11/7/11

A short email. I´m doing well. hey family! I´m out of time to write a lot of stuff, but I´m doing really well, and I´m working super hard. I love you all a lot. The church is true! Love, Elder Forsyth

10/31/11

Hey you guys! whats up?! It´s only been a couple days since I last wrote, but I feel like every day has been a race... I feel like every second is a teaching experience now, and the training really doesn´t stop. I feel like I have a million things to do every day. But I like it when life is that way. It gets way easier to sleep at night, and I´m more excited to wake up in the morning. Elder Kutomi is doing well. we get along well and we´re working hard together. The greatest blessing I have is that he already speaks Portuguese... so I won´t have to teach him the language. He also served as a missionary in São Paulo for 3 months before serving a full time mission, so he has experience teaching. He´s really young (18), and has never lived away from home before, so there will be a lot of little lessons of growing up that I´ll have to teach him, but some of those things will take time, and he´ll have to learn for himself. The work is going really well. We are teaching a ton of great people, and we should have a lot of baptisms this month. This next 5 weeks will definitely be hard, but I´m going to learn a ton of stuff, and I´m excited. In the mission, they call the trainers dads, and the trainees sons. I really do feel like a dad in a lot of respects now, and i think it will help me learn to be a better dad in the future. I don´t have a lot of other things to write about... I love you guys, and I want you to know that I´m doing well. I´m not having any nervous break downs, and my district is great. The spirit is strong, and like I said, I´m learning a ton. Thanks for the letters and emails! The church is true! Love, Elder Forsyth

10/26/11

Holy Cow!!!E.Forsyth‏ What a week! I got a call Monday afternoon that I was getting called to be a trainer. We spent the whole rest of the day saying goodbye to people, and packing Elder Santos´s bags. We got to sleep late, then we had to wake up at 4 for me to travel to Joao Pessoa. When I got there, I had training all morning. Then we had subway for lunch (for the first time in over 16 months). then our new companions arrived, and we had more training. My companion is pretty neat. He´s from Sao Paulo. His name is Elder Kutomi. I was in the MTC with his brother. I thought that was pretty cool. He's 18 years old, and reminds me a little bit of Ben. He's a little shy, and you can tell that he´s a little nervous, but I´ll do my best to help him out and show him the ropes :P The good thing is that we should have a few good baptisms this month. We had 3 men at church this week, and all of them can be baptized this month if they accept the invitation. All of them are Washingtons friends. We also are helping a woman get married, so that she can be baptized. I payed for the marriage, but her husband said that he would pay me back. They´re super excited. So after we had all that training, we went to the Presidents house to eat, and all the new missionaries bore their testimonies. (there were 17 new missionaries! the biggest group in the mission). All of them were super nervous, and all the Americans were struggling with the language. I couldn´t believe that I was exacly like them last year. So much has changed in the last year and 4 months, and things will continue to change until the end of the mission. At the end of the day, we slept with 30 elders in a house in Joao Pessoa. It was rough. I didn´t sleep much, and we had to wake up early to return to Natal. We didn´t have any problems with the travel though. Everything went smoothly. Now we´re back in our area. An area opened in my district, so now I´m the district leader for 6 missionaries. I only know one of them. I´ll have to get to know the others, and hope that they´re good. haha. I´m looking forward to training. It will help me remember what it was like to be new, and will help me be a better example in the mission. I love you guys. I got some letters this week. One was from a girl that I didn´t get to baptise in Canguaretama, but she got baptized after I left. She wrote a really nice letter thanking me. I thought that was really great. I hadn´t received letters in 3 months, because the post office was on strike. I love you guys. Thanks for your love and support and prayers. Keep choosing the right, and keep writing. :P Love, Elder Forsyth

10/17/11

Essa Semana Foi Boa :) BATISMO!!! (Bah-Chees-Moo)! Oi Familia This week was pretty great. We had interviews with president. My interview was pretty short, but he said that he´s happy with my progress in the mission. He said I was really shy when I got here, but now I´m a servant. I don´t know exactly what that means, but maybe it means that I´m not shy anymore... I don´t know. I asked if i could call you guys during the week of Amber's wedding instead of Christmas, and he said maybe. I´ll have to ask him again in December. If not, then I´ll have to split my 40 minutes with Mom and Emma and with the rest of the family. Me and my companion accidentally killed an investigator this week. I don´t exactly know how, but I think we cursed her and she died. We were teaching a couple that was living together but not married. My companion and I were joking around saying that they would have to get married for them to get baptized, or the woman, who was 70, would have to die, and we could baptize the man. That week, the woman went to the hospital, and two weeks later she died. :( I was kinda sad, because she was perfectly healthy when we met her, but now, maybe we´ll baptize the man... we know that she´s in a better place now. We baptized an 18 year old boy this week. His name is Washington. He´s incredible. I think he´s been my favorite baptism. For sure, he´ll be a powerful missionary, and leader in the the church in the future. I can´t believe Kyle is home now! Congrats with the engagement Amber and Kyle. I can´t wait to see you guys next summer! Everything is going well for me. We´re working hard to teach and baptize all of Washington´s friends. The work is going great. Next week I´ll talk to you guys on Wednesday because of transfers. Let me know how you guys are! I love you, and I´m glad that everyone is doing well. Keep choosing the right, and I want to hear more from my brothers and sisters. Kyle included ;) Love, Elder Forsyth

10/10/11

Hey Family! This week went great. I´m getting pretty excited because it looks like we´re going to baptize an 18 year old named Washington next week. He visited the church yesterday, and loved it. He participated in all the classes, and has some friends in the church already. We had two other boys at church that want to be baptized too, but it will take a couple months for them to be ready. On saturday night I went to the hospital with Elder W Santos. During the day he was sweating a lot, and was light headed, so at lunch I took him home and made him drink a lot of water and lay down. We worked the rest of the day like normal, but then at 11:30 at night, he told me we had to go to the hospital. He wanted to go without telling anyone, but I told him that for us to leave so late at night, we had to call Sister Hall. We called her, and she authorized us to go to the hospital. He was still feeling really hot, and was feeling a lot of pain in his kidneys when he woke me up. We went by taxi to a hospital, and then they gave us a ride in an ambulance to another hospital that had a urologist. We thought he might have kidney stones, but with all the tests they took, they didn´t find anything. They just told him to drink more water, and take an anti inflamitory medicine. We got home at 3 in the morning, and then woke up at 7 to go to church. The whole thing made Sister Hall pretty worried, but everything is fine now. She´ll probably talk to us a lot tomorrow, because we have interviews with the president. I´m really doing well though. It´s been getting hotter here, which made my companion sick, but I haven´t had any problems, and on the contrary, I´m actually feeling a lot more energetic. We´re working a lot, and starting to have more success. We should be able to have a couple baptisms in the next couple weeks. I´m out of time now, but I love you guys a lot. Thanks for all your love and prayers and letters and stuff. I´ll talk to you more next Monday! Love, Elder Forsyth

10/3/11

Conferência Geral! Hey Family! I loved general conference this week. I thought it was so cool to see the men from Pleasant Grove sing in the the priesthood session! I saw both Bishop Christiansen, and Trevor Wiley singing. I told my companion, "If I wasn´t right here right now, I´d be in the conference center singing." I liked all the talks. I thought it was interesting how we were counseled not to call our church "The church of the Mormons", and the Book of Mormon is "The Book of the Mormons", but not everyone calls the members of the church Mormons. They just think that the missionaries are the Mormons. There was a kid in our ward that asked his mom, "Are the Mormons going to eat at our house this week?", I thought that was way funny. I told him, "Hey, you´re Mormon too... and yes, we´re going to eat at your house..."...haha. the work has been going well this week. We found a ton of new investigators, but the problem this week was that we found 6 new men, but when we went back to visit their houses a second time, they were all drinking... It's tough. I´m glad to hear that you guys are all doing well. I want to hear more from my brothers and sisters, and I want you guys to send me some pictures when you can. I feel like it´s been over a year since I´ve seen you guys... Write me when you can. I like to reply to the emails that I recieve more than just talk about myself in an email to the whole family. I love you guys! Love, Elder Forsyth

9/26/11

Oi Família! Hey everyone! The work here is going well. I´m doing well too. Just work as usual...haha.. I feel like I´ve been writing "just work as usual" for the last 2 months... I´ve really gotten used to my work now, and I´m just in the groove of things I guess. This week I did a split with my zone leader. I was a little nervous, because I thought that he would just tell me all the things I was doing wrong, but it actually turned out better than I thought. My zone leader is a lot more energetic than I am, and I really learned a lot from his enthusiasm. In my patriarcal blessing, it says I have a quiet wisdom about me, and so I never worried to much about being a talker, because it´s really not who I am, but now I´m realizing that I also need to have confidence to be a good teacher, and leader. Sometimes I get so reserved that it looks like I´m embarrased, and shy, but that's really not true, and I need to show more authority, when I´m talking with investigators, and also other missionaries. I can´t think of a whole lot else that happened this week. I´ve been getting a lot better at Portuguese lately though, and it's become really tough to speak in English. 3 or 4 times this week, people complimented me on my Portuguese, and a man even told me that he didn´t know I was from the US. He thought I was from another part of Brazil. That made me really happy. I love you guys, and I hope you all have a great week. I know that the Church is true, and blesses lives. I´m looking forward to General Conference! Love, Elder Forsyth

