Looooove, love, love...

Querido Rapazes, Moças, amigos, Família, e caras.

This week was a great one to say the least. Elder Bastos and I have had a great run here in Osternack...and it is not over. I forgot to inform you that we both stayed here in the beautiful area of Osternack during transfers. The work still continues with the same elders. The funny thing about it is, I am pretty sure we have stopped almost everyone who lives in Osternack on the street. It is starting to get really difficult finding people that don't say, "Dude, you've already talked to me twice...in this same spot." It is slightly embarrassing, but the good thing is we talk to a lot of people each week. 

Sotaque (Accent) 

Speaking of talking to people, everyone that Elder Bastos talks to thinks he's an Americano. "What part of the United States are you from?" He gets that one a lot. They say he has an American sounding accent. I don't hear it. I have a perfect picture of his face when people say this to him. But the sad thing is I forgot my camera adapter for the computer. So next week you'll see his slightly annoyed Brasilian Face. You have to cut him a little slack, though because he has been living with Americans for about four months. 

Translating from Portuguese to English. 

My Journal these days is a little atrocious. There are so many words crossed out because I accidentally wrote in Portuguese or I forgot how to spell in English. I have to consult my dictionary a lot to find if certain words exist in English. I like it and I don't like it. It is a weird feeling when you can't speak your native tongue very well.  But the good thing is, I don't need to speak English with anyone here. Except for our Bishop. He speaks English fluently so we have some fun in between sunday school. 

Sad news. A lot of our dates for Baptism have fallen through for one reason or another. So a couple of people I wrote about aren't exactly keeping with the path to Baptism. But, really it is a part of missionary work. Honestly, missionary work is easy because of the blessings that you receive but the hardest part is respecting the free agency that Heavenly Father gave us a long, long time ago. Misha Tulek, photographer, debonair gentleman, and great friend of mine, gave me a great piece of advice before I left for the field. "Conserve your happiness. At times it may seem like there is none left, but find it." There is really no time to get down and out here in Osternack because we are constantly on the move from apartment to favela, but there are times when the enemy can get to you. Something that I learned that I will always keep with me for the rest of my life is to always remember my divine inheritance. For everyone who thinks that their potential is less than their fellow man, I'm sorry but you are terribly wrong. We are all children of our Heavenly Father and we all have the same objective: to live with Him again forever! In complete and eternal happiness. I see a lot of people living in boxes, with the dogs on the street and many of them seem like they have no chance. But how can we help them?Love them and love them some more. Be a good Samaritan and see others in their full potential. All in white with a wide smiling face. We have agency, too, you know! We have a knowledge that so few people have. So why not share it? You don't need to send the missionaries at first for every situation. Just share how your life is different because of the gospel. Even if it is a few sentences I know that it will touch their heart. They will recognize that you are sharing with them this divine knowledge only because you love them. Loooooove, love, love. The Beatles sang it well.

The mission forces you to leave your comfort zone. Especially if you are speaking a foreign language. Elder Bastos, the Ward Mission Leader and I hosted a ward fireside. It was legit. We shared a message of the Atonement of Christ. I shared an example that I learned from our District leader: placing food coloring in a water-filled transparent container and then placing água sanitário (i don't know what it is in English, sorry) and the water returns to its pure original state. Isaiah 1:18 was an awesome scripture to read while the experiment took place. But I was able to speak for a solid 10 minutes in Portuguese and have people understand me. Half the things I said I don't remember but I know they made sense. It took a lot of faith. But God only works through us by our faith. We can produce miracles great and small even when all we can muster is a desire to believe (Alma 32).

Next week I promise pictures. Fui minha mal. I am shooting my imaginary love gun to everyone at home. Feel it and stay sweet.

Love,

Elder Forsyth

Music, Love and Futebol

Good Morning friends, family and other people that are reading my blog. I consider you to also be my friend, :)

ED IS THE BISHOP!! (Ed Seguine was called as the new bishop of the Doylestown Ward.)  Tell him I send my regards:) By the way I forgot to include in my other emails that I recieved his dearelder letter 3 weeks ago. It made my day on the way back from zone conference. I read it on the ônibus since it is illegal for missionaries in Brazil to proselytize on public transportation. I received lots of comfort from it. I love Ed, Jen, Dallin, Taylor and of course Cami. I am so thankful for all of their awesome letters that they have sent me. Cami - continue to be awesome...okay?
I didn't have the time for a photo shoot this week...hahaha. Let it be said that taking pictures in Osternack with a nice digital Canon is not the smartest idea. So it might have to be in our apartment. With our electric blue walls. 

