were able to make it to the Grand Canyon! I can't wait to hike it when I get back. That is definitely one of the first things I want to do is to hike the whole rim, North and South. I'm sure that grandpa and grandma had just as great of a time as well! That's fun that the Rackham's were able to come to AZ for a visit too. It sounds like everything is going well back home, keep it up!

 

Jazz- Como vai? Eu nao falar muieto portugese mas eu estou tretando aprender.... jaja. Lo que dije es que estoy tratando aprender portugese pero es tan dificil. Basicamente un otro idioma por los menos. Te images tratando hablar en espanol mientras te pillas tu nariz, es lo que como sona el portugese jaja. De todos modos, sigues trabajando. Te quiero mucho hermana!

 

I recieved a package today, which I will open up later this afternoon. Thank you guys for that.

 

I know that this work is tough. I never felt like I have had to work harder in my life... Football is hard but it doesn't even compare as far as the amount of mental and spiritual exhaustion I feel everyday. I just know that the Lord expects a lot out of me and He knows that I can rise up to these types of challenges. Like I said, I am basically starting from nothing; with the people I'm working with, the language, the area... everything. But I'm blessed to know that I can always fall back on my Savior and trust in Him for everything as well.  love you guys. I pray for you often.

 

 

 

       

May 12th

Family,

I'm so blessed knowing that you guys are doing well!! You guys look great and are HAPPY! That I believe is the most important thing. I too am doing great. Although I may have seemed a little frustrated at the begging of our call, I just had a lot of things going on in my mind... A lot of which included good-byes to be said to the people here in Nashua and the change I'm going to have in Lowell. I'm not going to lie, it's a little stressful, but I believe it is for the best and I truly am excited for what is going to take place with the new change I'm going to have working with different people and serving in a new area. All and all, I am blessed to have been able to talk with you guys and to see Jazzy and her companion was pretty cool as well! 

I know that we just spoke yesterday but I just wanted to quickly share my thoughts from the skype call we had and some of the things that I'm grateful for. First, I just like to thank you Jazzy for giving me the opportunity to at least talk with you for the time that I did. Even though we really didn't speak for too long, I was grateful to at least see you and know that everything is going well down in Chile. It does sound like the work is a little difficult down there as well, but your always in my prayers Jazzy. Keep working hard and trust in the Lord for everything. Love you Jazz!

K, thanks for making me smile:) You really do make me laugh and I'm grateful for that. .........

. I know how much you want to help, I really appreciate it! Thanks again k. 

Dad- You are the guy. Thanks for all your support and advice. I look up to you not only as my dad, but as my hero. Man I can't thank you enough for how much you've been able to teach me, and I mean EVERYTHING. It is all being applied to what I'm experiencing right now. This is my test. Just like camelback, I just got to take it one foot at a time, little by little. I know what I need to do. Thank you for helping me realize what I need to do and to put it all into perspective for me. Just like I told you yesterday, I've never relied upon the Lord as much as I have had to here on the mission. This is all part of the experience though. Keep running towards the blast! (There goes a Fightah;)      

I'll just end this message with my simple testimony that I know that Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior. I know that there are many people that are lost and don't know where to find the truth of His gospel. We have the truth.  We have been blessed as a family, so we should do everything we can to give back. Continue to serve our family, friends, brothers, sisters. Bear witness of Him. The Lord has many things in store for all of us:)

I love you all.     

April 21st

Family,

Today is a great day for everyone in New England! Yes, I will be going to the Boston Marathon this morning. (Its too bad the Sox also play the same time as the race or else I could go to both...) President Packard is also having everyone dress in their proselyting clothes to represent the LDS missionaries. I'm way excited, It's just going to great!!

What an exciting time for all of our friends and family. Congrats to Lauren Dodd for her mission call to Salt Lake City! She's going to do great things. Also for Devin, best of luck for him. He's going to be a great missionary as well. And that's awesome that you were able to surprise Kennedy Coley. Couldn't imagine one of our friends visiting me on the mission... haha. But it sounds like you guys had a great time down in Houston and Beaumont TX! Can't wait to make it down there sometime too after the mission.        

I'll write a quick message and wish you all a Happy Easter. I know that my Savior lives. I can't really explain how close of a relationship I have had with my Father in Heaven during the course of this mission; and the changes that I've seen not only in the lives of others but in my own life as well.

"We need to understand the Savior in order to better understand ourselves." - unknown

This is my testimony to you all. 

I love you guys so much. Keep up the hard work everyday. Dad- You know where I'll be;) BostonStrong!!

January 6th

Family,

 

Thank you guys for your testimonies and powerful messages- (jazzy w/ the message on priesthood) that you guys have written to me this past week. I too have had a great week with amazing experiences as well. One of which happened just last week when we were teaching one of our previous investigators, whose name is B___. He's a 17 year old Dominican kid who lives in the "projects." He was taught many times by the missionaries before we started working with him, but he never really progressed. So a couple weeks prior we just simply asked him what principle he wanted to know more about, and he told us he was interested on knowing more about the Plan of Salvation. So last week, we were able to have a lesson on that topic, and while I was bearing testimony of our Savior towards the end of the lesson, I had a direct prompting to invite him to be baptized at that moment (we never planned on setting a baptismal. date for him since its been so long since we worked with him). He accepted the baptismal invitation for the next month in February. 

 

It's amazing to know how promptings by the holy spirit work in our lives. I know that they are direct messages from the Lord that come by certain thoughts or feelings we have, that prompts us to make decisions that will ONLY lead to the BEST outcomes. Specifically what I experienced this past week with B____, it just "clicked" for me to extend that invitation to him. The thought that also came to my mind as well (that dad might also be familiar with) goes as- "Some may not want to go to the party, but everyone wants to receive the invite..." 

 

I'm blessed to also be working with an amazing companion as well, Elder Gonzalez (from Salt Lake, grew up in Mexico). This guy has really helped me reach my fullest potential when it comes to working hard on the mission and epecially gaining spiritual knowledge. I already mentioned to you guys how he has a photographic memory, knows many languages, etc. but he also has many other incredible gifts that are absolutely amazing as well. (I will refrain from writing it in this letter in due respect to him). But nonetheless, he has helped me to become the best I can be, which is an amazing blessing to me in my life.

 

 

Karen- It was pretty funny when I got my package because I opened it up and the first thing I pull out is the chocolates, that were all melted... that's how I knew it was shipped from AZ:) But thank you again for the package. I'm sure the other missionaries appreciate the little things that you do for them as well. Before I thought it was weird that you would go out of your way to buy goofy ties or little things like that for the sis/elders, but now I kind of understand, kind of:)

 

 

Thank you guys for all your love, prayers, and support. I am starting to see the changes in many lives here on my mission, especially my own. Keep working hard this week. I love you guys. 

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong