October 29, 2010

Provo temple, Elder Ballard and companion Elder Alexandre























Absolutely Awesome District 33A, from top left to right: Elders Bitner, Hilton, Hansen, Christensen, Holliday Bottom: Elder Helsten (Elder Russel M. Nelson's grandson), Elders Ison, Sisters Woodland and Hamaker, Elder Bushnell, Alexandre and Ballard!


















Oi familia!!
Firstly i'll reply to everying :)
Aust- Speaking of Jimmy Stuart accents, one night when we were getting ready for bed I asked some elders in my district if they'd seen Wonderful Life, and then entertained them with some MARY!!! and MISTER GOWER!!!ing, quite enjoyable. Me and some elders were talking about land before time and how sad it is that Ducky had to go ruin Spike's life and make him retarded by opening his shell prematurely... mwahaha. Thanks for the letter
Mom- The rest of the district didn't get that great of seats for that devotional but because we knew where Elder Helsten was we watched and all got a little teary eyed. Elder Ison (his companion) about flipped his lid though, I would have too standing that close and watching your companion hug an Apostle!!
Alright, this week was aaaaamazing. On monday night, my teacher Brother James got really serious at the end and told us all that he needed our help. He's getting engaged soon and is going to get married next june. Then he told us how his dad isn't active and that he want's to reactivate him so he can be there when he gets married in the temple. So he asked us all for imput or ideas on how he could talk to him. It was so touching that he had the trust in all of us to help him with something this personal and special. After this night the Lord made me realize that there are SUCH important reasons that my visa hasn't come yet. I know I've felt the spirit a lot here and everything but the Lord really showed me why that night. This was the first real "investigator" we've had and the Spirit has been so strong as I've tried to find out how I can help him with this situation. As if this wasn't good enough, on Tuesday who should speak but Elder Scott!!!! What are the chances of two in a row!!! Over the summer I remember specifically listening to some of his talks and I got so excited to hear him. He talked about ways we could obtain the Spirit in our lives which was perfect because it was something I'd been praying to learn better, and from some of his other talks I knew that this was one aspect of the gospel he was extremely "pro" on. The talk was absolutely amazing, I'll try and get you a copy of the handout he gave us with it because it is amazing. The coolest part of the whole talk though was at the end. As he was closing up, he stopped and said something to the effect of, "I don't say this as Elder Scott, I say this as an Apostle ordained of God who holds all the keys of the kingdom of God: To you elders that are learning a language, I invoke upon you the Gift of Tongues." He then went on to explain that words, phrases, grammer, everything would come faster. As if this wasn't amazing enough, he then invoked upon us a gift of confidence in this gift and in our potential. I've NEVER felt the Spirit so strongly testify to me that an apostle of God was talking to us. This was EXACTLY what I, along with everyone in the district, needed to hear. At the very end he testified of the reality of Christ and I literally felt a wave of warmth come over me and my heart, and afterwards I literally felt the Lord wrap his arms around me. I've never ever ever felt so close to Christ as I did that night. He literally does know and love us. He is real. I know that Christ lives. That night as the district discussed all this, we decided that because of this renewed blessing of the Gift of Tongues, we would speak Portuguese from here on out. So as of today, this is the 3rd day straight of speaking only portuguese. Is this a miracle or what? I've begun reading my scriptures in portuguese only and I've felt the gift of tongues SO powerfully. I was reading and couldn't figure out these 3 huge words, and after a couple minutes of thinking I just "knew" that they were "cursed, sore, and curse" How amazing is that? I cannot even explain how amazing these past few days have been. There is a reason why my visa hasn't come yet. I'm so thankful to the Lord that He has worked on my even though I haven't known the entire reasons why. God loves us and works SO intimately in our lives. He has led my life so much up to this point and all I can do is continue to strive to be the kind of servant that He can trust to recieve promptings and go where He wants me to. The Church is true family!!! I love this gospel sooooo much. Never doubt that God loves us all SO much. I love you family!! Thank you some much for all you do! I pray for you all every night! Until next week!

-Elder Ballard

Oct. 22nd

First companion, Elder Alexandre

Samuel Smith and Redge Ballard

Hello family!
This past week has been soooo awesome... As always I guess :) First of all thanks for the letters, glad mine made it there without any problems. Thanks for getting my ipod figured out, still no music allowed but I'm glad to at least have that talk on there for later. So I'm curious, how legit do you think that rumor about the calls in Brazil is? I told my companion about it and we're really curious now. Because we were thinking that if that is the case, we'll be some of the last English missionaries to go into there, so especially by the end we'll only have mostly native companions there. Hmm, super interesting. By the way Mom, that'd be great if you could keep the announcements from the newspaper for marriages and what not. Also, would you look over the missionary announcements every once in a while to see if anyone I know is heading out soon or anything? I keep running into random people here at the MTC and I had no idea they were coming, like Kris Toll from the old burton ward, I didn't get to talk to him yet but I'm impressed that he's out here. I'm excited to see what the garage is gunna look like by the time i get back Dad, it'll be kinda like how the basement was the thing that got maxed out for Austin's mission, the garage will be what I see change :D That's crazy about the snow plowing too... I can't even remember the last winter that you didn't do that.
So, some random bits of stuff from this week. A random memory I missed: we were singing in class or something, and for some reason I started thinking about singing and sitting by you all at church, and I miss that! You'll all have to put in some extra singing for me :) We sing a lot here and I really enjoy it. So, we've been playing volleyball a lot still, and I've kinda even figured out a jump serve, crazy eh? I'm so glad they let you do volleyball here. Every week we have these awesome meetings with basically all the missionaries we came in with (i think) and the teacher is a spitting image of Bill Murray!!! His voice even sounds like it and it's so funny to just watch him as we learn. Yesterday we had our first ENGLISH FAST!!! I never thought we would do one so early! It was so crazy... There was a lot of silence and non intelligent conversation but it was so cool to see how much we all already know. I had the worst head ache by the end of the day haha :D I can't wait to learn more of this language!!! Today the last elder is getting a haircut so we're hoping that will let us get our visa finally hah. So one of the coolest things happened earlier this week, our speaker for the devotional was Elder Nelson!! This is super cool in itself, but even better is Elder Helston in our district is his grandson! So we were able to find out like a while before, and none of the district got cool seats or anything but it was one of the coolest things to watch Elder Nelson give him a hug and a kiss and everything. It really made me realize how real the Brethren are. They always seem like un-human or legends or something, and see his face light up when he saw Elder Helston was so touching. During his talk I had the coolest testimony to me of how real and important the apostles and prophet are. In the first lesson we always teach about that being restored and it just hit me SO hard about how true and amazing it is that we have them on the earth! So awesome!! This brings me to another subject that I realized a couple weeks ago but forgot to tell you all about. So one time we learned about how important it is that we represent a lot more than ourselves out here and 5 specific things that I think are really cool about our tags. First of all, our tags have the name Elder on them. The only people that have this as a title are missionaries, and the Brethren themselves. This alone shows how important our calling is, and also shows the examples we should be striving to follow. Next, it has the name of the Church on it. It's not just implied that we're representatives of the church, we flat out tell people that that's who we are. Elder Nelson's wife told us about how we have the prayers of 14 million church members backing us up out here, and it really puts a big responisibility on us to fullfil those prayers and truly represent what the church is about. Third, the tag only has my last name on it. Now it puts responsibility on me to honor my family instead of myself. And even though we aren't related, the last name Ballard has quite the weight as well :D Fourth, the tag DOESN"T have my first name on it. When I became a missionary, I feel like it was kinda like fulfilling the scripture that says, Whoever loses his life shall find it. That's kinda what it felt like I did. I gave up my old like to have a new life as a missionary. Fifth and most importantly, my first name was in effect replaced with Christ's name. I am now a representative of Christ. His glory, which is bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, is now my work and my glory. If I can fully capture this, this is when I will truly be a servant of the Lord. I am so grateful for this call, and I WILL continutally strive to bring honor to the Church, you guys, and most importantly JEsus Christ. I love you all family!! Thank you for your prayers! Have a great week!

-Elder Ballard

October 15, 2010

Hello Family!
Man.... day 30 out here. Time is the weirdest thing now because it feels like it was sooo long ago that I said by to everyone, but at the same time every day here seems the same so it feels like no time has passed. Then I think about how much I've learned and how different I am already and realize it's definitely been a while. Thanks everyone for the letters! It's seriously the best to walk into the class after lunch or dinner and see an envelope sitting on my desk :) Also, thank you so much for the packages! Those cookies reminded me so much of home and were delicious. And that jacket came at the perfect time too because it has not been very warm lately... some mornings are so lame. I don't think I would even mind that much except for the fact that I was expecting to go into a hot brazilian spring. I sure hope that my one suit lasts ok, ha, luckily my gray slacks match enough to where I can at least rotate a little bit between them instead of just always using my suit pants. By the way Mom, the penguin tooth brush is a big hit with all the other elders in the district :D
Well, a little bit on Visa news. From what I've heard, there hasn't been any other visas recieved besides those 25 or 30 last week, but earlier this week our district leader told us that the zone leaders were advising us to get our hair cuts because they were assuming we'd be getting our visas soon. So I don't know if they were thinking that for a certain reason or if it was inspiration or what, but we're all crossing our fingers. Also on that they told us we needed to have 200$ in our travel funds... and I can't remember how much is on my card. So Dad or Mom could you check that balance and then if you do have to add some, just make a note and then refund yourselves with my tax return or something :) I doubt we'll have to use that much or anything but I figure the Lord is more likely to answer our prayers for our visas if we're all willing to follow His suggestions for preparation 100%. I'll of course keep you all posted with anymore news or anything on that subject.
So I have to share a funny story that happened this week. Earlier this week I got a letter in the mail from Grandma. I opened it up and it was a card and I wondered if she had put anything inside of it (probably instinct from all the monies I received when I was little) and a news paper clipping came out. I'm not sure if she told you about sending me this at all but it was the announcement of that sister in my district from Texas (the one that was in Holly and Darin's homeward) going on her mission. So in the classroom I sit right next to Sister Hammaker, so I pulled it out and saw that it was her so I just turned to her and handed it to her for her to look at. I guess since we hadn't talked about Holly or anything much she had forgotten that I was related to her, so she got really confused at why in the world I had been sent a newspaper clipping of her in the mail :D So after a minute I finally understood what was going on and realized that she had forgotten that I was related to "Sister Bratsman" so for a second she probably was worried I was creeping on her or something... The whole district got a pretty good laugh out of all that :) After she realized we talked about Andrew and Holly and everything and it was really fun to hear about them from the angle of a fellow wardie. It's still pretty crazy to me that this world is so dang small... crazy stuff.
Alright so my little spiritual thought this week was shared with me by Elder Alexandre. He explained to me about how the parable of the talents applies to really all of us. Specifically with me, I am definitely categorized in the 10 talent servant box. Think about it, I was born in the church, amazing parents, big strong family, lived in super Mormon Rexburg, the things the Lord has given me go on and on and on. At this point I feel like I've lived my life and increased my blessings, and now I feel like this point (being on my mission) is really where the Lord is adding more and more blessing upon me like in the parable. It's such a hopeful and optimistic story for us! All of us have been blessed with so much; I think that even just the fact that we have the Gospel is one of the biggest blessings we could ever ask for. But in the story the Lord added EVEN MORE blessings to those that increased their talents. So that's really been a great thing for me to realize out here because as I've been working hard and being obedient, I'm learning so much faster than I ever could have normally and it's been a huge testimony to me of how the Lord blesses us when we do what He asks and expects of us. Another cool testimony of God's love was earlier this week, a member of my district, Elder Bitner, had to get surgery done. It was the first time he'd ever had surgery so he was really worried of course, but everyone in the district prayed for him and we all helped give him a blessing and stuff. Anyways, now it's like 3 days after his surgery, and he's sitting in this room im typing in, and he walked up the stairs to get here. His recovery has been amazing, it's so cool the kind of blessing and care the Lord gives to his missionaries. Last night I lost my wallet during study, so Elder Alexandre and I knelt down in our room and asked that I could find it (cuz if I didn't have it, we couldn't go to the temple today) and we ran back over to the building, looked in a couple rooms, walked into a classroom, I picked up a picture that was laying on the table and there was my wallet! The Lord is so amazing! Never forget that he loves us all SO much :) He really does and I testify that he answers our prayers and really does guide our lives in every aspect if we listen and pay attention to him.
Thank you all so much for everything my dear family! I really can feel the help of your prayers and your faith. I get a good chuckle (as does my companion) that I fooled all of you with my last email :) Don't worry about that stuff. I'm getting better and better at staying focused and I think the only thing that has been a problem with missing is just stuff like being able to draw more often, but like I've already learned, if I'm willing to sacrifice, the Lord will do his part and make it all good for me.
Eu amo voces muito! Tchau!
-Elder Ballard

October 8, in which Redge tries to fake us out in the first of the letter

Hello everyone,

This past week has been kinda a toughy for me. For some reason i've just been having a hard time and really missing everyone. I dont know why but i've just been getting random urges to do stuff like play computer or hang out with my friends or go on dates, stuff like that. It's been really hard to stay focused and stuff and I dunno... I've tried to re-zone in on my purpose and everything but it just isn't working for some reason. Blarg.. I don't know what to do. NOOOOTTT!!! Haha! Totally joking about every bit of that :D Sorry I just felt in the mood to mess with you all a little bit, probably isn't that funny :P This has actually been my best week so far! Last monday was a little tough on portuguese because I went basically all of General Conference without talking in portuguese so it was taking me a while to get back into it. Tuesday night we had a devotional about becoming a better missionary, and that night we had a district review where we all just talked about our favorite parts and stuff like that. I just love my district because the Spirit became SOO strong as we did this. It made me realize that there were some minor things i needed to change. For instance, i wasn't being completely obedient on the 10:15 to 10:30 quiet time, just some stuff like that. Anyways that night I prayed for probably 25 minutes or something and thanked and prayed for each person in my district by name, and that was probably one of the most spiritual experiences I've had in the MTC so far. It made me refocus in SO much and ever since then I've been growing even faster than before. I learn SO much from the Book of Mormon now, it leads me so much more than it did before. It's beginning to guide me in so many aspects of my life and I love reading it. After refocusing I've been able to do a lot more with portuguese as well. It's been coming a lot faster and even my teacher says she noticed a big difference in my progress over the past week. Yup, I am loving it here and am so happy to be able to serve the Lord.

Before I talk more about myself, there's a few things I need to make sure I get said.
-Could you somehow print out some little 4x6's of some of my artworks that I did? Just stuff like the wizard i did and the heck horse, that kind of stuff. A elder in my district is big on art too and I wanted to show him some of my stuff I used to do.
-So this is a long stretch, but I had this friend I met on facebook (weird i know) that lives in California, and i remember her mentioning that she heard about missionaries a long time ago, but that's all she ever said. Could you go on my facebook and look up Victoria Samuelson and see if she has an address posted or something? I really want to write her and just bear my testimony or something. I dunno, like i said, its a long shot for sure.
-Austin, i was writing a talk in portuguese and had a smell-induced dejavu because i was laying on my stomach and writing with a Bic pen, you should try doing that and see if it takes you back to WAY WAY WAY young years when we had tablets and stuff. It was so weird to have that memory come back so vividly... i never realized how unique of a smell the ink from those pens have.
-I thought you all might laugh to know that the songs that been getting stuck in my head are totally ridiculous. A few have been pop songs or whatever but i try to replace thiose with hymns. But besides that i've been getting the stupidest songs like : Run the twelve.... oh dear haha. Goodnight ladies (from the singing bush on 3 amigos) and the elementary multiplication songs from Mrs. Poole's class (four eight twelve sixteen tweeeeenty.... twenty-four-twenty-eight-thirty-two-thirty-six foouuurdyyyy, fouuurrrddyy) they crack me up so bad every time.... So random.
-Dad, your letter made me laugh so hard multiple times... thank you :D

Alright now onto some other mission related stuff. Concerning my Visa, I have found out some stuff. We found out from a Brazilian that right now they are having elections in Brazil, so it's totally messing up the visas because they're so busy with elections. So the elections are over october 30th, so that'll prolly be about when I get it. BUT, just yesterday, somehow 25 PEOPLE got visas!!! So i honestly don't even know what to expect. No one from my district or anything but still that's a pretty big number. I'll get 5 minutes to call you and tell you when I do get it, so I guess we'll find out when it happens soon maybe? Who knows. Concerning the Priesthood choir, i probably missed getting into that by like less than a week... I was so angry that I couldn't get in... You had to try out and stuff and knowing my luck I could have right as I got here and just didn't hear about it or something. Ah well... It's all good I guess.
Well, like I said the Spirit is just continuously getting stronger and stronger as I go. The other day in class we had a 35 minute personal prayer... and it was so amazing. I did the praying for people specifically again, but this time with all of you :) And let me tell you, you are all amazing. Every single one of you. Brig, Teag, Shand, Tan, Keat, Nat, Aust, Mom, Dad, you are amazing. Thank you for your prayers and letters and support. I'm trying my best to become who you all and who the Lord wants me to be. Thank you all so much, I couldn't ask for a better family. The church is true!!!

-Elder Ballard

October 1st, 2010

Hello again family!
Thanks Austin and Nat for the Dear Elder mails, I got one from Grandma Bratsman as well and that was a huge pick me up to have hard copies to read :) And Mom it looks like yours aren't going through on Dear Elder, but I guess you should just ask Aust and Nat how they did it because theres went through fine. That story about the bat totally cracked me up by the way... aww man I can't wait to see that movie, sounds awesome. Tell Brigham that's so cool that he's learning to read! It's weird that he's learning to read and I'm here trying to learn to read and speak portuguese. All those verbs you gave examples of I've been trying to solidify for myself here, how awesome. So funny little fact for you older three, I went to the temple last pday as well as earlier today and what a surprise, I still haven't seen the brunette Eve. So if I'm counting right that's 11 times in a row now :D Oh well, I still love going there. We have such a cool district and it's super unifying to all go together and feel that spirit together. So for some reason I can't figure out how to do the stupid pictures on the computers here so I guess I'll just send home hard copies with the letter I'm writing you all. That just reminded me of another funny thing here, our mission president talked to us the first sunday we got here, and told us to use the term: "Elders and Sisters" rather than using terms like dude or guys because it'll make us sound more like missionaries and less like teenagers. But let me tell you, it is SO hard to change a habit like that... It's kinda drving me crazy just because I keep catching myself saying it without thinking.
Firstly I remembered I never answered your question about Titan last week. The day he was leaving he actually talked to someone to let me come and chat with him before he left. Luckily he seemed to be in really good shape, didn't seem like he was being too hard on himself or anything like that so that was good. I guess you're right about the OCD stuff or whatever, I sure just hope he can maybe get some counciling or something and hopefully come back out because I know he would do great if he could get that sorted out.
Well, life here at the MTC is going really good. I've seen my friends Elder Kiser (poor kids been in here 14 WEEKS because his visa didn't come and right before it came he got pneumonia... such a bummer) Elder Berry, Elder Davis, Elder Powell, Elder Burgener, Sister Remmington, plus about four or five from my provo ward. It's really cool to watch and see how many people from rexburg end up here. I really like noticing how all of us combined are going to end up all over the world, super exciting. The food here is already getting a little old which is pretty annoying... I use the bathroom about 7 or 8 times a day... and usually half of those arent number 1 if you know what I mean. Austin will laugh to hear that a phrase I've made popular among the elders in the districts is "minho bunda!!!" because really, none of ours are feeling all that great :P The Spirit just continues to be amazingly strong here though, last sunday we got to watch the Joseph Smith movie after devotional and it was SO good. That show makes me cry a ton... The whole family should really really try to go and watch it down in IF or something because it seriously is such a huge testimony builder about Joseph Smith. It's one of those movies where you walk out at the end and just wonder how anyone could deny the church. EVER. Another really cool part I realized on that show was as I watched it, certain parts that would show family or little kids or something would remind me of you guys, and after being sad for a minute or two I realized that those feelings of missing you all can actually be extremely benificial, because I realize the joy of having such an amazing family and then I redirect that into my wanting to share that with the families in Brazil. The Lord works in such interesting ways and I just see it more and more every day here. So and time I say I miss you guys, just take that as: I miss you guys, but love you and know we're going to be together forever. And since we get that privilege, I need to share that with the people down there that the Lord is preparing for me to teach. I can already tell that the Lord has shaped my testimony of families to be one of the strong points of me being a teacher out here.
I'm in the process of writing you guys a hard letter which I'll probably send out tonight or tomorrow, but while I'm thinking about it, I just want to double check to make sure my mailing address is right on facebook. No friends have written me which doesn't mean much but I just wanted to double check to make sure that's not the problem. My actual address is
Elder Redge Ballard
MTC Mailbox #263
Bra-Bel 1115
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
I'm assuming that's what i put on facebook but just double check for me if you wouldn't mind. By the way, I have realized there are some things I might need soon, so I'll just write those down in my letter. Times up here but now I'll just get to work on the letter. Thanks again for the letters and I'll have better responses soon!

Miss you all and love you all so much! The Church is absolutely true and the Lord loves each and every one of us so so very much. Always strive to strengthen your testimonies in EVERYTHING you do :) Love you family! Talk to you again soon!
-Elder Ballard

September 24, 2010

Oi again familia!!

So great to hear from you guys! It's been funny because all the other elders in the district got emails last saturday and have been getting letters and everything and I just haven't known at all how anyone back there is doing! But like I said it's great to know you're out there :P
Well... all I can say is time is SO weird. The first week went by SO slowly, and after last sunday, this week has absolutely flown by. Every night we'd all be getting in bed and couldn't believe that the next day was wednesday, or friday, and now here I am on p-day! I'll get the scheduling stuff out of the way first. So, as of right now for the next 8 weeks (or until I head to Brazil) I have the same schedule. So for me p-days are on fridays. The time I get to email is usually some time in the afternoon. Oh! Just for future reference, while I'm here at the MTC, you guys should write me using Dear Elder. I guess it's like you're emailing me normally but it actually prints out a hard copy the day you do it, and that way I could read your letters before I start my 30 minute email time, so I could write more to you. Also with that could you go on my facebook and maybe on my status tell people to write me using Dear Elder too? I just get bummed out when I walk into the classroom and other elders have a stack of 6 letters on their desk and I don't have any :P Haha, it's all good though. It'd just be nice to switch things up.
Anyways back to scheduling. Basically every day I wake up and either have personal study, or go to gym. Gym here is such a blast! Our district all stays together and we play sand volleyball together, and since most of us are all relatively decent at it we get some awesome rallies. Personal study is so good... I cannot believe how much more I learn here than I used too. I used to be so bad at studying the scriptures. I would get on my touch and read like 5 verses or a chapter or something, and go to bed. Now I get like 75 minutes or of solid study time and it is amazing! The only hard thing is sometimes since it's so early I do sometimes have a little bit of a problem staying awake the entire time. I've never flat out fallen asleep but I sometimes doze a little... But the cool thing is, after a couple of days of this and praying that I would have the energy to stay awake, I realized that I was just asking and not really "doing" anything about it. So, I realized that since basically all I'm doing is reading during that time, I began getting up and walking around the room AS i read rather than just sat there dozing off. I've really learned a lot about how the Lord helps us answer our prayers for us. Following that is breakfast, and then we do companion study, or classroom study till lunch. My companion and I have such great studies. He is a very very good "studier" and finds some of the coolest insights in the scriptures. Being able to share what you've learned with someone every single day is an amazing help to learning more in the scriptures.
In classroom we either are taught by Irmao James (or Tiago) or Irma Gonzoles. They both served in Brazil and are amazing teachers. We've already learned SO much in portuguese. I can pray in portuguese, say my testimony, ask some very basic street contact questions, it's SO much fun learning this language. I've had some downer days with it because the sisters are SO fast at learning, as well as a couple Elders (Elder Nelson's grandson being one of them. He's going to my mission which is cool) But, I've realized how I can't compare myself to them and have to focus on my own speed and learning rate and that has been a huge help. We're learning so much about the gospel as well. We already went to the TRC where we basically teach a fake investigator, and we contact them and then teach the first lesson. When me and Elder Alexandre taught it went really well. It was an old guy and it was really cool to get a taste of what it's going to be like out there. I'm just in unbelief that we have so many weeks left here and have already learned so much!!
After lunch we usually have another block of classtime or study, and then it usually goes to dinner. Some days we have other stuff thrown in like Large Group Meetings and stuff but it's awesome how often we study here. I just love how efficient it is here, back home we have like 3-5 hours of "church" time depending on mutual and stuff, and here we have like 70 hour church weeks! It's amazing how much the Spirit here helps as well.
Well, my time's about to run out but I promise I'll write more next week. Especially if i can get your letters through Dear Elder. But I also forgot my planner with some stuff i wanted to tell you guys, as well as my camera. So I'll try and write you guys a letter and send it the old fashioned way so I don't have to wait all the way till next week. And I'll also work on getting pictures to you as well.
Thanks so much for the emails! It was so good hearing from you. Mom- I'm not sure about emails... I guess just maybe have Natalee ask people on facebook. Dad- Thanks for the chuckle... coffee haha.

Love you all so much!! I'll keep doing my best here and just know that I'm constantly striving to be the best missionary I can be. Thanks for your prayers!
-Elder Ballard

First letter from the MTC

Minutes before drop off at the MTC!!

Hello Family!! Sept. 18, 2010
My apologies for using this email address, for some reason my mind went blank and I can't remember the main one you guys use. Well, first of all let me just say that I cannot believe I've only been here for three and a half days or whatever it turns out to be... The time passes in such a weird way here. I've heard a lot of Elders use the saying the days pass like weeks and weeks pass like days. I haven't been in a whole week so I don't quite know if that part is accurate :P
Firstly, my companion is Elder Alexandre from North Carolina. It's kinda funny because he reminds me a TON of my old roommate Devin. Strange how that works out. At first I thought things between us might be a little awkward but after about five minutes of being around each other and having the "just met" feeling wear off, we've become very close and comfortable with each other. I live in a dorm room with another companionship, Elder Hansen from New Mexico, and Elder Christensen from here in Utah. My district consists of 12 people, 10 elders and 2 sisters. Most people are going to Curitiba, a couple others to Belo Horizonte, and one sister to Menaous (not sure how that's spelled.) It's such a small world here because when Aunt Holly called me the day before I left she told me that a sister from her ward was reporting on the same day and was in a similar situation where she was going to Brazil but was starting in the Provo MTC. I couldn't really remember her name but when one of the sisters was saying where she was from, lo and behold she was from Houston Texas, Sister Hammaker. I asked her and the second I said Sister Bratsman she lit up said how she was super close to her and everything. So crazy how that works. Just in these four days here I've seen about ten elders from either Rexburg or from my Provo ward. So crazy how that works... It's been a lot of fun seeing everyone and finding out how spread out everyone is going to be all over the world.
Portuguese is going amazing!!! Yesterday especially I honestly did feel the effects of the Gift of Tongues. As we first started learning the language I was initially super excited, then about half way through I started getting discouraged because learning a language is not something I've EVER done, but towards the end I thought to myself, "What are you doing Elder Ballard? You're in the Lord's care now, you've been blessed with the ability to receive the gift of tongues, let's get going!" And from then on the language has been going SO well. The first day we learned it Irma Gonzolez taught us how to pray. She'd ask us what we would normally say in a prayer and then translate and we'd write it down to remember later. The first night none of us even tried it because we were still overwhelmed. Last night though, Elder Alexandre and me had about an hour of language study. At first I didn't think about it but after taking a step back and realizing what we had talked about and learned... And we had gone SO far in that short hour. We had specifically focused on memorizing a short prayer, and towards the end decided to actually pray rather than just memorize and repeat. We timidly looked at each other and decided on folding our arms, Elder Alexandre offered his first, and I followed. I'm guessing Austin might be the only one that really knows what the feeling was after doing that but the Spirit was SO strong during those short and simple prayers. We didn't say much more than thank thee for a single thing, and asked that we could feel the Spirit, but it was surely answered. That same day we sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives in Portuguese, and it was a total crash course. But about half way through I attempted to sing another part and the beauty and power in all that slurred and stuttered singing was astounding. The Spirit is SO strong here, everything we do here has so much power in it.
Lastly I just want to say how much I've learned here. Since the moment I've got here, basically everything we've done has been focusing or directing us somehow towards the Lord. Elder Alexandre and I have had such amazing experiences in just the most simple things like studying Preach My Gospel together during companion study. We've realized that the rules that apply to us as companions should also apply to the Holy Ghost himself. Everytime I say a rule just thing "The Spirit" instead of companion. Always stay with your companion. Grow close and comfortable to your companion. Never let your companion leave your sight or hearing. Constantly talk and grow a relationship with your companion. I am amazed to think that even the guidelines set to us missionaries have symbolism like this embeded in them. I feel like I've been here for weeks already just because of how much I've grown in these few days. Don't take this the wrong way, but I haven't even really thought about home yet. I will have thoughts of fondness and memories of home, but I know this is where I am supposed to be. At first I was a little bummed out that I couldn't go straight to Sao Paulo, but I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord knew I needed to be here and to feel the Spirit in this place. I've learned so much about myself and who I am, what potential I have and what my true purpose as a missionary is. I can't wait to learn more and become closer to the Lord. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of growth I will have if I've come this far in only 4 days and I am supposed to be in the MTC for 9 weeks... I cannot wait!!
Thank you all for your prayers! I can definitely feel their power. I pray for you all every night. Just know that I love you, that I love the Lord, and that I am striving to give my entire heart, might, mind, and soul to this work. Sorry if I sound scatter brained at all, I have a minute and ten seconds left :P
Love you all!!! Tchao!

-Elder Ballard

PS. Sorry if i mispelled anything Austin :P