Mary's Baptism

Hello Family and friends!! 

This week was great. We are continuing to work with the Stevens, our investigators who have a baptismal date for the 6th. She grew up in the church actually but never joined, but has known it's true for years. She's ready, she's just waiting on him. We fasted with the Ward Mission Leader yesterday to help him recognize his answer. 

Mary Putt, our sweet 75 year old lady, got baptized this week. It was wonderful! The ward was great and very supportive. It was pretty amazing, I taught her a few times in Lincolnton, and then she moved here, and I got transferred here so I got to keep teaching! Love it. Tender mercies. 

We are meeting with an older man named George, who we taught the Plan of Salvation. He loved it. He has been to a lot of churches, and used to be a minister. He taught Sunday school. He is from Canada actually so we have talked about that a lot! He's from Ontario. He says our church has answers he's never been able to find anywhere else, and it makes so much sense to him. He says he knows the Book of Mormon is true, and he doesn't need to pray about it. He 

wasn't able to make it to church this week, but he said he would come next week! 

One of our dinners cancelled this week, and it was meant to be because we went out to eat and our waiter asked us what church we worked for. We talked to him a little bit and invited him to come to church! He said he would and he actually came! He's Eli, a 19 year old black guy going to college. He loved church and said he would be baptized when he knows its true, and will read and pray and we're going back to teach him again with a boy in our ward who is just about to go on a mission, so it's great practice for him! 

Oh and for Mike I'll throw in a funny story. We taught this lady named Susan, who lived in the house a Less Active used to live in. She is a cat lady. We went in and looked at her couch, and it's not a couch, it's just cat hair. That's all you see. Everywhere. So we didn't sit there, we sat at the table. But the cats followed. They were on the table. And one was in my face when I was trying to testify about the Book of Mormon. Not a great teaching environment. My companion and I were coughing up hair (not literally, but it felt like it) when we came out. Gross. 

Oh and another funny story. My companion woke me up last night, she was praying in her sleep! She was praying that the people we would see would be home, and thanking Heavenly Father for the opportunity to take the sacrament. Ha ha. She's a great missionary, she even dreams missionary work! Pretty funny. 

We had a trainer/trainee meeting this week, and that was great! I've already been to 4 of those meetings. But they are always good, and you can learn a lot no matter how many times you hear it! It's like the scriptures. The Assistants were asking what advise I had to give as an "expert trainer" ha ha. Don't know about that one. 

The broadcast about missionary work was amazing last night, hope you all got to watch it! There are a lot of exciting things happening and the Lord is hastening his work! Our mission is one of the "test missions" for the "Facebook" use. We'll see how that goes! Not sure how soon exactly. 

I know the Gospel is true. I know Jesus Christ is the Savior. I know the Lord is hastening his work. I know without a shadow of a doubt the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and it changes lives.

Fun

Heyyy everybody! Hope all is well with you :)

Sorry my email last week didn't send. Don't really know what happened. So you get two emails today! Yay!!! :)

Things are going great. This week we have been working to get to know the members in the ward, since we are in a new area. We have been leaving members with this challenge in our dinners this week. (We are fed really well here, almost every night!) We leave them with 14 scriptures about missionary work to read every day for 14 days and pray about. They are also supposed to pray about who they could share the gospel with, and what they could do, and we follow up with them a week later and ask who they want to share it with, what they are going to do ( serve them, have them over to dinner, invite to church, etc) and then a week later ask how it went! So hopefully that will get the members excited about missionary work and will be successful. What have you done on your missions to invite people to do missionary work?

From Monday night-Tuesday night we had an "exchange" with the Sister Training Leaders. So Sister Miller came with me for the day, Sister Diaz went with Sister Bowman (who was my trainer who I love dearly) for the day. It was great. Sister Miller is actually going home this transfer so she has a lot of experience and advise that was really valuable! I want to be like her! She truly is a great missionary and I was grateful to have her here.

Wednesday we met with the Stevens, who have been to church 3 times. He has been hesitant to set a baptismal date. We're not sure why. He's been living the Word of Wisdom, reading, praying, coming to church, but something's missing. So we invited him to set a date and then pray about it. I gave the analogy of the farmers praying for rain, and one prepares his fields, and one doesn't. The one who prepares gets the rain! So hopefully he'll receive a sure witness that this is what he needs to do. His wife is ready to go though. She says she's ready she's just waiting on him. But we set a date for July 6th for them to be baptized!

Mary is doing well :) She's a 75 year old I taught a few times in Lincolnton who moved to Huntersville! It was kind of amazing, she moved here right as I got transferred here. So I got to keep teaching her. She wanted to get baptized there, but had a broken arm in a cast and couldn't. It's such a blessing to be able to teach her! She's so funny. We taught the "Law of Chastity" this week and she's like "Honey, you don't have to worry about that one. I'm not hiding anyone around here!" Ha ha. She came to church though and is GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!! Woot woot! It'll be awesome. We're excited :)

On Friday we had District Meeting, and then interviews with President Craven. President Craven was very emotional because his granddaughter had passed away, she was a stillborn baby a few days earlier and the funeral was that day. President and Sister Craven are incredible examples of strength and faith. I just thought of if that happened in our family, and if Dad was the one up there being strong. He's an incredible example of strength for us missionaries though. I look up to them so much. He gave an analogy of beans and pinecones in a bowl. He put the pinecones in the bottom, shook the bowl, and they always rose to the top. He talked about how we should always be "rising up" and getting better. He says if we don't do that, we can reach the end of our mission and look back having not changed at all! He says don't live a month of your mission, and repeat it 18 times, but try to do a little better every day! So in personal study, I set some goals on how I can do a little better everyday so I can look back at the end and see growth. :)

Also at the interviews, I heard that Charlene (the 9 year old i was teaching in Lincoln ton) got baptized last Saturday, all went well and that Susan ( who I was teaching in Lincoln ton) is geting baptized this saturday! How awesome. it's always good to hear things are going well. I love seing old companions and friends at meetings to! It's the best :):)

The Assistants worked out the car situation. So we are going 2 weeks with a car and 1 week without, car sharing between districts. So we'll be on bikes 1 out of 3 weeks. Not bad.

It's getting quite humid up here but I've been told it's just the beginning! Oh boy. It's alright though, we have a car and our area is only 5 by 5 miles, so we don't use a lot of miles, where as Lincoln ton was like 30 miles wide and we had to be super careful about miles!

Oh funny story for the week. We used a few miles yesterday, and we didn't realize we were low on gas. But we couldn't fill up on the Sabbath, so we went until the gas light went on, and then a little more. This morning we barely made it to the gas station and right when we pulled up the gas ran out. But i pulled up on the wrong side of where the gas tank was, so we had to use the hose on the other side and it was pretty funny. The guy at the gas station was laughing pretty hard.

Miracle story- we were looking for this less active, but she had moved. The lady who lived in the house though was nice. I REALLY had to go to the bathroom and we weren't near home, so I felt weird asking but I did. I asked her if we could use her bathroom and we went in and she was super nice and said she had been looking for a church! We will go back and teach her later :) God works in mysterious ways. Even if it is my bladder.


P.P.S we just found a bunch of Church History DVD"s we are approved to watch so last night I felt at home because after planning we made popcorn and watched "prophet of the restoration." on our little DVD player. I put a bunch of butter and salt on the popcorn just like Mom makes at home :) 

Sister Forsyth

Last week's email didn't send

Hey everybodyyyyy!!!!!!!

This week was AWESOME! We went around and got to know the Ward a lot. We met with a part member family, Brother Hand who recently got baptized and his wife isn't a member. We had a first discussion with her and have a return appointment! Her whole family is involved in this big methodist "Mega-church" and has been for generations. So coming to church will be a big deal for her!! But she said she's willing to give it a try!!

We met with Mary Putt again, she is the lady I was teaching in Lincoln ton (my last area) who moved here to Huntersville right when I got transferred! That was awesome. She's 75 years old and knows the Book of Mormon is true, and wants to get baptized. Before she had broken her arm, so she had a cast but now it's off and she came to church, and she's getting baptized on the 22nd!! Woot woot! She's so sweet.

We taught the Stevens again, the couple that the Elders were teaching before us. She says she knows it's true and she's ready to join the church but she's kind of just waiting on him! He says he doesn't have any reason to believe it's NOT true, he just wants to know for sure. So we told him to sincerely pray and read the Book of Mormon. He'll get his answer soon because he's so sincere! We are meeting with them again tomorrow so hopefully we'll be able to set a baptismal date.

We also met with this awesome couple Dale and Melissa who are also very involved in their church ( surprise surprise?!) but they seemed really nice and have a deep faith in Christ. They said they would read and pray about the Book of Mormon as well :)

I love how the Book of Mormon is so central to everything we do! Really that is the only question that investigators have to settle for themselves is whether that book is true. I know that it is.

