Another great week in Jacksonville! Time just seems to fly by I cant believe it's already pday again. Overall it's been a great week. Nadia and Max are scheduled to be baptized this upcoming Saturday, me and Elder Smith are pretty stoked for them.
We've had some crazy weather this week, North Carolina will be sunny one minute and then 5 seconds later the whole town is flooded. It makes for some good times though. We had some fun this week doing service at the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen is where homeless people come to get fed, this week I was put on duty as the dish boy. It's a good place to do service and we get to talk to lots of the other workers about what we do as missionaries. We also got to help the Hansen's throw up some sheet rock.
We had a few nights this week where nobody had signed up to feed us, so our ward mission leader, Brother Samuelu, had us over for dinner a few nights in a row. Brother Samuelu is one of the coolest guys I have ever met. He's a big polynesian man from Samoa and when you eat with them you eat like a king! Everytime your plate is empty they fill it back up. The other night I ate 4 massive steaks and a few bowls of rice. Brother Samuelu says I eat like a polynesian boy. He also has a super strong testimony and has devoted his entire life to sharing the Gospel and serving those around him.
The work this week was a little slow. Satan has definitely been working hard to stop the work, everyone has been trying to shut us down. The other morning Elder Smith and I were walking down the street toward a park. While we were walking a cop pulled us over and he told us that he had received complaint calls about Jehovah Witnesses bothering people. We tried to explain that we weren't JW's and that we hadn't talked to anyone yet, but he told us it was city law that we couldn't talk to anyone. So we just said ok and then he left and we headed toward the park. Well turns out the real JW's were at the park bashing with people. Then some Baptist guy came up and started tearing into our religion. After 15 minutes the guy finally got to his point that he would go to heaven for doing nothing, while us on the other hand would go straight to hell for following what we believe to be the doctrine of Jesus Christ. We smiled and shook his hand and listened to him yell as we walked away.
The rest of the week was a lot of rejection as well. Everyone out here seems to think they're a preacher or something. People have never read the Book of Mormon but their friend's mom's aunt's dog told them that they saw an article on the internet that it was written by the devil so they will never give it a chance.
All the Devils deception cannot and will not change the fact that the Book of Mormon is true. It testifies of Jesus Christ and it is proof that there Is a living prophet, leading and guiding Jesus Christs church on the Earth today.
As missionaries we may face a lot of rejection but some do listen. This week we taught a man named Dirk, he was willing to take the challenge to read from the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. In Doctrine and covenants 18 it says...
15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
Each person around us is one of our brother or sisters who is lost and needs the truth. It is our duty to share the Gospel with them whether they choose to accept it or not. Even if the one soul that we bring unto Christ is our own then we have succeeded.
And that is why I challenge everyone reading this email to read from the Book of Mormon daily, and to continue to ask God if it is true. I know its true. Put God first and put the things of the world second and the Lord will bless you. Life is short, and it's a time to learn and grow. Don't short change yourself.
With love,
Elder Forrest
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