Week 17 I think (It's 16)

1 Dec 2014

Hola everybody,

This past week we had a ton of success!!  We have 4 new people investigating the church and they are all very receptive.  At the same time we are both extremely tired haha but that´s how life works!

  

So a few weeks ago we knocked on one door that supposedly had a less active family there that we wanted to visit.  However they had apparently moved and someone else’s family lived there now.  So we asked her if she wanted to listen and she said yes but another day.  So we´ve been returning for weeks and she´s never been there, always at work. However one day we went (after telling her father we´d be there on that day again) and she answered.  We asked if she had been told that we were going to return and she said something along the lines of "no, but I knew you´d come eventually" but not in a bad way, more like she had been waiting for us to come.  So we talked to her and she seems really interested.  And the fact that she hadn´t forgotten was new for me.  

In one week we have gone from having 3 people to teach to having around 7 and we are working hard to help them all.  I love the people that we teach, they are all so happy to have the Gospel in their lives!  

I´d like to share with you all my testimony that I know that through honest, sincere, and loving prayer our Father in Heaven will answer our questions and help us.  It may not be how we expect, or how we want, but we can always turn to our Heavenly Father for help.  That is what happened this week.  It was fitting that it was the week of Thanksgiving because believe me, we certainly gave thanks to God for ALL his help that he gave us.  

On a slightly different note, today we went to a place in our mission that sells good quality stuff really cheap and if you buy a lot of them you get them cheaper.  It was so cool!!  My companion and I both bought watches and matching ties because we both needed a watch and ties were about $1 a piece!!  We had a lot of fun.  Then ate at Taco Bell again haha.  

I love you all and bid you farewell.

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

Week 15 - Bowling Gringos!!!

24 Nov 2014

Hola todos,

This week at the beginning of the week we went bowling!!  It was awesome!!  I won and broke a new record of 145!!  Nobody could figure out how I did it because I have horrible form for bowling so it was really funny!  

Other than that it was a really slow week.  Not to much happened, but both my companion and I got sick and I got a pretty nasty blister.  But the mission medic told me what to do for it and in two days it was gone.  So now everything is fine!!  We also had our first consejo de barrio (Ward Council), which was good.  The people got really off track a lot, but we got a fair amount done.  

I´d like to just tell everyone one thing that I´ve shared a lot this week.  As we work hard to help other people we can see the change in their lives and the change in ours.  We have many people here who we help and we slowly watch their faith in God increase more and more and this is just such a blessing in my life to have these experiences.  I love being here.

I love you all and wish you a good week!!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Love,

Elder Forsgren

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 Viñas, 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