The e-mail this week has no real purpose.

Dear Everyone:

This week was alright. Nothing to exciting to report unfortunately. We found out today that for someone to classify as a 'progressing' investigator, they need to be going to church. Which means that we have like 2 progressing investigators. Out of the 7 or 8 people we teach regularly. I don't know what it is with New Englanders, but they do not like to go to church! Which I just don't understand. I love church. It gives me the chance to feel like I'm home every week. That is the beauty of this church you guys - no matter where you are in the world, it's the same everywhere. I love it.

Sister Aeschbacher and I are teaching a lot better together. We still have to work out a few bugs here and there, but we've improved a lot. We're also trying to find more people now. We've knocked on more doors this week than I ever have in my mission. We've talked to a lot more people on the street. We've found a few people who might be interested, but no one that we've actually taught yet. And we technically live in the Elder's area, so almost everyone that we contact around our house, we end up just referring to them. Those blasted Elders, stealing all of our people.

Last Monday was both mine and Sister Aeschbacher's 2 months mark. We celebrated by getting frozen yogurt! This missionary life, it's pretty hard core. It really is crazy to think that I've been out for 2 months already. And I know it's not really a milestone at all. But sometimes it feels like I've been out here for a lot longer. Other times it seems like just yesterday I was hanging out at King Henry or watching Lord of the Rings with the family at home. Time is weird on a mission.

I'm sorry the e-mail this week is wicked lame. I really don't have much to say. Kelly, the investigator who we're hoping will get baptized soon, is still struggling with Word of Wisdom stuff. We're gonna set another date in June and hope she can reach that one. She's in the middle of moving to Concord right now, which doesn't help the situation. Mostly because our area doesn't cover Concord, so we won't be able to visit her once she moves, unless she comes to Manchester. Luckily, they're only about 30-45 minutes away from each other, but that's still a drive.

The weather is hot. And humid. And rainy. It's super pretty though. There really are trees all over the place out here. Sister Aeschbacher and I have kind of starting wondering why God chose green for plants. What would Earth be like if he chose purple instead? Just a thought from an easily entertained missionary who walks around for 3-4 hours a day. I'm sure you all feel so much more enlightened now. You're welcome.

Life in the Shire is pretty good. Like I said, not much to complain about. Just walking around, trying to bring people to Christ, help them know how they can be happier. The usual.

I love you all. I love getting letters from people (I actually got quite a few this week. Good work team! Don't start slacking on me now though. Endure to the end!), they make my week. I hope life is good. Read your scriptures every day. Moroni 7 has been one chapter we've used a lot recently, it's a pretty good one. Check it out maybe?

Seriously though. I love each and every one of you.

Love,
Sister Lindsey Berg

This is how New Englanders use 'wicked'.

Dear Everyone:

Transfers were last week. Not gonna lie, I was wicked nervous to see who I'd end up with. Ready to know who I got?

Sister Aeschbacher!

Yup, the very same sister who was in the MTC with me and who I had already gone on two exchanges with. Now we're actual companions. It's wicked fun. And wicked hard. Our teaching styles are wicked different. So this week has been rough. Wicked rough. Because not only are we trying to get used to each other, but almost everything we've planned all week long fell through. Our appointments fell through. Our backups fell through. Our backups for our backups fell through. It's been wicked frustrating.

On top of that, very few of our investigators are actually progressing anymore. We've still got a couple of solid people, but not very many.

Free agency is the worst thing ever.

It's all good though. I'm still in Bedford, which is the most wicked area in the mission. We've got all kinds of potential. Wicked awesome potential. So we're carrying on. And one of our investigators, Kelly, is still pretty set on getting baptized as soon as possible. She is wicked sweet, probably my favorite person that we're teaching. We really aren't even teaching her all that much. Kelly has been an investigator for like 2 years, and she knows with all of her heart that the church is true. The Word of Wisdom is just a little bit of a struggle. Which is understandable. Quitting smoking is wicked hard. But she's moving forward and we're shooting for May 31st. It's wicked exciting!

As we all know, yesterday was Mother's day. There's a wicked awesome video that the church made about mothers. Go watch it here. It's wicked cool. Send it to all those women in your life who you love. And maybe a couple you don't love, but who you know would appreciate it. It'll make you feel wicked good inside. Promise. And missionaries aren't allowed to lie.

I know my mother's day was wicked great. Nothing better than getting to call home! It was wicked fun.

I hope my continual use of 'wicked' wasn't wicked annoying. I'm just trying to give you all a feel for how wicked it is out here.

Seriously though. The mission is wicked hard. It really is. I coasted along with Sister Buxton. Neither Sister Aeschbacher and I really know what we're doing. It's all good though. No worries. We're figuring it out.

Love you all. Hope life is going wicked well. If you ever feel like writing a poor missionary a letter, it'd be wicked. And I'd love you forever.

Love,
Sister Lindsey Berg

Did I Stutter?

Dear Everyone:

Fun fact for the day. I don't have driving privileges. I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that I totalled my car last summer. Luckily, there aren't as many sneaky mountains out here in New England for me to run into. But, I do have to do this defensive driving course. And there's a DVD that I have to watch for it. And Stanley from The Office is in one of the videos on the DVD. Just thought I'd share that with all of you.

Now for my big news of the week. Transfers! The good news: I'm staying in Bedford 2! The bad news: Sister Buxton is getting transferred. I'll still be junior companion, so no training for me. Sister Buxton is training, opening a new area, and was called as one of the first ever Sister Training Leaders, aka the girl version of a Zone Leader. She's a little stressed, but I know she'll do great.

My job is to help my new companion learn the area. We'll see how it goes, since I feel like I barely know the area. Luckily, we've got lots of maps and everyone's address is written down. For the most part.

Other than that little bit of news, this week was pretty quiet. The exchange with Sister Aeschbacher went much better this time. We didn't get lost at all! Our teaching pool is shrinking a bit. We were really overwhelmed at the beginning of my mission - there were a lot of people whom we'd visit all the time, yet they would never keep commitments or appointments. We've been trying to kind of weed out those people who have no real intent. I feel bad dropping people, but sometimes they do make it a little easier when they flat out tell us that they won't ever get baptized and will most likely never read what we ask them to do. I'm not here to spoon feed the gospel to people or to force it down their throats. I'm here to invite them to learn about and to help them out along the way. I like blunt people. It's the people who continually tell us that they're sorry, they'll do the reading next time, they'll come to church this week, they'll be there next appointment that bug me. Because many of those people rarely follow through.

No worries though! Some people are solid. Kelly is hopefully getting baptized in just over 2 weeks! She's still struggling with a few things, but she's working hard. The Elders in our area had a baptism yesterday and she came to it with us. Kelly is probably one of my most favorite people that I've met out here so far. I love her. She's been investigating the church for almost 3 years now. She wants to get baptized so bad - this is actually her 3rd baptismal date. She just struggles with Word of Wisdom stuff. But I know she'll kick it this time. She is such a sweetheart, I'm so excited for her! 3rd time's the charm, right?

Life is good. Sometimes I feel like I've been out here for so much longer than 6 weeks. Other times it feels like there's no way I've been here for 6 weeks already. Time is weird on a mission.
It's getting hot and sunny out here in New Hampshire and the bugs are growing bigger and bigger. We're walking around a lot and I've already got a weird tanline on my feet. It's great.

I love you all. Send me letters. They're the best thing in the world. Other than you guys of course.

But seriously. Letters. Please.

Love,

Sister Lindsey Berg

My mission is a success!

Friends, family, and strangers.

According to our ward mission leader, it doesn't matter what else happens throughout the duration of my mission - I should consider my mission a success. Why? Well, because we got my favorite old lady, the darling and grumpy Betty, to agree to help someone. She gave a less active, Sister Constantine, a ride to church yesterday! And she agreed to do it again this week! And she also came and taught with us again yesterday! Miracles really do happen!

