Letters from Kelsey - 36

Hey everyone!!!

Oh man... so the week was really slow until Friday. Friday Elder Holland came to Houston and we got to meet him! So on Friday we left Galveston at 1:30 and got to Houston at 3:30 and we sat in the chapel from 4:15 until he finally came at about 5:00. There were 3 missions, us, Houston, and Houston East. There was so much priesthood in that room- 3 mission presidents, 17 stake presidents, a temple president, 2 members of the 70 (Elder Gifford Nielsen (yeah tell more about that in a minute) and Elder Flukinger), and Elder Holland and 500 some odd missionaries- and yours truly was on the 2nd row! I watched Elder Holland the whole time and it was amazing. So they come in and Elder Nielsen (our area 70) tells us that Elder Holland would like to shake all of our hands- so we got to shake hands with Elder Holland and also Elder Nielsen and Elder Flukinger. That took about 20 min and then we got to hear from Elder Nielsen who gave a great talk- and through in a little BYU football, of course, when he introduced Elder Holland. Then we got to hear from Elder Holland for about an hour. It was absolutely amazing- it topped the time I heard him in the MTC- he mixed in the perfect about of humor, chastisement, and encouragement. He is amazing that no matter what you say you have a new confidence in yourself and a new resolve to do everything- even if he chastises you tons. It was just amazing- a once in a lifetime experience and a highlight of my life for sure.

Then we go to Saturday- so at 4:00 we go to the church to get ready for the baptism of Nidia and Erick- 5:00 rolls around, when the baptism was supposed to start and no one is there! Its okay though because I have learned that Hispanic Standard Time is about the same as Mormon Standard Time so everything starts about 30 min late. Anyway- everything went well with their baptism and the are just super solid and we learned yesterday that her husband and other daughter that are still in Mexico now have a date for October 2nd!! Super great and today she is going to apply at the school to work in the cafeteria and we are praying really hard that she gets it because she had to quit her job to get baptized. Then the Branch had a dinner and talent show that we stayed for- someone told the branch that it was my birthday so they sang happy birthday to me in spanish and english- I didn't understand a word of the song in spanish, it was weird. So we were waiting around the whole time for the Elders investigators to show up so that they could get married and baptized, well they finally show up at 8:30, the Branch President marries them, then the baptism starts at 8:45, we give the First Vision and they leave and barely get back to our apartment by 9:30, which is the rule. It was a super hectic but amazing weekend that I wouldn't change for anything. Things are good and we are hoping that it starts cooling down soon. Well no Investigator Weekly this week because I don't have time and we don't really have any other solid investigators right now... ha ha our work for this week. Well I love y'all and miss y'all tons! I hope the good Lord continues to bless you!

Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg