First Mothers Day gone‏ (May 11, 2015)

Dear Everyone,

So this past week was intense!  So I had the opportunity to Skype home yesterday because of Mothers Day, Our numberes just randomly shot up, and some other things I`m sure happened at one point, but I don`t remember.  The week was really good because of that!

So we started off the week with something that just changed our whole perspective and attitude.  We had an interchange and in that interchange we had 13 lessons in one day, of that 13, 3 were new people to teach for us.  After that day we had a completely different aattitude and we began to have a lot more.  now one thing I`m always wary of is even when there are a lot of lessons, it doesn`t mean that you`re helping anyone, you could have a lot of lessons where you just share a short scripture of about 5 minutes and leave, but we tried not to have many of those this week.  Of our many lessons, we had very few that weren`t very useful for the people we taught.  And of those few they were still needed because we helped strengthen the relationship with people who needed it.  So we`re very pleased with out week.

So this week I found out that Chile does cold.  The people here don`t do cold, but the country does every now and again.  People here hate the cold, and it`s so funny.  At about 45 they wear all their winter clothes.  But like all of them...  We just leave with a sweater and we`re good.  My comp. has some problems with cold, but that`s because he lives in Panama, where cold doesn`t exist.

Yesterday I called home, which was really amazing!  I love that we have 2 times a year to call home, it gives us a new respect for our already beloved families.  I really do love them and I`ve missed them enough!  But after that I was thinking "yeah, I`ll be good until December comes."  Don`t get me wrong, I still miss them, but I filled the memory of what they look like (I had forgotten).

Well I hope that all of you are doing really well, and that you really wished your mothers a Happy Day dedicated to them!  They deserve it, they are angels from heaven.

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

Week To Many (March 23, 2015)

Hello all,

So this week was interesting.  I`ve been congested most of it, but that`s fine because it`s happining due to the cooling of the weather here!  We`re under 30C degrees finally!!  I`ve just had to work harder to make up for the annoying health problems.  One really nice thing was one day we decided to knock one of the 30ish apartment blocks in our sector and it was really really good!!  We had 4 people invite us back at other times and they were so nice!! 

So this week I was asked to give a talk in church (my first in this ward) and I decided to talk about the talk President Uctdorf gave in April of the past year "Are you sleeping through the Restauration" and it really opened my eyes.  I decided to talk a fair amount about how the restauration still is happening today.  I looked at the stats of the church and my mind was blown!  I read about how there are more than 29 thousand wards or branches in the world and all I could think about is how there were 7 when Alma organized the church in Mosiah 18:24.  there are also more than 100,000 missionaries both full time and service missionaries.  It used to be that the only ones were the 4 sons of Mosiah.  In the Bible, Christ had very few members of the church he established, now we number more than 15 million.  It`s such a privilage to be in this epoca and we will want to say that we took part in it in the end.  This should be our first priority.  Nothing can get in the way.

This week I was also teaching the english class that we do every week and we only had one woman come to the class (a less active that i`ve become good friends with now) and it was amazing to watch her progress.  she`s made time for both the english classes and church two weeks in a row and it`s just amazing to watch her attitude change for the better!!  I`m loving this ward and the help I can give to it.  One of the recent converts in this ward (who is the most active recent convert I`ve ever seen) is the YMs president!  he`s completely changed the young men of the ward! 

So I hope all of your weeks are really good and I hope you`re all enjoying the changing tempreature as well!

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 Don't Know What Week This Is, But This Is My 2 Month Mark - Week 9

¡Hola!

This day marks the second month that I have been here in Chile and the start of a third!!  This week has just flown by!!  

We did a lot of work, which was great!!  Yesterday we were with one sister from church who when we were with her brought us to about 4 different houses for us to talk to people!!  It was really cool!!  I really enjoyed it!!  She was so energetic to help with the missionary work!!  We also had a lesson with some less active members who were really awesome!!  They all discussed the scriptures we read together, they found cross references and just talked about it in general!  We didn´t really have to say much because they were all discussing it amoungst themselves!  

This week we had a lot of lunches with people, and they were all really good, but I always leave extremely full!!  It´s really funny!  And I taught my first lesson on my own, my companion just said "my companion needs to practice his Spanish, can he give a short version of the lesson?" And it went really well! The next day we taught the full lesson completely and together, and it went really well!!  The man, halfway through, turned off the TV of his own accord, and all of a sudden we could all feel the Spirit so clearly!!  It was really amazing!!  I was just bearing testimony that simple things can distract from the Spirit!  

This up coming week we have zone conference about an hour away that will take up almost an entire day!  It should be fun!!

I hope you all have a great week!!

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

Week 5 - Last Week at the CCM/MTC

Hola todos personas!!

So before I get into it I must say that I will not be able to email home next week!  I will be able to the week after, however this upcoming Tuesday I will be going out to the field to start actually teaching!!  That´s such a crazy thought!!  I will be teaching people the gospel in one week!!!  

Actually I have already started!!  This week my companions (because I am now a part of a trio of missionaries) and I went out to teach people twice!!  It was so cool!!  But the people all speak Spanish sooooo fast!!!   The first time we went out it was just street contacting, so like 5-6 minutes of talking to people and getting contact information.  That sort of thing!  It went really well!!  The last person we talked to was really excited to meet us and she took a Book of Mormon and we talked about it for a while!!  The people here are all receptive to the gospel and it´s so amazing!!  

The second day we went out we went on splits with missionaries who had been in the field for a while!  It was really cool, however I understood almost no Spanish that day...  But I shared my testimony about every 5 minutes and I was really glad I had that opportunity!!  

The biggest regret I´ve had while being out here is not sharing my testimony with enough people.  While we were on the Subway the other day I was just standing there and I could have talked with so many people, but I shied away and now I feel really bad about that.  I know now to talk to as many people as I possibly can!!

So earlier my companion (Elder Despain) and my district leader (Elder Robbins) both taught an investigator who just came to the CCM and said "I´ve got problems in my life that I need to fix.  I don´t know why.  I know I need to join your church and I´ll do whatever possible."  I can´t tell all the details, but they said it was one of the biggest moments of their life!  My companion has told me how much more his testimony has grown because of this experience!

I love you all and hope you are all doing well!!   You´re all in my prayers!

Con Amor (with love),

Elder Forsgren

Week 4 (it´s flying by!!)‏

Dear Everybody,

So I´ve had a great week, but it´s gone by so fast!!  I said goodbye to the second group of missionaries here in the CCM!!  There are presently only 33 people here, but tomorrow we´re getting about 27 more people!  It´s so small, we know everyone!!  

So today my companion and I just went out and bought a bunch of cool things!!  We also got candy, which is awesome!!  We´ve become such good friends it´s so cool!!  

This week we´re transitioning into speaking only Spanish, and it´s honestly really difficult!!  But I´ve learned more in the past 4 weeks then I did all 3 years I took Spanish!!  I can talk to some of the natives... if they talk slow... and they all love missionaries!!  

This week we had some exercises to practice different aspects of missionary work!!  We all go ‘street contacting’ in the halls and just walk up to each other and start inviting them to church and such!  It´s a lot of fun!!  

My comp. and I probably had our best lesson ever yesterday!!  It was so spiritual, and we managed to prepare the lesson perfectly to answer the questions the lady had for us!!  Now of course it´s not real, but we are still glad we have the opportunity to learn like this!!

This next week is the start of a two week celebration for Chilean Independence Day, and so we´re going to the local festival and proselyting for the first time!!  It's going to be so scary, but we´re ready for it!!!

I can´t wait to leave the CCM, but at the same time I love it here!!  I hope everyone is doing well!!  I love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Forsgren