Letters from Kelsey - 71

Hey y'all~ It was a good week and it was topped off with a really good Sunday. So first of all I was one happy missionary yesterday when all the De Hoyos' kids paid their tithing on their allowance!!!! It took some work, some teaching, and lots of promising blessings, but it was helped out by the fact that Hno. De Hoyos pays his tithing all the time. It was so great to see them all walk up there after sacrament meeting to give their envelopes to the branch president. They are getting a little better in Sacrament meeting, its probably because I have started translating what is being said- sometimes its hard and sometimes I make things up so that it fits together but its all good! They don't know the difference. ha ha So here we go to the last April edition of the Investigator weekly! The Venegas Family: They are just so great- they came to church for the first hour before they had to go to a family party. We also saw them on Tuesday last week and last night. They all have dates for the 12th of May. They have said that they don't feel prepared for the 12th, but we told them to be patient and we will worry about that when the 12th comes. They are so solid though. Hno. already has the Book of Mormon on his phone and Hna. is defending the church to her Catholic mom and her Jehovah's Witness brother. Its pretty great. They are becoming awesome friends with all the members and Nicolas (3) was unhappy yesterday that he couldn't go to Primary. I feel so lucky to be teaching them and I'm praying that they will recognize their answers before the 12th- I would appreciate your prayers for them! Sarina: She is doing great and in our lesson yesterday we helped her write a couple notes to her parents that she could go put on their bed to help her open up to her parents about what she learns as church and to help them see how important everything is to Sarina and all the great things that she is learning- so hopefully they will be a little more open to her getting baptized. Those are really the only people that are progressing very well. This was another week that went by really fast. On Thursday- Saturday we went on exchanges and I stayed here while Hna. Ker went to Houston 1 and Hna. Romney (no close relation to Mitt) came here. She is in her 4th transfer and the whole time talked about how happy she was to be on exchanges with me to learn from a veteran missionary. I was flattered but at the same time all it did was make me feel really old. I feel old anyway when I find out that everyone here graduated from high school in 2009 or later... its crazy to me to think that there really is less than 2 months until I come home... I can't believe that it really is coming to an end. Well I can promise y'all that there will be no letting up here- its easy when you have been blessed with such awesome investigators. Well I hope y'all have a great week! Love and miss y'all! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 70

Hey everyone!! Oh man... this week flew by and all I can say is "Its about time!!". I have been waiting for time to go by fast for like 3 months. The first part of the week was crazy with mission stuff going on and Wednesday we got to go to the temple which was fantastic! Then we had to go to Sugar Land because I had an interview and long story short- we left Manvel at 6:45 am and didn't return until 6:45 pm! Then we had a quick lesson and more meetings. THEN! On Friday it was the closest thing I have ever seen to a tornado- I have sent a picture! So these creepy storm clouds were coming and then as they got closer it got really quiet and then all of a sudden it got really really cold and really windy and started raining really hard. It was crazy. The clouds were all swirling around and my companion and I were trying to figure out if we really wanted to see 'somewhere over the rainbow' or not. I said we should jump on our bikes and grab one of the little annoying dogs around here but she didn't think that was a very good idea- bahaha. We ended up not seeing a tornada (thats how they say it in Texas). That was really the only excited thing though that happened this week. We are teaching more people now than I have since the beginning of my mission- its fantastic! Which leads to..... The 'Wizard of Oz' edition of the Investigator Weekly!! The Venegas family!!: They came to church yesterday and it was all great again! The members have been awesome and there have been 3 sisters that have talked to Milena everyday this last week and even took her to the doctor when her husband was at work. We have a lesson with the whole family on Tuesday and I'm really excited. Carlos said last week that everything was like deja vu- it was like he had lived it all before. They are just doing awesome, they are reading the Book of Mormon and really want to be in the right path for their family. Sarina: We re-set a baptismal date for May 26th and we are really trying to work with her to verbalize things more to her parents so they can see how important it is to her and so that they can see that she is learning and not just going because her friends are. Adam and Juany: They are great older couple- I'm short on time but they are great also and Adam is really funny. Well thats it for today! Things are going good and we are just working like crazy. I can't believe that this is the last week of April! The rest of the transfer will fly by because we have a lot of work in our area and we have a lot of mission meetings- crazy crazy. I hope y'all have a fantastic week! Love y'all!! I hope you enjoy some pictures from this last week! Temple pictures of Hna. Ker and I, another one with President Saylin... he said the sun was too bright. And a funny one with the Hironymous family when we were helping them with spring cleaning! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 69

Hey y'all, Well things are good out here. There is a super crazy thunderstorm going on and when it thunders it like shakes everything! Its crazy but I'm really glad today is Monday so I don't have to go ride around in it- that sure gets old real quick. Everything turns into a lake when it rains and you understand why they have bayous everywhere! This week was a super long week, not a bad one- it just went by really slow. On Wednesday I went to a Leadership Conference which was really cool and Hna. Ker got to spend the day with some other Hermanas, I was happy for her to have the chance to meet some other sisters. It was a good experience and I left the conference with lots of things that I need to do better... I tend to be too complicated sometimes in my teachings- along with lots of other weaknesses- and sometimes I get overwhelmed with all of those weaknesses, but all I can do it try my best and have faith that the Lord will help me. We saw a huge miracle yesterday though! So we have worked really really hard these last couple of weeks to talk to our 10 people a day each and we haven't exactly seen a huge increase in our teaching pool until this week. We found a bunch of new investigators this week and I'm really hoping that they all pan out to be legit. Yesterday morning we stopped by some of them to make sure they were coming to church and nobody was home......... on our way to the church for our branch council meeting I was really questioning a lot of things and wondering what I hadn't done right and doubting myself and having lots of other thoughts. Well when we left our meeting and got to the chapel for sacrament meeting to start I was super surprised to see another new investigator there... which leads too... drum roll please.... the Investigator Weekly!!! The Venegas Family: They were the ones at church! We had received them as a referral from the English elders a couple weeks ago and had stopped by a couple times but either no one was home or they were busy, on Saturday we finally got in though. We were there for about an hour while they were talking about a whole bunch of random things and I was trying to keep it on topic. They are from Colombia and the mom met with missionaries down there a long time ago. They have a 13 year old daughter, a 3 year old son, and a 2 month old girl. The members were awesome yesterday and it was really a huge blessing and miracle to have them there. We will see what happens with them! Sarina: She is still doing well- we are really trying to figure out how to get the parents to change their minds about the whole 18 years old thing and helping them see how important it is to Sarina. I would appreciate y'all's prayers for us on this one :)! Well- I'm excited for some of the other new people that we found this week but since none of them came to church yesterday I'm not going to give them the glory of being featured- so they can just wait! ha ha. Everything is going well out here though- we are going to the temple on Wednesday morning so that will be fun, I'm really looking forward to that. We just keep pressing forward. There was something else I wanted to say but I don't really remember what it is... man, I should write notes on what I want to say... oh well- guess it probably wasn't that important. Well- I know that this work really is guided by the Lord and as much as I think sometimes that I have any control over things I quickly learn that it really has nothing to do with me. As long as I do my best and work hard then everything that is supposed to happen will happen. I hope y'all have fantastic week! Keep the faith! Love y'all!! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

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