Dec. 15, 2014 Littleton, N.H.

Called to Serve

Dec.15, 2014

My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

I love my purpose!  It is only one sentence long, but it is powerful.  What an amazing cause to dedicate this past 18 months to, and the rest of my life.  I truly feel there is no greater calling than that of a missionary.  What a blessing!  This experience has changed my life.  I can hardly believe that it's coming to an end.  The time has flown by so fast, but I know that I'll remember it forever.  Looking back, so much has happened and I've met such incredible people. I love New England!!  I've learned so much about the gospel, and my testimony has been strengthened so much.  Man, trying to sum everything up is so difficult!  However, I've been thinking about it a lot because at transfer meeting I'll be giving my golden truth.  I feel like I have so many, but the one I'll be sharing is this.  On my mission, I've learned this golden truth that will change who I am forever-that is, that when I labor building God's kingdom, God is really building me.  My mission vision, be a builder, has shaped my entire mission.  I've loved striving to work harder and show more love to help people come closer to Christ and build on His firm foundation.  It has brought me such great joy and now I feel like I can see so clearly throughout this whole process how God has been changing and shaping me.  Helping me build more firmly on His foundation as well.  I am so grateful for my Savior and Redeemer.  For His perfect life, filled with service.  I've grown and learned so much as I've tried my best to emulate Him.

Service.  I love service!  It makes me so happy!  Being a missionary has helped me see even more that my whole life needs to be filled with service!  The song Called to Serve isn't just for full-time missionaries, I know that for sure!  I'm grateful I have the chance to serve the Lord for the rest of my life!  There was I great quote Sister Maxwell shared with me that I just love!  It's by Spencer W. Kimball and says,

"Service to others deepens and sweetens this life while we are preparing to live in a better world.  It is by serving that we learn how to serve.  When we are engaged in the service of our fellowmen, not only do our deeds assist them, but we put our own problems in a fresher perspective.  When we concern ourselves more with others, there is less time to be concerned with ourselves!  In the midst of the miracle of serving, there is the promise of Jesus that by losing ourselves, we find ourselves!  Not only do we 'find ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives, but the more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls.  We become more significant individuals as we serve others-indeed, it is easier to 'find' ourselves because there is so much more of us to find!"

So true!  It is such a blessing to serve.  Another quote I love comes from M. Russell Ballard's book, Our Search for Happiness (which we finished today! Yay!  Such a good book!).  This sentence struck me because it pretty much sums up how I feel about missionary work.  "Weaknesses become strengths, challenges become opportunities, trials become triumphs, and adversity becomes an adventure in the service of the Lord." 

I definitely feel like my mission has been an adventure!  This past week definitely was!  In a nutshell...District P-day. 4 member meals. Christmas decorating. Snowed in.  Last district meeting. Stuck in a member's driveway.  'He is the Gift'ing. Elder's baptism. Afternoon in the hospital. Festival of Choirs! Cookies galore. Played violin in Sacrament meeting.  Last day of 12 week. Saying goodbyes.  It was the greatest last week as a missionary I could ever ask for! :)

Overall, I have a deep feeling of gratitude.  Gratitude for everything I've experienced and learned.  It is so hard to put what I feel to words!  I'm grateful I can continue to strive to follow Jesus Christ.  I finished reading the New Testament today, and I'm so grateful for everything I've learned from the scriptures on my mission!  John 21 is one of my favorite chapters.  I learned a lot from Peter and what he did when Christ's earthly ministry ended.  He went back to his old life, fishing.  However, Christ appeared to Him and three times asked Him to feed His sheep.  He gave up his fishing before to serve the Savior and was asked to continue to do so for the rest of His life.  I know that I need to continue to serve God the rest of my life, no matter what changes and challenges come to me.  I know that as I do so, I'll continue to be blessed and feel true joy! 

To close, I'd just like to leave you with my testimony.  I know that God is my loving Heavenly Father.  He knows me individually and He has a plan for me.  At the center of that plan is my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I love Him. I know that because of the Atonement I can be forgiven of my sins and live with Him again.  If I do my part, I can receive the greatest gift He has to offer, everything He has.  Because of this plan, I have hope and joy, and that joy has increased as I've shared God's plan with others!  What an honor to represent my Savior and this, the true church, for the past year and a half here in the beautiful land of New England.  This is certainly the best mission in the world..for me!  

I'm sad it has to end, but I wholeheartedly agree with President Uchtdorf who said,

"How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

Sister Bergeson :)

Pictures Dec. 8, 2014

 Last District P-Day

 Cat Crossing!!

