August 4, 2014 – Thanks for my birthday gifts!

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Well, this week has been much better than past weeks! Still got some tough stuff going on, but we finally found someone promising! We unfortunately had to drop the girl that had a baptismal date, though. She just plain isn't ready yet and isn't too pumped about seeing us either. Perhaps another time.

But anyway…we met this man named Kelvin, who has been fantastic since we met him! He's thoroughly studying the Book of Mormon and always has awesome questions! He believes it, because he told us the other day that he felt the Holy Spirit! That is probably the second or third time in my almost 11 months that someone has tried describing what they felt instead of just saying an unsure sounding ''good.'' Lol! But he's a really good guy; he's always out on his porch reading a pamphlet of ours or the Book of Mormon when we pass by his house. We also are working with him to stop smoking which he's willing to do! He used to smoke a pack a day or so, but when we taught him the Word of Wisdom we made a goal for him to smoke at the most 10 cigarettes a day. Asking people to stop smoking right away is almost impossible out here so we work slowly but with progress.  When we came back the next day, he said he smoked only 5! We're so happy for him! He only needs to come to church though. He couldn't this week because he had to rush his grandma to the hospital, nor the week after because it was Father's Day here. He promised us he'd come this coming Sunday though. Crossed fingers!

Well, along with the good, there's something pretty challenging that's keeping me busy too. My district is only my companion and I, and two companionships of sisters in an area called Mi Hogar, which is split into two; Mi Hogar A and B. To start, the sister in Mi Hogar B aren't getting along too well and are pretty stressed out.  :/ Even though Mi Hogar A are working well together, they both have a bit of trouble finding things to do because they have already worked in almost all of the area and are running out of people to find. That isn't too good either because they have less than 2 progressing investigators. I'm trying to give them some ideas on what they can do to keep themselves busy and while they take the ideas, they're just a little discouraged. So, I'll be working with some Sister Training Leaders in my Zone to see how we can help them out. Those leaders would be the ones doing exchanges since I won't be able to. Haha! But it's tough being in charge of a district that you can only call but not be able to go work with them (because elders and sisters cannot work/proselyte together). We'll see what happens this coming week.

Well, that's this past week summed up. I also want to thank you guys and Tita Jona and her family, and Tita Jackie, and Mama for sending me my birthday packages and money! The treats were yummy! I shared them with my companion as well, so don't worry! ^_^ I'll write next week with more progress on Kelvin and my district! Love you and miss you all!! Thanks for everything! All your support and love helps me out so much! :)

-Elder Froude

New haircut

Yummy breakfast that I made!

July 28, 2014 – Finally finding people

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

This week has been a little bit better than the last. We're starting to find better people to teach after dropping quite a few last week. Unfortunately, our baptism that was supposed to be this Saturday has fallen through. The little girl, Mirella, that we were teaching told us she wanted to be baptized so that she could have the Priesthood. Now we don't know who told her she could have it or if it was just a plain misunderstanding, but my companion and I decided that it was best to start over the lessons with her. That is, if she still has the desire to be baptized because we aren't sure if she knows why she's taking the lessons or why she goes to church. Her brothers all tell her to be baptized and, of course, they mean well but she almost never talks herself. Or rather, she relies a lot on her older siblings for answers. We'll see what happens with her this week.

On the positive, we found a man named Kelvin who, right now, is studying very carefully the Book of Mormon. We met him a few days ago and he was really interested in the first lesson, especially the Book of Mormon. We gave it to him the next day and since then he has been reading it a lot and marking stuff! We have an appointment with him tomorrow and we'll see what kinds of questions he has. So far, he's had really good questions!

Aside from the work, we went to the mall again today for P-Day. It wasn't the same mall, it was one closer to home, but a little smaller. We met up with awesome missionaries there, one of them going home soon! Actually, a few of them now that I think about it. But it's always a nice break from the work to just hang out with some fellow missionaries and sharing stories. We didn't do anything spectacular; we just ate and walked around a bit then went home. A lot of them actually went to play soccer in the parking lot, where there's an indoor soccer field. I didn't play because my companion couldn't and I didn't wanna make him wait. I'd rather not play anyway, not because I don't like soccer, but because we were already planning on hanging out with an Elder who wanted to chill with us one last time before he finished his mission. His name is Elder Peterson, and he's been a really good friend of mine and Elder Pronk.

Before I forget, thank you so much for the 2 birthday packages! The treats were delicious! Except we can't make the brownies cause our oven doesn't work.   We're thinking about cooking it in a member’s house who would really appreciate it. She doesn't have a whole lot of money.  The shirts fit! And my birthday was like another day in the office, lol! But we went to a frozen yogurt place at night called Sweet Frog, it’s like Big Spoon. Other than that, everything was ok!

Well, that's all for this week. Hopefully, we'll put some baptismal dates this week, but first they have to start coming to church! Praying and crossing my fingers! Talk to you all next week! Love you! Thanks for everything! I may not mention it much but I really do appreciate yours and dad's words of encouragement. It really goes a long way!

-Elder Froude

Birthday goodies from Mom and Dad!

Food court!

July 21, 2014 – Long Week

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

I'm glad to hear the Roadshow went so well! I actually kinda miss the craziness of it all. And you're totally right, I would have loved that kind of thing. Since I'm not a youth though, I would have so helped out with everything!  Thanks for sending all the pictures!

As fast as the week went by, it also felt really long. This week has been a little tougher than others since I got to this area. We unfortunately had to drop quite a few people this week, they just weren't progressing. Of course they're nice people and great friends, but we're also here with the job of finding and helping people come unto Christ. If someone isn't doing that, we can still talk to them, of course, but we have to move on. Usually one would drop teaching a person every once in a while. This week we dropped quite a few within just a few days. It's not the best boost of enthusiasm, to be frank. And apparently, it isn't just us either. This area for the past few years has been pretty dry. One of the Elders from my group had their first area here and told me how tough it was. Not a single baptism during his training. Now I understand what he was talking about!

Well, I don't want to say that we're unsuccessful here either. We have a baptismal date for next Saturday, August 2^nd, for a girl named Mirella. She's an investigator of my companion and his companion. So I wasn't always around during her lessons, but she is our best progressing investigator. She always comes to church and her lessons go great, AND she's 11. Well, we had another investigator that was progressing really well too with a baptism for the same day, but his mom won't give consent to baptize. We sure would like to talk to her about it, but she won't even give us the time of day. So until we can talk to the mother, this boy has to wait for a while until baptism. That part is a little frustrating.

On the positive, I gave a pretty cool talk yesterday in church! Bishop told me that my talk was ''Tema Libre''. That pretty much means I get to pick my own. Wonderful! I say that a little sarcastically because for those that know me well, I'm very indecisive. In the end, I decided to talk especially to the youth of the ward about the Importance of Missionary Work. I also talked a little bit about how a young woman can know if she should serve or not because it's very common for sisters to not be sure. But anyway, we visited with a member in the evening and she thanked me for the talk because she and her daughter were talking about the same thing that morning before church. Awesome!!

Well, along with the pictures I sent, that's all I have for this week. I hope this coming week will be a little better! Oh yeah, thank you for all your birthday wishes! o.o  Anyway, I'll write you again next week! I love you and miss you!

-Elder Froude

July 14, 2014 – If they would just come to Church

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Well, this week has been pretty eventful! Well, there were days that were really cool and now I have stuff to write about. The first was our interview with our new mission president, President Corbitt. He's really excited to work with us. I feel a little bad for him though, not because he won't be great, but because of how much he has to do. He has to meet all 244 of us face to face, and still isn't done yet! He's also made a lot of changes in the mission, moving around missionaries on special transfers and new leaders and all that good stuff. He's working really hard right off the bat. I like that. He seems pretty well prepared to be here, though; he worked in the UN before coming here. There still might be some changes by the time he finishes his interviews, but who knows!

Other than that, the work here is progressing, slowly, but surely. And Elder Pronk’s knee is improving a little bit. We went out for full days all week last week. His knee is starting to act up again, but he works through it. I make sure it isn't too intense for him, though. We found a really cool family in our area that loves to have us over and talk about the gospel. They're super receptive to the message and love it; only they don't come to church! Sometimes it gets frustrating because going to church is so important! Well, we can't really blame them. One of the people we teach is a grandmother, who has some sort of problem with her blood. It has a name in Spanish but I don't know it in English. Anyways with that problem sometimes she can't go out, it depends on how she feels. She's actually pretty fragile. With that, we can understand. But it’s like Urgh, if only she could come to church she could understand how awesome it is!

For fun on P-Day, me and a few other elders in the zone went to a huge mall in the capital called Sambil. It’s a really nice mall! I think it might be bigger than the one in Sacramento. We had a lot of fun there. If there's anybody out there think that missionaries can't have fun without doing crazy stuff, ya'll are wrong! I have the good luck of being with some of the funniest people I ever met. Not saying that missionary work is boring, but we still have fun joking around, sharing funny experiences, etc. It's so awesome! We also made an awesome contact over there while we were eating lunch. This guy named Jefferson that we're going to visit tomorrow. Anyway, I tried a sushi place here. I avoided the fish stuff because any fish away from the coast is sketchy. So in my sushi was cooked chicken, bacon, plantain (doesn`t work with sushi at ALL! XD) and avocado. Aside from the plantain, it was good!  I don’t think they have cucumbers here so they substituted plantain bananas.  Haha!

Good Luck this week with the Roadshow, Mom! It brings back my rehearsal days back at Charter. At first it’s fun, but then everyone gets sick of doing the show after 2 days! Haha! I would suggest keeping them super pumped for the show so that they don`t seem bored at show day. But you`ll be able to pull everything off!

Well, I believe that's all for this week. I sent some pictures after an eternity and more will come next week! I'll write you all next time! Miss you lots! Love you all! Bye!

-Elder Froude

For a zone activity...had to eat the cookie without hands.  Easy!

Hermana Flores

With sister training leaders, Hermana Walker and Hermana Goff.

Ice cream in Sambil Mall.  Yummy!

Who's the fish?

Sorry!  Couldn't resist doing this!

July 7, 2014 – Happy July 4th!

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Happy July 4^th to everyone and happy late birthday to my brother-in-law Richard!! And many more!

This week felt pretty long, but a lot of stuff happened in it! First was a leadership meeting I had on Wednesday. The meeting was for all District Leaders and Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the mission. It was also really cool because we all got to meet President Corbitt, our new mission president that day. He´s from the states and he worked in the UN before he was called. He was really excited to meet and work with all of us. During the meeting, President Corbitt asked me and two others elders to do a musical number after lunch. We sang Abide with Me Tis Eventide but in Spanish; Conmigo Quedate Señor.  He was also asking me a lot of questions and talking to me a lot because I was sitting the pew behind him. That worries me a little because he´s looking for new Aps; the ones he came to were already APs for more than 6 months.  o.o

I also learned a whole lot from that meeting! I felt it was especially for me because one of the talks we had was about how to be an effective District Leader. That was perfect for me because, honestly, I felt super unprepared to be a District Leader. Nobody taught me or told me how to be one. For the first two weeks I only copied what I saw from my passed DL´s, but I always felt that wasn´t enough. But thanks to that meeting, I feel much more prepared and excited to be a leader now. It´s pretty weird for me being a leader. I´ve been a follower of sorts, not because I don´t like to lead, but because there was always someone older than me to do it. I´m younger than a lot of people I know and I guess I´ve spent a good chunk of my life looking up to people. But now people are going to look to me for help or guidance and I´m still the youngest out of everybody here! It´s funny actually!  XD  I´m one of the only missionaries out here that is still 18. But with all the training, I feel much more prepared to start leading people now!

That was a long paragraph! Well in other news, besides the work, we had a really fun Zone Activity today that the sisters set up for us. It was a bunch of Minute to Win It types of games that we all played and they were a lot of fun! For activities everywhere in the mission it´s usually been just soccer or basketball. It’s a nice break from sports.  XD  The sisters usually don´t play and they get bored. So they set up the activity and everyone had a blast! At least, those that came on time, haha! One of the games was trying to get a cookie into your mouth from your face and not using your hands. Perfect time to whip out the camera! As fun as it was, it was also really cool to see the sisters have fun too. Usually they´re always so closed off from the elders and not being themselves because they aren´t having fun. But the Sisters that I thought were usually quiet and shy were actually very outgoing and fun to be around! That´s how missionaries inside a Zone should be with each other!

Welp, that´s about all I have for this week. We´ll be having interviews with President Corbitt this Wednesday as a zone, I´ll write you all on how that goes! Talk to you next week!  Thank you for everything!  Love you!!

-Elder Froude

June 30, 2014 – New Mission President

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

We have a new mission president now, his name is President Corbitt.  We haven´t met him yet, but on Wednesday is a leaders meeting and we´ll meet him there.  Also later in the week we all have interviews with him so he can meet all of us. Poor guy, he has more than 200 interviews to do in 2 weeks!

Anyway, the progress in the area is progressing.  Lol!  Great description, right? But really! Things are starting to spark up in the area. We´re finding more people to teach, only they don´t come to church. Urgh! That´s actually one of the most frustrating things out here; people that say they´ll come to church and then they don’t.  Welp!  We´ll find a way to bring them somehow.

Something cool that happened this week was that I saw my old companion, Elder Vasquez, who was with me in Bavarro. He has left the area but he told me all about how the area has been since he left! He told me that all of our baptisms have very strong testimonies now and are always coming to church! It made me so happy to hear that they are still faithful in the gospel!  As happy as that made me, it broke my heart to hear that another one of our converts’ wasn’t so lucky.  They are less-active now and are living a very sad life.  Ups and downs of the mission, you know. You feel a pure joy when you see the people you brought unto Christ thrive in the gospel and also feel a strong sorrow when they don´t prosper in the gospel. I bet that Heavenly Father feels an infinite amount of joy and sorrow when he sees us do the things we should and shouldn´t do.

That was a pretty good lesson I learned this week.  I understand just a tiny bit more about why our Father in Heaven wants us to be obedient, mostly because it is infinitely better!  The alternative isn´t so great, nor will it ever be.  That´s all I have for this week.  I´ll write you all about how President Corbitt is when I meet him this week!  Bye!  I miss you and love you!!

-Elder Froude

June 23, 2014 – A lot of changes!

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

First, I want to congratulate my brody on becoming an EFY counselor!! You´re gonna have so much fun dude!! Good luck!!

Whelp! I got quite a bit to write about, there´s a lot of changes going on! First, I met my new companion, who is my mission brother! He was trained by my trainer so we have the same father, thus, brothers. He´s so cool! His name is Elder Pronk, from Utah. We also have a WHOLE lot of work to do! Our area is pretty dry, so we both have some work to do before things get going here. Also, I wrote last week that I got called to be a District Leader. Well, my district is all sister missionaries so it´s like I´m the president of the Relief Society now! Haha! But jokes aside, it´s a really new experience and one that never even crossed my mind! We´ll see how it goes. But, on the little down side, they´ve been pretty sick lately and are still feeling a little weak, so their numbers are a little low. But that´s ok, we´ll work on some things for now and I’m sure it’ll get better once they get better.  Anyway, I just got here, so I have a lot of getting to know the area. I´ll keep you all on the progress of the area and the progress of the hermanas!

The house I’m in right now is actually a really big house!! Two stories! The Zone Leaders also live in the house with us. And we have flushing toilets and running water and working electricity. So it’s good! I didn´t get pics of them yet but I will soon.  

Oh, on the random, I learned how to shave (without cutting myself) with a straight razor! The shave is incredible and my face feels so smooth!  Lol! I love it!

I’m running out of time. :( Talk to you all next week! Love you!

-Elder Froude

Have you ever used a straight razor?

At the food court in my new area with my companion, Elder Pronk, and our zone leaders.

Saying goodbye to my missionary buddies.

With some members of my old area.