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.

June 16, 2014 – Big News!

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Whelp! President called me Saturday morning and told me I'm transferring to another area to be a District Leader. With the excitement I'm also super nervous!! I'm going to do my best to learn and be a good leader though. Change happens fast out here. I was just starting to get into the swing of this area. We also were improving on the progress of the area here, which before had been pretty dry. We found promising people and are reactivating people and preparing a lot of the young single adults to enter the temple and other things. There was so much to do out here, and then just like that, I have to move on to something else.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to accept this assignment as district leader; I know the Lord needs me elsewhere. I guess I did what I was supposed to do in this area and now I must move on to the next one. I knew from the start I wouldn't understand everything the Lord wants me to do, but when it happens it still feels a little funky. I'm going to be praying very hard for help and in learning what it is I need to learn. Wish me luck!

Other than that, we've been spending the week preparing two people for their baptismal interview, one in two weeks and another in July. One is named Grace and another Yasily. But I'm afraid I won't see them get baptized. That's ok though, I'll try to keep in touch with them. Then, the past few days I spent saying goodbye to all the investigators and members I became close to. And taking pictures with them! Don't worry, you'll get the pictures when I send my memory card to you guys. ^_^ I'll write you guys next week with my new district and who my new companion will be! Wish me luck! Talk to you next week! I love you all!

-Elder Froude

June 9, 2014 – Mayor luz, mayor condenacion

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Sorry I’m late…the electricity just came back on!  So, there're two big electric companies here and everybody has this cruddy old one. The other big one is over in Punta Cana and MUCH more reliable. It makes sense though; tourists wouldn't come there if the electricity was bad. But the church doesn't pay for the better one. To make up for it, they buy things called Inversores for the houses, kind of like a back- up generator.  Our apartment has Inversores but other people without them only get a few hours of power a day. It's really bad :P

I finally have something interesting to write to ya'll! But before that, the week has been a little rough. A lot of our appointments have been falling through. Of course, it's normal. But after a few days of it happening consecutively, you start to think about ways you can start teaching again. I'm not discouraged though, God always sends us tender mercies. ^_^  So, we decided to do a lot of contacting this week to find more people to teach. Don't get me wrong, the people we are teaching are great, but when all of them fall through on you a few times, you need something else to do when they aren't available :P  So that's what we'll do!

I met my first Mormon Apostate on accident though.  My companion and I met a man who, regretably, has fallen away from the church and now persecutes the church. The poor guy is full of the philosophies of Man. He started out as a good member, but then something happened and he completely flipped the other way and disactivated his family. The other two elders actually warned us about him, but we never worried because he was in their area. Well yesterday, we went out with a member and he took us to that house. Too late, I only realized it was the guy when we entered his house.  Anyway, he started "clarifying" himself about the Book of Mormon and how he needs to see the plates to believe them, how God created man not from His image, but His imagination, how baptisms for the dead isn't a real ordinance, yada, yada, yada. He wasn't too different from other people that want to fight biblically with us. Or rather, he's really good at not answering our questions and changing the subject. But that didn't stop him from "discussing" his points of view with us. But it was weird, I had the Spirit with me when he was talking, and I (for lack of better term) destroyed his "knowledge" with Spirit-inspired scriptures and questions . We were nice about it and did our best to get out of there, but the Spirit was with us, and we said what He wanted us to say to this guy.

I didn't fight with him. We never shouted our interrupted him (even though he did plenty of times). But something slipped out of my mouth that I really hope was Spirit-inspired. Before we left, he was still rambling on about how he knows more than we do and that we need to study like he does. And then I said without thinking in Spanish, “Mayor Luz, Mayor Condenacion.” Greater your light, greater your condemnation. Or rather, the more you know that is right, the more trouble you'll be in if you don't do it, because you know it’s right. After I said that, I was all "wait, what did I say?"

From that meeting, I learned that this certain apostate was really good at two things: not answering my questions and changing the subject :P  I wish to all of you that that never happen to any of you. If you know that the Gospel is true, do all you can to be strenghtened and blessed by it. I don't ever remember feeling weighed down or disappointed with this gospel.

