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

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

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

December 1st - TRANSFERS

Family,

Its a great time for us here in the Mass. Boston Mission! We not only accomplished our goal of 70 baptisms but we were able to exceed that goal by 30 baptisms; which gave us the all time record for the number of baptisms in the mission for month. We were able to hit 100 baptisms exact yesterday, one of them which included Q___X___ (S_____)!

It was so cool to see his progress, from the first time we met with him- about 3 months ago- to yesterday, it really was incredible to see his transformation. I remember the first lesson we had when we taught Steve that God was our loving Heavenly Father. Trying to even explain the concept of God to a person that absolutely had no idea of Him was like explaining the concept of eternity to a 3 year old... The concept is so deep but yet he was able to understand, learn, and trust in both us and the Lord that what we were teaching him was true. That is the spirit. There is no doubt in my mind that all of us have the ability to learn truth through the light of Christ which leads us to feel of the Spirit, which confirms all things unto us. It really was an incredible experience and opportunity I had to work with him. Not only will he be blessed, but the rest of his family, F____, T____ and T____ X__ are also planning to follow to be baptized as well. They have baptism dates for next month and are actually taking the lessons all in Chinese. We were able to teach them the lessons via Skype just the other day. We have missionaries in Boston who are from Vietnam and were able to Skype the family to allow them to hear the discussions in their native tongue. We are very blessed to be a part of something remarkable, which is to allow Steve to baptize his family once he receives the Aaronic Priesthood. Again, a huge blessing I had during the time I've spent here in Connecticut for me to be a blessing to this family!

And that is where I will leave off as far as serving in this area in New Haven, CT. I received transfers the other day. The Lord has once again called me to serve in Nashua, NH... but this time as a Zone Leader in that area! I think it will be way cool to see the people whom I've already served around again, plus many others! Although I will continue to be in an English ward, I will also have opportunity to be around both Nashua and Lowell, two places that I know pretty well from serving there last year. The geographic region for the Zone includes Southern NH, Northern Mass. and even a small area in Vermont. I think it's pretty neat. Hopefully one time I can make it out to VT, never thought I'd go there before. My new companion's name is Elder Smith (typical lol). I heard he is cool and is also from Glendale, AZ. I've never met him before so he must be from another stake out there in AZ. 

Dad/Karen- My address will be the same haha. 1 Clocktower Pl. Nashua, NH 03060. Thanks for sending me those packages! I think I am all set when it comes to preparing for the winter though. Its actually 60 degrees again today, which probably hints that we will have a brutal winter here in New England later on... Its all good though. Glad to know that you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving! I also had the chance to play in our Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving and it was a blast! We were playing in the snow and everything. Later that day we ate at a member's house. We had the normal turkey and potatoes dinner that evening.

I really was blessed to have been around great members of our ward. Some of which I'll continue to contact for sure. A lot of which are students here at Yale and plan to only live in this area of CT temporarily. They plan to move either out to Utah or Arizona for their careers. But hopefully one day I can make it back out here to New Haven to see people like the X____ and others. 

Dad- I will have the chance to serve in Boston. There is no way the Lord had planned this to where I would never have the chance to be serve in a place that I grew up to love. But as I know, it is not my decision to make that call. I'll find out what He has in store for me during the "4th quarter" of my mission. 

Jazzy- Love you J, keep up the work. Great blessings are in store for you for sure!

I'm blessed as well to know how much we are loved by our friends and family back in Illinois. I could not stop smiling from looking at those pics with Nathan and Nikki. They're all grown... crazy. And Nate is already preparing to serve a mission himself! Tell Rex Bale congrats too! 

Have a great week. Keep working hard. Les Quiro Mucho!   

P.S. pics are kinda funky... They were taken from E. Lee's GoPro camera lol

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong

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

September 2nd

Family,

I don't have too much time at this moment to write down everything that happened throughout this week. But overall, this week was great, especially yesterday for Labor Day! I have been very blessed to see miracles happen all throughout this week. All of which I can say helped strengthened my testimony by recognizing certain blessings and being reassured to know that the Lord is truly watching over me. One of the blessings included what took place yesterday during our Recent Convert Temple trip. We had 3 of our recent converts attend the session to do baptisms for their ancestors for the first time. The blessing of witnessing someone else have an incredible spiritual experience is just as amazing as experiencing it for yourself. I'm blessed to help serve those to take them to the House of the Lord, the ultimate goal that all of us should pursue.  

Dad you were right, I was in Boston all day yesterday as well, and for that reason I didn't have any time to email... Plus, there was too much going on in the North End;) (Fanuial Hall/Quincy Market was way fun as well). But FINALLY, for the first time on the mission, I had the chance to get some Regina's pizza- brick oven style crust with a little tomato, spinach, mushroom and sausage. Delicioso! Plus Mike's was only a short block away, needless to say there was also a Boston Creme Puff in dad's favor, haha. It was too bad that the Red Sox didn't have a home game yesterday, or else I would've gone. Can't get enough of Boston though! I'm blessed to be serving in my favorite city!

Another little experience I had yesterday- As I was walking down Hanover Street with about 10 other missionaries, I distinctly remember asking dad a little over 2 years ago. "What is one advice you can give me about serving a mission?" That piece of advice hit me as I was walking on that very part of the street yesterday as a missionary myself... And to add on to the advice that dad has given me, yes I can say that I am living it right now. I am doing everything I can to love the people whom I serve. I can honestly say the friendships that I have made so far is incredible. The guys that I've served with along with other people that I've met has made this whole experience worth it. Speaking of which, A____ is only 1 short month away from receiving his endowments. He was able to give me a call the other week telling me he made plans to receive his patriarchal blessing sometime this month along with considering even more to serve a mission. The change that I've been able to see in this guy's life is incredible. Like I said the people, like A____, make it worth it.   

Dad- Already looking forward to Oakland:) I got the letter too. Thank you man. I want to talk to you in person about these experiences when I get home. We definitely have some stories to catch up on! And for that, we have some more golf and dog trips we'll be catching up on as well. Looking forward to it, but you know what needs to happen first. Can you also let Brother Brock know that I received his letter from all the young men. Tell those guys thank you from me.

Karen- Thank you for your letter. Cambria is all grown up, wow. Glad to know everyone is doing great. I'll keep the Christensen family in my prayers.

Jazz- Glad you got the package! You are an example to me. Keep working hard as a trainer! That is awesome how you are able to have those experiences. Love you jazzy. 

Thank you for all your love and support. I love you all! 

Elder Berthelson

BostonStrong