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

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 8 - Conference Week

Buenos Días everybody!!

This has been a really long and a rather unproductive week for my companion and I...  The first day I got sick and that meant we had to stay home... both of us...  I now have allergies due to the changing of the seasons here.  We´re going into Spring, which is annoying because I did that once already this year!  But oh well, we can at least leave the house and proselyte! But that one day off really put us behind!  We are hoping to just kick it into gear this week and work a ton!!  

So one of the major highlights of this week was General Conference!  I was really afraid that I wouldn´t understand any of it, because it would all be translated to Spanish!  But lucky for me the stake gave the fairly new missionaries a room so we could understand the prophet and apostles!!  It was such a spiritual weekend, and my testimony strengthened so much!!  I´ve planned to use the notes I took from conference, the copy of the Liahona church magazine with all the copies of the talks, and my own personal testimony to write a small book over the next 6 months about how I can apply this conference to my life and the lives of my family and friends!  

I would now like to share my testimony with all of you, something I need to learn to do more often.

I know that the things I teach down here in Chile are true.  The Church is true.  Everything that President Thomas S. Monson tells us in conference is true.  If I did not know these things for myself I would not be down here.  Nothing else would be worth it.  There is so much time and effort that goes into this, I´d have given up by now if I didn´t know that what I´m teaching is true!  I know that the family is a central part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I know that we can live with our families forever in Heaven through the right authority and covenants.  This is why I have given up my family for 2 years.  So that others can live with there’s for an eternity!  This is one of the greatest blessings ever.  I know that we can also offer our ancestors the opportunity to live with us forever too through family history work and work in the temple.  This is a fulfillment of the Scripture in Malachi 4:6 "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers..."  

Lastly I know that the Atonement was necessary.  Because of it we can "come unto Christ, and be perfected in him" (Moroni 10:32)  We owe him our lives and we need to work our best to return to him.  I love you all, and strive to give you all the same love our Savior would.

I leave my testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Forsgren

Week 7 - First week in El Campo missional‏

Hola!!

So it has been two weeks since I last wrote!!  And what  long two weeks it has been!!  We had a party in the CCM, and then left for the field!!  I have a ton of pictures, but I left my camera at home today, so next week will have a very large amount of pictures.  

So I have a new companion!!  His name is Elder Garner, and he is my trainer!!  I have learned so much Spanish in one week!!  I´ve talked to a lot of people as well!!  I still have trouble understanding but I can get by!!  My companion is a Gringo (American, but they use it for anyone with white skin) so I still speak a lot of English!  It´s really funny though, people start to forget English after a while!!  I even have trouble a few times!

This week has been really fun!!  We taught a ton of people!!  We´ve been teaching one family of Peruvians a lot, they were all recently baptized and they´re awesome!!

My day is always full of work to do, and I absolutely love that!!  We walk soo much its crazy!!  And we are given so much food!!  I´ve made my own meal 4 times in a week!!  

I love you all!!  Sorry I didn´t write much, the computer I am using isn´t very good, so I´m having trouble with it.

Love,

Elder Forsgren