Our sure bap date is a girl named Yasily and she's so awesome! Yasily is 15, her date is on the 26th of July (we gotta wait 3 months). The ward already loves her and she's super smart and literally started out like Joseph Smith, not knowing where to search for the truth.  She lives with her aunt because her mom lives in Madrid and her dad had passed away.  We’re excited for her!

Our mission president is leaving soon so this transfer is only 4 weeks and then the next will be 8. I think I will be staying here for a while. We're getting a little better with the ward. We're starting up a Preach My Gospel class here and I think the missionary work with the ward will be much better.

I have to go. I'll write you all next week with more progress in the area!! Take care!!!  I love you all!

-Elder Froude

May 26, 2014 – Happy Mother’s Day here in the DR!

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

It was Mother's day here yesterday! Hey mom, don't feel too bad about the sacrament meeting this past Mother's Day over there, they didn't talk about mothers here either!! They didn't even pass out little candies to all the mothers! Urgh, lol! The work is progressing well over here but there seems to be a problem with investigators coming to church.  :\ Well, today they have a slight excuse because it was Mother's Day, but every other week they have to come!!

Anyway, like I said the work here is improving. We have another baptismal date for July 26 and are working on two more for that same day! We also baptized little Nicole this past Saturday. B Nicole is 8, but she's a special case because she didn't grow up in primary, so she needed the lessons to be baptized. We had special permission to baptize her.  My companion got to baptize her. It was a very bittersweet baptism. Nicole's parents are separated and her mom is already a member. She was hoping her father would show up in time for the baptism but he never did. La pobrecita (the poor thing) was so sad during the whole service.  :( She cheered up a little when she was baptized though. Elder Herrera and I talked with her afterwards about how the most important Father was there to witness her baptism. We plan to visit her on Tuesday to check up on her and make sure she feels ok.  ^_^   The other baptismal date is so far because she is under 18 and with all minors we have to wait three months before baptism.  

Little Nicole's baptism

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Also this week, I had one of the most emotionally intense visits this week. I shouldn't go into details about it, but it makes me really sad that the family is not a very strong concept here especially when the Gospel is centered on strengthening families. We gave her a blessing of comfort before we left.

Mother's Day sure is different here. Lol!  It was actually really tough to get in lessons yesterday because everybody we knew was either gone or with family and didn't have time to visit with us. We resorted to saying Happy Mother's Day to all our investigators and sharing spiritual thoughts with some of the young single adults that were still in town. It was actually really good because we're helping prepare a young single adult convert to get the Melchizedek priesthood and enter the temple!

Oh also, thanks for sending me the camera! It's so awesome! And I have to take good care of it because theft is super common here. XD I'll talk to you all next week!  I love you and miss you! Send my love to everyone there!

-Elder Froude

May 12, 2014 - Happy Mother's Day!!!

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Happy Mother's Day!! It was really fun to talk to you guys yesterday! ^_^ It was really great to meet Baby Hannah too! She's so beautiful! ^_^ Well, I don't have much to write in this letter because I already told you everything yesterday… haha! I do feel a tiny bit homesick though. But that's normal because I just saw you guys! I'm feeling better though. ^_^ I'm going to take all your suggestions and talk about them with the bishop so we can have something to work with. Well, I already told you that the week wasn't the best because of the rain and our appointments falling through easily, but I'm not that easily discouraged! People that know me know that I have a pretty unique mind set. :P In this case, I'm not discouraged because the work here is hard. If it was easy, not only would I not grow from the experience, it would be ridiculously boring. That's the weird way of how I see life. ^_^ If life was easy, it wouldn't be interesting. I also wouldn't have cool stories to tell my kids when I'm old and wrinkly, haha! So Mom and Dad, don't worry, I'm still happy and working through the hard and tough. How can I not be when I know that the Lord is always on my side!

I miss you guys lots! Happy Mother's Day, Mom and Lauren! Give Laney and Hannah a kiss for me! Love you all!

-Elder Froude

Here's a picture of Elder Froude during Hangout with us! A little blurry, though.

May 5, 2014 – We baptize when they are ready

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Howdy! Happy late May 4th! Lol! It made me laugh that you're still watching Big Bang Theory. :D

I don't have a whole lot to write about today. We did something really nice for our neighbor that lives below us. She and her family aren't members, but they are really good friends with the missionaries and they are always taking good care of us. So for her birthday this past Saturday, the 4 of us bought her a cake and we had a little celebration to thank her for everything. She really appreciated it! We sang happy birthday to her with her kids and she cried, lol ^_^ She actually told us that she would like her son to be a missionary because of all the cool stuff she's seen the missionaries do!

The progress in the area is good, but at a pretty slow pace. We're trying to pick it up a little. This week we have had good citas, but I'm afraid that our only baptismal date has fallen through. The investigator said that she was not sure if she could keep a commitment that we gave her. At least she was honest and told us straightway, and that also means that she doesn't feel forced by us to be baptized. That's a good thing, because as missionaries, we invite people to do things, but we never obligate. Perhaps she just needs more time to build her own testimony and not rely on the words of our own. We'll still be around to help that investigator. ^_^

That's all I have to write about this week. It isn't terribly long. But I'll try and look for more adventure and little things to share with you next week! ^_^ Happy Cinco de Mayo! Miss you all!! Love you all :) Can't wait to talk you all on Mother's Day!

-Elder Froude

April 28, 2014 – Who moved my cheese? Quien se Movio Mi Queso?

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

First I'll write about the progress in the area, and then tell you about the awesome analogy about missionary work I heard in the Zone Conference this past week!

So the progress in the area is doing great! We're finding a lot of really awesome people. One of them is a family of a single mother named Vicky, who has a baptismal date for the 10th. We're also working on a baptismal date that same day for her two children (she actually has four but two aren't old enough to be baptized yet) to be baptized, but neither have been in the same room yet. We'd like to ask them together. I also realized I haven't told much about what the church is like here. :P I live in a ward now. It’s a pretty good size ward! I haven't gotten to know a lot of the members yet because a lot of them live in the other half of the area, where the other companionship works. We'll work on that as well! I don't eat with members as much as I did my last area, mostly because they live outside our area. Haha! But actually, the neighbors that live beneath us feed us quite a bit. They're so nice to us! Two of the neighbor's kids are being taught by the other missionaries and have agreed to be baptized as well! The work here is a lot better than it has been before, I hear.

This past week we had Zone Conference where the mission president, Presidente Hernandez ,showed us a video of a long analogy about missionary work called "Who Moved My Cheese?” (it’s a book as well) In Spanish, Quien se Movio mi Queso? It's about two mice and two little people that are in a huge maze looking for cheese. Both groups look hard for the cheese using two methods that work. They both find the cheese and are happy. The two rats repeat what they do without fail, while the two people start to become lazy and complacent, because they're sure that the cheese will be there. After a while, they eat up all the cheese. When the two mice return, it doesn't surprise them that all the cheese is gone and go looking again somewhere else. The two people return and are shocked that all the cheese is gone, and are preoccupied with their cheese being gone that they don't go looking for more.

The analogy is much longer than this, but the main thing I learned from this is to never become complacent. Complacency is laziness and missionaries shouldn't be lazy. Me personally, I'm always eager to find and find. I actually kinda felt that way when I blanked the area here. I had to change some of my working methods to find people again, and I found them! I'm also making sure not to become complacent either.

So I need to tell you about a man my comp and I met named Franklin. He's in Hios, mid thirty's and is paralyzed from half his body and down. 6 years ago he was shot in the chest and the bullet hit is spinal column. Back then it would have been fixable, but he didn't have enough money. Also, because he can't get the right medicine (now yes because his brother came to live with him) a lot of his lower body had rotted away. He told us very quickly that he wants to be baptized. I think that the Lord is completely capable of letting that happen. But I've never seen anyone like him before, we'll need a miracle. I know we have the authority to do that and all, but it doesn't feel like the time is right yet. We already gave him a blessing and stuff. I didn't promise him complete healing, I didn't feel like I should say it. But I did tell him that he would have the opportunity to bless the lives of those around him, and that he would have the opportunity to attend church and be baptized.

Everything's all good over here! Working like always. But I think I might have lost my camera... :P I left it at the other house on accident, but my old comp says he hasn't found it yet. Man! DX

Well, I believe that will be all for this week. Mother's day is coming up soon! I can't wait for that! :D I'll write you next week! Love you! I'm praying for you!

-Elder Froude