2 Nephi 2:25, March 3rd

Hola Familia-

I am happy to hear that everyone is doing well. That Karen was able to take Grandma and Grandpa on a vacation of a lifetime, that dad got to enjoy the Gilbert Temple dedication, y que Elder Berthelson estaba poniendo anuncios en Nashua esta semana (Elder B, todavía no puedo creer que esta en Nashua). Karen, I love the pictures! I don´t think I have seen that big of a smile on Grandma, I bet she was in heaven! And I'm sure that it was wonderful for the two of them to vacation together. K, you´re awesome!! And, I received a package from you this past week with cow tails and scripture glue ins! thank you so much! Hermana Salazar loves them and was so happy to receive them. She says thank  you and I think she is planning on sending something. 

 

This week has been a little crazy. We were able to do a lot with the members as well as an impromptu visit from a member of the 70, Elder Evans. It was awesome to hear from him. He talked about our objective as Missionaries and our finding efforts in teaching not only those who will accept the Restored Gospel, but teaching those who will help build the Kingdom of God. Although it was long, it was a powerful message.

   

Something I am grateful for is blessings. And for learning experiences. Did you know you shouldn't drink milk around lunchtime? After a long morning of traveling in the Micros/Metros of Santiago, and a bad decision to drink chocolate milk we arrived at a members house for lunch. I didn´t feel good at all, but Hermano Lepe was able to give me a blessing which helped me feel a lot better for the remainder of the day. Funny part is that there was a ward activity right after that, and everyone was concerned for me at church yeterday, haha. But I am fully recovered.

 

During the week, we were able to invite a member to have a lesson with us. Unfortunately, the appointment fell through and we weren´t able to have the lesson as planned, but the hermano was able to give us a name of a less active whom he hadn´t seen in years. We were in this apartment block for a good 45 minutes asking different families for a man named A___ G____. We looked until we were able to locate the section where the tenants had told us we could find him. After knocking on a few doors with no results, we were able to find him. He invited us in and we got to know him. He is the son of one of the members of the Bishopric that had left the church about 6 years ago, not for any specific reason. He said that we came at the right time because he had been praying for some help to come back to church. He is the only member of his family. His wife is not a member, and they have three kids. We invited them to church for this past Sunday, and both he and his wife were able to come! They were also able to bless their 3 month old baby. Unfortunately, his father (who he wanted to surprise) was on vacation, but he wants to surprise him this next week.- 

Hermana Ekins (from the other Companionship that I live with) let me read a talk that her father sent her. It was so cool, Explaining for of the Plan of Salvation in how we live within the basic laws of God. It explained more of the Fall, how it was necessary, what sin really is, who Satan is, and how Our Heavenly Father does not lie, nor go back on His words. I was able to understand more of why it was important. All in all, the whole talk falls back on this scripture, 2Nephi 2:25. We are here to have joy, and that is the reason for the plan.

 

I hope all is well and that you are able to have a wonderful week, I am praying for our friends and family. 

 

 

Love yall! 

 

 

 

an Elder I ran into at the conference! (keep in mind there were about 1,000 missionaries :) pretty cool, eh?

Elder Clayton Rackham

(Hermana B and Elder Rackham both were in the Parkway Ward, Milwaukee North Stake together) 

 

-- photo of a sunset on calle John Kennedy in my sector

Sister Jasmine Berthelson

Chile Santiago East Mission

Alma 43:9

Familia- So we didn´t have transfers. In fact, very few missionaries had transfers and so I am still in El Parque for the time being with Hermana Salazar. The work is moving verrry slowly. We are still working with R____, but we are figuring out how to start on a clean slate. There wasn´t a lot going on this week but we had a pretty cool activity with the youth in our ward. We have what are called Farrias which are the flea markets that are set up by workers. Since one of the families in our ward works in the Ferria (which is located directly outside of our chapel) we were able to set up a table and have the youth help us contact people. The youth also made giant Book of Mormon/Bible replicas. They had a really cool experience with a lady that they contacted. They were able to go to her house and invite her 12 year-old grand-daughter to attend church! Unfortunately, this time of the year everyone is going on vacations. So there haven´t been a lot of people to teach this week, and we hear that February is worse. It is very hot and everyone is leaving Santiago. 

We have started teaching a man named R_______. He is awesome! He was a contact we made while trying to call to someone else. We left him to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon last week and we passed by again this week to find that he read and really loves the Book of Mormon! The only problem we have is that he lives alone and we can´t enter unless another Hermana is with us. I´m super excited to work with him.

I hope you like the píctures! A couple from the Ferria, one of me and Hermana Ekins with "beignets", another with me and a Charungo (guitar of Chile), and our District.

 

 

 

I have been reading a lot in Alma.. the war chapters. We were able to have a good lesson with a less-active couple about this verse. It is super important to protect the things we have that are important to us. If we value something, we protect it. These chapters apply to us as well. It is also important to protect our beliefs and to use our testimony as a shield. I also love D&C 93 and am glad K attatched it in her email. The Glory of God really is intellegence. It is also the chapter in which we learn what truth means. And yes, I am excited to go to the dentist for my check up next year! Dad, thank you for the email about temporal and spiritual assistance. Our Mission is hard. There have only been a handful of Baptisms in our Zone with all of the time I have been here. It´s hard with the customs in Chile. But we have been blessed to be able to work with a lot of Menos Activos- a ton. It is always a blessing being in the Service of the Lord. 

 

Not much else- Hoping for a good week. I haven´t been hit by the sun too hard, although I do have a pretty nice tan ;)

Love you!

Words of Mormon 1:7

Hola Familia

First, I want to tell K, FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!!! I hope it was wonderful and that you could enjoy it a little. We celebrated it over here by having a lot of lessons with Menos Activos haha. Second (which is directed towards K) Hermana Ekins -from the other companionship- wants to go to your Tech party. She is from Missouri, and wants to be your friend but I have told many stories of KJB and everyone wants to know you, K. 

 

We celebrated New Years at the Bishop´s house up until 10:30. We also watched Fireworks up until 12 from our balcony. We are still teaching Rosa, but it has been hard because she hasn´t been reading the Book of Mormon. We were able to have a lesson with her and the Bishop´s family where she could really feel the Spirit. And a few days later had a lesson on Baptism with little results. Ugh... stressful. 

 

But with this and said scripture above, Both Hermana Salazar and I can say that we are at work in the Lord´s timing. We are doing what we can, and with that we can always do better. It feels like a matter of trial and error right now, but we can really have joy in the positive miracles that each day brings us despite what might seem like hardships. 

 

There hasn´t been a lot happening other than that. A few new investigators with lessons, and we were able to have a couple FHE´s with the families in our ward this week. Haha, sorry I will try to have more news next week. 

BUT... I was able to just read Elder Berthelson´s letter.. That is awesome!!!! Wow- the Holy Ghost will just work with people and am glad for that example of following the promptings of the Spirit. It is really incredible what the Spirit can accomplish if we are willing to listen and act. How cool, AB such an exciting time for B_____ and keep working with him! :) Thank you K, Dad, and Alex for the letters. It is cool to hear of what is going on. I like the news about what is going down in B Rouge aha.. enjoy going to the temple with the Hathaways. Also was really glad for the message K sent about cousin Leona. Very cool what blessings can do. With a last thought, like they said in conference, I challenge/ask that if you already aren´t doing it, ask about the investigators from the missionaries in our ward and pray for them BY NAME. And be their friend on Sunday when they come to church. Put the face to the name. Lots of love! have a great week!

 

 

Words of Mormon 1:7

DyC 50:26-29

Familia- 
It was so cool to get to talk to y'all on Christmas!! I hope it was enjoyable for everyone. It was pretty hot here, and we had a lot of ice cream that day... We did a lot to lead up to Christmas this week. We were giving out the rest of our cookies, we did some caroling in the plaza in our sector, we had lessons with our investigators about the Spirit of Christmas. Over all it was a good week. They don´t celebrate Christmas like they do in the states. And it definitely didn´t feel like Christmas- it passed pretty quickly actually. But we had a fun Christmas morning, the four of us in our pension. I told them about dad, and how he has to shower, get ready, eat his bowl of cereal before we can open presents. And about Karen`s delicious Christmas breakfast creations... haha. It was fun though. We opened presents that we bought for each other and I made pancakes and eggs for everyone. After, we caroled for the man who works outside of our apartment building and went to the Lopez´s house to eat lunch and talk to our families. But we worked like normal on Christmas after I finished talking with you guys. 

It was Hermana Salazar`s birthday on Friday. We had planned to go to the Temple with a couple of other Hermanas, but it ended up taking a lot longer to get to the temple than planned. The horario de la Navidad with all of the micros set us back, and we ended up getting there a lot later than planned, and so it was just Hermana Salazar and I who did a session...... In general, it was just wonderful to go back to the temple. I will get to go once more next year, and then at the end of my mission. 

That day I had called up a less-active family (familia A_____) to see if we could have a surprise "Once" for Hermana Salazar. They decorated their backyard with balloons and we had a Pan de Pascua cake with other snacks which was kind of cool under their tree decorated with Christmas lights. Hermana Ekins, Perez, and I made a piñata for Hermana Salazar and I made a pretty sweet ice cream cake. 

