Happy New Year!! :)
Dear Family, Dec. 30, 2013
I can't believe that I got to Skype you on Christmas!
It was so amazing :) I just loved being able to see you, it hardly seemed
real! What a great blessing technology is! I'm so glad that you are
all doing well!
So, last week was pretty crazy, but by far one of the most
memorable Christmas's of my life. The ice storm was crazy, and there were
a lot of side effects. One of them being loss of power. I took so
many pictures of the trees because they looked so pretty, but the sad part was
that they were falling all over the power lines. A bunch of people in the
branch didn't have power over Christmas, and some people still don't have
power. It was pretty crazy. A lot of linemen were out working
Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We were very blessed and we didn't lose power
at all. So, where to even start.
Christmas Eve was amazing!! It was such a great
day! We had our district meeting, and they have been really good.
We even made pizza after for lunch, which was fun! We had dinner at the
Watkins house with the elders (they let us both go together because no one else
invited us over for Christmas Eve), and it was great! They are such a
wonderful family! They live in Bar Harbor and they lost power, but they
were still totally willing to let us come over and have dinner with them.
We had oyster stew by candle light. I didn't even mind the stew that
much, actually :) We had a great time there, and my favorite part was at
the end. Each of the missionaries went around the table and bore their
testimonies. It was so powerful! I'm so grateful that we had the
opportunity to do that on Christmas Eve! After, we went around and caroled
to members. They were all super welcoming, even the family that had been
without power for four days. They were totally in survival mode. A
lot of people here in Maine were. But it was great to be able to brighten
up what may have been a dark and dreary Christmas Eve :) I spent a lot of
time giving thanks to God for all my blessings that night in our warm
apartment.
Christmas was amazing as well! We went to the Millis's
house where I was able to Skype you!! They are an awesome family and they
do so much for the missionaries in the branch! Then we visited some more
people before we headed out to Valerie's to have Christmas dinner with her and
Jason! It was so great! She got her power back a couple hours
before we came, and they were just so grateful! We had a wonderful time
with them :) They are so funny together, and they are just so happy to be
getting married and she is so happy to be baptized!! Overall, it was a
Christmas dedicated to my Savior, and the best one that I have experienced yet
:) What a blessing to serve as a missionary during my favorite time of year!!
This Sunday we were able to make it to church!!!
Hooray!! It had been so weird not going for those two weeks! It really
has helped me realize how important it is to go to church! It made me feel
so happy to be able to take the Sacrament :) What a great blessing!
Also, after church we stayed after and went over the song that we are playing
in church next Sunday together. It is so amazing to be able to play the
violin for this song. It has been great being able to practice it and the
spirit was so strong when we played it together! I love music!! It
is such an important part of my life, and I can't even express how grateful I
am that I'll be able to share that part of my life with others while I'm here
serving a mission!! :) It is awesome!
We had a combined meeting third hour at church on
goals. I've been thinking a lot about goals recently. As
missionaries, we set a lot of goals every week. Individually, as
companions, and as districts. It is hard for me to always see the
importance of them, and I don't really remember them all the time. Now,
with New Year's coming, up it is hard to think about yearly goals. I feel
like they can be pretty overwhelming for me, and they never get done. I
really want to fix this! Having goals in mind is so important! I
need to work towards something so that I can progress. That is what this
life is all about. Having a vision of eternal life in mind, and making
goals. step by step, to achieve that vision. It doesn't happen all at
once, which can be pretty frustrating sometimes, but I need to start
somewhere. I'm grateful that I even have the chance to learn and progress
here on the earth. The time that I have is precious, and like it says in
Alma 34:32, "This life is the time for men to prepare to meet
God." I hope that as I go throughout this coming year I can look
back and find that I'm a better person than I was before :) Slowly but
surely growing closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.
Have a great time celebrating New Years in Saint
George! I love you so much!
Never stand still till the Master
appear! (Hymn 217)
Sister Bergeson
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