15 September 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

You know as a missionary, working with investigators can bring some of the most amazing testimony-building experiences of your life. It can also be a source of seemingly never-ending frustration, and this week Elder Frogley shares a little bit of both. We also hear about how a district of missionaries comes together to strengthen a struggling elder, as well as Elder Frogley's plans and goals for his district over the next few weeks before his own release, which is quickly approaching.

Alright! Hey family! This week has been interesting and full of growing experiences (or in other words, it was tough)! Thats awesome about Christians ordinations! I dont really remember mine that well... Do you have that typed up too? Id love to read that again. haha, im excited to see the kids and ill do my best to take some weight off of moms shoulders so she can sleep in more ;). haha. Im glad that Christian will be there when i get back! Im goin to need people to watch movies and play videogames with! haha

So lets get to the week! 

This week has been a battle in the house and with our investigators. In the house, one of the missionaries in the other companionship has been trying to go home 4 months early for the past several weeks. He finally got permission to go and talked to his Stake Pres and was all ready to go, but his comp and i felt like we hadnt done enough to help him stay in the mission. So we sat him down and had a really heavy talk for a while. We said some tough stuff to him, and to his credit, he took it well. At the end, he called Pres and told him he dicided to stay! That was cool. His Stake Pres hadnt called his mission Pres yet so he caught it just in time. But now hes firm in staying until January. Now we just have to get him to want to work again until January, haha. 

My comp has been having some tough times. I found out that hes chronically depressed and extrememly paranoid. he thinks that everyones against him. Anything we do that he doesnt like, he calls Mission Pres. behind her back. Pres told me that i needed to help him talk to us more and new that he was a tough comp, but also asked me to help him as a personal favor. Were really trying to help him as a district, but we could do better. Its tough to help someone who doesnt want help. We had a pretty intense talk the other day with all of us and he got really quiet. hes getting a little better now, but any suggestions?

Our investigators are REALLY annoying. We have a few breaths of fresh air but on the most part its just crazy. 

Ana Cleide, that women who is trying to stop drinking and smokin to be baptised, is passin for some tough stuff. We found out that she is pregnant and the father is a married guy that she use to work for. He doesnt leave her alone and he told her if she leaves him he´ll kill her. She doesnt want the baby, so she decided to abort it. We spent the past week trying to convice her not to abort her kid and to stop drinking. I heard the sadest prayer i think ever. Her daughter prayed in the closing prayer and asked God not to let her Mom kill her baby brother. I feel so badly for her kids. They think that all this is normal. We also found out that shes already had 4 abortions with other men. We talked to Pres about her and he told us he´ll have to talk to her, and that it would be hard for her to be baptised, which we already knew. We´ll keep workin with her though. She decided not to kill the child again but shes realy ficcle.

Juliana is still really firm but she missed her baptims date again! This time it was her time of the month, which was what happened the first time we tried to baptise her three months ago. She didnt go to church later, but we think she might have gone to Maceió to go to the hospital because she wasnt home at night either. but she still reads the scriptures every day and she really wants to be baptised. Ive never had a baptisim this crazy. Pres said he wanted to talk to her too, but her baptism is marked for next week again.

João was doin great. We visited him with his uncle whos a member, and he promised that he´ll double his efforts to get an answer from God. But then he didnt go to church Yesterday. When we went to his house, he told us that he was thinkin last night, and decided that he didnt want to study with us anymore. He told us that it wasnt because of the church, because he believed its was true, but its because hes goin through some psychological problems. Hes depressed like i think i said before, but hes started seing a shrink and he wants to wait till hes better to continue with the church. We marked Ether 12 for him to read and told him that he could get better more quickly studing with us then goin to a shrink. He promissed to read and think again but we´ll see what he wants tomorrow. 

Ana Lucia met up with the Father of her kids and theyre goin to get back together. Thats good i guess, as long as they get married, but theyre also moving away. So were goin to lose her, and she was one of our only progressing investigators. That was a bumber. We´ll get her address though and send new missionaries to her house.

Finally, Larisa was tough. Shes the girl whos been trying to get bapised forever but her Dad is super Catholic and crazy (litterally). She got permission, but her Dad REFUSED to sign her permission form for baptisim. He said that she can be baptised but he ´´wont sighn anything!´´ We tried to reason with him, but hes crazy. After that we went back to check up, and found out that he had been attacking his daughter for her choice and Larisa told us that she didnt want to be baptised any more. Her Dad after she said that decided to argue with us and with some, I think, rightous anger, we burned him to the bone. We testified and corrected and taught from the scriptures until he shut his mouth. That was satisfying. But i think it helped Larisa because she talked to Branch Pres and said she wanted to be baptised the 27th again. He´ll go there and try to get her paper signed. 

As far as my plan for the District Dad. Its to find as many news as we can and change the was missionaris are viewed here. Most people hate the missionaries and the members are used to constant persicution from other churches. We started teaching members how to pass references and how to help us more effectively. We´re having a tough time finding news here. So were goin to go around and visit all the members until we have a large pool of news. We also started a reference sheet on the announcement board at the church. To make it easier for members to give references. So our plan is to make friends and get references! Any suggestions?

Thats about it for this week! Im holdin, and your prayers are appreciated! Love you all!

Elder Ian