Solid week, diving in the font, and biggest change i've seen so far in an investigator...

Super good week, the people we're teaching are blowing me away with the changes that are happening... It's incredible.

 Well, this week we have had the awesome opportunity to teach a lady named Gisele, and her friend Caios. We'd been teaching Gisele for a couple weeks, and Caios had just been at the house every once in a while, but he started getting interested so we'd been teaching the two of them along with Gisele's mom and family. The two of them a while back, had been basically totally lost in their lives, messing with drugs, drinking, you name it. Amazingly though, they've somehow been prepared by the Lord to start having an interest in changing their lives and Elder Da Rosa found them a while back. Anyways, after a lot of teaching and a lot of helping them, they've overcome basically all of their addictions and old problems, and this Sunday Caios was baptized!! I seriously am in awe every time at the power that the atonement has. These people seriously change SO much, and there's no way anything else besides the atonement can have that power. Because of a health problem on sunday, Gisele will be baptised tonight after p-day, but it's just been the coolest thing ever seeing them progress and grow and change their lives so drastically. I'm so excited to see them continue their journey after the baptism... I love it. It was kinda funny in Caios's baptism because someone forgot to turn off the font, so when we opened the doors the font was literally filled to the BRIM. So, when Elder Da Rosa and Caios stepped in, it started overflowing into the hallway. Luckily Brazilian chapels are all tile, but we were all worried about the water. When he was baptized, it splashed a wave into the baptismal room, and it was all just really funny. After Caios had left to go get changed, we realized that the plug of the drain had broken, so Elder Da Rosa had to like dive to the bottom and try to pull it out. It was so weird realizing that it's been about 9 and a half months since I've been submerged in water... Haha Elder Da Rosa has a year and 10 months so it was even more weird for him.
 This has been a week where I've truly just realized how much I love this work. Being a missionary is seriously the most amazing call. I've been really digging deep into my studies especially of Doctrine and Covenants, and it's amazing how the true purpose of this life and of this church is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of ALL man". This is God's purpose and glory, so this should be our work and glory if we want to become like Him. I'm learning a lot about how the Lord helps us be missionaries in whatever situation we're in or will be in, and I'm just loving the opportunity to serve here.
 Well, this letter was kinda short, but the work is wonderful. The Lord is blessing his lost sheep so much. Like I said, I am so excited to just keep heading forward with this work. I love being  a missionary and I love this gospel. I love you all, thank you all for your letters thoughts and prayers! Hurrah for Israel!!
-Elder Ballard

Chain of Miracles and 1 year since my call?!

Well, insanely enough it was basically an entire year ago when I opened my mission call!! I still remember watching my buddies graduate, taking pics and giving hugs afterwards, having everyone ask me why I wasn't home opening my call, and just being anxious beyond all reason for Dad to get home to open it. And then having Taylor, Stina, Jenna, Hannah, and the family there at the house, the yelling that we all did when I read Brazil :D Amazing memory. And then watching thief and the cobbler afterwards hahaha. Man... it's so weird to think in years. Thinking at all the growing and preparation I've gone through in these last 8 months sure is amazing. 

