June 15th

Family,

Thank you for all your letters and support. 

Dad, I received your letter in the mail this past week and I'll be sure to look for the last remaining ones in the mail at some point either this week or next. And Karen, thank you for the offer on the new phone! I kind of feel spoiled lol but at the same time I am truly grateful and blessed:) Again, thank you guys.

I can't believe the time has come to this. I only have 2 weeks remaining... But because the Lord has blessed me to endure to the end, I will have the privilege to be a part of another baptism held in our ward this upcoming Saturday. This is for an ex-communicated member, ______, who has been faithful and worthy to re-enter into the waters of baptism. This is someone who the missionaries have been working with for a long time. And now he has finally been approved by Salt Lake City to become a member again. We are all excited for him! 

Everyone will find out their new companions this Friday, and then next week on Saturday (June 27th) is when we will hold our transfer meeting. It will be the farewell for President Packard, his family, and 30 other missionaries that are going home as well. I am grateful to have been companions with Elder Villar. He has strengthened my testimony and has helped me grow, even only during the 2 months that I've been with him. To be honest, I believe he has taught me more than I have been able to teach him. He has been one of my favorite companions by far! I know why the Lord has put us together during this time.   

As I explained in my last email, this will most likely be my final email that I will write to you all on my mission. Elder Villar, A___ D______, and I are planning to make the trip to Boston next week for my final P-Day. No better way to end the mission than being in the city I love, while being with Villar and my other best friend A____, who I had the opportunity to literally see change his life by accepting the gospel! It's a storybook ending for a roller coaster ride of a mission that I experienced. No doubt, we'll have a great time:) 

I will end it all with my testimony that I know that our Savior lives and loves us. I've come to a knowledge of these truths by the Holy Spirit. It is real. This gospel is real. People do change by accepting Jesus Christ in their lives, I am a witness to that. I am a witness to the power of the Atonement. I have been able to exercise it myself and experience the divinity and power of the atonement on my mission. At a certain point of my mission, I have felt the lowest I've ever felt in my life. Only coming to realize later on that it was only to experience true joy, in a sense. That is what this gospel is all about. The Lord humbled me to know this. It's not about me, it's not about the personal gain, or popularity, or any of that. No, it's about the Lord and being a  blessing for his children. This is my purpose as a Saint and a servant of the Lord. It is my humble testimony that I know this church is true. And how blessed I am to have been raised into this church by an amazing family to help me get to this point in my life! 

I accomplished His work as a Full-Time Representative of Jesus Christ here in New England by the hand of the Lord. And for this, I couldn't be any happier.

Pat, I will hopefully be seeing you and your family soon! Jazzy, I can't wait to give you a big hug as well:)

This is it. See you all in 2 weeks! Les Quiero mucho! 

​Go Sox! 

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

June 2nd

Family,

These past couple days have been incredible! On Sunday, we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Holland at the Latino Conference held in Weston, MA. Almost all the people, whom I love very much, from all the Spanish areas that I've served in on my mission attended the conference. Everyone that I've basically worked  with was in the congregation that night to hear from an apostle of the Lord. It was the family reunion of my mission! It was very sentimental to see all these people again, one of which included Abuelita Argueta. I had not seen her for more than a year and a half, so it was amazing to be able to see her again:)

I'm attaching a photo of Elder Jeffery R. Holland. What an honor it is to be able to look this man in the eyes and to shake his hand. I know that he, as well as the other remaining General Authority, are called of God to lead and guide this church. I do know that this church is true and what a blessing it is to serve at this time. 

Thank you for all your love and support. I'm still running towards the blast! 

Love you all. 

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

May 24th

Family,

I am writing a quick email tonight because of the Memorial Day holiday. We are blessed to have the opportunity again to attend the Temple early in the a.m. tomorrow!  Although we will be in the Boston area, we're actually spending the rest of the day tomorrow in Cambridge where a group of missionaries and some other Brazilian locals and will be having a huge BBQ and playing soccer. I know that Elder Villar and I will have a blast, it should be a great day:)  

I am doing well. Elder Villar and I are continuing to work hard by helping our investigators progress, poco a poco:) We were also introduced this week to what is known as "Digital Missionary Work." This is a new concept of missionary work that the MBM alone has created, where we can communicate to others using Skype and other social media networks to contact people. We reach out to others through the net to introduce them to the Gospel! And once they are interested in further discussions or baptism, we will be able to contact the local missionaries in that area to further their progression. It's super neat. We are required to do this during the slow hours of the day, and then we go about our normal proselyting work for the remainder of the time. For example, just this past week I was able to Skype with a woman from Italy and also another from Venezuela. As well, I was able to call a guy over the internet from Mexico. So this next week, Elder Villar and I will possibly have the opportunity to share the first discussion over Skype with the two women both from Italy and Venezuela, hopefully by this Tuesday. Its awesome! The work is hastening all over the world.        

