Santiago Chile

Santiago Chile

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Almost Thanksgiving!‏ (November 23, 2016)

Hello to everyone! 
 
So I´m currently in a very bad internet place with very bad
internet... So I´m currently practicing patience in my work. I have
to use internet explorer, which makes me stressed... And I just had a
very stressful week. There is not a whole lot to report, save the I´m
learning a lot from Elder Paredes. He has a way of working which is
new to me, but I really like. It makes things a lot easier and more
efficient. It really is, in my fathers words "working smart and
hard". I´ll admit, we had a rough beginning, however we are hoping to
reap some of the fruits of the week to make them worth more than they
appear. Today he and the rest of the zone played soccer, and I
watched. My knee and I are still not getting along. Tomorrow I will
go to the hospital again, and that should help. 


This next week I will be missing my second Thanksgiving I have ever
missed in my life actually. It makes me a little sad to be missing
it, however the zone is thinking about doing something. I hope they
do, because last year I didn´t do much, but I do remember having an
awesome cake with my Father, Elder Garner, and I really enjoyed it.
That´s something I´ve noticed lately. The smallest of things can lead
to the greatest of memories. 

 
This week, one thing that was really amazing was my companion and I
visited a few recent converts that hadn´t gone to church in a long
time and we visited them about 2-3 times and they came! Not only that
but they taught people in the Gospel principles class. It made me
extremely happy and grateful for the help of my new companion. I
believe that we are going to have a lot of success together. 
I love you all mostest! 
Con mucho amor,
Elder Forsgren

Nuevo compañero y cambio!‏ (November 16, 2016)

Hello to all!

So I just received a new companion!  I am with Elder Paredes from Araquipa Peru!  I remain in the same sector and ward and basically the biggest change would be my companion.  I`m excited because he seems really excited to work and has a good mentality about everything.  We`re hoping to have a lot of success this next transfer!  He has about 10 months in the mission I think, but he seems like he`s already got a very firm grasp on everything.  He also had a knee problem, which I find funnily ironic.

This last week was another long one, but it was good as a whole.  There wasn`t a whole lot new that happened, however Sunday was the Primary Program and it was so amazing, I really enjoyed it!  I love to hear the little kids and their testimonies and the songs they sing.  It was really fun!

Well I love you all, and hope you have a great week.  I feel like I say that every week, but It`s true!
Con mucho amor,
Elder 4sgren

I`ve run out of subjects‏ (November 10, 2016)

Hello to everyone!  

So yet another rough week for us, it was long and full of just looking for new people without much success.  I was honestly very stressed throughout the week, but we had a huge highlight of an interchange with the Zone Leaders.  The zone leader that was with me (Elder Wilcox) helped me a lot to feel less stressed while at the same time keep my mind on the sector and how to help it progress.  He showed me a few new ways to look for new investigators and to work with the members better and we are now trying to put them into practice.  
My companion had a rough week though, rougher than I did.  He then had an interview with president, which helped him a lot.  I`ve learned that I need to work on patience a lot.  I`m expecting too much out of him and I`m expecting it now, so I`m now trying to slow things down a little bit to help him ease himself into the mission, not just hit the ground running.  President gave me a lot of good ideas too, so I`m very grateful for that.
At the end of the week I realized how big my testimony is on the leadership called of God.  God calls people to their positions not because they are necessarily the best qualified for that position, save he makes them be the most qualified.  I`ve seen attributes in a few people that did not have those attributes before they were called as leaders.  I`m grateful that I can gain this testimony, because it is a very important one in our humility.
I hope you all have a lovely week, and enjoy that November air, while I enjoy that November smog!
Love ya,
Elder Forsgren

Week of testing‏ (November 2, 2016)

Dear everyone,

So I was reading the letter of my cousin (Elder Dana Forsgren) and he said one thing that was very true for me as well  "it has been a week of testing this week."  It really was.  A long week full of work with little results down her in Santiago Norte.  We tried and tried and we had very little results.  That isn`t just for me and my companion, however for the mission.  It`s really been tough for us.  We had one test really big that occupied a lot of our thoughts and the thoughts of our leaders this week, and we were very nervous as to how this would all work out, however it was amazing, literally the last thing I heard last night (last minute of the night) was that it was all resolved and we don`t have to worry more.  I can`t specify much about it, but we are very pleased now and not so stressed.  

The thing I love about these "weeks of testing" is that they end with a personal growth and a companionship growth.  It really is a blessing to find that you are stronger than you thought before, and more capable then you ever were.  I love the progress that each of us has personally.  How we can see that we are getting better.

As a passing comment, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!  I don`t know what the most often found costume was there, but here we saw a lot of Malificents that were all really cute.  I enjoy Halloween because its just fun!  We visited and helped one sister that night and then when we entered the house, we had about 7 kids knock our door.  We had to scourge our house for all the candy we had and we are now out of candy.  It was really funny!

I hope that you all have an amazing week!
Con amor,
Elder Forsgren

Week something or other‏ (October 26, 2016)

Dear peoples,

So this week we worked a lot!  For the amount of work we did, I feel more tired than I should actually.  Knocking doors shouldn`t take much energy you`d think, but for some reason it kills your legs...  (particularly a knee that already has problems...)  However we`re seeing results.  it was funny, the whole week we have been praying to find new people to teach and that we would be able to work to find them.  We managed to find 5 new people to teach, but none of them came from our own work...  It made me laugh a lot actually.  We have received many references from other missionaries contacting and the people live here, and we`ve had multiple people contact us!  It surprised us that in the end, none of the doors we knocked worked out, yet we still taught a lot of new people!  It was pretty cool.

One thing that I loved this past week was that I strengthened my testimony of the Sabbath Day and the peace it brings to the tired soul.  This Sunday I woke up feeling so energized and so refreshed it was incredible.  Later on in the day I began to feel bad again and so I looked for a way to better my day and I took the advice that the father of President Hinkley gave him: "forget yourself, and get to work"  I finished the day feeling even better than I had started it.  

I love you all and hope that you all have had a peaceful week, and that you will keep going forward with faith.
Mis cariños,
Elder Forsgren

14 months!!‏ (October 19, 2015)

Buenos tardes todos,

So I`ve gotten to that point where people ask me "how much time have you been on the mission" and when I say that I`ve been here 14 months the comment on how little time left I have...  I`m VERY uncomfortable with that statement now.  I`ve gotten to a point that I feel like I`m very young in the mission while at the same time I feel way too old.  The only thing left to do is to forget myself and keep on working. 

I`ve been working on that a lot recently.  Making sure to humble myself enough to not focus on myself and to focus on those around me.  I feel a lot better when I do it, but humility is a very difficult attribute to acquire, however it is an important on.  And it leads to charity, the pure love of Christ.  That is an absolute need on a mission, so that is my goal.  To have the charity that Christ has.  

This past weekend we had a Stake conference and it was amazing.  I heard some really spiritual messages that were extremely inspired.  We had one new investigator come to the conference yesterday and he seemed to look at everything from a very business point of view.  It kind of caught me off guard... however even if it caught me off guard he really enjoyed it.  At the end of the meeting I asked him how it went and he said to me "perfect.  I think I`ll come back next week." and a few other short sentences to members and then he left.  It was interesting to hear, however we are very glad to have him.  

Also, because yesterday was mothers day in Argentina, my companion got to skype home yesterday.  It was probably the happiest I`ve seen him since I`ve come here.  It was great to see him so happy.  

Well I hope you all have had a wonderful week and hope that you continue with good spirits at all times.
Con mucho amor,
Elder A. Forsgren

Week 1 in my home ward!‏ (October 12, 2015)




Hey everyone, 

So this was my first week in my old ward and sector and it was a pretty good week.  We worked really hard to learn how to contact people better.  My companion is really young in the mission so he still is learning a lot, but he`s learning and he does it  quickly.  He reminds me a lot of my brothers at home, so it`s really fun to be with him!  

So I`ve found some very good and very bad points about regressing to my old sector.  I can see all the people I knew before and this time I understand what they say.  I can also see the progress that they are making in life too!  however every now and again I meet a few of my old friends that haven`t progressed much, or the opposite, and that saddens me a lot.  I`ve witnessed a lot of change and not all of it is for the better.  However I`ve also seen a lot of change for the better as well.  We visit a different variety of people, so I`m meeting and getting to know other people now!  It`s stressful, but yet satisfying much of the time.

One area I need to get better at is taking control of some situations in stead of letting my companion do it just because he was here more recently.  However we are learning to get better together.  It`s all good for that.

All in all I`ve loved my time here again and I`m very pleased to be here.  I love you all and hope that your week goes well.
con mucho amor,
Elder Forsgren