30 January 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he shared about teaching Sunday School this past week, including the meaning of the word "Apocolypse" (revelation); also a quote from Boyd K. Packer:

Inspiration comes more easily in peaceful settings. Such words as quiet, still, peaceable, Comforter abound in the scriptures. …
The world grows increasingly noisy. Clothing and grooming and conduct are looser and sloppier and more disheveled. Raucous music, with obscene lyrics blasted through amplifiers while lights flash psychedelic colors, characterizes the drug culture. Variations of these things are gaining wide acceptance and influence over our youth. …
This trend to more noise, more excitement, more contention, less restraint, less dignity, less formality is not coincidental nor innocent nor harmless.
The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer.
Irreverence suits the purposes of the adversary by obstructing the delicate channels of revelation in both mind and spirit” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1991, 27–28; or Ensign, Nov. 1991, 21–22).

)

Thats swell dad. I actually knew that about Apocolypse because in the spanish the book of Revelations is called Apocolipsis, so I looked it up in the BD. Super cool.

I can testify SO much of that quote. All of those things are a huge part of the very culture of this country. If you can find a quiet place without really loud music, motors and horns going 24/7, its a miracle. Weve noticed that all these things seem to come even more when we´re trying to share the first vision and during personal study. The enemy definately knows what he´s doing, but God has a greater, higher plan. :) Thanks Dad! Love you! and thank you for your counsel.

(General e-mail)

Well...

What to say of this week. To start off...um....

Well we had special missionary transmission on wednesday where we listened to several apostles and 70 in council about missionary work. It was superb and very inspiring. They spoke of the importance of repentence and that we should not move so quickly to baptism without teaching the essential and truly life changing doctrine of repentence. They also announced a change in the world wide missionary schedule! We will now have an extra 30 minutes in the morning and at night for preperation and eating and stuff. Also, Pday officially starts at 8 instead of 10. Anyone who isnt serving or hasnt served a mission might not think that thats a big deal. Trust me, it is. The morning is always a mad dash to try and get things done and shovel some food down before abruptly diving into personal study, and the night is the same way because we dont have time for dinner during proselyting time. We have to squeeze in something small before 10:30.

Apart from that, we saw alot of opposition and miracles this week. We had two baptisms, that of Angel and Julio, both of which were a miracle. Sons of a less active family. To be baptized this month and complete our goal, they had to come to church on sunday. When we got to their house to pick them up, THEY WERENT THERE! Their parents told us that they were in some neighboring campo (field/town) and wouldn´t be back till monday. Apparently they had forgotten the date,them as well as their parents. Upon reminding the mother, she went into a panic, calling the father to go quick on his motorcycle to find them. We then sprinted off to find Javiel and Johnathan who were also preparing to be baptized that day. When we got to their house, they werent there either! We were slightly frantic at this point and Javiel wasnt answering his phone. The night before we´d ahd their interview and everything had gone well, but Javiel told us that his boss had called him to work on sunday. We reviewed the Sabbath day and promised him that if he didnt go, God would recompense his sacrifice. He agreed. (that is SUPER weird here. NOBODY blows off work. Work is their god pretty much.) However, the following morning (sunday), his boss came to his door step to take him off to work and he went.

We were not very happy with him, but encouraged him to prepare to be baptized in February.

We ended the month with 3 baptisms in the area, 32 in the zone (new record) and we will see in the mission. The huge goal and vision has been 300 and we´ve had multiple records broken so far, but we wont know for sure until wednesday.

In a different lesson, we had an investigator practically quote 3 Nephi 11 to us. He loved it, but still hasnt received an answer to his BoM question. (supposedly.😑) haha

Also, today the President sent out what is called "the Dead Man Quiz" or "Farewell Questionaire". It asks a whole bunch of questions about the future and how we´re going to prepare for it. Do I have to...?

Love you family!!....and friends!

Baptism! There was actually another one, but I don't have the pictures on this memory.

Baptismal font in the campo.

Look! I've been doodling!

Our average dinner: fried plantains and pineapple.

23 January 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail from last week, in which he mentioned a lot, including Ian dating a wonderful young woman who lives in Logan, Mom and Dad's wood-burning stove in the basement of the Layton house and corn-burning stove in the basement of the Bettendorf house, and being excited to hear whether or not Christian is accepted to BYU.)

Lots of info! Thats really cool about Ian, especially his new lady. i haven't heard anything about her, but it sounds like she's the one. If she hasn't fallen all over him than she has my approval. Haha I totally forgot about our stove in the basement. The corn one i remember of course, but the wood one had slipped my mind. Yeah, Ill know about BYU in february. Excited!! Also, Had round 2 with the dentist today. In total with the filling and the new grind guard, it will be about 150 dollars. I already took it out of my account and will pay on thursday. I think it might be a good idea to not put more in my account just so Im not tempted to buy unnecessary things. Speaking of unnecessary things...haha So i know the end of the mission is a little far off still, but I would like to ask permission to get a "Dead Man Suit". You can get a really nice custom suit here for about 80 dollars and its a missionary tradition to get one done before your death. That would pretty much be my only dominican souvenir. I can even get one for you if you want! haha I love you Dad!! Have a great week!

(Response to Dad's e-mail this week, in which he talked about teaching the gospel doctrine lesson regarding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, including some fascinating details about how Joseph did that, about the baptism of Jami and Jason's daughter Addi, and Ian and Christian's friend Kolten getting engaged.)

Yeah, I already knew that about the translation. I read that in the Liahona almost a year ago. Pretty cool stuff. Addi is getting baptized!!! Oh my lanta!! That is CRAZY! and kolten engaged! Well that wasnt that surprising actually. Haha thanks Dad! Love you!!

(General e-mail)

Well another week has come and gone family and friends! Time flies. So this week was pretty cool! First, I got my new companion, Elder Barbosa. He's from Amazonas, Brazil. He's 26 and has almost 2 years in the church and 8 months in the mission. He loves to talk and joke around. A really great guy. Sometimes he speaks in Portuguese to me, and it sounds SO strange. I can understand most of it though.

In regards to the work, this week we saw opposition and also miracles!! I dont have tons of time ( I had to go to the dentist again...), but I will include what I can. So opposition. We had several really firm baptismal dates that randomly and unforeseeably fell. Two kids that went off to their moms house in the last minute and a young woman whose mom got sick and our investigator, Melody, had to stay at home to take care the mom. BUT we did get baptize Melody's little brother, Alexander on Saturday!! Definately a miracle. One of Alexanders friends went to his baptism and now also wants to get baptized. We even asked his mom for permission on his own. Other miracles...

We were contacting on thursday and felt prompted to go down a street I'd never been down before. We strolled down it and I felt a bit confused because all the doors were closed. Then, a bout halfway down, we saw a young man just leaving his house. We greeted him and contacted him at once. He was very friendly and we put a return date for the next day. On friday, we passed by and had a great lesson with Javiel and Johnathan. They both have attended church before and accepted baptismal dates for the 29th! They both went to church on Sunday and promised to go every week from now on! WOO! There are more details I'd like to share, but I gotta get goin. Love you all! THe Lord does His Work!!

16 January 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(General e-mail)

Yep, 6 weeks have already passed so its that time again! Im staying in Quisqueya which is looking to be my grave. My comp is headin home, finishing his mini mission and I am recieving Elder Barbosa from Brazil. Hes strait from the Amazon and looks alot like Johnny Depp. Im being bumped down to junior companion to help my companion progress and learn

So this week was cool. We saw alot of progress in our Investigators and we put a few new dates. The week itself was pretty normal except for Friday when I got called into the office to help organize and give council in transfers. That was pretty cool. While I was gone, my companion worked with some other missionaries in our area and ended up putting a date with a young girl named Melody. The is the sister of one of our people with a Bap. date and daughter of a less active. She just barely got back from vacations so we jumped on the oppurtunity. She didnt go to church on sunday, so we had to move her date, but she will definately be baptized this month.

So on sunday we had a special satelite conference with Elder Anderson which was super cool. He talked about the current Carribean theme which is putting goals using our faith in Chist. Our adult investigator that attended (Radames, who is dropping cigarrettes) loved it as we had already talked about that with him.

Apart from that....It was pretty much the normal week! Oh, shoot almost forgot. This sunday Im going to be called as the 1st councilor in our branch! So...thats fun! Not really sure what to do, but I know the Lord will guide me in what He needs me to do.

Love you all! Dont get trunky Mom! ;)

-Elder Frogley

Hey parents. So...I made a decision and there wasnt time to consult with you guys. I hope its ok, but I pulled out a bit of personal money to help out a member. He was pretty much dying for lack of food and is a painter so had I had him make a small paining as well as painting shirts for my companion and I. It was only about 25 dollars, but it helped him out alot by giving him work.

Basketball (I didnt play. We got there late. :D)
And a small piece of my area. The world just ends and becomes sugar cane.

9 January 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which Dad shared that he has a new patient--former Elder McGuire, who knew Christian in the Dominican Republic, and who taught Saturday morning English classes with Christian. Also Dad converted all the old DV8 tapes to DVD, so he and Mom have been watching all our old home movies. Also, unfortunately, Christian will not be able to go on the Church History tour the Burkes invited him on, which is sad.)

ELder McGuire! He´s a great guy! Yes, we taught together each saturday. We pretty much got dragged into teaching the class, but it was fun, if a bit stressful. We went every saturday morning and I taught the youth class. THats kind of hard here cus half the class is just there to try and flirt with the american teachers, but apparently there was success. I wrote about the big graduation ceremony we had, and as part of that, I sang a special musical number of Rock of Ages in english and spanish. Everyone was very complimentary.

Thats cool about the DVDs. Im excited to watch them, that sounds like alot of fun! Now we just need to find all those older photos and things from like 2005 and forward. Everything is great! Love you dad! And I totally understand about the Tour thing. Super excited about the family reunion. LOVE YOU!

(General e-mail)

Y aconteció que en el primer mes del terser ano del reino de Elder Frogley, había muchas contenciones entre el pueblo. Sin embargo, los misioneros trabajaban con toda diligencia, exoratando el pueblo de Dios a asistir la SHOOT DERN iglesia. Como resulto de sus esfuerzos, 34 almas volvieron a la casa de oración para ofrecer sus sacramentos ante el Senor.

For those of you who dont speak Spanish like us cool kids (gives Dave and Jason a fist bump)(I know there are spelling errors but my computer is dumb and wont let me go back and fix them without rewriting the whole letter), We finally got our attendance back up in church! After having two weeks of an average of 10 people, we had 34 this week! And four of them were investigators! One, a new, slightly elderly couple named Hector and Josefa, are totally fantastic! We didnt even have to call them to remind them! They said that they loved it and will definately be going next week. We also had a young man named Yoel attend with us. He is a total tig (like a street thug pretty much) but he is very interested in the gospel and is preparing for baptism on the 28th. He also liked church.

So church itself this week was very interesting. My comp, who only has 8 months as a member, had to give a talk and he was SUPER nervous. He did a good job though. After all the speakers had finished, we still had about 15 minutes left of the meeting so our second councilor (hes a total bumb) gets up and announces that "The next and final speaker will be Elder Frogley." I had about 5 seconds to hurriedly think of a topic, search for scriptures and get up there. I talked abou tthe importance of reverence in the meetings, especially before sacrament meeting. (Our branch and the majority of the republic has a HUGE problem with that.) Everyone told me I did a great job though. haha. After that All the teachers rushed me complaining how they hadnt received this years teaching manual and asking me to print out that weeks lesson. After doing so, the first councilor informed me that I would be teaching he Youth Sunday school. THus, I printed out that lesson as well and taught our small group of youth. Then as we entered priesthood meeting (there are about 5 people) our first councilor told us that we would also be teaching the priesthood class with a double lesson, including the first two chapters of the manual.(more printing)

Needless to say, I was slightly hoarse after church.

As for the rest of the week, it was pretty good. My companion has been pretty moody lately, but honestly Im getting used to people like that. (Dont worry mom he doesnt have a knife ;)) We have right now, 10 people with a baptismal date, but alot of them have problems getting to church. Next week they will come though. ;)

Well, I love you all! Thanks for all your support!!

P.S. All the times I said 1st councilor, I actually meant 2nd. There is no first councilor. HA!