Pictures and a few gray hairs

Elder Forsyth? What? Is that Portuguese?

Teofilo and his family at their baptism.

Baptism of Teófilo and his family!!  It was an amazing experience. The whole time I was so nervous about saying "Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen" -- in Portuguese, but after I baptized Teófilo all I could think of was my father! It was a strange thought to appear in my head right after the ordinance was finished but I know that the reason I have the authority to baptize is because of Dad's example and the love he showed me when he was alive. I had a flood of memories from my baptism when I was 8. I have never been able to remember my baptism very well other than the cool paper airplane and other gifts I received, but I was able to remember Dad's smile afterward.

Elder Bastos baptized Marcilene and Marilene and I baptized Teófilo, the father. My first baptism was a whole family!! It was an honor to be apart of. All I can think about is their family in the future -- and the future family of Marilene! Her kids will have the gospel in their lives and be blessed forever! And the two little boys! When they turn eight they too can be baptized. This work is incredible.   

Osternack apartment - Coming in after a hard rainy day of work.

My laminated planner.  

Any resemblance?

Osternack apartment - Elder Bastos ready to serve.

Pictures of our apartment.  it rained for about 5 days straight last week and the glimpse of sun for two days was an incredible gift. A  pair of my shoes are still waterlogged. 

The other picture is of my planner with laminated pictures in it. Brigham is always watching.:-) The other picture is of Christ forgiving the adultress. It is my favorite story in all of the Bible because of the awesome charity Christ shows for her. It shows that we cannot condemn at the first glance. People need 2 chances and 3 chances and chances 70x7. Every time I feel like we should cut an investigator because they don't keep their commitments, I look at my planner and I try to see them as Christ would -- in their highest potential living with our Father again.

(Ed. note:  There are more pictures at the end.  I gave up trying to insert them where I wanted them to go...  The remaining comments are responses to questions Eric and I asked in our emails. Blast from the past and by way of explanation -- Ian and Casey would spend countless hours each summer crafting homemade movies with legos and GI Joes.)

Yes, keep the box of gi joes!  I need those for my hopefully awesome posterity.  Good call, Momma! I need my children to know that it isn't all in the special effect but in the practical effects with lighters and random things that explode. And blowing up legos.  I think about Casey all the time. And Joe and Ben and Kyle. Make sure they all know that I love them will all of my little heart.

 By the way I forgot to tell you, I left my English quad scriptures on Tam airlines. Woops.....I had a couple of seconds to clench my teeth and think of all of the studying and writing the the margins I had done ....but I realized someone needs those scriptures more than I do. They had pictures taped on of our family and of the Seguines. Also a picture of Casey and me playing a random violin I think at Lucy's house.  I am pretty sure it was in 3rd Nephi 18 or 17. The one of Casey and me. I will miss those scriptures dearly.  I got them when I was 12.  But now I have Portuguese ones and a paperback English Book of Mormon that I snagged from Ohio. At the time I was going to give that paper back to a person on the plane but for some odd reason I got the prompting not to. And in turn I left my huge awesome bible, book of mormon, doctrine and covenants, and pearl of great price for someone else to read. Now I know why I have a puny paperback version of the Book of Mormon in English. It is my only source of translation sometimes. 

To answer Eric's questions. The riots that have been flooding the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are now in Curitiba. Don't worry, though. We are about an hour away from centro Curitiba and the people here, I am pretty sure, couldn't care less about the world cup and the expenses that it takes.

 As we are out clapping our hands outside of gates we hear the occasional yelp of joy after Brazil scores a goal. Elder Bastos always looks at me and give me a slick head nod and says something promoting the Brazilian soccer team. The other day we were outside of an investigator's house and we heard screams, shrieks and laughter coming out of the peachy colored house, then little kids came running outside jumping up and down in the puddles getting all muddy. They were the widest smiles I have ever seen.  Brasil beat Italy. It was a big deal for these little 6 year olds

More details on my trip here: Getting the flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo is a story of its own. First off, I got on the wrong flight to Atlanta....There were two flights both going to Atlanta, both delayed and both leaving from the same gate. I didn't take the time to check the flight number. After a couple minutes of awkward silence they ushered me off the plane and basically asked why I got on the flight. I explained I was not a terrorist and it was all good. Then I got on my real Atlanta flight which was delayed even more. I had 10 minutes after landing in Atlanta to get on my plane to Sao Paulo. The Atlanta airport is massive and difficult to navigate. I had to run with two carry-ons and get on a train to arrive at terminal E. I was at B.. I made it just in time. I had to run really fast and I was all sweaty in my suit. Kinda gross.

Gray hairs. Many more than usual.  Probably from learning the language.

I love Osternack.

Look up Brazilian hand gestures. There is one they do whenever anything cool happens or they hear of something incredible --  they slap their index finger to their middle digit. I have learned it, it is fun, loud, and you kinda look dumb but it's kinda cool. 

We eat lunch with the members and  we have rice and beans everyday. We only cook on p-day....TODAY! Okay, I need to go!