Monday, February 25, 2013

Miracles





This week was great. I have learned that everything happens for a reason, people cancelling appointments, people not listening, the Lord's timing is amazing. Sister Charles was very sick on Tuesday night so Sister Bowman and I got permission to go to the store Tuesday morning (not P-Day) and get her medicine. It just happened to be that a less active woman who is never home, who we have been trying to get a hold of for a MONTH, Sister Tonga, was walking out of Wal Mart right as we got there and we were able to get her phone number and set up an appointment to meet her. Nothing is coincidence. Even if poor Sister Charles has to be sick! After Elder Nelson taught us about the power of  music, we have taken that to heart and all four of us have gone caroling a few times this week. If people don't want to hear your message, at least you can bring the spirit with a song. People love to listen to us sing together. 

I have learned that it is a blessing to have so much knowledge from my Mom and especially my Dad about the Gospel! My companions always say that in companion inventory, that I have a lot of knowledge. I say if I have a lot of knowledge, it is because of my parents who taught me, so that I can bless other people with it :) 

On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference where we were trained by the Zone Leaders and President and Sister Craven on how to study effectively, and revelation through prayer. It was really funny, in the middle of the day the Senior Missionaries from the office came and did a training on cleaning our apartments and they came out in all of this gear with white coats, yellow gloves face masks, and did a dance and made it fun. Ha. I hope the Elders listen, because I know I will be moving into apartments where Elders have been and sometimes I know they don't clean well. Gross. 

On Wednesday night we had dinner with a less active/ part member family. It is interesting because part of their family was baptized years ago, but hasn't been to church really since. They go to a different church now, but they still love missionaries and feed them every week. The Dad was there this time, and he is very nice but very aggressive. He wanted to bible bash with us and tell us we are wrong. He used a scripture and tried to prove to us that something Jesus said or did made him not perfect, I don't know exactly I tried not to listen because he was going off and definitely had a spirit of contention. We just didn't respond and quietly went into the other room and sang hymns with his daughters. We used to have very disobedient Elders in our ward right before us in our area who got sent home, and surprise surprise he wanted to bible bash with us because he said that's what he loved about the Elders is every time they came they would do it and argue with him. Right after that though, we were able to have a great experience with that Sister who was less active who we got in touch with on Tuesday, we went over to her house and she brought all of her cousins! It's a huge Polynesian family. They were all over and it was loud and crazy and there was lots of food. Ha ha. We had a spiritual thought with them though that turned into a testimony meeting. It was amazing. She said it was good we came over. They were touched by the spirit. She said they all knew the church was true, including her, just doing and knowing are sometimes different. She did come to church though on Sunday and it's amazing to see the change in her as she comes back to church after a lot of years :) 

On Thursday we were supposed to meet with an investigator and her two kids but she had to cancel. We were at a members home and she pulled out her ward map and realized there was a member on the record who lived down the street who she had never met, and so we went to visit. It was a long Hispanic name. A man answered the door who didn't understand what we were saying, he only speaks Spanish. He went and got his 13 year old daughter though and she translated. She said he and his family were baptized in Honduras many years ago, like 17 years ago, and he moved to America shortly after. Ever since he's been here he hasn't gone to church because he just didn't know where it was, or that it even was here. He still felt good about the church though and read his Book of Mormon after all these years. His daughter and wife had not been baptized. We left the Savior's peace and blessing with their family ( Just the Dad and the Daughter were home) and they paused for a while after. The Daughter started crying and felt the spirit strongly. Sister Bowman invited her to be baptized so she could have those feelings with her all of the time. She said yes, she wanted to! We gave them the address of the Church and two more Book of Mormons. We have a meeting with them tonight and hopefully will meet the Mom and she will want to be baptized too. It's just amazing to think about all of the circumstances that had to be just right for us to have that experience. God works in mysterious ways. 

We did end up teaching the Catholic man and his wife yesterday. They were very kind and respectful to us. But as I taught and read scriptures and prophesies about the apostasy, he didn't believe it. He believes his church is still the church of Christ upon the Earth and doesn't see the changes and corruption that has happened in the essential ordinances. We just testified of the Book of Mormon. That's all you can do. I love answering concerns and questions with the Book of Mormon. If you know that is true, EVERYTHING else is. Including the Apostasy. So we just challenged him to read it and bore testimony of it. And he bore testimony of his church and asked us to pray about his church. Ha. 

We also had a first discussion with a man yesterday who was hilarious. We talked about the restoration and he's like "Are you tellin me I'm a half-baked Christian? You mean I got a piece of the pie but you gotz the whole pie with a cherry on top" He is a big black man and is so funny. And his name is Raleighfoot. Yes. Ra-lee-foot.

That video with all of the funny names of the NFL players? It's SO true! I have met half of them. 
(side note from her brother putting this up for her: you can watch that video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODZzSOelss   it's funny, watch it if you haven't)

Church yesterday was good. Afterwards we met with Melanie and her kids and went over the Baptismal interview questions with them. They are so prepared and ready. We were nervous because they had to leave church today because her son has been struggling with some medical issues. But he got a priesthood blessing from the Bishop yesterday, and they called us 20 minutes after and said that he was feeling back to normal and they were amazed! We went over the Baptismal interview questions with the Family that night and they are so prepared and ready for Baptism on Saturday. Yay! 

Anyway. lots of good things happening. Once again, thank you for all of the love and support and the letters and emails. The Lord is hastening his work! 58 new missions! Whew! My mission boundaries will be changing but it'll be awesome! 

Monday, February 18, 2013

It snowed here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It SNOWED here on Saturday night! It was so fun. Sister Charles is from the Carribean and has never seen snow. She turned into a little kid playing out in the snow and we all had fun. Everyone was so excited because it hardly ever snows here, maybe once every 3 years and it never sticks, but this time we got a few inches on the ground! It was funny because they actually cancelled church and everything on Sunday because of the snow!! We did have a chance to go to the 1:00 ward's sacrament meeting at least.

This week has been good, Sister Charles and Sister Bowman have been sick so the work has been slowed down a little bit but they are feeling much better now and are ready to go. The Members here are so wonderful and supportive of us. They feed us almost every night.

We had New Missionaries training this week with all of the New Missionaries and our trainers. They said we had better be prepared to become trainers at the end of our 12 week training! President Craven said we are training you to be trainers, as well as missionaries, but all of us will most likely be training a lot of our mission because of all of the new sisters coming in! Oh and at training the lady from the Bike store was there and all of us Sisters test drove the bikes. They seem fun. When we need one, I'm not sure it just depends on what area you are in. But probably very soon.
 
Anyway I have to go, we are about to go on a Hike with our District. I love the missionaries in our district, they are great. Like family. But our buisness center at our apartment complex only has one computer, and with 4 of us we have actually been using members home to email.
 
This Satuday we hear about Transfers because they are a week from Wednesday. It'll be interesting to see if President keeps us together or splits us up or what. Technically the other three sisters I am with will be done all of their training and could all become trainers of other missionaries next transfer. We'll see what happens!
 
P.S I have been reading Jesus the Christ and it is incredible. Today I read the chapter about the "Long Night of the Apostasy" I love reading about the apostasy because sometimes, down here in the Bible belt, I feel like I am LIVING in the Apostasy. We met a man yesterday who is a Catholic through and through. It's who he is, it's his family, it's his everything. He was very kind to us though and was willing to let us talk to him and his family about Christ and we are going  to meet with him and his family on Tuesday.
 
Life is good and the gospel is true! Thanks for all of your support and love and everything you do.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Mountain Island