R____, our investigator is progressing. We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation with her, and we could feel the Spirit so strongly. You could see her eyes light up  when we were explaining that we were created before this life and that this earthly existence is not the end. Unfortunately, she has had, and is having a lot of family problems, but it was a blessing to be able to teach her about the Plan of Salvation. She gets so excited when we come to visit. She is progressing slowly, but I am grateful for that because I feel like with the questions she has and her understanding, we learn together. She has been able to go to a few of the ward activities and is getting to know a lot of the members. Stay postponed with baptismal date-

There have also been other miracles that we have seen this week with visiting families, getting into homes that we couldn`t get in before, contacting, etc. It`s hard work, especially with the heat, but fun none-the-less. 

I don`t know if I have ever told you about our Bishop, Bishop Llancoñanco. He is like Michael Scott.. anyways, we had our third hour, fifth Sunday yesterday. He had everyone gather into the cultural hall and we watched a Mormon Messages. I was thinking a lot about my papi yesterday with one of them. The one about our Earthly Father and our Heavenly Father. I also was studying in DyC. A lot about the Priesthood. I was pondering on just how special it is that Alex and my Dad have the Priesthood Power. In vs 26 it explains that this power is ordained of God. And not to be looked upon as a power to Rise above, but to fall below and to buoy up and serve others. I know that we are human, and we all have sins, but it is pretty cool to know that worthy Priesthood holders have the ability to do ALL things in the name of Christ according to their faith and worthiness. I would always hope that the Priesthood holders I know have a life reflected on Christ even for those small moments where God will provide Earthly miracles on account of the worthiness of the Priesthood holder. I hope that Karen will find the video and that you guys can watch it. 

Editor's Note - see below for this quick Mormon Message or you can click here:

I don`t know if it is possible to burn a disc of mensajes mormones (mormon messages, spanish?) thought of that after i called  you. I don`t know if there are really any new years traditions here, but we did see some fireworks the other night. USA has a pretty big influence in Chile, I am guessing we will have fireworks for new years. Cool for Tyler Mander and way awesome for Kennedy! She is going to be an incredible missionary.  

Grateful for you guys and your goals, no not finished w LDM yet, but I am going verse for verse with my Journal of it so it will hopefullly be finished  by next year. And thank you K! I am excited to see the glue-ins. Hermana Salazr is going to love them too.. 

Keep workin hard Elder B! I put together a very small package for you. I will let you know when I send It.

Have a good week and Happy 2014!

Con amor,

1 Nephi 1: 11-12, November 18

Wow! I first have to say what an AWESOME experience that was to have Dad´s old Mission President come and visit. So cool, and I am sure y'all had a lot to talk about! Berthelson is definitely not a common last name. 

It sounds like your weeks have been pretty full. Weddings and crafting, etc. Sounds like a lot of fun! 

 

Elder Holland and his wife were able to visit! We arrived at about 5:30 am to get our good 4th row seats and waited for 4 hours until he arrived. There were 4 Missions in this conference which he said is the largest conference that they have had of missionaries. He mentioned something of Elder Perry: that this Moment with all of the Missionaries that are serving right now ranks with the events such as the First Vision, The  restoration of the Book of Mormon, and equal distribution of the Priesthood. One of the coolest stories and best applications that he shared was that of a world famous swimmer that he had known during college. When asked in an interview from the press how he did it, he said "kick when you don´t want to kick and stroke when you don´t want to stroke". Which I have taken in this week, especially with the rising temperatures here in Santiago. A few of these days have been cooler than others, but other days have been incredibly hot. Its also like Phoenix, a very very dry heat haah,, but it was such a wonderful experience to hear Elder Holland Speak.

 

One of the other things that we had this week was called a CVC, like the visitors center they have in Salt Lake. It was for the members to bring friends and invite them so that we could do a tour (the sister missionaries) then we brought them into a room so the Elders could explain baptism and each one of the auxiliaries had displays in different classrooms. It was pretty dead for a couple of hours. The ward members had a hard time bringing people, but it was absolutely incredible with the youth in our ward. They went out and at around 8pm there were about 20 kids who came in to do the tour. It was so cool! From what I hear they invited a birthday party hahah. There was def a spark of missionary work within the ward. A couple of our investigators came too! They were able to socialize with the members and they enjoyed the tour.

 

We have been doing a special fast for some of our investigators- M___ y G____ and E___ and E____. It was great that E____ and E___ were able to come to the CVC that we had. And we also invited M___ y G_____ to be baptized. They are absolutely wonderful, just a little unsure. But we are patiently working with them.

 

I am so glad to hear all of the new that is going on, in the ward, and with family and friends. I hope you (d n k) enjoy your travels to Chicago. People think that all that my parents do is vacation. True dat! ahah but i know you guys are working hard too. 

