December 17, 2018

Well this week was rough. Not much happened in terms of finding people or teaching people or anything like that. My flu got progressively worse each day, although that didn't really keep us from going out. I am fine now however. Highlights of this week I guess would be our lesson with Freddie and phyliss which went well yet again, we taught the restoration and gave them a book of mormon which they seemed genuine about reading. We had dinner with some different members this week and had good times sharing light the world and brainstorming with them. We went to the most northern part of our area to visit a less active up there, but they don't have a car and live an hour from the church and 30 minutes from the closest active member so I don't know how we can help them. 

We had Christmas zone conference on Tuesday and I got the two packages from mom but am still waiting on Sam's and grandma's. But I will receive those tomorrow. We watched the other side of happiness for our movie this go around even though President was pressured from everyone to show coco. Oh we also started teaching Ruben this week and he is by far the most prepared person in the world. He is more dedicated to the church than most members, he is starting the new come follow me study program, and he reads several pages in the book of mormon each morning, and he loves church and said that he doesn't think he will ever stop going, and wants to know how he can receive callings and minister and be a part of the church. I told elder barrus after the lesson that if he doesn't get baptized I might as well go home because I will never find someone more prepared than he is. 

Oh the other thing that happened this week is that we found out what is happening with transfers which are tomorrow. Me and elder barrus are staying but we are having a baby. Kind of. An elder is being reassigned from Puerto Rico after he was pulled out because of the hurricane and he is tagging along with us and our job is to train him how it is done in South Carolina. So that should be a lot of fun. As far as the Christmas call goes, we know for sure that we have an appointment at 3 for dinner but we most likely will be going somewhere else in the morning to call. But we still have to get that figured out so be patient with me on that. That's really everything. Expect more news next week. If I even email. Which I probably won't. Sorry.

Love,

Elder Bertoch

Jackson is in the middle, second row, behind the mission president:

Winter Wonderland

Busy week this week. Although I can't remember too much of what happened. Monday is a really clouded day, I have no clue what we did on that day. We most likely went to visit some people but I don't think we got in to see anyone.

Tuesday we had district council in the morning in which we set our goals high of finding 7 people this week. People were blown away at the thought of that. This district doesn't pull in numbers like my last one did, so they thought we were insane to have such a high goal, but when you have faith that you can do it and you work hard for it, it rarely is that high of a goal. So to start off with the goal that day we went and tried to visit many different potentials in our area book and the most contact we got with one was when someone told us through their ring doorbell to go away. So not the best results but it's just some trials of our faith that we had to overcome. We also have started English class this week, but it'll be a while before anyone actually shows up to that.

Wednesday not much happened until the joy to the world concert. The program was really good and had people from all these different faiths and even had this like Sri Lankan woman who is pretty famous in opera come down and perform. So it was super cool. Me and my companion were chosen as stage hands in moving the piano on the stage back and forth. And the first time we go to move the piano one of the wheels got stuck and the piano tipped over quite a bit and was fixin to fall, but by some miracle the piano like rocked back and was up righted again. God was looking out for us that day let me tell you.

Thursday was a cool day because first of all it was my 500th day on the mission! But other than me being ancient we also had a good time contacting some people and we even had a book of mormon referal, but she lives way, way, way, up in the north. Like all the way up in the "mountains". But we went up there and met with her and she was very interested in taking the lessons. So that was good news, then since we were already up there we thought we would run to some other members that people have been telling us to see but couldn't because of the distance, so we went to see someone basically on the north Carolina border, like we were a mile away from the cutoff, and we also tried by this one former super solid member but he had a big gate and we couldn't get through, and then we tried by one more whose kids aren't members. And their house is this giant log cabin on top of a hill. They have a very steep long driveway but we thought we could send it up there in our extremely low Toyota corola. We got pretty far up there until we hit the last little part of the driveway and we got stuck. So elder Barrus went to push we tried to get it out for 20ish minutes but alas it was stuck. So we walked to the house explained our predicament and they invited us in. They asked us to give it one more try while they have pointers to give as we do it. And I got it up the driveway and only made the largest ditch in the driveway by where our wheels were spinning for a solid 30 minutes. But we were invited back the next day to help move a dresser to another member.

So in the morning we helped move that dresser and brother hymen took us out to lunch at chick FIL a where a peppermint milkshake was had. Then afterwards did some weekly planning for a long while and tried to see some people's.

Saturday we had our ward Christmas party, which was polar express themed and had lots of breakfast food and non members there. And it was all very nice and good. The highlight of this day was when we found Freddie and Phyllis who are so prepared for the gospel. They understand how corrupt most churches are and the weirdness of having paid clergy and how not many churches meet any qualifications for Jesus' church that he organized. They just kept asking question after question and we just kept giving them answers and they loved it. We were there for over 2 hours before we realized and had to go to another lesson. But they are very excited for when we come back next week. It also started snowing in the evening and we got word from the zone leaders that we need to go back and be on lockdown.

