Elder Ian Forsyth: Only Miracles

Batismo!

Sent away to the forest

Só milagres. Wooo - just miracles here in Prudentopolis. I've been transferred to the other side of the word. All the way over to the interior of Paraná. It is the furthest area from the mission office. Só festa....just kidding, But it's a blast here. I've been waiting to be sent away to the forest. I was in the city for 8 months..in the same zone. Here I am now, in Prudentopolis. I'M FREE!

wait. what? Welcome to Prudentopolis

I am finishing up Elder Cesar´s training. We are already best friends. He is from Capital São Paulo and likes Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Eagles, and John Mayer ....brothers: send him emails.

We have an awesome companionship vibe. The work here is speeding up really fast in our teenie weenie branch. We have 4 baptisms scheduled. Some that were being prepared in the past and some that we have found already. I am so excited! We helped with a youth activity at the chapel (The branch doesn't have a huge budget) and we bought some popcorn and tang for the kids as they played futebol and ping pong. Elder Cesar and I taught some of the young men guitar riffs. It was so great to see the kids have so much fun inviting their friends to the activity. They were little missionaries out there. Elder Cesar is 24 years old and we have the same humor and like the same things. It's like Elder Bastos but a little more goofy. Elder Bastos is the Cole Porter side and Elder Cesar is the rock and roll side.

Cesar and Forsyth

Miracles in Parigot de Souza

Deivid was baptized in a style of surprise. Thursday I got the call from the Assistants..."Elder Forsyth you´re being transferred." Actually, I forgot...it wasn't a call. It was in person. Elder Vighetto and Elder Oaks, (Zone Leader) sent me to the mission office to grab some teaching materials and a fan because of my sweat accumulation. I walked in and Elder Alves (Assistant to the President) gave me a super strange look. That look that says, "what are you doing here? I just bought your bus tickets for Prudentopolis," Yeah, that look. He told me right then and there that I was being transferred to the interior. I got super sad because Deivid´s baptism was scheduled for Saturday. They told me that I was to to depart at 8 o´clock in the morning on Friday. I hurried home to pack my bags and around 6 o'clock we started to hit the streets again. Our baptismal interview with Deivid was marked for 8 pm. As the minutes were drawing closer to 8, I hatched a plan. Let's just perform the baptism after the interview. Super de boa.

We showed up in the chapel and Deivid was there. I told him about my transfer and before I could say prudento...he said, "let´s just have the baptismal service now." I was in shock. We called the bishop. He came. All of the young women and young men and leaders of the church were at the church already (that was weird). And when I ran to the baptismal font to fill it.... it was already full, and....hot. (Fonts take two hours to fill.) I asked everyone, "Who filled the font?" "No one" all of them replied. I literally asked everyone. The last baptism was last week for Bairro Novo but they drained it. And even if it were full, the water wouldn't be hot. A miracle from God saying, just baptize. The meeting was extremely spiritual and to add some more flavor, we found two people on the street on our way to grab our white ties and pants. We invited them to the late-night baptism. They accepted and stayed until the end. The baptism end around 9:50 pm.