8/27/12 How is your relationship with your Father in Heaven?

Pops, sounds like a great fun filled sunday for Bishop Bergquist haha! im glad you're finding joy in your service. hahah but seriously. im proud of my dad. im still not really sure how it must be with Bishop Bergquist up in front and his two grandsons sitting in the congregation haha. do they go running up to you on the stand? i was thinking about that this week because the branch pres here has a little girl and all the kids run around in the meeting ha.

 

i cant believe football is starting again already!!! crazy. you know whats even crazier? ill be on the team next year...hahah but theyre probably gonna be terrible again this year huh? the angels always do that, in the middle of the season they look really good, then as the playoffs get close they choke, then with like 10 games left till playoffs they start playing again ha. terrible.

 

DAD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 

PARABÉNS PRA VOCÊ,

NESSA DATA QUERIDA,

MUITAS FELICIDADES,

MUITOS ANOS DE VIDA!

DAD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 

PARABÉNS PRA VOCÊ,

NESSA DATA QUERIDA,

MUITAS FELICIDADES,

MUITOS ANOS DE VIDA!

tell derek to sing it to you!!! haha anyway pops, i love you. you'll hear more about Elder Costa in moms email, but he was really good, his wife too. im so glad i was born into this family with goodly parents who love the Lord. Thanks dad!! and your present will be a little late, but you will be getting one!

Elder Bergquist

 

Hey mom!

i got the package. thank you sooo much!! i was super happy! ive already eaten like half a thing of peanut butter! haha but i need you guys to activate my card for me if you can.

 

did you ask Larry if it was him? or if he knows Elder Saturnino?? yeah it was sad with that girl. but we went back after her baptism and she told us she knows the book of mormon is true and shes gonna go to church on sunday.... thats all it is here...all the other churches here are either catholic or they scream and play loud "rock/gospel" music and jump and "cast out spirits" and talk about tithing and offerings...when we teach people we have to tell them in the church of Jesus Christ nobody will yell at you or knock you down on the floor or ask for your money. theres no "gritaria" (shouting) haha its really kinda funny to me. but its sad that people get fooled by it...

sounds like the ces director is good. hes the stake president too?? of what stake? your starting your 5th year already?? crazy!! what is it? New Testament? Natalia will be a good missionary, where is she going again? ill be praying for devin and blake, and all of you! sounds like everyones got nice new callings haha devin and diana are teaching primary? thats funny to think of haha. its so weird, its like a new generation...weird...

How was your week? wonderfully great

 

Did you get to meet Elder Costa? yeah, it was really cool

 

Did he speak to your mission? yeah haha. i was there with half the mission on thursday and the other half met with him on friday.

 

Did you have a baptism this week?  Was Amanda baptized on Friday? no :/ not yet.

 

Will transfers be on Monday's now?  Or will it stay on Wed? i have no idea haha, i guess we'll see in a few weeks...or not...haha

 

How is the work going? great haha as always. even when its not going great, we learn a ton, so its great either way

How is your zone doing? i think they fell asleep!  they have kinda stopped, but we're giving them a wake up call 

 

Have you got anyone ready for baptism? not super ready,, but were working with a few...

 

When did you feel the Spirit the strongest this week? at the conference with Elder Costa! it was amazing! here's a few highlights:

Sister Costa was really good. she talked to us as if our moms...so i talked to you on thursday too haha. she asked, son, why are you on the mission? what do you guys do?? (she said her biggest curiosity was to be able to see her sons on the mission but never could) and i stood up and said to help these people to know their Father that they never knew, and to have a good relationship with Him and converse with Him. and she goes, "and you son, do you have this relationship?" it was a good question. a question that i pose to all that are reading this. how is your relationship with your Father in Heaven?

 

Elder Costa talked about his conversion too, how the sisters went  to "teach a girl" at his house (his dad was the ward mission leader) and they spoke really loud for him to hear in the other room. when they left he decided to do what they said to the girl and read Joseph Smith history and pray about it, but he did it a little different. he read each paragraph and prayed after each one to know if it was true. he said it took 14 hours and 20 minutes for him to read all of it (he read from like 7 at night to like 9 in the morning without sleep) and when he finished, he went straight to their house and waited for them to get home for lunch and said "i want to get baptized NOW" haha but they thought, we cant do that, so they talked to the LZ and the pres and arranged it for him to get baptised the next day after receiving the 7 lessons in two days and never having gone to church. ha QUE BÊNÇÃO!

