Hey everyone,
Well I don't really have a whole lot to report this week... It was a good week and yet we didn't have anyone at church again. I have decided that sometimes all you have to do is just keep swimming. We get members involved and yet the dice haven't really rolled in our favor these last couple of weeks. All we can do is do our best and know that it is all in the hands of the Lord and have faith that we will know what do to next. I guess these are character building weeks right? ha ha, I'm sure that all of that bike riding and talking to English people who we can't teach anyway is just building my character... like digging holes right? Ya just do what ya gotta do and try not to get frustrated with people's agency... here is our Investigator Weekly...
RJ: We are really working with his mom right now because if she gets a stronger testimony then he will come with her. She has some struggles with the Word of Wisdom that we are working through right now but she wants to change and she has seen the difference that the church makes in her life. She talked this week about how even though her problems aren't any less or any easier, she has a different view of them and for some reason they don't get her down as much. Its all about faith baby! oh... and a little eternal perspective. She has been working really hard to read the Book of Mormon every night with her 4 boys but they get bored and don't have that long of an attention span so we are trying to help her have a long term perspective and not to focus on the frustration she feels now when its not perfect. I shared with her about my childhood and how I would sleep through scripture study in the mornings with my family and how I would complain in the mornings and during Family Night (I know you are shocked right now- me complain? Never), but I knew that every morning we would read the scriptures- it was just what we did in my home. We told her that one day RJ and the other boys will be on missions somewhere in the world and they will be talking about their mom and how she did it all by herself even when they complained and didn't pay attention. - Thanks Mom and Dad for sticking with it all even though I complained about how I wanted to watch football or basketball instead or how I would text during family night, I won't do it when I get home I promise. :)
Victor: We didn't get a chance to see him this last week because his mom was recovering from having a baby and then he didn't come to church yesterday because he was at his dad's. His mom and step-dad came to church though and we set something up with them for this next week. He just needs to come to church twice to get baptized so as soon as that happens he will be baptized, I'm hoping that February 18 will be the day.
Andrea: I havent' told y'all about her yet I don't think. She is 25 with 4 kids and is progressing slowly. She was supposed to come to church yesterday and when we showed up before church the kids were all ready and we were super happy... then she came out and told us that her nephew was doing his first communion in the Catholic church and her sister-in-law asked them to come... and it started the exact same time as ours... so yeah... I have faith for next week though! ha ha
Well I'm out of time- sorry the email is so short this week. OH!!! AND!!! Gabriel Jr. and David passed the sacrament yesterday!!!! It was one of the best Sundays ever just for that reason! They are such a great family and the branch loves them and they are just growing, improving, and moving right along! I can't wait to see them in the temple one day! Oh and Hno. De Hoyos even quit drinking! They just make me so happy. Thats about it for this week. I hope y'all have a good week and that y'all are keeping the faith! Love y'all!! Go Cougars!!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Monday, February 27, 2012
Letters from Kelsey - 56
Disclaimer! This is Lindsey, Kelsey's sister. I know I've been terrible at updating her blog recently. My bad. Here are all of her e-mails from January and February. And, just as a reminder, she comes home the end of June, and I'm sure she would love to hear from you before then! Her address, once again is:
Sister Kelsey Berg
Texas Houston South Mission
602 Eldridge Rd.
Sugar Land, TX 77478
So write Kelsey a letter! you know you want to!
Hey everyone!
I hope y'all had a good week! We had a pretty decent week and it all ended with a pretty lucky baptism! So as I told y'all before, when the De Hoyos' records came in Bryan (12) didn't have a baptismal date and we couldn't find any other record or anything of his baptism so he had to get baptized again! The lucky kid. It was the easiest thing ever, when you have a fantastic family- not perfect by any definition- but a family that loves to come to church and wants to improve, all you have to do as the missionaries is make sure the baptism happens and make sure to get the date and everything is filled out correctly this time- ha ha. Because of Bryan's baptism it was a very good weekend, yet at the same time it was very frustrating because we went into Sunday with some good solid commitments from people to come to church... and yet none of them showed up. It puts me right on the edge of giving up and throwing all of them out the window and starting over... but then I take a step back and cool down and try to have more patience with them. This is when it gets difficult, they are reading the Book of Mormon and doing the things we ask them to do, yet they don't come to church and that is where the real progression takes place. You see their progress with reading the Book of Mormon and all the things like that, but if they don't come to church after making the commitment you have to do a self-evaluation and see what things you can do different to help them come to church, or you see that you have done all you can and that they are using their agency and choosing not to come to church; or that they really aren't prepared for the gospel at this time in their life. It is with decisions like this that you really have to use your faith in the Lord, that if you pray about it and do all you can He won't let you drop someone who really is ready. Anyway, our Investigator Weekly is full of kids this week!
Victor: He is 9 and they live on our border with Missouri City, 2 of his uncles live on our side of the border with their families and are now coming to our branch. They all want to come to church together so they have received that permission to come, which means that Victor was passed to us! He has been taught everything and now only needs to come to church twice so he can be baptized on February 4th. Well... early Sunday morning his mom had her baby so he didn't come to church... hopefully this week though. They are the greatest family though and all 3 families are so funny. He is a great kid and I'm excited to keep teaching him!
RJ: Well... things have been a little slow with him recently because they were busy last week so we couldn't meet with them and then on Saturday night they had a late night and they slept through the alarm for 9:00am church. We are planning to meet with them tomorrow and I hope that things will start to pick up again. He is a great kid though, we just have to help his mom strengthen her testimony so that church will be a bigger deal to her, which in turn will mean that he comes to church. I hope to have a really good report for them next week.
This week was pretty cold out here in Texas, we rode bikes a lot this past week and on Thursday it was like 50 degrees and with the wind it was about 35. It was so cold and I froze, but its all good because that is what a mission is all about! Sweating your brains out for a couple months and then about 4 months later feeling like a popsicle as dogs chase us on bikes down a dirt road in an area with of trailers where everyone we talk to is a Jehovah's Witness... oh the life of a missionary. Things are going well out here though and the work continues to progress and I continue to learn that I know absolutely nothing about how anything works. The days and weeks go by and I end each day hoping that I made even the littlest of difference in my small part of the vineyard. I hope that everything is well with y'all. I love and miss y'all! Have a great week! Go Cougars! :)
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Sister Kelsey Berg
Texas Houston South Mission
602 Eldridge Rd.
Sugar Land, TX 77478
So write Kelsey a letter! you know you want to!
Hey everyone!
I hope y'all had a good week! We had a pretty decent week and it all ended with a pretty lucky baptism! So as I told y'all before, when the De Hoyos' records came in Bryan (12) didn't have a baptismal date and we couldn't find any other record or anything of his baptism so he had to get baptized again! The lucky kid. It was the easiest thing ever, when you have a fantastic family- not perfect by any definition- but a family that loves to come to church and wants to improve, all you have to do as the missionaries is make sure the baptism happens and make sure to get the date and everything is filled out correctly this time- ha ha. Because of Bryan's baptism it was a very good weekend, yet at the same time it was very frustrating because we went into Sunday with some good solid commitments from people to come to church... and yet none of them showed up. It puts me right on the edge of giving up and throwing all of them out the window and starting over... but then I take a step back and cool down and try to have more patience with them. This is when it gets difficult, they are reading the Book of Mormon and doing the things we ask them to do, yet they don't come to church and that is where the real progression takes place. You see their progress with reading the Book of Mormon and all the things like that, but if they don't come to church after making the commitment you have to do a self-evaluation and see what things you can do different to help them come to church, or you see that you have done all you can and that they are using their agency and choosing not to come to church; or that they really aren't prepared for the gospel at this time in their life. It is with decisions like this that you really have to use your faith in the Lord, that if you pray about it and do all you can He won't let you drop someone who really is ready. Anyway, our Investigator Weekly is full of kids this week!
Victor: He is 9 and they live on our border with Missouri City, 2 of his uncles live on our side of the border with their families and are now coming to our branch. They all want to come to church together so they have received that permission to come, which means that Victor was passed to us! He has been taught everything and now only needs to come to church twice so he can be baptized on February 4th. Well... early Sunday morning his mom had her baby so he didn't come to church... hopefully this week though. They are the greatest family though and all 3 families are so funny. He is a great kid and I'm excited to keep teaching him!
RJ: Well... things have been a little slow with him recently because they were busy last week so we couldn't meet with them and then on Saturday night they had a late night and they slept through the alarm for 9:00am church. We are planning to meet with them tomorrow and I hope that things will start to pick up again. He is a great kid though, we just have to help his mom strengthen her testimony so that church will be a bigger deal to her, which in turn will mean that he comes to church. I hope to have a really good report for them next week.
This week was pretty cold out here in Texas, we rode bikes a lot this past week and on Thursday it was like 50 degrees and with the wind it was about 35. It was so cold and I froze, but its all good because that is what a mission is all about! Sweating your brains out for a couple months and then about 4 months later feeling like a popsicle as dogs chase us on bikes down a dirt road in an area with of trailers where everyone we talk to is a Jehovah's Witness... oh the life of a missionary. Things are going well out here though and the work continues to progress and I continue to learn that I know absolutely nothing about how anything works. The days and weeks go by and I end each day hoping that I made even the littlest of difference in my small part of the vineyard. I hope that everything is well with y'all. I love and miss y'all! Have a great week! Go Cougars! :)
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Monday, January 9, 2012
Letters from Kelsey - 55
Hey everyone!
Our week was okay- nothing too exciting to report I feel like. I get to stay in Manvel for another transfer which I am excited about! We are staying together which is good because I get to stay in Manvel but we have some personality differences which are a little difficult but it's all good... I can survive another 6 weeks. Okay so its really not as bad as that last phrase made it sound but I'm learning patience... which is good, and hey! I'm sure I'm not that easy to live with either so Kudos to her that she hasn't killed me yet! ha ha There is obviously still more I need to learn and we should have a successful transfer so I am excited. So here is our Investigator Weekly!
De Hoyos: So Gabriel Jr. and David got the priesthood yesterday!! YEAH!!! Oh and also a funny story... so when the families records came we found out that Bryan (12) didn't have a baptismal date on his records... so guess who is getting baptized next Sunday after church! ha ha. They are so solid though and I just love seeing the change and progress in them. They haven't missed church once since we met them- including Christmas and New Years, which is more than I can say for most of our members! haha. Yesterday we didn't go to any of the classes because we were with Anahi (7) trying to get her to go to Primary. She went their first week and loved it, I don't know what changed but she hasn't wanted to go the last couple times. She cried pretty hard because she didn't want to go so we took some time and just sat on some chairs in the hall and talked to her about why we go to Primary and just kinda let her figure it out for herself. It was amazing to see the Spirit work within this little 7 year old to change her mind and make her want to go. We sat with her for most of it and then sneaked out of class and she ended up loving it - of course- so we hope that next week we won't have a problem.
RJ: So he had a birthday party on Saturday and we went by to help them set up before and it was really good. His dad was there and it was really good to get some face time with him so that he could feel more comfortable with us- he even invited us for dinner (which was BBQ) so of course we accepted. They didn't come to church yesterday though which kinda put a wrench in things because he needs to come once more before he gets baptized- so right now we are planning on the 21st. His mom has some concerns right now about it that we will work out tomorrow but I know that the Spirit will work miracles. He is such a great kid and his mom really does know about the gospel and she knows its true, we just need to help her realize that she has a testimony.
Well... thats about it. I wish people would come to church so they could be progressing. One of the hardest things as a missionary for me is the emotional involvement... I just get so emotionally involved with these people and they tell me they will come to church and they are excited to come and I just get so excited... and they no one shows up and you just get disappointed. It is very tiring to care so much about other peoples salvation... especially when it seems that they don't care. I can do manual labor all day and not really get tired... but when it comes to emotional attachments and emotional disappointments I just get wiped out every day. Such is the life of a missionary. Well we just got a flash flood warning from our Zone Leaders, no tornadoes yet though should be a good day! ha ha I hope y'all have a great day! Love and miss y'all! Go Cougars!
Love always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Our week was okay- nothing too exciting to report I feel like. I get to stay in Manvel for another transfer which I am excited about! We are staying together which is good because I get to stay in Manvel but we have some personality differences which are a little difficult but it's all good... I can survive another 6 weeks. Okay so its really not as bad as that last phrase made it sound but I'm learning patience... which is good, and hey! I'm sure I'm not that easy to live with either so Kudos to her that she hasn't killed me yet! ha ha There is obviously still more I need to learn and we should have a successful transfer so I am excited. So here is our Investigator Weekly!
De Hoyos: So Gabriel Jr. and David got the priesthood yesterday!! YEAH!!! Oh and also a funny story... so when the families records came we found out that Bryan (12) didn't have a baptismal date on his records... so guess who is getting baptized next Sunday after church! ha ha. They are so solid though and I just love seeing the change and progress in them. They haven't missed church once since we met them- including Christmas and New Years, which is more than I can say for most of our members! haha. Yesterday we didn't go to any of the classes because we were with Anahi (7) trying to get her to go to Primary. She went their first week and loved it, I don't know what changed but she hasn't wanted to go the last couple times. She cried pretty hard because she didn't want to go so we took some time and just sat on some chairs in the hall and talked to her about why we go to Primary and just kinda let her figure it out for herself. It was amazing to see the Spirit work within this little 7 year old to change her mind and make her want to go. We sat with her for most of it and then sneaked out of class and she ended up loving it - of course- so we hope that next week we won't have a problem.
RJ: So he had a birthday party on Saturday and we went by to help them set up before and it was really good. His dad was there and it was really good to get some face time with him so that he could feel more comfortable with us- he even invited us for dinner (which was BBQ) so of course we accepted. They didn't come to church yesterday though which kinda put a wrench in things because he needs to come once more before he gets baptized- so right now we are planning on the 21st. His mom has some concerns right now about it that we will work out tomorrow but I know that the Spirit will work miracles. He is such a great kid and his mom really does know about the gospel and she knows its true, we just need to help her realize that she has a testimony.
Well... thats about it. I wish people would come to church so they could be progressing. One of the hardest things as a missionary for me is the emotional involvement... I just get so emotionally involved with these people and they tell me they will come to church and they are excited to come and I just get so excited... and they no one shows up and you just get disappointed. It is very tiring to care so much about other peoples salvation... especially when it seems that they don't care. I can do manual labor all day and not really get tired... but when it comes to emotional attachments and emotional disappointments I just get wiped out every day. Such is the life of a missionary. Well we just got a flash flood warning from our Zone Leaders, no tornadoes yet though should be a good day! ha ha I hope y'all have a great day! Love and miss y'all! Go Cougars!
Love always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Letters from Kelsey - 54
Hey everyone!
So... ya know how a couple weeks ago I said it was the longest week ever... well I lied. That week was just destroyed by this last week!! ha ha I believe it was the longest week in the history of the world! I officially don't like holidays as a missionary :). My holidays were good but was really hard to do missionary work this last week with everyone on vacation. It was really hard to set appointments because family would suddenly show up or they would go somewhere so our appointments would fall through and no one wanted to come to church the last two Sundays, but that is all over now and people are getting back into their routines so it should be good and I'm looking forward to some success. I hope that y'all had a fun and safe New Year's weekend! We had a very non-exciting weekend and were in bed, like normal, at 10:30 and woke up, like normal, at 6:30! ha ha People really like fireworks out here for New Years though so there were fireworks going off all night. I guess they can do that when they don't have snow and when its still 55 degrees outside... ha ha.
We were super blessed this last week and now we are teaching this awesome little kid named RJ... which leads me into the... Investigator Weekly: 2012 edition!