9/19/11

Hey Family :) It´s only been a few days since I last wrote, but it's already p-day again. Work is going well. We have a lot of progressing investigators, and we´re looking forward to having a few baptisms in the next couple weeks. I´m super excited for general conference! Today for p-day, we visited the biggest cashew tree in the world. It took up a city block. We walked a little bit around inside it, then went home :) I didn´t take pictures, because my camera is a little broken, but Elder Santos took a lot, and I´ll copy some of his. I´ll probably get a new camera this week. Other than that, the week has been really calm. I can´t think of anything else to mention.....thinking.....oh yeah. I met a family from Logan, UT here. The Uitto family. Lenny is from California, and went on a mission to Belem, Brazil, then found his wife on the internet a few years later. His wife is from my city, and they came back to visit the family for 18 days. They went home this week. I baptized their nephew, so I´ll for sure have to meet up with them after the mission and see how they are. My bishop was also released this week. He´d been serving for 9 years. That would be a rough job to do, but he did really well, and he´s pretty excited to rest a little bit now. Elder Simpson, my companion 5 months ago, is in my zone now. We talked a little bit at the cashew tree. I love you guys all a lot. If you have any questions for me, or jokes or poems, feel free to send them. The church is true! It changes lives! Stay firm in the gospel, and you will be more happy. Pray always, and read the scriptures. Love, Elder Forsyth!

9/14/11

Hey family! I just wanted to let everyone know that the mission here in Parnamirim is going great still. Transfers went well this week. I´m staying in the same area with the same companion, but the big change will be that I´m now district leader. I´ll have to let you know how that goes next week. I´m pretty excited though, and can't wait to let you know how it goes. I´ll talk to you guys again in a few days on Monday! Love, Elder Forsyth

9/5/11

mais uma semana em Parnamirim‏ Hey you guys!!! I can´t think of anything cool that happened this week, so I´ll just write you my testimony. I know that we lived with out Heavenly Father before we came to earth. He knew us perfectly, and loved us perfectly. He knew all of our capacities, and our potential. He knew that we could learn and grow a lot more if we left his presence, and came to earth. On earth we would be able to learn for ourselves the things that we could never learn from his example. He sent us to earth, to our earthly parents, for us to fulfil our true potential. In the same way that all of us left our Heavenly Parents to come to earth, I left my Earthly parents to serve a mission. There are many things we can learn from our parents. We can learn from their counsel, and from their examples, but there are also many things that we have to learn for ourselves, that we can't learn from other people. These things include testimony, faith, patience, and diligence. Just as I left my heavenly home to learn and grow, I left my earthly home, to learn and grow, and fulfil my true potential. Here on the mission, I´m learning about faith through study, fasting, and prayer. I´m learning patience through trial, and I´m learning diligence through hard work. It's incredible how the test changes when you don´t have your parents looking over your shoulder. You have to do things because of your own will, and not just because your parents want you to do them. I know that the mission is changing my life. It´s changing my character, and changing the way I act and think. I´m learning things that I couldn´t learn in any other place. I know that the church is true and that God answers our prayers. He has called a prophet in our day to lead and guide us. The scriptures show the way, and the Sprit is our guide. My mission is preparing me for the rest of my life, and the rest of my life is preparing me for eternal life. It´s important that we prepare now. (Alma 34:32) I love you guys, and I hope you all have a great week. Write me when you can! Love, Elder Forsyth

8/29/11

Aqui em Parnamirim. Carta de Elder Forsyth‏ Hey you guys! This week was a pretty good one, with a few ups and downs. We had a mission conference that I liked a lot. President Hall talked a lot about charity, and the reasons why we serve. We watched a movie about the Prophet Thomas S Monson. It was nice to have a break from normal work. Last week we taught a ton of lessons, and found a lot of new people, but in the end, everything fell through, and no one went to church, and no one was baptized, and no one was confirmed. This week was the opposite. With the conference, we didn´t teach so many people, and we didn´t find so many new people, but we still managed to baptize a 9 year old boy, Neto, and confirmed Viviane, and we had 5 investigators at church. That made me pretty happy :) I´ve been a little sick and tired this week, but I´m getting better now. I´ve just been a little congested. I thought it was pretty strange though, because exactly one year ago, I was also sick and congested. I was just reading about it in my journal and I thought it was a strange coincidence. I guess it has something to do with the changing seasons. I had a pretty terrifying experience this week. I put my shoes on to leave the house, and I felt something in the bottom of my shoe, but I thought it was just my sock folded over, so I didn´t think twice. I sat and waited for 10 minutes for my companion to finish getting ready, and when I went to stand up I felt the lump in my shoe wiggle. In a milisecond, I took off my shoe and threw it accross the room. It hit the wall, and a huge cockroach ran out under the table. I couldn´t believe it. He´d been there chillin in my shoe with my foot for 10 minutes. We don´t usually have any cockroaches in our house. That was the first one I´d ever seen. It freaked me out though. Work is going pretty normally here. I´m starting to look forward to Christmas, but thats still a few transfers away. Tell Stephanie HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! for me. I can´t believe how old everyone is getting. She´ll be 9 years old now! I love you guys, and I hope everyone has a great week. I miss you. Love, Elder Forsyth

8/22/11

Hey you guys! This week was pretty normal. We prepared a primary boy to be baptized and a girl to receive the Holy Ghost, but both of them were out of town on Sunday :P I hate when that happens. We didn´t have any investigators at church. It was fun preparing the primary boy though. He had a lot of fun questions. He´s only 10. The hardest part for me was teaching the law of chastity. I had no idea what to do. I thought about just skipping the subject, but then I worried that my district leader would ask about it in the boys interview, and I wanted him to be prepared. I asked him, " We have some parts of our body that we shouldn´t share with everyone, right?" and he said, "huh???" and then I was stuck. I didn´t know what else to say. I looked at my companion, and he was in the same boat. I asked another question, "We can´t just run around in the street naked right?" he said "Of course not", and I said, "It's a commandment that we keep our clothes on in front of other people. The only exception is your wife in the future, and the doctor." I think he understood....hahaha.... Other than that, my week was pretty normal. Elder Santos and I get along well, but our house is always really quiet with just the 2 of us. I like living with 4 missionaries. It´s always a lot more fun. Good luck with everyone starting school! I want to see more pictures of you guys. I never even saw Benjamin's senior pictures. Let me know whats happening with you guys. I love you a lot. The church is true, and I love being a missionary! Love, Elder Forsyth

8/15/11

Hey family :) This week was pretty normal, but had a few perks :P Satuday night we baptized a girl named Viviane. She´s 14 years old, and her brother is already a member. She must have been elect, because it was one of the easiest baptism I´ve seen in the mission. The first day I met her I asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and the next day she told us yes. We taught her all the lessons in the next week, and then she was baptized :) She already has a lot of friends in the young womens, and her brother will for sure help her stay really active in the church. I was really excited to help her join the church. Last night I took a 3 hour bus ride to Joao Pessoa, then I slept in the mission office, and then this morning I went to the police station to renew my visa. Everything went smoothly, and now I can stay in the country for another year, but now I´m way tired from the travel, and it took up almost all of my p-day :( Me and my comp are doing fine. I know our area pretty well now, and we´re still helping a lot of couples get married. While I was in Joao Pessoa, our executive secretary told me that I´ll be coming home on the 28th of June. That gives you guys plenty of time to plan a big party :) I´m glad that I´ll get home in the summer. It will make the transition a little easier. Sister Olney, who flew out from Salt Lake with me, is coming home in January, and it will be super cold when she gets back to Idaho. I can´t believe that she´s already finishing her mission! I feel like it was just yesterday that we were in the airport saying goodbye. I love you guys a lot. Everything is going well here, and I hope everything is going well at home too. I pray for you always. Love, Elder Forsyth

8/8/11

Hey you guys! Wow! This new area is so good! Instead of a branch full of youth, I´m now in a ward full of families! My new area is a really new part of the city, with a lot of young couples that live here, and the church has really flourished here in the last few years. The ward here has already divided 2 times, and the people are excited to help out the missionaries. I´m teaching a lot of families now. The biggest problem is that it´s really hard for people to get married here in Brazil. You need to have your ID, 2 testimonies, $400, and your birth certificates. Your birth certificates have to be new, and if they´re more than 3 months old, then you´ve got to go to the city where you were born to get a new one. It´s a little retarded. We´re helping 4 families get married though, and if everything goes right, one of them will get married September 10th. We marked the marriage and the baptism just this week! The very first time I was at their house I made them choose the date, and now the whole relief society is excited and preparing things for them. My companion was born in Argentina, but lived most of his life in São Paulo. He speaks Spanish, so maybe I´ll learn a little bit with him. :P He´s 24, and has been a member since he was 12. He waited a little bit to go on the mission, because he was drafted for the airforce, and then worked for a couple years. He´s pretty quiet, and responsible. He acts a lot older than I do, and I´m a little afraid to goof off in front of him and sing in the shower and stuff... he´s been on the mission for 4 months. We had a zone p-day today. We played soccer in the sand, and ate açai. It´s a cool fruit that is popular in the north end of Brazil. I´m a little tired now, and I´m ready to go home and sleep until 6 o'clock. I hope that everyone has a fun week this week! I´ve still got to get to know the rest of my area and my ward members, but next week we´ll already start to baptize people. This week we marked three baptisms. A girl will be baptized next week, a boy the week after, and the woman who we´re helping get married will be baptized after the wedding. Thanks for all your letters and prayers! The church is true! Love, Elder Forsyth

8/3/11

WOW! This week has been a little nuts. This week, work was getting pretty difficult. We worked and worked, and worked, and everything kept falling through. In the end of the week we were left with only 2 or 3 good investigators, and now I know why the Lord let everything fall through. He wanted to close my area! Elder Ferreira and I both got transfered today. He went to Campina Grande, and I´m in Natal now. My new companion is Elder W Santos. He´s from Sao Paulo, and has 3 months in the field. This week was full of a lot of drama in Canguaretama. President got involved last night, and I still don´t know what happened, because I was transfered before I got to find out. My district leader is still there, but he´ll probably get pulled out today, because it´s not going to work out for him to work there anymore either. But yeah, I´m happy to be in Natal! I´ve got a cool new companion, and a new ward that seems really stong and accepting. I love you guys. I'm really am happy and loving the misson. Love, Elder Forsyth

7/25/11

Hi!!!

This week was a little tough as far as work goes. We had to cut a lot of people who were progressing really well last week. Actually, we didn't really cut them; they cut themselves. We walked 40 minutes to bring a girl to church, and when we got there, her little sister was at the front door with Book of Mormon in her hand saying that her sister wanted to return the book. We just told the little sister that we would come back another day talk with her older sister....groan..... One cool thing that we did this week though was go to the beach. Well it was´t really a beach; it´s a river that´s in our area that looks like a beach. We took a lot of cool photos there that I attached. It was pretty fun. I like the district that i have right now. Elder Silva Souza is our district leader. He´s smart and always beats me at chess. He´s fun to talk to. Elder Galvez is his companion. He´s from Washington and he´s been on the mission for a little over 6 months. He´s a fun guy too. Elder Ferreira is my companion. He´s been on a mission for 7 months now. He´s only been a member of the church for 21 months I think. He teaches really well though, and is really obedient. Everyone gets along great at our house. Joel, who we baptized last month, is still firm in the church. He´s excited to recieve the Priesthood soon. Roniele, who we baptised a couple weeks ago, didn´t go to church this week. We´ll have to stop by there tomorrow to see why. We´re still struggling to find some friends for her at church. It´s a little tough for us to integrate new members unless they´re already friends with someone in the group. I never realized how important it is to help people who are excluded until now in the mission. It´s really tough, because Roniele doesn´t have a chance of staying firm in the church without people supporting her, and her family isn´t going to church, so it´s just up to the girls in our branch now... I´ll let you know how things go. We´ve been teaching a girl Mariana for over 2 months now, and she hasn´t been baptized yet because her dad won´t let her. Her mom went to church his week, and so we´re hoping that the mom will convince the dad to let her be baptised this next week. We´re hoping to see a miracle happen. Our president really wants the mission to baptise 200 people this month, and right now the mission is pretty far behind. We´ll keep doing our part though, and working hard everyday. I love you guys, and I´m glad to hear that everyone is doing well. In the next few weeks I ´ll try to send home some dvds with pictures on them. Thanks for all your letters and prayers, I pray for you guys all the time too! Love, Elder Forsyth

7/18/11

Hi Everybody! This week was a pretty normal week. We had some challenges and some success, but overall, we´re still excited to work this next week and see what we can change here in Canguaretama. We worked a lot this week making a lot of contacts, and finding new families to teach. We found some good ones too! One young couple we found belong to the Jehovas Witness. They gave us a pamphlet about their church, and we gave them some stuff about our church. We studied their matierials, so that we´d know how to do a good bible bash with them... hahha.. just kidding. Yesterday we ran all over the city to get our investigators to go to church, and hardly anybody went. We ran around from 2:00 until 5:00, even though church started at 3:00. we found Roniele at 4:30 and ran her to church to get confirmed. Then after the meeting we walked her home. We´re going to have to visit her with some members for her to stay firm, because right now she´s still really new and doesn´t have many friends. After we walked her home, it was dark, and getting late, and we didn´t know what else to do for the day, so we started to walk around looking for men to talk to, because we´d only taught 6 new men in the week, and we wanted 8. As we were walking, Elder Ferreira saw some men in a house watching tv. He noticed that the Brazil soccer game was on, and that they were having a shoot out to finish the game. I thought it was a good chance to make a contact, but Elder Ferreira was a little embarrased to go over there during the game. I asked the men watching the game who was winning, and they invited us in to watch. We watched the last 30 seconds of the game, then taught them a lesson. It was great :) I felt like it was a really good example of being in the right place at the right time, being focused on the work. We´re to return there next week to teach the whole family. Other than that, its been a pretty normal week. We´re still feeding the monkeys that visit our window, and they´re getting a little more courageous. Maybe next week they´ll starting eating the banana out of our hand. Thanks for all your letters and prayers. I hope that Emma and Josh and Ben get better soon with their wisdom teeth. I love you guys so much! Love, Elder Forsyth

7/11/11

Hey All!

This week was a little stressful, but everthing ended up turning out great.

We had interviews with President Hall. He only said good things to me. He´s proud of my consistancy, and said that he doesn´t ever worry about the things I´m doing. Sometimes I want to stand out a little more, but being the quiet one that stays out of trouble can be good too...

We had a baptism this week; A really nice girl named Roniele. The church will really change her life, and I´m so excited and proud of her! We invited her and her brother to go to church last week, but only she came by herself. We asked her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and the next day she had a dream where she was dressed in white, going into the water! I thought that was so crazy but cool! We hadn´t even taught her about baptism yet. She is definitely elect, and the bapism happened without any snags. I sent a picture.

We had a conference in Mamanguape this past Sunday. I got to see a ton of old friends there. I found a lady who I taught for 4 months, who was never bapised, but who was bapised after I left. She´s still going to church every week!

I´m doing really well here, just working really hard. If you guys have any other questions, don´t be afraid to ask. I always tell my investigators, "I love questions!" It´s hard to teach someone for 30 minutes when they don´t have any curiosity about the subject.

Keep choosing the right. I´m praying for you guys!
Love, Elder Forsyth

Happy Independence Day!

hey all :)

This week was pretty stressful, but I´m pulling through..hahaha...

Flavia told us this week that she doesn´t want to talk to us anymore. We don´t know what happened yet, or why she changed her mind. We´re letting her cool off for a little while first. She had everything ready to be baptised. We even did the interview, but then she rejected everything. Usually when people reject us, it´s because they don´t understand something, or they have a problem with the commandments. I think she feels embarrased to be seen with us, and doesn´t want to leave her party lifestyle. :(

We had another baptism marked for this Sunday of a 12 year old girl, Bia. She´s great, and a lot of fun to talk to, but she also got cold feet the Saturday before the baptism. She still likes talking to us, and still went to church this sunday. We just need to discover her problem. I think it lies with the parents. We´ll talk to them this week.

We worked like crazy this week though! We taught 47 lessons, whereas the mission goal is 25. I couldn´t believe it. We had 10 people at church, but all of them were young women and primary kids. We need to find more men to help out this branch. The problem is that every man has 5 kids, and is addicted to something, and isn´t married, so with every man we find, we only baptise his kids.... it's a little retarded, but we´ll keep working.

Elder Galvez baptised a man this week in the ward. It took 5 tries, and the man amost drowned, and it scared all the investigators who were there, but he finally got it. Our District Leader wants to practice performing baptisms this weeek to help out Elder Galvez. I don´t know if that's sacreligous, but we´ll do it without saying the prayer first I think... maybe I´ll get to go swimming in the baptismal font for district meeting... :P I´m kidding, but who knows....

I´m glad to hear that everyone is doing well at home. I love you guys, and be safe with the fireworks. Happy 4th!

Love, Elder Forsyth

6/27/11

Oi Familia,

This week is São João. Its a big Catholic holliday here in Brazil, and it's even bigger here in the north. During this holiday, everyone makes camp fires in the street (with tons of smoke, we return home way stinky, and hardly breathing), play with fireworks (or bombs), they eat lots of corn, and they square dance (Brazilian style). So far I´ve really liked the holiday. We had a little party at the church, and our investigators really liked it. All of them said afterwards that they would go to church on Sunday, but none of them went, because they went to other parties...:P

This week was really bad for things falling through. We interviewed flavia, and had everything ready for the baptism, but then she went to the beach with her family during church. We had 20 people ready to go to church this Sunday, but then all of them had things come up. Tita was almost a month without drinking, and then this week he started to drink again... last night I came home exhausted, and overall dissapointed with our investigators. I didn´t know what else to do to help them. We went to visit Tita, and he was in his room crying, "Please just help me stop drinking!!! I need your help!!!" but we really couldn´t do anything to help while he was drunk. He gathered us all together, and he said a prayer to have strength to stop drinking, and then started to cry again when we had to leave. It made me want to cry too. He´s trying soo hard to stop drinking. He´s asking for help, praying, and going to church, but he´s still not succeeding. I think that just because of the that one experience with Tita, I´ll never drink in my life, and I don´t want anyone in my family to drink.

We saw an old man on the back of a motorcycle. The motorcycle stopped in front of us and we realized that the old man was falling off backwards. He almost fell on his head, but we ran up to him and caught him before he fell. It was really funny, and it was good that they stopped in front of us, or else he probably would have died. He too was drunk...

I taught some other drunk guys this week who do Macumba. Macumba is a crazy type of religion here where they beat drums and pray to statues and curse people. I think it's a little like voodoo. They let me play their drum, and showed me all of their statues. They gave me some crab to eat, and it probably wasn´t the smartest thing to eat, but I ate it anyway... and I´m still alive. I don´t think we have much of a chance to convert any of them, but it was still a cool experience to see what they believed, and I think we´ll talk with some of their neighbors and families this week.

The one really good thing that happened this week was that we had a baptism yesterday. It was an 18 year old kid named Joel. He´s awesome, and his family is really neat. He was a reference from a member. When church started he wasnt there, but then we went and got him during Sunday School, and baptised him after sacrament. He´s my first convert baptism as a senior, and now I feel like I´m really doing my job as a missionary. We´re starting to show some results for all the work that we´re doing.

I´m still excited in this work. We´re happy, and healthy, and learning a lot of cool things. I love you guys a lot, and I hope you never worry about me, because I´m having the time of my life right now, and I wouldn´t trade it for anything. Have a great week, and keep choosing the right!

Love, Elder Forsyth

Happy Father's Day

Hey All!

Happy Fathers Day Dad!

This week we did a lot of cool things :) I´m trying to upload some photos for you.

We went to the beach. it really wasn´t on on the beach, but it was close. I saw the ocean for the first time! I even saw a monkey :P

We had a baptism this week. It wasn´t a convert, but I still felt really good about it. He is a child of a member that we re-activated. He is 8 years old, so he was the wards baptism. I still felt super good in helping him get baptised.

We recieved the transfer yesterday. I´m staying here again with Elder Ferreira. I´ll probaly stay here until November. I don´t have any reason to leave.

The work is going really well. We didn´t have any convert baptisms this transfer, but we have tons of people ready to be baptised next transfer. There should be lots. We have a lot of friends here that we´re helping a lot.

Tita didn´t drink this week, and he didn´t smoke for 2 days. We brought a cake to his house to celebrate. He was so happy :) He´s progressing a lot.

Flavia disappeared on the day of her baptism. We still need to talk to her to see what went wrong.

I love you guys a lot. I´m thankfull for all you do, and all your examples in my life.

Love, Elder Forsyth

6/13/11

Hey All!

I recieved letters this week :) that made me feliz demais. I got both of Amber's letters, journal paper from mom, some letters from the grandparents, and a birthday present from Cam, and a few others things. Thanks so much!

I´m doing really good. We´re teaching a man named Tita who is quitting drinking and smoking. When he stops smoking we´ll see how he does with the law of chastity. He´s been to church he last two weeks though, and he´s really liking it. We visit him every day to see how the smoking is going. We had 8 people at church yesterday and 3 of them were men! I feel like all the work from the last few weeks is finally beginning to pay off. We even have a baptism marked for next week.

Dad asked me about Elder Ferreira. He´s a grea missionary. He´s been in the field for 5 months, and is doing awesome. He speaks well, and teaches well. He´s obediente, and I really haven´t had any problems with him. Sometimes he´s a little more serious than I am, but we still like to joke around, and we smile and joke around a lot. He´s from Sao Paulo, and is a recent convert. I think he has almost 2 years in the church. His parents were always members, but they were inactive for a long time after they got divorced. His mom is active now, and it seems like his dad is returning too.

We met another girl named Flavia this week who is interested in the church. She´s 18 years old. She went to church yesterday. We´ll have to teach her a few things this week about missionary work and the law of chastity. I hope she will still want to know more when we´re done.... it could be a touchy subject. Everyone in the street tells us that she really likes to party, but as long as she keeps reading the Book of Mormon and going to church, we´ll keep teaching her.

Thanks again for all your letters and prayers. I love you, and I´m almost out of time now, so have a great week!

Love, Elder Forsyth

6/6/11

hey all :)

So, if you guys had difficulty pronouncing Mamanguape chances are you´re having troubles with Canguaretama too. They´re Indian names. I still don´t know what they mean, but maybe Amber can help you out :P

This week was great. We worked really hard, and time flew by super fast. I feel like we´ve finally opened the area. We´ve got investigators now, people going to church, and we even have a baptism marked for next Sunday. We´ll have to see how that goes though. This man is a heavy drinker, and smoker, and does other drugs, but he wants to quit everything and start a new life through baptism. As long as he has this strong desire, we´ll be right there to help him out, but if not, then there is nothing we can do for him.

I´ve decided that for the most part, a mission is all about trying to help people who don't want to be helped. Everyday we make contacts in the streets, talking with everyone, just trying to find someone who wants to recieve our help...

We have found some good people though. We had 5 people to church this week. Some of them look pretty promising. We had one man, Wilson, who already read all of 1st Nephi. He couldn´t go to church this week, but he walked all the way to the church to tell us so that we wouldn´t sit there waiting. He´s really nice, and I can see a lot of potential in him. He´s firm in another church though, so everything rides on his testimony of the Book of Mormon.

I can´t think of much else that happened this week. I´m just way happy to see everyone at home having fun. I can´t believe that I´ve almost been in the field for a year now! Just one more year and I´ll be home going on vacations too.

Thanks for all your letters, and pictures and prayers. I love you all a lot. I´ll keep working hard here for now, and do my best to not get too trunky.

The church is true, and makes people happy!

Love, Elder Forsyth

5/30/11

Oi todo mundo!

This week was pretty great. It flew by super fast. We've been working a lot trying to find new people to teach. We taught more than 27 lessons this week, and found 26 new people, but still we didn´t have any investigators at church. We´ll have to keep working and see what we can do.

The good news is that we reactivated 5 people who haven´t been to church in a long time. One lady hadn´t been to church for over 2 years, but now she´s come the last 2 Sundays in a row by herself. I feel like she´ll stay firm in the church this time. It makes me happy seeing people's testimonies grow. So many missionaries just think about bapisms, and not about enduring till the end, but I know that baptism is just one of our purposes as a missionary.

In our searching for investigators this week, we came across some crazies. We went to a crippled ladies house, who is probably 4 feet tall. We asked her who could say the opening prayer, and she said that she could. It turned out that this woman had a very different idea about prayer than we did, because next thing I knew she had stood up, put her hand on my head and started to sway back and forth and yell, "DEAR JESUS! I KNOW THAT THESE ARE YOUR SERVANTS, BLESS THEM! HALALUJA! GLORY TO GOD!....." It was hard for me to stay reverent, but this kind of thing happens sometimes in our lessons... we were going to share the message of the resoration, but after that I just shared a verse, and Elder Ferreira said a reverent closing prayer and we left. I don´t know what kind of priesthood she used, but her blessing made me feel a little more happy and laughing afterwards. I don´t think we´ll return for a little while. She´s a wonderful lady, but...yeah...

Another drunk man in the street started speaking a little English and Spanish with us. In Spanish he said, "You guys are very HOT :)" Then we said, "Uh, we can still understand you.." and he got embarassed.

I can´t think of much else we did this week. Elder Ferreira is turning 20 today. We´ll have a party tonight for him :P I´ll try to take some pictures for you guys. I love you, and I´m glad that you guys are all having fun now that summer is here. For me, it´s been summer for a little over a year now, so I´ll be excited for when I can see snow again. Winter 2012.

