Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Dear Everyone:

Sad news this week. Only part of the trio survived. Sister Dixon is leaving us :( However, Sister Jackman and I will rock Saco! It'll be great!

There's always good news with bad news though. One of our investigators, Abby, is getting baptized!

Abby is super awesome. She's 22 and started taking the lessons right before Sister Jackman and I got here. Her dad's best friend is a member of the ward here - Brother Farmer. One day, Brother Farmer went over to Abby's house and saw her reading some kind of book or something about God, and when he asked her about it she said she had recently become interested in religion. He said "Well you don't need any of that stuff! Just come to church with me!"

So she did. And the first time she went, it was a fast and testimony meeting. And she stood up and bore her testimony!

This girl is rock solid.

She's been to church basically every week since then, she comes to our Book of Mormon class on Tuesday nights, and she also brought her mom to a Relief Society cooking class we had last Saturday.

We're super stoked for her. The date is March 11th - which is really soon. But she is so prepared. It's people like Abby who, sometimes when things get hard, help me remember why I'm out here. And they help me remember how much the gospel really does bless lives. Even in just the short almost-2 months that I've known Abby, she's grown a lot. It's amazing to see!

One big reason that I'm pretty sure Abby has progressed so much is that she's awesome at reading her scriptures. She started the Book of Mormon from the beginning about a week and a half ago, and she's already in 2 Nephi! There's a huge difference between the people we're teaching who sincerely want to let Christ in their life, and those who are doing it more passively. Those who are sincere experience so much more change, so much more quickly!

It's interesting though, because this change and growth doesn't just come to those who are learning about Christ or the gospel for the first time. It applies to all of us. It reminds me of a series of videos on mormon.org, called 'Daily Bread'. There's 3 of them: Pattern, Experience, and Change.

Which is on purpose I'm sure, because first we need to establish a pattern of something, then we'll gain experience from that, and then the change will come over time.

The series is Elder D. Todd Christofferson, talking about why it's so vital that we take time to work on our spiritual side, our relationship with Christ every day. I know I've noticed on my mission the difference in my growth the times that I've really focused on my studies versus the times when I've gotten a little lax. There's a huge difference! The hard part is that we rarely notice the difference right away. Change is subtle. And we're constantly changing. The hard part is making sure we're changing for good!

So watch the videos. They're awesome.

Well, that's all for this week kids. Stay warm!

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

P.S. Photo for the week - Sister Jackman, Sister Dixon and I at the temple last week! This was right before we went in, and right before the blizzard hit.