I will have to tell you about Hermana F______ someday. Kind of like the abuelita that you have. We bought her a "FUTURA MISIONARA" plaque. ......

 

We have been having a lot of lessons about the Book Of Mormon and how important it is. If anyone falls away from the church, the question must be asked if they are reading the Book of Mormon. This book was written for our day. I would hope that you are all continuously reading the Book of Mormon and strengthening  your testimonies about the divinity that come from reading it. Pray, read, go to church. Its the perfect formula. 

 

I attatched a couple of pics from my bday, a couple of the CVC and my comp Hermana salazar and Hermana ekins waiting for Elder Holland at 5:30. I love you all very much and hope that you are having and will have a wonderful week.- Love you!

1 Nephi 1: 11-12

Mark 2:17, October 21

We have been very fortunate this week to have been able to see miracles. There was a menos activo family on our ward roster, the T_____ family. We have had bad luck these last few transfers trying to get a hold of this family, but about a month ago, we had a lesson with the mom. She showed absolutely no interest in coming back to church, and for the most part, kind of astounded Hermana Salazar and I with the things she said. She bluntly told us that she did not want to come back to church. Here was a family with the parents being converts and sealed in the temple with their children. We asked why she has separated herself and her family from the church, and for the most part they were petty problems. So we hadn´t been back to visit in her home since. Once in a while we saw the youngest in the family in the street and would say hi to him and ask how he was doing, but other than that, not much contact with the family. When we had divisions the last time, Hermana Salazar and Hermana Zunñiga were able to get into the house again and contact the whole family and put a time that we could visit them for FHE. 
On Thursday we were able to have a lesson with the family. The parents and three of their five kids the oldest being 17 and the youngest about 12. Our FHE lesson was about the importance of the family. We asked Hermana y Hno T_____ first who Jesus Christ was to them and they gave an answer. After, we asked the kids who had no idea how to answer. I think that really surprised the mom that her kids didn´t know who the Savior was. It was a really spiritual experience for them because I don´t think they gathered together as a family very often. Hermana Salazar and I were able to share our testimonies about the importance of the family and the mom told us that that is what they had been lacking and they wanted to establish family home evening. It was so cool! That has to be the highlight of the week!

I´ve attatched a photo of a woman who is 89 years old. She is absolutely incredible. She has a son who is mentally handicapped and has been taking care of him since he was born. He is 54 years old and has never walked in his life. We visited her all this week and had the priesthood come to give them a blessing. They were planning on building L___ (son) a ramp so he could easily get in and out of his house. It was so great to have two priesthood members to come to give them a blessing. Unfortunately, she and L____ are leaving to go South for three months with her daughter. So we said goodbye for the last time. We got her information so that the missionaries down south can contact her again.

We have finally gotten one of our investigators to come to church! One of our menos activos brought her friend and we have a lesson with her this week. Also, L____ (Peruvian family we were teaching a long time ago) came to an activity. It has been really hard to get in contact with their family. But she absolutely loved it and made friends instantly. Wasn´t able to come to church this week but hopefully next week.

We also have something called a CVC that we are doing in the month of November.November 16th we will be doing an "open house" to help both the members and ourselves obtain references. We are super excited and we know that the members need something like this to get the obra misional moving along.  

Transfers are on the 3rd of Nov. If you are worried about Hermana Salazar getting her things, dont worry and you can send them directly to me and If we are separated, I will be able to send her things still. I don´t need anything, but thank you! we have the temple next door to us too! 

Like I mentioned before, it has been hard to get investigators to come to church. We are constantly explaining, having lessons, fasting, asking members to come to lessons to try and help them remember the importance of taking the sacrament, resting from our labors, etc etc. Menos Activos as well. I have heard a few people say this now- that the church is a hospital for the sick. That has bugged me for the past few weeks. I attached a scripture that I found the other day. We are all sick in a sense. We need to go to church to remember the covenants we made with our Heavenly Father at baptism, or to remember our Savior Jesus Christ. There is no need for a Savior if we are perfect, and there is no need to go to church if we are perfect, but we are not. So yes, the church is a hospital that we all need and the Sacrament can help us remember that we can once again feel the healing Power of the Atonement that our spirits need. And there is not one of us who doesn´t need the mercy and grace of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Looks like everyone is doing well! It looks like you had some fun this week! Love the pictures. i attached a few... Hermana Perez, Hermana Ekins, me and Hermana Salazar in our apt. The one of Hermana salazar, me and S____. Me in Santa Lucia with flowers, and Contacting on the street. D____ who lives in el campo and sells "tierra" dirt on the street where we predicar y trabajar. (preach and work) Love yall!

Chao po