Picture July 28, 2014

At Zone Conference with Sister Dauk and her daughter (wife and daughter of the branch President of the Ellsworth area where Jessica served in her first area).   Also, Sister May, her former companion.

July 28, 2014 Bethel, Maine

Who am I?

Family Dearest,                      July 28,2014

I hope that you have all had a super awesome and fantastic week!! :)  It is unreal that July is almost done.  It has been a pretty great July though!  Our apartment has been a lot less hot than I thought that it was going to be, which has been a pleasant surprise!  This week has been another pretty crazy one, but good! 

I'm thinking I'll work backwards today, cause well, yesterday was just so exciting :)  We got ready for church and headed out like we do every Sunday, but we learned when we got to the Young's (members that give us rides to church, love them!) that church would be a lot different than usual.  In fact we would only have Sacrament meeting and it was going to be held in the Primary room.  Can you say fun!?!  Apparently some speaker system that was in the ceiling came loose in a chapel somewhere so any building that had ceiling speakers in the chapel couldn't use it until they had been inspected for safety.  Well our cultural hall has the same speakers, so it wasn't useable either.  Last resort was the little primary room :)  Even though we were totally packed in there and there were people sitting all over in the hall, I liked it because it just showed how close this amazing ward is! I love them so much, and I felt the spirit so strong during that meeting! :)  Our plans totally changed though, which worked out for the best in our case.  Sister Ripley, a super great member, took it upon herself to drive us around for like 4-5 hours visiting members and less actives.  It was quite the adventure!! :)  We got to met some pretty great families!!  Quite the exciting day!

Saturday we got to do some unexpected gardening at our Methodist friend's farm :)  We pulled up so many pea plants and I got tons of bug bites, but they totally loaded us up with fresh produce, so it was worth it! :)  Also, I finally caught a frog, so now that can officially be checked off of my bucket list!  Friday, we saw Michael, and he has been doing great with not drinking coffee, he is just working on smoking.  He is almost there, he's just got to keep trying!!  We read with him in Daniel chapter 1 (loved studying this chapter!!), and I love how at the end Daniel does 10 times better than anyone else.  I know that, like I learned from our mission president, for everything we sacrifice, we're blessed tenfold! 

Thursday everything fell through for us, so we went to our backup plans...tracting!  It has been kinda crazy seeing this turn into a major finding area, especially after having had taught so many lessons in a transfer with S. May awhile ago.  But, that is what needs to happen!  So, we find!  And we were able to find a great potential investigator!  It was exactly what I needed at the time.  He is just pretty confused about religion and didn't believe that any one church had all of the truth.  I loved being able to bear my testimony to him that I know that this church does have the whole truth because I've asked and learned it from the spirit which brings me peace.  It was great being able to answer his questions about the church and see his interest grow! 

Alright, so now that I'm running out of time I've got to get to the best part of the week! ...ZONE CONFERENCE!!!!!  It was so amazing! Exactly what I needed :)  I feel like I always learn so much at zone conferences, it is pretty great!  I also got to see Sister May and her aunt and cousin, Sister Dauk and her daughter (some of the greatest members in the Ellsworth Branch)!!!!!!  When world collide...  It was so awesome!! I loved being able to talk with them and learn about the great people in Ellsworth!!  Kaila is pregnant, along with Valerie!! :)  And Valerie and Jason still have their sights set on the temple :)  And are bringing their friend into the gospel as well which was great to hear!!  James is also doing fantastic!  Ahh... I just love Ellsworth!!  Anyways, something else exciting at zone conference was that Sister Banda and I (along with Elder Petersen and Sister May) did a musical number.  I played the violin, and it was actually really fun :) 

But, now for the good stuff!  President Stoker started off the meeting by asking, "Can I do all the Lord expects me to do?"  Then he read some great scriptures.  The ones that really stuck out to me were in Exodus 3:11-12.  I love Moses, he is such a great example to me.  He did so much, but in verse 11 he talks about how weak he feels.  He says, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?  I can definitely say I feel that way a lot.  But the Lord's response to him really gives me hope. He says, "Certainly I will be with thee."   The Lord's grace is sufficient, and no matter my weakness, he'll make me strong if I'll only humble myself.  I'm so grateful for this knowledge!!  Also for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation.  I know that I'm a daughter of God and that He loves me!  He loves all of us, which is the reason there is this plan.  President also said something that I really liked, God's personal plan for me is contained in my patriarchal blessing.  There it shows my full potential of who He can help me become.  I've been studying my blessing a lot this week, and it has been incredible.  I feel like I've learned a lot from it, and I'm so grateful to have this wonderful tool directly from God to me that I can use throughout my life!  The gospel truly helps keep my vision clear in this awful muggy world!

