23 June 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

This weeks e-mail is a great testimony builder as Elder Frogley shares some experiences that show how the Lord cares for each and every one of us, answers prayers, and sends the Holy Ghost to lift us up when the going gets rough. Enjoy! (Oh, and for those non-Utah folks, Kolten is Elder Frogley's best friend from home who is just finishing up a Spanish-speaking mission somewhere... forget where exactly.)

I cant believe Kolten is coming home already!! Weird! Were also giving it all to ´´gut it out´´ in my comps last few weeks. Were both old and luckily were both still working. As shown in excess by this weeks epic progress! This week has been full of trying lessons and some heart ache for some people but some really impressive learning experiences and some personal revalation.

Ill just go through the investigators and say whats been happening because i cant keep the days strait in my head.

Eliza (thought it was Elisia but its Eliza) has had some trying times. We went to visit her on Wednesday and she had some sad news for us AGAIN. She decided to get back together with her girlfriend and AGAIN told us shed rather not follow God right now. Lessons with her are always a growing experience. At first i got a little frustrated with her and had a tough time feeling the spirit. Luckily for me my comp kept a cooler head, and i said a pray and calmed down a bit. The moment we started feeling the spirit we were able to help her. Shes just scared that she wont be able to keep the comandments if she gets baptised and she doesnt want to ´´let God down´´. We talked to her about how we can grow our faith to confront trials in our lives and the difference between studying and reading the scriptures. After we finished she just felt a lot better and we definately felt better. We told her to start calling us every night to have dayly help. The only problem is that she moved to another area so now the other missionaries are in charge of her. I dont know if shell be able to continue after the change. We´ll try to visit her again with the other missionaris.

Oseias is awesome, but his parents are a pain. I think this week God has been trying to teach me pacients. Im getting better but ive never had to deal with sooo many stupid people. Oseias´s dad told him that he couldnt go to church or even English class any more, because he didnt want him to throught his Catholic harratige in the trash. He was really sincere and an actually really calm good guy. We went to talk to him at his work with his wife there and a friend. His wife the entire time we talked just glowered at us and made random little laughing sounds while we were talking. And the moment we tried to teach them a lesson of why the church is important, his friend started FREAKING OUT! He started going off about random scriptures and how hes 70 and more exerienced then us and how were trying to destroy Oseias´s family and all this stuff. He even got up and tried to yell down at us. When he got up and walked over to try to look down at us i lost it a little. I got on my feet too (a much more impressive move for me then it was for him) and honestly i wanted to punch him in the face. I managed to calm down enough to keep a calm voice and play it off like i just wanted to shake his hand. Afterward my comp said that when i got up he honestly thought i was goin to kill the guy. Apparently i give off intese vibes when i get mad. but we kept our cool, more or less. The Dad was a little apologetic after but the old guy was just all smerking and saying things like ´´It would have been good for Oseias to have seen this.´´ We said wed come back when things were a little more calm. When we left we found Oseias outside in the neighbors house. He said that he knew the church was true and wouldnt give up. He even wants to serve a mission. Ever since then his dads been cool with us but his Moms still kinda crazy. I think with some time his dad will let him be baptised.

Heres a sad story. So a really great baptisim that the other missionaries had a little bit ago, caved under pressure and stopped going to church. After she got baptised, her entire street and even her daughter started talking badly about her and her decision. The missionaries went to visit her and her daughter (who hates the church) invited her pastors to fight with them. The missionaries answered all the questions and, of course, ´´beat´´ the pastors. So the pastors suddenly got on their feet, grabbed the missionaires hands and started ´´praying´´ asking God to send these boys away. The other missionaries are two, newer, really short Elders from Peru, and they left crying. The investigators name was marry and by the time the pastors were through with her she was denying everything she new about the church. When my comp and i got home we noticed something wrong and they told us what happened. Naturally we got extremely upset. We marked a day with them to go visit her. When we went, she wasnt home and all of her neighbors were looking at us like we were satanic. We asked some neighbors where she was and made a contact just to spite them. I had been really working on my pacience so i was pretty calm the whole time. I was really praying for it. As we were talking to the neighbors, Mary walked up with her kids. She told us shed decided to stay away from the church and the Book of Mormon. She didnt even want to let us in but we talked to her a bit and she finally invited us in. We talked about all of her doubts, all her fears, all of the people in her life, everything. We were all asking truely inspired questions and the spirit was very strong in the room. She admited that she knew the church was true and that she was just scared to fight against her neighbors and her daughter. Right about then her daughter walked in. She was awefull. She started playing music really loud on her phone right in the room with us, she started laughing as we talked, and she even called her pastors again and started loudly complaining about us. We defended the church and made her daughter mad which made me happy, but in the end, Mary didnt want to go back to church, but promised not to deny her testimony. Even though she didnt agree to come back, we all felt supprisingly good. We left with smiles (before the pastors got there because we didnt want to fight), and all felt like we really did everything possible to help her. I never knew really how much id grown on my mission until that lesson. I really feel like im a more trusting person in doing the will of God. I was really thankfull for the chance we had to help the other missionaries strengthen their testimony and help Mary. it was a excelent experience.

Jessica is doing really well with her family! They believe everything we say and they want to be baptised! Jessica is still smoking a little but shes doing lots better. Theyve really turned into our friends. 

Juliana is still having troubles getting to church on Sunday, so we went to visit her yesterday. She told us she didnt really want to go to church but she new everything was true. We taught her about the Sabath day, and about what happens at church, and at the end she said she wanted to go to church now and shes always excited to mark our next visit.

Ive learned a lot this week. I was reading in the book Dad gave me about doing the will of God and humbling our selves. Its really helped me at this time. I learned something that i kind of always new but didnt understand the significace. God gives us chalenges to help us grow. I always wondered why i couldnt always have that spiritual high we get when were teaching a powerfull lesson, and i learned that if we always had that feeling, we wouldnt strech ourselves to be able to feel it again. We need to keep looking for people to help and teach to keep stretch ourselves spiritually. Im really thankfull for the chance ive had to grow this week, it means that Gods decided im ready to overcome it which means im growing! 

In other news the World Cup is going great!! USA got robbed yesterday. That was our game. We get play by play calls from a member! haha

Love you all and miss you! 

Elder Ian

And yes I got the mony dad! You saved our lives! Thanks!

16 June 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

So in today's update, we hear a little about the World Cup, which is of course happening right outside Elder Frogley's door. We also hear about many investigators in various stages of progression. Personally I never understood dropping investigators who aren't progressing as fast as you want them to, but then I served in Spain, and we were more than happy to visit anyone who was willing to even talk to us. Also, for some context, Dad shared some of the fun from the Frogley Family Reunion and got some of the uncles and cousins to say hello. Anyway...

Haha, thanks everyone! Im not going to lie, i do miss good old Frogley family reunions. Theyre some of my favorite memories. Thats good to hear that people in the US are watching the world cup! You all should here the explosion here whenever Brazil makes a goal! Seeing as the biggest party in the city is 20 feet outside our front door, we can hear every moment of it. We walk around and catch peices of almost all of the games. I saw part of the game between Italy and England! We were buying bread and i ´´accidently´´ saw 5 min of it. That was satisfying to see. Brazilians dont want Italy to win because they are rivals for most world Cups won. I dont want Brazil to win. People here need to be humbled. Theyre some REALLY cocky abnocious people here when it comes to soccer. Im pumped to see who wins tonight! GO USA!

Our dinner the other day. We mixed all the flower we had with water
and salt and put all the sugar we had over it.
It was almost edable.

As far as my week, it was pretty good! We found some new investigators and marked some baptisims! Ill make a list of them and what happened so i can keep it all strait. Elisia is first. Shes the girl who was having problems with homosexuality. Shes doing much better as far as her girlfriend goes, shes pretty much cut contact with her. But she also started drinking again and shes kinda runnin from us. We also havent seen her member friend in church or around, so were kinda worried that something happened with them both. The World Cup is making it hard to contact people because everyones traveling or watching. At least we got permision to work. We only stay home for the Brazil games. 

Remeber Oseis? Hes a 13 year old kid, but hes super smart. Were teaching him English, and we taught him about the restoration. He went to church and already has a firm testimony that the Book of Mormon and the church are true. The only problem is that his Dad is SUPER catholic. He doesnt want his son to be baptised and even baned him from going to church more or even English class. Oseis told him that if he could go to the church of Jesus Christ, he wouldnt go to any other, because he knows its true! Awesome kid. His Dad came and talked to the Branch Pres asking him to try to get his son to not come to church. Pres refused, and bore his testimony. So Oseis´s dad is thinkin about it now. Say your prayers for them please!

Home made gnocchi.

Marcia (the women who had a huge smoking problem) is doing a LOT better with smoking. Shes down to one or two every three days or so. but she stopped reading the scriptures and she still hasnt come to church. She started working a lot and we´ve been having troubles teaching her because shes never home. If she doesnt go to church this week we might have to let her go. THat would be sad. 

Weve been teaching a women named Juliana for a week now. She does everything we ask but shes having a tough time getting an answer to her prayers. She reads the scriptures and prays every night but she didnt make it to church. We taught a little about the importance of church and how we get answers to our prayers. She promised to come to church Sunday and pray more fervently.

Our current golden investigators are a family that went to church sunday! Three women and their kids. We met them looking for a women that had been taught before by missionaries. When we went to visit we found out that her family was visiting! Her brother and her Mom were FULL of questions. Theyre all very inteligent and have a lot of desire to understand God. The son (17) went off about the Big Bang and who made the elements that made the big bang and the faults he found in his old church. They use to be from the symble of God church but they left and are searching for the truth. We taught them several times about Joseph Smith and about the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Christ. They all gained firm testimonies of the church and it was just inforced by a little miracle on Saturday. The moms baby was sick and had been all week. She said that she didnt know if shed be able to go to church because of the baby. Her sister asked us if we could ´´pray over him´´. We said of course! So we gave him a blessing and Elder Harris pretty much comanded the baby to be better so they could go to church. Then we left. The next day, sure enough, they all came to church with the baby. The Mom said that after we left she put the baby down and it crawled over and started playing with some shoes. Her faith was made concrete by that and all i could think about was when Jesus healed that mad blind from birth. Healed to show Gods hand. Its great to be able to be a symble of Christ to people. Im pumped to hear about all the cool stories Christian will have! The only down side is only one of the sisters is from our area. So we can only baptise the one.

Yesterday i gave a talk in sacrament meeting, and i think it was one of the best talks ive ever given. I said a praye before asking God to help me teach in a way that would touch people in the congragation, and i was relaxed the whole time and just talked. I think it was about 20 min about how to share the gospel. 

Also we have the Pres.and Sisters farewell party Thursday. Itll be sad to see him go. But pumped for the next pres!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Ian

11 June 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

Well we have a real treat for you this week: Elder Frogley had a wonderful teaching experience that may just bring a tear to your eye as you feel the Spirit bear witness to you that what he and his companion had the privilege of teaching is the truth and comes from our loving Father in Heaven. Also, Dad mentioned that he's heading to the Frogley Family Reunion this weekend, which I would totally go to, except that I already have planned to take off like six weeks of vacation this year, but I only get three, and we had to pick and choose the most important events to attend this summer, which include my brother-in-law's wedding and my Grandma Harrison's 90th birthday.

Anyway, enough about me...

Hello family! Ah im pumped to go to a family reunion again! Its kinda weird that im going to have to get to know a new neighborhood when i get home. But itll be fun. Is it good for running? I wana go running when i get back. Send me pics from the family reunion!

Well this week has been filled with spiritual growth! Tuesday through Thursday were fairly normal days. We had problems visiting Elisia. So we got a little worried for her because she needs constant help. Marcia was having problems with smoking again. She started to smoke a lot and she just doesnt think she can quite. She says its what she wants more then anything off but she doesnt show it through her actions. Weve tried several things with her and she gets better, but then trips up again and smokes a ton. Elder Harris taught an excelent lesson about faith with a mouse trap to her! He showed her it worked, had her read a Ether 12:6, and while she was reading took the spring off so it wouldnt work. Then promised her that if she put her finger in it, it wouldnt hurt her. She took a long time and kept poking at it but took a long time to really push it. We compared that to her faith and cigarrets. She can keep poking at it but itll never strengthen her faith until she really jumps in. Shes doing better now. 

Thursday we had a Zone meeting and we had a devision with the Zone leaders. Pretty normal but cool cause their house was amazing!! it looked like a normal house! Almost like an american appartment! It had paintings in it and decorations in the kitchen and even an airconditioner in the bedroom!! It was awesome. On the down side i had to wake up at 4:00 in the morning two days in a row to catch a bus to Maceio. haha, im getting better at waking up early. 

After the devision we ate lunch which was so weird that i have to explain it. The Peruvians in our house decided to make an original Peruvian pasta. it was normal pasta but for the sauce, they mixed cheese, peppers, milk, tomatoes, aaannnddd crackers!! In a blender! It just tasted like pasta with blended crackers on top. It was gross. But me and my comp had been fasting for Elisia so we would have eaten anything! 

Now the miracle of the week!! We finally found Elisia at home on Saturday night! We had been fasting for her and the entire week i feel like my study had been devinely directed to help prep me for the lesson we were about to have. I  had studdied alot about persevering through trails and trusting in God and devine prospective. Alot of which was in the book Dad gave me about Joseph Smith. 

When we went to teach Elisia, she invited us in and we could tell something was wrong cause she looked like she was preparing to tell us something she didnt want too. She told us that she wanted to move with her girlfriend to Maceio, she said she would still go to church but that she couldnt be baptised. She even prayed on if she should go to Maceio and said she felt a cold in her heart and new it was the wrong thing to do. Our hearts dropped and i personally imediately just wanted to scripture burn her. We´d been teaching flimsey investigators all week and i was getting sick of it. I read the scripture about not being able to follow two masters, and i asked her which master she wanted to serve and she flat out told us if that was the choice, she wanted to follow the wrong path for now. We were pretty bumbed, thinking we fasted for this and it did nothing and just being bumbed. But then i started thinking about all the studying we´de done and i felt durring the whole fast that she was going to be helped. So i did my best to put my doubts aside, and i just started to talk. And what followed was the most devinely guided lesson ive ever had the pleasure of participating in. We talked about her devine purpose, we talked about the purpose of this earth life, my comp read a great scripture to her, and then we broke into the healing power of the Atonement of the Savior. After we were done, we asked her how she felt, and she said she was feeling sad, and that she knew why. So we gave her the same choice as in the beggining, which master did she want to serve. We all waited for a while, kinda soaking up the spirit in the room, then she said she wanted to follow the savior, but that shed need help!!!!!! Instantly we all got super happy. There was a sad, profoundly heavy feeling in the room the whole time, but the second she made that choice, it was just solid happyness! We asked her how she felt again and she said she felt very happy too, and she recieved a testimony of the happyness we feel when were keeping the comandments compared to the sadness we feel breaking them in that instant. It was just really cool.

We also started teaching a young man who wants to serve a mission, and he loves everything about the church. The only problem is his mom. She doesnt like the church and we need her permission. 

And were teaching a girl whos mom is a less active member. Shes cool but their very catholic now, thanks to the Dad. Ugh. 

Anyway! thats it for this week! Loving my last six months! Miss you all! Dad can you stick some cash on my card? Were all out of money here and we have a week till we get more. These home lunches are killing us.

Elder Ian

2 June 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

Not much to say as an intro this week--just lots of excellent adventures and and teaching experiences. We do have some pictures, though. So, without further ado...

Hey Dad and family and friends! I just felt like re assuring you that im doing my best to be spiritually mature enough to teach people, and that we use our time to the best of our abilities. I dont even remember all the things we did this week but ill try to include the key points.

Tuesday we had Zone meeting with the president. It was his last zone meeting and he stressed two things a lot. Obedience and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It really hit me hard and really strengthened my testimony about the atonement which i then used to the best of my abilities to pass to my investigators. The meeting was excelent, the only problem was that it went a little too long and we missed our bus back to Viçosa... haha, it was annoying but cool cause it gave us the opportunity to visit some people in Maceió. 

We went and visited some old investigators of Elder Harris and they were really cool. A girl and a guy. He showed me a pic of what she looked like before and it was amazing to see the difference. Shes got a young womens madalion now and shes preparing to serve a mission! Cool stuff. But later me and Harris made our way to the ´´missionary hotel´´ which is just an appartment full of beds for missionaries waiting for buses to stay in. Me and Harris went to a super fancy market store close by thats pretty famous with the missionaries for having a bunch of international stuf! And youll never guess what we found! Cantalope!!!!!!! First time ive seen it in a year and a half! We cut it open and the smell made my moulth water. I just remembered all the breakfasts with muffins and super food from back in the day! My comp is goin home next transfer and hes from Utah too so we got a little trunky for a few minutes, but we survived. Haha, i feel like we deserved a trunky moment, haha! 

We got our bus at 6 in the morning the next day! and at the bus station and while we were talking to people the night before three people told me i didnt have an accent! That was cool to here! Pèople still obviously know im american cause im huge and blond but at least i speak well when i relax. It gets even better when im talking by the spirit durring lessons! Thats cool to see. 

Speaking of lessons, weve taught some good ones! Were teaching two sisters, Lyene and Lyane. They both have decided they really want to search for an answer and find out if the church is true. We were already teaching Lyene but not Lyane. I hope her sister helping her helps her get to church and keep the appointments better. Theyre both great girls! Lyane (the younger sister) even tried inviting a girl to come to her house to listen to us too! That was cool. The tipping point for them was when we braught a member to talk to them. The extra point of view and the personal experience he gave really helped. 

Were also teaching Elizia still! Shes made huge strides against her homosexuality! We had a complication, her girl friend, who we told her she would need to brake up with to keep the comandments, cheated on her. With a member of the church!!!! A recent convert strugling with the same problem. We thought it would be over for sure but Elizia took it as a blessing from God. Helping her to seperate from the relation ship more quickly. She was mad at the member but she didnt let it effect her testimony about the church. Its amazing what a person can do just by ready the scriptures and praying for a testimony. She really enjoyed church and were going to try to get her baptised this week. We´ll see.

Our other big investigator is Marcia and also her family. She made an emergency trip to Maceio to help her uncle on Sunday, which never ends well. When she got back we went and talked to her and it turns out she had a relaps. Shes trying to stop smoking and she was getting much better. She use to trade food for cigarrets. When we met her she hadnt eaten for three days. She was down to one or so every other day. But in her relaps she said she could remember how many she smoked. Our lesson with her was made even harder by her drunk brother who had come to visit. I had to destract him while my comp taught Marcia. But he did well because by the end of the lesson she was ready to try to stop again, and after sha gave a ten minute prayer asking for help. Which is excelent for a women who didnt use to like to pray in front of us. Her daughters are doing well. Jessica is 12 and shes excelent. She made really good friends with a members daughter and she told her mom that even if she didnt go to church, she would. She also forces her mom not to smoke sometimes. The other siblings arent quite so firey but its a good family. They just have problems getting to church.

Outside of investigators, the city is gearing up for the world cup! Its getting crazy here. Theres a town square outside our house and theyre putting up a huge viewing area for people to come publicly watch the world cup. Lame because we cant watch!!! Were a little bumbed about that. 

Thats about it! Love you all soo much!

Elder Ian

Hey Dad! PS I forgot to ask you for a little money to help pay for groceries. Were in an area that doest have lunch from members so we have to spend twice as much money and our financial help from the mission office is almost nothing. Sorry to be a burden! Love you!

Me makin pizza!! It was pretty good. We made pineapple, ham.

Me with a saddled cow! That was weird.

My comp drew this on his desk, and I just thought it was cool.

More from the desk.

These guys were loading bricks into an old bus outside our house (just through it was weird).

One more from the desk.