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