20 January 2014 - Mirante, Brazil

Heads up friends! The Maceió Mission Executive Secretary sent us some pictures of the mission's Christmas Party, and we can just catch glimpses of Waldo Elder Frogley in a few of them. Happy hunting!

20 January 2014 - Mirante, Brazil

First of all, I don't know how many times recently I've misspelled "Brazil" as "Brasil," but I get easily confused because in Spanish it's spelled with an S. So sorry about that.

But in more exciting news, Dad's ward had a convert baptism recently, which is always awesome. Apparently the man had been an investigator for a while but was unable to get over some issues. Then he finally started studying the Book of Mormon on a daily basis, and he found the strength to overcome his weaknesses. Also, Dad shared with Elder Frogley that he feels that the scourge spoken of in D&C 45 is pornography. I have to agree.

So, enough back story; here's the exciting e-mail:

Wow! busy! And a baptisim in our ward!? Convert!? Unheard of! Where does he live? I can attest to the BofM. its the bom. hahahaha, i didnt even realize i did that. That was funny. But speaking of the dreadfull scurge you were talkin about. If you think thats bad, try seeing the one happening here. Its 10 times as bad. Ive been sick for the past couple of days so my mind is kinda in a fog and not focusing, so sorry if my letter is kinda jumbled but here we go.

This week was pretty chill. It started out with our interviews with pres on Tuesday. He said that he thinks im in my comfort zone as far as my companhion and my responsibility and everything. So he said hes going to swith things around to help me gro. Im kinda nervous cause we have transfers now and im feeling like im going to train or be DL. Neither of which i want to do, but we´ll see. My comp got transfered and im staying here. We´ll go down to the mission office to get our new comp and suchtomorrow. My entire district got transfered apart from me. Im all alone now in an area where ive only had 6 weeks! I dont even remember half the members names! haha, itll be an interesting transfer. But thats pretty much what happened with that. And now to investigators and recent converts! 

Eduardo and Lucas are doing great. Theyre going to all the activities and making friends and doing well with the comandments. Eduardo might have even gotten a girlfriend out of his baptisim. He´s been hanging out a lot with a girl from the ward. That would help him stay firm!  Their mom is having trouble getting to church. Shes always busy or traveling or something. But she loves the members and she knows the church is true. She always makes food for us and sends it home with us, and she wants to host a ward activity in her house. Good family.

Now, we taught a girl last week i told you about! That jehovas wittness Symlea de Deus chick. Shes a church singer and stuff and is FULL of questions and complaints. So my comp left me alone to pretty much answer all of the questions. We went from the Holy ghost and his function and how we recieve it, to Heaven and if there are three kingdoms or just one heaven and hell. To what sin is and if there are degrees to sin. And finally to Adam and eve and why, if they ate the fruit breaking a comandment and thats why were here suffering, were all suffering for their sin. She agreed with most of what we spoke about apart from the three degrees of Glory. She went off about not having degrees of sin for kinda good people and bad. She believes theyll all just go to hell. We tried to explain better using scriptures from the bible but she didnt go for it. But when we got to the Adam and Eve question, she really seemed confused. She didnt know why the Bible left so much doubt and she said that. I decided/felt prompted to share the Book of Mormon with her. I went with it thinking she would just get mad that we had ´´more scripture besides the Bible´´ but i used it to clarify her question using 2 Nefi 2. I explained to Book of Mormon to her and she actually got pretty psyched! She promissed to start readding it and she finally answered her long asked question and she decided she wanted to start taking the actuall descusions! So were going to go back and actually start teaching her. Sweet! 

The rest of the week was spent in getting ready for trasferes. So that pretty much what happened. Love yall! Miss you! until next week! 

Elder Frogley

13 January 2014 - Mirante, Brazil

Goody, we get lots of pictures this week! Also, Mom and Dad apparently sent Elder Frogley the address to the new house--something they have yet to do for the rest of us, so we haven't been able to look at it in Google Maps. Ah well.

Sorry for the weird layout with the pictures. Blogspot is not playing nice.

A gift basket from my Brazilian Mom.

I got letters! One from Dave, one from Christian, and i think thats it for now. But pres said there are a lot of packages in the office to pass around, hes going to give them out durring interviews this thursday. So maybe some stuff arrived. I did get a chance to look at the house! it looks nice, and the neighborhood looks cool. My exgirlfriend was pumped that yall moved down there. Its close to where she use to live. But ill through down some stories now that will prove that your prayers have not been in vain! 

All of us playing soccer, and he jumped in at the last second.

My comp drinking what looks like champaign but is Guarana.

The fair.

 So i told you about the family we started teaching. Two young men and their mom who traveled to the US. Edwardo is the oldest and Lucas is his little brother. They both expressed strong desire to be baptised right from when we met them. We taught them all the comandments and they promissed to keep them. Their mom was very excited for them and also wanted them to be baptised. On Thursday we went and visited them with the proposal to get baptised on Saturday. We werent really expecting a yes. Cause people usually are like ´´ahhh, could i maybe, like wait, i mean thats pretty fast...´´ but they were like ´´yea, of couse, what time.´´ A 16 year old kid and a 14 year old kid. Their mom wasnt home for this so we showed up Friday night to do the interview with the supprising news for their mom that theyed be baptised the next day. we were expecting a little resentment but she was all like ´´Awesome! What time? I wana be there. Can I talk pics? Do you two want some cookies?´´ she was awesome and the two boys passed the interview with flying colors. My DL said he really enjoyed talking to them. I baptised Edwardo the older one and Acevedo baptised the other. The Mother (Edna) cried after and said she loved the meeting and new that her sons were in good hands. Shes a single mother and she is VERY protective of her sons. Really a sweet lady. She wants to be baptised to but shes really bust adopting a young handy capped girl so she missed church sunday. So well have to wait until next week to baptise her. Pluss we have transfers so thats scary. Time flies. 1 year and 2 now. But in other news. Weve been visiting lots of recent converts and less actives. We met a girl. A members cousin. She had a TON of questions about the church and how we do things. She use to me a Jehovas witness but now shes from the Symblea de Deus. The two craziest churches here. she was an interesting one. Shes also a singer for churches here. She gets paid to sing durring meeting and stuff. We had a sing off in her house. It was funny. I sang in English so I think i won. We made a few other visits and didnt find anyone promising. But were looking. Life is good here. yestereday we gave two blessings. One at 10:00 and one at 10:30 at night. Our neighbor and a sister who had a sick daughter. Its cool how willing people are here to ask for help. It makes helping people easier when they actually make their needs known. 

Any way, thats it for this week! Ill send some pics in an hour or so. I forgot my camera but ive got a lot of pics for yall. 

The death of the first pair of shoes.

And finaly, ive been thinking of asking pres to realease me in October so we could travel and do our thing and be back for Thanksgiving. Like the first of November or the end of October. Pres said that after you have all the info for your flight set up to come down, let me know and ill send it to the secratary. Or i can tell him to buy you tickets on my flight. If you want to fly back together. We can fly back sepperately if you want. Doesnt matter. I have to talk to secratary in two months, so let me know what you want do. Love yall!

Elder Frogley

Sorry for the weird centering. I hit a button.

Christmas party.

Volleyball night.

An epic staircase I found.

6 January 2014 - Mirante, Brazil

So the big news this week is actually from our end--Mom and Dad are moving to Layton, Utah. Cory's (my uncle) business is booming in Bountiful, and Dad has been working with him twice per week, but since Dad is so popular and awesome they want him closer and more often, so there you go. Yay, Mom and Dad! New adventures! And both have felt strongly that this is in accordance with the Lord's will, so we're glad they also have some direction from the Lord--that's always appreciated!!

Anyway, here's the stuff you're really here for:

Ah... gooseberry pie... put that on my coming home dinner list please! I cant believe yall are goin to live in Layton! Weird! Thats where my x girlfriend lived, I dont know if yall remember Emilie Knudson? She slept at our house one time while she was visiting Utah State? right before i left on the mission pretty much. any way, yall will have to look up her family! But life is solid here! Ill let you know what happened!

Since this week was new years EVERY ONE decided to travel. All of our investigators were out of town so our baptisims also have to get bumped back. annoying. Were going to go visit them tomorrow cause they got back yesterday. We´ll see how there doing but nothing new on them cause we havent talked. We visited some less actives and found a couple people to teach but its been really slow. The other missionaries in our district are fighting, so we did a pointless devision and waisted a day, cause they didnt wana do anything. But New years it self was pretty cool! We went to a less actives/member house. One brother was active and his family is non member and less active. So while we were there a whole bunch of people showed up and started drinking and doind a bbq and getting really drunk. We were kinda just awkwardly sitting on the couch.This drunk in active member came up to us and started saying how he knew what he was doing was wrong and hed stop some day and how much he liked the missionaries. He then tried to give us some meat from the bbq, which was really gross cause i think he was bbqing drunk so the meat was strait salt. Like STRAIT salt. It was white and stuff. He told us like 10 times to help ourselves to what ever we wanted in the fridge or anything in the house. Then left. So we sneakily started to fead the meat to the dog. Finally we escaped and went to the other missionaries house. Behind their house they have a crazy view overlooking all of the city. Like a huge balcony. So we watched the people in the streats counting down and watched all the fireworks shoot off and stuff. it was pretty cool. But not much else has happened this week. Next week should be back to normal though! Thanks for the money dad! Ill use it to make a feast for me and my comp or something! Ill send a pic! 

Love yall! 

Elder Frogley

30 December 2013 - Mirante Brazil

Hello! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Welcome to the last, final, and ultimate e-mail from Elder Frogley of 2013! We're so glad you could join us. This week's e-mail was split into two parts--something about catching a bus. Anyhow, Dad mentioned in his e-mail how the missionaries in their area are having difficulty filling their schedule with teaching appointments, at least in part because the members there don't quite get their role in the missionary effort. Just for context.

Here's part one:

Do yall have missionaries just for your ward? Cause i dont remember ever seeing them in sacrement meeting or them eating dinner with us. Its weird cause the missionaries here are litterally a part of the ward. We get invited to activities and we hang out with members on pday and everything. They love us and thats a difference ive noticed from here to Utah. The missionaries here are more involved in the members lives and it makes it easier for them to give us referals. Cause their friends are our friends.

Any way, life sounds awesome as usual it the US! lest summarize the rest of my week which was suprisingly eventfull! Its hard to visit people here because of Christmas but ill tell yall what happened in a sec! I have to catch a train then ill use the computer again! Two part email this week!

And here's part two:

Im back! So after I talked to you all on Christmas, which was awesome, we worked visiting less active members. We met this guy who got electricuted at work, an older guy. He had an electrical wire hit his foot. It chopped all his toes off on his left foot and left his leg kinda black and dead. we stopped by and he told us how he thought the ward had abbandoned him and how good it was to see us. He hasnt had a visit for a while. we gave him a blessing (i did it and it was a powerfull experience) and after he told us how his dream is to go work in the temple when he recovers enough. It was inspiring to see his courage and faith. we Also visited a young man who we started teaching. His mom happened to be there with her boy friend. We talked to her a little and she told us about her trips to Florida. It was cool and she liked us alot. we taught them about the restoration and her and her boyfriend asked all the right questions and they led the lesson for us really well. They believed what we told them and they wanted us to come back the next day, so we did. The next day we taught them about the plan of salvation because they asked us about our beliefes of life after death. After the lesson she came out and told us that she decided our church is true and she would do what she needed to to  be baptised, Her, and her two sons. Were pretty excited for all of them. The only bad news is the women that we were helping to be baptised on Saturday decided she didnt want to know anything else about the church. She was to scared to change, which is sad. Its almost new years and were pumped to watch some fire works here! new years is huge here! they do this crazy fire work show on the beach from boats on the ocean. But we cant watch it cause our pres is a party pooper :( ah well, maybe ill have a member tape it. Love yall! Have a nice fourch of July! And happy late birthday Christian! send me a pic of your new watch! And one of our new TV cause i wana see where ill reside for the first two weeks when i get home. ;)

Love, 

Elder Frogley