Miracle Baptism, New personal record on Monday, and weird foods..

   I'm running behind today so it'll be a quick letter, but this past week was amazing. We were really wanting to have a baptism, so Elder Gaertner was led to a young man that'd already been to church and Brazil's version of mutual a few times. We taught him on thursday, marked his baptism for sunday, and he accepted the invite!! He's only 13 so we had to get the authorization from his dad which looked like it was slim chances cuz I guess his dad has been known as "The guy who wants to kill the missionaries." Haha. Anyways, after a TON of prayer, we taught him again on saturday, he was interviewed, and then baptized on sunday!! I've never seen anyone progress so fast and accept the gospel like he did, truly was a blessing and miracle. Then on monday we did a comp study and really swapped and mixed up the way we taught, and that along with a lot of help from the Spirit, we had an amazing work day. Last friday we taught 8 lessons, and no one accepted a date to be baptized. Monday though, we only taught 3 lessons and had SIX people accept dates!! I've never EVER had so many people accept dates like that... it is SO incredible how the Lord can bless us. Now we're just focusing on the fact that it is totally him that is doing these results, and being completely obedient 100% so that He can keep protecting these people against the bad influences that always come when someone accepts a date. Some of these 6 people are SO prepared... it is absolutely amazing the way the Lord does that.

 I also had some interesting foods these past weeks. First, I had this little dish called Dobradinha. It used to be like a dish for slaves, and I can see why. It's basically cow intestine stew... and it smells like pure dogfood. The nasty dry kind that we always buy for Luke. The taste wasn't as bad as the smell luckily, but the consistency = nasty. The pieces of intestine still had the little microscopic finger-like things (i think they're called philli or filli or something like that?) Yuck... but it was a fun experience anyways. I also went to a restaurant and had horse meat... It was in a patty like beef usually is so it wasn't that weird or bad, but just thinking that it was horse was kinda odd. Austin'll probably know what this is but I had a dessert called Sagu. It reminds me of flavorless jello, but with like a fourth of the water you'd usually add, cuz it's really really thick. Definitely one of those foods you can't explain haha. I'm enjoying all these new foods though, Brazil's fun haha.

  Well, this next week is looking really bright and I'm very excited to work. The Lord has really been blessing us a lot, and I'm excited to do my part and really put my shoulder to the wheel. Nothing like LDS puns. I love this work and things are going great out here. Thank you all for all you do and especially for your prayers. Hurrah for Israel!!]

  -Elder Ballard

Pic - This is Hugo! (pronounced ooh-goo haha)

Nother transfer!?! Bittersweet I must say... Goodbyes and Last walk through Sete Lagoas

Boy oh boy... It never ceases to amaze me how these transfers blow past. 6 weeks used to seem like it was forever.

Well, this past week has been a great one. Like I said, today I'm already in my next area. These last few days were basically made up of saying goodbye to members and recent converts in 7 Lakes. It was kinda bitter sweet cuz I really really enjoyed that area, it was a really great place to work. That family that I talked about last week was super hard to say goodbye to, you end up making relationships based off of spirituality that end up being a LOT stronger and deeper, so it was sad saying bye to them. They're all progressing really well for baptism though, so here in a month or so I'm hoping to recieve news from Elder Da Rosa who will stay there. It was hilarious this week when you leave their house, you have to walk a mile or 2 on just loose dirt road to get back to the city. The road has a lot of cars and buses that pass, so you get super super dirty. Anyways, where a car passes and kicks up a ton of dirt we end up using our ties as breathing filters (see photo) and always get a laugh out of it. Anyways, on Saturday we realized that all the cars that were driving past were laughing at our use of ties. We looked up ahead and saw a guy walking his bike in the other direction, and even with all the dust, was pushing his bike with both hands. So me and my comp were like, "Well look at that... We must be wannies needing to cover our noses and mouths." So we were a little embarrased of our weakness, until we got up close and realized he was wearing one of those World War 2 style gas masks :D Hahaha, we about died laughing thinking that he was just toughing it out and then saw his gas mask.. Man I love Brazil.