I am grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord, especially the blessings of great church leaders- specifically the bishop of the current ward I am serving. His name is Bishop Doughty. He was able to give me great advice in regard to keep working hard towards the end of my mission. As well, I received the letter from Dad that helped me even greater to understand what I need to do to finish strong. So Dad, thank you for the letter! We will talk about everything soon;)

I want you guys to know how much I love you all. I hope you are not too worried or concerned about me... I know I'm supposed to endure difficult times on the mission for a reason. I only know that this reason is making me stronger and building up my testimony even more. Thank you for all your love and support as well. 

Here is the link to the information for the parent Web-Ex for tonight. http://www.bostonmission.org/events/I hope you are able to get this in time, it starts in 5 minutes from now...

Have a great week. I love you all. BostonStrong!

 

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

May 18th

Family,

I am doing fine. There have been countelss weeks when it has been difficult for me on the mission, but for some reason this week was just rough... It was difficult to find productive things to do after almost all of our appointments feel through. It's also frusterating that the majority of our investigators are not progressing as well. And because of this, we spent the majority of our time door to door tracting. No one was remotely interested, so it felt like a waste of time. And time is what I don't have too much left... I'm just glad to know that everything has its purpose though and to know that these experiences, as frustrating as they are, are helping me to grow stronger. Just as Dad put it, these will probably be the hardest 6 weeks trying to finish it out to the end. Maybe the Lord is preparing Elder Villar and I for something better though, we'll see.

To shed some light on the positives, we were able to go to the temple this past Tuesday to do baptisms for the dead with the youth in our ward. We felt that we were able to have a good connection with a lot of the youth and our members from our ward because we were able to help out. It's always a blessing to attend the temple. What an incredible opportunity dad has to work at the Phoenix temple now too. 

Congrats to Jazz!!!! That's exciting how she is moving on to the big leagues, L.S.U!! Ya no BRCC:)  haha. I'm proud of you J, love ya.

Karen- Thanks for sending a package. ..........

Dad- Looking forward to that letter. I want you to know how much I appreciate those and how much it motivates me whenever I read them. Keep it up working at the gym and now at the temple:)

Keep up all the hard work. I know that we have been blessed by the Lord greatly. And I know that he has more in store as well. This week will be a better week for sure, no doubt:)  

Les quiero mucho!

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

May 4th

Family,

Its already May.... and it's 80 degrees and sunny today. Finally! If the mission has taught me one thing its to appreciate the tender mercies the Lord blesses us with. With the brutal winter we had, it sure is nice to enjoy good weathah. I now know what it takes to be a true New Englandah. Its no wonder why the people are tough out here too lol.

This week was an awesome week! We picked up an entire family of investigators, the L_____ family. D___, a 13 year old kid, is the only one in the family that is pretty much interested in investigating and wants to be baptized. We have plans to extend the invitation for him and the rest of his family for baptism for the next time that we see them. We are also working with the T____ family. They have been investigating the church for quite a while now and the missionaries in the past have not had good luck working with them. It is our goal to simply invite them to our Spanish Group (which they came this Sunday!) and to slowly work with the father. He has been the one who has been stubborn with the missionaries in the past and is not very open with them, we'll see though. Another family that has been our focus as well is the C_____ family. We plan to see them later tonight. It's also our goal to invite the family to attend the Spanish Group and extend that invitation for baptism at some point in the near future... We are also working with several other individuals. M____ A____, T___ H_____, and M___ H___B___, all of which have great potential too. 

So as the mission comes to a close, I am aware of the trend or the focus of what the Lord expects of me to accomplish in my final area. The focus of families. Two of which may also make the difference for our little Spanish Group as well. I am going out on a full sprint to the finish line. It does not matter whether or not any of these people accept baptism (right away), as long as I am willing and committed to doing everything possible to help them progress spiritually in their lives and allowing them that opportunity to come unto Christ.

