April 27th

 

 

Family,

Things are starting to pick up for us in the work! Elder Villar was able to invite two of our investigators to be baptized this week, which was awesome! One of our investigators, M___A____, was recently married to a woman in the ward who is less active... But she is hopefully planning to come back to church, especially after Mike was willing to take the discussions with us. He was accepting to our baptism invitation and will decide on a date sometime in the near future. Our other investigator, M__A__ B____, who we found trying to contact a member of our ward who moved out, was open to what we had to say. We scheduled an appointment to meet with her last Saturday and we shared the Restoration lesson. It was so powerful and the spirit was so strong during the lesson. Elder Villar was awesome too and felt prompted to invite her to be baptized. Although she politely declined because she is very Catholic, she was still interested on learning more and plans to attend church with us in a couple weeks on mothers day:)

It really is awesome to train a new missionary and to see the progress of how they adapt to a life of 24/7 missionary work. It was just how it was with Elder Richardson and I when I first started. Yes there are some up and downs and a lot of the times it is not easy, but we have a great relationship. Elder Villar is awesome, one of my many good friends on the mission for sure!

Yesterday we also had our Regional Broadcast from Salt Lake City. Elder Anderson and Hales spoke from the General Authority to everyone here in the Eastern States. It was also announced during the Broadcast that Elder Holland would be speaking to all the Spanish here in Boston area. He plans to come here May 31st! It will be interesting and exciting to know what he has to say. I'm sure we will be getting permission to attend since his grandson, who is also our AP right now, is also one of the Spanish missionaries serving in Boston.

Thanks for all the letters and info on whats been happening! 

 
Dad- I got your letter, thank you. And that is awesome about Pat's Run! We should do that next year for sure. And whenever you want to take the trip out here to Boston, just let me know a date. I can probably start talking to some people and let them know:)

Karen- Thanks for the pics. That's great that Hayden is finally leaving for the mission. And wow he looks different too! Hope all is well with the other friends in the ward. Glad to know that you, grandpa, grandma and Jazzy had a great time in NOLA this past weekend! I'm sure it was a blast. FYI I'll let you know a time next week about skyping. 

Jazz- Let me know how life's goin for you. Love ya!

Gracias por todo. Se que nuestro grupo va a tener exito. Poco a poco con esto. Siguen adelante, les quiero mucho!

  

Elder BerthelsonBostonStrong

 

 

February 9th

Family,

Thanks for all the updates on what's been happening. That's exciting for dad how he has a new calling as a ward clerk. Perfect- Now I can make sure to pay my tithing in pennies when I get home:) lol. Glad to know that Jazzy is doing well in BA and attending the temple out there as well. 

This past week was pretty exciting! Elder Terry and I were able to set 2 baptismal dates this week. Our first one with M___ ____ and the other with M___ A____. It was amazing because M____ has been investigating the church since June of last year, and this past week she was able to self-commit herself to be baptized in March! It really was a miracle for us that she was able to do that. M_____ plans to be baptized on March 7th and M_____ for the following week on March 15th. We will be praying that everything goes well for them. Also, we were able to meet with another one of our other investigators, V____ V_____, as of yesterday. We extended a baptismal invitation for her and she simply told us she was going to pray about a date. She knows that its true, she just needs to pray for a time when she feels like she would be ready. This next month will be the month when all our baptisms will be in check, for everything that we have planned for. The goal of the mission (if I hadn't already mentioned it yet) is to bring 420 people to the waters of baptism by the end of June, or when President Packard goes home. This means that as a mission we are working our tails off doing everything we can to extend baptism and to help these people come unto Christ. It truly will be amazing when we will accomplish this goal. I know and the Lord knows that we are capable of achieving it. This has been one of the coolest concepts I've been able to learn on my mission, how to set goals and prioritize my time to accomplish them. 

Last week we also had our Zone Meeting, which went great! We really do have great missionaries in our Zone. Everyone is way excited and is working hard. For this upcoming week, we also plan to extend baptism to a couple of our other investigators that we are working with, including J_____. We are pumped for what is yet to come.

