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

March 16th

Family,

It's that time of year! March Madness is underway and the weather is certainly getting better, even here in New England.

This week was another great week as far as the work was concerned. Elder Terry and I were able to extend another baptism date for an investigator whose name is J____. We were able to set a date with him for the end of May. So as of right now, we have a total of 5 baptism dates for our investigators, 1 for the end of this month, 2 for April and 2 for the month of May. M___ A____, S___ D____, J___ C____, V___ V____ and J___ G___ are the people who have baptism dates. We are also working with other investigators who are continuing to progress. The members are also very helpful. So the work that we have in our area right now is on fire! 

This past Thursday, we also had the Assistants come to our area to do exchanges with us, so I was able to spend the day with my good friend Elder Stones (him and I came out together in the MTC and now he is one of our assistants to the president). We spent the entire day on Thursday just catching up with one another about our missions. He is also another missionary from AZ and we will plan to end our missions together at the end of June.

Speaking of the end of June, I'll plan to respond to the email Karen sent out about the options that she gave me with regards to travel plans as well as schooling. 

That is awesome that Navy got her call to serve in the Philippines! She will leave the same time I left. Also that Holden was able to come home this past Wednesday. He's already dating lol, good for him. 

I also received letters from Jazz and Dad. Thank you for those! 

It sounds like everyone is doing great and that they are happy. I am also doing great and extremely blessed for the successes which I've seen and for the joys which I've seen from the success of others as well. Alma 29:13-16.  

Keep working hard this week. 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!

October 27th

Family,

 

The Phoenix Temple is amazing!!! I'm so excited to see the progress of the temple and now to finally see it done... wow! What a blessing for our family to have a temple literally in our backyard. What a great experience for you guys- dad and karen- to invite friends and family to join in on the open house. I'd imagine you guys have been getting plenty of questions in regards with the temple and with the church in general. That is awesome! I'm happy to hear about it all and also excited to enter it myself when I come home. (Absolutely the first thing I will be doing is going through that Temple)

 

I am doing well. My health is great and I feel good. No complaints there. The work is progressing as usual too, poco a poco. Hay personas en que estamos trabajando, como nuestro investigadores (S___, A___ B___, etc)  que sean progresando por lo menos. Es un tiempo que vayan durar un poco por que la clima esta cambiando. When the whether in New England changes, it unfortunately means the work changes with it as well... It is what it though. We make the best with what we are given, that is all. Hence, BostonStrong:)

 

We had our Trunk o Treat the other night; man it reminded me so much of both the Parkway Ward in WI and the Woodridge Ward in Bolingbrook when we did those. Of course Elder Lee and I participated by dressing up as "the missionaries" and helped by passing out candy to the kids. We were also able to make chilli for the activity. They ended up giving us the award for the worst tasting chilli.... haha:) We had no idea what we were doing when it came to making chilli, but it was so much fun! - All the ward members ended up signing up on our dinner calender the day after at church because they realized how bad our cooking was lol.

 

We have a lot going on as far as meetings for the next couple weeks. This Wednesday Elder Lawrence from the 70 is planning to meet with all the leaders in the mission. Which means I will have the opportunity to have a one on one interview with him. I'm pretty excited to have this opportunity to have someone from the general authority interview me. It will be a very cool and uplifting spiritual experience for sure!

 

Dad- I'm looking forward to getting your letter in response of what has been on my mind recently and your thoughts on what I wrote to you. Make sure to definitely invite D____ to the Temple. Let him know as well that I'm pulling through for his Giants.    

Karen- ............ I am just blessed to be serving where I am and to be given these opportunities to where I can maintain good physical health on the mission as well. Thanks for the pics btw, I can't get over how cool this temple is! Oh, one of my best friends from SVU is actually serving on the temple grounds as well. His name is Elder Lewis, he is from the Seattle, WA area. I gave him your contact info and told him to hit up our house for dinner or something. He's a stud. If you can try to look out for him, that would be sweet!

 

Jazzy- Mira por una carta en el correo. No se cuando va a durar hasta el tiempo cuando puedes recibirlo. Tambien gracias por tus respuestas del correo que me enviaste la semana pasada en relacion con tus planes despues de la mision. Pero sigue con el trabajo como siempre! Te quiero hermana.

 

Thank you guys for your love and support. Keep working hard. Love you all!

 

  

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

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!!

April 16th

Family,

It sounded like everyone had a great week this week, especially all that went on in Palm Springs this past weekend! 

I am doing well. I had my interviews with President Packard this past Monday, so that is why I am  sending my emails out to you guys now. But I am also taking this time to write everyone letters this week, so this email will be fairly short for that reason.

Yes the Boston Marathon is coming up. Everyone here is pretty excited for it. It also signifies the one year mark of the bombings that left a mark in Boston and all over the New England area. It is still being talked about today... All I have to say is "BostonStrong!"

Thanks for all the letters. Karen- Thanks for the Easter package. E. Johnston says thanks for the tie. 

I pray for you all often. I love you all.      




We got these pics from Sister Johnston - Elder Berto's companion's mom
Elder Berto always got dead last when he had his Pinewood Derby.  Looks like he had the same results when he was helping his buddy.  

 

Nashua, NH - 2.19.14

Family,

In the last email that I wrote last week, I told everyone that we had a Spanish branch in the Nashua area... its actually not the case. We are basically starting what is called a "group," which means we are splitting ourselves from the two English wards in the area. This Spanish group is eventually going to start up beginning on the first Sunday in March. Although the group is made up of pretty much one family (la familia lopez, which consists of 20 active members) and 15 others, everybody is way excited for what is about to take place as far as the Spanish is concerned in Nashua! We are working hard and doing everything we can to get this group started, but the ultimate goal will eventually be to see this group turn into a legit branch/ward someday.

My new companion is pretty cool, his name is Elder Johnston. He is from Pocatello, ID and he is also a sports-guy and enjoys working out just like me. He just got done serving in the Cambridge/Boston, MA part of the mission and he's been there just about as long as I've been in Providence, so we share a lot of stories back and forth about what we've experienced with our different areas. He is a few months older than I am in the mission but only one day younger as far as age goes. We're going to work well with one another:) 

I was not able to write on my P-Day because we had the opportunity to down to Boston to do a temple session. I'm very blessed for the opportunities I have to go to the temple as much as I have on my mission.

As of right now we are pretty much in a middle of a snowstorm... so recently we have had to do more shoveling than teaching. Over the past couple days during this week though, we had to remain inside in our apartments due to the blizzards that is happening in New England. I am tired of the cold. Just remember how blessed we are to live in a place where you don't have to worry about the cold and you can just enjoy the warm weather, because I sure do miss it. I guess I only have to wait it out for a few more weeks though, then maybe we'll get to see the sun if we're lucky.

Glad to know everyone is doing great! That is so cool how Devin Hampton got his call to Salta, Argentina! I was guessing somewhere either in Mexico or Europe... I am really excited for him!

     

Keep working hard. I know that the Lord has something in store for all of us, its certain. Press forward with faith and good things will happen.

I love you guys.

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

From Elder Berthelson's new companion:
My new comp is from Phoenix Arizona, and is one day older than me! He is fairly new in the mission, and his Spanish still lacks a bit, so I get to do basically all the talking in Spanish! Which is gonna be great, and my Spanish will hopefully keep growing! Elder Berthelson also played a year of college football before the mission at Southern Virginia, loves to golf, and enjoys working out in the morning! It will be great! We got a sick gym in the apt complex, with treadmills and weights, so we have been going hard in the morning!