Nov. 24, 2014 Littleton, New Hampshire

Live in Thanksgiving Daily

Family!                                               Nov. 24, 2014

I hope that you all have had one spectacular week! :)  Sounds like you've got a great week ahead of you as well!  Hooray for Thanksgiving!  The best season of the year is coming in at full force, and I'm just so excited!  Littleton is starting to light up :)

The week started out pretty great!  We went over to Whitney's house and did crafts and stuff with her, which was a blast!  Then we had a wonderful dinner and family home evening with her family.  We talked all about how grateful we were for the gospel, especially the Book of Mormon!  We each wrote our testimony in one and highlighted some of our favorite verses in them to give them out.  So, I've done this quite a lot for family home evenings/young women activities and stuff, but I realized that I've never actually done it myself!  I'm really excited to do it, and I know that the Lord will direct me to the person who needs it. 

We had some pretty great lessons this week and got to get to know a lot of incredible people.  We finally got in with Susan, the awesome lady we met on the street.  Finally!  And she is probably the most awesome lady ever, ever!!  I love her and her daughter so much.  The Spirit is so strong in their home and they are just so kind and loving!  They love the Church as well :)  Definitely have a good feeling about them! :)  Also, we had a blast making cookies with our investigators! Jeanette is so sweet, and their is never a dull moment with her and John.  They have a difficult time remembering things, so having me and Jeanette in the kitchen was quite amusing!  Although we may have made a few errors, the cookies were the greatest I've ever tasted (well...actually, I take that back. I don't think anything beats Erin's cookies! :)).  We also talked about gratitude with them which was great! :)  The lesson that took the cake this week was without a doubt Duncan's, though.  Hooray for a new investigator!! :)  It really has been amazing the see the blessings that we've seen the past couple of weeks in this area! :)  So, this guy is quite hilarious, and he has some crazy stories.  We met him by the covered bridge and he came up to us and told us he wanted us to teach him, can't remember if I wrote about that when it happened or not...  Anyways, we finally got a lesson set up with him and we were able to bring an awesome member with us.  He was super open about wanting to find answers about life, and the spirit was really strong.  He said he'd gone through some tough things and he wants to get his life in order again.  He then went on to tell us about his life.  Wow.  Never would have guessed all the hardships he's had to overcome.  I learned so much from him as we had that discussion.  Overall, it went really well and he later called to thank us for teaching him.  I love getting to know people so much.  Everyone has a different story.  I love being a missionary; I feel like I'm finding the joy that comes from looking on a person's heart instead of their outward appearance (1 Sam 16:7). 

It definitely is something I'm still working on for sure though!  There is this family in the ward that I have always been a bit afraid of.  Mainly just the mom, though.  I don't know what gave me such a negative impression of her, but somehow it came.  So, when I found out that we were scheduled to have dinner with them, it was like, instant fear.  I was bracing myself for the worst, honestly.  However, I was determined to find something good about her before the night was through.  And...I ended up finding endless good things about her!  She is such an incredible woman who has been through many challenges, but was able to overcome them because of Jesus Christ.  She is such an example to me!  I'm grateful that I was able to get to know her more and learn from her!

I'm grateful for all the wonderful people that I've met on my mission!  Thinking about it, I'm so grateful for so many things!  I love this time of year where we focus on what we've been blessed with.  Yesterday at church it really hit me how much more grateful I am for things of a spiritual nature than those of a physical nature.  In the end, nothing I'll ever own will follow me into the eternal world.  What really matters is what is within me and who I've become.  I'm grateful for the gospel, for Jesus Christ who is the center of all I believe.  I love Him so much and am especially grateful for His love for me.  I'm grateful for the scriptures and all I'm learning about my Savior from them.  I'm grateful for the peace and joy that the knowledge of the gospel gives me in my life, and especially for the chance to share it with other people! :)

I'm so grateful for you as well, dear family!! :)  I hope you have an incredible Thanksgiving!

Alma 34:38,

Sister Bergeson :)

Nov. 17, 2014 Littleton, New Hampshire

Together Forever

Family! :)                                            Nov. 17. 2014

Hey!  I hope you've been having an awesome week and that you've been staying warm!  The temperature is certainly dropping here and there is snow on the ground!  It's beautiful, but I'm definitely missing my all-wheel drive Subaru!  This week has been pretty great and we've stayed busy for the most part :)  I just love it when there is always lots to do!  So, now where to start?

