Jan. 27, 2014 Bethel, Maine

Let the Holy Spirit Guide

Dear, wonderful, totally awesome family,                   Jan. 27, 2014

Hello, hello!!  I hope that you all had a fantastic week, and a great long weekend last week :)  I really don't know were to start with everything that has happened here.  Really.  It has been a jam packed crazy week, but I have definitely seen blessings and miracles.

I am just loving Oxford.  It is beautiful!  The people here are awesome, and I'm really learning a lot.  I love being with Sister Smedley!  She is wonderful!  She has such a passion for missionary work and it shows in everything that she says and does.  She is a great example to me, and we have been working really hard.  We have two progressing investigators that are super awesome.  One has decided that he wants to quit smoking, even before we taught him the word of wisdom, and another has set a baptism date for April 19th!  I thought that it would be difficult to come into a new area and teach other people's investigators, but now that I have adjusted, I know that I can receive revelation for them too.  I care about them so much and I pray for them all the time.  It is so amazing to see their growth, and I hope that we can continue to see growth with them.  We also have some really amazing less-actives in our ward, and it has been such a joy to teach them.  As far as finding, we are trying really hard to use family history, and it has been great!  We brave the cold and try to talk to everyone about the blessings that come with doing genealogy work.  And tangent: It has been sooooo cold here!! Lots of ice and now snow and just coldness.  But, we have made it quite fun :)  Anyways, so we saw a really cool miracle on Thursday.  We were volunteering at the little Bethel library (where I am right now :))  and a lady came up to us asking if we knew where to find books about Native Americans.  We told her that we didn't work there, but continued talking with her.  She told us that she has been wondering whether or not she has Native American blood, and she really wants to find out.  We offered her a Shuck card (a man in Idaho who does 4 hours of free family history work to non-members) and she was so excited and happy!  She said that she had been praying right before she met us that she would be able to find a way to know if she was related to Indians.  It was such a miracle!!  I am glad that we were in the right place at the right time to be able to help this lady!  I know that the Lord puts people in our paths for a reason.  I have a lot to learn from the people in this area :)

So, one thing that I have felt like has been a focus for this week has been the Holy Ghost.  The third member of the Godhead.  A spirit who can dwell within us.  It is such a blessing that we can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost!!  I have seen that countless times on my mission, and now I've had another testimony building experience of the importance of remaining worthy of this gift. 

Here we go.  So, yesterday was insane.  Really.  We had church, we had coordination meeting, and then lunch.  After we went to a recent convert's house and cleaned for a couple hours, and then after we had splits.  I had never gone on splits before, but I really liked it quite a lot!  It was fun to see so many sisters and get to know the sister who I was with better!  Overall, great!  So, Sister Smedley and I met up afterwards and a member drove us home to Bethel.  That was probably the craziest car ride of my life.  So, we were going 60 miles an hour on a road and a car ahead of us stopped to turn right.  The member was kind of distracted though and she didnt' slow down in time.  When we got pretty close to the car, she slammed on her brakes and had to swerve out of the way into a barrier.  Yep.  I have officially been in my first car wreck.  It was pretty intense.  There were sparks flying, and we rode up on the barrier a bit so she got a flat tire and the front of her car got banged up.  Overall, it was a blessing though because it really wasn't as bad as it could have been.  We didn't hit another car, we still had momentum when we crashed so it wasn't as jarring, and we didn't go over the barrier onto the frozen lake.  I felt so protected when we finally stopped moving.  It was kind of like slow motion, and Sister Smedley and I stayed perfectly calm.  Even though it was shocking, I felt at peace.  I know that what happened, happened for a reason.  It also really made me stop and think about how dependent I am on God everyday.  It is only because of Him that I live from day to day.  I am so grateful for Him and for the blessing of life that He has given us!!  We were all safe and will just have to recover a bit from a sore neck and back.  Quite the experience!  Boy, a mission has certainly thrown some interesting things at me!  But I know that God will never give me anything that I can't handle.  I will use them to learn and grow :)

What a blessing that we were worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost yesterday, or things may have turned out different.  I know that He protected and comforted us yesterday.  I was filled with peace as I reflected on the days events that night in my prayers.  I have such a strong desire to continue to use the gift of the spirit everyday.  To follow the promptings of His still, small voice.  I know that as I do so I will be able to stay on the right path and continue to see miracles on my mission, and for the rest of my life. 

I love you all so much and pray for you all the time!  Have a fantastic week, and remember to listen and act on promptings from the spirit!

2 Nephi 32:5

Sister Bergeson :)