i got a letter last week from Shirlei that i baptized in Progresso, about 9 months ago. she went to the temple and baptised like 4 generations of her family! it was really really good to get that letter. one of the most gratifying moments on my mission! The temple is the house of God and all of us need to participate in this work whether it be indexing, doing family history, going to the temple, or repenting to be worthy to go and help them. Elder Costa told us that thats why God has done everything from the beginning of time: the creation, the fall, the atonement, the restoration, all so that our families can be sealed together forever. i miss the temple a lot here on the mission and i cant wait to go again. may all of us participate in our own saving ordinances and of those that have gone on to be one big happy family in the Celestial Kingdom! Amo Vocês!! até logo!

Elder Bergquist

some pics...

when i went to cut my comps hair.

 

elder Helsten (Elder Nelson of the 12's grandson) he goes home 1 transfer before me and were gonna make an intramural soccer team at BYU together.

 

and a pic of BH in the center of the city, some buses in front of the park

 

8/20/12 INVITE HER TO PRAY ABOUT IT

Collins home!!! a bolivian! haha i have one in my zone too...Elder Silvestre. i think hes from bolivia...? rice chicken and potatoes, thats just about the same as here haha. they didnt eat beans?? well thats one difference. but it sounds like Dwight is pretty happy to be in LA haha good to hear. President was telling us he wanted to start having that meeting here with the lzs too...how was it? did you guys get anything done? plans?  who is the ward mission leader in our ward?? well...i love ya pops. thanks for always being such a great example to me. thank you for who you are and how you raised me. its helped me a ton here on the mission. i was thinking the other day how you always told me to do the job right and not to leave it half way done or anything like that... then i started thinking about Christ and His Father, and how He taught Him the same thing. As i looked out the bus window at the beautiful forests, and up at the perfect infinite skies I imagined the creation and how He surely did a great job and didnt leave anything halfway, and how much you have helped me to become a better child of God more fit and prepared for the eternities to come. Thanks dad. Love ya.
Elder Bergquist

Hey mommy.

Before i forget. I met a guy in the ward here that served in Manaus. i asked him when and he said 2002-2004 i think, and i thought that was about the same time Larry was there, so i asked if he knew Elder Burns...he thought for a second, then he said, Why? i said, hes my cousin. he goes, you're kidding!! hes crazy!! haha and i go, yeah, thats gotta be the one then hahaa.  ask Larry if he remembers an Elder Saturnino from his mission. haha

anyway, moving on haha. im praying for everyone in the family but now I will be praying that all  you sick dogs get well haha. get better!! Brazilians dont know how to makes cookies but they all love them!

luiz is 15 and Flaviana is i think 13. luiz was interviewed and sustained to receive the  priesthood next week! que benção! sounds like ricky gave 3 talks in one day ne haha louco. ashley is gonna get engaged??? to who? and jessica is prego!!! nossa mãe!!!

How was your week? wonderfully amazing

Any baptisms? (Amanda??) amanda, not yet, but we had one. Priscila. shes excited. her brother is getting ready to go on a mission..

Who are you teaching? everyone we can find! haha

How are things going with Amanda? she in BH. but before she left to go there, we marked her baptism for friday night! :)

You didn't say... do you know why Pres. changed the Pday to Monday?  (just curious) he said it was because we have district meeting on tuesday and then wednesday is pday so we dont put anything in practice that we learned in district meeting, so he moved it to monday...

This week we got a reference from a young woman, a recent convert here and we went to visit her reference with her. we got there and taught a really spiritual lesson to her and her mom and invited them to be baptized on next sunday...well, come to find out, she had a baptism marked in a another church this sunday, so we invited her to cancel and be baptized in the true church of Jesus Christ. Long story short, the spirit was really strong and she knew she needed to, but she couldnt decide. it came to my mind "invite her to pray about it." and i thought, but she already knows, why...and it came again "invite her to pray about it" and i thought, and if she doesnt recognize the answer...and it came again "INVITE HER TO PRAY ABOUT IT" so i did. and less than 10 seconds passed in silence and she lifts her head and goes...i know its true, you guys are teaching the truth and God sent you.  I wish i could say that the story ended with her getting baptized in the church, but sadly, she decided to go to her baptism in the devils church because she had paid the pastor and the bus to go to the river where they were gonna baptize about 40 people. she put her heart on the riches of the world not wanting to lose the money. and possibly for that she could lose her salvation...kind of a sad story but two morals! Follow the Spirit! THE FIRST TIME! haha and no man can serve two masters. as Christ taught us, no man can serve God and mammon. that we can learn with these experiences ad not make the same mistakes as those in the story and put God in front of all else in our lives! I know He lives and loves us!

Elder Bergquist

PICTURES...

8/13/12 we said a prayer and she had the courage

nossa mãe!!! já era!! (holy cow, it's already over) looks like the Lakers got it in the bag! ha thats good to hear. good to hear about the Olympics too. the US did pretty well ne...i cant believe they have STEVE NASH! and dwight howard...thats kinda ridiculous. i feel like theyre cheating...haha whos the coach now? im sad to hear kobe is done with the olympics...do you think hes serious? i kinda teared up at that part too haha blake is in Santa Monica now?? weird....is layton still dating that girl?? he works at a hotel right? and blake? does he have a job already?? cool that derek and brit have jobs close to there and theyre gonna live close by...im still praying for devin and di...and all of you really...(Di is getting her state lic. and then she will apply for jobs) and its good to have a good ward willing to serve and fix the bishops flat tire haha. well, with the new president, as you see, theres a few changes. we're gonna start doing a lot more divisions too with the other elders and be able to help them a little more personally, im excited for that. this week were gonna go to congonhas and sao joao del rey...it should be good. i love you pops! thanks for everything and for your example to me and everyone else around you! tchau!
Elder Bergquist

Mom! whos chads seminary teacher?? and blake lucked out. id like to live in santa Monica for free...ha sounds like derek and brit are ding well...good to hear. what does derek do with hub intl? im praying for all of you.

 derek is the man haha he met elder costa a few times haha no big deal....he didnt respond to me...but i sent him an email asking him whos his team from Sao Paulo...?ask him for me...anyway perguntas....

YOU like avocados? hahaha they dont have any flavor whatsoever. but you'd freak with some of the stuff i eat now. can you imagine me eating beets? well they love to serve beets with lunch here haha que bencao!!!

Have you tried Ketchup? Do you/they eat much hamburger? i think ive eaten it...i dont even pay attention...i just eat! haha and hamburger yeah...

Is Amanda back in town? yeah. she went to church again yesterday, we're gonna keep teaching her this week to have her baptized by saturday ha...i have faith shell accept. shes just a little confused, when we taught the plan of salvation she got a little confused....but were going to talk to them about Christ and his role in the plan of salvation and the atonement. and im sure shell feel the spirit testify!

Are you still working with her dad? yeah, but its a little harder haha 

Was Luiz baptized? YEAH! and went to missionary prep on sunday night! QUE BÊNÇÃO!! haha

How about the other 2? Faviana got baptized, but the other one no :/

Was Pres upset coz y'all were late to the zl mtg?? no!! he was worried, he was reallly happy we made it haha

Why on earth has your visa expired??!!! its only good for a year, dont worry they already marked my visit to renew it. hahaa

When are you going to renew it?? i dont know the date, but the secretaries will take care of it, i talked to pres already.

What are some stories from this week? well on sunday morning, we went to get flaviana to be baptized and she was kinda doubting, but we and her friend, thats a member convinced her to follow Christ and she went, then at baptism time we realized why she was worried....she is afraid of water! ha. not really that funny, she started crying and didnt want to go down in the waters....so we talked to her and calmed her down and a few of the young women helped and then we said a prayer and she had the courage to go. ha she was baptised!!! and afterward she was really happy. she said she felt like she wanted to cry when the yw sang afterwards. shes way happy now. both of these two are members friends and the members were less active, so now they are gonna go to church together! que bençao!! and thats about it for this week!! love you all! ótima semana!!

Elder Bergquist

8/8/12 I know the Savior lives and loves every one of us.

hey dad.
sounds like your week went well haha. judging by the sports report haha. since thats all you told me. but you must be bishoping a lot, im guessing thats why you had to write a short one haha. thanks for writing me every
week dad. i love you. thats kinda ridiculous what the US is doing to basketball. kinda sad actually. nobody has a chance. who does brasil have on their team from the nba? Barbosa? who else?  let me know how that ends up...and mens soccer? whos on top? sounds like you guys had a great time at the reunion! i dont even recognize half the people there haha. everybody grew a ton. haha and it looks like there was a good turn out this year. good to see...you shot a head from 700 yards?? thats not bad golden eye haha. anyway, pday is changing to monday next week so if you wanna write its gonna have to be sunday... hope you are not too busy haha. love ya pops! até semana que vem! tchau! (until next week! bye!)
Elder Bergquist

hahaha what a blessing!!! dont you love the internet!! (I took an hour and wrote him a LONG email and then aol kicked me off and I lost it!!!) and aol!! haha why are you still using aol?? haha youre in the stone age ahaha. but thanks for writing me anyway. even if it toook like 8 tries to get it right. it looks like the reunion was good. a good turn out ha. even though i dont know who half the people are haha. thats good that there was no fighting this year haha. im still a little traumatized by one year when devin went running after derek with a knife  when we were younger. i was scared he was really going to stab him hahahaha psychos! but i think now looking back on it they were messing around, i just didnt get that part cuz i was little haha. i dont know if they remember that...ask them hahaha. maybe it was a dream...? where is brit working? i forgot. and im still praying dont worry. i feel like derek has had a 2nd interview like 8 times already...haha. Que bênção (what a blessing) that jack is going to florianopolis!! (his cousin was called to serve in Brasil too!!) when does he go??

Is Amanda back in town? not yet...ha

Did you get her baptized? not yet ha

How about her brother? Is he interested? ha not even a little. hes worse than his dad was at the beginning ha

How is her dad?? hes good. he went to the activity on friday and helped serve the food. hes willing to go if he can help with something but he says hes "espírito" (some religion that believes in reincarnation) but he doesnt study at home or go to the center (theyre version of church) haha. im almost certain that he'll be baptized too. i told you what he said about the changes right?? and we invited them to pray together and they agreed but when we went back he told us that Danielle was praying alone and not even inviting him haha so we told her to start inviting him haha. hes a really good guy. he'll be baptized real soon im sure of it.

Do you guys have anyone else ready for baptism? we're teaching 3 people that have a date for sunday. but just one is real sure about it. his name is luiz. hes 15. his parents took the lessons with the sisters like 20 years ago and then the elders passed again like 5 years ago and luis remembers them. he liked what they taught but the family is super catholic. now hes real good friends of some of the kids from the church and works with them too and goes to play futebol at the church and stuff. he went to church sunday and accepted baptism real well. hes super excited!!

Tell is about your week!!! well we had lz council. it was good except we got there like 5 hours late!!! it was ridiculous!! we got on the bus at 6:30 here in lafaiete (its like an hour and a half from here) and at like 7:30 all of a sudden the bus stopped. we looked out the window and there was a huge line of cars...anyway long story short we waited until almost 1 for them to clear up the crash and start going again. we got there at like 3 o clock and got like 45 minutes of the meeting at the end. then we ate leftovers from lunch...you'll see pics on the facbook i think haha.and the aps explained what we missed. a few changes in the mission. First of all, president isnt going to let us email anymore on wednesday.... sorry mom...at least its just for a few months right....?? haha only on monday....hahahaahh pday got moved to monday starting after today...so if you wanna write me this week itll have to be sunday night okay? haha and were going to get a visit from elder costa from the 70 on the 23rd of this month! and a few other little things changed too... and then on the way back from BH! nossa mãe! it wasnt our day to go to BH. we left at like 6 and at about 7 oclock a lady behind screams "my cell phone got stolen while i was in the bathroom!!" haha so then we had to pull over and all get searched by the police (my visa is expired!!!) and they took it from everyone while we were being searched! (i had marked to renew my visa earlier that day with pres) but luckily nothing happened and afterward the cell phone mysteriously showed up on the bus. so we got home at like 9. 10 hours on the bus!!! for a 3 and a half hour trip!! haha

When did you feel the spirit the strongest?? well after the council on tues we had a zone meeting and it was just us lzs and our zone. and we passed what we learned to them. it was super spiritual and we learned a ton!! I love the Lord and the Holy Ghost!! I love President Fortunato. hes super inspired...the mission is going to continue progressing!

How is your zone? theyre a lot better now. everyone received inspiration i think yesterday. it was a blessing. i know the Savior lives and loves every one of us. Thank you so much mom for everything you do for me and for helping me learn about a true relationship with the Lord from my childhood! Im so grateful for having born into this family! i love you!!
Elder Bergquist

a family night we had

some avocados we got from a lady in the ward....i thought you'd like that...tell derek to make you a vitamina de abacate! hahaa were eating them like everyday!

8/1/12 I know the Savior lives and works miracles in our days!

good stuff. the angels are mashing haha. i saw like two minutes of the olympics yesterday haha. we were visiting Danielle and her husband fabio and when we were getting ready to leave the baby turned on the tv and it was the gymnastics haha.

we got two new sisters?? i really hope it switches to elders!! haha i wanna be able to help more when i get home...but what can you do ha the Lord put sisters there... how are they??

Kendry moralis...2 homers in the same inning?? ta louco (crazy)!! and weaver is doing well ne. fala parabéns para eles de mim haha thanks. i was wondering when collin was getting home...i knew it was close...whos the new rs pres?? why do you say you got your work cut out for you? haha keep up the good work bishop Bergquist! love ya!! tchau
Elder Bergquist

mom. first of all....youre really lucky im gonna send pictures this week. REALLY lucky...you guys are slackin!! (I haven't sent him pics in a few weeks, I guess I better next week!) hows dereks gonna do a personality test? thats weird ive never heard of that for a job...what is he applying for? and devin doesnt need to worry about it...if its the right job for him, he'll get it....or the Lord will lead him to where he needs to be...im still praying for them both to get the jobs..everybody's gonna be living at home then...you wont have to be empty nesters for a little while longer hahah. and dont get trunky mom...i still got a long time to go! haha  good to hear that all is going well with you guys!

Perguntas: (questions)
How was your week? wonderful. im not really sure why you always ask that hahaha its always gonna be ÓTIMO enquanto eu estiver servindo ao senhor (GREAT while I'm serving the Lord)!

Were damielle and amanda baptized? Danielle yes but amanda is in juiz de fora. (another city) because the schools are like "protesting" they dont have school for a little while...

Did her husband go? no :/ but he showed up after church to pick her up and we showed him around the chapel...

How old are their children? amanda-16, felipe-11, lewana-3 and diego-2

Who else are y'all teaching? a ton of people!! haha

Any golden contacts? not yet.....

Did you get your package yet? you sent it last week!!! are you crazy?!? haha

Does your new MP let y'all do any sports on Pday? the rules havent changed....we continue with the same rules the Lord gave us through President Parrella ha

Sister swainston (Ariel, his cousin) wants to email/write you, will this MP allow her to email? (I have her your snail mail addy) email, at least for now, no, but id love a letter from her! ha but you could probably put on fb that i cant receive email from friends because ive gotten a few and just had to erase them...or take off my email...idk where theyre getting my email from...? ha

So tell is about your week!! it was really good, and kinda hectic. we did our first divisions with our ld´s...it was good. ill tell you a little about sunday...haha we left church and went to lunch (like an hour away by foot) and got there, ate, went to another bairro, and when we got there to start teaching at about 3:30 the ld called us from the neighboring city saying that they didnt baptise their investigator because there wasnt baptismal clothes in their chapel, we tried to give them a few ideas, like use his shirt and the bottom part of the jumpsuit or something, but he said it wouldnt work. so went went back to the chapel, trying to call every member to be able to take the bigger jumpsuit to them, but nobody could. so we thought about going there by bus to give it to them, but by this time it was about 5 oclock when we got to the bus station and our baptism was marked for 6 oclock...then i had an inspiration, lets just send it by bus with the driver!! but we asked and they arent allowed to...so we found someone that was gonna take the 530 bus to the other city (like 40 minutes away) and we asked her to take the jumpsuit to them for us. haha then we ran and got Danielle and ran to the baptism! both of them were baptized!! que bencao (what a blessing)!! hahaa

When did you feel the Spirit the strongest? yesterday when we were talking to Fabio (danielles husband) and he told us that they had been meeting with a councilor for months (him, her and the two older kids) to try to better things at home. but he said the best thing that happened to their family was in the last two weeks while we have been teaching them. that it was the biggest change and improvement that hes seen in the 20 year marriage! The Gospel of Jesus Christ id true! and its a huge blessing to all that learn of it and practice it! it changes lives!! in our lessons with her now, she just laughs and jokes with us the whole time. in the beginning it was hard to even see her smile a little. I know the Savior lives and works miracles in our days! love you all!
Elder Bergquist

This weeks pictures!
the ward mission leader, the old branch pres that got released last week and one of his counselors.