Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Dear Everyone:

Church was a little quiet yesterday. Saturday night it snowed. Really really hard.

I think we got about 15 inches of snow. Maybe. Tons of fun.

But, because the snow was so bad and this is Vermont and most people live on little podunk dirt roads, very few people were at church yesterday. I counted about 35. Compared to the 135 we usually have.

So we had sacrament meeting, then the rest of church was cancelled!

It was actually really fun though. Having such a small group for church. It seemed so much more cozy. The Spirit just seemed so much stronger as well. It was awesome.

That's pretty much the most exciting story I have from this week. Nothing else is really going on. We're just slaving away in the freezing cold, trying to tell people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and how wonderful it is. And no one wants to listen to us.

Vermonters.

We did meet a couple people this week who have a lot of potential. No new investigators yet, but we're hoping they'll be interested again next time we go back. Stay tuned for next week and I'll let you know if anything happens!

I mean we've been spending most of our time lately trying to find people to teach. Something has got to come of it soon. Either that or Sister Burton and I are just terrible missionaries. But we're trying really hard. So we should find people eventually, right? That's what we keep telling ourselves. And we're praying really hard that we'll find people. So it'll come.

Meanwhile, Christmas is in just over a week! And what gets people in the spirit of Christmas more than watching Christmas videos? Watching Christmas videos on mormon.org! I watched this video earlier this week and thought it was pretty good. It's featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and one of the stars of the Youtube sensation, Kid History! Watch it and enjoy.

Well, that's the update for this week. Not much else to report. Vermont is cold, missionary work is hard, but the church is true! So it's worth it.

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

#ChristmasDevo

Dear Everyone:

So my new companion is Sister Burton! Berg and Burton. We sound like a law firm. We're getting a long great though. She actually was just serving in Bedford, New Hampshire and her companions (she was in a trio) were Sister Aeschbacher and Sister Cloward! All my companions are now becoming companions with each other. It's a little weird.

Other than that, I don't really have much to report for this week.

We went to a member family's house for the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional this year and we even decorated cookies before. It was so much fun. A couple of the YSA's (young single adults) from the ward came as well, so it was a blast. Not to mention that the Christmas devotional was marvelous as well.

We aren't really teaching anyone at the moment. Kind of in a lull. We've been spending a lot of time trying to find people to teach, but we aren't having much luck. It gets dark at like 4:30 in the afternoon here and as soon as the sun goes down, people don't want to talk to you. We knocked on someone's door at about 6 and he chewed us out for being out so late. So it's a little frustrating, trying to figure out what to do.

One cool thing I learned this week - so there's a lot of symbolism in the story of Christ's birth. But one aspect especially that I thought was awesome was about the three gifts that the wise men brought. So the gifts they brought were gold, frankincense, and myrrh, right? Well here's a little more about each of those gifts and why they were brought specifically:

1) Gold. Gold is one of the most precious metals. It's pure, and it doesn't rust. So it symbolizes Christ's life - pure, precious, and unmarred.

2) Frankincense. It's super precious and was used in the incense for sacrifices. It's symbolic of Christ's death - the sacrifice of the Son of God.

3) Myrrh. It's very very rare and was used as a healing balm. It's symbolic of Christ's resurrection! That it is through Him that we are healed!

So, that's my cool gospel knowledge for the week. Yes, this time is all about celebrating Christ's birth, because that was a pretty essential part, but it's also about 'what happened next' (as Sister Wixom said). Don't forget about that!

Well, I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

Woof.

Dear Everyone:

The results of transfer calls: I'm staying in Montpelier! Unfortunately, Sister Frampton is leaving me :( So I'll be receiving a new companion tomorrow. Hopefully she'll be just as great as Sister Frampton is. It's hard to believe that we've been together for more than 4 months - it went by so fast!

This week was pretty good. We spent a lot of time with the members. Between pie-hopping on Thanksgiving and visiting people so Sister Frampton could say goodbye, we saw a lot of people. And the members here are amazing. Great people. I was actually really glad that I didn't have to be the one saying goodbye. Now I get to spend Christmas in Vermont!

Teaching-wise, not a lot is happening. It's really hard to find solid people to teach here. There's a lot of people who just want to learn about the church for the sake of learning. Then there's also a lot of people who really like what we teach and what we believe, but they don't want to progress or change. It's really sad when you talk to someone and you know that they know the Church is true and that it can bless their lives, but they just aren't willing to make the changes necessary to let it bless them.

People are super frustrating.

So, once again, we're back to trying to find people to teach. Walking around in the snow is a ton of fun. Good thing we walk fast, so that we can stay warm!

Speaking of staying warm, the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial (JSM) is about an hour south of us. And every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving they have this cool lighting ceremony - they decorate it all fancy, then they have a live nativity presentation and they turn all the Christmas lights on super dramatically and give away free cider and doughnuts. It's a big deal. We went down with our bishop's family on Friday to see it. It was a toasty 8 degrees outside, but it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of less-active members of our ward who went who we were able to talk to. There were also a lot of people from other cities and a lot of other missionaries there, which was fun. It was a good night. The picture this week is from that - it's super blurry, but it's the best one of the night. Guest appearance by Elder Zilles.

Well, that's all for this week kids. I'll let you know who my new companion is next week and how things are going! Stay warm and drink lots of hot chocolate!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

I'm thankful that little kids love getting baptized.

Dear Everyone:

I meant to send some really awesome pictures this week, but I forgot my camera cord. Sorry.

This week was good! Saturday we had a baptism for Ezra, an 8-year we've been teaching for the last 2 months. It was really awesome - he had a lot of his family there, none of whom are members except for his mom. They were super nice and it was a really happy event. We were also able to give them a tour of the church building afterwards and go to lunch with all of his family as well. They were really cool - one of this aunts and uncles had even gotten him a CTR ring! It was lots of fun though, and now we're just hoping that Ezra and his mom will continue to stay strong and active!

We also got to spend all day Tuesday baking with Kathy. She taught Sister Frampton and I how to make cinnamon rolls and I made my very first apple pie. It was delicious. We taught Kathy's granddaughter Frankie a little bit about the church as we mixed and ate and left her with a Book of Mormon. She seemed really excited about it and promised to start reading it! We're going over to make cookies again this week and Frankie should be there again, so we'll follow up and hopefully she'll continue to progress.

This weekend is transfer calls and I'm super nervous - I have no idea what's going to happen! I really don't want either of us to get transferred - Sister Frampton is my favorite and we work so well together! Sister Frampton has been here one transfer longer than me, so technically she should be the one leaving, but we aren't sure. I don't want to leave though! I love Montpelier. The ward here is amazing. We weren't very good missionaries and made faces at the little girls sitting in front of us all during sacrament meeting yesterday. It was so much fun! I love little kids.

For Thanksgiving we're going to dinner/lunch at a member's home. Then we're just going pie hopping for the rest of the day. The nice thing about being a missionary is that normally, people feel so bad for you that you're away from home for the holiday that everyone invites you over. So we have 5 different families we're eating with that day. It'll be awesome. And fattening.

This is the best time of the year to be a missionary though! It's almost Christmas! And most people are totally open to hearing about Jesus during Christmas time! The ward has come up with some great activities for this year, so we're working on spreading the word and getting some excitement going - both within the ward and among those we come across. We're practically inviting everything that moves to come to our activities.

Sad side note, I'm pretty sure I ran over a chipmunk this morning. So that's no longer moving. Apparently I'm dangerous when behind the wheel of a car.

Back to missionary work though, it's going great. And now it's starting to snow, so we get to start doing what missionaries in New England do best: shovel snow and tell people about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ - all at the same time! I'm really excited, I feel like our work is going to start picking up a ton over the next couple weeks!

Well, since Thanksgiving is this week, I might as well end with a couple things I'm thankful for: warm coats; the US Postal system; Mission Presidents (especially President and Sister Stoker); Mountain Dew; little kids; pictures; ward members who are professional chefs; mormon.org videos; my wicked awesome family; and most of all, I'm grate to be on a mission right now and I'm grateful that I get to tell people all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It's wonderful! And it just keeps getting better!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

I've never eaten so many leftovers in my life.

Dear Everyone:

It's been a rough week. Sad news from this week: Anthony isn't getting baptized on Saturday anymore. Satan is way too good at what he does. We aren't really sure what happened, but Anthony decided that he just isn't ready to be baptized and doesn't want to go to church at anymore - at least for a little while. It's a disappointment, but people have their agency.

Ezra is still getting baptized Saturday though, so that's good.

