16 December 2013 - Mirante, Brazil

Yay, missionary time! This week we finally discover the names of Elder Frogley's new area and new companion. We also learn a new Portuguese word: favela (ghetto). Dad's e-mail was pretty short this week, so there isn't really anything to explain from that. So, without further ado...

Wow! Long week! So last time we talked i was getting ready to head out to my new area. lots or relatively unexciting stuff happened which i will tell you about in detail because thats about all that happened this week! so Monday we left at five o clock to catch a bus to Itaporanga. we met with some other missionaries there who were heading out to tranfers too. We had to catch a taxi to Aracaju at 1;00 in the morning. So to pass the time we went and baught icecream. (we found a place that sold bowls of it for 50 cents so we baught a lot of icecream) then we wandered around the parks looking at light which suprisingly they had there cause there arent many here. After it got around 10:00 we headed back to the house. While we were there i we found a nerf football, and we couldnt let that go untouched. So we went outside and played 2 on 2 touch football in this fat parking lot until 12:30. Im pretty sure i lost some weight. then we took a shower, changed and our taxi arrived. We hopped aboard the taxi and road to aracaju. Our taxi driver wasnt to happy to be awake at one o clock and he told us strait up. haha, people do that here. we got to the bus and the rest of the missionaries with no problems and i sat on the bus for the usual 7 hours to Maceio! there i scored my cool new comp elder Acevedo! hes a mexican american that was born and lives in houston Texas! hes pretty dope. and my new area is called Mirante. Its a little Favela on the far side of the city right next to this fat lake and the ocean. Its really pretty but still very poor and vey much a favela (gheto). It looks a lot like Bariloche. All the houses built on top of eachother and everything. but ive learned to kinda like it. It smells like pee, but its a charming kind of aroma now. Haha, hard to explain. But our house is REALLY small and its joined to an old sisters house and her 34 yearold daughter. THeyre crazy but they love to give us food and call us over to talk and help them move stuff. Ill probably skype yall from their house. All the members are cool and always ready to do something fun. Thats the cool thing about Brazilians. They arent lazy when it comes to leaving the house to do something cool.

Anyway! what day do yall wana skype? I can skype christmas eve, christmas day, or the day after. Or all three! Doesnt matter really! Just remember that im 4 hours ahead of you guys. Ill talk to you all on the monday before so you can decide. Im good for anything. Love you all! Christmas in the mission will be excelent! we have a mission conference/party tomorrow! Should be cool! Have an excelent week! 

Love Elder Frogley

9 December 2013 - (Somewhere in) Alagoas, Brazil

Transfers!! Well it finally happened--Elder Frogley is out of Estancia and on to... well, not "greener" pastures, but different ones. Sort of. He served in the province of Alagoas before, and we're not exactly sure which city he is in now. Ah well. Dad mentioned to Elder Frogley that in Logan these last few days it has been quite cold, with highs around 20°F. Obviously most of Brazil doesn't experience that on a regular basis, but they also don't have much in the way of air conditioning. You pick your battles, I guess. Also, the office setup that Dad and some other doctors are putting together in Bountiful is coming along nicely, and should be well established and well known by the time Elder Frogley is ready to join the fold (in, say, seven years or so).

Erivanho and his dad Evondoro

The district at Mr. Mix Milk Shakes

Olá familia! so this week was eventfull in the moving around in the mission department and not to much in the investigator department. Dad i liked what ya said about the temperature by the way. But ya missed something. Air conditioning doesnt really exist here except in rich building like banks. All we get all day are little fans blowing around warm stagnent air. And thats if were lucky. Good stuff. But the office sounds dope! im excited to work there! Hopefully! I cant believe schof is home. Say hi to him for me. The present is cool. But along with the account would it be possible for you to send me some study guids on the scriptures. Or some interesting books about God and Kolob or something cool to read? Ive read everything that i have twice. I heard yall got rid of cara?! I was expecting it. But still sad. Ill let you know when skype will go down later  but im pumped. so! ABout the week!

A beautiful bus ride after getting lost

A wild monkey... just because

Elder Frogley and his companion on a moped

THis week has mostly been preparing to leave. But we did get some lessons in. weve been teaching with members alot. 9 lessons with members this week. But Evondro is still really set on being baptised. He wants to stop using drugs and be a good father for Erivanho. He was really apologetic that he wasnt ready in time for us to baptise him but we assured him that it was more important that he was baptised. made a list of all our investigators and their addresses and information for the next missionaries. THey should have an easy time. We found a new investigator who were excited about. his name is Tiago and his Mom is a member. SHe got baptised without telling her family and they hated the church for a while. But now her son wants to know All about the church and her husband likes us alot, but he still doesnt believe that Joseph sMith saw God and Christ. Im using the worst kew board ever. I have to pound on these keys to make them work. But Sunday we took pics and said goodby to everyone. It was sad and some of our recent converts cried. THat was rough. But then we went home and helped my comp take his bags to the bus. He went home yesterday. THat was rough too. I hate watching ´people pack to go home. But now im in a trio for the day. We got the call last night and me and Condido got transfered. We were obviously expecting it. But Blind will stay and finish his mission here. Im back to Alagoas! I was missing that state so im excited. Today i packed bags, cleaned the house, and said some few last goodbyes. a really nice couple gave me a towles with the logo of their favorite soccerteam. Its sweet. ill send a pic. Anyway. I ll let yall know where I go! If youre curious where Ive been look up ´´Estancia, Brasil´´ Exactly like that on google images. Youll probably see a big yellow catholic church of a fire work thing flying down a street with people all around. I saw that and thats where ive been walking around for the past 6 months. Love yall! Ill try and send pics!

Elder Frogley

Saying good-bye before transfers

It's been 12 months--no other explanation necessary

2 December 2013 - Estancia, Brazil

So here we are once again. I apologize for taking so long in getting this out to you all. Unfortunately there are no pictures, but there is the looming prospect of transfers coming soon. We'll let you know where Elder Frogley is headed--he feels pretty certain he's leaving Estancia. Also, Dad mentioned in his e-mail that he and Mom and Christian joined us at Grandma Harrison's for Thanksgiving. It was most excellent :).

Ahhhh, thanksgiving... thats one i miss... sounds like yall had some fantastic food. we sat in front of the fan and ate bbq tryin to thing think cold thoughts, cause it was like 100 degrees. But ah well. Lets get to the week! Most of this week was domintated by Zone conference! Always agrevating. They make us go to Zone conference then get mad at us when our numbers look like we didnt work a whole day, haha. but this week we did get some good work in. we spent the week visiting some recent converts, and preparing to leave. we visited Carol and Daiana and joselito and all the other recent converts. were still visiting a few invetigators and helping them to be baptised. Evandro had his baptisim marked for this week but we hit a snag. Ill get to that in a sec. Zone conference was the same thing as always. Pres sits and reads the hand book to us and tells us how awefull we are and sister tells us that were all pigs and super dirty, but the testimonies of the new Elders and the Elders leaving was cool! I like talking to the new Elders from the USA because i feel like a speak portuguese really well! haha, It was also nice to visit my first area. Thats where they have zone conference. After zone conference we went home and visited Evandro. (Erivaldos Dad) e taught him about tithing and about fast oferings. he said he still wants to be baptised and hes really trying hard for his family. Hes pretty awsome, and he also said that he would definatey go to church on Sunday. we were very excited for him. Saturday morning we had a service project at the first councelors house. we cleaned out the back and cut down palm trees and through all the stuff over a wall into a jungly revein Haha, it was very cool. I got a fat blister on my hand because I havent done work like that in forever. I really enjoyed it actually. It was nice to have a change in the kind of work we do. and the grandmother who we helped was extremely gratefull. It was cool. Sunday we went to church and NO ONE went. we went to Evandros house to try to bring him to church, but his neighbor said he went to his sisters house. Erivanho still went to church though without his dad. THat was good to see. But we saw Evandro that night, near to the church, and he was using drugs. when he saw us he got really embarassed and didnt look at us. we were sad to see him, but were going to keep helping him for sure. The problem is that he has a lot of friends that go to his house and bring him drugs and stuff. we cant always be there for him so its hard. w but were getting help from the members so with time, I think he can do it. well thats about it! Love yall! Sorry it was so short today! Love you!

Elder Frogley

25 November 2013 - Estancia, Brazil

I'm not sure what happened to last week's e-mail--I never got it. But here is this week's. Dad mentioned to Elder Frogley about how the office in Bountiful is coming along great, which is wonderful news. But let's read more about how the Lord is blessing his elect in Brazil!

Hey! I got the goals but not the pics and stuff! Could ya send them again? Sounds like the office is taking off! Im excited to see it when I get back! I hope Mom gets better! Sooooo, this week was busey (cant spell that word anymore) (probably never could on second thought). We had two baptisims and were working on more! The only problem is that Im probably leaving my area in less then 2 weeks :( so I wont see them be baptised. Lets start with the baptisim stories! 

The first baptisim is a boring story. Hes a young man we met at church. Yall remember him. We visited him several times to teach him and his Dad. His Dad wanted him to be baptised a LOT. So he was all aboard. He wants to go to church too but he has some serious problems to clear up as ill tell in a later story. But on Saturday the young Man named Erivaldo (10 year) showed up and church at 6:30 exactly without the help of his dad. Hes a champ and I got to baptise him. Normal easy baptisim without problems. But Carol who was suppose to be our solid baptisim got all hard on us. This is a good story.

So we got to church to get ready for the baptisim Saturday morning at 5 p.m. and Daiana came and talked to us. We had appointed her to take care of Carol for the day (Daiana is our recent convert from some months ago). She came and talked to us and said that Carol was feeling sick and wouldnt be coming. It made sence because se had been to the hospital just a little bit before. So we called her Mom thinking it was just a little stomach ache. On the 10th call her Mom finally answered us and said that Carol had been crying ALL day and she couldnt even talk. We freaked out, grabbed some concecrated oil and started a mile sprint to Carols house. When we got there her Mom took us to Carols room and we found her sitting on her bead. Her Mom said that the only thing Carol had said was mumbling about her boy friend. We were relieved because it turns out it was just a HUGE over reaction because her boyfriend told her something stupid or something. She sat and cried for like 10 min while we tried to comfort her then magically stopped crying, got her phone, called her boyfriend (at this time we assumed she wasnt going to be baptised this week), and invited him to her baptisim. Then she got up, changed, and we waited for her boyfriend. We all made it to the baptisim on time and she was happily baptised. Not a tear since. Girls are weird.

Now! About Erivaldos father. He always told us he use to have drug problems, and he lives in this TINY little ally way next to the church in a gheto house. But hes trying to be a good father, and hes an excelent man looking for the best for his son. But durring Erivaldos interview, I was talking to his Dad about his possible baptisim. And while I was talking this guy showed up at the house demanding money that Erivaldos Dad, Ill call him Valdo, owed him. When he saw me sitting in the front room, he chilled alot, because people here are really religious and God fearing, he thought I would condem him. He started talking about how hed give all the time Valdo would need and he wasnt the kind of guy who would shoot people in the face over money and stuff like that. He wasn talking to Valdo but looking right at me the entire time. It was kinda of funny. But we figure Valdo has some serious drug problems still. But anyway, more stories next time! Love yall!

Elder Frogley

11 November 2013 - Estancia, Brazil

Happy Veterans' Day everybody! Glad you could join us once again for more of Elder Frogley's amazing adventures in Brazil. This week Dad mentioned a new workout routine he's trying--the details aren't that important. However, we do get to hear about a once-in-a-mission-lifetime experience that most of us are glad we didn't experience. Mothers be warned. :)

Sounds like a good exercise! I have to give it a shot. Ive been working out more in the night because Im usually too sleepy in the morning to do anything else but sit and stare into space. I just cant get a hold of this waking up early thing. But anyway, this week was pretty univentfull. We visited the family again. Marilho, Valdete and kids. Theyre doing great, but its hard to teach them cause all they want to do is talk about stuff. Theyre reading the book of Mormon still and the kids like it alot, they just wont go to church., theyre always busy. Super annoying. But Carol, Andrea and Carlina are doing so so. Andrea said she believes everything that weve been talking about and she knows the church is true, but she wants to stay in the Catholic church. Shes just stuck in tons of culture and habit, itll be hard to break her out. The problem is that shes dragging her daughter with her. They all went to the catholic church sunday which delayed our plans to baptise them this week. So we´ll bumb it back another week. On the up note Carol is still set on being baptised. Ive told some people around here that you all want to visit after my missoin, and there are already people here planning youre trip. Haha, youll have a second family. but dont worry, were all focused here. Im not trunky.

We found two kids who want to be baptised. theyve been going to church forever and were going to teach and baptise them hopefully this week. One has ten years and the other 11. We also found a house full of possible baptisims. A less active women lives with a bunch of non members and were going to help them out. cool!

Now lets get to the weird stuff. I was walking home last night, and (stop reading if your squimish) we saw a dead/dieing guy laying in the road. He got stabbed in the neck. But dont worry, it was an isolated incedent. A bar fight or something. That was intense. I was pumped that I finally saw something crazy to bring home. Before that Id only heard stories from other missionaries. Kinda morbid but true. I dont know what happened to the guy. There were a bunch of people around him. 

Final part of the letter cause I gota go. I wana testify of the blessing missionaries get in the field. God gives me litterally everything I need. Its amazing. I start feeling over heated and Im about to pass out, it suddenly starts to rains and drops 10 degrees, or everyone in our house was out of money because of a conference we had to go to and the bus was expensive, and we all sudenly got 70 reis in our accounts. Were protected and its amazing. Just wanted yall to know that. Church is true!love yall!

Elder Frogley

4 November 2013 - Estancia, Brazil

Hi all, and thanks for joining us again for Elder Frogley's adventures in Brazil. This week Dad sent Elder Frogley an interesting analogy between Ammon's efforts to guard the king's flocks of sheep down to the Waters of Sebus and our efforts as members and missionaries to get new/inactive members to the temple. Very interesting and thought-provoking view on member-missionary work and hastening the work.

I liked the Alagory Dad, excelent! Theyre are defintately a lot of scattered sheap here. One of the biggest problemsis a lot of the less active members are children. Missionaries looking to baptise a lot of people so they baptised like ten children. And parents dont care as long as theyre ´´searching for Jesus´´. THen the kids never go back to church. Its a problem in most of Brazil and probably south America. THats what weve been working on a lot this week, visiting less actives. We got a list of all the members in the Branch, and we color coated them by neighborhood and by street, and we started to visit them all. We visited about 7 the other day. We´re focusing on reactivating and on completing families. Its great to see our recent converts like Daina helping us with the work. She went to two investigators house for us, trying to bring them to church. Our search for less actives has been decent. We´re going to go back to visit several this week. A lot have moved though, so thats annoying. Carol and Andrea are still firm. THey didnt make it to church this Sunday because they accompanied the younger sister to the Catholic church so she didnt have to go alone. But theyre still firm to be baptised in a week. Theyre very excited. The other family that were teaching just hase the biggest dificulty getting out to church. Theyre always at the beach or traveling. But theyre all reading the book of Mormon and loving it and full of questions. Those are the hardest investigators. Ya just dont know what to do with them.

On an awesome note! Sunday Daina went up and bore her testimony! It was short and awesome! She said she was thankfull for the gospel and for her baptisim and for her friends in the church now! She refused to look at me after becasue she was so emberissed. Halloween was pretty epic! We just went out and baught a bunch of cheap candy and that night we had a candy feast. Haha, I felt gross after. Classic Halloween. All the Brazilians thought it was the best holliday ever. They actually had a few Halloween parties here in the English schools and stuff. it was cool! 

Anyway, thats about it! Love ya Fam and people who are reading this! 

Elder Frogley

28 October 2013 - Estancia, Brazil

It's always a good day when we get missionary e-mails, and doubly so when we get pictures! Wahoo! To help give you all a bit of context, here are some summaries of what Dad said in his e-mail to Elder Frogley. A relative of ours (I'll let her announce who she is in her own time) is expecting baby number 3 (obviously not Emily); the 26th was Dad's birthday; weather in Logan these days is in the 60s (which sounds pretty nice to me); Dad challenged himself to be able to do 59 push-ups by his 59th birthday (he didn't say if he succeeded--we'll assume he did); Dad made his own birthday dinner, and he's an awesome chef (so is Mom, but Dad tends to be even more creative because he doesn't bother with recipes). That about covers it.

Me and my bro Heleman making things out of
i dont know what exactly.

Haha, 3!!? Wow! Tell her congrats!! Happy birthday!!!!!! I didnt forget! I was looking at my watch durring the baptisim thinking ´´wow, Dads old.´´ haha, just kidding, 59 pushups is pretty impressive! 60 degrees is nippy! Yall go outside in that kind of weather?? I think Id be confined to the house! When we get back from brazil, im expecting an epic thankgiving or some kind of Dad feast. With a superfood smoothy! i went through withdrawls in the MTC.

Clarisa and her family, Andrea is the Mom,
Carla is the tall one in Black
and Carlina is the one next to me.

Well, transfers have come and gone yet again! I will be staying here. Again! This will make 7 months for me in this area! The people here are going to get tired of me! I think pres is keeping me here because were still trying to open the new area and hes going to want me to open it up when we do. So I get to stick here till that happens. Actually our entire house is going to stay here. Pres didnt touch the entire district! That means were doing something right. 

and I found this ostrich sitting in this field. Weird

This week was fairly hecktic. We were trying to get everything ready for me to leave, cause we were convinced that I would. We went around and talked to all of our baptisims, and all the recent converts and all the people we are teaching, making sure they would be baptised and everything. We visited Andrea and Carol and Carolina alot. (family of Clarisa) they are very excited about the church. On Friday we read the scriptured with them, 2 Nephi chapter 32, about baptisim. We asked them what they thought after. Andrea said ´´ I feel like im finally learning somthing. I read the scriptures and understand and they help me.´´ Which is something which didnt happen with her other church (Catholic) and Carol just said ´´I just want to be baptised´´ Which was excelent. They both comited to go to church. With the other family were teaching, we visited them... Tuesday? Cant remember. The Dad finaly started to read the BofM! Took him long enough. But no one else had time. They all are still really excited about the church, and they love us to death. They just have a rough time keeping their comitments. But when we visited, they had a bunch of family and friends there. Did I already tell yall this?  I cant remember what day it was. Ill keep going. we talked with the Moms sister and her husband. They live kinda far away, but they were very enthusiastic about the gospel! It was excelent! They were asking questions and they were understanding everything! and the Father of the family that were teaching was helping us teach! he explained Alma 32 perfectly! that was cool! When we stared to talk about the BofM, the brother of the Mom of the Family (I cant remember their names, one of my weaknesses as a missionary) gor very excited. He was like ´´I knew there had to be prophets in the Americas too! I always wondered about that!´´ Were definately going to send the other missionaries there. Jose Lito just keeps getting better. He came and asked me about a young man that we visited together. He wants to go back and visit him again. He was very forcefull about it. The guy he wants to visit is completely dead and wont want a thing. But its great to see the enthusiasm in Jose Lito. Hes like a new missionary. Now were just slowly but surely working with his wife. Thats pretty much it for this week! Oh I forgot Sunday! Andrea and Carol went to church! They loved it! Carol went to young womens, and the young women marked her baptisim for us. Which we thought was funny. Theyll both be baptised on the 9th! Very cool. The family didnt make it to church, again. Its getting to the point where were going to have to dump them. Anyway, Love you! Dad, right now im studying alot about the pre life experience. THe nature of the Devil and how it will aply to our future exsistence. Just these crazy questions and this deep doctrine stuff. Hey, would it be possible for you to send me some deep doctrine books? I cant get them in English here. Like the Kolob theory and stuff like that! I also read the pearl of great price for the first time! Very interesting! 

Love you all!

Elder Frogley 

21 October 2013 - Estancia, Brazil

Yay! More adventures from Brazil! Elder Frogley had an incredible week, including some baptisms, meeting a wonderful example of a strong family, and even managed to spell "too" correctly, which is especially miraculous considering it was typed immediately after the word "two." Amazing.

Anyway, Dad wrote to Elder Frogley about telomeres, which is something Dad is learning about in his continuing self-education. Apparently telomeres are a part of our chromosomes. As we age, we lose them and eventually die. So, theoretically, if we can replenish, rejuvenate telomere production, we can extend life. Or something like that.

Telomeres sound amazing! I want to study them! I was reading your description like an adventure book. Im pround to say that I understood it all! So they are used up as we grow and as we are involved in stressfull situations, but does that mean that they take part in the healing process? How can living a crazy life destroy things that are involved in building your phisical charictaristics? Ill have to look into this stuff when I get back. But anyway! Life sounds awesome there! Mom told me that the gov is going down hill, like normal. Maybe ill just stay in Brazil, haha. But Lets get to my week! Sorry, no pics this week :( The computer that Im using is garbage.

So this week weve been focusing on accompanieing our baptisims that we had Saturday. Clarisa and Rodrigo. Rodrigo is hard to visit everyday because we have to ride a bus to visit him, and we dont have money to do that everyday, but weve been calling his Mom and talking to him that way. We got to visit him finally on Friday to do his interview. His Mom was excited and he was excited and it was a great experience. He passed his interview with flying colors. Hes a smart kid. Clarisa was a little more complicated. We went to do her interview after Rodrigo on Friday, but she had gone to her cousins house. Her family arent members, so its a little hard for her to remember her appointments (I had to think of that word for a while, almost forgot it in English). Her Grandma told us shed be home saturday too, so we made the appointment to visit saturday morning. we went by her house saturday morning (the day of the baptisim) to do her interview, but she had gone to the market with her Mom. Her grandma and the members who are her neighbors said that she was still very excited to be baptised and was inviting her family and friends. So we told the members to make sure she got there on time to the baptisim, and we would do the interview right before the baptisim. After that we passed by her family, and they all planned on going to the baptisim. You remember them? Andrea. Carla, and Carlini? They want to be baptised too. But they were all very excited for Clarisa to make this step in her life. We went to that baptisim at 6 pm to meet Clarisa, and she thankfully came with the members we sent. We got the interview done and had everything ready for the baptisim. We had our two, and the other missionaries had two too. So we had 4 baptisims saturday! Lots of white. It was cool to see.

Rodrigo went to church the next day, but Clarisas Mom went to the hospital, and the whole family went with her. That bumbed us out cause they had a baptisim marked for this week. Now we have to bump it back, and i probably wont be here because of transfers. Im a little bumbed.

The other family were working with didnt go to church too, because they had a TON of people at their house on Sunday, so they didnt have time. but we went and visited them Yesterday night for dinner and they made comitments to pray and read. Theyre amazing people and the Mom LOVES us. Shes like the sweetest lady every. Everytime we go there she pulls some kinda food out of nowhere and makes us eat it. The couple and the kids are just about the happiest family ive met here in Brazil. Theyre home is already like a church home. Its great to see. THeir only problem is keeping the appointments. The kids read and pray but the parents are forgetfull. Theyll be baptised but itll take time. Again, sad because I have to leave. But that about it for me. OH! We did this huge division with all the Men in the Branch yesterday. We visited all the less active members and cleaned up our brach directory. It was great. Even Jose Lito went! remember him! The Man I baptised a while ago!? He did a devision with me, and it was great to see his testimony as he taught people about the gospel and testified to the less actives. cool stuff. Anyway, Love ya Family! Dad, could you send me Jessicas Email please? Thanks. Love yall! 

PS when yall come visit Brazil in a year, I dont know if youll want to stay in my mission. Its the most gheto poor area in all of Brazil. 

Love ya! 

Elder Frogley

14 October 2013 - Estancia, Brazil

Hooray for missionary updates!! In Dad's e-mail to Elder Frogley he sent some pictures. Not sure what the subjects of the pictures were, but apparently they were "beautiful." Must have been of the Frogley/Thomson ladies :).

In other news, the office Dad works at in Bountiful (Cory's office, I believe) has hired a fairly open-minded MD. Typically we have shied away from more mainstream medicine, but this guy seems to be OK with working alongside chiropractors, so yay for that.

And yet in other news... Just kidding. I know you'd much rather read about Elder Frogley :) Here you go.

Lookin' stylish. I guess.

Man, the pics were beautifull! Im feeling a father son hike a year from now! You hired an MD? And he agreed to work with chiropractors? Hmmm, cool!  Sounds like life moves on. It still feels like everyones on pause in the USA to me. It feels like everyone hopped in the van and parked in that airport parking lot to wait the two years for my mission. Its a weird feeling being this far away for this long. But life is solid here! 

Our week was fairly normal but weve had some exelent teaching experiences. And ive had some excelent growing opportunities through my personal study. Ive been reading my patriarchal blessing alot and trying to figure out stuff. Its really helped me with my personal growth. During the week we found a family. The mom and sister and aunt of clarisa. The girl were preparing for baptisim. We went to ask her Mom for permision and ended up teaching the whole family. The first time she was accepting but a little skeptical because shes very catholic. The aunt (17) was VERY receptive. It turns out her boyfriend was almost baptised and she accepted baptisim on the first visit. She comited to go to church next week. She was very honest with us and told us she wouldnt go this week for some reason I forgot, but it was way better then promising and not showing up. Clarisas sister also promised to pray and go to church. We went back on Saturday and talked to the Mom again. She told us shed give permission if Dad aproved, the problem is Dads in prison so were waiting for that. We marked all of them to be baptised on the 26th. Even the Mom said shed go to church. They like us alot. We also visited the family that we were teaching. Theyre still very receptive and are wanting to change their lives to conform with the church. Durring the lesson about the Plan of Salvation, the father said ´´Ive had to wait this long to really find out who God is and what I have to do.´´ and then he thanked us. It was very touching. They didnt make it to church, but they told us before hand that they wouldnt. They went baptise their younger son in the Catholic church. He told us that he new it wasnt right but he did it to appease a grandma or something. What ever, theyre still solid. Were going to visit them tomorrow and they were very excited to mark the appointment. They love my accent, they thing its verry ´´cultured and fancy´´. We also did a devision on Friday and I went and visited a VERY promising investigator with the LD. This guy is FULL of questions and he knows the lessons by heart. He bore a quick testimony and pretty much taught the entire first descusion perfectly durring the testimony. He said he wants to be baptised but is scared that he´ll fall away after or he´ll make a mistake. We bore testimony that fear if from the devil and I was able to relate to him by sharing some experiences from my more rebelious stages. He felt alot better after and we marked his baptism for the 19th. Pray for that guy cause hes scared. Everyone gets really hung up on the ´´its better to not know me then to know me and to fall away after´´ scripture. Anyway, we got a load of baptisms coming up! Pray for me! Let me know how life is going! Are we still in a war against Seria or was it a fast little thing? Love you! 

Elder Frogley

7 October 2013 - Estancia Brazil

Yay, more Elder Frogley adventures!! And we have some new pictures, too, which is always a treat. Per parental request, I will not be posting the picture of Elder Frogley in what looks like swimming trunks sans shirt. Sorry, ladies. :)

Elder Frogley and Elder Blind watching conference.
Elder Blind is from Brazil, so his nanme
doesn't really mean "blind."

I got some pics! Of Mom at the play and Christian making a weird face and everything! It was great! You can run on your knee now!? That was fast! Well I guess it has been like a year. It just feels like everything back home is on pause out here in the mission. Is it feeling better then it did before th surgery? I miss those little kids. Im definately excited to give them a hug in a YEAR! Yes time flies. No Im not trunky.

Elder Frogley watching conference.

 so here comes the week! Tuesday we got supprised by interviews in our house! We were informed that the pres was on his way like half an hour before he showed up! We had to clean like crazy cause sister Gonzaga is a cleaning Nazi. We cleaned all we could really fast and greeted them into our little missionary house. Interviews were pretty easy. I talked to him for just a few minutes. He didnt find any problems and gave me a little advice. The harder interview was with sister Gonzaga. She talked to us all while we were waiting for pres to finish the rest of the interviews. She drilled us about cleaning technique and rediculous stuff! She said that we should cook that much because cleaning was more important! I didnt really agree with that one. Were still cooking. But pres told my comp that he was really impressed with me and that he respects me alot. That was good to hear.

We scored a rockin referencia for a family on Sunday and we visited them a few times durring the week! Theyre pretty gold! They accepted everything and they read and understand everything we give them! We marked their baptisim for the 19th, but we have a problem. They have SEVERAL pastor friends talking about the church to them too. They come with new questions about things like poligamie every time, and instead of going to general conference, they went to the beach. Were going to work with them this week. 

Another very cool thing that happened this week! We probably set the record in the mission for new investigators in one day! One of the members invited us to teach a lesson to a training he was giving to all of the emploies of his work! We showed a movie about families and we bore testimony about families and how the gospel has blessed ours. We got some tears and alot of applause. We also handed out cards for them to write addresses so we got a bunch of new investigators for us and the other missionaries here! I think this entire week were just going to work with references. Itll be great. I hate knocking doors. 

Conference was great. I still havent had the chance to watch priesthood session, because it aired at 6:30 in the morning here, but Ill get it. I really enjoyed President Monsons talk and the words he gave about his wife. It was tender and I felt the spirit very powerfully. I really liked the guy from Kenya. His accent was pretty tight. I watched in English with another Brazilian elder who enjoys conference in English more then Portuguese.

 We have one baptisim coming up on Saturday! A 9 yearold girl who has been going to church with some members! But none this last week :(. Diana (the girl we baptised just a week ago) is going to seminary and she went to all the sessions of conference! Shes liking it a lot! The members are doing a great job in fellowshiping her! And Rodrigo (my first baptisim of the misson, the use to be gay guy) baptised his whole family!!! The guy is unstopably.

Any way, thats it for me! Hey, has anything crazy happened because of the things in conference about homosexuality? Like gay riots in Utah or stuff like that. The way Oaks talked seemed like a warning. like ´´gay people are going to attack you in the street but keep pushing you handcart´´ Im interested to see what happens.

Love ya!

Elder frogley

District meeting with the crew. Its one of the tightest bunch of people ive lived with. The other white guy is from Curatiba, in the south. They gave iguaçu falls there and we should probably visit. and Im trying to exercise but im a little skinnier, and I gained a little love handle. Im thinking salad diet when I get home.

Companion, Diana, and Elder Frogley at Diana's baptism.

The Estancia district after the employee training.

Teaching the employee training course.

Diana and Elder Frogley at Diana's baptism.

30 September 2013 - Estancia Brazil

Hello, friends, and welcome back! We don't have any photos this week (that I know of), but we do have some great updates--and rants--from Brazil. Also, Dad mentioned in his e-mail to Elder Frogley that there should be a nice, solid, well-oiled machine for him to train in if he (Elder Frogley) still plans on going into Chiropractic when he gets home, hence the comments on medicine.

Lots to do back in the States! Im still focusing on medicin for sure when I come back! But I havent prayed about it yet, it just seems like the smart thing to do, and I like it. But that can wait another year for me to get back! So lets start at the beginning of my week! We dumped all of our investigators who werent progressing and we spent this week trying to find some new ones and accompany the ones that are ready for baptisim! We taught some excelent families and had some great discusions but didnt find anyone prepared by god to recieve our message and be baptised. No one is married here!!! They all just live together! Even old grandpa people! Its gross! I met a 15 year old girl the other day who was ´´married´´ not, she was living with her boyfriend of 20 years. And she was pregnant! Her boyfriend doesnt have a house! They live with her parents! I went on a rant to the nearest person to me after they left the house (who happened to be Diana our recent convert) about how its crazy to do stuff like that. She looked very confused and said it was very normal here. So I pointed out how poor so many people here are and all this rediculous stuff and she promised not to do something stupid like that. I was pretty chapped at that 15 yearl old girl. but anyway. We stopped by with a member Friday and she gave us a golden contact. This girl saw us on the road and she already new a little about the church. We didnt talk to her but she went and talked to this member. She said she wants to be baptised and serve a mission like were doing. She went to church yesterday and we marked to go talk to her. Shes pretty awesome! We also met a whole family living here from Sao Paulo! They all went to church with a member and they want to be baptised very much! They are super cool and very humble! We had so many members bring friends to church that we almost didnt have time to talk to them all! It was crazy! But we have like 5 solid baptism coming up! sweeeett! 

Diana went to English class on Friday and told us something that freaked us out! After the class I asked her about baptism and she said she wanted to wait another week. We all freaked out a little and we pulled her into another room away from her friends to talk. We talked for a good half an hour about past experiences with investigators and how it was important to get baptised now. She agreed and Saturday, our district through down three! Diana and two kids! Theyre Mom said she wants to wait a little for her baptisim. Out of the blue some guy from her past asked if they could live together. Why does that happen! The other elders where chapppppyyy. But theyre still working with her.

Ive never been so stressed for a baptism. Her name is rediculously hard to pronounce. Diana Scizerschando Dingalect. Something like that. It was a head ache to get out of my mouth. Ill send yall some pics. 

Thats all for this letter! Love yall! keep me posted on life and stuff! How goes the war in Siria? And all of Brazil is freaking out that the U.S. is spying here. I get weird looks on the street. More then normal.

Love!

Elder Frogley

PS whenever I write these letters I always picture Dad reading it with his animated voice, like when I write a word like tight or sick how he always use to do with Tyler. Haha, solid times! 

23 September 2013 - Estancia Brazil

Well this is exciting--it's the first time I'm posting one of Elder Frogley's e-mails during the same week I received it! I'm all caught up, so hopefully future posting will be much easier for me. At least that's the theory.

Me and my little friend. He bit me on the nose later.

The new district of Estancia! The white guy with the black hair is from Curatiba. a city down south where a ton of Italians live. Its like Italy that speaks Portuguese and its really close to Iguaceu falls which we need to visit. Thinking about living there.

A bunch of Brazilian kids.

Haha, Im glad you liked the pics, I would send more but Im on a computer that doesnt accept my disk. As far as what you need to travel, you need to apply for a tourist visa. But we´ll worry about it latter as you said. I wish I could be there to help you move your stuff! I hope you found some strong arms to help! Life sounds like its still going stong! I cant believe Scofe is home. Thats weird. It went soooo fast.Good luck with your inventory and figureing things out! Im praying for yall! 

As far as my explanation for things on the success/slacking side. I really enjoyed all of your responses. Ive learned several things about our mission in the past few weeks. The first presidency knows our misson by name as one of the most disobedient missions in the world. Third world south America is rough. But we still baptise alot. Wich confused me. But then I looked at our retention rate and around 80% of the members here are inactive. Most of the baptisims dont even know what the Law of Chastity is or The Word of wisdom. Im glad that most of my baptisims are still firm and strong in the church. Rodrigo (my first baptisim) is doing so well that the Stake Pres is trying to find away to let him leave on his mission before his one year of membership is done. Hes helping the missionaries alot there and with his help theyre baptising. A homosexual man hit on him right in front of the missionaries and he emphatically told the guy that he was strait and to not talk to him like that. The same with Jose Lito here. Hes working very hard to help his wife get baptised, and were teaching her. Hes been reading alot about the temple and wants to go. So overall, I thing that Daves alagory nailed it. Theyre are always easy people who will do anything a rich american in a shirt and tie will tell them to do. but to really continue the work it takes people who are ready. I just gota keep working. 

Alright its time for my week! We Had transfers! We took off on Tuesday morning at one o clock. That was weird. Anderson caught his bus to Macieo (7 hours) at around 3 and Candido (the other missionary with us) went to sleep at a mission house. but the mission house was very small and there were about 10 missionaries sleeping there so me and Elder Steele stayed in the chapple there, turned on all the fans, and slepped on the benches in the main room of which i forgot the name. I was woken up the next morning at 8:30 with an elder tapping me on the shoulder telling me it was time to listen to transfer meetings. We listened to it over the phone like normal and I got my comp. Ready? ´´Elder Frogley, Senior!´´ ´´and Elder Albaquerque, Junior´´ What! That was weird! Mom dad and Christian, yall know him. He was my Zone Leader in Maceio. He got stuck with a bumb companion and hes reaching the end of his mission so he got ´´demoted´´ and now Im his senior. Its just weird dragging him around. But hes tight, I like him, and hes very inteligent.

We got back Tuesday night and visited some members. Wednesday was our first day of work and who decideds to come do visits with us? The Stake Pres! He called us and said he wants visit a family with us. I though he was wanting to show us a family so we were like sweet. Then he pics us up in his car and says. ´´alright elders show me all the less active kids in the ward who should be in seminary or institute´´ I was all like ´´poop´´´So I got to try to direct him to some people that I almost never visit and it was a pain! We got lost several times but we found some good people that were now working with! Happy first day as Senior! The next day we visited a family that a missionary baptised a long time ago adn he asked me to pass by there cause theyre inactive now. We did and a lady answered the door and invited us in. She told us she loves the church but no longer believes in prophets. We didnt even have to drag it out of her. It was like the first thing she said when we sat down. So we were like sweet, we got this. She said that in doesnt say anywhere in the Bible that we need prophets now and we were all like ´´excuse me?´´ by the end she was throughly changed and said shed pray. In her prayer she asked for help returning to the church which was awesome. We went back to visit her two daughters with similar results. 

Diana was suppose to be baptised Saturday but she went to UmbaUba with her Family. But she came back by herself to go to church. She had her interview and passed and we rescheduled her baptisim for Saturday. Shes a very special young lady and Im very hapy for her! 

We also started visiting and teaching Amandas Mom! She had already looked up some stugg about the church on the internet and had a lot of strange questions. We answered them and gave her the church website for future reference. Were going back to visit them on Tuesday. Im living with three Brazilians now and Im starting to forget how to say alot of things in English. Someone asked me what the word was for Vulture the other day in English and it took me over a day to think of it. That was annoying. But Im learning portuguese alot faster now. Thats good. Anyway, Thats all for today! 

Love you fam!

Send me some more pics!

Elder Frogley  

16 September 2013 - Estancia Brazil

Dad has updated Elder Frogley about some friends of his--a young man by the last name of College (Elder Frogley isn't talking about his university experience). Elder College is in Germany. And between e-mails, our grandmother, Donna Lee (Woodland) Frogley, passed away in her home in Providence, surrounded by family on both sides of the veil. We had a wonderful time joining the family in celebrating her life. As part of the work after her departure, the family is fixing up and selling her house, which means Dad has to move his Providence office (which was in the front office of her house) to a new location.

Elder Frogley (and his mission president) are also somewhat disappointed at the seeming contradiction in how "successful" the disobedient missionaries appear to be versus the challenges and trials the diligent and obedient missionaries face. Many of us wrote sent him some scripture references, stories, and allegories to help him through his trials. I'll leave you to ponder the question yourselves.

New office hu!? Cool! Send me pics please! I remember college really well. Good kid. We were in the CTM together. I have a pic with him. Its good to know hes doing well. One difference between his mission and mine is that missionaries are inspired to keep comandments and rules in order to obtain baptisims and help people. In a hard area like Europe this is obviously necisarry. As it is in all missions. In most of South America Success comes so rapidly and easily that its hard for many missionaries to see the nacesity of obedience. We have one of the most dysobedeint missions in the world. Litterally. The confussion is obvious when you see the biggest slackers baptising the most people and the people whe follow every rule stressed, freaking out, and not having any succes. Im working hard to follow the rules but Id like an explanation to that if you have one please. Why do the happy slackers have success while the hard working, rule keeping missionaries get stressed out and have zero success. Its been ratling the brains of many a missionary and the pres. here in Maceio.

Now that thats out of the way! This week was happy and sad and happy again! Were still working alot with Diana and Suzana. Diana marked her baptisim for Saturday but never got permision from her Mom. When she finally asked her Mom said no! That wasWednesday. She called us and told us and we were CHAPPED. We asked if we could speak to her Mom and she said of course.On Thursday we went to talk to her Mom to ask permission and we turned the charm up all the way. We were very sweet and we busted out pics and everything of our families and had a good talk. When we asked about baptisim for her daughter she said she doesnt want her daughter to make a decision she would regret. Apparently when Diana asked for permission she wasnt that convicted. Dianas Mom said if Diana showed real conviction to be baptised shed let her. We were pretty pumped cause we thought her Mom just dropped the iron foot and refused baptism but it was pretty chill. We told Diana to talk to her Mom again and express her desire. She did and her Mom told her sho could! But only the next week. Which bumbed my comp out pretty good cause he got transfered today.

Suzana her sister doesnt need permission from her Mom but shes got some issues. We found this tight way of finding investigators concerns. We just read the artacles of faith with them and ask if they believe. We found Suzanas problem to be prophet. She doesnt believe that we can have a prophet today cause the world it too wicked. We taught a little about the times of Noah, the roll of a prophet and we testified. We told her to pray and taught a little more on prayer too. She promissed to pray to know again. Shes been doing it for a while with out success. After that day she left to visit her Grandma in the hospital and we havent had th opportunity to talk to her again. Were shooting for her baptisim on Saturdaywith her sis. 

Our other investigator is Amanda. Remember her? She accepted baptisim, shes keeping the comandments and doing everything right. Minus going to church. She just cant get out there! She promissed to go yester day for the third week in a row and didnt. We´ll pass again wednesday and see what the problem is. Shes been to a baptism though and liked it. This entire week Elder Hansen has been packing and getting ready to go home. Its been rough watching someone getting ready to go back to the US but were pulling through. He got on the bus to go to Maceio yesterday after church. It was sad to watch him go. He was tight and I hope to find him again after the mission. A lot of my friends just went home. I gotta make new friends now. Ugh. We also found out who got transfered yesterday! My comp takes off but me and the Brazilian stay here! This is a tight area. I like it. All the members said they wanted me to stay which was cool. Anyway! hey, are yall going to come pick me up after the mission here? Cause if you are I gota tell the secratary before 1 year and 4 months which is in 6 months. sounds like a long time but for me its flying.

Love yall!

Elder Ian

9 September 2013 - Estancia Brazil

More pictures!! This time we have a baptism and a beautiful Brazilian chapel. We also get another great look at the exterior of Brazilian dwellings and Elder Frogley's culinary adventures--this time, it was crabs. "Literally the whole crab. I ate its brain!" Then we are treated with a panoramic view of Maceió (Wait, is he still there? Is he not in Estancia?) and an evening of "integration" (?) with water balloons. And it seems like our beloved Elder took some lovely trips to the coast, so we get to live vicariously through him :)

P-Day Excursion

P-Day Sand Dunes

P-Day Coastal Trip

More Sand Dunes

Typical Brazilian Dwellings

Beautiful Brazilian Chapel

Eating Crabs... Whole...

Baptism!! Jose Lito!

Welcome to Maceió!

Water Balloons!

And here is this week's update! Just to keep you all in the loop, Dad sometimes sends his journal entries instead of trying to re-type all the events of the week. Thumbs up for efficiency!!

I got it. Thanks for the journal pages Dad. They were very touching. Now I know i have one more helper on the other side of the veil to help me find people to teach. I hope shes happy and I hope we can use her as an example in our lives. I know we never got along very well but looking back, im going to miss her. And because of her I have parents that taught me everything I know now. She really was amazing. Haha, im tearing up a little bit in the Lan House and these Brazilians are going to start looking at me weird.

Now on to the Week! Its an exciting one! So Tuesday we had a Zone meeting. AGAIN! Im getting SOOOOOO tired of riding on the bus. Our Zone leader is driving us crazy! But that doesnt matter all that much, were still working and baptising. Ill start with the baptisim! We had one Saturday. We met this girl on Sunday who had been going to church for three weeks with her Grandma who was the mother of the Branch Pres. We thought this girl was a member but when we talked to her Sunday at lunch she said she wasnt! So we invited her to be at that second and she accepted. Haha, good stuff! We taught her through the week and shes living everything and shes reading the Book of Mormon and shes understanding verywell and she was already living the comandments! We didnt have to do anything! We just told her to show up on Saturday and we baptised her. It was pretty chill! 

Next, do yall remember Suzana and Diana? Suzana took off to Lagarto or something and we didnt get the chance to talk to her last week but we´ll try this week. we really focused on Diana this week. She always said she read and prayed and felt good but she never took it as an answer. So we decided she was just scared to change churches and of the unknown. So we decided to teach her about the comandments and we read the Artacles of Faith with her. After we finished all that we asked her how she felt about it all and she believed alllll of it. We thanked her for her time and told her to pray one last time about what she learned. Two days after we got a call from her. Anderson picked up and she asked to talk to me. So I got on the phone (which is awefull cause portuguese is an awefull language to understand on the phone) and we talked about life for a few minutes and then I asked her if she had prayed. she said she had. I asked her how she felt after and she miss understood me and thought I asked about baptisim and said she wanted to be baptised next week! I was like, alright ill take that! So thats 3 baptisim back to back! First time in my mission! Were trying to get Suzana to be baptised at the same time! 

And finally Amanda. We met her through English class and went and visited her. She didnt make it to church the first time because of water problems in her house and the second time because she was traveling. But she went to a baptism and liked it alot and we showed the church off to her. Shell go to church on Sunday then be baptised the next week! I hope Im still here cause this transfer is finishing off! It flew by! Thats about it for us but I hope you al have a ballin week! Love you and theyre are a bunch of Brazilians here who love you too! They told me to send that! 

Elder Frogley