Choose the right, and be an example

Love, Elder Forsyth

5/23/11

Hey everyone,

Wow, this week has been tough... I got a call Monday saying that I would be transfered, and then on Wednesday I packed up and left. I was called to open an area in Canguaretama, which is in Rio Grande do Norte, and in the zone, Mamangape. I´ve come back to the zone where I was born! The city is much smaller than João Pessoa, and a little bit more inland, but I´m really liking the city.

With the unexpected transfer, I was called to be senior companion. My new comp is awesome :) He´s from São Paulo, and he´s been in the mission for 5 months. He is obedient, and teaches really well, and speaks Portuguese excellently :) I´ll learn a lot from him.

Opening an area has been a little tough these last couple days. My first day here I was way excited to just get out and make contacts, but then it rained the whole day and there wasn´t anyone in the streets so we just got soaked. The next day was good though. In the last 4 days we taugh 27 new people, and we´re going to start separating the wheat from the tares this week. It's a lot of work, but the time just flys by like crazy when we work like this. I´m so glad that today is P-day, but at the same time, today is going to fly by super fast too...

The area that I´m opening used to be open before, but President closed it when we were lacking missionaries. There used to be 4 elders in this city, then there were two, and now there are 4 again. The other two elders here are nice. One is Brazilian, and one is American, but looks Hispanic. He doesn´t speak Spanish though. The four of us live together in a really big, nice, house. The nicest house I´ve seen in the mission. The only thing it doesn´t have is 4 beds. I´m sleeping on a mattress on the ground, but we´ll get beds soon.

I´ll have to send photos next week and I´ll keep you updated on the work here too. I love you guys, and I know that the church is true, and that we recieve blessings when we do the Lords will.

Have a great week! Love, Elder Forsyth

5/16/11

Oi Familia,


I know that transfers just happened last week, but it looks like they´re happening again this week. My comp got a call today saying that he´s going to train at the end of the week, and I´ll have to leave. I was really liking my area, and my comp, but I guess I have to be willing to do whatever the Lord wants of me while I´m serving him. I´ll look foreward to the changes, and let you know how they go next week. I still don´t know where I´m going, who my comp will be, or what my calling will be, so I´ll fill you in later.


This week was a little stressful with transfers. The first half of the week we didn´t get to work, because of all the changes that were happening, and the second half of the week we worked overtime to get all of our goals for the week. The good news is that Elder Jacoboski is a worker who is efficient and knows how to preach the gospel. We made tons of contacts this week and taught a ton of lessons, and I learned a lot of things. It would be nice to stay a little longer with Jacoboski, but I can´t...


It's good to hear that everything is going well at home. It sounds stressfull, but everyone is alive, and summer will be here soon, or winter for me... it's getting more rainy everyday, and a little colder. But who knows what it will be like in my next area. I could go interior where it´s still really really hot.


Keep me updated on your lives. I´ll be sure to include all the cool stories I find here on the mission when I find them. This week just went by super fast though. Choose the right, and follow the Holy Ghost.


Love, Elder Forsyth

5/11/11

Oi Familia!

This week was a good week. I got to baptise Ingred, and talk to you guys, and the transfers just came last night, so there are going to be a lot of changes in the mission.

Ingred had to move to another city a few hours away from mine, so I´ll probably never see her again, or at least I won´t see her for a long time.

So the transfer... on Monday we got a call saying that Elder Simpson was training, so we went home, and I packed all my bags, and said goodbye to a few people. Elder Simpson got super nervous about being called to train and started getting really sick, so we went home early, and I finished packing, and we got ready for bed. I asked him, " You´ve got to go pick up a new missionary tomorrow, so where am I going to go while you´re there?" He called the assistants to find out, and they said that actually, Elder Forsyth is staying in the area, and Elder Simpson is going to train and open an area at the same time. Elder Simpson was not happy. It was already too late to pack his bags, and he was sick, so I gave him a blessing and we went to bed. In the morning we got up, packed his bags, and went to the mission office. I had to wait with the zone leaders all day to hear about the rest of the transfer. When the transfer call came, I found out that I´m staying in my area with Elder Jacoboski. He´s Brazilian, and is almost finished with his mission. I think he was almost called AP, but he chose to go from Zone leader to District leader and be my companion. So I´ll learn a TON from him this transfer. He has a lot more experience than me, and he´ll teach me the language perfectly. I´m excited. From what I hear, his last area was really really hard, and he got stressed out, and so now President is giving him an easier area to let him relax. I still haven´t met him yet, so I´ll let you know on monday how things are with him.

I´m happy though. It will be good to be junior for one more transfer. I feel like I´m learning tons in this part of my mission. Thanks for all your love and prayers. I´ll talk to you more on monday!

Love, Elder Forsyth

5/2/2011

This week has been a great week. We worked a ton, and ended up baptizing Ingred, that girl I met a few weeks ago! When I first met her, I thought she just wanted to talk to the missionaries because she thought we were cute, but now I´ve realized that she really has a testimony of the gospel, and she was so happy, excited, and willing to be baptized this week. It was amazing! Definitely a convert that I´ll remember.

In testimony meeting I gave a testimony on willingness. Like it says in the sacrament prayer, we should be willing to take upon the name of Christ, and always remember him,and keep his commandments which he has given us. There are so many people who take the sacrament every week, when they really aren´t willing to keep all the commandments. I was thinking a lot about how people pick and choose what commandments they want to live, and by this they really aren´t willing to do what the Lord wants, and they´re being prideful. I´m trying now to do my best to keep ALL of the commandments, and there are a lot of extra ones once you get in the mission... Ivan bore his testimony, and so did Elder Simpson, and by the end, Ingred was crying because of the spirit that was there. She cried at the end of the baptism to. She´s really understanding the importance of all these things.

I can´t believe everything that's going on at home. So much is changing. It will be good to talk to you guys this week.

About that... my president has put a huge damper on me. I can´t skype you guys on Sunday, because apparently it´s breaking the Sabbath day to speak with you through computers on a Sunday. If I were to do it on Monday, it would have to be between 7:30 and 3, which is horrible, because everyone will be at work. I think I´ll end up just making a regular call to you guys on Sunday in the afternoon. It sucks, but I can´t do anything about it... looks like Christmas is on a Sunday too, so maybe skype will never be a possibility for me on the mission. Know that I still love you though, and I look forward to talking to you this week still. I don´t have too much more to say, so just have a great week, and I´ll talk to you soon!

I can´t believe I´m almost 20... like i said, everything is changing, but hopefully things change for the better and not for the worse.

Have a great week, and remember to read the scriptures and pray.

Love, Elder Forsyth

Happy Easter!

4/25/2011

Happy Easter! and Welcome home Amber! I´m super glad that she´s home now, but I´m not going to lie, it did make me a little home sick to see the pictures :( It will be me one day :P here in a year and 2 months! Don´t worry, time goes by super fast, and I´m more than happy to stay here in Brazil. The work is going fantastically, and we´re having a lot of progress with our area.

So far this transfer we haven´t baptized yet, but this week we have 4 people possible that we can baptize, so chances are that at least one of them will stick! We have my snake (Ingred), her friend (Gabi), another moça(Elen), and a new boy we met this week, Wallace. He´s super cool. He went to church this Sunday, and then asked us how he could become a Mormon :) I think that´s a great question. We´ll have to let him know how it works this week.

These last couple transfers have been some of the happiest times of my life. I´ve really begun to realize how obedience=happiness.

My first companion told me, " The only rule we have is that there are no rules."

My second companion told me, "There are too many rules to obey all of them, so we´ll do what we can to be mostly obedient, then whatever happens happens."

My third companion said" The reason we have rules is to not get into trouble, so if we can break the rules without getting into trouble, all is well..."

Here is what I think... Blessings follow obedience, and not just selective obedience. We must obey ALL of the commandments of God. This is where we get our power. This is where we get our confidence. These is were GOD gets his power. He gets his power and priesthood and glory, through our faith, obedience, and salvation. It´s actually a deep concept if you think about it. I´ll keep studying it more.

I love you guys. Keep writing me every week, and tell me how you are so that we can help each other to stay strong. Not a whole lot more happened this week, and if I forgot something I´ll fill you in next week!

Love, Elder Forsyth

4/18/2011

Sorry I didn´t get a chance to send a big letter to everyone last week :( I got kicked off the computer right before I was going to send my letter. That sucks huh?!

Everything is going really well here though. Everything is getting really wet... It´s the beginning of the rainy season, and it´s raining com força! We played soccer in the rain for two hours today.

So, for those of you who know Ivan, he´s a member that lives here who likes to put pictures of me on facebook. By now you´ve probably seen pictures of me with a girl named Ingred. Now I´m going to tell you about this girl...

Normally, we don´t make many contacts with girls. Our job is to strengthen the wards, so we look more for priesthood holders. But last week a girl stopped us in the street and started asking tons of questions about us. She was super excited to hear that we are both Americans, and the next day we went to her house with Ivan to teach about the restoration. She loved the message, and went to church the next day. She liked church, and we took pictures in the garden out front afterwards. Ivan did really well to explain to her that the missionaries can't hug or anything, and she was pretty respectfull of that.

The next week we went to her house, and she had developed a photo with just her and me in it, and she had framed it, and put it in her room! She is progressing super well though. She read the Book of Mormon, prayed, got an answer, went to young women's, and went to church again this Sunday. She said she wants to be baptized, but she also said that she wants to get a visa and visit Pleasant Grove! I´ll keep you guys updated with how things go with her.

I´m so excited that Amber is coming home. I´m so proud of her! I like what she said, "Missions are hard, but they´re worth it." When I first got out here, I realized that a mission was nothing like I thought it would be, but now, I´ve realized that my mission is what I want it to be. I´m making my mission how I think it should be, and it´s starting to work. Everything that I wanted to learn on the mission, I´m learning, and I´m going to be so much better for it once I get back!

I love you guys all so much. thanks for your love, and your examples. Choose the right, and write me letters from time to time :)

Love, Elder Forsyth

4/4/2011

So this week was a pretty fun one here. I´ve spent the week getting to know my new area and my new companion. The area is great with lots of members who want to help us. We have a recent convert, Ivan, who works with us almost everyday. He´s great! He will leave on a mission in May, but until then he´s helping us out tons, and he´s basically working with us full time as a missionary, but he´s not a missionary, so he can use facebook. I´ve been letting him put up some of my pictures for you guys. I hope you all like that. He speaks a little English if you want to send him messages and stuff. He tells me all about the messages.

This week we had interviews with the President. He told me some really great things, and I really think I´m on his good side :) I´ll keep doing my best to stay that way.

So Elder Simpson was called as a senior in this transfer, so we´re basically both on the same level as far as experience goes, and I speak just a little better than he does. He has a little over a year on the mission, and President told him that he would have been called earlier as senior if we´d just had more missionaries. I´m sure the same is true with me. I´ll probably get called as soon as more missionaries arrive, but for right now it´s great to be a junior. With Simpson I have all the responsibilities of a senior, but I don´t have any of the accountability...haha. We´re going to work super hard this transfer though. We´re way excited.

So basically conference was awesome! I got to watch the first session in Portuguese, and all of the rest in English, in an air conditioned chapel. It´s basically been a three day weekend for me, because we didn´t get a chance to work Saturday or Sunday, and now it´s p'day again. I feel physically and spiritually recharged. What did you guys think about conference? When the prophet started talking about a special temple getting constructed, a voice in my head started shouting, JERUSALEM! but then he said Rome, Italy. That's still super exciting though, and I think there might even be some prophecies about the Rome temple, but I don´t know what they are. I'll have to study that more when I get home...

So yeah, everything is really good here. That's crazy that Amber is coming home soon. It seems like yesterday when I had to leave her and drive back up to Utah State through the night. Just one more year and 3 months before we get to meet back up again!

I love you all so much. The church is true. Make sure you all study the conference talks when they come out. I´m still studying the talks from last conference, and they're great! Our church is totally different than all the other churches here in Brazil, and the biggest difference is that our church is true!!! Don´t ever forget that, and if you´ve already forgotten, then try to remember again, because this testimony changes peoples lives, to be more happy, and full of love and purpose.

Have a great week you guys, and I´ll write to you more next Monday!

Robbed!

03/30/2011

hey family!

So I´m basically super happy today. We had transfers today, and things happened a lot differently then I thought they would. Elder Fisi has 6 months in Geisel, and he´s going to stay there for another month training an American elder. I only had 5 weeks there in Geisel, but I ended up getting transferred to another mission in Joao Pessoa, Jardim Veneza. I´m here with one of my best friends from Mamanguape, Elder Simpson. He was called to be senior in this transfer, so we have about the same experience in the mission, and we´re going to work really well and really hard together. I´m super excited for this transfer.

So yeah, like you guys know, I was robbed last week, and I´m sure you´re dying to know how it was, so I´ll tell you now.

It happened last p'day. On p'days we play soccer and write emails and go to the store. That morning I had my backpack, camera, ipod, soccer balls, and the last of my money with me. I had my camera and ipod because I´ve been backing up all my pictures on my ipod to be safe. That afternoon, we went back home and I dropped off my camera, and then we went back out to work at 6:00. We were going to go return some stuff to the members. We had borrowed some soccer balls and a guitar. Here, it´s already dark at 6, but we weren´t thinking it would be that dangerous at 6 in the afternoon. As we were walking we entered into an alley. When we were in the middle of the alley, two guys with hats on and guns came running in from in front of us. I was thinking, "They´re either running away from someone, or they´re running at us, in which case, we´re screwed..." They ran us up against the wall and started yelling, "Throw it all on the ground! This is an assault! Everything! Backpacks, wallets, cell phones!" Elder Fisi threw everything, including the guitar, which made a horrible sound when it hit the dirt. I just kinda froze and put my hands in the air. They took my backpack, which had my ipod and some soccer balls from a member, and they reached into my pocket and grabbed my wallet, which had the last of my money, and my mission card. They took everything from us, except they left the guitar on the ground. Luckily, the guitar didn´t break when Fisi threw it, so we were able to return it to the member unharmed. As they ran away in their flip flops, I felt pretty angry, and I felt like that for the next couple days, but now I´m feeling better. The things they took really don´t have that much worth when you compare them to the things that are really important. I like how my investigator put it who was confirmed this week, "They took your rings, but they left your fingers." I know that the experiences I´m having here in Brazil are worth way more than the things they stole.

The next day we ran into 2 little boys and they asked, "Can we ask you a question?"

"Sure you can..."

"Were you two assaulted last night?"

"uh, yeah, How did you know?"

"Because we saw your ipod, and we were watching videos of you last night. They´re trying to sell it for $R70"

"Oh, that's cool. Tell the guys that stole it that they can keep the money, and the ipod, but i´d like my wallet and backpack back."

"ok..."

we never got our backpacks back though....

So yeah, that was my week. I don´t have an ipod anymore, so if you want to send me cds that would be cool. Any motab is great. There is a showtime cd that they made which would be neat to have. Singles Ward, Best 2 Years, Hometeachers soundtracks would be great too.

I love you guys all a lot, and I look forward to writing more to you next Monday and talking to you on Mothers Day! I´ll try to get skype figured out here so that I can see you and talk to you!

Love, Elder Forsyth

3/21/2011

I know it´s been a while since I´ve sent any good pictures, but on the computers in this lan house, I can´t do anything. I´ll have to try something new this next week.

So, this week was pretty awesome. I think I told you last week that we brought two men to church that we could probably baptize. I´ll tell you now about one of these men, Carlos.

We met Carlos last Saturday, just a little more that a week ago. He was sitting outside his house, all alone. We went and made a contact, and asked him to come to church the next day. he accepted, but here in my mission everyone accepts and then gives a lame excuse when it´s time for church, so we weren´t expecting much. But the next day we passed by, and he was all ready, waiting outside his house for us :) We were super excited, and we went to church with him, and he loved it. He was a little nervous, because he wasn´t used to being around so many people, but it was still really great. We found out that he lived alone, and that his birthday was coming up, so the whole next week we visited him, taught all the lessons, and then on Friday we planned to finish up with the commandments, fill out his baptism form, and then have a birthday party for him to celebrate his 50th birthday. So we started teaching the commandments, and talking about the baptism questions, and we discovered that he had a lot of problems. He drank coffee, but that's easy though as he just has to promise to stop, which he did. He drank beer, but like coffee he just had to promise to stop, which he did. The last problem he had took us by surprise, and was a little harder to fix. Carlos was gay. This 50 year old man who lived alone, who was progressing so much in the gospel, and who was loving the church.... was gay. It kinda killed the birthday party we had planned. And when we started filling out his baptism form, looking at his date of birth we found out that it wasn´t even his birthday, but we didn´t say anything though, because we already had bought the cake and candles. He wanted to be baptized so badly though. He wanted to leave all his sins, and start a new life. He promised us he would stop being gay, but still it was a little more complicated than that. First he had to be interviewed by the zone leaders, then the zone leaders had to talk to the mission president, then the mission president had to talk to the stake president, and then the stake president had to interview Carlos. I felt really bad for Carlos, with all the interviews he had to do, because he was so nervous. But he did really well in all the interviews, and was allowed to be baptized! This man changed his live completely to join the church, and I had the opportunity to help him! It was probably one of the most rewarding baptisms I´ve seen. He was so ready to change, and start a new life following Christ. It was also the fastest baptism I´ve had. We met him and then 8 days later he was baptized.

So that was the highlight of my week. Everything else has been going normally.
I hope you all have a great week. I´ll try to send pictures of Carlos´ un-birthday party and baptism. Thanks for your emails, letters, and prayers. They mean a lot to me. I pray for you guys every night too. Keep choosing the right, and don´t forget about me once Amber gets home :P

Love, Elder Forsyth!

3/14/2011

Well, I started writing an email, and then I got about half way through a paragraph and realized that I was writing in Portuguese, and that you guys wouldn´t understand what I was writing...

This week has been really good though. We had a mission conference on Wednesday that I really liked. They talked about cleaning our houses, budgeting our money, obedience, and baptizing more men. Basically all these things I had been thinking about for a while. When I got into my new area, the house was a mess, and my companion didn´t have any money because he´d been spending it on dumb stuff before, so I had to pay for all of our stuff with my emergency reserve. I cleaned up the house, and made some goals to be more obedient, and then we went to the mission conference. Basically my companion got burned for all of the things that he was doing wrong, and I felt really good, because I was already doing the things that they said we should do, like have an emergency money reserve and stuff.

We´re still working really hard on converting more men in our area, because all of our wards have enough members to split, but they don´t have enough priesthood authority. The good news is that we found 2 really great guys this week that we brought to church, and they´ll probably both get baptized next Sunday. One is Carlos. He´s 50 and lives alone with his dog. He´s a little strange, because you can tell he doesn´t talk to very many people, but he loves talking to us. He got way nervous with all of the people at church being so friendly, but he says he wants to come again next week :) We´ll talk to him more about baptism during the week. The other man we brought was Clebson. He´s 24, and pretty chill. We brought him in the church, and a deacon walked up to him and said " Are you going to get baptized today?" he was a little surprised and confused, and said, "Today is just my first time in the church." I wanted to smack the deacon across the face, but we were in the church... and he didn´t realize that those types of questions tend to scare the crap out of our investigators. Its ok though. Like I said, Clebson is super chill, and says he wants to come to church again too. My favorite question as a missionary is " When can you come back to visit me?" When people are really interested you know! Both of these men asked us that question after church, so I´m pretty sure they´re golden.

This week has been great. I´m really happy, and I have a lot of energy. I´m loving the Lord's work, and I know that this church is true. p.s. i gave a 15 minute talk in church. It was way hard in Portuguese, but I pulled it off!

Love, Elder Forsyth!

Carnival!

3/7/2011

WoooHooo! I hit the 8 month mark today! That means I´m one- third of the way done with my mission! This week has been really busy, but really rewarding. Elder Fisi is a super hard worker, and we´ve been running around all week, and yesterday it payed off with a baptism of a little girl named Maria Vitoria. She was super happy to be baptized. So far in the mission I´ve only been baptizing young people, but this transfer that should change. Our mission president has been emphasizing teaching men, and now we have a man who is ready to be baptized this next Sunday, and another married woman too.

This week is Carnival (like Mardi Gras). In my area of the mission its really not that big of a deal. Everyone just travels to the busier parts of the city, so our problem is that we don´t have anyone to teach at night. The city is a little dead. The part I do like though, is that there are bands of little boys that play the drums in the street and dance in bear costumes to try to earn money.

I got a package from the young women in the ward. Make sure you tell them thank you for me.

I´m not sure what else to tell you guys about. I´m happy, the church is still true and blessing lives. I know that there is a right way to live and be happy, and it´s choosing the right everyday. I love feeling the spirit, and serving the Lord. Keep choosing the right, and thank you for all your letters and encouragement.

Love, Elder Forsyth

2/28/2011

Hi Everyone :)

Man, my new area is awesome! I´m living in a big city now, which is great because now most of our investigators know how to read...hahaha. But seriously, I work with two wards now instead of one branch, and the leaders here help us so much. They pick up all of our investigators with cars, and they are working to give us contacts, and going on splits with us. We couldn´t ask anything more.

My companion is Elder Fisi. His family is from Tonga, so he lived there for 8 years. He´s also lived in Califoria and Washington. He speaks Portuguese really well, along with the language from Tonga. He works super hard, and has a lot of goals. He talks a lot about GH, gloria dos homens, which is glory of men. He tries really hard to look good in front of people, with lots of baptisms and stuff, and I guess it seems to be working. He´s baptizing like crazy, and he was called to be district leader this transfer. He´s pretty young in the mission too. He´s been here less than a year. I´ll definitely learn a ton from him. He played football as running back, and wrestled, and did drama, and he likes to sing. We usually sing duets at all of our appointments now so that's pretty fun.

I don´t have any pictures to send this week, but I´ll try to get some next week. This week has really been a race; we've been all over the place. We leave the house at 10:30 and don´t get home until 9:30 at night. Elder Fisi is a super hard worker, and he wants to be assistant to the president, so I think we´ll work super hard this transfer and baptize a lot :)

I love you guys, and if you have any questions for me don´t be afraid to ask. My area is a little closer to the mission office now, so I should be able to receive letters more frequently now.

I know the church is true!! Keep choosing the right, and the blessings will come. Stay happy, and I´ll write more next Monday.

Love, Elder Forsyth

2/23/2011

oi familia!!!

I was transferred today!!! Everything has changed. Elder Cook went to another state, and I came down to Joao Pessoa. Now I´m in the middle of a big city, with cars and buses, and my companion is Elder Fisi. He is Tongan. He speaks the language of Tonga, English, and Portuguese, and is learning Italian. He speaks well, and will teach me a lot of stuff. I´m super excited to be in a new area. Time was starting to drag on a little bit in Mamanguape.

Elder Cook and I both left our area, and it closed. All of our investigators were dropped, or will be picked up by the zone leaders there. It´s a little sad, but I think we left a few people there who will stay firm in the church. Our baptism from last week started going to seminary by himself, and he is really enjoying all of the things in the church. He´ll probably receive the priesthood this month.

A lot of elders went home this transfer, and only a few arrived. That´s why 5 areas closed. It's super crazy because there really aren´t any Americans arriving in Brazil any more. I was one of the last. In the whole Brazil MTC, there are only 4 Americans. They´re calling missionaries from other Spanish speaking countries now.

That´s super crazy that Amber will come home so soon! I´ve got to go now, but I´ll tell you all about my area and my companion next week. He seems super cool.

I love you all a lot, and I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Forsyth

Happy Valentines Day!

2/14/2011

Happy Valentines Day, and Happy Birthday EmmaLee! It sounds like everyone is happy at home. In Brazil they have a Valentines Day, but it doesn´t happen in February, I think it happens in October or something...

This week was just work. Not a lot of crazy things happened that I can thing of, but I do have one little story. Last week when I was writing you guys, a drunk guy entered, and passed out the floor. Then another guy passed and said, "Be carefull! He's armed!" and then the drunk guy got up and pulled out a huge knife from his pants, and ran out of the lan house chasing the other man. Then the drunk man returned, waving his knife all around. All of the missionaries were hiding behind chairs, and the drunk guy started hitting his knife against the ground. Then he sat down and started break dancing. He left soon after and started break dancing for the policeman outside... you only see this kind of thing in Brazil :)

Other than that, I really don´t have anything else to report. We baptized a boy this week. Josenildo. He´s awesome. 100% elect. We met him at church two weeks ago. He just went because the lady he works for is a member. We went to his house and taught him about the Book of Mormon, and then the next time we passed by he´d already read 11 chapters by himself. He had a bunch of questions about the tree of life, so we answered all of the questions, and then taught him about Joseph Smith, and asked him to pray to know if the church is true. The next time we were there we taught the commandments, and he stopped drinking coffee, and then chose to be baptized this Sunday. I think he has potential of being a missionary someday.

I´m sending two pictures. One is of Elder Possamai on the bus ride to church. He´s my zone leader. The other picture is of Josenildo's baptism.

Like I said, we just worked really hard this week, and didn´t see a ton of crazy things. Thanks for all your letters. I´m so thankful that I have so much support.

1/31/2011

I had a good week here in Mamanguape. We didn´t baptize this week, but we still have plenty of people we can baptize next week. I was talking with some of the other missionaries about how I didn´t feel like I had any really cool stories about miracles or curing people or demons or anything, and then that same night something really crazy happened. I don´t know if it classifies as a demon story, but I´ll let you be the judge.

A few weeks ago a member asked us if we could go to her mom's house to give a blessing to her son who was sick. When we got there, the son ran and locked himself in a room, and the grandma there was deaf, so we tried to talk to the boy, but we couldn´t really do anything. Last night we were walking to an appointment when we ran into this same member again. She said that this time the dad was there, so we would be able to talk to the boy this time. We went over there, and it was already late and dark in the afternoon. The boy bolted for his bedroom, but the dad held him back. Then the boy ran to a corner and stood with his face in the corner and wouldn´t talk to us or look at us. The dad started yelling, "Just let them give you a blessing! Accept the words of Jesus!" and then the grandma started shouting the same thing in a deep raspy voice. Everyone was yelling, and we were just trying to talk to the boy nicely in a normal way. Asking questions about the books he liked to read, if he liked going to church. But everyone in the house was freaking out and just making this slightly autistic boy worse. Then all of a sudden the lights went out. There was just one light barely flickering above the boy´s head. The dad grabbed a flashlight on his cell phone, and when the flashlight turned on the flickering light went out.