  Anyways, I wanna share an amazing chain of miracles that happened this week in Itabira. So last week, we had an appointment at about 11 that fell, and the hour of 11 to noon is HORRIBLE for missionary work because everyone and their parrot is preparing lunch. So we just decided to do street contacts for an hour. One guy we talked to was a drunk fellow named Sebastião. He told us where he lived, and we set up a day to pass by the next day. So the next day we went by and, suprise, he wasn't there. Probably forgot. Anyways, we decided to just knock doors on that street. We didn't have much success, but then we got to a house where we could see an old lady in the yard washing clothes. We knocked and she told us to go away and that she wasn't interested. As we walked to the next house, we ran into a 15 year old named Sabrina who was leaving to go to school. We talked to her and since she was leaving we just invited her to go to chuch. She asked for our number and a pamphlet and said she'd call if she could go. The next saturday, she called us and said she'd invited 2 friends to come to church too! We got to the church and they weren't there so we were a little worried. Sabrina and her friend ended up coming a while late and when the went in, all the class doors were closed. They left and waited outside cuz they didn't know if it was the right time or place (remember it's a branch building) and Sabrina told her friend Patricia that they should leave. Right then, the branch president who was in a class, felt he should go outside, and just then he got a phonecall, so he stepped outside and saw the 2 of them. He invited them in, and they ended up loving church and even watched Sabrina and Alexandre get baptized. Over the next week, Sabrina invited another friend, Raiandra, to receive lessons. Those two already have received answers about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Sabrina is already super strong, said she cried a ton the night when she prayed for an answer. Then last night, we had an appointment marked at 8 o clock. It was supposed to be the 3 of them, but Patricia didn't show up cuz she "needed to wash clothes" or some silly excuse. Me and Elder Fávaro ran to her house to try and convince her otherwise, and succeeded in bringing her to the lesson. On the way over she said, "Boy, you guys are annoying." Elder Fávaro told her that she'd thank us some day for being so persistant :) Anyways, at the end of the lesson, Patricia was kinda frustrated cuz Sabrina and Raiandra already received answers, and she still hasn't. She explained that she's been reading and praying with faith, but still hadn't gotten an answer. So, Elder Fávaro invited her to give the closing prayer, and to simply ask directly to know if it was true, and promised in the name of Christ that she'd receive one. So we all knelt in a circle, and Patricia gave a very simple but very heartfelt prayer. After asking about the Book of Mormon, she closed the prayer. We were worried she had forgotten that she needed to wait, but luckily everyone stayed with eyes closed and heads bowed. After about 10 seconds of silence and me praying my heart out that the Lord would give her and answer, she literally jumped and said, "Nossa! Que estranho!" (Wow!! How weird!!) And started rubbing her neck and the top of her shirt, and it was truly because she felt a "burning in the bossom", and I don't think she'd ever felt anything like that before :) The Spirit was SO strong, and she put her hand on the Book of Mormon and said that she knew it was true now. Her voice was just full of relief and it was such a special moment... So amazing how the Lord works. When we don't doubt, the Lord will respond and give us what we ask for. Anyways, looking back on all this, it is incredible to me how much the Lord's hand was in this. If that appointment hadn't fallen that day, if we hadn't contacted that drunk guy, if we hadn't passed by his house, if that old lady had invited us to come in, if we hadn't invited Sabrina come to church, if President Bazilio hadn't gotten that phone call, if we hadn't gone to Patricia's house and been "annoying", NONE of this would have happened. Just as D&C always says, the work of God WILL go forward. Seriously, God know's exactly what he'd doing. We hardly ever see the bigger plan, but God is always always always working for the blessing of his children. My testimony is growing so much in this aspect. I'm realizing that truly nothing is coincidence, and truly God is guiding all of our paths.

 Regardless of what might be going on in our lives, never forget that the Lord is in it. If we are trying to do our best, and clearly we'll have mistakes and will have our moments or weakness, the Lord will guide us to do what we need to do. The Lord truly does know and love each and every one of us. This week I was praying out loud and I had a huge testimony given to me that the Lord truly does me, and all of us. If anyone ever has any doubt in this, pray and truly speak with the Lord. Express the love you have for him, and He will express his love for you. This church is so true, every day I learn more and more why this gospel is so important and why we're here doing what we're doing. I'm so grateful for this life that I have, and for these past 8 months on the mission. I'm so excited for the next 2/3 of this amazing opportunity. I love you all, thank you for everything. I can't say thank you enough. The Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith truly saw God and Christ. This IS the true church on the earth!!! I have no doubt whatsoever about this. Hurrah for Israel!!!

  -Elder Ballard

Zone Conference, Baptismal Interview, and First Couple Baptism!!

   So a phrase that has always stuck out to me in my patriarchal blessing is something like, "You will learn that you are part of a plan much bigger than you ever though possible." And is that 100% true or what... This mission is seriously incredible. This past week I did my first baptismal interview, and that was a really special experience. I didn't know what it was going to be like so I was praying and studying really hard to try and know what I needed to do and how I could prepare. We got to the other Elders' church and it was a guy named Victor, about 21. So it was good that he was right there at my age and we could talk comfortably. Anyways, the interview ended up being an extremely spiritual experience. The spirit of discernment was so prominent, as I asked the questions it felt like the Spirit was magnifying the meaning of them so that the investigator would understand how important this stuff was. Even though I didn't see this guy before the process of conversion, it was amazing seeing someone that hadn't been baptized yet share such a strong testimony. It's so cool to me how the Gospel of Jesus Christ benifits EVERYONE involved. I simply was giving a little interview to see if this guy was ready for baptism and I ended up gaining a stronger testimony of the gifts of the Spirit! So amazing.

  Well, this past week we were trying really hard to prepare our investigators to go to church, and a couple of them to get baptized. The baptism was looking fine, but the other people to go to church all had problems come up. We were kinda distressed and bummed out a bit cuz we know that we always need to have new people coming to church if we want the work to continue. So on Sunday we went to the houses and walked with a few investigators to church. Our main people we took to chruch are all in a family together. Alexandre is the dad, Sabrina the mom, and they have 3 kids (Vinicius 7, Alex 5, and Miguel 3 months) and the changes we've seen in them are absolutely amazing. Sabrina has been elect since the day we met her. Alexandre used to be truly just kinda a couch potato, going to the bar every once in a while, coming home, sleeping, going to work, sleeping, etc. Sabrina is only 23 and had her first kid when she was 15, so even with the young age of 23 they've already had a lot of marriage time to have problems and experiences. Sabrina's told us that their marriage has had a TON of problems. Alexandre staying out with friends until 9 the next morning, never helping around the house, that kinda stuff. But since we've introduced them to the gospel, without us even saying anything Alexandre has started helping with the baby, comes home at like 9 at night. The Spirit does all the work in things like that and it feels like us missionaries just sit there and watch with dropped jaws :) Anyways, church was amazing for those two, and as it got closer to their baptism you could just see their excitement building. The baptism was amazing.... I baptized Alexandre and Elder Fávaro baptized Sabrina. As we walked back into the chapel after changing the two of them sat down on the bench and started holding hands. Up until then that was the first time I'd seen them show any affection like that... It was definitely a sweet moment. Funnily enough as well, when we were all sitting up in the front, Vinicius and Alex ran up and sat down on the chairs behind the sacrament table. Even though their parents motioned for them to come down, I leaned over to Elder Fávaro and said, "In eleven years, that's where they'll be sitting." Seriously such an amazing feeling to think about what will happen to these people in the future. 

  If that baptism wasn't good enough, somehow the Lord worked miracles to where we had 4 new investigators at church!! This girl we invited in the street came with her friend, a member brought a nephew, and an old investigator showed up too! We didn't do anything at all, and the Lord just placed that desire in their hearts to come and see what chruch was like. We started working with all these people, and it is just absolutely amazing what the Lord is doing. We always say that the field is white already to harvest, but I never imagined the reality of this. Sure there's a lot of tares in this white field, the the wheat is being led to the fold by the Lord Himself. I'm so blessed to be a part of this work... I can't believe how fast it's already going, but I love every minute here. I know the Lord lives and that he guides his church through The Prophet, and the other leaders of the church. The Book of Mormon truly is the foundation of this wonderful church, and I know Joseph Smith truly saw God and Jesus Christ. We are all so blessed to live and be a part of this great Church. Thank you all for you love and support, I truly have been feeling the power of all your prayers. Thank you those who have sent letters or packages or anything, you can't imagine the help it gives us missionaries. Hurrah for Israel!! This church is TRUE!

 -Elder Ballard

- I thought this was interesting. This is a brazilian cemetery, they all have like big marble or stone coffins and don't really bury the people underground.

Wondrous Phone Call, Super Firm Baptism, and time is not slowing down...

Well firstly, calling home was a great and terrible experience :D That first call where we thought we were gunna have to wait or something was absolutely horrible!! Before sunday I hadn't really thought at all about what I was going to say or anything, so when Sunday finally came I could barely believe we were actually going to be calling and talking with each other. Especially since we arrived at the member's house a little late, it was ridiculously frustrating. It was kinda humorous Mom, after I talked to you for like 2 minutes and we had to say bye, my brain got really sad. I knew that we'd get it figured out, but it was like my subconscious mind was thinking, "Noooo!!! I'll never get to talk to Mom again!!" and my face got all weirdly bent into a frown, my voice got all cracky, and my lip even started quivering. Haha, I was trying to explain to my companion that he could go ahead and call home and that I'd try later, and trying to talk in Portugues while my subconscious was in a state of distress, let's just say it was a little difficult to explain myself. I'm just super glad that my president is such a great guy and let us go past 5 or I would have died! It was kinda interesting, Elder Fávaro only talked to his mom for about 15 minutes cuz he's only been in the field for like 2 weeks, so they didn't have a whole lot to talk about. That call was so great though, finally getting everything to go through was SUCH a relief. It was weird hearing so many English voices again... Cuz the only english I ever hear here is just other american elders, so just male 19 20 and 21 year olds. Hearing girls, kids, all that in English was crazy. I can't imagine what the last phone call is going to be like :D The call was pretty cool though because that morning and the night before and stuff, I had been praying REALLY hard that the phone call would be a motivation, not a distraction. Even though I lost it at the end there (looking back that was kinda funny as well, I wonder if you guys could even understand what I was trying to say :D ) after the call I pulled everything back together, and we went back to work. Not even a trace of added homesickness or anything like that! It's not that I like forgot everything we talked about or anything either, it was just that the Lord helped me channel all the feelings into gratitude for my family, and the desire to share that happiness and gratitude with our investigators!! The Lord truly is perfect in everything, even missionary phone calls home :) A weird thing that I'm realizing though, is I've been out for 8 months and this was my second call. It's about 8 months until the next phone call at Christmas, but by that time... I will only have 8 months left!!! And then it'll be 4 months to the next call, and then only 4 months till I get home!!! AHHH!!! I can't believe that!! It does not even feel close to that long that I've been out!! I can't believe how fast all this time is going.

   So, this past week has been awesome. We had a leadership training meeting where especially Elder Favaro and I really gained testimonies of the authority that missionaries have, and the truthfulness of the First Vision and the power it has in conversion. Our President did some examples for us and it was AMAZING the amount of authority and faith he used. And just cuz he's the mission president doesn't mean that he has more power to testify about this church. Anyways, that added faith to our testimonies is really helping in our work. Elder Huntsman and I found a lady named Cristiane a couple weeks ago, she's 29, and then Elder Fávaro and me have been teaching her ever since. She loved church last week, and with time became very excited to be baptised. One of the last times we were there before her baptism, she told us a little bit about a sin that had been weighing on her for about 9 years, and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen to see here truly experience the cleansing power of the Atonement. She was crying as she felt the guilt for it, but as we showed her the scripture in D and C that talks about the intensity of the Lord's suffering, she truly realized why the Lord had to feel that. It was the coolest feeling being able to say that she would truly be free of this guilt and weight she was feeling that Sunday with her baptism. Her baptism this sunday was wonderful. She wanted the two of us to do the baptism together cuz she was afraid of getting dropped :D I don't know what it is about this area, but as she came up outta the water she laughed!! Just like Marcelino and Perpetua!! It was so cool!! As we've passed back at her house this week, she's already digging in on the Book of Mormon, and she even gave a little testimony at a FHE where she said she knew that this is where God wants her to be, and this is where she's going to stay. Regardless of what other people say or what other people want her to do. It is one of the coolest feelings ever to watch someone grow like she has. The first visit she told us she didn't believe in God, and here she is now testifying of His will in her life. The power of this gospel never ceases to amaze me.

