Ice cream and La-Z-boys.

Dear Everyone:

This week was a good one! It started out with free ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's factory and ended with ripping apart an armchair.

Missionary work is great.

So Jeremy is doing great! We taught him twice this week. He's really progressing well. He was supposed to come to church yesterday, but was really sick so he couldn't. He's already read almost half of the Book of Mormon though, and we've only taught him three times. He's awesome! It takes us a long time to get through the lessons because he asks so many questions. But it's so much fun, because you can tell how sincerely he wants to know and understand what we're teaching him. And his questions are really interesting too. They really make me think about what we're teaching him, which is good, because no one likes being taught by a robot. He's so golden though, and I really really hope he keeps progressing like this!

Other than that we've been really working to get to know the members here. We're really starting to develop good relationships with some families and people are really willing to come out teaching with us. Now our challenge is to find people to teach so that they can come teaching with us!

That's why we were ripping apart an armchair. We're supposed to be doing 8 hours of service a week and sometimes that includes helping new families paint their house and re-upholster second hand La-Z-boys.

That's all I can really think of to report for this week though. Just doing missionary work all day ery day!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

My streak is broken.

Dear Everyone:

It's a miracle! My streak of never having a companion for longer than a transfer is finally broken! Sister Frampton and I are staying together for another transfer and we're both staying in Montpelier! We're stoked! We both have a feeling that things in this area are really going to start picking up soon, and we can't wait! We've got lots of big plans for this transfer, so now we've just got to put them into action. We're pretty excited!

So, last week I promised I'd tell you more about Jeremy after our lesson with him. He's incredible! Like I said last week, he had asked what he should read before our appointment. We had suggested Moroni 10, because it's one of the best. When we got there for our lesson, this is the first thing he told us:

"I didn't do the reading. I hope that's ok. I didn't want to read just that one chapter, so I decided to start at the beginning of the book. I got through chapters 1-8, but I didn't have time to finish 9 and 10. I'm sorry."

Ladies and gentlemen, that is what a golden investigator sounds like.

Jeremy is a gem.

He's such a great guy though. The lesson was awesome. He already has such a strong relationship with Christ. He grew up in a very strong Christian family and loves the Bible. That's actually one thing that he pointed out - he enjoyed the Book of Mormon because it was so similar to the Bible and it said essentially the same things. He really wants to go to church next week, and we're excited for him to come!

Kellie is out of the hospital, which is good. She came to church yesterday, which is even better! But she's moving to St. Albans today, which is not so good. So we're not going to be teaching her anymore. But we're going to refer her to the Elders out there and hopefully they'll be able to connect and she'll continue to be taught. She really has a desire to get baptized and to receive those blessings that the Gospel can bring her. I'm not completely sure if she's ready to make the changes necessary to receive those blessings right now though. Hopefully she proves me wrong!

The picture is from district meeting this week. Elder Jones is 'dying' and going home tomorrow, so we had a funeral for him. Also, we decided to take a district picture. Enjoy.

So that's the report for this week. Vermont is great. I'm loving it.

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

#missionarymemory

Dear Everyone:

Sometimes I'm really not sure what to write each week. Missionary work is really repetitive you guys. We do the same thing everyday - teach people about Christ.

It's also really hard to remember what to write home about each week when I can barely remember what we did yesterday, let alone last week.

Anyway, I'll do my best.

Lately we've really been focusing our work on less-actives and working with the ward members out here. I've already said how important rescue work is here - 600 people on the rolls and only 150 coming is not a very good ratio. The ward is so great though. They're really trying to reach out to as many people as they can and have done a lot already. Right now we're working on trying to coordinate times for us to go visiting teaching with the sisters. A lot of the women in the ward don't have a visiting teaching companion since they're spread so thin. And it can be pretty intimidating to go alone - especially when you don't know the person you're asked to visit. So we're working on figuring out times to do that, so we can not only get to know the less-active members we're visiting, but also so we can get to know the sisters in our ward better.

We found a guy who has a ton of potential though, and I'm stoked to start teaching him. His name is Jeremy. He came up to us as we were sitting outside the library trying to find an address on our map. I guess he had a friend who had given him a Book of Mormon a couple months ago. Jeremy read the introduction and started reading Alma (a suggestion from his friend). We went and saw him this last week and he told us he's halfway though Alma, reads a couple chapters every night, and really like it so far. And we haven't even taught him anything yet! He's great. We have an appointment with him this week. Before we left he asked if there was anything he should read before our visit. I about passed out. Very rarely do people ask what they can read before we come again - usually it's like pulling teeth just getting people to read at all! Hopefully he'll be a good one. I'll keep ya posted.

We went to dinner on Saturday with this sassy old man in our ward named Bill. He's less-active, but he takes us out to eat every week and he's been coming to church pretty regularly lately. It's really fun, because Sister Frampton is a really sassy person and I can be pretty blunt. So it's great to teach him, because he expects us to be sassy and blunt with him. It's usually one of our more entertaining lessons from the week.

That was our week. It's crazy to think that it's week 6 of the transfer already! Transfer calls are this week! I don't really think that President Stoker will transfer either of us - but I've said that every transfer so far and my track record isn't very good. So I'm not even really going to make a prediction this time. It sure would be nice to stay in Montpelier with Sister Frampton for at least one more transfer though. She's so much fun! And I'm loving Vermont. Something about driving for 45 minutes on dirt roads to get home at night reminds me of home. And there's so many more trees here than in my other areas - autumn is going to be gorgeous!

We'll see what happens though!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

Sorry I'm so boring - although I do write raps.

Dear Everyone:

Not a ton to report this week. Teaching has been pretty slow lately.

Kellie is currently in the hospital for some issues. She no longer has a baptism date and we're pretty positive we're going to drop her soon because of various reasons that I'd rather not talk about on the internet. She's just not emotionally stable enough to make a commitment like baptism.It's a bummer, but it'll be better for all of us. We're here to teach the gospel to people, and we can't spend time teaching people if they aren't willing to make those changes that will eventually bring them closer to Christ.

We did meet a lot of people this week though. No new investigators yet, but a few of those contacts have some real potential. I feel like we're going to get really busy really soon. There's people out there who are ready and waiting for the gospel. We just need to find them.

One fun thing from this week though. Sister Frampton and I decided that we need to be prepared for every situation. So, as we were walking around downtown Montpelier trying to contact less actives, we wrote a rap for the 1st vision. Not gonna lie, it's pretty sweet.

Think Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:

In upstate New York Joseph was confused,

Studyin' different religions, wonderin' what he should do,

Readin' and ponderin', askin' sincere,

Tryin' to find the purpose of why he was here.

When a couple of guys, the Father and the Son,

Appeared to young Joseph, shared what had to be done!

He translated one little book that would change the nations,

It's our guide back to God and eternal salvation.

What up!

Don't worry. We're working on verse two (Plan of Salvation) and verse three (Gospel of Jesus Christ). It'll be wicked awesome.

This week was a slow one. It happens. Life is good though. Just being a missionary. The usual.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

A pep talk in every drop.

Dear Everyone:

So this week was full of highs and lows.
Low: Getting sick. You know how your parents always told you not to go
outside with wet hair/wet shoes and you never took them seriously
because it sounded like something they just made up to ruin your life
and annoy you because that's what parents do? Well it's true.
Wednesday we spend all day walking around Montpelier in the pouring
rain. So our shoes and socks were soaked and cold. Then Thursday
morning Sister Frampton and I both woke up with sore throats and it
went all downhill from there.
High: Dayquil and Nyquil. Not ON dayquil and nyquil. Just the fact
that they exist is a miracle. I'm being completely serious.
Also, Hall's cough drops are really inspirational. They tell you
encouraging things on every wrapper, like "Impress yourself today,"
"Don't give up," "Conquer today," and "Don't wait to get started."
It's really motivating.
Low: Kellie might be moving to Burlington, which isn't in our area.
She found out on Saturday that the Barre shelter is under construction
for the next couple months. She can move to the Burlington one, but
she doesn't want to. Right now she's living with a member in our ward,
but she can only live there for another week or two and she's not sure
she can find her own apartment by then.
High: The members here are great! We're really starting to work with
members. President Stoker told us to get to know all the members as
well as we can. We stopped by 6 different member families yesterday
and they all love us. It was great.

This week wasn't too exciting. Just teaching people about Jesus. It's
pretty great.
Fun story: The elders are teaching this guy, James, who works at
Pricechopper, which is where we do our grocery shopping on Mondays. We
saw him last week, but didn't say anything. When we told the elders
about it later, they chastised us for not going up and talking to him.
We told them it was because we didn't want James to see how awesome we
were and want us to teach him instead.
Then a couple days later the elders taught James. And he told them he
saw us at Pricechopper. Then he asked how he could meet with us, and
if there were rules on who he had to be taught by.
Sisters:1
Elders: 0

The work is going good. We're just working on getting to know as many
people in the ward that we can. Vermont is great. Being a missionary
is great. The Gospel is great.

That's all for this week kids. Stay tuned!

Love,
Sister Lindsey Berg

I know it's green, but what else is about it?

Hey all!

Sorry I'm a day late. We had Zone Conference yesterday, so we're taking P-Day today instead. Hopefully I didn't mess up anyone's week by not e-mailing yesterday :)

This week was crazy. Chaotic. I'm still not completely sure what happened.

The big news? Kellie has moved out of her apartment! The bad part however, is that it wasn't really of her own free will. She got home one night, and her roommate wasn't in a very good mood (that'll happen when you drink 8 beers), and he decided he didn't want her living there anymore. So he decided to remove her. In a not very nice way.

As a side note, we're well acquainted with the cops here in Northfield.

So, to make a long story short, Kellie's roommate was arrested Tuesday night. She was out of the apartment Thursday and moved in with a girl she met at the gas station. Then on Sunday we had to help her move out of that girl's apartment into the apartment of a girl in our ward. She's staying there for a week, then there's a good chance she'll be moving into a shelter until she can find her own apartment.

