Better than Shark Week

Miracle week is just as good as shark week.

Many miracles have happened this last week.  My legs are dead from all of the hills we had to conquer. The hills got the best of me and I am ready to take a huge nap.

Miracle #1

Sunday I was super lost because I didn't know all of the membros. Just the ones that I knew from my days in Ala Estação. So, many people wanted to get to know me and talk about deep doctrine or my life before the mission. I didn't really have time for that because I had to host my investigators around the chapel. During the second hour we have gospel principles and all of our investigators were well received. It was awesome. They all were with smiley faces as they walked out of the class. Que benção. I sat next to an isolated man named Marlon. He shared with me that he´s been inactive for 9 years and now he has finally gathered up all the courage he could to return home. He felt like the prodigal son coming home after a long time. Ever since his exit, his life has never been the same. He is now married and has two kids, one being 8 years old. He told me that his wife never wanted anything to do with the church because she would go once a year and never had the interest to continue. Now she is loving the church. Yesterday was her 2nd Sunday and the Relief Society sisters basically jumped on her just to get to know each other. Their children are in primary and Matheus wants to be a missionary :). Marlon told me that his biggest goal is to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. So, he asked me for my help. I felt like a servant of God in that moment. It was one of the few times I was called to help someone. Marlon is extremely humble and has the biggest desire to change his ways. He wants his son to be baptised and serve a mission so that generation can be changed. We taught them yesterday and Andrea (his wife) has officialy decided to follow her husband in the church and support him. We are so excited for them.

Miracle #2

Yesterday was also hilarious. We had homeless men asking for our ties, shirts and money. We walked in the middle of a bar party and taught some college students and burned a lot of calories from the long and hard walking. I seriously feel like spider man because the incline is not normal. 

But when it hit 8:45 p.m. we were outside of our house and I, personally, just wanted to open our apartment door, plan for the day, grab the zone´s numbers and crash. The constant thought of, "no one wants to talk to you at this hour"  and "you worked really hard, you can stop now" entered into my mind. I was tempted a ton just to walk through the door. It didn't seem like a sin. I was just going home after a hard day´s work. There weren't any problems, right? Missionaries aren't allowed to finish their day until 9:00 p.m. hits. But I just wanted to sleeeeeeeep. I was sooo tired. My body was stiff and my mind was almost logging off. But I knew what I needed to do. I had to open my mouth and talk to someone. Probably one of our neighbors. "But our neighbors surely have already heard from the missionaries too much", I thought. "I'm sure they hate us by now". "OPEN YOUR MOUTH"...."No, don´t do that....your bed is calling....." "OPEN YOUR MOUTH"....."no, you are sweaty and no one wants to smell you"...."RING THAT GUY'S DOORBELL"....."GO REST". The temptation got louder and louder but I rang our neighbor's doorbell. We looked up, because his lawn was facing us due to the hill, and we saw a chubby face with glasses peek outside of the door. I waved and he ran inside again. "Great, I should've gone home instead of being rejected", I thought, but he ran out shirtless and gave us a huge "HELLLO!!". He was so excited to see us, he looked like a Disney character. "I just have to grab my sandals to come outside". He told us that he had gone to the United States on vacation and visited Philadelphia, New York, Washington D.C., and Delaware. He described a bunch of stuff that I had already seen and loved back home. So we had a cool chat. 

He told us "I was driving down the highway in D.C. and we came up to a bend, but on the other side we saw a really white building with an angel playing a trumpet. We drove, but we couldn't keep our eyes off the pretty building. Good thing we didn't crash" he said. I thought it was funny because that temple probably causes a lot of car accidents. I explained to him that a lot of people love to look at that temple. He continued with his story, "Yeah we took a bunch of pictures and went into the visitors center. They didn´t let us in the temple because we aren't members. The fountains are so AWESOME!" I´m telling you right now. The man was super pumped to talk to two Americans about his travels to the U.S. "Can you guys come over sometime for lunch to tell me more about these Mormon temples? " I accepted because of the food....kidding....I´m kidding. He really wants to be taught and he is our neighbor. Perfect. The chapel is on the other side of the street. You drive out from his house and turn left and you can see the steeple. Heavenly Father prepares those who are close to his representatives. EVERYONE -- TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE CLOSE TO THE CHAPEL. 

And if I didn't follow the spirit? Would I have thought to pass by another time when I had free time? I can tell you right now. I would have passed by his house because it's a mansion. I usually knock all the rich people's doors but this one was our neighbor so I didn't think anything of it. Let's see where this goes. 

Love, Elder Forsyth

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New comp - Elder de la Rosa

Ripped my pants on this jump