Short email

This week we got Elders in the Hunters ville ward! It was pretty exciting. We ate with them almost every night. This ward is wonderful. There are lots of members in the Ward who are really excited to do missionary work, we just have to help them do it! We are in a very well off area, and a lot of people are bankers. Most people are mid 30's, bankers who graduated from BYU, who have a few kids. They call it a "transplant" ward, meaning everyone is from Utah/Idaho and not actually from the south. Dave, don't worry, there is 1 Utah fan in the ward. Brother Jay Hart. You should be friends with him, you actually remind me of him a ton! Pretty much the whole ward is going to be gone this weekend though for the BYU game over in Virginia. 

We have been teaching that part member family and their son is almost 10 who has not been baptized, but still haven't set a date for baptism. Their son comes home from college in December, and they'll probably wait to do it then. 

Sorry I don't have much time. But love you all and thanks for all of the support!

6th transfer

Sister Wright and I are both staying in Huntersville! Yay! It's a great area, and a great ward. I love it.

So this week started out with a bang. So here's what happened. After our companionship study prayer, Sister Wright stood up. I went to the bathroom so I didn't actually see what happened. But she got light-headed and passed out. The doctors said there was no real reason, just a little dehydrated and stood up to fast and it was not a good combination and she passed out. But as she was going down.. (passing out).. she hit her mouth on the corner of our desk and cut open her gums right above her teeth under her lip. It was bleeding pretty bad! I came out and I was like WHAT HAPPENNEDD?! So I called Sister Craven, she said to ice it, and have her lay down for a while to see it the bleeding will stop. So she put some ice on it, and it still didn't stop after a while. So Sister Craven said to run her to the Instacare. It was weird, being in an instacare. But the Insta-care lady was like WOAH I can't take care of that you need to go to the ER! So we went to the ER and he gave her some stitches in her gums! Crazy! It was Sister Wright's first time in the Emergency Room ever but she did great. Then.. we had to go help set up the Elder's apartment because in our ward we have been the only ones and we are getting Elders (so we will have 2 sets of missionaries now) and we have to help them set up their apartment. It's exciting! Almost every ward in the mission will have 2 sets of missionaries now. 

So this week we have still been teaching that part member family that got offended a few years ago but has a son who wants to get baptized.. and it's going really well! They came to CHURCH yesterday which was a huge deal! The ward was so excited to see them and they had a really good experience. The son wants to get baptized but his older brother is at college, and won't be home until December so they probably will wait until then.. 

Remember George? We taught him a while ago.. he's 79. Well we ended up dropping him because after 5 weeks he still wasn't coming to church and wasn't progressing. BUT.. yesterday there was a baptismal service for the Lake Norman ward.. we invited him to go and he said YES! We were so excited! We scrambled to find a ride though because he couldn't drive his car. At the last minute a ward member drove all of us up there and he had a great experience. GO ward. And.. he came to Church yesterday too and had a great time! He has a date forSeptember 7th.. so hopefully all will keep progressing! 

Well that lady who was so excited to come to church.. we have kind of lost contact with her and she went to her Mom's Catholic church this week... I guess church is better than no church, right? We'll keep working on it...

We have met with Mary (the older lady who got baptized in June) and she is so fantastic. She can't come to church all of the time because of health problems. But she LOVES reading the Book of Mormon and has such a strong testimony. She knows she doesn't have much longer on earth but she is so excited she found the gospel in the end! Her son passed away in a tragic accident like a year ago and she was so hurt and depressed by it. But the Plan of Salvation was so helpful to her and got her through it. She is so sweet and loves our visits. She LOVES the plan and the gospel, and knows it's true. She's like my grandma away from home, we love her. It was so neat, she says "You know, I don't' think you get told this enough, but THANK YOU. You girls have changed my life. You work hard all day and not everyone listens, but I am just thankful you were able to help me" Moments like that make everything worth it! :) :) 

And the couple who got baptized in July, they are fantastic. They are on fire with the gospel, they are the most active people ever. They come to every church activity, She has 2 callings already, they go home and visiting teaching, they are working to get names to go to the temple with, and they have only been members barely a month! it's incredible! They love it. And we love them.

The attitude that people have down here is so funny. It's like "Well I believe in Jesus and God and I'm good, right?" They have no concept of Authority or organization or anything. They'll just find a church they like, the preacher they like, the music they like, or wherever is closest to them and go. They really don't have a testimony that that church is TRUE or has TRUE doctrine, they just go cause they like it. And that is what everyone does! It's crazy. I am so glad I know the Gospel is true, and has truly been restored to the earth in our day. Sister Wright is fantastic, I love her. We get along really well. ( sorry I haven't sent any pictures of her and I yet.. memory card got stolen. getting a new one today) but we were talking today about just how blessed we are to have the priesthood and temples! To know and not just guess that our families can be together in the next life! It's so incredible to KNOW that and have the fullness of the gospel. I know this church is truly God's church on the Earth. It's not just another church, it's not just one that has cool music or a cool pastor. Jesus Christ is the head of it and we have his Authority!

Another Week in the life

Hello Family and Friends! Hope you all had a great week! 

First of all.. we started on Facebook this week. It was weird. I thought it would be super distracting and strange. Sister Wright and I both were freaked out the first time and had everything typed in to sign in and just had to push the "sign in" button but we were super nervous and we were like one... two... three... GO! Ah.. so weird. So as you can see we are using a really edited version of our Facebook account, hopefully you can't see any of my old pictures or old posts. But it's wonderful! We have been using it to find a lot of people we have lost contact with or who have dropped off the map. We are still trying to figure out how to be productive, get referrals, and start teaching on Facebook. But I'm sure we'll figure it out. 

So we met this lady named Alex who seemed really nice and she wanted us to come back and teach her. When we went back though...we were thrown by the fact that her girlfriend answered the door. Yes, girlfriend. So we sit down to teach this lady and her girlfriend. And immediately they start asking so many questions about the Book of Mormon, and churches, and how they can know it's true, and then of course they got to the Church's stance on Gay marriage. The Member we were with didn't skip a beat and immediately testified of the divine nature of marriage between a man and a woman and how it is central to God's plan! They were intently listening. We talked more about the Book of Mormon, gave them a Family Proclamation to read, and they said they'd read it. We'll see if they let us back. But it was interesting. I know that the Family Proclamation is truly from God and that marriage between a man and a woman is the only way that God's plan for us to be here in families can be fulfilled! But people are wonderful and we are all children of God and of course we should show Christlike love to everyone! No matter what choices they make. 

FUNNY MOMENT::::::This week we have been teaching a Less Active family who got offended by some things people did a few years ago and have been Less Active for about 3 years. But they were fantastic, involved members for years and years before that! We helped them work through their issues. And they have a 9 year old son who hasn't been baptized who is so cute and we started teaching him. He's so funny. His name is Bradley. But we were asking him "Bradley, what can you do to prepare to be baptized?" He said "PRACTICE HOLDING MY BREATH!!"" HA HA. And he didn't want his older (18 year old) brother to baptize him. Because he knows he'll hold him under the water... Ha ha ha :) They are the sweetest family. But.... the older brother is going to Utah for college for the semester and won't be back till Christmas so they want to do the baptism in December NOOOOOOOO that's way to far! Trying to figure out how we nicely tell them to do it sooner... Satan is way too good and will work way to hard to not let that happen! We'll work on it. 

Unfortunately we had a few people who committed to come to church who didn't come yesterday... ahh....that was frustrating. But guess what. The church is true anyway! We've been finding a LOT of people to teach and not so many who are ready to commit. But we are working hard to find through the MEMBERS more because we know that is the most effective way to find solid investigators. 

Sister Wright and I gave a training on the Doctrine of Christ at Zone Meeting this week. We talked about how the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are how we truly change to become better. And return to live with our Heavenly Father someday.

P.S Transfers calls are this Saturday. If I get transferred I am going to miss Hunters ville so much! This is a fantastic ward with so many incredible members I have learned so much from.  

