28 July 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

OK, folks, this week we have some great stories of how the Lord blesses his humble servants as they listen to the Spirit and their priesthood leaders. Also, to help you decipher Elder Frogley's English, when he says "news" he doesn't mean journalistic articles about the goings on around the world, but instead he means "new people" or "new investigators" (literally "new ones" when said in Portuguese, I believe). Anyway...

Hello family! This week was a great one for finding and helping new investigators! We´ve had some great teaching experiences and helped some wonderfull people accept baptisim! On the down side, we havent had the opportunity to teach Jessica and Juliana again because theyre both traveling. But ill fill ya in on that later.

This week weve been praying for God to provide some news for us. We´ve been having a tough time finding people who want to go to church and be taught. Mission Pres. told us to work with the less actives and wed find people to baptise because there are a lot of less actives here. So thats what we decided to do. We have a list of all of the inactive priesthood holder in our area and we decided to visit every single one. Tuesday we visited a Man who was living with his brother who was an inactive member. His name is Marcio and hes just a really large guy, but super chill. He told us that the missionaries use to pass by his house all the time and he really liked them. Hed even been to church a few times. But never was baptised. His brother, the member, didnt want anything to do with the church any more, but Marcio said that we could teach him and his nephew, so thats what we did. We entered into the lesson with little enthusiasm, because he told us that he lived with a women and they werent married, and marrages are tough here. Not the best way of thinking but we realized it half way through the lesson. We were kind of running through the first lesson just to get it over with, not worrying about his understanding, and we started to feel like he really needed the lesson. I think the Holy Ghost chastised us a little. So we stopped and tried to listen to the Holy Ghost to teach him and help him understand. Honestly i think ive never had anyone understand the Restoration so well. He said he would definately pray and search for an answer if the church was true, and he promissed to be baptised on the 19th when he found his answer. That was humbling. Its amazing the things the Holy Ghost can hide from people. When a person wants to understand, The Holy Ghost reveals the trueth. When a person doesnt care, it doesnt matter how clearly you explain something, they dont understand a single principal. But through that experience we we found three more news and marked three baptisims. Already an answer to our prayers.

On Thursday, we took the whole day to visit everyone on our list. We had all four missionaries on our side of the river working our area to get it done, but we finished it! We got them all! Now we can clean up the church records and update the member lists. And we also found some other great people to teach. 

One of those great people was a Man named Gabriel. He moved to another state and stopped going to church, but has come back to Viçosa to stay. When we knocked on his door, he imediately invited us in and told us to sit down. He said hed love to go back to church but hes fallen into some back habits (drinking, and such) and hed have some troubles. He was also living with a women, unmarried. We promissed to come back and visit to teach him and his wife, which we did on Sunday! We stopped by after church. His girlfriend answered the door. He was apparently drunk and assleep, which was sad, but his wife said we could for sure teach her. We taught her about the restoration and we took care to explain verry clearly for her. Shes was full of desire to learn but she was having a hard time grasping the importance of prophets and a restoration. We taught her for a solid hour doing our best to explain the importance of a prophet and we taught about the Book of Mormon. When we challenged her to be baptised, she didnt even hesitate to say yes. She said that earlier that same day shed been challenged to be baptised in the catholic church but she never was and she didnt accept. But she accepted baptisim in an instant with us. I feel like that means she felt the Spirit and understood.

Thats about is as far as our week! It was good and we continue enthusiastic!

Elder Harris (my comp) has two weeks left of his mission Dad, so ill be getting a new comp soon. Probably my last. Theres a weird thought. Also i havent gotten my new plane ticket but ill let you know the times when i do.

Love you!

Elder Ian

PS Dad, keep your eye out for some jobs. Ill need one right away when i get back.

21 July 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

Yay, I got the e-mail and some more pictures! So here you go. And please don't ask about the comment at the end of Elder Frogley's e-mail about the sad story involving a baby--I don't do sad stories involving children and infants.

Well i have some sad news this week family. But first off! Hello! It was overall a happy week! But neither Jessica nor Juliana were baptised. But the experience of fighting to help them feel the spirit really helped me grow. Lets start from the beginning of the week.

Tuesday we visited our usual investigators. Jessica, Juliana, and Jorge, and weve been focusing a lot on finding new investigators to teach, because weve been having a rough time with that. Jessica was pretty down on herself because she smoked again. She had fallen spiritually and she told us that she felt like she was letting God down, making promises and goals then just smoking again. She was having a rough time. We Did our best to teach her and we tried to mark some new goals with her to stop smoking. More on her later. Juliana was awesome. She appologized for not being able to be baptised last week but affirmed that she was 100% ready. Jorge was fast. He was working so we just stopped by, talked really fast, confirmed that he would go to church Sunday and left. 

We visited Juliana durring the whole week, we visited her with members, we talked about almost all the lessons again, we helped her with questions every day, and she said that she was really excited to be baptised. We even read Lehis vision and she understhood all of it and was even able to explain it to us after. She was doing sooo well, even Friday before her baptisim, she was ready to go. Saturday at around three o clock we went to go visit her to see if she was ready for the baptisim. We got there and she said that she couldnt be baptised. Do you guys remember that pastor that kicked the other missionaries out of their converts house a few weeks ago? Julianas mom is part of that church. When she found out that Juliana was going to be baptised, she started saying a ton of stuff agains the church, and told Juliana that she couldnt be baptised. Julianas 28! I was a little annoyed by that. Juliana told us that she wouldnt be able to be baptised because of her mom. We talked about Lehis vision again and how Lehi had to taste the fruit first before he could call his family. Then we talked about the people making fun of the people holding to the rod from the great and spacious building. She started off not wanting to be baptised, and she even said that she felt sad about her decision, because she new that God wanted her to do it. After an hour, she finally agreed to ask her Moms permission again. Her Mom got home right about that time. Juliana went back and talked to her for about thirty seconds and came back ready to be baptised again! We were so happy and she said that she felt happier too. She recognised it as the Holy Ghost testifying to her that she was doing the right thing. By then it was almost 5 o clock. She promised to be at the church by 6 for the baptisim. We ran to the church to fill up the font and get clothes for the Harris and everything. At about 5:40we got a call again from Juliana. She said that she wouldnt be baptised again!! What!? We ran to her house to find out what happened. We got there and she told us that we had wasted a trip and that there was no way she was getting baptised. She said that while she was getting ready, doubts apeared in her head about Joseph Smith and a modern day profet. She said that she believed in it all yesterday but suddenly she didnt believe anymore. She said all these random things about how men cant see God and these random doubts that usually new investigators have. we tried to teach her paciently but she was verry against baptism at that point. Harris decided we should have a prayer at that moment to see if She should be baptised. Through the whole prayer i was feeling as though she shouldnt be baptised yet, but i was so set on baptising her i ignored it. After a while on our knees, i finally did my best to humble my self and accept that she wasnt ready. The moment that i accepted that and we all sat back down, the spirit came back to the room, and it was much easier for me to help her and teach her, because honestly before we were just burning her. But we started making goals with her for the future. She thought it would be over right there and that we were going to leave, but when we said we were going to try to keep helping her, she accepted. We asked her if she had any more doubts, and she said that if she had an answer about Joseph Smith and a modern prophet, shed be baptised. A Little frustrating especially since shed already recieved soooo many. But we promised to keep working with her on prophets. Shes got her baptisim next week now.

Jessica like i said was having a tough time all week. She didnt even go to church yesterday because she got home saturdayfrom work at 2 in the morning. On Thursday she had a real spiritual boost. We had a family night at her house with half the branch. It was great! We talked about eternal families and the couples in the ward helped a lot. The spirit was awesome there and Jessica and her husband Tiago were really touched. you could tell she want to be a better wife and Mom and she wanted an eternal marage. She was crying after and she said that she was so happy. After the tough week shed had, it was good to see her back with her old spirit. She said she didnt smoke at all thursday and only 1 Friday. But Firday night she was all sad again. We kept talking to her about the atonement and about how God loves her and every time we pass by shes happier after, but then she smokes and gets sad again. Sunday she told us that she even drank a little alchohole again. Sunday night we sat her down and decided to have a real talk. Almost an ultamatom. We talked about how she was feeling, how much shes changed, where she was spiritually one week ago, and how she is now. We talked about her happiness, and everything. She didnt think that she could stop smoking and she didnt want to make more goals to stop again. But then we had a hard talk about how we progress in our lives. And the difference between making a goal not making a decision at all. If youre making goals, even if youre not achieving them, youre still progressing because youre showing your faith in making them. We asked her if she honestly has given 100% in trying to stop smoking. She said that she could do better reading the scriptures and praying when she felt the desire to smoke. So she promised to read a scripture we marked (Alma32) and to make her own goals again to stop smoking. I hope she did what she promised.

Apart from that, this week was pretty chill! Weve gotten some nice references that were going to visit this week, and we worked alot visiting less actives in the city. We visited a bunch of people who can definatly come back to church! 

Thanks for all of your prayers family, i just want you all to know that i see the effects everyday. 

Thats soo sad about that baby Dad. Send them a hug for me. 

I love yall! Oh by the way Dad! My flight got changed to the 11th instead of the 4th. is that a problem? They can change it again if it is. Let me know!

Elder Ian

some pics i forgot to send of the hike

some pics i forgot to send of the hike

coconut and machete

21 July 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

Well friends and family, I don't have an e-mail yet, but I do have these AWESOME pictures to share. As always, I just copy and paste the text. Please note that I did add the "v" en "even" and the "s" at the end of "glasses" just for clarity.

coconuts, ill show ya how when i get back maybe

epic borritos that we made! We even made home made tortillas!

and finally me and my comp during study time with cool Brazil binis and glasses

14 June 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

Hey all! So the Lord continues to bless Elder Frogley in his righteous efforts, and this week we see quite clearly how the Lord cares for each and every one of his children, even to the point of inspiring righteous priesthood leaders to go to their aid. Also, for clarification, since Mom and Dad moved, Elder Frogley will likely be speaking both in his old ward and in the new one. Not sure about the interviews with stake presidents, though...

Anyway...

Hello family! 

This week was a sad day for Brazil, and most people were actually cheering for Germany for the final, weird right? Its because they have a huge rivalry with Argentina. They hate eachother. But after tuesdays game, we didnt leave the house. People were crying in the streets and drunk guys were lookin for fights and two German lookin guys would have been prime targets. Even Wednesday was sketchy. But despite that sad loss and the loss against Netherlands, we still got some awesome work done! Jessica passed her baptisimal interview and she was marked to be baptised on Saturday. On Saturday morning, the branch Pres. stopped by our house to tell us that he caught Jessica smoking Saturday morning. So we had to pospone the baptisim. It was sad, but when we went to talked to her that night, she really impressed me. She said that she was embarressed to come talk to us and was scared wed be mad. So she prayed saturday that a messenger of God would be sent to stop her from smoking because she couldnt stop by her self and she was scared to call us. She went off to a quite place where no one usually passes to smoke, and who appears there? The Branch Pres! She tried to hide the cigarret at first, but then she told him that she had tripped up and smoked, and she didnt think she was ready to be baptised. She also said that she wouldnt give up and said that shed definately be in church every sunday. Sunday she came to church and appologized to us. We talked to her, and told her she didnt need to be affraid to tell us anything and she said that she wanted a blessing. It was a really great experience because she had enough faith to come to us and expected results from it. She had an eye infection and headache. After the blessing she thanked us. And went home. When we visited her again later on Sunday, she said that her eye was better and her headache was gone. She said it totally without suprise, just like she was expecting it. Shell have to wait to be baptised a little more. Were going to try for this week, but shes really amazing. She has a lot of faith and the members are really helping to integrate her into the branch already. 

Juliana was going to be baptised on Saturday too, but she had some feminine problems and couldnt do it. We visited her after church to see how she was, and she appologised, but promised she was as firm as ever. Shes really good and shes already accepted to recieve a calling in the church. She doesnt have one yet, but we visited her with the Reliefe Society Pres and she told them shed do whatever she was called to do. She was such an unexpected blessing. We didnt think she was that excited and we didnt know how much she was understanding because shes quite and a little shy, but she can answer questions very well and knows everything. She said we changed her way of thinking about God. Even with the pressure of her Mom and other people including a pastor, shes still firm. Shell be baptised Saturday.