This week was a long one. The sun has finally started to arrive in New England. We've helped 2 people do yard work so far. We decided it'd be a good idea to start keeping a pair of jeans in the car, because it's a little more difficult to garden in a skirt.
I feel like we aren't teaching quite as much as we used to. We've been visiting a lot of former investigators, trying to rekindle that desire to learn. Most haven't responded in the most positive of ways. But we're keeping on.
I'm doing another exchange with Sister Aeschbacher tomorrow. Hopefully we won't get lost again this time - I'm pretty sure I know the area pretty well now. Transfers are also next week. There's a really good chance that Sister Buxton will be leaving - she's been in Bedford for 4 transfers already. So the question is whether or not I'll be staying here as junior companion, senior companion, or if I might even be training someone. But then again, Pres. Willkey isn't really known for following the norm, so there's also a good chance that I could be leaving and Sister Buxton could stay here and train again. Or that we could both be leaving. Or staying. So essentially, what I'm saying is that we have no idea what's going to happen next week.

One of the harder things from this week - so we're teaching this one lady. Carolina. Oscany's mom. Carolina has been an investigator for months. She has a baptismal date of June 14th. But it's really frustrating, because she isn't keeping any commitments. She doesn't come to church, she doesn't read, we're lucky if she keeps her appointments. We had a lesson with her this last week and we didn't even teach her. We started talking to her and found out that she hadn't read at all. She wasn't really focused on the lesson either, she was doing something on her computer while we were talking to her. So we had to just tell her that we couldn't teach her if she didn't follow through on the commitments, and we would just leave and give her a few more days to do the reading. It's really hard because I want to teach people and I want to help people, but they won't do anything to help themselves! I feel kind of hypocritical telling people they need to read their scriptures for even just 5 minutes a day, because I rarely did before my mission, but already I've noticed a huge difference in my life. I just don't know how to make other people see that difference as well!

You guys. Missions are hard.

But, like I said, we're keeping on. As long as we're trying our best, the Lord will take care of all the rest of it, right? That's what I keep telling myself.

Anyway, I love you all. Choose the right. Read your scriptures, it really does impact your life!

Love,
Sister Lindsey Berg

Buxton & Berg are at it again!

You guys. We have 4 investigators with baptismal dates. And another one who said she wants to get baptized, we just need to set the date.

The missionary duo of Buxton and Berg is on fire!

Seriously though, this week was a pretty good week. We also got 6 different members to come teaching with us this week! That was more than I had gotten to come with us my whole mission up to that point! Which, I know, isn't saying much. But still. Members are the biggest help ever. Go teach with the missionaries. Investigators will listen to the members so much more than they listen to us. It's our job to live what we're teaching them and to encourage them to live the commandments. They trust people so much more when it's someone without a name tag telling them how much of a blessing it is to read the scriptures everyday. So go teach with the missionaries.

At the same time though, this week was pretty rough. No one came to sacrament meeting. I look forward to church all week long. I'm not sure how to get our investigators to do the same thing.
One highlight from the week - there's an older lady who we go and visit on Sundays. She's a less active - something happened at church years ago and she's refused to go back ever since. She smokes and loves her coffee. Yesterday she called us to cancel her appointment. She said she was having a terrible day and didn't want us to see her all grumpy. So we went over early, talked to her for a while, and decided to just read some chapters out of the Book of Mormon to her. We read her 3 Nephi 17 and 18 - which are the chapters where Jesus blesses the children and sets up the church in the Americas. She loved it. The best part though, was after reading both those chapters, without us even saying anything, she told us "That's it. I'm going to give away the rest of my coffee and throw my cigarettes down the trash chute." She even told us that she thinks she'd like to go to church again soon! The Book of Mormon brings miracles kids, don't ever doubt it!
And on a less -missionary-but-more-human note, all we've been hearing about all week are the bombings in Boston. Lots of people out here have family down in Boston. Lots of people even work in Mass. And the Boston mission borders ours. But it's amazing some of the things we've heard. People who ran towards the sites of the blasts afterwards, because they knew people were injured. Strangers allowing the runners to stay in their homes, because the runners couldn't get back to their hotels. My favorite thing I've heard about is Random Acts of Pizza - people from all over the world calling pizza places in Boston, ordering several pizzas, and telling the employees to just take it outside and give it to the responders and those helping. It's sad that it takes a tragedy for people to pull together like this. Yet, the fact that we do pull together is amazing. It's the same individually. As I've met people, talked to them and gotten to know them, I think the people I've gotten closest with are those who I can sympathize with. Those who have faced a similar trial as me. Even if our trials were completely different, who have faced the same emotional hardships as me.

