Letters from Kelsey - 77

Hey y'all!!!

Well the days are getting hotter and more humid out here in Houston Texas. It was just a fantastic weekend with the baptisms of RJ & Daniel Pena and Sonia & Dylan Garza!!! It was so much fun to go back to Manvel to see people, that I had worked with for a long time and love, enter into the waters of baptism and receive the blessings of the gospel! I also got to see the Venegas'!! They are so great and they got callings yesterday too! It was great, its always worth it but it makes it that much more worth it when you know that all your work makes a difference, and it is so great when they remember you and are excited to see you too! We will never truly know how far our work or example reaches, so work hard and be a good example! ha ha. Well lets head to the Investigator Weekly! There are some good things happening in Houston 1 West!

Manuel & Brenda: They are just so great. So they came to church yesterday and also to the investigator devotional. We taught them about the Word of Wisdom last week when Manuel brought up his desire to quit smoking. I don't think I have taught anyone who has as sincere of desires as Manuel. I don't think that they will be baptized in my time here, because he needs to quit smoking and they need to get married, but I know that they will be soon. They love having us over and they read the Book of Mormon every day!

Magda: We fasted with her yesterday to help soften her 'husband's' heart so that he will marry her soon so that she can get baptized soon! (I forgot that nobody in the city is married). Its not that he doesn't want to marry her, he just doesn't want it to be right now. She keeps asking him to marry her now because she really does want to get baptized- lets just hope it happens soon.

We have some pretty good people but we are always looking for more, this week will be a big push on finding new people- even with the coming heat and humidity. Well my time is short- but y'all should check out my mormon.org profile! It is pretty good! ha ha Go to www.mormon.org and type in Houston Texas South Mission Kelsey in the search bar and I should come up in the next couple days! Well I love y'all and hope things are going good where ever you are! The Church is true!!

Love Always,

Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 76

Kelsey is coming home June 26th, at 7:15 PM!

Hey y'all,
Another week has come and gone in Houston, Texas. It is pretty hot out here, but not humid yet, thank goodness, but we decided to listen to Christmas music this week so that it will be less hot in our minds- ha ha. This was a good week and we have found some pretty cool people. We had a visit this last week from Elder Paul V. Johnson and it was a pretty cool experience. He was out here in because yesterday they created the 18th stake in the Houston area! It didn't really affect us that much, but our ward is now in a different stake, but nothing different for us. So lets go to the Investigator Weekly!!!
Brenda and Manuel: They are an awesome couple that we met on Saturday and they came to church yesterday! So they were a referral from missionaries in another area who are teaching her sister. Brenda has lots of family who are members in Honduras and her husband is pretty cool as well. They have a date for June 30 and we are excited to meet with them tonight!
Karina: So on Thursday we went all over Houston to help her get her stuff in order to get her marriage license, and we finally found a way to get her a passport from El Salvador so that she can do it! We are making progress!!
Mauricio & Jose: They are brothers and so funny! I'll write more about them next week.
Well... I always seem to forget what I want to tell y'all... I should probably write notes... ha ha. As I get closer to the end I do a lot of thinking about a lot of things... this week I was thinking about what life will be like when I really do go home... I mean I'm kinda expecting to go back home to the 'home' I left. This week I realized that I will be going home to something different and that things will never be the same. All the people- all of you- that I love will be different, y'all will have progressed and grown and changed for the better (hopefully). Most of my friends are married and moving on past school... but you know, I'm okay with it all. I am not going home the same person I was when I came out, and I am so grateful for that... so grateful. It would disappoint me if when I got home everything was the same as I left it. Anyway... just some random thoughts... so if y'all are expecting the same Kelsey Berg to step off that plane in a couple weeks, you will be disappointed, but its change for the better. Well I hope y'all have a good week! Love y'all!!!
Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 75

Hey y'all!! You can thank a gangster named Mike for the subject line quote, we sure find some interesting people here in the city. Well this last week was good, it went by pretty slow, but it was good. We are working hard to try and refill our teaching pool. We have some decent investigators but no one came to church on Sunday so that is now the hold up for all of them... here we go to the Investigator Weekly! Karina: She has been investigating the church for 11 years. We are trying to get her married, she has problems with her ID, so that she can get baptized on June 23! Her 12 year old daughter is a member and they are just so funny. Magda: She came to church last week, but not this week. She is a mom of 2 little girls and we are trying to get her married as well. She loved church and is starting to invite everyone to come to church! She is hopefully going to keep progressing. Well... I know this is short this week.. I'm sorry, I'm just short for words recently- weird I know. I promise I'm not getting trunky :), we just work and hit the pavement and thats about it. We really try and talk to everyone and find those the Lord is preparing in our area. The weather has been pretty decent, not too humid, really hot but its okay I'm getting a nice tan :). Well I hope y'all had a nice Memorial Day! Oh! We got to be able to DOWNTOWN Houston this last week because we had to go to the Police Department to get a copy of the police report of the break in last week and downtown was pretty cool. I can't wait to come back and see it again! Well I hope y'all have a great week! Love y'all! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 74

