Less than 6 months

My weeks have been really good. I didn't get a pday last week because the temple was technically our pday and we had no time to do anything because of the time it takes to drive to the temple. We found some really cool people this past week that we are feeling good about. We also got to go to the temple with ruben last Saturday which was a dream come true. Ruben had about 5 family names that he was able to be baptized for and baptize someone else for. It was super cool and he loved the temple, he couldn't stop talking about how good it made him feel. It was awesome for me too, it was the first time in about 3 years that I had done baptisms and I had family names of people that I had found. I also saw Jorgy Boi there and hermano Ali Romero and got to meet his family, and I saw a member from Columbia too. So that was super cool. It was one of the most spiritual experiences of the mission for me. Another super cool miracle was this past Sunday we had more than double the amount of Hispanics at sacrament meeting. We usually get 10-12 and this week we got 32. Every less active we are working with decided to show up to church all on the same day. It was super cool. Plus we had a new family from Utah move into the ward which was really nice as well. Only 2 people didn't stay for 2nd hour too, it was such a cool miracle.

As far as everything else goes not much else has happened. We've found 6 people this past two weeks. Two of which seem to have some great potential. We have been having a rough time getting back in with the people that we are teaching, so that's been frustrating. The lessons we do have do go well though. We have more people progressing now, in reading the book of mormon. We still can't get anyone to come to church though, which is a hassle. We had a really good dinner with the hites and ruben. Then after the dinner we took ruben out with us to a lesson with Isidro one of the people that we found this past week. Ruben did awesome, he kinda just took over everything and told the guy how much he has changed since he has been a member and how much he knows the gospel and the church blesses his life and how much he knows it will bless Isidro's life as well. It was all very good. This past Sunday was good too, we had a bunch of people come to church again and the majority stayed for 2nd hour too. 

Transfers are on February 7th. And it looks as if I am leaving. President basically out right told me in interviews this past week. He did the old "I don't know what's gonna happen" while heavily insinuating that I will not be staying another transfer here. But it also looks like Simpsonville is being opened up this transfer and me and elder Powell both have been petitioning to go there so well see if that happens. But it does suck that I'm leaving here. Especially since I feel really comfortable with the members here now, and we are teaching more people that are progressing to baptism. But we'll see what happens, president could always surprise me.

This past week was pretty rough. For me at least. I got really sick on Friday, but decided to just man up and go for it anyways. And I almost killed us 3 or 4 times while driving because of me being so out of it. I haven't been able to focus at all on what people have been saying. And I just straight up fell asleep during a member meal. But I am feeling better today which is really nice because we are really busy this week. We're planning a fiesta this weekend which hopefully will get the people we are teaching to fulfill a commitment for once in their lives. That's about it here. I got like 10 more days in this area so I'll try to be wrapping my head around that. Sorry I didn't get to write last week. Love y'all and miss y'all!

Ruben with the Hites at the temple:

Ruben's Baptism

Well this week was awesome. Ruben's baptism was on Saturday and there was a lot that was just the most awesome thing in the world. And hey you know what baptisms mean. I have pictures to send, hurray!

So Tuesday night we had another lesson with ruben in which we taught the plan of salvation, plus the law of chastity, plus the law of tithing, plus the law of the fast. So it was a jam packed lesson. But it was incredibly good. We had the lesson over at the Hite's again. And they were awesome always. Sister Hite had us draw the plan of salvation on a whiteboard as we were teaching it and I was the designated drawee. At one point they couldn't stop laughing about how my grave looked like a sock but everything else was about my best work. It was so good ruben even took a picture of it, hopefully not to show others and make fun of my sock. But he really liked the lesson. He loved the law of chastity and commited to follow that, he understood fasting and tithing and seemed very excited to share those as well, because quote "I need all the blessings I can get and I know that if I do this I will be closer to God.". So he's like the most greatest person in all of the world.