We got a new investigator this week!  Our new next door neighbor Mike had been asking if we'd have a lesson with him for a few days and we were finally able to do it!  Quite an interesting lesson.  The spirit was really strong at first, and we got through the whole Restoration even extended a soft baptism commitment and he accepted!  Then Larry (the guy who constantly walks the streets who hugged Sister Maxwell...that Larry) comes up to the porch where we were having the lesson and it kind of threw everything off.  Apparently Mike and Larry got into a disagreement about something at 4:30 in the morning and Larry ended up chasing Mike down Main Street... Thankfully Larry left in peace, but after, we heard all about it and the rest of the lesson got thrown completely off topic.  So, that was interesting.  Larry...another funny thing that happened with him this week.  He came up to Sister Maxwell and said his usual, "you're a pretty girl, I like you" but also tagged on the question, "can I give you a kiss?"  Man oh man, Larry, really?  Sister Maxwell has never said no to anyone so fast and we got right out of that situation!  I'll never forget that guy.

Veteran's day was pretty great, it was super warm and they did so much stuff for all the Veterans.  I loved being at the senior center for it and seeing everyone stand who served in the military when their branch's song was being played.  It made me so happy to see all of them so proud to have served their country.  I'm so grateful to be an American!  We also had a nice chat this week when we were over for dinner at our investigators' house.  They are the sweetest couple ever, so nice!  He served in the Navy and had so many great pictures and stories from WWII.  It made me think of grandpa.  Love you grandpa!! :) 

Something else that was pretty cool was that we got to throw a couple packs of cigarettes into a campfire!  Stephen really wants to quit and we had a great lesson with him this week.  He knows he needs to be baptized and has such a strong desire to, but it's been really tough for him to quit.  He wanted us to burn the packs he had, which we did gladly, but he told us later that he broke and got some more.  We're just trying to keep encouraging him, and he'll overcome someday! 

We met with a bunch of less-active members this week, which was awesome!  We started teaching a new lady who was found by a member in another ward.  We got her contact info, set up an appointment, and met one of the greatest ladies ever!  She's a hilarious southerner!  We had a great time and she is excited to get out all of her old church stuff :)  It's been years and years since she's had any contact with the church, but she's super willing to meet with us, which will be great!  We also had a couple great meals with members and the spirit was really strong!  Awesome stuff is happening in the ward, and it has been great to feel things start picking up a lot!

Going along with that...the highlight of the week was definitely the primary program!!  I love the kids in our ward, they are fantastic!! :)  Something awesome they did was give every kid an invitation to hand out to a special someone, and many of those special someones came!! :)  The whole chapel and overflow was packed and there were a bunch of non-members and less-active members there!  The spirit was so strong and it went wonderfully!  It was amazing to see how the members initiated everything and we just helped along the way :)  What a great introduction to the church, too!  The primary programs are always so great and entertaining, too!  There are a handful of 'handfuls' in the primary who have so much energy and they were so much fun to watch!  There was also this super cute girl who needed her teacher to ask everyone to close their eyes while she said her line because she didn't want anyone to look at her :)  So sweet!  The theme of the program was families are forever and it was powerful.  It really made me reflect on how grateful I am to be a part of an eternal family!  Being on a mission has really opened my eyes to the importance of family, and I've truly realized that so much of who I am today I owe to my family.  We've been studying the Family Proclamation recently, and I love the last phrase in the very first paragraph which reads, "the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children."  I know that is true and that families really can be together forever so long as we continue doing what God needs us to do!  I'm so grateful to be a missionary and that I have the opportunity to teach others about this plan and the happiness and hope it brings!

I love you all so much!  Have a great week! 

"What matters most is what lasts the longest" - Elder Ballard

Sister Bergeson :)

