The Ohio

Oi!

 

 In the words of the beloved Elder Twogood, "It feels like I am in the shower...all the time." Welcome to the place where it skips Spring completely and goes straight to what feels like 100% percent humidity and 95 degrees. Everytime I get back to the apartment I don't know if my white shirt will still be white. It is a scary thing to think about. Hopefully I didn't gross everyone out completely but let's just say riding bikes all day in this kind of weather feels like I am constantly in a sauna. Mother Nature is just giving me a taste of Brazil mixed with Bucks County. Whyy?! why would you do that to me? Other than the mood swings of nature, I have been loving The Ohio (everyone calls it the great ohio, i just stick with the ohio).

 

There are a couple of Portuguese speakers in the ward so we have been going over to their homes, teaching a lesson and then talking to them in Portuguese. It has been really helpful but I can tell that I am losing my vocab and speed when I speak it. Oh well, I guess. I understand you don't really know the language until you get to the actual country so I'm not too worried.

 

Chris Taylor

 

    The only people that we regularly teach are those that are recent converts and others that have been re-activated and never had really gone to church after they were baptized. I wanna talk to you all about the amazing Chris Taylor.  Chris falls under the category of one who was baptized but fell away because his parents stopped going to church. It is kind of a sad story but the good thing is that he is now fully active and wants to learn more about the gospel because he feels like he missed out on everything. The great part is that he has a great desire to grow and forsake his past life that lead him into misery and trouble. He radiates with the spirit and I get choked up everytime that we teach him. A couple of weeks ago we finished up lesson 3 of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and now we have moved on to laws and ordinances. Last night we taught him about the Law of Chastity and he is extremely excited to follow it because he told us the spirit was so strong in his apartment that he couldn't say no... there was no way possible he wouldn't want the blessings from following this law. He is so pumped. I feel so much happiness when I know that the words coming out of my mouth are not mine but are the Spirit working through me to touch Chris' heart in a way that wouldn't be possible for me to understand. It just goes to show how perfectly our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost know us. Our conversation about the Law of Chastity led to how can we know if this is a true law or not, thus leading to the principle of prayer. But the amazing thing is that we were not expecting to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It was interesting see how everything we would testify of led to the eternal truth of The Book of Mormon. Once you know that The Book of Mormon is true, you know that it was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith, you know that Jesus is the Christ and everything that the Book teaches, prophesies, and warns of is true. As we laid this out to Chris, it just clicked for him and he was so excited to follow Christ even more closely than he was before. I got the feeling that Chris didn't have a copy of his own and gave him one of our hard backs. He told us that this was the best present that he had ever received because it reminded him of when he was given the same type of Book of Mormon from his sister when he was 10 years old but he had lost it. When we gave him a copy of ours he told us that it reminded him alot of when he was a child. He was without words while he was holding it. He started to cry tears of gratitude and was more thankful for a Book of Mormon than anyone I have ever seen. The Spirit of God was so strong last night and Elder Twogood, Elder Culler, Chris Taylor and I all received another divine witness that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love how precious it was to Chris and the way he held it really close to him for the rest of the night. It was a sight to see and a great testimony builder.

 

I love this work so much and I want everyone who is reading this to know that I know that Jesus is the Christ, he is there for us always, and is our brother. I love all of my brothers so much and to think that I have another one always there for me just like they are brings a happiness to my soul that I cannot describe. I cannot deny that the feelings of love that I receive when I speak of my simple testimony to others is the comfort of the Holy Ghost speaking to our soul by God our Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

Thank you Andrea, Jonathan, Will and Dallin for the letter.

 

Thank you Momma for all of the Cliff Bars.

 

Thank you Seguine Family for the letters full of Love. I miss you guys a ton!

 

And thank you Megan for the armada of Reeces...things. Reeces Puffs, cups, pieces. It was so awesome.

 

I love you all so much. I've been a little more patient as I try my best to be whatever God wants to me to be. So thank you so much for your prayers. It means the world to me.

 

Love,

Elder Forsyth

 

p.s. Stay Sweet