Father's Day Ties

So not too much went on this week. We really only had two super eventful days. Wednesday and Thursday and I guess yesterday was pretty good too. Wednesday was the most eventful day that I have had in a long while. We went on this hunt for this pretty solid guy that was a referral from some other Elders. But all we had was the street that he lived on. So we started to walk up the street and as we did we met this lady sitting on her front porch. She has a lot of connections with the church (her mom and her best friend are members). She's had missionaries in her life for 50 years, and one day they just stopped coming - until we showed up.  The day we showed up was the day after she had just had questions about temple work and the spirit world. So we were able to answer those for her and chat for a while. Then later we had a lesson with a girl named Maggie that went really well and she committed to reading the BoM. Then after that we met a man named michael who seemed super solid and we gave him a plan of salvation packet to read and we found out later that he did and believes it and wants to talk more, so thats pretty cool.

Thursday was zone conference which was really good, we focused a lot on being more christ-like and moving to higher and holier places in the mission by doing the small and simple things each day.

Sunday was fathers day and we had a really good church session. We helped out in the aaronic priesthood so that the deacons and teachers could ask questions about why it is important to serve a mission. Then after church the biggest family in the ward, consisting of 5 or 6 separate families, invited us over for lunch, and they fed us good.  That was really the first southern cookin feast that I've had and it was soooo good. Then after that we have a lot of leftover ties in our apartment left by other missionaries, so we went and handed out ties to everyone that we could think of that was a father, and that went really well too. 

That was really all the exciting stuff that happened this week. Love y'all.

Elder Bertoch

Hay Fever

Hola Familia,

So, not much has happened in the days since I've last emailed. 

On Thursday we did have a huge service day helping probably the coolest member in all of South Carolina, super funny guy that makes it a point to be best buddies with every missionary that comes through. He is currently planting a lawn, though, and had these giant acres of dirt all around his backyard. Probably around 3 acres maybe more because I'm not sure how big an acre is. And there were thousands of big rocks in the dirt. And we had to remove the rocks so that the grass could grow. So we did that all morning, from 9 to 12, in 90 degree weather. Luckily it wasn't too humid though. Then after we removed all the rocks he recruited us to help him some more that the night.  First we went to a lunch appt with a sweet old couple in the ward. There they fed us a 3 course meal with salad, steak with potatoes, corn and squash, and then key lime pie with ice cream. So it was a good thing that we worked hard that morning because I would not have been able to eat all that if I hadn't. Then when night approached we went back to help out Brother Reid. This time he wanted us to unroll hay bales onto his yard and spread the hay around to help the grass grow. I learned that I was really good at that. That took about another 3 hours but brother Reid bought us milkshakes as payment so it was totally worth it. He also promised that he would take us mountain biking one of these P-days so I'm looking forward to that as well. 

Friday we saw our 2 progressing investigators Carrie and Jeff. Carrie is doing really well and committed to read the BoM each day, but Jeff said that things are starting to get a bit overwhelming and he needs a couple of days or weeks to take a step back and just sort of soak everything in. His fiance is still coming to church though so that's a good sign.

Saturday we did service for this 95 year old woman that we're good friends with. While we were there we saw someone else that we have been trying to see since I've been here and he invited us to dinner so that was cool too. 

Sunday we had church which was really good. After church we had a lot of finding and I used my Spanish to try and see a less active that really only speaks spanish and then we knocked around them and I talked with someone long enough for them to agree to having the hermanas come back so that was cool too. We then saw a former that was really excited to see us and eagerly made an appt with us for tuesday, so that was super cool too. 

That was all, I guess quite a bit actually did happen. We're the only Elders here for a good 30 miles, so P-days aren't gonna be super fun, but besides that I'm loving it here in Newberry. President said that he is considering opening this area up and that's why I'm here, to be the scout about whether or not it will work. So I'm hoping that it will happen soon and that I will be here when it happens.

Elder Bertoch

Transfer to Newberry

I finally have an e-mail from Jackson that I can post.  He didn’t send one after Mother’s Day, because we got to talk to him.  Then the next week he just sent me an e-mail requesting a couple of things.  Last week’s e-mail didn’t have much information so I didn’t post that one.  He was just disappointed that he was going to be transferred to an English area.  Fortunately, he seems very upbeat now and happy in his new area.  It sounds like he has opportunities to speak Spanish still, so that’s good.  Sounds like the hardest thing is the heat and humidity.

Jalene

Hey yall,

So I send this email, out to you all 2 days late, but it was worth it since I'm writing it right after I was able to get the spiritual boost of a lifetime, obtained by going to the temple today. I was able to do an endowment session, and initiatorys. It was super awesome to get to the temple again, since its been almost a year since I went my first time. And it was super cool to be with all the missionaries together too. I sat by two of my former companions in endowments, Elder Powell and Elder Mar, so that was super cool. And it was super awesome to see everyone again as well. 

This week the big news was me being transferred into Newberry, which happened on Thursday. Newberry is super cool, its pretty weird, but also just an incredible area. Its one of those small towns where everybody knows everybody, including the missionaries. It seems as if everybody knows who we are, and most everybody here are super friendly to us as well, which is a huge blessing. Its also a place where the only people that live here are people that were born and raised here, which leaves the average age here about 70 years old. But that's totally fine, I love old people. 

My companion here is Elder Elmer, I'll send another email with a picture of us included. He is from midvale UT and I will be killing him this transfer, he only has 5 weeks left. The heat has really been hitting us hard here. We bike most days, and its usually 90 degrees with 100% humidity. So you start sweating the second that you walk out the door. The ward here is super awesome as well. I made a great impression this past Sunday with them as I bore my testimony and threw in some good old Bertoch humor with it. So they all love me as well (not trying to brag). We also have a lot of hispanic members in the ward and so I have many chances to still speak spanish, which is super awesome as well. I usually get to speak spanish at least once a day. Plus we are starting an English Class up here as well so that'll help too. I'll only be english here for this transfer, we have an odd number of spanish missionaries this transfer, and another elder is coming out halfway into the transfer, so who knows if I'll even stick around the entire transfer. 

We have one investigator who is very serious about getting baptized, he doesnt have a date yet because he needs to get married first and cant do that until the 18th, so we dont know when he can be baptized yet, but so far he has read the BoM every day and has committed to doing everything we have asked and gone to church for 4 sundays in a row. We also have a couple of other people we are teaching too, so we are usually pretty busy each day. 

That's about all that has happened here. Until next time.

Elder Bertoch