I know that God lives. I know he loves us. I am truly trying my best every day to bring souls unto him. To help people access the full blessings of the Atonement. I know that can only be done through faith, repentance, baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am trying to get better and to always find ways to do better! Be more obedient and more diligent, and be teachable. I do my best every day and leave to Heavenly Father the rest. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that with my whole heart. I am so glad to know that and I am so grateful to be blessed with this gospel in my life. I love you all! Thanks for all of the love and support :)

Another Great Week

Sorry everyone about my email not going through last week. The computer shut off right when I went to send. But all is well. Huntersville is a wonderful area and I love it. There are lots of miracles going on. We have this part member family who we always try but is gone a lot, and we went to their neighbors house and we knocked on the door of this lady named Netti. She was like "Yes, please come in!" This is pretty unusual... so we were a little surprised. We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel. She loved it. She said she had been looking for a church to go to, and she feels guilty every Sunday morning for NOT taking her kids to a church, she just hasn't found one that she likes yet. HELLO. Sister Wright and I were just smiling and so happy and excited. We talked to her about the restoration and she said she felt like Joseph Smith, searching for a church, and she wanted to ask God, like he did. So she knelt down and offered the most sincere prayer I have ever heard. The spirit was so strong. She teared up and she poured out her heart to her heavenly father. We are so excited to go back and teach her husband and her two kids as well! They should be at church on Sunday :) 

We are also teaching a part member, less active family. The Dad is a member, the Mom is not, and neither are the kids. The Mom takes the kids to Catholic church, and the Dad is LDS but doesn't go to either. He really has a strong testimony though and knows the church is true, he just doesn't want to go without his family. The wife wants him to go to church, even if it's not hers. And the kids are very open. They have met with missionaries before and have a few copies of the Book of Mormon laying around. We got them all to open them, commit to read them, and we showed Elder Holland's "Safety for the Soul" and it was so powerful! 

We met with another part member, less active family (there are so many in our ward. Like 15) that is wonderful. They have 3 kids, two of them have been baptized, one hasn't. Not really sure why they stopped going to church, still working on that and the 9 year old wants to be baptized. I think that will be a great segway to getting the family to come back to church. They are really a sweet family. And they have a son who is 18 and is decided whether go to on a mission, so we are going to bring our recently returned missionary in our ward with us to teach him. They are wonderful. 

Went on an exchange with the Concord sisters this week. They are wonderful. I was able to help the trainer, she was with me in Huntersville for the day. Her companion is very quiet and doesn't really talk when they get into lessons, and is really shy. We were able to work out some things we can do to help! I love being able to go on exchanges and learn so much from all 

the Sisters in the mission! It's wonderful. What a blessing of a leadership position. 

I went to my first Missionary Leadership Council this week. (For Mike, Dad, John, and Dave it used to be called Zone Leader Council, but now there are Sister Training Leaders so we go to it and it's called Missionary Leadership Council) and that was exciting. We had a whole day of training with President and Sister Craven, and the Assistants. Mostly it was on ONLINE PROSELYTING. Which is so exciting. 

I will be using Facebook, but just for proselyting purposes. I have to block all friends and family from home from showing up on my newsfeed. I will still be Facebook Freinds with you, but you will not show up on my newsfeed. So I will not see what you post. I still cannot message or instant message you, or look up your page or anything like that. Just basically work with Ward Members, Part Members, Less Actives, and Investigators in my area. And other missionaries in the mission. But it's really exciting and there is a lot of potential! Lots of people who we have fallen out of contact with, or part member families, less actives, feel a LOT more comfortable talking to you on Skype or Facebook than on their doorstep. So it's really exciting and I can't wait! :) :) Oh and we do not have Ipads yet, but we are just using Facebook at our library. 

So excited! I love being a missionary and how I am learning and growing so much. I know the Gospel is true. I know it changes lives. I know it's the only way to true peace and happiness in this life. I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers. I cannot believe how fast the mission is going by. In 2 months, I will be halfway done! Crazy! 

Love, Sister Forsyth