Sunday was miserable. Firstly I woke up with the flu, then we learned that the lockdown is still in affect, and that church is canceled. It wasn't to bad of a situation for me since I was sick anyways, so I had an extra reason to just sleep that day, but it was quite the boring day. And then last night was miserable times 10 because I had a super high fever at 104 in the evening, and fought with all my life to get it to break, it finally broke, but then I was just fighting smaller fevers on and off, all through the night, so it really was not a fun time, but I am feeling better now, as in I don't have a fever and I don't think I'll get another one, so I'm hoping that by tomorrow all will be good.

Something else that happened but I cant remember which day is we visited this old cowboy who is in love with the people at our church, he has this huge farm and holds barn dances for the ysas. So we went up there and he talked to us for a while and showed us around his farm, he said that he needs some help one of these days so we're going over there soon to help him out.

Elder Bertoch 

December 3, 2018

Aloha!

This week has been really good. It started off well and ended well. Monday we had a good night when we knocked on this dude's door and he let us in. His name is Travis and he has realized that he has wandered off of God's path and would like to know how to get on good terms with him again. So we taught him a gospel of Jesus christ and he said he would be happy to let us come back another time.

Tuesday was a switch up in where we didn't have district council, instead we used the day to prepare for the start of English class. Making and printing fliers. Most of the day was spent at staples trying to print out the things, that was quite the 4 hour long ordeal, but it did eventually happen. Then we went to the lozanos and talked about setting up some family home evenings with some less active members and they fed us dinner and we had a good time with them.

Wednesday we had a day of trying to contact different less Actives and formers. We had some success with the less Actives side of things and got to know more people here. Then later we had dinner with Sister Smith at Arbys and she took us to a lesson with Scott and Ashley pitcher, the inactive part member family that they told us about before. The lesson went very well, we taught the restoration and the spirit was very strong and they were very excited to have us back once they return from vacation.

Thursday was a strange day. We had district council in the morning and afterwards had a very mini zone conference, the APs gave a training on how to contact referrals and then we were given a zone leader for the day and were told to do whatever we should do that day to be trained effectively and use the extra person to the best of our ability. Not much happened however until night when we knocked on a door and a guy named Huber from el Salvador let us in and we taught the plan of salvation and he was really excited to have us back and so we set up a time for Saturday to see him.

Friday was weekly planning, we helped someone move, had dinner with the young men's president who is a young guy with a new baby. And they are very missionary minded and we're great in giving potential referals and inviting some different people to some upcoming activities. Then we saw a Bible referral and invited her to the joy to the world concert as well and she said she would be there as well as invite all her friends to go too.

Saturday we finished up doing everything for English class and going around to tiendas to place fliers and stuff. We also had that lesson with Huber and his wife surma joined in as well. It was super nice because as we were teaching the gospel of Jesus christ he asked, why are there so many churches and how am I supposed to know which one is true? So we did a quick 180 and taught the restoration and gave a book of mormon and he seemed quite interested in reading it. Then we went over to the Salinas and did the same thing with them that we did with the lozanos.

Sunday was stake conference which was really good. We sat by a new member family that had just moved from Houston. I mentioned to them that my uncle was stake president over there and it turns out that they were in the same ward as David. So they took a picture of me and sent it to Stacy. Stacy should have a picture of me with brother Campbell if you don't already know about it. After stake conference we went over to one of the Ward members who is having surgery today to give a blessing to her. Then we later went to visit some more different less Actives and potentials. We are very busy all the time it is so nice and equally exhausting. But we are seeing fruits of it and we are very excited for this joy to the world concert because we should have a lot of people there.

That is all,

Elder Bertoch 

Thanksgiving

November 26, 2018

So this week was a lot of fun and every busy. We started the week off by going to a members house on Monday night, one of the Spanish speaking families in the ward, the Salinas. They are from Honduras and brother salinas has one of the strongest Honduran accents I have ever heard, he is very difficult to understand. But I somehow get by (thank you gift of tongues). We ate dinner there as is custom when you drop by a Hispanic family and we had a very good time.

Tuesday we had our first district council here which went very well, we have two other sets of elders, a set of sisters, and a senior couple. That day we had a nice time with one of the less Actives that the bishop asked we go see. She had just had surgery and was preparing to go in again in the next coming weeks, so we stayed there for a bit and helped around the house and entertaining her kids so she could relax for a bit. Then after that we had a dinner with the Hites. Who might be the most similar to mom and dad to anyone else I've met on my mission. Brother Hite does the same facial expressions as dad and has the same sense of humor. After dinner they even busted out Mexican train, of which I will not comment my score.

Wednesday was a day of contacting referrals of the bible and book of mormon type. We had quite a bit that had been uncontacted. So we did that for basically the whole day. But nothing came out of it, we were just told to go away over and over again. Then later we had another dinner appointment with the Ruffs. They fed us a huge dinner which was very good, and we were able to share our message with them, and they said they were already doing those things and then asked for some help with the people that they were ministering to. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving and as is tradition it was started off with the turkey bowl. We played football early in the day, and it was probably the best I have ever played. I caught a couple of touchdown passes and was even untrusted to be quarterback for a spell, and I even threw a touchdown pass, but I also threw 2 interceptions, one of which was run back for a touchdown. So I had some good plays and some bad plays. But it was a super fun time. After the game we went over to the Rowleys, where we had our first Thanksgiving dinner, and boy was it good. We had some very good food followed by some fun games and followed by some very good pie. Then after the Rowleys we went over to the Cohen and had dinner there, which was a miracle that I was able to stuff it down. Then we went to the Jordan's who had prepared a smoked turkey that was so good it completely ruined eating turkey any other way for me. Brother Jordan had to in the prayer bless our stomachs that we might have room to eat the food that they had prepared. I was pretty dang blessed because I wolfed down that turkey and stuffing, and marshmallow salad and pie. 

The next day I woke up and was so sore from the football I could barely walk, that's what you get for not stretching. But somehow I deemed myself in good enough shape to play soccer that morning as is tradition in this ward to have a turkey bowl v2 with soccer. Somehow I was able to run up and down the field and was even able to make some good moves. But after playing I felt awfully sore, because yet again I had skipped out on stretching. Doing more things that day was challenging, but somehow I got through. That night we had another dinner with the stake high councilor over missionary work, and he had invited all of our district to come and have another Thanksgiving feast and play ping pong. The feast was just as good as it was the day before, maybe even better because I could stuff myself without feeling guilty because we had another appointment in an hour. We also had a ping pong tournament where I surprised myself by going on to the finals, the second time around, but I was still brutally destroyed by the ultimate champion elder eaquinto 21-4. So that was a little embarrassing, but it was still all very fun. 

Saturday we had some lessons in the morning that fell through, we had a baptism of a child in the ward that we went to, and we did weekly planning for a long, long time. We tried contacting more members that day as well and saw a less active family, who was not interested in coming back to church anytime soon, and we saw an active part member family who was out of town last week, and they were just the best. The dad isn't a member and is from Puerto Rico, and the mom is and is from Michigan. They are super cool and love missionaries, and they of course fed us some really good empanadas, in which I had like 6. But well have to see what we can do with pedro.

Sunday was a good day at church. We went to church early to see who we can see before it starts, only to realize that nobody in that ward gets to church early but only about 2 minutes before it starts, so we'll see how that'll go next year with the new schedule. We had a good time in Sunday school, up until the time I started getting a migraine. I havent been sleeping much this past week because of the many things we have to do keeping me awake at night and the over eating and over working my body finally caught up to me. But I made it through church and had elder Barrus drive home so I could curl up in a ball on my bed and want to die. It finally went away around 7, and by that time it was kinda late to see people so we brainstormed ideas for the new light the world campaign and different things like that. So Sunday was actually the first day since I've been here that we have not gotten fed dinner. Which is so awesome it just blows my mind. 

Today we had a dinner appointment but it got canceled because they are sick. We are going to go over to the Tiptons again and play risk, hopefully I do better this time around than last time. That is all. 

This week I have been able to reflect on the things that I am grateful for most in life. And being out here serving my loving God it was easy to count the many blessings that surround me. I am grateful for a loving and supporting family. One that pushes me to do hard things and congratulates me when I overcome them. I am grateful for an awesome companion that loves to work hard and find those ready to learn the great truths of eternity. I am grateful for this beautiful world that we live in and the many things here that bring happiness to our souls. But most of all I am grateful for a loving heavenly father that would give his only begotten son as a gift to all who would live upon the earth. I am grateful for the ability that we have to repent and be forgiven of our sins. And the incredible ability we have to pray and have an open communication with God. That we may know with a surety in our hearts that he is there and he is listening. What a wonderful opportunity we have to live in a world such as this and take these steps of faith until we reach immortality and eternal life. 

Elder Bertoch

We saw a guard pig knocking doors this week:

In Greer

November 18, 2018 

Okay well it hasn't been too long since the last email, but alas a lot has happened in these 4 or so days. Transfers was on Thursday, we had to get down to the stake center early in the morning and transfer up. I got elder Barrus right away and we went quickly into the area. That day not much happened because we had a whole debacle with the other elders not giving us the password to our phone and them being in the temple all day. But we did finally get it and we were also able to go over to the Bishops house that night. There at the Bishops house we talked about the vision for the Ward and the Hispanics in the ward. Here in Greenville 2nd we cover both English and Spanish. The bishop wants us to help campaign for more unity in the ward, so that's what we've been working on. Also something to note is that I had the great idea that when we go over to the bishop's house we should bring flowers for the wife. The Bishop was quite impressed with this and said it was the first time that it has happened in the 4.5 years that he has been bishop. 

The next day we went and tried to track down all the members that bishop had given us to see. We saw a couple of them, one of them being English and the other being Spanish. The Spanish family (the Lozanos ) fed us dinner of papas con chorizo y frijoles. They are a super cool family and has a son that has 17 years that can go out with us while he is preparing for his mission. 

Then the next day we spent the first part of the day seeing some less Actives, and surprisingly enough everyone that we went by to see was home and let us in, so that was super cool. Then at night we had one of the stake high councilors and his wife invite us to this Bi stake singles Thanksgiving dinner event. And normally we wouldn't go to that sort of thing, especially since we already had a bunch of plans, but I felt something tickling in the back of my brain that we should go. So we went there and helped set up and everything and the event starts and there are about 10 people there, all members, none in the Greenville 2nd ward. So I'm thinking great this was a waste of time. But then the lord chastised me for doubting and in walks in 6 Hispanics, 3 of them non members brought by their friends. One of them is named Ruben who has been coming to church in the 2nd ward for the past 3 or 4 weeks. Then there was Miguel who brought him who is the member in our ward. So we're like oh wow this is awesome. And it turns out that Ruben is so solid that he's signing up for these study groups with the singles and wants a triple combination and all this stuff. Then later we meet this Columbian member from the Simpsonville first ward and her friend that she brought and members were able to talk to her about the gospel and everything. Man super awesome and the lord works in mysterious ways.

Sunday was church we had ward council where we discussed our idea to bring unity to the ward by going over to members homes and sharing a message that we have already prepared centered around the talk One with Christ by Elder Soares. We met a bunch of members got invited to 20 different homes for Thanksgiving, although I limited myself to 3 dinner appointments. Don't want to get fed too much. We also went out with a member to do some ministering after church to a part member, child of record family. And that went very well and we got a return appointment to teach the family. That day we also had a dinner appointment with a member.

Today we are playing risk with some less Actives and my empire of Asia and Australia that I've been holding for a while is getting burnt Down and this next turn might be my last. How the prideful will fall. 

Elder Bertoch

Transfer to Greer

November 14, 2018

Well I have finished another transfer here in Greenville 1st and I have finally outlived my stay. They are kicking me out here and sending me 20 minutes east to Greer SC. Which is actually just over the zone boundary and is in the Greenville 2nd ward. I'm very excited seeing that I have heard many great things about the Ward and how missionary minded everybody is over there. They also got quite a bit of Spanish speakers over there too. So I am excited about that. So yesterday and today will be spent saying goodbye to members. Yesterday we went over to sixto and said goodbye to him and his family. They were not the most happy that we were leaving and viridiana was particularly sad. So that wasn't too fun but I'm glad that I was able to meet them and teach them. I said that I would try my best to come back and see them after the mission. Tonight were gonna see the other two Hispanic families and say goodbye to them. I actually have no chance of coming back to this area though since they are pink-washing the area by replacing us with sisters. So that's a bummer. I also am actually opening up Greenville 2nd as a full Spanish area as well. A long time ago they had a hybrid companionship with a Spanish and English companionship but now I'm going in there and making it full Spanish. The elder I'm going with is named elder Barrus and he is pretty new to the mission and I don't know a whole lot about him. And that is all.

Love yall lots,

Elder Bertoch 

Temple Trip

Well this week was great. Today we had the opportunity to go to the temple which is why pday is today. Then next week pday will also be on Wednesday. The temple was super special as always, this time we had the chance to do sealings along with the endowments and it was super cool all around. Besides that we had a pretty eventful week. Last Tuesday I got my first speeding ticket, more information will be shared about that to mom and dad. 

Let's see we also had some cool lessons this week, we specifically had a cool one with Zach.  We asked him to pray to see if getting a new job should be something that God would like him to do so that he can have Sundays free and spend more time with his family, and he got back to us and said that he felt as if getting a new job was the right thing to do so he is now looking for a new job and hopefully he finds one pretty quick. 

We also were invited to the Rodriguez's son's birthday party, where a lot of non members would be there, and that was a lot of fun. The kid had just turned 5 and was very cute talking about his spongebob cake.  We talked to most of the people there before they got drunk, so there wasn't much interest in the room, but we did increase the relationship with the Rodriguez family. 

Oh Saturday was el día de muertos or the day of the dead, so we went around to different fairs and festivals and parties that were happening. It was too dark to take pictures unfortunately, I couldn't get a good one to come out. It was a super cool dosage of culture though. And that was about it this week. On Sunday we had so many of the ward members go down to Panama to help out with hurricane cleanup that there were only like 41 people in total there, whereas last week there were over 170, so it felt very empty. And that is all. Love you all, until next week.

Elder Bertoch 

Met an Apostle

October 29, 2018

Well this week was a lot more exciting, with the mission conference
and all. The mission conference was on Tuesday and we had Elder Bednar
and his wife and also our new general area authority Elder Acosta and
his wife. It was a very good time and very very spirit full. The first
half of the 3 hours was spent going over the 4 talks that were sent to
us to read.  Elder Bednar asked us what we learned and why it was
something that stood out to us. I did raise my hand to answer but
sadly I was not called on. The other hour was a Q&A session and was
very helpful. Elder Bednar talked a lot about agency and faith and
making sure that we are prepared for all situations by being the most
spiritual we can at any given moment. So it was super good and I loved
every moment of it. 

Besides the conference we had the trunk or treat
on wednesday which was a lot of fun. We also had a move we helped out
with on Saturday which took 6 hours and from which I am still sore
from. We had a different party on saturday with another ward for a
chili cook off and someone actually brought a hispanic non member
there and we were able to teach him the restoration there, so that was
a nice surprise. Sunday we had a member dinner with the Lopez family
as well and that went very well, they hoped that one of their friends
could be in attendance but he called and said that he had to rush to
North Carolina for some reason so I guess not. And that is all that
has really happened. Until next time,

Elder Bertoch

The Bednars at zone conference

Alright well not much exciting happened this week either. We had some
errands that we were asked to see completed by the stake, hunting down
some less actives in Simpsonville which really was the first time we
worked down there. So we found one of the families and started to
meet with them a bit. It's weird because we work with them and hope
they go to church, since they will not meet in our ward but in the
Simpsonville ward. But the Simpsonville ward is really cool hispanic-
wise.  There are a lot of active members there that will definitely help
us. 

We also had interviews with our mission president this week which
went well. William, also one of the people we are teaching, just moved
to Anderson which is somehow farther away from us then he was before
so we have to figure something else out for that since he says he is
definitely interested in still meeting with us and everything. 

Let’s see, we also have the mission conference with Elder Bednar tomorrow
which should make next weeks email a lot more interesting. And that's
about all. I'll make sure something interesting happens next week to
have a good email. I also don't know if Greenville is effected by
Fall, because none of the trees have started changing color yet. But
pictures will come if nature starts acting normal here. That is all
love y'all a lot.

Elder Bertoch

Some Cooler Weather

Alright well things were able to pick up a little bit more this week. We were able to go back to some referrals that we've been working on for a while now. But at last we had contact with them and taught them. One of them whose name is Basilio is seeming to be really solid. A friend in Florida had invited him to his son's baptism and he really liked it and liked the spirit that he felt. So he talked to missionaries in Florida before coming back up here and now we are teaching him. Then we finally got schedules aligned with a family who is always super busy but has loved missionaries coming over in the past and we went over yesterday and had a really good lesson with them talking about general conference. Hopefully they can come to church next week. Yesterday we were also able to see Zach again. He has been reading the book of mormon for the past little while. The challenge will be having him come to church since he's only home Sunday afternoons and works out of town any other time. But we'll figure something out.

Other things to note this week would be the weather has finally changed here. On Friday we had our first day under 75 degrees since spring hit. And it was great, it was like 68° and when you walked out the door you weren't instantly sweating. It was super refreshing. It also super helped because we later had to move someone that same day and I would usually be dying afterwards but I was totally fine. After moving we also got some food at the legendary BBQ place The Smokin Pig which was super good. Oh I guess a hurricane also supposedly hit around here too. We had no idea one was coming until the night of when we were told we would be put on lockdown for a couple of hours. I guess it hit us during the night but we woke up and it didn't look like anything had happened, so it was just another let down.

That's all that really happened this week I guess. I hit my 14 month mark this last week. We have a really young district, me and my companion are the oldest in the mission. We have a trainee and one that's just out of training. So I'm starting to feel super old and yet I still have 10 months left. It was super weird seeing the last group go home because a lot of them were people who I was around when I first came out and I was with them celebrating their one year mark, and now they are done, and it has felt like no time has passed. So I'm kinda scared how fast my time will past as well. But as long as I'm working hard I got nothing to worry about. And boy am I working hard. It almost seems impossible to work this hard with how tired I feel all the time. But that's just God blessing me in this work I guess.

Pues eso es todo, les amo mucho,

Élder Bertoch 

Too Busy to Write Last Week

So been a while, thought I had enough time to write last week but we
were stupid busy with a district pday and helping some people out and
an early appointment with someone and things didn't go as planned.
Luckily nothing happened last week anyway so nothing much was missed.

The one thing to report on was we had a spanish fireside on sunday
which could have gone better but it was still okay. Everyone that was
invited didn't show up both from us and members. So we didn't have
anyone there that doesn't come to church anyways, but the good thing
about it was that we had a lot of english members show up and that
boosted the moral for our spanish members, and it also kinda gave the
members a reality check in the way of that they need to work a little
bit harder in member missionary work and also being more of a friend
to the less actives and not just only talking with them when a church
activity comes up. But the talks were really good (mine included) and
the food afterwards was also really good. 

Besides that we aren’t finding much but we are teaching a lot. Our investigators are all
doing really good esp. santos and carmen, plus zach and yasmin almost
watched conference with us this week but they had to make an emergency
trip to her mom's house. So that was a bummer. Conference was really
good, a personal favorite of mine was Elder Andersons talk sunday
morning. That's all that is really happening here. The big news here is
that we have a mission conference in a couple weeks and the rumor is
that Elder Bednar will be there so thats pretty cool. And that is all.
Have a great week everybody love you all.

Elder Bertoch

Viridiana's Baptism

Well this week was awesome. We had a lot happen and had the best thing happen as well. We brought someone into the waters of baptism! This was also the most stressful week ever with planning the baptism. Never have I had a more difficult time working around people's schedules and making sure there were going to be people at the baptism, and fellowshipers and all that. But it turned out all okay and everything was magical.

Monday after pday we had a dinner with a less active member family whose mom is in the hospital. We didn't know she was in the hospital, she had been in there before, but then she had gotten released, but then she took a turn for the worst and was put back in. The following day she was going to have surgery. So they enlisted our help for a priesthood blessing and we went over to the hospital and gave it to her. She was saying how she was going to cancel the surgery if we did not come, which was quite the show of faith. We then talked for a little while and left.

Tuesday we had district council in the morning and that went well. Afterwards the senior couple took us out to eat at waffle house. Then we had baptism planning with the ward mission leader. Then we heard the results of the surgery and it went textbook perfect according to the surgeon. Could not have gone any better. So that was really cool to see. At night we were taken out with the elders quorum president and we went and saw Veronica, the less active we knocked into last week or 2 weeks ago, and we kinda made an acción plan with her and discussed what we need to do to get her back to church and her son and husband interested. After that we had English class and president kunzler had a lot of fun there because all our students are Venezuelan and he served his mission there and was really able to connect with everyone there.

Wednesday not much happened but Viridiana had her baptismal interview and passed with flying colors then we had a priest come out with us to a lesson with William which went really. The only thing holding that guy back is church attendance. So hopefully we can boost that up somehow.

Thursday I can remember what happened.

Friday we had to go down to the very edge of the zone to interview someone the ysa missionaries are teaching for baptism. So we got a ride with a senior couple and drove an hour until we got there, interviewed him, passed him, and then got some Sonic slushes and came all the way back up. Then not much else happened the rest of the week.

Saturday was the day of the baptism. We did some things in the morning to prepare for it and went over to the church and set it all up. Viridiana chose me to baptize her so I practiced the prayer over and over. Finally they got there and a bunch of other members showed up and the baptism went under way. It all went very good, the spirit was super there and it was probably the most touching experience of my mission. Seeing how happy she was afterwards was such a special experience. She was informally

welcomed into young woman and got one of those young women necklaces and she loved that, wore it to church the next day and everything. We had treats afterwards and everything and then it was all over and we were just floating on clouds the rest of the day.

Sunday we had church and she was confirmed that day. Also such a special experience. We had a good rest of church, I translated in relief society this time and had a fun time with that. We also had a lesson with the salinas family as well. That went really well - taught them the restoration and they are super excited to read the book of mormon. They also expressed quite the desire to go to church, but they don't have a car. They were quite excited when we told them there are many people who can give them a ride. So we are expecting them next week. Then we also had a chat with someone we knocked into a long time ago that had missionaries over almost everyday about 3 years ago. But when the Spanish missionaries were removed from the area they wondered why they weren't seeing them anymore. We tried going back every week but always just missed them until yesterday when we finally ran into them and talked for a while and set up a lesson on Wednesday. If it happens then that would be a family of 5 all baptismal age that we would be teaching. We also had a mini lesson with Debra that day about why evil exists on the earth. Then we had to go back home for call ins and that was that day.

That was all that happened this week. The baptism was definitely the highlight. It felt so good to finally have our work pay off and see someone take that next step on life.

Love you all,

Elder Bertoch 

The Lockdown

It’s a short one from Jackson this week.  It’s exciting he has a baptism scheduled for this Saturday.  It sounds like they weren’t affected by the hurricane at all where he is though, except they had to be on lockdown.  I asked him why he played with a jar of mayo instead of the board games he has, but he said they played those too.

Okay so this week was interesting. We had a couple of cool things happen but not much really happened. Monday we had a lesson with sixto and Bibiana. Bibiana wants more time to think about the marriage so she fell off date but viridriana is still on date for this Saturday and we have everything set up and in place and she is super excited. Tuesday we didn't have much happen except for English class. Wednesday we had a lesson with William which went really well. Thursday we had English class. 

Friday was the day the hurricane hit but as a category 2 and not expected to hit us so we were super disappointed. At night we went on lockdown and we had other elders come and stay with us. Then Saturday was a full lockdown day and I slowly went crazy since we couldnt leave the apartment even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Then Sunday we had permission to go to church, and then we immediately went on lockdown again. That was the most boring time I have had by far. Nothing happened and all of us slowly went crazy. It was barely raining and barely blowing wind. At one time we started playing hot potato with a jar of mayonnaise. Super boring. So today we made up for it by going to gravitopia, a trampoline park, to get our energy out.

That's all that happened hopefully next week will be more exciting. 

Elder Bertoch 

Hurricane Florence

Yes, there is a hurricane headed his way.  The mission president is keeping us up to date on Facebook.  Today they evacuated the missionaries who are on the coast to Columbia.  They said it was slow going because of the traffic, but they should all be there by now.  Jackson is in Greenville which is farther inland than Columbia, so he is staying put.  But he can expect a lot of rain during the next few days.  He may have a lot of opportunities for service as well.

Hey Family,

Life here in Greenville has been really good. Our people that we are
teaching are progressing really well, and many miracles have taken
place that have been really neat. This past week we have ramped up our
english class attendance and have been getting around 8 there each
day. Bibiana and Viridiana are excited for their date for the 22nd,
and things seem really promising and not much is really holding them
back, except for the fact that they still have to get married. 

