Santiago Chile

Santiago Chile

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Week ??? - Week 14

Hola everybody,

So this week we had a really strange week.  I can´t talk about most of it yet, it hasn´t all worked out completely and has some personal info that I´m not allowed to give out, but it was interesting.  Yesterday we had a taxi driver asking us what certain songs on the radio were saying which was kind of awkward because they weren’t the most appropriate songs. 

So this week I found the difference between getting good numbers and doing a good job.  I went on intercambios (when I go to a different sector for 24 hours and one of their elders comes here) and we had a packed day!!  We had like 5 appointments and only one of them didn´t work out, but they didn´t seem as meaningful as ours seem to.  For example, we just shared a scripture with one and then drank coke and talked for another 30 minutes.  And the entire day was like that.  But what really caught my attention was the lack of contacting we did that day.  We put no time into trying to find new people to teach.  Which is such a stark difference to my sector, where we spend 4-6 hours a day trying to find new people because we don´t have many people interested yet.  I enjoyed being in that sector though, their ward is amazing and they have some awesome lunches with the members!  

So today my companion and I have some plans to go bowling with our district, which will be fun!!  Last week we went to the zoo, which was my first time ever (unless the VA Living museum counts).  I´m loving life here and I absolutely love serving the Lord!  I know that what I´m doing is what I need to be and I know that the church is true which is why I´m here.  I love you all so much!!

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

Week 14 (I think) {He is wrong, it's week 13~Susan}

Hola everyone,

So sorry I didn´t write yesterday, but our P-day was changed for this week only to today because yesterday we had the opportunity to listen to Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He came to talk to both my mission as well as Santiago East mission!!  It was such an amazing experience I enjoyed it so much!!  Before we even started the conference with him he beckoned for us to come up and shake his hand!!  (so we proceeded to have 459 missionaries shake the hand of 4 different people)  I say 4 because we also heard from Elder ViƱas, one of the counselors for the Area Presidency and both of their wives.  It was such a spiritual experience it was amazing!!!  I love hearing from the General authorities because you can just feel that they are such amazing people and are called of God!!  The major topic of the conference seemed to be ordinances and helping others make covenants with the Lord.  These are the most important things we can do in our lives, which is why they were so stressed.  

While there I also had the opportunity to see a few of my friends from the CCM!  It was really fun!!  Then we traveled back to our sector and just had a great spiritual day afterwards!!  

The rest of the week not much happened, but we had a good week none the less.  We had a service activity on Sunday with sharing breakfast with some of the homeless people near the church.  It was so great, and they were so thankful!!  

I hope you all had and will have a good week, I love you all!!

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

End of my First Change - Week 12

¡Hola personas!

So today marks the beginning of my second change here in the mission.  For those who don´t know, a change is 6 weeks with one companion, and at the end the mission president can choice to move you, move your companion, or give you a leadership position.  Neither my companion or I was changed, but he is now the Leader of our district!  So that was exciting!

This week has been one of the greatest weeks of my mission, with by far the most success we have ever had!  However, at the same time, all things must have opposition, so at the same time, we lost one of our greatest investigators.  She basically dropped us, and my companion had a really tough time taking it.  She was one of our people of focus too.  But we also had a lot of success!!  We had more lessons in the first 3 days then we had ever!  It was awesome!!  And we managed to talk to everyone that we needed to!!  We are both improving in every aspect, and we are always happy!! We had our two main investigators come to church and because it was Fast and Testimony meeting, we had one who got up and bore his testimony!!  It was such an amazing experience!!  He talked about how he wanted to change his life and was so glad he had the chance to do that with the help of the missionaries!  Also yesterday I got to participate in a blessing of health and I got to do the first part of it in Spanish.  It was the first time I had done it ever!  Much less in a different language!  It was really amazing!!

Well I love you all, and hope you all are doing well!!  Remember our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ in all that you do!  That is one of the best things we can do to bless our lives!

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

Week 11

Hola everybody,

This week was full of some interesting news, both from home and here in Chile!!  The saddest is probably that missionaries in our mission no longer can play soccer because they are getting too worked up about it and we´ve had too many injuries, but I understand why, and I am ok with the rule!  I´ll survive haha

Also I have now heard about multiple missions of friends from both the US and from England!!  I´m so excited for all my friends with mission calls, and those who have announced that they want to serve missions!!  You all are going to have a fantastic time!!  I know I am!!  Even with a slight language barrier, it´s really amazing!!

Which brings me to my biggest occurrence of the week!!  I gave a 15-20 minute talk in church yesterday in complete Spanish (that people claim they understood).  It was about how members need to help in the work of missionaries, which is something our ward needs to work on a fair bit.  In the 5 weeks I´ve been here, I´ve had one lesson with a member, and that member was the investigator´s wife.  Now we have had a lot of lessons with less active members, and they are all going great!!  Week after week we seem to have one of the wards with the highest number of less active members in church!  I love the people in this ward.

Also, yesterday I got to participate in the confirmation of the Holy Ghost onto the girl who was baptized last week.  It was the first time I had participated in that, and it was a great experience.  Afterwards, she was just beaming and I could see the gratitude to God on her face.  The Holy Ghost really is such and amazing gift!!  I could not do my job without it!!  I love that it is my companion through every single day!!  I could not live without it.

Finally, Saturday we had one of the weirdest but coolest lessons I´ve had since being on the mission.  A few days before we had contacted this young girl outside her house and she invited us back for Saturday.  So we came back and knocked on the door.  When the mother opened the door she said to us (before we had even said Hola) "¡Hola! ¿Ustedes Quieren jugo?" or "Hi!  Do you want juice?" and then invited us in.  We hadn´t even said anything yet and we were already in the door.  Both of us were slightly fazed.  But we taught a great lesson and hope to visit again on Wednesday!!  

Well this is my report from down south in Chile!  I hope you all are doing really well!!  I love you all!!

Les amo,

Elder Forsgren

I'm Losing Count - Week 10

Dear all,

So this week was one of the most productive I´ve had yet!! We went on interchanges on Tuesday, so I got to experience a different area of the mission which was a lot of fun!!  I got along well with the other Elder, and I’ll be doing it again this upcoming week with his companion!! 

We had a zone conference Wednesday with half the mission!  My friends and I were drinking a lot of juice and my companion decided to chug about 3 liters and when he was finished he ended up throwing up in front of the president...  He became very famous that day...  It was very funny honestly, but at the same time, he´s learned his lesson! 

This past Sunday we got to witness one of the boys in the ward baptize his sister, which was a really amazing experience!!  He´s currently working on his papers to be a missionary and so it was a great experience for him!  I don´t really know them yet though because I´ve only been here but so long.  There were 11 missionaries there though. It was really cool!!

We had one of our investigators agree to be baptized this week!!  It was such a spiritual experience!!  He has been searching for the Lord´s church for years and years and he thought it was silly that we had to ask him to be baptized. He said "Of course!" when we did and seemed like he didn´t understand why it was a question!  He has a lot of faith!!  I really like him!!  Now we want his brother to baptize him because that would be amazing!!

I love you guys and hope you are all doing well!!  

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren