Letters from Kelsey - 68

Hey everyone! Well I hope y'all had a fantastic Easter weekend! We had a decent one out here. Only Sarina came to church yesterday when about 5 other people committed to come... that always makes for a rough Sunday evening. As a missionary the success of your week is determined by your turn out at church, so we weren't super excited last night. Oh well. We had dinner with a family from one of the English wards because they were supposed to have a non-member friend that speaks Spanish come over, but he is a heart surgeon and he was on call yesterday so as he was driving down their road he was called in, someone coded (aka their heart stopped) so he had to go... it seemed all too familiar :), I have seen that happen more times than I can count. That was really the only exciting thing for our Easter- we had ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, raspberry pie, and jello. I felt right at home! It was way too good to be true! We had a really fun branch Easter party on Saturday and I was introduced, so nicely, to confetti eggs. The pictures are the results of this introduction. The Young Men President- Hno. Ruiz- got me first and then all the little kids thought it would be fun so they joined in... So what they are are real egg shells that have been emptied, cleaned, colored, filled with confetti, and then covered. What you do is just smash them on people's heads... it was fun, yet I still have some pink and purple spots on my back from the coloring that didn't come off. A lot of Hispanics make their own and sell them but you can also buy them from the stores down here- quite interesting. It was a really good time though, it was a nice day so that was fun also. Here we go for out Easter edition of the Investigator Weekly!!! Sarina: Her parents don't think that baptism is something that is important to her, they feel like in a family with 4 kids she has just found something that is just her own so they they want her to wait until she is a little older. I think she knows there is something different about the Church and she knows she feels good when she is there and does the things of the Church. Our goal now is to teach her simply and to help her be able to verbalize everything so that she can talk to her parents about it and they can see that it really is something she wants and that she understands the commitment. Severo: He said he would come yesterday and then didn't... I guess we will have to have a DTR (determine the relationship) this week to see what he interest level really is. Maria S.: She is new and was a referral from the Silverlake Elders. She is super cool and accepted a date for May 5. She had 2 kids and was raised Catholic and has also gone to a non-denominational Christian church but has felt that they were both lacking something. She was excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out for herself if Joseph Smith was a prophet. I'm excited to see where she goes. That is really it... I feel like we are always struggling with our teaching pool, but we keep working hoping that we will be in the place where we are supposed do, doing the things that we are supposed to so that the Lord can bless us and we can find those that are prepared. Sometimes I get tired of talking to people though, this last week I talked to a lady who told me that I wasn't a Christian... normally when people don't want to talk to us it doesn't bother me because they just are prepared and they aren't worth getting all worked up about. There are really only two things that tick me off when we talk to people 1) when they tell me I'm not Christian or they tell me what I believe, 2) when they assume that because I'm only 22 I just follow blindly and am not old enough or experienced enough to know of these things for myself, or when they feel the need to 'enlighten me'. They are the ones that get me going... its all good though, we have to get through those to get to the ones that really are looking for something better in their life. Well... we just keep working away- yesterday was my 16 month mark! Can y'all believe it? I sure can't. Well I hope y'all have a good week and that the Lord continues to bless y'all!! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 67

Hey y'all! Happy April!! and Happy Easter on Sunday!! So as the subject line says... I got my first round of 'trunky papers' this week! It was really just a letter from President Saylin encouraging me to sprint to the end and to make sure I set goals to make the most use of these last few months. I, of course, already planned on sprinting to the end but it is always nice to have a little support/ challenge from your mission president. It also had a paper for me to fill out with all my home information ( home ward, stake, address, which airport is closest, etc.) so that they can buy your plane ticket!!! CRAZY! I remember when everyone else would get their trunky papers, and I can't believe that I am one of the old ones now! Oh and also, transfer calls were this morning and no surprise but I'm staying in Manvel for transfer #6. I'm fine with it but I have no idea what will happen next transfer. If I stay in Manvel it means that I will be here for 7 transfers and 10 months...which is a super long time, but 'vacation transfers' don't really happen that often. Vacation transfers are when you are in a new area for your last transfer, its called that because you don't really have to work on getting to know the area, but we will worry about all of that in 6 weeks. Well now to the Investigator Weekly!! Sarina: She is fantastic and watched all 4 sessions of conference with the Carters (her member friends). She is progressing amazingly and the only thing now is getting her parents on board with baptism. Sister Carter is going to talk with her parents about how important baptism is to Sarina because she is like every normal 12 year old and has a hard time verbalizing things. We went to a baptism with them last night and she really liked it. It is amazing to work with her and this really is how missionary work should be done. We really don't have to do anything, just be there to provide the support but because she was friends with members first it is a very natural thing ( just like Elder Evans talk yesterday!) She is just great Severo: He wasn't able to watch conference but his dad passed away last week and he is now a lot more receptive to the Plan of Salvation and we are excited to help him know the truth of the hope of the gospel. I love being a missionary for this reason. Rosales kids: Their mom is a less active member who is coming back to church. The kids are 12 and 10 and are really good friends with the Hironymous' (our branch presidents family). They love coming to church and learning about the gospel. They watched 2 sessions of conference and it was really good, their mom really liked it also! Well it has been a decent week- it felt super long though, don't really know why, hopefully this week will be faster. Well I hope y'all have a great Easter weekend! The knowledge and hope of the resurrection is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about! Yeah Easter! Well I love y'all and hope y'all have a fantastic week! The Church is true! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 66

Hey everyone! It was a good and fast week out here in Manvel. As I sit here trying to remember what exactly happened this week... I can't really remember anything. One thing that comes to the forefront of my mind is our lesson with Sarina yesterday!!!!!!! YES!! It finally happened! I have been waiting to have a lesson with her for months!! I could talk about about it here but that would take away from the excitement of the Investigator Weekly! And I know that y'all are waiting on the edge of your seats to get this email today so you can finally quench that awe and wonder at what has happened this week... bahaha- okay, maybe not quite, but here we go: Sarina: So we finally had a lesson at the Carter home. They are the members that bring her to church every week and take her to all the other activities. We talked about the Restoration and watched the movie about Joseph Smith and his story- the short one, not the long one. She is awesome and the Carters have 12 and 10 year old daughters who are Sarina's friends that they did awesome to help us in the lesson. She accepted a baptismal date for April 21!! We just have to make sure the parents are on board with her getting baptized now. Sarina told us that her mom said that she wouldn't pay for a baptism and that Sarina needs to wait until she 18... well the good news is that baptism is free!!! Yeah! We are all praying that the Lord will soften the hearts of Sarina's parents so that they will agree to let her be baptized on April 21. We are going to watch General Conference with them this weekend so we are excited! Severo: We had a lesson with him on Friday night and we taught the Plan of Salvation. We talked to Hno. Aquino yesterday a lot about it... Severo has the desire to do what he is supposed to... we just need to help him have the desire to read and help him understand why this is important to him. I have a lot of hope for him, he is a good guy and we have a lesson with him on Friday and I'm excited for it, and we are planning to have him watch Conference with us this weekend! RJ: He is doing good, we are helping his mom understand the Book of Mormon more so that when they read it she can help them understand it. We have decided that the key is to strengthen her and then he will come... it's kinda been our focus all along but we have returned back to that recently. Well.. thats about it for the Investigator Weekly this week. It has been fantastic weather out here and I hope it lasts for the next couple months and doesn't get too hot and humid. I really don't have much else to say this week... weird... I know. The week just went by so fast that I don't remember a lot that happened. I'm sorry to disappoint y'all with this short email, I'll do better next week... but I am excited for Conference! I hope y'all enjoy Conference this weekend and remember the great blessing it is that we have the knowledge that God has once again called men to help him in His work. I meet people everyday that are so confused in life and listen to every wind of 'doctrine' that there is out there. It makes me really grateful for the blessing that I have of knowing in whom I can trust to receive guidance from the Lord. I'm super excited!! Well I love y'all and hope that y'all have a fantastic week!! As they say out here in Texas: Have a blessed day! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 65

Hey howdy hey y'all!! Well this was a pretty normal week out here in good ol' Texas! It started out slow but it ended well. We found a new guy who is pretty legit! His name is Severo! I'll talk more about him in a minute. So this week we were out scoping some different areas and we were riding a lot along these back country gravel roads and Hna. Ker had her first experience with the 'wild', stray dogs of Texas chasing us... one was a 3-legged dog, but don't let that fool you! He was a fast little bugger. Well... off we go to the Investigator Weekly!! Severo!: We talked to him on Friday, he lives across the street from our new ward mission leader- Hno. Aquino. (Off of one of those podunk country roads) He said that he had heard of Joseph Smith before and could relate the experience back to us. We got down his number and gave him pamphlet! We then went across the street to our dinner appointment with the Aquinos and told Hno. Aquino about it and then on Saturday he called Severo and invited him over to his house to have a lesson after church yesterday! It was a great lesson and he accepted a date for April 21. Hno. Aquino is 26 and got back from his mission in 2009 and it was great to have a fresh returned missionary in our lesson. He did awesome and I'm really excited to see how Severo progresses! He was excited to read the Book of Mormon and we get him 3 Nephi 11 to read so that he could learn about when Christ came to the Americas! I have high hopes for him! Sarina: So today we had an awesome phone call from Sister Carter- she is the one that takes Sarina to church every Sunday. Well Sister Carter talked to Sarina's parents and told them that we wanted them to have the opportunity to meet us before we started teaching Sarina. Her dad said that they didn't want Sarina to be held back on account of them so we got the OK to meet with her! Her parents are very supportive and love everything about the Church. Their boys are very involved in scouting and they love the Young Women program and said the it is everything that Girl Scouts isn't, in regards to the caliber of the program. It was a very good sign for us and her parents are so supportive and now all we need to do is teach her everything so she can get baptized! We are now going to have lessons with Sarina in the Carter home! I'm stoked- the miracles that we needed are slowly starting to fall into place! Well... I know that it is super short this week but those were the two biggest things that happen this week I feel. We are working hard to find new people that want to progress and it seems to be working. It has been nice weather out here and we rode our bikes a lot the last couple of days- on Saturday night I was a little pink, but my tan is coming back! How's that snow working for y'all? Ha ha just kidding- okay that was mean. I'm sorry. I will get my own though when it comes about May and I'm sweating my brains out... something to look forward to! One thing cool that happened this week is that I met a guy from Peru!! It normally wouldn't be that big of a deal but considering we are going there when I get back I tried to talk to him a little bit about Machu Picchu but he didn't think it was as cool as I did... lame. Well... I don't think I really have much else to tell y'all this week... sorry . I love emailing though- it sure is nice to share what has happened in my week with those I love! I hope y'all have a good week and that Lord continues to bless you and your families! I attached some pictures- I hope y'all like them! Just random pictures! Love y'all!! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 64

