11/22/2010 My First Baptism!

Well, I had my first baptism this week! It was a neat experience. I baptized a 12 year old boy named Luciano. He´s a little special needs and has learning difficulties, but he had been going to church for a little while and was really liking it. The baptism was a super good thing for him. Because he´s a little slow, its easy for him to get tricked into doing bad things, so with friends in the church, he´ll be much better off, and will be led on the right course. It was really fun teaching him. At the same time that we baptized him, my district also baptized a family. This family was awesome. They weren´t married before, but because they had really strong testimonies of the church they got married and now the whole family is really active in the church. When Luciano saw them get baptized first, he got kind of nervous. He was afraid of the water and said, ´I´m not going to do that...´ I told him, ´You´ll only be in the water for a second. I´ll make sure we do it right the first time so we don´t have to repeat it.´ When I baptized him everything went perfect. I put him deep in the water just to make sure, but then afterwards Elder Cook asked, ´Did his arms come up? I was just watching the feet´ and I just said, ´It was good! We don´t need to repeat it!´ The baptism was all around good.
A few people have been asking me for a cool story about a miracle or something on the mission, but right now it´s kind of hard for me to think of anything. I haven´t had any close calls getting hit by cars yet, or crazy conversion stories. The work is just moving along. I´m really thankful to be out here serving. We had a few weeks this transfer without investigators coming to church, but this week we had 6 or 7.T hat was a blessing. Transfers are this week, but I´m thinking I will stay here in Mamanguape for one more transfer. President Hall told me that Mamanguape needs a pianist.
I have photos from the baptism, but they´re on a different camera and they´re not loading up right. i have a couple photos of my Christmas melon that I made though.
One thing I can tell you for sure about mission work is that it changes peoples lives. When someone really has a testimony, they´ll do whatever it takes to follow Christ´s example. Everyday we invite people to ask God if the church is true, and the change is amazing after they receive this answer. The family that was baptized this week was a great example. They live 30 minutes from the church, and they´re the only family in their city that are members, but every week the whole family finds a way to church without a car, and they´re making changes like getting married, and baptized and confirmed. President Hall came to the branch this Sunday to help confirm them. You can just tell by looking at them that they´re happier now, and their family is stronger too. You´ll always be happier when you´re living how you know is right.
I love you guys, and I hope everything goes well with Thanksgiving, I wish I was there! But not really. I know it´s more important for me to be here right now. I´ll think of you when I´m eating rice and beans and chicken.

Love, Elder Forsyth

11/15/2010

Hey!

We´ve been working super hard this week, but we haven´t seen much improvement in our area. We walked to 10 peoples houses Sunday morning, and none came to church.It´s really bad when you don´t get people to church, and we really haven´t brought an investigator to church in 3 weeks. It´s really frustrating, but I´ll just stay patient, and do what I can.

With one new investigator, we taught the first lesson, then taught him how to pray, then asked him if he would pray for us before we left. He said sure. Usually our investigators need help their first time praying, so we speak and they repeat, but this man said he didn´t need that. We kneeled, and he started to pray. It was a really quiet mumble, and it started getting quieter and quieter until it stopped. We kneeled for 5 minutes, then Elder Cook asked, still praying? he nodded yes. 5 more minutes of silence later we asked again, finished? He shook no. We were on our knees 10 more minutes after that waiting, then Elder Cook just said, AMEN. And the investigator also said, amen...whew.... we had been on our knees for 20 minutes, and I think the whole time he had been waiting for us to finish his prayer.O ur knees were sore afterwards.

the other night we were walking home and walked past a hooker in the street. she said she was willing to give me a deal because i´m tall, thin, white, and hansome (her words not mine). her price was 2 reais. that´s equal to a dollar. it was kinda gross. i didn´t realize you could get an STD for so cheap. needless to say, we joked about the experience for the rest of the week.

Today we didn´t get much of a p-day because we had to clean the church with the elders quorum. I have a few photos from that, but I think I´ll send them next week.

I love you guys, and I´m thankful for all your emails and letters and prayers. It really means a lot to me. I haven´t heard much from any of my friends in Pleasant Grove. I don´t have any of your email addresses, or normal addresses, so shoot me a line, and i´ll definitely reply.

Love, Elder Forsyth

11/8/2010

Mom told me not to kick any frogs, but I didn´t get the email until it was too late. It was super funny though. It was pretty late at night, and there was a huge frog in the road. This frog was a little bigger than both my fists put together. Elder Lima and Elder Souza were walking in about 30 feet in front of me, and I just nailed this frog. It went spinning in the air like a helicopter, then hit Elder Souza in the back! In the moment, it was so funny! The frog hopped away, but I couldn´t stop laughing for 30 minutes straight. I´ll try not to kick any more frogs.

This week was Elder Cook's birthday. We made him pancakes and eggs for breakfast, then we had a festa with cake and ice cream a couple days later. I´ll attach some pics.

Man, the other day we had a weird lesson. The day was kinda slow, and so we were doing door to door contacts. Some lady who was totally plastered opened the door and invitied us in. I said, dude, this chick is totally wasted (in English so the lady wouldn´t hear), and Elder Cook said, I know, but we can still teach them! I said, I guess you´re right, but you´re nuts... it was basically an excuse to get out of the sun for a few minutes. We sat down and started talking with this lady. She had a husband home who was even more drunk. We started teaching the 3rd lesson, which is about the gospel of Christ. (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end). It was tough because they kept rambling about weird things, but in the end we invited them to come to church. The lady said, I like my church, because we can drink if we want, we can smoke if we want, we can do this if we want, we can do that if we want.... I was about to say, ´ você pode ir para inferno se você quer...` you can translate that online if you want, but I think you can catch my drift.

I still haven´t had much luck in the area of baptism yet. Nildinho still won´t come to church, and Rafael, who I though was really great, is talking with different pastors now, who are totally ruining our work. It's annoying. I know that all the other churches have part of the truth, but really, as a missionary I´m finding that every other church is just a stumbling block on the true road to salvation. It's frustrating, but you can´t do much about it. Our other investigators are doing well. I´ll just continue working hard. The language is coming along still. I´m comfortable talking with people, but I still get lost a lot if the conversation isn´t about the church.

I love you guys, and i hope you have a great week.

love, Elder Forsyth

11/1/2010

I´ve finally got a few photos to send you. we took these last night.

Halloween was pretty fun. We all dressed up like missionaries and went to church. We have 3 investigators ready for baptism, but none of them came today. With any luck we´ll baptize Nildinho, Rafael, and Maria José this next week. I hope so anyway. We´ve been trying with Nildinho for more than a month now. He just needs to show up for his own baptism, but he keeps blowing us off. I need to find out what his problem is. I feel like the missionaries in my area aren´t very good at finding people's problems and solving them. Instead, if an investigator has a problem they get dropped because we have a lot of other people here who will hear our message. Right now our messages are really rehearsed. Partially because of the language barrier, but even the Brazilians just spew out rehearsed messages. That´s not preaching my gospel at all, and I´ll work on changing that. Lessons are supposed to be personal to the investigator, unique to their situation. I was talking to Elder Jay about this. Elder Jay spent 2 months in Texas waiting for a visa, so he knows a lot more about what teaching by the spirit means. He doesn´t know the language yet though, so when I had to go on a split with him it was kinda tough. All of the leaders had training, so I was left with Elder Jay who only has 3 weeks in Brazil. It was fun though. I learned a lot from him. We taught by the spirit, even though we weren´t great at the language.

Yesterday was the end of presidential elections here. There were huge parties in the streets, so we came home 30 minutes early. The elections here are nuts.

Lost in translation: here are just a few things that are a little weird about the language:

when they say push (puxe), they really mean pull
assistir=attend
attender=assist...more or less confusing.

I´d like to thank the family for the things they sent this week. I liked the pictures from the baptism, and of Halloween. Dad´s grouch costume was great :) I can´t believe a term of school is already over.... I haven´t been on a mission that long yet. I still feel like I´m the new guy here, having problems with the language and all. I guess I have been here a while though. Estou pensando en Portugues já, and I´m starting to dream in Portuguese a little bit, but I can´t tell when I am because Portuguese doesn´t feel like a foreign language anymore. It just feels like an accent. It´s weird to describe. I never thought learning a language would feel like this. Sometimes it´s a little strange after a day of only Portuguese to speak a little English, because a lot of little filler words from Portuguese slip into the English, like ainda (still/yet), and já (already), and sempre(always), and assim (likewise? it doesn´t translate directly all the time). Yeah, so just so you know the language is coming along. Most of the people I talk to say they weren´t as far along as me after one transfer, but still it´s tough and frustrating. I just want to be fluent already.

Elder Cook is a goob. I like him a lot as a companion and a friend. He´s from Idaho, but he only speaks Portuguese :) because of this I've been learning a lot faster, and I´m thankful. He´s a drummer like me, and he was on a pro jump rope team. He´s the blondie in the pics. We talk a lot in the streets, and work really hard. I wish my trainer would have been more like Elder Cook, but things happen for a reason. I feel like here every problem is literally a test from our heavenly father. When I´m done with one problem I move on to another, and from every problem I lean something new, and adjust my personality a little bit to be more like Christ. I love being able to take all my worldly problems and see the spiritual side of them.

Sorry if I´m starting to ramble a little bit. I feel like I had a little extra time today to write. Maybe this computer wasn´t as slow as my others. I love you guys, and I hope if you have any questions for me that you will ask. I´ve almost hit the 4 month mark of my mission! That means I´m 1/6 of the way done. I don´t know how it is at home, but for me things are going by really fast. I love you all!

Love, Elder Forsyth

You're going to be jealous!

I´ll get to why you´re going to be jealous in a sec.

I love my new comp! We talk a lot in the street, and are getting to be good friends. His name is Elder Mike Cook. He´s from Idaho Falls. He plays the drums like me, and he´s on a professional jumprope team too. I´m not sure exactly what that means, but he says he can do some cool things with a jump rope. Whatev..haha. I haven´t really heard him speak English yet. This whole week we´ve spoken only in Portuguese, and it´s helping my language skills so much. Just because of this week I´m thinking in Portuguese now. I feel like I´m getting stupid though, because all of my thoughts have become really simple; only using the words I know. When I do speak in English I accidentally substitute Portuguese words in a lot. It´s exciting. I´m learning so fast. I can almost literally see changes daily in my confidence in speaking the language. It shouldn´t be long until I start dreaming in Portuguese. We´ll have to see how that goes.

As the saying goes, you don´t know what you´ve got until it´s gone. It turns out that with Elder Snow I had a pretty trunky missionary. In Brazil we have a word, ´fubeca´, I think that's how you spell it. It basically means a lazy missionary. With Elder Cook I´ve been working way harder, and it feels great. Within two days we talked to the same number of investigators I had for 6 weeks with Elder Snow, plus we made a ton of contacts. I´m almost positive that we will baptize this transfer. Probably a family or two. I think it´s pretty rare in our mission to go a whole transfer without baptizing, but that's what happened with Elder Snow. We still have one boy, Nildinho, ready for baptism, but he didn´t come to church again this week. We´ll have to try AGAIN next week. It´s been a solid month I think of trying to get him to come to church. The problem is that he wants more friends to come with him. I think we can bring all his friends to church next week. That would be super nice, because then his friends could see his baptism and join the church too.

Although Nildinho didn´t come to church, we did get one other lady, and I was so impressed by the members. They took her to all the meetings and sat by here and were way friendly! You don´t see that everyday with the members here. I bet Amber can testify of that. We can probably continue to teach this lady through the week, and maybe baptize her next Sunday if things go right with all the commandments. I don´t know if she is married or not.

Funny story/sad story- we were walking down the street and there was a big frog in the road. Elder Cook said, "Have you ever seen a frog fly before?" I said, "Nope" and then he kicked the frog. It flew way up high in the air spinning like a helicopter, then landed about 100 feet away. I started to laugh really hard, and asked, "Why did you do that?" and he said, "Frogs never die. You can do what ever you want to them and they´ll always hop away." We walked up to the frog he kicked, and he said it would still be alive, but it was pancaked flat in the dirt with its legs sprawled out. I started to laugh even more. I don´t know why. He said, "Oh, it´s just knocked out. It will jump away later." and then we walked away. I don´t think my moms will like this story. sorry...

alright. so now i can tell you why you´re going to be way jealous.

ready?

Elder David A Bednar came to my mission today. He came to Joao Pessoa and we had a training with him. It was so cool! I was sitting on the second row of a chapel listening to a prophet speak! He asked us questions about learning by faith, and then we got to ask him questions. He was funny and nice, and gave some great council. He said when we ask the Lord for things, we need to ask with the intent to act. He gave a lot of examples that were great, and he bore a firm testimony that the Father and Son live, that they have tangible bodies of flesh and bone. I know that he is a special witness of Christ.

I too have a testimony that this work is true. Ben said he liked how Amber and I tag on mini testimonies at the end of letters. I didn´t always recognize I was doing it, but here, no matter who we talk to, we bear testimony of a truth, and commit them to do something. Like go to church, or read the Book of Mormon. I hope that you will all follow the council of Elder Bednar. Pray with intent to act. A lot of times we pray for answers then wait for them to appear. This is hypocrisy and shows lack of faith. Our prayers will be answered as we diligently try to seek out the answers.

I love you, and hope you have a great week. sorry i don´t have photos again.

love, Elder Forsyth

Letter of Oct 11, 2010

Not a ton has happened since I last wrote, but I´ll try to find some cool things to tell you about, and I´ll try to send a video.

In my house we have some gecos that live with us. They´re pretty cool.

I made up my own recipe for banana pancakes. They turned out well, and I made a lot of pancakes this morning :) They were delicious. Thanks Mom Annette for getting me that mapoline stuff.

I don´t think Brazilians have that much ingenuity. They copy a lot of stuff from the states. All their music and movies are pirated from the us, and if its not a direct copy, then its an American song turned salsa with Portuguese lyrics. It´s funny. All their shirts have English on them, but a lot of the time the words are spelled wrong. One of our investigators, Nildinho (nil-gene-yo) has a shirt with a soccer ball on it that says `word cup`. I think its funny, but he doesn´t have a clue.

We were going to baptize Nildinho this week, but he didn´t come to church again :( It makes me sad. I might get transferred next week, and I want to have at least one convert before I go. We have 3 people who would be eligible for baptism if they would just make the decision. We have a grandma and an 18 year old boy praying about baptism right now. I think we´ll baptize the 18 year old and Nildinho this next week. I´m good friends with both of them. The grandma has only heard one lesson, but she watched conference last week and enjoyed it, so if she decides to be baptized we can teach all the lessons and have it ready for next week.

This week my district leader invited all the missionaries to bear their testimonies. I was up by the organ, so I raced to the pulpit and bore mine first. I said, `Meu nome é elder Fôrçai. So um missionario novo. Eu tenho 3 mezes no Brazil. Estou aprendendo a lingua agora. Esta dificil, mas eu se que por nossos provaçãos podemos crecer e aprender. Eu se que a igresia é verdideira, e que o livro de mormon é verdideiro tambem. Eu se que por oração podemos receber força, e que por obediencia podemos receber bensãos e voltar viver com Deus de novo. este é meu testimunho no nome de Jesus Cristo. Amen.´

This time my testimony felt different. I wasn't saying what I believed, I was just stating true facts; like there wasn´t a question in my mind. It felt good. Afterwards an RM bore testimony that the gift of tongues exists and used me as an example. The members were really impressed with me and wanted to shake my hand and congratulate me. I felt really good. I know that God could have allowed me to learn Portuguese instantly, but he had something else he wanted to teach me, like patience. After I bore my testimony I got the feeling that I´ve learned what I needed to learn from this trial, and that things are going to start to get better now. I´m becoming more confident in the language. I contribute to conversations from time to time, even though I don´t always understand completely what´s going on. I think things are going to start improving really fast now.

I hope the video I´m uploading works. It´s just a 20 second clip in my room. I didn´t take any cool new photos this week. Next week will be a new transfer, so I should have a lot to talk about. I´ll probably have a new companion. Maybe a Brazilian one. Who knows. I love you all a lot. Thanks for your letters and prayers. If you have any questions for me be sure to let me know!

Love,

Elder Forsyth

Letter of Oct 4,2010

This week has been fine. I received a couple of letters from siblings which made me super happy. I saw most of conference, except priesthood. I saw it in English and I loved it a lot; especially a couple of President Uchdorf's quotes. I´m sure a lot of you are wondering right now what this story has to do with airplanes... I laughed so hard. Before the talk I placed a bet with Elder Lima that he would say the word airplane in his talk, and that quote was the first time he said airplane and I cracked up. I also liked when he was talking about fundamentals, and lost his voice, and he said, "My voice is one of the fundamental things I must have!"

Transfers are over in 2 weeks. Today I´m making rootbeer and pancakes because we only have one p day left. I think my trainer and I will get split up next transfer, so this couple weeks will be my last with him. Either he´ll go or I will. Do you guys have a good pancake recipe? Even if you do I dont know if I would have the ingredients. I couldn't find baking soda or corn syrup. My pancakes will be flour, butter, milk, sugar, and whatever else I can throw in. Maybe bananas. Wish me luck. I hope they turn out. If they taste crappy I´ll just cover them in home made syrup and I´m pretty sure at least that will taste good.

I love you guys. I´m uploading some photos; from the statue last week and just random stuff. self explanatory I think. The spell check on this computer is in Portuguese, so it marks every word in English wrong. I hope my spelling isn´t that bad.

Not much else has happened this week. We were going to baptize Nildinho, but he didn´t come to conference. Next time he comes to church we can baptize him I think, but right now it doesn´t look like he will be very active. We have another investigator that looks promising though. His name is Rafael. He came to almost every session of conference. He knows a lot about the Bible, and wants to be a missionary, but we´ve only taught him the restoration, and he thinks he´s already been baptized. We have a lot to teach him, but he lives 40 minutes away walking, so every teaching appointment is usually a 3 hour commitment. We´ll see how things go. I want to have at least one solid convert this transfer. I feel like once I know the language I´ll convert everybody! I want so bad to be the best missionary, but I have to learn a lot of things first. I´ll try my best, and try to be an example of diligence and patience. Over the the past few weeks I´ve gained an increased testimony of the Book of Mormon. This book is true, and no one will ever disprove it. I think it's funny when people claim its false, because their claims are so ridiculous. If anyone reading this has any doubt about the Book of Mormon, I want them to ask me, or better yet ask God. The Book of Mormon is the most important book in this life, because if you know the Book of Mormon is true, then you know Joseph Smith was true, and that the true church of Christ was restored. And with that comes a testimony that Christ is our Savior, and that through him all is possible, even immortality and eternal life. I hope you all enjoyed my testimony this week. Continue to write. I love you. My time is up now, so until next week! Love, Elder Forsyth

missão celestial!‏

Things haven't changed much since I last wrote. The language is still hard. Now I can recognize most of the words people say to me, but still they don´t have much meaning. I have to translate them into English in my head before I can feel their meaning. I´ll keep working hard. Right now I´m a sponge immersed in Brazilians. I think I smell like a Brazilian now. I don´t think it's a bad smell; it´s just a unique smell. I think it comes from eating rice and beans every day. You begin to sweat it out through your skin.

I had a cool experience with prayer the other day. It was about 7pm, and Elder Snow and I were trying to get to Rio Tinto to meet with our district leader. You either need to ride a bus, or find a driver to pay, or take a taxi, or hitch hike; usually you try to find a ride in that order. This night, the buses weren´t coming around, and we couldn´t find a driver or a taxi, so we were trying hard to hitch hike or something. We didn´t know what we were going to do. After about 20 minutes at the bus stop looking for rides, I said, "Elder Snow, keep your eyes open, I´m going to pray." Then after I prayed a tour bus came around the corner. It was a nice one with air conditioning and soft reclining seats, and they let us ride to Rio Tinto for free. I was smiling for an hour after that.

Today we went to a big statue in our zone. It was of a Catholic friar I think. If I can, I´ll try later tonight to send pictures. It was a pretty cool thing.

I hope everyone enjoys conference. I´m really excited for it because I think I might get to see it in English. I miss English. I just haven´t had a good conversation in English in a realllly long time. All of my conversations are just what needs to be said. They're never profound or personal. I feel like I would be a great missionary if I could just learn the language! Right now I´m putting in a lot of work, and not getting much to show for it, but I know the blessing are coming soon. If the blessings aren´t coming to Brazil, then they´re probably going to my family back home, so keep your eyes out for them! I love you all. Thanks for your letters and your love.

Mamanguape

:) Mamanguape is a cool area :) I´m enjoying it. It´s pretty hot, but not unbearable. All of the roads are either dirt or paved with stone. My first few days here it rained quite a bit, but my companion, Elder Snow, said that it doesn´t rain here very often. I´ve seen tons of plant and animals here. Everything is green, and there are tons of stray cats and dogs. I´ve seen a lot of lizards, frogs, cows, horses, goats chickens, and birds. So far all of the people here have been really accepting of our message, but Elder Snow says its not always like that; we´ve just had a lucky streak lately I guess. We teach a few lessons everyday, and right now we have a lot of investigators, but it´s tough to get them to come to church. This week we tried getting all of our investigators to come, but we only got a handful of kids, which made us a half hour late. One of the kids brought a puppy with him, which was frustrating. We tried tying it up outside the church, but it just cried, so we sent him into primary and then gave his dog away to another family up the street that looked like they would really take care of it. I don´t think puppies are too hard to come by here, and the boy wasn´t sad that we gave his dog away.

The language here is a lot harder than I expected. People in the north talk especially fast, and have an accent that I don´t recognize. I´m practicing a lot, but it will be a while before I can communicate well. I just don´t talk very much right now. I have a little memorized part that I share in each lesson about the restoration, then I let my companion do the rest. Right now there are elections in Brazil, so there are huge trucks with tons of speakers blasting music about the candidates driving around all the time. They are super loud and super annoying, and they always drive by at the worst times, like when you´re trying to teach an investigator how to pray, and you´re trying to whisper in his ear what to say next...

I got kinda jealous when I heard that Ben got to baptize someone before I did, so I made up for it this week by baptizing two people :P They weren´t people that I taught. They were converted by two Brazilians in my district, but they wanted me to do the ordinance. It was difficult, because the two men had really difficult names for me to pronounce, and I had to hurry and memorize the prayer in Portuguese. I kept trying to ask one of the men to step forward in the font, but he didn´t understand what was happening, and he was trying to dive into the water before I could say the prayer. It made me smile :) It's tough to baptize grown men in shallow water, but everything went fine, and it was a good experience for me.

Here they don´t usually eat three meals a day. The people with money usually only eat two, so we end up having huge lunches everyday. Yesterday at lunch I probably ate twice as much as I should have. I was stuffed, but I kept craving more food, so I kept eating. I think that's the definition of binging, but it felt really good. We get 150 reais twice a month to buy what we need. I think that's probably more than Amber, and the food here is pretty cheap. A good meal is probably 5 reais, and you can get more bread than you can eat for one meal.

I´m going to try to send some pictures of the MTC, and my first week in Mamanguape. The cartoon is of my instructors, and the other is of my whole district.

I'm a REAL Missionary now!

Well, for the past 9 weeks I´ve felt like a fake missionary. Fake contacting and fake lessons all day long. The last week in the MTC felt like one of the longest. We did our last fake lesson on Saturday, and that went well, and then on Monday we took a lot of pictures and said all of our goodbyes. It was sad to leave all my friends that I´d grown close to over the last two months. I think it was harder to leave some of them than to leave from Pleasant Grove, because all of my friends and family in Pleasant Grove I knew I would see again, but I don´t have that guarantee with any of my friends here in Brazil. Yesterday morning I got up at 5am and went to the airport at 6am. For breakfast I had a cold cheese and butter sandwich, and juice that tasted like melted popsicles :P I´m glad that I don´t have to eat the MTC food anymore. I flew with some Brazilians and Sister Olney, first to Recife, then to Joao Pessoa. The flight was actually pretty quiet. When we got to Joao Pessoa our president was there waiting. His name is President Hall, and he´s an amazing guy. Super friendly and very spiritual. He took us back to the mission office where we had grilled cheese and more juice, and we had some orientation. There I got my current companion. His name is Elder Snow. He´s 22, and he´s from Santaquin. He seems kinda shy, but he´s really nice, and he is going to teach me a lot. Pres. Hall said that Elder Snow is a special missionary, and he was inspired to pair me up with him for a specific purpose. I´ll keep my eyes open for what I need to learn. After orientation we went back to the President's house and had tacos :) Brazil doesn´t have tacos, so all the new missionaries, including the Brazilians, were pretty excited. We took pictures there, and had a short testimony meeting. I can´t wait until I can actually speak what I feel in Portuguese. I have so much more of a testimony than I can say. I feel like my testimony is growing daily, about tons of different aspects of the gospel.

After the testimony meeting we went back to the Moroni house. We had 28 elders sleeping there! It was pretty hot and humid. I slept on the balcony. This morning I got up and came to my zone. I´m living in Mamanguape. It's just 40 minutes north of Joao Pessoa. I feel like I'm inside the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Plants grow everywhere, and its just all around a cool place. I´ll try to send pictures as soon as I can, but that might end up being Monday.

From now on my p-days are on Mondays and I have an hour to mail. It feels so nice to actually be able to write a full letter! and read a few emails too. I´ll let you all know as soon as I start baptizing people :) I love you all and hope you´re having great fall weather. It´s going to be between 80 and 100 degrees year round around here :P I´m enjoying it today though!

New mailing address as of Sept. 7th, 2010:

New mailing address as of Sept. 7th, 2010:

Elder Jacob Forsyth
Brazil Joao Pessoa Mission
% R. Deputado Jose' Mariz, 515
Tambauzinho
58042-020 Joao Pessoa - PB
Brazil

Last Week in Sao Paulo

Man, the MTC has been great, and I´ve learned a lot of things, but I´m kind of excited to leave. I´ve been sitting in the same classroom 8 hours a day for the past two months and I´m ready for a change :) Joao Pessoa is going to be so different in so many ways. There will be sun, and heat and I won´t be hanging out with 200 missionaries everyday; just one. There will probably be more bugs, and different food. I´m looking forward to walking around a lot more and losing the 20 pounds I put on here. I think the last time I weighed myself I was 177 pounds. I think I´ll loose it pretty quick though; especially if I get some sort of tape worm :P haha. I don´t think I will, but it could happen ya know.

This week we went into the middle of Sao Paulo and handed out Books of Mormon. It was a ton of fun. People here are really nice. I´m definitely not fluent in Portuguese, but I was able to have good conversations with everyone I met. Elder Anderson and I handed out 5 books and met a lot of nice people. Usually we start our all our conversations with, "Do you believe in Christ?", and they´ll always turn around at least to say, "yes", but the last man we talked to said "no", and it totally changed the direction of our conversation. He was interested to hear what we had to say about God and prophets and the bible and the Book of Mormon, and we ended up giving him a copy of our book. It was really cool. Today was our last p day, so I bought a few books at the temple, and a Brazil jersey up the street. I cant wait to see what cool things I´ll find in the north.

I want my brothers and sisters to write and tell me how school is going. Ben is the only one who has written me in 2 months! What is this! Thanks so much for your love and support. I´ll try my best to represent the family well here in Brazil, and I´ll try to make my next email more exciting! A lot will happen this week! I love you all lots.

Holy Cow!

Holy cow! I´m almost done with the MTC! I only will write from the dumb MTC lab computer one more time, and then I´ll be in Joao Pessoa. I fly out from here on September 7th. If you want to send me any more letters you´ll need to start sending them to Joao Pessoa, because they take about 2 weeks to get to me. My MTC time went by so fast... I don´t remember my Joao Pessoa address, so check my blog for it. ( if someone would send me an email to remind me of it I´d appreciate it.) A lot of Brazilians here think my companion looks like my brother. I think its funny. I´ll send you some pictures in a couple weeks. Amber was wondering if I´ve learned to snap like a Brazilian. The answer is yes. I don´t know how to describe it, but it´s kinda cool. I went to the Campinas Temple today. A ton of Campinas missionaries were there, but not Amber :( I met her mission president though. He told me Amber is a great missionary, and is making the family proud. I´m having a great time here. Not a lot of new things have happened. I love my new Brazilians. One is white with blond hair and blue eyes. He speaks pretty good english too. We learn a lot from each other. His ancestors are from Italy. He´s funny, because he knows a ton of slang words. He´s constantly saying things like, "Is the word 'crap' a swear word?", and I have to answer, "No, but you probably shouldn´t use it that much." I love it. Thanks for all your love and support. I love being a missionary. I´ve really begun to enjoy doing hard things, because then when medium things come up, they feel easy :)

Hey everybody

I keep finding things in Brazil that remind me that I´m not in America anymore. I never thought I´d find myself cold in Brazil, or cold in the middle of august. It's been about 50 or 60 degrees the last couple weeks. It feels nice mostly, but I get the chills every once in a while. I laugh that I was trying to get a tan before I came here. I wanted a tan so I´d avoid burning in Joao Pessoa, but now after 2 months in doors I´ve lost all the tan I had to begin with. This week we had a big church open house thing. It was neat. The choir got to sing at it for a few nights. Someone said the event might end up in the Ensign or something, but I don´t know much about it. They made us sign press releases though. I went proselyting for the first time this week. I went on splits with a Brazilian, so it wasn´t that hard. I´d try to introduce myself, and explain the Book of Mormon, and when I´d stall out he would pick up the conversation again. We handed out 9 Books of Mormon. We were only supposed to do 6, but I thought is was fine that we did extra :) It was tons of fun.

We lost our second set of Brazilians this week. That means I´ve got 6 weeks down, and only 3 to go. Only one more set of Brazilians and then I´m out of here. Time has been going by so fast... I hope my whole mission doesn´t fly by this fast. I´m really enjoying being a missionary. The schedule is tough, but every night I go to bed knowing that I accomplished something. That feels pretty nice. Today I got the chance to go to the Campinas Temple. It was really pretty. I didn´t get the chance to let Amber know I was going there, so I didn´t get to see her. I don´t even know if she could get permission to go there. I don´t now how close to the temple she is now that she´s been transferred. I´m going back to the Campinas temple next week though, so maybe I´ll get to see her then. The Sao Paulo temple is closed for cleaning. Mikayla was wondering if I learned how to tie my ties like Elder Miller. I learned to tie the cobra knot one of my first days here. I thing it´s way legit, and now my whole district wears it. Thanks for all your love and support. Everything is going great here.

