Walking to Damascus

Dear Everyone:

 

I'm pretty sure this has been the fastest week on my mission so far. I feel like I just wrote an e-mail yesterday!

First item of business - Eliza passed her baptism interview and is set to go for this Saturday! We're so excited!

A little bit of background on her: Eliza is 17 years old and awesome. She was introduced to the church through a friend of hers, who was baptized about 2 years ago. Her friend lives in a town about 30 minutes away, outside of our area, but she drove down here a couple months ago to take Eliza to church so she could meet the missionaries. And the Sisters have been teaching Eliza ever since. She's so cool - whenever we teach she just kind of soaks in everything we're telling her. We saw her on Saturday and we were talking about the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost (same thing, different names), and the differences in how it can influence you before being baptized and recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how it influences your life afterwards. It was so cool to hear about how she had recieved a confirmation from the Holy Ghost that the church and the Book of Mormon were true.

Something else really cool that happened this week. Yesterday, Sunday, we had a 'cottage meeting' at our ward mission leader's (the Smith's) house. A cottage meeting is essentially dinner, a spiritual messsage, and then dessert. Super casual, super low-key, just a fun opportunity to get together with people, get to know people, and talk about the Gospel.

There were a few investigators there, a couple less-active members, and a few active members. As well as the three of us and the Elders in our ward. We ate dinner, then Brother and Sister Smith showed us a couple Mormon Messages. The first one was probably my favorite. It was one called "Waiting on Our Road to Damascus", which is so cool. It's all about Saul, and his conversion while walking on the road to Damascus. It then talked about how each of us are walking on our own road to Damascus, and the importance of recognizing those things that help bring about our own conversion. After showing the video, the Smiths kind of opened the floor for comments, questions, etc. It was miraculous; a lot of the people there shared their own conversion story, and it was amazing to see the different ways the Spirit speaks to people. Long time members, recent converts, active members, less-active members, investigators - everyone had their own conversion story! And the part that stood out to me most about all the different stories people shared were that although everyone had different experiences, they were similar at the same time. And one of the biggest similarities is that no one had an angel appear to them. All too often I think people expect some big, wonderous, huge sign, a giant billboard that pops up on our drive home saying "YES, THIS IS TRUE." But that rarely happens.

It just reminded me of Alma the Younger, in the Book of Mormon. Alma was a punk, who was going around doing terrible things. Eventually, he had an angel appear to him, who told him to knock it off because he could be so much better. And Alma did change. He became an amazing prophet! But the coolest thing about Alma is that he didn't change and become converted because an angel told him to. It definitely was a wake up call for him, but then, in Alma chapter 5, verses 45-48 Alma tells exactly what it was that caused his conversion. It wasn't the angel; it was study, and prayer, and fasting. So just the little things that are kind of easy to forget were the things that turned Alma, who was a horrible person, into a prophet!

Kind of mind-blowing, isn't it?

So, that's my insight for this week. Don't forget the little things. Because, after all, it's the little things that help prepare us for the big things.

Now go read your scriptures.

 

Love you all!

 

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

Hace Frio Trio!

Dear Everyone:

I'm back in Maine! And right on the coast! Saco, Maine, to be exact. I love it already!

And even more exciting news - I'm in a trio! So I've got two new companions - Sister Dixon and Sister Jackman. They both have been out for about 7 1/2 months, and Sister Dixon has been here in Saco for a transfer. It's been a lot of fun so far.

I'm excited to be back in Maine - I wasn't here long enough last time. And this area is on fire! We have a few solid investigators and one of our investigators, Eliza, is getting baptized February 1st! 

I love reaping the rewards of other missionaries' labors.

The ward here is probably the smallest I've served in so far, but they're so missionary motivated. I spoke in church yesterday and met a lot of new people. It's very weird, going from a ward where I knew everyone so well to a ward where I don't know anyone. I kind of forgot what it's like to be new in an area. I'm excited to go though, and we've been doing our best to hit the ground running. Saco is a lot more populated than Montpelier was, so there's a lot of work to be done.

Honestly, this last week has all kind of been a blur.

Yesterday was wonderful though. There's a family in the ward here who whenever there's a new missionary in the ward they make cookies and then drive the missionaries around to all their investigators so they can meet people. It snowed pretty hard all day Saturday and Sunday, so they weren't able to drive us around, but they made us cookies to take to people, and we were able to go and meet with 6 different investigators and potentials. It was awesome! I'm loving it.

Earlier this week we had what people here call the 'January Thaw'. We had about 4 days of 40-50 degree weather, and it was beautiful! We went running in the mornings, took pictures on the beach, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Then, Saturday morning it started snowing and we had 6 or 7 inches by the end of the day.

Thaw over.

But, like I said earlier, we've been staying really busy. And it's lovely. There's nothing like getting home exhausted at the end of everyday. Definitely helps you sleep better at night.

Well, that's the update for this week. Stay warm everyone!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

To ye, Montpelier, I bid adieu.

Dear Everyone:

So, it's official. I'm leaving Montpelier. It's been a good run - almost 6 whole months. But, tomorrow I'll head down to Manchester and I'll be shipped off to some other mystery destination.

I'm actually pretty stoked.

It was really hard though, saying goodbye to people yesterday. I love this ward. The members are amazing. And we had an investigator come to church yesterday too! So it's sad at the same time.

I'm excited though. To see where I go next. I'm really hoping I'll go back to Maine. Maybe the coast this time - it'd be freezing this time of year, but it'd be awesome at the same time.

Anyway, our investigator at church yesterday. Brittany. I talked a little about her last week. She's super nice. We've only taught her twice, but she came to church! I think she liked it... hopefully she continues to progress and Sister Burton and whoever my replacement is keep teaching her!

SUPER CRAZY story from this week though. So, Anthony has been meeting with the Elders for the past couple weeks. He lives in their area, and so it's easier for them to teach him than us. He's going through a lot of health problems and we think he had a little bit of a breakdown because of all the medications that he's on, and that's why he bailed on his last baptism date. But, he's been more stable over the past few weeks. And he decided that he did still really want to get baptized. So the Elders had planned a baptism for two Saturdays ago (January 3rd), but Anthony ended up being in the hospital, so it didn't happen. BUT, he got released on Monday. So the Elders went and visited him Tuesday night, Anthony was talking about how sad he was that he wasn't able to be baptized and that he was sad he had to wait longer (he was going back into the hospital on Friday). So then Elder Quinn thought for a second and said, "Well, what are you doing tomorrow night?"

So, Anthony got baptized on Wednesday! It was so awesome! This picture is of Sister Burton and I with him. It was an awesome night - there were a ton of ward members who came, even though it was super short notice. And the Spirit was so strong and Anthony was so excited! It was amazing!

One other crazy story from this week - we were driving to a dinner appointment on Friday night down Vermont highway 14 - a long, lonely stretch of road. Suddenly, we noticed a dog running around in the road in front of us. Naturally, we slowed down and realized there was another dog lying in the road - it had been hit by a car. Another car behind us stopped as well, and we were there for about 30 minutes making sure the other dog didn't get hit, the dog in the road didn't get hit again, and trying to find out who/where the owner was, since the dogs didn't have collars on.

Luckily, we eventually found them, and the dog was picked up and taken to the vet. I think it survived, but made for an interesting night.

This week was more eventful than most. It was a fitting goodbye. I'm gonna miss Montpelier and all the craziness and weirdness that it contains, but I'm excited to go somewhere new as well.

I'll let you all know where I end up next week!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

2014.

Dear Everyone:

So New Year's this year was a little crazy... We went to a New Year's Eve party at the most wild place in town  - the senior citizen center! There's no better way to spend an evening than with 85 year olds! It really was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of great people as well.

This week was really really really cold though. We had a blizzard on Thursday, and I think the high on Saturday was -15. Toasty. 2014 came in with a vengeance. But this week is supposed to be warmer, so that's good.

We finally found a new investigator this week! Her name is Brittany and she's 23. We met her at the library doing service one day. She has a cat, loves wolves, and loves reading - especially reading books about wolves to her cat. She's awesome. She's didn't grow up very religious though, so she doesn't really know much about God or Christ or anything. It'll be really interesting to teach her, but we're excited.

Not much else to report. We spent a lot of time walking around and once again, trying to find people. This week will be super busy though - we've managed to get a meal with members for every night! We're super excited because President Stoker has really placed a ton of emphasis on working through the members and the only way we'll be able to do that is if we get to know them. I know a lot of the members really well, but Sister Burton doesn't. And we're having dinner with a few members who I've never been to visit, so it'll be great.

That's all for this week. Transfer calls are Saturday night and I'm about 90% sure I'm getting transferred. But it's not a for sure. Stay tuned, and I'll report back next week :)

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg