week 4 in Jville

Another great week here in Jacksonville NC!

The week started off great with zone conference. Some big things are happening in our mission with the recent visits of several apostles and the temple open house coming up soon. Zone conference we talked a lot about the plan for the temple open house, and it has been said that it will be the greatest and most significant missionary opportunity in North Carolina for decades to come. Elder Smith and I even talked the Bishop into renting a few buses to bus nonmembers and people without transportation up there. But our main focus has been meeting with every single family and inviting them to make a list of people that might have interest in going.

This Saturday the Rivera family got married and baptized! We are so happy for them. After the baptism we played volleyball with them in the church gym, one of the greatest and most memorable moments of my mission so far. I also had the opportunity to confirm Max in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was a great experience for me and will definitely never forget it.

We were able to get a lady we are teaching, Carolyn, on date for baptism for the 24th of this month! She also wants her granddaughter to be baptized the same day as her! Carolyn is so awesome, she has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and she is so ready to be baptized.

North Carolina has the biggest cockroaches! We were outside our apartment waiting for a ride and I felt something on my neck. I looked over and I kid you not there was a 4 inch cockroach on my shoulder! Little guy was fast too

But overall the week has been great, we started teaching a man named Joe who is friends with a member in the ward. Super cool guy, he's a pilot for the marines. We also met a guy named Eddie who we started teaching. The people here in Jacksonville are great and the Lord is definitely preparing these people to receive the Gospel.

At zone conference President played us a video of a man, John Tanner. John Tanner read the Book of Mormon and knew it was true, but he couldn't be baptized because his leg was severely damaged. Through the power of the priesthood his leg was healed allowing him to be baptized. After his baptism John Tanner proceeded to follow every command that was given him by the Lord and through the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was a very rich man who gave everything he had, and made huge sacrifices to support the Lords church and to spread the gospel. He ultimately was called on a mission and left his wife and children to go and preach the gospel with nothing but a backpack.

I also recently finished reading "Saints". The early saints of the restored church made so many sacrifices and went through so much persecution for what they believed in and it has blessed our lives today. We have it easy, the Lord has given us all the resources we need to bless our lives and the lives of our family.

The Lord doesn't ask much of us today. The sacrifices we are asked to make are nothing in comparison to the sacrifices the saints before us were asked to make. And as we make those small simple sacrifices for the Lord it strengthens our testimonies and the Lord blesses us.

Love

Elder Forrest

Awesome tie Julia Taylor made for me.

I wore it to church on Sunday.