I've really struggled so far with opening up with people. I'm still struggling with it as well. But there's a few people I've have no problem sharing those stories with. It's just a testament to the fact that hard times do make us stronger - not only individually, but they bring us closer to those around us as well.

I feel like a lot of my e-mails are kind of cheesy. And I know you're all reading these to know what I'm doing and who I'm teaching, not so much what I'm feeling. But it's hard to pick out just one or two stories to share. And there are so many amazing things happening every day that it's hard to remember what happened this week and what happened weeks ago. And right now I think I'm the one learning the most. So you all will probably get to hear about all my personal struggles and triumphs for a while. Sorry not sorry.

But I love you all. I appreciate your support, I really do! You're amazing. All of you.

Love,
Lindsey

I love old ladies with all of my heart and soul.

The people out here in New Hampshire are the best.They say 'wicked' all the time. "I'm wicked sick." "It's wicked cold."
No one ever uses their front door - it's always the side door.
Everyone has a 2-liter bottle of Ginger Ale in their fridge at all times.
Whenever a word ends in -a they always add an 'r' to the end. I've heard 'idear' so many times I think I'm starting to say it.
But my favorite people are the older generation. There's a couple spunky old ladies in our ward. One of them, Sister Betty Butler, is 87. She's a ward missionary, so she's supposed to come teach people with us. She hates it. Sister Buxton and I really wanted her to come teach a less active who lives in her same building though, so we offered to visit Betty and help her clean her apartment. We helped organize her closet and put a bunch of boxes on some shelves that were too high for her to reach - she's a really tiny old lady. Betty told us that she'd take us out for pizza or ice cream sometime to repay us. When we told her all we wanted her to do was to come teaching with us she just kept saying "No, no. No, I'm no good. No, no." So we told her we'd come and pick her up later that evening.
When we got to her apartment that night she told us very grumpily that she was not very happy that we were forcing her to come with us and that we shouldn't expect her to say anything because she wasn't going to. Then, when we got to the less active's apartment Betty proceeded to talk to her for the first 15 minutes. She made lots of great comments during the lesson and almost had us crying with laughter a few times. Then, as we left, she complained that now she would wouldn't get to bed on time because we had kept her out so late and she still had to wash her hair.
I love her so much.

But this was a good week. I extended my first baptismal invitation! It was to this 16 year old girl, Oscany. We've been teaching her mom for a while, but she's not progressing very much. Oscany, however, is amazing. She is so prepared. She's still really curious and not completely certain, but she's amazing. We're hoping she'll be ready by June 17th, and she said that if she gets a confirmation by then she'll get baptized. We're going to try and get the rest of her family to agree to be baptized then as well, because we've been teaching almost all of them somewhat consistently.

Life is good in New Hampshire though. We had 4 investigators come to church yesterday - including Nancy, the investigator who I was so worried about last week. We have 7 members coming to teach with us this week. Everything is going well. We haven't had to do much finding, because we're so busy with the people we already have! Some days we don't have time for lunch or dinner because we have so many appointments scheduled. But I'd rather be too busy than trying to think of new ways to spend our time.

