Badmitton in Ipoh

This is Elder Forsyth after playing the NUMBER ONE badmitton player in the world. He's sweaty, but he's still smiling!

Celebrating the EIGHTH day of Chinese New Year

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY

Playing badmitton against the #1 player in the world

Elder Forsyth (R) after getting schooled in the art of badmitton

The 2 Malay Elders I was on exchanges with...
Elder Maughn (left), ME, & Elder Cazier (right)

So, while Elder Winham was at his district meeting in Singapore, I got to go spend a few days in Ipoh. There were 2 Malay Elders and me, the Chinese Elder. So we did a lot of tracting with mainly me talking because there are a lot of Chinese in Ipoh and at that moment I was the only Mandaring speaking missionary in all of West Malaysia. I got to do a lot of talking and teaching, During my two day stay, I taught 2 lessons by myself and mainly invited a lot of people to the New Year's Party at the church. On the second day, we were invited to play badmitton with some members. I was like "Pshh!! Badmitton is lame..." Nah! Not when your playing with Lee Cheng Weigh! (#1 badmitton player in the world), I was playing with 6 teenage boys that seem to have been playing since birth. They were nuts! I was never more sore and sweaty my entire life. It didn't matter how hard I tried, these guys were going easy on me and destroying me. During one play, my opponent beamed one and got me right in the forehead. Well uh, they thought that was pretty funny ha ha. I played some one-on-one against each one of them, and played some doubles, but my two companions didn't feel up to par to play on that level. I almost rolled both my ankles multiple times because I was diving and moving so fast. My shoulder still kills just from swinging so fast and hard. Badmitton is my new favorite sport. Most intense and tiring I've ever played (must play with native asians, your results may vary.) Ha ha that night we were treated to Pizza Hut.

Something funny about our companionship. Elder Whinham is the DL, and there TWO in our district, him and I. Haha Its pretty funny every week when we have a district meeting. We were asked to make it formal and legit, so Elder Whinham and I go to the church, we announce who's presiding (Elder Whinham), news, the two of us sing an opening and closing hymn, prayers... its pretty funny.

Chinese New Year FINALLY ended on February 17th! JEEZ! All we could do is spend time with members, but we got a lot of investigators to the New Year's Party. We have about 20 investigators now. And in answer to your question, YES, they do celebrate Valentine's Day here, but people go nuts here. They just start kissing people in restaurants, on busses, out in public, etc. So most of the time I say something along the lines of "Brothers and sisters, what are you doing?" That really catches them by surprise and they stop.

My companion (Elder Whinham) and I get along great! After a few weeks I've started to really get to know him, and also the things that bugged me about him started to surface, but I've really set a new goal to love my companion, and keep the commandment I've neglected. Service is the key to life! Every day or every chance I get I do something for him, from ironing all his clothes to making him food, to anything! I never had a testimony of this type of service. I always thought it was very menial, and degrading, but it always surprised me how in the scriptures, all Christ did was serve. I have finished the Old Testament and am now in the New Testemant. I love it. The Bible is probably my favorite book besides Naruto :D ha ha But as I have been doing this service all I feel is love for my companion, and nothing bugs me about him, which is good cause I've seen the difference between this companionship and my companionship at the MTC. It could have been so much better if I learned this lesson sooner, but you do what you can i guess. Also with so few Chinese Elders, most likely another time in my mission I'll be companions again with my MTC comps, so im excited for a second chance to make things right, and have a great friendship with them.

Getting my feet wet...

We had splits again. An Elder from Panang came down and I took him around Sitiawan. I learned from splits that the missionaries in Panang don't contact... hardly at all. They spend all their time with members. We do this as well, but our branch is very small; probably 30-35 active. Services are in Chinese or English, though we do have Malay people that speak only Malay, but they are still faithfull to come. Most people here speak Malay/Chinese/English pretty good, but they don't really seem to be fluent in any one language, just fluent in a combination of languages. So we visit members often and ask for referals every time, but we (street) contact. We are contacting machines, which helps me see why I am in this area and with my companion. If you have the right eyes you can see a purpose and a laid out path that prepares for the future. My teacher in the MTC (the blonde one) taught us every day to talk with EVERYONE! That's what I believe missionary work to be, so I speak with everyone, it is a bit more difficult with so many Muslims but thats ok. I got some muslim contacting approaches down! We cant teach them at all, so we just ask them for referrals of Christian people that live near by. Today for P-day we went to Pankor Island which is a tourist trap. It was really awesome, it had an awesome chinese temple, and was fun to walk around! We stood in the ocean knee high. It really killed my companion because he's a swimmer and the only job he knows is lifeguarding. Well, here's a picture of me getting my feet wet. Hopefully, soon, I'll be able to get a new convert wet... more than their feet, though.

Ministers, Ministrations & Mosques

A view of Sitiawan in Malaysia, where Elder Forsyth is currently serving.

"So this week was eventful! On Monday, we had an appointment to talk with a man named Fu Pin who we met outside a disabled community. He's disabled and as we got to the appointment and sat down with Fu Pin and 3 other people, started asking questions and teaching, we learned that the disabled center is a Methodist Ministry, and Fu Pin is a minister.. Who knew, right? So we told them that, as missionaries, we are here to serve/help people and share about Jesus Christ's Gospel. We asked which one he would like us to do and he wanted us to share our message so they could evaluate us. We taught about prayer, prophets, Christ's ministry, Apostasy and the Restoration. We testified, but instead of commitments we offered to come back and share The Plan of Salvation. We invited them to pray about our message. They declined, but it was a good experience.

Fun part of the day, part 2! We're also teaching a Malaysian family of 6. The dad's name is Richard. Their family has no running water or electricity, and they only have 1 moto/scooter. We're working with them, but we learned their concern when I went on splits with the Buttersworth Missionaries. Elder Harvy, the Zone Leader (ZL) came to Sitiawan. He speaks Malay and was able to talk with Richard's family. It turns out their house is haunted, Richard's been possessed, and they all sleep in the same room at night because between 2am-5am the spirit goes around the house and makes noises, bangs on the walls, and somehow causes the broken pipes to run water. They were Hindu, but since their religion hasn't caused the ghost to leave they are investigating all churches to find the truth and make the spirit leave. Every night they read the Book of Mormon because when they read the ghost stops irritating them. However, once they stop reading the spirit comes back. So anyway, a big concern so we brought over a member of the church who speak Malay, who translated for us [Brandon is a Mandarin speaking missionary] and we taught them, had a prayer, and gave them some comfort against their disturbances. We go back to teach them tonight.

A large tower in

Kuala Lumpur

Yesterday, we set a goal to find 4 new investigators today because tomorrow we are going to Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia's capital] for Zone Conference with Elder Pratt of the Quorum of the Seventy. Even after our busy day today, we still had to meet our goal, so after travelling across all of Sitiawan and Manjung, a neighboring city, we found FIVE new investigators! This week has been eventful from teaching Methodist ministers to casting out devils. Day and life of a missionary in Malaysia!

So, Malaysia is actually a Muslim country, so we have to ask everyone their religion before we speak to them about Christ so we don't break the law. Well, my first few days out, I accidently DID break the law because I didn't have any "What-to-do-if-you-see-a-Muslim-in Malaysia" lesson in the MTC. There are about 5 mosques in Sitiawan and they hold prayers over the loudspeakers about 5 or 6 times a day.

The work is really good. We have 3 baptisms set for this month already, and our goal is twelve. This month, both my companion and I will be getting our feet wet in the font. The Mission Presidency is such a blessing, and they are very inspired individuals. I'm very thankful they are my leaders because I really see the love and care they have for us.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Jedi Fonz [in Mandarin, Jedi means "Elder"]

First week in the mission field

Elder Forsyth's 1st email home gave us a pretty clear idea that he's not in Utah anymore... (edited January 5, 2011) His first transfer will be spent in West Malaysia, and not in Singapore as we originally thought.

"So the first day in Singapore, there were ships EVERYWHERE!" People everywhere! First thing, the Mission President took us to eat curry, rice & chicken WITH OUR HANDS! It was really messy. The people in Singapore and in my area, Sitiawan (Malaysia) are very diverse. I've only seen 1 other white person that isn't a missionary. There are lots of Muslims, Hindus, Indians, and Chinese. We wear normal missionary attire. We knock doors, do street contacts, teach... a lot of our information on the Singapore mission was wrong.

Its really hot and rainy here, but we just bike through it. My companion says I'm so GREEN right now. I'm expecting everyone I talk to, to want to hear about the gospel and get baptized, but that's okay. I talk to everyone. It was hard the first couple of days because I wasn't used to being denied and turned away. But its okay. My resolve is a lot stronger. Its hard here because most people speak Malay, little English, tribal speak, Indonesian, or some other language, so we have to hunt out the Mandarin speakers. My companion, Elder Whinham has only been out on his mission for 5 months, and he was shocked to be called as the trainer, and he said that they pretty much didn't have anyone else. We're the only two Mandarin speaking missionaries in all of West Malaysia! Most of the other missionaries speak Malay. My companion keeps saying my Mandarin is better than his and I can speak more than him, which might be true because, come to think of it, I've helped him more on his Chinese than he's helped me with mine. He goes for it 100% and I really respect him for it.

The city we're in (Sitiawan) is very interesting/different. It has a few main roads, with houses and shops all down the sides. The buildings are 4-5 stories tall, but very run down and old. They crush the trash in the streets and let the juice run into the middle, so it has a very, uh, "Malaysian" smell. We bike everywhere. The first day my butt was really sore and my arms got really sunburned. The food is really good. Think of Chinese food. I've already had chicken feet! Here, you take ANY food and add a chili-paste to it. We call it Malaysian ketchup.

My companion and I have a 3 story home to ourselves. We have electricity and running water with filters hooked up to it. We're the only missionaries in Sitiawan. We eat out almost every meal ($3 Malay/$1 American). In Malaysia, toilet paper is a luxury, so I've gone almost a week without toilet paper. I didn't catch on at first, but when we were eating with our hands the first day in Singapore, they were teaching us how to do it properly. They told us, "you eat with your right hand only. The left hand is for other things." I could only handle that so long, so I took a hose, attached it to a spigot, and made my own bidet... Grandpa Forsyth-style!

As for the work, we're working with Cynthia, a mom with 3 boys and a girl. Baptism date is set for the 16th of January. We're also working with a family by the name of Huang. There are 8 in their family, and their son, Eugene is already a convert. The kids and the dad look good, but the mom is having a hard time softening her heart. The people here are very humble. Cynthia lives in a shack with no electricity. The Huangs do have electricity and a tv. I really understand now how blessed we truly are. We are lucky to have so much.

My companion taught me a parable that says, "I'm not afraid of the heavens, I'm not afraid of the earth, but I'm afraid of white people who speak Chinese!" HAHA - so funny and so true. Chinese people start freaking out when I start speaking in Mandarin to them. Most people try not to lose face, so they just ignore us and pretend they don't speak any language at all."

Memories from the MTC

Elder Forsyth has left the building...
The MTC BUILDING, that is! He flew from the Salt Lake City airport to Singapore, with layovers in San Francisco and Hong Kong. He called from San Francisco and we all got to talk to him. It was so great to hear his voice, and even better because as the clock rolled past midnight to Dec 28th... it was Mom's birthday. What a great birthday present. Elder Forsyth told us he'd call again from Hong Kong... but we forgot about the "Asian factor". The "Asian factor" states that any time an Asian is around, Elder Forsyth is going to lose all sense of anything else going on.

In his first, quick email home, after arriving in Singapore, he apologized for not calling. He wrote, "I was about my Father's business." He explained later that he kept going up to people speaking to them in Mandarin, not realizing that not every Asian SPEAKS Mandarin. We just love his enthusiasm!

Elders Aikens, Jensen & Forsyth
in SINGAPORE!!!!!

Elder Forsyth just could not get enough of the Asian Elders at the MTC! Suffice it to say... they were stalked. This is Elder Wong (upper left), one of the Mandarin Language teachers (left) and Elder Ho (below).

JOY, JOY, JOY!
Everytime Cody sees pictures of Brandon, he remarks... "He looks SOOO happy! I've never seen Brandon look SOOOO happy!"

Its so wonderful to see the joy and the changes that have come into our son's life as he has given himself over to the Lord for His molding and teaching. Can you just feel the love when you look at him? I know the people of Singapore & Malaysia are going to feel it and see it.

Elder Forsyth ran into a friend from our days in West Valley City.

Elder Dallin Sweet is going to the Los Angeles, CA Mission - Korean speaking.

I think how its cute how Brandon sent home a picture to show me that

he still doesn't make his bed. How thoughtful!

Elder Forsyth LOVED his Mandarin language teachers.

Mug shot!

If you look closely, you can see Elder Forsyth's "mark of shame" that he received from wrestling with his Zone Leader... which is against MTC rules.

He says his head never touched ANYTHING, but that he received this "mark of the beast" so that everyone would know he had broken the rules. :D

My Missionary Man!

Christmas at the MTC!

I'm so glad they made it nice for the missionaries.

I just can't decide whether to order this one in poster or postage stamp size!?!?!

The Mandarin speaking missionaries of the MTC

Elders Jensen, Aikens, Green & Brandon (District Comps)

Elder Aikens in their language class

Elder Forsyth's District, going to the Provo temple