Love you all!!  Have a great week!!

"We are what we believe we are" - C.S. Lewis

Sister Bergeson :)

July 21, 2014 Bethel, Maine

The Still Small Voice

Family, wonderful family!!                      July 21, 2014

Hope you are all doing well, enjoying summer, and just being awesome!  Pretty much this week kind of has been a different week when it comes to weeks...  Really, pretty different.  Not necessarily good or bad different, but well.  It just threw me off. 

We went on exchanges this week, which was sweet! :)  Love exchanges!!  It was pretty weird to not be in our beautiful Oxford area though.  I went to Yarmouth and Sister Banda stayed here, and can I just say that I'm a super proud momma!! :)  She did super well, and gosh she is just such a thorough and diligent missionary, it is fantastic!! The service we'd planned to go to totally got rescheduled so there was all this time and they did some awesome finding :)  Sweet!  I liked being in Yarmouth to kind of take a step back and breathe, so that was nice.  Also, the sister I was with is totally bomb! :)  Always great to have those just super fun exchanges!!  Totally what I needed, but yep, kind of off throwing. 

Then we had district meeting on Wednesday, which is new.  Normally we have them on Thursdays, but well, everything has gotten all changed up and I will now have to adjust back to Wednesday.  Funny how that is such a big change as a missionary, almost comical, but yep, totally different.  Afterword's, we went to a member's house that we'd never been to before.  She is pretty careful about who comes because she is allergic to smells, like super duper bad, but we were finally able to get in! :)  It went really well, and she is just the most awesome lady, I love her so much!  It was great getting to know her better and show her the new familysearch website :)  We also learned about some incredible things that she does for the ward (like buying stamps and birthday cards for all the sisters in the ward, including those who are less active, so like, 200!).  I just love the love that these members have for the gospel and for each other!!  Also, we sang her a song before we left and I'm still debating about whether or not that was a good thing to do.  She was super determined to let us know that we were good singers and said that we should sing in sacrament meeting.  Two days later we get a text asking if we would sing a song in church.  Um... well, it happened and I am still alive.  Holy smokes!  It was scary, but kind of fun.  I was super grateful to have Sister Banda who has a gorgeous voice, and overall, it was a good experience.  I even did a little solo part. Added stress for the weekend? Yes, yes it was. 

And what a weekend it was.  All starting off with a beautiful dent in our car!  Our landlord accidentally backed into us.  Whoops.  Well, we'll need to be getting that fixed soon, so that will be exciting!  We got some pretty whack news, which I'm still trying to wrap my brain around.  The Rumford/Mexico area is going to a different ward.  That is like half of our area, and 3/4 of our population.  We'll just be covering all the boonie towns.  We'll see how it all goes down.  Also, Friday was the fabulous, famous.......................

MollyOckett Day!!  Well, not too famous, but it was fun!  I can honestly say I was stunned at how many people can be shoved into little, tiny Behel.  I seriously have no clue where all those people came from.  Well, actually that is a lie.  My license plate fascination kind of kicked me in the rear end hard core.  So many cars from different places!  We've officially seen 24 different state license plates in Bethel!!! (And yes, I had Sister Banda write them all down...) There were sooo many from Mass, NH, and VT.  It was pretty exciting.  There was a big parade and vendors and food and all sorts of stuff.  We did a lot of service for the library with their book sale and we also helped clean up garbage in the common throughout the day.  It was such a blast!! :)  We also saw a whole bunch of different people throughout the day.  We saw some we hadn't seen in forever, like Sheny and her family!!  It was good Sister Banda has finally had a chance to meet them.  I miss them so much, but they have their agency.  Hopefully we'll be able to get in with them in the near future!  Overall, that day was insane.  Super fun, but totally exhausting!!  I'm not used to seeing so many people anymore.  I can definitely say I like the peace and quiet better than the loud and busy :) 