I was starting to get pretty creeped out. The boy ran and sat on a bed and put a sheet over his head. His mom came running in the house with two little boys and the boys started yelling and playing with candles, and everyone was just yelling to give the boy a blessing. We just kept trying to act normal, asking the boy questions and stuff. Like I said, I was creeped out, so I started to pray that whatever evil was in that house would leave. Then a little later, all the lights came on. Tthe dad took the little boys out of the house, and everything quieted down a little. Elder Cook asked, ´Would you like to recieve a blessing?" The boy then spoke for the first time, in a deep creepy voice, ´no.... haa haa haa haa´. Elder Cook and I looked at each other a little creeped out. Then the boy started speaking in english, ´What´s your name?´ We just smiled, ´Oh, you speak English?´ then he said, ´Buenos Noites´ and ´Bonjor´ he started throwing out all the words he knew in other languages. I asked, do you want to learn some other words in English, and he said,´Yeah, let me get my notebook.´ He went and got his notebook and came back and we started talking to him normally about all the things he learned in school. Eventually he took off his sheet, and we said a prayer and left the house.

I´m out of time now, but I love you all a lot, and I hope you have a great week. I´ll send some photos next week. I went to that big statue again today with Elder Cook and my zone.

Love, Elder Forsyth!

1/24/2011

Not a lot happened this week, so this email will be short. I tried to get replies off to everyone who emailed me this week though. I was happy to hear from Josh and Ben. It sounds like everything is going well in school and work.

This past week we didn´t have any baptisms, but we have about 9 people who are ready and willing, so we´ll start putting people in the water this coming week I think. 4 months work here is starting to pay off :) Work is starting to get repetitious, but I´m still enjoying myself.

The other night we bought a huge hamburger for $15 and everyone in the house shared it. I´m sending pictures of it.

Elder Cook went to a training this week for two days, so I got to work with E lder Souza from Sao Paulo for a day, and Elder Jay from Utah for a day. We had a lot of fun. We found 13 new people to teach, and in the end we had a 10 year old girl running up to us asking, ´What do I have to do to get baptized?´ I told her ´What a great question!´ It´s such a great feeling when people are excited to learn about the gospel.

Hopefully next week will be a little more exciting! I love you all a lot, and I´m thankful to have a family so strong in the gospel! Choose the right and receive blessings.

Love, Elder Forsyth

1/19/2011

This week was good here in Mamanguape. We´re working hard, finding new people, and progressing in the work. The only problem is that time is starting to get slow. I´ve been in the same area so long that it starting to get hard to find exciting things. We still do have exciting things though :P

This week we were walking and we passed 3 blind people walking down the street together, all helping each other out. Elder Cook started singing 3 blind mice.

I met a 14 year old investigator of my zone leaders. He has long hair to his shoulders. I told him that I used to have longer hair, and showed him a picture. he though that was really cool, and we became fast friends. On Saturday he asked me to baptize him, and that was a pretty neat experience.

On a sad note, one of our investigators died this week. He was thirteen, and had come to church with us once, and was planning on coming to church again, and then he hung himself. They don´t really know if he did it on purpose, or if he was just playing around when it happened, but it´s sad either way. About once a week we hear another story about how someone died in the city. This week it just happened to be one of our investigators :(

I don´t have any new photos this week. Not a whole lot happened. I really enjoyed the photos you sent though. The closet at dad´s looks good, and it was neat to see the baptism photos. Josh looked stoked to get his license. I´m trying to send a sound file to you guys. I don´t know if it will work. I don´t have a program to play it here, so I´m just hoping that you guys have a program there. We borrowed a guitar for Christmas, and then the family we borrowed it from went to the beach for a while, so we´ve had a guitar for a few weeks, and I recorded the theme from Friends, "I'll Be There for You"to send to you. Let me know if it works. If not I can try something again next week.

I love you guys a lot, and I´m glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I´m content here in Brazil :) missionary work isn´t the easiest work around, but I can tell you first hand that it´s worth it. I really don´t have any reason to complain. I know that in the moments that I feel uncomfortable, I´m really just growing stronger. I started working out with Elder Cook about 2 months ago, and I´m starting to put on some muscle. I´m almost back up to 80 kilos, which is 176 pounds if my math is right. My arms are 14 inches around. I don´t know if that's good, but it makes me happy to know I´m improving. I used to be such a lanky kid, and now I´m starting to fill out a little bit. I´m just telling you about exercises because I´m waiting for that file to load, but it just finished, so I think I´ll wrap it up now. Let me know if you have any questions for me. I love you a lot and if you´ve got 30 seconds while you´re waiting for facebook to load up, just send me a quick email! :)

Love, Elder Forsyth

The church is true!!! Read the Book of Mormon!!!

1/12/2011

Wow... I can´t believe how fast time is flying by. This has been the fastest 6 months of my life. This week I burned a tie to celebrate.

Congrats Chandler on the mission call! You´ll do great! And congrats Kayla on being pregnant! I think there will be a lot of changes when I get home. It will be really crazy.

This week we had transfers. Everyone thought that for sure I´d be transferred, but to everyone's surprise, I´m going to stay for 6 more weeks in Mamanguape. That makes a solid 6 months that I´ve been here; a 1/4 of my mission in one city. I´m also staying another transfer with Elder Cook. It´s pretty rare to stay 3 transfers with one companion, but that's what I´m doing here with Elder Cook. We get along great, so it should still be a fun transfer. I´m just getting a little bored here. I´ve been walking the same streets everyday for 4 and a half months without a break. I´m still happy though, and I´ll still keep working hard.

This week we baptized two girls. Jessica is 9 years old, and Jaquilini is 12. This transfer, if things go right, we´ll baptize their families too. We have a lot of people progressing right now, which makes it a good thing that I´m still here. I´m going to practice acting like a senior companion this transfer. I´m pretty sure Elder Cook will let me. He´s getting a little trunky now. This will probably be his last area. He has 3 more transfers to go, and he´ll go home in May.

I love you all a lot. It was good to hear from Mom and Dad and Steph. I want to hear from Josh how driving is, and from Ben how it is to hit a pole. Is Emma getting excited to drive too?

Have a great week! I´ll write you all again this Monday. Enjoy the pictures of the burning tie and the baptisms. I also sent a picture of a cookie that came in dads Christmas package. It was really good, and I´m really thankful that you guys still love me and think about me :)

Love, Elder Forsyth

1/3/2011 Happy New Year!

All is well here in theNordeste (north east). New Years was pretty fun, but it made me miss the family a little. It was tough to work New Years Eve, because everyone was drunk, so we hung out with members and investigators and ate dinner with them. We had an investigator that fed us alligator! It was one of the best foods I´ve eaten in my life. It's kind of orange, and a little fishy, but has a texture like chicken. The meat is really soft and kind of fatty. It´s illegal to hunt alligator here, but this investigator works with a tractor, and at work he accidentally killed an alligator, and they let him bring it home. It was a neat experience for us.

At home we just stayed up and talked until midnight. It was really hard to stay up late though. We´re really used to waking up at 6:30 every morning and going to bed at 10:30 every night. I can wake up without an alarm now at 6:30, and I´m usually asleep instantly at 10:30. At midnight the streets erupted with fireworks. Where we live the fire works have colors and are pretty to watch, but here they just make the fireworks as loud as they can. We had bombs blasting right outside our windows. If I wasn´t already awake I would have woken up. We had a family underneath us celebrating, and at midnight they all gave each other hugs and kisses, and it made me think of my own family :( After the fireworks we all went to bed. We really couldn´t do much work the next morning though, because the whole city was sleeping. All of the stores were closed, and no one was in the street. It was the most quiet I´d ever heard the city.
This week I will officially hit my 6th month mark; January 7th. I think I´m supposed to burn a tie or something. We´ll see how that goes. After this week we have transfers too and that means I´ll email again next Wednesday. Chances are that I´ll leave Mamanguape. I already have 4 and a half months here. A change would be exciting, but I´m also enjoying all the work here. I have a lot of friends here now. We have 2 families progressing really well. I think this Sunday we´ll baptize all of their kids, because the adults still have a few problems to work out, like getting married...

Man, I just can´t believe that it's January. It still feels like July. It feels like I´ve had the longest summer of my life. It´s weird to think that I wont see a white January for two more years.

I love all of you guys, and it sounds like everyone had a Happy New Year. I don´t have any photos to send right now, but I might have a video that I can have tony send later in the week. Stay safe, and don´t miss me too much :) I love you all a lot, and want you all to be happy. Make my brothers and sisters write me. :)

Com amor sempre,
Elder Forsyth