May 19, 2014 Bethel, Maine

Be Thou and Example

Family Dearest!                             May 19, 2014

Hey hey!! I hope that you have had a super fantastic week!!  Crazy that it is almost summer!  Really!  It still doesn't seem like it all the time here, but we're getting there! This week has been pretty busy for us here, and it totally just flew by, as usual.  Where to even start..  Well, we did a whole bunch of service this week, which was great!  Everyone was trying to get their yard work done in the nice weather we were having.  We helped with gardens and stuff which was really nice.  It is great to be able to enjoy being outside now! :)  The bugs are starting to come though, so lets hope that I don't get eaten alive as much as I did last summer!!  We also ran into this lady from the Methodist Church in town and she talked to us a bit and was impressed that we asked if they needed any service done or anything and she was really happy we agreed to rake the leaves there.  She asked us a lot of questions about what we do as missionaries while we raked and she was amazed at what we do.  It was great to be able to tell her about what we believe not only by our words, but mainly our actions.  Service is just so awesome! 

We were also able to teach a lot of lessons with members present even though our teaching pool is shrinking a bit.  It is great hear members share their testimonies and teach the gospel!  It especially helped when we taught Katy this week.  She is doing really well and having Sister Lilly there helped a bunch!  It has been awesome to see Katy piece together the truths that she knows and make sense of how they come together so simply.  My testimony of teaching plainly and simply has increased so much!  That is exactly what she has needed, even though she has studied religion so much.  Michael is doing much better, and he has really enjoyed reading Alma, which has been great!  He really has such a strong desire to become closer to God, and he has been such a great example of picking yourself up when you fall.  I just love our investigators and the less actives that we teach so much!! It has been a slow process with most of them, but they are making steps in the right direction little by little.  Also, awesome news!  Jessica got her temple recommend yesterday and she is going on the youth temple trip to do baptisms for the dead on Saturday!! :)  She is way excited and we're just so happy for her!!!

So, this week I was thinking a lot about what to say in the talk that I had to give in church.  The topic was "how did the Savior's influence in my life help me decide to go on a mission" or something along those lines.  It was great to really reflect on that the past couple weeks!! There really have been so many ways that the Savior has influenced me in my life!  It took a bit to decide what to focus on, but well, it came :)  I talked all about how the people in my life who reflected Christ helped me learn about Him, encouraged me to find Him for myself, and then my desire to share it and be examples to other people.  Prayer, scripture study, service, and so on have all be crucial in developing my relationship with Christ, but I wouldn't have known any of that if someone didn't teach me.  So, pretty much, I talked about you mom and dad!! :)  I talked about how grateful I am for what I've learned from you :)  For the examples that you are to me :)  I also talked about how I've also been influenced by extended family (going into family history a bit there too and learning from their examples as well), my ward family, and others :)   Also, I love the talk, "A Priceless Heritage of Hope" that President Eyring gave too and used some parts of it.  I'm so glad that I can take these things that I've learned and help others as well, and they in turn can be examples to there family and friends, etc.  It was such a great opportunity to give that talk.  I know that preparing it helped me strengthen my testimony a lot.  Being examples is such an important part of the gospel!  Just like it says in the scriptures in Matthew 5:14-15 and 1 Timothy 4:12 which I just love :)  I'm so so grateful for the wonderful examples I've had in my life cause they have really shaped who I am today! :)

Alright so now, last but not least....I totally forgot to mention that transfers were coming up last week, and now they have come and gone.  It was pretty crazy because they switched the calls to Friday super unexpectedly and then all of a sudden we got a call, at 8:01 no less (super super early in my experience).  First, to preface, Sister May and I were both kind of thinking that I was going to leave.  I've been here in this wonderful area for three transfers and I do feel super comfortable here and just love it.  I took my picture by the coolest sign ever, which was great because the first day I got here I said that I wouldn't leave until I saw it.  Things were really just wrapping up nicely.  So, when President told us that Sister May was getting transferred we were both super shocked!  We were hoping that we'd maybe be able to stay together, but that isn't what needed to happen I guess.  I've just learned so much from Sister May and I'm sad that we won't get to be companions any more :(  We've grown so much as we've served together, and teaching with her has been incredible!!  It just flows when the spirit it there and it is really fun!!  It's just been so great :)  But now I guess it is just time for me to be stretched in different ways.  President told me that I'm going to stay and train a new missionary here in Oxford!  Um.....WHAT??  I still don't even know exactly how I feel about all of this.  I'm excited, nervous, happy, shocked, and well, it is super hard not to feel way inadequate, but it is what the Lord knows that I need right now.  I know that it will be a huge learning and growing experience and I'm already feeling pretty humbled, so we'll see where this adventure takes me and my new sister :)  I hope and pray that I'll be able to be a good example to her and help her come closer to Christ!

I hope that you have a wonderful week!! :)  I love you soooooooo much and again am just so grateful for the impact you have all made in my life. Hooray for being examples of Christ! :)

Let your light so shine!

Sister Bergeson :)