Monday, November 10, 2014

First week in the field!



Hello All!
Well, the first week in the field was definitely a crazy learning experience. As you may already have read, my trainer is Sister Melgaard. For some reason, her name is SUPER hard for me to remember.
I've written it on my hand for a couple days, and I even woke up one day to sticky notes all over the apartment with her name on them, so I could remember :) I even found a sticky note on my box of cheese-its! After a week... I think I have finally learned her name. Names are not what really matte right?
Oregon is beautiful! Though it rains a ton, we have actually had sun 3 of the 8 days I have been here so far. When its sunny, its GORGEOUS! The Portland Temple, which I get to see 24/7 is also gorgeous, rain or shine. There are stunning evergreen trees everywhere. You can't find those in Georgia! 
My mission president and his wife are very caring and have welcomed me with open arms to the mission.The Visitor Center Director are so caring as well. We also have two other senior couples who work in the Visitor Center. One of the couple looks like the couple off of the movie "UP!" They actually got called to see if they would work in the "UP" house in Utah because they resemble that couple so well - they dressed as them for Halloween.

A lot of people have questions about what we do in the Portland Temple Visitor Center. We serve there half of every day. Here are just a couple things we do!
We:
- talk with people who come in. We don't give "tours" in the normal sense of the word. We get to know them, share our testimonies, and use the many videos, talks, and displays at the VC to teach them gospel doctrine and help them have good, spiritual experiences. 
- we teach lessons to investigators that we bring in or other missionaries bring in.
- chat with people on Mormon.org who have questions
- study
- give Temple tours where we show people around the temple grounds and teach them about what happens inside!
Also, right now we are practicing music in our downtime because we are hosting a Christmas Music Program in the VC. It is very exciting!

Fun fact:
Our stake center (the church building we meet at every Sunday), is in the MIDDLE of a neighborhood, and almost impossible to find...LOL My companion and I almost gave up looking for it, because we thought our GPS was being dumb, but we finally took this random back road and found the building.
It is one, if not THE largest stake centers in the US! It is 36,000 sq feet and two stories! It was built by members over 50 years ago. Also, the grandson of one of those bishops now lives in one of the wards that attends there! SUPER cool! :) It does NOT look like a "normal" LDS church building from the outside, but inside, it is beautiful! Its amazing what people even 50 years ago could create!

There are lots of stories to tell, but I don't have time to share all of them, so I will just share two.
#1: This week we went to a huge apartment complex to visit a new member. As we looked for her apartment, we realized we had the apartment complex number, but not the actual apartment letter....SO we proceeded to knock on every door! We got through Letters A-G and I was ready to give up...Sister Melgaard walked around to the back of the complex and sees a second floor apartment, (the only second floor apartment there) and says" lets try this one!" I said "Fineee..." so we went up there and knocked, and guess who it was? the new member! :) I guess I need to learn more patience... So she answered and started crying. She said she was just so happy to see us and really needed us today. We were able to help her feel better and let her know about some events coming up in our ward, like stake conference. Fast-forwarding...she came to stake conference and a new member meeting- and both were PERFECT for her. They helped her a lot :)  I know the Lord has prepared people and that if we let him, he will work miracles.

#2: We were also out trying to contact a less -active. We found her door, but she was not home, so we left a note. On our way out, we saw a lady pulling in. We went up to her to introduce ourselves and be friendly, and she turned out to be a member we had been trying to get ahold of earlier this week! We were able to help her put her groceries away and talk with her about the ward and get some questions answered. It was great the Lord put her in our path so unexpectedly!

Have you ever heard of the movie "Saratov Approach"? It is about two Mormon missionaries who get captured in Russia and Held for ransom! One of the Missionaries, who escaped alive, is coming and speaking next Sunday at our church! It will be super cool and I am very excited.


This week, our area had our Stake conference, which is a big meeting where multiple congregations come together for a big meting. It was wonderful! Two prophets of God spoke: Elder Anderson and President Thomas S. Monson! Elder Anderson said over and over again..." Faith, Diligence, Patience."
That is such great advice. Those 3 things: "Faith, Diligence, Patience", are the key to so many things. I know that if we have faith that God has a plan for us and is guiding our lives, that He answers our prayers and wants us to be happy, and if we persevere and keep trying to have this faith and follow the commandments. that everything will WORK OUT! :)

Elder Anderson also shared a story about a lady in San Paulo, Brazil who was 102 years old when she was introduced to the LDS church. Though many would say, "whats the point?...my life is over?"...she still cared about finishing her life in the way strong, with a faith in Christ. She joined the church, and at 102, she would save money and travel to the temple to be there for a week, once every year. She did this until she died at the age of 114!!!!
I love this story. No matter how old we are our our position in life - it is NEVER to late to change and better our lives, to increase our relationship with God and come unto Him. Never give up. Never be complacent - we should always strive to be better, to improve!

 Quote of the week: "When you succeed, its NOT because you merit it. Success is a GIFT! Give Thanks."

Sister Bergman

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