I hit my one month mark this week! It's kind of weird. Someday I feel like I've been out here for forever. Actually most of the time I feel like I've been out here for forever. Sometimes it's a good forever. Other times it's a never ending forever. But we're moving on. Always moving on.

I love each and every one of you. Individually. I really do.
Send me letters. They're better than Christmas. Pray for missionary experiences. They happen more often and are simpler than you'd think. Do work.

Love you all!

Lindsey

#LDSCONF

You guys. I love General Conference with all of my heart and soul. Elder Holland is my most favorite man in the world - other than my dad of course. His talk was exactly what I needed to hear. I can't wait to read it over and over again once the Ensign comes out. I loved it. I might have almost started tearing up during it - but then again, I might not have. Pres. Uchtdorf's talk was amazing as well. And who would have guessed that our Prophet is a former arsonist? It's amazing the things you learn in conference.

So this week was an interesting one. We were challenged to a waffle eating contest at coordination meeting by the Elders in our area. I won. I also learned how to crochet. Those are some highs. Then there were also some lows. We had to drop one of our investigators - she has Alzheimer's and can't remember what we teach her. And she also told us that she will never ever go to church. That was really sad.

But the hardest day was Tuesday. After that day I was about ready to pack up and go home. If that day was any indication of what kind of missionary I'll be without Sister Buxton, I'm not sure why you guys told me I could do this.
Sister Buxton had to go to a leadership training meeting that lasted all day. So we did exchanges with another companionship with a Sister who also had to go to the meeting. I was paired up with Sister Aeschbacher, who had been in my district in the MTC. It was really fun to see her again and we were excited to go and try to figure out missionary work without our trainers. Unfortunately, it didn't go too well. First off, New Hampshire has the most confusing roads in the world. Half the streets aren't on maps and our GPS stopped working. I still don't know the area that well, and since I can't drive (I don't have permission, as I totaled my car this summer... oops.), I was attempting to give Sister Aeschbacher directions. Luckily, we not only stayed within the New Hampshire State boundaries, I'm pretty sure we stayed within the area boundaries as well. Miracles all around. Still, it was frustrating beyond belief.

The hardest part however, was this lady we taught. Nancy. She's been an investigator for a while, and is really moving along. We tentatively planned on extending a baptismal invite, but that didn't happen. As the missionaries have been teaching her for a while we're past the first lessons and now focusing on commandments. We attempted to teach her the importance of reading the scriptures daily and why we're commanded to do so. We thought it would be good, especially since she hasn't followed through on her reading commitments the last several weeks. However, the lesson didn't go very well. Let's just say that Nancy told Sister Aeschbacher and I that we were ganging up on her and she didn't like it, along with several other things. Not good.
Luckily however, she did set up a return appointment still, so hopefully Sister Buxton can salvage this relationship next week. I had never been told that I was intimidating and forceful before, but I guess there's a first for everything.

In other news, in case you couldn't tell by that story, I still have no idea what I'm doing. I'm really hoping I'll figure it out soon though. I think there's a good chance that Sister Buxton will get transferred soon - she's been in this area for 4 months already. And there's a good chance I could be training starting in June - we have 19 new sisters coming out then. I feel so sorry for the poor girl who gets me as a trainer.

I hope you all listened in conference however. Help the missionaries! When members are willing to go teach with us it makes it so much easier. Investigators need friends in the church. Otherwise, they never want to go. Also, referrals are the best thing in the world. They make finding those people the Lord has prepared so much easier. Think of who you know who maybe needs a little more of the Lord's help in their lives. Then tell us about them.

Anyway, I love each and every one of you. You're all the best.

Love, Lindsey

P.S. Paige Montgomery, Julie Linton, Sarah Brothers - I know you guys read this. And I haven't gotten a single letter/e-mail from any of you. I'm calling you out. Right now. Love you. Kthanksbye.