Letters from Kelsey - 17

Hello my dear family and friends,

First of all I hope you all had a fantastic Conference weekend. It was a good weekend for us and we had 5 investigators at conference. It has been a long week so I'm going to start with Wednesday. We had a long day- we moved apartment complexes and were hoping to get everything moved in the morning so we could work all afternoon and evening. When we were about 10 minutes away from being all packed up and all of our furniture in the trailer Elder Hamilton (senior missionary in charge of housing) called our new complex to make sure our apartment was ready and it wasn't! They were still laying tile and it wouldn't be done until 4! Well at this time it was 10:30 am and we were in shorts with our suitcases packed in the car. So we had to pull out our suitcases and change and go work for a couple hours until we could move in. That made for a long day and put a damper on our schedule but its all good and now we have a 2 bedroom apartment! ha ha. Its not quite as big as our other one but its nice to have a study room.

So now on to the weekend! I was lucky to be able to listen to 1 1/2 sessions on Conference in English. I loved conference but I have to be honest and say that at some points it was very hard because of the fact that I wanted so bad to understand what was being said and it was difficult to be watching it somewhere else than in my house with my family. First time ever I have watched it in a church! We did have 5 investigators that attended and I will talk more about them a little later. It was a great weekend on the account that last night I was able to give the talk on baptism at Geovani's baptism!!!! I found out on Friday night that it was going to happen and that I had been asked to speak! It was such a cool experience to see someone, where I remember Hna. Tuckett contacting him at a gas station one night, make all the changes in his life and see him almost from start to finish. I feel so blessed to be a part of it. I also found out that another one of our investigators from last transfer, Ancelmo, was baptized last weekend! Leading up to Sunday he didn't feel ready but after Testimony meeting he was in tears and said that he wanted to be baptized so in a matter of 3 hours everything was ready and he was baptized!! There are a number of investigators that I taught that have dates for April 30th that are on track that we are planning to go back too also. Seeing Geovani get baptized was an amazing experience and that is why I'm a missionary. To help people find a renewed faith in Christ and teach them how to use the Atonement to cleanse their hearts and understand their purpose in live by gaining that relationship with their Heavenly Father and Savior.

I'm excited for our investigators here also to see them progress and hopefully have them make the same changes that Geovani has. The investigators that went to Conference this weekend are:

Fancis & Cepactli Salas: I told you last week about this amazing family. Well this is the mom and the 9 year old girl. They have come to church the last two weeks and yesterday they attended the afternoon session. We had a lesson with Francis this week and she is slowly progressing and has a desire that I feel is slowly growing to help her family become closer. As we were leaving Conference yesterday she said it was very beautiful and asked us how often it happens. She was disappointed when we said its only twice a year. She then said "So you're coming over Wednesday right?", and we hadn't set an appointment for Wednesday yet but as of yesterday at 5 we have an appointment with her on Wednesday! ha ha

Raul & Alba: They came to the Saturday afternoon session. We were excited because we have been trying to get them to come to church but it they haven't made it a priority yet. I was happy that most of the talks that session were on family, or at least I think they were on family- I didn't understand a lot of it, so that they would have that to relate too. Their 3 kids were so well behaved I was amazed! ha ha. We are hoping to go by tonight to check up and see what they thought and solidify their baptismal dates.

This area is a lot different than my last one and my companion is a lot different than my trainer, not in bad ways, just different. I feel this area is going to take a lot of stretching, growing, and learning on my part to help it become successful. I'm nervous but will do my best to work with my companion and to see in what ways we can change things to make this the successful area it can be. The Spanish is slowly coming, some days it feels better than others and often times I find myself getting discouraged because I feel like I should be making more progress than I have; but I just relate it to climbing Kilimanjaro. When we started the hike the mountain didn't seem very big and we were all gung-ho to climb it all in one day. As the days progressed we couldn't believe that mountain still looked the same size and the top didn't look any closer and we started to realize how big the mountain really was. Especially summit night, when it was cold and dark and we were tired, hungry, not feeling well, and the stars looked closer than the top of the mountain. All we could do it put one foot in front of the other and take on each step, rock, and task one at a time and eventually we made it to the top and got to enjoy the view and sense of accomplishment. I relate these first couple weeks, months, and transfers to this a lot when things get difficult. Sometimes I take it one day at a time, one lesson at a time, one contact at a time, or even one minute at a time and know that soon all of these will build on top of each other and I will be able to look back and see how all of these little steps helped me accomplish my goals and how I grew with each step. I know that Spanish will one day come and that I will be able to understand and communicate. I know that our loving Heavenly Father knows my feelings and situation. I know that my older brother, Jesus Christ, is there with me every step of the way lifting me when things get difficult. I knew the mission would be hard, but I don't think I understood how hard. Things are going good though, I just get frustrated with my own inadequacies and short comings. I am excited for this week and some of the things my companion and I have planned to implement to hopefully get us some new investigators!

OH! Funny story that I forgot to tell you all last week. So for the first time in my live I broke the Word of Wisdom and it was on my mission! ha ha We were eating dinner at a sweet members house and she gave us iced tea and we had no idea until she pulled out the bottle to pour us more! Needless to say this week when we went over again we reviewed the Word of Wisdom.. ha ha Anyway, I hope all is going well with you all, where ever this email finds you. I love you all and am continually thankful for your love, support, and letters with advice, love and encouragement. May our Heavenly Father continue to bless you all.

Love always,
Hermana Kelsey Berg