The members here are really helping us a lot. Were planing on doind several family home evenings with investigators this week and were leaving with Pres. Were focusing more on Men now because if we can baptised enough men, they can become a ward here and they can get a nicer church, because the one we have isnt much more then a house. Were excited for them.

On saturday we had a service project were we continued destroying a housewe had started a different day. Today we were destroying a bathroom, and since here, everything is built with clay bricks with plaster over it, we used a sledge hammer and smashed everything!!! Its was SWEET! Haha, and for a brake, we climbed a coconut tree and got a knife and chopped open coconuts to drink the milk. Like natives! were so awesome. Ill send some pics but i dont have my camera today. Also it was Elder Reemses birthday Saturday and we made a Brazilian bbq for him. Im turning into quite the chef here. Ill cook yall something Brazilian when i get home! 

Thats all for now, im cool with two talks when i get home Dad, no problem. And i definately want to meet the new Stake Pres. 

Love yall!

Elder Ian

7 July 2014, Viçosa, Brazil

It's been another amazing week for Elder Frogley, and he tells us all about it. For some context, Dad took Kathryn, Danielle, and me horseback riding and sent Elder Frogley some pictures; also, Kolton (Elder Frogley's best friend) returned home from his mission on 4 July, but Dad recommended that Elder Frogley not think too long on it because Kolton would likely rather be where Elder Frogley is again.

Also, Elder Frogley sent TONS of pictures, but I haven't received them yet, so I'll have to post them later.

So, without further ado...

Hey family!!!!!! This week was super tight!! Im just goin to start out by saying yall are going to get a LOT of photos here in a sec. As far as the week it self, it was really tough. We had to stay inside most of the week. Tuesday was a meeting in Maceió, which took all day so we didnt get to work. Wednesday, we were moving houses (our new house is awesome by the way), so we only got to visit people a little at the end of the day. Thursday was the welcome meeting of the new Pres. (he seems awesome, i really enjoyed his new focus. Its edify the church. Weve had a lot of problems in the past with the motto ´´just baptise´´, so there were a lot of people getting baptised, then never going back to church. So now hopefully that will change.) But we didnt get to work that day too because we were ether riding busses or in meetings all day.Friday was AWESOME! 4th of July and we went all out! It was also the Brazil game so we couldnt leave the house anyway. We made a make shift grill in the back portch and made real stuffed hamburgers with peppers and onions. We got buns, made guacamoli, cut up fresh tomatos and onions, made home made french fries, we made deviled eggs, and we bought a perfect watermellon!! it was sweet! Our Peruvian missionariy decided he wanted to live in the USA after just because of the 4th of July. After the game it was crazy so we had to stay home. Saturday we visited several people and several investigators are making progress.

Jessica came to church and tossed our her cigarets! Shes awesome and wants to be baptised a lot! She even bore her testimony yesterday in front of everyone and said she was trying to stop smoking and wanted to be baptised! All by her self! It was sweet. 

Juliana is firm as firm. She came to church (a little late because she woke up late, but she came) and she realy liked sacrament meeting. She believes everything, even when her friends talk badly about the church, she asks us before she believes anything. Shes very humble and really teachable, which we like! 

We marked to visit both of them with the Relief Society Pres. and hopefully that will help integrate them. 

Were also teaching George. Hes a members husband who i think ive already mensioned. Hes talked to lots of missionaries, but never has showed much interest. He knows its true, but has some concers about his personal ability to keep to the standards. When we visited Monday he said that he was finally ready to really comit to being baptised and changing his life. He promised to come to church this week because he couldnt last week due to work. We have high hopes! 

Sunday, Pres made a supprise visit at the church. That was fun. Hes an older Pres. and his wife is cool. Theyre from Sao Paulo and they brought their daughter with them. Shes 21 and they all have been to the USA. Hes not as forword and confident as the last Pres. partially because hes new and partially because its his personality. But hes really humble and a really chill Pres. Im excited to see what he does for the mission.

The real adventure happened today! We got some members and went on an EPIC hike!! We tromped through the jungle next to a river, passed through little villages, scared hurds of cows, climed through caves, got attacked by bats, and finally made it to our destination. A big watterfall called A Serra de Dois Irmãos! It was super pretty! We even met a native walkin to take care of his cows behind us. He didnt have an arm and new everything about the area so he showed us some cool stuff and told us some stories! It was really cool and ill let the pics tell the story. On the down side we got pretty burned, haha normal. We´ll mark to go visit another waterfall next week. There are tons here! 

Hopefully next week will be better as far as working goes. We only lose two days due to the Brasil game and one meeting. Not bad.

As far as my not being a missionary anymore thing Dad (i forgot the word). Id rather it be with Pres Hill. Id like to finish where i began and i really respect him. Nothing against our new Pres, im sure he´s awesome. Anyway, love yall!! 

Elder Ian

PS Its been getting kinda cold here! In the mornings it gets down to like 60 degrees sometimes! We freeze and bundle up in blankets.

30 June 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

So this week we have two ginormous pictures, so I'll see if I can fit them on the page. Elder Frogley's camera takes really high resolution pictures. Anyway, Elder Frogley is showing considerable growth because of the amazing experiences and challenges he has faced, and we are all exceptionally proud of him and his hard work and dedication.

Alright! Hello family and friends and people! Im a little sick today, so writing all these emails is giving me a headache so im goin to try to keep this one a little shorter.

This week was good! We had transfers Tuesday and one of the Peruvians left and another American came! Now we have three Americans and one Peruvian, haha. Poor guy. Weve been passin with a few investigators every day, trying to confirm baptisim dates. Juliana is a women we´ve been teaching for a while now and shes one of the best weve got. Weve taught her everything and shes very accepting. At first we wernt sure if she was all that interested because she has a very childish inocents about her that makes it seem like she just says yes to everyhing we say and says things just to make us happy. But for the last while, everytime we pass by, shes been reading the BofM! She reads everything we give her, but had a hard time understanding. So we taught her how to study instead of read and shes doing better now. We did a mock interview with her to see if she was ready for her baptisim next week, and she remembered all of the comandments by name! Thats something that doesnt happen much. Last week she didnt come to church because she slept in, this week we were getting ready to walk to church to go get her, when we got a call from the Branch Pres saying that she was already at the church half an hour early! Shes really good. On the down side her Moms part of the same church that has those pastors that came and faught with us that one time I told you about. I really hope they dont try to come fight with us again because that doesnt help anyone. 

Our other investigator that weve really been visiting a lot is Jessica. Her Mom, little brother and aunt were visiting her but they all left today, we marked all of their baptisims, including Jessicas. When we met her she was pretty set to stay in the world. Shes has a big problem with smoking and didnt want to leave it. She even told her husband who tried to get her to stop smoking that she loved smoking more then her family. But shes made HUGE progress! Shes down to one cigarret a day and she doesnt drink or go to the same parties anymore. She told us that her friends were teasing her saying that she was turning into a Mormon, and she said ´´yes, i am, and this is why.´´ and she testified to her friends. Shes doing awesome! 

We also started talking a guy named Cristiano. Hes into interior desine, and he loves painting. I might try to get a painting from him cause theyre pretty cool. Yall want one? But anyway, he had talked to the missionaries before, and enjoyed talking about religion, but didnt show much interest last time. After we taught the restoration to him, He underthood very well and promised to pray about it, and we marked his baptisim! Hes a cool guy. Funny story, he asked us if we wanted some cake, and we said sure why not. He brought it out and told us to taste it and guess the taste. We guessed the first two, but were having a tough time getting the third. He told us that it was a really comon drink, thats hot, and everyone drinks it here. We were like ´´ah poop´´. it was coffee. We had to call pres to ask if that was against the comandments and itll be kinda awkward teaching the Word of Wisdom now. Haha.

Any way, this week we have a welcome meeting for the new pres and my Zone is singing, so tomorrow we have to drive all the way to Maceio to practice! Not fun. Love you all! 

Elder Ian

This crazy drunk guy was fallowing us around. He asked us to take a pic of him and just walked out there and layed down posing like Christ on the cross. So we of course had to take a pic! 

Huge são João bonfire.

Me and pres

Me sleeping on a hamick

My Brasil flag

My Brasil flag

Soão Joao party in the ward

That huge party that week i told yall about that was right outside our house

Our investigators at the ward party