Zone conference was great! Elder Nielsen is an awesome speaker. It was really exciting listening to him and I learned a lot. We talked all about how when it comes down to it, everything we do in this life, everything we work for is between us and the Lord. No one else really matters. The only thing that is important is my standing with the Lord. Which is true. We also talked about how we weren't sent here to be average. We were sent here to be extraordinary. And if we're willing to put in the effort, it'll happen!

Talk about an awesome pep talk!

Other than that we've just been doing a lot of finding this last week. Trying to talk to people and find new people to teach. We haven't really found anyone new yet, but we've talked to a couple people who have a lot of potential. So hopefully we'll be able to talk to them again this week and turn them into actual investigators.

So we're just chugging along here in Montpelier. There's not a whole lot going on, but what is happening is good for the most part. The members here are amazing. Sister Frampton and I must look like we're starving or something, because we've had so many people give us food this week that we barely had to buy anything grocery shopping today. It's wicked awesome. We've also had like 6 people invite us over for Thanksgiving. We're planning on making the rounds.

Well that's the report for this week. Hopefully things around here will pick up soon and I'll have something more exciting to share next week!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

I'm an awkward missionary.

Dear Everyone:

This week we went to dinner at a member's home. They're a fun, young couple with an adorable little girl, and we've been over there a few times already. We were sitting there eating dinner and there was a little bit of awkward silence. For what seemed like the 50th time that night so far. And it was then that I came to one of the saddest realizations thus far on my mission: I'm an awkward missionary.

I have no idea how to hold a normal conversation anymore.

Dangit.

Maybe that's why we haven't had much success so far with finding new people to teach. I'm not very good at the whole 'first impression' thing. Working on it!

Life is moving on though. Anthony passed his baptism interview this week, and he's so stoked for the 23rd! It's going to be a fun day. We've been teaching this 8-year old boy, Ezra, for a few weeks now and he's going to get baptized that day as well. His mom is a less-active but she's really been trying to come back and support Ezra. They've been coming regularly for about 4 weeks now, and we just really hope they'll continue to be strong after he's baptized!

This week should be good though. We have Zone Conference on Wednesday and the exciting news is that we have a General Authority coming! Elder S. Gifford Nielsen is coming - exclamation point! It should be fun. After all, he did play football for BYU.

That's about it. Not much else happening here in Montpelier, Vermont. We had someone tell us this week that our apartment building is haunted. That was fun. It actually explains a lot though...

Well anyway. Missions are fun. We're working hard. Or trying to at least. Hopefully with Christmas coming up people will be a little more open to learning about Christ. That's what we're praying for!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

What happens in Vermont, stays in Vermont... but nothing really ever happens in Vermont.

Dear Everyone:

Guess what everybody! Anthony is getting baptized! On November 23rd! It's so exciting!

It's amazing because I'm about 99% sure that the only real difference between when the Elders were teaching Anthony and the time that we've been teaching Anthony is that ward members got involved. Like I said last week, we've been teaching Anthony at a member's home. And their house is so much more welcoming to the Spirit that it makes it so much easier to help Anthony feel and recognize the Spirit as we teach him!

Seriously you guys. Member missionary work is the way to go!

Other than that miracle, this week was really slow. A lot of our appointments fell through and just not a lot happened. Kind of rough. We're trying really hard to find new people to teach and nothings happening yet. It's hard to get people to want to learn more about how they can draw closer to God when they don't believe in God in the first place. And it's really frustrating to me, because I just can't see how people can't believe in God! It's so obvious that He's there, just look at the world around us!

Sometimes I don't understand people.

So ya. Not a ton to report for this week. We got a new ward mission leader last week and he's super excited. We've come up with some really good ideas on how to get the members in the ward more involved with the work by trying to come up with events that will give them the opportunity to share the gospel with their friends.

It's awesome when members tell us how they've been praying for missionary opportunities and they've been given opportunities to share! It's just hard because nothing is coming of those experiences yet and I'm really impatient. Unfortunately, not everything happens when I want it to happen.

I just keep telling myself that it's the Lord trying to make me a better person. Hopefully it'll actually work.

Well, that's it for this week. Not much else to share. Hopefully we'll find some awesome people to teach soon. We're trying!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

P.S. So the picture this week is of Sister Frampton and I with Donnella, one of the girls from the ward here. She moves to Utah tomorrow. Sometimes people call us Charlie's Angels, so we thought this pose was fitting.