Pictures Nov. 10. 2014

Zone Conference at The Joseph Smith Memorial

Nov. 10. 2014 Littleton, New Hampshire

We are Sowing

Family, family, family!!!!!!                     Nov. 10, 2014 Hey there!  I hope that you've all had a great week!! :)  I also hope Amy and Erin had a good 20th birthday!!  I still can't quite believe that.  Nope.  So, I must say that this week has been much calmer in comparison to last week, that's for sure!  And just so you know, I totally forgot to mention transfer calls last week...we didn't get one!  Yay, I get to spend my last transfer with Sister Maxwell here in the Lyndon area!!  We've got a lot of great stuff happening this transfer too, so I'm really excited!  I just love it here so much :)  So, to start off, volunteering this week was absolutely insane!  The senior center was absolutely packed!  It was the best though!  All starting off with this old guy on the street, Larry coming up and talking to us.  Now, Larry is a pretty funny guy, he isn't quite all there, and every time he sees us he goes up to Sister Maxwell and says, "you're a pretty girl, I like you."  So, he did it again, but he also unexpectedly grabbed her and gave her a big hug!  Her face was priceless.  Larry...thanks for the memory!  But, it doesn't stop there, so many old men hit on her at the senior center it was a hoot!  We don't know what it is, but those old men just love her!  We also did service for Sister Davis, who has been having a super hard time with her health.  It was great to try to help her get her new apartment unpacked.  Man, her life is just crazy!  As far as teaching lessons, we met with quite a few less-actives, including Hansel, finally, but again, it was a pretty confusing discussion.  He loves getting into super deep stuff.  He says it doesn't matter either way if we live after this life or it's the end.  I don't know...it just doesn't make any sense to me.  Still goes back to agency with him..  Stephen, wasn't feeling too well this week which was a bummer, so we just saw him once.  Whitney came out with us on Friday, which was a blast!  She is so great, it's such a blessing to be able to serve with her while she's preparing to serve her own mission!  We had some great member meals this week!  Sister Mann took us to a restaurant a couple of days before she left, which was so great.  I just love that lady sooo much!  She is fantastic and such a great example to me!  I'm glad we got to spend some more time with her, and now she is in Salt Lake :)  We also ate with a family we didn't really know very well, but who are totally wonderful!! They are more to themselves, but super hilarious!  They also have the cutest little boy in the whole world!  Always great to get to know members better! :)  It all ended with eating at the Donovan's, best ever!  They invited Bro. Donovan's (he's a less-active member) niece and her son over as well.  She has been through so many hard things, and just had a recent tragedy.  The spirit was so strong as we talked about the Plan of Salvation and as her family bore their testimonies to her about the truthfulness of the gospel.  She has so much support, and we're so excited to teach her more!!  Hooray for new investigators members find for us!! :)  It really seems like the members are so ready and excited to do missionary work, and we've heard about lots of opportunities they've been given to share the gospel!  Seriously, members are the absolute best!! Sunday we were driving to church and we get a call from Sister Davis...she was absolutely exhausted from all the work we did with her the day before and asked if we could teach Young Women's for her.  We said yes, and man it was pretty awesome to be in Young Women's again!! :)  Loved it!  Also loved talking with the Young Women about all the questions people have asked them about their religious beliefs.  Being the only members in their schools, they've had some pretty cool experiences and they are such great examples! :)  I loved hearing about how they handled the situations they were put in and really, the responses that they got were really positive!  Missionary work is so exciting, and I love hearing about how other people have shared the good news of the gospel and planted seeds!! :)  The rest of the time we spent finding, finding, finding!  My attitude towards finding has changed so much since the beginning of my mission.  I dreaded it so much and it was so difficult to open my mouth, but really pushing myself and practicing has helped a lot.  Not to mention having divine help, can't forget that!  I love talking with people now!  Everyone is so different and they have some pretty interesting views about life.  Overall, I just love learning from them and getting to know them wherever they are! :)  Street contacting is probably my favorite now.  You never know what will happen!  Yesterday we stopped this guy who was wearing a skirt and smoking the biggest cigar I've ever seen in my life.  We ended up talking with him for quite a while and he mentioned that he had talked with missionaries before.  Hopefully we were able to clear up some of the issues he had and we'll be able to see him again!  Another day this week we actually walked past this guy and didn't stop him.  He was walking super fast, but I still felt pretty bad we didn't get to meet him.  Later, we were walking towards the bridge and we see the same guy walking towards us, and this time he stopped us.  He wanted to know what we were doing and how he could learn more.  It was awesome!  He's been going through a rough time and said he could really use some help.  God's plan is pretty awesome!  I love how He places people in your path at just the right time!  Also, we have a new neighbor who has been talking with us a lot and said that he wants to have 'a study' with us!  Overall, the Lord has really been providing as we've been doing all we can to open our mouths and share the gospel. It has reminded me of what I've been studying this past week in the New Testament.  I've been reading the parable of the sower, and I just love it so much!  I feel like I've been throwing seeds all over this area and my desire to do so is only increasing.  I feel like I've talked to more people here than I have in both my old areas combined.  Pretty sure!  I love living so close to Main Street!!  Sometimes I feel like with the amount of people we've come in contact with we should be having more success teaching.  Jesus's teachings helped me realize, however, that the seed will only grow based on the condition of the soil, which is something that I can't really control.  There are so many variables I have no power over, but I can choose whether or not I'll try to plant the seed!  From there I have no clue what will happen, but I can trust in God and His timing for His children!  What a blessing to be able to plant seeds here in New England!!  Have a great week family!! I love you so much!! Look and pray for opportunities to share the gospel and plant a seed!! You can count how many seeds are in an apple, but you can't count how many apples are in a seed. Sister Bergeson :)