Snowy day in New Hampshire

Dec. 8, 2014 Littleton, New Hampshire

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Family!!                      Dec. 8, 2014

This has been a wonderful week filled with Christmas! :)  I just love this time of year sooo much! :)  I hope that you've been enjoying the season and that you had a great week!  I don't have too much time today, sadly, so we'll see how well I can pack everything in..

We did a bunch of volunteering on Tuesday.  The senior center, of course, but also a community meal in town.  Littleton is just the greatest little town ever!!  I love it here so much, and they have so much going on, it is the best! :)  All these churches and organizations got together and they have this giant community meal every Tuesday, and they all switch off putting together.  It was great being able to see it happen and help out with it! :)  We also had a lesson with our investigator who wanted us to come over even after he had surgery that day.  Pretty sweet!  He felt really good and seemed much happier now that it's all over and done with.

Wednesday was interesting.  It started out super great, which was good because later we got texts from two different people who were in crisis situations.  That was kind of stressful, but with good attitudes we were able to get it figured out.  Definitely learned a lot on my mission and I'm grateful for the people that I've known and the examples they've been to me, good and bad.  That night we helped the Young Women paint a bunch of Christmas ornaments, which was a lot of fun!  They're going to hand them out to people while they go caroling.  Also, we've been able to use the He is the Gift cards quite a lot, and we've had so much fun talking to people on the street about what they love most about this time of year.  Good stuff!  We've been able to see lots of members and talk with them about He is the Gift as well.  I love it so much :)

So, our crazy day was most definitely Saturday.  We woke up and it was snowing and snowing and snowing!  We had our ward Christmas party early in the morning, and we were kind of worried how the drive there would be.  We made it, although the roads were pretty slick. It was a great party with delicious food and a talent show afterwords.  We ended up getting signed up to do a musical number with Whitney, a member who's almost headed off the the MTC.  She played the clarinet and we sang with her.  It was pretty exciting trying to hit some high notes, but it was a great experience :)  After that was a baptism of a 8 yr. old girl in the ward.  I was glad we were able to attend, the spirit was so strong!  After that it was still snowing, showing no sign of letting up.  We made it home safely and did some shoveling.  Then we headed to 'Christmas in Bethlehem'...New Hampshire.  It was so much fun!!  We talked with a lot of people.  There were people singing Christmas songs, a bunch of free food, they lit a huge Christmas tree and had a giant bonfire.  The best part of the night was definitely the fireworks, though :)  It was pretty sweet! 

Sunday was also pretty great!  Church was good, then we had our last choir rehearsal till the day of the Festival of Choirs, fun!  After, we went to Bro. Lassen's daughter's birthday party for dinner.  It was so much fun being there!  They had just decorated the huge Christmas tree and there was Christmas music playing.  Lots of their family was there and we had a huge feast!  Bro. Lassen is such an amazing cook, it was wonderful :)  The best was the cake at the end though!  Rich chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and filling...I was in heaven :)  

This time of year just makes me happy!  Sister Maxwell and I are actually reading this book, Our Search for Happiness, by Elder Ballard.  Today we read about how happiness is the greatest of all riches.  I definitely agree.  It makes me happy to know that God loves me and that He sent His Son to atone for my sins.  Today, in one of my favorite parts he says, " You can never look at yourself in the same way if you know that you are a child of God and that He knows you, loves you, and cares about you.  And you can never look at others dispassionately if you know that they are your eternal brothers and sisters who, like you, are here on earth trying to learn and grow through mortal experiences, both good and bad."  What a great blessing to be able to know we're children of God! :)   I know that as I continue to strive to follow the Savior, I'll continually grow closer to Him and feel of His love for me.  I also know I'll have a greater desire to serve others which makes me happy as well!

Love you so much family!!  Have a fantastic week!

Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

Sister Bergeson :)

Pictures Dec. 1, 2014

 Exchanges

Snow on the mailbox

Christmas tree!

Dec. 1, 2014 Littleton, New Hampshire

He is the Gift

Family, family, family!! :)                         Dec. 1, 2014

So, I hope that you had a wonderful week and a fantastic Thanksgiving!  This past week has been extremely crazy, yep.  I really don't believe that it is December.  I feel like time just needs to take a break for a second and stop going by so fast!  Hmm...where to even start?

