Family,

I hope this email finds you well. It sounds like everyone kinda had one of those weeks... I can't believe someone would vandalize us, that would tick me off as well. But just remember that the situation could have been a lot worse (that no one was harmed). I'm blessed that you guys are ok, its still a shame that that happened. Dad, I know exactly what you mean- some of my hardest struggles on the mission have unfortunately been based off what you wrote to me in the email. We'll talk about it when I get home.

This week for me was a pretty good week. We had our Zone Conference in Hartford, CT. last Thursday, which was awesome and then our baptism was this past Saturday. It was a blessing for me to be able to perform the ordinance for B____. He is a 15 year old kid from Ethiopia and he is also planning to go to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead for his father, who passed away when he was young. I know that this is an incredible moment in his life right now. Also over this past weekend, we had our AP's come to our Zone to do exchanges with us and we were able to get great insight on ways to improve the work here in New Haven. We are going to be focused on our finding efforts in order to have more opportunities to teach. We are blessed for the success in the work that we have already had and hopefully will continue to have. Elder Lee and I are tearing it up!

Dad- What a way for Jeter to go out the way he did. That's incredible. That would be a dream to end off your career with a walk-off to win it. Thanks for all the updates, I appreciate it

Karen- Thanks for the pics. Frank was able to baptize his little girl and Hunter got the Priesthood:) Sweet! I'm glad Cambria and Hunter are having fun with you guys. As well, I will let you know if there is anything I need. 

K/Dad- I wrote you guys a separate email. I will explain my situation in detail in that email.

Jazzy- Te quiero Hermana!

Keep working hard guys, despite what happened over the weekend just remember to keep your head up.

There are great times ahead, especially with everything going on with our new PHX Temple!!! 

Love you guys! 

  

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

August 18th

Family,

I am doing well. Yesterday we had our baptism for L____ B____! My comp was able to perform the ordinance for her. We were all super thrilled and I think her mom has also taken some interest into learning more about the Gospel as well. Her family is originally Catholic, but after all that happened yesterday with the baptism, I believe it may have just sparked a little bit more of interest for L____'s family to want to learn more. We'll just have to find out. Nonetheless, it was a great day overall! 

Other than that, not too many things have happened over this past week... Kind of like you guys, it has just been one of those weeks. Except for Jazzy, wow! Even though it might have been from the previous week, that is really exciting to hear about N______ and also the conversation you were able to have with one of your members who didn't have a testimony of the BOM. But through inspired questions, you were able to reach out to his needs, which I'm assuming was exactly what he needed at that point. I'm sure you guys were able to be a huge blessing for him. Way to stick it to the members J! jaja:)

One of my favorite things about being in the position that I'm in now is that we have the opportunity to go on exchanges once a week. I am able to relate well to a lot of the missionaries, some whom I wouldn't think I'd have anything in common with them. I'm able to not only see their view point as a missionary, but I'm blessed to be able to work with these missionaries on a more personal/spiritual level. This is absolutely one of my favorite things to do as a missionary, to help other missionaries find ways to grow and become successful. 

Thanks again for your letters! 
K- Thanks for the addition to my checking account. Just to let you know though, I had to get a brand new suit tailored. So right now my balance is low again... if you could just add an additional 20 I'd appreciate it. 
Dad- I think I remember you telling me about a month ago or so that you were planning to go to a couple of A's games in Oakland for your B-Day. If that's so, I hope you enjoy the time out there, great memories for sure!! Happy Birthday Dad:)

Hope all is well this week.

Les Quiero mucho!! 

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

March 10th

Family,

What a week all of you guys had! I'm still in shock that Rich is married... and not only that but Abuelita showed up to the wedding!!! What the heck haha. I got the chills when I saw all those pictures including the one of dad and Abuelita at the wedding. And now you guys are planning to have her stay over at our house. Wow! Talk about a small world. Make sure to buy some "masa brasa" and avacados when she comes over to the house then. Oh man they are the best tortillas! Las Guatemaltecas saben como a cocinar! Papi, creo que si tu la haces venir a abuelita a la casa, tu dieta irá en la direcion opuesta jaja:) But yes, she took great care of me, and I know you guys will do the same.

Anyways, thanks for all the news and info that's been happening. Its sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend! FYI I never served with that Elder Gonzalez... I actually finished the last 6 weeks of training a different Elder Gonzalez who is still serving in Providence right now. Oh yeah, I don't think I've ever made it known to you guys that I had the opportunity to be a part-time trainer on the mission. (I never had made it known because I didn't do much training, if anything that guy was the one training me). But yeah it sounds like the other Gonzalez is pretty cool too. I heard a ton of good things from Rich about him. Shoot, I can go on and on by asking you guys how everything went with Rich's wedding... still can't believe it, crazy! That's cool, I'm excited for him. 

As for me I am doing pretty good. Johnston and I have worked really hard this week as far as working with the less active members. Also this week we picked up one new investigator, O____, who seems really interested and dedicated to learning more about the church. We were able to teach him the Resturation this past week and it went really well. He has plans to write out a bunch of questions for us, so our next visit with him should be pretty interesting. Also yesterday was another big day for us. Even though we had 10 less people show up to sacrament mtg than what we had the week before- 48 in total, we still had great success. Like what I wrote earlier, we worked really hard with the less active members in the area; so as a result, we had a total of 4 less actives show up to church and they stayed for the entire time! 2 of those less actives are youth, R____ y R___ A____ while the other 2 include J___ P___-24, who told us he has the desire to serve a mission (even had an interview with the bishop yesterday) and another guy, Hermano C_____, who hasn't been to church in over 3 yrs. He was constantly attending the Catholic church after falling away from the church but we finally got him to come back. All we had to do was invite these people and the Lord took care of the rest!

So President Packard also got word of the amount of people that showed up for our Spanish group and was thrilled with our efforts here in Nashua. He was so impressed that he wanted to see the Spanish group for himself. So yesterday, him and his son attended our sacrament meeting, which was pretty cool too. They got to witness the Spanish group for themselves and be a part of our sacrament meeting, even though they had no idea what was going on because of the language barrier. But all and all yesterday was a great day. Don't get me wrong it is not easy whatsoever, I have a ton of days where I'm pretty miserable. But it is sure worth it to actually see of the successes from your efforts.

Speaking of successes... you guys mentioned that Abuelita told you guys that I was able to run into her at the temple a couple weeks prior. That's because I had the opportunity to help out my buddy A____ D_____ go through the temple for the first time a couple weeks back, Feb 22, 2013. A_____, the youth and most of the members of the Prov Spanish Ward were able to make it into attendance that day to do baptisms for the dead. Talk about the all time experience and blessing I had! Just incredible...... What a joy and blessing it will also be to maybe take him to the temple again to assist him in performing other ordinances down the road.          

Keep up the hard work. It's still snowing where I'm at, so I hope you all continue to enjoy the warm weather. 

I pray for you guys daily. I love you all.

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong