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