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