So, we had our zone interviews on Tuesday and I had lots of mixed feelings about it.  My last zone interviews means my exit interview, which I kind of didn't really want to happen...  But, I decided to go anyways.  I'm glad I did.  We got to meet with president first, which was great cause then I didn't have to think about it the whole day.  So, President Stoker is amazing.  I really am so glad that he's my mission president! :)  I've learned so much from him since I've served here, and it has been awesome to see how the mission has changed since I've been here.  Awesome!!  During my interview I really got to reflect on my time here, and man, it really has been incredible!!  I love being a missionary!  It was great being able to talk about what I've learned with president, and it really has just been SO much!  It was sad with it being the last one though.. still don't know how I feel about that..  Anyways, now to something much more joyful!  For our zone meeting, we were introduced to the initiative, He is the Gift.  It pretty much  is the greatest thing ever! :)  I love this time of year, absolutely love it.  I can't even express how grateful I am to have the chance to be here for another Christmas season!  It is the greatest time to talk about our Savior, and with what the church has done to utilize it...wow.  I love the video they put out and the pass-along cards we have!  Overall, it just made me so excited!  Not gonna lie, I've definitely felt the effects of working, working, working; it's tiring.  I feel like this is the boost I need to power me through to the end!! :)  

So, after our meeting we had our exchange meeting and Sister Maxwell headed back to Littleton with Sister May!  Super excited that I have my past comp as my sister training leader, she's awesome! :)  I stayed with Sister Brown (who was in my MTC district!) in Montpelier.  That was quite the exchange!  So, after the meeting we had a dinner appointment with the greatest Mexican woman, she's awesome!  She was running late so we pretty much had a cooking class and made some super delicious pizza!  Then the next day we taught a sweet investigator and did some finding.  As we were finding we got a text.  Pretty much it said.. your grounded.  No more driving for us that day!  Well, that threw quite a few things off!  The snow was coming down pretty hard and it was going to snow the rest of the day, so I'm glad we weren't out and about in it.  Pretty much we just extended our exchange!  It was a blast, we walked to a members house and helped her make Christmas ornaments then had dinner with her and her husband.  They were baptized less than a year ago, and they are just fantastic!  Super glad that I got to meet them! :)  We walked home in the fresh snow and it was just beautiful!  No one was out and it was just serene and peaceful.  I love New England!! :)  

So, our Thanksgiving ended up being different than planned, but for the better!! :)  We woke up, drove off to exchange back (in our pajamas!) and made it to the Goodrich farm safely.  So, President Goodrich is in the mission presidency and he is like, one of my favorite people ever.  I just love him!  He and Sister Goodrich had us come inside and eat some fresh cookies for breakfast :)  I'm glad that I got to see them again!  It was a great way to start off Thanksgiving!  Then, by the time we got back home (so, adventure..our car doesn't really like this weather.  We couldn't get up the hill and into our parking area so we parked at the bottom and walked..in our pjs..that was fun.), and through our morning routine, it was pretty much time to go to the Vines's for Thanksgiving Dinner (that started at 1 pm) :)  We didn't really know them all too well, but were super glad that they invited us over!!  It was a blast and I sure did eat way too much!  The best was Sister Vines's award-winning apple pie and her homemade ice cream!  Yummy!!  We shared a Thanksgiving message with them and we all said what we're thankful for :)  It was great!  They're a part member family as well, so that was great to get to know them better, and they both said that they wanted us to stop by more often so, yay!!  It was a pretty memorable day!!

Friday there was this awesome Christmas parade in Littleton.  We got to talk to quite a lot of people about He is the Gift! :)  Also got to see some of the parade as well.  They totally had a pet parade with tons of dogs dressed up in Christmas outfits...New Englanders and their animals are the best! :)  Overall, super great :)  The rest of the day was pretty interesting though.  I got some wood stuck in my leg.. the kitchen chairs don't like me.. That was pretty interesting.  I told Sister Maxwell it will be like having a piece of New England with me always :)  

Saturday we did service wrapping Christmas presents for people at a bookstore, that was awesome!! :)  And Sunday...was Sister Maxwell's birthday!! She is officially 20 years old!!  Church was great and I'm seriously getting so excited for the festival of choirs, our ward choir sounds pretty awesome if I do say so myself!! :)  For dinner, we had a fun time celebrating by setting up our Christmas tree and making brownies :)  

What a week!!  Can I just say that I love Christmas again?  I really do.  I'm all set to finish reading the gospels soon.  It's only taken me like... more than a year, but I'm determined to do it!  I love learning about Christ and His life.  Everything He did for us.  Truly a gift.  I love the invitations He extends and my recent favorite is to "come and see" (John 1:39).  I know that this Christmas season I want to accept that invitation by doing more to use more fully His gift!  

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

O come, all ye faithful!

Sister Bergeson

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 :)