William our other really promising person is doing really well too. He has
read most of the BoM and is getting into D&C now. He really likes all
that we teach him and we're hoping to put him on date this week.
Yesterday we had a cool miracle where we were knocking in a trailer
park and the last door that we knocked just so happened to be a woman
that was baptized 15 years ago in Mexico and she had just finished
saying a prayer asking God to send someone to her that can help her
regain that relation with Him and know where to go to church and get
her son active in the church too. And then right after that we knocked on
her door and told her about the church here and invited her to come
and we met her son and husband and now we have another family that will
be coming to church here too.

The big news this week of course is the hurricane barreling towards
south carolina. We got word today that two zones will be evacuated
since it has ramped up to category 4. A lot of damage is to be
expected. Apparently up here after every hurricane tornadoes come and
rip up the upstate. So we have that to look forward to as well as
buckets of rain. So we are going to have a lot of fun this next week.

That about does it. Not much else to report on. We did have zone
conference this week which was good. But besides that not much else
happened.

Love y'all

Elder Bertoch

Hiking Photos

We didn't get a written e-mail this week because Jackson and his companion went for a hike, but we received photos.  The hike was 7 miles with a 2000 elevation gain called Table Rock:

New Companion in Greenville

Hey y'all,

This week was pretty good. I did lose elder Powell this week which was sad, we are cursed to only serve one transfer with each other, but me and my new companion elder Hobbs do get along well though.

Monday was a day full of packing, because we were moving apartments both of us had to pack. I have collected a lot of stuff out here and each transfer its getting harder and harder to pack. But alas I was able to make it work. After packing we went out to a lesson with a member referral named Toribio. The lesson went really good, we taught about the restoration, and were able to commit him to read the book of mormon. Then afterwards we went over to sixtos' house for a final goodbye with elder Powell. There he got a present from Viridriana, which is the coolest sending away present that I have seen, and we talked a bit before leaving.

Tuesday we did service for a widow in the ward who is leaving to Mexico this week. We went over and mowed her lawn and trimmed down her bush. While I was mowing her lawn though I leaned up against her trailer at one point and I look down a bit after and I see a huge banana spider on my leg. It's safe to say I have never internally freaked out more than I had right there. I held my composure on the outside, but on the inside I was dying. Just look up a banana spider if you want that thing burned in your mind forever. The things are creepy, and they are all over here. They're bigger than a tarantula and they're black and yellow and terrifying. I hate it, but they're only here for the summer and then they disappear, so I'm just counting down the days until fall. Tuesday we also went over to the Prestegui's and talked about the tree of life with them. Then we had English class which went well too.

Wednesday we met with the bishop to talk some logistics of a fireside we are planning, and also to talk about Bibiana and Viridriana and how we could progress that along. We are planning to do a big Spanish fireside on the 30th of Sept. It was decided that I will be giving a talk there, as well as one of the Spanish members, and the bishop. Hopefully we can get a bunch of less Actives there and motivate all of them to coming back to church. Then we went with the seneca sisters to a lesson of a guy that only speaks Spanish that they have been teaching for a while. We took over in the lesson and realized that this guy hasn't retained anything they have been teaching, so we have taken over teaching him from now on.

Thursday was the big transfer day, we woke up early in the morning to drive to the stake center and met other missionaries there. We said goodbye, then I waited with others there to get our new companions. Then around 2 they finally came and we met and matched up and drove back to the apartment and then unpacked and got to work. We're unable to work too much though, becuase we are nearly out of miles and we can't drive anywhere except all the necessary places these next couple of days. So on Thursday we went to an appointment that fell through, and then we went to English class and that went well.

Friday we had dinner with one of the Spanish speaking member's family. He was telling us about his crazy mission in Mexico city. He had been emergency transferred 3 times and none of them had been his fault. One was when he was on the cleanup crew, another was when his companion was doing things behind his back, and another more or less when the guy he was training went home early and he just stayed the rest of that transfer alone in his area. So for 5 weeks he didn't have a companion. He told us a bunch of other stories too, and let's just say I'm glad I'm not in that mission. Then after that we had another appointment with Toribio, sixto tagged along this time and we had a really good lesson. We even were able to give a blessing to his roommate who is leaving to Mexico soon.

Saturday we didn't do too much in the morning because we couldn't drive anywhere, but later we had a member take us out. We went around visiting less Actives and it was really nice to have him around, made the missionary visits seem a lot more friendly.

Sunday we had church and then had lessons with a bunch of people the rest of the day. We went from church over to Carmen and Santos house and taught the plan of salvation to them which they really enjoyed.  We’re thinking that we'll be able to put them on date next lesson, then we went back to the church because sixto and Bibiana were having an interview with the bishop and we needed to watch over viridriana and Dianne. So we watched them for a while until they were finally done with the interview. Then we went to find the senior couple and begged for rides with them this next week, and we were really persuasive and they agreed to help us out. Then later we went knocking until our lesson with Debra which went good, then we had our lesson with Zach and Yasmin, which went really well. Zach and Yasmin are definitely some of the most golden people I have ever taught.  It’ll take some work with them, but they are super prepared. And that was really that day and the week.

We live super close to downtown now, so today we're probably going to walk around downtown and check out some sights.  Greenville is definitely the coolest city I've been to. Being a district leader is a lot of fun too, especially since I don't have to worry at all with my district, everybody in the district currently have someone on date, and they are all extremely hard workers. Things are going good here.

Elder Bertoch 

Que tal?

Monday we had the Binghams drive us around during the night. We had a couple of lessons that night but both of them canceled on us so we decided to go see one of the active members that we hadn't met with yet. She is super nice and very grandma like, feeding us whatever cookies she had or whatever. It was a very nice visit.

Tuesday we had our last DC this transfer. It went very nicely. We had a funeral for one of the elders in our district that is ending his mission this week. It was a very nice service and we will be sad to see him go. Then after DC we went on exchanges with the zone leader. I finally went out of my area and was with elder Kaufman. It was a little bit of a weird exchange, becuase we are in the same ward, so we went to eat dinner with someone I already knew, and stuff like that. So it was weird to still know what was going on and who these people were that we were visiting while I was on exchanges. But the exchange went really well, we got a new investigator while we were there and we were able to help someone out with their ministering assignments.

Wednesday we exchanged back and immediately did some service for an older widow in the ward. We went over there and washed her dog for her. Then a little after, we went over to this person's house who we offered service to on a door approach, and we went over there and mowed his lawn. After that we went over to the Presteguis' a returning less Actives house. And we were fed there and we shared a little something and commited them to a little something as well. 

Then on Thursday the main thing that happened was we got a call from the sisters in the other ward that one of the less active members that we are both helping to come back fell deathly ill and went in the hospital, and that today was her birthday. So we went and got her a card and brought it to the hospital, but we got there, went to the room that they told us was the correct one, and opened the door, went in there and the person in there was not who we were looking for. So we called the front desk to see where she was, we were on hold for like 30 minutes, and found out that they had no one under that name. So we called the sisters and asked them to figure it out, and then we left. Later though we had the right room number and the right name, and we went and visited her. We gave her the card and gave her a blessing as well. Then we sat and talked until it was time to go to English class. English class was the usual, short lesson and then we played them in soccer, but alas they beat us in soccer this time 😭.

Friday the only thing that happened is we went and met with a less active family for the first time and got to know them, and hopefully we can count on them coming back to church in a few short weeks.

Saturday was the big day this week. In the morning we first helped a member move. And that took a good while, and was quite exhausting since they had the young ones (the missionaries) move all the heavy stuff, and there was a lot of heavy stuff. But it went really well and we were able to gain a lot of good member relations while doing so. After the move we went to the church to help out at a finding activity that the other ward was doing. It was a free car wash/Chapel tour thing. But it didn't work out very well since no one really stopped and the people who did never got out of there car. But it was fun nevertheless. Then after that we helped set up for an after baptism party that one of our Hispanic members was having that day. We blew up a lot of balloons and did some stressful tying of helium balloons and stuff like that. Then later was the actual baptism. At the baptism there were over 100 people that showed up. Over 60 of them were Hispanic, and over 30 of them were less active, and about 15 of them were non members. Then we had the party where we went around and got appointments with every less active there. And invited the non members to church and our English class. The party was a blast, and by every Hispanics surprise there was 3 piñatas there. Apparently, they base how good of a party it is with how many piñatas there are. But is was just awesome to see these less actives that we had tried many times but were never able to see. Then we were able to get appointments with them and everything. It was super cool.

Then Sunday we had church. Sadly none of the less actives that came to the baptism came to church and none of the non members did either. But church was still really good. We had Bibiana and viridriana come. Then after church we went are started knocking doors. We had a goal to find 5 people this week but so far we hadn't found anyone. But later we knocked into a family and taught them the gospel of Jesus christ and they loved it and wanted us to come back. Then a little after that we knocked into this guy from a little island off of Africa, and he speaks Portuguese. And we taught him about the book of mormon and he said that he would love to read it and really wanted us to come back. It's pretty funny though because on Saturday at the move we met a member that speaks Portuguese, and we were joking that if we found anyone that speaks it he would be the first one that we would call. And now we actually get to call him and tell him that we found someone. Then after that we went to someone that we had knocked into a week ago and taught them about the book of mormon as well. So in one day we hit our goal of 5 people. And it was all becuase we never gave up and God blessed us because of that. After that we had a lesson with Bibiana and viridriana and we were able to put them on date for September 22. And that was super cool because it was a huge jump for viridriana who wouldn't even think about baptism when we first got here. But now she's considering it and we think that she is going to really be ready by that time. Then later we had a lesson with Zach and Yasmin, which went really well. We took a member with us and he did a really good job. They even said that they would try to come to church. Something else that happened on Sunday was we got a call from President Innes about transfers. Elder Powell is transferring away to be a ZL in Charleston and I am taking over his spot here as district leader. So it is quite bitter sweet to lose elder Powell this early again, but I'm excited for this calling that I have as well and the chance that I have to learn from someone new yet again.

Elder Bertoch