Elder Villar is doing great! We had a cool experience last Wednesday as we went to the Temple to do an Endowment session. All the trainers and trainees in the mission have the cool opportunity to do a session at the temple with one another. So that was pretty special. This Thursday we also have our final interviews with President Packard in the mission home. This will be the final time that everyone else in the mission will be able to meet one on one with him (not including my departing interview next month). I'm looking forward to it. 

Thanks for all your letters. It's exciting to know that Dad will be able to work at the Temple! And I had no idea that my companion Elder Smith was related to Scott Smith, I wish I could've made that connection before... I figured he would've known someone from the north canyon ward since he also lives in Glendale. 

It's sounds like everyone is doing great for the most part. It's sad to hear that there are some people that we know are struggling right now. Continue to keep them in your prayers and find ways to reach out and serve them. 

Continue to work hard in all that you do. Remember how blessed we are and that the Lord loves all of us. 
Les Quiero Mucho!       

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

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

 

 

February 23rd

Family,

This week has been another solid week in terms of extending Baptismal Dates for our investigators! The weather here blows but the work is progressing. Elder Terry and I were able to extend 3 more baptism dates, one for V__ V____ for May 2nd and two for our new investigators R__ D____ and N____ R____ for the end of March. R____ and N____ were actually found while we were tracking the streets at 8:30 at night when it was only 10 degrees outside. It was definitely a tender mercy for us since we were able to leave a blessing on their home that night and then later they committed to attend church a couple days after. It was awesome! So right now we have planned 6 baptisms, most of them lined up to occur at least every weekend in March. It sure is a blessing to have the success that we've been having. The key to all of this is the blessings that comes through obedience, diligence to rely upon the Lord, and by working with the members:) 

Thank you for your emails. ,,,,,,,,,,and yes, I'm stoked to play the courses:) Can't wait!

As for now, I will keep doing the Lord's will during this time in his service. I'm blessed for the miracles that I've seen and the spiritual progression I'm able to witness in the lives of others and for myself as well. I know that Heavenly Father has his purposes, even during times of difficulty. This is just his way of preparing us to become his choice sons and daughters that he knows we are.

Thanks again for all that you do. Keep up the good work. Les Quiero Mucho! 

​

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

February 16th

Family,

I'm sure you all of you are aware of the bitter cold weather we experienced yesterday here in NE. Church was also canceled for the first time on my mission because of the severity of the cold. We still had a chance to give some service though by shoveling snow for people during part of the day yesterday. This has been honestly the most brutal weather I have ever experienced. Anytime down the road when I have the chance to come back to NE, I will make it a priority to visit in the summer instead of the winter. 

I can continue to talk about how awful this weather has been for us, but all in all it has not really affected our work. In fact, we have seen tender mercies occur in our area just in the past couple days. V____ sent us a text yesterday saying that she does want to be baptized! She is still trying to figure out a specific date though. We are also starting to plan for Ma_____'s and M_____'s baptisms for March 7th and March 15th. And we also plan to extend baptism for S___ D_____ and possibly for J____ tomorrow as well. We have not been able to see J______ in a while so we will see what happens with him. 

So although we have had some obstacles occur for us these past couple days, I'm blessed to see the positives that occurred for us. Plus by being inside for all of yesterday, it gave me the time to reflect on my mission and about my life and where I stand. I know that the Lord has great plans for me, including the time that I have serving Him and his children at this moment. I am aware of the amount of time that I have left as well, its crazy to think about but its also exciting at the same time. I am finding out more and more of what the Lord wants me to do in the future and most importantly the type of person he wants me to become.

.........Also Karen, thank you for the socks and valentines day card. I'm glad you and dad were able to be with Ron and Denise for this past week too. Tell them that I say hi! 

Keep up the hard work. Jazz- Happy Mardi Gras! Don't get too crazy:P lol.

Enjoy the warmth. Les Quiero Mucho!             

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

 

 

 

February 2nd

Family,

Despite the two blizzards we had during the week, we were still able to accomplish a ton! As a Zone, we were able to reach a total of 51 New Investigators for the month of January, which is the all time record for this area of the mission! President Packard was so thrilled about our efforts that he himself and his wife attended our Stake Conference this past weekend and gave us a shout-out about our accomplishments. (Keeping in mind that this time of the year is the worst time to find people to teach along with our Zone being the largest geographical region in the mission). He called this area of the mission, "The New Jerusalem" because of the unity that we have as both missionaries and ward members here in this area of New England. Honestly, we really have been busy with finding new investigators and with having several teaching appointments, just in my area alone. The next step for all of us is to set baptismal dates for those that are ready to make that covenant of baptism. It really is a fantastic to see the blessings that come from the Lord.

