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