Hello from Mountain Island, North Carolina!
This week has been great. Like I said, I am in a quad-panionship which is interesting. But we only have 1 car and 1 phone, so we have to stick together and we all teach together but we tract seperate ways sometimes but we can't go far without 2 phones! But it's fun and we are learning to make it work. We were in a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment and two of us were sleeping on the floor. But yesterday we moved into a 2 bedroom 2 bath so we can now sleep on beds and have 2 showers! Yay for beds! Some of the brothers in the Ward came and helped us move.
This week we have learned a lot about opposition. We have seen in so many of the people we teach that Satan will get to them! Every single person we teach has car troubles, family troubles, pastors or people of other churches talking them out of meeting with us, and we have seen 3 people go to the hospital and lots more people just get sick and have all of these other trials right after we start to teach them. The Lord is hastening his work, but Satan is trying to hasten his too! We have been trying to warn people about it as we teach them the first lesson that they probably will have opposition as we meet with them, but that is a sign that they are on the right track, and Satan doesn't want them to be happy and have this truth! But we have had a lot of good experiences and new investigators this week too. As we were tracting seperately one day this week, I felt like we should knock on this one door for some reason. Sometimes you don't know if it is a prompting, but if it's good you do it anyway. So we did, and this lady let us right in and said she was searching for Jesus. We do in our mission the "Savior's peace and blessing" as we tract, which is just leaving a prayer for them and their family, and include anyone else who needs it. Then we ask them about the spirit they felt and ask if they want to learn more. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it's been really effective in this area where so many people are Christian! But anyway. We did the Savior's peace and blessing with her. It was my first time doing the actual prayer. But I definitley felt inspiration and the spirit as I prayed for her and her family. She said she felt the presence of God. My companion said I don't know who was talking when you said that, but it wasn't you! Ha. She was at work (she works at home) while we were there and she said she had to go but she gave us 5 minutes. We gave her a 5 minute version of the restoration and my companion invited her to be baptized! I was surprised, but she said yes and we are working with her to get her ready!
The one Sister, Sister Charles from the Carribean, who his black, is breaking down racial barriers in our area. Almost all of our investigators are black and they said they have been told that the church is racist and doesn't allow black people and all of these false things and we have Sister Charles here for a reason for sure! Even if she is freezing all of the time and not used to the weather here.
Yesterday we had Mission Conference with Elder Nelson. We all got to shake his hand and he spoke to us and basically did a 2 hour question and answer session. I'll try to write the questions/answers I remember. Someone asked him how you can prepare to have the most spiritual experience at the temple. He said "That one's easy, go for your own family members!" Someone asked him how to be the most sucessful missionary you can be. He said 4 things: 1. Smile 2. Sing! He said the hymns bring a spirit that melts people's hearts and says things that you can't. He said David Archuleta is the most sucessful missionary in the Church because he sings all of the time! He said you don't have to sound like David Archuleta, but just sing and use the power of music. And I think that is one of the reasons we are in a group of 4 because 4 voices together can bring the spirit more powerfully than 2! And all 4 of us have musical experience. We are going to start using that for sure. 3 Teach Doctrine clearly and simply 4. Testify from the heart.
The weather is good. It's been a little bit overcast and rainy this week but not too cold. It probably averages in the 50's.
The Members are so great and we have been fed almost every night. Yum.
For the rest of ya'll (yes I said ya'll) if you want to mail anything send it to the Mission Office and they'll forward it to me.
Sister Forsyth
3020 Hilliard Drive
Charlotte, NC
28205
Oh I love playing Basketball as a missionary. Because the Elders aren't allowed to block Sisters! So it's like I have a giant bubble around me and I can do what I want ha ha. It's the best.
Picture of our Zone eating at Bojangles :

Monday, February 4, 2013

First week in the field!

So the first days we were here we stayed at the mission home, (The Sisters did, the Elders went and stayed with other Elders nearby). By the way, we doubled the ammount of Sisters in the mission in the transfer that I came in :)  They let us go to bed early the first night because we had all been up since 3 AM. (we left Provo at 4) and we were tired. The next day we had training all day and we were supposed to go to our areas on Wednesday morning. But that night, some trainers showed up and President Craven brought me and a few other Sisters in and said he wasn't sure how this was going to work, but he just knew this was what the Lord wanted. He put us into a Quad-panionship. So three of us to one trainer! There are just too many sisters and not enough trainers. It's good, we have been teaching together which is interesting. It's hard to teach with 3 other people, and kind of intimidating for the people who we teach! But we try to split up when finding or tracting. But we also only have 1 phone, so we can't go too far. But President is getting us another phone in a day or two. 
 But our area, Mountain Island, is nearby so we just went into the car and got my stuff and left. The Sisters told me on the way home they baptized 9 people last week! Woah! They found a family of 14. 12 kids to the same 2 parents, only one set of twins, and all of the ones who were old enough were baptized last Saturday! But Satan was working hard on them and they actually lost their home because of a miscommunication with their renter of their home. So an angel of a member, let them all into her home. And it's not even that big, and she has 2 kids of her own! So there are 18 people living in one tiny house. It's kind of funny. But we have been over there a few times and they were supposed to get confirmed on Sunday but they all got sick and were throwing up and weren't able to make it. One of then is even in Surgery right now. So they've had a lot of trials leading up to and after their baptism. But I know that as we were praying for them the thought came to me that Satan doesn't want them to get confirmed! As soon as we can we'll get them confirmed, the Bishop even wants to do it in their home if they are well enough before Sunday. But they are great and very funny.

Another guy got baptized last week too, he was a drug addict, alcoholic, and smoked pot every day when the Sisters found him while tracting, and he was very ready to receive the gospel because he was at a very low point  in his life. He blessed the sacrament this week and is ready to go to the temple. 
The Sisters found a lady at a Christmas Fireside who was very interested in learning more, because she felt something different. But they didn't get her contact infor because she said she was coming to church the next day, and they were in a rush to get somewhere. She was sick, and wasn't able to come, and the sisters weren't able to find her again since Christmas. But yesterday at Church, one of the Ward members knew who she was and told us where she lived! We were on our way to a fireside from the Mission President for new members, but we stopped by her house really quick last night. She is a cardiologist and very intelligent woman with 2 kids, 9 and 12. They are all very prepared to receive the gospel. We gave her a quick overview of the Restoration and she accepted and beleived it all and said it was logical and made sense and asked when she could be baptized! We had only been there like 10 minutes. So we said she would have to come to church and take the discussions but she could in a few weeks! She was very excited. She said she has known a mormon when she was little that her Mom said was a good lady, and her Daughter's piano teacher was also Mormon and she thought she was a good person, and when she found out she was a Mormon too, she thought there might be something to that and that's why she showed up to our church that day. She said she felt something different though and didn't know of any other church that was patterened after Christ's church.
Oh we also taught a referral we got from a member. She is a cute middle aged black lady. We taught her the first discussion and the spirit was so strong and she definitley felt something, but she was scared. It was a saturday and we invited her to go to church with us.She still said she wanted to go to her church the next day, but that she would pray about it and talk to her pastor. We told her to ask God, not her pastor! But the next day she did go to her church and talk to her pastor, so we set up and appointment to see her at 3:00 that day so that we could see her right after her church. But when we got back, we saw her peek through the curtains and snap the blinds and pretend she wasn't home. Apparently the talk with her preacher didn't go so well. We tried to warn her though, and to get her information from God. I told her doing what God wants her to do, and pleasing him is so much more important than what other people at her church think is right. But she is scared to act on what the felt when we were there and has lots of friends at her church and didn't want to change. We'll keep calling her and showing up at her door though. I knocked for 10 minutes and even called and left a voice mail while we were on the doorstep. Ha ha :) 
Oh we do tract into a lot of preachers. One wouldn't let us in his house but talked to us on the doorstep. He was nice to us, but told us we didn't beleive in the same god and that the Book of Mormon was false, and tried to bible bash. I have learned, and what they have told us at training, is you don't pull out your bible, you pull out your book of mormon. When you testify of that, there's no denying it. So I just look him in the eyes and told him I knew from my heart it was the Word of God, and he didn't have anything to say and went back to telling us how our beleif in the trininty was wrong. We weren't going anywhere and he went back inside. We decided to come back 5 minutes later and we just left a book of mormon with our testimony of it on the cover on his doorstep. My trainer says I am bery bold.. ha ha. I just have no problem telling people what I beleive and (nicely) calling people to repent who aren't coming to church It's fun :)
Things are going good though, and we have a car right now, but we are going to be on BIKES ONLY soon enough! AH! And our area is about 30 miles wide. I have never ridden a bike more than 1 mile in my life. This will be fun.
Oh and Elder Nielson is speaking to us on Saturday, that will be fun!
Oh so Sister Bowman (trainer) and Sister Anderson are both from Utah but the other Sister, Sister Charles is from the Carribean. So she is freezing cold all of the time and we had to go to Wal Mart and get her all new warmer clothes!