Hey ya'll!! So I'm back in Houston 1- the ward where I started my mission, but its a different area- more city than the first one, my compaion is Hna. Anna Baird from California and she goes home the transfer after me. Its okay here, it was really cool at church yesterday to see people that I had taught that were still strong in the church- it was cool. It was fun for them to remember me, I didn't think they would considering I was only here for 6 weeks and I couldn't speak Spanish at all. The work is kinda slow here right now, but we will work hard. I had an interview with President Saylin this last week and he told me that he had originally planned on just leaving me in Manvel for my last one (and my heart broke because it was at one point a possibility) but that he had a strong impression that I needed to be moved and he told me to make sure that I work with the urgency needed for these last 5 weeks because there in a real reason I'm in this area now. So it should be good :) I don't like the city very much though, its super easy to talk to the needed 10 people a day and we get a lot of return appointments, but not many of them progress. Our apartment is not nice at all- its decent- but I do not like cockroaches... no bueno. I have just been spoiled for the last 9 months is really what it comes down to. Here we go to the Investigator Weekly!!! Vanegas Family!!!!: BAPTIZED!!!!! WOOT!!! I was able to go to the baptism- Sister Saylin drove us and it was amazing!!! It was like going home, I had been homesick for Manvel all week and to see the way the branch supported the Vanegas family just made me love them even more. So we get there at 3:50 (baptism is supposed to start at 4:00) and only the missionaries and the branch president is there. Then by 4:15 everyone else shows up except the Vanegas'! Ha ha, I was freaking out a lot on the inside. They had come to stake conference that morning so everything was good. They were just so awesome! Hna. Vanegas cried a couple times and her 3 year old son Nicolas kept asking her why she was crying. It was just so amazing! That is why we as missionaries do what we do. This is why I came to Texas and sweat my brains out :). I'm excited to help them over this next year so that next May I can come back as they get sealed in the temple!!! So absolutely fantastic! Magda: She came to church yesterday for the first time, the Hermanas here have been teaching her for a while so it was really good for her to come! I think she liked it, her 4 year old daughter sure did. I don't know a lot about her but her husband's uncle in El Salvador has been a member for 30 years and he has cousins on missions, so they have a lot of potential. Thats about it for now... they have been dropping a lot of people so we are starting new! I love new starts. So on Saturday our car was broken into- my companion left her wallet in the pocket of the drivers side door, and they broke the drivers side window. It was at 1:00 pm and we were like 100 yards from the car the whole time as we ate lunch with an investigator for 45 minutes... it was a great welcome back to Houston... ha ha. Everything is good though and we get a new window tomorrow! yeah! Well I hope y'all have a good week! Love y'all!! Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg

Letters from Kelsey - 73

Hey y'all, Well I hope y'all had a fantastic Mother's Day! We had a good one. We had a super crazy week. So Monday was P-Day, Tuesday we were supposed to move, but didn't (it was not a good day), Wednesday we moved (this apartment and complex is totally legit), Thursday I had a leadership conference in Sugar Land and that night I went to Sunnyside for an exchange. Sunnyside is English and super ghetto. It was super fun and it felt a little like a vacation. It was fun to see a different area, but I felt like I didn't do anything the whole week because I stayed in Sunnyside until Saturday afternoon and then that night we had a branch party for Mother's Day. It was a super fast and fun week. Well.... I found out this morning that I'm getting transferred... I'm super sad about it and not excited to go to a new area for only 6 weeks... I would much rather stay here, especially considering that the Vangeas' are getting baptized on Sunday and now I'll have to find a ride from someone in my new area. I'll do what the Lord asks of me and lift where I stand, even if its only for 6 weeks. I have loved serving in Manvel and serving these people. Its crazy to think that I have been here for almost 9 months, half of my mission was spent here and I can't believe it. The next 6 weeks will probably fly by because of it... its all good though. So here we go for the last edition of the Investigator Weekly: Manvel: The Vanegas family: Well the parents are getting baptized on Sunday at 4 and the branch is so stoked for them. The 13 year old daughter doesn't feel ready yet so we are going to wait with her. They are so great though. So yesterday in Relief Society they announced the baptism and one of the members commented that she thought they had been members for years! That is exactly what you want. They are so great and I'm gonna come back when they go through the temple next year. They have great fellow shippers in the branch and it has just been perfect... well besides the fact that I'm leaving. RJ: They came to all 3 hours of church yesterday and all the boys went to their classes. Christi is in Alma 14 and is loving reading the Book of Mormon. She is really learning and understanding tons about the Church and the way that Heavenly Father interacts with his children. She is starting to develop a different perspective of Heavenly Father and really understand our relationship with him. It is fantastic. RJ is set for June 9 and I will for sure come back for that baptism as well. Sarina: Still as solid as ever... just waiting on the parents. Well... I know its a little short this week... sorry. I am still in shock that I don't know where I will be Wednesday night. I was super excited for this next transfer, it was shaping up to be the best one of my mission by far. This area is going to have so much success that I'm so excited. All the work that we have put in the last 9 months are now paying off. I can honestly say that I am leaving my area better than I found it. The people here are my second family, and I know that it was inspired that I served here and that I spent so much time here. I have really enjoyed my time and have loved the experiences I have had. My mission has been amazing and I know the last 6 weeks will probably be amazing too- if I make them amazing, it is just another chapter in my mission that needs to be written. Well I better go but I hope y'all have a fantastic week. I love y'all and miss y'all tons. Love Always, Sister Kelsey Berg