Howdy y'all!!
Yes, y'all read the subject correctly I am emailing you from Galveston, Texas! I see the ocean every single day and I feel like I am living in the Princess and the Frog- okay well not totally but just a little bit. Everyone down here is very southern and Texan. I have never seen houses on stilts before and I love the cool ocean breeze. It is more humid than Houston but the breeze doesn't really make it feel like it. I got burned a little the other day, which I didn't think was possible because I had been in the sun for 6 weeks already but it happened because of all the humidity! So I almost died the other day because it was so humid that my hands were sweaty and my hand slipped off my handlebars and I veered into the road, thank heavens no cars were coming but now I have a sweet bruise on my forearm. (Mom I promise everything is okay and I was wearing my helmet ;) ) Galveston is great though and I love it when I get the glimpses of the ocean. There aren't a whole lot of Hispanic people but we have a branch that has awesome members who work hard with us. Now a quick Investigator Weekly:
Emma: She is 17 and her mom is a member. I guess in the past when the Hermanas have come over she has always gone into her room but when we went over the other day she stayed out and talked to us and asked us questions and we taught a rough first and gave her a Book of Mormon. When we went by on Sunday she said that she had read the first two pages and loved it! I'm super stoked for her and she accepted a baptismal date for the 9th of July. The only problems we might have is her cousin and her boyfriend are JW's (Jehovah's Witnesses) and they don't like us very well, but we know that the Lord will help her. I'm really excited for her- she is super cute.
Leonel: He has had a baptismal date in the past, twice, but it dropped because he didn't come to church but he came to church this week for the second time so now he is eligible! We went over yesterday and watched the Restoration with him and he accepted another date for the 16th of July! He reads the Book of Mormon by himself and asked us yesterday what the law of Moses was! He is awesome and I'm excited for him too!
Well this Investigator Weekly was a little short this week again- I know- but these two are solid and I would rather have a couple solid people that a bunch of people who aren't going to commit or change. That is one thing I have learned on my mission so far is that I don't like begging people to change- I have decided to let them use their agency and just trust in the Lord that things will work out how they are supposed to. I have learned to tell the people who really want to change and better their lives and then there are those people who don't want to do anything and just let God do everything for them. Its interesting to see all the different thoughts out there and see the way the Spirit bring thing to people's remembrance when they hear the truth. I'm excited for this transfer though- I was a little stressed at the beginning with it being my first transfer as the Senior Companion but my companion was well trained and we are going to rock this area. It is so much fun to work on the island with these people who have been through so much. Its interesting to ride down the streets and see houses that still haven't been rebuilt from Hurricane Ike back in 2008 and to just talk to these people that have such hard lives and see all that work in their eyes when you talk to them. It really is amazing and I love the island- I just wish that sometimes it was a little cooler. I love not being in apartment complexes all day and not having that stuffy Houston air. I love the ocean breezes and seeing the pelicans dive bomb the water.Galveston has such cool history too and I feel like this has kind of rekindled my fire a little bit.
Anyway... I hope y'all had a fantastic Father's Day weekend! I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my Daddy-o and all those great examples of Fathers in my life. Thank y'all for being great men and magnifying your calling of a father because I see everyday people who haven't had this type of example and I can't imagine my life with out y'all. Thank y'all so much for everything! I love and miss y'all and hope that the Lord continues to bless you and your families!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Letters from Kelsey - 26
My dear family and friends,
Well we got the call this morning and I'm getting transferred tomorrow. I'm sad because this is an awesome ward and I love it, el Obispo is legit and the ward is really starting to support the missionaries and things are just going to take off I just know it. On the other hand I'm excited for a change of scenery. As I have said before I don't like change but I figure that because nothing is really stable right now anyway, I want things to change so that I can continue to stretch and grow. I know that the first week will probably be uncomfortable but that is when deep, true change happens right? Anyway... next week I will for sure let y'all know where I am.
This week was a decent week... to be honest I don't really remember a whole lot of it- ha ha. Oh I think I broke the Word of Wisdom this weekend again... one of the ladies we went to visit gave us this juice stuff that wasn't really a fruit juice but wasn't carbonated- we are guessing that it was like a sweet tea because neither of us has ever had it before be we aren't for sure, only guessing. I went 21 years of my life with out breaking the Word of Wisdom and I have only been in on my mission in Texas 4 months and have broken it twice ha ha. I find that very ironic, but its interesting to see what things you find funny as a missionary... its probably not normal. Anyway now on to the Investigator Weekly:
Yenny: Came to church this week, but bailed for the last 2 hours and we don't know why. We have an appointment with her this afternoon and we will find out. She is super solid though and loved watching the Restoration and she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet so it will be cool to hear of her progress.
Jason: He is this 11 year old kid we found last week through his mom. I contacted her a couple weeks ago and we had some time so we went over to visit them and ended up watching Finding Faith in Christ. She has her own church but Jason doesn't like to go with her so she wanted him to come to church with us. He hardly says anything at all and I have to admit that I didn't think that he would really be ready for church on Sunday but we lined up a ride for him and he was ready when we went to go pick him up. We have an appointment with him today also, maybe he really is looking for something, who knows. The hardest part will be getting him to answer our questions ha ha.
Sorry to be so short this week but I don't have a lot of time this week. I hope all is going well with y'all! May the Lord continues to bless you and your families. Thank you all for your continued love, prayers, and support!!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Well we got the call this morning and I'm getting transferred tomorrow. I'm sad because this is an awesome ward and I love it, el Obispo is legit and the ward is really starting to support the missionaries and things are just going to take off I just know it. On the other hand I'm excited for a change of scenery. As I have said before I don't like change but I figure that because nothing is really stable right now anyway, I want things to change so that I can continue to stretch and grow. I know that the first week will probably be uncomfortable but that is when deep, true change happens right? Anyway... next week I will for sure let y'all know where I am.
This week was a decent week... to be honest I don't really remember a whole lot of it- ha ha. Oh I think I broke the Word of Wisdom this weekend again... one of the ladies we went to visit gave us this juice stuff that wasn't really a fruit juice but wasn't carbonated- we are guessing that it was like a sweet tea because neither of us has ever had it before be we aren't for sure, only guessing. I went 21 years of my life with out breaking the Word of Wisdom and I have only been in on my mission in Texas 4 months and have broken it twice ha ha. I find that very ironic, but its interesting to see what things you find funny as a missionary... its probably not normal. Anyway now on to the Investigator Weekly:
Yenny: Came to church this week, but bailed for the last 2 hours and we don't know why. We have an appointment with her this afternoon and we will find out. She is super solid though and loved watching the Restoration and she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet so it will be cool to hear of her progress.
Jason: He is this 11 year old kid we found last week through his mom. I contacted her a couple weeks ago and we had some time so we went over to visit them and ended up watching Finding Faith in Christ. She has her own church but Jason doesn't like to go with her so she wanted him to come to church with us. He hardly says anything at all and I have to admit that I didn't think that he would really be ready for church on Sunday but we lined up a ride for him and he was ready when we went to go pick him up. We have an appointment with him today also, maybe he really is looking for something, who knows. The hardest part will be getting him to answer our questions ha ha.
Sorry to be so short this week but I don't have a lot of time this week. I hope all is going well with y'all! May the Lord continues to bless you and your families. Thank you all for your continued love, prayers, and support!!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Letters from Kelsey - 25
Hello everyone!
So it feels like just yesterday I was here sending y'all the email last week! Not very many things have happened between then and now- my darling little sister graduated from high school and I now have a little less toenail on my big toe on my right foot, ya win some ya lose some right and the podiatrist won this one? ha ha. This week really was just a normal week- I really have nothing too exciting to write about! We did get rained on yesterday and its looking like it will happen today too. Well here is the Investigator Weekly!
Yenny: Hija de Paula (daughter of Paula). She is awesome and we just started teaching her this week. One thing she is really impressed with is the friendliness of the Church. She told us that she has been attending a Catholic church for about 6 months and doesn't know anyone, whereas her mom has only been coming to church for about 2 months and knows almost everyone in the ward! She has a cute little 7 year old son who she wants to get get baptized in December when he turns 8 so hopefully she will be baptized before then! She came to church yesterday so we are full of faith and hope for her!
