12/07/11

Hey family!

Its been a long 10 days since I last wrote to you. I´m excited that everything is coming together well for Amber and Kyle's wedding. I wish I could be there, but I´m guessing that Amber will put my face on a cardboard cut out or something... haha..

This week I had a wedding of my own. There was a family in our ward that had been waiting for 9 years to get married, and the missionaries had been passing there for 2 years to help them. I went there and told them, "I´m here to help you guys get married in the least amount of time possible". I loaned them the money to pay for the wedding, and they were finally married this past Saturday. They said they´d pay me back, but I´m not horribly concerned. I just felt good that I was able to help them on this special day. The husband was an excommunicated member who is returning to the church, and the wife was baptised right after the wedding ceremony. It was definately a wedding and baptism that I´ll never forget, and it was the first family that I was able to help on my mission.

I didn´t get transferred this week. I´m staying with Elder Kutomi for 6 more weeks. He´s doing a ton better now. His attitude is tons better now, and he´s learning really fast. I feel like this transfer should be a lot better than the last one. Last transfer I learned a lot of patience.

I love you guys. I´ll write you again in just a couple days on Monday. Thanks for the emails, and letters, and I can´t wait to talk to you on Christmas!

love, Elder Forsyth

11/28/11

:D

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I didn´t really to anything for Thanksgiving this week, but I hope the day was good for everyone at home. They don´t celebrate Thanksgiving here, and I live with a Brazilian companion, so we didn´t have very much reason to celebrate.

This week I got a little sick. I´ve just been coughing a little bit, but I think I´m getting better already.

Elder Kutomi and I didnt baptise this week, but the other Elders in my district baptised 4 primary boys, and I got to interview all of them. They were super cool, and were all way excited to be baptised together. They were all friends and brothers, and had been going to church for a few months with the Bishop's family. I hope they all serve missions!

Next week, we´ll have a wedding and a baptism. It should be a neat experience. It will be my first family that I´ll help be baptised. The week after that, we should be able to baptise Luciana. She broke her foot, and she´ll have to wear a cast for the next two weeks.

Transfers will be next week, so I´ll write you guys on Wednesday.

I can´t think of what else is happening, but have a great week, and good luck with all the things that are coming up with Amber's wedding and stuff. I wish I could be there, but I´m happy to be here too.. :)

The church is true!!!! e realmente está abençoando minha vida.

Love, Elder Forsyth!

11/21/11

Hey!

I thought since I didn´t have time to write good emails the last two weeks, I´d write you guys first, to be sure that I had time.


I´m uploading some photos too. One is from the dinner with president hall where I picked up Elder Kutomi, another is from playing with a puppy at a members house,
and the last one is Matheus´ baptism!

Matheus' baptism was a really neat experience. We had planned on having 3 baptisms this week, but the wedding that we had planned for one investigator got moved to December, and our other investigator broke her foot, and couldn´t be immersed in the water with the cast. But for Matheus, everything went right.

His parents were really concerned about his decision to be baptised. They didn´t know if he was being sincere with us, but we went to his house with the Bishop, and talked with them about the church, and how it helps the youth, and the parents gave us permission to baptise him. His mom even watched the baptism. It was really great.

Matheus is in a wheel chair because he can´t use his legs, so I held up Matheus in the water, and Elder Kutomi did the ordinance. We both helped immerse him in the water, and then I lifted him up again. It was the first, (and probably the last) time that I´ll baptize someone in a wheel chair :P Everything went smoothly though. We only had to immerse him in the water once.

Training is going ok... sometimes it's hard for Elder Kutomi to get motivated and excited to work, but little by little he´s starting to help me a little more. This week he made toast for me. I thought that was nice :)

Other than that, this week has been pretty normal. I´m working hard, and feeling the spirit really strong. I think that this part of the mission is that part that I´m working the most, and that I´m feeling the spirit the strongest. I´m learning new things everyday.

I hope you guys all have a great Thanksgiving. I´ll have to see what Elder Kutomi and I can do Thursday to make the day memorable.

I love you guys, and I´m thankful for your emails everyweek. Keep doing what is right, and let the spirit guide you.

Love, Elder Forsyth

11/14/11

First of all, I´d like to appologize for the short email last week but this week its going to be short too... As a trainer, my emails to President are a little longer now, and I haven´t had so much time to write to you guys. This week was pretty normal though. We worked a lot, and we´re going to have a wedding and 3 baptisms next week. We´re pretty excited. Thanks for all of your emails, and prayers. I´m really feeling the support. love, Elder Forsyth

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