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 :)