RJ: He is the son of a less active member in the Silverlake Ward (English). Her name is Christi and her husband isn't a member and doesn't really like missionaries and doesn't want them there when he is home and they don't feel comfortable with her being alone with the Elders and the male member that they would have to bring so we got permission to teach them! We first stopped by Christi at the beginning of the month because a member in our ward told us about her so we stopped by to get to know her before we handed her over. Well when we found out that we would get to teach them we stopped by last Thursday and extended the date of January 7th to RJ because his birthday is the 8th! He accepted but we went by yesterday and we changed it to the 14th because they want to do a big BBQ after and invited family and friends (that aren't members) and so they wanted some time to prepare. We were all for it and it was great to see how excited Christi is for RJ. She is trying to regain her testimony after being out of the church for a couple years so it is great to see them progressing together and starting to read and pray as a family.
He is our only investigator that is really progressing but we hope that the end of the holidays will help everyone else get their act together. Well next week is transfers so we will see what happens... I really want to stay in Manvel but I just don't know... guess we will see! Well I love y'all and hope that 2012 is very good to all of you! Love y'all! Go Cougars!
Love always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
So... ya know how a couple weeks ago I said it was the longest week ever... well I lied. That week was just destroyed by this last week!! ha ha I believe it was the longest week in the history of the world! I officially don't like holidays as a missionary :). My holidays were good but was really hard to do missionary work this last week with everyone on vacation. It was really hard to set appointments because family would suddenly show up or they would go somewhere so our appointments would fall through and no one wanted to come to church the last two Sundays, but that is all over now and people are getting back into their routines so it should be good and I'm looking forward to some success. I hope that y'all had a fun and safe New Year's weekend! We had a very non-exciting weekend and were in bed, like normal, at 10:30 and woke up, like normal, at 6:30! ha ha People really like fireworks out here for New Years though so there were fireworks going off all night. I guess they can do that when they don't have snow and when its still 55 degrees outside... ha ha.
We were super blessed this last week and now we are teaching this awesome little kid named RJ... which leads me into the... Investigator Weekly: 2012 edition!
RJ: He is the son of a less active member in the Silverlake Ward (English). Her name is Christi and her husband isn't a member and doesn't really like missionaries and doesn't want them there when he is home and they don't feel comfortable with her being alone with the Elders and the male member that they would have to bring so we got permission to teach them! We first stopped by Christi at the beginning of the month because a member in our ward told us about her so we stopped by to get to know her before we handed her over. Well when we found out that we would get to teach them we stopped by last Thursday and extended the date of January 7th to RJ because his birthday is the 8th! He accepted but we went by yesterday and we changed it to the 14th because they want to do a big BBQ after and invited family and friends (that aren't members) and so they wanted some time to prepare. We were all for it and it was great to see how excited Christi is for RJ. She is trying to regain her testimony after being out of the church for a couple years so it is great to see them progressing together and starting to read and pray as a family.
He is our only investigator that is really progressing but we hope that the end of the holidays will help everyone else get their act together. Well next week is transfers so we will see what happens... I really want to stay in Manvel but I just don't know... guess we will see! Well I love y'all and hope that 2012 is very good to all of you! Love y'all! Go Cougars!
Love always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Letters from Kelsey - 53
Hey howdy hey y'all!!!
Oh man, oh man. Well this is the... last... email... of 2011 from this little missionary! Craziness huh!! Yeah I think I made that word up- oh well. Anyway- I had a good Christmas and I hope y'all had a good Christmas as well! This was a little bit of slow week missionary work wise with everyone having family over and lots of parties, but it was also a good one. On Saturday (Christmas Eve) we had a mission conference and it was a super fun day. So it started at 8:30 and we had a little training in the morning- we need to be more focused on finding and we talk about how to improve our contacting. All things that I need to improve on and things that have been rough for me my whole mission. I know you will all find this hard to believe but I do not like talking to random strangers- I don't know why it bothers me because I have never had anyone be mean to me before in a contact but I very much have the fear of men every time before I talk to someone. The only way to make it get better is to practice, practice, practice right? So this little missionary has made a New Year's resolution to not let the fear of men win! We will see how it goes :).