   It sure is weird getting transferred again... I'm in an area now called Veneza (which being translated is Venice, like in Rome) and when I was explaining it to some converts they got all bummed and shocked cuz they thought I was moving to Europe :D Haha... Anyways, I don't have a whole ton else to tell about cuz we just got here today. My comp's name is Elder Gaertner, and he only has 2 transfers left. It's been interesting being with these older missionaries lately, I sure learn a lot. Anyways I'll have more about this area and the work this next week. Everything is going good here though, I'm happy, excited, safe, and plump (hopefully I can lose some weight in this area haha) I love this work and am so very grateful for the trust the Lord gives in letting us missionaries have such an amazing privilege and opportunity. This Church is True!!! One day we truly will have the opportunity of being judged by God and Christ, and I know that if we do our part we WILL one day recieve all the blessings we've earned. Hoorah for Israel!! Hoorah!

 -Elder Ballard

the dusty road we travelled down...

while using ties for gas masks...



to visit this amazing humble family!



beautiful chapel!

Week of Traveling, and Amazingly Humble Family Found!

'Nother week already gone... It's blowing my mind how fast the time is passing recently. Seriously, the weeks are truly passing like days for me now.

  Well, this was kinda a weird week cuz we had quite a few interviews to do, so this last week was super slow with regards to the work. Seriously it was like every other day we were leaving on a bus at 10 o clock and not getting back to work till 6. It's kinda taken its toll on the work sadly, but I know the Lord isn't gunna let something like that get in the way of the salvation of his lost sheep.
 Last sunday started out kinda annoying cuz the 3 people we have to be confirmed ended up not making it to church :( It's a huge bummer cuz every week that happens it's just one more week for Satan to try and attack them. Luckily they're all strong to go this next week. When we got to chruch though we met this guy who was there visiting the church with his 6 year old daughter. We marked to go visit his house after church and found out that he lives like WAY out in the middle of nowhere, but at least there was a bus we could take to get out there close. We went there later that day and found out that he's the Dad of 5 kids, and all 7 of them (counting the mom) live in 1 ROOM in the middle of the woods basically. The place they live reminds me a lot of Moody Meadows, it's not really the normal amazon type-forest that you usually see, it's a lot more dry and dusty, so a lot more like the forests in the US. Anyways, the 5 kids are 12, 10, 6, and then they have twin 2 year olds. So we walked through the woods and arrived at the house. He was really excited to see us and it was seriously such a humbling and amazing experience meeting this family. The dad is a super hard-working guy that knows how to do about anything with construction. He built their house, dug there well (which goes down about 36 feet.... I still can't understand how he dug it.) is building their bathroom, built a bridge, just all this amazing stuff. When we got there he was chopping wood for their fire, and his 2 little two year olds were running around with just shirts, aka barefoot and pantless running around in the forest. We found out that they've already found and killed about 15 snakes close to their house... so that's the part that worries me. The little kids are all pretty dirty, except for the 6 year old that obviously took a bath so she could go to church :) While we were there the mom heated up water over a camp fire and gave the two little guys a bath. Everything was just astounding to me. They live without runnning water, without light or electricity, without a sewer (luckily the bathroom the dad's making will let them have this at least) and even with all this they are all just SO happy!!! I'll try and get a video of the two little boys, cuz while we were there they were chasing chickens around the yard, and then when a couple chickens flew/climbed up into a shrub, the two of them clumsily grabbed long sticks and tried to attack the chickens :D It was one of those things where I was laughing and almost crying just cuz of how humbling everything was. These little kids don't have toys or even electricity, but every one of them is so stinking happy with just running around playing with each other. Elder Da Rosa and me about died laughing when the two little guys realized that their sticks weren't long enough, so they ran to the other side of the yard, one picked up a brick, and the other got this tiny little 10 inch tall stool, and they both brought the stuff over to the tree to try and be taller :D Man... all this was exactly what I was needed. I had been a little discouraged because of the lack of work we had had, but just realizing how much a have to be greatful for and how happy these people are with seriously almost nothing, I realized how bad they need the gospel. After talking with them for a while about their situation and the church and all, we taught them the Restauration, and the family accepted the invite to prepare for baptism!! Sadly the parents aren't married so they won't be able to be baptized on the 24th, but either way I am so so excited to see their progress together.
  I am so grateful to have the privelege of seeing a situation like this... I've been SO humbled to see the way that some people live. Watching them understand more about the gospel and what this actually will do for them was so cool to see how much hope it gave for them. I'm praying so hard that all will go well with them and that the marriage can go through quickly so they can begin their spiritual journey and start receiving the blessing the Lord has for them. Especially with this family I'm really beginning to feel a lot more of that love that God has for each one of us. It didn't matter that that family was living in such simple and humble circumstances, it was still so obvious that they felt God's love for them and the Light of Christ was so obvious in their eyes. All I can say is I hope that with time I can develop more and more of the kind of love and charity that I know God has for all his children. I'm so grateful for this gospel and the way that it helps each and every one of us. Thank you all for your support and all that you do every day to help others. As I see the way that the members of the Chruch here help others, I know that all over the world the same simple but amazing work is going on. I love you all!!! Thank you for your prayers, I truly do feel the strength that comes from them. Hurrah for Israel!!!
   -Elder Ballard

 Bit o Brazil - With all this traveling that we've been doing, we are constantly taking buses. Near the bus stations they always have like 5 of these sketchy guys calling out destinations of where they're going. So they always shout to us "BH jovens?" Which means "Belo Horizonte (the main city that we go to usually once a week) young men?" and at first we'd just ignore them and all, but since it's just gotten more and more annoying, I will usually just say straight out to them (in English obviously) "I don't understand spanish!!!!" And it usually makes them hush up :)

Conferences, I'm "growing", and some weird little... sightings :)

Only good things to report this week! It's been kinda a unusual week in relation to schedule, but it's been great!

Well, this past week we had some zone meetings/trainings and conferences so it kinda interupted the normal work a little, but it's been awesome learning so much. First of all, the baptism of Gisele was wonderful!! It was awesome having Caios there to support her and enjoy the sweet spirit of baptism again already. It's such a satisfying feeling when you baptise more than one person, be it a family or be it friends like these two, you just know that they'll be there for each other to help each other in the process. It was a cool miracle that happened there at the baptism as well cuz for some reason, not even one member from the ward could make it on a wednesday night :/ So we ended up inviting another companionship of missionaries that work close to our area to come and support her too. Anyways, they ended up bringing one of their investigators, who ended up being one of Gisele's close friends that none of us even knew about :D So now it looks like that friends is progressing to be baptized in a couple weeks! So cool!!! I love the way the Lord works. The other baptism this week was Junior!! I sent the picture of him with the picture of when his parents were baptized, so this week he finally was able to join the family also! It was really amazing how things went with him, because he wasn't able to be baptized earlier because he wasn't legally married, only living with his "wife". But we realized that being married isn't the pre-requisite to being baptized, it's living the Law of Chastity. So, we invited him to seperate from his girlfriend and move in with his parents, and he accepted!!! It's incredible how much power the spirit has in conversion of these people!! I'm so excited for him... Now being all 3 of them baptized, they'll all be a huge force in helping each other progress in someday going to the temple :)
  Well, besides the work here it's been kinda a funny time lately. Here in Sete Lagoas, the members are really strong and love the missionaries, so this means that the lunches here are wonderful. Also, this is like one of the only cities in the mission that doesn't have hills... These two factors combined means... yup, I'm getting fat haha. Obviously not huge or anything, but my gut is sadly developing :/ It's really obnoxious actually because there's not a whole lot I can do haha. I'm doing excercizes and all, but when you have lunch planned every day, don't have any hills to challenge you, it just kinda happens I guess. Oh well though, I still have the next 14 months to be switched to a "skinnier" area. This week I saw some cool/crazy things as well: I saw a flock of parrots fly over me, talk about beautiful. Bright green and red, it was awesome. I also saw a beer truck that flipped over (not rolled over but literally endo'ed, back over front) and spilled glass and beer ALL over the road, it stunk so bad. I saw a lady walking down the street with a machete in one hand and 4 large steak knives in the other... who know's where she was heading :) Right after that I saw a drunk guy sitting on the curb playing one of those antelope horns (like the one grandpa Ballard had in his basement) I love Brazil so much :D
 Well, this week I've been realizing that the Lord is truly beginning to shape me, especailly internally. Not in just what I do as a missionary, but a lot of what I think and feel. I've been really focusing lately on keeping my thoughts a lot more focused on spiritual things and less on stuff like home or friends or etc. Anyways, for really long periods of time I've been able to consistently keep a hymn "playing" in my head, and the difference it's made has been incredible. I'm beginning to realize that doing this is truly changing my inner desires. One of my struggles during the mission has been trying to subdue desires to watch TV, be with friends, draw things not pertaining to the work, etc. Anyways this week I've found that I'm truly beginning to change these desires. You all know the me before the mission, insanely social, always wanting to go on dates and hang out with friends, always drawing, animating, computering, etc. Anyways, I've truly been feeling these desires die down this week. Clealy one of my greatest joys is still receiving a letter and picture from someone I haven't heard in from a while :) But the actual desire that used to be almost nagging is finally being subdued. I truly am feeling like I'm becoming clay in the Lord's hands. Before I was all dry and hard, not allowing the Lord to do what He wanted. Now though as I've focused more on subduing myself to His will rather than mine, it's been amazing the changes that are happening. Wow this letter's a big'uhn, but I love this work. I love this life, and I love being a missionary. My old companion Elder Fife goes home this next wednesday so it was weird saying goodbye to him, I can't believe how weird others ending their missions seems. I'm so grateful to still have so much time left to improve and try to become what the Lord wants. Thank you all for you love and support, hurrah for Israel and I hope the Lord is granting you all the blessings you need! You're all in my prayers. Hurrah!!!!
 -Elder Ballard