Like I said, crazy week. We're still planning on her baptism on October 12th though! And she still came to church on Sunday! It was great!

Another fun thing from this week. We went to the JSM Friday afternoon! We took Heather, a less-active that we're working with. She was baptized at 8, but went less-active shortly afterwards. So knowledge-about-the-gospel-wise, she's essentially a non-member. It was great though, we were able to go and learn all about the early life of Joseph Smith! And the memorial is beautiful. It was actually kind of awesome - it was rainy and cloudy and miserable all day.  But then like 30 minutes before we left it stopped raining. And by the time we were at the memorial about an hour later, it was sunny and warm and beautiful! So great!

Our Zone Conference yesterday was amazing though! President Stoker runs the mission in a lot more business-type way than President Wilkey did. Which I actually really like. President Wilkey was very inspirational and loving and I always felt the Spirit so strong whenever I met with him. But I'd leave meetings all fired up and excited to be an amazing missionary, and then not have any idea how to do it. So I'm stoked about the direction the mission is heading in. We were told essentially that we should try to avoid tracting as much as possible - music to my ears! We're starting to work with members a lot more - getting to know them, serving them, building them up. That way they'll be more confident in introducing their friends and families to us for us to teach, because they'll know that their loved ones are in the hands of two awesome missionaries, aka Sister Frampton and I.

It'll be great.

Well kids, that's all for this week. Vermont is small-town, expensive, and green. I can't wait for the leaves to start changing colors, it'll be gorgeous! The scriptures are great. Share the gospel with everyone you meet. It's a beautiful thing, so give others the opportunity to learn about it too!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

Doing work in the 802

Dear Everyone:

So guess what. I'm in Vermont!

Montpelier, Vermont to be exact. And I love it.

They have MOUNTAINS here. Well sort of. Nothing like back home, but there's a lot more up and down. Everything is covered in green trees though. And it's a lot more rural. We cover several towns and it takes like a half hour to get anywhere. We drive on dirt road almost every day. I love it.

My companion is Sister Frampton from Payson, Utah. She's only been out one transfer, so I'm back training her. She is my absolute favorite though. It's like we're the same person. We haven't been the best at going to bed on time this week, because we always get distracted and end up telling stories and jokes until like 10:25. So we're working on that. But she's sarcastic and chill and gets all my random youtube references. It's great. I've laughed more with her this last week than I have my entire mission so far. I love it. Plus, she shares her M&Ms with me. Winner.

The work here is a lot different than it was in either Bedford or Augusta. There are about 500 members on the ward list here. Only about 120 show up somewhat regularly. So we're doing a lot of work with less-actives. We're also doing a lot of searching out, trying to figure out if addresses are even correct or not. There are some people who have been on the ward roster for 20+ years and have never shown up once during that time. There have been a lot of people who've died/moved, so there's no reason for them to still be in our records. So we spend our time trying to clear out those names.

I'm living in a smaller town called Northfield. There's a small university here, Norwich. It's half military, half civilian. They aren't really doing much right now, but apparently the new cadets should show up at the end of August and we tend to be teaching quite a few people from the school every year. That'll be fun because right now we spend most of our time in the other towns in our area - Northfield is kind of dead.

We have one great investigator though. Kellie. She lives in our apartment building. Apparently Kellie came up to Sister Frampton her first day on the mission and asked if they (Sister Frampton and Sister Robbins) were from a church. Kellie lost her husband to cancer in January and has been kind of lost and searching for direction since then. She had a baptism date for the end of July, but her roommate is a man. And until she moves out, she can't get baptized. Law of Chastity ya know.

So we decided yesterday that we were all going to fast and pray for a date together. And we came up with October 12th! I didn't know this, but Sister Frampton and Sister Robbins had been praying for a baptism date before transfers. They had picked October 12th. But Sister Frampton didn't tell me, because she wanted to see what date I would come up with. So I guess it's meant to be! Kellie is stoked. Now we just need to work on getting her her own apartment so that she can actually get baptized. 

Vermont is different. It's small town and rural and kind of ghetto. The Elders live in a town that is affectionately referred to as 'Scary Barre'. It's cool.

Speaking of Elders, I don't understand why people in the ward keep telling us when they think the Elders are cute. It's not awkward at all. But I've had at least 2 people in every ward that I've served in tell me how cute the Elders in our area are. It's a little weird.

Anyway, life is good. I'm loving Vermont. We're only about 45 minutes from the Joseph Smith Memorial so we're hoping we'll be able to go up there sometime soon. It was a bummer to leave Augusta, because I was finally figuring out where everything was. And now I'm still lost and confused. And windshield GPS devices are apparently illegal in Vermont. But I'm driving a Subaru, which is fun. And Sister Frampton is a pretty good co-pilot. So we're figuring it out.

That's the update for this week. Everything's going pretty good. Not much to complain about. I'll attach some pictures next week.

Read the scriptures. They're great.

Love you all :)

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg