Elder Johnson Moody (Elder Forsyth's new companion)
As I (Elder Forsyth's mother) have need to repent from my lack of diligence in keeping up with Elder Forsyth's mission blog... for this entry I will give a summation of events since the last post.
Several months ago Elder Forsyth was transferred from Sitiawan (West Malaysia) to Miri, Sarawak, East Malaysia. Miri is located on the South China Sea on the island of Borneo.
He loves his new companion, Elder Johnson Moody (from Las Vegas, NV). He writes of his new companion...
"Elder Moody has taught me how to have fun on my mission, with obedience mind you.. In Sitiawan, I was super bored and had no one to talk to... was not having fun there. The work was good and I was happy. But I wasn't having fun. Elder Moody knows how to do missionary work while having a great time. So its awesome!"
There are some definite differences between his experiences in East Malaysia from his last transfer. For instance... in West Malaysia, he and his companion were constantly being stopped on the side of the road (and sometimes driven off the side) so that people could take their pictures with this tall blonde American. He didn't complain though because "a contact is a contact". In EAST Malaysia, however, despite the fact that he is still tall and blonde, and his companion is what Elder Forsyth lovingly refers to as a "ginger"... the reasons they get honked at and driven off the side of the road are not as kindly in nature as in West Malaysia. In the East there are some other Christian denominations that don't take too kindly to the Elders' proselyting, and the missionaries often find themselves the target of some pretty bad language and insults.
The work in Miri, however, is progressing. They have been busy teaching a number of people...
From a recent email, Elder Forsyth writes:
"So things have been really good. Were going to have a baptism next week. Elder Moody is going to baptize Charles. He's 9. His mom is inactive and his dad is a non member. But he goes to church with his grandma Sis Chai, who is awesome! She is really cool, we visit her a lot. We would have 2 baptisms this weekend with Roy age 32ish? He had trouble quitting smoking at first, but has now been 4 days completely clean, so the following Saturday he'll be be baptized."
His most recent email gave us an update on the baptism...
"Our area has slowed down a lot. The Philips family are on the verge of being dropped; they're avoiding us, but were going to go try to figure out whats up tomorrow. So after spending the whole afternoon getting ready for the baptism, and filling the font twice, the first time the water came out brownish green. So we drained that out, then got the fire hose that's located at the center of the church and ran it to the font and filled the font up with that water. It was much cleaner. After all this we get a call that Charles is sick and cant be baptized today. So the baptism didnt go through last saturday because it rained and Charles was outside long enough for his head to get wet, so he got "the MUM". Its the feared sickness that every native is terrified of. If you get the Mum you cant do anything for days, and you're immediately sick and could die if you eat the wrong things or take a shower afterward. Its just their superstitions, but since he went outside and got his hair wet, his parents freaked out and cancelled the baptism. But this week on saturday, he is being baptised, if we can keep him out of the rain... along with Roy, a 32 year old guy, that is awesome. He's unmarried and just this bachelor dude, but he's cool, and cuts our hair for free. I give Roy "hard core" props for quitting smoking practically cold turkey. I think its easier to quit smoking here than other places though. The cigarettes are way cheap and are really poorly made, so I'm pretty sure they aren't as addictive. They do make you stink way bad though. But thats whats going on right now.
We did find a new family the Wongs, who were very welcoming and were excited to talk with us. We just went through a very discouraging 3-4 hours of contacting with nothing to show for it but a watch tan line and sweat-drenched clothes. We were riding back home when Elder Moody said, "Let's go down this street, just for the purpose of scouting out future contacting locations." As we got to the end of the street a dog with a muzzle on its mouth came out from the house and into the street to come to try to bark at us. I thought it was hilarious, so I stopped to take a picture of this dog with the muzzle. As I was doing this a girl runs out about 15 years old to get her dog. As she left the house she saw the two weird looking white guys and yelled into the house in Chinese that 2 red haired foreigners are outside. As she was about half way across the yard we asked her in Chinese, "You never seen a red haired guy before?" She literally screamed and ran back in the house. Elder Moody and I started laughing and the dad came out laughing and came to get the dog. We talked with him. He is married and has 5 kids. They were getting ready for dinner and it was getting late, so we talked with him and got to meet all of his family. They all came out and were all really funny, especially the girl that screamed. They're all Christians, but not active in their church. We have an appointment to meet with them later this week to teach them, so we're really excited."
