10 more emails!
Wow, I dont know where to start. A lot has happened since I last wrote.
I´m writing late to you guys because of transfers.
One of my investigators that went to conference last week got super sick with apendicitis. She went to the hospital, and took a ton of tests, and while she was waiting for the tests to come back, we went to her house and gave her a priesthood blessing. The next day she got the tests back, and they said she was super sick, and needed to run to the hospital for surgery, but when she got to the hospital, they took the tests again, and she didn´t have apendicitis anymore. :) I thought that was super cool. It's these kinds of things that really strengthen my testimony about the priesthood.
We had a youth conference in the stake this week. Only 2 girls from our ward went, but we invited 4 of the girls that we´re teaching, and they totally dominated the camp. They won all the awards, and made a ton of friends. I was so proud of them :) They´re all excited to get baptized now, but I wont be there to see the baptisms :(
On Sunday night, I got a call saying that Elder Ortega was being called as a trainer, and I was being transfered. On Monday I said goodbye to some people. Some of the investigators made cake, and everyone wanted to keep one of my photos from home. Some of them cried. It was really tough to say goodbye. On Monday night I went to another elder's house to stay the night, and on Tuesday I found out the details of the transfer. I got transfered to Assú. It's one of the hottest areas in the mission, and one of the farthest away areas too.. I was sad to leave Elder Ortega. He was definitely one of my favorite companions. On Wednesday I woke up early and started to travel. I got on a bus at 8:00 am and got to Mossoró at 7:00 pm, which is still an hour from my area. I had to stay the night at my zone leaders house, making 3 nights in a row living out of my suitcases. This morning we had a district meeting, and I had an hour long taxi ride to get to my area. Now I´m finally here, and writing to you guys.
My area is really isolated. My district lives an hour away from me. I´ll be able to call them every night, but I wont be able to interview any of their baptisms. my comp is elder silva. he´s been on the mission almost as much time as me, but is still a junior. i don´t know exactly why. i´m super tired, and want to sleep. we´ll see what happens this tranfer. i think this will be my last area.
to tell the truth, i feel like i got thrown from heaven to heck. campina grande had a good climate. i had a great comp. and my investigators were awesome. i left 6 people ready for baptism, but i know that the Lord has a plan for me in Assu. i´ll just have to discover what the Lord has in store. i´m still content, and excited to work here. i´ve only got 10 emails left, but i´m mon as trunky as you think...
i love you guys. have a great week, and i´ll write some more on monday.
love, elder forsyth
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
4/2/2012
Hey!
This week went well. I didn´t get to see conference in English, but I still really liked it. Despite the fact that we had to pay to ride the city bus with all our investigators to go to the stake center, we got 5 investigators to church this week. I think our investigatos have a lot of faith. I think they liked the conference.
I got a pleasant surprise when I was there in the stake center. My friend Tony from Mamanguape was there. He and his wife got divorced, and now he´s living in Campina Grande. They were a super great couple. He was the District President in Mamanguape before the divorce and he´s still a really active member. We talked a ton, and took some pictures. I can´t believe how long ago it was when I was starting my mission in Mamanguape. I can´t believe that I´m so close to coming home now... :P
We had a few cool expriences this week. We taught a new investigator named Kelly, and taught her a lot about the plan that our Heavenly Father has for her. We told her that she´d be happier following this plan, and that our Heavnly Father loves her a lot and wants her to be happy. n the end, she started to cry, and said she would need to stop smoking and going to parties to follow Heavenly Fathers plan. We didn´t get a chance to talk to her more during the week, but yesterday we saw her chilling in the bar after she´d refused our offer to go to conference :( I hope we can help her turn her life around.
Another cool experience was with Iaska and Givanilda. We stopped by and watched the restoration with them. In the end of the movie, Givanilda bore her testimony. "I know that he was a prophet! and I know that this church is the right one, because I feel soo good while I´m there, and I´m so excited to go back every week!" Iaska was also crying when the film ended. I think they´re definately going to stay firm in the church :)
I took a ton of good photos with Elder Ortega this week. If I can, I´ll send some, but if not, I´ll just save them for when I come home in a few months. I love you guys a lot, and hope you have a great week. The church is true! the truth was restored!
Love, Elder Forsyth
This week went well. I didn´t get to see conference in English, but I still really liked it. Despite the fact that we had to pay to ride the city bus with all our investigators to go to the stake center, we got 5 investigators to church this week. I think our investigatos have a lot of faith. I think they liked the conference.
I got a pleasant surprise when I was there in the stake center. My friend Tony from Mamanguape was there. He and his wife got divorced, and now he´s living in Campina Grande. They were a super great couple. He was the District President in Mamanguape before the divorce and he´s still a really active member. We talked a ton, and took some pictures. I can´t believe how long ago it was when I was starting my mission in Mamanguape. I can´t believe that I´m so close to coming home now... :P
We had a few cool expriences this week. We taught a new investigator named Kelly, and taught her a lot about the plan that our Heavenly Father has for her. We told her that she´d be happier following this plan, and that our Heavnly Father loves her a lot and wants her to be happy. n the end, she started to cry, and said she would need to stop smoking and going to parties to follow Heavenly Fathers plan. We didn´t get a chance to talk to her more during the week, but yesterday we saw her chilling in the bar after she´d refused our offer to go to conference :( I hope we can help her turn her life around.
Another cool experience was with Iaska and Givanilda. We stopped by and watched the restoration with them. In the end of the movie, Givanilda bore her testimony. "I know that he was a prophet! and I know that this church is the right one, because I feel soo good while I´m there, and I´m so excited to go back every week!" Iaska was also crying when the film ended. I think they´re definately going to stay firm in the church :)
I took a ton of good photos with Elder Ortega this week. If I can, I´ll send some, but if not, I´ll just save them for when I come home in a few months. I love you guys a lot, and hope you have a great week. The church is true! the truth was restored!
Love, Elder Forsyth
3/26/2012
Woohoo! Baptisms!
This week we baptised two of the people who went to church last week. Givanilda and Iaska. Givanilda is in her 50s I think, and Iaska is her 13 year old niece. Usually we have to wait 8 weeks to baptise people less than 14 years old, but we got special permission from the President to baptise Iaska with her aunt, because Iaska's mom doesn´t live at home, and she was pretty much raised by Givanilda.
We have a lot of other investigators who are progressing now. One is Adailson. He´s in his 30s, and is pretty sceptical. When we first talked to him, I just wanted to get out of his house quick, because he kept arguing about everything we taught, but instead of getting out, Elder Ortega taught the Plan of Salvation, and really answered all the questions that Adailson had. The more we came back, the more he accepted our teachings. Last Sunday he went to church, and ever since, he´s been a great friend. He´s always thankful for the time we spend with him, and we´re hoping to baptise him next week. He still hadn´t recieved an answer about Joseph Smith, or the Book of Mormon, so Elder Ortega promissed him that if he read, and prayed at night, then waited to recieve an answer, he would get an answer that he´d clearly recognize. Elder Ortega was nervous the whole day long because of the promise he made, but when we came back the next day, Adailson said, "I got an answer, just like you said I would. So I guess the next step is baptism, right?"
We had 6 other girls that went to church this week. Whenever we go to teach one of them, they go and call the others, and we end up teaching 6 lessons at the same time because they live in 6 different houses. One of them named Gorete said, "When you guys first started to teach us, I just listened because I thought you were cute, but now I really believe in the stuff you say, and I´m going to keep coming to church." Shes only 13 years old, so she´ll still need to come to church 6 more times before we can baptise her.
So, yeah. I´m feeling a lot better about my area now. When I got here 9 weeks ago, we didn´t have anyone who was progressing, and we had to work our butts off to find new people to teach, but now its paying off, and we have a ton of great investigators who are progressing really well.
I love you guys, and hope you have a great week. The Church is true, and blesses our lives when we live its principles.
Love, Elder Forsyth
This week we baptised two of the people who went to church last week. Givanilda and Iaska. Givanilda is in her 50s I think, and Iaska is her 13 year old niece. Usually we have to wait 8 weeks to baptise people less than 14 years old, but we got special permission from the President to baptise Iaska with her aunt, because Iaska's mom doesn´t live at home, and she was pretty much raised by Givanilda.
We have a lot of other investigators who are progressing now. One is Adailson. He´s in his 30s, and is pretty sceptical. When we first talked to him, I just wanted to get out of his house quick, because he kept arguing about everything we taught, but instead of getting out, Elder Ortega taught the Plan of Salvation, and really answered all the questions that Adailson had. The more we came back, the more he accepted our teachings. Last Sunday he went to church, and ever since, he´s been a great friend. He´s always thankful for the time we spend with him, and we´re hoping to baptise him next week. He still hadn´t recieved an answer about Joseph Smith, or the Book of Mormon, so Elder Ortega promissed him that if he read, and prayed at night, then waited to recieve an answer, he would get an answer that he´d clearly recognize. Elder Ortega was nervous the whole day long because of the promise he made, but when we came back the next day, Adailson said, "I got an answer, just like you said I would. So I guess the next step is baptism, right?"
We had 6 other girls that went to church this week. Whenever we go to teach one of them, they go and call the others, and we end up teaching 6 lessons at the same time because they live in 6 different houses. One of them named Gorete said, "When you guys first started to teach us, I just listened because I thought you were cute, but now I really believe in the stuff you say, and I´m going to keep coming to church." Shes only 13 years old, so she´ll still need to come to church 6 more times before we can baptise her.
So, yeah. I´m feeling a lot better about my area now. When I got here 9 weeks ago, we didn´t have anyone who was progressing, and we had to work our butts off to find new people to teach, but now its paying off, and we have a ton of great investigators who are progressing really well.
I love you guys, and hope you have a great week. The Church is true, and blesses our lives when we live its principles.
Love, Elder Forsyth
3/19/2012
What a great week!
We had a conference with President Hall, and learned a lot about
families. They talked a lot about how our mission will help our
families in the future, and it made everyone a little trunky.
They even joked about how finding investigators is like trying to find
a wife; you need to talk to everyone, and ask for references and so
on... just a few more months, and I´ll be ready to apply these
principes in my dating life...haha...
We´´re teaching a really great woman named Morganna. She´s basically a
member already, but she needs to get married before she can get
baptised. She´s been inviting all her family and friends to come to
church, and this week, when we went to teach her, there were 6
teenage girls who wanted to hear our message too. They really just
wanted to flirt with us, but in the end they accepted the invite to
come to church, and read the Book of Mormon etc... they´re all
progressing now, and I think we´ll start to baptise some of them this
week. 9 people came to church this Sunday and we´ll start to baptise
all these people next week.
Yesterday, we were relaxing at home after lunch, when we heard a ton
of fireworks exploding outside our house. When I went outside to see
what it was, there were about 500 horseback riders coming down the
steet in front of our house. It took more that 15 minutes for all of
them to pass. I really don´t know how many horses there were, but it
was the biggest group of horses that I´d ever seen in my life.
That night, we visited Morganna, and she was having a bad head ache.
In church, she´d learned about priesthood, so we offered to give her a
blessing. It was the first time that Elder Ortega had annoited someone
with oil, and then I gave the blessing afterwards. The spirit was
really stong. When I finished the blessing, she looked at me and
asked, "Is the headache supposed to stop right away?" I just said,
"uh...I don´t know..." and then she said, "because it´s totally gone
now! Thankyou so much!" I felt so good when she said that :) I have a
stonger testimony now that the priesthood really is the power of God
on the earth, and that miracles exist when we have faith.
I hope you have a great week. I love all of you guys, and I know that
we can be happy as a family through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I´ll send more photos next week if I can.
Love, Elder Forsyth
We had a conference with President Hall, and learned a lot about
families. They talked a lot about how our mission will help our
families in the future, and it made everyone a little trunky.
They even joked about how finding investigators is like trying to find
a wife; you need to talk to everyone, and ask for references and so
on... just a few more months, and I´ll be ready to apply these
principes in my dating life...haha...
We´´re teaching a really great woman named Morganna. She´s basically a
member already, but she needs to get married before she can get
baptised. She´s been inviting all her family and friends to come to
church, and this week, when we went to teach her, there were 6
teenage girls who wanted to hear our message too. They really just
wanted to flirt with us, but in the end they accepted the invite to
come to church, and read the Book of Mormon etc... they´re all
progressing now, and I think we´ll start to baptise some of them this
week. 9 people came to church this Sunday and we´ll start to baptise
all these people next week.
Yesterday, we were relaxing at home after lunch, when we heard a ton
of fireworks exploding outside our house. When I went outside to see
what it was, there were about 500 horseback riders coming down the
steet in front of our house. It took more that 15 minutes for all of
them to pass. I really don´t know how many horses there were, but it
was the biggest group of horses that I´d ever seen in my life.
That night, we visited Morganna, and she was having a bad head ache.
In church, she´d learned about priesthood, so we offered to give her a
blessing. It was the first time that Elder Ortega had annoited someone
with oil, and then I gave the blessing afterwards. The spirit was
really stong. When I finished the blessing, she looked at me and
asked, "Is the headache supposed to stop right away?" I just said,
"uh...I don´t know..." and then she said, "because it´s totally gone
now! Thankyou so much!" I felt so good when she said that :) I have a
stonger testimony now that the priesthood really is the power of God
on the earth, and that miracles exist when we have faith.
I hope you have a great week. I love all of you guys, and I know that
we can be happy as a family through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I´ll send more photos next week if I can.
Love, Elder Forsyth
3/12/2012
Hey Guys,
I´m trying to send you some pictures, but I don´t know if its going to work.
This week was pretty normal. We worked hard, but no one went to church again... it's kind of hard to get people to church by bus. I think we´ll have a new chapel in a little while though, and maybe things will get a little easier.
I can´t think of a lot that happened, and I´m almost out of time.
We taught a guy this week who had a section of his bible that talked bad about all the other religions. In the Mormom section, it said we don´t belive in Christ as the Son of God, and that we believe that to go to Heaven, you have to have permission from Joseph Smith... I couldn´t belive that someone put those kind of things inside a Bible, lying about us like that.
With another family, they had 2 grandparents that had died in the same day, and we taught the plan of salvation. They were really grateful, and I felt good afterwards.
I love you guys a lot! Have a great week, and I´ll talk to you more next week. I´ll get to play piano at the zone conference. It will be cool.
Love, Elder Forsyth!
I´m trying to send you some pictures, but I don´t know if its going to work.
This week was pretty normal. We worked hard, but no one went to church again... it's kind of hard to get people to church by bus. I think we´ll have a new chapel in a little while though, and maybe things will get a little easier.
I can´t think of a lot that happened, and I´m almost out of time.
We taught a guy this week who had a section of his bible that talked bad about all the other religions. In the Mormom section, it said we don´t belive in Christ as the Son of God, and that we believe that to go to Heaven, you have to have permission from Joseph Smith... I couldn´t belive that someone put those kind of things inside a Bible, lying about us like that.
With another family, they had 2 grandparents that had died in the same day, and we taught the plan of salvation. They were really grateful, and I felt good afterwards.
I love you guys a lot! Have a great week, and I´ll talk to you more next week. I´ll get to play piano at the zone conference. It will be cool.
Love, Elder Forsyth!
3/5/2012
Well, its hard to believe that in 4 months I´ll be back with you guys
again. The past year and 8 months have passed pretty fast, but still,
it´s been a long time since I´ve seen you guys, and I miss you. I´m
still not super trunky, but I am starting to miss you guys a little
more.
This week was pretty successful and we had some hang ups too. On
Saturday, our mission leader wanted to take us out to contact some
people in his family, but we didn´t realy know what he had in mind.
He´s a new member, and doen´t really understand missionary work really
well. He´s super excited to help us, but he really doesn't know how...
At 2pm, he loaded us in his green bug with his wife and grandma, and
drove us over an hour and a half into the middle of nowhere where his
mom and dad live on a farm. He wanted us to share a message with the
family, and give his mom a blessing, who has a sleep disorder. The
whole time we were crammed into that little slug bug, bottoming out on
rocks on the dirt road, I just kept thinking, "How on earth are these
people going to come to church every sunday and be baptised?" It seemed
nearly an impossible feat,but the people liked the message, and said
they wanted to visit the church when they can. Our mission leader said
that maybe he could wake up at 5 and drive an hour and a half to pick
them up, so that they could catch a bus at 8 to get to church at 9.
Then he´d have to drive them all the way back after church. After
giving the message, we drove back home, and got back at 6:30. Our
whole day was spent on that one message, and we didn´t get around to
inviting half our investigators to come to church.
We still did have some investigators at church though. A 14 year old
girl, Mislene, went to church for the second time on Sunday. Her whole
family wants to be baptised now,but her mom needs to get married first,
and her brothers will need to go to church 8 times before the President
will let them be baptised. We´ll see what happens this week.
but yeah... the work is going great. I´m liking Elder Ortega. He´s
23 years old and he´s always super happy, and we get along well.
I´ll send pictures when I can. It´s a little hard in this lan house.
Sorry if my emails get monotanous sometimes. If you want to know more
details about something, send me some questions. Missionaries love
when people ask questions.
The Church is true, and I love you guys a lot.
Love, Elder Forsyth
again. The past year and 8 months have passed pretty fast, but still,
it´s been a long time since I´ve seen you guys, and I miss you. I´m
still not super trunky, but I am starting to miss you guys a little
more.
This week was pretty successful and we had some hang ups too. On
Saturday, our mission leader wanted to take us out to contact some
people in his family, but we didn´t realy know what he had in mind.
He´s a new member, and doen´t really understand missionary work really
well. He´s super excited to help us, but he really doesn't know how...
At 2pm, he loaded us in his green bug with his wife and grandma, and
drove us over an hour and a half into the middle of nowhere where his
mom and dad live on a farm. He wanted us to share a message with the
family, and give his mom a blessing, who has a sleep disorder. The
whole time we were crammed into that little slug bug, bottoming out on
rocks on the dirt road, I just kept thinking, "How on earth are these
people going to come to church every sunday and be baptised?" It seemed
nearly an impossible feat,but the people liked the message, and said
they wanted to visit the church when they can. Our mission leader said
that maybe he could wake up at 5 and drive an hour and a half to pick
them up, so that they could catch a bus at 8 to get to church at 9.
Then he´d have to drive them all the way back after church. After
giving the message, we drove back home, and got back at 6:30. Our
whole day was spent on that one message, and we didn´t get around to
inviting half our investigators to come to church.
We still did have some investigators at church though. A 14 year old
girl, Mislene, went to church for the second time on Sunday. Her whole
family wants to be baptised now,but her mom needs to get married first,
and her brothers will need to go to church 8 times before the President
will let them be baptised. We´ll see what happens this week.
but yeah... the work is going great. I´m liking Elder Ortega. He´s
23 years old and he´s always super happy, and we get along well.
I´ll send pictures when I can. It´s a little hard in this lan house.
Sorry if my emails get monotanous sometimes. If you want to know more
details about something, send me some questions. Missionaries love
when people ask questions.
The Church is true, and I love you guys a lot.
Love, Elder Forsyth
2/29/2012
Woohoo! Investigators came to church this week!
After 3 hard weeks of making contacts, and knocking doors without results, we saw a miracle happen this Sunday. Ten investigators came to church. We had an awesome family there, and they brought their friends and extended family, and other members brought their friends. It was great. About 20 percent of ward was visiting for the first time. Out of this group, there were a lot of people who are possible baptisms for the month, and a super family that we want to help get married, and baptised. I´ll try to keep you guys informed with how everything goes.
We had transfers this week. :P Elder Bueno was one of my favorite comps, but he got transferred to Joao Pessoa, in Geisel were I was last year. I feel bad that he got transferred right when we were on the up swing. Some investigators will cry when they find out that he´s gone now.
My new companion is Elder Ortega. He´s been on the mission for about 6 months now. He´s from Washington, and speaks English and Spanish. I´m excited to learn Spanish from him. I can understand 80% of Spanish already, but I´d like to learn to speak and write a little better. He´s super excited to be here, and we´ll have a great transfer together.
I´ll talk to you guys again on Monday. I can´t think of anything else that happened this week. We found some drunk guys in the street during carnival. We tried to help one, and another one tried to rob us with his fingers pointed like a gun. First he told us to give him our backpack and take off our clothes, and then he gave us a hug and said he was kidding. You've gotta love the drunks.
Have a great week you guys. I´ll try to send more photos when I can :)
Love, Elder Forsyth. The Church is true!
After 3 hard weeks of making contacts, and knocking doors without results, we saw a miracle happen this Sunday. Ten investigators came to church. We had an awesome family there, and they brought their friends and extended family, and other members brought their friends. It was great. About 20 percent of ward was visiting for the first time. Out of this group, there were a lot of people who are possible baptisms for the month, and a super family that we want to help get married, and baptised. I´ll try to keep you guys informed with how everything goes.
We had transfers this week. :P Elder Bueno was one of my favorite comps, but he got transferred to Joao Pessoa, in Geisel were I was last year. I feel bad that he got transferred right when we were on the up swing. Some investigators will cry when they find out that he´s gone now.
My new companion is Elder Ortega. He´s been on the mission for about 6 months now. He´s from Washington, and speaks English and Spanish. I´m excited to learn Spanish from him. I can understand 80% of Spanish already, but I´d like to learn to speak and write a little better. He´s super excited to be here, and we´ll have a great transfer together.
I´ll talk to you guys again on Monday. I can´t think of anything else that happened this week. We found some drunk guys in the street during carnival. We tried to help one, and another one tried to rob us with his fingers pointed like a gun. First he told us to give him our backpack and take off our clothes, and then he gave us a hug and said he was kidding. You've gotta love the drunks.
Have a great week you guys. I´ll try to send more photos when I can :)
Love, Elder Forsyth. The Church is true!
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