Wednesday we had a lesson with Sara, someone we had found just two days prior. We had hoped to share the gospel of Jesus christ but after the first two principles we found out that she is already a master of that doctrine and didn't really need to be taught that. So we asked if she had any questions about our church and she said she has some family members that are members of the church. And she was wondering where the differences between our church and other churches lie. So we taught a bit if the restoration and explained why we are out teaching and all of this stuff and she seemed to really enjoy it and seemed really interested in having us back to explain it more. After that not much more happened until the night in which we had our last lesson with ruben. We went over to the Hite's early in order to make and print off some programs, which took a lot longer than it should have. But it got done. Then we had our lesson with ruben. We taught the remaining commandments, all of which he easily accepted to follow. Then the Hite's brought up the temple and asked if he would go with them the next Saturday. He was very excited about that and said that if he could go he will go.

Thursday was the first day of the mission wide English fast for the Spanish missionaries that we are doing for a week. Now when we are within ourselves we only talk in Spanish. And it is a great idea in theory to help our Spanish, but its giving me is a headache. Since we are in a English and Spanish area we have to speak English a lot, so we're just switching between English and Spanish so frequently it doesn't even really seem effective to speak in Spanish. But it has kinda been fun I suppose. Thursday we spent the day up in the north. We had a lesson with someone up there which went well and then we visited some members around there too. Later at night we had dinner with the Campbell's and proposed that they invite one of the neighbors over for a game night and invite us there as well, as a non threatening introduction to the missionaries and the church. They loved the idea, already have someone in mind, and will call us with the details later. And that was about it for Thursday.

Friday we had weekly planning and we also cleaned the font and set up the room for the baptism on Saturday. And then not much else happened that day, we went around trying to contact people but nothing came from it.

Saturday was the big day of the baptism. We arrived early to fill the font and make sure everything was ready. An hour before the baptism the district leader and ruben arrived to have the interview. Ruben passed with flying colors. Then we waited as the people showed up. As usual people were late but everyone eventually did get there. Ruben chose bishop Keller as the one to baptize him, and the baptism went really well. Bishop later asked him to give his testimony later during the program and he just kept saying how thankful he was to have been led to this church at this time and how good and close to God he felt. Super awesome and spiritual experience. Right after the baptism we had bishop interview him for the priesthood and a temple recommend. He also passed that, of course. But bishop worried us and said that recommends work differently as they are all done online now. So ruben needed to be put in the system before he could be given his temple recommend. Which would mean some awesome ward clerks and a lot of prayers that the system works fast. The rest of the day we didn't have much of anything happen, it was actually a huge struggle to find much of anything to do. We knocked on probably close to 50 or 60 doors and not a single person let us in. Plus it was like 35° and raining pretty hard. So we knew that Satan was trying to discourage us. But we're not going to let that happen.

Sunday was the extremely chaotic day. We went to church and had the confirmation, which Brother Hite did, and right after that we were on the ward clerk's back about getting his record put in. He went to do that immediately. During sacrament meeting we were also confronted right before hand and asked to sing in the choir that day. I cheerfully agreed that we would all sing while looking right at my companion who hates singing. They for some reason had chosen a really difficult piece to do, with the only 10 people that were singing, of whom all of them were basic level singers. But I think it turned out okay. Everyone was really excited that we sang as well since the last sets of elders haven't sang for quite some time. After church we went with ruben to have the priesthood conferred upon him, and to have him be set apart in his new calling of ward missionary. Then the clerk came up and said that the record needed to be mailed to Salt Lake first to be put in the system, and the bishop was like no, find a way. So he went back working at it until he ran around all the obstacles and found someway where he could put in the record manually. So then ruben was in the system. So then bishop was able to print him off his temple reccomend and life was so good after that. All that chaos had only lasted an hour, and so did my heart almost. After church we went around and visited some members and had dinner with the family history consultant so that we could get something set up with her and ruben this week before he goes to the temple so he can bring some names. And that was Sunday.

So super awesome week and I am really looking forward to this week as well because we are able to go with recent converts to the temple their first time. So I am really looking forward to that and I know that this week has a lot in store.

Elder Bertoch

Un año nuevo de milagros

Hola hola yall!! This week has been just about as great as the last week. We've been seeing miracle after miracle here in Greer.