Miracle healing and met a goal on baptism!

Gerald and Maria Madalena and their son Junior



This is elder F Santos!  District leader of Austin!





Yello everyone! Great week here in 7 lakes. I've learned a ton here in this area, and the Lord is really blessing the work here.

 Well, this last week was a huge blessing. As I was leaving Itabira, I was thinking about how one of my goals for the mission was to baptize a catholic couple that's relatively old. For those of you who haven't served a mission in Brazil, older-aged catholics are almost impossible to baptize. The only strength the Catholic church has is tradition, so older people are completely locked into tradition. Anyways, last week we got a reference for an older couple, that happened to be Catholic :D Anyways, every single lesson we've taught there has been incredible guided by the Spirit, and over the last 2 weeks this couple decided to be baptized!!! The 2nd lesson we got there and the husband, Geraldo, said, "So I have a question, why is it that i need to be baptized if I was already baptized as a child?" As we read 2 Nephi 32 with him, without us even explaining for him, he said, "Ah! A baptism also involves a change of life, so I wasn't even baptized, it was my parents that "baptized me"" It's been incredible with them because they have basically taught themselves why this is all so important. They have a son as well that's been interested and the only problem he has is he's not married to his "wife", they've just been living together for 11 years :/ But, we're working with him towards baptism a little ways down the road as well.
 Two days ago we were priveleged to experience another miracle personally. Monday night I started getting really really sick. It was about 5 o clock so we still had a good 4 hours of work left, but I was getting a killer fever. One of those fevers where your muscles start to stiffen, you feel super super cold but are actually burning hot, all this along with a stomach ache and head ache, it was great haha. We had a lot to do so I just stuck it through and tried to focus on the Spirit. All went well with our lessons and stuff, but as we were heading back to the house at 9:30 I was literally like shaking from my fever. Right before bed Elder Da Rosa gave me a blessing, and I climbed into bed wearing a sweater and a big blanket cuz the chills and fever were so bad. I woke up again at midnight with the fever raging just as bad if not worse. As i got a drink and used the bathroom, I heard a voice in my head say, "Take off your sweater, and sleep without a blanket." I was dying from the fever but decided I'd better listen to the Spirit (obviously haha) Anyways I woke up yesterday morning completely fine. No aches, no chills, no fever, it was glorious. Seriously the priesthood is such an amazing power, and it is SO real. To make it even better though, last night we taught an investigator about the Word of Wisdom. He's been really addicted to cigarettes so we explained to him how he was going to need to stop and all that. We could tell he was kinda iffy still , so I explained to him about the miracle that had happened the night before. We then gave him a blessing to help his body overcome this addiction fast, and at the end of the blessing he totally felt the power of the blessing. A couple minutes later he came back into the room, handed us his package of cigarettes and threw his lighter in the trash. Absolutely amazing... I love this work!
  Well, sorry that my letter's kinda short. I hope everyone's doing well and that the summer's treating everyone well. Everything is great here in Brazil, and I am loving my mission. I'm so blessed to be a part of this amazing work, and every day the Lord's love and hand is so visible in all of this. I love this church and the things we all have the privelege of knowing and enjoying in our lives. I'm so blessed to have this opportunity, as well as such a wonderful family and friends back home. Love you all!! Hurrah for Israel!!!
  -Elder Ballard

is a capybara!! It's the biggest species of rodent in the world, and they have tons that live here in the lakes.