In church we had extra time in Sacrament meeting, and so families who had missionaries out came up and gave "Missionary updates" and said how they were doing. It was cool to hear about everyone's service around the world. It's amazing how the work is truly the same everywhere!

We are in a car-share area with the Alexandriana Elders and so we get a car every other week. Yay for biking in a skirt! It's actually not that bad. I'm getting the hang of it. And the Ward is great about giving us rides places. Actually my area now is a lot smaller geographically than Lincoln ton was. It's only about 5 miles by 5 miles.

My companion is awesome. Love her. She's been a little sick this week but is feeling better!

We had Zone Meeting this week and Sister Diaz stayed and rested at a members house while another member gave me a ride and I went by myself. That was weird!! This picture is of Sister Bowman on my far left (My trainer) Sister Van Wagoner on my left, who was my companion in the MTC! She is getting transferred to the other mission though so it was sad to say goodbye to her. And Sister Miller on my right who has been out 17 months and she's going home!

I love being a missionary. Every day, no matter how good or bad, as long as I can go to bed saying I have done my best that day to invite people to come unto Christ, that's all I can do :) And every time someone doesn't want to or chooses not to listen, or especially when someone tries to explain why I am not right, it just confirms my testimony. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know God is hastening his work. And it's incredible to be a part of it.

4th Transfer!

Hello family and friends!!!!!! 

NO I am not in the new mission!! Still in Charlotte. 

Sorry I don't have long today. But I am in a new area, and it's great! On Tuesday I said goodbye to Sister Thacker and Sister Cowley ( who I trained in Lincoln ton for 2 transfers) and I went to the meeting, not knowing where I would be going! Transfers are always a neat experience. I am in the Huntersville ward now! It is great, and pretty well established. There were Elders here right before us, and now we are "whitewashing" the area, or opening it for Sisters. The Ward is super excited. We went to Bishop's house for dinner the first night, and as Mom and Dad saw, they have a trampoline in their house! We were bouncing on it and it was fun :) :) 

The ward has a lot of bankers, because Bank of America is headquartered in Charlotte. So there are a lot of BYU graduates, from the Business school, who were recruited out here. They call it a "Transplant ward" or one that has a lot of Utahns, and not as many people who were born and raised here. 

My companion is Sister Diaz. She's wonderful. She's from California, and she's half Mexican actually. Sweet. Half Mexican, half Canadian. We are quite the pair. :) 

We inherited two investigators from the Elders who had already been to church twice, and came again yesterday, and we are going to teach them tomorrow, and invite them to set a date for baptism! 

We helped a family move in on Saturday. It is a non-member family who had friends who were members in Arizona, and I guess there were 6 Elders in Arizona who moved their stuff into the moving van. They called us and asked us to help the new family move in on Saturday, but we thought the Ward new about it but apparently not, and they were expecting Elders, not sisters. So it was a surprise when we showed up. But we called the Elders Quorum president and the Lake Norman ( a different ward nearby) Elders to come help. Within an hour, we had about 6 people coming and helping them move! It was very hot, the humidity is starting to turn up!! But it was fun. They are a great family and hopefully we'll be teaching them soon. 

And a old lady I met and taught a few times in Lincolnton, moved here to Huntersville! I called her up and was like "HEYYY MARY!!"" She was surprised when I showed up at her door. We are teaching her again, and she wants to be baptized! She didn't come to church yesterday though so we'll see. 

OH and I almost forgot, we had mission tour on Thursday and David F. Evans ( the managing director of the Missionary Department) came and spoke to us!! It was great. Loved it. He talked about a lot of exciting things that are coming up but swore us to secrecy. Let's just say it's going to be cool, and they are experimenting with things that we may be the first group to test out! He talked a lot about missionary work and the announcement and he played "The Announcement" again and I felt all of those feelings again that I felt and it putme right back on my couch in Provo watching President Monson in my Pjamas listening to the announcement that changed my life :) 

Love you, the Gospel is true! Working hard, happy and healthy!

Transfers tomorrow, possible I change missions

Hello Family and friends! Today is P Day, because yesterday was memorial day and the library was closed.

Our investigators are doing great! Susan came to church, and she has a baptismal date. We had a lesson with her this week about the Word of Wisdom, and she threw away her cigarettes before we even got there to teach her the stop smoking lesson. She had already done it! It was awesome. I love her. She loves the Book of Mormon too, and is reading it like crazy and has lots of questions! It just shows the power and beauty that is in the book. I know it's truly from God, as I see people's lives change because of it.

Bishop came with us to see Bernard and his wife. He is the one who is friends with our Stake President. They came to church and loved it! They also love the Book of Mormon :)

And Charlene came to church with her Mom and is getting baptized on June 8th! Woot woot! She is so cute and she loves church.

On Saturday though, I got the call that I am being transferred!!!! Don't know where yet, but Sister Thacker and Sister Cowley are staying here in Lincolnton East and I am going to another new area with a new sister to train. I had kind of felt it all week though, almost like I knew it was coming so I tried to get Sister Thacker and Sister Cowley ready for it. Of course I will miss them, but they will do great!

If I get sent to a certain Zone, the Ashville Zone, it will be a part of the Knoxville, Tennesee mission! I could be going to a different mission today.. that's crazy. We'll see! That would be a big change, but I know I am here to serve, no matter where!

Mike mentioned he wants to hear more stories/ funny things that happen... uh..well yesterday we were visiting a less active named "Tim Putt" and we were praying in the car before we went in and Sister Thacker accidentally said "Tim BUTT" in her prayer and we all started laughing really hard. Silly moment of the week I guess..

Last Week of this (third) transfer!

Hello family and friends!

I love Heather's pictures from the Philipines, they are so cool! And Steve' pictures from Sweeden. It's amazing how we are all doing the same work, in different parts of the world! :) It's different in a lot of ways, but it's similar in some ways.

This week an investigator was out of town, so she wasn't able to come to church so we'll have to move her baptismal date. But she's still reading the Book of Mormon and so excited! She's visiting her Mom in West Virginia for two weeks. She called us last night though and told us she bought some skirts she could wear to church, and was asking questions about her Book of Mormon reading! She's so sweet. Yayyyyy!
 

We met with the daughters of the less active parents again and they are so sweet. The younger one said she hadn't read in the Book of Mormon much but the older one who is 11 told us how she felt the spirit when she read it and she loved it! I know that even children can feel of the spirit of it! She said she would read with her Sister. Aww :) And their other Sister who han't been interested before wants to have discusions with us too! YAY! They weren't able to come to church because of a camp this weekend but hopefully next weekend! 

We saw the Less Active family we're working hard with, again, that we have been trying to meet with FOREVER. They got married in the temple about 12 years ago and have been not active ever since. The Mom works, but the Dad just boats on Sundays. When we got there he was like "I'm not coming back to church just so you know." We shared a message with him and his daughters though, and his sweet 7 year old girl started reading the Book of  Mormon and was like "Wow, this is true!" We were like "How do you know that?" She's like "Because it talks of Jesus and it's good. It makes me feel good." She read from it in her cute 7 year old voice and her father started tearing up. I think he knows he needs to come back! At the end we committed them to read and the Dad said he would. We weren't going to mention church because he had been so defensive about it earlier but his daughter jumped up and was like "SOOOO WHEN'S CHURCH?!? DADDY CAN WE GO PLEASE PLEASE!!!" :) It was awesome! Hearts are softening! Children are the key to bringing a lot of these Less Active families back :) Children are so close to the spirit!

We had a Zone Conference on Thursday and it was most of the day. I love zone conferences/district meetings! Being around other missionaries is just so great. President Craven talked all about planning and how to effectively "Plan with a purpose" instead of "scheduling". We have been trying to apply it, planning with the Spirit seeing where we can go and who we could see the next day instead of just "scheduling."

We did meet with Charlene again, she's the 9 year old daughter of the less active (who has been coming for the past month so is no longer less active) :) and she's good for her baptismal date of the 8th of June! Her grandpa is an active member and he's going to baptize her :) :)

And the one Sister's husband is softening again. It was his birthday this week so we took him balloons and his favorite cookies :) She said it made his day! Awesome!

We did do a "MTC night" with the youth for mutual this week. We did different stations where they could practice different aspects of being a missionary. It was super fun! They loved it. The Young Women's president said one of the young women in the ward told her after it helped her consider going on a mission :)

We met with the couple who is friends with our Stake President and it went really well! They were really facinated and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. They are funny and it was fun teaching them. We called our Stake President about coming with us to an appoitnment with them (even if he doesn't live in our ward)... They weren't able to come to church this Sunday, but we have an appointment with them again on Tuesday! They said they'd be baptized when they knew it was true, and they wanted to come and try it out!

We are continuing to work hard! Transfers are next week, we'll get the call on Saturday about whose staying and whose going! We'll see!!!!

Thanks for all of the love and support!