Week 57

Just working hard, and I finally can trust my comp with teaching lessons, as to start out he didn’t know much. And my Zone Leaders, I hope they are joking, but they said I might become a DL next change. Hope they are joking. They usually are. And they were saying that I might even get up to a ZL. And this is the thing. I don’t want to do that. The only thing I wanted to do on the mission (besides baptize, duh) was to train. Done. Don’t want any more responsibility. But hey, if it comes, I will do it. Yay. 

This week was a lot of fun, a ton of lessons. We were teaching a family, just out contacting, and they invited us in, as they had talked to missionaries before. And we teach them lesson one, the restoration, and then we pull out the book of Mormon, and say we are going to gift one. and the dad was shocked, said that "the other ones only talked about the book of Mormon, but never even showed us one, let alone gift one!" so we are pretty excited for them. and we are finally finding some less actives in our area, and last night shared one of my favorite scriptures ever, 2 Nephi 26: 23-28. We were going to machete them for not going to church in years, but we just talked about love, and how the Lord is always waiting for us. And it was a super awesome lesson, the Spirit was really strong. 

Love you!

Elder Berg

Week 56

This week, we had a very scary bee incident. We were kind of just walking around part of our area, looking for people to contact. Well, this bee starts flying next to and around my comp, while he is about 4 feet behind me. So, he runs in front of me, trying to dodge the bee. Well, it works. The bee starts following me! And flying all around me and all that jazz. So, I then run in front of him, and the bee then latches onto him. Then he runs in front of me, then I run in front of him. The bee always following. This goes on for ten minutes. Was kind of interesting/funny, as the bee never left. 

Then, we were contacting a house, with a lady inside the doorway, talking to her friend. So we starting talking to both of them, when I ask if we can gift (we use gift, it’s a better word in Spanish) a pamphlet of the restoration, and as soon as I finish saying that, a little girl comes out of nowhere saying "GIFT!! GIVE ME THE GIFT!! I LOVE GIFTS!! (I give it to her) OH MY GOSH ITS JESUS! THAT IS JESUS! I LOVE THIS GIFT! I AM GOING TO KEEP IT FOREVER!"  So I send my comp to go and talk to the ladies while I talk a little to the kid, and then I go and talk with the ladies. While we are talking, there are about 5 other kids showing up for more gifts of the pamphlet. So we give them all out. And then we get two kids to show us where they live and we contact their mom, and now we had three families to teach!! Had. The two ladies call me, about 3 days after, and say that their church doesn’t allow them to talk to us. "So you can’t talk about Jesus?" "Yeah, but not with you." "Oh, so you can’t talk to missionaries preaching. Got it." Good times. But the other lady, we still are going to teach. 

We also got into a big discussion (argument) with some seventh day Adventists, as one of them had heard that we believe in the spirit world, and that we can preach to the dead, or at least that spirit missionaries preach to the dead. He didn’t like that. So he starts reading and looking up these scriptures that talk about how the body stays dead on earth and all that. So I agree, because it’s true. And he just goes on and on about how it can’t be true. So I then read him 1 Peter 3:18-20, where it says Jesus preached to the dead. And he is just saying, No, it’s not possible, he was preaching to the people who were spiritually dead, not really dead, it’s a symbol! It’s "like" the days of Noah. "Alrighty, show me where its says "like". “Well, it doesn’t say like.” Then, he was saying that it’s impossible for that to happen, as our spirits go up to God immediately after dying. Alrighty. So where was Christ after he died? Well, he doesn’t know what to say. So he calls his PASTOR. And his pastor has nothing. He talks to his pastor a little about where the scripture, where it is, and then he says, oh, it’s like a symbol. Ok. "Please ask him where Jesus was and about 1 peter 4:6 as well, please."

Well, he doesn’t, and just keeps listening to the pastor. And the pastor has nothing. It was kind of hilarious. So I asked him where Jesus was, and he says he was with God. Nope, can’t be, he said he didn’t present himself to his father. So where was he? Well, uh, not in heaven? Yup. Where, you are asking. In the spirit world, preaching and organizing missionaries! "No! Can’t be. He wasn’t in heaven. it was not possible for him to be in heaven" "did you just say that Jesus couldn’t be in heaven" "no, as he couldn’t enter, as he had our sins upon him, so he was unclean" "so you are telling me that the only person who has ever been on the earth, everrrrrrr, who lived a perfect life, couldn’t get into heaven?" "Well, uhhhhh" "yeah. So he was in the spirit world" and then I explained to them about all the spirit world, as the people who never had the chance to accept it here would over there. And then he said "well, no, God would show mercy and would take them up!" "Can’t be. You cannot be saved in ignorance, and they also need to be baptized to enter the kingdom of God. And if they are dead, they can’t be baptized, unless we (explain baptism for the dead)". and then we finished up pretty well, they were pretty accepting of it, after they finally let me talk without interrupting trying to twist what I was saying. Good times. So I gave them Alma 40-42 to read, and the husband says "no, I don’t believe in the book of Mormon" "look, here, references to the bible. Read the book of Mormon, and follow these references, and it will tell you the same doctrine" "ok, I might do that". Good times. 

Elder berg knowing the scriptures: 1 

Seventh day Adventists who don’t: 0

Seventh day pastors: 0

Good times. 

Love you all, 

Elder berg

Week 55

Well, I got a call last Tuesday saying "Elder Berg, please report to the president’s office at ten o’clock tomorrow, you are going to be training" WOOOOOOOO. 

So, yeah, I am now training, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a gringo, which was kinda meh, but he is cool. Trying to speak only Spanish, and he is trying to learn. He is from Provo. So he is from the factory. He is awesome. And he is right now writing his family, saying, I believe "Daddy! I am now in panama, it’s hot. We are contacting a ton. And we talked to a drunk man with yellow eyes. It’s hot. And we eat a lot of rice. Did I say it’s hot? It’s hot. Oh, and now our house doesn’t have water. So fun times. It’s hot". Or something like that. 

It’s so adorable to see new missionaries, because they think they know how to do some things in the mission, such as contacting. And then they look at a person, and realize its real, and they have no idea how to say anything. It’s kind of funny. But yeah. We are working our tails off, because I want to baptize with my son. It would be cool. And if not, well, at least we tried. 

So, we were contacting on Thursday, and this guy told us a joke:

So, there is an atheist who lives in the woods. And every day he leaves his house and looks at the wonders of nature and the beautiful flowers and wildlife, thinking it’s incredible that all this happened spontaneously. Well, then, one day, he is walking, and is walking next to a stream, when he sees a bear. The bear sees him, and starts chasing him. So he runs and runs, but falls down, and the bear is about to kill him, when he cries out "OH MY GOD". Well, then everything stops. Time stops. Then, he hears a voice. "Yes, what would you like? You never believed in me, but here I am. What do you want? Do you want me to help you become one of my disciples in your last moments alive?" and the atheist says "no, I don’t want that, just please convert the bear into a Christian!!" "Alright". So, then time continues. The bear looks at the atheist on the ground, then kneels down, and says "Dear God, I give you thanks for this beautiful day, and I also thank thee for the food which thou hast given me at this moment". 

So yeah, it was a great joke. And my comp understand nothing. So I got to translate it for him. And we are going to be teaching that guy and his family on Wednesday, so I hope it goes well!

Love you all, 

Elder Berg