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