  To finish off I wanted to share a little insight I learned a while back in Jesus the Christ that talks about trials. Talking about what Christ said, it says, "He compared their then present and prospective state to that of a woman in travail, who in the after joy of blessed motherhood forgets her anguish. The happiness that awaited them would be boyond the power of men to take away." I obviously don't know the whole process of labor and motherhood first hand, but we can all get the idea of what Christ was saying. It doesn't matter how bleak, how painful or how hard our circumstances appear right now, the reward of enduring it well WILL come. For us missionaries with difficult investigators, for the trials in school, work, family, or relationships, all of it reflects back to the power God has to give us rewards. I'm realizing a lot that one of the key parts of faith in our lives is the part it plays with agency. One of God's laws is that if we do good things, we'll get good rewards. If we do bad things, we get bad consequences. EVERY good thing we do will bring good consequences. The role that faith plays, is that these rewards, good and bad, don't come instantly. If we paid our tithing and the next day a check for 5000$ showed up in the mail, clearly everyone would pay their tithing. If the second you smoked a cigarrette your lungs started on fire, not very many people would be smoking. God puts this delay of consequences in the process to give us the opportunity for us to exercise our faith and trust in God. I know that God won't neccessarily give me 5000$ for paying my tithing, but I know that He will provide for my family and my neccessities that my family needs. All in all, the biggest good consequence is eventually eternal life. NOTHING can interfere with this reward. No one knows how long it'll take for us to recieve this reward, but it IS the reward we'll get. Now we all just need to show and excercise our faith in Christ and Heavenly Father now by following the commandments now, and recieving our reward in the next life. I love the simplicity of this gospel. I know that Christ did die for us, and that every one of us has the opportunity to accept this sacrifice and one day recieve this eternal happiness. I love the Lord and am so grateful for the opportunity to serve with his name over my heart every day. Hurrah for Israel!!! 

  -Elder Ballard

TENTH companion- Elder Favaro

fish eyes from the eye medicine

Cristiane's baptism!

locked out of the members house where the phone call was planned...

Easter sunday and Transfers come and go

Man, this mission is such a roller coaster. Such amazing times and such hard times too, but I'm finding that the ups always have a longerlasting effect than the downs :)

Well, this last week was Páscoa or Easter! And boy oh boy, strangely enough the church sure did suffer. We had about 15 people in church... and our investigators only came to the first 2 blocks and then left before sacrament :/ Kinda tough when that happens really. It was kinda hard just cuz you spend your whole week working your tail off to find new people, teach the people that you've started with, and you just do everything possible to try and help these people. But when it all comes down to it, people just get SO lazy on sundays... We had like 10 new people this last week and only 2 came to church, and 1 of them told us that it, "Isn't his "time" to be baptized in the true church." Go figure :D Ah well. So after me being all grumpy and bummed out, I decided to pray. Obviously the Lord's arms had already been out stretched, and, the Lord took away my bad feelings. It is so amazing the things the Lord can do. Even though it was so simple as something of just being kinda depressed, the Lord helped me and gave me the motivation and excitment to just go out and get more people for next week! Depression or feelings of depression is a funny thing. Our first instinct is to continue being all down and lazy, complaining or justifying why we feel this way. But, for example: In the mission field, if I'm sad cuz I don't have people to baptize people this week, which is gunna be more effective to get my people for the next week: sitting there in the house eating chocolate? or getting out in the road, knocking some doors, teaching some lessons and really going to work? I think it's obvious :) Same thing in life too; if we're depressed cuz we're getting bad grades, don't have a good job, have a cruddy relationship with someone, or whatever, what's gunna fix it? Sitting there watiching TV, hating our job now, ignoring and being offended with our "someone"? Or studying our tails off, working harder to find a new job or get a promotion, or going out of our way to serve the people around us? Once again it's obvious. Man, I am amazed at the things I'm learning in this mission that are going to help me honestly FOR EVER in my life. I love that the Lord calls us young men on missions, it is SUCH a blessing.

 So I don't have a whole ton to actually report this week, it's been kinda a slower, more normal week. This week marks the beggining of the transfer, but the day when we get transfer calls came and went without anything, so looks like me and Elder Huntsman will be staying here for the next 6 weeks. I'm stoked, we're learning every day how and what we need to do to better our work and it's been awesome. Btw, Elder Huntsman is 22 and from Las Vegas, he's a great guy and just took a little longer to get out on his mission. He's got a year and 3 months so he's an awesome elder to work with. Well, I guess now I just wanted to share an awesome thing I learned from my studies this morning. Read 2 Nephi 4:17-35 and you will hear one of the most beautiful prayers ever given in the Book of Mormon. It's really interesting because he brings up all these problems that he has, asks himself why he's so weak (remember that this is a prophet talking here) and so easily beset by such simple and stupid sins, but then talks about all that the Lord offers to do for us, and explains that we must always rely in Him if we want to truly receive success. I really think it's cool that in the same chapter, Lehi dies. So this is kinda Nephi showing us that when we lose a loved one or have whatever other problem in our lives, we need to just remember God. Just read this passage with that in mind. Well, that's about all I got here in Itabira this week. I love this work so much, and I can't believe how amazing this feeling of contentment is when you realize you're teaching the only true gospel on earth. I'm so grateful for all of you and for this amazing gospel and opportunity. Hurrah for Israel!!! Love you all!

 -Elder Ballard

 

HAPPY EASTER!

                                                                             

Miracle week and the busiest sunday ever!

Pineapple here is amazing... soooo fresh

Oh man was this week amazing... But because of travel issues this week I'm just gunna have to burn out an email.

But this week has sure been an amazing one. First of all, since about the second day here in Itabira, we taught this friend of the wife of the branch president named Perpetua. She's a really emotional lady that sadly is very easy to persuade and manipulate, so other pastors and what not have really messed with her head. We tried teaching her about 2 or 3 different times that the Church of Jesus Christ is the only true church that has a truly authorized baptism. She would understand it and all but then the next visit she had been reconfused and we could tell the devil was working his head off trying to ruin her chances of joining the true church. So after those 2 or 3 visits, and a couple blessings of comfort, we felt like we had done all that we could and time would be the only thing that could make the difference needed. So that was kinda a bummer to just cut her. But, like I said last week we've been working with this awesome guy named Marcelino. He's a very simple guy but he's very sincere and really feels the spirit. Like I explained last week, he got yellow fever at 7 and his legs were amputated. Anyways, teaching him about the ressurrection was such an amazing opportunity... Man that was a sweet feeling to see him smile as he imagined running and dancing and swimming, stuff he hasn't been able to do for his entire life. After teaching all the lessons, we set up his baptismal interview for last saturday, and to our dismay the night before we called and he still wasn't home from his trip! Ah!! It's difficult in this area cuz the District Leader has to spend 50R$ and use basically his entire morning to get here, so we needed to know for absolute sure if the baptism was going to happen or not. So me and Elder Huntsman both prayed out hearts out, and at about 10:15 I called him up and he had BARELY made it home and was planning on being interviewed the next day!! OPA!!! If this wasn't good enough, Perpetua has been there at the house talking to Irmã Bel (the branch pres's wife) and out of absolutely nowhere, she told us she wanted to be interviewed the next day to get baptized!! WHAT?!

  So the next day we grabbed Marcelino, he was interviewed, and then Perpetua (who is also insanely shy) told us she wanted to get interviewed, and then be baptized that night so that she didn't have to have a lot of people watch the baptism. The only problem was that she hadn't been taught everything. So after she passed the interview (which took about an hour and a half, poor district leader) we took her to the house and did a 2 and a half HOUR long lesson, and went through everything. Super super frustrating, required a ton of patience and examples, but amazingly enough, the Spirit truly touched her and she was down for baptism! So after many many many ups and downs, we finally took her to the church and she was baptised!!! During the whole time we've taught her she's been a very nervous, anxious, and just in general timid and unhappy lady, but when she came up out of the water, she was literally laughing. Ahh.... best feeling that could possibly ever happen. So amazing. I can't believe the amazing effect that the Lord and the Spirit have on people's lives like that.

 The next day was Sunday, and wow I have never been so busy in my life. We got there to sacrament meeting, and it went like this: I played the opening hymn (btw Mom it's not a church, it's just a lower floor of a building and has a little electronic organ) with plenty of mistakes and it sounded horrible :D Then I stood in on the confirmation of Perpetua (smiling as big as ever =) ) then played the Sacrament Hymn, hopped up, sat in the front row, and then passed the sacrament. Then Elder Hunstman gave a talk, followed by a talk by me, then I played the intermediate hymn, and then the closing hymn. Haha... talk about a calling :D It was a lot of fun to do and help a lot though. I just wish I was better at piano/organ! Anyways, at the end of church, I went with Marcelino to help him get his clothes. We gave him a jumpsuit, and then just tied the legs together at the bottom. We had a really good baptismal service, and then we went to the pool (we don't have a font out here haha) and we helped him get in. I seriously can't even explain how special this was for me to get to do. We had the water really shallow just so that it came up to his neck, and then I just knelt next to him. He was really uncomfortable I could tell (just cuz the water was deep and he obviously can't swim or anything) but he was super excited to get baptised. Almost everyone in the branch came to watch, and the spirit was very strong sitting there waiting for the ok to say the prayer. After the prayer I baptised him, he struggled a little because he wasn't quite used to being in water or being dunked like that, but everything went fine and we only had to do it once luckily :) I was worried that he might have gotten a mouth full of water or something but he came up, sputtered a little bit, and then started laughing. I tell you, when they laugh after a baptism it is the best spiritual high for us missioniaries... The Spirit is just so strong after a baptism!! The branch was super welcoming, everyone shook his hand, welcomed him, or gave him a hug, and man... The Spirit was just amazing.

 It just never ceases to amaze me the power of the work that the Lord is doing out here. I thank the Lord every night for this opportunity, and everyone the reads this, every once in a while just think back to the day you were baptized. It's amazing how much the Spirit can renew those amazing feelings really every week when we take the sacrament. This church truly does change lives, and I can feel the Lord changing me every day out here, as much as I'll let Him :) I think that's one of the biggest things we can all do better on, is just submitting to the will of the Lord. He knows what's best for us, no questions asked. I love this gospel with all my heart, I'm so grateful to the Lord for what we all have, these doctrines and principles truly bring more happiness than ANYTHING else!! Hurrah for Israel! I love you my wonderful family and friends! I always keep you all in my prayers! I hope the Lord is blessing you, and thank you so much for your prayers and letters. Hurrah hurrah HURRAH!!!

 -Elder Ballard

Bit o Brazil - I don't know why or how, but here in Brazil all the dogs eat chicken bones... Seriously everyone feeds them to their dogs. I wonder if they've evolved or something to where they don't choke to death? :P

Elder Helston finally made it to Brazil!!! Him, Elder Bitner, and Elder Ison finally got here after 7 months in the states. I still haven't seen Bitner or Ison

First Branch Meeting, First Blessing too!

Can't believe the miracles that God helps us missionaries do out here :)

 This was a very cool week here in Itabira. This is the first area I've been in where you can't flush your toilet paper, so that's been an adventure :D Also, this was the first week of going to the branch here. Man... talk about a different experience. I counted during sacrament and there was only about 25 people, counting investigators. It was fast sunday, so seriously almost all the adults in the room shared testimonies. Then crazily enough, I played the organ for the opening and closing hymns. What the? It was so weird haha. I of course could only manage the top hand, and it was full of mistakes, but they needed help with the program so I figured I'd give it a try :D I guess I shoulda learned piano better while I had the chance. It's amazing though how faithful these members are, even with only the few that are here. The testimonies were very powerful, everything was awesome about church. It reminded me of what you were talking about Mom and Dad, how people in the church, through families, can have so much more power to face trials and live life. We have an investigator that should baptise this week named Marcelino, and he's an awesome guy. He had yellow fever when he was 7 and so ever since then he has lived life without legs! He's a great guy and we're really excited for him this sunday. Opening this area has been an amazing challenge and I've had to grow so much from it, so it's been great. I also had my first opportunity to give a blessing in Portuguese! It was so cool. It really is amazing that the power in a blessing is the spirit, and not the words. The blessing I gave was very simple, and surly was bad grammer and poorly pronounced, but the power was so strong nonethe less. I've realized that one reason we have the opportunity especiall as missionaries to do that is to get a taste of what it was like for Christ to help all those people during his ministry.
 

I love the people here though. The members are super excited and we're even living in a little backhouse behind the branch President. They peope here are so willing to help, with lunch, with visiting people with us, with welcoming investigators, anything. I love that this gospel applies to everyone, and that regardless of circumstances, we can all have the joy and love that this gospel offers. I'm so blessed to be a part of this work here in Brazil, and so glad that it's going on all over the world. I hope and pray everything is well back home, with all my friends, on missions or in school or whatever it might be. Thanks for all you all do for me. I love this work, and I love the Lord. Hurrah for Israel!!!
-Elder Ballard

 Sorry for no pictures, this computers throwing a fit.