Our water situation for all of the worried mothers out there

Don't worry, only some of the water is not the cleanest. We BUY our water from a very established proprietor. It is the liquor store that is right next door to our house. Don't worry we are only there for their water supply. It's 9 reais and it comes in those big blue jugs. It is the highest quality water we can get. So far I have not received any signs that the water I have been drinking is bad for me. 

Tender mercy of the week

So this week I had, more or less, a sinus infection. I got it last Segunda-Feira (Monday) and it finally calmed down last night. Right now I feel good as new with a sniffle here and there. We were teaching a person we met on the street the past week and when I would teach a principle it was clear my voice was going out and I was sick. I continued to teach and my sickness continued to show. It was that way until a man who had a good taste in music drove by. I was able to hear the music because we were teaching the lady on her balcony. "Could you Be Loved" by Bob Marley was soaring through the air and my voice miraculously came back and I continued to teach with power and fervor. I know this sounds dumb...but...music really does make the difference in my life. When we are walking down the streets there are 9-10 different FIATS playing different kinds of music and  they are all blasting at full volume. It's a little nauseating. The people in this town are really into buying super expensive speaker systems and hooking them up in their car. It is really strange. The cars are all decked out but the homes are made of wet cement thrown on top of very old wood.

A little more about Elder Bastos

Two nights ago we felt like we had taught a good amount of lessons and we needed to find more investigators for our upcoming week. So we hit the pavement contacting anyone we could find. In the in-between moments I would ask Elder Bastos about his life and the conversation eventually came to what is your favorite movie. It was really hard for Elder Bastos. He loves Americans films and he is like me -- it is one of his favorite things to do. After many minutes of analyzing it came down to Dance with Me and Notting Hill. Mom, I told him that you and he would be best friends. He is a big Hugh Jackman and Richard Gere fan. I was taken aback at first but I accepted it.

(In answer to questions about his district and zone): I don't know my zone very well. But we did have a conference with our new president. Our Zone Leaders are Elder Martínez and Elder Morales. Both are not from Brazil. Martinez is from Uruguay and Morales is from Chile. So when they are not teaching or having meetings with us they speak Spanish. Our district is awesome. We are all pretty far away from each other. Our District covers Osternack, Bairro Novo, Sito Cercado, and Jardim do Sol. I was instantaneously loved and my language improves every meeting we attend because everything is in Portuguese. I will have a picture of them next week. We have district meeting tomorrow so I'll take a photo. 

More Pictures of Osternack. I have to secretly take them. That is why the angles are all goofy. I am not trying to be a hipster, I swear.

Futebol

So the other day I bought a CORITIBA FUTEBOL CLUB jersey. This came with a cool keychain that I attached to my backpack. First mistake. Soccer in Brasil is a religion and if you show your team outwardly it is like having a different interpretation of the Bible. Everyone has their views but in this case everyone has their team. The team that Elder Bastos supports is Santos. Many people like this team but there are so many teams that people would lay down their life for. So when people see my keychain they...first...immediately think I speak fluent Portuguese. Secondly...they start to contend or joke about how their team is better than my "team" or in my perspective my dinky keychain. Whenever people ask about it Elder Bastos has an involuntary response, "He's a santista...don't worry."(santista = follower of team Santos) I just go with it. I asked Elder Bastos which team is the worst in Brasil. The worst team in the nation is Corinthians. I say this now just to get people's attention. They look at me really funny. It's a hilarious face. For all those who are acquainted with the look Francesca, my sister-in-law, has coined "the Forsyth look," it is alot like that. Ask one of my brothers and they will demonstrate for you. I think Daniel has mastered it. Ask him

(I asked him about his efforts to love each companion and each potential investigator) This love has helped me so much. I have decided to stop everyone on the street. Especially the ones with a "Skol" (a really famous Brazilian beer) in their hands. There was one guy drinking away and was about to walk past us until I stopped him. He was taken back in shock. He said every religion he sees rejects him and he pointed to his beer and asked what we were doing stopping him. We told him who we were and how we can help. He was full of gratitude and cried a little. He doesn't live in Osternack but came down to have a couple of drinks with his friends. He will be meeting the missionaries of Bairro Novo soon, I hope. We gave him the information and how he can call for a free Book of Mormon. I'll admit not every drunk guy I can understand because of the language and the way they slur all of it together. But no matter who it is, they decided to come to earth and return to their Heavenly Father, right? I think beer is the least of our worries.

Stay sweet and don't leave the guy with the beer behind.

Elder Ian Forsyth