Hey everyone!! Well it was a wet weekend in Manvel, Texas- not only because of the thunderstorms we had but also because Victor Mendez got baptized!!! It is a very liberating baptism for me- ha ha. He has been ready to be baptized since the middle of January and he has been weighing on my mind and I have been stressing a little about it, but I'm very thankful that everything fell into place to where he was able to have a very awesome baptism yesterday. I was nervous because his parents didn't come until sacrament meeting was almost over because of the rain. Victor came early with his uncle so that he could have his baptismal interview, and I wasn't going to baptize him with out his family there- so I was very relieved when they showed up. It was great and it was a really good time for his family- his parents are returning to activity and so are 2 of his uncles and their wives. It was really awesome, one uncle baptized him and the other confirmed him. I was really happy for them and I was happy that Hna. Ker was able to get a baptism in her first transfer- even though she doesn't know Victor very well, its still an awesome feeling to watch a convert baptism. Well our investigator pool is a little dry right now but not from lack of trying. We talked to a whole bunch of people this week but... they were all English people! We tried to branch out to new neighborhoods but it didn't really work- but we have seen blessings for trying extra hard to talk to our 10 people (each) a day. We will keep doing it with the hope, prayer, and faith that the Lord will provide. Now to the Investigator Weekly! RJ: They had a busy week so we weren't able to see them but we will see them this week and we are trying to decide when is the right time to bring up baptism again. We don't want his mom to feel pressured but I think that him getting baptized will be a really good spring board for the family to keep returning to activity. His mom found out this last week that she is pregnant... so it will be boy #5... she has 3 of her own and 1 that is her sister's that she has custody of. She isn't really happy to be pregnant but we will try and use it to help her come closer to the Lord and to really work on keeping the commandments so that they can have His extra help in their growing family. Sarina: Well... we are still waiting to meet with her parents but we are getting a lot of support from the ward with helping her know about baptism and its importance. I'm excited for General Conference coming up so that hopefully we can get a member to invite Sarina and her family over to watch conference, which would be a really good introduction to the Church for her family. Well... sadly thats about it for this week. I'm hoping that next week I'll lots of new and awesome people to tell y'all about. It was a good week though and went by pretty fast. Its interesting to see the trends that happen in life. For example, this week we talked to a lot of people who go to non-denominational churches. I have thought a lot about that... I feel bad for those people. Yes they are being good Christians and going to church, but if you really think about it they are living beneath their potential and are okay with it. When people/churches don't require any real change or work, then what is the motivation? If they don't think that God requires them to change and improve and grow, then they don't understand the purpose of this life, or really the nature of God. If you go to church every week and your preacher tells you what a good job you are doing and how much Jesus loves you for just trying, then where is the growth? Do you leave with any real determination to become something more or do you know what you need to change to become more like Christ? I think of General Conference and the talks by the general authorities or President Monson. We leave those talks feeling up lifted and motivated even when we get chastised- like with Elder Holland :). We are called on to become better and to rise above the things of the world- and we know that we have lots of things to change and improve, yet we know that we are doing it because we have the goal to become like our Heavenly Father and we know the purpose of this life. I don't know if any of that makes sense but just some thoughts from this week... Anyway... I'm short on time but that was my week! I hope y'all have a great week. I miss and love y'all! I hope the good Lord continues to bless you and your families this week! Go Cougars!! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg