Bucksport, Maine, Jan. 6, 2013

Tales of a Bleak Midwinter

My dear, wonderful family,                               Jan. 6, 2013

I hope that you had a fantastic time celebrating the New Year!! :)  2013 came and went so fast.  So much happened and I know that I have learned and grown so much!  Serving a mission has definitely been one of the best choices I have ever made in my life.  Last year was one to remember and I'm sure that this coming year will be the same!! :)

 It has certainly been exciting here in Maine!!  First things first. I can hardly describe the weather!  It is insane!  They say it has been one of the harshest winters they have had in a long time, and I believe it!  It is cold and windy, and we have had everything from snow to rain to ice.  Right now the wind is blowing strong and it is pouring.  It is in the 40's right now, but once it gets later and colder, everything will freeze.  Pretty crazy stuff!  But we are still going strong!  We've been grounded quite a bit, but we keep ourselves busy and entertained.  We made a wonderful sock puppet video that we are very proud of... only missionaries..  (We made the sock puppets for FHE with Tracy and Izzy!!  They are the best ever!)  It has been quite an adventure!  I'm glad that I can be with Sister Bickel though!  We have been through so much together, and I'm just so grateful for her and for the memories that we have made!  Saying we've had an exciting 2 transfers doesn't even cover it at all!!  Action packed and emotional and stressful and hilarious and wonderful, that starts to get a bit closer to the real deal.  I just love it.  All of it.  Missionary work, my companion, and Maine.  Everything about this place, no matter the weather, is fantastic!  I'm so grateful!

So, now to the tales... New Years Eve was quite the day!  Being the last day of the month, it was the last day to use the many extra miles we had due to our being grounded.  We drove like 100 miles that day.  It was great!  We drove to see a less active member that lives super far out that we hardly ever get to see which was great!  She really needed a visit!  We also got to go see another family that I had never met. They are so nice and very strong members, but are pretty much shut-ins.  It was so nice to see them :)  That night we made little smokies and bacon roll-ups to celebrate the new year and stayed up until a whooping 10:15 or so!! :)  That was late enough for me!! :)  I've been super tired lately, and it probably has to due with the fact that I haven't got some real sun in a while.  It just gets dark so late, I'm not used to it.  I have plans to buy vitamins with Vitamin D though, so hopefully that will be better! :)

New Years day was really great!  We had a zone fast! :)  Pretty much the greatest way to start out the New Year!  We fasted for the members to be able to have some missionary experiences, and our zone has already started to see miracles!  It is great!  Our district meeting was really good, and Valerie had her baptism interview!! :)  She also met with President Dauk with Jason and they are all set to get married that same day!! :)  It is so wonderful and we are both so happy for them!! :)  Awesome day!! 

Then, the weather started to get pretty bad.  We had a mission-wide grounding on Thursday, so we weren't able to go down to Bar Harbor.  We were also grounded the next day.  Those days just blurred together.  Good thing that we had sock puppets, music, and cameras, or else we may have lost it.  Oh, the weather...indeed, a bleak midwinter!

Yesterday was fast Sunday, and it was quite great!  Valerie was there and she is doing great!! :)  Also, we rehearsed with Sister Batteline after church! :)  I'm so excited to play for Valerie's baptism and then I'm playing a song in church the Sunday after that!  It is a version of If you could hie to Kolob :)  Super excited!! :)  I'm just so excited for this coming week in general.  I can't believe all the miracles we've seen as we have been teaching Valerie!!  I'm so grateful that I'll be here to see her get baptized!  It will be such a great day!  But possibly bitter-sweet.  Here is the thing.  She is getting baptized the day of transfer calls.  I really don't know how I feel about those things.  They stress me out, and now that I've been here for more than 7 months, I feel selfish praying that I will stay.  I love it here so much, and I always will, but I know that no matter what happens, it will be what I need. 

That has been the pattern of my personal study the past couple days.  Accepting the will of God and humbling myself.  I'm in Mosiah and I love chapters 21 and 24.  Comparing and contrasting them has been amazing!  No matter how I am living, adversity will come.  I know that as I turn to my Heavenly Father, He will strengthen me :)  I just need to be humble enough to ask for His help.  It is such a blessing to know that although my world is always changing, He will always stay the same.  He will always be by my side to help me.  What a blessing!  I want to continue to grow to become more like Him always!  That will be my constant goal throughout 2014.  I just need to pray for strength to love whatever comes my way!

I hope that you have a great week family!!  I love you so much and pray for you all the time!  Keep praying and actively seeking for missionary opportunities and you will see miracles!

And no matter what, always

Try a little harder to be a little better!

Sister Bergeson :)