Nov. 3, 2014 Littleton, New Hampshire

Adventures

Family!!!                               Nov. 3, 2014

Hey, hope the week treated you well!  I'm still pretty confused about how it all went down on my end, honestly.  It seems like it was the the longest and shortest week ever...  The highs and lows all over again!!  At least it didn't snow like it was supposed too!  Although, it has started to get super chilly.  It also has got real dark real fast now that we've turned the clocks back.  Winter is coming!

So, pretty much I don't even know where to start, so many adventures!  I guess I'll go by days...

Monday.  Definitely the least crazy day, which was much needed!  We broke down and bought way more candy than we needed for Halloween... Sister Maxwell's sweet tooth may be the death of me!  But, we were able to get everything done that we needed too, and it was just a good, relaxing day! :)  Little did I know what was in store for the rest of the week!

Tuesday.  ZONE CONFERENCE!!  Super amazing! :)  We went to the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, which was great!  Sister Maxwell's first zone conference...and my last.  Bittersweet.  It was just what I felt I needed though.  President talked all about the Atonement, and how to help others, and ourselves try to understand it more.  However, I know that no matter how much I study it, I'll never be able to fully comprehend everything the Savior did for me.  I feel so blessed to have the knowledge that I do about Christ, and I know that I've learned so much more about the Atonement on my mission than I ever had before.  Something else awesome was that I got to see Sister Sumsion again!!  It has been great seeing her more often, and what a blessing being able to serve in the same mission!! :)  And to top it all off we got to see the movie, Meet the Mormons!! :)  I loved it so much, and I'm so glad that we were able to see it!  What a great missionary tool!  I'm so grateful for the technology we have to be able to spread the gospel to such a wide audience :)  It was a great conference, and I was pretty exhausted by the end of it (we had to wake up at 4:15 that morning..).  We exchanged companions right after and I headed back to Littleton with Sister Lassen.  It was quite a memorable exchange...

Wednesday. We did service at the senior center, which was wonderful.  I love the people there, and it is a great opportunity to get to know lots of people!  After, we headed back to our apartment and not two minutes later, we get a knock on the door.  It was the elders who serve with us in the Lyndon ward and they looked totally freaked out.  They asked us if we were alright and what was happening and stuff like that, and we had no clue what they were talking about.  So, what went down was that I totally spaced to tell our district leaders that we were in and safe the night before and I never turned the phone up, so it was on silent all night and day.  Around 10 am everyone started trying to get a hold of us to see if we were alright, but we had no clue.  We were missing people for a couple of hours!  The elders went all around Littleton trying to find us, and they were super relieved when they finally did.  Wow, I shouldn't be trusted with the phone, I really shouldn't!  It was quite the experience! :)  We did see some awesome miracles later though!!  We went to do some finding and while we were walking this car slows down and pulls over next to us and... Susan comes out to greet us!!  Several weeks ago Susan came up to us on Main street and introduced us to her family.  They had moved from Oregon and her best friend is a member of the church.  She is super nice, and she really wants us to come over!  Also...they just moved right into Littleton!! :)  It was great to reconnect with her!  We also had an incredible lesson with Stephen!  Stephen's been taught for more than a year and a half now and is doing well, but is struggling with the Word of Wisdom.  The spirit was very strong in the lesson,and we addressed some concerns that he had and testified of the importance of daily prayer and scripture study.  The little things help strengthen testimony so much!  We were all really touched, and I'm so grateful we had that experience with him!  On the way to exchange back, we totally got lost, and we had no clue what the address was to the place we needed to go.  Thankfully, we thought to look, and the maple farm was in the GPS, so we were able to find our way back..  And now I'm with Sister Maxwell again! :)  Exchanges.. I always learn so much from them :)

