HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY JACKSON!! 🎉🎈🎊🎂

In contrast to my last email this email will be the shortest one I will ever write, the last email took all of my patience out of writing more emails.

Highlights of this week. Monday we got our investigator to help us with service for this woman that needs to move out of her house immediately, he seemed super happy to help and it was a time for him to practice his english, so that really helped our relationship with him.

Wednesday we discovered a new trailer park with a lot of potential, and scheduled an appointment with 3 different people who all seemed very interested, although one of them is english, so well have to pass off at least one of them.

Saturday we attempted to finish up bagging the leaves that we raked up about a week ago at that widow's house, but there were just too many to bag them all in two hours, so well have to go back later I guess. That night we also had a ward dinner and dance which went really well, we had a lot of people come, including two of our investigators, and a bunch of less actives. Everybody seemed to have a really good time, and everything went really well with that. 

Sunday the ward party did its job and it got all the less actives to church the next day, we also had the job of teaching sunday school which went really well, we were stressing out about stretching the lesson to fill all the time, but everybody participated enough to the point where we didn't have enough time. 

That was basically all the interesting things that happened this week. Thanks for all the Birthday wishes and all. Its all really appreciated. Today I'm going out to dinner with Shellie and Lizhet from West Columbia, they're driving down here to wish me happy birthday and such. 

That is all, Love you guys.

Elder Bertoch

Like he says, this is a long one, but it is awesome!  It is so exciting to see how his testimony has grown.  He went through some hard things last week with self reflection and all, but he faced it very well.  We are very proud of him.

WARNING THIS WILL BE THE LONGEST EMAIL I WILL EVER SEND. BE PREPARED TO SPEND SOME TIME READING THIS ONE. BUT JUST KNOW THAT IT WILL BE WORTH IT. 😉

This week has been the week that I suspect I will remember for the rest of my life. My testimony has grown more so in this week than anytime I could remember. I now feel as if I have a brotherly relationship with Jesus christ, as I have finally understood what the atonement means to me and how the atonement works for every person on this planet. The work here didn't even feel like work this week, it just felt like fun. The week flew by as it started with some of the more challenging things I had set out to do since being on a mission, but I soon saw the blessings that came from sacrificing your will for the lord's will. This week I have received more revelation, guidance, and direction than I ever have. The words of the scriptures have popped out to me, I feel like every verse that I have read has applied to me in some way. I can now say that without a doubt in my mind that the book of mormon is true, that every word that is written in that book was inspired and directly from God. That the book of mormon has the power to change lives and to bring people together, The book of mormon can change our thinking, heal broken hearts, and change the direction of our lives. Remember back on that talk by president Nelson, when he introduced the book of mormon to that prince and he said that it was worth more than all of the rubies in the world to him. What would the world be like if we didn't have the book of mormon? What can the book of mormon do for us in the future? I know that if you seriously study the book you can resist temptation, love the savior more, and have the power to have God on your side. The power of the book of mormon is to bring us closer to God. It brings us from where we are to where God knows that we can be. I know that the book of mormon truly is a testament of Jesus christ. That with it we may truly know the son of God and that we may change our lives through him. Now I'll let you know how this knowledge came about for me.

Monday was just like any other pday. We played basketball a bunch, hung out with a lot of fun missionaries, and had a good time. By the end of pday, I read an email sent out by President, which put into place some pretty dang strict rules, these were things that I was taking a part of and loved to do it as well. After reading the email though I felt a strong inclination by the spirit that I probably shouldn't ignore this email, and I should live by these new rules. So that night I commited to stopping the things which I was taking a part of. And I immediately felt the opposition, I was very lonely, very sad, and very stressed out. But for the most part I had felt more alone and isolated than I had ever before. These feelings were so strong that I couldn't even bring myself to work that night and so I told my companion that I wasn't feeling so well and went to bed at around 7. At around 11pm I woke up and knew right then and there that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep without some help. So I got on my knees and I prayed my longest most sincere prayer. I prayed that God would help me out, that I could have a better relationship with him, that I would be able to feel the support and the love that I know he always sends me, and I committed to him that I would fully devote myself to the work if he helped me out and helped me see the blessings and reasons why these changes have come about. I asked him to help me see my weaknesses and help me so that I could recognize them and try to turn them into strengths. Then after I finished pouring my heart and soul to God I felt some sort of confirmation that He was satisfied and that I could rest now.

Tuesday I read the book of mormon more diligently than I had in a very long time, really striving to get some answers and to get confirmation that this book is true. Every verse as I read testified to me more and more that the answers that I seek are all in this book, I received some answers that morning, but I still wasn't completely satisfied. Then that morning we also had ddm. There we had a surprise visit from President. We had an awesome ddm and the training given there by elder Wolfely was stellar. As we were doing roleplays president was listening on the plays that I was doing and gave me many tips that made me feel more confident on the work, all I had to do was translate them into Spanish. At that ddm we also had a valentine candy exchange, like the ones you do in elementary school. There I was also able to see a different side of President and was able to respect him more there, as I saw him laugh and smile much more than he usually does. Then after ddm we had exchanges with the district leader. The dl was coming into my area with me and elder Mar was going off with elder mata. Here we had a day of finding where we passed out a lot more English class cards and such, we also went to the post office to sent that letter off to the guy in prison and there we were able to gave a discussion with the guy that worked there and elder Wolfely got a return appt with him too so that was cool. And then we went to the Escobar for our weekly dinner with them. Being with elder Wolfely relieved a lot of my stress, since he has been out a lot longer and is a lot more open and confident, he is a super funny guy that looks for ways to have fun in any situation.

Wednesday we were still together in the morning and the thing we had planned we couldn't do because I neglected to realize that I needed elder mar with me to do it. So we just kinda hung around and talked for a while, and that's when another answer to my prayer came, he pointed out a lot of my weaknesses and what I could do better each and every day, and the spirit testified to me that these were what God wanted for me to change as well. So I thanked him for telling me that and made a mental note to fix each one of those things, while I was with him I also realized that I haven't been as much as myself as I should since I have been with elder Mar, since I was definitely myself with elder Wolfely, so I committed to change that as well. Then we switched back went to lunch with everybody and then continued on with our day. We decided that we should go visit a widow member in the branch and help rake her leaves for her. So we went over there talked to her for a little while before starting the long task ahead of raking the billion leaves in her backyard. The task to rake the leaves into piles took much longer than I had anticipated, which meant it gave me a lot of time to think, and that's when I realized that I really shouldn't think alone because I will think myself to death, so I made a plan to email President to see if I could meet with him one on one during Companionship interviews that Friday. Then we started the long process of bagging the leaves. Me and elder mar did that together and I tried my darnest to be myself while doing that, and while we were doing that we had some of the best conversations that we've had yet. We had gotten through half of the leave piles before it became to dark to continue so we bid farewell to Hermana Modesto and we went on to English class, where 2 people showed up, so we had a quick lesson there and a nice spiritual thought then we went home and slept.

Thursday I woke up with some revelation, that I needed to have Companionship inventory and lay some stuff on the table with elder Mar. And then I spent the next 4 hours trying to shy away from this, because I was pretty scared to be that open and honest with him for some reason. I never was with any of my other companions, if I had a problem with any of them I would let them know right away, but for some reason I couldn't do that with elder mar, and it probably had something to do with me not being my complete self with him. And so I told him that we would be doing a Companionship inventory right after lunch so I could no longer back out of it. I made up a list of seven items that I wanted to bring up with him and after lunch we started. All 7 items on the list were my fault or things that I wanted to start but I just wanted him to be aware of the things that were going to change in the next couple of days.

1. We were both going to strive to be our full complete selves.

2. To not worry so much about him (that one doesn't look as good on paper but it makes sense in my head.) 

3. ‎ My entire goal should be to get him to have fun with the work.

4. ‎ obedience is key

5. ‎ a homework assignment to share 3 memories of our lives with each other a day that we had been slacking on.

6. ‎ to be honest with each other.

7. ‎ if we have something to say then we say it.

Right after that I asked him if he had anything to say. And he said some things that shook my world and my perception of the job that I was doing as a trainer and as a missionary. Right then and there I could feel my heart break and my spirit get contrite. It was at that time the worst feeling, but as I look back on it now, I see it as the greatest blessing that I have received from god, because that experience, combined with the things I had been reading in the scriptures and the insight that I had received from my other leaders, my heart was able to change. From that point on I committed once again to be a better missionary and a better child of God. So we were both glad that we were able to say what we wanted to and hear what we needed to hear. Then we both committed to be better and went on with our day. Later that evening we had a dinner with president Perez where he shared some of his very interesting theories on some of the unknown doctrines of the church, and my naive trainee was eating them all up, so that was fun for me to watch. Then after that we went to the recent convert in the branch and taught them about the Sacrament and what the Sacrament prayer means and how it relates to their baptismal covenants. Then that was that day.

Friday we had interviews with president in the morning. Ours was scheduled for 11:40 but since President always goes over on the amount of time alloted it didn't happen until 1:00. Our Companionship interview went very well. And then I had my personal interview with him, where I had told him the change of heart that I had begun to have and asked him for advice on how I can help strengthen all my weaknesses and to continue to grow my testimony. He gave me some wonderful advice. Then once we got home we made a goal on how we could make the last little while left in the transfer the best we can. So we made a goal, and in that goal we had a

1. Desire

2. ‎ How we would pray to make that desire come about

3. ‎ What we would physically do to make that desire come about

4. ‎ A list of the trials that would oppose us and how we would overcome them.

This goal was probably the best goal that either of us could have come up with. We wanted to be what the people out in Columbia deserved, whether it be the members, our investigators, or the people searching for the gospel in their lives without realizing it. We made some of the best plans we ever could as well. Then we studied a bit about how we could be the best missionaries there ever were and then we went out and worked. We went to some trailer park that we hadn't been to yet and we started knocking. There we got rejected a 100 times, but we were able to find one person that was willing for us to come back later this next week, we also were able to find a solid referral for the English elders as well. So as much as all the rejecting was disappointing, I rejoiced with the fact that we were able to get that one return appointment and that one referral. Then later that night we went to English class where not a single person showed up, so that was fun.

Saturday, was probably one of the best days I have had yet on the mission, I received more revelation that day then another day this week combined so that was super cool since as you could tell I received quite the bit of revelation. Well when I woke up that morning I had the realization that we were finding all of these people that would become the hermanas investigators in 2 weeks, leaving no one for us. So I had a great idea to copy something that I had read in someone else's weekly and organize our vineyard. So I broke up our area right now into 6 parts and looked at the most promising people in each of the parts, that way we can really focus our efforts in one specific area a day, with some specific people or places in mind. Well writing it down wasn't enough for me, I needed something better that I could visualize, so I had a genius idea to make a map more or less of our area and the 6 parts. So me and elder mar spent our morning creating that. Pictures will be included, I think it's some of my best work. Then we made goals for what we wanted to happen in each area and how many people we think we could find in each area a week and goals for each person that had the most potencial in each area. And we put them on the map. All in all it was some pretty effective planning. So with us super excited about testing out these goals we assigned and these new areas that we would be working we got in the car and immediately starting knocking some trailer parks in an area we had never been in before. So we went to the first trailer park and we were told there were no Hispanics in the entire park by 3 different people. So we went to the next park on the list. We were told the same thing there. We were starting to realize why there weren't many people to choose from in our area book in that area. But we were heading to the next place on our list without giving up, still excited to work. But we got a call from our branch president, asking us to help translate for him and the leadership and adult sessions of stake conference. So we were pretty disappointed knowing that our work was done for the day. We drove to the church and met our branch president there before the meeting started. There at the meeting we had a member of the 70 there elder Schwitzer. Well the meeting began and I started to realize why we needed to be there, this was another answer to my prayer. This meeting that we were at strengthened my testimony more than anything else. I don't think I will ever be as captivated as I was in that meeting, every word that president Reynolds our stake president, president innes, and elder Schwitzer spoke was completely and utterly backed up with the spirit, testifying to me that what they were saying were true and that I needed to apply those things in my own life. President Reynolds spoke about how we need to develop christ like attributes, president innes spoke about how the book of mormon brings us together and how it changes lives, in that talk I realized that I knew with a certain heart that everything he was saying was true, and elder Reynolds taught about how we should love every person in this world unto repentance. It was awesome. So many things were learned in that meeting. After the meeting, President hernandez took us out to dinner, then we came back for the adult session, which wasn't nearly as revelatory but was still really good, Elder Schwitzer talked about 4 things that we can do to firm our minds.

1. Be sure that you accept the commandments of God

2. ‎ Train yourselves to anticipate the crossroads of temptation

3. ‎ Rejoice in righteousness. Be positive in doing good. Having callings are blessings, not burdens.

4. ‎ be ever ready and willing to immediately repent and make changes that will better ourselves.

That was that for that day.

Sunday we had stake conference, where we were in charge of translating. Translating went fine, Elder Mar and the sister in the senior couple here did most of the work, I only translated one talk that was pretty easy. Then after translating elder mar was super tired and super stressed because he didn't do as good of a job translating as he thought he would. So I let him rest for a while while I caught up in my journal a bit. Then we started our work in Columbia, one of the 6 areas knocking many a door and trying to see many people. But we got rejected all but for 3 people living in the same house, they were a little tipsy, but they told us a day that we could come back and teach them. So I'm counting that as a win for us. But we had exhausted all of the people in the area that we had assigned for that night. So we went home with the goal of contacting everyone in our phone, about getting an appointment with them, and if they denied that we could always back it up with English class. That was very effective, we were able to get one of our investigators to commit to come out with us Monday night in order to do service with us since we need a truck and he has one, we got appointments with people that we've wanted to see since we've been here but haven't, and we got a lot of people saying that they will go to English class. So it was still a pretty dang effective night even though we didn't have the most effective time knocking. 

Monday we will be running some errands, hopefully getting our haircut since I havent done that since my second transfer, and me playing chess with one of the elder senior couples in our district that wants a rematch since I brutally destroyed him last time. 

Here's some pretty cool scriptures:

D&C 20:37

Alma 37:37

3 Nephi 27:27

Moroni 10:7

Joshua 3:15

Alma 1:4

Con mucho amor ❤️

Elder Bertoch 

6 Month Anniversary

FELIZ ANIVERSARIO!!!🤘🤘🎈🎈🎉🎉🎊🎊

(de 6 meses) 

Okay so this week has been pretty exciting, considering that I am now sort of ranked in the mission, people respect me a bit more now that I have made it to that 6 month mark. I only got one sister mission to go, so that's pretty weird to think about. But other then that this week has actually been a little slow, not much has happened, but at the same time a lot happened, or at least the stuff that I wanted to happen happened so I'm pretty stoked about that. 

Monday after P-day we didn't have anything to do, and it was pouring rain so we couldn't really knock all that much. So we started to plan how we can find more effectively and what we were supposed to do with the investigator that the other Elders left for us that was in prison. So we planned out a bunch of stuff for English class and how we would start to advertise that more effectively.  And we got a bunch of information about the guy in prison from one of the other elders. Then we cleaned the apartment and that was that day. 

Tuesday in the morning we wrote a letter to the guy that was in prison and told him that we are the new elders here and that if he has more questions we will be here, we were also told to send him a D&C and Pearl of Great Price, so we did that and wrote a summary of each one and such. Then we went off all the way to Elgin to have lunch with the second counselor in the branch presidency and his wife. There we had some amazing food and we were treated as if we were at home. Hermana Perez is a really funny lady who also radiates “grandmaness” and Hermano Perez is a super funny guy that has some pretty cool stories to tell as well. That lunch was definitely one of my favorite member meals I've had yet. Something cool about Hermano Perez is that he was a president in a quorum of the seventy, back when they had those just all over the place, designed for missionary work, so he knows quite a bit about missionary work and is always able to give us tips and advice which is super nice. It also means that he does his part for missionary work quite well and visits many less actives and invites them to dinner and church all the time. After that we had some studies up until dinner at Hermana Escobar where we also did some service for her, taking off all her cupboards. We shared a little something that my companion had read during his personal study and then we were on our way back home.

Wednesday in the morning we went to the family history center in order to learn more about family history.  We went down there with the senior couple in the branch and they helped my companion find names and helped me find anyone who hasn't had any temple work done that can be completed.  It was a difficult task for both, and we found one name that I could do for me but not until Oct 31st. So I guess I had a good experience doing family history.  My companion is very excited to do his though, so he can testify a lot more on that than I can I guess. Then when we got home we ran around looking to see if we could catch anybody at home that night, with just some former or potential investigators. Well it was a major bust and we didn't find anybody, except we did talk to the teenage son of one potential for a little while. That day we also taught english to someone in their home and taught them a little spiritual thought as well. Then we had english class at night as well where we had our best night so far with 7 people there, so that was super exciting. 

Thursday we had zone conference which was really good. I got to see some familiar faces there since West Columbia was joining as well. Plus West Columbia spanish branch had the assignment of making desserts for us so I got to see a lot of members there that I knew as well. Zone conference was really inspiring.

We talked about how we need to hear the music like that mormon message by Elder Anderson and how we need to gain a vision to baptize. We also did some role plays of how to be more natural when conversing with random people, and we talked a lot about self worth and expectations and such and how we will never reach God's expectations for us without the help of the Savior. So that was super good definitely one of the best zone conferences I've been to. Then later we had soccer night which was super fun, but it was a lot more exercise than just playing soccer. We did a lot of drills and a lot of running, so that was super unexpected. Then later we played soccer where many a person got hurt and I got beamed in the face not once but twice. 

Friday was my 6 month mark!!! So we had a nice breakfast and such to celebrate in the morning and then we cleaned up facebook and friended a bunch of different members and investigators then later we went to the branch president's house for lunch/dinner where they fed us a lot of food, like a lot of food. But it was all super good so I didn't mind. Then that was that. Later we went to find and we passed out a bunch of english class fliers in order to boost attendence. But our efforts were in vain because that night in english class we only had one show up, so instead of teaching him english we just had a nice conversation with him and now we are really good friends. And that was that day. 

Saturday we made more english class fliers and then we later planned for the week forever and then we had a bunch of studies and then we later had a frenzy of handing out english class fliers up until it started to downpour rain. And that was that day. 

Sunday we had church in the morning where we had one investigator show up and where we also taught priesthood with the talk the plan and the proclamation and I also spoke in sacrament for a little bit in challenging the branch to mark every scripture in the book of mormon that talks about the gospel of Jesus Christ per the request of the branch president. Then after church we had lunch and later studies. Then we made cookies for some members for this week. We delivered the cookies to one family who's sister is our investigator and then we had a nice conversation with them and shared our favorite scripture and later shared a lot about faith in god and what he wants for us. Then we left and that was that day.

Today will be more basketball. 

I believe this photo was taken in Charleston with Elder Powell:

This looks to be in Columbia with Elder Mar:

This looks to be his latest zone conference:

Learning the New Area and Training a New Companion

This week has been a lot of getting used to being in charge of an area, being a trainer, and trying to not die. And I'm doing a really good job at all 3 I would like to think. 

After P-day on monday last week we had a dinner appointment with a recent convert in the branch, where we had tamales and all sorts of craziness since they have 4 small children that run all sorts of wild. So we tried to do the best we could to teach them a short little lesson with kids being all rambunctious, which went better than I thought and all in all it was a super nice time there and they are quite the cool family. 

Tuesday we had ddm in the morning. This district is the largest district in the mission. We have 3 senior couples, the zone leaders, STLs, our district leader, another set of sisters, and we have the APs that come at times as well. Then next transfer we will have the hermanas here as well, so it's a pretty large district.  Then we had a lot of studies and a dinner with a member which went really well. 

Then on Wednesday we did a lot of finding and door knocking put we first went to see this old widowed member and talk to her for a bit to see if there was anything we could do for her. Then we had studies and the door knocking began. We taught our first restoration together as a companionship and in that lesson i realized that maybe elder Mar should practice it a bunch before we teach another one. So his assignment this week is to rehearse the points of the restoration 5 times each day. That night we also had English class which went well. 

Thursday we tried to visit some people in the morning but had no luck, so we came back and did studies.  Than at night we had another dinner with the first counselor who lives like 45 minutes away from us. So the whole night was spent at their house and driving. 

Friday we had studies and then a lesson in the afternoon, then we spent some time down in that area visiting some less actives and such until we went home and had dinner.   Then we had English class after that. 

Saturday we had studies, worked on English class advertising, and later tried to get in touch with a referral that was super close to the USC campus. The referral didn't want anything to do with missionaries it turns out, he just wanted something to do with the sisters that had found him. So we went on campus instead and walked around for a bit trying to find some place to eat before we went back for a lesson. We finally found some place that wasn't a bar after a while and ate there. Then we went back and tried to teach a lesson but they didn't answer the door. So that was that day.

Sunday we had church which was normal.  Then we had a lesson that fell through and then we had to chaperone the zls and stls for their meeting that they couldn't be alone for so we spent a good three hours doing that. 

Today we are playing basketball.

My trainee has been a lot better this week.  He has opened up quite a bit more since I put my mind to really opening him up more since I was tired of sitting in silence all the time. And now we are the best of friends and talk all the time and such. 

Elder bertoch