So we had our training and then we got our present from our Mission President and his family. A couple months ago Sister Saylin asked us all to submit the story of a miracle and she put them all together in a nice hardback book! It is really cool and the miracle I submitted was the story of Nidia and her family. After that we were super lucky to watch the movie '17 Again'! Ha ha just kidding we watched '17 Miracles', which is a really good movie about the Willie/ Martin Handcart Company and their stories of crossing the plains. It was super intense and it was a nice little break. We then had an amazing dinner with fruit, steak, homemade bread, potatoes, chicken, sausage, and so much more! It was then time for a gift exchange and a talent show! To finish the night we watched a slide show of pictures from 2011 and then we went off into the night. It was lightly raining and there was low cloud cover, about as close to snowing as is possible in Texas! We then we to the Hironymous' house (our branch president and his family) and had dinner with them and did a little Christmas Eve program and then back to the apartment!
Christmas we woke up at 6:30 like every other day and opened presents (Thank you to y'all for the Christmas cards, letters and packages! Love ya!). After all that we headed back to the Hironymous' where we had breakfast and I had my Christmas call and then we went to church! There were only about 30 people at church and 10 of them were the De Hoyos! ha ha (the Chavezs were also there!) It was a good day and then we just spent the afternoon visiting members and investigators and just spreading a little Christmas cheer! I hope y'all had a good one as well!
Things are a little slow right now but we have some plans this week that we are excited for and we are looking forward to a strong week to start 2012 with a bang! No one really worth writing about this week but I promise to have people to write about next week! Well I hope y'all have a safe New Year's weekend and I will talk to y'all next year! (bahaha, I'm so funny) Love y'all! Go Cougars!!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Oh man, oh man. Well this is the... last... email... of 2011 from this little missionary! Craziness huh!! Yeah I think I made that word up- oh well. Anyway- I had a good Christmas and I hope y'all had a good Christmas as well! This was a little bit of slow week missionary work wise with everyone having family over and lots of parties, but it was also a good one. On Saturday (Christmas Eve) we had a mission conference and it was a super fun day. So it started at 8:30 and we had a little training in the morning- we need to be more focused on finding and we talk about how to improve our contacting. All things that I need to improve on and things that have been rough for me my whole mission. I know you will all find this hard to believe but I do not like talking to random strangers- I don't know why it bothers me because I have never had anyone be mean to me before in a contact but I very much have the fear of men every time before I talk to someone. The only way to make it get better is to practice, practice, practice right? So this little missionary has made a New Year's resolution to not let the fear of men win! We will see how it goes :).
So we had our training and then we got our present from our Mission President and his family. A couple months ago Sister Saylin asked us all to submit the story of a miracle and she put them all together in a nice hardback book! It is really cool and the miracle I submitted was the story of Nidia and her family. After that we were super lucky to watch the movie '17 Again'! Ha ha just kidding we watched '17 Miracles', which is a really good movie about the Willie/ Martin Handcart Company and their stories of crossing the plains. It was super intense and it was a nice little break. We then had an amazing dinner with fruit, steak, homemade bread, potatoes, chicken, sausage, and so much more! It was then time for a gift exchange and a talent show! To finish the night we watched a slide show of pictures from 2011 and then we went off into the night. It was lightly raining and there was low cloud cover, about as close to snowing as is possible in Texas! We then we to the Hironymous' house (our branch president and his family) and had dinner with them and did a little Christmas Eve program and then back to the apartment!
Christmas we woke up at 6:30 like every other day and opened presents (Thank you to y'all for the Christmas cards, letters and packages! Love ya!). After all that we headed back to the Hironymous' where we had breakfast and I had my Christmas call and then we went to church! There were only about 30 people at church and 10 of them were the De Hoyos! ha ha (the Chavezs were also there!) It was a good day and then we just spent the afternoon visiting members and investigators and just spreading a little Christmas cheer! I hope y'all had a good one as well!
Things are a little slow right now but we have some plans this week that we are excited for and we are looking forward to a strong week to start 2012 with a bang! No one really worth writing about this week but I promise to have people to write about next week! Well I hope y'all have a safe New Year's weekend and I will talk to y'all next year! (bahaha, I'm so funny) Love y'all! Go Cougars!!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