Hey :)

I got a new companion this week. His name is Elder Anderson. He´s a way nice guy. He´s from Virginia. He got stuck in Provo for a while because of visa problems. We´ve been having a lot of fun this week. It´s great to be in a companionship instead of a trio. I felt like with three people, someone was always way slow, and we were always waiting to go places. My district now has 10 people in it, and Sister Olney finally has a companion. Today I got to go to a Brazilian restaurant. It was basically Rodizio Grill. It tasted great. Thanks everyone for your letters. I got some from grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles. It´s nice to hear how everyone is doing. I love you all lots, and I hope everything is going well back in the states. This Friday my district gets to go out and talk to Brazilians and hand out Books of Mormon. It´s crazy. I don´t know if I´m ready to go talk to Brazilians about the gospel, but I´ll do my best. In the MTC the Brazilians know I´m learning, so they talk slow and repeat things a lot so I´ll understand, but on the street I don´t think people will be that nice. If I don´t know what people say then I guess I´ll just give them the Book of Mormon then run away before they can hand it back. Everything has been happening so fast here in the MTC. I feel like I was just writing you guys yesterday, but already it´s been a week. I can´t believe I've been in Brazil for 5 weeks now. I only have 4 weeks left until I get on another plane and go to Joao Pessoa. It´s going to be way crazy, but I can´t wait. I´m kinda sick of the MTC food, and I´m looking forward to walking a little bit instead of sitting all day. I came here at 160 pounds, then last week I was 176! Now I´m back down to 170, but still.. they say you know you served in Brazil if you gained 30 pounds in the MTC, and then lost it all on your first transfer.

4 Weeks Down

Hey family and friends :) Everything is going great here in the MTC. I know I´ve said this before, but I´ll say it again, the MTC is very repetitious... I´m locked into a schedule now, and it´s all I ever do. I´m learning a lot, and I´m following all the rules, but not much ever changes around here. They say the only difference between prison and the MTC is that in prison you get visitors. It´s not totally like that, but in a lot of ways it is. Last week our Brazilian roommates left, and we got a couple more. I can hardly speak to them, but they´re fun. This week our district is getting 4 more people. We´re looking forward to messing with them. We´re pretending we only speak Portuguese, and that we´re celebrating Christmas since it´s winter in Brazil. We´ll confuse them pretty badly :) . I´m getting a new companion since I´m in a three way currently. It will be weird. Not a lot has happened lately. We got a new cafeteria, among other things. I can´t believe I´m almost halfway done with the MTC. 4 weeks down, 5 to go. I'm looking forward to going out into the field, but I know I have a lot to learn first. I need my brothers and sisters to write me more. Dakota too. I love you all, and I love hearing about how you´re all doing. I spent way to much time reading, so now my letter is short. I love you and I hope you have a great week.

3 weeks down :)

Hey Fam and Friends,

It´s been another great week here in the mtc. I find it hard to know what to write about, because for me the last 20 days have all been almost exactly the same, and I forget what I´ve already written about. Make sure that you write me whatever questions you might have, because a lot of things are strange here, but for me they seem routine. The Brazilians that lived in my room moved away yesterday. They only stay three weeks because they don´t need to learn a language. I never was able to talk to them deeply, but we were good pals, and it was sad to see them go. I took a few pictures with them. Maybe when I´m out in the field I´ll be able to send them to you. The computers in the mtc are locked up really tight. The browser doesn´t have an address bar, and all the hot keys on the keyboard have been disabled, like tab and enter and delete. All the usb ports have also been disabled. It´s a little frustrating, but things will change once I´m in the field. I´ve really been enjoying the mtc. I have good companions, a good district, and a good branch. The other district in my branch leaves next week, so that means that my district will be in charge of the whole sacrament meeting, and we´ll get a new AP from our district. Things go so fast here. We set crazy goals to accomplish in a week, then miraculously by the end of the week we´re accomplishing them. We´re already teaching lessons in Portuguese. It´s rough, but a couple of the members of the district are really getting the hang of it. I cant wait until I´m fluent. I want it so bad. I can only imagine writing a letter to my Brazilian roommates once I actually know how to communicate with them. I´m so proud of all my friends who are giving farewells now and leaving. You´ll be great. I´ll see ya at your homecomings. I think Portuguese is adversely affecting my spelling. All of their spellings are phonetic, which makes me realize how screwed up English is. I want you all to know how much I love you. The church is true! I know that there is a battle raging on the earth between Satan and the truth. It´s my job to fight for truth, and I´m so thankful for my calling. I know that through the gospel we can all be happy. I liked what amber said about happiness being a choice. I know that when we are choosing the right, and that when we´re obedient we deserve to be happy. Don´t ever let anything keep you from being happy. Love, Elder Forsyth.

2 weeks out

Everything has been going really well for me this week. The Brazilians that live with me are still way crazy. I don´t remember if i told you last time, but every time a Brazilian district leaves they all get their mattresses out in the hall and play dominoes with them. We´re not supposed to be out past 10:30, so it turns into a covert operation for them. They do the whole thing in less than 30 seconds, all the way down the hall. It's nuts. Last night we had a techno dance party in our room around 10:20. We turned out all the lights and sang techno music and moved around our flashlights. Missionaries here have a very unique sense of humor, and just recently I began to understand it, and now I´m beginning to embrace it. The temple in Sao Paulo is amazing. The whole inside is made from Brazilian wood that is illegal to harvest now. Some man had just harvested a lot of it one day for no reason, then it became illegal. Then when the temple was being build this man came forward with enough wood to build the whole thing. I've been able to send a few letters back and forth with Amber since I've been here, but I haven´t received anything from America yet. It´s fun to send stuff to Amber because there are some guys in her ward that work here at the MTC, and I have them smuggle my letters to her. We´re not supposed to do that, but I really enjoy it anyway. Even though I can't see Amber right now, I feel really close to her. The weather in the Sao Paulo winter is really nice; probably about 70 all the time. Sometimes 60, but not much colder. Last week it rained quite a bit, but lately it´s been great. It makes me wish I could go outside more. I am very luck that I´m allowed outside on p-day though. There's a really nice tie lady who sells missionaries 2 ties for 15 rais, and there is tons of other cool stuff to explore. It makes me realize that I´m not in America anymore though. The buildings are all really old, and the sidewalks are about as smooth as hiking in the Uintas. My district is still really cool. I like them a lot. I tend to forget what else I want to write once I get in on the computers, and it sucks because I only have 30 minutes and the connection is way slow. It´s exciting to hear about all my friends farewells. They´re going to love missions. I truly do love it here in Brazil. The spirit is always so strong here. I know that the church is true, and that what I´m doing in Brazil is right.

Hi Everyone! Im so excited to write you! its a little difficult because there arent apostrophes and the shift is in a weird place and the enter and tab keys dont work. My plane ride was very long and tiring, but overall ok. i met 4 elders in salt lake airport, and 3 more once we were in Sao Paulo. i love my district here. there are 5 elders and 1 sister. I ended up in a 3 way companionship with elder Kelly and Elder Varner; theyre both great. Elder Varner is from salt lake and is very fun to talk to. Elder Kelly is from Washington and is very very shy. once we landed in the Sao Paulo airport, we were picked up in a 15 passenger van. it was pretty scary, because the people who picked us up didnt know English well. our van ended up breaking down on the freeway, and the freeways here dont have places to pull off, so we were just chillin in the middle of the road in a broken van. it was really funny for me for some reason, and a little scary. eventually, after a lot of waiting, a new van arrived and we made it to the mtc, (ctm in Portuguese). jet lag was rough for the first few days, but now i´m used to our schedule.(i just found the apostrophe). we´ve just been diving right into Portuguese. we already pray and bear our testimonies. yesterday we wrote Dear Jane letters to the English language and pinned the letters to the wall. within a few days our language study will be all the way in Portuguese. I´m playing the piano in my branch, and on Sunday I was called to serve as district leader for the next two months. Right now it feels kinda weird, but i´m really looking forward to this opportunity to serve my district. I really like the food in the ctm. it´s all Brazilian, and tastes great. we do in fact eat rice and beans everyday, twice a day, but the meat here is really good and there is good fruit and juice. I room with my two companions and two Brazilians. the Brazilians tend to be a little crazy. we can barely communicate with them, but they´re very nice, and are always helpful with learning the language. one of them has some tattoos on his arms, and kinda doesn´t shower very much, but it proves to me that even people in the wildest situations can turn their lives around to live the gospel and serve the Lord. last night all the Brazilians got their ma tresses and lined them up in the hall and played dominoes with them. i was sure that we were all going to get in trouble, but there wasn´t anything i could do to stop them. in the end we didn´t get in trouble, and it was kinda funny to watch them all go wild. we´re supposed to go to bed at 1030 here, but the Brazilians have a tough time with that. Here in the MTC hand written letters are gold. I check the mailbox for my district everyday, and it´s always empty. I would really appreciate it if you could send some letters in the mail along with your emails. I´m not allowed to send letters to people other than family through email, so that would really be good for my friends if you want to get my emails in the future email my mom your address go4x4syth@msn.com. or check the blog i guess. i think i´ll try to get this email to everyone, but understand that from now on I won´t really be able to. I finally got to send amber´s package today. It cost 13 rais. I love you all so much. I´m so thankful i got to come to the Brazilian mtc instead of the one in Provo. I`m having a great time here and i´m learning a lot. I´ll look forward to hearing all about efy next week. I love you, and have a great week. love Elder Forsyth!

Arrival to Sao Paulo

I traveled with about 15 missionaries from Salt Lake to Atlanta where we met up with other missionaries. After 14+ hours of travel we reached Sao Paulo the morning of July 7th.

New Blog

Hey Friends and Fam.

I leave in 5 days, so I thought it would be nice to start a blog so that people can track me down while I'm gone. I'm really excited to leave, and I'll miss all of you. Hopefully I can set this up so that my mom and other people can post updates and letters I send from Brazil! Again, I'll miss ya tons, but it will be worth it because the church is true!!!

Love, Elder Forsyth