I've been thinking about that lately. There are so many different ways to live life, and I want to make sure that no matter where I am, I have a place I can go where I can be still and listen.  With all the crazy stuff that happened this week, the changes and decisions and everything, I'm so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost!  He truly is a comforter and a teacher!  I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has given us the Spirit's guidance as an added tool in our toolbox, and even though I know I can be using it more, when I do use it, it makes all the difference!  Also, I'm super grateful to have gotten a wonderful talk from my wonderful mother at the beginning of the week!  It totally started this thought process, and really helped me through the week :)  "Inspiring Music- Inspiring Thoughts" by President Packer is one of my new favorites!! :)  It talks mainly about music, but so many other things can be added to the list.  I definitely feel recommitted to always try to seek out the uplifting and edifying to have better thoughts and more fully have the spirit with me!! What is so crazy is that the talk was given in 1974, and Satan sure has come at the world with stronger and more subtle ways to deter us from listening to the Holy Ghost since then, that is for sure.  We also talked a lot about the spirit in Relief Society, which was a really great lesson!  I'm so grateful for the chance to be on a mission, more separate from the world, and feel the spirit stronger and recognize it more often than I have my entire life.  I know that with guidance from the still small voice I'll never be led astray. 

Have a fabulous week, love you so much!!

I also love the hymn, Lead Me into Life Eternal (hymn 45),

Sister Bergeson :)

July 14, 2014 Bethel, Maine

Try, Try Again

Hey, hey!! :)                                            July 14, 2014

I can't quite believe that another week has come and gone, seriously!  Summer is going by way too fast!  How has everything been going for you?  The mail is just so slow, I haven't gotten the letters that you sent yet, sadly.  Hope you're doing well!!  We kept really busy, and had a pretty great week.  Although I can't quite remember everything that we did (hooray for planners!). 

We started out the week pretty good, that is for sure!!  We had dinner and a family home evening with the Lilly's, which was fantastic!  (We actually ended up having back to back dinner and family home evenings with them! On Tuesday, the kids planned a sweet FHE they wanted to do with us :)  Super fun!)  Afterword, we had about an hour or so before we had to be in, so we did some tracting.  It had been raining pretty hard before we got there, but seemed to clear up, so off we went, not really realizing we left our umbrella's in the car.  After a while it started to sprinkle, then it got heavier and heavier.  We were quite the wet sight!  Just as we were going to run back to our car we saw another house a bit ahead.  Sister Banda and I thought we might as well and hurried to knock on the door.  (Sister Banda is doing so well!! She certainly has fire, and a deep desire to work hard and share the gospel! She's kept me motivated that is for sure!!)  Miracle!!  A lady answered and invited us in.  We taught the Restoration with the pictures to her and her two kids (who were super super sweet!), along with the Family Proclamation to the World, which was part of our district meeting goal.  They were really open and nice and we found out that her mother and stepfather are members of the church and we was kinda-ish raised in the church.  She'd already read all of the Book of Mormon, although it was a long time ago.  The Lord really did bless us in our efforts to share that Family Proclamation!  We weren't able to get a return appointment cause their summers are insanely busy, but they wanted us to stop by in the fall.  A seed was planted though for sure :)

The sad news for the week is that the McLarens have officially moved out to far away Andover, and Josephine and Tony, some awesome investigators, are moving to Mass. :(  We helped the McLarens clean a lot, so we spent a good chunk of time with them this week.  They are so great, I love 'em so much!  I just really hope that they don't fall off of the face of the planet being like more than an hour away from church now... It should be good for Jo&To though cause they'll have a vehicle, church will probably be closer, and they'll be living with family so they'll have someone to babysit their sweet poochy :)  However, it'll be sad to see them go.

Michael.  So, pretty much he is the greatest person ever.  He is definitely struggling with giving up tobacco and coffee though.  He started the stop smoking program, and is having a hard time with it, which makes him feel guilty, which just isn't good.  We are just giving him a whole lot of encouragement and doing all we can to help him strengthen his faith, especially in himself.  He told us in church on Sunday that he was going to put it on the shelf for a bit while he got some other things figured out.  Tons of stuff is happening in his life right now.  It saddened me, but if I've learned anything on a mission by now, it is that people have their own agency.  However, he called us last night and told us that he is going to start over on the stop smoking program today.  It will be a hard road, but as long as he keeps trying, and trying, and trying again, he'll get there, I'm sure of it.  God helps him who tries!!!  It reminds me of one of my very favorite poems....

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When they might have won, had they stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow,

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor's cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out

The silver tint in the clouds of doubt

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit

It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!

I remember first reading that poem in junior high, which well, was definitely a difficult time for me.  I printed it out and put it on the front page of my school binder.  There were times in class where I would just read that poem over and over, and I felt comforted.  Life isn't easy, that is for sure. I've seen that more than ever now.  My junior high days seem like a breeze compared with challenges and struggles investigators, members, and even some of the young women in the ward have had to face.  (We were able to have a lunch with a family in the ward along with two young women and they opened up to us about a lot of the trials they've had to go through. It was so sad, yet, hopeful because they have such strong testimonies, and are determined never to quit! Gosh do I love the YW in this ward!! P.S. Just have to add that we went on splits with them this Wednesday, which was great.  Also, we got Jess all set up on FamilySearch, and she totally has caught family history fever!)  I know that the Lord will never give His children anything that we can't handle.  No commandment is impossible to follow.  He will provide a way!  Michael made a big step, and decided that he was going to give us all of his tobacco and pipes (holy cow it was weird shoving all that yucky smelling stuff in my bag...).  Huge!  He is certainly headed in the right direction, such a great example to me!  I know that the investigators we have who struggle with addiction can be FREE, they just have to make that choice to try again no matter how hard it is or how often they feel they've failed.  The Lord will always be there to pick them up! 

For me, I've been thinking a lot about the Family Proclamation.  It is so wonderful!  I'm so grateful for you, my beautiful family!  I know that never quitting on God and ourselves is uber super important, but right along with that comes never quitting on family.  I know that we're in this family for a reason, and the relationships we build here will last and continue to grow on into eternity.  Satan knows this too and is attacking families hard core; I've been a witness to that, but when built on the foundation of the gospel, we won't fall.  And if we slip up, we can try, try again because it is so worth it!  I sure am so grateful for each member of our forever family!  I'm also grateful for the opportunity to share the good news with others and teach them how to strengthen their own families :)

Love you love you!! Have an incredible week!! :)

1 Corinthians 10:13

Sister Bergeson :)

 License plate given from Doris. 

 The "Never Stop" stop sign

Pretty day in Maine

Bethel, Maine July 7, 2014

Never Stop

Family!                           July 7, 2014

Hey, so I hope that you all had a super great week, especially with it being Independence Day and everything! :)  I can't believe it has already come and gone, so quick, quick, quick!!  But well, a tad bit slow at the same time.  This week kinda dragged a little bit, especially with the weather.  At the beginning of the week it uber hot and humid.. no good (we did buy a fan though, so yay! I like fans.)  And then it totally got really rainy windy nasty.  The weather... I know I talk about it too much, but pretty much that is the first thing people talk to us about here so it's kinda become second nature. 

Anyways, getting into this past week, it was super great overall, definitely ups and downs, but I feel like I learned a lot :)  That is the most important thing!  So, I feel like our investigators have been at this crossroads of whether or not to act or just be acted upon.  Arleen is right there.  She totally has a testimony, but is still working on her conversion.  We've been pretty bold with her, and she knows that she needs to make some changes and decisions, but well, it feels like she is waiting it out as long as she can.  It is sad to see her kind of deciding to settle for what she's got instead of striving for more, but she'll get there!  We've just got to be patient with her.  Other investigators cancelled on us and really aren't showing as many signs of progression.  I love them so much, but it is always such a bummer when they cancel!  But, we'll keep trying to set up appointments with them.  Then, there is Michael, who is doing super well!  He really has a desire to be baptized, but right now tobacco and coffee are his biggest stumbling blocks.  It is going to be hard for him to quit.  I know that he can do it, and he knows too, but it will take time, and he's going to have to keep re-committing himself over and over again.  On top of the investigators we have, there are less-active members who are slipping, which has been hard.  Especially when they are recent converts.  But everything happens in the Good Shepherd's timing. He will take care of His sheep! 

So, yep, if you haven't noticed I've been thinking a lot about patience lately.  It has kinda been the theme for the week.  There are so many things that I can't control, even though I'd like to, but I just have to hand it to the Lord and let Him take care of it.  I just need to make sure I'm focusing on the things I can control!  Like, my reactions.  On Tuesday, everything fell through.  We had 3 1/2 hours of roads planned for back ups, and it was extremely hot and humid outside.  I'm not gonna lie, I started thinking of other things we could do, or anything to get out of the heat.  In the end though we went to the road and well, went for it.  It ended up being suuuuppppeeerrr boonie and we walked and walked and there were only 3 houses we saw and no one was interested.  We were really sweaty and thirsty, but off we went to a connecting road, and boy did we see miracles!!  The first person we talked to became a new investigator!  We taught her the Restoration and she was super open and nice :)  Then we went on to find 5 potential investigators, one of them let us in and gave us a bunch of water, too :)  Really needed!!  That 3 1/2 hours taught me that there is no substitute for diligence.  It was really cool, in the middle of our journey we found a sweet stop sign.  Someone had added the word don't above the word stop.  (Totally reminded me of all AF and the stop sign craze that went down)  I just loved it!  I know that the Lord blessed us for our work, even though we had to wait a bit to see it. 

Another miracle we saw happened yesterday.  We went to ward council and got some sad news about a recent convert and learned that a huge portion of our area will probably be given to another ward, so we'd be left with a not very populated area.  I was feeling down and overwhelmed.  But in Sacrament meeting I feel like I got the perspective I needed.  I've got to look at the big picture!  I can't slow down because of what is going on around me.  I need to do my utmost in serving to my fullest capacity.  So, after church we went to where I thought we had planned to do some finding, which actually turned out not to be where we were planning at all.  Whoops!  I was not super motivated to find at that point in time especially since we were in the wrong area, but well, that is what happened.  I just had to tell myself that motivation follows action and we just parked and headed to the nearest house we could see.  Miracle!!  We found a man who was super willing to hear the message of the Restoration and became a new investigator :)  He was even wearing a Moab, Utah shirt :)  His sister lives there and he's visited her quite a few times.  What a sweet blessing!  I know Heavenly Father is aware of me and my struggles as silly as they are, and He will always come to me when I seek Him, in His time.

Yep, His timing is something I'll never figure out, but I don't need too.  It's all part of the plan.  I loved my New Testament study in Mark this week.  In chapter 6 verses 45-51,  the Savior teaches his disciples patience among other things.  They were toiling, struggling to stay in their ship during a huge storm in the middle of the sea.  It was hard, and they certainly had to work to keep from drowning.  I don't quite know what I would have done in their position.  All the while, the Lord was watching and not until the fourth watch of the night did he come unto them, miraculously walking on the water, to tell them "Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid."  Then the wind ceased.  What a night for those disciples!  I wonder if they questioned why the Lord didn't come to them sooner.  But, I know that though difficult, it was exactly what they needed.  They didn't stop.  They kept pushing on, and they were saved.  I know that that is exactly what I need to do on my mission and throughout the rest of my life.  It is challenging, but the Lord is always there watching, waiting for me to be ready to let Him come and assist me so I can learn to rely more on Him.  I love the teachings of the Savior, I've learned so much about Him and from Him as I've studied His life! And I know I've only skimmed the surface. 

I'm so grateful for everything I've been learning on my mission!  I know that the Lord is shaping me into who He wants me to be.  I've just got to keep on going!  And when I fall, pick myself right back up!  I know the gospel brings the greatest happiness, and everything will be worth it in the end.  Have a great week family!  I love you soo much! 

Hebrews 10:36

Sister Bergeson :)