Monday we had a great time celebrating new years eve at the stake president's. We played ping pong and pool and darts and some other games. It was a lot of fun and we won the hearts of the McClellans as well so that's a bonus too.

Tuesday we had district council and had a great time there. Everyone is really excited about the baptism and the other successes we are having in the area. After DC we tried some people, the first one we had contact with was the Patrons (some former investigators that love missionaries). Justin Patton was out washing his car so we went up and tried to spark a conversation with him but he never really said a word to us, so we just stood awkwardly watching him wash his car. Finally after like 30 minutes we realize he won't stop to talk with us so we walked away. As we are getting in the car and backing away his wife comes out and asks her husband why he didn't talk to us and gets after him. We were already backing away and were cringing too much to go back so we just drove away. It was super awkward.  We also saw some semi active members of the ward and they expressed to us that they want to start new this year and be active members of the church. So we went over a plan to help get them all get back and active. After that we had dinner with the Pipers, who really out did herself. She cooked a 3 course meal with a really good cream of potato soup and then a Japanese pork meal with potato salad, and some good cookie bars/ice cream. Very good and we were stuffed to the brim afterwards. I also made the mistake of telling her that I could kinda not really play the piano so she sat me down at the piano and had me play some hymns. So I played the easiest of the hymns, God be With You till we Meet Again. And the spirit helped me play it and I got through it and it was okay. And that was about all for Tuesday.

Wednesday we found someone in the afternoon, Leonard, a guy from el Salvador and we taught him the gospel of Jesus christ. He didn't seem all that interested at first but later on he warmed up to it and wanted us back. We also went by someone in our area book who has been taught everything and has gone to church and had a baptismal date. We stopped by and he answered the door and I knew the guy. He is an active "member" in GV1 and goes to the book of mormon class on Wednesday nights and all these things. He goes over to the other ward becuase his girlfriend lives over there. The entire time while I was in GV1 I thought he was a member, because he knows more about the doctrine and the church then most members do. He's read the book of mormon like 30 times. He doesn't want to get baptized because he lives in GV2 and doesn't want to come to this ward but wants to go with his girlfriend in GV1. Super weird situation but the whole thing was mind blowing to me. After him we visited a new move in less active and had a nice conversation with her. She works on Sundays so can't come to church and her husband is not a member. Then we had dinner with the Hites and they took us to fudruckers which is a really good hamburger place. Then after the Hites we had our lesson with ruben at the geohagens (the ones that had us over for Christmas dinner.) We taught the restoration and it went wonderful. Both of the Geohagens are converts so they had cool stories to tell ruben. Ruben really enjoyed the story of Joseph Smith and he told us that he believes it. So it was a very cool day.

Thursday we had some good lessons. We found a woman named Onatha and that went well. Taught the gospel of Jesus christ and she expressed interest. We also found a Hispanic woman named Sonia and we taught the gospel of Jesus christ and she really enjoyed it and said that she recognizes she needs more of a relationship to our savior. So we said we will help with that and we'll go back this week. We had a drop lesson with Juber and Surma too. They haven't followed any commitments so we went in and told them why we give commitments, that it is for their salvation, and they said they don't want to change but if you want to come by again you can. Then we had a great lesson with ruben at the hites. We taught the word of wisdom and he said that he has already been following that and we don't have to worry. We were worried about this one but turns out we didn't have to be. Oh the other revelation we had is that ruben is 49, that might not mean much to you but we have been thinking he was 20-25. That's what living the word of wisdom all your life does I suppose. The hites also brought up temples and ruben got really excited about that and wants to be given the priesthood and go to the temple right away which is awesome.

Friday we had weekly planning which took forever because we had the baptism to plan. After weekly planning we went to see a few people and finally had dinner with a member who has had a lot of hard things happen in his life recently and is all alone right now. So we stayed over there the rest of the night and just made him feel loved.

Saturday was a terrible day turned into a great day. We were tracting in a large trailer park and as we were knocking this trailer a car pulls up and rolls its window down and watches us. We were like okay that's weird. Then the woman answers the door and we give our little speech, she says no, and the guy in the car asks her if he needs to take care of us for her and starts getting out of the car. We're all like, NOPE, and we get off that porch and start heading back to our car. The guy calls after us for a while but eventually gets back in. Then as we were walking to our car another lady comes out of her trailer and starts heckling us. Saying that she has a message from God and God told her that He doesn't want us knocking on people's doors and that all our efforts are in vain. (I told her thats a nice message, but ours is better, turned around and walked away leaving my companions just standing there.). So we decided to go to dinner after that and while we were at dinner we decided that something great is going to happen that night and Satan was really trying to discourage us. We decided to go and give Nori, Rusel, and Ivan a try again. We went over and they let us in again, but it was super awkward again with just Nori and Rusel, but then Ivan comes out of his room and saves it. We teach the plan of salvation and he is super into it and at the end he tells us it all makes sense and he believed all of it. He then proceeds to ask us how he can get baptized into our church. So we went through the requirements and he says that it is worth it to have the truth and follow the path of God. So take that Satan, you can't discourage us. We also had a really great lesson with Marisol and Miguel that night and taught them the plan of salvation and they loved it quite a bit too.

Sunday was great as well. We had a great time at church. The members are all really excited for rubens baptism and he is getting equally excited feeding off of their excitement. We saw some members that we've been trying to see for a long while. A really cool young member family just moved like half a mile from us and we saw them and got to know them and they are just really cool and should help us out quite a bit. We also saw some other less Actives and they seemed to appreciate us dropping by.

Oh my gosh this is so long. Monday we had a mission tour hence the email on Tuesday. Elder stanfill of the area presidency came up and taught us how to call down the powers of heaven using faith, prayer and our own efforts. It was very good, one of the best conferences. After that we went by Sara, someone we contacted a couple of weeks ago and have been stopping by just about every day to see again and she was finally home. She was very nice and chatty and we shared a video with her and talked about it and she has been to the temple in Washington DC and loved it so we are going back tomorrow and talking more about temples then.

That is all I can manage today. 

Love,

Elder Bertoch

Todos de los milagros

This week was so great. It really was, we had so many miracles and great things happen, it all was just such a testimony to me of God's love for us and the people that we are teaching and finding.

Well Tuesday of course was Christmas and I got to call home and have a great time with that where I could clearly see and hear my parents the entire time😬😡. But it was nice to see yall for the however good it was and I will patiently wait until mothers day for a hopefully better call. And if not I'll only have 74 days till I come home anyway. Which I did get a definitive answer on btw I will be home on Friday the 26th of July.

Christmas was spent first at our ward mission leaders house and they made crepes for us and provided wifi so my companions could call home. Then we went to the pipers who are a part member family. Brother piper is an aethiest with no hope of changing. They were neighbors with Tad R. Callister and very good friends with him. Brother Callister even gave him a signed copy of the infinite atonement with his testimony in it and still no change. But he loves the missionaries and is very friendly with us as well. We are actually going over there for dinner tomorrow night. After the pipers we went to the Jordan's and I called home and saw the babies and how much they have grown.  After that call we went to the Geohagens house. Sister Geohagen is a puerta Rican and brother Geohagen is an American with a lot of health problems. They are both converts with very strong testimonies and love the missionaries. After the Geohagens we went on by to a man who came to church for the first time in years just last Sunday, who is all alone after his wife died 9 years ago, and we went by and talked for quite a long time. It was crazy the love I felt from God for that man as he bore his testimony of the church and of how following the counsel of the Prophet has blessed him in his life. Even though he has been alone for 9 years, he knows that he has not been truly alone. After we saw him we went on home and I was so tired and dead I just immediately collapsed and fell asleep.

Wednesday we had district council in the morning. We have this board type of thing that has all of the progression steps marked on there, like if we've had a lesson with them or if they are reading and praying or going to church, things like that. And we portray the people we have as fish (like they're moving up a fish ladder) and we ran out of fish this past time and our district members are amazed. It's a real good visual to see just how blessed we are being in this area and how are many efforts are being received. Nothing else really happened that day until the night when we knocked into this Honduran family of 4 (all brothers and sisters over the age of 20), we had a really great time with them and shared the Because of Him video with them and they really loved it and seemed to love us.

Thursday was Spanish conference. That took the whole day and many miles but was really good. We managed this quarter as a Spanish body to find 228 people, but we only baptized 4. Which puts our ratio at like 1:56. So it was talked a lot about how we can become master teachers. So it was all really good and such. Then we went out and ate dinner and came back and the entire day was gone by then.

Friday was elder Barrus' birthday and so while he was in the bathroom I went to work decorating the apartment with some flag ropes and lights and balloon and the works. He came out and was very surprised. Then we had weekly planning to do and the only other interesting thing that happened would be the birthday dinner that the palmas had for elder Barrus. The palmas are from Nicaragua and they make some very good food. We had this soup type thing and cake for dessert. Her husband and mother in law who was also there are from Cuba. And we could not understand a word they were saying. Cubanos have the worst Spanish on the planet, like it is impossible to understand them. So that was fun.

Saturday we had a very very very good lesson with someone we contacted last week. We shared the Light Your Family video with Marisol last week and she seemed to like it and we invited ourselves back the next week and she was like okay whatever. Luckily when we knocked on Saturday her and her husband Miguel were there. We said we have another video to share and I asked if we could come in and she reluctantly let us in her home. But we gained a friendship with them so fast. It was just talk about this and that and how about this and what's your family like and what are your pass times and all of these different things. Actually, the thing that probably helped us get in with them the most was the mention of Juber and Surma, becuase they are very good friends with them, and it has made so much more sense as to why we met Juber and why he let us into his house that day, so that we could get in with Marisol and Miguel. There is a huge sign to know exactly when you are in with someone too, it's when they just get up in a middle of a conversation and without asking if you would like one, go to the fridge and bring you a soda. That is 100% how you know you are now their friends and they feel comfortable with you. It was just such a super fun time. Up until they started telling us their story of immigration. And then it got pretty serious, they shared their feelings of how hard it was to come up to America, but how much hope they had for a better life. Miguel shared that at one point he walked through the desert for four days without food and water. And while he was walking one of the men in his company died their third day. After they reached a place where they were fed and given water they went back for their friend so they could give him a proper burial. Marisol talked about all of the different murders and crimes and poverty she had witnessed in Honduras each day and her hope for a better and new life as she left her family behind and started walking to the states. She has been here for 2 years now and has 2 siblings who she has not met and probably will never meet. We were able to bear our testimony of the atonement of Jesus christ and how through him the afflictions and darkness lurking in our memories and our hearts can be cleansed, when we pray for that darkness to vanish and for peace to replace it. We shared the story of alma and his trials and how when he turned to the lord in prayer he was able to find that peace and comfort and continue to endure. And they loved it. They were crying the whole time and the spirit was so strong and they acknowledged the spirit and they want to know everything that we teach. It was awesome and one of the largest and most humbling blessings and experiences in my life. They are so cool and I am so glad we could meet them.

Sunday was just as great as Saturday. And you're probably asking how is that even possible. Well we met with Ruben again and taught him the gospel of Jesus christ and put him on date for the 12th of January which is super duper close and rapidly approaching. So we are meeting with him 3 times a week at a members home (the geohagens) and we are just going to cram everything down his throat. But he already knows everything (except the commandments 😯🤞) so it should be pretty fine. Our lesson with him went so well, what is faith to you ruben, "it's a belief in something you can't see and a conviction to act as God would want you to", good, and repentance, "its praying to God and asking for forgiveness so you can be changed and become a better person and more of a servant of God". It was such a cool lesson and it's just mind blowing how prepared he is. Like we haven't even done anything yet. He just knows everything. It's super cool. That night we went out and knocked for a while and met some cool people but didn't have anything eventful really happen.

Today the stake president has invited us over for new years and that should be pretty fun. 

Elder Bertoch