Life in the Rio Grande

Greetings from Fazenda Rio Grande!

And a big shoutout to everyone in the Doylestown Ward - I love you ALL! You'll be getting a letter soon. 

This area is huuuge. Fazenda Rio Grande is a city underneath Curitiba and is still young. It was founded 25 years ago and the center of the city is developed on a grand scale like Curitiba. The area of Rio Iguaçu is completely different than Osternack. Osternack was a tiny town with one principal street and little neighborhoods that branched off. It was super easy to help people get to church because everyone lived near the chapel. Elder Lima Silva told me a couple days ago that we walk about 20 kilometres per day. We hitch rides with  members and take a lot of buses. The buses here are organized with the exact system as those in the City of Curitiba. R$2.70 for a ride and the buses are big, orange, and full of people. I'll take a picture next time. The sad part about it is sometimes buses take forever to arrive at the Fazenda Rio Grande Terminal and we wait and wait and wait. But not to worry because there are so many people waiting just like us, so we pass the time making contacts and collecting addresses. 

Eu fiz azneira. I did something stupid. It was more embarrassing and funny than stupid but I'll give the account here:

We hitched a ride with a recent convert who has "fogo nos ossos" -- fire in the bones. He's a firm convert and brings the spirit with his simple yet powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. We arrived at the home that we intended to and entered to teach a man who lives alone. For me I thought he was an investigator. I usually have to rely on the help of Elder Lima to tell me a little biography about the people we teach when we are outside the gate, but I forgot to ask this time. We started to teach about The Book of Mormon and how we gain our testimonies of the book. One passed off to the other, our recent convert bore his testimony like a champ and it came to me to finish the lesson and leave a commitment for him to read the Book of Mormon, or go to church, or join us for a family home evening. But I was thinking he was a investigator. So I went for the baptismal invitation because the spirit was there and it seemed like the perfect thing to do because our "investigator" bore testimony also. "Você seguirá o exemplo de Jesus Crist sendo batizado pelo pessoa que possua autoridade restaurado de Deus". He looked at me with a face of utter confusion and said he already was baptized. Everyone burst into laughter. He was kind enough to to joke with me afterwards saying, "Without problems I will be baptized again!"

So, two Chileanos, a Brasileiro and an American live together. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke but this is my life right now. It is a great help with the language because each one of them knows how to speak better than I. Whew. My Portuguese has improved drastically and when I speak English I sound like a foreigner. que benção. 

Scripture for Obedience Alma 57:20-27

And as the remainder of our army were about to give way before the Lamanites, behold, those two thousand and sixty were firm and undaunted.

 Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them.

 And now behold, it was these my sons, and those men who had been selected to convey the prisoners, to whom we owe this great victory; for it was they who did beat the Lamanites; therefore they were driven back to the city of Manti. And we retained our city Cumeni, and were not all destroyed by the sword; nevertheless, we had suffered great loss.

 And it came to pass that after the Lamanites had fled, I immediately gave orders that my men who had been wounded should be taken from among the dead, and caused that their wounds should be dressed. And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.

 And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power.

 Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm and they do put their trust in God continually.

Until next week, stay sweet everyone!

love, Elder Forsyth

Elder Forsyth with some great posture. Elder Rico (Concepcion Chile), Elder Lima Silva (Rio Grande do Norte), Elder Herrera (Santiago Chile). Our apartment is above our neighbor like Osternack, so I can read outside again. This picture was taken today. When I looked at the picture again I noticed how short my tie is.... looked down from the computer screen to see I look like a deacon.   

Forsyth and Bastos