week 17

The time is quickly adding up. I have already been gone for four months. At this rate I will be home before I know it. For the people who do not know how time passes for a missionary, I will enlighten you. For missionaries, a day feels like a year; a week feels like a month; a month feels like a week; and a year feels like a day. I don't know about the last part, but for the first three I can testify that it is true because I am living through it.

I am going to try a new format for these emails/blog posts. I am not going to write about every single day, but I will only put in highlights to see if I like this format better.

The zone leaders gave us a person who they got from mormon.org. Jessica is a person who wanted a bible. She is really excited to learn more about the gospel and what our church believes. She was asking questions about topics that we normally don't cover until later lessons. We should have answered them, but we were running short on time so we are going to answer them next time we go over.

We went on exchanges this week with the Pottsville elders. (Pottsville is northwest of Reading.) One thing I like about being a companion with the district leader is that I get to go on exchanges with all the elders in the district. We have two golden elders, or in other words elders who are being trained. (You are golden or new for the first two transfers. I am in my third transfer period, so I am no longer golden.) It is really fun to see what they already know as a missionary and therefore to see how much I have grown since coming into the field.

We also had a lesson with a person we found a couple of weeks ago. His wife understands English but she can only speak Spanish. She had a few questions, but she needed to ask them through another person. We got a little frustrated because we could not communicate with her easily, so we are going to give the teaching over to the zone leaders. They speak Spanish, so they can talk directly with her without relying on someone to translate for her.

This area is really awesome. I am really glad I have the opportunity to serve here. I am still not sure why I am in this area. I don’t know if I am here for someone in this area or for me, but I know that I have something that I need to do here. By the time I leave, I will know that I did the best that I could do in this part of the Lord’s vineyard and fulfilled His purpose for sending me here.


Elder Bjerregaard

Grandma here ~ We are so excited about this new opportunity Michael has in his mission. When we found out that our techie person is in a mission that is the first to do all of this digital work, my first thought was that is why he went to this mission. Then today, we read that he is wondering why he is in that area, but he knows he should be there!

Michael wrote that he “is going to get my mini iPad 2 tomorrow during the zone training. I am looking forward to getting a new iPad that I will be able to take home after my mission (even though I know that it will be outdated or almost outdated when I come home).”