Tomorrow is the day when we plan to have our one on one interviews with President Packard. This will possibly be my last interview that I will have with him before my departing interview in a few months... crazy how much time is going by.

Even with the weather being as miserable as it is, I am blessed to know that I can still rely upon the Lord to help me bear challenges as such. And to answer dads question, my health is good. I don't work out at a gym anymore, I just do daily exercises in the apartment. My weight is pretty much the same... I am not really gaining muscle. This is just part of the sacrifice I need to endure on my mission though. I don't think the Lord intended for me to be physically strong over the course of my mission but for me to rather gain greater mental/spiritual strength. That is the point of all of this. I will just hit it hard again at the gym when I return home.   

Thanks for the blanket by the way! I received it today. Glad to know that everyone is doing well and is working hard.

Les Quiero Mucho! 

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

Pic 1: The Candelario family with other missionaries

Pic 2: Elder Lee  

Pic 3: Elder Smith

Pic 4: The Blanchette family

Pic 5: Missionaries in the Springfield Zone!

(My companion, Elder Terry, is on the very left with the glasses)

 

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

July 21st

Family,

I really can't believe how fast these weeks are going. Honestly, it feels like the days are flying by, it felt like I just emailed you guys the other day... But this week was really good. We worked so hard to visit all our less actives and we were able to have great success to find a less active family that we've never met, the A_____. We've been trying to reach out to this family for the past 2 months with no luck, but we were finally able to meet them for the first time this past week and it turns out they are way cool. They don't have too much interest in returning to the church, but we were able to talk about their conversion stories and to have them realize the impact the gospel has had in their lives. We are planning to work with them little by little and let the Lord take care of the rest. It's those small miracles in the week that make everything worth it though! Especially when the work is slow, or not going as expected. I am learning how important it is to look for the small successes in the work and to trust in the Lord, no matter the circumstances. We were also able to see the blessings yesterday at church, when we had a total of 43 people attend our sacrament meeting, the most we've had in the group so far! 

We were also able to pick up 2 new investigators this past Tuesday, W_____ and his wife C____ from Puerto Rico. We taught them the Restoration and extended a baptismal invitation. Unfortunately they didn't commit to the baptismal invitation though, but we will continue to work with them. There's 2 more potential investigators that have a lot of interest. It will be our goal to go visit them this upcoming week. So as far as the work is concerned, there are a lot of good potential for this Spanish Group and more success yet to come!  

Thank you for all your letters! I got the letter from Dad. You're the man! And no need for an apologize either, I get pumped every time I receive a letter! I know how special those are, its a thing that I greatly appreciate as well. And yes, we're going golfing at that one course when I get back, no doubt about that! 

 

Karen-   I'll look for your hand-written letter this week in the mail as well. Those pics of Lake Powell and the Phx Temple are amazing. Two places that I also want to go when I get back!

 

Jazz- Those pictures are awesome!! Are those the Andes Mts in the back round? I like the one with the Chilean Flag, that looks sweet!! Sounds like you are doing great as well! Sigue con el trabajo. Espero que todo te vaya bien con tigo! 

We are receiving information on transfers this week. Elder Johnston and I have been together as companions for almost 6 months (about a quarter of our mission). We will see what will happen with this transfer, as far as all that is concerned... I will let you know where next week if there are any changes that occurs.

I know that the Lord has helped strengthened my testimony and given me opportunities to expound my knowledge in the gospel. I've also been greatly blessed to know just how much He wants me to grow and go through difficult times on the mission. This, I know, allows me to depend on Him daily. There are so many times when I feel tired or disappointed but those are the times when I feel I need Him the most. I consider this a blessing to know just how much I can look up to my Father in Heaven and exercise my faith. Because of this, I am able to further understand that everything does happens for a reason. 

Keep up the good work this week. I love you all!        

 

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong