August 1, 2016 - Group Email to the Mattson Family (Her last group email was July 11th)

August 25, 2016 - Kenya's cousin Porter Mattson came home from his mission to Guatemala

August 26, 2016 - Kenya's Aunt and Uncle Quinn and Gina Walker took out their Endowments in the Payson, Utah Temple

August 27, 2016 -  Kenya's Aunt and Uncle Gina and Quinn were sealed for Time and All Eternity in the Payson Temple (Payton and Daisy were able to enter the temple, Quade was 18 and too old to be able to go in)

This is a picture of all of Kenya's Mom's brothers and sisters and their spouses, Kirk, Gina, Angie, Joseph, Jacob, Camille and Candace.  And this was the first time that all of us were able to be together in the temple with our mom and dad, and our Aunt Joan!  

It was Grandma and Grandpa Mattson's best day ever, and I mean EVER!!

Sister Berntsen's Group Email to the Mattson Family on August 1, 2016:

Hi everyone!

Not much to the last few weeks! Sister Ewell and I have been keeping busy this summer! In the month of July Kirtland had over 14,000 visitors! Met some of the greatest people in that. But we have been doing a lot of finding as well! We stopped by a potential this week that I tracted into a few months ago. At the time I didn't see too much interest in him, but we just thought we would stop by and talk to him. And he opened right up to us. He has been going through a hard time and is interested in the church and finding happiness. That just shows that this is really God's work. Its not up to us for people to be ready for the gospel, its up to God. But he makes it possible for those who are searching for the Gospel to find it.

Our testimony is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. I have seen my testimony grow and continue to watch it grow, and it has helped me not only in my missionary work but it has helped me realize all the good that has taken place throughout my life. The testimony of my family and friends have got me far, but now I am given this chance to strengthen my own testimony.

I love this work and although it is the hardest thing I have ever done, it is the most rewarding and amazing experience that I have ever had. I know that this church is true and I know that God chose Joseph Smith to restore the Gospel. I know that God lives, and through sacred temples we get to live with Him and our families for eternity.

Which brings me to the main purpose of this email... To congratulate my aunt and uncle, Quinn and Gina for their decision to enter the temple this week!!!!! They are more than ready for this and I know that the greatest blessings will come to them because of this. There is nothing more special than being sealed as a family for eternity. I am grateful for my parents who made that decision and the blessings that have come to me and my family because of it. I know that similar blessings will come to the Walker family!

God knows my love for temples so he sent me to Kirtland, where the first one was build! But I want to share with you all before you go with Quinn and Gina to the temple just how special temples are. Not only was the temple constructed here in Kirtland, but temple priesthood keys were restored. A man named Elijah appeared inside the Kirtland temple and conferred the keys of the sealing power to Joseph Smith. That sealing power is the power to unite families for eternity with one another and with God. I know that that happened and I know that that same sealing power is still on the earth and the Walkers will get to experience that sealing power for themselves this week! And I could NOT be more excited for them!!

Also, only low key jealous that Porter gets home this week and gets to go with them. But I have LOVED being able to write my cousin the past 2 years. His service is a big reasoning behind my service as a missionary, and I am so grateful for that. I know that this crazy family of mine is sealed for eternity. And after some Christmas parities I wonder if I still want to be included in eternity. But I have grown up around the greatest people and I just can't wait for this special day this week for the Walkers!!

I know that families are forever and I am so grateful that you are MINE. My love and prayers are with you all! Send me LOTS AND LOTS of pictures of this very special day! Love you all!!! :)

Love, Sister Berntsen

July 18, 2016 - New Companion, Kenya's 3rd Companion is Sister Ewell

July 18, 2015 - Transfer One of the first pictures of Kenya and her 3rd Companion, Sister Ewell,
They just loved each other from the beginning!

2nd Companion, and 4th of July in The Ohio!!

This is a picture of the Sister's after Kenya's first transfer getting a new companion. Her first "baby", Sisters Langlois.  There have been here have been more transfers, but she's kept the same Companion until now.

Below is a picture of  them on the 4th of July with her second companion, Sister Langlois.

JULY 11, 2016 GROUP EMAIL!!!!

JULY 11, 2016 GROUP EMAIL!!!!

Hello Family,

I'm sorry that I am the worst at sending emails, don't blame my mom for my sins. But I love and miss you all and have been thinking of you a lot lately! 

These past few weeks have been really good!! Super busy and really good! I got to take my old seminary teacher and his family of tour last week and that was a really neat experience. His class changed everything for me and that is where my testimony really started so it was a nice refresher for my testimony. It meant a lot that Heavenly Father allowed it to happen so perfectly. 

Summer time is crazy and very busy at the Visitors Center! We give tours by ourselves most of the time because there are so many people coming through, but I love solo tours so much! I hope you're not too sick of me talking about the Visitors center, but it has been using a lot of my time lately. I just feel so blessed that I get to serve in a place where I get to meet so many amazing people throughout the world and help them strengthen their faith. Yesterday, my companion and I took a large family of about 25 and they were from Taiwan and a lot of them didn't speak English, but Heavenly Father gave us the gift of tongues!!.... Just kidding, one of the family members interpreted for us. Haha. But the grandpa bore his testimony in the Revelation room and the lady was translating for us and it was so powerful! It really strengthened my testimony a lot, just knowing that God speaks to ALL of His children, no matter where we are, who we are, what language we speak, sinners or not, He speaks to us all. 

Next to the School of the Prophets, my favorite part of the tour is the Revelation room where Joseph received the revelation of building the Kirtland temple. In that room I love to talk about that and the appearance in the Temple of Christ, Moses, Elias and Elijah. Elijah is the one who gave Joseph and Oliver the sealing power. Testifying of eternal families and the sealing power in a room where is started is so special. I just think of my crazy, wonderful family and extended family in that room every time. 

Our investigator, Joe is this SUPER awesome younger black man and he is just wonderful! He loves the church and has such a strong testimony all he has to do is get married to his atheist girlfriend.. So we are trying to convince her to have the wedding at the Visitors center! He came for a tour on Saturday and it was awesome! He had already been before but this time he finished the whole tour. We walked into the school of the prophets and it sits down and says "there's that feeling again." The spirit in that room in undeniable. I would invite you all to study on the school of the prophets but you can't find all the information on LDS.org. But the spirit in that room is life-changing. The experiences that I have been apart of in that room have been life-changing. 

So I am just finishing up training Sister Langlois and this week I will begin training a new missionary this week! So this last week I got to go with the other sisters who are training to the mission office in Cleveland and that is always super fun! I LOVE Cleveland. It's SO ghetto and everyone is just so weird and funny. Heavenly Father really knew me well to send me to a ghetto town but also have a normal area to serve. But I am very excited to train again and I know that this will be a humbling and strengthening experience for me. 

Not much else is up. I will try harder to send more group emails! I love and miss you all so much and pray for you everyday. I want you all to know how grateful I am for you all. I am grateful for my grandparents and my ancestors who accepted the gospel and started this path for the rest of us to be on. I know that families are eternal and I know that God is a just, yet merciful God who loves all of His children. There is no greater happiness than through the gospel, I know that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God and I know that Joseph Smith endured so much pain and heartache because of how true this gospel is. Have a great week everyone!! Love you all so much!!!! Email me updates and pictures!!

Love, Sister Berntsen

1. When you are still excited about the Cavs game that you didn't watch. 

2. The "This Is Kirtland" musical started this week and this is my 5th great-grandpa Isaac Morley! 

Monday, April 25th -- GROUP EMAIL

 Monday, April 25th

Hi family!

How is everyone doing? From what my family has said, everyone is doing great which is great to hear! I miss you all and think of you throughout the week.

Everything is going so great in Ohio! We got our new schedule for the summer. And for now we will be in Kirtland for 2 days in the week and at the Johnson farm for 1 or 2 days in the week as well. I have been trying to get the history down in the Johnson farm because I have never given a tour there. But it should all go great! I feel so blessed to serve at the Johnson farm in the summer time. Only 2 sets of sisters out of around 30 of us get to serve there in the summer, and I am one of those lucky sisters!

I was told last week that I would be training this next transfer so I prepared myself so that but got a call the day before transfers telling me that one of the sisters wouldn't be coming. It's sad but all okay! I got a different companion and shes great! The Lords timing is perfect and I know that everything happens for a reason! So I'm excited to see where this transfer will take us.

Our area is great! We do a lot of finding. My companion is from the Kirtland ward and isn't so used to it. Haha. We get the Johnson farm in this area but not too many investigators. So we are doing a lot of finding for the Lords elect.

On a fun note, I still got to go to the trainers meeting a little past Cleveland this week (before I found out I wouldn't be training.) And on our way home we took a wrong turn and we some how made it to downtown Cleveland! And you know I was singing to myself "Downtown" by Macklemore the whole time. (I sing too much "Babylon" on my mission) It was an adventure. But here's the best part. We were driving to find a gas station and we were at a stop light, and a nice young (African American) man pulled up next to us. So I just smiled and waved and we kept driving. When we came to the gas station in the heart of downtown Cleveland, one of the sisters is getting gas and this nice young man that I waved to pulled up, walked up to her and says "you're beautiful can I get your number?" So of course the first thing she says, being an awkward missionary, "hehe yeah, come meet my sisters." So we are talking with this guy and start talking about the Gospel and he tells us how much he loves God and that he has tattoos all over about God. So he lifts up his shirt and insists that we look at his tattoos and the 10 commandments that he has tattooed on his back. But moral of the story we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and got his phone number. It was the craziest and funniest thing ever. There is a reason that sisters aren't allowed to serve in Cleveland.

Thank you for the love and prayers. I miss you all so much and would love to hear about how you are all doing. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing in our lives. We are the only people who have the true power of the Atonement. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Hope you all had a great week! Love you! :)

Monday, April 14th - LETTER TO MOM

Monday, April 14^th

Hiiiii, I have like NO time because we went to the Columbus temple today and it was SOOOO awesome! It felt so good to go to the temple finally. A ton of missionaries were able to go and that was fun. All the senior couples gave us a ride. Its able 2 and a half hours away and we JUST got back and p day ends at 6. So I dont have much time. But the temple was amazing and I will be sending you pictures in a second.

BUT I have very very big news...

IM PREGNANT!!

That means that I will be training a brand new missionary this next transfer. It is a HUGE responsibility and I am very nervous, excited, scared, inadequate, and so happy all at once! But the Lord called me to be a trainer and I trust Him. When you get to the field you go through 12 weeks of training. So basically you are just learning how to do everything and in the morning you have an extra hour of study called "12 week." I JUST got done being trained and now I am called to train a brand new missionary. It is actually quite rare that you get called to train right after you get trained so I am very humbled that I have been trusted with this responsibility.

I got a call from President Brown on Tuesday morning and he told me the news and I was In SHOCK. I had NO idea I would be called to train. It is honestly one of the biggest responsibilities as a missionary. You set an example for this persons entire mission and you are responsible to help them become an obedient and hard working missionary. Its a little bit overwhelming but I am honestly SO excited! The relationship between your "mom and daughter" is very special and such a neat experience. So Sister Adame is my mom, her mom is my grandma, and so forth. So right now I am pregnant with my baby. Its kinda funny. But that is the big HUGE news for the week! And ALSO! My mom, sister adame has been called as a sister training leader!! We both got called to some big responsibilities ahead. I hope I can be as good of a trainer as sister adame was to me. Just pray for me to do my best and pray for my baby, whoever she is that we will get along and she will adapt well.

Email me back when you can!

I LOVE YOU

Monday, April 4^th

Hello everyone!

Easter in Historic Kirtland has been a blast this week! We got to help out with Easter Egg hunts, tours, chick hatching, tours, hay rides and more tours! The summer season is coming closer which means lots of people at the Visitors' Center! It's been too much fun though. I feel blessed every day to serve in a place where Jesus Christ and God the Father have been. Every time I step into the school of the prophets, I feel their spirit. And I will never take that for granted.

General conference weekend went by too fast, and was too good. All the talks were so inspired and uplifting. I am grateful for sweet Thomas S. Monson and his apostles. It was truly such a spiritual weekend. The call that I have to help others find Jesus Christ is the best calling in the world. 

I love you all!

Here's some fun pictures from this week! One of them is Elder Heward giving the Hay rides in 30 degree weather.  (Senior couple missionaries are my absolute favorite)

Love, Sister Berntsen