Thursday. So, getting back into the routine of things was harder than I thought I'd be after two busy days.  I was super tired and not as motivated.  We had two good lessons with members, but the rest of the day fell through.  We decided to go to Lisbon, which is kind of the sketchy town in our area.  We were contacting on Main St. and this man was walking towards us, so we were all like, alright, lets talk to him!  But he stopped dead in his tracks looking across the street then ran over and started banging on this persons door.  We thought it was kind of weird so we looked, and there was totally a fire on someones front porch!  We ran across the road too, but no one was coming to the door so the guy asked us if we had a phone and to call the fire department over.  So, yep I had my first experience calling 911!  It was pretty crazy!  The guy in the house finally came out after awhile coughing pretty bad probably because of the smoke.  Then, other people came with buckets of water and were able to get it out.  Wow, that was pretty unexpected.  It was really good that guy saw it before it got too bad!!  The fire was right next to their fuel line!  Scary..  The police and firemen came and everything and we just kind of left.  Another adventure!  And not the only one of the day at that.  We had a semi-lesson with a potential that we found out has a pretty bad mental illness.  It was a super scattered discussion and the general feeling after as we talked about how it went was confusion.  After that we looked at our phone and saw a text from a member about needing to be at her mothers house "right NOW" for dinner because she invited a non-member over for us to teach.  Um...what?  She had texted that two hours before.  We called the member and there had been a big miscommunication and overall, I just felt so bad.  After that I had by biggest low point of the week for sure.  The stress and business of the week hit me all at once.  Never fun!  But, I made it through the rest of the night, and I'm so glad that I had Sister Maxwell there to kinda calm me down! :)  She is great.  It was quite the day!

Friday.  Halloween! We did weekly planning, went to funeral homes to try to sign ourselves up on the clergy list... we thought it would be a fun way to spend the holiday :)  Then, we went to the ward Halloween party!!!  So, usually they have missionaries come in at 5 pm on Halloween, but our bishop really wanted us there, so he had us talk to our mission president who said that if there were non-members there we could go.  The party turned out awesome!!  There were a lot of less-active and non-members there, and we got to meet lots of new people! :)  I love this ward so much, they are awesome!!  We had a great Halloween!

Saturday. We had some good lessons, and did some finding, but the highlight of the day was the baptism of a boy in the ward.  It was pretty awesome!!  Quite the miracle he was baptized with the water in the font being as low as it was!  They didn't start filling it until an hour before so the water didn't even reach his dad's knees!  They had to try four times until he finally went all the way under :)  A memorable baptism!  On the way back, the member who drove us told us about an awesome missionary experience that she had!  She told her friend about her new calling working in the Primary and about how she decided to go back to church, and her friend was super interested, so she said she'd set up a time for us to come over have dinner with her and her friend so we could teach her.  Miracle! :)  So great to see members have awesome experiences like that!  Also, Whitney got her mission call!!  Finally! She goes into the MTC the same day I leave, called to serve in California!  I'm super excited for her!  She'll be a great missionary, she has helped us soooo much! :)

Sunday. These members are amazing!  Their desire to share the gospel is producing miracles as they've invited their friends to learn about the gospel and been examples!  So cool! Two members invited their friends to church, and they both came!  Also, it was Sister Mann's last time at church, and she bore a powerful testimony about sharing the gospel!  After, we went to a potential's house who works with one of the members, and he let us in and we had a lesson with his whole family!  He is super nice and has always wondered what his boss's religion was all about so he was happy to learn.  He also wanted his children to learn as well.  The spirit was so strong as we testified about how the gospel has blessed our families, and he said he wanted to invite us over for dinner soon along with his boss!! :)  Another great miracle!  I've gained such a strong testimony of working with members!!  It is definitely the most effective way to share the gospel! :) :)

Overall, this week has been a total adventure.  Well, a mission in general is an adventure! Sometimes I feel like I'm going through a bunch of rapids, but I definitely know how important it is to just stay in the boat and keep hanging in there no matter what!  Reminded me of Elder Ballard's talk in October conference!  What a blessing to be able to have so many experiences, I've learned so much! 

Have a wonderful week!! Love you!

Hold on!
Sister Bergeson :)