Armando: I can't remember if I've told y'all about him yet. He is about 45 and wants the best for his family. He has a bunch of wayward kids and wants them to be close to God. He used to go to church with his wife but that church had a lot of images (saints, what ever you call them in English) that they worship and he doesn't like that. They met with the Hermanas in 2008 but were dropped because they never came to church but he came this week! We had a good lesson this week with him- on his porch by the way- about how he can't change his family, he can only change himself. If he changes himself and becomes closer to Christ, as the head of the house, his family will see his example and it will trickle down (because the trickle down effect works ;) )
I think thats about it for this week... kinda boring I know. I have no idea where this week went and its hard to believe that next week is transfers! Tomorrow I hit my 6 month mark and sometimes I feel like it has flown by and it feels like just yesterday my family was eating at Olive Garden before I entered the MTC, and other times I feel like home is just a dream and that I have always been in Houston and that I will never leave! ha ha Everything in context though right? Time always goes by and things that you never think will come always do and we can either pass the time with a good attitude or a bad. I have to be honest that sometimes I don't pick the right choice and sometimes I get really tired of the same mundane things of our everyday life. Sometimes I get really tired of getting on that bike and not having anyone listen to us or having anyone be there for their appointments, but its never as bad as I make it out to be and no effort is ever wasted. I can go on being frustrated or I can try and learn something from it and try and find someone who really is interested. There is always a reason for everything when you are in the service of the Lord and I know and have hope and faith that if I am obedient and get back on that bike and talk to everyone that it always accomplishes some purpose that I might not know. It might be something that I need to learn or someone that I need to talk to- but everything will always work together for our good when we have hope and faith in our Savior. I hope that everything is going fantastic with y'all where ever this email finds you. May the Lord continue to bless you all!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
So it feels like just yesterday I was here sending y'all the email last week! Not very many things have happened between then and now- my darling little sister graduated from high school and I now have a little less toenail on my big toe on my right foot, ya win some ya lose some right and the podiatrist won this one? ha ha. This week really was just a normal week- I really have nothing too exciting to write about! We did get rained on yesterday and its looking like it will happen today too. Well here is the Investigator Weekly!
Yenny: Hija de Paula (daughter of Paula). She is awesome and we just started teaching her this week. One thing she is really impressed with is the friendliness of the Church. She told us that she has been attending a Catholic church for about 6 months and doesn't know anyone, whereas her mom has only been coming to church for about 2 months and knows almost everyone in the ward! She has a cute little 7 year old son who she wants to get get baptized in December when he turns 8 so hopefully she will be baptized before then! She came to church yesterday so we are full of faith and hope for her!
Armando: I can't remember if I've told y'all about him yet. He is about 45 and wants the best for his family. He has a bunch of wayward kids and wants them to be close to God. He used to go to church with his wife but that church had a lot of images (saints, what ever you call them in English) that they worship and he doesn't like that. They met with the Hermanas in 2008 but were dropped because they never came to church but he came this week! We had a good lesson this week with him- on his porch by the way- about how he can't change his family, he can only change himself. If he changes himself and becomes closer to Christ, as the head of the house, his family will see his example and it will trickle down (because the trickle down effect works ;) )
I think thats about it for this week... kinda boring I know. I have no idea where this week went and its hard to believe that next week is transfers! Tomorrow I hit my 6 month mark and sometimes I feel like it has flown by and it feels like just yesterday my family was eating at Olive Garden before I entered the MTC, and other times I feel like home is just a dream and that I have always been in Houston and that I will never leave! ha ha Everything in context though right? Time always goes by and things that you never think will come always do and we can either pass the time with a good attitude or a bad. I have to be honest that sometimes I don't pick the right choice and sometimes I get really tired of the same mundane things of our everyday life. Sometimes I get really tired of getting on that bike and not having anyone listen to us or having anyone be there for their appointments, but its never as bad as I make it out to be and no effort is ever wasted. I can go on being frustrated or I can try and learn something from it and try and find someone who really is interested. There is always a reason for everything when you are in the service of the Lord and I know and have hope and faith that if I am obedient and get back on that bike and talk to everyone that it always accomplishes some purpose that I might not know. It might be something that I need to learn or someone that I need to talk to- but everything will always work together for our good when we have hope and faith in our Savior. I hope that everything is going fantastic with y'all where ever this email finds you. May the Lord continue to bless you all!
Love Always,
Sister Kelsey Berg
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