Bored one morning... Everyone always talks about my big smile here

Weird connections, Strong ward, Amazing studies, and Blisters a'stewing!

Well, this area is wonderful! It's kinda fun going from a branch of 50 people to a stake center ward. The members here are super excited to help and we contantly are getting referals and everything. So like I told you last week, I talked to Elder Da Rosa more about who lives in Rexburg, and it turns out that it's his great uncle, named President Brassanini. At first this didn't ring any bells for me, but then he showed me a picture of him, and it turns out that last summer when I went to the temple with Titan and Jake Potter and were doing some sealings, I RAN INTO President Brassanini!!!! I remember vividly talking with him about Belo Horizonte and how I'd be going there and I'm 90% sure he told me about a great nephew that was serving there... What are the chances?! Pres. Brassanini was the Temple President and Porto Alegre, and now he's in Rexburg working as a sealer in the temple!!! I cannot believe how small this world is with the gospel!! Seriously... Elder Da Rosa's gunna send the house address for Pres Brassanini and a picture of us, and who knows, maybe he's already passed in the store or something before :D So cool. If this wasn't already ridiculously coincidental, when I was walking out of sacrament on sunday, a 22ish year old stopped me and said, "Elder Ballard!! As in, related to the Elder Ballard that served in Salvador?" I was already like what the heck? And it just so happens that this guy that goes to the other ward that goes to our chapel, is Elder F Santos, AKA a COMPANION of Austin!!! AHHH!!! I can't believe how cool all these connections are!! It's like the Lord just tweaks stuff to make it work out like this. I'll get a picture with Elder Santos next week and send it, but i am still in unbelief :) 

 Well, Elder Da Rosa and me have been gettting along really well. Our studies and teaching are as if we'd already been comps for a long time, so this transfer really is looking like it has some huge potential. This mixed with the great ward here is just gunna be some awesome times here. I don't have a whole lot to talk about but next week I'll send some pics of the area and explain more about it.

  Quick spiritual thought that I found this morning that I wanna share with everyone. In the scriptures it talks a lot about how God gives and shows us our weaknesses. I got thinking about this and realized something very cool. God gives all of us trials and problems to SHOW us what we need to improve on. For example, at the first of the mission, I was homesick, thought a ton about my friends, animation, family, etc. and this mission showed me that I needed to focus more on the work of the Lord. At this point in the mission, I've overcome the weakness of focusing on home, and now I have the strength of focusing more on the work here. The situation didn't change, but the Lord showed me what was a weakness, he helped me overcome it, and now the same situation isn't a trial for me because I strengthened up to the point that the Lord wanted me. This applies with every single situation. If life was just easy and we never had problems, we'd never know what our weaknesses are. The purpose of this life is to become perfect, and just like Christ, we have to pass through the crud to know what we need to do to improve, and in the end passing under and through everything will allow us to rise above everything and fulfill our potencial! I hope this makes sense haha, but man it's amazing the stuff the Gospel teaches us. Thanks for everything you all are doing for me, I hope the summer's going good. I love this gospel so much, the Book of Mormon is such a precious gift of God, and so are the Prophets. I know that my Redeemer lives and that He loves all of you, me, and every single person in the world. I LOVE this work!!! Hurrah for Israel!!!

   -Elder Ballard

p.s. sorry about the lack of pictures--he's sending them in a different form and I can't get them to post :(

Nother pday and another transfer! Left Itabira with a bang :)

Transfers always seem to come faster that I'm expecting... Here in this mission President Parrella always encourages us to think in months, not transfers so we don't get burned out and get lazy at the end of it, so it was weird when all the sudden the transfer ended.

Mom - Actually Mom my piano playing kinda died out with time. The Branch President plays hymns by ear and so after the branch got tired of me only being able to play hymns without flats or sharps, he offered to start playing piano again :) So sadly my piano practicing days are over for now. Itabira has a weird set up, cuz it was closed for almost 2 years, and before that (from what the members there say) the missionaries that were there were slackers, at least the majority. One member said that with missionaries they were having like 1 baptism per YEAR, and without missionaries they were having about that same number... It's really wierd. From what I know though they have about 400 inactive members here in this area which absolutely blows my mind. I have no idea how they baptised that many people and they all went inactive. Really strange huh?

 Well, last week (actually last pday after emails and all) we had an awesome baptism of a young man named Gabriel. Gabriel is the nephew of an RM here in the branch, and he'd been to church quite a few times, and just hadn't had the missionaries talk to him. So after talking to Alex (the uncle) we started teaching him, and even just being 11 years old he was super prepared from the start. We had to get authorization from his mom who doesn't live with him which ended up being suprisingly easy with God's help in the mom accepting us going to her house, and seriously everything just turned out swimmingly. It's really cool seeing someone so young get baptized because yes, it doesn't directly effect the branch's growth in regards to priesthood, but just knowing that in 8 years he'll go somewhere and serve a mission just gets me pumped up. Amazing the way the Gospel helps people regardless of age or situation.

 During the rest of the week we've been teaching Patricia (the lady who received her answer about the Book of Mormon while she was kneeling with us) and she had some doubts about how big of a covenant being baptized is and how she was scared of breaking the commandments afterwards. It was kinda frustrating cuz we'd taught everything as good as we possibly could, and it was just the matter of her putting her faith to the test and going for it. It was kinda cool though because towards the end of the week we started focusing on how the baptism would directly bless her and her situation. I can't remember if I already said, but she's 25 with 3 kids (the oldest one is already 7) and she's working and trying to raise them all at the same time, so it's pretty tough for her. Explaining how she would have the guidance of the Spirit to raise and protect her children really caught her attention, and then on saturday we got a text saying that she would be baptized on sunday :) So on sunday we had 3 confirmations and the baptism of Patricia, and the Spirit was amazing. After church we were talking with Rayandra Sabrina and Gabriel, and all of them had already had some sort of guidance of the Spirit in making some decision. Man this work is amazing.

 Well, Monday night me and Elder Fávaro were talking and saying how it looked like we were going to be sticking together for another 6 weeks, and seriously 3 minutes later we got a call from President saying that I would be transferred to a city called Sete Lagoas (being translated, Seven Lakes)!! I was kinda happy kinda sad cuz I absolutely love Itabira, but now that I'm here in Sete Lagoas I'm really excited to work here. My companion is Elder Da Rosa, and he's from Rio Grande do Sul, which is in Southern Brazil. Weirdly enough he told me that his family (or at least part of it) lives in REXBURG!!! Dad or someone look up this street: Aries Drive, cuz he says his family lives there! What a coincidence huh? Such a ridiculously small world. I'll find out more about why they're there and what they're doing and all, but how weird will it be if he can come to my homecoming or something, sheesh. Anyways, this area looks awesome. It's a really member-ful city, and even has a stake here. This will be my very first area to actually have a chapel so it'll be good having that finally. It's really weird getting so used to an area, especially one that you open like I did, but I'm stoked for this area, from what Elder Da Rosa says it's gunna be a very successful place. It's really cool recently cuz the way we're learning to teach now is helping us really help people have strong bases for their testimony. Truly understanding how to receive personal guidance through the Book of Mormon and prayer and stuff, so it's really a whole different work because it's not just, BAPTISE! BAPTISE!! but actually helping people change their lives and truly have a whole new life to look forward to. I know that this Church is true, and every day in studies or in some situation I learn even more and more how this gospel has so much power to change lives. We are constantly telling people here how this gospel and the Book of Mormon truly will help us prepare for the Second Coming, and I can testify that this is true. The Lord and Savior will come someday, and I can't even express how happy and grateful I am to spread this preparation for those other people who are looking for this happiness. I love this gospel, and I hope the Lord continues to bless all of you with whatever blessings you might be in need of. You're all in my prayers! Hurrah for Israel!!!

  -Elder Ballard

    Pictures didn't work :(