One of our investigators that we are working with, J___ C___, was a former investigator that previous missionaries were working with about eight years ago. Assuming he wasn't alive anymore, since his teaching records showed that he was in his 80's at the time, we still decided to knock on his door anyways to see if anyone else lived there. We found out that he was actually still living on his own at 90 years old. We also found out that he was a WWII vet that served in the Marines in Japan. He was one of the ones that raised one of the flags on Iwo Jima when America won the war. J____ also ended up coming to Stake Conference this past weekend, which was awesome too! He is actually one of the coolest investigators I've been able to work with since he has so many stories to tell. Great guy for sure. We are also teaching M___ M____, V___ V_____, M__ A____ and Y___ R____ and her kids as well.    

We are working hard everyday. This week will be filled with leadership meetings and counsels as well. Hopefully the snow will stop for us at some point. But other than that, enjoy that southern climate because I'm sure freezing out here. It won't be too much longer though.

Keep working hard in all that you do. One of these days I will send some pictures....

Les Quiero Mucho!

Go Pats!!!! 2015 Super Bowl Champs, woooo!! :) 

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

January 26th

Family,

Not too much has been happening lately, except the fact that all of New England has been preparing for one of the worst snow storms in history. Or as they claim... they're saying about 30 in! Blizzard conditions will last later today till mid-Wednesday.  So today will be a day of literal preparation as far as getting things ready for the blizzard Juno. I hope you enjoyed your Cruise!!!

I am doing well though, I have no complaints:) We have been able to pick up a couple new investigators over this past week, which has been keeping us very busy everyday. I have not been this busy in the work for while now, so I sure do love it! Its nice to always be kept busy and to remain consistently focused on the Lord and His work.  

Thanks for sending me the application forms for the schools I have interests in. ...............But for now my future plans on all that are still wide-open, so I will just leave it at that. I just completed all my other applications for all the other schools so I am all set.

Glad you guys are enjoying your cruise right now lol. I will probably be inside most of this week or once this Blizzard is done... what can you do though. Only the Lord knows and apparently has a purpose for it. But all I know is that it is not going to stop us from hastening His work!

I will try to remember to send pics next time. Keep up the good work. Tell the grandparents I love them too.

Les Quiero Mucho!

January 12th

Family,

This will be my final time serving here in Nashua, NH... As of Saturday night, I received the news where I will be most likely serve the remaining months of my mission. The Lord has called me to serve in Ludlow, MA (Eng speaking), which is in the suburbs of Springfield! I will also continue to serve as a Zone Leader in that area. My geographic region covers all of Western Mass. with a little area of New York, so we'll see if I can make it out there (been to almost all states on my mission lol). This place reminds me a lot of the final episode in Seinfeld, where their plane crashes in a random remote area of Mass. Yep, that's where I will be haha. Its super random but I'm excited nonetheless! 

There's also a ton of work that is happening over there as well! I already know who my new companion is going to be. His name is Elder Terry. I was able to serve around him before so I know we will work well with one another. I also know a lot of the other missionaries in this new zone so it will be an absolute blast to work with them! 

Surprisingly, I was not worried at all about being transferred so fast, especially during a time where the work here in Nashua started to progress much faster since the time I came in. This week was definitely the way to end off my time serving in the Nashua area though. We ended up extending a baptismal date for our new investigator, E___ S_____. He is from Puerto Rico and is a really good friend from a less-active we were able to get in contact with. I was able to extend a date for him for next month forFebruary 8! He is so ready to be baptized, I was blessed to have been able to contact him and to have also extended that baptismal invitation for him. Although I was only able to work with him for a week, I'm excited to know that Elder Smith and his new companion will even have more success working with Eitel along with working in this area. (This is one of the most difficult areas in the mission). It was great to serve here for both times that I had. There are definitely great families that I was able to re-establish contact with and will continue to do so later on:) 

Although I never made it out to Boston to serve as a missionary, its amazing to know that its all about the people. Hence, the Lord calls all missionaries to labor in certain areas for a reason.  I know that the Lord has more plans waiting for me for my final chapter of my mission. I can't believe the time has already come to this where I already know my final area of where I will be serving. This is my "final push," giving it everything I got for these last 4 months. Cont. #BostonStrong!

Be safe on your travels. Pat, glad to know that my dad has plans to visit you guys and that you will be able to see my sister as well:) Not too long until I will have the opportunity to come out to visit too.

Les Quiero mucho!  

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong